MetaFilter

Thanks, chariot pulled by cassowaries

Yes yes, Hear here! It's a treasure and a delight, the posts contributed here. I always look forward to them!
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:03 PM on April 10, 2024

I continue to be astounded by how many species were assumed extinct but then have been rediscovered. Australia quite obviously isn't surveyed well enough because "oh yeah, they're dead" is too often a false assumption.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 6:02 PM on April 10, 2024

Please give full names before using acronyms

On the other hand, there is the delight of reading G.K. Chesterson's Bernie And Wooster books, which are a bit written like diary entries with various words represented simply by an initial rather than spelling them out. Part of the joy is feeling like you're on the inside of the joke when you read a phrase like "of course, the f. of the s. is more d. than the m." and understanding it.

I do admit, that is a specific kind of interest and is not suitable for… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:43 PM on March 29, 2024

Dammmit, there are only a handful of British authors who are two initials plus a last name, and I didn't google.

And yes, they are j. g.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:39 PM on March 29, 2024

Dear god, what is it about MetaFilter that causes people to do things like that?
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 7:45 PM on March 29, 2024

to me, IRAs are retirement savings

Thirty-mumblty years ago I was a member of the International Reading Association, being part of a teaching group focussed on reading literacy. So IRA.... yes, I do support bombing places to make people read!
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 7:50 PM on March 29, 2024

I see what you did there.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:13 PM on March 29, 2024

Posts for Donations?

I'm not doing anything with my life. If you want me to do a post for you, MeMail me and I'll do a short one for $25 and a longer one for $50.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:47 PM on March 12, 2024

I mean, I don't know if others would be welcome to do posts for donations, but I could probably be talked into it more regularly. With the new posting twice in 24 hours thing going on, and me literally not doing anything with my life, I'd be open to doing it more. Maybe others would do it too I know there are a lot of people who are fearful of posting but who want posts to be made.

I do promise to spell the names of people correctly in my future donation-based posts. I'm… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:07 PM on March 13, 2024

We need more IRL events

I wish there were some way to do an occasional PING to people who aren't set to receive IRL alerts to get an summary of IRL stuff going on in their area, maybe twice a year?

I don't think a lot of people who use MetaFilter know about IRL. And without some kind of process that initiates discovery, I don't know how to increase the number of people who DO know about it and use it.

I have my IRL radar set for 350 miles and it's only gotten one ping… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:11 PM on February 23, 2024

(Austin folks, I am coming for Rhiannon Giddens in May and would love to see y'all too, so if there's interest let me know and we can have one too!)

What you do here is actually post a proposed meet at the time and maybe location you want and then let it generate from there. That's how you know if there's interest. Posting this here is useless.

If you don't know a location to meet, post what time your other obligations are,… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:15 PM on February 23, 2024

Hey, hey buddy. Wanna do a line of nosedove? It's been specially filtered for no feathers....
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 7:33 PM on February 23, 2024

Like, I've posted two meets lately in different cities, neither has any replies, I know both places I've posted to have MeFites who live there... I wish I could push a button that was maybe once a year that was a "ping people in this area about this IRL meetup" button that would send a MeMail to anyone within the radius.

I think there is probably an audience for MeFi Meetups out there who don't even know they are going on because they engage with the website in… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:02 PM on February 25, 2024

I just posted an IRL the other day in Classic mode on my computer. Is this a desktop v cellphone divide?
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:33 PM on February 26, 2024

Makes me think maybe the Front Page could be a bit more front page?

I don't know exactly how to begin to roll all the different subsites into something of a more unified front page but maybe that would be something to think about as far as cross-pollinating the subsections of the website and drawing more attention to things like IRL or Jobs opportunities and the like.

I know it's a pretty bold idea, but we could do things to make the subsites… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:43 PM on February 28, 2024

Add request for followup to AskMeFi

I already get prompted a month after I post an AskMe to maybe make sure I've followed up with the question... I'm not sure there's much more that can be done than is already being done?

or am I the only person who gets a "follow up on this Ask" emails?
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:39 PM on February 27, 2024

How do we feel in 2024 about single-link FPP food/recipe posts?

Make the post you want to see.

I post all kinds of things all the time, and I don't understand the attitude against single link posts because I make those all the time. And they might be better than multi-link posts, because then at least everyone knows what they're discussing when they talk about "that link in the post".

A separate discussion would be about whether recipes are a "worthy" subject for a post. And if that's a… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 9:20 PM on February 26, 2024

MeFi Business/Legal Update Follow-Up

So, for clarity, will the end form be that MeFi LLC will no longer exist, and so Jessamyn will exit from any ownership in whatever form MetaFilter takes after that, or that this non-profit will be overseeing the running of MetaFilter with MeFi LLC operating as a bills-and-paperwork company but without a governing structure outside of that?

