December 2011 Archives (all archives)
December 31
Who wants post-Quonsmas presents? Or: Metafilter Craft Exchange?
Who wants post-Quonsmas presents? Or: Metafilter Craft Exchange? [more inside]
MeFites' Choice Awards
So I suggested it in the original contest post and now I am taking the initiative -- let's have a MeFites' Choice Awards segment of the December Best Post contest. [more inside]
I don't have kids, but I DO have your answer...
December 30
My milkshake brings all the boys etc.
Another mefite on Jeopardy
When I tuned in to Jeopardy tonight one of the contestants was talking about his best-selling book, which was apparently based in part on this AskMe. Not a very prolific member, but still has an account.
THINK SAFETY
It has been 10 days since the last banning. In the words of Jessamyn, "None of us have ever seen the number go this high."
EditMe
Desjardins suggested an edit for your answer to "How do I properly bury the body?" [more inside]
Ending in ? does not a question make
December 29
If your website is full of assholes, it's your fault
Mefite[1] Anil Dash[2] writes[3]:
"Simply learning from disciplines like urban planning, zoning regulations, crowd control, effective and humane policing, and the simple practices it takes to stage an effective public event, we can come up with a set of principles to prevent the overwhelming majority of the worst behaviors on the Internet." Examples? Why Metafilter, of course, (as well as Stack Exchange sites, of which he is a board member). [more inside]
Annotate MetaFilter user-links everywhere with a black/grey/white indication of user-number.
Secret quonsar 2011 roundup
It's Secret quonsar Roundup Time! We're trying to make sure everyone gets their gift this year. Please check your email and respond if you have an email from us. If you have any questions talk to us Meanwhile, we thought we'd share some fun statistics and next steps. [more inside]
December 28
A new you for the new year with Team MetaFilter
Do you want to be a fitter MeFite in 2012? Join (or re-join) the MetaFilter team on Health Month for January and harness the awesome power of social support in meeting your goals. [more inside]
to br or not to br
Line breaks being added to post after I preview an FPP? [more inside]
wtfwitter?
Pretty sure an admin is not responsible for this. But: can anybody explain the existence of the MetaWTFilter twitter account? I'm guessing at this moment that it is not spam as it would be following more than 5 people if it were.
Come on gguys
I cracked a joke and it got deleted. Guys, you melted my snowflake. [more inside]
December 27
Bad deletion.
I keep stopping by the Side Bar, but it's never open!
Back in October, jessamyn said, "We seem to have a small but dedicated group of people who use the fantastic flag, but a much larger group of favoriters. ... [P]aying more attention to them and being a bit more active on the sidebar (which is my job, more or less) is a good idea." But we've had only 3 sidebar entries in all of December, the most recent Dec 7. Can I respectfully ask jessamyn to do more sidebarring? [more inside]
Help me find cat video
If I can find this cat video again, it will make my children happy. [more inside]
December 26
Who protested, "It's SCIENCE!"
I wanted to mention a bit of MeFi history in this AskMe but maybe not really appropriate, there -- anyway, couldn't find the links; but there was some other discussion about cannabis several years ago, a famous flame-out with a protesting voice, "It's SCIENCE!" Anybody remember the details?
December 25
Ringle Jock Bell
Merry Christmas to all and too all a Jingle Rock Bell, User PinkStainlessTail's mefi xmas classic.
December 24
Hard work and learning
Happy Holidays and Thanks to the members and staff for a year of learning, entertainment, provocation, rethinking, skepticism, compassion and every bodies hard work.
December 23
Everyone's favorite band sucks.
We've had roll calls for a bunch of other social networking sites, and now it is last.fm's turn. So tell me, who are you? (Who who? Who who?) [more inside]
MetaTalk Holiday Queue
Happy holidays everyone. As we did around US Thanksgiving, we're implementing a queue for MetaTalk posts over the next few days and then again around the new year. [more inside]
A "staff" indicator for taz
Did I miss a meeting? I cannot figure out why taz doesn't have a nifty "staff" indicator when she posts (example). Hope me?
Time stamp for posterity.
Could we get a time stamp added to deletion reasons? They are the only type of comment that isn't time stamped, so all we know is that the deletion occurred sometime after the last comment (or sometime between posting and any comments).
December 22
Myopic Filter
MetaFilter hall monitors deleted my post after ignoring it twice because they have the souls of Tracy Flick or because they are intimidated by the CIA. [more inside]
What percentage of FPP links get clicked?
What percentage of FPP links get clicked?
December 21
Calling out all participants in the Slactivist thread...
I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the recent thread here concerning the Slactivist blog. [more inside]
Tab... POST
A small commenting feature request: Change the tab order so that tabbing out of the comment box puts the focus on the post button. [more inside]
December 20
It's a small MetaFilter world
The contacts section allows us to indicate who we've actually met. Would the infodump be able to tell us who among us has met the most MeFites? I know it's dependent on people selecting the "met" box when listing a contact, but I'm curious about the number.
