Matt Haughey talks about why Facebook is like AOL in the '90s, and the best and worst developments in online communities

December 12, 2012 8:11 AM

The Verge: MetaFilter founder: Reddit's 'creepy stuff' shows how hard it is to run an open community

Interesting article about Matt, Mefi, and the interwebs.

posted by blue_beetle to MetaFilter-Related at 8:11 AM (230 comments total)

That is the best picture.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:18 AM on December 12, 2012 [13 favorites]

I’m working on some refinements to MetaFilter and a couple of new subsites for it as well. Should be live in a couple months.

Whoa. That's quite a teaser.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:21 AM on December 12, 2012 [23 favorites]

Thanks, I took that picture!
posted by pb (staff) at 8:21 AM on December 12, 2012 [26 favorites]

Neat!

I’m working on some refinements to MetaFilter and a couple of new subsites for it as well. Should be live in a couple months

Huh? Did I miss something?
posted by brundlefly at 8:22 AM on December 12, 2012

Neat, thanks for posting.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:22 AM on December 12, 2012

a couple of new subsites for it as well

donkeysauce.metafilter.com
posted by shakespeherian at 8:23 AM on December 12, 2012 [34 favorites]

Just some ideas in the pipe. We're more in the "talking about how that would work / what it'd involve" stage than anything on 'em.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:25 AM on December 12, 2012

I’ve tried and aborted a couple redesigns and kept the site consistent to the point where too many people it looks ugly and dated at this point. You can invoke the “plain theme” as a member and we’re toying with the idea of making that the default in the future if enough people keep emailing us saying the current design is too hard to read.

How hard was it not to say "professional white background" during this part?
posted by charred husk at 8:26 AM on December 12, 2012 [30 favorites]

It was sort of inevitable that we'd get a spin-off animated series set in high school.
posted by The Whelk at 8:26 AM on December 12, 2012 [18 favorites]

What would it involve?
posted by OmieWise at 8:26 AM on December 12, 2012

Dating site. Book it.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:27 AM on December 12, 2012 [5 favorites]

a couple of new subsites for it as well

The new food/recipe site, flavortown.metafilter.com.
posted by inigo2 at 8:28 AM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Rumor: We're buying Google.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:28 AM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

Writing critique and collaboration site!
posted by The Whelk at 8:29 AM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

It'll be a whole subsite dedicated to Star Trek-centric parody webcomics.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:29 AM on December 12, 2012 [22 favorites]

The new "site" is actually a restaurant: Matt Haughey's American Kitchen.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:30 AM on December 12, 2012 [10 favorites]

Writing critique and collaboration site!

This is basically all I do all day anyway.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:31 AM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

creepystuff.metafilter.com
posted by DU at 8:32 AM on December 12, 2012 [8 favorites]

inigo2:
"The new food/recipe site, flavortown.metafilter.com."

I can see the first MetaTalk post from this site now: "Is this how you roll in Flavortown, Matt?"
posted by charred husk at 8:34 AM on December 12, 2012

This was the most interesting part, imo:

How has MetaFilter stayed relevant? Would you have done anything differently?

The jury’s still out on the site’s relevance :). I don’t know exactly what keeps the site around or keeps people coming back, but I feel like it was settling on some simple core principles early on to make a site of interesting stuff and have interesting people on it and growing it very slowly paid off in the long run. There’s not a lot I would have done differently, I kind of like how it has played out for the last 13 years.

Just a few guidelines and boundaries, go slowly and everything else falls where it falls. Which is neat, because there's days Metafilter is uninteresting to the individual, but over the long haul they know several interesting things will show up, so they keep coming back.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:35 AM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

Anyone else enamored with The Verge's writing like I am? I've ditched my old Gawker and Weblogs/AOL love, and dumped it all into Verge / Polygon.
posted by deezil at 8:36 AM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

It was sort of inevitable that we'd get a spin-off animated series set in high school.

MeFi Babies. The mods are all toddlers who fight crime in outer space along with a tiny green alien that only Cortex can see.
posted by bondcliff at 8:38 AM on December 12, 2012 [15 favorites]

Matt, if you still have those two stellar.io invites I'd like to try it...
posted by Sangermaine at 8:39 AM on December 12, 2012

flavortown.metafilter.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their hamburgers, or why.
posted by m@f at 8:39 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'd hammer murder someone for a workshop.metafilter.com.

Also 21 Jump Street is an engaging comedy.
posted by The Whelk at 8:40 AM on December 12, 2012

a couple of new subsites for it as well

Yes! We're finally getting gonewild.metafilter.com!
posted by jbickers at 8:41 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Why, hello, Pensive Matt. Could you be the long-awaited replacement for Recumbent Bike Matt? Yes, I believe you could be.
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:43 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

if you still have those two stellar.io invites I'd like to try it...

Sure, MeFi Mail me an email and I'll send the invite.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:50 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

21 Jump Street was fun! And the new subsite is going to be taglines.metafilter.com
posted by Mister_A at 8:54 AM on December 12, 2012

Huh, I don't think I'd seen anyone point out that for the majority of people Facebook is today's AOL. Neat.
posted by nobody at 8:55 AM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: taglines.metafilter.com
posted by shakespeherian at 8:57 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

deezil: The Verge is great, but nothing has yet shifted my love for RockPaperShotgun in the gaming world. (Gawker can go stick their collective heads in a pig as far as I'm concerned.)
posted by pharm at 8:58 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

When was the first time you looked at porn on the internet, and what was it?

Do BBS's count as "the internet"?
posted by Karmakaze at 9:04 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Neat interview.

I had the AOL=Facebook revelation earlier today, reading about the 'ghost' likes. I think it's a really pertinent comparison. Both are ubiquitous, shoddy and enormous. I'll be waiting for the moment Facebook buys Goldman Sachs or McDonalds.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:06 AM on December 12, 2012

One of the refinements will be to add filters (b/w, sepia, and analog film) to the comments, right?
posted by entropicamericana at 9:08 AM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

Speaking of how hard it is to keep people from fucking around in an open community, I am making this comment at 12:12 (EST) on 12/12/12.
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:11 AM on December 12, 2012 [6 favorites]

Whoops. nope; I missed it. Maybe this one.
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:12 AM on December 12, 2012 [8 favorites]

Hey, has anyone actually used the cutlery that Dustin Curtis recommends as best? I hope it's awesome to hold and use, because it looks like a spork you'd get in a food court.
posted by zamboni at 9:14 AM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Huh, I don't think I'd seen anyone point out that for the majority of people Facebook is today's AOL. Neat.

It's been noted on Mefi before at least once!

by my older, dumber self
posted by deo rei at 9:15 AM on December 12, 2012

pb: "Thanks, I took that picture!"

"Paul, I feel like contemplating the fuck out of something. Get the camera."
posted by boo_radley at 9:26 AM on December 12, 2012 [29 favorites]

You can invoke the “plain theme” as a member and we’re toying with the idea of making that the default in the future

Don't you.

Fucking.

DARE.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:26 AM on December 12, 2012 [38 favorites]

Great article. I haven't been following Reddit's creepiness for a while - what happened over the summer?

Karmakaze, I also love RPS, even if their style sometimes goes farther over the top than advisable.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:27 AM on December 12, 2012

what happened over the summer?

They had this whole creepyshots subcommunity that took lurid photos of women in public without their knowledge, then defended to the death their right to do it because it was legally murky. Turned out later on it was run by a guy that was trolling the entire community with crazy stuff who eventually was outed and the whole thing was kind of ugly for reddit.

