December 2002 Archives (all archives)
December 30
Is anonymity on the Web passe?
Is anonymity on the Web passé? What is there to be afraid of, exactly? Nowadays, more and more MetaFilter members seem to use their own names - or, at least, make identifiable comments here. Our own Evanizer is compiling a photographic collage of Mefi's #irc regulars. So is it OK to be ourselves again? Or is protecting our identities still paramount? I suspect that the causes and reasons of paranoia have now officially passed...
December 29
text entry keyboard shortcuts don't work in Phoenix 0.5
MetaFilter's super-handy text entry keyboard shortcuts don't work in Phoenix 0.5 (a Mozilla-based browser) on Windows 2000.
December 27
I logged out and now I can't log back in
I logged out, since I'm not using my home computer, and now I cannot even see the site, much less log back in. I managed to sneak into meta and log on, but I can't get to the mefi front page. Help! [more inside]
When good posts go bad....
When good posts go bad . . . what's the correct course of action when you realize that the cute site you linked to about monkeys is really an argument for intelligent design and you are forced to admit that you didn't read the entire article? Since it wasn't the main link, I didn't get annihilated, but is there a workable way to prune the one bad apple from a multi-link post?
December 26
So why has Metafilter been down all day?
So why has Metafilter been down all day?
December 24
I/P snark as usual
I found some of the following comments irresponsible and irritating. This attack nearly hijacked a thread. These comments are off-topic and are not fair to both the poster of the thread and the victim poster.
a->p->a
a->p->a
December 23
Step 1: read Step 2: post
Of course, don't bother to actually follow through to the content of the link, instead you'd rather be the first to wish me a Happy New Year, Mefi-style.
Time Limit Error
Since the start of December, whenever I've written a post for the front page, previewed it, then hit the final 'Post' I get this error, which says the 'request has exceeded the allowable time limit'.. and this occurs on the line where weblogs.com is pinged. My posts do make it to the front page but I just get this error.
Someone reported the same error six months ago, but it appears to have started again..
Someone reported the same error six months ago, but it appears to have started again..
December 21
NYC Meetup
MeFiNYC Winter 2003. Let's meet up and have fried Mars bars. If you have a better suggestion, feel free to post it.
December 20
"Harshing on Metafilter"
The Gawker-Metafilter Saga continues. After this it now continues here - "Harshing on Metafilter". Where will it end ?
Users in RSS
Could we have the name of the poster in the RSS feed?
Oh and happy Christmas
Oh and happy Christmas
December 19
Merry Christmas, mathowie.
Merry Christmas, mathowie.
I am sure I am not the only one who would like to sincerely wish our host the best of the festive season and for the year to come. I have enjoyed greatly my short time here and look forward to much more. Thanks, kudos and congrats for the work you have done.
I am sure I am not the only one who would like to sincerely wish our host the best of the festive season and for the year to come. I have enjoyed greatly my short time here and look forward to much more. Thanks, kudos and congrats for the work you have done.
Can we have [more inside]?
Is it possible to make [more inside] a feature?
[more inside]
[more inside]
thread about abortion aborted
the making of an abortion. nuff said.
MeFi Timezone Support
MetaFilter's front page now supports the display of posts by proper time zone. Set your offset on the customize page, then go to the front page (with the default date sort only at this time) to see the site customized for your part of the world. I'll be adding support for the comments and archives later today. MetaTalk, I'll eventually get to.
December 18
So what did YOU think about the new Spiderman?
The thread in question. I understand that some sort of precedent was set with the Spiderman thread last spring (or was it something before that?), but can't we, I don't know, reverse the precedent? [more]
Can't log out
Am I the only one having trouble logging out? I click "logout", and it just spins me around to the homepage, and I'm still logged in. Tried closing the browser, rebooting, etc. No dice. This has happened on multiple computers (public ones, unfortunately) that have previous had no problems with logging out.
Anti- and pro- sites do not make a double
This thread seems to be a triple post. Augusta was discussed here and here.
My apologies for not bringing it up here first.
My apologies for not bringing it up here first.
I for one welcome our new _______ overlords
I was wondering if anyone out there could point out the source of the "I for one welcome our new _______ overlords" meme. I've seen it frequently on Metafilter in many different iterations... I Googled it to no avail. Movie, song, novel, event? Thnx!
