MetaTalk

Is blogger dead?
posted by capt.crackpipe to General Weblog-Related at 6:45 PM PST - 3 comments

I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but when I'm coasting through MeFi, the number of new comments is no longer accurate. In fact, if there are 50 comments on a topic, I'm told that there are 50 new, everytime I come back to the Home page, no matter if I refresh or use my back button, no matter how many times I've read through or even posted comments to a thread. I haven't changed any of my settings and this is on three different computers (all PCs, all using IE 5.0) so I don't think it's a cookie problem, or is it?
posted by Dreama to Bugs at 8:37 AM PST - 6 comments

How about putting that nifty new "sort by comments" feature onto that nifty new sidebar feature?
posted by lagado to Feature Requests at 4:40 PM PST - 1 comment

A suggestion for the site: Visual help in spotting the most popular threads on MetaFilter.
posted by rcade to Feature Requests at 11:57 AM PST - 7 comments

From metafilter "sideblog" under Tuesday:

(all a-listers with birthdays will be mentioned here)

What is this about? There's nowhere to put my birthday when I click on "customize" so I can't help but conclude this is a service only tailored to an elite cadre of metafilter users. But what should I expect ... I've never been on an "a-list" in my life.
posted by croutonsupafreak to Etiquette/Policy at 6:05 AM PST - 29 comments

Password problems: When I hopped over to MeFi today, I found I wasn't automatically logged in any more. I don't know if that's a MeFi problem itself, as I've had all sorts of weirdness with IE lately on my end. I logged in, no problem. But then when I tried to post a response in a MetaTalk thread, my password wasn't automatically filled in like it usually is. I didn't even notice until I hit "post," at which time I got a yummy ColdFusion error.
posted by aaron to Bugs at 2:14 PM PST - 1 comment

Dunno if this is a bug or what, but: I wanted to set my preferences in MetaTalk (to make my font size smaller). This happened to be while I was putting something in the posting form field. At the bottom there was what I thought was the usual menu bar:

but when I clicked on "Customize" I got a 404. Then when I went to report this I discovered that that menu bar *only* appears for me when I've already clicked "preview" on comments I'm making. Is the page with the menu bar a remnant layout that's been removed elsewhere?

posted by rodii to Bugs at 7:35 AM PST - 1 comment

IRL, if you're not interested in a conversation happening between two people, you don't particiapte. Why does this stuff happen so much. It seems to me, if you don't like a thread, don't click the link, don't comment on it. It seems like it should be a simple thing to do.
posted by TuxHeDoh to Etiquette/Policy at 5:42 AM PST - 18 comments

I need help with napster, what does it mean when i am missing a WININET.DLL file??
ANy Help would be greatly appreciated. Cassie.
posted by Angel_22 to MetaFilter-Related at 9:10 PM PST - 4 comments

So I was checking out Eric Meyer's CSS book (the best of any CSS book I've read) this morning, and played around with some CSS I'd never used before. In just a matter of minutes, I had the cool CSS-only bar (there's not a lick of javascript being used for display or collapse, it's all CSS and server side logic) with the show/hide option working (I just add display:none; to the stylesheet if you collapse it).

I've been looking for a way to add more information, and keep people up to date on news and metatalk stuff, without overly complicating the interface. I added cookies to the position you prefer it in, and I currently only show it for IE 5+ on windows, IE 5+ on the mac, and Netscape 6+ on all platforms. You won't see anything in Opera or Netscape 4.x because they didn't seem to want to play right.

If you have any problems with it, let me know, especially if you're using a browser that's screwing things up.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 5:19 PM PST - 42 comments

Boy, I hate to gripe, but using Opera 3.6, *blush* I can't post comments using the new prevent-double-post-code. It always previews, I'm guessing it's coz both the preview and post buttons have the name 'post.'
posted by sonofsamiam to Bugs at 11:30 AM PST - 4 comments

enough with the smug MEFI reverse posting, already! We're all very proud that you're such a dedicated metafilter reader, but so what if someone starts a new thread about an old topic, especially if the thrust of the post is different?!

posted by crunchland at such-and-such a time on January 27

Well there seems to be a problem with to much noise around here and with the new sort feature (upper right hand corner of the home page) there really is little need to post a new topic.

Yes, this should be in MetaTalk but no one ever goes there.

posted by Mick at 5:57 AM PST on January 27


The topic is not old. The specific link came up like a week ago. Most all that was said was said about 'IT', maybe wait until something new comes out? If that jaguar/baylink post was inappropriate, this certainly is too.

posted by tiaka at 7:43 AM PST on January 27


crunchland wrote: enough with the smug MEFI reverse posting, already! We're all very proud that you're such a dedicated metafilter reader, but so what if someone starts a new thread about an old topic, especially if the thrust of the post is different?!

