Top 75 Faves Per Comment Users January 26, 2010 12:58 PM   Subscribe

Favorites and You*
*For Values of You <>

I had something I needed to figure out in Excel and I've always meant to get around to looking at the Infodump. I took the opportunity to do my Excel figuring out using Infodump data.

I present for your edification or hatred... The 75 users with the highest Favorites per Comment Ratio over the last month (12/24/09 - 01/24/10).

In order to get rid of some outliers I filtered anyone who hadn't made at least 20 comments during the time period. Yes this is meaningless. Yes I know you use favorites as bookmarks not to indicate approval or agreement.

On the everyone needs a hug front you'll be pleased to know that everyone who made at least 20 comments during the studied time period received at least one favorite.

In the interest of a modicum of privacy I didn't turn the user numbers into user names. This was just a silly exercise for me. Please don't get the idea that I think this ranking means anything profound.

User Comments Faves FaveRate
049551 41 589 14.37
045778 29 377 13
078813 28 340 12.14
038986 32 310 9.69
046906 27 235 8.7
089721 54 455 8.43
023212 26 200 7.69
020279 44 318 7.23
021820 47 316 6.72
007418 21 134 6.38
036852 57 359 6.3
012903 36 225 6.25
027770 21 122 5.81
043080 32 181 5.66
031765 148 836 5.65
017588 39 216 5.54
018342 20 105 5.25
051183 20 104 5.2
019049 83 430 5.18
018869 20 94 4.7
093644 20 93 4.65
014921 40 184 4.6
061746 45 205 4.56
007025 32 145 4.53
012684 29 129 4.45
055804 25 110 4.4
102835 32 140 4.38
045776 20 87 4.35
013228 20 85 4.25
011251 28 118 4.21
014363 35 147 4.2
016904 33 135 4.09
023721 44 178 4.05
000292 57 227 3.98
000058 33 129 3.91
020799 35 136 3.89
045298 27 105 3.89
018128 30 116 3.87
095801 20 76 3.8
018384 90 339 3.77
050104 39 147 3.77
018247 29 108 3.72
101461 28 104 3.71
063809 34 125 3.68
013269 20 73 3.65
056846 22 79 3.59
010866 51 179 3.51
017767 53 186 3.51
091331 45 158 3.51
098300 20 70 3.5
024933 79 274 3.47
017480 44 152 3.45
026083 22 74 3.36
014935 71 237 3.34
016417 69 229 3.32
017822 47 156 3.32
027689 22 72 3.27
085779 57 186 3.26
018778 54 175 3.24
020633 62 199 3.21
052138 136 436 3.21
038322 27 86 3.19
000923 78 247 3.17
076674 25 78 3.12
016841 28 87 3.11
045762 30 93 3.1
048758 49 152 3.1
024530 50 154 3.08
025896 26 79 3.04
034391 168 506 3.01
049143 258 777 3.01
064881 38 114 3
095743 125 375 3
017651 49 146 2.98
posted by Babblesort to MetaFilter-Related at 12:58 PM (161 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

BRONZE
posted by Damn That Television at 12:59 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Was sixcolors one of your "outliers"?
posted by special-k at 1:01 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Cltr+F 80- GODDMANIT.
posted by The Whelk at 1:02 PM on January 26, 2010 [10 favorites]


You're killing me here. Would it be so hard to cross-reference actual usernames?
posted by GuyZero at 1:03 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


The 75 users with the highest Favorites per Comment Ratio over the last month

duh.
posted by special-k at 1:03 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Just made the list yourself, I see.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:05 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Great. The month I chose to comment less.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:06 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


As an outlier, I protest your discrimination against my people.
posted by Nothing... and like it at 1:08 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


It's not a fucking contest.
posted by Rhomboid at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


Well, if you were to convert the results to eggs, there would be enough eggs to feed the entire city of New York for three weeks, based on a two egg per person per week diet. Sound confusing? It was.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Top Flags Per Comment users. Now *that* would be a combustible MetaTalk thread.
posted by yeti at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


Of course, I did have the second-largest number of comments on that list ...
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Nine of those are my sockpuppets.
posted by Dumsnill at 1:10 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Babblesort, I like you less now than I did a few minutes ago. But fortunately, I'll probably have forgotten all about this post by the next time I see your name.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:10 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


Rhomboid: "It's not a fucking contest"

It's a test of character. If you looked for yourself in the list, you fail.

