MetaTalk

Price of Metafilter

Renoroc — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:54:08 GMT

This post got me wondering if anyone has tried to buy Metafilter, how much an honest value would be, and if people would leave if a similar entity to Yahoo bought the Blue.

I know who you are.

unSane — Sun, 19 May 2013 02:45:24 GMT

Isn't this a pretty straightforward example of doxing?

Memories of MeFi troll

Chrysostom — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:24:54 GMT

Settle / KettleBlack reflects.

Was my comment deleted?

escape from the potato planet — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:22:44 GMT

This evening, I posted a comment in the FPP about Red Letter Christians.

The gist of it was:

"I guess that being nice while believing in mythical nonsense is better than being a dick while believing in mythical nonsense. On that level, I applaud this movement.

However, I've never understood why people can't just be nice while not believing in mythical nonsense. Seems like the best of both worlds, doesn't it?"

I no longer see that comment in the thread. Was it deleted?

If so, what exactly was my offense? All I've really done is to refer to Christianity as "mythical nonsense", which is what I believe it to be.

I realize that the sentiment won't be loved by everyone, but I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to say. If I referred to the cult of Zeus (or any other deity who no longer claims many adherents) as "mythical nonsense", I doubt that my comment would be deleted. What is the difference?

In short: what is the MeFi policy or guideline that I overstepped here? Is it not permissible to express negative opinions of religion on MetaFilter?

"The Most Insane News Story You'll See Today"

stbalbach — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:11:37 GMT

We met homeless, hatchet-wielding hitchhiker Caleb "Kai' Lawrence McGillivary in February. He became a meme. Earlier this week Kai was arrested for murdering a lawyer. "I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets," the prosecutor said. (This is a follow-up) (closed)

A post about metatalk hasn't been deleted yet, and I wonder why

twoleftfeet — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:47:56 GMT

A post about how to use "Metatalk" skill to discuss communication problems and it hasn't been deleted. But I thought we could discuss why it hasn't been deleted. Communication is important, I'm just sayin'

AskMe about mixed up text messages

amro — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:56:36 GMT

I could have sworn that there was an AskMe not too long ago about sending one text message but having a different one come up on your recipient's phone. Of course, I can't find it. Am I thinking of something I read somewhere else, or does this question exist?

Success... I celebrate any that I can

notned — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:10:52 GMT

I'm hoping this gets back to mrgrowler, he expressed interest in a solution. When I asked this question, I had an idea that the culprit might be my blood pressure medicine. But I was exploring other options. The doctor even sent me to drink barium. The radiologist gave me half of a tip, he said that I was having spasms. I finally got desperate enough to talk to my doctor about changing meds. I haven't had an episode since.

RIP Prince_Of_Cups

mkb — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:46:17 GMT

It is my sad duty to relate some unfortunate news. Matthew Schuler, known here as Prince of Cups, passed away this morning.

I first knew him as [ouroboros] on Everything2. He introduced me and my social circle to some fancy cocktails (especially the Aviation) and will be sorely missed.

YOU get a favorite and YOU get a favorite and EVERYBODY GETS A FAVORITE!

Jacqueline — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:54:00 GMT

100/day just isn't enough anymore, given the increasing volume of quality discussion on this site. Could the daily favorites limit please be raised???

Eurovision posts

LSK — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:51:01 GMT

I had a huge Eurovision post written and ready to post that I was saving for this evening. Then this was posted. I do feel a bit frustrated by this, but it's a good post, just not the post I wanted to make. Details inside.

That post is a great discussion of what Eurovision is.

But it's missing two important details that I feel should be in a MeFi Eurovision post: a clean list of the year's songs sorted by semi-final and a link to the streaming video of the contest on the official website.

I'm apprehensive about posting another thread about Eurovision right on the wake of this one - especially since we've had a higher-than-normal level of discussion of the contest this year - but, dangit, the contest is important to me (for reasons that don't preclude my making a post about it) and I'd like to see a Eurovision post with at least a link to the streaming video.

I was into MeTa before and after it was cool

klangklangston — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:27:37 GMT

This post is a pretty sharp piece on how the constructed media of hipsters ends up displacing more salient criticism (including a good line about how obsession with limning the "hipster" has removed "counter" from "counter-culture"). What's the discussion? Immediately, it starts out with the same old hipster tropes of MeFi with too many folks who clearly haven't read the fucking article.