You could not be more wrong on this, crunch. It is everybody's responsibility to do a MeFi search for a link before posting it to the front page. This is a "self-policing" community, in case you did not know that, and the people (like myself) who point out when people make mistakes like redundant posts to the front page are merely doing their duty as MeFi citizens, not being smug or trying to impress anyone with how carefully they read this site. This message needs to go out to everybody, but Mick is right that the conversation would be better held in metaTalk.

posted by ericost at 8:07 AM PST on January 27

posted by crunchland to MetaFilter-Related at 9:49 AM PST - 19 comments

I added a simple addition to user profiles, for a blurb about ourselves, and I hope everyone uses it. I threw together a question about usernames and getting started on the internet.

I find usernames (especially unusual ones) often have an odd story behind them, and people's first experiences with the internet are sometimes funny, sometimes interesting.

I spilled my guts, now you go spill yours.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 3:47 AM PST - 44 comments

I'm getting the following ColdFusion error whenever I attempt to
open any topic page in MetaTalk (this is only when using AOL Mac 5.0's crappy internal pseudo-IE browser; big ugly error message hidden inside):
posted by aaron to Bugs at 12:38 PM PST - 3 comments

Thanks to SQL whiz Eric, there is now a feature to grab the most recent comments, on 20 threads, sorted by the most recent comments. This will allow things to "bubble up" again when someone comments on an old thread. I think it's a useful, good feature, but could be abused later on, but for now it's better than nothing. It's available for both members and non-members, if you find any bugs, let me know here. It requires javascript to work.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 5:13 PM PST - 25 comments

Take a look at Drudge, then take a look at MeFi. Way too many similar links.

Perhaps MeFi could have a separate board for "news and politics" with a setting that posts with 15 or more comments jumps to the main page?

Basically there are just too many Drudge-cribbed news links on the front page.

Ideas?
posted by cell divide to Etiquette/Policy at 2:32 PM PST - 20 comments

Posting a new link to intentionally extend an existing day-old thread is inappopriate.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 9:41 AM PST - 73 comments

Would anyone be interested in having a new MetaTalk topic where we could ask advice and opinions of each other? I am interested in buying a digital camera. This one in fact. I know many of you have digital cameras, maybe even the one I want. I would be curious to know what you think. We have tech people here who could advise people about fixing their machines, etc. What do you think?
posted by thirteen to Feature Requests at 8:27 AM PST - 10 comments

There have been 13 links and 200 comments posted since your last visit

I read this to myself and the first thought to cross my mind was 'holy shit'. You have created a monster Matt. This site is filtering information faster than one human alone can process. The Horror!


posted by Jeremy to MetaFilter-Related at 9:54 AM PST - 15 comments

yikes, Matt. what do you mean MetaFilter's filling up (note on the front page at the top right)?
posted by Sean Meade to MetaFilter-Related at 1:51 PM PST - 18 comments

Stephen Den Beste's next comment will be his 1000th. Congrats, although Matt is still kicking all asses in terms of thread postings.
posted by norm to MetaFilter-Related at 8:41 AM PST - 30 comments

Welcome to the Internet, an international medium. Posts like this one have the unfortunate effect of positioning "American" as the invisible center or unstated norm against which all others are judged. This doesn't foster a community inclusive of those who aren't from the United States and reflects a narrower view of the world than most of us would like to cultivate. I'm trying to get in the habit of always referring to the U.S. specifically rather than with a personal pronoun. Won't you join me?
posted by sudama to MetaFilter-Related at 5:08 PM PST - 14 comments

I might just be, you know, a little slow, but more than once in recent days I have been cruising the MeFi front page and gotten lost, and had to scroll up (and up and up) to find the date header... perhaps it will soon be time to consider putting dates along with the times in the "posted by" footer on the front page.
posted by Sapphireblue to Feature Requests at 11:49 AM PST - 12 comments

I changed the posting pages to use a new javascript fix, to prevent double posts. If it doesn't let you post comments or new threads, let me know here. I tested it on IE 5.01, NN 4.75, and NN 6.0 on win2k, and it worked fine.
posted by mathowie to Bugs at 8:25 PM PST - 22 comments

I was just curious as to why the link about a diarist's suicide has dissapeared from the site. Did it upset too many people, or just not count as news? I went to see if any new comments had been posted and it was gone. Just wondering.
posted by crushed to MetaFilter-Related at 11:54 AM PST - 30 comments

They're fluoridating our water and embedding sound files in our pages!!!

First of all, it's fucking hilarious. Let's get that out of the way right now. And it's perfect for a "light" thread like this. I don't know the exact technical mumbo-jumbo that got it in there or who put it there (was that you, Matt?), but rock the house.

