October 2004 Archives (all archives)
October 31
What are you dressed as for halloween?
What are you dressed as for halloween?
RSS Feeds for MeTa and AskMe
I've just started playing around with NetNewsWire Lite, and was wondering... are there RSS feeds for MetaTalk and AskMe?
I've been searching, but maybe I've been looking in the wrong place...
Thanks.
I've been searching, but maybe I've been looking in the wrong place...
Thanks.
If you could dress up as anyone in history for Halloween, who would it be?
For Halloween, if you could dress up as anyone in history, who would it be?
October 30
New server gratitude thread
New server gratitude thread
October 29
Moving metafilter to new server
Moving on up... If all goes well, I'll start moving everything over to our new servers later today. When that happens, I'll be shutting the site off during the move (to conserve bandwidth for moving actual files). Just a heads up that the site may be down between now and say, Monday at the latest.
October 28
nice followup
A new Slate article is a nice followup to a previous MeTa discussion. It deals so directly with the substance of mine and amberglow's conversation (and others, of course), that it's a little disconcerting. I remain skeptical of the "media lifts story ideas from MeFi", but you have to wonder.
October 27
full moon and MeFi craziness
Does anyone else feel that there may be a correlation between Metafilter craziness / testiness and the full moon (not to mention the eclipse)? Do any budding statisticians feel like analysing Metatalk posting frequency against lunar phase? Is Miguel a werewolf?
Seattle Meetup
MeFi MoFi Bloggy Get Down. 7pm, November 6, at the Elysian. Details in self-link. Signups directed to the wiki or my blog entry linked above. I'll add address details here inside.
Unorthodox date behaviour ("October 27" repeated for each new question) on Ask MeFi.
Unorthodox date behaviour ("October 27" repeated for each new question) on Ask MeFi. [gi-normous screenshot inside]
Civility and politics.
Can we please separate political passion from blood lust?
Invalid data contribute
Invalid data contribute,post_comment_preview.cfm for CFSQLTYPE CF_SQL_INTEGER. I'm getting this every time I click on comment preview , therefore I can't post :-(
It appears that the problem may be related to this 2002 one. Full debug text inside
It appears that the problem may be related to this 2002 one. Full debug text inside
Why is this post still up?
The Delta is (probably) declaring bankruptcy thread, which features nothing more than a rumor backed up by a link to Delta's home page, is truly teh suck.
October 26
San Francisco Meetup
MeFiSF: LIVING, BREATHING FEMALES on Armistice Day in San Francisco. At least one of whom wears glasses. No location decided, but probably somewhere on the Castro side of the Mission. We have a special guest from LA, so November 11th it is. Come one, come all, celebrate the end of the election season and, perhaps, the start of bets on whether Rehnquist will survive to cast the deciding vote.
monkeyfilter meetup photos
Ok, I'll admit it, MonkeyFilter is better than MetaFilter because their meetups have two things MetaFilter meetups rarely, if ever, have: actual living, breathing females and Wendell!
Let's argue in threads instead of in MetaTalk
Perhaps it's time to reconsider using MetaTalk to denounce single comments and only slightly contentious single posts. [More inside.]
"I'm glad the silly fucker's dead"??
After rereading the snarky original Michael Kelly editorial. I believe I'm glad the silly fucker's dead.
Sorry for the callout, but unless I missed the subtlety of some kind of joke, I think this crosses the line just a little bit.
What does the dot mean?
What's with the dots? Am I missing a really obvious tradition/in-joke?
Central Ohio/Columbus Meetup
Central Ohio/Columbus Mefites: Anyone up for a Meetup? I've somehow become the organizer so I have the power to change dates and places. The only thing I cannot do is force people to join and show up.
As of right now the next event is set for Tuesday (10/2) night at 8:00, but at no specific venue. While it might be interesting to hang out and watch the election results roll in we might do better to change it to another day. Any ideas?
As of right now the next event is set for Tuesday (10/2) night at 8:00, but at no specific venue. While it might be interesting to hang out and watch the election results roll in we might do better to change it to another day. Any ideas?
Only America Cares About Newsfilter
Pointless Meta callout for YankeeNewsFilter
October 25
Has the new hardware been dropped in?
