MetaFilter

I've been a nonprofit board member involved with the hiring of its executive director, and could share some thoughts/advice if you like (but as a one-off, not as a continuing volunteer role) -- would you like for me to email metafilterboard@gmail.com about that?

(Saw today's board update and realized I should ask.)
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 11:34 AM on March 26, 2024

Thanks all!
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 11:33 AM on March 26, 2024

My profile page lists my ten most frequently-used tags, which mostly concern my intentionally themed post series of short scifi/fantasy stories (there were 150+ of those). Below that threshold, I find smaller patterns, like work (13) and religion (12) and CalloutCulture (5).

I was a little surprised to be the MeFite with the most posts on the blue tagged "inspirational" but then I realized most of us use "inspiration" instead. Similarly, I seem to be… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 10:33 AM on March 22, 2024

BTW, people who haven't noticed this yet: even after you post a front page post, you can add to or remove tags! So it's possible to go back and add tags to your own past posts.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 5:18 AM on March 25, 2024

.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 4:15 PM on March 20, 2024

New York City: thanks to Ask, we have a list of restaurants that have heated outdoor dining suitable for small group meetups. (Recently verified.)
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 9:01 PM on February 24, 2024

I'll repeat here something I said in 2019, on the MeFi community on Dreamwidth, in a discussion of IRL events:

I've tried to organize several, sometimes successfully ("success" here meaning that at least one non-me person comes), and attended several, including a few that I did not organize.

If I'm going to another city, I often post on MeFi IRL and see whether anyone wants to meet up while I'm there. Sometimes it works - if nothing… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 3:29 AM on February 26, 2024

Another way to advertise an IRL event: make a front page post about something related to the city in question, and mention your IRL event in the comments. Similar strategy is available using Ask questions.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 3:39 AM on February 26, 2024

I think the post you're looking for is probably the one mochi_cat linked to, but it might be my Project post "Eldercare, Family Caretaking, and End-of-life Logistics: Stuff I Learned", which was a front page post in December.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 5:16 AM on January 24, 2024

Please update the line

"To flag something, click the [!] link by the post or comment."

in the flagging FAQ entry.

Thanks!
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 1:02 PM on November 15, 2023

Another sort of bit of precedent.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:02 AM on October 21, 2023

Changed default HTTP links to HTTPS across all themes

Particularly glad to learn of this news! Yay! Thanks!
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 8:14 PM on October 18, 2023

I'll repeat here what I said in a 2021 discussion about similar topics. Not A Thing wrote about a series of daily front page posts I'd made recommending short fiction:

(To me, one of the most impressive things about brainwane's very impressive string of posts was how she was able to keep the momentum going despite that.) I feel like reducing the cooldown to, say, 12 hours could help a lot with this particular sub-issue (so that it would be feasible to post around the… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 7:59 AM on October 11, 2023

right now, I'd assert that isn't the sense that is garnered by a MeTa such as this and several previous. The feeling is that the mod team basically ignores the discussions held by the users.

"The" feeling? "The" sense that is or is not garnered? I reject your assertion, since I do not have that feeling, and I have not garnered any sense of reduction in care or interest or involvement. Everyone is welcome to their own subjective… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 7:21 AM on October 14, 2023

Noting that I have been reading the site for probably 15+ years, participating for like 14 years, had seen phunniemee's participation many times, and read their first comment in this thread as completely serious and not exaggerated at all. I read zero markers of sarcasm or play in the comment that would have caused me to think I was being trolled. I was 100% willing to believe that a longtime MeFite, annoyed by a perceived lack of moderator action, would develop and use this tactic.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:51 AM on October 11, 2023

Maybe a much shorter version of what I just wrote is:

"Pernicious" is really bad! And is not the same as "blatant." And I want to better understand what other MeFites think of as one versus the other, so we can make and use different tools that will work differently to notice and push back against them.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 7:35 AM on October 11, 2023

My friend, Dr. Mel Chua (mentioned last year on the site), engineering education researcher, comic book artist, disability rights activist, and open source contributor, has metastatic bladder cancer. Their GoFundMe fundraiser is "Get Mel Out Of Oncology and Back to Pedagogy".

Thanks for this thread, aniola.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:36 AM on October 2, 2023

I'm catching up on this thread and have a few questions/comments about stuff people said.

posting a link to the song on Spotify

I didn't know it was possible to post a Spotify link to a song that someone like me (who has no Spotify account) can listen to -- the whole song, not truncated after like 30 seconds. Is that the case?

We're on the third day of this nonsense, it's already too late for… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 5:29 AM on October 2, 2023

I am interested in making front page posts recommending short scifi/fantasy stories you can read for free online!

