IRL is here! June 24, 2010 2:55 PM   Subscribe

Today we're showing off the first (very early, alpha if you will) version of the new events subsite for MetaFilter we call IRL.

We are launching this with only the Meetup category in place, with other categories (we hashed them out previously here) to be added once we get the bugs worked out.

HOW TO USE

For now, post only meetups with confirmed locations and start times. So you'll continue to post MetaTalk threads floating the possibility of a meetup ("Anyone in Denver want to do a meetup") and when the crowd agrees on a time and place, head over to IRL to post the meetup announcement. We'll soon switch the MetaTalk sidebar of future meetups over to a stream of IRL meetups. Over on IRL there is a date, time, location with map, and attending/maybe statuses like the 10 year anniversary site.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

Here is a screenshot of the front page with one real meetup listed. If you look along the right side, you'll see a soon-to-be-completed search events by city feature, Then there is a Upcoming Events near you feature if you have stored a location in your profile. Next is a set of popular cities, then tags. We have both RSS and iCal feeds, and we've got RSS and iCal feeds for each event. Thread pages have cool geographic breadcrumb links that actually work.

TO DO LIST

In the future we'll be adding more categories to handle things like art openings, concerts by MeFi Musicians, etc. We'll be adding a location-based search engine once we get some data. We'll add pagination when we get more events in the system. We'll be adding more feeds for categories and locations. While posts and comments on IRL will end up in your Recent Activity, your history of contributions on the subsite won't be on your profile page until we add it in a few days, and favorites added to anything on IRL won't be listed in your favorites just yet.
posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 2:55 PM (242 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite

> Then there is a Upcoming Events near you feature if you have stored a location in your profile.

Awesome! This was something I was hoping would end up in it.

(also: Meetup)
posted by mrzarquon at 3:06 PM on June 24, 2010


I assume this would be replacing the MeTa sidebar?
posted by geckoinpdx at 3:07 PM on June 24, 2010


I like!
posted by anitanita at 3:09 PM on June 24, 2010


gecko: We'll soon switch the MetaTalk sidebar of future meetups over to a stream of IRL meetups.

Looks slick. Thanks to everyone who worked/is working on it!
posted by lholladay at 3:09 PM on June 24, 2010


MeFIRL?

Suggestion: along with venue name and location (lat/ long might be nice for int'l users, I think, but I'm not one of them, so I dunno) have venue URL, linkifying the text in the listing (your example would be The Green Dragon) .
posted by boo_radley at 3:11 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Thanks guys. This looks really cool.
posted by danb at 3:12 PM on June 24, 2010


What does IRL mean?
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:12 PM on June 24, 2010


In real life.
posted by boo_radley at 3:13 PM on June 24, 2010


In Real Life. An old abbreviation from the world of chat, like a/s/l and LOL
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:13 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


I like the idea but the name so unMeta. I suggest Real (or Reality) and we can then all debate how to pronounce MeRe.
posted by chairface at 3:14 PM on June 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


So when we meetup with IRL, It'll say "My Name is Irl?"

(brain hurts from trying to figure out what IRL stands for.)

It does look way cool.
posted by bearwife at 3:14 PM on June 24, 2010


Ah HAH.
posted by bearwife at 3:15 PM on June 24, 2010


Ok, let's get to what's really important... Mee-Fir-Ul?.. Mee-Fi-Rul? Me-Fuh-Rul...

That's the one I think I'll be using. MeFiIrl, pronounced to rhyme with "referral". (Although Meh-Fer-al sounding kinda like "Mithril" also has an appeal.)
posted by quin at 3:17 PM on June 24, 2010


How about Me-Feral, as in this is stuff that will be unleashed in the wild?

That's how it sounds in my head.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:19 PM on June 24, 2010


I like the professional-looking white background.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 3:21 PM on June 24, 2010


Mee-Fy Eye Arr Ell.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:21 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


MeFiRAAAL!

... is how I would say it if I were drunk on power.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:23 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Mee Feye Ar Ell.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:23 PM on June 24, 2010 [6 favorites]


And cortex says it Meh-Furl.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:23 PM on June 24, 2010 [4 favorites]


And such a professional white background!
posted by trunk muffins at 3:27 PM on June 24, 2010


I like the note below the comment box:

Note: You're going to see these people in real life.

But it should read:

Note: You're going to see these people in real life. So wear pants this time.
posted by maqsarian at 3:28 PM on June 24, 2010 [10 favorites]


Unless the meetup goes really well.
posted by maqsarian at 3:29 PM on June 24, 2010 [4 favorites]


There's a problem with the CSS that is evident if you have specified a different font in user preferences. You need to add .post-text to the list of CSS selectors that you emit in the <style> element in the <head> of the page. As it is now the page is a mish-mash of the preferences font and the default verdana.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:29 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Time for another poll!

For research, ya know. We aren't one of those forums, where anyone can post a poll on which tidbit of childhood nostalgia they wish they could take back from the hands of Hollywood MovieMonsters or how to best declaw a cat.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:31 PM on June 24, 2010


Mee-Fy Eye Arr Ell

Mee Feye Ar Ell

These are volcanoes in Iceland, are they not?

The functionality is nice, especially the number of yes/maybe counters which are a godsend to meetup organizers. It is difficult at times to interpret comments cleanly into one of those categories (plus "no" of course), so requiring a specific entry for this is really just fantastic.

It might be interesting to track actual attendees after the event, just for the purposes of helping establish some kind of correlation between number of yes/maybe/no responses and number of attendees. The yes responses are never 1:1 with actual attendance, and oddly the no responses rarely seem to be 1:0 either, and might be worth counting.

I'm not sure about the white background, especially when the logo at the top also has a white background. It feels like something isn't rendering correctly when I look at it. Also, is it just me, or are the headings and dates for each event really... big?
posted by FishBike at 3:38 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


So, I'm curious -- why did you choose to go with the, er... "professional white background?" Was it a choice based on mobile devices, or was there some other reason? I ask because you already have one subsite that uses the white and grey motif, and all of the other subsites have their own color scheme.
posted by crunchland at 3:39 PM on June 24, 2010


Mefi IRL
Indy Racing League
Indy 500
Danica Patrick
professional white background
posted by mullacc at 3:39 PM on June 24, 2010


MeFiiiiiiiii, IRL! Those black-eyed peas tasted all right to me, IRL! You're feeling weak, why don't you lay down and sleep, IRL!
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:41 PM on June 24, 2010


Thanks, Rhomboid. Should be set to use the font in your prefs now. The dates, titles, and attending/maybe text has set fonts, so you won't be able to customize those with your preference settings.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:42 PM on June 24, 2010


I think this should take the AskMetaFilter abbreviation standard and be called IRLMe (pronounced Url-Mee). But that's just me.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:43 PM on June 24, 2010


Look forward to using it; thanks for adding it.

