Bringing back gopher was just the start. March 31, 2018 10:15 PM Subscribe
Tired of increasingly bloated, over-designed web interfaces? Looking for a way to enjoy your content without all the dozens of JavaScript trackers and endless needless geegaws? Give the new MetaFilter Reader interface a shot! Clean, classic design; mobile friendly; it even comes with its own games!
MetaFilter Reader is still alpha software, mind you; there may be some browser compatibility issues, bugs, accessibility issues, readability issues, navigation issues, and certain ancillary features like the ability to comment, favorite, flag, or otherwise interact in any way with the site in other than a read-only manner aren't quiiiiite in place yet.
But—and I can't emphasize this enough—it does ship with both Snake and Tetris.
MetaFilter Reader is still alpha software, mind you; there may be some browser compatibility issues, bugs, accessibility issues, readability issues, navigation issues, and certain ancillary features like the ability to comment, favorite, flag, or otherwise interact in any way with the site in other than a read-only manner aren't quiiiiite in place yet.
But—and I can't emphasize this enough—it does ship with both Snake and Tetris.
Genius.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:20 PM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:20 PM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
Amateurs. You left off NetHack.
posted by Athanassiel at 10:27 PM on March 31, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by Athanassiel at 10:27 PM on March 31, 2018 [10 favorites]
no multi-post uudecode functionality.
less space than a nomad.
lame.
posted by GuyZero at 10:30 PM on March 31, 2018 [19 favorites]
less space than a nomad.
lame.
posted by GuyZero at 10:30 PM on March 31, 2018 [19 favorites]
Curses.
posted by holgate at 10:31 PM on March 31, 2018 [30 favorites]
posted by holgate at 10:31 PM on March 31, 2018 [30 favorites]
I unabashedly love this.
posted by arrjay at 10:32 PM on March 31, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by arrjay at 10:32 PM on March 31, 2018 [10 favorites]
Thank you for making me feel very old.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:32 PM on March 31, 2018 [22 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 10:32 PM on March 31, 2018 [22 favorites]
+1 for the like.
posted by AugustWest at 10:33 PM on March 31, 2018
posted by AugustWest at 10:33 PM on March 31, 2018
In all seriousness, the text interface is actually really nice. I feel like I'm back at uni. Fortunately I don't appear to need to remember Unix in order to make it work.
posted by Athanassiel at 10:34 PM on March 31, 2018 [15 favorites]
posted by Athanassiel at 10:34 PM on March 31, 2018 [15 favorites]
Oh, Happy Birthday me! I have always tried to live up to the responsibility of having a birthday on this day.
posted by AugustWest at 10:36 PM on March 31, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by AugustWest at 10:36 PM on March 31, 2018 [5 favorites]
Oh, one non-obvious thing: If you're reading a comment thread and paging with space/v, space when you get to the end of a set of comments will go to the beginning of the next page.
posted by frimble (staff) at 10:38 PM on March 31, 2018
posted by frimble (staff) at 10:38 PM on March 31, 2018
Hahahahahaha playing Tetris with music is so hard. Difficulty level: laughing.
posted by limeonaire at 11:03 PM on March 31, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 11:03 PM on March 31, 2018 [5 favorites]
This is a test. Assuming this comment works, browsing and commenting MeFi in W3M works. ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:08 PM on March 31, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:08 PM on March 31, 2018 [2 favorites]
Man, pretty this up a bit, add a way to make comments, and I'll use it as my default theme. I completely seamlessly reverted to vi/tin/mutt mode without even needing to read the instructions. It's so easy and fast!
posted by ctmf at 11:11 PM on March 31, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by ctmf at 11:11 PM on March 31, 2018 [16 favorites]
I've never actually wanted to finish a game of Snake before.
posted by limeonaire at 11:13 PM on March 31, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 11:13 PM on March 31, 2018 [10 favorites]
I hasten to add that I love the new Reader unreservedly. <3!
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:16 PM on March 31, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:16 PM on March 31, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'm curious, but too lazy to test performance on one of the browser-killing mega-threads.
posted by ctmf at 11:18 PM on March 31, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ctmf at 11:18 PM on March 31, 2018 [2 favorites]
It loads 16 comments at a time. So reading a megathread is un-taxing. Better, you see “1000/1409”, so can more easily nope out without accidentally committing to reading 400+ comments.
posted by frimble (staff) at 11:23 PM on March 31, 2018 [25 favorites]
posted by frimble (staff) at 11:23 PM on March 31, 2018 [25 favorites]
Is this supported on EPOC devices yet?
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 11:55 PM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 11:55 PM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]
In all seriousness, the text interface is actually really nice.
Agreed! Navigating through the lists of threads is giving me flashbacks to reading Usenet newsgroups on VAX/VMS.
Tetris with cortex's a cappella music is maybe my new favorite thing. (I hope you'll post it on MeFi Music, too, cortex.) I just spent like 5 minutes playing the game, then noticing the letters, and then another 5 minutes trying to see if I could get lines that spelled out "mefi" or "askme" (no luck yet).