For the rest of August: MeMail me to tell me you've contributed USD $150 and I'll make a post. $225 if you want to specify some kind of theme.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 4:20 PM on August 20, 2023

January 2022 discussion of MeFi's mission and whether a consensus mission statement is possible. Though meant more to elicit "what the users of MeFi see as the value and goals of our interactions on the site" and "not meant to be a statement for MeFi as a business or even necessarily inform the mods' work".
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:11 AM on August 27, 2023

donnagirl, you asked whether the BIPOC board meeting notes recently were super detailed as a way of conveying a particular message. No, it was just a time issue -- we had a process that went like "someone listens to recording of meeting and basically transcribes it to add a ton of detail to the notes people had taken live during the meeting, then someone distills down those very detailed notes to more condensed minutes". And then once or twice we ran low on time and didn't do the… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 10:22 AM on August 31, 2023

donnagirl, I'm glad you appreciated the explanation, but I reject the second bit. I interpret your sentence as saying that the MetaFilter admins should have done similarly and haven't done so in equivalent circumstances, and I think you're wrong.

I am home and taking a day off work, kind of sick, and felt annoyed by how you phrased your question, and I could imagine a bunch of people jumping on board with the implications of your possibly rhetorical and possibly genuine… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 11:11 AM on August 31, 2023

I read a few folks here as saying that we don't really need that much mod coverage, and that aiming for 24/7 mod coverage should not be a high priority. I think that low mod coverage makes it harder for racism concerns to get addressed quickly, and that having consistently poor or absent mod coverage during certain timezones makes it harder for mods to communicate quickly in back-and-forth conversations with MeFites who live all around the world. From what I've heard in conversations with the… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 11:13 AM on September 10, 2023

I would love for more people to flag comments and posts they want a mod to look at, so that flagging data could be more useful and be reused for other things! Over and over, when encouraging MeFites to do so, I've read MeFites saying that they have never flagged anything or that they don't think to do so, and as I recall, mods have confirmed that this is a pattern -- lots of MeFites silently get annoyed at posts or comments but don't flag. Or they use the contact form, which doesn't send as… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 2:33 PM on September 10, 2023

Since the end of last year’s fundraising our Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) has decreased by roughly 6.5% ($1,730.00/month) due to subscriptions people decided not to maintain.

Request for clarification: are we pretty sure that is a specific intentional decision by those subscribers? Does this include or exclude lapses just because a credit card expired or something like that? I know in the past these kinds of fundraising campaigns have helped remind… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 2:10 AM on August 3, 2023

People who love front page posts about short sf/f you can read for free online: For sufficient stakes I could be persuaded to do another little series.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 2:12 AM on August 3, 2023

People who love front page posts about short sf/f you can read for free online: For sufficient stakes I could be persuaded to do another little series. -- ok, 20+ people faved this and 2 people encouraged me via comments. So let's talk about how to do this.

In last year's auction I offered to make posts for up to 6 bids that went above the reserve price of USD$125.00 each. The result: we had 4 bids just above that price, so I made four distinct posts… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 10:26 AM on August 11, 2023

New!

I am interested in making front page posts recommending short scifi/fantasy stories you can read for free online!

For the rest of August: MeMail me to tell me you've contributed USD $150 and I'll make a post. $225 if you want to specify some kind of theme.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 3:44 AM on August 19, 2023

Another Forged in Fire fan!!!

I dipped in and out of the podcast and had trouble finding the moment when cortex and jessamyn discussed the fundraiser -- could someone share a timecode?
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 11:08 AM on August 15, 2023

I hired someone I found via MeFi jobs to redo my business and personal websites, and my sites are so much better now.

When I go to in-person events in various settings and industries and so on, sometimes someone knows, or notices, or puts together, that my nickname is "brainwane." And multiple times in the past few months, an acquaintance or stranger has specifically thanked me for my front page posts on MetaFilter, in particular the short scifi/fantasy story… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 8:57 PM on July 22, 2023

fabius: yeah, I think that's a good question! I was travelling or otherwise unavailable during a lot of the period where my colleagues were polishing these minutes so I'll ask them to respond.

My guess is that someone or some group of folks really wanted y'all to be able to get as much transparency as possible, not just about what decisions we've been making, but about the context too. And so in the balance between concision and detail they decided to go with more detail.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 8:22 PM on July 21, 2023

(I said "spending a year on the Board" because I figure it's generally easier for people to commit to that than to say "sure, gimme an open-ended commitment." But there are currently no fixed terms for BIPOC Board participation and people can join for an indefinite period if they want!)

