Prepare to have thine mind blown : Mefi bookmarking

June 18, 2014 9:33 AM

Just click on the timestamp link of the post you last read. Then bookmark the page. The timestamp link is an anchor to that particular post on the page, so when you visit again you'll go back to that post. posted by gilrain at 3:20 PM on August 1, 2013

YOU CAN CLICK ON THE TIMESTAMP AND THE SITE WILL REMEMBER WERE YOU WERE IN THE THREAD WHEN YOU RETURN.*

Whyyyyyyyyyyy is this not covered in the FAQ?!

My repeat scrolling days are OVER. Happy. Joy.

This fact blew my mind, so I had to share. Are there any other - specific to Mefi - navigation/reading tips annd tricks that aren't widely known.??








*[Yes I know it might not be mind-blowing to YOU, but goshdarnit it is mind blowing to me yessirrie]

posted by Faintdreams to MetaFilter-Related at 9:33 AM (39 comments total)

YOU CAN CLICK ON THE TIMESTAMP AND THE SITE WILL REMEMBER WERE YOU WERE IN THE THREAD WHEN YOU RETURN.

Well, we can't really take credit for it. The site isn't remembering where you were; your web browser is just navigating to the anchor tag associated with the comment in question. So the timestamp of a comment is a link that ends with e.g. #3029482, and the html for that comment includes an attribute like <div id="3029482" ... />; as a result of clicking on the timestamp, you change the url you're visiting to be the thread with that anchor value rather than just the thread, and then your browser will (generally) load the thread scrolled to that comment if you refresh the page or navigate away and back.

Certainly helpful but not something Metafilter is actually tracking internally, just a nice artifact of how links and id attributes behave on the internet.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:38 AM on June 18, 2014 [5 favorites]

If you see (x new comments) at the bottom of a thread, you can hit the m key and it will load the comments.
posted by desjardins at 9:38 AM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also, if you highlight text in the text box and press CTRL + U, the link dialog box pops up.
posted by desjardins at 9:39 AM on June 18, 2014

You leave a thread?
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:41 AM on June 18, 2014 [14 favorites]

I mean, this sounds like one of those gadgets to help you save leftover wine. Who the hell has leftover wine?
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:43 AM on June 18, 2014 [16 favorites]

Oh there's no shortage of whine on here.
posted by gman at 9:52 AM on June 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Well, we can't really take credit for it.

Yes you can.
posted by vacapinta at 10:06 AM on June 18, 2014 [90 favorites]

and whither the marquee tag?
posted by boo_radley at 10:18 AM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd rather see the Marquis tag, so we can tell which members are actual nobility, rather than merely noble of spirit.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:20 AM on June 18, 2014 [23 favorites]

<marquis ruff="100%">Anna Rosina Marquart.jpg<marquis>
posted by boo_radley at 10:23 AM on June 18, 2014 [5 favorites]

I'd rather see the Marquis tag, so we can tell which members are actual nobility, rather than merely noble of spirit.

Its best not to Count on self-identified tags on the Internet.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:23 AM on June 18, 2014 [7 favorites]

Another fun one people like being reminded of:

Start at the top of any given page and use "." to scroll down the page, comment by comment or post by post. Use "," to move up in the same manner. Admittedly, an increasingly esoteric hack as fewer and fewer keyboards are used while browsing, but...
posted by carsonb at 10:26 AM on June 18, 2014 [10 favorites]

Certainly helpful but not something Metafilter is actually tracking internally, just a nice artifact of how links and id attributes behave on the internet.

Especially on those sites with thankfully "outdated designs" that depend on text and HTML, instead of sacrificing web browser and user-centric functionality on the altar of "just how much shit can we cram onto a garden-walled, infinite-scrolling, soul-destroyingly user-tracking web 'application'."

I am not bitter. I just miss the WWW.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:27 AM on June 18, 2014 [5 favorites]

This fact blew my mind, so I had to share.

I take it you weren't there for the great → unveiling in 2011.
posted by ceribus peribus at 10:28 AM on June 18, 2014

Admittedly, an increasingly esoteric hack as fewer and fewer keyboards are used while browsing, but...

This... this... this is like suddenly discovering I know how to do scrimshaw!

Minus the injured whales, of course.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:52 AM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

use "." to scroll down the page, comment by comment or post by post. Use "," to move up in the same manner.

Or if you're old-school and enjoy vi / rougelikes, use j and k to scroll.
posted by whir at 10:59 AM on June 18, 2014 [3 favorites]

But yeah, I click on the timestamps all the time when I need to do something besides read mefi, in case I need to restart my browser or something.
posted by whir at 11:01 AM on June 18, 2014

whir: "use "." to scroll down the page, comment by comment or post by post. Use "," to move up in the same manner.

Or if you're old-school and enjoy vi / rougelikes, use j and k to scroll."

Oh man, if h and l scrolled between posts...
posted by boo_radley at 11:15 AM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

And so I hate you.

