April 2013 Archives (all archives)
April 30
FPPs that stay with you
I'm still enjoying this Sherlock Holmes fpp from january 2013. What posts do you guys keep coming back to? Why?
80: Your Go-to Salad
The 80th podcast was recorded on Monday, April 29th and runs about 90min in length, covering all the best posts, comments, and questions in April of 2013 [more inside]
Help me understand this.
Can someone explain for me why it seems like whenever there is good news (with political aspects) announced on the Blue, there always seems to be a compulsion to bring forth what The Other Side Says? I'm thinking of things like this and this, for recent examples, but it used to be quotes from Little Green Footballs or whoever was the MetaFilter bete noire of the day. (This is not a callout and I'm not asking anyone to stop--I just don't understand why people would intentionally seek out opinions they find repugnant.) [more inside]
What's the best tool to read long metafilter threads offline ?
What do you use to read long mefi or askmefi threads offline ? I often read long threads weeks after the posting date. I send them to an instapaper queue (and send manually the link(s) to instapaper too) - then read them on my kindle when I have the time. I'm wondering if there is a better way to do this. [more inside]
April 29
When is a "cool thing in the real world" a "cool thing on the internet"?
This post by Lemurrhea was just deleted. I can certainly see why it needed to be deleted (it was an exceedingly thin post informing us that Neutral Milk Hotel has started touring again after 15 years). I get that, but I'm perplexed by the mod reason for its deletion. restless_nomad: This isn't so much 'a cool thing on the internet' as 'a cool thing in the real world." [more inside]
I think I might be my own grandpaw, or six degrees of Brandon Blatcher
I was wondering, has anyone has ever charted the tangled web of linked to/by relationships, or if that was even feasible with datamuckery? It's approaching four years since the great enspousening, and I was wondering how we are all interconnected. [more inside]
Research on MetaFilter Reading/Posting
Hey guys! I'm a PhD student in Communications and I'm looking for MeFites who might be interested in a short (10min) survey/interview about, well, MeFi - how you came to it, how you make decisions about what to post and read, what kinds of daily habits you have, and so on. Just head to the link here. More details below - but if you're interested, please complete it BEFORE reading/posting comments on this thread! [more inside]
April 28
Post with an old list of techniques for coping with depression?
I'm sure that some time in the last month I read a post on AskMe related to stress/depression, and somebody posted a list, or a link to a list, of coping techniques originally created a long time ago (early 1900s?). As well as the usual exercise, read, spend time with friends etc, I remember one of the points starting along the lines of "don't expect too much of the human race..."
I thought I had favorited it, but can't find it, and site/google searches have failed me. Anyone able to point me to it?
April 27
Super Secret Mini Mefi Meetup
Appalachian Trail hiker, Zak (aka wearyaswater) took me up on my mefi offer. [more inside]
AskMe about spellcheck software
I swear there was an AskMe within the past few days in which the OP was looking for a way to differentiate among spelling variances in names (e.g., Steven, Stephen, etc.) and some responder pointed to a tool that the responder had made that did just this.
Anyone remember it? I can't find it.
Thanks.
April 26
Happy birthday, Cortex!
"Moderator, chief datawrangler at Metafilter", "cortex is a 32-year-old musician, computer geek, and generally reckless creative-type person in Portland, OR. His username on mefi is “cortex”, for reasons that aren’t particularly interesting."
Happy Birthday Mr Cortex
The sock thief of the MetaFilter Aristocracy has some warm words for the masses on this special day. [more inside]
Informative answer deleted
April 25
Deleting comments from MeTa
Hey, what's the deal with a joke comment being deleted from this recent MetaTalk thread? It was mild joke and I thought the bar for deleting comments from Metatal was much higher. I would ask in the thread, but when someone else did that, their comment was deleted, so here we are.
Are we really fighting about hats and shoes again?
I was just reminded of a few moments in mefi's past that were a bit ridiculous by the "when did someone get the answer they didn't expect?" thread, both with the hat thread and the shoes indoors thread. Then i flipped over to AskMe and noticed this... [more inside]
Always Professional
Is there a way to maintain the professional white background "plain" theme when not logged in? The solution can be as kludge-y as necessary if anyone wants to explain how I can do this myself; I need it to work on literally one computer.