Please, please, please change it to MeFiRL; the iI is hard on my iis.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:48 PM on June 24, 2010


Is it intentional that the logged in view is different than the logged out view? Here's what I see: FireFox 3.6.4, logged in; IE 8, logged in (MeFi Blue on IE).
posted by filthy light thief at 3:50 PM on June 24, 2010


filthy light thief, you have the plain text theme enabled. So when you log in, it sets that theme for all sites. When you log out the site reverts to the default theme.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:52 PM on June 24, 2010


There's just something about that iI right in the middle. Doesn't sit right. MeFiRL would be cool. MetaFilter Real Life. Heh. Flying our freak flag at your local bar! But the double iI? A leetle awkward. But wevs; easy enough to shrug off. And frickin' cool however you spell it. (eye tee)

Mee Furl, whee!
posted by carsonb at 3:56 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


A friend of mine crusades vehemently against the use of IRL, because he thinks it promotes a maladaptive but all too common perspective that things that happen on the internet are not as real. Have you ever heard someone say "what happens on facebook stays on facebook," without understanding that the allusion to some Vegasian fantasyland is really sarcastic commentary about a permanent record of every beer you ever drank from a solo cup after 2005.

I say IRL all the time though. Dude's from Mass anyway, from whence hail the Militant Grammarians. He prolly also gets pissed about verbing login.

This feature rules it. Thanks guys.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 3:58 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


I like it! I also like "IRL"--it's clean and concise and much better than "Meatspace."
posted by applemeat at 4:01 PM on June 24, 2010


Finally, a place to discuss my love of Indy Racing League with other MeFites. How about meatspace.metafilter.com?
posted by Frank Grimes at 4:02 PM on June 24, 2010


carsonb: "There's just something about that iI right in the middle. Doesn't sit right. MeFiRL would be cool. MetaFilter Real Life."

QFT. MeFiRL > MeFiIRL, IMHO.

FZUHSRJY.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:02 PM on June 24, 2010


They call it "meatspace" over on meatfilter. Or so I've heard.
posted by zinfandel at 4:04 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Anagram: MILFer.
posted by adamrice at 4:10 PM on June 24, 2010


Aggggggghhhhhh !!

The WHITENESS literally hurts my eyes.
posted by marsha56 at 4:10 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


MeFiIrl logo, tweaked to make the two "i"s look like an "o" so it can be read as MeFoReaL. And I added alpha, because it sounds so technical and futuristic. Go Alpha Team MeFiIRL!

And thanks for the clarification, pb!
posted by filthy light thief at 4:11 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


And by "tweaked" I mean created in MS Paint.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:11 PM on June 24, 2010


Love it.
But damn, I have a gig tomorrow. I can't post it, even guinea-pig like?
posted by chococat at 4:15 PM on June 24, 2010


Two thumbs up. And three thumbs up for the "MeFiRL" idea.
posted by subbes at 4:18 PM on June 24, 2010


Ooh, Shiny.

(and very professionally white. Shouldn't the meetup/event page nearly define the opposite of professional? Say, for instance, casual taupe?)
posted by Ghidorah at 4:31 PM on June 24, 2010


cool! the "attending" stuff looks like it's just hanging there in the middle, though, because the vertical line makes it look associated with the right sidebar.
posted by rhizome at 4:43 PM on June 24, 2010


So, I'm curious -- why did you choose to go with the, er... "professional white background?" Was it a choice based on mobile devices, or was there some other reason? I ask because you already have one subsite that uses the white and grey motif, and all of the other subsites have their own color scheme.

I come from a professional white background and I'm tired of apologizing for it
posted by grobstein at 4:43 PM on June 24, 2010 [7 favorites]


No way! Pronuciation nerdery? In Metatalk?

*emails iamkimiam*
posted by Pronoiac at 4:46 PM on June 24, 2010


concerts by MeFi Musicians

Yays!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:47 PM on June 24, 2010


I've turned to the Pro White during the day, and the Wild and Crazy Colors in the evening and morning. Now the white seems normal, and the colors seem lurid, foreign yet familiar.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:48 PM on June 24, 2010


OMG.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:49 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Color sucks - I assume we'll be going with the agreed-upon burgundy once it is out of beta?
posted by Meatbomb at 4:54 PM on June 24, 2010


So if you're going to go all "professional white" on the IRL subsite, does that make it "the other white meatspace"?

If you're going to do anything referencing "meatspace", I'd suggest a 'marbled' red and white stripe, like bacon.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:56 PM on June 24, 2010 [4 favorites]


Mee-Fy Eye Arr Ell.

I am officially Too Lazy to say all those syllables. So I shall call it earl.
posted by shelleycat at 4:59 PM on June 24, 2010


Uh, just so you know, the cabal meetup was accidentally left in the display. Please delete it and use the neuralyzer on everyone in this thread.
posted by languagehat at 5:05 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Looks good ... except MeFiIRL is a bit of an eyesore. I mean, it makes sense when you think about it: Metafilter In Real Life. But the double "i" looks and sounds kind of weird.
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:06 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's clearly going to be pronounced "Mefi Real," mee-fy reel.
posted by mwhybark at 5:08 PM on June 24, 2010


Rhymes with "ethereal"?
posted by grobstein at 5:09 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


concerts by MeFi Musicians

now yer speakin' my language.

my colloquial and slang riddled language.
posted by archivist at 5:10 PM on June 24, 2010


... although I would say "mee firal", as in, "I am viral" has a darkhorse chance.
posted by mwhybark at 5:11 PM on June 24, 2010


I transpose the i and the r in my head-pronunciation, making 'mifril.' I hear it's good for making armor out of, which is probably good to have when going to a meetup.
posted by kaibutsu at 5:11 PM on June 24, 2010


Why isn't it Me-Meet? or Meet-Me? It doesn't matter, no one will ever Meet Up in Fairbanks. Cue the tiny violins.
posted by madred at 5:14 PM on June 24, 2010


MeetFi
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:17 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Awesome!

The first thing I did was try to click the "attending" list, but it isn't hot. Should it be?
posted by dirtdirt at 5:18 PM on June 24, 2010


Seefi
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:29 PM on June 24, 2010


no one will ever Meet Up in Fairbanks

I was at a meetup in Anchorage. It can happen.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:47 PM on June 24, 2010


MeTup

Anyways, there's no way for me to indicate I won't be attending a meetup.

HOW WILL I LET MY PEEPS KNOW?
posted by blue_beetle at 6:00 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm not attending meetups RIGHT NOW.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:03 PM on June 24, 2010


Me-feral, mithirl, me-fye-ral...

I'm pronouncing this site "The Meetup Page."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:06 PM on June 24, 2010


duke
duke
duke
duke of irl
duke
duke
duke of irl
duke
duke
duke of irl
duke
duke
duke of...

(repeat into infinity)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:06 PM on June 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


Looks good. One minor thing. If you hover over the "+" to add it as a favorite, it says "Save this question as a favorite." Nothing big, but thought I would let you know.
posted by lilkeith07 at 6:17 PM on June 24, 2010


I'm loving this!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:29 PM on June 24, 2010


Call it MetaReal or MetaLife or something, please. IRL is kind of... horrible.