I failed.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:11 PM on January 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


It's not a fucking contest

Well, that's self-evident. I'm not sure I would even want to get favorites for fucking.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:11 PM on January 26, 2010 [6 favorites]


And really, this is a tremendously bad use of Metatalk. If you want to pull crap like this, can't you just put it on your own damn website?
posted by Afroblanco at 1:13 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


I just called the number one person, just to let them know. metatentcles - everywhere!
posted by The Whelk at 1:14 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


hmmmm. so if I comment less, but make sure to always post the first obvious snark in the thread when I DO post...
posted by shmegegge at 1:15 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


hmmmm. so if I comment less, but make sure to always post the first obvious snark in the thread when I DO post...

Empirically, less helpful than you're imagining it is.
posted by GuyZero at 1:16 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Afroblanco: "And really, this is a tremendously bad use of Metatalk. If you want to pull crap like this, can't you just put it on your own damn website"

Take it to...

Oh. Right.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:16 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


INDIUM!
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:18 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Hey mods, can we get a ruling on this? How will you feel once this becomes a thing and somebody like Babblesort posts their little high score list to Metatalk once a month? Is that totally kosher now?
posted by Afroblanco at 1:22 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Well, thanks for that, I guess.
posted by BeerFilter at 1:22 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


You know what MeFi really needs? A "Best Answer" flag on the blue. Yeah. That would be awesome. Also, if you post to MetaTalk then that "Close Your Account" link on your profile settings becomes visible to other users. Finally, page load-times should be tweaked to get longer based on he number of comments you make in a day. That last one is mostly to help save me from myself.
posted by GuyZero at 1:22 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Afroblanco, take a deep breath. It's numbers. On a web site.
posted by Nothing... and like it at 1:23 PM on January 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


Nothing... and like it: "Afroblanco, take a deep breath. It's numbers. On a web site"

Hall monitor training is hard to shake.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:25 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


I didn't fail the test of character. Too many numbers make my head spin
posted by dabitch at 1:26 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Top 75 39460s users by number of comments, filtering out those with less than 200 comments:

1. 39462 1,222 comments
posted by yeti at 1:27 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Hey mods, can we get a ruling on this?

I'm sort of shruggo on it. Matt or Jess might feel more strongly one way or the other.

I tend to think this sort of thing is better off being either more thoroughly written up in a way that makes the results interesting in more than just a "here is a raw list" sort of way, or being confined to existing threads where datawankery discussions are already in progress, so I think this is kind of a sub-par way to go at it and can understand general feelings of weirdness about it as kind of an out-of-the-blue thing.

How will you feel once this becomes a thing and somebody like Babblesort posts their little high score list to Metatalk once a month?

Ask me again when that actually happens.

Is that totally kosher now?

This post, or that hypothetical regular-posting thing, or the idea of numerical lists, or what?
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:28 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


You know what MeFi really needs? A "Best Answer" flag on the blue.

And the grey needs a 'Biggest asshole' flag. Remember, it is ok to mark more than one. Today, we are all winners.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:29 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm pretty sure we could eat the list without a rabbi objecting, so it's kosher in that regard. Unless we printed the list on a treif animal, like an eagle. And if we printed it on a swordfish, there would be a lot of bickering.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:30 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


Well, that's self-evident. I'm not sure I would even want to get favorites for fucking.

I don't know, after the meet-up for the tenth I got home and someone (possibly me?) had stuck a "Fantastic Comment" flag down my shirt and that felt pretty good. I can only assume sexual favorites create a similar sense of meaningless and depressing self-worth.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 1:31 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Unless we printed the list on a treif animal, like an eagle.

***FEED ERROR***
posted by shakespeherian at 1:31 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


What if MetaTalk was pickled without garlic?

And the grey needs a 'Biggest asshole' flag.

I was under the impression that value increased monotonically and proportionally to the comment id.
posted by GuyZero at 1:32 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


This post, or that hypothetical regular-posting thing, or the idea of numerical lists, or what?

People making Metatalk posts that exist solely to rank users based on favorites.

I think it's kinda fucked. Lotsa people don't even agree with the existence of favorites, or at least the open display of such. For somebody coming at it from that angle, it's just ... fucking tacky to do something like this. Gross and tacky. Makes me feel yuck.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:34 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


And the grey needs a 'Biggest asshole' flag. Remember, it is ok to mark more than one.

I will, as soon as I find someone with more than one asshole.
posted by qvantamon at 1:34 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Afroblanco: " Lotsa people don't even agree with the existence of favorites, or at least the open display of such. For somebody coming at it from that angle, it's just ... fucking tacky to do something like this. Gross and tacky. Makes me feel yuck"

Favorites: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
posted by Joe Beese at 1:35 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I would concur that I do not think this kind of thing is good for Metafilter.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:36 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


How will you feel once this becomes a thing and somebody like Babblesort posts their little high score list to Metatalk once a month? Is that totally kosher now?