Hugs, High-Fives, and Happiness
Welcome, mini-[username]! Congrats, MeFi's own [username] for [thing] that further enriched us by having you here! Oh, look, our own [username] did [MeFi-related thing] in [non-MeFi venue]! Guess what - [real name/othernic] is Mefi's Own [username]! [more inside]
FYI: Contact Form Seems to not work on Android (Dolplhin Browser)
Last night, I tried to use the MetaFilter contact form. I had some technical difficulties with it. I tried to search to see if this a known issue with the contact form. I did not find anything but my MetaFilter search fu isn't the greatest. I thought I would just let you know, in case you didn't already know (and in case there is some stupidly simple solution should I ever need to use the form again). [more inside]
April 24
(If I need to make that argument, I'll do that inside!)
Maybe I missed something, and if I did, I am sorry, but... [more inside]
Pony Request: RSS Edition
Would it be possible to have the "Contact Activity" feed available as RSS? I always forget it's there until i happen to be on the main page and notice that my friends have been posting cool stuff.
Oh goody. Another one of these threads.
A comment of mine was just deleted. Normally, meh. [more inside]
April 23
Looking for a MeTa
Does anyone remember a MeTa about AskMe questions that really, really did not go the way the asker expected? I can't seem to find the post I'm thinking of. It would have been fairly recent, probably posted in the last year or so.
Proposed Doctype Change
This is a note to MetaFilter browser extension authors. We're considering a change to the Doctype across the site. Please weigh in if you have concerns. [more inside]
April 22
Favorites begetting favorites
I have two random thoughts about the inner workings of metafilter, that I would be curious to know the answer to:
1. Has anyone looked at if there is a "critical mass" of "favourites." I.E. at what point does having a certain number favourites result other people seeing the comment, clicking it and favouriting it?
2. How many hits on overage will a FPP link cause for a target site?
Matt has a new icon
Matt's interview in the latest issue of Wired: Matt Haughey on Trolls, Nonfriend Networks, and Why Buzzfeed Sucks
CISPA Blackout?
On April 22 some websites will protest CISPA with a blackout. In January 2012 MetaFilter joined the protest against SOPA/PIPA, are we going to join this one too? [more inside]
April 19
MetaTalk Queue
We're turning on the MetaTalk queue for the weekend. [more inside]
Reposting from chat.metafilter.com?
I had a comment of mine from the chat get reposted in the boston thread, which was a relatively innocuous comment, so I'm not really mad about it, but I'd really prefer that that doesn't become a thing. The chat requires a log in to view, it's not archived publicly and the expectations about what people can and can't talk about there are different.
Thanks.
April 18
3000+ Comment Megaponies
So, even outside of election years browser crushing 3000+ post megathreads are now a not uncommon thing - should we be looking at pagination at the 2000 comment mark? And if not pagination what else could be done to make them less of a browser crushing experience, especially on mobile?
Please, Someone; Start a New Marathon Thread
The existing Boston Marathon Thread has not only turned unwieldy, it's now become the go-to place to put anything that happens in the greater Boston area (c.f., M.I.T. policeman shot, which while tragic, has nothing to do with the thread itself).
Given that there was a MAJOR change in the storyline with the release earlier today of the FBI's pictures and videos of the actual (not hypothetical, not crowd sourced) suspects #1 and #2, I'm going on record with a plea for someone to please make a new thread (which can stand on its own merits) about this, particular, new information so that this can be discussed and updated there (apart from the original thread, which was a thread about the bombing itself, not the search for the suspected bombers).
There's Metafilter love in Boston!
Universal Hub is a great place to get your Boston news, especially when all the mainstream media outlets keep reporting false rumors every two seconds. Today, they credited us with the story about the pissant in West Virginia.
April 17
Chuck P.
Chuck Palahniuk is being very clever over at Reddit.
bullshit
The moderation around here has officially become fucking ridiculous. [more inside]
Dwarf Pony Sought - "My Activity"
Would it be possible to add the front page "xx new" comments to the "my activity" tab? [more inside]
Has "logout" been removed?
Did there used to be a "logout" link next to the username right above the comment box? [more inside]
bestof.metafilter.com/ down?!
Just clicked on a link in the sideblog and got a 404. Tried http://bestof.metafilter.com/ alone and got a 403. [more inside]
When a double is better than the original
The Beatles post from filthy light thief was deleted because it was a double, but the original post had only a 7 minute video, while thief's post had the whole hour-long show. Is a double post always deleted even if the double is better than the original ?
