December 2010 Archives (all archives)
December 31
Another year of the MetaFilter!
Happy New Year! I love you people!
Jargon 2010
I hereby nominate "threadshit" as MeFi jargon word of the year. While it's been used as early as 2007, this year saw 30 total uses in blue threads. This is up 40% from last year, and makes up 70% of all prior uses of the term in all prior years.
Kindle lending library for mefites?
Yesterday, Amazon enabled lending for e-books in Kindle format, albeit with a whole lot of caveats, restrictions, limitations and rampant publisher opt-outs. But hey, books. Any interest in setting up a lending library for Mefites? And if so how the hell would we do that? [more inside]
Read this, then go out and smell the daffodils
I agree with what thehmsbeagle said in-thread: This entire discussion on agriculture and labor is a terrific read with informative, interesting points on all sites. Check it out if you haven't already!
December 30
MetaFilter parodies
Is the Spoonfed MetaMetaFilter parody online? The "rescued" link to kineticmuse at mssv.net no longer works. I'd also love to see other parodies.
Any chance yesterdays NYT crossword could've been a nod to the Metafilter "." obit tradition?
Any chance yesterdays NYT crossword could've been a nod to the Metafilter "." obit tradition? [puzzle spoilers within] [more inside]
Heurpf deurpf
Metafilter: Home of the newest iteration of Grimm's Law [more inside]
December 29
Linked to by/links to pages?
I noticed my Linked to by / Links to page has changed again. [more inside]
Cool people don't use E when they don't have to
I've got a hopefully diminutive pony request, for which I will bring many tasty sugarcubes: Could we get tumblr listed under the Social Apps dropdown box on our profiles? [more inside]
Our eyes are watching YouTube
Hey Ask Me: What are the most inexplicable internet videos you know of? The results? Awesome
Change in MetaFilter's attitude on things that are "different"
"Change" in MetaFilter culture? I know I'm newish, but I'm curious about something... [more inside]
Aimler2 and filmgeek are gettin' hitched
Aimler2 and myself are just throwing a wave out there to mefi as we elope in Vegas tonight! [more inside]
A new challenge for 2011?
New Year, New fitness challenge? [more inside]
IANAPR- I am not a professional roustabout
YANMXXX question [more inside]
December 28
Ted Chiang featued on io9
And somehow they came up with £25M
As a followup to this October FPP - Researchers claim Tweets predict The Dow - earlier this week Derwent Capital Markets announced they're forming a hedge fund and have raised £25M to trade the strategy outlined in the paper [ . pdf ] authored by Bollen, Mao & Zeng, hiring at least one of the researchers as part of the deal. No word on whether or not they'll use their twitter feed to announce trades as they occur, or performance after the fact - as they do with their dummy accounts.
December 26
"I am determined to outlive the last Guinea Worm"
Followupfilter to this 2004 post about Guinea Worm disease, which mentioned the campaign of Georgia's best ex-governor and his foundation to eradicate it. They're almost there. Not that JC and friends are the only players, but they've certainly been major ones. "The few remaining cases exist in off-the-map places. In many sites, the Carter Center is the only outside presence — no other international or Sudanese organizations have set up shop. Even a government presence is rare." Yet another reason, if you needed another, to hope the Southern Sudan independence referendum (^) on Jan. 9 goes down without violence and does have the effect of preventing more north-south warfare in Sudan.
December 25
not, it's really not that special.
your problems are notspecial snowflakes. so quit using that description. [more inside]
Ho ho ho.
Christmas Pony Request: Can we have j/k navigation on tags/search results? [more inside]
Euro Snow Travel Horror stories
Euro Snow travel horror stories [more inside]
December 24
Thanks MeFites
Wherein, Its is written henceforth, we agree said submitter has only been a asshat half the time, we therefore allow him to say
Merry Christmas Metafilter,
without prejudice, and with a little extra love and barbeque sauce on the side. It's been a bad year, and you have always been in my corner. I thank about 115,000 people for that. Peace. ts
Merry Christmas Metafilter,
without prejudice, and with a little extra love and barbeque sauce on the side. It's been a bad year, and you have always been in my corner. I thank about 115,000 people for that. Peace. ts
December 23
Blame library school, I guess
Metadata for Metafilter Pony request: would it be possible to have a box that pops up that says something like "We noticed you're using tags X and Y, here are some other tags commonly associated with X and Y," to improve the descriptive qualities of user provided tags? [more inside]
And I don't mean spirit like vodka, because I've already got it.
