Wow, a Whole Week? August 22, 2016 9:06 PM   Subscribe

Over eight years ago, I asked a question about the relative frequency of MetaTalk threads over a stated period. I was just wondering if there has been any further observed data on lengthy gaps between sequential threads in that particular forum.
posted by yhbc to MetaFilter-Related at 9:06 PM (82 comments total)

Oh thank god Metatalk is actually working. I was starting to wonder whether the page was stuck in some ISP cache and the date was updating via AJAX or something.
posted by Mitheral at 9:09 PM on August 22, 2016 [11 favorites]


The Metatalk data dump cortex linked in your original thread still works and is updated to the present... so someone who is not me may be able to wring out some good answers on longest interval etc.

Also it's the end of summer and lots of people are on vacation, so I imagine that's part of why it's been a quiet week.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:09 PM on August 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Or I should say, for the northern hemisphere people it's the end of summer.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:10 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


Plus, you know, we've all been watching the Olympics.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:25 PM on August 22, 2016 [5 favorites]


I am pleased to award jacquilynne my coveted 1,000th favorite for that comment, since obviously that is the correct answer.
posted by yhbc at 9:28 PM on August 22, 2016


And, the queue makes it harder to know if it's just nobody posting or if it's a "mods are flooded" decision.
posted by freethefeet at 9:28 PM on August 22, 2016


Aww, thanks!

/me pets her new favourite.

I shall hug him and squeeze him and call him George.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:31 PM on August 22, 2016 [18 favorites]


Or I should say, for the northern hemisphere people it's the end of summer.

Good save, or we would have been asking for a new meta about the mods being hemisphereist.
posted by zachlipton at 10:11 PM on August 22, 2016 [5 favorites]


Hey LM actually did the right thing let's not snark. For those of us in the south it's actually kind of nice to be remembered
posted by langtonsant at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2016 [9 favorites]


The situation has changed. Used to be any member could post to MeTa whenever they wanted. But for the last several months, the moderation queue has been enabled, which means you can try to most a MeTa but it will only appear if a mod approves it, whenever they decide to do so.

So comparing the current occurrence pattern of posts to MeTa to what it used to be is meaningless.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:34 PM on August 22, 2016


In case anyone's curious, as it happens, there were no other MeTas submitted to the queue between the previous most-recently-posted one (Aug 15) and now.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:37 PM on August 22, 2016 [5 favorites]


The plot thickens.
posted by rhizome at 11:37 PM on August 22, 2016


oh my god you ruined it
posted by the agents of KAOS at 12:07 AM on August 23, 2016 [11 favorites]


Ask not what the metatalk can do for you, but what you can do for the metatalk.

Which you kinda just did by adding to the cohort of metatalk threads about the relative frequency of metatalk threads which all gets a bit meta meta meta and makes my head spin.
posted by Thella at 1:22 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


there were no other MeTas submitted to the queue

I almost posted one but it was all about "Hey let's get ReadMe up to date!" but I am going on vacation and it seemed impolite to post-and-fly so I'm saving it til September.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 4:39 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


this is dumb: it was a pointless question; the replies are chat. delete this sucker and keep that nice clean gap.
posted by andrewcooke at 6:00 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Well i have this idea for a post about a Israeli trans Olympian with Aspergers who took a strong position on police violence and feminism in other countries. Would this be a good time to share it? Given that MeTa has been so quiet.... ?
posted by softlord at 6:00 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Missing a declawed cat.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:08 AM on August 23, 2016 [5 favorites]


it's the end of summer

I know it's true, but hearing it just said like that is super harsh. Technically it's not until Sept 22nd (for notherners). (Maybe we could hold off on talking about it until then?)
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:29 AM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


I know it's true, but hearing it just said like that is super harsh.

It's not a pet peeve, exactly, but I always find it striking when I see someone (or catch myself) using hearing/speaking language to refer to written content.

But how weird would it be if you'd said "I know it's true but seeing it just written like that is super harsh."?

The weirdest, though, is when someone texts me something kinda sad and I want to write "sorry to hear that" then I change it to "sorry to see that" and NEITHER WORKS.

'k, sorry, back on topic -

So comparing the current occurrence pattern of posts to MeTa to what it used to be is meaningless.