I'd prefer people didn't do that, but I do not run the world. There is a vast chasm between "totally kosher" and "never okay, bannable offense" that this post falls into. If this becomes a regular thing, it will fall squarely into Not Okay territory.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:39 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Being a nobody on this site mean you never have to worry about stuff like this.
*peeks at list*
*wheeze*
posted by cimbrog at 1:40 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Sorry to upset you Afroblanco. This really was something I needed to figure out in Excel for work. I just figured since I had the list I'd drop it here. The debate about favorites always cracks me up. If the mods don't like it I wouldn't care if it was removed. It was just the end result of me figuring out a problem in Excel using data that amused me. I did say it was meaningless.

I certainly had no intention of presenting it as serious or worth repeating. Sorry to hit a nerve.
posted by Babblesort at 1:43 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Lotsa people don't even agree with the existence of favorites, or at least the open display of such. For somebody coming at it from that angle, it's just ... fucking tacky to do something like this. Gross and tacky. Makes me feel yuck.

Like I said, I can sympathize with the sense of weird. One thing I think is clear is that Babblesort didn't make, and clearly was trying not to seem to make, some sort of "here are the ten most awesome posters on the site" post here. Presentation could be better in terms of how this information is interesting, but I think that's a fixable error and that the problem is not so much publicly playing with and discussing numbers (which it's my impression is Babblesort's main motivation) as it is with just kind of not-great framing for this particular post.

A monthly update-on-faves-ranking thing would not be something I could get behind. As a one-off curiosity, I see it as not so much of a problem, and I guess I'm in the position here of reading Babblesort's intent here generously.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:43 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


The prize for "most favorites" is identical to the one they used to hand out for the tv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?
posted by pwally at 1:46 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


This really was something I needed to figure out in Excel for work.

So... FBI or spook?
posted by qvantamon at 1:47 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Both!
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:51 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, if you were to convert the results to eggs, there would be enough eggs to feed the entire city of New York for three weeks

Oh Slack-a-gogo, the vegans are going to make mincemeat out of you, so to speak.
posted by Elmore at 1:51 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I don't quite understand the hostility here. There have been several infodump threads - where fishbike and cortex were the most active commenters/analysts - that were far less respecting of privacy than this. (I liked them myself, they were mostly amusing.)
posted by Dumsnill at 1:52 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


I think people can remove their user names and numbers from the infodump lists, if they ask the mods to. This should assuage privacy concerns.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:55 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Babblesort is kind of a new member. FWIW, I made this same sort of mistake a few months into my tenure here. MetaFilter did not collapse, and I have since seen the error of my favorite-whoring ways. Plus I'm pissed that I didn't make this list.
posted by desjardins at 1:55 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


When I was a baby, my mother went to a psychic who told her that one day I would place 51st in an incredibly dubious competition.
posted by hermitosis at 1:57 PM on January 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


The infodump threads tend to be a lot more well-rounded, exploring all sorts of topics like the rate of users joining and leaving the site or what times people post comments and so on. These "scoreboard" threads on the other hand tend to just show a top-ten list of users ranked in some way which tends to rankle people more because it implies "look at these people that are better than you because of their numbers."
posted by Rhomboid at 2:00 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


desjardins: "Babblesort is kind of a new member. FWIW, I made this same sort of mistake a few months into my tenure here."

The grey seems to function as a "spanking machine" - as someone else memorably put it - for fresh arrivals.

Builds character!
posted by Joe Beese at 2:07 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, it's good to see that nobody here cares about favorites.
posted by philip-random at 2:13 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Rhomboid: "The infodump threads tend to be a lot more well-rounded, exploring all sorts of topics like the rate of users joining and leaving the site or what times people post comments and so on. These "scoreboard" threads on the other hand tend to just show a top-ten list of users ranked in some way which tends to rankle people more because it implies "look at these people that are better than you because of their numbers."

Yeah, this is a good point. Still, I don't really get why people are rankled, since it's such an obviously frivolous list.
posted by Dumsnill at 2:13 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Matter of fact I've been reading Metafilter since at least 2001. I don't recall exactly when I found it but I remember reading the 9/11 thread so I know it was in 2001. Just didn't bother to sign up for ages because I'm not fond of paypal.

FWIW Rhomboid is sort of right. It was intended to rankle people a little bit. But just enough to provoke silly comments like Damn That Television's and The Whelk's.

I tried to make it clear that there was no there here. I guess I should have seen that the fact that I knew I needed to do that meant I probably shouldn't have posted it at all.
posted by Babblesort at 2:16 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I think we should have bigger discounts for people who made the list.
posted by qvantamon at 2:21 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Surely you mean axes?
posted by The Whelk at 2:25 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


It was intended to rankle people a little bit.

