December 2007 Archives (all archives)
December 31
Yeah, I wish I had bought stock back then too.
The Keynote Index Fund. In which Matt asks "Is it possible to make money off the Apple keynote talks given by Steve Jobs?".
Happy New Year !
This might be the HAPPY NEW YEAR thread... [more inside]
Stop me before I win again!
January 2008 Distance/Calorie Challenges now up! [more inside]
Sorting 'users near me?'
Is it possible to sort or filter 'users near me' by fields besides distance? Such as 'number of comments/favorites/posts' or 'since last activity' or anything else, really.
Recent Activity RSS Feed?
Would it be totally server-juice-draining to provide a user-specific Contacts' Recent Activity RSS feed?
Austen in Austin
Jane Austin Gathering [more inside]
GiveWell, or Give 'em Hell?
Is This Transparency? OP with very slim, one-year posting history asks a question about finding a good charity in AskMe, just prior to year-end tax-decision time. Newly registered responder posts a newly formed charity-aggregator/evaluator organization, without mentioning that he is, apparently, one of the two founders. Self-promotional setup leading to self-link? Or am I being too cynical?
[update, 1/3/08: a summary of events is being developed on the wiki. --cortex]
[update, 1/3/08: a summary of events is being developed on the wiki. --cortex]
December 30
This website wants to run the following add-on...
Over the past couple of days when I access MetaFilter (via XP Professional and I.E. 7.0.5730.13) the Internet Explorer Information Bar has 'popped-up' with a security warning: "This website wants to run the following add-on: 'Microsoft Data Access - Remote Data Services Dat...'"
Having done a Google search, it appears that in the past two-weeks visitors to other websites have been getting the same warning.
I have not allowed/given access to the pop-up warning.
Any ideas as to what's up?
File Under: Finished.
Are paginated favorites broken?
Are paginated favorites broken? [more inside]
Iowa!
Prognosticate for me, Mefites: what are your best guesses for the results of the Iowa Caucus? [more inside]
Damn. That was cold!
Icycle - MetaFilter's January Cycling Challenge: The colder it gets, the higher your score, so break out the long underwear. [more inside]
How feasible is email@metafilter?
pony@metafilter.com [more inside]
December 29
Blind Musicians
For MusicFi: I never have any idea if anyone listens to the songs I've put up, because no one ever comments or gives feedback. Granted, this might be because my songs suck could be better, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of feedback even for the obviously skilled artists. [more inside]
San Antonio and Austin meetup
Austinites and San Antonians UNITE! Let's have a meetup in San Marcos on the 2nd of Feb. [more inside]
Possible CES meetup
CES meetup anyone? [more inside]
Battle of the Flickr All-Stars
This FPP sucks. It's basically just an excuse to ogle Rebekka: 'Look, she has boobies!' [more inside]
Your new games. What are they?
Reminder: Feel free to add/update your Gamer IDs on the wiki if you have new loot.
Following up an online spectacle
Top 10 Tips for MeFi posters
If you took Jorn Barger's Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers and replaced every mention of "blog" with "MeFi FPP", you could probably carve it onto tablets and present it as The Way.
December 28
Non-poster seeing "add tag" on MeFi posts?
Non-poster seeing "add tag" on MeFi posts?
[more inside]
Holiday gratuities/gratuitous for our beloved admins?
Is there a good place to send jessamyn, pb and cortex gift cards, canned goods or other tokens of gratitude as a thank you for their efforts in keeping MeFi blue in 2007, or would that be considered tacky and inappropriate? [more inside]
Sydney meetup!
Sydney meetup between now and the 3rd? [more inside]
Just like Galinda's big song in "Wicked"
Popular is borked.
Recent shenanigans
Two issues with "recent activities" the Secret Quonsar post no longer shows up in my recent activities page. It used to and I think the behavior changed when the thread was changed to a meet-up style thread. Also the favorite interface shows up by each comment in recent activity, but not the flag interface. Is this by design?
December 27
What will the Bhutto assassination mean for the future stability of Metafilter?
