July 2002 Archives (all archives)

July 31

Pony: remote new comment notification

Let me preface this by saying that I am not looking to give mathowie more work to do. Having said that, I was wondering if there is a non-labor-intensive way by which I can be notified when new comments have been added to threads I've commented in without visiting the site and sorting by my comments?
posted by EatenByAGrue to Feature Requests at 9:35 PM PST - 26 comments

is self-policing the best way?

What is the best way to establish and enforce community standards on MetaFilter/MetaTalk?
posted by willnot to Etiquette/Policy at 8:19 AM PST - 23 comments

Who's your MeFi crush?

Okay, there's been some negativity round these parts lately, so let's try this: Is there any MeFiosi upon whom you've developed a sort of (intellectual?) crush? (Potentially lame query, I know, but I figure it'll get some positive feedback going. We've spilled a lot of bytes talking about the people, or personae, we don't like, ad nauseam, so I figure the opposite is worth a shot. So shoot! Free love!)
posted by donkeyschlong to MetaFilter-Related at 12:20 AM PST - 97 comments

July 30

was it something I said?

OK, this thread, took a long time to die....was it something I said?

I was trying to promote a different way of dealing with trolls, but - in my early morning fatigue - may have overstepped some mark.
Or maybe it wasn't me, and I'm justy feeling Catholic (free-floating) guilt. Kindly put me out of my misery!


posted by dash_slot- to MetaFilter-Related at 3:16 PM PST - 38 comments

Global meetup day!

T-minus-one week until the MetaFilter Meetup. Let's have one reference thread where we can post solely the City, Location and Time. I would save discussion for e-mail or something like this. Meetup still, to my knowledge, hasn't changed any of the suggested locations due to requests or "here's where we're going to meet, whether you like it or not"s. Amid the confusion (1,2), we need clarity. This will hopefully also be good enough for Matt to post to the sidebar for the non-MeTa people. I'll start, and remember, nice, simple, and clean...
posted by Ufez Jones to MetaFilter Gatherings at 8:04 AM PST - 41 comments

Reuters covers it but it isn't covered. What

Reuters/Yahoo also has the story but it's not getting much coverage in US media.
posted by Mo Nickels to Etiquette/Policy at 5:13 AM PST - 27 comments

July 29

Rio post no different from Apple posts

I disagree with the deletion of the post comparing the Rio with other portable MP3 players. We see new Apple product announcements every couple of weeks here; this was no different.
posted by BlueTrain to Etiquette/Policy at 6:36 PM PST - 27 comments

Deleted thread notice

No more "Nothing to see here, move along?"

Re: this now ex- thread.
posted by mr_crash_davis to Bugs at 6:36 PM PST - 7 comments

Closing Old Threads

New feature: threads on MetaFilter more than a month old are now closed for new comments.
posted by mathowie to Feature Requests at 12:32 PM PST - 28 comments

July 28

MeTa throws up an error when given a bad link

Following a link from mini-wetlog I found a bug where MeTa throws up an error when given a bad link. In this case a quote on the end of the URL:
http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/2418"

posted by southisup to Bugs at 10:49 PM PST - 13 comments

When does a newbie stop being a newbie?

I'm just curious, could someone please tell me when a newbie stops being a newbie? How is this decided and by whom?
posted by Tarrama to Etiquette/Policy at 10:24 PM PST - 45 comments

Burning Man Meetup

Even though, apparently, Burning Man is just soo damn uncool these days there will no doubt be MeFites & bloggers attending and probably blogging from the playa itself.

Any thoughts on a MeFiBuM meet?
posted by i_cola to MetaFilter Gatherings at 2:18 AM PST - 10 comments

July 27

What does "ricer" mean?

What's a "ricer"?
posted by sudama to Etiquette/Policy at 10:52 PM PST - 87 comments

Attachment to MetaFilter.

Do you bristle when someone says it’s only a web site? When things are slow, do you find yourself clicking on threads that don’t remotely interest you? And then become shockingly enthralled? Do you enjoy reading the get-together threads on MeTa even though you’re nowhere near the locations being discussed? Have you entirely stopped reading The Onion and Salon just because linking to them here is frowned upon? Are you considering adopting a newbie?

