May 2001 Archives (all archives)

May 31

Nonusers can't even look at mefi?

Will new users ever* be let into** MetaFilter?

*I’m not interested in starting a conversation about the various benefits and liabilities of more users.

**Open MetaFilter.com with cookies off, and you'll see what I mean.
posted by capt.crackpipe to MetaFilter-Related at 4:54 PM PST - 13 comments

Restoring the 'filter back in 2001....

now that quesoFilter's up and running, how about putting the header graphics back up on metafilter proper? it's just not the same without them!
posted by palegirl to Bugs at 3:48 PM PST - 8 comments

crapping on other members has become acceptable

In my opinion, following members around in order to flame them and personal attacks have no place in Metafilter. I get the impression from the bile spewn at both long-term members (like aaron) and newbies (like redgie) that crapping on other members has become acceptible.
posted by Avogadro to Etiquette/Policy at 10:55 AM PST - 35 comments

Speedy MeFi

Great job, Jason, MeFi is speedy once more. And I'm within a mile of the box itself.

Somehow being in such close physical proximity to MeFi is soothing.
posted by anildash to MetaFilter-Related at 10:12 AM PST - 17 comments

May 30

Is the IRC channel closed during MeFi shutdowns?

Before MeFi goes off line for its connection upgrade (see side-blog), what's the scoop on an IRC channel, especially after the last shut down? During shutdown, it might ease withdrawal < : ( > and also be interesting in and of itself. And if only I could get Ircle to run on my Mac...
posted by ParisParamus to MetaFilter-Related at 8:40 AM PST - 2 comments

IRC Update?

Before MeFi goes off line for its connection upgrade (see side-blog), what's the scoop on an IRC channel, especially after the last shut down? During shutdown, it might ease withdrawal < : ( > and also be interesting in and of itself. And if only I could get Ircle to run on my Mac...
posted by ParisParamus to MetaFilter-Related at 8:38 AM PST - 0 comments

MetaFilter gets its 1000th member!

MetaFilter gets its 1000th member!
This day one year ago
posted by lagado to MetaFilter-Related at 12:59 AM PST - 2 comments

May 29

Has anyone else gotten anonymous hate mail from an etiquette-minded MetaFilter user?

Has anyone else gotten anonymous hate mail from an etiquette-minded MetaFilter user? Fun.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 6:41 PM PST - 9 comments

In regards to recent bandwidth issues

In regards to recent bandwidth issues: Why don't we (by we I mean Matt, and by Matt I mean Mr. Haughey) change the target of links in posts to "_new"?

That way we won't have to wait for the home page to reload when we hit 'back'.
posted by o2b to Uptime at 4:07 PM PST - 8 comments

Is it time for a word limit for posts to the home page?

How long is too long? Is it time for a word limit for posts to the home page?
posted by jjg to Etiquette/Policy at 3:47 PM PST - 18 comments

Time Zone Display

Is there any chance the time can be displayed in the top right hand corner in metafilter again?

It's disapeared, I'm in GMT, and so I cannot work out how old the threads are.

Either that, or is it possible to display all the times in GMT, or let the user choose which timezone they want displaying? Fanks very much.
posted by ajbattrick to Feature Requests at 1:35 AM PST - 2 comments

May 28

A-lister birthday post hacks off user

Sigh.
posted by dhartung to Etiquette/Policy at 10:31 PM PST - 13 comments

May 27

can we validate?

Matt has said that a lot of the maintenance work he does is fixing HTML errors. Does anyone know of an easy way to run posts through an HTML Validator and reject the ones that don't pass?
posted by rcade to Feature Requests at 10:01 AM PST - 5 comments

Bad post callout

Groan.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 8:21 AM PST - 10 comments

It's a mystery

Groan.
posted by rcade to Bugs at 8:21 AM PST - 2 comments

May 26

Mickey Suttle

Is Mickey Suttle back? In his newest incarnation (as "ordinaryworld") he's posted three links, two (less than two weeks apart) to amandahades.com and one to supershadow.com. And of course these link to each other, and to other sites in the Suttle "empire." In his previous incarnation (as "supremecourt," "historical", "jpl" and "vehicle"!) we talked about him here.
posted by rodii to MetaFilter-Related at 8:22 PM PST - 5 comments

Searching and Bandwidth

Regarding the bandwidth concerns: Which uses less bandwidth?

—The occasional double post? And the obligatory flames? And the use of the search function to justify thse flames?

—Or using the search function prior to posting at all?

