MetaTalk

As per Brandon's suggestion, consider this a discussion space for whether or not ChatGP/LLM/generative AI posts, comments and (perhaps most importantly) AskMe answers should continue to be allowed.
posted by fight or flight at 11:49 AM Feb 15 2025 - 142 comments [11 favorites]

Inspired by the answers to Is the World Ending, it seemed like a good idea to share these answers with as many people as possible! It's a lot harder to have a Calmer Vibes Chill Thread today. That seems so quaint. Yikes. This is a place to post all of the reasons you know about that mean The World is Not Going To End Soon. ❤️ (examples within)
posted by Glinn at 3:52 PM Feb 20 2025 - 3 comments [10 favorites]

The Moderation Oversight Committee is hoping to get properly up and running soon, and a big part of that is going to be a submission process so we can receive and discuss users' issues with moderation practices in an orderly fashion. As of now, we have a draft version of a Google Form that we're pretty happy with as the mechanism for receiving requests, but we'd like your help refining and finalizing that form before we give it the big public roll-out.
posted by Kybard at 7:15 PM Feb 20 2025 - 5 comments [5 favorites]

In early December, there was a contentious AskMe thread that went badly and led to the loss of a site member. nouvelle-personne's departure has continued to be an argument for various things in MetaTalk and around community governance, and it would be helpful to me to have a succinct, consensus account of what went wrong.
posted by anotherpanacea at 11:48 AM Feb 15 2025 - 264 comments [4 favorites]

In the recent post about removing the MeTa queue, Violet Blue made a comment that they had submitted a post about creating a Moderator Code of Conduct that had been refused at the time with a suggestion to try again later. We're officially a non-profit, responsibilities for site management are transitioning to the board and the Moderation Oversight Committee is working to form. I think "later" is now.
posted by phunniemee at 9:57 AM Feb 13 2025 - 25 comments [14 favorites (3 in the last 7 days)]

Reading the Popular Comments is the best way to find the hidden gems of knowledge and deep dives from awesome people on this site.
posted by Dashy at 9:07 AM Feb 16 2025 - 19 comments [2 favorites]

The "social sharing" option on posts (the single little icon off to the right if you haven't turned them off in your preferences) was first added in 2011, with Twitter and Facebook. Twitter was removed in September 2023. I think, given everything, we should also remove the Facebook option. And in general I'd prefer to have zero than one, no matter what the "one" site is. I don't have a strong opinion about what sites, if any, should be there. But perhaps we could come up with a consensus on two or three new options. (I've had some small discussions with the admins about this and they suggested a MeTa post to discuss.)
posted by skynxnex at 8:22 AM Feb 20 2025 - 32 comments [2 favorites]

Including one especially depressing one with the heartbreaking comment, "Where is the USPolitics tag? I didn't need to see this." The current balance between "MetaFilter is not a news site" and "We need to vent because we're shitting our pants in terror" does not seem sustainable. I propose enforcing a no-doubles rule on TFG matters. If he signs an executive order tomorrow outlawing public laughter, let anyone putting up a post about it be told to put it here.
posted by Lemkin at 3:14 PM Feb 20 2025 - 16 comments [2 favorites]

Hello and welcome to this month’s site update! Last month’s update can be found here
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:16 PM Feb 20 2025 - 19 comments [2 favorites]

Have you noticed an increase in posts about race by people of color lately? It’s not just your imagination. Come and learn about our #poctakeover initiative, and our major takeaways in trying to provide a vision of what a site truly inclusive of people of color would look like.
posted by Conspire at 10:40 AM Jan 13 2020 - 95 comments [163 favorites (1 in the last 7 days)]

Have a critter, do you? (And, just between ourselves, a paragon of the species?) As a community-building exercise, let us showcase them here.
posted by Lemkin at 9:23 PM Feb 8 2025 - 54 comments [18 favorites (1 in the last 7 days)]

This thread is meant for discussion and information for Mefites thinking of leaving the USA because of the political situation. Mexico is my leading contender. But the discussion is open for anywhere.
posted by NotLost at 12:29 PM Feb 3 2025 - 58 comments [11 favorites (1 in the last 7 days)]

Ten years, eight months and 12 days ago, the MetaTalk queue was turned on. The reason for doing so was a reduction in the availability of moderators at any given time and the high workload MeTa threads created relative to other parts of the site. However, it has continued to be a contentious issue for members from time to time, much more so recently, where the queue is seen to have become much more of a filter than a queue, with perceptions that some people are now actually being Silenced All Their Life.
posted by dg at 4:35 PM Feb 11 2025 - 284 comments [7 favorites (1 in the last 7 days)]

I posted this on FanFare Talk but it doesn't seem widely used. I like FanFare, but there's no curated or automated sort of "What's on you shouldn't miss" list. I propose we have a simple open chat type thread where we mention our favorite movies/television shows/books in the past month filed under "Special Events." This should take no new additional development effort or moderator intervention. Any serious objection to it?
posted by geoff. at 10:41 AM Aug 11 2022 - 37 comments [6 favorites (1 in the last 7 days)]

I get annoyed when people answer questions in AskMe that don't meet the asker's stated criteria, but they were not previously deleted this aggressively. That seems like a large change that goes against what many people in MeTa have been asking for, and has been instituted without any discussion.
posted by lapis at 8:34 PM Feb 13 2025 - 113 comments [3 favorites (1 in the last 7 days)]