"Meaningless" seems a bit much - I can see it affecting outliers, but the only way I could imagine the comparison being entirely meaningless is if you assume the mod queue routinely blocks all posts from coming through (which seems very unlikely), or routinely maintains a backlog that apportions posts on a regular basis (which seems pretty clearly not to be the case).
posted by solotoro at 9:14 AM on August 23, 2016


It's true, I'm not actually hearing anyone speak; that usage is more metaphoric. (I lean on the concept of sound and hearing a lot here, in general. I think most of my responses in Ask include the phrases "sounds like", "I hear you", etc. Sort of a sound-focused person IRL. Thinking of it, I suspect I use it also because it's a characterization of the exchange that emphasizes both immediacy and intimacy. But, you're right.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:24 AM on August 23, 2016


Hello from the Naples Public Library, in Naples, Maine, where I am currently chilling out and charging up my laptop and phone while on a camping not-vacation with some family and friends.

On the subject of theories about MetaTalk quietness, I was laying out some thoughts there in a side-discussion last month, here; the short version is that there's probably multiple factors involved in a net change over the years in business, which does not come down solely to the existence of the queue. But it's an interesting thing to try and figure out the discrete factors of.

Back to the woods!
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:39 AM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's not a pet peeve, exactly, but I always find it striking when I see someone (or catch myself) using hearing/speaking language to refer to written content.

But I do hear written content?

Maybe we process the written word differently.
posted by Shmuel510 at 9:50 AM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


Using hearing language about the written word is totally fine. People refer to tone, for one, and you can quite correctly quote something someone wrote by saying they said/say/says something. As pet peeves go it's a long way to travel.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 9:56 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


That's it, folks! We've fixed MetaFilter. We can go ahead and close down MetaTalk.
posted by charred husk at 10:22 AM on August 23, 2016 [6 favorites]


What the hell is a not-vacation? I need to figure that out so I know what to avoid.

Anyway, my theory on MeTa's decreasing hell-churn goes like this:
1. Metafilter starts as a smaller website where each user feels like a relatively large and important part of the whole. This leads to the site being driven by large personalities.
2. The site gradually becomes larger. Newer members feel more "junior" and also feel themselves to be a smaller part of the whole. At the same time, a majority of the site's "personalities" remain and at times dominate the site tone.
3. As the site's moderation culture seems to shift from an anything-goes to more "don't be an asshole"(I regard this as a good thing) many of these personalities either button or are banned. Others are burned off by long-term personal strife or just natural attrition.
4. The remaining members are either long-timers with the temperament to survive for this long or newer members who don't feel like they own the place. Thus we enter our current Aquarian Age.

Completely 100% anecdotal, of course.
posted by selfnoise at 10:22 AM on August 23, 2016


What the hell is a not-vacation?

It's where you go to the woods for nine days but there's cell reception and everybody else on the team is doing summer stuff too and so you don't just shout "later, suckers!" and disappear completely. All in all it's a pretty solid compromise. I have had a lot of beer and grilled steak and swam in a lake.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:32 AM on August 23, 2016 [11 favorites]


I hope you waited an hour between eating the steak and swimming in the lake, young man!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:42 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's the old steak-n-lake.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:44 AM on August 23, 2016 [23 favorites]


That does sound pretty good. BTW if you need to go slightly too fast in a car, may I recommend Route 35 to Harrison. Not that I've ever done that I ASSURE you.

Also I have been eating just before getting into Sebago Lake for over a decade now and I have never once died!
posted by selfnoise at 10:49 AM on August 23, 2016


Hello from the Naples Public Library, in Naples, Maine, where I am currently chilling out and charging up my laptop and phone while on a camping not-vacation with some family and friends.

Oh weird I'm pretty sure I've been to that library to check my email when I was working as a camp counselor in Maine! Bonkers! What a small world!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:58 AM on August 23, 2016


> Metafilter starts as a smaller website where each user feels like a relatively large and important part of the whole. This leads to the site being driven by large personalities.

Come back, Migs, all is forgiven!

> I have had a lot of beer and grilled steak and swam

I first read that as "...and swan," and couldn't tell whether my reaction was "How could you eat swan, you bastard?!" or "I'm pretty sure grilling isn't the right way to cook swan."
posted by languagehat at 11:19 AM on August 23, 2016 [12 favorites]


I first read that as "...and swan," and couldn't tell whether my reaction was "How could you eat swan, you bastard?!" or "I'm pretty sure grilling isn't the right way to cook swan."

Why don't we eat swans anymore?
posted by zarq at 1:01 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


Swanducken
posted by Kabanos at 2:14 PM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'd figure Miguel as a Schwinn man.
posted by clavdivs at 4:04 PM on August 23, 2016


I think we're all just taking our aggressions out in the Trump thread.
posted by maryr at 4:30 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


I did some quick plotting, you can see it here.