If so, you are probably over-attached to MetaFilter. [More inside].
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 3:50 PM PST - 146 comments

What is Trackback?

Can someone please explain to me what exactly this trackback thing does?
posted by charlesv to MetaFilter-Related at 11:01 AM PST - 14 comments

July 26

Whatever it was, I can't see it anymore

Is anyone else seeing this sort of thing in threads? just wondering what could be causing it.

Mozilla 1.1b on OSX
posted by PugAchev to Bugs at 3:14 PM PST - 13 comments

Announcement: new user signups are back on. 20 people a day.

New user signups are back on. 20 people a day are going to be allowed in, starting at noon each day. Only one signup per person, per day as well. Report any probs with it here.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 3:00 PM PST - 70 comments

Helping Newbies

As we have seen the buzz, new members will be coming in the future. Sprinkled in a few MeTa threads have been ideas, such as a FAQs and mentoring, to help new members learn the ropes and Mefi history. I have an idea to primarily help new members, but it could eventually benefit everyone.
[idea inside]

posted by sailormouth to Feature Requests at 9:29 AM PST - 39 comments

NYC Meetup?

NYC Meetup? I guess we agreed on Aug 6th, but do we have a location yet? I realize that all the ones that meetup.com suggested kinda sucked.
But I do wanna have another get together of the NYC MeFi MoFo Mafia and at this point, I don't care if we meet at Gray's Papaya, but let's pick someplace.
posted by jonmc to MetaFilter Gatherings at 8:57 AM PST - 48 comments

Geocities sites go down when their traffic goes up.

Postus Interruptus . . .

Often times, obscure and non commercial websites are hosted on free but metered sites like Tripod and Geocities.
These simple sites make for great FPPs, except the instant surge in traffic puts the site over its hourly bandwidth quota. here's an example where the poster anticipated this and even cautioned everyone to stay away from the video link on the page for a day or two. But to no avail. . .
When the masses will foreseeably shut the site down, wouldn't it make more sense to link to the google cache of that site instead?

posted by BentPenguin to Etiquette/Policy at 6:43 AM PST - 15 comments

July 25

MeTa threads user link functionality inconsistent in view, preview

Don't know if this is intentional or not, but i just noticed this:
When previewing my comments to metaTalk threads, mouse-rollovers on a previous posters name shows their username in the IE status bar; however, mouse-rollover in the same thread when the comments box is empty displays user numbers instead. Is this a useful feature, or a glitch?
posted by dash_slot- to Bugs at 4:56 PM PST - 8 comments

Writing twice as much stuff for twice as many blogs

For those of you with your own weblogs who also are heavy contributors here: How do you split your "output" between your own joint and Metafilter? Is there so much to say and link that both places get a lot of original stuff? Do you post/talk about the same things both places? Do you only comment in threads here, and save links for your own blog? I'm curious. What brought it to mind was Miguel's prodigous posting here, knowing he's got that crazy-remunerative blog gig (blig) going on over there.

Also, for the first 38 yrs of my life I said "renumerative." ::shrug:: It seemed to make sense.
posted by luser to Bugs at 11:50 AM PST - 55 comments

MeTa seems to only post the last 5 entries

Ok, I was looking for any old threads on customizing MeTa, but only found something related (here). I am curious if it is possible to actually customize the number of posts on MeTa. I have Mefi for four days, but MeTa seems to only post the last 5 entries. Is there some way around this? I was looking but could not find it.
posted by thebwit to Feature Requests at 8:38 AM PST - 4 comments

Is metafilter membership currently open or closed?

Is metafilter membership currently open or closed? There seems to be some confusion. Could Matt please clear this up by issuing some sort of official statement? Please?

From what I understand, ostensibly it's closed, but I looked and found the most recent user profile I could, which shows this user is new as of July 24, 2002. Uh, that's pretty recent in my book.

Yes, this is Matt's fiefdom and he can do as he damn well pleases, but frankly some of us think that this "it's closed / no wait, it's really open but only on my terms (which are secret)" kind of thing is uncool, to say the least. Maybe that's not how it is, but it's how it may appear to some people.