It would be great to listen to the MeFi Music songs in the Reader -- I'm guessing that's on the roadmap for the beta release? ;)
Seriously this is awesome, thank you! Congrats and applause on another excellent, enjoyable, and positive April Fool's project, plus it's useful too. Especially love the keyboard shortcuts. Are you going to keep this up like the other projects? Because I can see myself using it for reals for reading.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 12:52 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Agreed! Navigating through the lists of threads is giving me flashbacks to reading Usenet newsgroups on VAX/VMS.
Tetris with cortex's a cappella music is maybe my new favorite thing. (I hope you'll post it on MeFi Music, too, cortex.) I just spent like 5 minutes playing the game, then noticing the letters, and then another 5 minutes trying to see if I could get lines that spelled out "mefi" or "askme" (no luck yet).
It would be great to listen to the MeFi Music songs in the Reader -- I'm guessing that's on the roadmap for the beta release? ;)
Seriously this is awesome, thank you! Congrats and applause on another excellent, enjoyable, and positive April Fool's project, plus it's useful too. Especially love the keyboard shortcuts. Are you going to keep this up like the other projects? Because I can see myself using it for reals for reading.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 12:52 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Frohe Ostern to you too.
posted by frimble (staff) at 1:21 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by frimble (staff) at 1:21 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
I prefer this so much I'm sorry it's just for April Fool's Day.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:52 AM on April 1, 2018 [18 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:52 AM on April 1, 2018 [18 favorites]
For all except the Blue, I vastly prefer the Reader layout. Could have timed the rollout of this permanent improvement a little better, though; people are liable to assume it’s only temporary, and may be caught off guard when it becomes the default, and then the only, display option.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:53 AM on April 1, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by Sys Rq at 1:53 AM on April 1, 2018 [16 favorites]
This is nice.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:10 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by Literaryhero at 3:10 AM on April 1, 2018
Uhhhhhh... I'm totally going to just use this from now on. Can you add commenting :D
posted by cj_ at 3:56 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by cj_ at 3:56 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'm loving it. Is there a way to turn pieces in Tetris?
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:31 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:31 AM on April 1, 2018
i super love this.
posted by Stewriffic at 4:34 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by Stewriffic at 4:34 AM on April 1, 2018
Is there a way to turn pieces in Tetris?
Up arrow. It only goes the one way, though.
posted by frimble (staff) at 4:35 AM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Up arrow. It only goes the one way, though.
posted by frimble (staff) at 4:35 AM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
frimble: "It loads 16 comments at a time. So reading a megathread is un-taxing. Better, you see “1000/1409”, so can more easily nope out without accidentally committing to reading 400+ comments."
So now we have something to point to when people want a paged version of the site.
posted by Mitheral at 4:51 AM on April 1, 2018 [14 favorites]
So now we have something to point to when people want a paged version of the site.
posted by Mitheral at 4:51 AM on April 1, 2018 [14 favorites]
You guys are fucking amazing.
Thank you for being you and letting me hang out.
Love
Meposted by mikelieman at 5:16 AM on April 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
This is what I never knew I desperately needed.
Snake bug report: Pushing up then left or up then right too quickly causes it to restart.
Also, MetaFilter Reader doesn't work in Links, ironically enough.
posted by Kattullus at 5:49 AM on April 1, 2018
Snake bug report: Pushing up then left or up then right too quickly causes it to restart.
Also, MetaFilter Reader doesn't work in Links, ironically enough.
posted by Kattullus at 5:49 AM on April 1, 2018
I love you guys. I love this and honestly wish it was an actual option. Thank you for being the best frigging April 1 website out there.
posted by kimberussell at 6:14 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kimberussell at 6:14 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
I turned the tetris music on and my dog looked at me with what I can only call disgust, jumped out of bed, and left the room.
Ya did good, cortex.
posted by phunniemee at 6:16 AM on April 1, 2018 [20 favorites]
Ya did good, cortex.
posted by phunniemee at 6:16 AM on April 1, 2018 [20 favorites]
Awww, this is a thing of beauty.
Sadly, it seems that twenty years' abstinence has not improved my any Tetris skills any.
posted by sldownard at 6:26 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sadly, it seems that twenty years' abstinence has not improved my any Tetris skills any.
posted by sldownard at 6:26 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Holy shit Tetris is really hard when there's space between the rows but not columns.
posted by misskaz at 6:30 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by misskaz at 6:30 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
I am still good at Tetris and believe me, this is the hardest version I've ever played.
posted by misskaz at 6:31 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by misskaz at 6:31 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
frimble: Up arrow. It only goes the one way, though.
That is fine and so are you!
posted by Too-Ticky at 6:44 AM on April 1, 2018
That is fine and so are you!
posted by Too-Ticky at 6:44 AM on April 1, 2018
I am shockingly bad at MeFi Tetris. I think it's because of kerning? Though I'm never sure I'm using the word "kerning" correctly. But I will choose to blame kerning.
posted by lazuli at 6:47 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by lazuli at 6:47 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also, MetaFilter Reader doesn't work in Links, ironically enough.
