August 2013 Archives (all archives)

August 30

Happy significant numerical birthday, PB

PB celebrates his birthday today, as indicated by a tweet from mathowie... [more inside]
posted by Wordshore to MetaFilter-Related at 2:41 PM PST - 77 comments

August 29

Should I perform a DIY Fecal Transplant on myself?

My brain transmitted the above question as: Should I perform a DIY Facial transplant on myself! Apologies if I am wasting everyone's time, but I thought it funny.........
posted by lungtaworld to MetaFilter-Related at 1:06 PM PST - 2 comments [closed]

August 28

I Am Curious (Grey)

When posts are "bad" on Meta or AskMeta -- doubles, or inappropriate, or whatever -- they're deleted. When posts are "bad" here on MetaTalk -- like, questions that belong elsewhere, inappropriate posts like "can someone do a FPP about XYZ," and the like, they're closed instead of being deleted. My OCD is having trouble with this. So, why? And what happens to bad posts on other parts of the site, like Jobs, Projects and Music?
posted by BlahLaLa to Etiquette/Policy at 6:30 PM PST - 67 comments

Labor Day MetaTalk Queue

It's queue time again. We're going to queue MetaTalk posts this Friday through Tuesday so they can be posted when there are enough moderators around to keep an eye on them. [more inside]
posted by pb to MetaFilter-Related at 1:36 PM PST - 107 comments

Wasn't there a post about a Wired site to find lost works?

I recall a Metafilter post within the last year or two. It was about wired.com creating a site so people could try to track down lost works, whether lost Dr Who episodes, Hitchcock films, etc. They had some successes early on, I think. I googled and couldn't find anything, which is odd. Does anyone remember the Mefi post or the wired site?
posted by Slinga to MetaFilter-Related at 10:10 AM PST - 4 comments

August 27

Ludum Dare Mefites

I can't be the only one here who just took part in Ludum Dare 27 this past weekend. [more inside]
posted by motty to MetaFilter-Related at 12:34 PM PST - 16 comments

August 26

Chekhov's Dirtbike

Cortex and Griphus' Hellraiser recap podcast WE HAVE SUCH FILMS TO TO SHOW YOU (previously) comes to the end of all Hellraiser movies so they watch and talk about the 2012 meta-fictional horror trope breakdown, The Cabin In The Woods. And structure, and false codas and what kind of human sacrifice it is. And it's neat.
posted by The Whelk to MetaFilter-Related at 9:44 PM PST - 127 comments

Metafilter Scholarship?

Was there discussion at one point about establishing a metafilter academic scholarship? I seem to remember this, but could be making it up. Seems like a great idea to me, and I'd kick in. I'll take my answer off the air.
posted by cjorgensen to MetaFilter-Related at 4:10 PM PST - 46 comments

Save for later?

This comment made me realize just how much I wish there was a "save for later" feature. So I guess this is a pony request, or perhaps asking if there is a greasemonkey script that accomplishes something similar. [more inside]
posted by jbickers to Feature Requests at 1:36 PM PST - 55 comments

August 24

Post or thread about serial killer in Canada?

I can't find the post, but was there one about a serial killer caught in Canada, possibly posted 5+ years ago? It was in a really bad part of town/skid row in Toronto or possibly Vancouver. The thread was vivid in that it had a lot comments of people running into the serial killer, and several accepting a ride from him. One of the descriptions was of his car not having a handle on the inside passenger side door, something that stuck with me. [more inside]
posted by geoff. to MetaFilter-Related at 4:17 PM PST - 9 comments

August 23

MetaFilter Fantasy NFL Football

Hut, hut, hike! The HGH has been injected, the CTE has been diagnosed, the ACLs have been torn, and now it's time for some NFL football! Please join the MeFi Fantasy Football League. It's a Standard scoring, 10 team league, and the draft is scheduled for 9:00 PM (Eastern) on Sunday, August 25th. The league password can be found inside. [more inside]
posted by Rock Steady to MetaFilter-Related at 10:58 AM PST - 38 comments

August 22

Would you reject these posts?