Wait, call it MetaMeet, and the it would be MeMe. I'm serious.
posted by spaltavian at 6:31 PM on June 24, 2010


Either deleted events show up in "Upcoming near you", or the list is just not calculated very often.
posted by grobstein at 6:31 PM on June 24, 2010


I see it as "me fer all" as in "free for all."
posted by Falconetti at 6:49 PM on June 24, 2010


Thanks lilkeith07 and grobstein, got those fixed up.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:50 PM on June 24, 2010


Great to see it come into being. I feel like the vertical lines between the event and the attending number divide the page in half too much, separating attendee number from the events. Maybe it's due to how the sidebar ("Find events by location:" and so on) is just sort of hanging out, not really separated. The sidebar and the main content really compete for my attention, and the closeness of the attendee number and sidebar text make me want to jump directly between the two when reading left to right.

For the attending numbers, maybe a Projects vote-style box would work (but that might compete with the date box); and for the sidebar, maybe a MeFi-, MeTa-, AskMe- or Projects-style sidebar would work. Either a box with light colored background or different-sized text would focus the attention a bit more on the events.
posted by msbrauer at 7:09 PM on June 24, 2010


I hate to sound whiny, especially about a place I love so much, but how about some *contrast*, huh? That page makes my eyes bleed. In general, ever since I found out about Stylish and the Metafilter Better Contrast script, I can't bear to read the site any other way. Do the mods have some super 1000000000000000:1 contrast monitors or something?
posted by pjern at 7:21 PM on June 24, 2010


A great site!

with a terrible name, I have to admit MeetFi is pretty f'ing fantastic tho
posted by davejay at 7:21 PM on June 24, 2010


This explains why I've been accidentally clicking on Projects all afternoon in the menu bar up top. I thought I was going insane, but apparently the new link shifts everything over just enough to mess with my muscle memory. Huh.
posted by lilac girl at 7:38 PM on June 24, 2010


It's pronounced like Me-Fire, but with more tongue.
posted by qvantamon at 7:47 PM on June 24, 2010


marsha56 writes "The WHITENESS literally hurts my eyes."

I don't want to complain about this however can someone tell me how to change just IRL to some colours of my choosing?

grobstein writes "Rhymes with 'ethereal'?"

I'm starting to like this.
posted by Mitheral at 8:17 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


The typefaces in the logo in the top-left are all crazysauce and it's driving me insane.

Also, like, white white is pretty, you know, white.

But I like it though.
posted by churl at 8:24 PM on June 24, 2010


If you're using Firefox the easiest way is probably Stylish. It lets you write custom CSS rules which combined with Mozilla-specific selectors lets you limit those to specific domains. I fooled around for about a minute and came up with the following for white on black, which is pretty rough but you get the idea:
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("irl.metafilter.com") {
body { background: #000; color: #aaa }
.post-text { color: #fff }
}

posted by Rhomboid at 8:26 PM on June 24, 2010


(Oops, forgot to add "!important" on each of those, which is necessary to override the cascade on the thread pages.)
posted by Rhomboid at 8:28 PM on June 24, 2010


I don't want to complain about this however can someone tell me how to change just IRL to some colours of my choosing?

Firefox? If so, there's a Greasemonkey solution ready-made of course. Install Stylish, restart the browser, navigate to IRL (Earl!), click the little white S in the bottom-right corner of your browser window → Write new style → For irl.metafilter.com. Voila!
posted by carsonb at 8:31 PM on June 24, 2010


(Paste in Rhomboid's code) Voila!
posted by carsonb at 8:32 PM on June 24, 2010


Okay, I think I have drunk way too much of the MeFi koolaid. I saw this and literally started squealing like a teenage girl.

But yeah, I am excited.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:36 PM on June 24, 2010


IRL?

I R Late?

Like most mefites at meetups? amirite?
posted by special-k at 9:43 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Earl Me? No good.

Meet Me would be good.
posted by klangklangston at 9:58 PM on June 24, 2010


How committed are you to the name? IRL seems way too cutesy. I like MeetMe(tafilter).
posted by pecknpah at 9:58 PM on June 24, 2010 [3 favorites]


they're very committed.
posted by my name is irl at 10:04 PM on June 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


Looks great, well done team ModFi!

Which brings me to my next point. It should be MeFiRL. There is already an i in MeFi, and MeFiRL fits the convention better.

Yours,
Twitchingly
posted by DarlingBri at 10:04 PM on June 24, 2010


Everything about this is awesome. Except for the name.
posted by grouse at 10:21 PM on June 24, 2010


MeFigh-are-ell? Me firel? Mehfurl?
posted by klangklangston at 10:22 PM on June 24, 2010


Thank you for the pony. OMG.
posted by not_on_display at 10:31 PM on June 24, 2010


Is it just me or did the events used to be in calendar order with most recent on top?
posted by desuetude at 10:32 PM on June 24, 2010


Is it just me or did the events used to be in calendar order with most recent on top?

Earlier today we had them in a different order at one point. I'm guessing we'll try several different things during this test as we get more more events.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:43 PM on June 24, 2010


MetaFunction? MetaFiltration? MetaFest?

(I like the first one cause it's right nerdy. But the second one sounds like a scientific invasion! And the last one there...it's somewhere in between festivity & fester, which might just be perfect.)
posted by iamkimiam at 10:46 PM on June 24, 2010


Earlier today we had them in a different order at one point. I'm guessing we'll try several different things during this test as we get more more events.

I think calendar order makes more sense.
posted by desuetude at 10:47 PM on June 24, 2010


Could there be a non-invasive way to be automatically notified when a meetup is close by? My biggest pony wish is a way to inform the locals that we're having a meetup without them having to check MeTa.
posted by desuetude at 10:51 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


OMG hi iamkimiam. Long time no see.
posted by special-k at 10:52 PM on June 24, 2010


I think calendar order makes more sense.

Cool. We have a long history of showing post-y things in reverse chronological order so we're starting with that. I have a hunch that we'll mix things up, and we've discussed several possibilites. We're going to go by feel and feedback as the site picks up.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:52 PM on June 24, 2010


Also we can't find the calendar the bank gave pb when he opened his checking account, so we're not really sure what order the days are supposed to go in.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:56 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Could there be a non-invasive way to be automatically notified when a meetup is close by?

Right now we have RSS feeds and iCal calendars that people can subscribe to. We'll have them by location soon, so you can subscribe to the Portland, OR calendar, for example. We aren't planning anything with MeFi Mail or email right now.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:58 PM on June 24, 2010


HI! I didn't expect to have internet in this tiny little village in Oaxaca (there's no cell reception here, little or no plumbing*, and they live 'on God's time'**), but what do ya know?! I'm super duper busy doing field work here, but when I heard about this thread there was just no way to not jump in and enjoy the hell out of it! You people brought me a lot of happiness at the end of a long, hot and tedious day.