Care to clue us all in on what the official word is, Matt?
posted by beth to Etiquette/Policy at 8:09 AM PST - 102 comments

Archives error

I got the following error when trying to view the metatalk archives (OSX, NS7.0b1):

Element METATALK_LAST_VISIT is undefined in SESSION.
The Error Occurred in C:\metafilter sites\metatalk.metafilter.com\archived.mefi: line 40


Then, because I am a supergenius, I thought I'd just check the archives to see if anyone else had reported the problem.

::thwacks forehead::

posted by ook to Bugs at 8:01 AM PST - 3 comments

Big FPP's can be annoying. Anyone else agree?

Big FPP's can be annoying. Anyone else agree?

Is there any chance of getting a 'maximum length of a front-page post' limit implemented? Or at least have a suggestion to the poster that their post is a little long?
posted by cheaily to Feature Requests at 4:35 AM PST - 25 comments

July 24

Finishing touches on....

We see so many Apple-related announcements posted to MeFi. Segway was, of course, huge...even getting its own mention on the MeFi Sidebar. And now Matt has said this:

Now that those bugs are fixed, I'm putting the finishing touches on a new feature for MetaFilter I think everyone will enjoy.

Anyone care to speculate?
posted by BlueTrain to MetaFilter-Related at 9:19 PM PST - 53 comments

While in the comment preview, links to use info don't work.

While in the comment preview, links to use info don't work. [detail inside]
posted by Su to Bugs at 6:18 PM PST - 2 comments

Grave matters

I love the café

finalmenté!

¡Viva Fidel!

Will international characters work now?
posted by mathowie to Bugs at 6:11 PM PST - 76 comments

Airing dirty linen in public

Given that MeTa is mostly used for private discussions about what goes on in MeFi, should there be links to it on the front page of MeFi for all to see? Would it be more appropriate for it to be discreetly linked from somewhere else or, to take it to the extreme, only available to logged-in users?

Airing dirty linen in public is not usually considered the "done thing" and hiding it from public scrutiny may allow more open and honest discussions.
posted by dg to Feature Requests at 4:49 PM PST - 36 comments

non-users posting by proxy: kosher?

I'd like to discuss the appropriateness of allowing non-users to post by proxy, in relation to a conflict here between Medley and myself. [more inside]
posted by bingo to Etiquette/Policy at 3:33 PM PST - 34 comments

Correct comment linkage

Best bugfix ever. For the first time, the links from my comments pages (MeFi and MeTa) actually take me to the appropriate comment in a thread rather than the first comment I made in that thread (or sometimes a random one). This has improved the quality of my life. Thanks, Matt.
posted by rushmc to Bugs at 2:27 PM PST - 2 comments

No more double-posted comments!

quite possibly the one feature that was the longest time coming. I finally did it.

You can't double-post a comment in either MetaFilter or MetaTalk ever again.
posted by mathowie to Feature Requests at 1:02 PM PST - 78 comments

Please add year to date field (redux)

How about including the year along with the date info on posts? This post got two new hits today, but we wouldn't know that if Ufez hadn't used the words "three years later".
posted by whatnot to Feature Requests at 11:40 AM PST - 12 comments

Arguments over definitions.

Hey Matt, you should start a new subsite called MetaWord. Visitors would contribute single word posts, like Heart, or Hero, or Terrorist or Gallbladder and then everyone can argue about what the word means and did mean and should mean and would mean if we all spoke Esperanto and wore those hats with the fruit on them.

Alternatively -- and this might even be a better idea, if possible -- MetaWord would have regular posts, but comments would be limited to one word. You could even do away with the textfield and just give people a dropdown box with preselected words like 'Doublepost!,' 'Racist!,' 'Troll!' 'Nazi!' 'Liberal!' 'Kitties!' and '*yawn*'. And then we could argue about the meaning of the word "yawn."
posted by Shadowkeeper to MetaFilter-Related at 9:50 AM PST - 48 comments

Why was this post deleted?

Why was this post deleted?