Because I thought at long last we had bookmarks separate from favorites. I love favorites and use them for comments and posts that I like. But I often see something I want to follow up on, do research on, act on, help with, answer, or check later for information. I'd love to, just like with favorites, be able to click a little ~ or something to mark something for follow up and have it collect into a queue like favorites do. I asked in metatalk before, but the idea was mostly shut down. I thought things had changed, and at long last it was here. Bookmarks were here!

But this is not that pony. And so I hate you.
posted by cashman at 11:54 AM on June 18, 2014 [4 favorites]

OKAY I DON'T ACTUALLY HATE YOU, BUT I'M REALLY SAD
posted by cashman at 11:56 AM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'd rather see the Marquis tag, so we can tell which members are actual nobility, rather than merely noble of spirit.


This would really help with keeping track of the local nobility.
posted by Madame Defarge at 12:48 PM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

cashman, I sometimes want to follow up a specific comment too. I just drag the timestamp to my bookmarks toolbar. Other than 5-6 utility bookmarks that stay to the left side, the rest of my bookmarks toolbar is like a bunch of Post-It notes for the Internet. I guess this won't work on mobile, but otherwise you might try that.
posted by benito.strauss at 1:06 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

> This would really help with keeping track of the local nobility.
> posted by Madame Defarge

Are you volunteering to keep the head count?
posted by benito.strauss at 1:07 PM on June 18, 2014 [3 favorites]

Oh man, if h and l scrolled between posts...

Can we have this? Seriously.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:23 PM on June 18, 2014

remember when people knew how browsers worked?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 1:51 PM on June 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

Or people knew there is something like a command prompt?

Modern graphic user interface comes at the expense of knowledge.
posted by travelwithcats at 1:59 PM on June 18, 2014

remember when people knew how browsers worked?

Those were the days, my friend
The links were underlined
We'd HTML for ever and a day
We'd type the URL
We'd dial up ol' Ma Bell
For we were young and baud must have its day.
Pshhhkkkkkkrrrr​kakingkakingkakingtsh​chchchchchchchcch​*ding*ding*ding*
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days
posted by yoink at 2:17 PM on June 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Yes you can.

Well...

This article or section may contain parts that are misleading.
This article needs additional citations for verification.

plus a somewhat annoyed discussion page. Was that bit added by some MeFi prankster? :-)

(Seriously, that section is pretty nutty. Even if you limit your scope to the web, NAME anchors are in the first HTML spec ever written. Tim's formatting example from 90-91 discusses linking to things within a page.)
posted by effbot at 2:36 PM on June 18, 2014

so these are the days my friends
and these are the days my friends
but these days of 888 cents and 106 coins of change
these are the days my friends
and these are my days my friends
make a toyota on these, these
posted by shakespeherian at 2:52 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was excited by the timestamp comment too. It's super frustrating on the phone---sometimes I can click a link in a thread and when I come back, I get sent back to where I was in the thread, and sometimes I get sent to the top.

The timestamp is super helpful.
posted by leahwrenn at 2:58 PM on June 18, 2014

The timestamp is super helpful.

But you can't use them as currency in prison.
posted by arcticseal at 3:25 PM on June 18, 2014

Time stamps? I thought they were 'best before' dates!
posted by mazola at 3:38 PM on June 18, 2014 [3 favorites]

the timestamps are "permalinks", invented back in the dark ages, i think by mathowie or anil dash or someone.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 8:55 PM on June 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

I used to favourite the last comment I read in a thread, then CTRL-F my way back to it by searching for '-'. But then they changed '-' to a different type of '-', and '-' doesn't work anymore. So now I write the last comment down on a post-it, stick it on my monitor, and CTRL-F the full thing. I guess this bookmarking trick might work too?
posted by rollick at 7:53 AM on June 19, 2014

I usually get the entire thread tattooed on my arm so I can read it wherever I go, but I guess this bookmarking thing is worth a shot.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:00 AM on June 19, 2014

You mean I don't have to print out the entire thread anymore and underline each line with a Bic ballpoint as I read?

(Seriously I had a couple step-cousins WITH NO BLOOD RELATION TO ME who used to read novels that way. At least they were reading, I guess.)
posted by The Deej at 11:21 AM on June 19, 2014

Metafilter Scroll Tag (until the ailing userscripts.org finally disappears)
posted by double block and bleed at 4:16 PM on June 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

I love favorites and use them for comments and posts that I like. But I often see something I want to follow up on, do research on, act on, help with, answer, or check later for information. I'd love to, just like with favorites, be able to click a little ~ or something to mark something for follow up and have it collect into a queue like favorites do.

Oh that's easy to solve; you (and most everyone else...) just need to stop using favorites wrong.

I kid. Sort of. I hate that they're named 'favorites.'
posted by phearlez at 1:51 PM on June 20, 2014

I hate that they're named 'favorites.'

It might be spelled that way, but is pronounced grunt.
posted by effbot at 2:02 PM on June 20, 2014