That's not really so okay. Please don't do that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:29 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


I like my pitchforks to have extra-sharp points. I hate hay.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:31 PM on January 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


I AM HERE
posted by Mister_A at 2:32 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


MetaTalk:I guess I should have seen that the fact that I knew I needed to do that meant I probably shouldn't have posted it at all.

Or at least, it SHOULD be.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 2:36 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Matter of fact I've been reading Metafilter since at least 2001.

Dude. I was trying to help you.
posted by desjardins at 2:41 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


It was intended to rankle people a little bit.

Why? Is your day so dull that you need to provoke fightiness in internet strangers? If you've been reading since 2001, you ought to know better. If you wanted to read fighty comments about favorites there are a bunch in threads from November/December.
posted by rtha at 2:48 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


It was intended to rankle people a little bit. But just enough to provoke silly comments like Damn That Television's and The Whelk's.

My day has been busy and annoying enough, thanks. I'm going to put on my GRAR shirt and go to bed now.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:50 PM on January 26, 2010 [6 favorites]


Rhomboid: "The infodump threads tend to be a lot more well-rounded, exploring all sorts of topics like the rate of users joining and leaving the site or what times people post comments and so on. These "scoreboard" threads on the other hand tend to just show a top-ten list of users ranked in some way which tends to rankle people more because it implies "look at these people that are better than you because of their numbers."

*bumps Rhomboid down a notch*

Congratulations to desjardins. You're now my 21st most favorite Mefite.
posted by Plutor at 2:51 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


cortex: ... being confined to existing threads where datawankery discussions are already in progress...

I don't think any Infodump discussion was already in progress.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:53 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is the end of MetaFilter as we know it. Or, THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVAR!!!
posted by False Dichotomy at 2:55 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Hi. Don't tell anyone I'm here. I'm supposed to be out working in the garage. Bye!
posted by False Dichotomy at 3:00 PM on January 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


If anyone decides to do a scoreboard post in the future, at least give us a way to enter three initials with the arrow keys so that we can have fun spelling "POO" and "FAT" and whatnot.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:00 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


I agree with Afroblanco, but only because I didn't make the list.
posted by cjorgensen at 3:00 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I don't think any Infodump discussion was already in progress.

Yeah, no, I was just speaking in abstract. More clearly stated, this as done here would have been less problematic if it happened to be instead a comment in some hypothetical ongoing numbers-are-fun thread.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:02 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm not sure I would even want to get favorites for fucking.

Speak for yourself. I'm willing to fuck for favourites.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:12 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


I believe that's where the term 'favourite whore' comes from.
posted by gman at 3:15 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


favourite whore is my favourite Ian M. Banks ship.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:18 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Iain, dammit.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:19 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


No, a Culture ship would be more like "Nighttime Confessions of a Favourite Whore by Candlelight" or somesuch.
posted by GuyZero at 3:19 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Sure, but there's the "Killing Time." Plain, simple, and wonderfully ambiguous.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:24 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


I believe that's where the term 'favourite whore' comes from.

My favourite whore has a different take on it.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:25 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


And the grey needs a 'Biggest asshole' flag.

Leave goatse out of this.
posted by jonmc at 3:27 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


Okay, so, I'm going to use this opportunity to get all personal and whiney because this sort of shit has been eating at me for a couple of weeks now.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't paid my $5. Like Babblesort, I've been reading Metafilter regularly since (probably before) 2001. I know I'm not the only one here who feels like Metafilter is big part of thier lives. I recognize the silliness of the importance I sometimes put on Metafilter's place in my world. But it is what it is, and for the most part, the amount of enjoyment I get from being a part this community overrides any GRAR I feel about it.

(Not to start this obnoxious debate again but) Personally, I'm of two minds about favorites. I use them as a tool, as do many of you, and so I won't turn them off. I also use to them to show others that I appreciate what they've contributed. But I'm neither as witty, nor as well written as many of you and so I don't get a bunch of favorites or notice here.

And that's okay. I don't feel fully part of the community due to my own self doubt and reflection. That's my problem and I know it. It's about having a poor self image that depends upon the reflection of others for postive reinforcement. I get it. Not your problem.

But this? A ranking of users by favorites? I can't participate in this community if it's some sort of game that I'll never have a chance to win. Honestly, it kind of hurts my feelings.

GRAR
posted by dchrssyr at 3:31 PM on January 26, 2010 [8 favorites]


Babblesort: Is that just the blue, or blue + green + gray + ...? Did you filter out favorites received for posts?
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 3:32 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Honestly, it kind of hurts my feelings

LEt me quote the wise sage WOPR:

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
posted by GuyZero at 3:33 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Babblesort: Is that just the blue, or blue + green + gray + ...? Did you filter out favorites received for posts?

