September 2006 Archives (all archives)
September 30
Spoiler alert!
Should there be a spoiler alert for this question? I haven't read the book, but it seems to me that talk about the "final scene" on the front page of AskMe might qualify as such. Seems like it could be an easy fix.
WTF????
Additional AskMe questions for a fee
Shouldnt there be a way, where members in good standing can pay an additional $5 and get to ask another question before their 1 week auto-block is up?
This is functionally the same as getting a second sock puppet account and thus having two accounts from which to ask questions -- without all the run-around and deception.
This is functionally the same as getting a second sock puppet account and thus having two accounts from which to ask questions -- without all the run-around and deception.
Can I repost this project because of new link?
I posted a short film I made to Projects but hours after I did, the site hosting it took the video offline. It's back up with a new URL http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/6370 but I can't edit my old project post nor can I repost it. I had no control over the hosting site and this video is for a contest where only the 10 most popular films move on to the next round. Voting ends October 10. Would it be possible to repost to Projects?
Meetup in Central Europe (Sept. 2006)
Central Europe Meetup? Long shot I guess but do we A, have a critical mass of folk in the area and B, who'd be interested?
September 29
radio7, rest in peace.
I was saddened to hear of the most untimely passing of Radio7 on September 9th. I only met her once, but I was charmed by her humour, talent and vivaciousness.
I can't access my question.
i am having trouble accessing my blog on the ask mefi thread i started earlier. for some reason i can access all other parts of mefi, but not that thread (http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/47579). its over the idiot roommate who has an internet girlfriend from alaska. i just want to let people know i created a blog about it since many wanted to be updated.
http://wowthisisbad.blogspot.com/
http://wowthisisbad.blogspot.com/
character limit on tags?
What's the character limit on tags? I tried to add the tag 'BuffalobuffaloBuffalobuffalobuffalobuffaloBuffalobuffalo' to this thread and got instead:
Error Executing Database Query. [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver][SQLServer]String or binary data would be truncated. Saw nothing about it in the FAQ.
Error Executing Database Query. [Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver][SQLServer]String or binary data would be truncated. Saw nothing about it in the FAQ.
Getting a bug in the Blue
Getting a bug in the Blue (front page & content, on IE) [more inside]
If you can't be bothered to punctuate or capitalize, maybe you shouldn't post to the front page.
Photos of last weekend's Las Vegas meetup.
Chatfilter is bad
Chatty open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of Ask Metafilter. Questions with no problem to be solved or where the problem is some variant of "I'm curious if other people feel like I do"
September 28
If there is no spell check, disable the button
Mr. Haughey, if you've disabled the Java spell-check feature, shouldn't you remove the “Spell Check” form button form Ask MeFi?
Just FYI. Unless spell-check still works for that area of the website. Then disregard this post. Thanks!
Just FYI. Unless spell-check still works for that area of the website. Then disregard this post. Thanks!
DC Meetup
D.C. Meetup/gsteff music education reminder: Saturday, 9 pm, at the Rock and Roll Hotel.
Policy on posting personal info
Lately, we seem to do a lot of googling-and-posting of whatever personal info we can find. It's publicly available stuff, but it's proven to be a pretty powerful tool for getting to people, and it seems like using that power often might lead us down a certain road we might not want to take. Should there be some kind of guidelines or boundaries?
Policy about using sockpuppets to skip around the 1 question per week rule?
After reading this ask.me where it appears that a user accidentally outed their sockpuppet, what's the policy about using sockpuppets to skip around the 1 question per week rule?
Is linking to self-mirrored content self-linking?
Does the self linking ban apply if you move a clip from someone's page onto your youtube to save their bandwidth?
The video in question isn't theirs, it's simply someone hosting a clip from a tv show.
The video in question isn't theirs, it's simply someone hosting a clip from a tv show.
Missing favorites?
A lot of my favorites aren't showing up on my favorites page, even though I do show up as having favorited (favored?) them if I go to the thread they were on. Am I missing something?
MefiSwap side swaps
MefiSwap side swaps - anyone else interested?
September 27
Jobs Still Available?
Is there any way of knowing whether a vacancy in Jobs has been filled? Do they disappear if someone gets the job? Is there a flag?
Slowest research project ever?
This bugs me. It can't be coincidence, but what is really going on?
Tag Bugs
Most popular tags page for Mefi is broken.
Increasingly chatty askme
An interesting post that became ChatFilter. A subsequent post that IS chatfilter. What bothers me is the trend. More questions are becoming increasingly open-ended. (I don't think that occhiblu's phrasing was particularly wrong, but I think that a lot of people, just because they're guys, thought that their opinion was useful) Which allows people to simply take a stab in the dark, offer their "off the cuff" insight, or otherwise just give an unresearched opinion. IMHO, this sort of thing defeats the purpose of an answer-oriented site.
Drawn Metafilter Comments
Jobs
In the time it took me to read this "job" and write this post, I could have billed them for the amount they are offering.