Yeah, we put the time we had for this mostly on the biggest browser platforms and didn't have time to go down the list as far as we would for something less silly.
The good news, for anyone on a terminal-style text-based browser who has issues getting the MetaFilter Reader view to operate: you are by definition basically missing nothing, since it's just doing an underfeatured job of simulating a terminal-style text-based browser to begin with.
And I'm glad people are enjoying the goofy Tetris music; I had fun making it and it makes me giggle listening back. I think that having music there at all was frimble's idea originally, and they get huge credit in general for this year's concept and for basically all of the execution of it on the software development side. Other mods variously threw in on brainstorming (for e.g. the snake stuff) and bits of testing and refinement, too. It's always fun working on this stuff with Team MeFi each year.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:54 AM on April 1, 2018 [10 favorites]
Yeah, we put the time we had for this mostly on the biggest browser platforms and didn't have time to go down the list as far as we would for something less silly.
The good news, for anyone on a terminal-style text-based browser who has issues getting the MetaFilter Reader view to operate: you are by definition basically missing nothing, since it's just doing an underfeatured job of simulating a terminal-style text-based browser to begin with.
And I'm glad people are enjoying the goofy Tetris music; I had fun making it and it makes me giggle listening back. I think that having music there at all was frimble's idea originally, and they get huge credit in general for this year's concept and for basically all of the execution of it on the software development side. Other mods variously threw in on brainstorming (for e.g. the snake stuff) and bits of testing and refinement, too. It's always fun working on this stuff with Team MeFi each year.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:54 AM on April 1, 2018 [10 favorites]
Is it weird that I wish my iPhone had Links?
Even more, I wish the web didn’t hate text so much. The web must be getting increasingly hostile to users that rely on text-based browsing.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:01 AM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Even more, I wish the web didn’t hate text so much. The web must be getting increasingly hostile to users that rely on text-based browsing.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:01 AM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
All of a sudden I'm twenty-six again.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:14 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:14 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thank you frimble and mods and everyone who worked on this!
Also, happy birthday AugustWest and everyone who has a birthday today-adjacent, in whatever time zone you're in!
posted by cynical pinnacle at 7:15 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also, happy birthday AugustWest and everyone who has a birthday today-adjacent, in whatever time zone you're in!
posted by cynical pinnacle at 7:15 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Seriously, are you going to keep this mode?
posted by Jesse the K at 7:21 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Jesse the K at 7:21 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Well, we aren't planning to immediately decommission it or anything; it's not eating up extra resources by being there. That said, I'd caution against projecting from "this exists" to "this will be expanded and maintained" because it's not something we've approached with any intentions to go farther than an (albeit nominally functional) goof.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:23 AM on April 1, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:23 AM on April 1, 2018 [9 favorites]
Yay, theme #3!
posted by oceanjesse at 7:25 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by oceanjesse at 7:25 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Music!
certain ancillary features like the ability to comment, favorite, flag, or otherwise interact in any way with the site in other than a read-only manner aren't quiiiiite in place yet.
The MetaFilter we deserve!
AugustWest, happy birthday.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 7:25 AM on April 1, 2018 [17 favorites]
certain ancillary features like the ability to comment, favorite, flag, or otherwise interact in any way with the site in other than a read-only manner aren't quiiiiite in place yet.
The MetaFilter we deserve!
AugustWest, happy birthday.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 7:25 AM on April 1, 2018 [17 favorites]
I would use this every day if I could. It would be even better from an actual terminal.
posted by ralan at 7:27 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ralan at 7:27 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
I really enjoyed the tetris music, but where's the next shape option?
posted by jeather at 7:39 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by jeather at 7:39 AM on April 1, 2018
I want this forever.
posted by bonehead at 7:40 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 7:40 AM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also, needs to respect .sig files.
posted by bonehead at 7:41 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 7:41 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
MeFi is so good at April Fools, it invents features not bugs!
posted by gladly at 7:49 AM on April 1, 2018 [14 favorites]
posted by gladly at 7:49 AM on April 1, 2018 [14 favorites]
For those of you wishing that it actually worked in a terminal, it’s seriously based on the metafilter gopher As viewed in elinks.
posted by frimble (staff) at 7:56 AM on April 1, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by frimble (staff) at 7:56 AM on April 1, 2018 [10 favorites]
Love it! Although now that I've played tetris with music, I can't stop wondering where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
posted by NoraCharles at 8:21 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by NoraCharles at 8:21 AM on April 1, 2018
I can't stands endless needless geegaws.
posted by guiseroom at 8:43 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by guiseroom at 8:43 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
OH WOW! This is perfection!!!!
