200,00 AskMe Questions

November 3, 2011 11:16 AM

AskMe post 200,000 happened today. It's just 20k shy of double the number of posts on Metafilter.
posted by Brent Parker to MetaFilter-Related at 11:16 AM (46 comments total)

That's amazing!
posted by OmieWise at 11:17 AM on November 3, 2011

I was #199,998. Considering I hit 20K favorites yesterday I really, really should have waited. I'm pretty sure you get an original photo of Nixon shaking hands with Elvis signed by the mods -- junior, senior and the retired OGs no one talks about anymore -- for that kind of combo.
posted by griphus at 11:19 AM on November 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Let us give thanks to the mods for facilitating this wonderful community
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:22 AM on November 3, 2011 [12 favorites]

Yeah, and like 12,000+ of those have been asked by the same weirdo.
posted by gman at 11:23 AM on November 3, 2011 [6 favorites]

Hey cool -- I think we hit 4 million comments over the weekend too, maybe Josh can track down which one the 4 millionth was, if he hasn't already.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:25 AM on November 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

It was probably about China or India.
posted by griphus at 11:27 AM on November 3, 2011

Four MIIIIILLLLION comments!
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:28 AM on November 3, 2011 [6 favorites]

If you read through all of the questions (and no answers) non-stop, assuming about 10 seconds per question (which might be generous, considering some of the longer ones), it would take 2,000,000 seconds, which is equivalent to 23.148 days.
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:28 AM on November 3, 2011

MetaFilter: an aggressively unreadable tangle that borders on arcane script
posted by brundlefly at 11:30 AM on November 3, 2011 [10 favorites]

If you had told me in the beginning that the four millionth comment would be about drawing sounds, I'd be all "pshh the future sounds ridiculous."
posted by pwally at 11:33 AM on November 3, 2011

If you'd told me before it happened that Antonio Banderas would star as an Arabic crossover narrator character in a full-length action film based on Beowulf, I wouldn't have believed it either. So there's a nice symmetry there.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:39 AM on November 3, 2011 [8 favorites]

Life's Metafilter's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
posted by lalochezia at 11:41 AM on November 3, 2011

It's a bit much, don't you think? ;)

How many of those were Anon AskMes?
posted by Eideteker at 11:42 AM on November 3, 2011

Here's to another 200,000 times of telling people to DTMFA and not to eat that!
posted by orange swan at 11:44 AM on November 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I guess I'm dense but by the title of that AskMe post I assume thirteenkiller was aware of the historic impact of his post, but the four millionth MeFi post sat without comment for six days?

Weird.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:49 AM on November 3, 2011

I'm glad you linked to that question because I've actually been wondering about a (small) town-wide email list myself. In fact, I've been interested in a lot of the AskMes that've been posted to MeTa. Maybe we should just post them all here.
posted by DU at 11:50 AM on November 3, 2011

How do we celebrate this? Do we ask a lot of questions or answer them?
Wait I know....

*Puts on Green robe*


NOW BEGINS THE READING OF THE WIKI LIST OF COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
posted by The Whelk at 11:53 AM on November 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

I assume thirteenkiller was aware of the historic impact of his post

You can tell when a numbered post is coming up but you can't tell the same for a comment and fewer people really grok URLs. Also, thirteenkiller is a lady.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:54 AM on November 3, 2011

Weird.

Well, 4M didn't go entirely without comment until now, I know we talked about it at least once in some thread the other day. But thread ids are a lot more casually visible since they're right there early in the url of the thread; for comment ids you have to mouseover or look at an anchor tag to notice.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:54 AM on November 3, 2011

Is that with or without deletions?
posted by The Deej at 11:55 AM on November 3, 2011

These numbers count both deleted posts/comments and the odd small or large gap in the database induced by bug testing and such. So, for the hypervigilant, we haven't had 200K Askme posts but some number about 4000 less than that, since Askme launched originally as a subset of the Metatalk posts table in the db back around Metatalk post 3,500 or so and wasn't moved over to its own table until a few thousand posts later.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:00 PM on November 3, 2011