NYC meetup at Double Down
AskMe Sidebar Thanks
Thank you very much for putting the sex in space Ask.Metafilter thread on the sidebar.
September 26
Tips on caring for an elderly rabbit
Perhaps I'm a sentimental fool, but I found this askmefi very touching.
Close the thread
I think it might be time to put this thread to bed. The poster has now said that the answers have helped her get what she was looking for. The only purpose that is served by keeping it open is to invite namecalling.
City Guides Subsite?
cityguides.metafilter.com? How about it?
Inspired by Lougi's recent Askme Q, I suggest a section be set up where people can a) post requests for specific city info and b) post their fave tips for cities they know well. These threads could remain open indefinitely and be a great resource for people travelling or moving and would cut down on AskMe Q's about such things. If possible, perhaps a sidebar on Ask which just lists the names of the last 5 cityguide threads that have had activity would be a handy way to see when a city you know/care about has questions/activities.
Inspired by Lougi's recent Askme Q, I suggest a section be set up where people can a) post requests for specific city info and b) post their fave tips for cities they know well. These threads could remain open indefinitely and be a great resource for people travelling or moving and would cut down on AskMe Q's about such things. If possible, perhaps a sidebar on Ask which just lists the names of the last 5 cityguide threads that have had activity would be a handy way to see when a city you know/care about has questions/activities.
Can we request posts to be made by other people?
Just a thought....in what location could we put blue requests? Ie. if I wanted someone to make an excellent post about something or someone I had interest in, but I don't have the expertise or the time, where would such a request be made?
Lost Password Bug
I know this has been brought up before, but the lost password emailer is not working. I am getting the "email not found, password not sent" message. I have emailed to request my password but have received no response. Is there no way to get my password?
What is Metafilter's stance on handing over information to the authorities?
matt, jessamyn -
as far as i can tell this is nontrivial.
what is your stance on handing over information to the authorities? at&t, google, other, or something entirely different?
as far as i can tell this is nontrivial.
what is your stance on handing over information to the authorities? at&t, google, other, or something entirely different?
September 25
Austin Meetup Followup
Was there a torrent site link deleted from this thread?
Was there a torrent site link deleted from this thread? It seems kind of inconsistent to link to a streaming site but not a torrent site, both are just as infringing. Also, do we still need the warning about Israel/Lebanon on the posting page? The war has been over for a while.
AskMe is cool, gets professional responses
Sometimes AskMe takes you in a surprising direction, and this thread is one of those times: a college student asks if he should take advantage of a contraband answer key to check his graded homework, and the community is nearly unanimous in its ethical condemnation of the practice. That is, until a philosophy professor and professional ethicist answers to the contrary. Probably not sidebar-worthy, but a neat example of how an issue that seems at first to be black-and-white bleeds a little gray once the experts join the fray.
Las Vegas Meetup Photos
This is the official thread to link to VEGAS MEETUP photos. Post 'em if you got 'em, kids.
Feature or bug?
Archival weirdness. Feature or bug?
some days you are the pigeon, some days you are deleted.
nearly every one of cleverusername's FPPs contains, somewhere in it, a link to The Escapist.
For instance, nearly every one of cleverusername's FPPs contains, somewhere in it, a link to The Escapist. It's true. Check it out.
Project recognition
Challenging others' answers in an obesity thread
Was it really necessary to repeatedly challenge booksandlibretti's answer to this question? How about just letting Bookhouse evaluate her response for himself?
September 24
Some people sin like this, some people sin like that...
FPP Editorializing.
This question is great, but the answers are not
This is a fine example of a decent question and good responses made much less satisfying because they are interspersed with responses from assholes who are just posting to see their names.
Favorites Request
Can the favorites pages be tweaked so comments retain their formatting and links? Also, when the page displays the whole of a comment, there shouldn't be an ellipsis after it. TY HUGS
September 23
MeFi Wedding
Congratulations to jonmc and pips! Married! For real! With Elvis!
LA Meetup Photos
Photographic proof that we L.A. Mefites do occasionally pile in our cars and drive long distances -- braving earthquakes, crossfire, and roving gangs of cosmetic surgeons -- in order to gather, drink, and shoutout.
Does the html posting toolbar show up in AskeMe using Safari?
I suppose this must come up from time to time, but I couldnt' find it searching... I was just viewing AskMe through Safari and when I went to add a comment, the little toolbar for bolding/italcizing/linkifying text wasn't there. I see this is the same on the other pages as well. What up with that?
Las Vegas Meetup
My bump, my bump, my lovely Mefi bump...
Everything still on? No cocaine-and-hooker derails? Checked out their site. Don't see a realtime stream. Am I missing something?
Everything still on? No cocaine-and-hooker derails? Checked out their site. Don't see a realtime stream. Am I missing something?
September 22
MeFi Search
I'm thinking about creating a MeFi-specific search engine. I've created search engines for specific remote sites before, though nothing of the size of MeFi, but I'm fairly confident I can make something more useful than Yahoo or Google for MeFi searches.