Only comments and only for the blue.
posted by gman at 3:35 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


cjorgensen sent me a beer sticker, a penny and a letter. That's way, way better than making some crappy list.
posted by fixedgear at 3:36 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


The favorites system pisses me off. Makes me feel like I'm in a Skinner box. Pull the lever, get a foodpellet. Wheee!

Wish it was just an option to turn them off completely, so that you didn't have to see them on your own profile page or anybody else's.
posted by Afroblanco at 3:37 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Could someone please make these threads more interesting by using a metric that includes me?
posted by desuetude at 3:37 PM on January 26, 2010 [7 favorites]


Hold your horses - I'm drafting a post right now about "users with names that rhyme with mesuetude".
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:44 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


The favorites system pisses me off. Makes me feel like I'm in a Skinner box. Pull the lever, get a foodpellet. Wheee!

Do you mean that sometimes you don't feel this way? I always feel like one of Skinner's mice.
posted by dchrssyr at 3:45 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Joe Beese : It's a test of character. If you looked for yourself in the list, you fail.

I failed. I failed fucking hard; I was searching for my name/ user-number before I had even finished reading the whole premise of what the list was about.

The fact that I didn't make the list makes me a failure doubly so.

Still, my cat likes be better than she likes any of you, so "Nyah!" I win at a different contest that nobody but me knew they were competing in...
posted by quin at 3:46 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Oh, come on, cats always like be better.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:53 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


UbuRoivas, i think you spelled mansuetude wrong.
posted by desuetude at 4:03 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


It was intended to rankle people a little bit.

Err.. I think stunt posting is a serious offense. This post seems to demand at least "Don't do this again, ever!"
posted by Chuckles at 4:07 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


017588 39 216 5.54

What do I win? How many pellets do I have, relative to Afroblanco?
posted by Meatbomb at 4:12 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


i think you spelled mansuetude wrong

Hey, stop trying to enfource your cultural-imperialists spellings on us.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:30 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Dumsnill:"I don't quite understand the hostility here. There have been several infodump threads - where fishbike and cortex were the most active commenters/analysts - that were far less respecting of privacy than this."

I've tried to be more sensitive to these sorts of concerns lately, and therefore to be more careful about what stats and lists I post. I was just reviewing some of the earlier stuff I posted, and among it is essentially the same table Babblesort posted to start this thread, but without restricting the time range, and with user names on it.

I probably wouldn't post that today. Mine was a comment in an Infodump thread, rather than the post that started the thread, so maybe that explains the difference in reaction. There was a similar sort of thing that somebody asked for in a more recent thread, and I decided I didn't want to be the one to post it. I think I said somthing like it felt too much like "MetaFilter isn't a competition, but here's who's winning."

Anyway, were there specific examples that you felt were particularly bad in terms of violating privacy? I ask this not to be argumentative, but because I would like to understand better what things people are finding objectionable that seemed harmless to me at the time, so that I can be more careful in future.

Afroblanco: "And really, this is a tremendously bad use of Metatalk. If you want to pull crap like this, can't you just put it on your own damn website?"

I was thinking about this on the way home, and if this sort of thing is going to be posted on the Internet at all, I think it's best if it gets posted here in the light of day grey. That way MeFites get the best possible chance to be aware of what us data nerds are doing with the Infodump, and we can discuss it here. Or if it's particularly egregious, the mods can delete it.
posted by FishBike at 4:40 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Anyway, were there specific examples that you felt were particularly bad in terms of violating privacy?

Just to be clear: I loved those threads. I was just slightly surprised by the people who objected to this datadump because - as you point out - similar things have been done before that included usernames.
posted by Dumsnill at 4:49 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, anything that turns MetaFilter into a game is something I don't like. I once placed on a list like this and it took me a while to shake the feeling that I should make sure I wouldn't slip in the rankings. It's weirdly insidious.
posted by Kattullus at 4:56 PM on January 26, 2010 [6 favorites]


So a favorites-ranking post that was admittedly designed to "rankle" (is that a minor phylum of bridge troll or what?). From a newish poster--who's really been here since 2001.

Nine thumbs down.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Nobody ever really wins metafilter. There are no loosers, either. Just snark, plates of beans and casualties. Littered across the blue beachhead like so many spent shell casings.
posted by Avenger at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the whole "intended to rankle" pretty much lost the poster my sympathy.
posted by Dumsnill at 5:00 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


cortex: I don't think any Infodump discussion was already in progress.

Yeah, no, I was just speaking in abstract.


Ah. I was kinda looking for a question for analysis. Preferably a question that could have results posted publicly without causing GRAR.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:00 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Dumsnill: It's not a privacy thing. We can look at anyone's profile or the infodump and do the math ourselves if we want to. For me it's just about this post hitting on a bad day when I'm kind of feeling touchy about approval and acceptance from other people. I think the way it was framed was unfortunate, too. It's obvious, and Babblesort has admitted, that he posted his list in part to stir up shit and "rankle" others. So I got rankled. sigh.