*I've taken only four showers this month (all cold) and three more weeks to go! Anybody want to pick me up from LAX?!
**No daylight savings. Which is actually kind of cool, since you can go into Oaxaca city and return home before you left.

posted by iamkimiam at 11:11 PM on June 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Can there be a way to post multi-evening events? For example, I'm in a play coming up, running from July 2 - 24, but I suspect if I post it, it will look like it's only happening on July 2nd, right?
posted by stray at 12:10 AM on June 25, 2010


There are no other MetaFilter members nearby, sorry. Goes back to kicking ball against the wall.
posted by adamvasco at 12:44 AM on June 25, 2010


Me-furl.
posted by sveskemus at 1:52 AM on June 25, 2010


MetaFunction? I never met a function I didn't like (/waggles cigar and eyebrows).
posted by Electric Dragon at 2:48 AM on June 25, 2010


Could this be the prototype for MeRecipes and MeDating? Because I'm not giving up on those dreams. There's room for, like, 8 more subsites on the top of the site. Sure, maybe it'd look funny on the iPhone and netbooks, but MetaFilter is a media-rich interactive experience not meant to be embraced on the go.
posted by mccarty.tim at 3:09 AM on June 25, 2010


Has the "near you" function not been implemented yet? I have a lat/lon stored in my profile but it still tells me to set a location in order to see events near me.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:27 AM on June 25, 2010


It's clearly pronounced "nacho".
posted by owtytrof at 6:00 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


We have a long history of showing post-y things in reverse chronological order so we're starting with that. I have a hunch that we'll mix things up, and we've discussed several possibilites.

The "newest post first" sort order on the rest of the site totally makes sense. It suits what I think is typical usage of the sub-site front pages, which is to find out what's new since last time I looked. Sorting this way puts the stuff I'm usually looking for at the top, so it's great.

With these real-world events, I think my usage will be sort of similar in that I'll come to the page periodically to see either a) what new events have appeared since last time I looked, or b) what's happening soon.

Sorting in reverse chronological order of the event date doesn't suit either of these cases. If I'm trying to see what new events have been posted, they'll get mixed in with stuff I've already seen, since people don't post things in order of the event date. So I'd really want a sort by date posted, with the newest at the top, if I'm trying to keep up with changes to the events list.

And if I'm trying to see what's coming up, I'll want to see the soonest events first, because I won't have many chances to notice them before the event happens. Stuff way off in the future can be at the bottom of the page, or on separate pages requiring a click-through, where I'll maybe see it if I feel like browsing through the whole list, but I'll have plenty of chances to see it on future visits as the date gets closer. So a forward-chronological sort, with events in the past moved elsewhere, works for this (like the existing sidebar does it, actually).

If we can have choices about how to sort the list, that'd be fantastic, but otherwise I think forward-chronological by event date would be the best way to sort it. MetaTalk already does reverse-chronological by post date and we've seen this tends to result in reminder threads, so I'd like that to be an option if possible, but not the only choice of sort order.
posted by FishBike at 6:09 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm also getting nothing in the "near you" section despite having coordinates in my profile.

What's the functionality of "most popular cities in the past 3 months"? I understand that it will have a bit more nuance when things other than meetups are listed, but I don't really understand what use it is to know that about the past 3 months. Most eventful cities in the coming 3 months would make more sense to me (plus, I can see it being a bit of competitive gauge the other way).
posted by zennie at 6:18 AM on June 25, 2010


Right now we have RSS feeds and iCal calendars that people can subscribe to. We'll have them by location soon, so you can subscribe to the Portland, OR calendar, for example. We aren't planning anything with MeFi Mail or email right now.

Oh, that works.
posted by desuetude at 6:19 AM on June 25, 2010


Scratch that, the location awareness is working now. What changed?
posted by backseatpilot at 6:21 AM on June 25, 2010


I like what FishBike said about chronology. Maybe let things be posted the regular way on the main page, and have a Chronological Events (or just Events) tab?
posted by zennie at 6:26 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


Two minor issues:

1. The posting of events from contacts don't show up on the Contact Activity on the sidebar in the blue.

2. IRL doesn't show up in the menu on the phone version of Mefi.
posted by octothorpe at 6:27 AM on June 25, 2010


PS. I also wanted to say, everything looks really snazzy and I'm happy y'all are making this happen.
posted by zennie at 6:30 AM on June 25, 2010


i wish this'd come out bfore yesterday when i got i_foody a comedy gig at a monthly party i throw! He killed it and we told everyone we met on metafilter which garnished some odd looks. One girl: Is that like jdate? Grr.

[/gratuitous ifoody plug]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:31 AM on June 25, 2010


Oh man. "IRL". I haven't seen, used, or even thought about that acronym in like... 5 or 6 years. Nostalgic.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:32 AM on June 25, 2010


Shit is hot! I love the IRL. We're bringin' it back!
posted by Mister_A at 6:37 AM on June 25, 2010


Do we get a MeFi badge if we attend a meetup?

But seriously, can we be notified if there is a meetup within X miles of our "Location"?
posted by msittig at 6:43 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


I just posted a meetup, and it seemed to go fine except for one thing: extra line breaks keep getting added. This sometimes (but not always) happened when I previewed (there were extra "br"s in HTML brackets), and it happened when I posted. I had formatted it with a standard 2 line breaks between each paragraph (which showed up properly the last time I previewed), but it added a few more line breaks between each paragraph (here).
posted by Jaltcoh at 6:45 AM on June 25, 2010


IRL, you'll be a subsite soon
Please, come join MeFi
IRL, you'll be a subsite soon
Soon, you'll need FishBike*

Love meetups so much can't count all the ways
I get drunk with strangers and all they can say is
Please wear your pants
They never get tired of drinking their beers
And when they've got gigs the crowd all cheers
We all like to dance
Don't live life stuck in a trance,
Don't you know

IRL...

*Assuming IRL is such a runaway success that it needs some crazy number crunching. My rhyme choices were better if I tried to rhyme with "fee" instead of "fie" but I will not join that camp!
posted by SpiffyRob at 7:07 AM on June 25, 2010


Looks good, works for me so far. I see the "Shop" link was removed, which doesn't affect me but I thought was worth mentioning.
posted by empyrean at 7:14 AM on June 25, 2010


In my head, fishbike is piechart man (see panel 4).
posted by Mister_A at 7:19 AM on June 25, 2010


And if I'm trying to see what's coming up, I'll want to see the soonest events first, because I won't have many chances to notice them before the event happens.

Agreed.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:22 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


How about MetaLife? MeLi (melly).
posted by Night_owl at 7:28 AM on June 25, 2010


I'm seconding MeetMe. It comes trippingly off the tongue.

OR it could be MetaFilter In Reality Everyone, and thusly MeFIRE.
posted by edbles at 7:29 AM on June 25, 2010


Hmm... MeetMe. MefiIRL.

Try to say them out loud.

MefiIRL.

MeetMe.

