Instapaper doesn't like Metafilter?

July 14, 2008 7:36 PM

Instapaper, a very useful offline reading tool for the iPhone and iTouch, doesn't seem to work with Metafilter.

One of my favorite things to read are mega-comment Metafilter posts. With the advent of the Instapaper application for my iPod Touch, I have a way to pass the time in endless, dull meetings...except that I can't read the comments to Metafilter posts. It shows me the initial post, then a long, long blue area where the comments should be, then the foot part of the post (that leads to earlier and later posts).

Some things I've tried that haven't worked: pasting the content of the post + comments into a Google doc. Instapaper just shows me the Google login screen. Same with emailing myself the text in Gmail. Selecting the entirely of the page with comments + post, and using Instapaper's "Read Later" bookmarklet just seems to hang it endlessly, and nothing is saved. Adding the URL directly using the "Add" like in Instapaper does the same as using the bookmarklet.

Is there any technical reason why the comments to a post are seen differently from the post itself? Is there a solution anyone knows of that will let me save Metafilter comments, and my sanity from the eternal boredom that is corporate meetings? Note that I have an iPod Touch, not iPhone (I know, lame), so it must be an offline solution.

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.16, Mac OS 10.4.11.

posted by TochterAusElysium to Bugs at 7:36 PM (14 comments total)

Have just discovered this for myself, having only downloaded instapaper today. Man that is a great little app. You can use a pastebin to get round it, but you lose all the formatting, which is a bummer
posted by bonaldi at 7:57 PM on July 14, 2008

You should test it out on a wordpress blog's comment thread, because we follow the same formatting as those kinds of things, and maybe contact the authors of the app about it if those don't work either.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:12 PM on July 14, 2008

Yep, tried it out on a couple of random Wordpress blogs and the comments weren't included. Odd. I will see if I can contact the authors of the app. Thanks Matt.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 10:13 PM on July 14, 2008

"blog comments are removed" is one of the features listed on the app's webpage, contact details for the author are at the bottom of the page.
posted by gregjones at 4:35 AM on July 15, 2008

Ah, being new to the iPhone, I thought I was being dim and had missed a setting somewhere. Fingers crossed the developer will change his mind about the feature - this aside, it really is a super-useful app.
posted by jack_mo at 5:30 AM on July 15, 2008

It's not a bug, it's a feature!
posted by Plutor at 5:33 AM on July 15, 2008

Got this response from the app's author (very quickly!):

Instapaper intentionally filters out comments to save bandwidth since, for popular blogs, they can be 5-20 times longer than the main content, and most people don't read them.

But I hadn't considered sites like Metafilter, where the comments ARE the main content. Give me a few days, and I'll add a whitelist for sites that should have their comments kept, including Metafilter.

This will be great. And agreed, I love that little app.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 6:42 AM on July 15, 2008

MetaFilter: where the comments ARE the main content.
posted by Chuckles at 8:42 AM on July 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

I think we just got insulted.
posted by boo_radley at 9:55 AM on July 15, 2008

Give me a few days, and I'll add a whitelist for sites that should have their comments kept, including Metafilter.

I hope he makes it user-modifiable.
posted by mkb at 10:48 AM on July 15, 2008

Things that white-list people like.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:51 AM on July 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Give me a few days, and I'll add a whitelist for sites that should have their comments kept, including Metafilter.

I think not everyone would agree that Metafilter should have all of it's comments kept.

[NOT WHITELISTIST]
posted by grateful at 2:08 PM on July 15, 2008

I think that I shall never see
a comment lovely as a tree
In my bonnet there's a bee
WHITELIST MOTHERFUCKER DO YOU SPEAK IT
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 2:59 PM on July 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

Still doesn't work.
posted by matildaben at 9:58 AM on August 11, 2008