Yeah, assassinations are hard to be unemotional about, but can we start acting reasonable? [more inside]
No guessing required: this is a callout
Is tombola breaking the guidelines by posting a blog post from a site for which he is an editor? [more inside]
Send this post to a friend.
SuggestionFilter: A link or button that enables us to easily tell our friends "Hey, check out this really cool FPP/asinine question/metatalk whinefest!" [more inside]
December 26
Let us give thanks
Can we keep the Secret Quonsar post open so we can give updates/say thanks for our gifts? [more inside]
December 25
Quon... sar? What is?
Whither "quonsar"? [more inside]
Last minute Bay Area xmas meetup offer.
Last minute xmas meetup offer for the Bay Area [more inside]
UPDATE
Ho, Ho, Ho.
Merry Christmas! What did you all get? [more inside]
December 24
Merry Christmas, MeFi!
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to everyone. Best wishes for the New Year, and wherever you are, please enjoy the season with your family and friends.
December 23
Add a SteamID Selection?
PonyFilter: A SteamID selection? [more inside]
Santa is fired from the job/He gives presents like a slob.
An interfaith holiday involving a magical rooster who fills children's pants with presents. Hey... you don't think... could it possibly be...? [more inside]
Trainwreck Thread
December 22
Do callouts have a shelf-life?
I'll probably regret it, but I guess this is a callout. [more inside]
Broken Image on Login Page
December 21
IAALBIANYL
This article gives some insight into the issues surrounging giving legal advice on internet forums, which we occasionally deal with on AskMe: The Dangers of Virtual Cocktail Parties. [more inside]
All I am saying, is give posts a chance
At first I was kinda surprised the video in 67602 got dumped on in comments. There is nothing intrinsically bad here. It's actually rather professionally done, it feels very much like something that was produced for television. I strongly suspect the fault here is with the FPP. [more inside]
Bavarian meetup
Is anyone up for a Bavarian meetup? [more inside]
MeFi Mail Feature Request
MeFi Mail feature request: Under the Contacts tab you find the person's username as a link to their User page. I'd love to see that in the Inbox and Sent mail tab's use of the username, as well.
Meh
Whence "meh", and can it be stopped? [more inside]
December 20
Translate ReadMe int CheckMeOutFromLibrary
I seem to remember that in the wake of this question someone mentioned (on MeTa, I think) putting all the books that appealed to them into an Amazon wishlist. They were then able to use some sort of tool that exported it into a format useful for taking it to their public library. Does anyone remember this posting? I tried to search for it but my googleFu blah blah blah...
Meh-fil #2
Hindustani MeFites! How about another South India meetup? Bangalore, Hyderabad, or... [more inside]
Meetup/Conference Miami Crossover Craziness
Will any/many of MeFi's museum and library people be at the IMLS WebWise conference in Miami Beach in March? [more inside]
LA meetup
I'll be in LA between the 29th and 7th...meetup? [more inside]
Best Blogs of 2007 That You (Maybe) Aren't Readin
#23: Every year I sneak a reference to Metafilter onto this list. And every year a Metafilter post ridicules its inclusion -- can't wait to see this year's! Have at it, inclusoridiculists.
Do Not Remember Me On This Computer?
PonyFilter: "Do Not Remember Me On this Computer" login checkbox? [more inside]
Poorly constructed or blatantly inaccurate.
I have a problem with people making posts here that are blatantly inaccurate just for the sake of making a political point. [more inside]
December 19
Problems with posts tagged with cheese
The second page of the "Posts tagged with cheese" is the same as the first. It also says "50 posts tagged with cheese. Displaying 51 through 50."
Weblog-friendly NYT Links
Tiny pony: would it be possible to convert links to New York Times pages to the 'weblog-friendly' equivalent on posting? [more inside]
BushFilter.
Meetup in NOLA?
Bonehead and I will be travelling to New Orleans on January 17th, and staying until the 22nd. Any NOLA mefites out there want to meet up with us on that weekend?