Christmas spirit... I really didn't think I'd get any this year. [more inside]
December 22
Manhattan v Brooklyn
She's got rainbows and scrolling.
My little phoney: A larger text field for answering/commenting on the mobile site? [more inside]
Onions and puppies and the sky in my eyes...
Politics and eulogies and hand-waving in my heart... [more inside]
Comic Sans!
(1 new feature?)
Can there be an optional icon which lights up when a new answer has come in to your AskMe question(s)? [more inside]
December 21
MefightClub: not just pew-pew!
Affiliated community news: Yesterday, MefightClub ended a two-week donation drive and donated $4155 to Child's Play charity, an organization that collects donations for toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world. [more inside]
Cannibal thread
I humbly submit that this is not a good post for Metafilter. A woman was murdered and her body was desecrated, and some commenters are taking the opportunity to make creepy jokes about it.
I don't like that comment button.
I know it wouldn't fly on Metafilter or AskMetafilter, but can Metatalk have some sort of downranking system for comments? The opposite of a favorite? [more inside]
I [+] Metafilter
Any updates on the "I [+] Metafilter" t-shirts? Apologies if this has already been discussed- a cursory search turned up only the original thread.
They should get some props for scooping the Planet
Hmm, I can't quite believe I'm the first person to link to this, but the New York Times has a fun little tongue-in-cheek piece about Law and the Multiverse (previously).
December 20
When did this place become Yelp?
This comment in an AskMe requesting OB-GYN recommendation bothers me -- it's a one-line attack on a specific professional, with identifying information about the doctor, but no details about the basis for the opinion. (Paraphrase of comment: Dr. X in Y neighborhood was "Absolute worst medical experience of my life.") I can't put my finger on it, but it seems not quite right. Also seems to violate the guideline that we don't bring personal information into threads.
Pony: favoriting from tags page
It'd be nice to be able to favorite things from a tags page. We can already do this from the category page, so hey, why not tags?
SEO Troll?
We Should Ban Publishing Alleged Rape Victims' Names
December 19
"1 total comments"?
"1 total comments"? [more inside]
December 18
Metafilter mentioned on A Way With Words again.
Apparently we're really educated people
I'm astounded by the level of technical knowledge demonstrated by this AskMe answer. Scarabic's aside, when else have Mefites demonstrated really deep understanding of arcane knowledge? [more inside]
Lifehacker lists Ask Metafilter as third best way to find answers online.
Lifehacker just listed Ask Metafilter third in "Top 10 Ways to Find Better Answers Online (that aren't Google)." [more inside]
December 17
Dynamic duos
January's MeFiMu Collaboration Challenge drawing results are in! [more inside]
Give Lars a break.
Do we need this point and laugh thread? This guy doesn't appear to be well, and I'm not sure that our relentless mockery is necessary or helpful.
Easier favoriting on the mobile version?
Pony request: can we make flagging and favoriting easier on the mobile site? [more inside]
The Deep
Trying to find a gulf oil spill graphic I saw on Metafilter. [more inside]
Show That It's Awesome On the List, Not Just the List Item
Duck request (because horses scare me). Some sort of indication on the main projects page telling me if a project was posted to the blue. [more inside]
December 16
Mother, she not like the boom
In case you didn't know, a hilarious, amazing AskMe about a mysterious Christmas Letter has inspired a strange, oddly addictive song on MetaMusic. That is all.
Delicious.out / Pinboard.in
del.icio.us is dead. In the FPP about it, a lot of people are discussing switching over to Pinboard.
I linked to my Pinboard account so people could add me to their network — something I'd reciprocate. Only problem: Pinboard doesn't report the people following you. [more inside]
Mobile pony?
