Have you ever favorited yourself?

March 24, 2012 3:25 PM

Have you ever favorited yourself, i.e. a comment or a post? Why did you do it, and what happened? Something makes me feel it is a no-no, but just curious.
posted by polymodus to Etiquette/Policy at 3:25 PM (135 comments total)

If you favorite yourself too much, hair will grow on the palms of your keyboard.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:26 PM on March 24, 2012 [29 favorites]

I would be too ashamed to look at my reflection in my monitor if I did this.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:27 PM on March 24, 2012

I did it because the favorite button is too easy to tap on my iPhone and iPad. And I'll end up doing it again, probably.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:29 PM on March 24, 2012 [8 favorites]

Imagine the sort of person who goes through favourites lists and takes note of an autofavourite. That's the sort of person you want to piss off.
posted by Sternmeyer at 3:40 PM on March 24, 2012 [13 favorites]

Favorites also work as bookmarks.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:45 PM on March 24, 2012 [6 favorites]

I've given myself best answer in AskMe before, because I figured out the problem myself and wanted to mark it for future generations.

I've never favorited myself though, that's just gross.
posted by bondcliff at 3:49 PM on March 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'm guessing "because I clicked on the wrong thing" would be the top answer.

I'm not a huge fan of the reddit upvote/downvote thing, but the way all posts and comments start upvoted by the user that made them does rather neatly preven self-upvoting being a problem.
posted by Artw at 3:52 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

The best love is self love.
posted by crunchland at 3:56 PM on March 24, 2012

Google HAND OF SANTORUM.
posted by Artw at 3:59 PM on March 24, 2012

I did it because the favorite button is too easy to tap on my iPhone and iPad. And I'll end up doing it again, probably.

Fucking touchscreens. The future wasn't supposed to be like this! I would've been prepared if just once Data had hit the wrong button and fired phasers instead of opened hailing frequencies, but nooooooooooooooo.
posted by adamdschneider at 4:01 PM on March 24, 2012 [23 favorites]

Recently marked my own answer as Best Answer in an AskMe I posted and marked it as favorite, due obnoxious answers.

Before the ability to search your own activity was implemented and Recent Activity, I probably favorited a few of my own, just to find them again easily.

I've never favorited myself though, that's just gross.

Eh, if you're using them as bookmars it makes perfect sense. But language is an interface also, so we're forever stuck with vagueness when it comes to favorites.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:04 PM on March 24, 2012

I've never done it and I think it's bad form when others do it.
posted by panboi at 4:05 PM on March 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

Sometimes I have to because no one else has
posted by found missing at 4:07 PM on March 24, 2012 [11 favorites]

Do you ever google yourself when you're all alone late at night?
posted by IndigoRain at 4:08 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

The favorite is coming from inside the house!
posted by found missing at 4:09 PM on March 24, 2012 [9 favorites]

Why would anyone care what someone else favorites? We always say favorites aren't a contest, right?
posted by John Cohen at 4:10 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Favoriting yourself is natural. It's okay. But for the love of god, do it in private.
posted by cmyk at 4:12 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't do this myself, but favorites are what you make of them, and I certainly wouldn't judge anyone for favoriting their own comment. Honestly, I rarely pay attention to who favorites what unless it's a comment of mine. Then I'll check to see if I want to add someone as a contact.

I say, if you want to favorite yourself, just go for it!
posted by misha at 4:16 PM on March 24, 2012

I'll admit it. I only favourited Blazecock Pileon's comment so you'd all click on it to see it it was a self-favourite...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 4:17 PM on March 24, 2012 [5 favorites]

I like sodium lights' style. But then I am a pretty sharp-dressed dude.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:35 PM on March 24, 2012

"Favorite like like no one's watching, comment like no one's listening, and post like you've never been hurt."
posted by MaryDellamorte at 4:39 PM on March 24, 2012 [21 favorites]