December 18
ALA Midwinter/Philly Meetup
I think the last Mefibrarian meetup was a resounding success--so who will be in Philadelphia for ALA Midwinter (January 11-15th)? Philly Mefites should of course join us! [more inside]
Tampa Bay, Dec 26
Tampa/St Pete meetup! Come join us on December 26th for the Tampa Bay area's first ever meetup. New World Brewery, Ybor City [more inside]
Mefi open thread?
A mefi open thread? [more inside]
Nobody else can have my favorites (at least on user activity pages)!
On individual user activity pages it appears as if the "X users marked this as a favorite" disappears for a given post if you have added that post as a favorite yourself. [more inside]
MeTa Wormholes Redux.
Who is the real Languagehat?
Try it, see what happens
MeFi's Eternal September is nigh, what with the holidays coming and Mac market share rising. Is there anything we can/should do to head off the inevitable flood of "I just got my Mac, now what?" questions that are already asked over and over in AskMe? [more inside]
December 17
Birding on the Bay
Bay Area birders and photographers, let's meet at Crissy Field in San Francisco on January 26th for an afternoon of birdwatching and nature photography. [more inside]
Bad cookie?
Occasionally I appear to be a random user. [more inside]
Looking for a better way to find things.
It's getting increasingly harder to find stuff. Especially favorite stuff. There have been a few great suggestions and observations so far, especially in this thread. [more inside]
when mods post dupes!
um, i don't really know what to do about this. and i've got no general prob with the mods. but, as you can see, one of the mods has posted a question that has been asked before.
[more inside]
Tags with stars in thars
While reading through this FPP, I noticed that ericbop had tagged it "*$," and decided to click on the tag to see what other posts shared that tag. It didn't so much work. A little URL manipulation showed that $ works fine, but anything with a * in it seems to break.
Rethinking comment deletion
I'm seeing a lot of very eloquent responses to AskMe questions getting deleted. Some of them are very long, and while they could be thought of as containing some offending material, the whole comments are being deleted. I want to propose and discuss just removing the offensive parts -- editing out sentences or paragraphs, and not entire comments, so that the "good stuff" can remain. [more inside]
December 16
Please bring my pony back to life!
Fields in user profiles used to have a different color background if they contained information only visible to logged in community members. Can we have this back please? [more inside]
Local MeFi
Idea: Metafilter Local. [more inside]
December 15
Did anyone hope loquacious?
Why was my reply to post 78716 removed?
Why was my reply to post 78716 removed? All I did was complete the quotation used by the original poster. It was from the Young Ones TV program. I really am not a fan of censorship, and AksMefi is not where I expect to encounter it. [more inside]
MP3 and PDF tags
You know those little MP3 or PDF tags on Wikipedia external links (see last external link), informing users they are about to click on a special file along with the file size? That would sure be nice for MeFi.
An AskMe about your favourite recommendations...
A good while ago, there was an AskMe question along the lines of 'what are the things you love to recommend', 'give me your top recommendations', and so on. Can anyone help me find it?
Life skills on askme
About a year ago there was a great question on ask metafilter that went something like this: "I have a job and an apartment and a social life. What things do I need to remember do to be a good adult?" [more inside]
Our criticism is important to artists.
Whaddaya mean, "no new comments"?
Yesterday when I visited MeFi for the first time, I got "no links and no comments posted since your last visit." I figured it was some momentary glitch. But the same thing happened today, so I'm wondering if anybody else has this problem. When I go to MetaTalk and AskMe, it has the correct number of new posts/comments. (Firefox 2.0.0.11 on Windows XP.)
look at you people!
We've added a widget for checking out Meetup photos without having to leave placeholder comments in meetup threads. Check the MeTa sidebar. [more inside]
December 14
OMGNOES
"[I removed all the links to cat photos, put them in your profile if they're nevessary for this question]" [more inside]
Sunday River Sunday meetup?
I'll be at Sunday River on Sunday morning, are any other MeFites in Maine/NH going to be getting some powder? [more inside]
What will we think about and why?
