MetaFilter

2023CE poster, after sharing a self-referential meme: we're gonna confuse future archeologists sooo bad 🤣

4971CE archeologist, on the dig site: why do the bones have plastic in them jesus christ jesus fucking christ it's in their bones i don't want to do this anymore i don't want to do this
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:49 AM on July 17, 2023

Cool Dad Raising Daughter On Media That Will Put Her Entirely Out Of Touch With Her Generation
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:37 PM on July 16, 2023

@metafilter

Based on the recent tweets of @metafilter, it is evident that they have a diverse range of interests and engage in various discussions on the platform. [...]

Based on their tweets, @metafilter appears to have a curious and open-minded personality. They engage in discussions on a wide range of topics, indicating a broad intellectual curiosity. Their sense of humor is evident in their tweet about Werner Herzog as Pat Sajak's replacement,… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:31 PM on July 16, 2023

Well, they actually address that in the article; they say that look, if we were judging this only on that first sequence it'd win hands down. But it's just that after that first sequence, it's just kind of...okay.

Five words: Stuff I'm Going to Do
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:05 PM on July 12, 2023

Wayback Machine copies of the articles:

io9: A Chronological List of Star Wars Movies & TV Shows

Deadspin: The 15 Most Valuable Professional Sports Franchises

AV Club (via Yahoo): The Biggest Summer Blockbusters of 2003: 10 Can't-Miss Movies
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:37 PM on July 5, 2023

(Full disclosure: my comment was the #2 highest one on that train wreck of an AMA, so I am kind of salty it got overlooked, but pretty sure I'd be mad about it anyway! Plus it would have been a bit surreal to have not one but two major social media CEOs publicly BS me about the death of their platform in one lifetime.)

I've been in the ModCoord Discord server all night last night switching between working on this post and prepping my subs to go dark. It was dicey for… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:36 AM on June 12, 2023

interogative mood: "The claim that Reddit hasn’t responded or tired to accommodate community feedback is false. Since announcing the changes they’ve worked to an accommodate a lot of end user and mod feedback."

For a long time Reddit allowed the use of custom CSS to style communities in a wide variety of designs, it was one of the most distinctive things about the platform. Then one day they announced the feature would be excluded from their… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:25 AM on June 12, 2023

Reporting back from one of the organizing venues for this. People are pissed about Huffman's comments Thursday and his simping for Elon; the list of blacked-out/restricted subs is still hovering at nearly 5,000. And though people are concerned about the threats to retaliate against mods, some are taking their protest in some new and creative directions. Many are discussing taking the site guidelines as read and designating their subs as NSFW/18+ if they discuss any of these… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:35 PM on June 16, 2023

/r/gifs (21 million subscribers):

From now on, only GIFs of John Oliver may be posted in /r/GIFs!

Hello, /r/GIFs subscribers!

As many of you are aware, we recently held a poll to decide on the future of the subreddit. This initiative was prompted by statements from Reddit's CEO, who suggested that the desires of the platform's everyday users were being eclipsed by those of moderators.

We – the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:29 PM on June 16, 2023

NYMag: Reddit and the End of Online ‘Community’ / A standoff between the site and some of its most devoted users exposes an existential dilemma.

Meanwhile, on /r/Memes (26 million subscribers):

HEAR YE, HEAR YE! Poll regarding the future of r/Memes

It hath commeth to our attention following comments spoken by thy High Council, that we landed gentry (moderators) have failed to yield democracy during thine time of protests… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:19 AM on June 17, 2023

Vice: The Reddit Protest Is a Battle for the Soul of the Human Internet

Thousands of subreddits representing hundreds of millions of users have gone dark in what is likely the largest moderator-coordinated protest in the history of social media. The protest brings Reddit’s business model and operating strategy into focus by highlighting the power of its moderators and the site’s reliance on unpaid labor.

How the situation is resolved will… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:35 AM on June 17, 2023

Been following this the last few hours. What a shitshow.

So after Reddit started sending stern form letters to private subreddits telling mods to re-open or be removed, the idea of opening subs but turning them NSFW via Old Reddit settings started gaining traction. Reddit's own Content Policy defines "NSFW" broadly:

NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content
Content that contains nudity, pornography, or profanity, which a reasonable… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:25 PM on June 20, 2023

The Future of IAmA

To our users, AMA guests, and friends,

You may have noticed that, in spite of our history of past protests against Reddit's poor site management, this subreddit has refrained from protesting or shutting down during the recent excitement on Reddit.

This does not imply that we think things are being managed better now. Rather, it reflects our belief that such actions will not make any significant… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:56 AM on July 1, 2023

Absolutely scathing update from the moderators of /r/Blind:

They finally did it: Reddit made it impossible for blind Redditors to moderate their own sub

Since the latest "accessibility" update to the Reddit app, the amount and magnitude of new accessibility related bugs has made it virtually impossible for blind mods to operate on mobile.

