User Activity Search February 18, 2008 1:50 PM   Subscribe

User activity search is available on profile pages.

In the upper-right corner of profile pages, MeFi members will see a new option to search that user's activity. Throw in a search term, click the button, and you'll find matching posts and comments with that term from that particular user. Happy searching!

As with full site search and favorites search, this doesn't handle exact phrases very well. So if you're searching for an exact sentence rather than keywords, a Google search with the added phrase "posted by [username]" might still be your best bet.
posted by pb (staff) to Feature Requests at 1:50 PM (77 comments total)

Also, I think we should stress that the user search is a handy tool to help you find old stuff, not something to lord your viewpoint over others. Please for the love of god don't quote people's search history to score a political point (gee, User242, I see you've mentioned "gay" 37 times here before, could you lay off the ax grinding already?!).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:54 PM on February 18, 2008


Jessamyn doesn't make that many references to penises, but the she makes it count when she does.


(sorry, just thought I'd get this thread off on the right foot).
posted by tkolar at 2:00 PM on February 18, 2008


Also perfect to search in my own stuff.
Coolness.
Thanks.
posted by bru at 2:01 PM on February 18, 2008


gee, User242, I see you've mentioned "gay" 37 times here before

Coming from a guy who's said "gay" 64 times in comments alone, that's a bit rich.

This is an awesome feature, thanks!
posted by flashboy at 2:01 PM on February 18, 2008


I see an increase in the quality of callouts on the horizon.

Who wants popcorn?
posted by secret about box at 2:02 PM on February 18, 2008


What you got against grinding the gay axe Matt?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:09 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Vegetables: 0
Ice Cream: 3
Cake: 3
Potatoes: 4
Pie: 10
Bacon: 10
Beef: 12
Beer: 13
posted by Wolfdog at 2:12 PM on February 18, 2008


inexplicably, the word "well" makes it shit itself blind:
http://www.metafilter.com/contribute/activity/23721/search?q=well&sort=date
http://www.metafilter.com/contribute/activity/191/search?q=well&sa=search+activity


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Using relative paths (for example, template="index.cfm" or template="../index.cfm") does not require the creation of any special mappings. It is therefore recommended that you use relative paths with CFINCLUDE whenever possible.
The error occurred on line 111.

* Current Page: http://www.metafilter.com/contribute/activity/23721/search?q=well&sort=date
* Referring Page:
* Date and Time: Mon Feb 18 14:19:39 PST 2008
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* Your Location: 207.93.211.50
posted by boo_radley at 2:21 PM on February 18, 2008


Thanks, this is fixed up. "well" is a so-called noise word, so you won't get matches there anyway. The problem was the page couldn't tell you there were no matches. Anyway, working now.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:26 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


I think we should stress that the user search is a handy tool to help you find old stuff, not something to lord your viewpoint over others. Please for the love of god don't quote people's search history to score a political point

Agreed. People in MeTa often lament that we don't have more cool ponies because mods worry about the many ways in which nifty new tools could be abused. We're really hoping that this will have far greater utility than just its potential for use as a great comment-trawling and user harassment tool.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:30 PM on February 18, 2008


pb: I find your exclusion aquifer-ist.
posted by boo_radley at 2:40 PM on February 18, 2008


nah, not aquifer-ist. just homophoneobic.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:45 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Don't stuff beans up your nose

Also, anyone who mentions my thoughts on this a couple of days ago is violating Matt's request.
posted by grouse at 2:47 PM on February 18, 2008


Don't stuff beans up your nose
It's MetaFilter. Someone already had their head jammed in the sack, hoovering vigorously, before one word was spoken on the matter.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:51 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Say, pb... you reckon that the results for excluded words might mention that you searched for a common, non-indexed term, instead of just saying "Sorry, no matches for well by mathowie"?

Also, the search field at the top of the search results page is not targeting _self.

