Get to Know Your Fellow MeFites.

September 3, 2007 11:53 PM

We have a fandom post feature now, which of course is excellent. Now how about a random user feature? It could be called 'Get to Know A MeFite' or something like that. I think there are a lot of interesting user profile pages which many people have not and may not ever see, which is a shame, and this would be a potential way to highlight some of them. As an added bonus, this feature could lead to more Metafilter meet-ups as people stumble upon other users who they may not have known lived so close by. It could also lead people to explore their randomly chosen MeFite's posting history which may, in turn, lead many to discover several excellent (and awful) posts, questions and MeTa screeds which they may never have come across before.
posted by Effigy2000 to Feature Requests at 11:53 PM (47 comments total)

We have a fandom post feature now, which of course is excellent. Now how about a random user feature?

Let me be the first to say it. Heh.
posted by delmoi at 12:01 AM on September 4, 2007

curse you, delmoi. curse you & your quick fingers!!!
posted by jonson at 12:05 AM on September 4, 2007

Ah bugger it. The R and the F keys are so close together. Could a mod please fix that? And delete all but one instance of this comment if the triple-post bug I'm cursed with at times should happen to occur? Thanks.
posted by Effigy2000 at 12:08 AM on September 4, 2007

I think you might have to limit it to people who've posted in x amount of days, otherwise you're going to hit a lot of dead accounts.
posted by web-goddess at 12:27 AM on September 4, 2007

Or commented, rather. Some of us comment a lot more than we post.
posted by web-goddess at 12:27 AM on September 4, 2007

"Get to Know a MeFite"?
Only if I'm interviewed by Stephen Colbert.
posted by wendell at 12:39 AM on September 4, 2007

If only there were a way to see MeFites who were actively posting, or in your area. Too bad you can't open a thread or view folks near you on your profile page.
posted by Eideteker at 3:48 AM on September 4, 2007

Wait, what am I talking about? You can do exactly those things!
posted by Eideteker at 3:48 AM on September 4, 2007

Hey listen, fred, you put a deposit down on my car, but I'm going to have to let it go if you can't close the deal. Thanks.
posted by maxwelton at 4:00 AM on September 4, 2007

*presses bare hairy ass against the glass*
posted by quonsar at 4:02 AM on September 4, 2007

*presses bare hairy ass against the glass*

Emitting methane as well, no doubt...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:08 AM on September 4, 2007

Get to know me!
posted by emelenjr at 4:34 AM on September 4, 2007

How about a 'Get the fuck outside and enjoy some exercise rather than find ever more ways to glue your sweaty arse in front of a computer' feature? With or without dom.
posted by i_cola at 4:40 AM on September 4, 2007

Where would you put the link?
posted by carsonb at 5:20 AM on September 4, 2007

Random user link
posted by Partial Law at 5:43 AM on September 4, 2007

fandom post feature
posted by peacay at 5:50 AM on September 4, 2007

unrelated but amusing indeed, Burhanistan.
posted by micayetoca at 6:03 AM on September 4, 2007

Random Fandom
posted by adamvasco at 6:14 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

There is the MeFiUserSites blog which is 1. updated erratically and 2. far from random, but it's got a nice 90 posts or so.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:38 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

I tend to think there already is a "meet a random user" feature built-in. You click on usernames you don't recognize when you see them comment in interesting ways. I do it all the time. Try it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:21 AM on September 4, 2007 [2 favorites]

Only if I'm interviewed by Stephen Colbert.

The fightin' Wendells!
posted by Dave Faris at 7:27 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

There should be a random user link, and it should, every time, go to quonsar.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:28 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

It would be neat to do "Better Know A User" on the podcast or in Metatalk, like Colbert does with Congressional districts.
posted by smackfu at 7:33 AM on September 4, 2007

Better Know a MeFite!

Mister The Deej... why do you hate America?

