Most Favorited Posts in the Past 7 Days:
An Interview with Mefi's Own Jessamyn
Jessamyn West on Intellectual Freedom, Creepy Basements, and the Library as a Safe Space. An interview with Jessamyn, as part of a new series called Secrets of the Librarians, just posted on the LitHub Bookmarks blog. Yay, Jessamyn!
I dip my hands in April among your faces tender
Three years ago I asked us to post about our favorite poems in honor of national poetry month. It would be wonderful if you could post additional favorite poems today. I'd also like it if anyone who needs a poem on a particular subject could request one and if we could try to find them something that fits the bill.
Is there a collection of "This is just to say" poems by MeFites?
I ran into yet another of these in the 2017 post about Truck Nutz, and realized I've been seeing them for years. Didn't see anything about them on the Wiki, but is anyone collecting them somewhere? Obvs. not an easy phrase to search.
Totes Magotes
Hey, you want a nice MetaFilter tote bag with "[more inside]" on it? Fine, you can go buy one from TopatoCo now!
MetaMonuments
End of another week, let's talk about something else that is not related to politics. In light of the recent Notre-Dame de Paris fire, I thought it might be nice to have a thread where we can discuss other beautiful monuments/historical places from around the globe. Share with us places that you've visited in the past or would like to visit if given the opportunity. If you have old travel photos and feel comfortable sharing, all the better. As always, be kind to yourself and others. Cheers.
Breaking News Deletion
Our Lady of Paris (Notre Dame) is in flames, the spire and roof have fallen, the news images are heart-breaking. I come to MeFi to learn more and to share this terrible moment and mourn with my community. Posts are deleted.
Crouton Petting Over IP
crouton petting, n.
1. the state of feeling or expressing an anthropomorphized fondness, affection, or compassion for inanimate objectsMetaFilter has only been able to accommodate that first definition (cf. this discussion among others)...until now. Thanks to recent improvements in both baking and recombinant genetics, we're happy to announce the opening of the world's first interactive Crouton Petting Zoo.
2. the state of just literally petting some actual croutons
Rule #2. There is No MetaFilter
This comment:
"Metafilter: a conceptually ambitious ad for Olive Garden."
posted by dephlogisticated
made me realize that MetaFilter may be part of a deep state operation... We now stand 19 years, 9 months and 7 days where MetaFilter has been potentially prepping an entire generation with a ... different sort of FUD... What are your Metafilter conspiracy theories? Is Johnny Wallflower actually a selection of dogs and cats carefully stacked on eachother's shoulders and wearing clothes doing their best to impersonate a human? What do you know that folks should know about the Cabal MetaFilter? Time to don your tinfoil hats folks...
How long is too long?
While catching up with the latest politics megathread, I was surprised to see this mod note from LobsterMitten: [Note about post drafts - putting here so people will see it, but happy to talk it over more in email, will email some of the recent posters. Please keep the posts on the shorter side, maybe 1000 words or that neighborhood. Thanks.]
As a longtime crafter of megaposts, I don't think I've ever seen official mod guidance to cut them (relatively) short in this way. Posts have been edited for leaving too much above the fold, but I can think of only a handful of incidents where the post body itself got official pushback for being Too Long -- and those largely involved novella-sized posts with length-induced display errors (really) or blanket copy-pasting a website's contents.
Is LobsterMitten's advice targeted at the political megathreads only -- perhaps for performance reasons -- or should it be construed more broadly? I happen to think a well-organized megapost is the best of MeFi and a feature few vid- and listicle-driven sites can match, and in the case of the politics threads specifically they're a fine example of community collaboration that provide a valuable curated record of this chaotic era. But what do you think?
Metatalktail Hour: Bloomin' April!
Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week, bagel wants to know what you see blooming in your area and what animals you've been spotting!
Politics Chat Pony?
In the recent thread about post lengths, the question tangentially came up asking why more people don’t use Chat for politics stuff. For me, at least, it’s because it seems like when something big happens and we head over to Chat to talk about it, we’re barging in and taking over whatever people were talking about before. Could there be a separate chat room just for the politics stuff so we don’t have to bother the Chat regulars?
mefi2book
I've created a script that converts a Metafilter thread into a PDF designed for printing in book form, including title page and contributor index. I used lulu.com to print a few and they look pretty good.
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote...
Today is the first day of the United State's National Poetry Month. In celebration, I was hoping my fellow metafites would share their favorite poems/lines of poetry.
Your Best Parody "This Is Just To Say" poems
I've searched and couldn't find a post for this, so apologies if there is one and I missed it.
I'd like your best/favourite William Carlos Williams "This Is Just To Say" parody poems from the green/blue/grey.
I'd also love any other comment on the blue, green or grey that is in any way a parody of an existing text.
Big Dairy is on to us
I'm not entirely sure this warrants a MeTa but, what the hell, I'm making one anyway. Michael Schur (@kentremendous), the creator of The Good Place*, discovered this AskMe and played into it a little bit. The resulting Twitter thread is short but amusing.
Taking Care of a Fruit Tree: Moderation on Metafilter
Bingo and I are Human-Computer Interaction researchers in Bath, UK and Vienna, AT, who are looking at moderation on web forums and how it shapes discussions. Over the past several months, with permission from the site staff, we have been examining moderator comments on MetaFilter in order to answer several questions.
The MeFi Music Mixtape Swap 2019
It’s time for the very first all-digital MetaFilter Music Mixtape Swap! Signups are open from now until April 14. Then it’s time to make a mix of your favourite tracks, create a cover, upload it to the internet and get five awesome mixes from fellow MeFites.
Political Humorizing Thread
I saw this cartoon today and needed a place for it. Laughing at politicians, as opposed to laughing with them, is a much needed function of democracy; I mean, really we can't all hang out at the bank, all the time. Any way,
Pat Bagley does it again!
Pony request: clearly marked political megathreads
I love the unique titles MeFites comes up with for posts. I live for a well-constructed description full of links and clever word play. But, that makes it hard, sometimes, to differentiate a thread about some current event and the latest political catch-all. Can we have an above-the-fold notice that this, for whatever the value of 'this' is, is the current political megathread?
MetaLikeTheBackofMyHand
End of another week, let's talk about something else that is not related to politics. I want to hear about some "thing" that you've experienced over and over and over again. Maybe it's a book you keep re-reading, or a movie you've seen 100+ times, or a video game you play constantly, or an album or song you have on repeat. What piece of media are you constantly re-enaging with? Some thing that feels like the back of your hand, that you are familiar and comfortable with, that you know all the way through. Some thing you keep on coming back to because you just love it so much. As always, be kind to yourself and others. Cheers.