The big fat lie? "The classic [misconception is that] 95 percent of all dieters never lose weight, and 95 percent of those who do will not keep it off. This will be correctly attributed to the University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Albert Stunkard, but it will go unmentioned that this statement is based on 100 patients who passed through Stunkard's obesity clinic during the Eisenhower administration."
posted by bingo at 4:18 AM PST - 8 comments (8 new)


It was a great article, well researched and interesting. I didn't get to read any of the comments that people submitted because I'm getting a "nothing to see here" message when I click on the comments link. What gives? Bingo didn't make up the title...that is the title of the article. I can't see why this topic would be deleted. Any chance that it can be restored? Was this just a mistake or intentional?

posted by dejah420 to Etiquette/Policy at 9:04 AM PST - 13 comments

July 23

Just noticed the new "tb" feature

Just noticed the new "tb" feature trailing some but not all of the FPPs. Can someone point me to any documentation on what's up with dat?
posted by BentPenguin to Feature Requests at 9:42 PM PST - 4 comments

Can we stop talking about Israel and Palestine?

People say that I/P Filter turns them off, but this link got 78 comments in two hours in the middle of a "slow, yet golden period". As usual, it quickly degenerated into a brawl. Has a whole topic ever been banned from MetaFilter?
posted by timeistight to Etiquette/Policy at 4:01 PM PST - 37 comments

slow, yet golden period?

Is MetaFilter going through a slow, yet golden period? Although the number of threads is probably still as high as usual, there seem to be far fewer comments. And yet the quality of posts and specially comments (lots of nice long, considered ones) has been unusually high, imo. Can there be any truth to this? [More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 10:47 AM PST - 83 comments

July 22

Font consistency

The font in MeTa is 8pt, but it's 10pt in MeFi. I'm logged in and the customization is set at 10pt. The values appear in the inline style instructions (font-size for "p" is 8/10pt depending on source). I was messing around with the customization settings yesterday, but this appears when viewing new threads so it's not a cache thing. And I'm using Moz 1.0, but I don't think it's a browser thing because you can see the numbers in the page sources...
posted by andrew cooke to Bugs at 4:46 PM PST - 9 comments

does anyone know if this is ever going to happen...?

"Jul 16 The new server is up and running. I'll re-enable signups sometime this week."

that week has come and gone... does anyone know if this is ever going to happen...?
posted by t r a c y to MetaFilter-Related at 9:06 AM PST - 53 comments

July 21

What effect does being mentionned on MeFi have, trafficwise?

Inexactly how much, numerically and psychologically, does a link on MetaFilter affect the traffic to the blog or web site referred? Is its effect transient or does it, so to speak, carry on? Also, just how many hits does MetaFilter get nowadays? [After reading stavrosthewonderchicken's interesting remarks on hits, pageviews and other popularity statistics and his comment on owillis's web site about how being linked on "The Mothership" makes traffic soar.]
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 7:00 PM PST - 29 comments

furbo-filters and furby-filters

furbo-filters.com?
posted by Tacodog to MetaFilter-Related at 2:35 AM PST - 31 comments

July 20

Mozilla error when I hit preview.

Hitting preview in Mozilla gets you the preview page without the inputted text and no "post" button.
posted by owillis to Bugs at 9:00 PM PST - 8 comments

metafilter stopped pinging weblogs.com

Is metafilter no longer pinging weblogs.com a few times a day? looks like the last time was june 16.
posted by anitar to Etiquette/Policy at 8:51 PM PST - 4 comments

How about a little meat to go with that book?

Starting a thread with an Amazon link. Weak.
posted by jjg to Etiquette/Policy at 2:32 PM PST - 42 comments

July 19

Whoah, when did TrackBack get added to posts?

Whoah, when did TrackBack get added to posts?
Have any threads benefited from this yet?
posted by me3dia to MetaFilter-Related at 12:13 PM PST - 63 comments

Whats up with the dot at the bottom of the page?

not really a bug, butâ?¦Whatâ??s up with the dot at the bottom of the page? And how come itâ??s blue in MetaTalk? (Maybe that counts as a bug.) I know where itâ??s linked to, but why? Enquiring minds wanna know, or at least mine does.
posted by kirkaracha to Bugs at 11:16 AM PST - 8 comments

What is this, RabbitFilter?