The site is snappier than it has been in a long time, at least for me. Has the new hardware been dropped in?
Election fatigue.
Election Fatigue. Could we put all the US Election links and discussion in just 1 front page post per day. Tempers are flaring, and the level of discourse is not improving. The moratorium was not successful. Besides, sometimes I want to reference a comment or link, and can't find it in the welter of election postings.
Dragging poster's previous answers in is not cool
"You also tried to fill a zippo with butane, so I'll reserve judgement." Everyone will likely tell me I've got my panties in a wad as that is the common response here at MeTa, but it'd be great if people didn't attempt to discredit the experience and advice of others on AskMe based on unrelated advice threads. Having to worry someone's going to throw your history of questions in your face later as an indication you are stupid or unable to give advice to others on different topics seems a bit shady. I'm not saying this is an established pattern, just that it'd be helpful to keep in mind.
October 24
Seattle Meetup
Thank God It's Over (we hope): post-electionfilter wrap party for Seattle MeFites and blog-worlders is proposed for Saturday evening, November 6, at the Elysian (again). Please offer counter-proposals, including date changes, here. Your event organizers are yours truly and the elusive Danelope, currently headed off to stir up pre-election trouble in an undisclosed location.
I'll post a final determination in this thread on Wednesday of this week and set up tools (evite, prolly, unless someone has a better idea) subsequent to that time.
Let the grey skies lead us to a paradise of beer and wifi!
I'll post a final determination in this thread on Wednesday of this week and set up tools (evite, prolly, unless someone has a better idea) subsequent to that time.
Let the grey skies lead us to a paradise of beer and wifi!
Give Steve_at_Linnwood a timeout or delete his attacks
You are such a cockface.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 1:05 AM PST on October 24
Matt, if you won't give this offensive ^%@&! a timeout, can you at least do your pointless-personal-attack-comment-deletion thing??? Or is this really how you want your site represented to the world? It's disruptive, divisive, and totally uncalled for.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 1:05 AM PST on October 24
Matt, if you won't give this offensive ^%@&! a timeout, can you at least do your pointless-personal-attack-comment-deletion thing??? Or is this really how you want your site represented to the world? It's disruptive, divisive, and totally uncalled for.
October 23
Our own little Ashcroft.
Our own little Ashcroft. Are threats really appropriate in a place meant for discussion?
I would like to donate the domain name weblogs.info
I would like to donate the domain name weblogs.info for some useful purpose. Any suggestions or proposals?
October 22
nice link, stolen material
This comment directs us to brainyencyclopedia.com which presents a thourough, detailed biography of Stanislaw Lem. Of course, it's a copied Wikipedia article.
What happened to "Day Without US Politics"?
October 21
WTFR?
Pa! Come quick! Reklaw's gone plumb crazy!
October 20
I'm genuinely interested as to when Matt thinks he'll have enough money to improve the site.
Let's take stock for a moment. We all know that MeFi is really, really slow, and really unreliable. Recently (for me at least), it's sometimes been unusably slow. I'm genuinely interested as to when Matt thinks he'll have enough money to improve the site. How is the ad revenue going? Are there any plans to charge for new membership?
I want to vote
I just got back from off-line travels and I want to vote in the Pres election contest. However the best I have been able to do it to get a page that tells me "Requested range not satisfiable. Does this mean the Floridicans have got my number?
NJ Meetup
Rescheduled New Jersey MeFi Meet-up proposal [m.i.]:
Is anyone else seeing strange formatting behavior on this thread?
Is anyone else seeing strange formatting behavior on this thread? I'm seeing a white background, right sidebar stuff lining up on the left, and the page text beginning below the sidebar info. It looks like the stylesheet isn't being applied for some reason. (Firefox, Mozilla and IE)
October 19
Sidebar years need to be updated.
Please add 4 and 5 to the "MeFi: 1, 2, 3 years ago" in the sidebar.
religion in threads
Matt's comments in BusinessWeek
Oops. We all make mistakes...
What if AnonyAskMe had its own page?
People are concerned about the NSFW nature of AnonyAskMe questions and about the large volume of AnonyAskMe Qs pushing posts off of AskMe more quickly than before. What if AnonyAskMe had it's own page? And what color would it be? Maybe a hot red or hot pink?
