July 2017 Archives (all archives)

July 31

Help build MetaFilter’s savings

The generosity of the MetaFilter community has been invaluable in keeping this place up and running for the last several years via community funding. We’re in a position right now where we need to ask for a little more of that help to ensure that the site remains financially secure. [more inside]
posted by cortex to MetaFilter-Related at 9:04 AM PST - 453 comments

mathowie transfers ownership of MetaFilter to cortex

Big news: a few days ago Matt Haughey and I signed paperwork to transfer ownership of MetaFilter from him to me. This is sorta huge and sorta not a big deal at the same time: things are fine and basically nothing is changing on the site as a result, we’re just keeping on as before. I’ll talk about the whole thing below the fold. [more inside]
posted by cortex to MetaFilter-Related at 9:04 AM PST - 343 comments

July 30

I am library, how do I do?

Dan Hon has a Twitter thread going of neural network-generated Ask Metafilter questions.
posted by divabat to MetaFilter-Related at 6:55 AM PST - 41 comments

July 29

Metatalktail Hour: Favorite Words

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week's conversation starter: What is your favorite word, and why? [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter-Related at 7:24 PM PST - 150 comments

July 25

What, besides the content of the link, do you consider when posting?

It feels like the internet has changed from a time when some friend might IM you a link to cat-scan.com and you'd think 'I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged in their scanners or why' and post a link to that site to Metafilter. With social media and content aggregators and embeds, the same basic content can appear in a whole lot of different contexts -- you might see it on Facebook's sidebar, or BuzzFeed or Bored Panda or all of the above. So which one do you link to? How much does context matter when the post is supposed to be about the content? [more inside]
posted by jacquilynne to Etiquette/Policy at 1:15 PM PST - 45 comments

Best Metafilter posts for outsiders?

I have, over the years, tried to convince IRL friends of the awesomeness of metafilter. But getting them interested is daunting- there is so much history and culture here. Any given day the front page posts are good; but if you're not familiar with the site, can seem like just a collection of links with discussion. So what threads/posts/discussions do you use to really show off metafilter to people unfamiliar with it? Are there any standout posts you use time and again to people unfamiliar with metafilter? This isn't the best metafilter posts, exactly, as some of the best posts jusdged by mefites may be too culturally specific to hook someone on the outside looking in. [more inside]
posted by [insert clever name here] to MetaFilter-Related at 12:43 PM PST - 53 comments

July 22

Everything is fine?

Every so often someone proposes we avoid discussion of unhappy outcomes in general but more specifically the unlikelihood of an impeachment in the Trump threads, which now appears to be becoming de facto policy. It seems like it's worth talking over before it does.
posted by Artw to Etiquette/Policy at 8:13 PM PST - 137 comments

Metatalktail Hour: Return

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week's conversation starter is from Wordshore, and he wants to know, "Where have you been that you want to return to? And why? Maybe a holiday place, a difficult-to-reach island, the city where you found love, a childhood playground, that diner you stopped at one time, a beach, or that quiet forest with only the sounds of trees and animals. Or, perhaps somewhere closer to home (or maybe even your home itself)." [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter-Related at 6:46 PM PST - 108 comments

July 21

What is my Country-nymic?

Okay, so I'm from the United States Of America. More than once now I've been typing a comment about a topic that has to do with Mexico or Canada or somewhere in this hemisphere, and I start to type "American" to describe myself, but then I stop, because we're all Americans over here. I think I remember that USian fell out of favor a while back. So... what do I call myself? Most recently I used the awkward term "US person". Is there any descriptor for someone who is from the USA that doesn't has cultural superiority assumptions ("I'm American, none of the rest of you from the Americas get to say that!") or the negative associations that I remember this site associating with USian? I don't have any answer, but I'm genuinely curious if anyone here has a good word to use. Because I'd use it.
posted by hippybear to Etiquette/Policy at 12:41 PM PST - 128 comments

Shoutout in Bitch Media re emotional labour

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, writer of the Modest Proposal for a Fair Trade Emotional Labor Economy essay linked on Mefi recently, talks about the Metafilter emotional labour thread on a podcast with Bitch Media discussing her artile.
posted by divabat to MetaFilter-Related at 5:13 AM PST - 5 comments

July 20

Duolingo Japanese Club

Duolingo now offers Japanese! (For iOS and Android phones, only. No web-based presence yet.) Since some Mefites previously expressed interest in Japanese, I wanted to invite folks to join the Metafilter Japanese Club I created on Duolingo. [more inside]
posted by nightrecordings to MetaFilter-Related at 7:22 PM PST - 26 comments

All I want for GISHWHES... is youuuuuuu

It's that time of year again, where people submit themselves to the unhinged whims of a celebrity puppetmaster in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (5-11 August 2017). Mefite-heavy team StrangeFascination (previously, previouslier) have 5 open spots - would any Mefites like to join us for zany art timez? [more inside]
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts to MetaFilter-Related at 5:41 PM PST - 19 comments