How about that nice game of chess?
posted by dchrssyr at 5:01 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


It has been made completely clear already that this was a targeted stunt post intended to incite a reaction.

I don't think this kind of table is problematic if presented in the context of all kinds of other information. However, I think posting the popularity score alone as if it should somehow be uniquely important sucks. But far more important than all that, I think trolling a certain group is really pretty shitty.
posted by Chuckles at 5:06 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, if nothing else I got to use the word "rankle" several times. Which is infinitely more times than I've ever used it before.

Horsey guy to wherever he can do most damage.
posted by Dumsnill at 5:14 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Does that put you at the top of the ranklings?
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:31 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


i think you spelled mansuetude wrong

Hey, stop trying to enfource your cultural-imperialists spellings on us.


Hey, sounds like someone could show a little more mansuetude.
posted by desuetude at 5:33 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]



Rankling Full Stop,
Now that's the name I would really, really say,
Full Stop. Rankling Full Stop.
posted by fixedgear at 5:33 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Well I think this list is awesome, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I'm on it.
Please be sure to favorite this comment at least three times so my average doesn't suffer.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:03 PM on January 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Oh, ugh. Favorites are completely so...

What? I'm on the LIST????

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! WHAT DID I WIN?!?!?!?!

Nothing? Really? Nada?

Okay, like I was saying before I was interrupted...
posted by jeanmari at 6:20 PM on January 26, 2010



It's not a fucking contest.

I came in 8th!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:32 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Sorry, furiousxgeorge. I would favorite your comment but I hit my favorite limit for the day favoriting everyone else in this thread. Because of my casual tossing of favorites like Mardi Gras beads at the bare chests of Uburoivas, shakespeherian and Afro Blanco, I have now cheapened the whole concept of favorites and now those who were not favorited? TOTALLY WIN.

You're welcome.
posted by jeanmari at 6:38 PM on January 26, 2010


Fuck, I just looked at my profile and noticed a bunch of new favorites. All of them from Jeanmari. She really loves me, I thought. This is very disappointing.

Anyway, I'll favorite fu for you.
posted by Dumsnill at 6:57 PM on January 26, 2010



Sorry, furiousxgeorge. I would favorite your comment but I hit my favorite limit for the day favoriting everyone else in this thread. Because of my casual tossing of favorites like Mardi Gras beads at the bare chests of Uburoivas, shakespeherian and Afro Blanco, I have now cheapened the whole concept of favorites and now those who were not favorited? TOTALLY WIN.

You're welcome.


Ok, I favorited myself for you.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:57 PM on January 26, 2010


The sheer tedious effort of clicking all those fave links. If only I felt inspired enough to write a curl script or something.
posted by GuyZero at 7:00 PM on January 26, 2010


Because of my casual tossing of favorites like Mardi Gras beads at the bare chests of Uburoivas, shakespeherian and Afro Blanco, I have now cheapened the whole concept of favorites and now those who were not favorited? TOTALLY WIN.

Well fine but I'm not putting my shirt back on.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:04 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


I don't feel fully part of the community due to my own self doubt and reflection.

This happens to me when I butt heads with someone "popular."

I still can't wrap my head around metafilter, and I've kinda quit trying. Sometimes, I think it's a site full of snarky, contrarian poops only out to score points off of someone's mistakes or stupidity (and it is). Other times, I think it's a place filled with wondrous people showing me things I would have never found on my own and exhibiting a sense of compassion for strangers I wouldn't have thought possible (and it is). Sometimes it's above my head and makes me feel ignorant. Other times it's a fart joke. Politically incorrect or so damn touchy you're not allowed to make fun of yourself. Sometimes liberal, other times liberal. I could go on all day, but I won't, since I know Brandon Blatcher will disagree with me and make me feel like I don't belong!
posted by cjorgensen at 7:09 PM on January 26, 2010 [10 favorites]


/scours cjorgensen's comment for a typo to point out

No really though that articulates my own feelings enormously. Sometimes I look at all the subsites and can't find anything that interests me even a little bit, and it seems like everyone is shouting at each other because they're just a bunch of jerks; other times I despair over never being able to read all the fascinating, meaningful conversations scattered over such a large area it seems ridiculous they're all happening simultaneously on one website.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:26 PM on January 26, 2010


I decided to favorite every comment in this thread for the following reasons:
  1. I like to keep symmetry between favorites/favorited1
  2. I have never hit my favorite limit, so was unsure if it really existed.
  3. I want to throw off the results for next month's cool kids post.
I have learned a few things. The limit exists, I wish I could favorite some comments more times than others, and I don't get how tehloki had the patience to hit that damn + over and over again.