My safe word is "FIAMO".
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:45 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I've done it as a joke.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:49 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, I'm going to go ahead and guess that a lot of the favorites in this thread are people favorititing themselves as a joke.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:51 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm always favoriting Self.
posted by mintcake! at 4:52 PM on March 24, 2012

Favoriting yourself is ok in moderation. You know you are in trouble when you add yourself as a contact and sit there waiting for new activity.
posted by Dr Dracator at 5:03 PM on March 24, 2012 [9 favorites]

I use favorites like bookmarks.
posted by fake at 5:03 PM on March 24, 2012

I favorite my posts, but not comments. I favorite my posts to bookmark them and so I can easily follow them. Because I don't know how else to follow my posts.
posted by Sassyfras at 5:05 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Matt, you should totally make a bookmark that says "I am also a favorite." I'd use that to mark my place in books. Or let a book know that I agreed with it emphatically.
posted by mintcake! at 5:10 PM on March 24, 2012 [12 favorites]

It was a bookmark okay, nothing more. Pervert.
posted by maryr at 5:17 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I favorited myself once, because I wasn't able to resist it.
posted by Dumsnill at 5:19 PM on March 24, 2012

Of course! You don't win at MetaFilter by waiting for someone else to do it for you.
posted by griphus at 5:20 PM on March 24, 2012

No, it's really true for some of us. They are for my later reference and perusal.
posted by kamikazegopher at 5:24 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

The greatest favorite of all is to learn to favorite yourself?

Is it too soon?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:25 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I FELT SO DIRTY!!!!
posted by jonmc at 6:20 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Data had hit the wrong button and fired phasers instead of opened hailing frequencies

I was thinking about all the Data typing/reading really fast scenes the other day..."HE'S ALREADY A COMPUTER...HE SHOULDN'T NEED TO DO THAT...it should happen wirelessly"

Those TNG writers have to have been the dumbest SF writers to ever write SF.
posted by Chekhovian at 6:28 PM on March 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

Self-favorites are like little itty bitty pieces of astroturf.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:29 PM on March 24, 2012

I've favourited my own comments both because I like the comment and because I wanted to be able to find the comment again.

Also one time to annoy someone who was complaining about self favouriting.
posted by Mitheral at 6:30 PM on March 24, 2012

As far as I know I've only done it once, as a bookmark.
posted by OmieWise at 6:35 PM on March 24, 2012

"favorite" is not a verb. This meta is null and void!
posted by HuronBob at 6:42 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I wanted to be able to find the comment again.

Same here. I generally don't sit on a thread all day. I will hang for a bit if I comment, but there are other things to do in the meantime. Then I go back later and see if there are any responses to my comment. If not, I remove it.

Then every couple of months I go through my favorites and clear out all the ones where I did that leaving me with just the threads that I want to have around as reference.

Almost all my favorites are technical threads or comments. I don't care if they were made by me or not. I look at favorites as a functional item, not an ego booster.
posted by lampshade at 6:49 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm my own contact, does that count?
posted by radwolf76 at 6:54 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I really want to get to 1,000 favorites. It occurs to me that favoriting a few of my old comments would be a much more expeditious path to get there than actually thinking of something clever and/or popular to say. I think I shall embark on a self-favoriting binge right now.
posted by Lame_username at 7:02 PM on March 24, 2012

I will hang for a bit if I comment, but there are other things to do in the meantime. Then I go back later and see if there are any responses to my comment. If not, I remove it.

...isn't that what Recent Activity is for?
posted by maryr at 7:08 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

No, but I have flagged myself more than once.
posted by Toekneesan at 7:18 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

there's more than one way to skin a cat.
posted by lampshade at 7:18 PM on March 24, 2012

All the time, because my comments are really great. I also flag them all as fantastic.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:24 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I sometimes favorite my own comments because they are the best.
posted by planet at 7:27 PM on March 24, 2012

Didn't Jessamyn ban herself on accident once? If I remember correctly she had to sit out on the porch until Matt got home. Wasn't that in a podcast?
posted by Toekneesan at 7:30 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Sometimes I do this on shit I know you all are going to love just to get the ball rolling and to make sure no one had to feel like they didn't want to be first. I call it "priming the pump!" (Coincidentally this is also what I call masturbation.)
posted by cjorgensen at 7:30 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Stop flagging yourself! Stop flagging yourself!

