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Hugo and Nebula Award winning writer Mary Robinette Kowal offers various writing tips on her TikTok such as why "Show, Don't Tell makes her cranky", "Show, Don't Tell, Part 2", "'Write What You Know' Isn't What You Think", and "How To Start Writing". She also has one of the most eloquent examples of Ask vs Guess Culture. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher on May 20, 2022 - 35 comments

A Student Ate 5 Day Old Pasta For Lunch. This Is How His Liver Shut Down.
posted by srboisvert on Jan 21, 2019 - 117 comments

When You Can and Cannot Say ‘No’ When Someone Asks to Switch Seats With You on an Airplane "This, in a nutshell, perfectly encapsulates the fraught social dynamics of making and fielding a request. A person asked to switch seats often feels obligated to say yes for fear of being rude, even when it means a more unpleasant flying experience. But making such a request can itself be construed as rude." [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon on Apr 5, 2018 - 245 comments

Finder of Lost Recipes
posted by aniola on Aug 31, 2016 - 14 comments

You are not a crazy genius or an irredeemable asshole or a misfit who's damned for all time. You are just a person. We are all damned in our own little ways. We are all uniquely blessed and uniquely fucked. Welcome to the world. [more inside]
posted by Braeburn on Nov 4, 2015 - 46 comments

Heaven Knows I’m Mexican Now: Morrissey's Latino connection goes live “I would hate to see a cheesy Mexican tribute to Morrissey,” he says. “I knew I had to use well-known Mexican artists” – among others, the group features underground icon Chetes, trumpet player Alex Escobar and Cafe Tacuba’s violinist Alejandro Flores – “and to mix it with electronic elements and other non-Mexican elements. To just play these songs with mariachi trumpets would be touristic – we didn’t want to come and dress in ponchos.” [more inside]
posted by betweenthebars on Apr 25, 2015 - 16 comments

Every Wednesday, rocker Andrew WK (previously) answers reader questions in his Village Voice advice column. He can be deep ("Ideally, life shouldn't be an ongoing struggle to see the glass half-full, but rather an appreciation that there's a glass at all") and inspirational and practical. Today, a reader asks him whether he should start using heroin.
posted by jbickers on May 14, 2014 - 40 comments

How to ask a question.
posted by John Cohen on Apr 8, 2012 - 67 comments

Ding Dong, DADT is dead. Today marks the end of another era of discrimination against Americans who wish to serve in the armed forces. The Washington Post provides a handy recap.
posted by Tell Me No Lies on Jul 22, 2011 - 102 comments

Facebook jumps on the Metafilter Bandwagon with New Q&A Offering. Other recent entrants in our market include Ask.com, which is relying on experts to answer questions, Aardvark which asks your friends to do the work, and our favorite love-to-hate-em, Yahoo answers which is teaming with both terrible (hilarious) questions and answers. The Facebook offering will be totally public and searchable by google, with questions answerable by anyone with a Facebook account. It looks like the questions you ask will be tied to your real profile. Anyone in the Beta have a screen shot?
posted by paddingtonb on Jul 28, 2010 - 65 comments

Facebook is advertising for beta answerers for their new Q and A site/product.
posted by jacalata on Jun 11, 2010 - 66 comments

Popular Search Engines from the 90s, then and now
posted by sugarfish on Sep 17, 2009 - 86 comments

"The blogger Andrew Sullivan linked to the Blade account and encouraged readers to complain to the Post. “I can see why outing someone who is alive and closeted is unethical,” he wrote. “Inning someone who is dead and was out is a function of utterly misplaced sensitivity, rooted in well-intentioned but incontrovertible homophobia.”" A Soldier's Legacy.
posted by wittgenstein on Aug 2, 2008 - 15 comments

Got a spiritual question? Ask an Islamic scholar. Or ask a Trappist monk. Or ask a Catholic priest. Or a Lutheran pastor. Jewish? Ask a Rabbi. Jewish and like firearms? Ask a rabbi with a gun.
posted by escabeche on Mar 14, 2007 - 24 comments

Ask a Biologist. "We think that kids don't always get the access to real scientific information (or real scientists!) outside of the classroom so we are here to do just that." One of the newest in a line of question-and-answer sites, this one is run by fifty professional scientists and directed toward school kids. Is is possible to clone dinosaurs? Why do I sneeze when I look at the sun? How many mutations do I have? How do polar bears keep their feet warm?
posted by arcticwoman on Feb 28, 2007 - 7 comments

Ask A Ninja. Have a question? Now you know who to ask. What is Podcasting? What's it like being a Ninja? How can we save the Internet? Do you want to come over and watch some Merchant Ivory films with me? Oh, and the theme song is pretty catchy too. Lots of embedded flash, with links to download or subscribe as well
posted by JZig on Jun 30, 2006 - 11 comments

There is a new question asking website. It is powered by humans via the Mechanical Turk program. Said the Gramophone has a bit of fun with it.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Feb 18, 2006 - 15 comments

The E Commerce Times is reporting that Ask Jeeves may be trying to purchase Bloglines.
posted by lobstah on Feb 7, 2005 - 6 comments

Web Tapestry, Cheap Names, Areti Internet Ltd. ... These are just a few of the UK based web hosts I have discovered while trying to find one for myself.

My question to any UK residents is: which UK web host do you use/would you recommend? The well known ISPs (Direct Connection for example) are extortionate.
posted by James Bachman on Nov 16, 2000 - 7 comments