Preemptive moratorium on Elcomsoft DCMA acquittal postings
I may be overreacting, but can I put in a preemptive plea that no one posts about the Elcomsoft DMCA acquittal until there's an interesting link to go with it (like a commentary from a Lessig like legal scholar for instance)?
December 17
This post has too many links!
I think it has been mentioned before, and maybe I'm just grumpy tonight, but there are TEN FREAKIN' LINKS in this post.
Temporary IRC Relocation
The irc server turlyming seems to be down, so come on over to irc.undernet.org channel #mefi.
December 16
Metafilter is not about us
MetaFilter is not about us; it's about what we find out there on the web. If so, we should be in the background of our posts if not outright invisible, and we should avoid phrasing our posts as personal blog entries. First example: "I found no post ... I only post it now ... as I see in my weblog's referer log ... that's how a few people found my site." Second example: " I hope ... I've searched ... It has special relevance to me since I am ... Being 25 and wanting to pay off my loans, I may have ... " And posts like this, which are all about personal experience and nothing else, are right out.
sub quality journalistic demagogues
So, Newsmax before Newsweek? I tend to find Newsmax, CommonDreams, YellowTimes, BushWatch all sub quality journalistic demagogues. A question of policy.
December 15
What happened to this post with an image?
Am I imagining things, or was there not a comment post by 4panels on this thread that had a picture of someone....I have forgotten who. Was it deleted? I know that both FPP (especially FPP) and comments-based jpegs are bad form, but are they delete worthy?
Duplicate search issues with x.com vs. www.x.com
This is a double-post. Presumably the author wasn't told because he used "http://idea-a-day.com" while the first post used "http://www.idea-a-day.com". Perhaps a little bit of code could be implemented to solve this problem?
December 14
IRC is Down
Ack! The metafilter irc channel is down. How am I ever going to get my fix of mindless chat?
December 13
Is there a lofi for MeTa and what is lofi for anyway?
Is there a lofi for MeTa? If not, what happens to posts that get deleted (like the one that was just here, for example?) Is there any archive, anywhere? For that matter, what exactly is the point of Lofi? Sorry if this has all been explained before - I did search, but couldn't find anything.
There have been 9 FPPs taken from BoingBoing in the past month
There have been 9 FPPs taken from BoingBoing in the past month, not to mention the occasional Slashdot link. Sources like these are widely read and have their own discussion fora. Is making FPPs from them something that should be discouraged?
How did these users sign up?
December 12
metafiler.com
Picture, if you will, a web page. On that page, a single link. The text of that link: "Click here to find Metafilter." You click the link. The breath is ripped from your lungs as you are rushed headlong to the Ask Jeeves (UK) search results for the word "metafilter"!
...OK, there's really no way to make this dramatic. But have any other typo-prone users run across metafiler.com?
...OK, there's really no way to make this dramatic. But have any other typo-prone users run across metafiler.com?
Was this post deleted?
Did I imagine the George W. posting concerning statutory rape yesterday? Or was it just yanked?
December 11
New comment counter nice idea, not accurate
So whenever I access MeFi, and it is supposed to have that nice little new comments next to the thread to let me know how many new comments have been posted, it does one of the following:
1. Picks a random number.
2. Never refreshes.
3. Relates wild tales of sexual debauchery with my mother.
OK, so the last one only rarely. But seriously, what's up with that?
1. Picks a random number.
2. Never refreshes.
3. Relates wild tales of sexual debauchery with my mother.
OK, so the last one only rarely. But seriously, what's up with that?
Weird Mefi bug
Most weird thing I've seen on Metafilter in a while. I got this
-1073741819 (0xc0000005)
When I hit the home page. More suspicous - I had just read the Dick Cheney thread.
-1073741819 (0xc0000005)
When I hit the home page. More suspicous - I had just read the Dick Cheney thread.
December 10
Rhyming, community-building posts here....
Anybody know what's going on here? I don't want to interrupt him, he seems to be on a roll.
December 9
I admit it, I monopolized the thread
Er, Guilty... It's easy to monopolize a thread when the subject is dear to one's heart. But it's difficult to gauge when one should resign and say "I'll shut up now". Cheerleading is annoying and thread-destroying. Although it's impossible to regulate posters' percentages and stuff, I'd like to hear other members' opinions on what constitutes the acceptable limit for commenting on one's own thread - considering that the moment you post it, it no more belongs to you than it does to anybody else.
December 7
This is a bad post.