It's chatfilter because "major issues" is objective and undefinable, or if not undefinable, a distasteful acceptance of political groupthink. Well, anywho, it's standing, so let's put discussion here. [more inside]
You are not helping anyone...please contribute beneficial comments.
Honestly, telling people that they should not be asking for help on AskMe is unproductive! [more inside]
Why is the capitalization on my username inconsistent?
Capitalization issue: why is my username capitalized differently in different places on Metafilter?
[more inside]
Metafilter Mix CD Swap: Best of 2007 Edition Tracklists
A little over two months ago, I proposed a Metafilter Mix CD Swap: Best of 2007 Edition. Twenty-three people decided to participate and swapped CDs containing their favorite songs from 2007. In that thread it was suggested that after the swap concluded “yall make a thread with your final tracklists and commentary, or otherwise publish them where I and others could read and DL accordingly.” Of the twenty-three participants, seventeen decided to share their tracklists, which you will find inside. Rock on. [more inside]
DTMFJAGYOFBFW
What the hell do you people do for work that you can sit on the internet all day like this? [more inside]
Thank you, admins.
This holiday season (yes, I said it), I'd like to give thanks for the wonderful deletions of our ruling triumvirate. By deleting mediocre junk posts, you guys make MetaFilter a better place. Thank you. Really. [more inside]
My mail augured in!
Mefi Mail weirdness: [more inside]
December 13
Buffalo/WNY meetup?
We made a first stab at having a Buffalo area meetup last year; how about another go? [more inside]
Mefi User Podcast
This was recorded at the San Francisco Meetup back in August. There's a story & everyone present says hi. Short & sweet. The audio's over on music.mefi. Oh, and photos, in addition to those already posted.
No Talkin' Bout Women on the Blue!
It may have been a "crappy fight-starter of an op-ed", but seems like people were discussing it in a civil fashion. There was no good reason to delete this thread. [more inside]
SF meetup?
MacWorld Meetup?
Why is work blocking me from viewing MeFi tag pages?
Websense is blocking the tag pages of MeFi. The message I get is "The Websense category "Sex" is filtered." - even when the tag isn't likely to have anything to do with sex (e.g., christmasmusic, maps). Yet I can read threads that definitely DO contain sexual content, such as this one or this one. Is there something in the backend telling Websense that tags = sex? [more inside]
GYOB
The Mitchell Report is a big deal (if you care about baseball or American sports, anyway). We should have a post about it that, y'know, links to it, or at least some substantive analysis of it, not a post that links to one guy's stats and a 100-word "article" that refers to things it's rumored to contain, followed by an unattributed list of names.
Be more faster!
Did the recent changes to "Recent Activity" make it really inefficient? It takes forever to bring up that page now. [more inside]
Spoiler problem on the front page
I don't like your language, young man.
December 12
note: Everyone needs a hug.
"note: Everyone needs a hug." WTF? [more inside]
Buying an ad on Mefi
Is mathowie still selling ad space on the front page of Mefi?
DC = Beer
So...DC/Baltimore area Meetup? Maybe the 27th or 28th of December? [more inside]
A million monkeys...
I hereby propose a Metafilter Writers Collaboration. [more inside]
"wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?"
While you're cleaning up the profile pages, could we get rid of the redundant "About" text? [more inside]
Bottom posting links
My recent activity is becoming homunculus' blog/link dump. [more inside]
December 11
What are MeFites listening to?
We just added some Last.fm stuff to profile pages and tweaked the design a bit. [more inside]
What comes up...
Matt to be interview on Pirate Cat Radio
Dear Leader will be a guest on my radio show, Baghdad by the Bay, Saturday the 15th at 4pm PST, on Pirate Cat Radio. [more inside]
'Tis the season for secrets
I am looking for a fellow MeFite who is both a Daft Punk fan and proficient with (preferably) Fruity Loops and/or Reason. I'm working on a top secret project that I'd like to collaborate with someone on. Who will bite?
Why doesn't matthowie have a $200M valuation?