My questions are:
1) Has this been done before? I looked through the search results for "search," but didn't find anything beyond the internal search on Yahoo and Google returns pretty much every MeTa post because the word "search" is in the header.
2) Is this kosher? I'm not talking about providing full-content results, just snippets and links like Google or Yahoo provide, only better results and more search options specific to MeFi, e.g. searching deleted posts by explanation.
3) Assuming favorable answers to 1) and 2), what would others like to see in a MeFi search? Initially, this is just a personal project and I don't want to make any promises I may not keep, but I would like to hear about your search ponies before starting.
My questions are:
1) Has this been done before? I looked through the search results for "search," but didn't find anything beyond the internal search on Yahoo and Google returns pretty much every MeTa post because the word "search" is in the header.
2) Is this kosher? I'm not talking about providing full-content results, just snippets and links like Google or Yahoo provide, only better results and more search options specific to MeFi, e.g. searching deleted posts by explanation.
3) Assuming favorable answers to 1) and 2), what would others like to see in a MeFi search? Initially, this is just a personal project and I don't want to make any promises I may not keep, but I would like to hear about your search ponies before starting.
Matt has Vox invites
Hey everyone, I got 1,000 vox invites to give to users of MeFi. If you haven't checked it out yet, here is your chance (and feel free to post links to your vox page when you have some posts up).
Admin please fix the title of my FPP!
My front page post seems to have lost its title, which was "'In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital' -- Joe LieberMAN"
What happened to the Dawkins/Atheist post?
Forgive my ignorance, but what happened to the Dawkins/Atheist post? I was enjoying the article over lunch and when I popped back to the front page, it was gone. Was it a double?
Did the spell check button on MeFi comments go away?
Did the spell check button on MeFi comments go away? Has this been discussed already and if so will I be made fun of in the comments for this post?
Deletion emails?
My FPP was deleted (not complaining; I agree with the reasoning). Aren't I supposed to get an email about this? I didn't. Forgive me if that's not the policy. I thought it was.
an exemplary specimen
I would just like to point out that the way in which louigi formatted his multi-question post to AskMe is superb, and should be a model for future questions of this nature.
AskMe spell check error
AskMe spell check error
London meetup photos
Europe Admin Needed
Hey Matt and Jess, how's about promoting a mod from Europe, or dare I say Australia, so we can kill crap like this before we give the self-promoting little jerk a soapbox? (I'm only half kidding.)
September 21
Do you guys have JOBS?!
Is ask.metafilter becoming less civil?
I have followed ask.metafilter for several years--infrequent poster but faithful reader and occasional responder. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed in the last several months a slight decline in the civility of responses and an increasing harshness of tone. I note an increasing judgementalism particularly the reframing of the question to challenge the poster. It is still one of the most civil places I visit. Really, I was just curious. Obviously, it appears more often on the human relation issues. Thanks for any comments
Headlines cause confusion
PonyFilter: CDC Recommends... what?
It is obvious when you open the post because the headline is shown, but in the front page, it is just confusing... Can the headline be included on the front page, or can there be a note in the posting page that the headline is not shown on the FP, and shouldn't be used as part of the post summary
It is obvious when you open the post because the headline is shown, but in the front page, it is just confusing... Can the headline be included on the front page, or can there be a note in the posting page that the headline is not shown on the FP, and shouldn't be used as part of the post summary
Are HTML entities allowed?
Quick question about HTML entities: are they no longer accepted in comments? I've been trying to use em-dashes like so: [ampersand] [pound sign] 8212 [semi-colon] and this has worked fine until recently. But lately, I've left a trail of comments with ugly "8212;"s all over the place, as if the [ampersand] and [pound sign] were stripped off before post (but after the inline preview).
September 20
Missing Spell Check
Is anyone's spell check on AskMefi just not showing up? There is just no icon for the spell checking tool (showing up for me). I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.7 on a Windows XP. Thanks.
Los Angeles meetup reminder
Los Angeles meetup reminder. This Friday (the 22nd), 7:00 PM at the Sportsmen's Lodge, 12825 Ventura Blvd, Studio City.
User Shoutout!
I just want to thank y2karl for making MeFi amazing and interesting. His posts never cease to impress me. Thanks Karl!!
London Meetup
London meetup reminder. Tomorrow night (Thursday 21st Sept), from 6.30pm at the Bricklayers Arms, Fitzrovia.
Best Answers
I'm trying to mark best answers in this thread, but only the first one took. When I click "mark best answer" on any of the others, it acts as if I clicked on the post time.
% of mefites in meta
What percentage of mefites actually contribute to metatalk? And how popular is ask.me in comparison to the blue?
Screenshot of Microsoft's youtube clone
September 19
Jessamyn then and now
Retro-Meet-Up! Jessamyn (and little sis) are featured in a Then and Now on the flickr blog.
Hypothetical question
Am I stupid? Re: My very first deleted post. Yes, I've read the FAQ and some of the related discussions, and yes, I realize that hypotheticals are generally a no-no, but I thought this particular question could not be framed in any manner that was not hypothetical, if you catch my drift. Please berate me appropriately.