Coincidentally this is also what I call masturbation.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:39 PM on March 24, 2012

Those TNG writers have to have been the dumbest SF writers to ever write SF.

No never mind, I just watched a few minutes of Earth Final Conflict, the entirety of which is on youtube it seems. THOSE sf writers have to have been the dumbest SF writers to ever write SF.

So if favoriting yourself is Mefi onanism, what is quoting yourself then?
posted by Chekhovian at 7:39 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: Coincidentally this is also what I call masturbation.
posted by found missing at 7:45 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Earth Final Conflict was great clear up until they killed agent Boone. Then it went downhill, so I switched over to watching Andromeda. Now there was some good SF. Way better than that Firefly crap.

Kevin Sorbo FTW!
posted by cjorgensen at 7:47 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you sit on your hand until it goes numb then click +, the favourite feels like someone else is doing it.
posted by arcticseal at 8:00 PM on March 24, 2012 [10 favorites]

That's what I use my left hand for. Makes me feel like a teenager again. Fumbling around in the dark. Hoping to not get caught. Wondering if I can indeed hit the ceiling (again).
posted by cjorgensen at 8:08 PM on March 24, 2012

So if favoriting yourself is Mefi onanism, what is quoting yourself then?

The part in Silence of the Lambs where Buffalo Bill tucks his wiener and talks to the mirror
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:12 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Why would anyone care what someone else favorites? We always say favorites aren't a contest, right?

THATS LOSER TALK
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:14 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Didn't Jessamyn ban herself on accident once?

Totally happened. Also I use favorites as bookmarks, often for things I'm going to talk about on the podcast.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:20 PM on March 24, 2012 [12 favorites]

I did it by accident a couple of times when flagging my own comments as rank jackassery. I felt soiled and unwell afterwards.
posted by elizardbits at 8:45 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Since I don't get the tryptophan glandular high from a favorite count less than a half dozen, favoriting myself to put me over the edge is a bit like masturbating with my left hand - I still know I did it, I'm dirtier for having done it - and unlike masturbating with my left hand, the entire internet knows I've done it with a simple click.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:52 PM on March 24, 2012

Dang, I favorite virtually all of my posts. My method of reading the front page makes locating them via my favorites link the easiest method. I got a comment about it once in the discussion of one of my posts, and sent the person in question an email saying I was pretty sure it was an accepted practice around here. They responded that it was not, which led me to check the FAQ, where I found that it's explicitly stated that you can mark you own comments as a favorite. I gotta figure that if it's ok for comments it's ok for posts, yes?
posted by Ipsifendus at 9:03 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was thinking about all the Data typing/reading really fast scenes the other day..."HE'S ALREADY A COMPUTER...HE SHOULDN'T NEED TO DO THAT...it should happen wirelessly"

Those TNG writers have to have been the dumbest SF writers to ever write SF.

What about in Star Trek IV when when Mr. Scott goes "Oh a keyboard how quaint" and proceeds to type at unbelievable speed? Why would he be so good at using an archaic technology? Would someone raised on Macbooks be amazing at using a manual typewriter??
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:08 PM on March 24, 2012

Would someone raised on Macbooks be amazing at using a manual typewriter??

I'll chalk that up to "Rule of Cool". Plus STIV is stupid, but hilarious. I wish Kirk and Spock had been stuck in 80's San Francisco and had been forced to become a pair of buddy cops or something. It would be like TJ Hooker Pt II.
posted by Chekhovian at 9:29 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I wish Kirk and Spock had been stuck in 80's San Francisco and had been forced to become a pair of buddy cops or something. It would be like TJ Hooker Pt II.