Please check.
posted by o2b to Etiquette/Policy at 1:34 PM PST - 5 comments

May 25

preferences set to 3 days view, still see 7

As per Matt's request, I changed my preferences to load only the last three days' links on the front page. But it still loads a full week's worth. Any idea what's up? I'm happy to help reduce the load on the server but this makes it difficult. :-)
posted by caveday to Bugs at 6:48 PM PST - 5 comments

Is there a French version of MeFi?

Does anybody know of any French Web logs? Not Metafiltre--there's only one!
posted by ParisParamus to MetaFilter-Related at 5:55 PM PST - 4 comments

What does a programmer/web designer needs to succeed in the current market?

even before i knew about matt's having been
laid off, i was planning on posting this to metatalk; it now has added applicability, though.

i need a job, but i have no experience in all of this crap i see postings about: websphere, sybase, etc. so here's my question: what do you guys all think that a programmer / web designer needs to succeed in the current market? any good pointers on where to learn or what to read about the junk?

posted by moz to MetaFilter-Related at 7:42 AM PST - 16 comments

Yet another weblog article

Yet another weblog article. This time about Australian weblogs, but MeFi gets a mention. Notice the cynical bastard at the end.
posted by Neale to MetaFilter-Related at 1:04 AM PST - 0 comments

May 24

welcome back. we missed you.

welcome back. we missed you.
posted by judith to MetaFilter-Related at 11:40 PM PST - 11 comments

Server up, but for how long?

We're finally back up. What a relief. I was getting really jittery. But are we back up for good?
posted by waxpancake to Uptime at 11:40 PM PST - 20 comments

May 22

Pony request request

How about a Requested feature list?
posted by fooljay to Feature Requests at 11:02 AM PST - 6 comments

Mefi locks up my browser

I have a p3, 1MHz, Dell Dimension XPS B1000 w/128MB of RAM running win98SE and IE 5.50.4522.1800IC w/128-bit encryption. Every time I got to the Mefi home page it locks up my browser. The page borders begin to load and before any of the content/posts load int he page the brwser just locks up. I have 2 p2 w/celeron machines and an IBM Stinkpad on my home network all running the same version of IE. I've tested the site on those other 3 machines w/no problems. The only machine having the problem is my Dell PC. Has anyone else had this problem? I've updated the browser and everythign else I could think of but the site still locks up my browser. Any help would be appreciated.
posted by suprfli to Bugs at 9:18 AM PST - 6 comments

We are too wrapped up in Kaycee Nicole

Too many threads on one subject at one time ruins Metafilter.

I cannot help but acknowledge how stupid and trivializing it is to get wrapped-up in the (real or fictional) illness of someone through the Web when there are REAL people in distress near where you live (real caring and concern requires more than typing on a keyboard).

My main point is that Metafilter should not be taken over by multiple threads on the same topic, or discussions about threads on one topic: it ruins the place.
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 8:26 AM PST - 4 comments

Vigilante detective risks

An immediate wee-small-hours-of-the-morning reaction to the Kaycee threads (garment?): I think that a non-commercial site for the communal sharing of information and opinions is a great thing, in fact that MeFi is reason enough for the web to exist. I was also hooked by the Kaycee saga. But there was an element of it that made me uneasy, a feeling that in the wrong situation the community detective work could get into a tell-on-your-neighbors Stasi/McCarthyite area. I don't think this was the case here, and I appreciate that MeFi by and large still has a moderate (and, yeah, liberal) tone, that I share. I don't think the number of users should be limited. I just see the investigative power of thousands of people, and that that could be used to the wrong ends. I'm not suggesting any changes, but wanted to bring this up during this strange afterglow period.
posted by liam to MetaFilter-Related at 12:50 AM PST - 30 comments

Weblog comics

Weblog Comix! It's about time we had comics about webloging!

let me know what you guys think! :)

http://www.adnan.org/comix

http://www.adnan.org/comix/about.htm for more info
posted by adnan to General Weblog-Related at 12:00 AM PST - 11 comments

May 21

Plastic gets the story all mixed up.

buwhahahahahhaha. Plastic gets the story all mixed up.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 5:38 PM PST - 28 comments

Is There a MeFi IRC?

Is there a metafilter IRC channel or Web chat room? A Metafilter IRC channel would be interesting.. like a constant day-time chat show with no host.

Oh well, whether it exists or not, I'll be sitting on #metafilter on EFNet (irc.rt.ru) in this quiet Metafilter downtime!
posted by wackybrit to MetaFilter-Related at 1:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Now this is weird.

