MetaFilter

I'm working on a post right now while catching up on the current thread. The party leadership has begun abandoning its nominee in droves, making this a landmark moment in the history of American political scandals. I'm a big believer in MeFi as a historical document -- see, for example, the Romney 47% thread, second-biggest in site history -- and the discussion of this shouldn't be buried deep in the back half of a days-old VP debate liveblog.

Hell, at this rate, there… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:59 PM on October 7, 2016

.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 1:48 PM on October 1, 2016

Way late to the party here, but I do have a bit of javascript (not sure of the source) that lets you filter threads by favorite count. I'm normally opposed to the idea (especially when they re-sort comments out of order, yuck), but it's essential for getting at least the gist of the ENORMO election threads we're now seeing on a weekly basis -- at least if you want to avoid tehhund's fate.

Here is the raw code:

javascript:(function(){window.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 11:47 PM on August 12, 2016

It seems like most of the hugs/check-in threads are posted by folks who are from the area in question, or have friends or family there. See for instance the Bastille Day thread you linked (posted by a French MeFite) or the Belgium MeTa (posted by somebody who was about to travel to Brussels). Since the vast majority of MeFites hail from North America and Western Europe, it's simply more likely that there will be someone with a stake personal enough to want to post that kind of thread versus a… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 5:09 PM on July 15, 2016

There's also 1HappyBirthday.com, which offers free live recordings of their oddball original birthday song for a staggering variety of names. This AV Club article goes into more detail about it.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 2:09 PM on June 11, 2016

Not in the running for my own contest, but for the record here is my (pessimistic) prediction:

IOWA DEM — Clinton
IOWA GOP — Cruz
NH DEM — Sanders
NH GOP — Trump
SUPER TUESDAY DEM — Clinton
SUPER TUESDAY GOP — Rubio
DEM NOMINEE — Clinton
GOP NOMINEE — Rubio
FINAL WINNER — Rubio

HOUSE MAJORITY PARTY — GOP
SENATE MAJORITY PARTY —… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 11:43 AM on February 1, 2016

kevinbelt, it's all or nothing! You can submit an updated prediction after Iowa/NH, but then your Iowa/NH slots will be marked as wrong. It's best to make your guess now.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 3:07 PM on February 1, 2016

Time's up for Iowa predictions! NH and beyond guesses are welcome, but all entries after this point will have the Iowa slot discounted.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 5:00 PM on February 1, 2016

vrakatar: "Can I hange my NH GOP pickto Rubio from Jeb!? Is that allowed?"

Sure, but updating your entry post-Iowa would disqualify your (correct!) Iowa guess, so it'd be a wash even if Rubio wins NH.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 9:59 PM on February 1, 2016

Quick update: Out of 68 (non-jokey) entries, only 17 correctly predicted a Cruz victory in Iowa. The Democratic race is still too close to call, but 15 of those 17 called Iowa for Clinton.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:06 PM on February 1, 2016

PSA: You can continue submitting entries as long as the thread is open (and MeMail them to me afterward), but any entries submitted after a given state's polls open will be counted as incorrect. Accordingly, the New Hampshire slots for both parties will close Tuesday, February 9th at 6 AM EST.

You can also update your entry if you wish, but doing so will void your predictions for any states that have already voted. So if Jim Gilmore comes out of nowhere to win New… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 1:35 PM on February 7, 2016

POST-N.H. STATS UPDATE:

Of the current entries, only ten have called all four races correctly*. Of those, 100% believe Clinton will win on Super Tuesday and become the Democratic nominee. The GOP side is far more mixed -- 40% say Rubio will win Super Tuesday, 40% chose Cruz, and 20% picked Trump. The numbers are nearly the same for the nomination, save one who guessed Cruz would win out over Rubio. So, 50% Cruz, 30% Rubio, 20% Trump there.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 4:48 PM on February 11, 2016

I'd recommend updating the profile links to userscripts.org to point to userscripts-mirror.org, for those folks who never migrated their scripts to Greasy Fork.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 2:25 PM on December 19, 2015

Awesome sauce! School of Rock is one of my all-time favorite feel-good movies, so this one's been on my mind for awhile, ever since I learned about the new Broadway show. Thanks for the support -- it's great to see it bringing back good memories for lots of other folks, too.