Small mobile site pony request: Sidebar and new post on the bottom menu? [more inside]
December 15
Looking for an AskMe comment about a unique backup system
FindThatCommentFilter: There was a comment a few years back discussing a rather unique data recovery system that used automatic screenshots, but I can't find it. Do you remember it? [more inside]
so it's open season on fratboys?
Cut it in.
Why was this deleted? It seems separate enough from the main Wikileaks saga going on elsewhere, and I can't recall it being discussed all that extensively here previously.
viewing job from profile removes formatting
I've just posted my availability in Jobs and it seems that when I go to view the ad from my profile, the formatting of my post seems to have disappeared. [more inside]
Mobile pony
I maybe asking too much but being able to change my profile pic from my iPhone would save me from waiting for an ancient OS to boot. [more inside]
December 14
New Windows are the Worse Thing Ever
Why does the "random" link on the Blue open a new window? Why can't it behave like all the other links in the nav bar? [more inside]
And the nominees are...
Best New Usernames of 2010? [more inside]
Do MeFites have Permanent Records?
Do MeFites have Permanent Records? [more inside]
Answer Question As Asked
Abbreviation Request: Shorthand to ask people not to answer the question that wasn't asked [more inside]
The Mefite Library: Books By Mefites
The Mefite Library: Some of you might know that I'm a book editor. I was very excited to see so many books in the holiday shop, but I was also a little sad that mefites who have a hand in creating books in other ways aren't represented. So, I'm starting a page (on the wiki for now) to collect links to books that mefites have written, edited, been anthologized in, or otherwise created. (Have a book of your photography or art? Did all of the research for a book? Art directed or illustrated a book? Please include!) [more inside]
Feature request: enable https for everything on mefi, including posting.
Feature request: enable https for everything on mefi, including posting.
Help me find an old comment on the ancient greek philosophy of math
Looking for a comment about the philosophy of ancient Greek mathematics. [more inside]
Fort Worth Meetup
Fort Worthians, unite! (or at least meet up!) [more inside]
Wikileaks thread management
Wikileaks: Its a big story and is going to run for a while yet, how about sidebarring the recent huge thread so that people don't feel the need to create new ones? [more inside]
My green direct line to YouTube / Google.
My recent AskMe question on YouTube / Google Chrome not playing nice got me talking directly with a "YouTube engineer here who works on, among other things, latency/developing world connections and HTML5." [more inside]
December 13
Chrome Web App-y Shortcut
I wanted a quick-and-dirty bookmark to MeFi in my Chrome Web Apps menu. Here's how you can do it. [more inside]
Counting Bug
Minor Bug: Under Popular Favorites, it says that the Mystery Science Theater post had 90 favorites. If you click on the favorites, it lists 153. If I recall correctly, it was accurate yesterday. That's about it, and pleasedontletthisbeadiscussionaboutfavorites. Thanks!
LinkedIn profile linking
Speak Friend, And Enter
It would be nice if the system would generate an automatic email confirming password resets. [more inside]
Groupons for charity
Attention Metafilter Kiva team and DonorsChoose.org advocates: Groupon is currently offering to "boost your donation" with a groupon purchase to either (or both!) of these sites. [more inside]
Birthday pony!
In my profile I can see a list of users who are located near me geographically. I think it would be neat if I could click on the birthday I have listed and see a list of users I share a birthday with. Perhaps including the year they were born, if they have it listed. [more inside]
Encouraging answers rather than comments in AskMe
Suggestion: changing AskMe "Post Comment" to "Post Answer." [more inside]
Is my Twitter hacked on Mefi?
Why does the Twitter plug-in on my MeFi profile page feature a spam tweet about acai but when I visit my real twitter feed that spam tweet is nowhere to be found? [more inside]
MefiMusic Collaboration Challenge
Welcome to the MeFiMusic January Collaboration Challenge Thread!
The challenge itself is simply to collaborate with another MeFite and create a musical work.