I admit that part of what grinds my gears is seeing this as a caricature of the "It's about the discussion" ethos some folks apply to MeFi; I think it demonstrates why reading the actual fucking links is important, instead of just grabbing some keyword and doing a LOL Hipster riff.

And in specific, if I never again have to hear whatever threadbare know-it-when-I-see-it notions Charlemagne in Sweatpants has about irony or hipsters, I promise to cut down my WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN ON ABOUT?!!!?! by at least 30 percent.

I wish I thought that we could talk about actual articles, but maybe "hipster" is too much circumcision/Israel/declawing to be posted here without a bunch of half-baked treatises on just what parts of Sydney are the hipster ones.

AskMe Has Changed My Life

not that girl — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:21:46 GMT

Back on April 20--three full weeks ago--I saw this AskMe about Sherlock/Watson fanfic, and idly clicked on it. Then I followed a few links, because why not? I'm a curious sort of person.

Three weeks later, I've read hundreds of thousands of words, my children are neglected, my house is a mess, I may need in-patent rehab if they have that for addictions to angsty heartbreaking John/Sherlock porn, and... well, let's just say that things are very good between me and my partner just now.

I'm not sure whether that thread ruined my life or improved it immeasurably, but I'd like to thank Jacqueline for posting the question, and everyone who made recommendations, especially tzikeh, Frowner, That's Numberwang!, exceptinsects, and snakeling. I'm basically posting this because I can't invite them all out for coffee to giggle together about our embarrassing obsession, like teenage girls with a copy of Tiger Beat.

This thread is a nightmare

Omnomnom — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:03:23 GMT

Last night I dreamt that some guy found out some supersecret information about the servers that Metafilter runs on and was going to blackmail us!

So Matthowie went over to his place in person and proceeded to break his fingers one by one. And because he had a live cam on during this exchange people had a MetaTalk thread running and were joking and snarking and passing the pop corn while they were following the whole thing.

And I was so upset about how this is not the kind of culture I want on Metafilter and why aren't the mods doing anything and it just isn't how it used to be!

Hmph.

You guys should be ashamed of yourselves.

A Tricky Question, a Disappointing Response.

Broseph — Sat, 11 May 2013 04:33:25 GMT

I'm referring to this question and this response. Look, Unified Theory, I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt here, and assume that maybe you didn't read the entirety of a rather long and rambly OP. And I actually agree with parts of your post - I hated the way the question was phrased as well, and I agree that the assumption that it's automatically creepy for an older guy to be attracted to a younger woman is both sexist and ageist. And, I agree with the many other posters stating the the OP that she handled the situation in a very naive way, and needs to give serious thought to how she sets her own boundaries in situations like this. But.

To minimize this guy's behavior by suggesting there was nothing creepy about it, when he committed at least two low-level sexual assaults on her (seriously: read the OP if you missed it), made boundary-crashing sexual comments, and then tried to put her down as 'asexual' when she shied away from sexually-charged questions, is quite franky disturbing, and the fact that your answer is getting a bunch of favorites on that thread is even more disturbing.

Metafilter, I am disappoint. (closed)

Birds do it, bees do it, even couples on AskMe do it...

Wordshore — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:35:30 GMT

Good evening. I am considering the purchase of an account on MetaFilter for my fiancee. She may find it of use for work (academic librarianship, cataloging), domestic (cats, pies) and leisure; I've sent her pointers to FPPs on here which she has found of interest, and she may be able to contribute questions and comments to AskMe. But...

...I've got some concerns though. These are probably some of my many insecurities. Interested in comments especially from MeFites who have partners who are also MeFites; doubly especially if one or both of you are librarians and/or shambrarians.

* Is it ethical to flag and/or favorite comments, posts, made by your partner if they are also on MetaFilter? Flagging is private, but favorites are public, so they'd see the latter.

* What if your partner writes a relationship question on AskMeFi? Either with their username, or anonymous? Has this ever happened to someone, and how did you deal with it? Should one engage in a pact to discuss issues rather than put them on AskMe?

* Is it ethical to declare anywhere e.g. on your profile page, that you are in a close relationship with another MeFite?