Thanks also for the long list of top posts for this week! Can't believe I missed some of these. It's a perfect capsule of what makes this such an engaging place to read every day.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 9:19 PM on December 8, 2015

Tom Watson: Keeping You Warm
Tom Watson: Keeping You Safe

(Yes, it's really him)
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 5:40 PM on September 12, 2015

I assume this was prompted by the copious Comedy Central links in the Key & Peele post. I'd considered finding some workaround, but there's just no real good option there.

In the similar case of the Colbert Report finale post (which was also a wall of CC.com links), I went through after the fact and found as many region-free versions of the videos as possible. Only a small percentage were available this way, and usually on dodgy sources like Tumblr blogs or… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 7:50 PM on September 9, 2015

YOU GUYS

I am a little sad at having made fewer non-newsfilter posts in the last couple years, what with competing distractions and fairly drudging work (Peak FPP for me was also Peak No Job). More than a few anniversary-centered posts have slipped their self-imposed deadlines for one reason or another lately. But the well is by no means dry -- I've still got a desktop folder full of ideas that won't be running empty any time soon! (Including one that might… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:01 AM on August 16, 2015

.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:35 PM on July 21, 2015

I've been meaning to make a thread about this -- I know about the previous/next episode links in the box at the top of the page, but adding them to the end of the thread makes a lot more sense. More so than the existing links down there to the previous/next FanFare threads, which are only really useful if you're intending to read every single FanFare thread in sequence. It makes sense on AskMe or the blue but not so much when most people are only going to be interested in following a handful of… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 3:03 PM on July 20, 2015

Cortex? In your state? It's more likely than you think.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 1:05 PM on July 3, 2015

Late to the party (?) ... this has been a beast to read up on. But my reaction to the OP it is pretty much the same -- the mods were probably right to delete the thread from a practical standpoint, but it really is a conversation we should be capable of having. And some of the arguments surrounding this have been troubling.

I've only been around MeFi since late '07, so I can't speak to the quality of discussion on race and gender issues prior. Even in that relatively… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 6:07 AM on June 17, 2015

Dysk: "The two are not mutually exclusive. You can parrot hate-filled transphobia as a result of being un- or misinformed. One needs not assume bad faith to find something to be hate-filled transphobia, and the opposite - that assuming good faith means NOT pointing out when something is hate-filled transphobia - a rather disturbing alternative."

There is also a reasonable middle ground: recognizing the difference between (1) hurtful comments… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 6:55 AM on June 17, 2015

I'd love another chance to get one of those blue MeFi shirts.

ninja edit: with the ORIGINAL logo, plz. No offense to the redesign!
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 5:08 PM on June 15, 2015

Hooray for at least partially moving away from PayPal, but the fact that the "RectangleMoney" thing I've alerted Team Mod about a few times is still up for grabs two months later is making me TWITCH. I don't care if you actually use it for anything -- Stripe sounds just fine, and in some ways better -- but the idea of some disgruntled ex-user and/or troll squatting on our "QuadrilateralCurrency" URL and taking money in the site's name is really bothering… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:21 PM on June 9, 2015

pb: "Thanks Rhaomi, we reserved the name."

cortex: "Yep, got $metafilter and $mefi as well. Sorry for the twitching; it's been on my TODO list but that's a fairly long list the last couple months."