Add me to the list of people who will use this routinely. At a distance it totally looks like my other terminal windows, so I can read MeFi on the sly ;)
My only disappointment is that ascii art comes out with extra line spacing [eg, all the ascii art in the farewell to Matt MeTa - reader version]. Then again, that's the only thing that stopped me from posting ascii art here, so maybe it's a feature rather than a bug. Images come through, though!
posted by Westringia F. at 8:46 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Add me to the list of people who will use this routinely. At a distance it totally looks like my other terminal windows, so I can read MeFi on the sly ;)
My only disappointment is that ascii art comes out with extra line spacing [eg, all the ascii art in the farewell to Matt MeTa - reader version]. Then again, that's the only thing that stopped me from posting ascii art here, so maybe it's a feature rather than a bug. Images come through, though!
posted by Westringia F. at 8:46 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is awesome. I'm having flashbacks to starting college and going online for the first time. Thank you! I love you.
posted by bardophile at 8:48 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by bardophile at 8:48 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have a whole-body WOW reverberating through me now. This is an amazing gift to have made and shared with us. Thank you.
posted by brainwane at 8:51 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by brainwane at 8:51 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Reading it in portrait orientation on my iPad, the file numbers down the left side are cut-off. Otherwise, this actually works great on a touchscreen.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:23 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by Thorzdad at 9:23 AM on April 1, 2018
omg please have it use
posted by fleacircus at 9:34 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
ed to write commentsposted by fleacircus at 9:34 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I was thinking a lot of people were going to love this with low irony levels, and so it was, and I'm happy about that.
posted by fleacircus at 9:43 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by fleacircus at 9:43 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Metafilter Reader should, however, be compatible with your JavaScript-enabled palmtop device. So, if you have a recent Blackberry, e.g., feel free to give it a whirl there.
posted by frimble
can you imagine sitting around reading a web page on your phone lol
posted by churl at 10:15 AM on April 1, 2018 [15 favorites]
posted by frimble
can you imagine sitting around reading a web page on your phone lol
posted by churl at 10:15 AM on April 1, 2018 [15 favorites]
Well this is just the very best thing!
posted by mochapickle at 10:21 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by mochapickle at 10:21 AM on April 1, 2018
Missed the auspicious date and was thrilled that I’ve finally had my ponies responded to re. Kindle-friendly interface. Will check later if it actually works.
posted by Iteki at 10:28 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by Iteki at 10:28 AM on April 1, 2018
Another vote for keeping it.
posted by donpardo at 10:40 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by donpardo at 10:40 AM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I absolutely love the Tetris music, but my cat fucking hates it. Angriest ears.
posted by merriment at 10:41 AM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by merriment at 10:41 AM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Music? What music
oh
I seem to be part cat. (Must check on ancestry some day)
posted by Namlit at 10:51 AM on April 1, 2018
oh
I seem to be part cat. (Must check on ancestry some day)
posted by Namlit at 10:51 AM on April 1, 2018
This is great, but am I supposed to be able to read these weird tech documents from Lockheed? It seems to have loaded a dataset that isn't MetaFilter.
Does anyone know what "Project Aurora" means?
posted by loquacious at 10:55 AM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Does anyone know what "Project Aurora" means?
posted by loquacious at 10:55 AM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Three cheers for frimble for building this thing, and josh for making the music!
I'm so, so happy you guys like this as much as I do -- I was thinking about how hard it would be to explain to someone else exactly what makes this so very satisfying and why I'd be tempted to go back from the already oldschool text-only site I spend all day on to an even more older school version..... so I'm glad that nothing needs to be explained here. My people.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:26 AM on April 1, 2018 [12 favorites]
I'm so, so happy you guys like this as much as I do -- I was thinking about how hard it would be to explain to someone else exactly what makes this so very satisfying and why I'd be tempted to go back from the already oldschool text-only site I spend all day on to an even more older school version..... so I'm glad that nothing needs to be explained here. My people.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:26 AM on April 1, 2018 [12 favorites]
It's a Unix system! I know this!
posted by flabdablet at 11:39 AM on April 1, 2018 [22 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 11:39 AM on April 1, 2018 [22 favorites]
Snake bug report: Pushing up then left or up then right too quickly causes it to restart.
Should be fixed now. Sorry about the delay: I needed to be in front of an actual computer, and instead, I was petting a sheep.
MetaFilter Reader doesn't work in Links, ironically enough.
I think adding the games broke that. I'll see if I can unbreak it for the silliness.
My only disappointment is that ascii art comes out with extra line spacing
I'll see if I can fix that without breaking spacing in normal posts.
Reading it in portrait orientation on my iPad, the file numbers down the left side are cut-off. Otherwise, this actually works great on a touchscreen.
They're the first thing to get dropped with smaller screen sizes. It's not a bug, but a way to deal with longer thread titles.
posted by frimble (staff) at 11:48 AM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Should be fixed now. Sorry about the delay: I needed to be in front of an actual computer, and instead, I was petting a sheep.
MetaFilter Reader doesn't work in Links, ironically enough.
I think adding the games broke that. I'll see if I can unbreak it for the silliness.