Which one sounds better?
posted by Jaltcoh at 7:32 AM on June 25, 2010 [2 favorites]


MeetMe.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:34 AM on June 25, 2010 [3 favorites]


The layout hurts my eyes, but so dies every other section of this site.
posted by slogger at 7:42 AM on June 25, 2010


I also second a way to see the events in chronological order from the top. that way fewer events are missed because of the hassle of scrolling a wheel. I guess then we have the problem of when the events scroll off the page.

How about a non-length-limited page (so there could be 15 events on the front page or 23 or 108 at any given time) where the events scroll off the top of the page when they occur?
posted by Night_owl at 7:46 AM on June 25, 2010


Listen, it's staying "IRL" because I like it. Now scram!
posted by Mister_A at 7:49 AM on June 25, 2010

I also like "IRL"--it's clean and concise and much better than "Meatspace."
There's always "the big room with the blue ceiling," though that's technically a reference to "outside"...
posted by Karmakaze at 7:58 AM on June 25, 2010


Listen, it's staying "IRL" because I like it. Now scram!

You have only had this lawn for 1 day, poser. Don't even try.
posted by edbles at 7:59 AM on June 25, 2010


I also like "IRL"--it's clean and concise and much better than "Meatspace."

IRL = 3 syllables
Meatspace = 2 syllables

MeetMe = 2 syllables + AskMe precedent

MeFIRE= 2 syllables + Fire

Fire = AWESOME

By the transitive property

MeFIRE = 2 syllables + AWESOME.

I probably got one of those wrong I have a hard time counting syllables which always made scanning almost incomprehensible to me.
posted by edbles at 8:02 AM on June 25, 2010


Jaltcoh, thanks, fixed up the extra breaks in "more inside".

odinsdream, are you running Stylish or Greasemonkey? Looks like you have a user-defined stylesheet of some kind going on there.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:07 AM on June 25, 2010


Next on the list are:

SeeFi, the MeFi movie club;

SkiFi, meetups for Alpinists;

BrieFi, for all our cheese fanciers;

GheeFi, for meetups at Indian restaurants;

TeaFi, for those MeFites who like to be steeped in conversation;

And, of course, the yellow-backgrounded

PeeFi, for the watersports enthusiasts.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:09 AM on June 25, 2010


Meatspace

Yuck.

I hate this term with the heat of a thousand suns.

That is all.
posted by desuetude at 8:12 AM on June 25, 2010


I'm kind of partial to it myself.
posted by Meatbomb at 8:14 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


On further reflection, given the commentary above, the mods would surely have to broker a truce with respect to the last one between the PeeFi people and the PeeMe people.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:16 AM on June 25, 2010


"IRL" is three syllables?
posted by crunchland at 8:19 AM on June 25, 2010


Bug report!

When browsing IRL threads in Recent Activity, the "X favorites" link is malformed.(http://.metafilter.com/favorited/20/49)

Shazam.
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:19 AM on June 25, 2010


Jaltcoh, thanks, fixed up the extra breaks in "more inside".

Thanks, pb.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:21 AM on June 25, 2010


Meatspace

Yuck.

I hate this term with the heat of a thousand suns.


This.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:22 AM on June 25, 2010


SpiffyRob, thanks! Got it.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:22 AM on June 25, 2010


I hate it with the heat of ten thousand blazing nuns.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:30 AM on June 25, 2010


OK, one tiny thing that's a little weird. Initially, this shows up in the right-hand side of an event (with a highlighted yellow background):
Joining us?
[o] Yes
[o] No
But once I select "Yes," it changes to:
Joining us?
[o] No
I do see the purpose of allowing someone to retract their "Yes," but the "Joining us?" with the only option being "No" seems to oddy encourage me to do this. Maybe just an "x" next to my own name in case I need to remove myself from the list.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:37 AM on June 25, 2010


Some random thoughts:

Those AJAX radio buttons for attending are kind of weird. Like when you are attending something, you get one radio button for No. Seems like it doesn't really fit the model for radio buttons, where one is always selected. Why not just real buttons?

No way to move from Yes to Maybe without going through No.

The dark blue links within event posts are a lot more visible than the gray titles.

Should the tags really be required? They seem to be duplicating the category and location fields for the events posted so far. Top tag is "meetup", and I'm sure the other top tags will be things like "newyork" and "boston" after a while, which duplicates the popular city list.

The guests chooser doesn't have any feedback at all except a little +1 appears next to your name, so I didn't think it was working.

The random button in the header is broken (404) and probably pointless.

The description at the top of the front page is a bit unwieldy. Are those dangling prepositions?

Overall though, very cool. This is exactly what I wanted.
posted by smackfu at 8:38 AM on June 25, 2010


The random button in the header is broken (404) and probably pointless.

Which button? Can you take a screenshot?
posted by pb (staff) at 8:41 AM on June 25, 2010


This one:

Home FAQ Archives Tags Random

It's on all the subsites, and probably a relative link. It links to http://irl.metafilter.com/random.
posted by smackfu at 8:44 AM on June 25, 2010


Oh, another thing: how about a section in our profiles?
MeetMe [or IRL]: 1 post, 0 comments, 1 attending
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:45 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


if we are going to have professional white backgrounds in real life and at our jobs, why should we bother being colorful elsewhere anymore?
posted by the aloha at 8:45 AM on June 25, 2010


I hate this term with the heat of a thousand suns.

I think you mean with the fire of a thousand burning nuns. See the espousening anniversary thread.
posted by edbles at 8:45 AM on June 25, 2010


aha, literally random. Yeah, no need for that.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:46 AM on June 25, 2010


Profile page stats and integration into the rest of the site are on our to-do list.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:47 AM on June 25, 2010


Similar to the "Random" thing: the "Archives" link goes to "Error: File not found."

http://irl.metafilter.com/archive.mefi
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:47 AM on June 25, 2010


Profile page stats and integration into the rest of the site are on our to-do list.

Cool, thanks.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:47 AM on June 25, 2010


how about a section in our profiles?

It's in the offing (along with a few other little site-integration details) but we want to get the basic bug-testing and ironing-out stuff done first.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:47 AM on June 25, 2010


I'm going to choose not to read what this is about and presume that we now have a metafilter specific to Ireland...yay! I suggest combining the green and professional white background and dropping in some orange.

Either that, or us Irish people will be advertising metafilter when we drive abroad.
posted by unbearablylight at 8:53 AM on June 25, 2010


I don't hate meatspace. It has a nice almost Gibson, but not still so incredibly far from worthwhile quality to it. Like a Neal Stephenson book.
posted by edbles at 9:06 AM on June 25, 2010


--how about a section in our profiles?
--MeetMe [or IRL]: 1 post, 0 comments, 1 attending

It's in the offing (along with a few other little site-integration details) but we want to get the basic bug-testing and ironing-out stuff done first.


