MetaTalk

Five years ago today, an innocuous thread was posted about nerd culture mashup t-shirts. Before long, weird mashup creation took hold, and with this comment by Existential Dread, a format solidified. The ensuing madness would last more than a month, totaling more than 2,000 comments and at least as many insane mashup titles in a brilliant/stupid/hilarious thread that will still make you laugh today. Which are your favorites?
posted by DirtyOldTown on May 24 at 2:04 PM - 2304 comments

Hello Metafilter! Happy summer/winter solstice! Please find another update on the state of the site. Reminder: I will be the only mod monitoring this thread so please be patient as I reply to your feedback and questions. If you have any questions or feedback not related to this particular update, please Contact Us instead. If you want to discuss a particular subject not covered here with the community, you’re welcome to open a separate MetaTalk thread for it.
posted by loup on Jun 21 at 1:44 PM - 9 comments

As a kind of complement to last weekend's question, I want to know what thing/object/item has been sitting on your desk or a table or a shelf (or moved between various among them) for Objectively Too Long because dangit one of these days you're gonna get around to thing you were gonna do with it or use it for.
posted by cortex on Jun 12 at 5:13 PM - 101 comments

It is a holiday-filled weekend in the US/UK with Bloomsday, Juneteenth, Father's Day and the Solstice all happening within a few days of each other, and all during Pride Month. So today, on National Hike With a Geek Day, I'd like to know what thing (commemoration, celebration, special event) would you like to make into a holiday? What would happen on that day? Who would it be for or about? Or would there be an existing holiday you'd reconfigure? Or do you have a personal holiday that you celebrate in your own way?
posted by jessamyn on Jun 20 at 11:03 AM - 42 comments

You've traded in your magic (overthinking) beans, or you've managed to free a grateful food genie, or your foodie godmother has wielded her magic wand, or you've stumbled upon a hungry dragon's unguarded treasure ... anyway, the tl/dr is that now you have a fabulous enchanted plate that once a day will fill up with whatever dish you summon forth. So what will you be eating from your magical plate today? Oh, but just one more thing...
posted by taz on May 29 at 6:15 AM - 39 comments

I always assumed that favoriting a post or a comment on this site is similar to "liking" on other platforms. To signal approval or sympathy. But it also has a sort of bookmarking functionality, doesn't it? Which seems to imply a more neutral function. How is the favorite button intended to be used, and how do people here actually use it? And do you notice things like favorite counts on people's profiles? Does that influence your opinion of them?
posted by Zumbador on Jun 6 at 9:28 PM - 49 comments

I wonder if anyone can help me dig up an ancient comment, probably at least a dozen years old.
posted by tangerine on Jun 16 at 9:45 PM - 18 comments

Let's fill out our Seattle Public Library's Summer Book Bingo cards together. You don't have to live in Seattle to do it; anywhere will work, with books in any language. We can give each other reading suggestions and encouragement here.
posted by The corpse in the library on Jun 9 at 9:29 AM - 46 comments

I think this kind of complaint needs to be retired. This thread has a bunch of the same complaints made anytime someone posts a link to a long-form video essay. "I'm not watching this! Write me an essay instead!" But it turns out long-form video essays are a genre now, and some of them are good! I think it's time we stopped derailing discussions of them with complaints about how we don't like the genre. "It's too long! I like reading better! And did you know some video essays are bad?"
posted by straight on Jun 7 at 7:02 PM - 138 comments

Hello Metafilter! My 5th update on the state of the site.
posted by loup on Jun 7 at 1:11 PM - 7 comments

My dog ate my podcast synopsis. It's me, it's Jessamyn, it's a podcast recorded in the deep past of before the long weekend, it's about 90 minutes.
posted by cortex on Jun 1 at 9:21 AM - 9 comments

I was wondering what people think of the idea of adding "Music" as a category for posting on Fanfare?
posted by rongorongo on May 28 at 10:09 PM - 12 comments

Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead asks: "You have 17 pounds of gold (at minimum worth $50,000 in today's buying power), a time machine, and the infrastructure to fund one arts project at any point in history. What do you fund?" 'Arts' covering any human technology / performance / creation, in this case.
posted by taz on May 22 at 11:02 AM - 53 comments

Frimble thought of this question, and I didn't even know I had a favorite shelf until they asked! Do you have a fun shelf share? Is it because of the physical properties of the shelf, or its location, or what's on the shelf, or a combo? Is it a coincidence that "shelf" rhymes with "self"??? 🤯Yes! Yes, it is! Never mind, tell us a little about yourshelf anyway!
posted by taz on Jun 6 at 10:56 PM - 23 comments

A moderator removed a link to the Guardian because of something about that paper's LGBTQ stance. This is the first I've heard. What caused this reaction from MetaFilter? It seems to have come up only now, but I cannot find anything in recent Guardian issues that might have prompted the action.
posted by CCBC on Jun 8 at 2:41 PM - 32 comments

Our Metatalktail topic this week come courtesy Kristi, who asks "Time travel has become easy and commonplace. Everyone's already done the big time travel things. What mundane, low-priority time travel trips would you take?"
posted by taz on May 16 at 3:31 AM - 77 comments

Is it possible and desirable to add Internet Archive links to old posts?
posted by autopilot on May 15 at 2:56 AM - 9 comments

One of these links is not like the others.
One of these links doesn't belong.
Can you tell which link is not like the other
by the time I finish this song?
posted by Rhaomi on May 13 at 5:18 PM - 18 comments

Since the beginning of 2020, I've been doing a project where I write a handwritten letter a week to friends, acquaintances, and family members on a topic of their choosing. I am looking for some new folks who would enjoy snail mail.
posted by chiefthe on May 15 at 2:24 PM - 19 comments