I mentioned it in passing to the journalist, but was surprised to see it splashed into the title, because it seems like I'm shit-talking another competitor but if you read my whole quote I'm immediately explaining it away as not doing that. Oh well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:31 AM on December 12, 2012 [6 favorites]

Here's the very long thread about it - it was a good discussion, I thought.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 9:32 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I like the metafilter blue design. It's like a rounder, more polished WordPerfect 5.1.

Whatever a design looks like, it will look dated in a few years. But if you have a good design and you keep it, it will cease being dated and just become classic.
posted by jb at 9:33 AM on December 12, 2012 [32 favorites]

Confession: I use the professional white background.
It makes is look less like I'm fucking around at work.
posted by charred husk at 9:33 AM on December 12, 2012 [17 favorites]

Another thumbs up for the picture: "Oooh, I should have the salad, but I really want the fries."
posted by Zack_Replica at 9:47 AM on December 12, 2012

I mentioned it in passing to the journalist, but was surprised to see it splashed into the title, because it seems like I'm shit-talking another competitor but if you read my whole quote I'm immediately explaining it away as not doing that. Oh well.

That's the new journalism for you. Though I'm disappointed to see it on The Verge. I'm not a daily reader, but what I've seen of their writing's better than that, and they should not be wallowing in that kind of HuffPo shit if they want to maintain respectability.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:48 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

It is kind of odd it made the headline when Reddit gets about all of one paragraph.
posted by Artw at 9:54 AM on December 12, 2012

antireddit.metafilter.com

googleminus.metafilter.com

buttslol.metafilter.com

buttsbook.metafilter.com

firstworld.metafilter.com

yellat.metafilter.com

skymall.metafilter.com

allapple.metafilter.com

noapple.metafilter.com

redstate.metafilter.com

fakegeeks.metafilter.com

scot.metafilter.com

scottadams.metafilter.com

just tossing these bad ideas out so Matt can automatically eliminate anything vaguely similar as "well, HE suggested it..."

as I mentioned in the "How has MeFi changed" thread: "MetaFilter is still the Trader Joe's of web communities. It'll never be a top player in the field, but it occasionally influences the rest in subtle but positive ways. Also, as it grows larger, there are more product recalls."

Keep up the wood gork.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:58 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Matt, you should have a blog where you post each of The Best items you research and buy -- spread the word so the rest of us never have to worry either!

I hate shopping for anything besides clothes (well, I love grocery shopping) mainly because of the research part. It takes so much energy to figure out what is The Best - Drew Curtis describes a process that sounds exhausting to me. I find it so difficult to become an expert on knives and televisions and wrench sets. I usually cave and buy something pretty that's well reviewed on Amazon, even though I could probably spend more (and WOULD spend more) on something that's built better.
posted by bluefly at 10:01 AM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

scottadams.metafilter.com

That's weird, all I see is a bricked-up old niche.
posted by griphus at 10:02 AM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

baconisawesomeshutuphaters.metafilter.com
posted by rtha at 10:16 AM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

Whenever I see an interview/video or listen to a podcast involving Matt, I'm always struck by how balanced and well-adjusted he seems....so antithetical to the community he helms.
posted by Phire at 10:16 AM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

Whenever I see an interview/video or listen to a podcast involving Matt, I'm always struck by how balanced and well-adjusted he seems....so antithetical to the community he helms.

We're lovable pricks with hearts of gold.
posted by Talez at 10:26 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

You can invoke the “plain theme” as a member and we’re toying with the idea of making that the default in the future

I've been using the professional white background so long that I'm always a little startled when I a screen or screenshot with the normal full color Metafilter. It is charming but not very readable.
posted by octothorpe at 10:48 AM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Gold.metafilter.com — you get to post pictures and you get a 30-minute edit window.

Platinum.metafilter.com — you have your own personal assistant who lovingly spellchecks and fact-checks your posts and comments, applies tasteful CSS styling to them, and when needed, researches stories that are just like the kinds of stories you'd post and writes them up on your behalf. Also reads metafilter on your behalf so you don't feel like you're falling behind.
posted by adamrice at 10:50 AM on December 12, 2012 [6 favorites]

OCCUPY.Metafilter.com
posted by Mister_A at 11:12 AM on December 12, 2012

Wait I think we're already doing it.
posted by Mister_A at 11:12 AM on December 12, 2012

pewpew.metafilter.com: We have lasers.
posted by Divine_Wino at 11:37 AM on December 12, 2012 [9 favorites]

theresanentirecheeseburgerinmyaorta.metafilter.com

"Paul, I feel like contemplating the fuck out of something. Get the camera."

Let's call it The Chin of Wonder.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:41 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I need a spell-checker, a fact-checker, and a privilege-checker. Which package is that?
posted by darksasami at 11:49 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Three years ago, Kattullus posted a comment in a MetaTalk thread that I bookmarked because I knew I would want to link to it one day.

This is that day.
posted by DWRoelands at 11:53 AM on December 12, 2012 [6 favorites]

Ooh, I don't think I could tolerate BookFilter mainly because I'd lean towards pronouncing the abbreviation BooFi as 'Boofy' and that totally undermines my pronunciation position opposite cortex. This is important.

Boofy sure is fun to say though.
posted by carsonb at 12:00 PM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

boof-eye!
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:08 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

dating.metafilter.com would be amazing. I guess I'll have to settle for porn.metafilter.com as usual, though.
posted by cthuljew at 12:08 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I’m working on some refinements to MetaFilter and a couple of new subsites for it as well. Should be live in a couple months.

Sounds nice and all, but can we also have some grotesqueries and couple of new domsites?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:14 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Let me know when I can take this elf outfit off...

Seriously though as much as I'm sort of "eh" on the way they dolled up that headline I'm glad to see someone who can talk about that whole episode as just sort of weird and creepy. It was a big deal at the time, very little changed, that shit is still going on. I don't go there much so it doesn't affect me a lot on a day to day basis, but the short memory of the internet is sometimes a problem and I like having mathowie/MeFi/this place to be a place where we can remember together...
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:15 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Let me know when I can take this elf outfit off...

I'm not even going there.
posted by Slap*Happy at 12:22 PM on December 12, 2012

Yeah - you have no idea how many comments I just deleted. It's kind of epic, in its own way.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:24 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, I'm going there!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:25 PM on December 12, 2012

Am I the only person who finds the standard background MORE readable?
posted by Chrysostom at 12:30 PM on December 12, 2012 [21 favorites]

BookFilter would definitely be pronounced boeuf-y, as in the french word for cow.

...I'm ok with that.
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:38 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Am I the only person who finds the standard background MORE readable?

Nope. I am continually baffled by Jessamyn's preference for the white background. But pleased, because it means that someone is automatically checking that stylesheet when we change stuff.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 12:41 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Confession: I use the professional white background.
It makes is look less like I'm fucking around at work.

I tried it for the same reasons, but it still hurts my eyes and isn't convincing enough.

What I really need is a stylesheet that makes MeFi look like a software specs document. Complete with like annoying outline numbering and code samples and charts and shit. Yeah, that would be cool.

Actually what I really need is to get back to work
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:44 PM on December 12, 2012 [8 favorites]

You can invoke the “plain theme” as a member and we’re toying with the idea of making that the default in the future if enough people keep emailing us saying the current design is too hard to read.