Now this is wierd. I posted the thread Is a hack a bug or a new feature? And no, this can't be on Metafilter, because it's been hacked.. And then it disappeared...
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 1:42 PM PST - 1 comment

The site's acting like a slug today.

The site's acting like a slug today. Is it just a whole bunch of Monday morning Kaycee traffic?
posted by alana to Uptime at 12:24 PM PST - 7 comments

sorry.metafilter.com

Ok, what gives. One second I'm reading about hooker-come-law-school-garduate, and now it "sorry.metafilter.com"

I'm sure you've seen it too by now. Hoax? Hack? The "final solution" for MeFi?

Discuss.
posted by Hackworth to MetaFilter-Related at 12:18 PM PST - 97 comments

Kaycee unveiled

Let us take a moment and commend the Metafilter community on its Kaycee discussions. Despite the occasionally biting commentary, this thread spawned one of the most intense, fascinating, and exciting community discussions I've ever read (and that dates back to BBSes in 1987). The unstoppable curiosity of this site's members, coupled with a heavy moral and emotional burden, made for an incredible read. I have never been to Kaycee's site and I still spent my entire morning plowing through the 600-plus comments related to the incident.

Congratulations to MetaFilter on a fantastic thread. This should, I hope, quell some of those "it's too big, too boring, too typical" comments for a while.
posted by werty to MetaFilter-Related at 10:19 AM PST - 2 comments

Maybe long threads should be broken into chunks

Over the past couple of days, it's occurred to me that mefi does not scale particularly well when large numbers of comments are posted to a thread. I think that loading 100 comments or more makes for a fairly unwieldy webpage, and probably puts a lot of strain not just on the source database for the comments, but also the bandwidth of mefi. This inefficiency is particularly bad when it comes to such popular threads at the Kaycee ones that have been recently posted, as many people will be accessing it.

I think that comments should be cut up into some slightly more managable chunks. That is, rather than have all of the comments on the same page, they should be split up into groups of 25 or 30 comment pages; clicking on the "new comments" will take you to the correct page, thus bypassing most older comments, and the correct id on the page.

What do you think?
posted by moz to Bugs at 8:17 AM PST - 13 comments

May 20

9000th post celebrated here

MetaFilter surpasses 9000! Today! Unfortunately, there's no info on who gets the door prize.
posted by heather-old to MetaFilter-Related at 8:54 PM PST - 11 comments

Links to NYT broken

Following up on an earlier thread in which, a while back, it was suggested that links to the NYT be automatically be switched to channel.nyt.com.

I posted a thread with a couple links to www.nyt.com in it. I had actually originally made the link to channel.nyt.com, but when I tested it it didn't work, so I made the switch back to the working www.nyt.com URL. (My guess is that channel doesn't work for links to special "sections" like the Book Review.) It looks like Matt put in the switch to channel, however, and now the links are broken. So this is (1) a heads-up about the problem to Matt, (2) a plea of "it's not my fault," and (3) a request to fix the links, if possible. Thanks.
posted by rodii to Bugs at 6:32 PM PST - 2 comments

Meme migration from Fark and Memepool

Would some of you old-timers care to talk about the phenomenon of "Meme-Migration"? Seems like lately I've been seeing a bunch of Fark pointers showing up as contribs 6-24hrs later in here; Fark.com appears to be lifting whole blocks of pointers from wiredpress; Memepool links pop up here, there, and everywhere; and on occasion, I see our stuff show up in places 8-48hrs after posting. Has it always been this way, or is this the evility of the much vaunted 'New Wave' of Meta-citizenship? And is it any loss of value? Fark tends to be a pretzels-and-beer local bar VS. Metafilter's MENSA meetings.
posted by Perigee to MetaFilter-Related at 12:49 PM PST - 16 comments

What do people think about "linkless posts."

What do people think about "linkless posts." Are they not really what MetaFilter is about, or do they encourage discussion and subsequently build and enhance the community?
posted by chaz to Etiquette/Policy at 5:59 AM PST - 19 comments

May 19

Metafilter for artists/designers/photographers?

Metafilter is a great site, but by sheer definition it covers a wide gamut of topics. Are there any Metafilteresque or 'slash' sites for artists, designers or photographers? I want a k10kesque slash site to visit.