But. I didn't think it was possible to do such trickery on MeFi. If it was Matt's doing, then there's no real problem. However, could any user do this? Say, if there was a thread ragging on Dubya (Here? On this page? Heaven forbid!), could someone embed a sound file of W mangling English? Is it possible for some really CLEVER guy to embed that JPG with W. side by side with chimpanzees? (Because I need to see it AGAIN, because I certainly haven't gotten it through email about five billion times!)^*

Just curious.

^* You see, George W. Bush has been pillored in the media because he is supposedly not intelligent! Therefore, comparing him with a chimpanzee is quite humorous, especially when they happen to have similar facial expressions! Get it? Get it? GET IT?!?!?
posted by solistrato to Etiquette/Policy at 7:46 PM PST - 9 comments

For the last few days, every MeFi page I load is missing one piece:

And every 30 seconds or so, the browser tries to reload it, but it never succeeds. This in MSIE5.5b1/Mac.
posted by aaron to Bugs at 10:38 PM PST - 3 comments

I don't feel like putting this on the MeFi front, it's just way too much navelgazing, even for my celebrity-addled sensitivites.

Checka-checka, Ironminds, the best “webzine” (I mean that in a good way) produced by unpaid contributors, linked to a MetaFilter discussion about a story they posted invoking Kurt Cobain. Their point in linking to MeFi, was to predict a Plastic backlash.

Ah, jeezuz, I'm caught in a loop.
posted by capt.crackpipe to MetaFilter-Related at 8:07 PM PST - 3 comments

Etiquette/Opinions/View of the poster.

Since this post discusses all of the above, I don't know any other way to begin, or to jump in, but here goes - I, as a somewhat conservative person, one of maybe 2 here on mefi, have tried to be reasonably patient. The reasoning behind it was something like 'well, this is just a joke, if I ignore, I won't bite the trap as to trolls do this on ngs and I have long since learned to killfire', and at times felt that; and since I'm mostly disagreed with, I feel that the very thought of me 'calling foul' would be met with great hostility. Maybe I was right.

Example. The topic of this post is an opinion of the poster, and he does in fact semi-self link. There's nothing wrong with offering your opinion, in fact it's great. I guess, let me put it this way - what if, say I, were to post a link saying 'Democrats really do think with their dick' and would link it to the Jesse Jackson story + a post on FreeRepublic with me saying this (I don't even want to go near the FreeRepublic, mind you). Not to whine, but, I really want you to see my side of this. There are many other examples, and I'll continue inside. (as to not take up the entire page)
posted by tiaka to Etiquette/Policy at 4:03 PM PST - 30 comments

I'm curious about the etiquette issues involved in today's thread about teen sex. Aside from the issue of the tastelessness of this joke, what is the relative appropriateness of the suggestion that someone should commit violence upon the joker? Is a call for a beatdown an appropriate response to bad taste?

posted by redfoxtail to Etiquette/Policy at 6:33 PM PST - 26 comments

Would it be possible to create a member list with URLs of the various MeFi junkies out there? I realize one can just click on the names, but I would love a way to just scroll through a list.
posted by norm to Feature Requests at 8:17 AM PST - 29 comments

I can't seem to post a reply on MetaFilter this morning. Every time I hit Post it treats me like I hit Preview ...
posted by rcade to Bugs at 3:29 AM PST - 23 comments

About a billion years too late, I finally thought to add < Back and Next > links to threads, so you don't have to go back to the main page of metafilter to see the next thread.

I tested it in IE 5.01 and NN 6, but didn't in NN 4.7x (my copy seems to be toast since I installed NN 6). If anyone sees any problems, post a screenshot or description of what you're seeing wrong.
posted by mathowie to Feature Requests at 1:52 AM PST - 17 comments

I don't want to go so far as to say this is a real bug yet, but ... is anyone else noticing discrepancies between the "number of new responses" listed at the top of the front page, and the number of new comments that are actually showing up on each link? I've been having intermittent discrepencies for a while, and tonight's one of them. MeFi says 113 responses, but I can only count 102. And I have the front page set to give me the last two weeks worth of links.

So either there's a really-old-yet-really-popular thread back in the archives somewhere, or the count's getting wonky. Any ideas?
posted by aaron to Bugs at 9:24 PM PST - 2 comments

There has been 1 link and 16 comments posted since your last visit
17 MetaFilter members currently online

Neat! What exactly does the "currently online" tracker track? (Uhhh, this is new, right? I'm not confused?)
posted by snarkout to Feature Requests at 8:44 PM PST - 13 comments

Speaking of MeFi's growth, I spy upon logging in tonight that there are 2,997 members. Will there be some sort of swank party to celebrate the joining of #3,000 or will the lucky so-and-so just get a year's supply of Turtle Wax and a copy of "MetaFilter: The Home(page) Game"?
posted by bradlands to MetaFilter-Related at 10:53 PM PST - 4 comments

This isn't a feature request per se, but I'm wondering if there are any guidelines about what HTML is OK in posts. I was experimenting tonight, trying to get a quote to format correctly as a block, and nothing worked. It seemed like using any block tag (yes, closed correctly) just totally trashed the formatting of the rest of the comment. No biggie, and I didn't want to mess things up for following posters, so I refrained. But. . . are there any general rules? (besides "just say no"?) And are entities OK or do they get munged somehow? (using IE5/Mac, btw)
posted by rodii to Feature Requests at 4:37 PM PST - 11 comments

I wanted to see how Metafilter has grown since its launch, so I crawled the archives for thread/comment totals for every day since July 1999. Then, I wrote a script to plot all the data in line graphs and tables. Click on the links to drill down.