My only disappointment is that ascii art comes out with extra line spacing
I'll see if I can fix that without breaking spacing in normal posts.
Reading it in portrait orientation on my iPad, the file numbers down the left side are cut-off. Otherwise, this actually works great on a touchscreen.
They're the first thing to get dropped with smaller screen sizes. It's not a bug, but a way to deal with longer thread titles.
posted by frimble (staff) at 11:48 AM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Can we keep it? Please? Now i can browse even more freely at work and the people judging my screen from afar will think i'm staring at my terminal.
posted by cgg at 11:48 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by cgg at 11:48 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh my. The Tetris music is everything promised and more.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 11:56 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 11:56 AM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
So, before I go to bed, the history and a few notes. It kind of started when I realised that I didn't have Gopher on my phone any more. I suggested the general idea a few times as what we could do for April 1st, but people weren't sure what I meant, so I tossed together a demo (based loosely on elinks, lynx, mutt and elm) in a few hours.
Honestly, much of the design is, at best, foolish: there's overuse of Ajax and of Javascript and the only reason that I didn't try to improve that was that the lag between hitting a key and getting the page back reminded me, kinaesthetically, of using Gopher in a university library circa 1994 and marvelling at how amazing it was.
The first drafts had only one comment per page, very deliberately, in order to not make it anyone's preferred view on the site, but I got talked out of that. Also, I've probably used it more on my phone than on my computer, because I really wanted to make sure that it was alien on a phone, but not simply broken.
In terms of what's not there, favourites was an easy choice, simply because the lack thereof fits better to my memories of static directories of stuff. Flagging, I would have added if I'd committed more time to the joke. Commenting is and was a difficult one. On one hand, of course being able to also comment fits. On the other, the interface (in my opinion, of course) pretty heavily favours replying without reading, and that's my sticking point with that dream.
As to keeping it around – Like last year's character sheets, yes, it'll stick around, but I'm likely only to fix it if things break totally, and very unlikely, just due to having a finite amount of time in a given week, to try to improve it, even if I already have an improvement/feature list in my head.
posted by frimble (staff) at 12:16 PM on April 1, 2018 [18 favorites]
Honestly, much of the design is, at best, foolish: there's overuse of Ajax and of Javascript and the only reason that I didn't try to improve that was that the lag between hitting a key and getting the page back reminded me, kinaesthetically, of using Gopher in a university library circa 1994 and marvelling at how amazing it was.
The first drafts had only one comment per page, very deliberately, in order to not make it anyone's preferred view on the site, but I got talked out of that. Also, I've probably used it more on my phone than on my computer, because I really wanted to make sure that it was alien on a phone, but not simply broken.
In terms of what's not there, favourites was an easy choice, simply because the lack thereof fits better to my memories of static directories of stuff. Flagging, I would have added if I'd committed more time to the joke. Commenting is and was a difficult one. On one hand, of course being able to also comment fits. On the other, the interface (in my opinion, of course) pretty heavily favours replying without reading, and that's my sticking point with that dream.
As to keeping it around – Like last year's character sheets, yes, it'll stick around, but I'm likely only to fix it if things break totally, and very unlikely, just due to having a finite amount of time in a given week, to try to improve it, even if I already have an improvement/feature list in my head.
posted by frimble (staff) at 12:16 PM on April 1, 2018 [18 favorites]
That was the best Tetris I've played since the last time I played it on the Nintendo with the original rectangle controller. Especially the music.
Thank you.
posted by monopas at 12:26 PM on April 1, 2018
Thank you.
posted by monopas at 12:26 PM on April 1, 2018
Only thing it need is letting us use our .sig files.
--
--
.-_|\
/ \
Perth ->*.--._/
v posted by Justinian at 12:38 PM on April 1, 2018 [14 favorites] p
mailcap for music?
does anyone know what to put in my mailcap file to play songs on the music board? not sure what the mime type is. aTdHvAaNnKcSe!
.
:wq
C-x C-c
quit
exit
posted by Westringia F. at 12:48 PM on April 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
mailcap for music?
does anyone know what to put in my mailcap file to play songs on the music board? not sure what the mime type is. aTdHvAaNnKcSe!
.
:wq
C-x C-c
quit
exit
posted by Westringia F. at 12:48 PM on April 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
Ha, I was putting :wq at the end of all my email for years, and nobody ever got it, so I stopped.
Anyone got a good .rc file template yet?
posted by ctmf at 1:20 PM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Anyone got a good .rc file template yet?
posted by ctmf at 1:20 PM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
This is super fun. I'm pretty sure it's been years since I lasted played Tetris, yet I still had the muscle memory of which keys should do what. Wut, no instant drop?
posted by readinghippo at 2:18 PM on April 1, 2018
posted by readinghippo at 2:18 PM on April 1, 2018
Perth ->*
The baby rabbit's butthole of Australia!
j/k j/k I have been there and loved it.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:18 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
The baby rabbit's butthole of Australia!
j/k j/k I have been there and loved it.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:18 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: "I needed to be in front of an actual computer, and instead, I was petting a sheep."
posted by Mitheral at 2:25 PM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 2:25 PM on April 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Is there a board for musical requests? I have several major motion picture soundtracks in mind that could use that treatment.
