MetaTalk

Let's fill out our Seattle Public Library's Summer Book Bingo cards together. You don't have to live in Seattle to do it; anywhere will work, with books in any language. We can give each other reading suggestions and encouragement here. [more inside]
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:29 AM - 51 comments

A moderator removed a link to the Guardian because of something about that paper's LGBTQ stance. This is the first I've heard. What caused this reaction from MetaFilter? It seems to have come up only now, but I cannot find anything in recent Guardian issues that might have prompted the action.
posted by CCBC at 2:41 PM - 31 comments

Hello Metafilter! My 5th update on the state of the site. [more inside]
posted by loup at 1:11 PM - 7 comments

Frimble thought of this question, and I didn't even know I had a favorite shelf until they asked! Do you have a fun shelf share? Is it because of the physical properties of the shelf, or its location, or what's on the shelf, or a combo? Is it a coincidence that "shelf" rhymes with "self"??? 🤯Yes! Yes, it is! Never mind, tell us a little about yourshelf anyway! [more inside]
posted by taz at 10:56 PM - 25 comments

You've traded in your magic (overthinking) beans, or you've managed to free a grateful food genie, or your foodie godmother has wielded her magic wand, or you've stumbled upon a hungry dragon's unguarded treasure ... anyway, the tl/dr is that now you have a fabulous enchanted plate that once a day will fill up with whatever dish you summon forth. So what will you be eating from your magical plate today? Oh, but just one more thing... [more inside]
posted by taz at 6:15 AM - 39 comments

Five years ago today, an innocuous thread was posted about nerd culture mashup t-shirts. Before long, weird mashup creation took hold, and with this comment by Existential Dread, a format solidified. The ensuing madness would last more than a month, totaling more than 2,000 comments and at least as many insane mashup titles in a brilliant/stupid/hilarious thread that will still make you laugh today. Which are your favorites?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:04 PM - 2398 comments

Hello Metafilter! Please find my 4th update on the state of the site below. [more inside]
posted by loup at 12:42 PM - 5 comments

Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead asks: "You have 17 pounds of gold (at minimum worth $50,000 in today's buying power), a time machine, and the infrastructure to fund one arts project at any point in history. What do you fund?" 'Arts' covering any human technology / performance / creation, in this case. [more inside]
posted by taz at 11:02 AM - 48 comments

The situation in Gaza is awful, and as a moderation team collectively we are horrified by the violence and destruction and loss of life the Israeli government has been causing in Palestine. As a Jew, personally, I am too; for the mod team and for many people in the MetaFilter community this isn't just a terrible situation but one with very direct and personal resonances. Jewish identity and history is complex; overt and oppressive violence isn't, and what the state of Israel is doing right now to the people in Palestine is wrong.

The desire to talk about and react to the situation on MeFi is completely understandable. But it's also a topic that has, in particular during times of open conflict, been incredibly difficult to manage as an open discussion without it escalating to a point of being more harmful than helpful, and that's something we can't knowingly support playing out in the community here.

It's hard to say when and how a broad discussion of this can go well; we are going to have to exercise a lot of care in assessing whether the framing of a post and available moderator resources will make for a workable thread. In the mean time it feels necessary to me to make this MetaTalk post acknowledging both that site dilemma and the actual situation at large since MeFi, as a place built around posts, can end up feeling conspicuously silent when there's not a thread happening organically.

I'd like to try and fill the gap left by the lack of an open thread by using the space inside this post to round up informational resources; the mod team will aim to add to this post periodically if folks will forward good links to us via the contact form. [more inside]
posted by cortex at 1:27 PM - 0 comments

Our Metatalktail topic this week come courtesy Kristi, who asks "Time travel has become easy and commonplace. Everyone's already done the big time travel things. What mundane, low-priority time travel trips would you take?" [more inside]
posted by taz at 3:31 AM - 76 comments