What is this, RabbitFilter? As of 12:24 EST (9:24 PST, 17:24 GMT), there are 14 threads, 10 of which are related to Flash and/or rabbits. When will the madness end? I'm no cuniculophobe, but could not several of the threads (which are indeed clever, witty, and linky) have been condensed into one or two good rabbit related threads?
posted by insomnyuk to Etiquette/Policy at 9:30 AM PST - 72 comments

navigating 'back' or 'forward', directed to the 'Third Birthday' page

Using IE5.0, navigating 'back' or 'forward' to homepage results in being directed to the 'Third Birthday' page. Crazy frustrating. Am I the only one?
posted by glennie to Bugs at 12:32 AM PST - 19 comments

Meafilter Search option missing options

The MetaFilter Search option is initially only showing options (2)threads only, and (4)users, but the results page has all four options. Change, bug, already covered?
posted by mikhail to Bugs at 12:13 AM PST - 10 comments

July 18

recent posts not best of web

boobies and boobies and gay bashing... oh my! are we living through a mefi nightmare?
posted by mlang to MetaFilter-Related at 11:44 AM PST - 39 comments

A story heard on Morning Edition preceded by a MeFi post

Forgive the potential horn tooting aspect here, but check out this story from yesterday's NPR Morning Edition--note the Other Resources listed at the bottom, where a couple of links are very familiar. This is by no means the first time a story heard on Morning Edition has been preceded by a MetaFilter post. Somebody over there must be a member or lurker here. It is in many ways an improvement on the post, let it be noted.

posted by y2karl to MetaFilter-Related at 11:43 AM PST - 23 comments

are we living through a mefi golden age?

stavros drew some heat for his call to arms for the improvement of metafilter, but we've seen a number of truly superior links posted since the new server went online. are we living through a mefi golden age?
posted by mlang to MetaFilter-Related at 11:41 AM PST - 11 comments

MetaTalk category list is broken

metatalk category list link is broken.
posted by mlang to Bugs at 7:43 AM PST - 11 comments

table tags ignored

when posting a comment, tags get ignored. are we not allowed to use them or is this a bug?
posted by mlang to Bugs at 7:26 AM PST - 13 comments

Minor bug in "My Comments" sorting

Minor bug in "My Comments" sorting which predates the new server. When you pick "My Comments" the drop down on the newly sorted page defaults to "date", therefore you can't go back to sort by date from sort by my comments.
posted by riffola to Bugs at 5:57 AM PST - 4 comments

I am very impressed with the new server.

I am very impressed with the new server. One bug: Mefi blue and Metatalk grey/brown are not nearly as vivid as they used to be. If I enable colorsync on IE, things look fine, but that was never necessary before "(and AOL seemingly prevents me from keeping colorsync on). Can this be corrected?
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 4:19 AM PST - 10 comments

July 17

links to metatalk from profile are not working

links to metatalk comments and threads posted from user profile pages don't work (links to metafilter comments and threads posted work fine). or, at least this is the case in ie5, macos9.
posted by mlang to Bugs at 9:19 PM PST - 2 comments

thanks, matt

Matt, the new server is fantastic and you've been burning through bugs at a remarkable rate. I know you've been working steadily for several days now. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say how much I appreciate all your work.

Why don't you unplug now and go have a nice dinner? None of the bugs I've seen posted today seem that serious, and I suspect lots of them pre-date the upgrade.

posted by timeistight to MetaFilter-Related at 5:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Weird Symbols in Posts

All right, I'm on netscape 4.7, on a macintosh. Is this the reason everything I post ends with weird symbols?
posted by interrobang to Bugs at 4:50 PM PST - 7 comments

MetaTalk Archives

Maybe with the temporary increase of bug reports, deleting all but the last 5 metatalk threads on this page might be a little severe?
posted by crunchland to Bugs at 4:02 PM PST - 12 comments

Member count discrepancies

It appears as though the member count on the front page of MeFi does not accurately reflect the number of members. The most recent member seems to be 14212, while the member count is only 14041. While that is certainly a pretty palindrome, why the discrepancy?
posted by monju_bosatsu to Bugs at 3:37 PM PST - 6 comments

Searching with Quotation Marks

Words or phrases enclosed in quotation marks (e.g. "too much") are ignored by the search app, while the the same words work fine when used without the quotes. What gives?
posted by me3dia to Bugs at 2:20 PM PST - 10 comments

'Jump to the comment in this thread' links should be in

When viewing the comments a user has made, it would be nice to have the jump to the comment in this thread links in order. That way when you can read their comments, it makes sense. Before I realized they were out of order, it was rather confusing.
posted by jaden to Feature Requests at 1:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Comment count bug

This is a minor bug, but if you go into the July Archives page, the Waking Life thread says it has 69 comments. If you click into the thread, the parenthetical reports 68 comments.
posted by willnot to Bugs at 12:07 PM PST - 7 comments

pop-ups - are they from mefi?