I really, really should have waited. I'm pretty sure you get an original photo of Nixon shaking hands with Elvis signed by the mods

You were pretty close - you get a velvet painting of Mojo Nixon shaking hands with Tortelvis. Congratulations!
posted by mintcake! at 12:03 PM on November 3, 2011

cortex: "odd small or large gap in the database induced by bug testing and such"

"And such" includes the fact that for several years, anonymous posts got a post id at submission time. If they were rejected, that post id would simply appear to go un-used. I know that pb changed that behavior at some point (they now get ids at approval time).
posted by Plutor at 12:14 PM on November 3, 2011

If we can all come up with 3842 pony requests, we can get MetaTalk to hit the magic number of 25,000.
posted by crapmatic at 12:18 PM on November 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Billions and billions hamburgered.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:23 PM on November 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

You were pretty close - you get a velvet painting of Mojo Nixon shaking hands with Tortelvis.

Well, this store could use some fixin'...
posted by mykescipark at 12:34 PM on November 3, 2011

Hey, my aunt made at least one Tortelvis costume! (IIRC; just something I overheard at a family get-together years ago. Ed Zepplin is my cousin, pretty sure those guys came to a family picnic when I was in high school.)
posted by epersonae at 12:45 PM on November 3, 2011

NOW BEGINS THE READING OF THE WIKI LIST OF COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

I WAS UNDER THE MISCONCEPTION THAT THERE WAS NO WIKI LIST OF MISCONCEPTIONS

I am happy to be wrong. So soo happy.
posted by sweetkid at 12:46 PM on November 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I donno, surely the deleted comment shouldn't count? ;)
posted by jeffburdges at 1:01 PM on November 3, 2011

Considering Metafilter's deep and everlasting lust for quasi-significant numbers, I have to say that I'm totally shocked that no one made a post about yesterday's rare palindromic date. 11022011 --- only gonna occur 11 more times this century.
posted by crunchland at 1:12 PM on November 3, 2011

For a large portion of the world it was the less remarkable 02112011.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:15 PM on November 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah, but they don't count.
posted by crunchland at 1:18 PM on November 3, 2011

Your user number, in ternary, is 11002012, which could, with a liberal interpretation, be interpreted as Halloween of next year. So there's that to look forward to.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:23 PM on November 3, 2011

Dammit, we've been over this. 20011102.
posted by Eideteker at 1:24 PM on November 3, 2011

It's a miracle it wasn't a traffic ticket question. You people need to slow down out there.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 1:59 PM on November 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

DTMFA and not to eat that!

DETMFA
posted by Zed at 2:51 PM on November 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looks like my prediction back in April 2010 was pretty close for when the AskMe odometer would tick over 200,000... but way, way off for when the MeFi comment counter would tick over 4 million.
posted by FishBike at 5:55 PM on November 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Think of all the unsafe eating we have averted.
posted by Trurl at 6:01 PM on November 3, 2011

The day before was 1/11/11. That was fun too.
posted by lollusc at 6:41 PM on November 3, 2011

I'm sorry. 11/1/11.

Weirdos.
posted by lollusc at 6:41 PM on November 3, 2011

Four MIIIIILLLLION comments!

METAFILTER: an aggressively unreadable tangle that borders on arcane script
posted by philip-random at 7:45 PM on November 3, 2011

Happy 200,00th birthday, Ask.

What? No, no you shouldn't eat the leftover cake with buttercream frosting.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:06 PM on November 3, 2011

Metafilter: You can draw sounds?
posted by The Whelk at 11:31 PM on November 3, 2011

I feel like the AskMe logo should have a little party hat on today.
posted by arcticseal at 12:18 AM on November 4, 2011

Four MIIIIILLLLION comments!

My god! It's full of beans!
posted by rodgerd at 3:32 AM on November 4, 2011

Ed Zepplin is my cousin, pretty sure those guys came to a family picnic when I was in high school.

That's fantastic. I have listened to Un-Led-Ed more than the entire actual Led Zeppelin catalog.
posted by mintcake! at 7:44 AM on November 4, 2011