Also, rock!
posted by mumkin at 2:51 PM on February 18, 2008


Number of times I have explained that Astro Zombies don't eat brains, but are solar powered: Four.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:07 PM on February 18, 2008


Monomania exposed: 19 matches for the word vote.
posted by Cranberry at 3:08 PM on February 18, 2008


Well Astro Zombie! 8 matches for the word brains. I am beginning to doubt that solar power thing.
posted by Cranberry at 3:10 PM on February 18, 2008


Surely some statistician will figure out who is the most prolific user of '4-letter words'.
posted by Cranberry at 3:12 PM on February 18, 2008


fyi: there is no this
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:13 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


I am the most apologetic mod.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:24 PM on February 18, 2008


Showing 1 - 20 of 747 matches for rock across comments by jonmc

Seems to work fine.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:30 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


I am pretty surprised that I have only ever used the term "butthole" twice.

Well, three times now.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:32 PM on February 18, 2008


Sorry, no matches for butthole by smackfu.
posted by smackfu at 3:38 PM on February 18, 2008


"Sorry, no matches for absquatulate by absquatulate."

This sounds wrong. It's as if she's not trying.
posted by ardgedee at 3:40 PM on February 18, 2008


I am the most apologetic mod.

Make cortex apologize for that!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:41 PM on February 18, 2008


But seriously, this is cool and helpful, so thanks PB.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:44 PM on February 18, 2008


gee, User242, I see you've mentioned "gay" 37 times here before

Hm. User 242 hasn't said "gay" 37 times. In fact, in 8 years he hasn't said anything at all.
posted by googly at 4:02 PM on February 18, 2008


I am the most apologetic mod.

Tell me about it.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 4:14 PM on February 18, 2008 [2 favorites]


Poor 242. Should we all MeMail him? And that man who just wanted to buy a used car.
posted by Cranberry at 4:28 PM on February 18, 2008


Please for the love of god don't quote people's search history to score a political point

Good luck with that. This is a MeTa troll dream.
posted by bonaldi at 4:45 PM on February 18, 2008


A search for how many times Matt said "shithole" says 2 but shows 1. I demand my second result.
posted by Plutor at 5:14 PM on February 18, 2008


Thanks.

Though I find some things odd. When I search for I or go or other small things, I always get 0 results. That seems suspicious. I talk about myself and where I go all the time.
posted by dobbs at 5:23 PM on February 18, 2008


Damn, it feels good to be a stalker.
posted by roll truck roll at 5:57 PM on February 18, 2008


yeah well... I got three pages of cites for the word "fuck". Perhaps I should go play some records of something....
posted by edgeways at 6:20 PM on February 18, 2008


Dammit, it turns out that I'm the bullshit mod.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:28 PM on February 18, 2008


An Extremely Important Set Of Data
-----------------------------

         fucks shits damns
mathowie  111   165    78
jessamyn  116    98    33
cortex    194   364   193

posted by flatluigi at 6:35 PM on February 18, 2008 [4 favorites]


Where's. The. Fuck. Matt.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:39 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Apparently, I win.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:47 PM on February 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


not only win, but dominate
posted by edgeways at 6:54 PM on February 18, 2008


Jessamyn doesn't make that many references to penises, but the she makes it count when she does.


(sorry, just thought I'd get this thread off on the right foot).


Just don't search for "grosser" and look at the second link, which really should get the metafilterhistory tag, if comments could get tags.

OK, enough fun. Please don't take this wrong, as I really think Jess is one of the very most coolest of all people on MetaFilter and that is a pretty big pool of people, and after this if there was any doubt about her sense of humor it was all lost. It's awesome. And to all you folks who couldn't answer the question, don't feel bad because you lacked the library skills to find those chicken pics.
posted by caddis at 7:12 PM on February 18, 2008


jessamyn wrote...
I am the most apologetic mod.

Yes, but you're also more polite than both of your compatriots combined.
posted by tkolar at 7:13 PM on February 18, 2008


Four hits for "douche" -- one literal, three pejorative. Three hits for "balls".