It's interesting to see how quickly the commenting community have grown. At this rate, Matt will have to build thread-within-thread support to handle the sheer number of comments.
posted by waxpancake to MetaFilter-Related at 12:18 PM PST - 16 comments

A Rape In Cyberspace. Posted for the attention of our glorious facilitator and factotum, but also for people who've seen MeFi grow over these past months. I've been on LambdaMOO since 1994; I missed the "Bungle Affair", but am good friends with one of the victims; I've seen the throes of an online community struggle to regulate itself and its growth. Not that I'm suggesting the same approach, but it's good deep background.
posted by holgate to MetaFilter-Related at 3:03 PM PST - 16 comments

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I know there will be detractors, but I'm going to ban this Ed V... guy soon. I built this place, and it wasn't for trolls like this. My reasons are as follows.

He's mucking up the place. It's as if you were talking to people at a party and some guy barges in on the conversation, saying outlandish things just to get a rise out of people.

It's got nothing to do with his positions, it's that everything that comes out sounds like trolling bait for other people to argue with. I've seen it on countless numbers of online forums. The last place I remember seeing it was Slate's boards (called, "the fray" heh). It seems there was a small pack of very conservative posters that would tromp on any thread that mentioned abortion. Every response from them was pure trolling, and usually done in all caps. Every one of their posts would be followed by 5x as many posts refuting everything they had said, but then they'd follow up with more trolling. It rendered any sensible discussion meaningless, which is what I think was the inteneded purpose.

So that Ed guy is gone very soon, and I don't feel bad about doing it.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 2:38 PM PST - 12 comments

Matt, either you are the fastest web gun in the west or someones helping you out. In the last 20 minutes you've removed an advertisers link from the front page and fixed more than one bad link. You be fast! Stealth Like ninja, with a silent blade.
posted by Jeremy to MetaFilter-Related at 12:09 PM PST - 1 comment

http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/5157

I ended up getting some slack on my comment toward Noah Grey for his self-linking within the referred mefi thread. I apologize if I stepped out of bounds in calling Noah on his self-linking. mathowie, I think you do need to make guidelines in self-linking (as well as members policing metafilter) a bit more clear. I had previously thought that self-linking is a offense all around while I guess it was just limited to the main page logging.

Again, apologies.
posted by rlef98 to Etiquette/Policy at 8:22 AM PST - 1 comment

Here's an easy win: dates on search results.
posted by jjg to Feature Requests at 12:36 AM PST - 2 comments

Would MetaFilter be improved by moving political discussions to their own community separate from the main page? I love politics, but I think these kinds of links breed like rabbits, and I sometimes wonder if I am contributing to the Free Republicazation of this site.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 2:12 PM PST - 45 comments

Wow. You got rid of that self-promotion quick fast.
posted by capt.crackpipe to Etiquette/Policy at 9:50 PM PST - 3 comments

I want to apologize for any part I had in prompting the explicitly racist comments some have posted in this thread and others, if there were any. I'm beginning to wonder whether I should continue advancing my perspective in light of reactions like this. I don't want to encourage those kinds of posts.
posted by sudama to Etiquette/Policy at 5:25 PM PST - 8 comments

Hey is it just me or has MeFi been especially good lately? Lots of comments, lots of links, lots of love... or maybe I'm just drunk...
posted by chaz to MetaFilter-Related at 7:50 PM PST - 4 comments

I could have sworn that when I first created an account on MeFi there was an option on the Customize MetaFilter page that allowed you to get this funky bar on the front page with links to some weblogs. Whatever happened to it?
posted by pnevares to MetaFilter-Related at 3:27 PM PST - 2 comments

I'd just like to take a moment and state my happiness that the United States presidential election is over and we can get back to the important business of discussing movie remakes and animal love.

Thank the gods.
posted by mrmorgan to MetaFilter-Related at 6:17 AM PST - 1 comment

Use IRC? Come join the #metafilter channel on Efnet, to chat with your fellow Metafolks. You'll need an IRC client, if you don't already have one.
posted by waxpancake to MetaFilter-Related at 3:04 PM PST - 14 comments