December 19
"And now to add a quote from Ayn Rand ..."
Related to pony still in the stable: how often do you update your profile? [more inside]
Can't find best-of-mefi post
I recall reading a MetaTalk post a few months back asking what the best and most classic MetaFilter posts/comments are. However, I can't find it. [more inside]
Metafilter Etiquette 101: Obit Threads
Kim Jong Il died yesterday and everybody took a long, satisfying shit on his corpse. Some were confused about why was this OK, though. The mods felt this has been explained before and needed no further explanation. I disagree. [more inside]
Legofilter
We've had a Lego-based FPP every day this week. Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon or are our friends in Denmark making a concentrated media push around Christmastime?
December 18
It is done.
In case you missed it, metafilter was down for maintainance for a bit last night.
December 17
Stop click and listen
I seem to post a lot of FPPs that revolve around podcast or other audio content these days, and It's gotten me curious... how often do you stop and listen to the content in links of that kind? Is it more or less likely than the chances you would watch a video?
AskMe Dis-ad-biguation
Google ads on AskMe pages makes them very confusing to read (for non-members who see them). Is it possible to visually separate them a bit more from the content? Or move the ads below the "More Inside" content?
Better late than never: Issue 8 of MeFi Mag is here
It's taken a while, but Issue#8 of MeFi Mag has finally arrived! [more inside]
AskMe in the classroom
Can I (or anyone) use AskMe questions for educational purposes? [more inside]
December 16
MeFi NBA League
The NBA is giving us the best Xmas present possible this year: A season starting on Xmas Day. As a result, the MeFi NBA league is back, [more inside]
Forgotten spymaster
Seeking post from a while ago on a forgotten Cold War novelist who was a master of the genre. [more inside]
Are.you.serious?
This is going to be my first feature request on the site. I was wondering if it'd be possible to add a Sarcastic Font tag to our arsenal of HTML when posting. As many of you are aware, it is sometimes extremely hard to convey sarcasm in written text, and I think this would really benefit some people by spelling out when someone is being sarcastic. Here are some examples of its use. Thank you for your time, and just so you know, HAMBURGER jokes are so 2011 (or whenever that was first introduced).
December 15
Mefi's own Languagehat
(mefi's own) Languagehat ranks #1 on the list of people asked about their favorite reads in 2011 by The Millions. I'm sure there are a couple other mefites on the list, too.
AskMe songs about courage
Help me find a particular AskMe about music? [more inside]
Scheduled Maintenance Saturday
We're going to have some downtime for maintenance this Saturday night at 10pm Pacific Time. [more inside]
I was there!
IRL Pony: Can we get an "I was There!" option for past events? [more inside]
Better question?
This question didn't get much of a response - one answer on the green, and one in mefi mail. Why not? [more inside]
Mail This Thing To A Friend
Has there ever been talk about a "mail this question to a friend" thingy for askmefi? I frequently see a question and know someone who would know the answer but completely forget to actually tell them about the post.
This would probably also work on the blue... "mail this post to a friend." I never use those on sites, but I have that on my blog and I'm always surprised how much it gets used. Maybe put it up there under the "Share:" links?
December 14
Look for post: don't want to be a gay mom
Looking for a metafilter post about a mother who was pro-gay but didn't want their child to grow up to be gay. [more inside]
Another mention of of our glorious founder and metafilter.
Gizmodo mentions mathowie as one of the most 25 viral people on the internet. He came in at number 13. [more inside]
December 13
War and Peace Character Cheat Sheet
War and Peace Character Cheat Sheet? [more inside]
Link fix in Daicon post
Are any mods asleep? Post ponies. I could use some admin hope. The Daicon post has the second link a duplicate of the first, a mistake I discovered I made within a minute of posting it. Can I get it fixed? [more inside]
How will I search for my favorite pony?
Wondering if it's possible to limit a search to just within my favorited posts? [more inside]
Ten percent of nothin' is, let me do the math here... nothin' and a nothin', carry the nothin'...
An Infodump Question™ and followup to this post: What is the average number of favorites per post received for each of the various MeFi subsites? Per comment? Average number of favorites given and received for the userbase?
Lonely Train
I'm looking for a train video. [more inside]
December 12
Deleted Questions
I don't think posters on the green should be able to have their questions deleted just because they are done with them or don't like the answers they are receiving. [more inside]
December 11
Bad AskMe Deletions.
These are Bad AskMe Comment Deletions. [more inside]
December 10
Blue shells, nothing but blue shells... from now on
Join the Mario Kart 7 MetaFilter community! [more inside]
At least we're not down to 140 characters
Has the maximum length for comments been shortened some time in the past six months or so? I see more and more comments getting cut off that seem long-ish but hardly Treaty-of-Westphalia long. Perhaps there was a discussion about this and I missed it. I hate to request ponies, but perhaps a "characters remaining" count for the text-entry field or a warning on hitting Post would help alleviate the problem.