I haven't been posting all of the challenges here at MeTa, but the MeFiMusic regulars and myself thought it would be a blast to envite EVERYBODY for this one! [more inside]
Musical Pony request
Pony request: slightly more visibility for music.mefi [more inside]
December 12
Wot? My thread got secreted!
It's a little ironic that my MeFi post on the supposed Julian Assange OkCupid profile has been censored. [more inside]
The 7th anniversary is the desk set anniversary....
Italicization is significant.
Could the favorites pages reflect the italicization of the original comments? [more inside]
December 11
Software on the Space Shuttle comment?
Can you help me find this comment that described how software for the Space Shuttle is written? [more inside]
Concerning my Mark Madoff obituary post
WTF cat torture!?
I appreciate Knigel's work on this post but it needs to go asap, this is some crazy sick shit right here, and surely by posting it we are only encouraging in the dissemination of something really unpleasant.
December 10
What is our collective noun?
A douche of assholes. A ________ of Mefites. [more inside]
Help with Mental Health
I need warm words of wisdom. Anyone have tips on dealing with a loved one's manic depressive drug infused anger in real-time?
Now let's not everybody talk at once...
Infodump request: what is the largest number of (non-deleted) posts over the shortest period of time at MeFi (inspired by the recent 6 posts in 16 minutes, of which mine was one)? Were there any memorable incidents, accompanied by Mods going OMGWTFBBQ? And have we ever broken out what hours are generally the busiest for Mefi posts (and if so, why do I not remember)? How about similar data for Ask, MeTa, etc. if it's not a bad thing to be doing on a Friday afternoon (it probably is, forget I asked).
Who the hell are you people?
I like to know things. I like to know things about people. I especially like to know things about people who I interact with online. It bums me right out that it seems so few newer members take the time, or wish to, fill out anything in their profile. Is there any way to encourage this? [more inside]
Can't access Metafilter
Suddenly I can't access metafilter.com any more. [more inside]
THEN WHO WAS PHONE? Literally.
Was there ever an explanation/solution to the cell phone stalking mystery? Google only reveals news reports from 2007, and no followup information.
December 9
57: Letterpress Waffles
Episode 57 of the podcast runs about an hour and fifteen minutes and covers the previous month (November plus first week of December) of MetaFilter. Lots of new features and holiday stuff mentioned. [more inside]
IRL Alerts
Introducing: IRL Alerts. Find out when someone posts an IRL event taking place near you via MeFi Mail. [more inside]
Hoder freed?
MeFi's own hoder, the activist blogger jailed by Iranian authorities, has been freed, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. [more inside]
December 8
It's "Its"
It's "Its". Mefites are unusually smart and literate people. It seems weird to me how often mistakes like this are made. Grocer's apostrophe, too. It's like everybody loses their minds when an "s" comes at the end of a word. What is with this? [more inside]
Where have all the kitties gone?
One of the reasons I joined MeFi was because I was reliably informed there would be kitty pictures.
I have now seen posts regarding cats WITHOUT photos of said cats!
This shit must cease! I need kitty photos!
PS I pride myself on being both vague and nonsensical so feel free to delete if need be.
Datawank much?
Here, because I didn't sleep well last night, is a look at the use of the rhetorical device "[verb/adjective/descriptor] much?" on Metafilter. Specifically, on the blue, the grey, and the green. [more inside]
It's going to start feeling lk bngbngs cmmnts n hr f y kp ths p
Cortex, why is it not alright to comment on what I read in the comments that you deleted? [more inside]
December 7
Maybe I'm Just New But...
The comments in the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign thread are the funniest thing I have ever read on the blue. [more inside]
Thanks and WTF?
Thank You Very Much. [more inside]
RIP Elizabeth Edwards
This is where we discuss the Elizabeth Edwards obit thread. We've done this a few times before, I think.
Air Guitar
sufficiently
sufficiently
Do the "ff"s in this font look funny to you? Or is it just me? [more inside]
I can has donkey?