I made it to this comment by UbuRoivas before I ran out. The rest of you were too late to the game. Sorry, but maybe tehloki can pick up where I left off.

Seriously, why is the favorite limit in place again? It's annoying to give that many, and I think it would be obvious who does this, and I can't see that many people actually willing to hit that damn + that many times!

1. Every since the "favorites experiment" things have been out of whack and I have fallen behind.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:30 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


OK, here's your favorite, cjorgensen. But don't badmouth Brandon; he is, after all, my spouse.
posted by Dumsnill at 7:33 PM on January 26, 2010


Man, sometimes I think this crowd could suck the fun out of dancing on the moon.

Let's not take this all so seriously, ok? I triple dipple double dog dare you to try this: Get up right now and go to a mirror. Look at the expression on your face. Now stick your tongue out and do the b-b-b-llllll fart noise (is there a name for this thing?). Watch yourself doing it and try not to laugh...especially if you're self-conscious. I mean seriously, you're alone and feeling stupid with yourself for doing that? Who cares? Now come back here and read all this shit. Wasn't life better when you were making the fart noise at yourself in front of the mirror?

You get to choose how you see things. Fun and silly trumps serious most of the time.
posted by iamkimiam at 7:41 PM on January 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


this crowd could suck the fun out of dancing on the moon

I sort of feel that the lack of oxygen might do that first.

back to bed! grar!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:43 PM on January 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


But don't badmouth Brandon; he is, after all, my spouse.

And thus my envy! Well, unless I am spoused as well. Too tired to look.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:56 PM on January 26, 2010


Yeah, apparently Jessamyn is whoring too, or so I've heard. This has been a bad week for us lazy family values guys.
posted by Dumsnill at 8:02 PM on January 26, 2010


And the grey needs a 'Biggest asshole' flag. Remember, it is ok to mark more than one. Today, we are all winners.
posted by shakespeherian


Ha ha! You only get the 'Biggest Asshole' flag if you comment in this thread.

Oh shit...
posted by marxchivist at 8:22 PM on January 26, 2010


Eh, fuck. My last comment was just a silly joke. When I made it it seemed obviously jokey. Reading it 30 minutes later in Recent Activity it seemed as if I was making some sort of snarky point. I was not.
posted by Dumsnill at 8:31 PM on January 26, 2010


np, I didn't understand the joke but got that it was supposed to be one.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:41 PM on January 26, 2010


This happens to me when I butt heads with someone "popular."

Man, fuuuck the "popular" people; in all the time I've read and participated on MeFi, they are and have always been the choking vines threatening to strangle the good out of the place with their pompous pronouncements and pontifications, coasting on something legitimately interesting or funny they did two years ago when they may have been worth paying attention to, and cultivating their little personality cults by preaching to their noisy little choirs at every opportunity.

The only good thing about them is when they alienate their mush-headed constituencies by taking their shtick a little too far, mistake their popularity for actual authority, or are themselves choked out by a fresh shoot of kudzu, left to slowly (Though not always quietly) wither away.

Be smart, be funny, be talented, but for the love of Pete, kids, hit The Button and start fresh with a 100k+ account if you ever even suspect that you are becoming "popular".

Also, this is a stupid MeTa. Though I appreciate the opportunity it gave me to vent, stoo-pid.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:54 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Today was comment # 5,000 on the blue for me and I get the distinct feeling of being more tolerated than popular. Of course, no one really knows what anyone else thinks for the most part, what with being online and all so one can create a certain illusion of popularity just by posting a lot. I mean, really, who knows if everyone thinks you're a dork? Sane members will simply ignore you and move on, more so if you post a lot.

At any rate, the notion of popularity on MeFi is largely illusory. There's no real way to tell who's being ignored and who everyone swoons over across the board.
posted by GuyZero at 8:57 PM on January 26, 2010


61st? SIXTY FIRST? Screw you all.
posted by Justinian at 9:54 PM on January 26, 2010


This happens to me when I butt heads with someone "popular."

Holy middle-school, Batman.
posted by philip-random at 9:57 PM on January 26, 2010


FWIW Rhomboid is sort of right. It was intended to rankle people a little bit.

Ugh. If you didn't appear on the list, this post would not exist. Right?
posted by Kwine at 11:08 PM on January 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


coasting on something legitimately interesting or funny they did two years ago when they may have been worth paying attention to, and cultivating their little personality cults by preaching to their noisy little choirs at every opportunity

You say that like it's a bad thing.
posted by Meatbomb at 11:16 PM on January 26, 2010


If 500 people favorite this comment... I will totally ace this list next time.

Babblesort: "Please don't get the idea that I think this ranking means anything profound."