I'm all for enabling internet stalkers to track my every comment, MetaTalk snark, and embarrassing AskMe question, but allowing them to see the exact geographic location that I'm going to be at at specific times and dates seems a little much. Maybe the "attending" link can be made visible to logged-in users only?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 9:14 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


Joining us -- shouldn't there be a radio button for both "maybe" and "no" once you click "yes?"

Upcoming events near me now seem to include NYC.

Okay, so I meant calendar order with most recent listed first. I know that I'm being fussy because we're the ones having a Meetup tonight, but...tonight's meetup is now waaay down at the bottom of the page.

Oh, thanks for fixing the blank lines thing in the post. I had figured that was user error.
posted by desuetude at 9:21 AM on June 25, 2010


Maybe the "attending" link can be made visible to logged-in users only?

In that case, the "posts" and "comments" links should be treated the same. They all lead to the same post with the same info.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:33 AM on June 25, 2010


There's a meetup a couple miles from me two days from now, but I still have nothing in "near you." Location seems to work fine in my profile for mefites near me.
posted by zennie at 10:12 AM on June 25, 2010


Do comments on events I'm attending show up in my "Recent Activity"? That would be convenient, I think.
posted by grobstein at 10:14 AM on June 25, 2010


Do comments on events I'm attending show up in my "Recent Activity"?

That would be a good idea, since you don't have to comment now to say you are attending.
posted by smackfu at 10:35 AM on June 25, 2010


Upcoming events near me now seem to include NYC.

We have it set to show events within 100 miles of the location set in your profile.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:35 AM on June 25, 2010


Do comments on events I'm attending show up in my "Recent Activity"? That would be convenient, I think.

No, interesting idea though. For now you can add an event to your Favorites and follow on the "My Favorites" tab in Recent Activity. Or leave a comment.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:36 AM on June 25, 2010


In that case, the "posts" and "comments" links should be treated the same. They all lead to the same post with the same info.

Not if I just click Yes I Am Attending but don't post a comment. Unless I am misunderstanding how it works...
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:40 AM on June 25, 2010


I mean, that's fine if it's done that way too, but I think the option should be there for people to say that they are attending something but not announce it to non-logged-in people.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:43 AM on June 25, 2010


Not if I just click Yes I Am Attending but don't post a comment. Unless I am misunderstanding how it works...

Well, yes -- if that's all you do. But not if you post an event or comment.
posted by Jaltcoh at 11:11 AM on June 25, 2010


... I was hoping it would be called Meetafilter. But I guess there's that Meta branding thing.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:31 AM on June 25, 2010


"the big room with the blue ceiling," though that's technically a reference to "outside"

maybe in your world...alas, the "iron ceiling" has once again descended on Olympia. (A friend of mine referred to the arrival of the rainy season as "the iron ceiling" and it just fit perfectly.) Actually, in the dark half of the year, it's rather like the grey of MetaTalk.
posted by epersonae at 11:35 AM on June 25, 2010


I'm not sure what the best ordering is, but I can see issues with the current one. Anything that is a month off will just sit on the top of the page, and new events will just randomly show up in the list.

I'm not sure when anyone would ever really use the big list of events actually.
posted by smackfu at 11:51 AM on June 25, 2010


Should meetup announcements that have already been set up in MetaTalk be posted here, too? Are they already being listed? Just wondering because I wanted to test IRL out.
posted by emelenjr at 12:05 PM on June 25, 2010


smackfu writes "I'm not sure when anyone would ever really use the big list of events actually."

When I win the $50 million this week I'm going to jump in my Lamborghini and drive with my destination at any given moment being the next meet up more than three hours away.
posted by Mitheral at 12:06 PM on June 25, 2010


Oh my god. I just wet my pants a little. I love it.

Thanks matthowie!
posted by bilabial at 12:14 PM on June 25, 2010


It would be nice for OP to be able to edit event details.
posted by special-k at 2:04 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


It would be nice for OP to be able to edit event details.

Ah, but think of all the potential for abuse! What if they change the event to "KKK Rally" and make everyone who signed up look like Klansmen? What then?
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:43 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


MODS TO THE RESCUE! (as usual.)
posted by crunchland at 2:48 PM on June 25, 2010


bug: The people count on the main IRL page ignores guests.
posted by special-k at 3:26 PM on June 25, 2010


Thanks special-k, the counts should include guests now.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:49 PM on June 25, 2010


I'm really wondering, if i may, what possible bug there could be if someone posted an event other than a meetup ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:18 PM on June 25, 2010


I'm really wondering, if i may, what possible bug there could be if someone posted an event other than a meetup ?

There's no specific bug in mind, we're just rolling it out in stages so we can make sure the core functionality stuff is already nailed down in terms of meetups as we know them today before we start trying to test new-category stuff and fiddle with the related new surprises on that front.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:26 PM on June 25, 2010


Minor bug: when you change your attendance, and it refreshes the list of attendees, it doesn't apply the shortening function to the usernames. So people with really long names look crummy. You can see this on the Coney Island meetup.
posted by smackfu at 6:34 PM on June 25, 2010


good catch, smackfu. Fixed that up.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:43 PM on June 25, 2010


When most of the bugs are worked out, can IRL be added to the options on the mobile site?
posted by rtha at 10:00 AM on June 26, 2010


Ooh, can the attending/not attending be still active for at least a week or so after the meetup? That way, we can browbeat attendees into listing their names (even if they didn't originally RSVP) to avoid the obligatory round of MeMailing trying to remember that one person's name.
posted by desuetude at 11:06 AM on June 26, 2010


yes and yes. There are still a few tweaks needed in the mobile stylesheets, I'll get a link added as soon as it looks presentable. And we haven't discussed whether or not to expire attending lists so they'll stay up until we figure that out.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:56 PM on June 26, 2010


Last night's meetup is still in my "upcoming meetups" list.
posted by desuetude at 8:56 PM on June 26, 2010


I wonder if that's the old timezone bug, where the meetups don't have a timezone so they have to be assumed to happen in the latest possible one, which be many hours after the actual event.
posted by smackfu at 5:49 AM on June 28, 2010


I think that now with MeFi extending itself more firmly into the real world, the ad-hoc broken timezone thingy might become a more glaringly obvious "needs to be fixed" than previously?
posted by Meatbomb at 6:31 AM on June 28, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oops, I was mis-remembering. The old meetups didn't even have a time, so they were assumed to happen at the end of the day in the latest timezone.
posted by smackfu at 9:11 AM on June 28, 2010


We have it set to show events within 100 miles of the location set in your profile.

I'm currently getting instructed to "Set a latitude and longitude in your site preferences to see events near you in this space." It doesn't look like there are any events within 100 miles of me, but I do seem to have a location in my profile (though I don't think I set it myself - I seem to remember discovering it upon returning from a period of inactivity on the site a number of years ago... but I could be totally wrong there, and it's probably not relevant).