US politics moratorium request
Matt, can we have an official "Day Without US Politics"--perhaps this Friday? I am so sick of the tired wrangling about how much of the site is USElectionFilter, and how wonderful all the random "cool web stuff" used to be. It would be really, really nice to have a one-day moratorium on the political stuff, and on the "too much political stuff?" debates.
AskMe is not the proper venue for resolving your petty vendettas.
Mayor Curley takes a perfectly innocuous, neutral question which was getting some interesting responses and turns it into a NYC vs Boston grudge match. AskMe is not the proper venue for resolving your petty vendettas and urban insecurities. That's what the blue is for.
October 18
Closure on askme threads request.
I need closure on the cat saga, Matt.
recordcount element error
MetaFilter spits out the following error, Element RECORDCOUNT is undefined in GET_TYPE. AskMeFi and MeTa work fine.
Bad Bush thread.
Bush is Hitler. Well, I'm glad that's settled.
The post includes scintillating links to the front page of foxnews.com and to a NY Times editorial. The comments include "you never should have been born", "prayer breakfasts take us closer to forced reeducation camps for gays", (this comment met with lots of approval) "you're an idiot" and "Bush is Hitler"(the phrase "a normal Christian guy on a power trip" is a reference to an earlier comment by skallas that Hitler was just a normal Christian guy on a power trip). There’s nothing redeeming here. Will you delete this please, Matt?
The post includes scintillating links to the front page of foxnews.com and to a NY Times editorial. The comments include "you never should have been born", "prayer breakfasts take us closer to forced reeducation camps for gays", (this comment met with lots of approval) "you're an idiot" and "Bush is Hitler"(the phrase "a normal Christian guy on a power trip" is a reference to an earlier comment by skallas that Hitler was just a normal Christian guy on a power trip). There’s nothing redeeming here. Will you delete this please, Matt?
October 17
We're not the pirates you're looking for
The inside track: requests for pirate copies of movies (even films you're too busy to see) are not cool here.
Too much US politics
It's 9PM EST and as I look at the front page I see twenty posts today.
Ten of these are about United States politics and of the remaining ten, another two are somewhat related. I know it's important and all, but c'mon, enoughs enough.
Ten of these are about United States politics and of the remaining ten, another two are somewhat related. I know it's important and all, but c'mon, enoughs enough.
October 16
anonymous askme has no way to follow up
The first question in this anonymous AskMe post made me realize that there is no way for anyone posting anonymously to provide information beyond the initial query.
"Thanks" is not a question
ThanksAskMe: Can we just assume we're all thankful for the bounties of AskMe, without posting there to that effect?
October 15
Can I post a link to a question on Ask to the blue?
Can I post a link to a question on Ask to the blue? It's not my question, so it's not self-linking, but it feels a bit too.... uh, meta.
Calling out a thread moderator
This is the second thread by the same person in as many days in which the poster links to a dopey, middlebrow political site and then self-moderates, taunts anyone who disagrees, and sets up bizarre strawmen like "If you read the domain name as literally as you read your Bible..." What gives?
October 14
Ask Metafilter RSS feed is displaying anonymous questions before they are approved
The Ask Metafilter RSS feed seems to be displaying anonymous questions before they are approved to be displayed on the website itself. (Nobody panic, though; it does not reveal the identity of the person posing the question.)
The new anonymous questions can easily make Ask Metafilter NSFW.
The new anonymous questions can easily make Ask Metafilter NSFW. For example, this question is pretty tame, but I wouldn't want it on my screen for others to read. Is there any solution to this?
October 13
AskMe moves too quickly
I know that the duration of a question's stay on the AskMe front page has been discussed here before, but at the moment there have been 45 (give or take) questions asked today, and only the most recent 25 are displayed. Perhaps the front page should display at least all of a given days questions, even if they are more than 25?
Also, on the AskMe front page, anonymous questions are posted by anonymous, and on the archive pages they're posted by Anonymous Ask Metafilter.
Also, on the AskMe front page, anonymous questions are posted by anonymous, and on the archive pages they're posted by Anonymous Ask Metafilter.