Aside from that, what other wonder sites are there which fit into this mold? I'm currently enjoying iaslash.org a great deal, which is for information architects. Other than that, I'm stumped. Thanks!
posted by wackybrit to MetaFilter-Related at 5:33 PM PST - 9 comments

May 18

poppie has posted 1 link and 3 comments to MetaTalk

Now that we have search here (thanks!), I'd like to see user data for MeTa in addition to the MeFi info. For example: "poppie has posted 1 link and 3 comments to MetaTalk."

posted by gluechunk to Feature Requests at 6:00 PM PST - 2 comments

Salon on the edge

Salon-link haters? You're lucky day may be coming...
posted by fooljay to MetaFilter-Related at 4:52 PM PST - 3 comments

Pony: categories for posts

Recently there's been an awful lot of posts each day on Metafilter. This is great, except that topics I'm involved with are flying down the page very quickly, and I'm losing track of what discussions I'm in. So, I had an idea.

Now, after reading the earlier thread about 'limiting the site to 10,000 users', perhaps my idea is good. Perhaps it's bad. It's probably not implementable, but here it is anyway.

Why not allow people to choose a category for their postings? Just like Memepool does. For example.. 'Crazy'.. 'Fad'.. 'Politics'.. etc. While the front page would continue to show all posts, it would nice to filter them myself, and not have front page posts moderated by someone else (which seems likely in the future). No?
posted by wackybrit to MetaFilter-Related at 3:54 PM PST - 10 comments

Personal attacks reducing contributions

I just wanted to point out that I just finished writing a pretty thoughtful message in response to some of the comments in this thread, but decided, before I hit submit, that I really didn't feel up to the onslaught of personal attacks that I'd have to endure because of my opinion. So I pressed the backpage button instead.

Not that it matters, really. Maybe I'm just being thin-skinned. Some might say that if I felt strongly enough about my opinion, I'd be able to suffer the slings and arrows of the opposition. I dunno. In fact, I don't know if I even feel up to the kind of response this message is going to get.

But how many other MeFi users are doing the same as me? How many have just given up completely? This is how the blow-hards and the flame-warriors take over.
posted by crunchland to MetaFilter-Related at 2:16 PM PST - 16 comments

May 17

Cute kitty post on mefi

Just when you think MeFi has gone to the dogs, you discover it has really gone to the kitties.
posted by briank to MetaFilter-Related at 8:32 PM PST - 13 comments

does anyone get a redirect to plastic.com when they hit mefi?

does anyone get a redirect to plastic.com when they hit mefi? i've just started working at a copy place that starts with kink and ends with o's, and when i try to access mefi at work i get sent to plastic.com.
posted by sugarfish to Bugs at 6:16 PM PST - 6 comments

This post is practically a double

It's posts like this one that really disappoint me. Talk about previously covered territory -- every element of that post has been discussed here at one point or another. If it's an important topic that needs more discussion, could we at least wait until there is some new development that gives a proper excuse for bringing it up? Alternately, I'll just shut up and we can all go back to flogging the dead horse.
posted by norm to Etiquette/Policy at 9:35 AM PST - 15 comments

People shouldn't snipe in the Kaycee Nicole obit thread.

I'd like to see a squelch button so that rudeness like this and this/this don't have to be viewd by everyone.

And for those of you who snipe in basically amounted to someone's wake... I hope you're embarrased enough that you never come back to MeFi. What kind of community can we be when two people can't even keep their mouths shut when we're basically holding a funeral?
posted by SpecialK to Feature Requests at 8:26 AM PST - 17 comments

May 16

Annual MeFi Awards

I think there should be an annual Mefi Awards, with categories and all that. Best thread. Best member name. Best proposed feature. Worst Proposed Feature. Worst thread, and so on. And I think the first order of business should be to vote on the categories.
posted by ParisParamus to Feature Requests at 7:50 PM PST - 7 comments

MeFi Events?

While I'm aware that MeFi is not supposed to be our own personal mailing list/craigslist/singles bar/whatever, sometimes there's events that warrant attention by the MeFi community -- get togethers, SXSW coordination, etc. It might be nifty to have a MeFi Events section added to MetaTalk where if you were in some geographical area and wanted to host a gathering, or invite MeFiers to yours, you could post something [even a self-link!] there. What do you all think?
posted by jessamyn to Feature Requests at 3:41 PM PST - 7 comments

Show more threads?