Shouldn't there be different messages to tell the user "there's nothing happening near you" vs. "I can't tell if there's anything near you because I don't know where you are"?
posted by nickmark at 12:00 PM on June 28, 2010


Yep, that was a bug nickmark, thanks for letting us know. Should be working now.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:14 PM on June 28, 2010


The dropdown menu when you search for something does not include IRL as a subsite in which to search.
posted by Night_owl at 9:57 AM on June 29, 2010


IRL isn't included with site search yet. It's on our to-do list.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:18 AM on June 29, 2010


Hey pb, what would you think about each user having their own private webcal feed that would include only those events they registered as yes or maybe for? Meetup.com does this and it is incredibly useful. Way more useful than having a single feed with all events, 95 percent of which I cannot attend, clogging up my calendar.
posted by grouse at 3:39 PM on June 29, 2010


We might be able to do something like that. Don't forget we have feeds for cities too, so that might be more targeted. You can also add an individual event to your calendar as you need to with the event iCal URL.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:45 PM on June 29, 2010


I don't know any way to get the individual events into Google Calendar, which otherwise supports iCal just fine.
posted by smackfu at 4:26 PM on June 29, 2010


We're going to add a special link to add individual events into Google Calendar in the next day or so—that'll work much better. I've found downloading the ICS file to my computer, then doing an "import" from settings works well, but this new link to add will be easier.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:59 PM on June 29, 2010


Awesome.
posted by smackfu at 7:48 PM on June 29, 2010


Missing ponies:

Pony #1: Can we not link to meetup pictures in IRL? Does that stay in the original Meta thread?

Pony #2: Just like we have a recent tracks from all can we have something similar on IRL for meetup pictures? The space below subscribe via feeds could be populated by Flickr thumbnails from all meetups with a link to a slideshow.
posted by special-k at 10:58 AM on July 1, 2010


Yep, those are in the works. For now, pictures go in the original MeTa thread.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:01 AM on July 1, 2010


oh, Flickr integration isn't in the works, but we have talked about a way to show a list of meetups with new pictures. (Not sure it'll make the final cut.) In any case, we'll have some indication of which meetups have photos in the archive.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:03 AM on July 1, 2010


I tried to use this earlier today to announce a meetup in a London park. I had a postcode and everything but IRL wouldn't let me post it without a street address. Even a road didn't help.
posted by grouse at 4:37 PM on July 1, 2010


Does the park have a street address? Maybe send me the details and I'll look into it.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:51 PM on July 1, 2010


So is it supposed to do something when events pass? Like a different style, or maybe change "attending" to "attended".
posted by smackfu at 9:00 AM on July 2, 2010


There's no indication that the event has passed on comment pages. On the front page, the color changes to a lighter shade of gray.

Not sure we want to change to attended because that makes it seem like an official list of people who showed up. And I'm guessing most times it won't be completely accurate.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:01 AM on July 2, 2010


practical bug: Because we currently plan the meetup on Meta and post the event on IRL, it becomes confusing for people to decide which thread to post updates to. Last night at the meetup we had to check both threads to make sure no one was left behind. There are two possible solutions to this:

a) Close the MeTa thread once meetup is in IRL. Not sure if this can be automated. Perhaps via a tag similar to the resolved tag in AskMe? For example, OP could add IRL as a tag and that automatically closes the thread and adds a little note says "This meetup is now scheduled on IRL."

b) Do all meetups in IRL, including planning. Except instead of a map right away, there is a place holder saying "Details for this meetup are still being worked out. Stay tuned".
posted by special-k at 12:20 PM on July 2, 2010


wow, I was looking at this in Recent Actvity and thought for a moment there was some sort of MetaThing in Ireland, even though I had previously read the thread and am all brushed up on my IRC abbrevs. I suppose it gives new meaning to the Green.
posted by mwhybark at 8:43 PM on July 2, 2010


Is giving us a way to set what we consider "near us" an option?
posted by edbles at 9:17 AM on July 9, 2010


It's not an option right now—it's set to 100 miles from your profile location—but it's something we can think about if that becomes one of the main ways people discover events. For now you could always pick a couple cities that you'd like to tune in to and subscribe to their RSS or iCal feeds.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:15 AM on July 9, 2010


I was using it more as filter rather than discovery, but the RSS feed option works equally well for that purpose.
posted by edbles at 10:34 AM on July 9, 2010


We changed around the layout a bit today. You should see a series of tabs across the top of the page: Upcoming, Past Events, Future Events, and Recently Posted. The default view is Upcoming, that's events happening within the next two weeks. Past Events shows events that happened in the last two weeks. Future Events shows events that are more than two weeks out. Recently Posted shows events in the order they were posted.

We're hoping these give a better look at what's happening on the site.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:44 PM on July 9, 2010 [2 favorites]


Nice! The different tabs, and the sort order within them, definitely suit the different ways I can see myself using MeFiIRL.

One minor suggestion for the Recently Posted tab is that the date headings might be clearer if they said "Posted on July 9" rather than just "July 9" to better distinguish date-of-post from date-of-event in this view.
posted by FishBike at 5:35 PM on July 9, 2010


I have concerts coming up, I think it's perfect as-is and you should make it beta and add concert listings!
posted by frenetic at 5:49 PM on July 9, 2010 [3 favorites]


I love the new layout! A great improvement.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:05 AM on July 10, 2010 [1 favorite]


Looks great. Can we have a tab for events you are marked as attending, or attended? Like "My IRL". Currently there is no good way to get back to events you said you are attending, except to comment to them and then follow them in your Recent Activity.
posted by smackfu at 7:29 AM on July 12, 2010


Good idea, just added it to the site.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:46 PM on July 12, 2010


Have I told you lately that I love you?
posted by smackfu at 3:06 PM on July 12, 2010


Two minor aesthetic things I notice...
The top banner of IRL is dark blue on dark grey when text is bolded.
Can the little tab icon/square be light, light grey or white...I keep thinking it's a MeFi tab in Firefox and not an IRL one.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:50 PM on July 15, 2010


(I'm sorry in advance if this has already been covered. I haven't been following this thread for awhile, and a cursory scan didn't indicate it.) So, are you planning on still having some sort of indicator of upcoming events on the metatalk page? I'm thinking that people will miss out on stuff just because they don't think to check mefi irl as often as they do for other sections of the site. I mean, there's new stuff posted to projects every day, but I would be willing to bet that only a tiny fraction of the metafilter population actually looks at it.

I'm also wondering about the culture shift between what we've got now (just meetups) and what mefi irl will offer -- that is, self-promotional things, like book signings and stuff. Yesterday, I sort of dressed someone down for posting a book signing as a mefi gathering. Presumably, once mefi irl goes active, that sort of thing will be allowed. Though we've gone however many years with the idea that self-promotional things don't fly... Will there be any sorts of lines between what will be kosher, and what won't be? Today, a thread on metatalk got deleted, where someone was trying to get people to come to a "build-your-own bike" thing. Will that sort of thing be able to appear on Mefi Irl once it's active?