Hampster dance dupe deleted
"hampster dance" just got deleted. it did look (after 17 comments) as though it was about to spiral seriously out of control, but matt could have at least waited an hour or two.. ok, fine, i'll go read about the military coup in thailand.
Vegas Meetup
Vegas Wedding/Meetup Update [mi]
Pictures from Philly Meetup
Pictures from last night's Philly meet up are here. Be warned, there are cloth napkin boobs in one of the pictures...yeah, I said it. Cloth napkin boobs.
NYC jonmc welcome-back meet-up
NYC Mefites, a proposal: those of us who aren't going to Vegas for the Jonmc-Pips nuptials might welcome the happy couple back with a toast. Say, next Wednesday (9/27)?
Page loads but gets stuck sucking the dynamic.fmpub.net adserver link
This is happening again. Page loads but gets stuck sucking the dynamic.fmpub.net adserver link. + the spellcheck is stuffed (mi)
Get rid of images on the grey and the blue.
The inline image debate revisited: I know this has been discussed before, and I know that images are sometimes useful in AskMe, and I know that I may have had a sense-of-humour bypass... but isn't it time we got rid of them in MeTa and MeFi? I don't think that "bloke being shagged by a robot" gif adds anything to the site at all. Or the "this is not an appropriate front page post" one. Or the "elephant poo" one. Or any of the other pictures in the thread below this one.
September 18
You are ineligible to post
Idea: what if the "New Post" and "New Question" links vanish-or change to say "You are ineligible to post"-when you aren't eligible? That would eliminate a lot of the "Oh lemme ax metafilter about that." ...*click*... "Sweet Lady Marmalade! I can't yet!"
Then when you're allowed again they change back to normal.
Then when you're allowed again they change back to normal.
Manhattan Meetup: Cruel 2 B Kind
This weekend is an alternative gaming festival in Manhattan, featuring innovative/experimental games played in public- like this body-activated giant game of Space Invaders played against the exterior of NYU Bobst library. Ms Phred and I will be playing cruel 2 be kind on Saturday-any NYC mefites interested? (n.b.: I am not affiliated in any way with the festival, except as a game participant--just thought it might be more fun than drinks.)
We can identify ourselves at the closing ceremony in Central Park. Debated putting this in the blue because there are so many cool games. But it's been boingboinged, so maybe many of us have seen it.
We can identify ourselves at the closing ceremony in Central Park. Debated putting this in the blue because there are so many cool games. But it's been boingboinged, so maybe many of us have seen it.
Streaming music problem
Music: Feature or Bug? When I try streaming a song from the front page, as soon as I scroll past it or flip to a different browser tab, it stops playing. If I load the song's individual page and stream it from there, it contines to play until I close it (even as I type this MeTa post in another tab, for example).
Can I repost my project?
One of my previously posted projects has undergone a substantial change (ie. it's a free tool now, not subscription based). Do I repost it, not repost it, or assume that this mention (unlinked as to not taint this question) is good enough?
Missing Spellcheck?
The spellcheck button has disappeared for me, in both the blue and the green. And the spellcheck on MeTa posts isn't working also.
September 17
philadelphia meetup, sept 2006
Philadelphia meetup - Monday night 9/18, 7pm, Franklin Square, for minigolf and general mischief. (previously)
Mark your contacts
Highlighting contacts? Would it be possible to highlight the name of anyone you have listed in your contacts? Nothing flashy, just something to draw attention to the poster's name if you are skimming a long thread.
Can I post this to askme?
I want to post a question in the green about finding mp3 copies of This American Life or someplace where folks swap CDs of programs. We're headed back to Italy in October and I'd like to load some shows on my iRiver for the long flight.
I've googled for the past half hour and I'm half-crosseyed from all the conflicting opinions I've read about the producers of the show urging folks to remove links from their websites during the "deep linking" fiasco-lite over the summer.
The upshot is this - would I be asking an illegal-activities-war3z-type question? Cause I don't want to sully my good name...
I've googled for the past half hour and I'm half-crosseyed from all the conflicting opinions I've read about the producers of the show urging folks to remove links from their websites during the "deep linking" fiasco-lite over the summer.
The upshot is this - would I be asking an illegal-activities-war3z-type question? Cause I don't want to sully my good name...
A small question about metafilter deleting posts.
A small question about metafilter deleting posts. Why so hasty? Why so abrupt? Perhaps we, as a online community, should define more precisely *exactly* the demographic metafilter, as a business, seeks to appeal toward. Posts on metaTalk get deleted before I can even put a more in depth explaination. What is going on here?
Some things AskMe cannot do alone
How to selflink sneaky-like
Tags -- a Connection Timeout Error
I'm getting a "Connection Timeout" message on both http://www.metafilter.com/tags/ and http://ask.metafilter.com/tags/
Sydney Meetup Photos
Pictures from the Sydney MeFi Meet-up at the Alfred Hotel Pub in Camperdown..., in case you were curious.