"Kirk, turn in your badge!"

"Double dumbass on you, Lieutenant!"
posted by adamdschneider at 9:35 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

We've talked about this exact thing previously on MetaTalk.
posted by killdevil at 9:49 PM on March 24, 2012

drjimmy11 writes "What about in Star Trek IV when when Mr. Scott goes 'Oh a keyboard how quaint' and proceeds to type at unbelievable speed? Why would he be so good at using an archaic technology? "

It was Mr. Scott (IE: Canonically one of the greatest engineers ever); input could have been by key punch and he would have been an expert.
posted by Mitheral at 9:53 PM on March 24, 2012 [3 favorites]

Favorites are just "favorites". People use them for all sorts of reasons. The same with contacts. You might "contact" someone for reasons entirely unrelated to the standard contact reasons offered when you add a contact. Other people shouldn't read too much into your favorites and contacts or anything that shows up on your profile page.
posted by pracowity at 10:25 PM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

STIV is stupid

posted by Chekhovian

You're just mad because you couldn't find the nuclear wessels.
posted by maqsarian at 10:49 PM on March 24, 2012 [10 favorites]

I've never favorited my own comment but every so often I go diving in my own comments looking for something and find comments I wish I could move favorites to from other comments that I'm less proud of.

I'm not the only one.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:52 PM on March 24, 2012

I suppose my standards for giving out favorites are pretty low. Partially I do it to acknowledge that I read a response to something I wrote, if the point was moderately interesting/funny. Also as kind of a "golf clap" for things that generally amuse me. Which all gets confused with the "superfavorites" [+] function that seems to be totally broken, and the book marking thing other people do.
posted by Chekhovian at 11:05 PM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

What about in Star Trek IV when when Mr. Scott goes "Oh a keyboard how quaint" and proceeds to type at unbelievable speed? Why would he be so good at using an archaic technology? Would someone raised on Macbooks be amazing at using a manual typewriter??

Disturbing fact: contemporary technology culture is the steampunk of the 24th century.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:38 PM on March 24, 2012 [7 favorites]

Disturbinger fact: comments in contemporary online communities are the archaeology of the 24th century.

I'm a neanderthal man
You're a neanderthal girl
Let's make neanderthal love
In this neanderthal world
posted by pracowity at 11:50 PM on March 24, 2012

Those TNG writers have to have been the dumbest SF writers to ever write SF.

I see you've never seen Voyager.

I envy you.
posted by Rangeboy at 12:20 AM on March 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

I favorite myself a lot because how else am I supposed to win
posted by Joseph Gurl at 1:11 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

What about in Star Trek IV when when Mr. Scott goes "Oh a keyboard how quaint" and proceeds to type at unbelievable speed? Why would he be so good at using an archaic technology? Would someone raised on Macbooks be amazing at using a manual typewriter??

I think they were implying that typing on a manual keyboard involves a trivial subset of mad 24C user skills. Which of course makes as much sense as assuming that because I can use a word processor then I could cut a quill pen and write properly with it as easily as breathing.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:15 AM on March 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

god it was just one time, it had been SO LONG, I just really needed to get myself going again, you know, make sure I could still do it before I got someone else involved, is that really such a big deal?
posted by jacalata at 1:27 AM on March 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hell no. That would be really vain and arrogant.

I really want to get to 1,000 favorites.
posted by Lame_username at 3:02 AM on March 25

Here, have a thousand of mine. I can spare 'em. *Smirk*.
posted by Decani at 2:33 AM on March 25, 2012

It's really pretty hard to write well with a quill pen, George_Spiggott.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 2:43 AM on March 25, 2012

I'm favoriting myself SO HARD right now with my left hand because it's awesome and hurts no one. I LEARNED IT FROM YOU!
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:05 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Because I don't know how else to follow my posts.