We have done absolutely everything we could to work… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:14 AM on July 1, 2023

Getting some very weird flashbacks to playing the 2001 strategy game Empire Earth as a kid, whose future scenarios involved (among other things) a brutal yet cunning Russian ultranationalist with a grudge against a westernizing Ukraine who uses his own private army to launch a coup from the south that captures Moscow in the summer of 2023.

Here's hoping we avoid the eventual outcome of a giant cybernetic mecha-Prigozhin becoming president and conquering the free world.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:24 PM on June 23, 2023

Ivan Fyodorovich: "For the love of god, don't ask ChatGPT for factual information. Jesus fucking christ."

Stoneshop: "What ChatGPT horks up can best be described as fucktual information."

Ryvar: "My 4AM bonghits are better than ChatGPT."

Rosamund Bartlett is a British writer specializing in Russian studies, and her explanation is… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:16 AM on June 27, 2023

Big noodle fan! (Also a fan of the YouTuber named noodle)

If the rant-y tone annoys you, he did a fine video on his deep and abiding love for the campaigns of the Halo franchise (full disclosure: I am a massive Halo fan as well)
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:56 PM on June 26, 2023

That's just the tip of the iceberg:

- /r/Steam (the gaming platform) is now about literal steam
- /r/iPhone is voting on whether to open or "appreciate Tim Cook's charisma"
- /r/Showerthoughts is voting on hours of operation (closing every day of the week is leading by a landslide)
- /r/PhotoshopBattles is only allowing black squares as submissions
- /r/AskHistorians is only allowing a single "floating… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:16 PM on June 17, 2023

r/GPT4 Now only allows posts about Gulfport-Biloxi international airport (code: GPT), gate 4 (GPT4).
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:25 PM on June 17, 2023

Alternative forms of protest, in light of admin retaliations

List of 'Malicious Compliance' subreddits

And in light of the following excerpt from Reddit's content policy:

"Content that contains nudity, pornography, or profanity, which a reasonable viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as in a workplace should be tagged as NSFW. This tag can be applied to individual pieces of… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:59 PM on June 18, 2023

Update: I talked to a mod on a subreddit that went NSFW only to have an admin-controlled account forcibly and quietly switch it back without justification or consent. Unfortunately for Reddit Inc., this directly contradicts their official content policy and could open them up to legal liability for exercising editorial control, especially bad if ad partners or children were exposed to NSFW content that was posted before the switch.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:48 AM on June 20, 2023

Margot Robbie Takes You Inside The Barbie Dreamhouse | Architectural Digest
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:58 AM on June 17, 2023

NotMyselfRightNow: "Even if the total market for third party Reddit clients is 100x Apollo's userbase, that's still only ~5% of Reddit's userbase. And some portion of those users would simply migrate back to using Reddit's official app."

I'm a bit-part mod on about half a dozen active subreddits, including one with over 2 million subscribers. I'm not a power mod or treat it like a job or anything, I just like having the ability to nuke… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:13 PM on June 1, 2023

Update: The community backlash against these changes has led to an absolutely massive "blackout" campaign in which subreddits will go private or restrict posting on June 12th, some for 48 hours, some indefinitely until the API policy is reversed. These protest events have happened before (firing of Victoria Taylor, against COVID disinformation, anti-SOPA/PIPA), but this may be the largest ever, with 2000+ subreddits representing over a billion users participating.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 2:58 PM on June 6, 2023

Earlier this spring I spent a week attending various family graduations in Florida in a pretty crowded house. Had sleep issues from the jump -- the air mattress I was using suddenly deflated not once, not twice, but three nights in a row (requiring some furtive rummaging in the kitchen for duct tape by the end). Got woken up by the family dog at 6am the next day (felt like 5 thanks to the time change). At some point lost my eye mask that was making the LED-strewn room bearable. And during the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:05 AM on June 5, 2023

flarbuse: "Former Presidents Jeopardy! Bush would be making jokes, being self-deprecating, and knowing a little more than people expect. Clinton and Obama would be making jokes and probably cleaning up. Trump would be claiming that his button was not working and complaining that the questions were either given to the others in advance or saying they were rigged against him.

Alas, I realize that my fantasy has zero chance of coming true. Trump would never… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:38 PM on May 25, 2023

Some choice picks here -- Hyper Hexagonest! That VVVVVV level that forces you through a lengthy double-back gauntlet because of one tiny knee-high block! The curse of THE COWBEAR! But I was really surprised to not see anything from N, which to my mind is the prototypical example of a punishingly difficult (but fair!) puzzle platformer.