Please Police Your Google Search Parameters
I'd like to respectfully ask everyone to please clean up their Google search URLs. [more inside]
December 9
In Praise of Faze
Creative Writing
What are the most creatively written posts on Metafilter? [more inside]
December 8
Can My Comments take me to my last comment on a post.
A pony request for the "my comments" view. It would be nice to be able to jump to the last comment one made in a topic from the "My Comments" view. It is sometimes difficult to follow the conversation from ones last post without searching.
Please help me find a comment
A while back on Metafilter somebody in a comment gave a name to the phenomenon where a naive computer user would go through a crazy number of steps to achieve a result that a user who knows what they're doing would get in a much more straightforward manner. So, to manipulate an image they'd found online, they might print it out, then take a photograph of it, then email the JPG file to themselves, then etc., etc... This sort of thing.
Does anybody remember the comment I'm talking about, and the name it gave for this? I think it may have been a comment by one of the mods, but I can't quite remember it or find it by searching. Thanks!
(I ask because I'm sure it'll be a perfect description of the map on this page.)
December 7
67: Dam
This podcast covers the tail end of October as well as November. We sort of steered clear of anything from December for the next podcast that will recap the Awesome Post Contest. This one was run high and tight, only at an hour and with no edits during the time we talked. [more inside]
Yearly MeFi Retrospective Podcast?
Podcasts of notable things on MeFi each month or so are fun. Maybe a larger scope would be funner. Would a podcast about the entire past year be possible? [more inside]
Mr. Marsh from the old Amusement Park!
Idea for the The Great Mystery Box of MeFi [more inside]
The mystery continues...
The Phantom Gifter strikes again. [more inside]
What is Cool for $500!
December 6
Pick Your Bowl
Who's up for some college bowl picking on Yahoo? [more inside]
I'll take "bad ideas in advertising" for $10,000, Alex
In which our illustrious founder details an ad pitch from corporate America to MetaFilter.
It's as if people are still surprised that PayPal is terrible...
So we're Outragefilter now? Or are we going with "but there's people giving PayPal alternatives which makes it barely legitimate" on this one?
I only ask because I also have some doozies from reddit ready to go.
I'm a fan of descriptive names, personally
Is "community weblog" still a good description of Metafilter? The word "weblog" is just a long form of "blog," according to Merriam-Webster, and all other dictionaries I checked. "Blog" has come to mean "a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites." (from here) But you don't really need a dictionary to tell you that "blogs" tend to be about people's personal opinions and experiences. So "community weblog" doesn't strike me as an apt description of a site where posts on the main page are required to be impersonal. Might it be time to change the name "community weblog" to something else?
December 5
Could we gamble on this?
December 4
Stay out of the news, Dammit!
Hello haystack.
Looking for a needle. Back in 2004/2005, there was a response on Ask MeFi (I think) in which the commenter explained how he had made peace with/improved his life. I recall him saying that he just woke up one morning and decided to start doing more to help out around the house (i.e., washing dishes, doing things with his children, etc.). [more inside]
December 3
Jessamyn article from In The Library With The Lead Pipe
"I wrote a book in 2009 and 2010. It’s getting published this year (2011) sometime. Let me tell you about what it's like writing a print book for a large trade publisher during the long leisurely sunset of print. It was different from what I thought it would be." Jessamyn looks at print books from a writer’s first-person perspective. [more inside]
December 2
It's REALLY important you know I have cool taste in music
Is the Last.fm widget busted? For several weeks I've just been seeing "Couldn't load the tracks from Last.fm" on my profile and everyone else's, using both Firefox on OSX and iOS.
Let's talk about anarchism
I disagree with this deletion. I think the subject would have deserved a thread of its own, as it wasn't just another story about the movement, it was an interesting piece on its own right. [more inside]
What do favorites look like?
What does the slope of favorites look like for FPP or AskMe questions? [more inside]
Here's to Previously Asked Questions
Looking at the old questions really does help so much. [more inside]
@ for one, @ for all
Can we have an @ button thingo pony so we can see when
someone has replied to us, or quoted us, or SACRE BLEU, contradicted us on the green, grey and blue? You know what I mean, like twitter and Facebook has. Pretty please?
December 1
It's the Most Quonsarful Time of The Year!
THNK U, QUONSAR!!!! [more inside]
Outrageous Spontaneous Filings
An article on "professional online moderators" in Bloomberg Businessweek, including Jessamyn and the Metafilter Russian Incident. [more inside]
mathowie interviews CmdrTaco
"I was a daily reader of Slashdot from about 1997 onwards, and it was a key inspiration for me starting MetaFilter." Matt Haughey interviewed Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda, Slashdot founder.