-Brian
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
G d- s: a+ C+(++) UC(-) P L+ E-- W+ N+++ o--? !K-- w(+) O- M V- PS++ PE- Y++ PGP t+ 5++ X++ R++ tv-- b DI D+ G+ e++(+++) h r y+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
posted by meinvt at 2:28 PM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
-Brian
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
G d- s: a+ C+(++) UC(-) P L+ E-- W+ N+++ o--? !K-- w(+) O- M V- PS++ PE- Y++ PGP t+ 5++ X++ R++ tv-- b DI D+ G+ e++(+++) h r y+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
posted by meinvt at 2:28 PM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
frimble: I needed to be in front of an actual computer, and instead, I was petting a sheep.
I would have loved to see your face when you found out!
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:49 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I would have loved to see your face when you found out!
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:49 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
They did a double-take and then shouted "bah!"
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:50 PM on April 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:50 PM on April 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
Holy shit, I actually want this to stick around as an option!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:11 PM on April 1, 2018
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:11 PM on April 1, 2018
Huzzah! Great fun!
(Though, as someone who browses the site in elinks around 60% of the time, the main difference is that it's a lot slower and some of the keys are unfamiliar. That metafilter continues to work almost perfectly in elinks is also something I celebrate.)
posted by eotvos at 3:27 PM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
(Though, as someone who browses the site in elinks around 60% of the time, the main difference is that it's a lot slower and some of the keys are unfamiliar. That metafilter continues to work almost perfectly in elinks is also something I celebrate.)
posted by eotvos at 3:27 PM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
I went to try out metafilter in elinks...and discovered that I was already logged in!
Unless elinks has some strange ability to steal credentials from Chrome, I think
that means I've used Metafilter from elinks before. I just forgot about it.
posted by d. z. wang at 3:48 PM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Unless elinks has some strange ability to steal credentials from Chrome, I think
that means I've used Metafilter from elinks before. I just forgot about it.
posted by d. z. wang at 3:48 PM on April 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
So, serious question: does metafilter have an API? I would love to put some hobby time into an emacs client.
posted by d. z. wang at 3:50 PM on April 1, 2018
posted by d. z. wang at 3:50 PM on April 1, 2018
I hope frimble gets tenure for this.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:51 PM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Space Coyote at 3:51 PM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
We do not have an API; it's a very pie-in-the-sky "maybe one day" thing rather than a matter of principle, but that pie is quite high up there and difficult to perceive with the unaided eye.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:18 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:18 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Assuming everyone understands that this isn't a stable thing intended for public use, would you be okay with someone studying the client-side code and figuring out how to communicate with your servers?
posted by d. z. wang at 4:30 PM on April 1, 2018
posted by d. z. wang at 4:30 PM on April 1, 2018
#################### #e.in.the.icebox.a # #r n # #e ans.o d.e of. d # #w k s e r r g . # #. e . l e . n w # #t 3 d i w b i h # #a n c . r v i # #h i a i y e a c # #t . . o e a s h # #. h t u h k . . # #s a e s t f y y # #m v e . . a l o # #u e w s e s b u # #l . s.o m t a . # #p e . . b w # #. a e f o e # #e t v o r r # #ht.ne igr p.e # ####################posted by ckape at 4:37 PM on April 1, 2018 [12 favorites]
(to be clear, I am a fraud and actually terrible at snake)
posted by ckape at 4:42 PM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ckape at 4:42 PM on April 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Now do it with the Treaty of Westphalia!
posted by Westringia F. at 4:45 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Westringia F. at 4:45 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
you're joking but
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:54 PM on April 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:54 PM on April 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
Metafilter: I needed to be in front of an actual computer, and instead, I was petting a sheep.
posted by theora55 at 4:54 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 4:54 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
damnit
#################### #in.the.name.of.the# #nni.dna.yloh.tsom.# #adividual.snake.be# #..lla.ot.nwonk.ti.# #sand.every.one.who# #mo.nrecnoc.yam.ti.# #or.to.whom.in.any.# #dleb.yam.ti.rennam# #gong.that.for.many# #nocsid.tsap.sraey.# #irds.and.civil.div# #krits.gnieb.snoisi# #.d.up.in.the.roman# #gcni.hcihw.eripme.# #nreasd.to.such.deg# #iylno.ton.taht.eer# #r.all.germany.but.# #uobhgien.eht.osla.# ####################posted by ckape at 5:39 PM on April 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
Tetris quickly became a game of "What's the longest word I can spell?"
I got "SEEK".
posted by biogeo at 5:43 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I got "SEEK".
posted by biogeo at 5:43 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
An artisanal interface! Well done fun 👍
posted by warriorqueen at 5:55 PM on April 1, 2018
posted by warriorqueen at 5:55 PM on April 1, 2018
Please tell me that the tetris music will go (or has already gone!) on MeMu!
posted by kenko at 6:38 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by kenko at 6:38 PM on April 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
You know that feeling of going into your parent's or grandparents house or whoever? It doesn't matter if you are 22 or 82?