Why is MeFi not part of the social news site boom? Digg, reddit, newsvine, and others are the lucrative hot trend, but MeFi seems to do the same thing better (no Ron Paul spam), smarter, and for longer, and we even have favorites, for those who want voting-like capabilities. So why is MeFi not included with these young whippersnappers? And why are they not learning from MeFi's evolved model of light moderation, talk pages, and strong self-policing?
Is "weird" AskMe too chatty?
My 5 year old needs an answer to "What is the weirdest thing you've ever heard of?". Would this be considered chat-filter on AskMe (and therefore inappropriate)?
Adding play count
How about adding a play count to songs in the black? [more inside]
You are The Man.
This AskMe post has made me lose my faith in humanity, and I desperately need to spew bile about that. [more inside]
Work PC keeps remembering my login.
I once, months ago logged into MeFi from PC at work; each time I come back I'm still logged in. [more inside]
December 10
Get rich slowly is finaly about to start getting rich
So I have a shady contact or two...
1. So I add a contact for the sake of entertainment perhaps. 2. Their account is then disabled. 3. I can't get rid of them from my contact list? Argh.
R.I.P., Anita Rowland
Anita Rowland (User 113), old school blogger, inspiration to many, has lost her fight with cancer. She'll be missed.
Line Break Issues in "Preview"
It's pretty annoying that inserting carriage returns shows line breaks as typed in the "preview" window, but the final result is breakless (after all, what's the point of the preview?). I've had unpredictable results manually adding "BR" tags and "P" tags...they seem to sporadically interact with the typed carriage returns and yield vast white space.
If anyone can point me to a workaround, I'd be appreciative. But, really, it'd be fitting if postings posted per the preview, no?
December 9
Greater Seattle Dive Bar Christmas Potluck Benefit Concert Meet Up Concept
As described here, and photodocumented here, the Eastlake Zoo was the locale for one of the more successful meetups to which I have organized. Let it be noted, then, that this next Sunday, December 16th, the Eastlake Zoo is having their umpteenth annual Christmas potluck benefit for Northwest Harvest. And there will be live music this year, including, among others, some entity called the Guitar Outlaw Christmas Chorale, Keith Low and Seattle's own maven of lap style slide guitar, Orville Johnson. May I suggest, then, another meet up at the Eastlake Zoo ? [more inside]
If you believe Sarcasm= Irony, Maybe You're Not Smart Enough to Post Here
Categories for favorites?
Pony request: categories for favorites? [more inside]
MEDIC!!!
DaShiv has made a suggestion about the Mefi TF2 server's map rotation. Thoughts?
December 8
readMe
How to harness the 'critical mass' of MeFi?
May I toss out an idea here for something that could conceivably be considered for inclusion in the MeFi system? MeFites are very skilled at finding holes in one's argument ... but can that power be harnessed? [more inside]
podcast_downloading_simplified MP3 XML Music
MuFeature request: simplifying mp3 playlist/XML downloading. Tips?
[more inside]
OLPC unboxing photos and reviews in The Blue okay?
There has been some interest expressed in hearing directly from MetaFilter members as they receive their OLPC laptops. Would a front page post be the appropriate forum? I'm concerned it would be viewed as self-linking. [more inside]
Reciprocity is a bitch.
Tiny Contacts Pony! [more inside]
December 7
The tubes are clogged: Missing MeFi Music
The MeFi Music iTunes feed seems to be broken. [more inside]
God Bless Ye Merry GentleMefites
Lots of people seemed interested in my Christmas music question. With your help, I've finished the job. Thanks so much everyone!
It was a container of milk.
Important AskMe Follow-up: It was a loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter. [more inside]
December 6
fun fun.
Conversational IQ test in Austin? [more inside]
Some comment upgrades
We've cleaned up a handful of bugs around comment forms and comment pages today. The tally is inside: [more inside]
Crazy like a fox
FYI: it took a while but last month, firefox finally surpassed IE as the most popular browser here (that's data for the month of November).
More tips & hints on a good post
Since I can't be an example to others, at least I can serve as a stark warning... [more inside]
RTFA
WSJ address bar icon?