I am baffled by this, but then I am a person who prefers a dark background with bits of white on it to HEY GUYS LET'S STARE AT A WHITE LIGHT FOR HOURS ON END. Maybe it's just the living nocturnally for work and a natural preference for lower light levels, but the more sites I can get that aren't like staring at a lightbulb, the better.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:45 PM on December 12, 2012 [8 favorites]

Also, if you want to surf subtly, Ghostzilla is what you're looking for, and there's a link to a live download from the Wikipedia page. It basically inserts Firefox into another program's window and has configurable options for showing pictures or not, etc.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:47 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

I, also, would like to invoke the fiction that I am working. Perhaps if I put my pants back on or put away the half empty bottle of Glenmorangie on my desk...
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:51 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was surprised to see that Matt shared my feelings on the whole Lance Armstrong thing.

The Reddit mention was well put, I think, and it's important to have some strong voices say that kind of out loud.

So intrigued to see what the result will be of the pondering on the possible subsites.
posted by batmonkey at 12:52 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm still holding out for cats.metafilter.com
posted by Ad hominem at 1:11 PM on December 12, 2012

HEY GUYS LET'S STARE AT A WHITE LIGHT FOR HOURS ON END.

Your monitor brightness is set too high. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/09/computer-display-calibration-101.html

That said I too make my terminals green-on-black based on the assumption that it makes crisper letters if you're on a CRT. And it's retro.
posted by GuyZero at 1:25 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

That said I too make my terminals green-on-black based on the assumption that it makes crisper letters if you're on a CRT. And it's retro.

Check this out: http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/.
posted by advil at 1:32 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Cathode: "Turn up the static, jitter, and flicker to add an analog warmth."

There's retro and then there's self-abuse.
posted by GuyZero at 1:38 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

The refinements: pb will take a picture of each MeFite making a face like mathowie's and post them all as fpps.
posted by Cranberry at 1:39 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you do that too much, you may actually go blind.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:40 PM on December 12, 2012

"Am I the only person who finds the standard background MORE readable?
posted by Chrysostom at 12:30 PM"
No, we who appreciate the eye-rest of the colored backgrounds are the silent majority.
posted by Cranberry at 1:42 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

but what color would BookFilter be..
posted by royalsong at 1:46 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, as long as changing colors around here is under consideration...

I'd like to see Metafilter really get ahead of the curve and offer a suite of colors for evening viewing which minimized exposure to certain wavelengths of blue light when used with the most common screen types:

“We’ve done a number of studies to show that light levels that you would be normally exposed to in the home in the evening, for example from a bedside lamp, are very easily capable of shifting the body clock,” Dr. Lockley said.

Lockley said blue wavelengths, in particular, the kind emitted by energy efficient light bulbs and various electronics, can be the most disruptive.

“And yet now-a-days it seems that blue is the color du jour,” said Dr. Nathaniel Watson of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

In addition, studies have linked blue light to depression, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular problems.

The clock-resetting is done by recently discovered blue-light photosensitive cells in the ganglion layer of the retina:

Most work suggests that the peak spectral sensitivity of the receptor is between 460 and 484 nm. Lockley et al. in 2003 showed that 460 nm (violet) wavelengths of light suppress melatonin twice as much as 555 nm (green) light, the peak sensitivity of the photopic visual system. In work by Zaidi, Lockley and co-authors using a rodless, coneless human, it was found that what consciously led to light perception was a very intense 481 nm stimulus; this means that the receptor in visual terms enables some rudimentary vision maximally for blue light.[4]

I think it's entirely possible that subsequent insomnia has conditioned some people against reading or posting to MetaFilter at night.

And there might be an extra bonus to something like this. I don't know how robust that flurry of studies turned out to be that claimed pupil size was a significant factor in determining how favorably a person regarded whatever they happened to be seeing, and the bigger the better, but if that's the case, and since the ganglion layer photoreceptors appear to control pupil size, removing blue frequencies could make people like what they're reading more, and be less inclined to snark.

For LCD screens, it could be as simple as choosing numbered colors for text and background that don't transmit (and ideally would absorb) light in or near the critical 460-484 nm range, which is actually a pretty small segment of the visible spectrum.
posted by jamjam at 1:46 PM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

Here's a thing that I think you might like, except I'm not really sure: f.lux.
posted by box at 1:56 PM on December 12, 2012 [9 favorites]

(biblio.metafilter, so the abbreviation can be "BiblioFi".)
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:59 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

A subsite about biographies. Call it BiograFilter, or BiograFi!
posted by Rock Steady at 2:05 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

My issue with f.lux is that it insists on smoothly changing the color temperature, but this operation is super-slow on my ancient XP machine. When I start my computer at night, I want it to just get the color transition over with (just do it in the space of a video refresh, if possible) instead of taking 10 seconds or whatever the quickest possible transition speed is.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:09 PM on December 12, 2012

Matt, I'm no marketing expert, but based on what I've seen at the mall and Barnes and Noble, the kids can't get enough of those Angry Birds.

I think you should make a subsite only for discussion of Angry Birds, and links to Angry Birds licensed products.

Also, I suggest creating a "memory bank" website where people can put down their memories and other people can comment on them and thus have those memories accumulate interest. Eventually, your minor story about running into the governor at Taco Bell turns into a story of national intrigue involving the demonic layout of Washington, DC showing that the Freemasonry was a ruse; the founders were actually satanic occultists.
posted by mccarty.tim at 2:12 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, f.lux is cool. The only thing was that I'd always get mad at it for distorting my colors at some point, such as if I were to get some work done on a project that involved webdesign and then unintentionally realize I biased my color palette. And most of my late night browsing happens on android, anyway, which it seems there's not that much support for based on a quick google.
posted by mccarty.tim at 2:15 PM on December 12, 2012

Cathode: "Turn up the static, jitter, and flicker to add an analog warmth."

Kill the headlights and put it in neutral,
Stock car flamin' with a loser and the cruise control
posted by Chrysostom at 2:18 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Matt, if you still have those two stellar.io invites I'd like to try it...

Just an fyi for anyone else who might be interested: I went to their site this afternoon and requested an invite. One arrived less than 2 hours later.

It's a neat idea. Thanks for mentioning it, Matt.
posted by zarq at 2:22 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

What I really need is a stylesheet that makes MeFi look like a software specs document. Complete with like annoying outline numbering and code samples and charts and shit. Yeah, that would be cool.

What I need is one that looks like a Word doc grotesquely embellished with "Track Changes" indicators.
posted by Lexica at 2:25 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

So what are the opt-in numbers on the professional white background?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:30 PM on December 12, 2012

Of people who visited in the last 30 days, 14% currently have the plain theme set.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:44 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

That's quite a recommendation for Indie Game: The Movie. It's a fantastic documentary and deserves every accolade.
posted by oulipian at 2:46 PM on December 12, 2012

<- love PWB
posted by leotrotsky at 2:47 PM on December 12, 2012

You can invoke the “plain theme” as a member and we’re toying with the idea of making that the default in the future if enough people keep emailing us saying the current design is too hard to read.

No no no. This toy deserves to be broken and then exiled to an island that Rudolph will never rescue it from. If you make it the default, it will destroy the site!

(I think the edit window has dibs on destroying the site first, so it'd only destroy the site after it's already been destroyed and then rebuilt.)
posted by Drastic at 2:48 PM on December 12, 2012

If you make it the default, it will destroy the site!

posted by Drastic

Hm.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:49 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

f.lux helped me sleep at night because it made it impossible to play Fallout or Mass Effect.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:54 PM on December 12, 2012

14% is shockingly low to me... though I guess I always forget about non-members.