It looks like there's a general trend in lower metatalk volume, corresponding to higher metatalk gaps. No obvious monthly differences.
posted by demiurge at 4:30 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


Schwinnducken
posted by Joseph Gurl at 4:36 PM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


We're all losing our ability to speak outside of election threads.
posted by corb at 4:51 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


Personally I think not enough people appreciate coleslaw as a stand-alone menu item anymore and it's disgusting that it has been reduced to the classification of 'side' and furthermore I will fight you about this.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 5:11 PM on August 23, 2016 [5 favorites]


slawdogs
posted by clavdivs at 5:45 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


why would you go to the woods, there's no election thread there
posted by sallybrown at 7:59 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


I must find a way to eat swans, if for no other reason than they are assholes. Now I have some cultural context and recipe / flavor direction.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:49 PM on August 23, 2016


The swan article surprises me. I know a Fellow of St John's College, and he reckoned it bloody awful.
posted by pompomtom at 12:03 AM on August 24, 2016


Even based solely on the mod deletions, I'd say some aggression is coming out in the last Gawker thread as well.
posted by gadge emeritus at 12:29 AM on August 24, 2016


Hey LM actually did the right thing let's not snark. For those of us in the south it's actually kind of nice to be remembered

God yes. And reminded of the correct season. I (sitting in Australia) actually looked out the window at the pouring rain and thought, "End of summer? It almost feels like we haven't had one yet." And then I realised that's because we haven't.
posted by lollusc at 12:31 AM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


How often, mods, do metatalk post submissions get rejected instead of posted?
posted by aubilenon at 1:23 AM on August 24, 2016


We're all losing our ability to speak outside of election threads.
Please don't generalise. Some of us don't really care that much about your elections.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:34 AM on August 24, 2016


"I'm pretty sure grilling isn't the right way to cook swan."

Sure you can, just squeeze one of those 5L mini kegs in the butt and go to town.

Somebody told me it was a $500 fine to kill a swan in NY, and the first thing I thought was that, since Veblen goods are gonna Veblen, I should start selling swan meat in the Hamptons for $100/pound.
posted by peeedro at 1:51 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


You ate swan? Wait 'til the Queen hears about this...
posted by marienbad at 6:11 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


That is, uh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdon, just to be clear.
posted by marienbad at 6:12 AM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm sure Beyoncé would have an issue with it as well.
posted by Etrigan at 7:03 AM on August 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


why would you go to the woods, there's no election thread there

"I went to the woods because I wished to mod deliberately, to front-post only the essential links of the web, and see if I could not learn what they had to teach, and not, when I came to flame out, discover that I had not posted."
posted by Songdog at 8:26 AM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Used to be any member could post to MeTa whenever they wanted.

Used to be herds of MetaTalks roamed here. They sounded like thunder rumbling in the distance. Then the ground would shake and the astonished newbs would shudder at the cries of "Hope Me!" and "What. The. Fuck. Matt." Now it's all monetized eye-rolls and organic processed cheese food and ingrown swimming pools.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:30 AM on August 24, 2016 [8 favorites]


People texting while posting are getting into accidents.
posted by y2karl at 8:41 AM on August 24, 2016


why would you go to the woods, there's no election thread there

Two roads diverged in a yelling world
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:42 AM on August 24, 2016 [12 favorites]


C'mon people, do you want to talk seriously about MetaTalk post frequency analysis or do you want to talk about nonsense for the whole thread?
posted by demiurge at 9:44 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


I did some quick plotting, you can see it here.

I was 100% percent expecting this.
posted by maryr at 10:11 AM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


do you want to talk seriously about MetaTalk post frequency analysis or do you want to talk about nonsense for the whole thread?

Do you want New Wave or do you want the truth?

(A: New Wave.)
posted by octobersurprise at 10:20 AM on August 24, 2016


C'mon people, do you want to talk seriously about MetaTalk post frequency analysis or do you want to talk about nonsense for the whole thread?

A high percentage of MetaTalk posts do devolve into nonsense after a while.
posted by zarq at 10:29 AM on August 24, 2016


We can't handle the truth, but we do want cortex on that mod wall.
posted by AugustWest at 10:31 AM on August 24, 2016


I'm sure Beyoncé would have an issue with it as well.

ok you need to watch your back, because you've just been added to Aretha's shit list
posted by sallybrown at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]



A high percentage of MetaTalk posts do devolve into nonsense after a while.


yes but can we establish a METRIC
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:36 AM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


Mean
Eccentricity
Time
Regarding
Internet
Comments
posted by Copronymus at 10:42 AM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


Two roads diverged in a yelling world

We can't handle the truth, but we do want cortex on that mod wall.