Would it be feasible to increase the number of threads that appear with the "recent comments" feature? rodii made the point the other day that as the volume of posts has increased, threads fall below #20 pretty quickly and tend to die sooner than they may have in the past. If recent comments were completely chronological with no limitation by original thread date, it might result in fewer double posts.
posted by gimli to Feature Requests at 8:12 AM PST - 6 comments

May 15

Plotting zipcode data

Anyone have ideas on how to plot zipcode data? I haven't found anything free or near free on ESRI's site or at any of the ColdFusion code exchanges. Are there any opensource simple GIS programs? I could have sworn there was a mapping component to ArsDigita's ACS some group was working on. Anything in PHP? Perl?

I'm looking for something that can spit out a simple map of the US with little dots where the zip code data shows up.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 10:15 PM PST - 21 comments

Gender responses on user pages

|| XY || Alien || Fella || fembot || I speak using the male gender, when required by language. || Man || Boy || yes || all girl. :) || Gender bo bender banana fanna fo lender fee fi mo mender, gender! || [i just thought it was fun]
posted by palegirl to MetaFilter-Related at 8:31 PM PST - 3 comments

Just happened to look at the MeFi source

Just happened to look at the MeFi source and realized that it contains no fewer than ten META tags, all identical expiration directives with a date in 1990. Is this some kind of workaround for a weird browser bug with expiring pages from its cache? If so I'm mildly curious to hear which browser needs ten copies of the tag to take the hint. ;)
posted by kindall to Bugs at 3:54 PM PST - 3 comments

I'm tired of clutter

Can metafilter members please email individual users with factual corrections that do NOT pertain to the discussion at hand? I'm tired of clutter, and at times, public rudeness.
posted by SpecialK to Etiquette/Policy at 3:13 PM PST - 12 comments

Will UK election threads cause international tensions?

The question (raised here) is one of tensions, etiquette and policy on Election posts. The Uk is currently going through an election, and much like the US is fairly well represented on Metafilter. But we all know how many posts were about the US election and how frustrating both the US contingent, but more specifically the UK contingent, were with them. Will UK election threads cause international tensions? Is this a bad thing? Is there a 'right to post' issue here, or are we going to be having a fully international vs UScentric discussion at any moment?
posted by barbelith to Etiquette/Policy at 2:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Multi-account MeFi abuser is back

If he hates MetaFilter so much, why does he keep this up?
posted by briank to Etiquette/Policy at 12:06 PM PST - 49 comments

Why should I be nice

...just stokin the flames ya'll. Be nice.

Why on earth should I be nice to someone who's knowingly being an ass?
posted by cCranium to Etiquette/Policy at 10:15 AM PST - 7 comments

Anyone know of any good blogs?

Anyone know of any good blogs? I'm an on/off reader of weblogs and find it difficult to be kept interested by any for more than a couple of months. I realise that bloggers have a lot to say, in the main they are articulate and opinionated, but not many seem to actually do anything with their lives.

I find that my interest in a weblog will soon wane if all that it consists of are links and opinions of books/movies/music. Are there any bloggers out there who have out-of-the-ordinary lives? Active people? Travelling people? Please let me know.

And before you comment I am in the process of setting up my own blog in my own attempt to fill a gap.
posted by makka to General Weblog-Related at 9:44 AM PST - 12 comments

There should be an automatic ban on anyone using the phrase "lol"

Fuck, I can't even post a decent link without morons taking over.
posted by Mo Nickels to Etiquette/Policy at 8:55 AM PST - 29 comments

Ooo, thanks for Search Metatalk.

Ooo, thanks for Search Metatalk. Neato.
posted by snowmelter to MetaFilter-Related at 7:02 AM PST - 2 comments

May 14

"Human Portals" is online now...

"Human Portals" is online now...
posted by owillis to MetaFilter-Related at 8:10 PM PST - 10 comments

Adding usernumbers to profile page suggestion

Minor suggestion: how about adding the member number to the profile page, or informing members about how to find it?

I know it seems minor, but I never knew where to find that info. And with the member numbers starting to come up in the discussions, I started to wonder: "Where do I fall into this ranking? Am I more of a newbie or an old-school vet?"

It took me several minutes of poking around MetaTalk (lurking for the answer before I post the question, y'know) before I figured out how it's done.

(Note to new folks: mouseover the link to your profile page, and it will appear in the link shown in the status bar.)

And, by the way, I'm #481 -- which I think qualifies me to say I was into MetaFilter back when it was cool. :)
posted by Dirjy to Feature Requests at 6:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Is the MetaFilter format of daily topic division restrictive?