AskMe Guidelines
After seeing posts like little Miss Professor's object de amour, I don't think AskMeFi should be closed to scorn. Many people that ask questions are only looking for approval, not answers.
September 16
DC meetup?
DC Mefi community?
New in town, will be here for a while. When is the next meetup?
New in town, will be here for a while. When is the next meetup?
The quality and frequency of jonson's recent posts have been astonishing
The quality and frequency of jonson's recent posts have been astonishing. Thanks for making MeFi awesome.
Content creators sign on to comment
Bob and Bri (wtcbpc) sign up to respond to the thread about the 9/11 footage they shot and recently put online.
Where the heck is the MeFi compilation CD?
Where the heck is the MeFi compilation CD? I shelled out my hard-earned cash months ago, and I haven't heard jack squat about it since. C'mon...is this Chinese Democracy or something?
Double post
September 15
Argument over NSFW
sgt.serenity seems a bit...hostile.
We all live in a Chicago rowhouse
Apparently over 100 MeFites live in a rowhouse in the McKinley Park neighbourhood of Chicago. Here's a few of them; you can find many, many more by looking at the "Users nearest this user" display. Perhaps we should hold our next meetup there?
Calgary Meetup Photos
Calgary meetup photos. In attendance: RGD, Quatermass, gompa, and Mitheral. Sorry, we forgot pictures of our most excellent wait staff.
MeFi Swap
Mefi Swap 2006 : Come on. You need to send out your CDs already. I participated in two groups this time around, and sent out 10 cds. I've received only 4. This isn't an election where that sort of return rate is acceptable. Get off your lazy ass and fulfill your commitment.
Why can't I access MetaFilter?
Is there a reason why I consistently cannot access metafilter (or any other metafilter site) 2-3 times per day? Granted, these usually are at high traffic times of day. Mornings when I get up, when I get home from work, etc. However, that's not always the case. At first, I thought the site was just down once or twice. Now, it happens every day, most of the times I try to access the site. Nothing has changed in my PC setup at any point, and I was getting regular access to the site without problems about a month ago. If I wait long enough when I get a "page not found" error, the site usually will appear. I apologize if this was already covered.
Apache error
Help! I see this message instead of the Metafilter homepage?
If you can see this, it means that the installation of the Apache web server software on this system was successful. You may now add content to this directory and replace this page.
If you can see this, it means that the installation of the Apache web server software on this system was successful. You may now add content to this directory and replace this page.
Metafilter's own Adam Savage in the Christian Science Monitor
"Jamie is all about total, complete, and utter control. Thinking first and then acting. Adam is about acting first and then thinking."
Excerpted from a nice write-up about one of our own.
Excerpted from a nice write-up about one of our own.
September 14
Ride to LV Meetup
Who from the Bay Area wants to ride with me to Las Vegas for the MeFi/MeCha meetup there?
I'm leaving the morning of Saturday, Sept. 23rd and plan on attending Jonmc's wedding. Book your own room. I'll be driving back on Sunday, the 24th. If you can share the driving, cool. I'll probably be smoking at the wheel for such an occasion,m FYI. Shotgun is reserved for DaShiv, brundlefly, or caitlinb, whoever responds first :)
I'm leaving the morning of Saturday, Sept. 23rd and plan on attending Jonmc's wedding. Book your own room. I'll be driving back on Sunday, the 24th. If you can share the driving, cool. I'll probably be smoking at the wheel for such an occasion,m FYI. Shotgun is reserved for DaShiv, brundlefly, or caitlinb, whoever responds first :)
Meetup in Austin, Sept. 16, 2006
OK, it was a link to a google search, but why delete??
Itchy trigger finger? I liked that post, and it seems like everyone else who posted did too -- no-one seemed to be snarking or complaining or asking for it to go. Sure, it's a link to a Google search, but an interesting one I hadn't thought of before. It was headed for a fun interweb memories thread... but then it was tragically taken from us. As an official Metafilter King, I would urge you to reconsider.
Calgary meetup
Rumour has it that there's a Calgary meetup this evening. Bottlescrew Bill's, 140 - 10 Ave. SW, 7pm. Consider this both a request for confirmation and a reminder.
"Your comment appears to be empty, please go back and try again."
"Your comment appears to be empty, please go back and try again."
Apache startup page found on AskMe
Using Camino on OS X, I get the Apache startup page ("Test page for Apache Installation" is the Title) when I try to go to ask.metafilter.com. I can't reproduce it on either Safari or Firefox on my machine, only Camino.
Can we bring up the original post when doubled?
Is there any way to see a list of original posts that have recently been doubled?
MeFi MeCha bookmark art swap reminder.
Last chance: Sign up for the groovycool mefi/mecha bookmark art swap. Yes, YOU. Do it. More is inside.
Reminder: Philly meetup Monday 9/18/06
Reminder: Philly meetup Monday 9/18. Franklin Square mini golfing. 7pm.
Spell Check Bug
Spell check not working. Clicked for it, it generated this error:
Error processing CFX custom tag "CFX_JSpellCheck".