The Modding Wall
(characterizations badly mangled to fit into the poem)

Something there is that doesn't love a mod,
That sends the overwrought missive under it,
And spills the verbal garbage in the sun;
And makes posts even twelve can flag aghast.
The work of spammers is another thing:
I have come after them and made deletions
Where they have left not one site unsewn,
But they would sell the Viagra out of China,
To please the flaccid mens. The posts I mean,
Everyone has seen them made or heard them made,
But at holiday weekends-time we find them there.
I let cortex know beyond the screen;
And on a day we meet to make deletions
And set the blue between us once again.
We keep the green between us as we go.
To each the comments that have caught the eye to each.
And some are noise and some so nearly rants
We have to use a spell to make them balanced:
"Go take a walk until our backs are turned!"
We wear our keyboards rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of online game,
One on a site. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need to confer:
He is all puns and I am deletion reasons.
My explanations will never get across
And ruin his puns, I tell him.
He only says, "Good comments make good content."
Banning racists is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good content? Isn't it
Where there are trolls? But here there are no trolls.
Before I kill a post I'd ask to know
What I was editing in or editing out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a mod,
That wants a MeTa." I could say "Sock puppets" to him,
But it's not joke accounts exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Calming a thread shit firmly by the first
commenter, like an old-school matthowie armed.
He moves in timestamps as it seems to me,
Not of hours only and the pacific time zone.
He will not go behind his madeup saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good comments make good content."
posted by maryr at 11:08 AM on August 24, 2016 [12 favorites]


I'm getting a lot of science done today.
posted by maryr at 11:19 AM on August 24, 2016 [9 favorites]


yes but can we establish a METRIC

The chances that any meta will devolve into silly nonsense approach 100% the longer the thread gets.
posted by zarq at 12:24 PM on August 24, 2016


With enough time and effort, we could probably come up with The Laws of MetaTalk.
posted by zarq at 12:27 PM on August 24, 2016


Personally I think not enough people appreciate coleslaw as a stand-alone menu item anymore and it's disgusting that it has been reduced to the classification of 'side' and furthermore I will fight you about this.

That's because like a lot of awesome food (especially veg), it is prepared so badly so often that you start to think that's the way all of that particular awesome food has always been and will always be.

I had no idea coleslaw was good until I had really good slaw. Which later led me to realize, when I found it by default on a certain pastrami on rye, that I had been missing out something fierce for years.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:34 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


ingrown swimming pools

There's been a lot of admirable phrases in this thread, but I need to call special attention to this one.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 1:23 PM on August 24, 2016 [8 favorites]


One day, I was having a total shit day. And Cortex memailed me and said, "Hey, we're having a longboat thread over here, come and join in!"

And it was the best time of my life. He is wicked cool, and he helped me out when I was in trouble, so if he ever needs anything from me, I will literally give him the shirt off of my back. Because he's my Brother, and he ain't heavy.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:16 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


I wish to unsubscribe from your newsletters.
posted by y2karl at 7:50 AM on August 25, 2016


But you'll miss out on the handy coupons and Friday nite dunk tank.
posted by clavdivs at 11:23 AM on August 25, 2016


Hey does everyone else get 403 Forbidden for

http://projects.metafilter.com/

or is it just my laptop and my phone (but not google translate)?

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

posted by sebastienbailard at 10:15 PM on August 25, 2016


Fine for me on mobile.
posted by maryr at 6:03 AM on August 26, 2016


Not sure why you're seeing that, sebastienbailard, but we haven't gotten any other reports so it does sound like some sort of local oddity.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:06 AM on August 26, 2016


Whether to steak 'n lake or wake and bake, that is the question.
posted by y2karl at 2:10 PM on August 26, 2016


In Korea, oddly, projects often comes up as banned by the government censors. Not a 403 error, but still something I find weird.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:20 AM on August 27, 2016


Great. Karl is atop the RV and this radiator hose is shot.
posted by clavdivs at 11:57 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'd be inside were it not infested with fruit flies.
posted by y2karl at 3:19 PM on August 27, 2016


There is no time for the mango.
posted by clavdivs at 5:49 PM on August 27, 2016


I'm in Korea and that page resolves just fine for me.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:53 PM on August 27, 2016


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