This is the Internet. Taxonomy is important
April 16
No Avoiding Google
I was initially trying to read the metafilter post There's No Avoiding Google+ and I kept getting a server error:
Your Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.31 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/26.0.1410.64 Safari/537.31
[more inside]
#FF66CC
ThePinkSuperhero's profile page is the best evar. Or is it? Are there other user profiles with CSS or HTML awesomery?
Fuck yo title. I'm Rick James, bitch!
Buy A Shirt - how long has that black shirt been there? Did it used to be a different color? I need to know if it's new or if I have absolutely horrible observational skills.
How Blogger Begat the Push-Button Publishing Revolution
This Neat Flowchart from over at Wired didn't seem like enough for a FPP but it's really interesting to see what all the Pyra Labs people have done since 1998, including starting things like Metafilter. "At the close of 1998, there were 23 known weblogs on the Internet. A year later there were tens of thousands. What changed? Pyra Labs launched Blogger, the online tool that gave push-button publishing to the people. It was a revolutionary web product made by a revolutionary web of people who went on to build much of the modern net. Here’s how Pyra propagated."
How old is too old for a good Metafilter Post?
I have read the guidelines, but there is no mention of age of info.
Example: I know that a particular youtube video (in this case it's a dance performance but it could be anything) has not been posted to Mefi before, and yet it was originally uploaded 4 years ago.
If I feel that MeFites will like the content, does it matter how old the original content is?
As mentioned, I have searched for it in the archive, and it's not a meme - or meme related, so is it reasonable to assume that most Mefites wont have seen it or be aware of it?
Finally apologies, I didn't know if / where to put an apostrophe in MeFites so I left it out. My brain cannot seem to parse correct grammar today :S
April 15
Thanks everyone
I just wanted to thank everyone in chat and the Explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line thread who have let us know that our friends and fellow mefites are okay, kept cool heads, provided amazing links to accurate information / feeds, and debunked false reports today. And also thank you to the mods who were on duty in both places as well, keeping everything running smoothly. This has been a terribly upsetting afternoon. The care, support and kindness in evidence has been calming and reassuring.
Master Thesis Survey about MetaFilter
I have been a longtime lurker here on MetaFilter who just recently registered and I thought it would be a fascinating subject to dive into for my master thesis.
In order to get a better understanding of user activity on MetaFilter, I created the following survey:
Master Thesis Survey About MetaFilter
As I mention in the introductory text, the survey is completely anonymous and IP addresses will NOT be saved. I hope you take the time to submit your response and help a fellow MeFite out :) [more inside]
Master Thesis Survey About MetaFilter
As I mention in the introductory text, the survey is completely anonymous and IP addresses will NOT be saved. I hope you take the time to submit your response and help a fellow MeFite out :) [more inside]
April 14
Seeking recent Alan Watts link: why work?
Somewhere in the blue, green or gray, within the past several weeks, somebody's response contained a one-word link to an Alan Watts bit on Youtube. [more inside]
Dammit! Logged myself out again.
Is it really necessary to have more than one logout link when you are posting a comment or post? I refer to the Posting as: [username] (logout) right above the post textbox. More than once recently I have been aiming for the textbox with the mouse and clicked on the logout link by mistake. (Why anyone would actually want to log out of Metafilter is beyond me, but also fodder for a different post.)
Seriously, once a page up at the top is enough, no? Logging out should be a deliberate act.
April 12
The Sword of Benny Andajetz
What's Your Metafilter moment?
For me, it was the dumb realization that after ten some years of seeing the name Benny Andajetz in posts/comments etc, that it was not just some weird assed Serbian name I would never really be called on to pronounce right out loud.
It was fuckin Benny and The Jets.
Christ what an asshole.
Ten fuckin years yo.
Yours?
For me, it was the dumb realization that after ten some years of seeing the name Benny Andajetz in posts/comments etc, that it was not just some weird assed Serbian name I would never really be called on to pronounce right out loud.
It was fuckin Benny and The Jets.
Christ what an asshole.
Ten fuckin years yo.
Yours?
MeFi Housing?
I launched my latest apartment hunt this week (I'm moving to Chicago!), and turned immediately to the Ask MeFi archives for advice. As I sent my 93rd email to an unknown Craigslist poster this afternoon, it hit me: Wouldn't it be great to do this on MetaFilter? We already have Jobs, which is very close, and Ask threads about housing often include a few leads from other members. In fact, I was tempted to post one myself for this reason, but I don't really have an original question. [more inside]
Not A Forum
Should "Metafilter is a community blog, not a forum" be in the guidelines? [more inside]
What would have been a permissible way to raise this topic?