Is it just me, or is everyone else being attacked by pop-ups while trolling around in here?
posted by lilboo to Bugs at 7:25 AM PST - 15 comments

Cookie problem

This morning, for some reason, the MeFi "cookie" starting expecting USER_NAME instead of USER_ID as it had done for the previous months. This caused an ugly blowup in the code and lots of juicy error stuff on the screen.

I deleted my MeFi cookie (thanx Mozilla) and proceeded to log in again. Now I have both USER_ID (numeric) and USER_NAME (anser) in my cookie. If the change was because they don't trust the numeric ID not to change, then there's not much point including it at all, seems to me.
posted by anser to Bugs at 7:05 AM PST - 7 comments

July 16

Is there any way to customize the spell-check a little?

This is really more of a nit, but a nit is a little tiny bug, I guess .... Is there any way to customize the spell-check a little? I'm getting really tired of seeing Mafia every time I spellcheck MeFi.
posted by anastasiav to Bugs at 11:44 PM PST - 22 comments

Let's talk meetup

let's talk meetup. as has been briefly mentioned (peripherally, in other metatalk threads (can't be bothered to search right now)), the venues proposed by the meetup mavens generally leave something to be desired (the ithaca everything2 meetup is scheduled to take place at a mcdonald's, for the love of god). so let's pick our own place(s).
posted by mlang to MetaFilter Gatherings at 11:31 PM PST - 54 comments

Three years ago sidebar

Matt: Maybe you have already thought of this, but now we've had our 3rd anniversary, howsabout a "3 years ago" shortcut on the sidebar for those of us who like to blow the dust off the venerable older threads?
posted by dash_slot- to Feature Requests at 10:14 AM PST - 9 comments

July 15

SADDENED by the complaints about MeFi

Emboldened as I am by positive reinforcement (thank you Stavros, and Sennoma), and joyous as I may be at the successful migration to the new server ( Happy Birthday, MetaFilter!), I am still saddened by the many "things are not so good at MetaFilter" discussions that seem to have been occurring recently, both here and off-premises. Although you may all count me in the "I love this place, and all who frequent her shores" category, after carefully reviewing the complaints and giving the matter due consideration, I do have two (and only two) suggestions ... (more inside)
posted by yhbc to MetaFilter-Related at 9:26 PM PST - 75 comments

plastic - mefi exchange

Haven't yet registered at that other site? Plastic.com's own Carl Steadman is running a special promotional offer for MeFi addicts: sign up with your MeFi username and receive, for the low-low price of free, 10 karma and 10 mod points.

Now the question remains: What can Matt offer Plastic.com users in return? Perhaps registration itself is enough of an incentive.
posted by nathan_teske to MetaFilter-Related at 9:09 PM PST - 49 comments

Jeez I hate CFMX.

Jeez I hate CFMX.

Help me out by posting all bugs you find here.
posted by mathowie to Uptime at 6:28 PM PST - 73 comments

July 14

Just how international are we?

Just how international are we?

It seems to me all the other well-known and popular American and European community weblogs and websites are far more parochial and North America-centred than MetaFilter. Not so with us. This makes, I think, all the difference. We have (off the top of my head and as far as I know) members from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Holland, india, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, The Philippines, Portugal, Scotland, Wales, Spain...and who knows what other countries?

So just how widely cast is the MetaFilter users' web?[Lurkers: Please break your vow of silence, just this once, if you possibly can!] Me, I suspect it spans the whole beautiful Planet...
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 6:13 AM PST - 64 comments

July 13

NYC Meetup

What day is the NY MeFi Meet? I signed up thinking it was in August, but I've just responded to an RSVP request from meetup. com with a date for this upcoming Thursday. Since the August date is still listed here, I'm mighty confused. So -- which day is it? Both? Neither? Anybody? Beuller?
posted by metrocake to MetaFilter Gatherings at 7:34 PM PST - 4 comments

Should I be ashamed of my 13k member number?