I believe my posts are being arbitrarily deleted and would be grateful for an objective opinion about them. [more inside]
posted by R2WeTwo to Etiquette/Policy at 6:59 PM PST - 152 comments

Duolingo Friend List Expansion Thread

Someone suggested in the foreign language thread on the Blue that we have a Duolingo username exchange thread, so I thought I'd bell the cat. [more inside]
posted by Elementary Penguin to MetaFilter-Related at 8:13 AM PST - 139 comments

August 21

Our Best (of the Web) Foot Forward

What's so good about MetaFilter, and why should people join? [more inside]
posted by Ghidorah to MetaFilter-Related at 4:39 PM PST - 181 comments

Better dead than Redd! Reddshit, not threadshit!

I was quite surprised when I realized that this absolutely brilliant comment hadn't been sidebarred. [more inside]
posted by GoingToShopping to Etiquette/Policy at 12:59 AM PST - 2 comments [closed]

August 20

OKCupid Profile Reviewers?

I could have sworn that somewhere there is list of MeFites willing to review OKC profiles but I can't seem to find it. Am I making that up? Maybe there was just a post with people who said they were willing to do it? (I know I can post it to the green but I'm not entirely comfortable doing that for now.)
posted by Room 641-A to MetaFilter-Related at 4:15 PM PST - 15 comments

I realize that "best of the web" isn't a hard and fast rule...

... But how is a reddit thread worthy of an FPP? [more inside]
posted by emptythought to Etiquette/Policy at 1:36 PM PST - 90 comments

August 19

This isn't Pirate Bay

Blasdelb, Metafilter is not an academic institution or a lending library. We don't get to use the site to redistribute copyrighted works like journal articles in threads about science, or MP3s in music threads, etc. People in academia can already access the articles in question, who can understand those articles enough to add to the thread, and more than likely we do not need proxy access through your library, as impressed as we all are by your library card. What you're doing is illegal, but more to the point, it helps publishing houses justify onerous terms to libraries I use for my research, which aggravates me to no end when I can't get access to articles related to my work. What you are doing sucks, so please knock it off. Thanks.
posted by Blazecock Pileon to Etiquette/Policy at 6:34 PM PST - 387 comments [closed]

Mansplain to me why this is ok?

I don't want to be all WHAT ABOUT DA MENZ, but isn't it a little off having 'mansplain' be the go-to word for a condescending explanation? It's used without comment by asker and answerers in this (otherwise perfectly cromulent) AskMefi question. Crappy workplace behaviour is crappy workplace behaviour, surely, without the need to gender it?
posted by Sebmojo to Etiquette/Policy at 4:55 PM PST - 857 comments

Favorite Threshold

I really enjoy the part of the sidebar where it tells you when a contact's comments reach a certain number of favorites. Is there any way to set a favorites threshold for every user, not just ones on your contact list? [more inside]
posted by DynamiteToast to Feature Requests at 11:14 AM PST - 12 comments

August 18

Metachat and links.

In Metachat, links posted in chat open in the same window, so clicking them closes your chat session. Can this be fixed to open in a new tab/window so we don't inadvertently disconnect ourselves?
posted by Evilspork to Feature Requests at 7:50 PM PST - 8 comments [closed]

20000 posts!

A milestone for the robots among us: Brendon Blatcher's recent Unique sculptures of Pierre Matter was post 0x20000 = 2^17.
posted by finka to MetaFilter-Related at 2:07 PM PST - 42 comments

August 17

modern culture/stress/depression/mental health... something

I'm sure I saw a post here a while back about modern culture/American culture/the recession/something related to that and its relationship to mental illness. It implied that American culture or Western culture or something like that caused mental illness. I've looked through related tags and can't find it; it's possible that it was a comment and not a FPP. Does anyone remember this?
posted by NoraReed to MetaFilter-Related at 4:32 PM PST - 20 comments

Improving community by creating east coast west coast rivalry

Earlier this week Cashman made an excellent post on the controversy caused by Kendrick Lamar's verse in Control. Metafilter threw down, with exposition, arguments, and rebuttals. It was an awesome topic, and apparently a great community builder for the rap world. [more inside]
posted by Nanukthedog to MetaFilter-Related at 6:04 AM PST - 72 comments

August 16

When do I make my comments and posts?