OK, separately, regarding fundraising:

We’ll kick off our regular Annual Fundraising for next month and the team is brainstorming ideas to… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 8:47 PM on July 21, 2023

I am uncomfortable with this becoming something that moderators use to determine the acceptability of content. I don't think this is what you're asking for, but I want to make sure there is no consensus developed that such terminology should result in moderator action.
posted by saeculorum

saeculorum, I think maybe you meant to note your concern about, for example, situations where a MeFite's front page post links to an article or video that uses the unwanted… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 4:27 PM on July 14, 2023

I request a link to the specific comment you are discussing or, if it was deleted, the mod deletion notification comment in the relevant thread.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 3:47 AM on June 28, 2023

I have an idea for something to add to our policies somewhere (not sure where):

Enjoying things is good. You do not have to apologize for enjoying media that you do not agree with politically, or that others find fault with.

Critiquing things is good. You do not have to apologize for saying why a work of art doesn't work for you, or for pointing out how its politics don't live up to our values.

MeFites will like or… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 11:06 AM on July 2, 2023

Hi, just caught up on this thread.

I'm a member of the Global BIPOC Board (what we do; my thoughts, as of a few months ago, on whether/how the BIPOC Board has made a difference on the site).

kevinbelt, in a comment in this thread, you have claimed:

"once the Steering Committee was determined to be probably illegal, the SC’s duties were just dumped on the BIPOC Board"

and complained that… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 2:56 PM on June 23, 2023

More on-topic regarding this thread (and speaking entirely for myself; I assume at least one or more other people on the BIPOC Board disagree with me): I'll share some of my own personal beliefs. I am trying to describe my own stance and not to criticize others; it's descriptive about me, not prescriptive about others, so I hope you will read it with that framing, or skip it. Then I'll mention how my own interior experiences, such as reactions to things, seem to differ from those of a lot of… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 4:04 PM on June 23, 2023

A relevant previous MetaTalk post on the phrase "garbage people".
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 9:13 PM on June 23, 2023

Whoops. I think I should have been more careful about giving context when I shared the link to that previous MetaTalk about the phrase "garbage people". Sorry! I wasn't trying to say "hey look, there was someone who requested five years ago that we not use a completely different phrase, and therefore [insert logic here] and therefore in this MetaTalk I AM RIGHT" or something like that.

Here's what I should have said: There's… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:19 AM on June 24, 2023

Another relevant MetaTalk, from 2018, discusses "comments I see that express the desire to see violence done to someone, whether from face-punches or guillotines" -- again, I'm linking to this as a thread of interesting discussion about the topic of "blowing off steam" comments that some people find very offputting and some people cherish.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:36 AM on June 24, 2023

My name is Sumana. I very very rarely meet another Sumana. Just a few weeks ago someone told me the name is popular in Sri Lanka (my parents are South Indian; I have never been to Sri Lanka).
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 1:01 PM on May 31, 2023

hoyland asked:

I'd be curious to hear from the BIPOC board as to whether they think it's been something that moved the needle on the site.

and I'd like to share my answer. I'm on the MeFi Global BIPOC Board. Here I'm speaking as myself and not on behalf of the group.

(For reference: for the BIPOC board's historical context, mandate, perspective, scope, activities, and plans, please check out the November 28th, 2022… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 5:55 AM on April 5, 2023

Faint of Butt wrote:

"I feel safe and happy here, but maybe I shouldn't, or at least there was a time when I shouldn't have?"

I MeMailed Faint of Butt about a similar experience in case it would be helpful, and she said it was helpful to her, and would be helpful if I posted it in the thread so others could read it.

I am a person of color -- I'm an Indian-American woman. I have not felt that… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:08 AM on April 7, 2023

Of the 341 posts I've made to the front page, about ten of them have dozens of links each.

Some of them are basically indexes: "Here's a table of contents of scores of interesting bits of writing or other media that a person/organization/movement has published along these themes, because there is no pre-existing finding aid that would help someone who's searching for that collection as a whole." They were meant not just for current MeFites to read and comment… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 5:32 PM on March 21, 2023

From 2019: a summary of stuff disabled and neuroatypical MeFites find difficult on MetaFilter, behaviors that make things harder or easier, etc. Includes a few points relevant to this discussion, such as the one about concern that one's FPP format is not what others want. Relevant to the comments and questions about accessibility and inclusion.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 10:36 PM on March 22, 2023

When I construct a post, sometimes one of the links I'm using causes the website to show me an alert when I hit Preview. The alert says, basically, "heads-up - this link showed up in a previous front page post" and gives me that post's URL, headline, and summary. I go check it out. If it was one of dozens of links in a big buffet/index/magazine/choose-your-metaphor of a post, then I edit my own post to add "(previously)" with a link to that older post. I… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 10:03 AM on March 23, 2023

There is already an unofficial log of post deletions, I believe run by zachlipton.

(Separate from the question of comment deletions.)
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 2:36 PM on February 22, 2023

It was a different Greg Nog comment.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 6:21 PM on January 7, 2023

I meant: a different comment, in a different thread, by that user.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 7:14 AM on January 8, 2023

I agree! Am asking the mods to opine.
posted to MetaTalk by brainwane at 12:06 PM on January 8, 2023