Mathowie... great internet community leader? Or... the greatest internet community leader?
posted by The Deej at 8:23 AM on September 4, 2007

Next: a femdom user feature.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:00 AM on September 4, 2007

Random user page.
posted by quin at 9:39 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Well, you can kind of do this by typing "http://www.metafilter.com/user/xxxxx" into your browser, where "xxxxx" is a number you made up, but it doesn't seem to work for values over about 27000.
posted by trip and a half at 10:34 AM on September 4, 2007

I'm against it. We can't have people deducing I have a Paypal account linked to the email address in my Profile and send me money for a decent video card so I can spend more time on Youtube and less in these parts, can we?
posted by davy at 10:35 AM on September 4, 2007

I tend to think there already is a "meet a random user" feature built-in. You click on usernames you don't recognize when you see them comment in interesting ways. I do it all the time. Try it.

*clicks*
Hmm. This mathowie character is one cool cat. And such a low user number!
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 10:56 AM on September 4, 2007

As long as this was opt-in, I have no problem with it.
posted by tommasz at 11:43 AM on September 4, 2007

Well, you can kind of do this by typing "http://www.metafilter.com/user/xxxxx" into your browser, where "xxxxx" is a number you made up, but it doesn't seem to work for values over about 27000.

It's interesting to see that only about one in ten accounts over that number are actually in use. I'm trying to figure out whether that means that Matt got an easy $5 from them for something they'll never use or whether the returns are ten cents on the dollar if you're imagining the cash flow based on user numbers.
posted by maxwelton at 12:22 PM on September 4, 2007

I believe Matt explained once a while back that it usually meant that their payment never came through.

An example here and here, where in the first one you can see that user 49102 (found by randomly typing numbers till I found a failure) shows up as being an error, but in the second one, you can see that the person had picked the name BabyGurl. But since the payment was never received, the account was never actually activated.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.
posted by quin at 12:31 PM on September 4, 2007

"Get to Know a MeFite"?
Only if I'm interviewed by Stephen Colbert.

That would be "Better Know a MeFite", wendell.
posted by Poolio at 1:05 PM on September 4, 2007

No, I think you're completely right, quin.

For once! OH DANG!
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:09 PM on September 4, 2007

good idea--we're all interesting i think.
posted by amberglow at 1:53 PM on September 4, 2007

Oh damn, I just got cortexed.
posted by quin at 2:34 PM on September 4, 2007

pwned by Poolio.

Okay, it's official, wendell has wendelled. The phrase is now oficially "This will not Poolio". But I've got no crown to hand over; that's been It's Raining Florence Henderson's property for some time.
posted by wendell at 4:22 PM on September 4, 2007

There is the MeFiUserSites blog which is 1. updated erratically and 2. far from random, but it's got a nice 90 posts or so.

*checks again, cries*
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:47 PM on September 4, 2007

this ever happens, that infamous picture of my bare ass is going up on my userpage permanently. mark my words.
posted by jonmc at 4:52 PM on September 4, 2007

*checks again, cries*

Oh for christ sake you big baby, here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:00 PM on September 4, 2007

Also, jessamyn, I ran into brujita today and she says that when she met you, you said you met my grandfather. This dosen't compute since I called my nonno for his b-day a few days ago and he didn't mention meeting anyone who knew me, and he's 92 and dosen't get out much anymore.
posted by jonmc at 5:04 PM on September 4, 2007

Oh for christ sake you big baby, here.

Jeez, that was harsh. And fast.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:07 PM on September 4, 2007

Didn't meet him, know which town he lives in. Not sure how those wires got crossed. If you come up to visit, drop me a line.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:07 PM on September 4, 2007

Cool. I would've expected a phone message saying 'grandson, I meeta dissa girl she say she a bibliotecario, but she gotta da ring in da nosa..oh she so crazy...but nonna make her pasta..."
posted by jonmc at 5:11 PM on September 4, 2007

Hey jessamyn, I searched that site and found no mention of me. I like it that way, okay?
posted by davy at 5:17 PM on September 4, 2007

Jeez, that was harsh. And fast.

Which is, of course, the best way.
posted by quin at 5:27 PM on September 4, 2007

I searched that site and found no mention of me.

I didn't search it or read all of it, but the name MeFiUserSites suggests that it will feature mefi users with sites.
posted by PY at 11:15 PM on September 4, 2007