I was thinking about this last night: has anyone made a tool that aggregates and visualizes when comments are made by a given user? I think it would really cool to look at an interactive time series graph, to see over a given time period if I am posting more between 10 PM and 11 PM vs 10 AM and 11 AM between MM/DD/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY. Perhaps it would be weird to look at other people's profiles like that, but it would sure be fun to look at my own profile in that view.
posted by oceanjesse to Feature Requests at 6:53 AM PST - 28 comments

August 15

People are always saying to me, "You know, you're quite a character."

I'm looking for an old AskMetafilter question out of sheer curiosity. It was more than a year ago — someone was asking for examples of TV characters that have been on multiple TV series. The OP had some very specific criteria, which were apparently a bit hard to grasp, since almost all the answers were missing the point; the OP had to leave a comment to clarify what s/he was looking for. I don't remember exactly what the clarification was — just that it was so specific that it was surprising there were many possible correct answers (if indeed there were). [more inside]
posted by John Cohen to MetaFilter-Related at 8:40 PM PST - 21 comments

Pony: Don't send focus to search box when search results page loads

When a search results page loads, the focus moves into the search box (in the form with id "sform"), and I wish it wouldn't. [more inside]
posted by stebulus to Feature Requests at 6:59 PM PST - 16 comments

Where have I been?

A small feature request for IRL: a (private if necessary) list of meetups you have marked as having attended. [more inside]
posted by griphus to Feature Requests at 5:22 PM PST - 20 comments

Writing for the blue.

Once upon a time I read a guide to writing for the blue by a fellow MeFite who is known for excellent posts and describes researching a topic after stumbling upon an idea for a blue post and making sure it's not already posted. It's very thoughtful, well written and detailed. Further, it describes how to achieve those three things in a blue post. It's not in the wiki and I haven't been able to find it in Google. Can someone help me find this?
posted by brokeaspoke to MetaFilter-Related at 1:25 PM PST - 22 comments

Posting articles from well-known sources

I have seen a number of posts on articles from very well-known sources that everybody reads, like The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. They're interesting articles, but I wonder if they belong on MeFi when they're already so widely available? [more inside]
posted by Vispa Teresa to Etiquette/Policy at 9:16 AM PST - 88 comments

Member websites, members only?

My little pony request. Can we have the option for our websites to be available to members only? It makes sense, in that we have the visibility option for members/everyone for Twitter/FB/other social media, can we just add website as a field for that as well? [more inside]
posted by nevercalm to MetaFilter-Related at 5:27 AM PST - 52 comments

We're not facebook, right?

Is this post really the best of the web? [more inside]
posted by Cannon Fodder to Etiquette/Policy at 12:43 AM PST - 111 comments

August 13

But what has your mother done for you lately?

Jesus, MeFi, you were doing so well, and then… this. [more inside]
posted by Nomyte to Etiquette/Policy at 10:21 AM PST - 196 comments

AskMe: Apologies before a question

When do you apologize before posting an AskMe? Most recently in this post about a Latin phrase, which the OP thought might be "obnoxious", I felt it was fine. This isn't about posting guidelines (which I think I understand by now...) but about the community's perception of what kinds of questions are, well, obnoxious. [more inside]
posted by ipsative to Etiquette/Policy at 3:15 AM PST - 84 comments

August 12

libraries for disaster relief

Jessamyn is quoted in this piece on NPR about libraries helping out in disaster relief
posted by garlic to MetaFilter-Related at 8:35 AM PST - 3 comments [closed]

August 11

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAZ!!!!

Hope it's been fabulous!
posted by brujita to MetaFilter-Related at 2:07 PM PST - 68 comments

August 9

Grammar Corrections are Douchey, Right?

like when someone posts: "To be honest, the income difference doesn't phase us....." I wouldn't respond with "faze", right? Even if *I* like to be corrected?
posted by DMelanogaster to Etiquette/Policy at 4:10 PM PST - 223 comments

Online ‘Likes’ Herd Others to Similar Views, Study Finds

Researchers during the five-month study randomly altered the ratings of 101,000 comments. Those manipulated to be more positive were about one-third more likely than unaltered comments to receive a positive rating from the next viewer, and 30 percent more likely to achieve a high favorable rating.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-08/online-likes-herd-other-to-similar-views-study-finds.html
posted by Catfry to MetaFilter-Related at 12:57 AM PST - 1 comment [closed]

August 8

Metafilter Data Retention Policy?