The meal.
The meal is there.
It is probably not healthy. But, it is special. It is made with love. As soon as you walk in the door and you smell the smells and get ready to taste the tastes...
You.
Are.
Home.
You are allowed to be vulnerable. You are allowed to have someone else protect you for however long you decide to be there.
********
Clicking on the Metafilter Reader link did exactly that for me. Thank y'all. Y'all are the best.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 8:17 PM on April 1, 2018 [13 favorites]
The meal.
The meal is there.
It is probably not healthy. But, it is special. It is made with love. As soon as you walk in the door and you smell the smells and get ready to taste the tastes...
You.
Are.
Home.
You are allowed to be vulnerable. You are allowed to have someone else protect you for however long you decide to be there.
********
Clicking on the Metafilter Reader link did exactly that for me. Thank y'all. Y'all are the best.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 8:17 PM on April 1, 2018 [13 favorites]
The Tetris music should be autotuned Metafilter Insult Jazz.
posted by mrbill at 8:40 PM on April 1, 2018
posted by mrbill at 8:40 PM on April 1, 2018
I LOVE IT!
It's not quite the same, but this brings back fond memories of Pine, our University's email client. I was a wizard with that thing. So many incredible conversations, lost in rain...
Also, Tetris is hard.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:46 PM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's not quite the same, but this brings back fond memories of Pine, our University's email client. I was a wizard with that thing. So many incredible conversations, lost in rain...
Also, Tetris is hard.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:46 PM on April 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
I remain sad that there's no plate of beans emoji for the snake to eat, regardless of whether that fits the theme. But a 🍛, a 🍲 or a 🍜 might do the job.
posted by ambrosen at 3:56 AM on April 2, 2018
posted by ambrosen at 3:56 AM on April 2, 2018
[this is good]
posted by carter at 5:29 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by carter at 5:29 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
The baby rabbit's butthole of Australia!
Cannot unsee. :O
posted by Pyrogenesis at 5:59 AM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Cannot unsee. :O
posted by Pyrogenesis at 5:59 AM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
I still use Pine for my old email account. Whoever came up with the idea that the mouse is more efficient than keyboard shortcuts should have been shot.
Love this, thank you!
posted by Melismata at 7:41 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Love this, thank you!
posted by Melismata at 7:41 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
another vote for "love this, please embrace and extend"
posted by namewithoutwords at 10:06 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by namewithoutwords at 10:06 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is much better than the sad April 1 joke I expected.
Here's a feature request — maybe it is quick and easy enough to implement but I understand if not. For thread with no comments (example) have some indication of this either before or after the user tries to load them (presses "c"). Right now trying to load comments there does nothing which is confusing.
posted by exogenous at 11:04 AM on April 2, 2018
Here's a feature request — maybe it is quick and easy enough to implement but I understand if not. For thread with no comments (example) have some indication of this either before or after the user tries to load them (presses "c"). Right now trying to load comments there does nothing which is confusing.
posted by exogenous at 11:04 AM on April 2, 2018
mailcap for music?
does anyone know what to put in my mailcap file to play songs on the music board? not sure what the mime type is. aTdHvAaNnKcSe!
NM. Figured it out. Just press 'm' when looking at a song.
(This is a new feature. You did nothing wrong. I just wanted to, once in my life, write 'NM. Figured it out' in response to a question)
Right now trying to load comments there does nothing which is confusing.
At the top left, it says how many comments are in the post. Because that's way too subtle, as a side effect of adding playing music, I also made the 'c: Comments' button disappear if there are no comments.
posted by frimble (staff) at 12:50 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
does anyone know what to put in my mailcap file to play songs on the music board? not sure what the mime type is. aTdHvAaNnKcSe!
NM. Figured it out. Just press 'm' when looking at a song.
(This is a new feature. You did nothing wrong. I just wanted to, once in my life, write 'NM. Figured it out' in response to a question)
Right now trying to load comments there does nothing which is confusing.
At the top left, it says how many comments are in the post. Because that's way too subtle, as a side effect of adding playing music, I also made the 'c: Comments' button disappear if there are no comments.
posted by frimble (staff) at 12:50 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
I love this so much. I played a game of Tetris, and it's so hard. Didn't realize the music feature until I started reading this thread. I went back and played another game for the 'music'. OMG, it made me laugh so hard, and well, let's just say I needed that badly. It's been a long day.
posted by hydra77 at 1:02 PM on April 2, 2018
posted by hydra77 at 1:02 PM on April 2, 2018
It's kind of fun, but I have to say that I saw the link in the header and dared to dream that it was a MetaFilter Google Reader. I'm still kinda crying inside.
posted by advicepig at 1:02 PM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by advicepig at 1:02 PM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's kind of fun, but I have to say that I saw the link in the header and dared to dream that it was a MetaFilter Google Reader. I'm still kinda crying inside.