Thanks!
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 3:41 PM on June 12, 2015

This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Obviously, instability in a paid app (even on an older device) is bad news, and not responding to support/refund requests is sketchy and obnoxious. On the other hand, it's disappointing to learn the announcement of the app was frozen out of the MetaTalk queue and had no chance to be tested or reviewed by members. I can imagine the frustration of pouring a lot of personal time and effort into something like this and then being barred from sharing… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 8:11 PM on April 23, 2015

MetaFilter: it's called text you hapless gibbering app-fondling touchscreen cretin

miss you, elizardbits
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:35 PM on April 24, 2015

It takes some extra effort, but recently I've been trying to make multi-link posts more navigable by using title text to attach a short pop-up description to each link (the FCC net neutrality post, for example). You can often imply the content of a link by judicious selection of which words to link, but I think explicitly summarizing the content and purpose of the link with hovertext like this can make larger posts easier to digest.

You can create these links like… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 8:12 PM on April 12, 2015

FWIW, the skip button doesn't appear in landscape view on tablets (which I suspect is because of the width kicking it into "desktop" mode).
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:10 PM on March 27, 2015

Huh. Is there some subsection or tag for "I'm available" posts I'm not seeing? I had no idea that was a thing until just now.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 7:06 PM on March 20, 2015

noooooooooooooooooooo
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:07 AM on March 14, 2015

(Just to clarify, soft length limits on above-the-fold stuff are fine and have been enforced before on most stuff that strays beyond ~10 lines (on my screen anyway), but limiting [more inside] content is bad news!)
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:13 AM on March 14, 2015

I'm not a fan of hard character limits just because of the unpredictability of line breaks, blockquotes, YouTube play buttons, long URLs and/or hovertext annotations, lots of links (which makes text bold), different fonts, browser sizes, screen resolutions, etc. etc. etc. The current practice of mods culling excessive posts by an informal eyeballing of length works fine imho, and most people seem to self-edit.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:11 PM on March 15, 2015

zarq: "Out of curiosity, would Team Mod consider banning links to specific reddit subs if they're as bad or worse than Stormfront?"

I feel like this would be counterproductive -- if such a list were ever made public it would inevitably worm its way back to said subs and ignite a firestorm of "silenced all my life" bitterness and anti-MeFi vitriol, including possible organized harassment of the mods. (Besides, as… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 2:30 PM on March 11, 2015

feckless fecal fear mongering: "I'm really disappointed in the people here who are saying "well, just don't look." Maybe she should have worn a longer dress, I guess? It's more or less the same argument."

C'mon, fffm. Nobody is defending the cravenness of the Reddit admins here, or their cowardice in failing to enforce decent community standards. I think we can all agree that the ownership there has been pretty contemptible so far.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 9:48 PM on March 11, 2015

feckless fecal fear mongering: "Not linking to shit, sure, let's not do that. Linking there period is enabling the shit by providing ad revenue and eyeballs.

You could make this argument about a lot of things. As Stitcherbeast noted, the device you're using to post here was likely made possible by deplorable labor exploitation and heavily polluting rare-earth mining in the third world. That doesn't make you immoral or careless… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:36 PM on March 11, 2015

Matt, I've spent the last few days trying to contact an actually decent and reasonable commenter I happened to see on a Washington Times article comment section (staggering, I know) in order to gift them an account here as an oasis from the cesspool that is Disqus. Still awaiting a response, but the point stands: you cultivated a community so worthwhile that it inspires people to pay strangers to join because they think it would make their lives, and the community as a whole,… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:59 AM on March 5, 2015

Chrysostom: "Waitwaitwait. This means we'll need new MeFi propaganda posters!"