I attempted a FPP with this post that was pretty swiftly deleted because something had purportedly been "debunked". What would have been a permissible way to make a FPP regarding the current trial of Dr. Kent Gosnell? [more inside]
THANKS A FUCKING LOT
April 11
You're my favorite.
If favorites are bookmarks, and I'm not saying that they are, it would be nice to be able to search them by username. [more inside]
April 10
Issue with the mobile site on Android 4.1.1
I have a new phone (Motorola Droid Razr M), running Android 4.1.1 and I'm using Firefox (looks like 20.0?). When I click the (X New) link to enter a thread rather than the X Comments / X Answers, nothing happens. If I press and hold, I can cut and then paste the link into the browser, but just tapping it to enter the thread and jump to the latest comment/answer doesn't work. This is also true of the favorite + and the flag !. [more inside]
April 9
It is slmorri in a runaway!
Congrats to slmorri for winning, in convincing fashion, this year's Metafilter NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket. [more inside]
I think they can spell it now
Update on this thread: wearyaswater (her trail name is Zag) and Laura (Owl) are doing fine on their thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. [more inside]
April 8
Tramp the Dirt Down
So, my comment suggesting that people not come into the Thatcher thread and say 'As an American, I don't know much about this, but you should probably be more nice about her' was deleted. I imagine the place to put it is here? [more inside]
April 7
Warning for MeMail to disabled accounts
If a user has a disabled account, the user's profile page lacks a link to send MeFi Mail, effectively preventing us from sending that user MeMail. But most of the MeMails I send are via replies. When I reply, there is no warning if the user has disabled the account. It can be a little surprising to realize that one has been sending messages essentially into the ether, although I presume the messages are preserved for the user's return. Can we get a warning when sending a MeMail to a user with a disabled account?
April 6
Mobile site: truncated text
When browsing the front page on my phone, the text of many posts runs off the right-hand side of the screen. [more inside]
Make the clothes fit you, not vice versa
I'm looking for an AskMe comment about getting clothes tailored. [more inside]
April 5
Frederick Jaffe's son shows up to answer a question
The answers in my old question about a Planned Parenthood were all perfectly good, but I got the best answer and some new documents in a MeMail from now mefite Dave Jaffe, son of the memo author Frederick Jaffe. [more inside]
A short update to an old Star Trek: Nemesis AskMe
In regard to the following two-year-old AskMe...
Is there any connection between the Nemesis movie script described in the movie Trekkies and the last ST:TNG movie, Star Trek: Nemesis?[more inside]
Jump to best answer?
Pony request: I know this is slightly silly, but I would like validation for something that I find myself doing occasionally - can clicking on the check mark next to a question with a best answer in it jump me straight to the first best answer in the comments? Sometimes I read a question and want to just see what the person thought the best answer is. I did not see any requests for this in a search going back to 2008, so I figured I'd ask.
April 4
How should we remember Roger Ebert?
I regret to inform you that Roger Ebert has died. He mattered to me, and to many people here. Jessamyn has deleted a couple of single-link obituary posts on the grounds that "as much as I appreciate the timeliness of this, this guy has been hugely influential here. Maybe someone could make a proper obit post?" I agree. Perhaps we might take a day or two and do that collaboratively, collecting links and stories and making up a grand obituary post of shared memories of his life. [more inside]
Number of flags per deleted post?
I was wondering if the currently available piles of data support certain metrics... [more inside]
Metafilter hits the big time
Metafilter gets a shout-out in The Atlantic.
April 3
Enough fat jokes please
First post got deleted
My very first post on Metafilter (about N. Korea) was just deleted! Bummer. [more inside]
A simple complaint about
what it says on the tin. [more inside]
April 2
"Indian giver" is still not okay
Another Panacea
Please welcome another anotherpanacea: Cordelia Ruth Miller, the new new daughter born to anotherpanacea and his wife. I feel better already.
Am I seeing double?
This is not exactly a callout, in that I don't have any problem with the advice per se, but... I noticed a recent answer to a job-related question which seemed to be basically the same as an answer I had gotten a couple years ago... [more inside]