Is the Metafilter format of daily topic division restrictive?

posted by Wulfgar! to MetaFilter-Related at 11:15 AM PST - 17 comments

New York Times redirects

Suggestion: make nytimes.com links magical things that point to channel.nytimes.com links.
posted by hijinx to Feature Requests at 11:03 AM PST - 12 comments

What have I done to get this white and blue stuff?

don't know what i've done, but the last couple of days i seem to click on a link and the whole screen just reverts to white background and blue letters with underlined links rather than the link i'm trying to access. seemed to happen most with search features....
what have i done? is my pc about to meltdown? ;-)
posted by cakefork to Bugs at 4:36 AM PST - 6 comments

Can you make sure they at least saw the guidelines?

If it would be too much to trouble to implement, no big deal, mathowie, but how about requiring a scroll down the posting guidelines page before someone posts their first link to MeFi? Some of the discussions on MetaTalk lately indicate that first-time posters aren't really aware of the guidelines, and maybe this might head off many of the threads that you delete outrightpage before someone posts their first link to MeFi?

Some of the discussions on MetaTalk lately indicate that first-time posters aren't really aware of the guidelines, and maybe this might head off many of the threads that you delete outright.
posted by lia to Feature Requests at 12:59 AM PST - 8 comments

May 13

Tweaking the Customization Page

Nice job with the new info fields on the customization page, but I would recommend coverting spaces in AIM names to plus signs (+). In cases where a user has a space in their screenname, putting that space in the field will cause the screenname to be cut off at the space when passed to AIM.
posted by howa2396 to Bugs at 11:18 PM PST - 3 comments

Growth and its discontents

Is MeFi getting too big?
posted by jpoulos to MetaFilter-Related at 4:20 PM PST - 30 comments

Was I trolling?

Was I trolling? I had an admittedly heated reaction to an issue I care about, and blasted "conservatives/republicans/the right" as a group. But was I way outta line?
posted by owillis to Etiquette/Policy at 3:32 PM PST - 17 comments

What if Matt froze users at 10,000?

What if Matt freezed users at 10k? Would it help calm things down a bit?
posted by briank to MetaFilter-Related at 2:08 PM PST - 30 comments

May 12

Blogger's first crisis?

Blogger's first crisis?

Note the massive amounts of errors being reported. I've read most of the threads and haven't seen a hint of acknowledgement for Ev, but I assume his little "plane trip cancelled" post is a reference to him dealing with the problem.

My biggest concern is the bad PR for blogger. Shouldn't there be at least one "all will be well" post on the blogger front page?
posted by Neale to General Weblog-Related at 5:03 PM PST - 10 comments

Are links to outside discussions okay?

What is the MeFi policy on brining up detailed discussions from other communities? This thread points to another thread at Freshmeat and asks the same questions that the Freshmeat community already had answered.
posted by tamim to Etiquette/Policy at 4:52 PM PST - 6 comments

My Comments has not appeared in the dropdown menu for a couple of days.

IE5.5, Win98. My Comments has not appeared in the dropdown menu for a couple of days. Yes, I'm logged in. I deleted internet cache & cookies earlier in the week, but was careful to keep MeFi cookies. Is it possible I accidently deleted it? If so, shouldn't new comments I've made bring the feature back? Can't figure it out, but as a wise man once said: There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.
posted by gimli to Bugs at 2:26 PM PST - 3 comments

Aanimosity & Antaganism on the Blue

i'm kind of shocked by the amount of animosity & antaganism in the past couple of days.

there's the guy with the famiy tree website

the tasteless thread about Douglass Adams' death coupled with the personal attacks on the dissenting poster

...and i haven't got the stamina to sort throught the fetus is a person thread -- but something's going on over there too.

...and while we're at it, i'm also troubled by the fact that no-longer can there be any kind of thoughtful discussion in a transgender thread.
posted by palegirl to Etiquette/Policy at 7:30 AM PST - 44 comments

May 11

help!

help!

is there a way to dictate, using valid CSS, an area height using pxs that isn't dependant on content?

(that didn't make sense...)

ref: http://i.jcterminal.com/
i'm trying to make the header area (the orange spot that sez 'pigeon farm') exactly 75 px tall, but for some reason, i'm just not getting it. i think it's a brain fart, cuz i know it's damned obvious.