Which suddenly feels like that makes me a dick, but I don't know why.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:56 PM on December 12, 2012

f.lux reminds me every day to go outside and see the sun before it goes away. Otherwise I would totally forget, and that does not help my sanity or my temper.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 2:57 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Doleful Creature: "What I really need is a stylesheet that makes MeFi look like a software specs document."

What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:04 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

...though I guess I always forget about non-members.

Oh, I should clarify: 14% of members who visited in the last 30 days currently have the plain theme set.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:07 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

it occasionally influences the rest in subtle but positive ways

I'd love to be able to earn this on my headstone one day... too bad I was born Hindu and it won't fit on an urn.

Jokes apart, nthing bookfi or whatever, NO colour change default thanks... as someone said above, its not design change or obsoletion or whatever, its what metafilter is. just like how i have brown eyes and black hair.

So much keeps changing online that we forget how important having a familiar place where everybody knows your name...oh.
posted by infini at 3:08 PM on December 12, 2012

This place is just as creepy as reddit. I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him.

If you're going to allow the creepy shit, then you can at least allow the non-creepy serious shit. Reddit is where I go to relax now. And that's a pathetic state of affairs.

And yeah, it did look like mathowie was trashtalking a competitor. I'm glad that was just a bad quote.

Reddit has its own frustrations but it still makes me laugh.
posted by thelastcamel at 3:17 PM on December 12, 2012

Is it just me, or does mathowie look precisely the same as he did 10 years ago, except for a single stray gray hair? Nice.

Clean livin', I guess.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:23 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

This place is just as creepy as reddit. I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him.

Seems like a pretty clear distinction between that and the kind of thing Reddit endorses (Underage creepshots, general acceptance of misogyny as the norm in all comments threads, bullying of anyone who dies not follow the line on that, etc. )
posted by Artw at 3:26 PM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

(biblio.metafilter, so the abbreviation can be "BiblioFi".)

scifi.metafilter = SciFiMeFi
fantasy.metafilter = BilboFi
posted by arcticseal at 3:29 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, I should clarify: 14% of members who visited in the last 30 days currently have the plain theme set.

I'm one of them. The default theme makes my eyes ache. The Green and Blue stylesheets are too low contrast to work well with my peculiar combination of colorblindness. Most people seem to like it though, so more power to 'em.
posted by zarq at 3:34 PM on December 12, 2012

The Verge is great, but nothing has yet shifted my love for RockPaperShotgun in the gaming world.

The Verge itself doesn't actually cover gaming any more -- they've spun their games coverage off into a new site, polygon.

Also, I had no idea mathowie had any interest in games at all. Come join us at MefightClub, man! It's not like you have a day job or anything... [joke, very small joke]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:36 PM on December 12, 2012

That's quite a recommendation for Indie Game: The Movie.
Went to download it from a popular site, saw a comment and link from the author:

Hi Guys,

I posted over on the other IGTM torrents and thought I'd pop in here as well...

My name is James Swirsky - I’m one of the two people who made Indie Game: The Movie. Myself and Lisanne Pajot spent our last two years working on this film. We kept a pretty active blog about the production of the film on our site (www.indiegamethemovie.com).

We are a two person team, making this film completely independently. And we want to keep on making films, just like this one, for people to enjoy.

If you like the movie, consider purchasing it over on iTunes, Steam or completely DRM-Free (in a variety of encodes) directly from us over at Indie Game: The Movie. You can also get a copy to gift to a friend if you’d like to.

Thanks for taking an interest in our film.

-James Swirsky
Co-director/Maker of Indie Game: The Movie

Bought it.
posted by unliteral at 3:37 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

is there a css hack to make metafilter look like a JVM Tomcat server code 500 stack trace?
posted by idiopath at 3:38 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him.

I thought you were kidding.
posted by zarq at 3:44 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Of people who visited in the last 30 days, 14% currently have the plain theme set.

Thanks, pb.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:44 PM on December 12, 2012

Exception: metatalk.metafilter.com$Matt-Haughey-talks-about-why-Facebook-is-like-AOL-in-the-90s-and-the-best-and-worst-developments-in-online-communities
Comment Thread Unread, compiling:(NO_SOURCE_PATH:0)
                Thread:2259
                Comment-ID:1041452
                Favorites.count:7
                Comments.count:118
                Comments.first.content: id:1041256 content:"That is the best picture." UID:37801 CNAME:"shakespeherian"
....

Something like that I guess
posted by idiopath at 3:46 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

thelastcamel: "This place is just as creepy as reddit. I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him."

As long as the women and the ping pong balls were consenting, I think we still have one up on reddit.
posted by brundlefly at 3:57 PM on December 12, 2012 [17 favorites]

I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him.

Pretty weird read on the situation given the ensuing discussion in metatalk that zarq just linked to, and the fact that jessamyn also deleted the question.
posted by advil at 4:08 PM on December 12, 2012

advil: " lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him.

Pretty weird read on the situation given the ensuing discussion in metatalk that zarq just linked to, and the fact that jessamyn also deleted the que"

Also, that question was from six years ago. The fact that that evidence was provided to show that Metafilter isn't just a little creepy, but just as creepy as Reddit is baffling.
posted by Green With You at 4:16 PM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

I was gonna say.
posted by infini at 4:16 PM on December 12, 2012

Lots of people find Reddit more relaxing than MeFi. That's not really evidence of quality one way or the other, in my mind. Lots of people watch Jersey Shore to relax, too. For my money, I'd rather a site that occasionally screws up and learns from it than a site that revels in nonconsensual objectification of (sometimes underage) women.
posted by Phire at 4:23 PM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

Those all seem like distinguishing factors also.
posted by Artw at 4:23 PM on December 12, 2012

Also, that question was from six years ago. The fact that that evidence was provided to show that Metafilter isn't just a little creepy, but just as creepy as Reddit is baffling.

Hey, sometimes we strain at gnats. It's cool bro, don't sweat it. *pops open a Natty Lite, surfs on over to Reddit*

ah, that's better
posted by Doleful Creature at 4:26 PM on December 12, 2012

This was a comment from someone who claims to prefer Reddit. So clearly the relative creepiness index is irrelevant, minus any attempt to argue that MetaFilter is more creepy than Reddit.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:27 PM on December 12, 2012

Metafilter is beautiful just the way it is! Truly. One of the reasons I lurked for so long before finally becoming a member (instead of lurking for a while and leaving) was because the site was and is so easy to read. You do ads, but they're discrete and don't steal attention away from the text. The colours are soothing and distinctive. Nothing flashes or vibrates. And there's no overlays or whatever they're called that take up space at the top and bottom of the screen. Mefi just works.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:27 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

That meta thread zarq linked to reminded me that there used to be an aesthetic adhered to by some members of Metafilter that required you to show that not only were you unfazed by anything someone else said, no matter how awful and grotesque, but that you could reply with something worse.

Not good times, not good times....
posted by jamjam at 4:30 PM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

oh goodness fuck while I have given up hope of ever waking up to a BookFilter announcement in MetaTalk just the idea of it gives my brain a heart-on
posted by Kattullus at 4:30 PM on December 12, 2012 [5 favorites]

Wording means a lot, I guess. The ping pong ball question seems one that is potentially legit, but as asked kind of gross.
posted by Artw at 4:37 PM on December 12, 2012

I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him.