If you click on your username and go to your profile, it lists all your posts under contributions. Just click on the number.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:51 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Whose positive opinion would I respect more?

(The preceding was humor and not intended to suggest that I have ever favorited myself - except perhaps once in my earliest days on site before coming to my senses and hastily withdrawing it.)
posted by Trurl at 6:43 AM on March 25, 2012

I didn't even know you could fave yourself... this changes everything!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:51 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've made comments on metafilter for later reference and perusal, maybe even posts, but surely the "search your own comments" box is infinitely more effective than favoriting yourself.

We should imho adopt the convention that everyone self favorites any comments made with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit for driving.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:55 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

No. At least, not on purpose.
posted by zarq at 7:18 AM on March 25, 2012

I favorite myself all the time to run up my score. It's just common sense.
posted by J. Wilson at 7:47 AM on March 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

hay guys is this the thread where it's ok to favorite yourself?
posted by nathancaswell at 8:28 AM on March 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

I haven't ever favorited my own post as far as I can remember, but it might be a good idea for me to do that sometimes, because I've arranged that all the Mefi posts I favorite get automatically pushed to my Pinboard by ifttt.
posted by philipy at 8:50 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I wonder if maybe it's for the same reason a busker or panhandler seeds his hat with a few coins of his own: some people have reservations about being first.
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:59 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

JohnnyGunn: "Favorites also work as bookmarks."

Wouldn't that make them computermarks?
posted by Splunge at 10:10 AM on March 25, 2012

I will now always refer to masturbation as "gaming the system" thank you.
posted by not_on_display at 10:13 AM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Webmarks, maybe? It's not the bookishness of the book that a bookmark bookmarks, it's the place in the flow of consumption. You can bookmark a magazine with a bookmark just as well; you can't bookmark the dustjacket of a book.

So you're holding your place for a bit of reading on a webpage. You're not making a note of the memory address of the displayed page in RAM. Webmark.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:14 AM on March 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

I've made comments on metafilter for later reference and perusal, maybe even posts, but surely the "search your own comments" box is infinitely more effective than favoriting yourself.

Idly postulating that self favoriting has probably gone down since the "search your own comments" feature was added has a similar relationship to the effort involved in learning PERL and beating on the infodump with it, so that's what I'm going to do. Though I really should get off my ass and learn PERL. And R. And....
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:25 AM on March 25, 2012

Once. But everyone was experimenting then!

Anyway, I didn't inhale.
posted by misha at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2012

I can't find the thread, but I am certain I remember a Metatalk posting a few years back that discussed how certain users were responsible for a large percentage of other user's favourites. Infodumpery occurred, and two notable discoveries emerged: ThePinkSuperhero had an admirer/stalker who seemed to be showering her with favourites, and there was one user (whose name I of course can't recall) that had self-favourited nearly every one of their contributions.
posted by PercussivePaul at 10:54 AM on March 25, 2012

The tadmirern question. gman outed TPS's admirer.
posted by zarq at 11:11 AM on March 25, 2012

Wow. What the hell? That should say "thread with the admirer in question."

Yeesh!
posted by zarq at 11:12 AM on March 25, 2012

The tadmirern question.

Not one of Ludlum's better novels IMO.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:17 AM on March 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

Ah-ha! It was an older thread but by searching the name of TPS's admirer I found it - thanks zarq for the link. The top self-favouriters, as of 2008 at least.
posted by PercussivePaul at 11:37 AM on March 25, 2012

Oh, Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey! I had forgotten that poster. Is he or she still with us under another nym?
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:36 PM on March 25, 2012

Can the Hand Of Sanatorum be like the Hand Of Vecna?
posted by The Whelk at 1:40 PM on March 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Is he or she still with us under another nym?