I think Markovfilter casts me in a more flattering light.
posted by loiseau at 7:16 PM on February 18, 2008


Yes, but you're also more polite than both of your compatriots combined.

File under "things no one is particularly surprised by." I'm just constantly amused that it's very difficult to pinpoint that ridiculous chicken comment. Librarian stealth!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:19 PM on February 18, 2008


Fabulous. Ten seconds to find a comment I'd spent a fruitless hour trying to find a couple of days ago.
posted by jamjam at 7:50 PM on February 18, 2008


Thanks to this nifty new feature, I can now tell which of the Troika loves me the most!

Instances of use of the name 'Effigy2000'

mathowie: 3
jessamyn: 4
cortex: 4

There you have it. Jess and cortex 'love' me equally, but more than Matt. But there can be only one. C'mon guys! Which one of you can love me the most? Feed my narcissism!!!

/starts humming 'Princes of the Universe' by Queen...
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:58 PM on February 18, 2008


Interesting. My numbers for that are 11/4/17. I must not piss off Jessamyn much.

(The inverse numbers are 17/10/7.)
posted by smackfu at 8:18 PM on February 18, 2008


We're really hoping that this will have far greater utility than just its potential for use as a great comment-trawling and user harassment tool.

That's just the sort of dodge I'd expect from someone so obsessed with all things anal.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:09 PM on February 18, 2008


E2K, you forgot E2K. Whether my use of that means I love you most or that, rather, I hold you in too low esteem to actually use your full name? Question for the ages.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:39 PM on February 18, 2008


I feel it's a good thing that the mods have not had a need to utter my name very many times.
posted by secret about box at 9:53 PM on February 18, 2008


Holy mother of cock-shitting Christ on a stick in a motherfucking plastic bucket of fried chicken.

Man, I forgot I posted that. Additionally, shows up in every profanity search I've done on myself. \m/
posted by secret about box at 9:55 PM on February 18, 2008


"Sorry" isn't just a noise word then?
posted by Chuckles at 10:43 PM on February 18, 2008


1) StalkMe
2) This is actually pretty fun.
posted by delmoi at 10:46 PM on February 18, 2008


Sweet, thanks guys.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:32 AM on February 19, 2008


I'm pretty sure it's broken, as "fuck" only returns 83 of my 3000+ comments.

I mean, 83? Bull-fucking-shit! I say the word 'fuck' on Metafilter more than 83 times a *week*.
posted by Ryvar at 3:10 AM on February 19, 2008


(gee, User242, I see you've mentioned "gay" 37 times here before, could you lay off the ax grinding already?!).

Like when mathowie accused me of 'grinding?' And others disagreed with his position/assessment - 1, 2, 3.
posted by ericb at 3:55 AM on February 19, 2008


How much do the mods mention each other? Hmmm....

Matt's activity:
pb: posts 4, comments 39
cortex: posts 7, comments 50
jessamyn: posts 10, comments 182 (5 comments for "jess")

Jessamyn's activity:
Matt: posts 0, comments 143
cortex: posts 1, comments 152
pb: posts 1, comments 35

cortex's activity:
Matt: posts 1, comments 541
jessamyn: posts 1, comments 165 (134 comments for "jess")
pb: posts 1, comments 50

pb's activity:
Matt: posts 0, comments 8
Jessamyn: posts: 1, comments 7 (0 comments for "jess")
cortex: posts 1, comments 6
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:18 AM on February 19, 2008


This is a good thing. Thanks, pb.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:34 AM on February 19, 2008


Also, how much do the mods mention themselves? (n mentions of their own name)

mathowie: 25 Posts, 134 Comments
jessamyn: 7 Posts, 369 Comments
pb: 0 Posts, 4 Comments
cortex: 1 Post, 244 Comments

huh, I had my money on cortex...
posted by jacalata at 4:59 AM on February 19, 2008


jacalata, if you look carefully, lots of those are in HTML links. The podcast HTML has "mathowie" in the URL, mathowie has his names in his Flickr URLs, and jessamyn's website is jessamyn.com. Cortex, however, does mention himself a whole lot. Bob Dole is a fan.
posted by Plutor at 5:32 AM on February 19, 2008


ericb, I have no desire to get into this in detail, but (a) Matt didn't use the world "grinding" or any variant, (b) you do post an awful lot of links into threads (how many in that one alone?), and have a propensity toward poli/gov/bushadmin threads on that front, all of which I have merely mixed feelings about, personally, fwiw, (c) Matt didn't go digging up some gotcha comment citations there but spoke to a general assessment, and (d) you did, right here, just go posting-history sniping just to go So There.