Is there a MetaFilter-related reason I am seeing a WSJ icon in my address bar when I visit ask.metafilter.com? [more inside]
Anime and Curry
Providence/Southern New England Meet Up, Ahoy!
Providence/Southern New England MeetUp! Not really planned at all, except that Eideteker and I will be there! You should too! Ok! [more inside]
And the winner is: Adelaide!
December 5
MeTa Favorites Of All Time?
Why doesn't MetaTalk have a "Popular Favorites Of All Time?" In MetaFilter and AskMe, when you click on the "Popular Favorites" tab, you can choose between 24 Hours, 7 Days, 30 days, and All Time. Why is the choice in the Grey only for 48 hours?
Loves music, loves to dance; real a-hole on AskMe though.
Feature request: I wish there was a way for us to store notes about users. [more inside]
Are YouTube playlists self-links?
Put your meats up
Atlanta meetup? Friday after Christmas? [more inside]
AskMe screws the pooch
Buying a WoW account is against Blizzard's TOS.
You can't see as well as these fucking flowers - and they're fucking plastic.
Sexism debate, displaced.
It appears that some people feel that a non sequitur remark made in the "more inside" portion of a recent post was sexist. Others remain unconvinced. [more inside]
Gift Exchange entry deadline up on the sidebar perhaps?
Any chance we could throw the Secret Santa/Quonsar/_______ gift exchange entry deadline of December 12th up on the sidebar, linking to the original thread? [more inside]
Help me find the post to my prayers!
Please help me find an old post! [more inside]
NOT a deletion complaint
I favourited a comment in AskMe that was later deleted. I'm NOT writing this to complain about the deletion, for while I may not agree with it I can understand why it was removed, however the comment was long enough so I can not read all (most) of it on my favorites page and I kind of would like to be able to reread it as I thought it was fairly well written. [more inside]
MeFi Music Gadget?
Has anybody considered developing a MeFi Music Gadget (basically, an iGoogle gadget featuring an mp3 jukebox that plays the most recent or most favorited MeFi music posts on a subscriber's iGoogle homepage)? [more inside]
I say you chaps, I'm most frightfully mad for it.
Manchester/North West (UK) meetup - Petitioning Interest and Working Out The Logistics [more inside]
Random logouts
I keep getting logged out. (Safari) [more inside]
We hate hip-hop
December 4
Vegas, baby, Vegas!
Embarrassingly excited about seeing the Spice Girls in Vegas this weekend. Any other Mefites going? Any point in trying to meet up for a drink before/after? [more inside]
December 3
20: Call-in Show
Show #20 of the podcast is a call-in show featuring questions from various members of the site. It was recorded on November 30, 2007 and runs about 50 minutes long. [more inside]
Taking the Denver Meetup North.
Denver/Boulder/Longmont Mefites: Christmas Meetup? [more inside]
Mefi Music Standalone Player Script
In response to this thread: A little GreaseMonkey script to pop-out all the flash players (that use playlists) into new tabs/windows. Enjoy!
December 2
Video buttons. Are. Awesome. Are they new?
Video buttons. Are. Awesome. Are they new? [more inside]
Silent deletion of FPP, no reason given.
What the hell? Silent deletion of my FPP! I know that political correctness is the force that moves Metafilter, but come ON here people!
The post was a short one, centered on this story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314564,00.html and apparently that's a story that Metafilter is not ready to handle at this point in time.
Request for an interesting statistic about MeFi make up
Request for an interesting statistic about MeFi make up... [more inside]
Metafilter post basis for Guardian Magazine cover story?
The Most Kissed Girl in the World FPP seems to have inspired the cover story for the Guardian weekend magazine on Saturday 1st December. A version of the article is on the Guardian website, albeit with a different heading. [more inside]
Are Questions Okay When They're Based Around Finction Worlds
December 1
Musical collaborators list?
Karlos the Jackal made an excellent suggestion near the end of an earlier thread, but I don't know whether any of the admins ever saw it. Is a permanent list of available MeFi musical collaborators a possibility?
London Christmas Meetup
London Christmas Meetup [more inside]