It was a nym for an old school user who still posts under their original username, yeah.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:42 PM on March 25, 2012

Good to know!
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:48 PM on March 25, 2012

I think I once favorited myself intentionally in a thread where it was being done ironically. Right now I'm barely resisting the temptation to sign up a new account named Brother Caine's sock puppet account for favoriting himself and cleaning up the ensuing mess and using that account to favorite this comment.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:46 PM on March 25, 2012

That's smart, there are one or two of my answers to AskMes that I think I can rubberstamp on some questions.

These are the top self-favoriters:
puke & cry 594
loquacious 34

l o l
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 4:03 PM on March 25, 2012

Also, I skipped some middle comments here, but did you know you can like your own stuff on Facebook? I feel that's crossing some sort of Rubicon.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 4:04 PM on March 25, 2012

Can the Hand Of Sanatorum be like the Hand Of Vecna?

A detached rotting relic, hidden away from most mortals, that adventuresome but psychopathically evil young concervative priests would chop off their own hands to attach in an attempt to gain the powers of santorum's google recognition?   I'd lol.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:09 PM on March 25, 2012

I always favorite comments I agree with and think are particularly salient.
posted by George Lucas at 5:10 PM on March 25, 2012 [4 favorites]

George Lucas thrives when you deny him an edit window.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:19 PM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I always do!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:36 PM on March 25, 2012

I always imagined favoriting my own posts/comments would result in the destruction of the universe, but based on this thread I guess not.
posted by spitefulcrow at 6:05 PM on March 25, 2012

favoriting my own posts/comments would result in the destruction of the universe

Well, you know that according to the ancient Egyptian myths, this universe was created from the uhhhh....residue....of the "self-favoriting" of a god....so who knows.
posted by Chekhovian at 6:22 PM on March 25, 2012

These are the top self-favoriters:
puke & cry 594"

:(

Posthumously, does he still hold the title?
posted by zarq at 6:45 PM on March 25, 2012

Blazecock Pileon: "I did it because the favourite button is too easy to tap on my iPhone and iPad. And I'll end up doing it again, probably."

Right-swipe on the comment for favourite.
posted by dg at 6:50 PM on March 25, 2012

I did it because the favorite button is too easy to tap on my iPhone and iPad. And I'll end up doing it again, probably.

I did this once, accidentally thumbed my own comment a favorite, and I became so horrified that I was intensely trying to unfavorite it but couldn't for the rest of the 30 minute trip in the car. When I arrived, the first thing I did was run to my friend's computer, login, and un-favorite the comment.

It was a very traumatic experience.
posted by xmutex at 8:54 PM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

i "ironyfave" myself
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 2:56 AM on March 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

> I always imagined favoriting my own posts/comments would result in the destruction of the universe

I never dreamed it was possible. I expected either that it was anticipated and there was an error trap in the code with a rude message about illegal operations, or else that it was not anticipated ("Oh come on, who would ever do that?") and would precipitate an infinite loop of dividing by zero and unwind the whole www right back to Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990. And dragging in CERN by entanglement is pretty scary, so I've been careful to stay away from that little [+]. There are more than enough improbable dooms bearing down on us already.
posted by jfuller at 7:21 AM on March 26, 2012

And dragging in CERN by entanglement is pretty scary, so I've been careful to stay away from that little [+]

Now, at last, someone has seen to the core of it. The reason it's shaped like this, [+], is that it's a calibration guide for the LHC. Click the widget and risk bringing the full power of that high-velocity matter beam on yourself.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:24 AM on March 26, 2012

My safe word is "FIAMO".

"favorite it and move on"?
posted by chavenet at 7:34 AM on March 26, 2012

Right-swipe on the comment for favourite

That feature only works in Britain and some parts of Canada.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:31 AM on March 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do you ever google yourself when you're all alone late at night?