Error processing CFX custom tag "CFX_JSpellCheck".
Sydney meetup September 2006
3rd and last call. Sydney, Australia meetup. Sun 17th September. Alfred Hotel, 51 Missenden Rd Camperdown. 1:30.
September 13
Woot, we're back up. Sorry about the downtime.
Woot, we're back up. Sorry about the downtime.
September 12
Reminder: Auckland, New Zealand meetup
Reminder: Auckland, New Zealand meetup, 15th of September, 6:00 PM-ish at The Loaded Hog on the Viaduct -- which hopefully will not be packed to the gills with the after-work crowd. I'll be the American transplant with the long curly dark hair wearing the black Zabar's baseball cap. If you think you can make it, please give a heads up in this thread.
Dave Gorman pops in to comment in a thread about himself
Dave Gorman pops in to comment in a thread about himself.
Bush sucks, deleted
What happened to the thread on the Presidential speech?..
How passive-aggressive should be done.
I love this. How passive-aggressive should be done.
DC Jonathan Coulton meetup?
Jonathan Coulton is appearing at the Warehouse Theater in DC on Monday Sep 18th. Given that a number of us seem to be fond of him, anyone interested in meeting up before/after the show? I'm going with or without you clowns but I'm always happy to wander down the street to RFD for a drink...
Askme history: that thread with the indie playlist for the playground set.
I'm searching for an old AskMe thread where the OP requested a list of indie-rock/indie-pop music that would be good for children. I've already searched tags and AskMe search for various combinations of the terms "kids", "children" "indie" "music" and "playlist" and have not come up with the thread I am remembering. It was not the ice-cream-social thread or the hip-hop for a 10-year-old thread. I seem to recall it was from about 1-2 years ago.
Undeleted double post.
September 11
Anonymous category in AskMe?
PonyFilter: could we make "anonymous" a category at the top of the "Posts by category in the past month:" list in the sidebar on AskMe? The results, of course, would be questions from anonymous.
Dunno about other people, but I often find those the most interesting questions to browse.
Dunno about other people, but I often find those the most interesting questions to browse.
US-centric posts on 9-11
A usa-centric post is surely not the best of the web.
Can we link the FAQ from the header?
I was having trouble figuring out how long I needed to wait before I posted again. I eventually found it in the FAQ, and that's all well and good, but I found the FAQ itself difficult to find. Sure, it's linked at the bottom of the various MeFi sites, but only on MeTa is it linked at the top. That's an issue for people like myself that mostly read MeFi through the RSS feed and don't normally scroll through the site to the bottom. Heck, I didn't even know the footer existed prior to today! So my request is to link to the FAQ from the header on the sites that don't currently have it there.
OP starts judgements early
I'm taking myself to metatalk because I am honestly not sure what the best thing to do would be.
Here was a heartbreaking post from a grieving person who specifically asked people not to take their abortion debates into the thread. The Confessor posted what I thought was a completely uncalled for judgement on those who have abortions ("for convenience"-- a common anti-abortion term). I found it personally offensive and noted so in-thread, stating I didn't want to hijack (or debate) but that I found the judgement to be uncalled for. Now I am not sure if that was the right thing to do. Should I have called out here to begin with? Should I have ignored it?
And I want to apologize to anonymous for making a "thing" in his thread.
Here was a heartbreaking post from a grieving person who specifically asked people not to take their abortion debates into the thread. The Confessor posted what I thought was a completely uncalled for judgement on those who have abortions ("for convenience"-- a common anti-abortion term). I found it personally offensive and noted so in-thread, stating I didn't want to hijack (or debate) but that I found the judgement to be uncalled for. Now I am not sure if that was the right thing to do. Should I have called out here to begin with? Should I have ignored it?
And I want to apologize to anonymous for making a "thing" in his thread.
jonmc and pips getting married in Las Vegas.
Vegas Meetup: jonmc and pips are getting married!! Saturday 9/23, 9:30 p.m. at the Graceland Chapel. After the ceremony, we're all gonna party at the Carnival Court Flair Bar until the break of dawn. Please join us!
Quick, someone give this Safety Patrol Officer a gold star!
Quick, someone give this Safety Patrol Officer a gold star!
Accidental self link in a 9/11 thread?
September 10
I have posted updates
I have posted updates to a couple of questions: Bicycle rear wheel problems and How can I drive a LED as a light-emitter and a photo-diode simultaneously?
LA meetup
L.A. Meetup: I’ve never been to a MeFi meetup before, & I’d love to change that. I’ve read some enthusiasm about having “girls in glasses” at meetups in the past, & you’d be guaranteed to have at least one at this one. Would anyone be interested in an L.A. gathering?
Official 9/11 thread for 2006?
Are we going to have one official 9/11 thread again, like we've had in the past? or just a ton of separate posts? We have a lot more new people since last time and it'd be good to make it clear.
September 9
Confirmation post of favorites?
I would love a confirmation request when you add a favorite post. I've had favorites appear that I don't even remember clicking even if I probably did by accident.