I'm sorry Matt was grumpy with you in that thread eighteen months ago, but I feel like you just managed both make and spectacularly miss the "don't go dumpster diving" point.

posted by cortex (staff) at 6:57 AM on February 19, 2008


Ryvar : I mean, 83? Bull-fucking-shit! I say the word 'fuck' on Metafilter more than 83 times a *week*.

I was thinking something similar when I noticed that it doesn't find examples of 'fucking' when I search for 'fuck' which makes a lot of difference. When I combine the different variants of fuck (134), fucking (143), fucked (27), fucker (24), fucktard (2), and fucks (6), the numbers start looking a little more accurate.
posted by quin at 7:57 AM on February 19, 2008


Hey, I've only mentioned Zac Efron twice! ColdChef, you have to leave me alone now!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:03 AM on February 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


Like when mathowie accused me of 'grinding?' And others disagreed with his position/assessment

A fair point, and worth making.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:13 AM on February 19, 2008


A fair point, and worth making.

No. It was a year and a half ago, back in the days of the IMG tag. Seriously, if people use the user search to just dredge up old hurts and make pointy jabs at people for what happened a long time ago it will Go Away. Please make an effort. If you have issues with user or mod behavior, bring it up in MeTa or over email at the time just like always.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:24 AM on February 19, 2008


Seriously, if people use the user search to just dredge up old hurts [...]

I would like to point out that what ericb just did does not appear to involve using the user search, but was rather just him bringing up the fact that he had been smacked down in that particular thread.

Immature, counter-productive, and sad? Yes. Abuse of the new facility? Not so much.
posted by tkolar at 9:01 AM on February 19, 2008


...but I feel like you just managed both make and spectacularly miss the "don't go dumpster diving" point.

Bingo! ; )
posted by ericb at 9:42 AM on February 19, 2008


Immature, counter-productive, and sad?

Yes.
posted by ericb at 9:50 AM on February 19, 2008


Well, Sasshat managed to rather neatly (some disagreed) make a point to konolia just the other day without this new pony.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 9:51 AM on February 19, 2008


Metafilter: a great comment-trawling and user harassment tool, since 1997!
posted by blue_beetle at 11:43 AM on February 19, 2008


Dear Metafilter, here's a loaded gun. Don't point it at your brother. Promise me you won't shoot the cat with it. Promise me!
posted by blue_beetle at 11:44 AM on February 19, 2008


Just what I needed. A new way to add to time spent on Metafilter. (very fun feature. I seem to spend an inordinate number of posts telling people "good luck" and complaining about my father. Time to go into therapy...)
posted by nax at 11:47 AM on February 19, 2008


Maybe I'm just slow, but I wonder if anybody else needs to reminded how beautifully this new feature augments the existing Word Cloud.
posted by contraption at 10:57 PM on February 21, 2008


amirite?
posted by contraption at 10:59 PM on February 21, 2008


I followed your link, contraption (I'd forgotten about that gadget), and got a red box with the following text: User 'shitcokc' not found; defaulting to cortex which made me laugh a lot.

Don't ban me!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:59 PM on February 21, 2008


Yep. That's what he gets for defaulting to himself the instead of throwing a proper error message. Also please note that SHITCOKC is still available.
posted by contraption at 12:42 AM on February 22, 2008


Way to tap into the emergent potential of the site, contraption. Nice.

Yacht Rock more like hall & boates amirite

I kill me!
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:38 AM on February 22, 2008


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