July 17

You’re Not the Customer; You’re the Product

Quote Investigator looks at the history of this quotation: Richard Serra? Carlota Fay Schoolman? Steve Atkins? Tom Johnson? Andrew Lewis? blue_beetle? Tim O’Reilly?
posted by Lanark to MetaFilter-Related at 7:00 AM PST - 36 comments

July 15

Metatalktail Hour: Shop Talk

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! bookmammal wants to know, "what was the last thing you purchased? Was it a "need" or a "want"?" You can skip routine life-maintenance purchases like groceries and gas and transit cards and things like that (because otherwise 75% of the answers will be "picked up groceries/got gas/loaded my transit card on the way home"). If you would like to cheat and say the last interesting thing you bought, or say the last thing you bought and also the last interesting thing you bought, I won't tell! [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter-Related at 6:45 PM PST - 252 comments

July 14

1970s music post from the Blue

I'm looking for a music post from the Blue that appeared about a month ago. It was about an elementary school class in California who had written a song that Warner Brothers eventually released as a single (with an industrial film by Francis Ford Coppola). I've searched for this but haven't found anything--does anyone remember this?
posted by pxe2000 to MetaFilter-Related at 10:12 AM PST - 2 comments

Metafilter Fantasy Football Challenge 2017/2018

It's that time of year again! The Metafilter Fantasy Premier League is back to trouble your days and disturb your nights. Join now to guess wildly at which player your favorite Premier League team bought for the same amount as the GDP of a developing nation will break his leg on the second day of the season! New to soccer/football/futball? No problem! Just go here, create a team, and then spend the next month second guessing yourself! It's... fun? [more inside]
posted by robocop is bleeding to MetaFilter-Related at 5:56 AM PST - 18 comments

July 12

Why is feedly loading Ask Metafilter (only) in an unlogged-in state?

How come in iOS, Feedly randomly and frequently loads posts from AskMe -- and only AskMe -- in the unlogged state (modern)? Even if I click thru to open the post in a browser I remain logged out and unable to log in (page just refreshes) even though I stay logged in (in classic) in other tabs and browsers. When it happens, I end up having to open a new tab, go to the Ask front page, and click the question when I find it. It's annoying enough and frequent enough that I often don't bother. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A to Bugs at 1:55 PM PST - 26 comments

July 11

Battle for the Net

We’ve done it before with SOPA/PIPA and Net Neutrality day. Are we doing it again?
posted by unliteral to MetaFilter-Related at 5:13 PM PST - 21 comments

July 9

July Best Post Contest! Midmonth Awards

Herein, find weekly awards and recognitions! See categories here.
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter-Related at 7:33 PM PST - 38 comments

July 8

Metatalktail Hour: EDC

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! Tonight's topic was suggested by both zamboni and bookmammal: What's In Your Pockets or Bag! Discuss what you bring with you every day when you leave the house. (Feel free to link pictures! Pictures are a fun part of EDC & bagluv.) [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter-Related at 7:16 PM PST - 177 comments

July 5

Collective WTF

The last What the Fucking Fuck thread hit the 30 day expiration mark, so I wonder if it's time for another peaceful corner to breathe?
posted by yoga to MetaFilter-Related at 6:14 PM PST - 129 comments

The House of Orientalism

Please STOP writing about Asian people and Asian countries (Southeast Asian here) like they are magical mysterious fairytale creatures from a long-ago-faraway exoticized Orient. Framing posts in this style is immediately alienating and hurtful, and it derails any possible discussion. It is not the same as writing about Western white people in this style, because white people have not been subject to the same patronizing orientalist prejudices that people from Asian countries have.
posted by nicebookrack to Etiquette/Policy at 4:34 PM PST - 106 comments

Featuring MeFi's own MetaFilter

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has announced the creation of the library's Web Cultures Web Archive Collection. Archived sites of note run the gamut from Urban Dictionary to ¡Cuánto cabrón! to creepypasta to MeFi's own Metafilter. [h/t]
posted by Room 641-A to MetaFilter-Related at 11:31 AM PST - 44 comments

July 1

Metatalktail Hour: Hidden Talents and Odd Adventures

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! I'm going with a combo topic tonight of two closely related suggestions: pjern wants to know odd and unusual things you've done, and August West is curious about your hidden talents! Maybe they're the same! Maybe they're different! Maybe you have no talents but have done a lot of odd things! Well this is the thread to tell us about it. [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter-Related at 7:08 PM PST - 167 comments

Happy Canada Day! / Happy Fourth of July!

Have a Happy Canada Day! Have a Happy Fourth of July! Have a nice weekend. Whether you're Canadian, American, or whatever. I hope you're having an awesome day. Be safe. Cheers.
posted by Fizz to MetaFilter-Related at 9:59 AM PST - 47 comments