You wait till night? It used to be a regular part of my online activity back before Google fnucked up their search engine to be popular - a lot of information was revealed back then.
posted by infini at 11:57 AM on March 26, 2012

If I go to sleep before my wife does, she'll come into the bedroom and have a conversation with me - sometimes coherent, sometimes not - that I invariably remember nothing of when she tells me about it the next morning. One night, I apparently was angrily accusing her of favoriting her own comments.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:42 PM on March 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

I often do the touch screen favorite mistake that Blazecock Pileon mentioned (it's not just an Apple thing!) and I'm glad to learn that I'm not alone in the craziness of "Must unfavorite before anyone notices" even though, now that I think about it:

a) I never notice others doing it so why I am so narcissistic to think others would notice/care about me doing it
b) if I'm going to take the time to be embarrassed, there's probably tons of things I do on Metafilter on purpose that I should be more embarrassed by
c) Sternmeyer's comment: That's the sort of person you want to piss off. really put it in perspective. So now, if you ever notice me self-favoriting, know that I am taking a stand. (But honestly, like lots of things favorites-related, I probably didn't notice I was doing it.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:43 PM on March 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

These are the top self-favoriters:
puke & cry 594"

:(

Posthumously, does he still hold the title?
posted by zarq

I have heard it said that some suicides look at themselves from the outside as if they were a separate person, and expect to go on somehow after the act-- which might help to explain why he was more than ten times as prolific as anyone else.

So yes, I'd like to give him that.
posted by jamjam at 4:41 PM on March 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

jamjam: " So yes, I'd like to give him that."

Well said. Me too.
posted by zarq at 5:11 PM on March 26, 2012

If I go to sleep before my wife does, she'll come into the bedroom and have a conversation with me - sometimes coherent, sometimes not - that I invariably remember nothing of when she tells me about it the next morning. One night, I apparently was angrily accusing her of favoriting her own comments.

Yeah, but thanks for not making me wear a big scarlet plus sign on my chest, sweetie.
posted by firemonkey at 9:15 PM on March 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Blazecock Pileon: "Right-swipe on the comment for favourite
That feature only works in Britain and some parts of Canada."

... in addition to other civilised nations.
posted by dg at 9:35 PM on March 26, 2012

One night, I apparently was angrily accusing her of favoriting her own comments. -- Oy. If I'd talked about Metafilter in my sleep, I don't think I'd ever hear the end of it.
posted by crunchland at 12:37 PM on March 27, 2012

Chekhovian: I was thinking about all the Data typing/reading really fast scenes the other day..."HE'S ALREADY A COMPUTER...HE SHOULDN'T NEED TO DO THAT...it should happen wirelessly"

*handwaves*

With a keyboard, information only flows from Data to the keyboard. With a wireless connection, information can also flow to Data, which has possible security implications, involving whether Data could be hacked into. Consider it an air gap for security.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:08 PM on March 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is also why he uses those boring button-ridden interfaces instead of something fancier and more dynamic. You've got to constrain the flexibility of the visual output or you could hack his optical matrix with a mind virus.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:47 PM on March 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

As they failed to do to the Borg, because of some bullshit.
posted by Artw at 3:50 PM on March 27, 2012

With a keyboard, information only flows from Data to the keyboard.

All I'm saying is that a lot TNG eps would have played out differently if Data had had a Robocop-esque wrist data spike. Oh the bad guys have them captured again...then Data could just shiv them as needed.
posted by Chekhovian at 4:16 AM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Data should have inbuilt wireless networking.

But that would be kinda boring to watch.
posted by philipy at 9:50 AM on March 29, 2012

Unless they represent Data's brain as a miniture Gibson and transfers all swoopy between the towers; that would be _cool_.
posted by Mitheral at 12:55 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

All I'm saying is that a lot TNG eps would have played out differently if Data had had a Robocop-esque wrist data spike. Oh the bad guys have them captured again...then Data could just shiv them as needed.

The Most Toys would be blissfully short.

"Sit in the chair" *shiv* "arrgh! My neck!" *spurt!* *die*

Sorted.
posted by Artw at 11:12 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]