Your interpretation of that set of MeFi events and mine are radically different. The big difference here is that we can openly discuss what the rules are here and why we have them. I'll be happy to explain why I thought that question deserved someone trying to give it a good faith answer, but I don't really think that's what you're after.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:40 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I honestly think the idea that Metafilter is as creepy as Reddit is the most misguided thing I've heard in quite some time. Not that MeFi is without flaws, not that Reddit is without pluses, but the two sites are not even inhabiting the same world. It's a difference of KIND, not degree.
posted by Chrysostom at 4:49 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter has the occasional comment, or thread, or user, or meme that momentarily tip the scales this way or that. Reddit has multiple subreddits dedicated to worse than the creepiest MetaFilter ever approaches. But again, I get no sense that it was a serious comparison, because the argument wasn't that Reddit is better because MetaFilter is creepier. The argument was that MetaFilter is sometimes creepy, too, and the portions of creepy are so small.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:00 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

To quote reddit: it's not illegal, shut up you prude fuck.
posted by GuyZero at 5:17 PM on December 12, 2012

Unless, you know, you say anything bad about the guy posting pictures of underage girls for Redditors to whack off over, then it's the end of the world.
posted by Artw at 5:21 PM on December 12, 2012 [7 favorites]

It's a difference of KIND

Metafilter, today, when all is said and done, in the context of the entire webz, is KIND.
posted by infini at 5:21 PM on December 12, 2012

Verge article title shows how hard it is to find respectable web journalism.
posted by ceribus peribus at 5:24 PM on December 12, 2012

I've been using the professional white background so long that I'm always a little startled when I a screen or screenshot with the normal full color Metafilter.

I with you. I switched it about 30 seconds after I found the site. I never remember which one people are talking about when they say "the blue" or "the green". If I really need to know I scroll up to the top and squint at that little strip and try to tell.

For some reason when I see the full color site for a minute I think it’s a shot of MF from the past, 90’s MF.
posted by bongo_x at 5:34 PM on December 12, 2012

bullying of anyone who dies

Well, that does seem harsh.
posted by bongo_x at 5:35 PM on December 12, 2012

ceribus peribus: "Verge article title shows how hard it is to find respectable web journalism."

It's not like print journalism doesn't do the same kind of thing.
posted by octothorpe at 5:39 PM on December 12, 2012

Yes, that's true.
posted by ceribus peribus at 5:52 PM on December 12, 2012

I'm another person that the plain white version hurts her eyes. I just did the calibration thingie and I, according to that site, needed to make my screen brighter. I think I'll stick to old school blue and save me poor old eyes.

Also, that can opener comment? The mister and I had to replace our cheese slicer last week. He would have hemmed and hawed for 20 minutes over the two options available to us (one cheaper and one more expensive). The expensive option (OXO, fyi) was obviously the better item by far (and still less than $20). I finally took it from him and tossed in the cart while saying, "You'll never have to buy another cheese slicer. Ever."
posted by deborah at 6:53 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

darksasami: "I need a spell-checker, a fact-checker, and a privilege-checker. Which package is that?"

Didn't Mefi used to have a built-in spell checker?
posted by octothorpe at 7:00 PM on December 12, 2012

It was cut for budget reasons. Now it's an ex-checker.
posted by zamboni at 7:15 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: vaginas are incredibly flexible.
posted by medusa at 7:32 PM on December 12, 2012

New subsites?
CHANGES?
It is all happening exactly as I have foreseen.
posted by Mezentian at 7:38 PM on December 12, 2012

canieatthis.metafilter.com
fedorahatguy.metafilter.com
imafraidthatsnotpossible.metafilter.com

or one I actually had a dream about a few days ago

photography.metafilter.com

Were we could post photos we'd taken, monthly photo challenges, discuss gear specs, have blazing wars over raw vs jpeg...
posted by Admira at 7:53 PM on December 12, 2012

I can still recall the first time I wrote a program in BASIC at age 9 and seeing a screen light up in colors I picked and being amazed.

Some things just never get old, even when we do.
posted by jamjam at 7:56 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

You have no idea. I was 16 when I did that. And it was in *cough* 1982
posted by infini at 7:57 PM on December 12, 2012

photography.metafilter.com?
Why not gif.metafilter.com?

Onto the topic at hand I've been calling Facebook the new AOL walled garden of the internet for some time. I can't claim to have been the first, but I do wish someone would trébuchet that fucker and poison that ecosystem. Although, they seem to be doing a pretty great job themselves.
posted by Mezentian at 8:00 PM on December 12, 2012

Oh is that what we're all claiming now? I have said that but not online and not in English speaking nations. Does that count for a frist!!? ;p

Mind you, while I can totally see the downside of the AOL/FB thing from over here, its that very fact combined with FB's efforts to cut down bandwidth and data cost on the mobile broadband that's driving adoption and awareness of FB in quite remote villages in East Africa, at the very least.

So yes, the way "the AOL" brought the hordes (as it used to feel, back in the day) by their easypeasyforgramma portal, the FB is taking beachboys in Kilifi online to set up tours for Italians on the Swahili Coast.

The global impact will be (if not already) on an exponentially different scale though similar to what AOL did. Instead of pushing CDs, FB pushes special SIM cards.

Google otoh is doing something spectacularly different - they've just launched "Free Zone" as a pilot in the Philippines - if you reach a website via a Google search, and you're on Globe Telcom, the data cost is free. All Google product use is also free.

--snips accidental description what is not yet born---

*sits back to dream of the real worldwide internetworked web of humanity*
posted by infini at 8:09 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Google otoh is doing something spectacularly different - they've just launched "Free Zone" as a pilot in the Philippines

I'll bet it never gets out of Beta.

(But, snark aside, that is quite interesting, and I must go and look for information on it.)
posted by Mezentian at 8:13 PM on December 12, 2012

Seems they've already brought it over to South Africa.
posted by infini at 9:10 PM on December 12, 2012

anon.metafilter.com
dtmfa.metafilter.com
grar.metafilter.com
news.metafilter.com
travel.metafilter.com
posted by ceribus peribus at 9:13 PM on December 12, 2012

uh, actually, didn't travel already get tried?
posted by GuyZero at 9:16 PM on December 12, 2012

pictures.metafilter.com. Just like the main site, but we can post pictures inline.
posted by davejay at 9:17 PM on December 12, 2012

didn't travel already get tried?

I remember Jessamyn talking about a travel site once. It could still happen!
And it could be orange.
posted by ceribus peribus at 9:19 PM on December 12, 2012

It has to be recipes.metafilter.com
posted by unliteral at 9:36 PM on December 12, 2012

Only 14%?? I find that really surprising. Why the web is white
posted by panaceanot at 11:01 PM on December 12, 2012

If I recall previous questions correctly, that's actually quite high for a non-default setting here. Most people don't mess with their preferences much.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 11:07 PM on December 12, 2012

I wonder what the percentage would be if turned on by default on membership.
posted by panaceanot at 11:22 PM on December 12, 2012

You know what would be really cool? If the background chan..


oh, yeah.

*turns and kicks rocks*
posted by P.o.B. at 11:41 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Blue!
posted by infini at 11:53 PM on December 12, 2012

Did anybody read those comments?