* What if other MeFites give her hassle? Let's say she does an FPP about the move from the MARC to RDA cataloging standards in libraries. And some AACR2 fanboy turns the discussion nasty and borderline personal, but still within acceptable bounds (MetaFilter is I think a better place for discussion of this nature than e.g. mailing lists such as AutoCat). If I pitch in, so long as I don't make it personal, would that be okay, or seen as inappropriately standing up for my partner even if I believed in my viewpoint (she can stand up for herself pretty well) (actually scares me a bit in this regard).

Actually I'm probably overthinking / overworried, but these questions are now making me go off the idea. I might get her a kitten instead, as there feels like less potential for drama there.

Do comments here on Metafilter get "disappeared"?

MikeWarot — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:12:54 GMT

I have a vague unsubstantiated feeling that some comments I've written got tossed into the memory hole. Am I being paranoid, or is this normal with some justification I'm not aware of?

I wrote two comments earlier today about the supposed Boston Bomber story, and the second seems to have vanished.

Is there any way to tell what happened and where it went?

I've since recreated what I thought I said, and added a bit more... lets see if this one sticks.

Plate of Beans, Incorporated

256 — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:12:12 GMT

So tomorrow marks the three month anniversary of this post wherein a group of us banded together to form a corporation in everybody's favourite game to read about but never play, EVE Online. This is just an update on what's gone on in New Eden since then, and an invitation to make the leap from reading to playing, and come join us.

Plate of Beans, Incorporated (stock ticker PINTO) now has 41 active members, with a good spread across timezones meaning that we almost always have several someones online. EVE is famously a sandbox game where you make your own fun, and we've made a hell of a lot of fun.

We've thrown ourselves into PVP without a thought to our own survival, destroying literally TENS of dollars worth of ships belonging to our enemies (read, everyone who's not us).

We've progressed to some of the most advanced PVE content in the game, fielding fleets with all different kinds of ships.

We've mined asteroids, exchanged market arbitration tips, salvaged valuable components from the wreckage of other people's battles, mined more asteroids, and had the satisfaction of building something of our own.

PINTO has set up three bases across known space. Our headquarters is in a rough and tumble system on the edge of civilized space, where the wealth of exploitable natural resources draws both eager industrialists and pirates to prey on them.

We have a secondary base out in the depths of "null sec," EVE's truly lawless zone, and a third base in the No Man's Land between the theocratic Amarr Mandate and their former slaves, the Minmatar Republic. It's easy to forget that EVE Online actually has a story and a lore, but it does, and some of us are on the verge of joining in this war on the Minmatar side.

Most significantly, though, we have ventured into the uncharted regions of wormhole space, found a system to our liking and constructed a starbase of our own. Holding space is a rewarding challenge and we must always be on the lookout to defend it against invaders. In fact, there was another player-built starbase in the system when we arrived, and through a massive fleet operation we destroyed it. We're not immune from someone trying to do the same to us.

So, come, sign up for a trial, and see if you like flying with us.

We've got an active little community that supports all playstyles and will happily help new players with advice and resources. We've got an ersatz forum going over at MeFightClub, and we have a wiki of our own.

We run fleets and training operations regularly and will be hosting our own PVP tournament next month. It's a good game and PINTO is good people. Have I convinced you?

Clean up on the correspondent party aisle

k5.user — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:20:44 GMT

The post is a "this is a shitty thing that happened" and the discussion has been at about the same level of discourse.

The correspondent's dinner thread is pretty ugly. The link itself is problematic in that it's a "hey, here's something shitty that happened" and not much else.

I thought it was a common deletion reason to yank such posts, and the commentary sure seems to reinforce why such posts should be yanked.

(Yes, FIAMO. I flagged, it's a trainwreck and I'm rubbernecking) (closed)

Would anyone like to be Fuelband Friends?

4ster — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:38:55 GMT

Hello everyone, I just started using a Nike+ FuelBand bracelet, and I am wondering if other Nike+ using Mefites would be willing to become "friends" so that we can support/motivate one another. We would be able to see one another's fitness progress, and it could be a friendly competition/motivator. According to Nike, to be able to add one another, we would have share our Nike+ username, email, or our real names. I'll go first: my Nike+ username is 4ster4. Thanks in advance for your help, inspiration, and motivation!