Is this another horribly one sided news post, that does more trolling than informing. If the poster had made any attempt at exploring the other side of this issue, he could have included several examples, that show there's enough hypocrisy to go around, when it comes to this issue, but instead we got a lazy, one sided front page post, that was basically an opportunity for a bunch of gun control supporters to jerk each other off.
He could have posted any number of links about the famous arrest of liberal columnist Carl Rowan, who seemed to have an obsession with gun control. At least that is, until he was arrested for illegally keeping a handgun in his Washington DC residence, but that wouldn't have been as much fun I guess.
If your doing a front page post about a hot button issue, shouldn't there be at least a feeble attempt to post links that represent both sides of the debate?
He could have posted any number of links about the famous arrest of liberal columnist Carl Rowan, who seemed to have an obsession with gun control. At least that is, until he was arrested for illegally keeping a handgun in his Washington DC residence, but that wouldn't have been as much fun I guess.
If your doing a front page post about a hot button issue, shouldn't there be at least a feeble attempt to post links that represent both sides of the debate?
Good FPP derail belongs in Metatalk?
After seeing this thread denigrate into a debate over the question of whether it was a good FPP or not, I started wondering: is a metatalk thread an appropriate vehicle for trying to divert etiquette debate out a blue thread even when the metatalk thread itself is likely to turn into a rehash of a zillion other metatalk threads?
Is the login down?
Is the login down? I guess that's what I get for logging out.
How much traffic does MetaFilter get?
All I want to know is -- roughly how much traffic does MetaFilter get? There must be a fair amount of people unable to become members.
December 6
Anyone still interested in the PHP-Metafilter project?
Is anyone still interested in the PHP-Metafilter project? From looking at the sourceforge pages, it doesn't appear that any work was ever done on it. I've been working on a project for my company, part of which involves our own internal version of metafilter. It's not an exact clone of MeFi, but it's definately inspired by it. I'd be glad to donate it to the project, if everyone finds it appropriate & acceptable.
Linking to Copyrighted Material
Isn't this link to copyrighted material illegal? Or at the very least, unethical? Not trying to stir up controversey over the whole "file sharing" debate, just don't want MetaFilter sued for distribution of material that's both copyrighted & commercially available.
December 5
Amphetadesk error message
Playing with Amphetadesk, and got this error message:
AmphetaDesk could not determine the format of http://xml.metafilter.com/rss.xml.
AmphetaDesk could not determine the format of http://xml.metafilter.com/rss.xml.
December 4
How could I have made my post better?
I realize that the 'ethnic cleansing' was inappropriate as it was. I'm wondering though if anyone who saw it for the five minutes or so it was up could give any suggestions as to how to post it differently, other than a disclaimer on the front page rather than inside. Or was it inappropriate altogether, warning or not? (Yes, I've read posting guidelines.)
Troll?
This reminds me of a large mythical creature that lurks under bridges, and also smacks of lots of news.
December 3
Fair is fair.
Link&Think Archive pointing to the wrong year
The Link & Think Archive on MeFi Homepage today points to the 2001 archive - http://www.metafilter.com/linkandthink.mefi. I know we can see 1/12/2002 at http://www.metafilter.com/lofi.mefi. Is this deliberate? Just curious.
Am I missing something?
Am I missing something? John Gilmore and Cory Doctorow are asking us to harass total strangers by phoning them at home. [more inside]
A clean, responsible, and non-snarky way to deal with a funged link
Thanks sebas. A clean, responsible, and non-snarky way to deal with a funged link for the benefit of the community.
December 2
irc is back
irc://irc.metafilter.com:6667 is back up and running
Thanks everyone
Is it all right to use MetaTalk to thank everyone for wonderful links yesterday? Matt, that was a great thing. I can't recall being so moved by a website before. Thank you, everyone, for that. (and sorry if this is not appropriate for MetaTalk)
December 1
White on white mefi
in today's theme, on mozilla 1.0 (sorry, but that's the latest version in debian stable/testing) textareas appear as white on white. i have a general (ie desktop) white on black colour scheme, but mozilla is configured to have a default of black on white. ps my mefi config uses the "other" colour-scheme.
This is not supposed to be a theology debate.
This is not supposed to be a theology debate. Although I don't mind walking the line because I am interested in people's reactions and interpretations of a natural phenomenon. But I don't want my first FPP yanked because people couldn't at least flame on topic and the topic is HIV, how it works and what it looks like.