I'm probably asking the right question with all the wrong words. But I'd like to understand what the final form of MetaFilter will be… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:31 PM on October 18, 2023

MetaFilter: The Quickening

For my Pride Month posts where I'm trying to make a post every day I basically have to resort to composing things the night before, setting an alarm for the time of my previous post so I'm posting as soon as possible, and then starting the post run as early in the day as I can so as it creeps forward into the day across the month I can still get it done early.

I don't have any real problems with the 24 hour limit, although maybe it could be made midnight GMT or something.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:23 PM on October 10, 2023

[I will add, using the AskMe "New Question" form to compose a new post for the Blue is a great thing. It's the same editor, but as long as you never ever choose a question topic, you can never accidentally post the question. So you can compose and edit all you want and never get a Post button that you might hit by accident. Then it's just a cut-and-paste job to move it over to a new MeFi post form once your new window is open.]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:55 PM on October 10, 2023

In theory this would encourage more posting from fewer people, as the "more" of the "people" simply aren't posting at all.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 11:41 AM on October 11, 2023

We're in a situation of basically maximum posting from a few people, and very few posts from hardly anyone else except the random scattered moment.

I mean, if the concept is to get more, varied posts on the front page, we need a campaign to encourage people to create FPPs who aren't the usual list of people who do them all the time.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 11:45 AM on October 11, 2023

Yes, okay, but what I find curious about this and other threads about the community at large where mod input would be useful, is that a MeTa thread HAS TO BE APPROVED BY MODS before it goes live. Like, there is no reason for this to even be here being talked about unless someone on the moderation team has decided to make it public. Surely that step of approval should have built into it a bit of "we need to pay attention to this thread, it's about the community" built into it, and if… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:38 PM on October 12, 2023

I’m mentioning this not because I know what’s going on - I don’t - but if you’re deciding what’s a reasonable response time, please gather intel on the parameters and consider the expectations. In a MetaTalk it’s weird because…when do you declare consensus? Not everyone reads MT daily so assuming the first comments are definitive creates a bias.

Honestly, I expect the moderation team, every single member of them, to be engaging here in MetaTalk… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:01 PM on October 13, 2023

On some level, in a dream world that doesn't coincide with the one we live in, doing a revision of MetaFilter the "right way" would involve looking at the output of the website that everyone currently enjoys and completely re-engineering the backend into a modern format, out of the frankenstein Wordpress current incarnation that is somehow miraculously still stable enough to drive everything going on here.

Maybe in the dream world in which the source code is… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 6:42 PM on October 14, 2023

I guess it feels like, in the past, there'd be conversation with the moderation team and site owners [admittedly those had overlapped in the past] in threads such as these, a back and forth about how people were feeling about things, how things had been handled with explanations, and some amount of actual community engagement with the people who have the backend of this website within their grasp and the people who do most of the actual generation of what makes this website valuable.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:46 PM on October 16, 2023

positive feedback

I'd like to shout out Bottlecap for rolling the ball with Disability Pride Month posts, and others who also contributed during that time. I feel like I got a solid education about a lot of things I simply had not considered before, and that I'm moving through the world as a more aware and better person now.

It's things like that which keep me coming back here year after year.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 9:49 AM on September 8, 2023

MeFi24 in 2023

I lurked since the beginning but finally felt compelled to join because Rainn Wilson had put up a website that was cool and philosophical but the website had been infected with a virus full of SEO keywords for porn. Only nobody bothered to look into it and the discussion was derailing into a lot of "wow, Wilson is an asshole, what a jerk" and I googled around a bit and got the real information and re-reailed the conversation with my first comment.

I love this… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:21 PM on July 16, 2023

MetaFilter has a real problem with voicing class genocidal attitudes

I'm not sure that "this group of people deserves to die because of their lifestyle" between the rich and poor are separate conversations, but I'm willing to entertain the difference if it can be made cogently.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:40 PM on June 20, 2023

I was watching the sub thread prior to the deletions, and can say unequivocally that this is a grossly uncharitable and frankly dishonest take on the comments that were made.

I could install the "deleted comment" plug-in to demonstrate that you're factually false here, but it's not worth the bother, really.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:51 PM on June 20, 2023

I think this was the previous thread I bailed on, the one about rural communities. It's hard to tell with the editing that takes place here.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:57 PM on June 20, 2023

What I wish is people would flag it and move on instead of chastising a whole thread of people who may or may not sympathize with the comment that offended

Which ends up being a moderation issue, because if the comment isn't removed and/or mod-commented upon quickly, it becomes part of the discussion and thus irremovable.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:58 PM on June 20, 2023

I feel like someone is going to chew the OP right the hell up for tossing around the word "genocidal" to describe contempt for the rich.