I'm sorry. I think that too when I see the page title in the tab and it makes me sad, even though I paid for and set up Fever when Google Reader went dark, and try hard not to look back.
I also really miss 'having an RSS/Atom feed' being the semi-default state of websites rather than something that's a very niche extra.
posted by frimble (staff) at 1:35 PM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'm sorry. I think that too when I see the page title in the tab and it makes me sad, even though I paid for and set up Fever when Google Reader went dark, and try hard not to look back.
I also really miss 'having an RSS/Atom feed' being the semi-default state of websites rather than something that's a very niche extra.
posted by frimble (staff) at 1:35 PM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
Wow, this is cool and I too vote for it as an option especially, if if it can handle megathreads. Also, I felt like a Viking remembering keyboard shortcuts.
posted by jadepearl at 2:06 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jadepearl at 2:06 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Now, if we could only telnet into the MeFi server with our username/password and access this interface.
posted by D.C. at 7:25 PM on April 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by D.C. at 7:25 PM on April 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
Please, ssh. We're not maniacs.
posted by ckape at 12:15 AM on April 3, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by ckape at 12:15 AM on April 3, 2018 [8 favorites]
Squee! Where's nntp.metafilter.com?
posted by zengargoyle at 2:17 AM on April 3, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by zengargoyle at 2:17 AM on April 3, 2018 [7 favorites]
You uncovered my 30-year-buried tetris addiction. Damn you!
posted by Dashy at 12:43 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Dashy at 12:43 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
frimble, do you have a picture of the sheep? :)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 9:09 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 9:09 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
Here’s the sheep. It’s at the animal park in Ortenburg.
posted by frimble (staff) at 10:10 PM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by frimble (staff) at 10:10 PM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
My only disappointment is that ascii art comes out with extra line spacing
I know that I'm going to regret saying this, but ASCII art in <pre> tags should now work.
posted by frimble (staff) at 12:40 AM on April 4, 2018 [5 favorites]
I know that I'm going to regret saying this, but ASCII art in <pre> tags should now work.
posted by frimble (staff) at 12:40 AM on April 4, 2018 [5 favorites]
Maybe it's because I've been extra sluggy this week and didn't see this until the 5th, but it works so well it didn't occur to me that it might be for April Fool's until I read this thread.
It reminds me of how awesome trn was when I discovered it (and USENET). I found I had to increase the font size in my browser for my eyes to be ok with the fixed width font everywhere, but that might be just 'cause I'm not as young as I was when I used trn.
In summary, thanks!!!
posted by at home in my head at 5:50 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
It reminds me of how awesome trn was when I discovered it (and USENET). I found I had to increase the font size in my browser for my eyes to be ok with the fixed width font everywhere, but that might be just 'cause I'm not as young as I was when I used trn.
In summary, thanks!!!
posted by at home in my head at 5:50 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
How do I launch TinyMUX
posted by zerolives at 8:52 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by zerolives at 8:52 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
My only regret is that there is no NNTP gateway to MeFi for me to actually hook up to and sync articles to my laptop for offline reading and reply.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:28 AM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:28 AM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
muttafilter!
I don't understand how someone didn't beat me to this. It's... it's not because it isn't actually funny, is it?
posted by wildblueyonder at 10:12 AM on April 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
I don't understand how someone didn't beat me to this. It's... it's not because it isn't actually funny, is it?
posted by wildblueyonder at 10:12 AM on April 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
This is extremely cool.
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:27 PM on April 6, 2018
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:27 PM on April 6, 2018
Joke's on you: I'm reading this on my BlackBerry!
posted by Megnusin at 9:29 PM on April 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Megnusin at 9:29 PM on April 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
like last year's character sheets
THE DO WHAT NOW? Man, I gotta keep better tabs on MeTa.
posted by mwhybark at 2:23 PM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
THE DO WHAT NOW? Man, I gotta keep better tabs on MeTa.
posted by mwhybark at 2:23 PM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars to send everywhere. Please be sure you know what you are doing. Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [y / n]
posted by webmutant at 3:11 PM on April 8, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by webmutant at 3:11 PM on April 8, 2018 [9 favorites]
I don't understand how someone didn't beat me to this. It's... it's not because it isn't actually funny, is it?As a one-tool-for-all-jobs fanatic and someone who uses Mutt (and text editors invoked by mutt) for several hours each day. . . a mutt metafilter-browser compile-time option sounds fantastic. On the other hand, we already have really good tools that handle metafilter quite well. So I'm going to take a pass on working on it.
posted by eotvos at 8:24 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
Feels weird that there's no command line prompt.
Not being snarky.
posted by Quisp Lover at 10:24 AM on April 12, 2018
Not being snarky.
posted by Quisp Lover at 10:24 AM on April 12, 2018
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posted by frimble (staff) at 10:18 PM on March 31, 2018 [22 favorites]