MetaTalk

was I dreaming?

I thought I saw a link here a few days ago, about a bookmark that would quickly let you know, using amazon's database, whether a specific cd was put out by a member of the riaa. but when I searched for this link here, it was gone. And I didn't see it on lofi, when I looked there. Normally, I wouldn't care too much about a deleted thread, but I can't seem to find the link in question via google either. can anyone help me out?
posted by jann on May 23, 2003 - 8 comments

Would it be possible to offer for purchase the complete (and, if possible. updatable online) MetaFilter and MetaTalk archives? Would enough people buy it for it to be worthwhile for Matt, revenue-wise? How much would such a treasure cost? Could it be produced on demand, to minimize costs? I know I'd buy it.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Apr 2, 2003 - 46 comments

Trying to avoid repeat posts is pretty hard because of timeouts from the search system. (In fact, I wanted to see if this is a duplicate Metatalk topic, but my searches stalled.) I want to avoid dupes, really I do! My memory isn't encyclopedic, though (and I have a life, *cough* ;-). How do the old hands here really avoid repeat posts? Shouldn't it be in a FAQ?

(Interestingly, after I started doing more searches, MetaFilter went into general "Server Error" mode for a while. Hmm...)
posted by tss on Jan 4, 2003 - 10 comments

When I wanted to do a search to find out if someone had linked to a given site in a FPP yet, I decided to try something different. I went to old google and put in this URL, which was the link in the most popular FPPof the day exactly two weeks ago, as a "who link's to you?" search.

Shouldn't google have indexed the thread, then, since it links back to the original article? Strange, that it doesn't do this for a link and lenghty thread on a topic that will have serious implications for everyone on the internet, specifically Americans? Has google dropped the ball? Is this all just a bunch of Tom-Foolery?
posted by Hammerikaner on Nov 23, 2002 - 8 comments

Searching Metafilter: on first search, threads and users only. Thereafter, other options appear. Bug, or crap browser (IE5.5, W98)?
posted by walrus on Nov 12, 2002 - 8 comments

I'm almost certain that I saw this website posted to metafilter maybe 8 months to a year ago - a girl goes to a bar and guys are asking her for her home number. Rather than give them her real number she gives them the phone number from this website. When the man(they had a number for women too) calls he gets the answering machine message saying that they aren't interested in that person and not to call again(or something to that effect). The great part about the website is that a lot of times people ended up leaving a message and those messages were on the site to listen to in mp3 format. It was hilarious. I think I remember the number was a NYC 212 number and it was designed in a purple/pink/blue. I've searched all over metafilter and even tried Google but I can't seem to find it. I bookmarked it ages ago but several HD crashes later it's no longer around. If anyone can find it w/your great skills it would be very much appreciated.
posted by suprfli on Oct 7, 2002 - 25 comments

Words or phrases enclosed in quotation marks (e.g. "too much") are ignored by the search app, while the the same words work fine when used without the quotes. What gives?
posted by me3dia on Jul 17, 2002 - 10 comments

This is almost certainly bad MeTalk etiquette, but I desperately need to find a thread posted some months ago about an autistic (or otherwise mentally handicapped woman) who made "art" by wrapping common objects in string. I want to write a paper for my Philosophy and Art class on this woman, but can't find the link... I've been Mefi/Google searching for about an hour now with no luck. IIRC, there was quite a lively discussion at the time... can anyone remember where the link was?
posted by tweebiscuit on Dec 3, 2001 - 34 comments

I improved the search "previously found" feedback. Here is what you see if you search for something that was posted less than 5 times in the database, and here is what you see if you post a URL that is in there more than that. Hopefully this will cut down on double-posts.
posted by mathowie on Nov 3, 2001 - 9 comments

It seems that both myself and Qubit are wondering about the search timing out. I did a MeFi Google search to see if anyone had recently linked e-sheep, and it looked safe. Little did I know. As per Qubit, why does the Metafilter specific search engine time out consistently, letting dumbasses like myself double post?
posted by arielmeadow on Oct 17, 2001 - 10 comments

A lot of times when I do a search here, I'm generally looking for a specific thread, not a specific comment. I'd like to be able so specify if I want to search only threads, only comments, or both. I imagine that this would help reduce the server load as well as making is a little easier to narrow down your results.
posted by skwm on Oct 14, 2001 - 2 comments

Haven't been here long, but I've noticed double posts occur on nearly every thread, usually followed by a "shit ... I double posted" post %}

How difficult would it be to add a quick search through the previous posts in a thread such that if the same post had already been made it wouldn't post it again?

Or would that just crunch the overtaxed server too much?

posted by walrus on Oct 4, 2001 - 5 comments

The search facility is basically dead on its feet: I get timeouts 9 times out of 10. Understandable, given the size of the DB, but might it be worth outsourcing (ie, a Googlified site:www.metafilter.com link)?
posted by holgate on Sep 19, 2001 - 3 comments

Comment Search. A friend of mine just started reading metafilter and she wanted to read where I've made comments in the past. (Not sure why, but..) Is it possible to search for comments made by other people and I just don't realize? Is it unwise due to bandwidth considerations? Just curious.
posted by Apoch on Jul 21, 2001 - 2 comments

Regarding the bandwidth concerns: Which uses less bandwidth?

—The occasional double post? And the obligatory flames? And the use of the search function to justify thse flames?

—Or using the search function prior to posting at all?

Please check.
posted by o2b on May 26, 2001 - 5 comments

Does anybody know of any French Web logs? Not Metafiltre--there's only one!
posted by ParisParamus on May 25, 2001 - 4 comments

This may be pedantic, and it may have already been covered - I couldn't find a search option for metatalk, nor did I feel like looking through the whole request archive

I noticed that when you search for a topic on metafilter, if only 1 hit results, it says "There were 1 results for...". Would it be possible to put a check for singular results in the script and make the response grammatically correct?
posted by starvingartist on May 4, 2001 - 17 comments

We can search for specific text, but is it possible to expand the search capability to include sites linked to? (Search for any links to www.whatadeal.org/foo/ for example.) This would help in determining if something is a repeated link or not.
posted by jason on Jul 10, 2000 - 3 comments