It seems like the whole argument around creepshots boils down to you understand that it is not a good thing or "it's cool because REASONS". But I don't think it's even that because I notice a lot of the time that there isn't a reason but actually reasonING. As if people think not having a real point is just as applicable as any other assertion. "But that is the way the rest of the internet is!" is not a reason, it's a fucking excuse.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:09 AM on December 13, 2012

If you wanna fry your eyes AND look like you're working, read it in Page Source.

coxtextalkingaboutDune.metafilter.com gets my vote
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:38 AM on December 13, 2012

photography.metafilter.com

Were we could post photos we'd taken, monthly photo challenges, discuss gear specs, have blazing wars over raw vs jpeg...

That would be ace.

I remember Jessamyn talking about a travel site once. It could still happen!

It did happen!

travel.metafilter.com was a working subdomain for quite a while, but it was different to the other sections of the site: instead of letting you post directly, it aggregated travel stuff from Ask MetaFilter and automatically added cool stuff like maps and Flickr pics.

Then mathowie decided it didn't make sense to split travel away from Ask MetaFilter, then at some point later on it disappeared.

I think that's right, but I have a terrible memory and might be mixing up MetaTalk discussions about Travel with what the subsite actually did when it was around.
posted by jack_mo at 12:46 AM on December 13, 2012

thelastcamel writes "This place is just as creepy as reddit. I lost any illusions the day Jessamyn not only let the asshole creep ask if women could shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, but answered him."

This and not the chicken fucker episode?
posted by Mitheral at 3:44 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Does anyone else think Matt looks like Zachary Quinto (Dr. Oliver Thredson) from American Horror Story?
posted by Sailormom at 4:32 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Sailormom, yes, others think so, too, though the points of reference change over the years.
posted by cgc373 at 4:36 AM on December 13, 2012

Ahh, I see it's come up several times before.

Maybe Matt missed his true calling with his stunningly handsome face.
posted by Sailormom at 4:43 AM on December 13, 2012

Yeah, I really appreciate the colors. When I'm reading black text on a white background on a backlit screen I sometimes have to highlight the text to make it non-painful to read.
posted by Kattullus at 5:36 AM on December 13, 2012

Surprised to see so much love for 21 Jump Street. I've avoided the film, after loving the tv show dearly, but maybe I ought to reconsider.
posted by likeatoaster at 6:26 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

So, is MetaMetaTalk going to be a thing? I want to call some people out for calling me out.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:50 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Surprised to see so much love for 21 Jump Street. I've avoided the film, after loving the tv show dearly, but maybe I ought to reconsider.

The most frequent review I've heard of that movie (including my own) is: "huh, that was actually pretty funny. Who could've expected that?"
posted by inigo2 at 7:11 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Kattullus: "Yeah, I really appreciate the colors. When I'm reading black text on a white background on a backlit screen I sometimes have to highlight the text to make it non-painful to read."

Oh weird, I do that compulsively no matter what background I'm reading on. If you look at my screen while I'm reading a long article you just see constant blocks of highlighting popping up all over the page. I always assumed that I did it to focus on whatever line/paragraph I'm reading (and also because I'm fidgety as hell), but it's interesting to think that others do it for the colour contrast.

(Professional white background user since 2008 when I started occasionally getting jobs in the "real world".)
posted by Phire at 7:38 AM on December 13, 2012

you've been reading my dream journal again.
posted by The Whelk at 9:55 AM on December 13, 2012

Does anyone else think Matt looks like Zachary Quinto (Dr. Oliver Thredson) from American Horror Story?
Yes! I had a chuckle over that while trying to figure out what the hell is going on on that show the last 2 weeks!
posted by Mister_A at 11:06 AM on December 13, 2012

He also kind of looks like Ed Helms so I just imagined Cedar Rapids was an alternate universe mathowie story.
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

and when they put Emma Thompson in hippie sweaters in Peter's Friends I thought "Wow she looks a lot like Jessamyn."

So I guess we know how to cast the movie then.
posted by The Whelk at 11:23 AM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

My understanding of Cedar Rapids is based on watching several scenes on HBO, one at a time, in no particular order. SO it is probably a whole different movie than the one in my head...
posted by Mister_A at 11:25 AM on December 13, 2012

So, is MetaMetaTalk going to be a thing? I want to call some people out for calling me out.

Hello, it appears you folks may have some questions about how the nomenclature works -- these things are confusing! -- but take a gander at this informative lecture and I'm sure everything will be all cleared up:

MetaTalk is for Talking about MetaFilter, even though the name might erroneously suggest it as a place to stand outside (Meta) the act of Talking and ponder talking for a bit. Hence we must insist on the correctness of "MetaTalk-Talk" and not "Meta-MetaTalk." We are serious about the importance of this. Even if you are only joking.

If it helps you to remember for next time, think of "MetaTalk" as simply shorthand for "MetaFilterTalk" -- or "MeFiTalk" for medium-short or "MeFiTa" for super-short.

See, how does "MetaFilter" work, anyway? Is MetaFilter the place to discuss Filters? No! MetaTalk is the place to discuss how MetaFilter filters. MetaFilter is rather an accretion of many different filters, the result of combining the output of many different [users'] filters.

But that makes for a kind of silly use of "meta" then, doesn't it? Wouldn't "PolyFilter" more aptly do the trick? But this place itself provides additional filtering capacity, by which the output of each users' filters are themselves potentially filtered (out).

The moderators, they filter the filters. They are the MetaFilters. You, my friends, are the MetaFiltered.

Thank you for your time and we hope you have a pleasant afternoon.
posted by nobody at 11:41 AM on December 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I want to be MetaFrenchPressed.
posted by Deoridhe at 12:44 PM on December 13, 2012

Does anyone else think Matt looks like Zachary Quinto (Dr. Oliver Thredson) from American Horror Story?

I haven't seen American Horror Story, but when I saw the most recent Star Trek, I was like, "how did mathowie end up as Spock?"
posted by epersonae at 1:24 PM on December 13, 2012

Does anyone else think Matt looks like Zachary Quinto (Dr. Oliver Thredson) from American Horror Story?

Did the "similar image" Google thingie and it said the picture of Matt was closest to him and him and her and him.
posted by Wordshore at 1:30 PM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

canIeatthis.metafilter.com
posted by easily confused at 3:14 PM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

DANGER POINT! DO NOT EAT THAT METAFILTER.COM
posted by carsonb at 5:23 PM on December 13, 2012

(I get the worst gas when I do.)
posted by carsonb at 5:24 PM on December 13, 2012

ceribus peribus: travel.metafilter.com

GuyZero: uh, actually, didn't travel already get tried?

jack_mo : travel.metafilter.com was a working subdomain for quite a while, but it was different to the other sections of the site: instead of letting you post directly, it aggregated travel stuff from Ask MetaFilter and automatically added cool stuff like maps and Flickr pics.

Then mathowie decided it didn't make sense to split travel away from Ask MetaFilter, then at some point later on it disappeared.

And then it got folded back into Ask MetaFilter, but as Ask MetaFilter Travel Locations in 2011. Currently, you can search the AskMe category of "Travel and Transportation" for locations.

And I, too, would love to take part in photography.metafilter.com, especially if there was some option to host images on MetaFilter. I would pay more money for membership if I could host images here. Sure, I could buy a Flickr Pro account, but I don't like Flikr enough to do so.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:29 PM on December 13, 2012

entropicamericana: One of the refinements will be to add filters (b/w, sepia, and analog film) to the comments, right?