(this might be off topic, but i didn't see a 'help me with my weblog' section.
posted by jcterminal to General Weblog-Related at 12:25 PM PST - 6 comments

How should I refer to another site when I quote them here?

i have a question for you guys. what is adequate reference info in quoting from another website? is just a link back enough? would it matter if the page is primarily composed of quotes versus sparing use?
posted by moz to General Weblog-Related at 12:05 PM PST - 2 comments

Why was my link removed?

Quick question:

what was the reason for my link to that dirty mini-van removed?

what i do wrong? *sob*
posted by jcterminal to Etiquette/Policy at 10:00 AM PST - 12 comments

is self promotion always wrong?

Don't hate me cause I'm a liberal on self-post. but is self promotion always wrong? If the community is made up of intellegent and creative people, won't they have serve the community just as well by posting a self-created link. i admit to my short time in the community, but i sometimes the sacred laws have to be questioned from time to time, and newcomers are probably best in a position to do it.

'allowing self-posts will lead to a community of links to banner ad-driven websites' you say?
OK, no self-posting to a site with banner ads.

And,
what about allowing self-posting only where the author discloses it in the post?

posted by brucec to Etiquette/Policy at 9:06 AM PST - 23 comments

Remove user number from username links?

Would it be useful to change the username links from:
posted by snowmelter
to:
posted by snowmelter?
I just think it's a bit unfortunate to see someone's rank being used to judge the usefulness of his or her argument.

posted by snowmelter to Feature Requests at 8:52 AM PST - 15 comments

May 10

Could we add optional personal info to our profile pages?

Would it be a good idea to let members enter some optional personal information (age, sex, location, shoe size, etc.) on their profile page?
posted by Aaaugh! to Feature Requests at 2:07 PM PST - 30 comments

May 9

would you like to know where all MeFi users are from?

Topic drift... would you like to know where all MeFi users are from? Discuss.
posted by SpecialK to Feature Requests at 9:50 PM PST - 11 comments

MeFi pr0n on File Pile

Found this on File Pile.

(apologies in advance in case this is a double post)
posted by lagado to MetaFilter-Related at 8:12 PM PST - 13 comments

Callout

A loser responds to a thread i started

I don't appreciate the comment made by jpancake, so i have brought it her due to him/her not having an email address so i can abuse that person.
posted by Zool to Etiquette/Policy at 5:55 PM PST - 14 comments

"why we hate the dissenter"

There are some interesting things going on here worthy of discussion without this becoming a "why we hate the dissenter" metatalk thread.

Someone makes some pretty loaded statements many agree are worth explanation, and they're fairly shocking statements so names get thrown around too (perhaps just a normal reaction to being shocked).

Person returns and talks around the initial questions, claims everything is opinion so further investigation is pointless, and plays the victim as much as possible. Calls everyone on the site closed minded for shutting out his opinion.

Two things:

- This happens a lot (the "all you metafilter people blah blah blah...), and is worthy of further thought. How can a group claim to be open minded on one hand, but react strongly to someone going against the grain?

- Like many usenet sociological work before this site ever existed, there are obvious patterns on the behavior of strong dissenting personalities. I've seen posts in a thread just like this a zillion times before, funny how it repeats.
posted by mathowie to Etiquette/Policy at 4:19 PM PST - 34 comments

Clavdivs says cleaver things

clavdivs: "...My friend was right, people in this site are mostly snilveling ka-nits. I was mislead....say something stupid less harm...i will pounce and you WILL look stupid. Corrections are for editors -wanna job, you clean up my words, and i will say cleaver things for you, about you, and to you."

troll, nutcase, or something entirely different?
posted by lia to Etiquette/Policy at 8:11 AM PST - 18 comments

Reviews of every upgrade to web browsing software

OK ok, I've learnt my lesson: Don't link on a dare.
posted by holloway to Etiquette/Policy at 6:35 AM PST - 2 comments

May 8

Translation of the French article about MeFi linked on the sideblog

Re: The article in French, linked on the sideblog.

Don't take this as a perfect translation, I've only had 4 years of French (in an american public school, no less), but here's the first paragraph of that article.