Why isn't "status" an open text field, too? [more inside]
Dear AskMeFi users. Here are the fifty most popular names in the US for women and men. Please choose from these names when referring to people you want to be anonymous, instead of calling them "X"
Dear AskMeFi users. Here are the fifty most popular names in the US for women and men. Please choose from these names when referring to people you want to be anonymous, instead of calling them "X", or "Y" or "Z" or "Person X", or "Friend Y" or "Co-worker Z".
For some reason I find it hard to follow stories which say "and then F said to J, 'I don't like D, but don't tell C, she'd be heartbroken' and J was all 'Oh F, I agree about D but what about T?'" [more inside]
December 6
Much Ado About Donuts
I appear to have just gotten my first comment deletion, out of this thread. Out of concern about aggressive moderation and love for the MetaFilter community, I have several pony requests. [more inside]
Currently Lost in the Funhouse
This is the monthly notice about the MeTa Book Club. The discussion of John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse and the accompanying Yale Professor Amy Hungerford lecture just began today in a MeCha post. [more inside]
December 5
McLuhanesque
Life, as it turns out can be something like this.
In a thread on Gibson, presumed statements by Nisi Shawl are being discussed when in steps Nisi herself and (but much more gently than Marshall McLuhan) sets the record state.
I've got these iPhone Metafilerin' Blues
Is it possible to start a new post (in AskMe or MetaTalk, say) using the mobile version of Metafilter? Is it possible to contact the mods using the mobile version? I looked, but I didn't see any way to do so.
'Tis not.
America's copyeditors would like to encourage Metafilter to change the message at the top of the site. [more inside]
Listing the tags from a given date
If I could do magic I would create an application which does the following:
Input: A date
Output: An .html file contating a list of all metafilter.com FPP tags from that date, with a link to the corresponding FPP.
How would you go about creating such an application? [more inside]
December 4
self-corrected spelling??
is there a protocol for correcting one's own spelling mistakes in a comment in the subsequent post?
SLYT should be in FAQ
Definition of "SLYT" should go into the FAQ. That is all.
Where's the link?
The latest Wikileaks post claims someone sent an email without any apparent link to anything regarding the existence of that email. That is all.
If you delete this post I win a prize
My last three posts have all been deleted. Just out of curiosity, how many more deleted posts do I need to win the record? [more inside]
December 3
Is it possible for me to get new posts with a particular tag sent directly to my email?
Is it possible for me to get new posts with a particular tag sent directly to my email? [more inside]
Common misconceptions that don't really pertain to the question.
Popular Favorites RSS
Pony: I'd love to have a feed for this page: http://www.metafilter.com/home/popularfavorites - A feed of all the recent posts which land on that page.
This would really help me keep up.
The Crazy Dad Routine is an example of what makes AskMe yet.
December 2
Speculative News Posts Shouldering Out Legitimate News Posts
Should speculative posts always become the canonical Mefi thread? [more inside]
A way to create deeper links to NY Times Articles
For those of us who link to articles and essays in the New York Times, they have quietly rolled out an update to the way hyperlinks can be created for their articles. New code embedded in pages on their site allow users to create links to, and/or highlight individual paragraphs and sentences. [more inside]
airfare search in projects?
Looking for a site I thought I saw posted in Projects featuring a new better-than-Kayak airfare search. (Not Mobissimo, not Fly.com, not Skyscanner.) [more inside]
Back... To Yesterday!
IRL Bug: this event, which happened yesterday, is showing up in the "Upcoming" part of the sidebar for me.
December 1
How many times has this happened to you?
Hello there. Sorry if this is inappropriate, but I'm looking for a post from some months ago which was a mash-up of a bunch of the "How many times has this happened to you?" moments from infomercials. People who can't tie their shoes, can't open jars, can't cut an onion, and like that. Can someone remember?
Languagehat's Year In Reading
Please enjoy this post by MeFi's own languagehat on The Millions, a blog edited by MeFi's own merlinmann cmaxmagee, about some favorite books he read this year. There are also many Year In Reading entries by other literary luminaries and the series will continue until year end.
Thank You Secret Quonsar!
I would like to thank my Secret Quonsar and invite others to as well and bask in the schmoopy. [more inside]