Atom feed error report and query on source in flat file generation
The MeFi atom feed is throwing an error; does this perhaps have something to do with the flat file generation stuff?
anonymous has some serious relationship problems
Once I ran to you, I ranNow I'll run from youThis tainted love you've given
75% of this "anonymous" guy's output is love-related. I keep reading that we suck at politics, we suck at religion, we suck at (insert your favorite pet peeve here). I dare to suggest that, no disrespect intended, we suck at giving love advice (assuming that giving useful love advice is actually possible, which I doubt). Is this just a coincidence, or we'll use the anonymous feature mainly to turn AskMeFi into Mr/Mrs LonelyheartsFilter/BrokenheartsFilter?
75% of this "anonymous" guy's output is love-related. I keep reading that we suck at politics, we suck at religion, we suck at (insert your favorite pet peeve here). I dare to suggest that, no disrespect intended, we suck at giving love advice (assuming that giving useful love advice is actually possible, which I doubt). Is this just a coincidence, or we'll use the anonymous feature mainly to turn AskMeFi into Mr/Mrs LonelyheartsFilter/BrokenheartsFilter?
Tempe debate rally meetup today?
Tempe debate rally meetup today?
exemplary answer on the US Foreign Service
Not that there's a lot of State Department material around these parts, to be diplomatic about it, but croutonsupafreak has posted an exemplary answer to an AskMe query on how to join the U.S. Foreign Service. Check it out: he just keeps giving and giving.
October 12
AnonyMe Guidelines
AnonyMe is up. Posts ensue! Yay! A pony! I personally think the Paxil query is exactly what AnonyMe should be for, and the good-lookin' cheaters question would have been better asked in the light of disclosure. What do you think? What's a good reason for anoymous posting, and what's a bad one? Let the guidelines scrimmage begin!
(Thanks Matt and thanks Seanyboy!)
(Thanks Matt and thanks Seanyboy!)
AskMe's home page suddenly reverts to June 14.
AskMe's home page suddenly reverts to June 14.
Ask Me Anoymous
With all the recent talk of Anonymous Questions on AskMe, I thought I'd learn me some php, and create a supplementary website where people can pose anonymous questions to be asked on AskMe by the more brazen metafilter members. I guess that this falls under the "Don't self link" rule, so I hope you'll forgive the intrusion.
Introducing: Ask Me Anonymous
Introducing: Ask Me Anonymous
October 11
Connection failure for non-logged-in users
Unless you're logged in, the site doesn't load. AskMefi loads though. Mefi and Meta get "connection failure" text on a white screen.
Music swaps that aren't MeFi related
Swap substitute: A friend of mine is really interested in the concept of the MeFi Swap, but of course he can't participate as he's not a member. I pointed him towards the MonkeyFilter Swap (which I admittedly have very little knowledge of), but are there any other websites out there that work on the same model?
Yes, the other guy is evil.
Yes, I know the election is coming. Yes, I know there are cool sites that make fun of Bush and/or Kerry. Yes, the other guy is evil. But, who really cares that some cartoonists are mocking the President. I think that was an old meme around the time of Gutenberg.
Can't we please get back to posts about pancakes, bloggers, monkeys, and other non-election related topics.
Can't we please get back to posts about pancakes, bloggers, monkeys, and other non-election related topics.
What are all the posts that are just '.' in this thread?
What are all the posts that are just '.' in this thread?
It's not about the links
In AskMe, the button shouldn't say Preview the Link, it should say Preview the Question.
October 10
will there ever be an anonymous way to ask questions?
Stet's question reminds me: will there ever be an anonymous way to ask questions? I'm sure there are lots of people out there with things to ask that they don't want brought up when they're running for office...
Oregon: register to vote!
The voters deadline for Oregon is October 12th, two days from now. Oregonians, please make sure you have registered to vote!
Annual Happy Birthday Mr Mathowie thread
Here for your commenting pleasure, is the Annual Happy Birthday Mr Mathowie thread. Happy Birthday, #1!
October 9
Senior pictures are gone.
Please turn off voter registration message
Voter registration is over in the majority of states. Time to turn off the message?