Perhaps you'd like RetroWebMatic (previously).
posted by filthy light thief at 9:33 PM on December 13, 2012

Damn. RetroWebMatic is awesome.
It gives The Grey a rich hue, like real Corinthian leather.
I think this needs to be integrated.
It's a Metafilter I want to touch.
posted by Mezentian at 10:44 PM on December 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

thingswelike.metafilter.com

Can include MeFite recommendations of books, movies, products, recipes, music, software, etc.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:33 AM on December 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

ambienwalrus.metafilter.com
posted by zippy at 8:49 AM on December 14, 2012

founded before the days of Digg, Reddit, and Facebook

Fark gets no love.
posted by meehawl at 5:23 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Don't worry Fark gets self-love.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:49 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

Did the "similar image" Google thingie and it said the picture of Matt was closest to him and him and her and him.
posted by Wordshore at 3:30 PM on December 13

Well that just goes to show how WRONG Google can be.
posted by Sailormom at 8:53 AM on December 16, 2012

I'm sorry, but "moisture vaporators"? Will someone think of the nerds?!
posted by misterbrandt at 9:50 PM on December 17, 2012

All the nerds are down at Tochie's Station picking up power converters, or doing chores.
posted by Mezentian at 11:31 PM on December 17, 2012

Mezentian: "All the nerds are down at Tochie's Station picking up power converters, or doing chores."

The true nerds know it's Tosche Station.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:58 AM on December 18, 2012

Trap sprung. Give him a super atomic wedgie, guys!
posted by entropicamericana at 9:00 AM on December 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

If MetaFilter actually wanted to be readable, which to this point it hasn’t, it would use real markup and would limit line length to one and a half alphabets, as opposed to the current endless sequences of BR and measures effectively as wide as your window or monitor.

MetaFilter would also have to stop angrily fighting any claim that it’s unreadable. Let me assure you, it is. And all my friends who understand typography – a set almost mutually exclusive with that of MeFites, half of whom prefer "straight quotes" – not only will back me up but have.

“We’ve always done it this way” means nothing in this context.
posted by joeclark at 1:54 PM on December 20, 2012

joeclark writes "If MetaFilter actually wanted to be readable, which to this point it hasn’t, it would use real markup and would limit line length to one and a half alphabets, as opposed to the current endless sequences of BR and measures effectively as wide as your window or monitor."

Please save me from web sites who want to decide I only need to use half of the window I've got pointed at their site. I can adjust the width of the text here any time I want with a simple drag click and that's the way it should be.
posted by Mitheral at 3:05 PM on December 20, 2012 [5 favorites]

I have spent time on tumblr lately, and if you think mefi is unreadable, you need to get out more.

(Is tumblr the new myspace? Because oh my god so many ugly tumblr sites. And tumblr-ers, I know a lot of you are young and have young eyes, but the teeny font crowded into a narrow column with a noisy background and the scrolling gifs? They suck and make your shit hard to read.)
posted by rtha at 3:40 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Please save me from web sites who want to decide I only need to use half of the window I've got pointed at their site. I can adjust the width of the text here any time I want with a simple drag click and that's the way it should be.

In general, if you're a web designer and you think you know more than I do about my needs re: reading your website, go fuck every bit of yourself.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:13 PM on December 20, 2012

And that's one of the things I love about MeFi: Metafilter respects my right to resize and choose light-on-dark or dark-on-light as I wish.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:15 PM on December 20, 2012

joeclark: "MetaFilter would also have to stop angrily fighting any claim that it’s unreadable. Let me assure you, it is.

Ah. Well, let me assure you that it isn't. It's fun to speak ex cathedra, isn't it?

And all my friends who understand typography – a set almost mutually exclusive with that of MeFites, half of whom prefer "straight quotes" – not only will back me up but have."

Nice, a combination of arguing from authority and "the lurkers support me in email."

I personally find Metafilter one of the most readable sites-I read most others in Google Reader, to stay free of obnoxious design ideas. I'm open to the idea that there are ways to make it more readable, but you are off to a bad start when you assert it is bad by fiat, with no examples of specific issues or improvements, and also incidentally insult your audience.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:23 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Never change Joe. Stay Hungry. Stay Angry.
posted by GuyZero at 8:12 PM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

friends who understand typography – a set almost mutually exclusive with that of MeFites, half of whom prefer "straight quotes"

There ought to be a pithy truism about those who make such strenuous complaint (especially w/r/t grammar and typography) generally being guilty of the same supposed sin. Surely more sinful than not curling one's quotation marks is mixing two different kinds in a single sentence. My eyes.

(Oh, even better: a complaint about exactly that sort of error showing up in the text of someone's FPP.)
posted by nobody at 7:44 AM on December 21, 2012

Let me assure you, it is. And all my friends who understand typography – a set almost mutually exclusive with that of MeFites, half of whom prefer "straight quotes" – not only will back me up but have.

That's got to be some sort of meta-satire. It hits so many insider-baseball notes.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:18 AM on December 21, 2012

Somehow I have always believed it was the other way around. Everyone involved with online work was here.
posted by infini at 10:34 AM on December 21, 2012

Of course, we prefer straight quotes - we have good taste.
posted by jb at 1:04 PM on December 21, 2012

rtha: "I have spent time on tumblr lately, and if you think mefi is unreadable, you need to get out more.

(Is tumblr the new myspace? Because oh my god so many ugly tumblr sites. And tumblr-ers, I know a lot of you are young and have young eyes, but the teeny font crowded into a narrow column with a noisy background and the scrolling gifs? They suck and make your shit hard to read.)"

Nah, it's the new LiveJournal. Since most people read Tumblrlrlr through the dashboard, these kids get to make something that looks "pretty" but is completely unreadable, unuseable, and often breaks spectacularly if your browser window is too narrow. They also change the layout every three weeks, and the only time they'll ever see it is when they decide to make a new layout.

I have many feels about idiotic Tumblr layouts.
posted by Phire at 1:14 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

How the Internet Became a Closed Shop
posted by Mezentian at 4:25 PM on December 21, 2012

If MetaFilter actually wanted to be readable, which to this point it hasn’t, it would use real markup and would limit line length to one and a half alphabets, as opposed to the current endless sequences of BR and measures effectively as wide as your window or monitor.

I far prefer reading metafilter to sites that overuse markup and use frames to artificially mimic a newspaper layout in order to flood me with ads. And popups. This site loads a lot more quickly than others, doesn't try to control my browser and allows me to easily zoom in and out of text on a hand-held device without difficulty. It also offers high contrast options that are perfect for my color-blindness. In addition, the layout here is excellent for those of us who use older machines to access the net, and for those with bandwidth limitations.

MetaFilter would also have to stop angrily fighting any claim that it’s unreadable.

I'm not angry. I simply disagree with you.

Let me assure you, it is. And all my friends who understand typography – a set almost mutually exclusive with that of MeFites, half of whom prefer "straight quotes" – not only will back me up but have.

You can assure us all you like, but "my friends who are experts in typography back me up on this" is not an evidentiary argument. It's an opinionated assertion. Make a compelling case, taking into account the elements mentioned in this and other threads by the people who are actually using this website and think they are important, and perhaps you'll convince us that you're right.
posted by zarq at 6:48 PM on December 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

I far prefer reading metafilter to sites that overuse markup and use frames to artificially mimic a newspaper layout in order to flood me with ads. And popups. This site loads a lot more quickly than others, doesn't try to control my browser and allows me to easily zoom in and out of text on a hand-held device without difficulty. It also offers high contrast options that are perfect for my color-blindness. In addition, the layout here is excellent for those of us who use older machines to access the net *and the world*, and for those with bandwidth limitations.
posted by infini at 10:31 PM on December 22, 2012

A measure as wide as your browser window will, on essentially any desktop computer, be too wide. That isn’t “opinion,” it’s a fact of psychology of reading, which you could look up yourself or just verify by checking the line lengths of everything else you read in the run of a day.