Lots of really tough stages in the original game and its various sequels, but the one that gave me the most grief was… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:14 PM on May 25, 2023

Nobody knows "Everyone Knows" (from the excellent /r/Lostwave)

The song
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:07 PM on May 7, 2023

Love it. Like somebody instantiated a kliuless megapost into real life!
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:34 PM on May 5, 2023

Shout-out to Civilization IV for incorporating this into its brilliant soundtrack for the Modern Era, alongside other minimalist Adams pieces like Shaker Loops, or "Christian Zeal and Activity" from American Standard (named after the appliance brand!). The opera is fascinating but fare like "The People Are the Heroes Now" and "The Chairman Dances" hits different when staring at a vast sprawl of… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:27 PM on May 5, 2023

Reminds me of how the original production company founded by the Three Stooges, C3 Entertainment, limps on through licensing and "brand management" for long-obsolete acts -- not just the Stooges (VOD! Shoes! NFTs!), but Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and their newest, freshest "brand client" yet: Gidget! The "re-development" approach in the article definitely seems like a smarter way to do it.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:17 PM on May 5, 2023

I've followed Silver since he was Poblano on Daily Kos, and while I've never been impressed with the terminal Twitter Brain that he's developed (especially galling given how FiveThirtyEight was supposed to be the antidote to the punditocracy), I can't abide criticism of the site itself. Their data journalism and visualizations on a wide variety of topics was really impressive and visually beautiful, and I always appreciated their link-rich, heavily-footnoted longform articles. Their Atlas of… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:51 PM on May 1, 2023

"Who must go?"
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:55 AM on April 24, 2023

One of my favorite historic photos: Future 'Mad Magazine' artists Al Jaffee and Will Elder, in the lunchroom at the High School for Music and Arts in New York City (1936)

There's something really poignant about seeing these people who would eventually become legendary figures in American comedy just being dumb goofball kids (even in the depths of the Great Depression!) but in such a way that you can see plainly where that genius sprang from.

.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:06 PM on April 10, 2023

Biden to push for expanded insulin caps, Medicaid coverage in SOTU
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:04 PM on February 7, 2023

Update: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is the “designated survivor” during President Joe Biden's second State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:23 PM on February 7, 2023

Love to see productive healthy debate return to the House floor.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:43 PM on February 7, 2023

Inviting a heroic guest named Brandon and then not saying The Thing, you sly dog you.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:06 PM on February 7, 2023

Remember when a single one of these chucklefucks saying "you lie!" was a showstopping national scandal?
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:14 PM on February 7, 2023

ChurchHatesTucker: "I want to see an annotated version of this speech."

Politico is updating their transcript with notes and analysis
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:38 PM on February 7, 2023

CNN instant poll of speech watchers:

34% positive response
38% somewhat positive
28% negative

The combined 72% overall positive response is marginally lower than previous addresses from Biden, Trump, Obama, and Bush
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:36 PM on February 7, 2023

More! Some good old fashioned persuasion at work:

71% say Biden's policies move the country in the right direction (up from 52% before the speech)
29% say wrong direction

66% say his economic policies specifically are the right direction (up from 50% before the speech)
34% say wrong direction
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:49 PM on February 7, 2023

snofoam: "I guess I am not with the times, but I remember Google Street View being cars with lots of cameras driving around photographing everything. Does GSV go, like, inside and on boats and up mountains and stuff now?"

Yeah, it's moved beyond roads for at least several years now. To shamelessly repost an old AskMe answer (all the links should still work):

It's pretty incredible what Street View has expanded to in… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:41 PM on February 6, 2023

Note that the first link is from March, which is approx. ten years ago in AI research terms. DeepMind's Flamingo (which understands text and images) has already overcome the "apple IPOD" problem, for example.

Also fwiw, I just asked ChatGPT a similar question ("what is heavier, 20kg steel or 20kg marshmallows?") and got a much more reasonable answer straight away ("Both objects would weigh the same amount, 20 kg. The weight of an object… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:07 PM on December 12, 2022

(PS: Realized there may be compatibility/playback problems on some devices with that first raw MP4 link, but it should work when viewed within the Archive.org player. Definitely the highlight of the post.)
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:57 PM on November 11, 2022

After being somewhat chastened in 2020, I wisely kept my dooming to myself. But man, it's looking like such a good night at this point. None of the Democratic reach targets panned out, but neither did the Republican ones. Fetterman won, Kelly and to a lesser extent Cortez-Masto looking strong, so even if Warnock fall short (now or in December) Democrats will retain the Senate, which is huge for nominations and preventing election fuckery. Still a small chance of Dems keeping the House, which… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:21 PM on November 8, 2022

It ended September 1st, but there was a pretty fascinating charity auction for several hundred Better Call Saul props. Highlights (from lowest-to-highest bids):

Lalo's bail money duffel bag and the desert space blanket

Howard's memorial service guestbook

The cell phone Jimmy/Saul uses throughout the series

Jimmy's Davis & Main bagpipes

Werner's slide rule… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:32 PM on September 12, 2022

In other news, the show got snubbed at the Emmys, including Rhea Seehorn in her first nomination. Apparently they're only considering the first half-season this time, though, so there's still hope for next year.

Bonus: The beautiful "Something Stupid" montage popped up for me on YouTube earlier, and while watching it I made the delightful discovery that the song mirrors the montage by playing the male and female vocal tracks on either side -- just like the split-screen visuals.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:58 PM on September 12, 2022

what you see when you die
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:41 PM on September 5, 2022

WORLD'S LARGEST METAPHOR HITS ICEBERG

DID JAZZ SINK THE GREAT SHIP?
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:29 PM on August 26, 2022