Just something I've been turning over in my head when I (admittedly) probably overreacted in metatalk yesterday and thought it might be worth discussing.
posted by crunchland at 10:44 AM on July 16, 2010


So, are you planning on still having some sort of indicator of upcoming events on the metatalk page?

I think the plan is to, once the IRL stuff itself is all mature and working well, replace the current sort of hacky metatalk meetup sidebar with something that's driven automatically by the IRL codebase.

How exactly that will work is still a question, mostly because the much larger potential pool of IRL events means the current sidebar daterange would potentially make a very, very long sidebar; we might just include traditional-meetup type events, or show a shorter window of upcoming things, or something. But, yeah, some kind of "hey here's some meetup action" will I think remain a part of the metatalk sidebar experience.

Beyond that, though, we are trying to build a bunch of tools that will make it a lot easier for people to automatically and/or at-a-glance keep track of what's going on with IRL—subscribing to feeds for local areas, etc.

I'm also wondering about the culture shift between what we've got now (just meetups) and what mefi irl will offer -- that is, self-promotional things, like book signings and stuff. Yesterday, I sort of dressed someone down for posting a book signing as a mefi gathering. Presumably, once mefi irl goes active, that sort of thing will be allowed.

Yep, that's a big part of the idea with IRL: making a space where it's not disruptive to say "hey, I'm doing this thing if you want to come".

Though we've gone however many years with the idea that self-promotional things don't fly...

True, but look at Jobs and Projects and Music as previous examples of where we've built spaces specifically allowing self-promotional stuff. The problem traditionally has been where self-promotion collides with the existing guidelines and expectations for the core areas of the site: the front page, ask, and metatalk.

Will there be any sorts of lines between what will be kosher, and what won't be? Today, a thread on metatalk got deleted, where someone was trying to get people to come to a "build-your-own bike" thing. Will that sort of thing be able to appear on Mefi Irl once it's active?

The bike thing was both interesting and really sort of unusual. It's not really something we were thinking of even with IRL, it's such an outlier situation. And I'm sure we will see other tricky outliers as we roll IRL's full category set out, though hopefully we can make it accommodate the large majority of real-life random-mefite-friendly events people might be hosting or attending or organizing. I don't think we'll be able to really suss out the fine details of the borders until we see it all in practice for a while.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:20 AM on July 16, 2010


How exactly that will work is still a question, mostly because the much larger potential pool of IRL events means the current sidebar daterange would potentially make a very, very long sidebar

It would be neat if it could show stuff based on your location ... "there are 2 events within 50 miles of your zip code" but I imagine that would require too much work on the server side.

The problem traditionally has been where self-promotion collides with the existing guidelines and expectations for the core areas of the site: the front page, ask, and metatalk.

Yeah. it's kind of funny. You can get banned for self-promotion on the front page, but it's perfectly ok on other parts of the site.
posted by crunchland at 11:43 AM on July 16, 2010


It would be neat if it could show stuff based on your location ...

Set a longitude/latitude in your profile and you'll see upcoming events within 100 miles of that location in the IRL sidebar.

For a rundown of the potential options we're looking at for IRL/MeTa crossover, check out my comment here. Basically we're going to decide between moving everything to IRL or keeping some planning stuff here in MetaTalk and only having confirmed events in IRL. No decision yet.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:25 PM on July 16, 2010


it's perfectly ok on other parts of the site

Well, not perfectly OK. It's really just OK on Projects and Music. Unneeded self-links get nuked on AskMe, and self promotional stuff is often deleted on MeTa.
posted by smackfu at 1:27 PM on July 16, 2010


The upcoming events tab looks kind of funny this morning. It starts with the "Next Two Weeks" heading, under which is an entry for yesterday. Then it has a "Today" heading, and under that is an entry for today followed by all the entries for the next two weeks.
posted by FishBike at 5:49 AM on July 17, 2010


Huh, the problem I mentioned above disappeared at some point yesterday, but it's back again now. It looks kind of like yesterday's events are not getting taken off the "upcoming events" tab soon enough. Maybe because it hasn't been a full 24 hours since the event, in whatever timezone these things are being calculated in?
posted by FishBike at 6:06 AM on July 18, 2010


My guess is that the upcoming/past event cutoff is is server time, while the display is in local time. So something can be today from the server's perspective, but yesterday from yours.
posted by smackfu at 8:57 AM on July 18, 2010


yeah, I built in some buffer time so things wouldn't slide away immediately. I thought it would be good to leave an event as upcoming for a while in case people are arriving late. In any case there are still some bugs around it, thanks for the heads up.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:20 AM on July 18, 2010


Not sure if this is a bug or by design, but I just created an event that begins at 5:30 and the front page of IRL truncates it to 5PM.
posted by danb at 7:14 PM on July 19, 2010


Definitely a bug, fixed that up. Thanks.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:28 PM on July 19, 2010


Playing with the IRL pages in the mobile site, I've noticed it drops the attendance list, photos links, and takes a long time to load due to the embedded google maps. Would it be possible to just link to the maps, and include the other two links, to make it easier to stay updated while enroute to the meetup.

Thinking of day of features: allow for venue changes / critical updates be memailed to folks on the attendance list (just a one time prompt for the first time you confirm your attendance for a meetup, disableable in prefs).
posted by mrzarquon at 8:09 PM on July 21, 2010


(correction, not mobile.Metafilter.com, just when using the mobile CSS theme)
posted by mrzarquon at 8:10 PM on July 21, 2010


The attendance list is there right under the map, here's a screenshot. Click that and you'll go to a page that lists the attendees. We don't have photos on the mobile version yet, maybe we'll do something similar.

I was using IRL on my iPhone on the way to the Portland meetup (good to meet you, btw!) and I didn't notice any lag with the maps. I've been testing with the Android emulator recently and haven't noticed a problem either. Maybe the lag is browser-specific. If it's a problem with a specific browser we could disable for that browser but keep it for others. I find the map handy inline.

Yeah, we're going to allow for venue changes and cancellation. We just had a thread about that and it's on our to-do list. There's some discussion there about notifications and we're holding off on that for now. We're extremely, extremely hesitant to add anything to anyone's inbox load, even with the current preference to unhook MeFi Mail and real email. And we're even more extremely (maybe three) hesitant to hand the ability to mass email to anyone. We might be overly conservative here, but we don't want to open the door to any kind of abuse whatsoever.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:20 PM on July 21, 2010


D'oh, I did miss the attendance list. You could probably just include "Photos" underneath there if you were going to add to it.

I haven't a chance to test it on my old 3G iPhone, but I'd suspect it would take a lot longer to render that page for folks on older phones with the map included. Being able to just click on a link labeled "Map" if one needed to view the map may help (also on the iPhone it would launch the separate Map application, allowing for one to get directions, instead of currently having to select the little blue dot on the map, and then hit 'get directions'). I realize it would really only be a problem for IRL events which didn't include a separate link to the google maps page in the post body itself, and could be more trouble than it's worth depending on who uses the site while enroute.

Also: Challenge of Mondor.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:34 PM on July 21, 2010


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