Should I be ashamed of my 13k member number?
posted by folktrash to Etiquette/Policy at 3:46 PM PST - 35 comments

July 12

I declare jihad.

I declare jihad. There have been 'imminent demise of Metafilter' threads posted with clockwork regularity since about two weeks after Matt started the site, I think, and this is not one of them. But the lengthy MeFi essay I blurted out on my weblog recently has got me riled up, and I think it's time for me, at least to declare myself. [Please join me inside, won't you?]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken to MetaFilter-Related at 9:21 PM PST - 104 comments

'what kind of music do you like'

snarkiness aside, we've got 1, 2, 3, 4 'what kind of music do you like' threads popping up in the past three days. sure these threads get lots of comments, but they're not what this site is about. and when they propogate like this, it scares me. does one such post beget others? and can we, as a community, do anything about it? do we want to do anything about it... or do we love these threads too much to let go?
posted by mlang to Etiquette/Policy at 4:21 PM PST - 26 comments

keyword search in addition to URL search?

Would it be possible to add a key-word search in addition to a URL search on the post submission page? Seems like it'd go far in reducing double-posts.
posted by me3dia to Feature Requests at 1:32 PM PST - 22 comments

Stop spoofing comments

Speaking of integrity, maybe it's time to reconsider this?
posted by crunchland to Feature Requests at 7:53 AM PST - 17 comments

July 11

Post Anonymously

A 'post anonymously' option. Matt could still see who posted it, and perhaps remove the option for those who abuse it.

There's a need when you want to respond about your company, or your family, or your health; without the consequences of detail.
posted by holloway to Feature Requests at 6:05 PM PST - 63 comments

I'm fucking tired of this...

I'm fucking tired of this from mikegre. Nothing so handy as a man committed to dropping the signal/noise ratio by pissing all over threads. Bonus for first-posting that trash so many times.
posted by NortonDC to Etiquette/Policy at 12:46 PM PST - 52 comments

July 10

NYT Guidelines

If you're posting an NYTimes link, can you please try to follow this guideline:

Another tough day for Wall Street (auto). Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetaur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.


I put the HTML code on the inside.
posted by geoff. to Etiquette/Policy at 1:56 PM PST - 17 comments

a moment to discuss what we like about metafilter

After that other thread left a bad taste in our collective mouth... not to be confused with a collective rectum, how about we take a moment to discuss what we like about metafilter? wouldn't that be pleasant!
posted by jcterminal to Etiquette/Policy at 11:58 AM PST - 126 comments

July 9

Use of "retard" draws ire

apparently, i'm a 'navel-gazing twit', but i'm just wondering: when are the developmentally disabled going to get the same degree of respect we afford the niggers, kikes, bitches, wetbacks, and gooks?
posted by mlang to Etiquette/Policy at 11:04 PM PST - 156 comments

How does one go about installing the MeFi sidebar in Mozilla?

How does one go about installing the MeFi sidebar in Mozilla? Could we perhaps include a link to install the sidebar somewhere on the MeFi front page?
posted by brownpau to Feature Requests at 11:51 AM PST - 2 comments

What are your online pet peeves?

A pet peeve, to me, is something intensely subjective and harmlessly annoying that it's unreasonable to attack and stupid to waste time decrying. And yet...and yet we all have them and it's fun to list them. Mine(sorry SpecialK for singling you out)are:
1) Yawn...[six more pet peeves inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 11:43 AM PST - 131 comments

July 8

International MetaFilter MEETUP Day is only 28 days away

International MetaFilter MEETUP Day is only 28 days away

So far, 98 members have signed on to meet their local friendly MeFi gang members. Who else is up for a little excitement?
posted by dejah420 to MetaFilter-Related at 6:01 PM PST - 38 comments

Is there a plan for a thread tracking feature?

It struck me that it would be useful to mark interesting threads for tracking so I checked the MetaTalk archives and found that the idea had been raised originally back in the mists of time and then followed up much more recently. And yet I still don't know if it's been forgotten, abandoned or taken on board as an urgent priority. Would a "Features in Progress" page help? Or be a nagging schedule?
posted by MUD to Feature Requests at 3:27 PM PST - 2 comments

Controversial soapbox rants.