Metafilter.com without the www won't load for me.
http://metafilter.com times out for me, while http://www.metafilter.com works with no problem. Is it me or MetaFilter?
reminder: meetup in NYC tonight
reminder: meetup in NYC tonight at Mars 2112 (51st and Broadway). Timeframe: 6pm.
October 8
IRC better than fora for real-time reactions
Preventing this thread is what IRC is for. That is all.
With so much Bush on MeFi, maybe it's time to start bush.metafilter.com?
There are 32 instances of the word Bush on the MeFi front page. How about we start http://bush.metafitler.com? Or maybe just take over BushFilter?
It's another idea for rating threads/users!
It's another idea for rating threads/users!
Dig this. On Everything2, they have the concept of cools. If you're very good, you can get a cool, which you can then assign to a post.
Rather than rating all threads, users, etc. Maybe everyone could get 1 gold star to spend every month (week, year, lifetime). And gold-starred posts could get a special billing?
Dig this. On Everything2, they have the concept of cools. If you're very good, you can get a cool, which you can then assign to a post.
Rather than rating all threads, users, etc. Maybe everyone could get 1 gold star to spend every month (week, year, lifetime). And gold-starred posts could get a special billing?
Goodbye, I'm leaving....
I am going on sabbatical from Metafilter. In this political season, this place has become too close-minded, too vulgar, and too filled with people who complain. [MI]
October 7
Click meter?
You know what would be cool? A click count or popularity meter indicator on each FP thread, showing how many people took a look at it. [MI]
October 6
Matt's "photos" page
So, I was bored today checking out http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ and I stumbled across Matt's "photos" page. I think I recall looking at his photo page in the past. However, now, it just redirects to the regular metafilter website. I know the *.metafilter.com urls redirect to the regular metafilter website, but was this to be an exception?
October 5
Where to post an AskMe followup?
I apologize two-fold, one for my unwilling absence from the scintillating minds that are my MeFi sisters and brethren...and secondly, because this may very well be the wrong arena, but darned if I know where to post AskMe follow ups...so here it is. A month or more back, I asked for advice on taking a specific type of pictures. The advice that I was given, both online, and in one case, carried into email, was invaluable. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed. You not only made me a better photographer, but you taught me a new way to see.
Blues, military and history
Gold star for biscotti
Inspired by her response to the home alone puppy: to crate or not crate question, I want to commend biscotti for her many fine answers to pet related questions in AskMetaFilter. Her contributions deserve a gold star--they are always detailed, to the point and well informed. They are the sort of answers that make AskMetaFilter shine.
October 4
Trying to sic lawyers on me?
In fact, I'm going to contact the aforementioned publications in the hope of having them sue you. Paris, stop this shit. And if it was a joke, it's not funny.
October 3
Anyone in NYC interested in a meetup this friday or saturday?
Anyone in NYC interested in a meetup this friday or saturday?
October 2
The HTML toolbox doesn't work! How can I post a link?
I can't post links within a thread on any of the Meta sites. I've seen how the text tools box appears under the comments box when using a PC at work. I'm using Explorer on a Mac running OS 8.6. Any ideas on how I can rectify this?
Am I the only one getting this error?
Does anyone else get a "No Harddisk in Drive" error in Mozilla when you try to follow the main link in this thread? I don't get that error on the other link in the post, or any of the other links on the blue.
terrier of truth on the pantleg of bullshit
Better than newsfilter : Metafilter as a terrier of truth on the pantleg of bullshit ? - I noticed, all of a sudden, an emerging posting trend which seems to me far healthier than reflexive newsfilterism - as shown in these six threads.
October 1
Do you ever wish you could change your username?
Do you ever wish you could change your username? What would you change it to?
I don't stop by often, and this is why. See you around.
"the point of this thread is for these people to jerk themselves off and cum all over each other" I don't stop by often, and this is why. See you around.
London Meetup
Meet, tomorrow (Saturday) evening, Vibe Bar, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, LONDON, E1 6QL
What about a Best of the Best of MetaFilter?
What about a Best of the Best of the Blue?
It would be kind of interesting to see which of the top posts (not sure how that would be defined) is voted as the best of the best.
It would be kind of interesting to see which of the top posts (not sure how that would be defined) is voted as the best of the best.