Divorce too often recommended as solution
This sort of thing irks the hell out of me. When I asked for advice on getting my picky wife to eat well while pregnant, I also got advice like this ("my question in your circumstances would be about divorce lawyers"). I've seen a number of others like this too over the last year(s), advocating divorce or 'dumping' for any sort of relationship issue. Can we get a smackdown on these idiotic AskMe answers?
who wants in on a new project?
Seeing as how the metafilter/metachat postcard swap is long dead, who wants in on a new project? More details to be hammered out here.
September 8
Can we reorder comments by favoriteness?
So now we have a visual indicator of how popular a specific post is. Cool. Could we take this one step further?
$5 ad space
The Projects search box does a site-specific search of MetaTalk, not Projects
The Projects search box does a site-specific search of MetaTalk, not Projects. Previously posted here.
London meetup: shall we do one soon, chaps?
London meetup: shall we do one soon, chaps?
September 7
mark your own comment as best answer
I didn't know it was possible to mark your own comment as best answer. Am I correct in that you can't favorite your own comments either?
I would like to host a MeFi MeetUp as part of a larger fund-raising event
I would like to host a MeFi MeetUp as part of a larger fund-raising event for a non-profit organization. What's the preferred protocol so as to avoid being crass?
Spammer Sighting
meetups subsite
Now that we have all these nifty subsites, how about a new one, devoted entirely to meetups of mefi folks? (meetup.metafilter.com?)
The current solution, having them mixed in with callouts, bugs and general griping is (I think) insufficient. Many people who would be interested, don't even know they exist. They scroll off the page fast, and organizing is a painful process.
The current solution, having them mixed in with callouts, bugs and general griping is (I think) insufficient. Many people who would be interested, don't even know they exist. They scroll off the page fast, and organizing is a painful process.
Repeated posts in RSS
I've been seeing something strange on metafilter, for quite some time now. Posts from certain people appear over and over again in my RSS feed (about once an hour). I would think this was a flaw in my RSS reader (which is intraVnews, btw), but it is always the posts of the same small set of users. It seems to not be an effect on all posts, or on a random selection of posts, but on all posts from a very few posters (whose names I'll withhold as not to sound accusatory).
So, is this a spamming effort being effected by some users? For instance, if one were to periodically edit ones own posts, could one achieve the effect of getting into the RSS feed over and over? Or perhaps there's some other trick. I've corresponded with jessamyn on this, and probably been a pain (sorry). She recommended I contact mathowie (who I imagine reads this) and metatalk.
So, is this a spamming effort being effected by some users? For instance, if one were to periodically edit ones own posts, could one achieve the effect of getting into the RSS feed over and over? Or perhaps there's some other trick. I've corresponded with jessamyn on this, and probably been a pain (sorry). She recommended I contact mathowie (who I imagine reads this) and metatalk.
jamjammo makes a very poor metafilter post
Sometimes a train wreck can be so cataclysmic that it becomes beautiful. This is truly the best of the web. I should have been ironic and not have HTML'd that link.
September 6
The NYT quotes from Askme
Whatever happened to the compilation CD project from this thread? (Sept. 2006)
Whatever happened to the compilation CD project from this thread? http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/11734
I'm not trying to rush it or anything, just wondering...
I'm not trying to rush it or anything, just wondering...
Sydney meetup
Sydney meetup - reminder & possible change of venue [more...]
Unhelpful link text in Wired editorial
Were we pwned?
Personal Favorites
Can I have a pony? Favorites are a great way of finding worthwhile threads selected by the masses, but I would be even more interested in knowing which threads or comments their authors are most proud of, especially among people with a long history here on MeFi, and especially before the favorites feature was implemented. Any way of having a "my best post" feature, or even just to ask that question as a standard part of the profile? Failing that, people can just list their favorites themselves in this thread...
Has there ever been a thread in which every comment was posted in the form of a question?
Has there ever been a thread in which every comment was posted in the form of a question?
Can we strip posts of unhelpful links?
Metafilter: Unhelpful link text. Extra links added for padding that have little to do with the main topic of the entry. Are extremely loaded rhetorical questions the only thing that can save us now?
September 5
Clean-up on aisle 30730
I see ads on Metafilter
So, Um, I'm logged in and I'm getting upper right graphical ads on MeFi and AxMe. Is that on purpose? Because, y'know, I thought the purpose of being logged in all the time and having an account was to not have to see ads, and I didn't see an announcement that they'd be starting. Then again, if it's necessary to pay for bandwidth, OK, but I'd prefer a donation drive.
Toronto Meetup
Bump the Toronto Meetup this weekend. More inside-->
Can't reach MeFi in the mornings
Disappearing mefi - from just after 9am UK time until 12.30 ish I couldn't get onto mefi at all - only the status blog was working. It's not the first time I've had trouble getting on in the mornings here - is it mefi or do I have some sort of crazy network issue?