Noted. I will take that under advisement.
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:43 PM on January 26, 2010


Be smart, be funny, be talented, but for the love of Pete, kids, hit The Button and start fresh with a 100k+ account if you ever even suspect that you are becoming "popular".

Alvy: after reading the above, I feel compelled to tell you that you're firmly in the "cool kid" group in my version of Metafilter.

What's your new username going to be?
posted by dchrssyr at 11:44 PM on January 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


"Attitude Adjuster."
posted by Dumsnill at 12:17 AM on January 27, 2010


This is kind of a drag. 'Cause you get money the higher up the list you are, right? Or a free coffee? Back rub? Vaguely creepy back-rub?


hug? creepy hug?

posted by From Bklyn at 3:32 AM on January 27, 2010


Be smart, be funny, be talented, but for the love of Pete, kids, hit The Button and start fresh with a 100k+ account if you ever even suspect that you are becoming "popular".

I can add this to my never ending list of "Shit I Don't Have to Worry About Ever Happening." My life is way too boring to worry about popularity in any form. I'm well aware that I'm so much of a total nerd that I'm lucky that I'm my cat's favorite person. I will feel confident that my 19k account and I are just as often loathed as loved and continue posting random mind vomit such as this.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 4:02 AM on January 27, 2010


Here, have some mind sawdust to soak up that mind vomit.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:33 AM on January 27, 2010


Or maybe his new username should be "Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement"

I never get tired of this list.
posted by Mouse Army at 4:53 AM on January 27, 2010


Of course I checked...we all did. And there's a user ID on the list that is exactly one higher than mine. One!
It's like almost winning the lottery.
posted by rocket88 at 6:59 AM on January 27, 2010


Huzzah for the GRAR image! This thread is not useless to me anymore. I mean, it kind of is, but the state of never-having-been-useful to which this thread previously attained is no longer, uhhh cromulent or something.
posted by Mister_A at 8:49 AM on January 27, 2010


or from the stoned.
posted by The Whelk at 9:07 AM on January 27, 2010


I can add this to my never ending list of "Shit I Don't Have to Worry About Ever Happening."

I thought so too, until dchrssyr decided to get all mean. Now I have to make a choice between Republican McTractorpull and PETA ClimateGate Von NoPublicOption.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:09 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


"Yopp."
posted by vapidave at 9:23 AM on January 27, 2010


LIST OF TOP 50 USERS WHO ARE BETTER THAN YOU SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR USER NUMBER
000001
000002
000003
000004
000005
000006
000007
000008
000009
000010
000011
000012
000013
000014
000015
000016
000017
000018
000019
000020
000021
000022
000023
000024
000025
000026
000027
000028
000029
000030
000031
000032
000033
000034
000035
000036
000037
000038
000039
000040
000041
000042
000043
000044
000045
000046
000047
000048
000049
000050
posted by slogger at 9:31 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


errata:

of the above 50, OneBallJay is the earliest user, besides mathowie. Congrats to OneBallJay for his stunning prescience to be the first non mathowie user to actually participate in the web's coolest blog. OneBallJay.

One. Ball. Jay.
posted by shmegegge at 9:41 AM on January 27, 2010


I *probably* have better things to do then you check if any of those numbers are still active.

Probably.
posted by The Whelk at 9:42 AM on January 27, 2010


to check, you can totally check for me, however. I'll be here, whittling.
posted by The Whelk at 9:43 AM on January 27, 2010


ah ha ha, I was way ahead of you.
posted by shmegegge at 9:46 AM on January 27, 2010


I thought OneBallJay won the usernumber on Ebay. Did I misremember that?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:58 AM on January 27, 2010


oh shit, is that true? consider me crushed.
posted by shmegegge at 10:03 AM on January 27, 2010


I think that real distinction belongs to jjg.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:12 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


One Ball Jay never got any breaks.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:32 AM on January 27, 2010


jessamyn, your link is borked. Here's the right jjg.
posted by zarq at 10:38 AM on January 27, 2010


I have fixed my link!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:44 AM on January 27, 2010


Also, I didn't check but am positive I'm not on this list. :)
posted by zarq at 10:45 AM on January 27, 2010


I have fixed my link!

Have I mentioned I'd REALLY REALLY love to be able to do that? I have? *sigh*
posted by zarq at 10:46 AM on January 27, 2010


I'd love to be able to fix jessamyn's links as well, but I'd use this power for evil (we all know this), so it's best I can't.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:42 PM on January 27, 2010


I would be immensely amused if this post got exactly 75 favorites.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:53 PM on January 27, 2010


I'd be even more amused if this comment got 75 favorites.





... of course, all proceeds would go to the Conservative Party of Canada.
posted by philip-random at 8:59 PM on January 27, 2010


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