I gotcha covered [imgur mirror].
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 4:50 PM on March 5, 2015

An annoying issue I've noticed both on desktop and iOS:

- highlight text to link
- go to click "link" button
- miss
- link button disappears
- click back inside textbox to get buttons back
- highlighting disappears
- arrgggh

I'm 99% sure in the old version any selected text got retained even if you clicked outside the textbox, which was handy because I do this ALL THE TIME, especially on mobile. It would be really, really nice to have this feature back.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:14 PM on February 27, 2015

As a hopefully helpful addendum, I notice the formatting buttons on the "new post" pages perform as expected -- the buttons there are persistent, so if you highlight text and then click outside the text box, clicking the link button will still linkify the text you selected. If the buttons for comments could do likewise instead of vanishing when the textbox loses focus, that would solve the problem!
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:54 PM on February 27, 2015

pb: "I see what you mean about losing selected text if you click away from the textarea. However, that happens for me even on new post pages. It wasn't introduced when we added the buttons. Losing your selection when you click out of the textarea happens everywhere—even places that don't have the new buttons yet like the new MetaTalk post page."

Are you sure? For me, highlighting text and then clicking outside the text box on new post pages… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 1:32 PM on February 27, 2015

I think it's the post linked in this MeTa. The website is still up, but no clue if it's the same experience more than seven years later.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 6:19 PM on January 24, 2015

I already got back to you via MeMail earlier, Kabanos, but I just wanted to state for the public record that that is SO F*CKING COOL. Thanks again.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 8:08 PM on January 13, 2015

Kabanos: "For the record, my initial intention was to do a spoof on Madonna's old movie and do a "COLBERT: Truthiness or Dare" poster, with Stephen lying in bed with a sexy US flag dress."

He actually already did you one better...
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 11:50 AM on January 14, 2015

Dune Encyclopedia

I did that post! Most of the source links are dead, but there's one copy left here. It's such a deep, subtle piece of science fiction. I've never even read Dune (gasp) and I still love the thing. The historical perspective in the History of Atomics alone (page 290 in the link above) is delightfully fractured.

also: it's raow-mee! rhymes with cow-see.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 8:48 PM on January 13, 2015

I don't do anything special, just compose in the post submission form so I can check formatting, test links, and find doubles. A post lost to a browser crash a few years back has led me to regularly copy-paste the whole thing to a separate Notepad file for backup, though.

As for managing FPP content, Firefox's tab/session grouping thing is a lifesaver. I'll also sock potential links and ideas wherever's handy -- desktop folders, iOS notes, Google Chrome windows, Feedly… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 8:28 PM on January 13, 2015

Thanks, everybody. Honestly, I thought the Colbert post ended up kind of sloppy, since I spent waaay too much time staring at various Comedy Central pages waiting for the video to load and didn't have time to polish it, but it's a testament to the strength of the material that people loved it that much despite the bare-bones laundry list format. Special thanks to TVTropes, whose various "crowning moments" pages for the show filled in the gaps in my memory for the more recent years… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 7:15 PM on December 22, 2014

I considered both Peter Quill and Fry (from Futurama), but didn't want the hassle of wigs or hair dye. And while the upcoming elections are scary, I did that in 2012.

So, since I clearly already possess his dashing good looks, I went with billionaire!Tony Stark -- a recycled blazer, aviator shades, a old wireless headset, and a custom ID badge. The arc reactor's just my iPhone (in airplane mode) duct-taped to the inside of a T-shirt running the app… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 10:54 PM on October 31, 2014

yourcelf: "GraphFi is now updated to work correctly on new, classic, and plain themes. If it's not working for you, hard-refresh the source to clear your cache and try again."

Any chance at getting some Dark Mode compatibility? Right now the little quote pop-out boxes have white text on a white background in both Chrome and Firefox. (Also the font size looks pretty tiny on the latter.)
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM on October 8, 2014

beagle: "Now that you've entered the 21st century, I hope you'll also consider ways to embed pictures in posts."

I was just thinking the same thing recently. Not a return to free-form posting of hotlinked embedded images in comments and such, but the optional inclusion of a decent-quality thumbnail for FPPs, FanFare, and maybe Ask posts, subject to approval. Including a relevant picture of an author, painting, poster, screenshot, album cover,… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 7:28 AM on October 3, 2014