Last February 28th, the earth rumbled in Seattle, USA. Even before an urgent dispatch came across the news wire services, a net surfer wrote on the american website Metafilter: "I'm sitting at work in the Real Networks building. We have just experienced close to a minute of jostling and shaking. There is now a six foot crack on the wall of my office. Looking around, nothing appears to have fallen over, but there are crowds of people on the sidewalks." This web surfer relayed the news, like every day on Metafilter, one of the most significant american "Web logs".
posted by pnevares to MetaFilter-Related at 7:54 PM PST - 3 comments

I added a link to posts from one year ago

I added a link to posts from one year ago on the sideblog area, and incedentally, you can go to any previous day by manipulating the date string in the URL for that daily.mefi page. Someone requested this a while back, and it was only a couple minutes of work to create.
posted by mathowie to Feature Requests at 7:15 PM PST - 6 comments

Sectioning metafilter / newsfilter

Why are the homepage posts so saturated with the popular news outfits like Reuters and New York Times. Maybe two sections could be created. One for the popular news items, and one for the more offbeat, colorful, hard to come by stories/links/reports/etc.
posted by jwurtzel to Bugs at 1:40 PM PST - 5 comments

Apologies for my whiny comments yesterday.

Apologies for my whiny comments yesterday. It was an increasingly frustrating day for me all around and I took it out on some fellow MeFiers. Sorry.
posted by starvingartist to Etiquette/Policy at 6:22 AM PST - 32 comments

May 7

Is variety important?

Is variety important? As noted here, a certain user only posts links to one site. Should it be construed as spamming for that site, or might we just encourage said user to broaden his interests a bit?
posted by zempf to Etiquette/Policy at 7:42 PM PST - 23 comments

May 6

Does pretty count? MeFi is "moderately ugly"

Does pretty count? been thinking about the fabulous webby flame-post. I mean, having something to say is not the same as being a great designer (lance and derek excepted, damn their clever hides). MeFi is moderately ugly, as is peterme (wow, I'm begging to get flamed. Luckily my blog is uglier than both) and I suspect that crudely designed sites full of engaging brilliant content aren't ever going to win awards.... not that it's about awards; but seems strong design inspires worship and people with lives may not have time for both. I kinda fear that if beauty becomes a standard for bloggging, many step down. Then again, one could say that about webistes and geocities hasn't closed down yet. Wow, I think I just had a discussion with myself. whoops!
posted by christina to General Weblog-Related at 5:05 PM PST - 12 comments

May 5

Not no comments and no links since last visit

i'm not sure if this has been covered before - i read thru a few posts and then gave up. when i visit MeTa first, I get that read out at the top telling me how many comments and links since my last visit, which is great. if i visit MeFi first, however, when i come here to MeTa the read out always says no comments and no links, even tho in all likelihood there have been some. then i have to go fishing for them.

is this something everyone is experiencing, or something i can adjust in some prefs somewhere that i don't know about? i know i could avoid it by always checking in with MeTa first, but sometimes i forget. a lot of times, actually.
posted by the webmistress to Feature Requests at 9:45 AM PST - 2 comments

May 4

So today on the train into work, I came up with an idea.

So today on the train into work, I came up with an idea. Thoughts? Feedback? Would you write for such a thing if asked?
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 3:10 PM PST - 89 comments

Can we correct the search result grammar?

This may be pedantic, and it may have already been covered - I couldn't find a search option for metatalk, nor did I feel like looking through the whole request archive

I noticed that when you search for a topic on metafilter, if only 1 hit results, it says "There were 1 results for...". Would it be possible to put a check for singular results in the script and make the response grammatically correct?
posted by starvingartist to Feature Requests at 7:56 AM PST - 17 comments

May 3

April 2001 stats

Stats for April show average daily pageviews over 25,000 now, with nearly three quarters of a million pages served for the month. A typical day I grabbed at random from last week shows about 30k views on weekdays by about 5k different IPs.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 12:22 PM PST - 12 comments

May 2

Is there a point at which someone is contributing too much to MetaFilter?

The issue of posting too many links has cropped up again (84 links in 100 days, including 9 this week). Is there a point at which someone is contributing too much to MetaFilter, or is it irrelevant as long as they're good?
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 9:59 AM PST - 27 comments

Howzabout when you log in...it redirects you to the main page?

Howzabout when you log in, instead of a login confirmation screen, it redirects you to the main page?

I hate clicking that link.
posted by sonofsamiam to Feature Requests at 8:54 AM PST - 3 comments

May 1

Money Giveaways!

It's been almost a year since the Metafilter $30 Giveaway. I'm going to be doing it again...
posted by jbushnell to MetaFilter-Related at 7:57 AM PST - 15 comments

Should there be/is there a New Comments display feature on Metatalk?

Should there be/is there a New Comments display feature on Metatalk? If there is, is it linked to my logging into MeFi's home page? I never see the white (# new) notation in here, although it works just fine on Metafilter itself.
posted by werty to Bugs at 7:42 AM PST - 2 comments