We’ve been through this already, and MeFites’ insistent defence of their own ignorance in the basic facts of reading suit them well to this site, whose owner and moderators refuse to accept that foot-and-a-half-long lines of solid-set 16 px type simply aren’t readable.

Here, tell me something: If mile-wide lines are OK, why is the textarea for comments also not that wide? Why are the sidebars width-limited?

Why don’t people use MetaFilter more? They can barely read it, that’s why. Why doesn’t MetaFilter work better on different devices? The markup is a disaster. Both are issues that need to be fixed – and in both cases, the fixes are easy (max-width and P). We’ve been through this already.

They aren’t “opinions,” and even if they were, yours aren’t equal to mine because you don’t know what you’re talking about and your personal ability to put up with atrocious onscreen type and bad markup, even if true, means nothing for other users.
posted by joeclark at 2:24 PM on December 30, 2012

"They used to call me 'Crazy Joe,' but now they can call me 'Batman!'"
posted by box at 4:02 PM on December 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

A measure as wide as your browser window will, on essentially any desktop computer, be too wide.

You're making the assumption that people are extending their browser windows to take up all of their screen real estate. There's no reason to assume they are. Even so, I disagree with your premise. See below.

That isn’t “opinion,”

Nah, it's still your opinion. Ranting that the rest of us are ignorant doesn't make you right by default.

...it’s a fact of psychology of reading, which you could look up yourself or just verify by checking the line lengths of everything else you read in the run of a day.

Okay. I'll bite. Every day, I spend a lot of my time reading work and media-related rss feeds in a reader that doesn't format text for me, but allows me to control how it's presented. I read physical newspapers and magazines and I also read them online in the aforementioned window-wide (with small margins) rss reader. The latter is much faster and easier to read. Also, I write for a living. Mostly using MS Word to edit / write documents. Small margins with word-wrapping generally make it easier for me to work, not harder.

On my phone and tablet, the text in my kindle and nook apps is wrapped nearly to the edge of the screen. Same as in their browsers. As it is here, text has a small margin, but wraps to my window. I prefer it that way.

Why don’t people use MetaFilter more? They can barely read it, that’s why.

Ludicrous. Preposterous. Ridiculous. By this logic, someone should really tell those folks at reddit that text which extends across an entire browser window stifles member signups, pageviews and visitors.

Why doesn’t MetaFilter work better on different devices? The markup is a disaster. Both are issues that need to be fixed – and in both cases, the fixes are easy (max-width and P). We’ve been through this already.

We're discussing aesthetics and usability, yes? I read mefi on 3 different computers, each running a different OS. I read it on an iPad, an iPhone and an Android phone. I've only rarely ever had difficulties. It seems fine to me. Do you have specific functionality complaints that we could discuss?

We’ve been through this already, and MeFites’ insistent defence of their own ignorance in the basic facts of reading suit them well to this site, whose owner and moderators refuse to accept that foot-and-a-half-long lines of solid-set 16 px type simply aren’t readable.

I tweaked font / background settings to suit my needs on mefi long ago.

My preferences aren't made out of ignorance. They're simply what I prefer. And what I find readable. I spend at least 12 hours every weekday, using some sort of internet-enabled device, on a wide variety of sites. Using all manner of operating systems and software interfaces. I'm pretty sure that qualifies me to choose what I personally prefer.

Here, tell me something: If mile-wide lines are OK, why is the textarea for comments also not that wide? Why are the sidebars width-limited?

Re: the text box, I resize that whenever I can. I actually wouldn't mind asking for a wider textbox.

Re: the sidebar, it's there so it doesn't intrude upon the primary content appearing in any window.

They aren’t “opinions,” and even if they were, yours aren’t equal to mine because you don’t know what you’re talking about and your personal ability to put up with atrocious onscreen type and bad markup, even if true, means nothing for other users.

I never said they applied to anyone other than me. What I said was,

Make a compelling case, taking into account the elements mentioned in this and other threads by the people who are actually using this website and think they are important, and perhaps you'll convince us that you're right.

Still waiting, Joe.
posted by zarq at 7:08 PM on December 30, 2012

joeclark: several people with poor eyesight have told you that metafilter is easier, not harder, to read than most sites. I'll add to them. I hate reading sites where the text has a determined width, because I'm always needing to change the width of the column to suit the needs of my eyes day to day. Metafilter does that beautifully -- if I need narrower text, I can just change the window width and the text is exactly as wide or as narrow as I need it. I hate sites that insist on the text being a certain width, as it's usually still wider than I am comfortable reading.

mathowie and other metafilter designers: you have done an awesome job, thank you.
posted by jb at 7:11 PM on December 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'm really upset at the idea that somebody might fuck up their website by listening to joe.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:09 PM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Pope Guilty: "I'm really upset at the idea that somebody might fuck up their website by listening to joe."

Didn't you listen? You're WRONG, he proved that by saying so very loudly.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:42 PM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Irregardless...

...the biggest value of Metafilter's design is that it has consistently been the only website that loaded regardless of where on earth I was located and what the bandwidth of my access may have been.

From Symbian phones in a bus in Helsinki to SIM card modems in upcountry Rwanda, Metafilter is fast, easy and accessible.

Fnuck fancy design if the site is too big and fat and heavy to load when I'm paying for bandwidth by the kilobyte. Even "simple" Google now weighs 2-4 MB and takes ages as it tries to log you into YouTube so that you can check your gmail.

Its about access, not the device (design).
posted by infini at 3:55 AM on December 31, 2012 [5 favorites]

If this horrible design is all that's keeping the ravening hordes from joining metafilter by the zillions, then I say we should keep the horrible design.
posted by rtha at 7:46 AM on December 31, 2012 [7 favorites]

If this horrible design is all that's keeping the ravening hordes from joining metafilter by the zillions

That, and our mantle...
posted by infini at 9:02 AM on December 31, 2012

I wish there was more visible separation between comments, but otherwise I think MeFi's design is just peachy.
posted by brundlefly at 11:33 AM on December 31, 2012

Hi, is this the Timecube guy AMA?
posted by Artw at 11:36 AM on December 31, 2012

As a side note, I just read a book today where there was use of the phrase "Redditor lucis" and I thought oh how interesting, until it was revealed that is Latin for "The Restorer of light"... Pity MeFite doesn't mean anything in Latin.
posted by infini at 12:37 PM on December 31, 2012

joeclark: "We've been through this already, and MeFites’ insistent defence of their own ignorance..."

You always act like a jerk about this, telling everyone they're ignorant for having preferences that are different from yours. I can count at least a dozen occasions that I can remember when you've stormed into a thread like this and told everyone they're idiots for doing things differently from the way you'd do them. Has it ever occurred to you that this might be a counterproductive way to engage in discussion?
posted by koeselitz at 2:25 PM on December 31, 2012

brundlefly: I wish there was more visible separation between comments, but otherwise I think MeFi's design is just peachy.

Try the MeFi Comment Divider Script. Mike's basic script is OK, but it's also really easy to tinker with the settings until it looks appealing enough to you. It adds a darkened background to each comment's 'posted by' line.
posted by carsonb at 5:50 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]