What protocols does Metafilter have for dealing with a National Security Letter? (Inspired by this post.) [more inside]
posted by anemone of the state to MetaFilter-Related at 8:27 PM PST - 84 comments

What do you call this particular type of post?

Is there a term or phrase for posts where most of the comments are creatively continuing the theme of the thread? I first thought about this after my Pico Horror post, and I also thought of the recent Book Titles with One Letter Missing post. The former is a case of the comments being little stories, while the latter is wordplay, like Spoonerisms and Tom Swifties. And of course there are joke threads, which are somewhere between the wordplay and story telling. What would you call these? [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief to MetaFilter-Related at 2:52 PM PST - 173 comments

I put on my wizard's hat and robe

I have seen a fair few folks mentioning how much they'd enjoy playing Pen and Paper RPGs alongside their fellow MeFites in various threads over the past few months. If anyone is interested please drop in here and we can try to organise some play. [more inside]
posted by longbaugh to MetaFilter-Related at 6:32 AM PST - 103 comments

August 6

Stumped

Whenever I talk to friends about MetaFilter they always relate it to Portland - does MetaFilter have a historical or philosophical association with Portland, or is it just a nice way of saying it's liberal and wordy?
posted by four panels to MetaFilter-Related at 6:17 PM PST - 388 comments

August 5

MeFiSwap 2013-2 - THE SWAP BATTLE

SWAP BATTLE!
Remember physical media? Remember how you can put music on it? Remember snail mail? Remember how you can sent physical media via snail mail?
No?
Well, let me remind you how it's done with the second round of the bi-annual MeFiSwap! [more inside]
posted by carsonb to MetaFilter-Related at 1:36 PM PST - 181 comments

"Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often." - Mark Twain

O come, all ye MeFites,
Fav'riting and Flagging!
O point ye, O click ye to...
The Third Annual MetaFilter Wordcount!
(Brought to you by the generosity of cortex, no grant from National Science Foundation, and Viewers Like You) [more inside]
posted by griphus to MetaFilter-Related at 10:02 AM PST - 402 comments

August 3

Mobile only content

So this seems potentially problematic: Sorry, but the media gallery you are trying to load is not compatible with your device. Apple iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) or Android OS are required - how do we feel about that?
posted by Artw to Etiquette/Policy at 8:59 PM PST - 43 comments

Counter-Cliquishness / Cult of Celebrity Callout

We've had the regular kind of appreciation thread. Now I think some of our members who aren't on here all the freakin' time deserve an appreciation thread specifically for them. [more inside]
posted by cairdeas to MetaFilter-Related at 12:24 AM PST - 220 comments

August 2

Post about photos of sullen teens?

Please help me find a recent post about teens' sullen expressions in photographs! I think the post linked to someone who had coined an expression about the "oh my god, why are you making me do this thing" face that some teens make in photos.
posted by amarynth to MetaFilter-Related at 11:02 AM PST - 17 comments

Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket...

Out of curiosity, has any thought been given to another August Best Post contest? [more inside]
posted by zarq to MetaFilter-Related at 7:22 AM PST - 15 comments

Metafilter Fantasy Football Challenge 2013/2014

From yearly tradition to annual ritual to dread rite, the Metafilter Fantasy Football Challenge lives again for another year. If you have played previously, just log back in to the game site and make your team. Have not played before? More players are always welcome - it's free to play and a great way to learn about the Premier League and the beautiful game most of the world calls football! Just log in, create a team, and join the league using the code 581006-142890. The new season starts in two weeks!
posted by robocop is bleeding to MetaFilter-Related at 5:07 AM PST - 67 comments

August 1

Mefi Bookmark

Is there any sort of script or add-on that will allow me to bookmark my place in long threads, so I can go back to exactly where I was? I use Firefox and have Greasemonkey.
posted by marienbad to MetaFilter-Related at 7:06 AM PST - 18 comments