Auckland Meetup
Auckland, NZ Meetup? I've recently arrived in Auckland (most recently from San Francisco with my lovely wife. We both thought a Meetup would be fun, and help introduce us to some other like-minded folks here.
Who'd be up for something, on the evening of Friday 15 September, most likely at a watering hole somewhere convenient to the CBD, Britomart and Ferry Terminal?
Who'd be up for something, on the evening of Friday 15 September, most likely at a watering hole somewhere convenient to the CBD, Britomart and Ferry Terminal?
Jessamyn's birthday thread (2006)
Happy Birthday Jessamyn!
September 4
Unanswered AskMe Contest?
Yahoo! Answers UK 5 million answers challenge-a gimmicky promotion for a not-very-good service, but it gave me an idea:
What if we had a contest for unanswered AskMe questions (those that haven't had a best answer marked) older than, say, a month? Suggested prize: choice of free Metafilter account or $5 for each unanswered question that was resolved favorably. Of course we would need a special page where we could view lingering unanswered questions. Which would be a pretty decent idea anyway; I would certainly read it.
What if we had a contest for unanswered AskMe questions (those that haven't had a best answer marked) older than, say, a month? Suggested prize: choice of free Metafilter account or $5 for each unanswered question that was resolved favorably. Of course we would need a special page where we could view lingering unanswered questions. Which would be a pretty decent idea anyway; I would certainly read it.
Every one of them was awesome
Hey facetious, I have a question, and there's no email address in your profile: Why did you go into a 10-month old thread on Sunday night and mark 267 consecutive comments as "Favorite"?
MeTa is seriously broken.
MeTa is seriously broken. I'm getting a text-only layout, with porn pics. NSFW screengrab located here. Using Firefox latest update, WinXP fully updated.
September 3
cortex makes music
Searching for Deleted Posts
Dare I ask this but due to the deleted post in this MeFi post being so damn funny I'm wondering if there's a way to search for just deleted posts on MeFi?
MeFi Swap
MeFi Swap 2006! Has everyone participating sent off their CDs? Has anyone received CDs? Will there be some sort of Post-Swap forum where we can compare track listings and so on?
Here's some self-linking coming.
Here's some Pepsi Blue/self linking coming down the pipe for ya...
Calgary gathering
RSS feed for each user
Daddy, I want a pony.
Further to me asking this, I'd love it if Matt would make a(nother) RSS feed for each user, listing all of their contributions (posts and comments [or maybe just posts?]) - basically, a what-I-said-on-MeFi Feed. Is it a big strain on the server, making these feeds? There seem to be a lot per-user already.
Further to me asking this, I'd love it if Matt would make a(nother) RSS feed for each user, listing all of their contributions (posts and comments [or maybe just posts?]) - basically, a what-I-said-on-MeFi Feed. Is it a big strain on the server, making these feeds? There seem to be a lot per-user already.
Contacting local mefites
If I help plan a "meet up," is there a way to send out an email to all subscribers within an X-mile radius? Related -- is there a way for me to link to all subscribers who live in my city (i.e. as "neighbors") or are all links one-at-a-time? (Would it be weird to link to all subscribers in my city?)
September 2
Pittsburgh Meetup
Pittsburgh Meetup: My band will be performing at The Quiet Storm on Saturday, September 9th. Join us for music and revelry!
Please Edit My Project!
I bought my project (on MeFi Projects) its own domain. Can I (or Mattamyn) edit the old post to reflect the new domain, or may I repost it? Or should I just live with the redirect?
Seriously, do I need to answer more than I ask?
What approximate Question/Answer ratio I should attempt to maintain to avoid this sort of static in responses to my own AskMe questions?
September 1
MeFi Music
What's the upshot of MeFi Music? Has anybody been offered a recording contract? Have people who have dumped their demos there gotten results? Who will be the first MeFi musician to give Matt a shout out in the liner notes?
Attention Best Posters from August 2006
Attention Best Posters from August
Please go to your profiles and make sure you have some PayPal information entered so that mathowie can give you the $30 you so rightfully deserve. This means you b_thinky, bigmusic, blahblahblah, cenoxo, CodeBaloo, ColdChef, dios, Drunken_munky, emph, HuronBob, hydrophonic, jason's_planet, jonp72, jonson, ktoad, languagehat, LobsterMitten, MetaMonkey, Miko, mygothlaundry, nthdegx, ottereroticist, peacay, pwedza, reklaw, signal and y2karl. Thanks for making MetaFilter in August rock!
Please go to your profiles and make sure you have some PayPal information entered so that mathowie can give you the $30 you so rightfully deserve. This means you b_thinky, bigmusic, blahblahblah, cenoxo, CodeBaloo, ColdChef, dios, Drunken_munky, emph, HuronBob, hydrophonic, jason's_planet, jonp72, jonson, ktoad, languagehat, LobsterMitten, MetaMonkey, Miko, mygothlaundry, nthdegx, ottereroticist, peacay, pwedza, reklaw, signal and y2karl. Thanks for making MetaFilter in August rock!
map interface for jobs
MeFi Jobs has a nice map interface on the front page now.