I don't like when people decide they can abuse metafilter by posting controversial soapbox rants. You know you're going to get a bunch of comments, and you know people will have their feelings hurt or their blood boiling, but are these good things? What good do you contribute?
posted by moz to Etiquette/Policy at 1:12 PM PST - 29 comments

So what happened about the MeFi Swap II?

So what happened about the MeFi Swap II? Is it still going ahead? I signed up, but I'm still waiting to receive my list. I thought the list was supposed to be sent out by the 5th July.
posted by salmacis to MetaFilter-Related at 6:35 AM PST - 40 comments

July 7

Not GrammarFilter

Could we possibly make an effort to try to appreciate the content of a given site, rather than have every other link derailed by some niggling critcism of the webmaster's use of fonts/flash/javascript/punctuation?
posted by Optamystic to Etiquette/Policy at 7:15 PM PST - 87 comments

Space colonization questions

what's the deal? two space colonization posts1,2 separated by less than two hours... and the second one contains what appears to be a self-link that actually only links to the metafilter homepage (href changed by matt?) and is accompanied by accusations of billy maulana-ism (fwiw, his googlebomb is still a top ten result three weeks later) and a clever touche by sylloge. can somebody explain?
posted by mlang to Etiquette/Policy at 9:28 AM PST - 11 comments

July 5

User Stats

Is it technically possible, without too much bandwidth "wastage" I hope, to have a list of all the MeFites loggen in at any given moment? I remember there was an "X number of people currently logged in" feature a while ago If Matt decides to bring it back, is it possible to actually have the names of those logged in?
posted by ( .)(. ) to Feature Requests at 5:14 PM PST - 38 comments

July 3

The quadruple post is a Konqueror bug

I'm really not being an ass over here. It just looks as though I've located an obnoxious bug in Konqueror 3.0.1. Anybody else have the same problem? (more inside)
posted by crasspastor to Bugs at 5:29 PM PST - 3 comments

The racist post needs to go.

I'm not one to post on MetaTalk, well, ever, but this needs to go. There's no excuse for it's overt racism. It's personally insulting a multitude of people, as well as most everyone's intelligence. Nothing constructive is coming out of it.
posted by SweetJesus to Etiquette/Policy at 10:59 AM PST - 69 comments

Why is thomcatspike incomprehensible?

Matt has just deleted thomcatspike's latest incomprehensible post. Although some think he's just pulling our chains, many of us think that he's simply having trouble with English. If that's the case, how can we help him?
posted by timeistight to Etiquette/Policy at 10:45 AM PST - 132 comments

July 2

FPP: Trolling?

Trolls disguised as pleas for piss tests? Maybe someone should just ask ponchogaddo to stop pissing all over the threads.
posted by insomnyuk to Etiquette/Policy at 10:54 PM PST - 16 comments

What's up with irc?

Any sign as to when irc.metafilter.com, irc.turlyming.net will be back up? Anyone want to institute a quick fix in the meantime?
posted by geoff. to MetaFilter-Related at 8:06 PM PST - 4 comments

Metafilter Statistics updated

Metafilter Statistics have finally been updated, and the top 20 charts are back. The big news here is that it looks like thread/comment traffic has slowly declined over the past few months, after a big spike in January. Also, the User Growth charts now show the number of new user signups per month, resulting in a cute graph (signups are on! signups are off!, signups are on!, etc). Now that I'm storing all the user/thread data in a database (instead of a flat file), expect these stats to be updated monthly again.
posted by waxpancake to MetaFilter-Related at 5:53 PM PST - 27 comments

July 1

Two Small Questions

Two itsy-bitsy questions and one trivial, infinitesimal footnote:

1)On MetaTalk's front page it says "There have been no links and no comments posted since your last visit". Since posts here aren't required to have links wouldn't it be better to say posts or, following the wording on the posting box, threads?

2)Why, when you go back to revise your new post, does the category selected always jump back to bugs? (Some posts mistakenly attributed to bugs are impossible to find through the category archives).

Footnote: Does anyone else feel slightly disappointed when they check in on MeTa and there haven't been any new posts for what seems like ages? Is this ethically deplorable in any way? ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso to Bugs at 1:14 PM PST - 39 comments