Go ahead. I've been here for years and I'm wiling to leave this place because this behavior has been really really shitty.

Oh, you're making a class point with this, that I might support.

In either case, I will fucking walk away from here under these current community standards. This should not be tolerated.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:09 PM on June 20, 2023

And I will say, if you're focussing only on the rich people thread in my callout, you're missing the point.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:10 PM on June 20, 2023

What is the desired outcome of this thread?

The desired outcome of this thread is that MetaFilter members stop expressing that they wish members of either the poor or the rich to die based on their decisions in life.

I'm not sure how that is so difficult to understand.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:20 PM on June 20, 2023

So many of the comments here are defending the right to wish death on a group of people based on their economic basis.

That's feels just wrong to me. But if this is what MetaFilter is today, that's what it is. I hoped to change that, but I can't buck the trend.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:46 PM on June 20, 2023

The MetaFilter response to both parties is entirely symmerical, and that's the issue I want to address here.

Well, that and in general wishing death on any group of people based on their life circumstances or choices.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:18 PM on June 20, 2023

I'd be curious to have taz's take on this once they get on duty, as they seem to have been the moderator who had to clean up the missing submarine thread mess.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:21 PM on June 20, 2023

the whole derail that the mods has to prune back wasn’t the fact that some commenters were being callous, it’s that other commenters were calling out the “callous” commenters and instigating a back and forth that never should have been in the thread.

I used the word "callous" first, and that comment has now been deleted so I can't point to it.

I also said I was leaving the thread and I closed the tab.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:05 PM on June 20, 2023

Calling comments potentially illegal is the closest thing to violence this thread has gotten to.

I'm entirely unclear about EU regulations. Or is MetaFilter blocked there?
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:19 PM on June 20, 2023

And if we do have it, and moderators get rid of comments that don't fit the community guidelines, then why do we keep having this conversation over and over?

I'd actually propose we'd be a better community if we weren't making comments that required moderator intervention, and maybe we're good enough people to know if we are and since we barely have a mod staff these days we shouldn't be making more work for them. Find our better angels, so to speak.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:53 PM on June 20, 2023

Metatalktail Hour: Weird work shifts

I worked a job that was mostly a normal 8-5 but once I got to manager, I learned there was a side to the business I didn't know about -- emergency computer part supply. This was a delivery/courier company that mostly did business deliveries during business hours, but they had a whole secret warehouse, under rather much more security than the rest of the business, that was full of computer parts that were warehoused there for emergency computer repairs. Like, a repair is being done in a town 200… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:31 PM on June 3, 2023

GoFunMe

Have it generated weekly, not monthly. And don't overwrite the old playlists, just have a new playlist come out every, say, Friday evening for weekend viewing.

I cannot help create this project at all, but it's a really cool idea. I missed it the first time around.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 10:54 AM on May 2, 2023

192: The week between last week and this week

Yes, yes it is.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:30 PM on March 5, 2023

MetaFilter, SCOTUS, and Section 230

So, my understanding (which was greatly developed by listening to today's episode of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, transcript in link) is that Section 230 (of the Communications Decency Act, not the other law I mentioned in the post) offers online platforms two protections: 1) the platforms are not considered "publishers" and are not responsible for the content on their platform posted by users, and 2) it offers protections to platforms that edit user-posted content to get rid of… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:05 PM on February 20, 2023

eotvos has passed away

.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 8:43 PM on January 26, 2023

189: Snowperson Trauma

Away For Regrooving is probably yanked from The Firesign Theatre, specifically this one sequence, picturing a satirical future US government and social situation from the vantage of the late 60s. The reference is really early, but the whole thing only runs about 7m20s.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 1:56 PM on December 12, 2022

Thank You

SPrintF, you're one of the names I recognize here when I see them. (I retain not nearly as many as I would like, sadly). Thank YOU for being here, because you're a part of this community, too.

I don't know what I'd do without this place. That may sound pathetic, but it's truth.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 6:34 PM on November 21, 2022

📢📢📢 Week 2 Fundraiser Update: We need your help to REVIVE Metafilter

I'm not sure what you all mean by "hardcore", but I'll just suggest you not ever search for furry porn on twitter. Ever.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 3:03 PM on November 10, 2022

If you look at actual Metafilter ref links, you can see how they are formatted after the ? and copy paste that little bit of text after the ? in YOUR to make your own ref link. This may mean you're deleting a lot of crap, but it's all tracking stuff that the link doesn't actually need to work.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 4:51 PM on November 14, 2022