Routine pap with my NP shows 'wow, big cervical polyp!' so then off to the gyno who says 'let's just pull it all out!' Is this a normal go-to solution for a healthy 55yo? YANMD. Have you done this? What do you know? Seeking feedback and related experience around polyps and fibroids and hysterectomies. All my life I have been among the fortunate to have regular and painless periods. It's now been a solid 3 years since my last. My recent pap showed an apparently giant cervical polyp, so off to the (new-to-me) gyn I went (to have it removed I thought). She tells me it's very large and that my uterus is also, which apparently indicates to her that it's full of fibroids. I am healthy and have no symptoms of anything.

She assures me there's nothing to worry about (I lost my person to cancer so yes, this does scare me, because I know 'nothing to worry about' can also mean you'll be dead in a year) and says if I was her sister, she would recommend 'removing it all.'

Apparently a hysterectomy is laparoscopic, and all the parts come out your vag and ...it's no big thang? (she had one herself and was 'back to work 3 days later'). Next is me making an appt for a pelvic ultrasound, followed by another appt with her in early Feb to establish what we do next. Any thoughts? And sure, maybe it's not cancer, but if they noticed a polyp 6 weeks ago and my post-ultrasound appointment to talk about next steps isn't for another 6 weeks, and procedure maybe isn't for yet another 6 weeks, I mean... what if it is cancer and I'm giving it all this time to grow? Also, is a decision like this something that merits a second opinion? I live in a small town with two gynos, and at least 2 hours from more.

Just trying to wrap my head around this (recognizing that I have some health anxiety due to my loss) and learn if it's a totally standard approach. If you have something to share but don't want to do it here, feel free to PM.

Thanksgiving week, flying into PHX with seven days to hike and play. Someone suggested five days in Sedona and two days in Jerome. What would you do? We are two women who love to hike. Open to options, perhaps with two locations outside of Phoenix. No one day's drive more than 2 hours. Priorities are 3- to 8-mile day hikes, any difficulty. Dramatic vistas, sunsets, stars, sunny aspects if possible. We do have to work remotely a bit that week, so M-W we need wifi and the shorter trails.

Looking for itinerary ideas, both roads and trails!

Not so much seeking lodging suggestions, but if you have them, fire away. Probably aiming for the $120-150/nt range if possible with two beds and a kitchen (with hopes of assembling some sort of Thanksgiving meal there). Seems possible, but a challenge. Feel free to toss in quirky roadside attractions, favorite cafés, etc.

My new partner loves reptiles, insects, amphibians (birds too...no hard limits) and this discovery has sent me on a journey of exploration. Similar to the Narcisse Snake Dens or the Montreal Insectarium, where in the world is a guaranteed cool critter experience? North America would be most accessible right now, but years ago I went to Costa Rica and saw so many amazing critters, I would love to look ahead to future travel to places like that. Open to museums, dedicated bug tours, unique migrations, enthusiastic naturalists, etc. We are not likely to spare the resources for a full-on African safari, Okavango boat tour or Amazonian adventure, but share what you know. Also down with your favorite wow-factor videos of such things.

Are we sure the electronic voting machines operated properly? I don't need a ton of proof but I want to understand if impartial experts can confirm this, or if Democrats do some sort of auditing to make sure it was all on the up and up?

I have a $285 budget and I want to get a fantastic gift/gift basket for a friend/coworker. My friend did something really wonderful for a bunch of coworkers, and we crowdfunded $285 to buy him a thank-you gift. The $285 must include stuff like taxes, delivery fees/tips, shipping, etc.

I'm thinking maybe a gift basket --he loves food and cooking both--probably not kitchen gadgets but more like interesting/new ingredients (we are in California ). So ya a gift basket of gourmet foods and/or amazing produce or some awesome ingredients. I've looked into frog hollow, I know people love Harry and David, and will look more into Delicious Orchards too.

Open to lots of suggestions! I am also open to gift basket + restaurant gift cert or the like. It just needs to be really special to show how much we appreciate him!

Oh he also loves plants, crochet/knitting, and is a musician.

I'm trying to find a story published on Clarkes World or tor.com or something similar, in the last ~15 years? A woman protagonist is on an exoplanet, and we become aware that she's being transformed by a parasite from the planet, but her experience of it is expansive and euphoric. I think it explicitly mentions the tongue-eating louse, though I could be misremembering that bit.

I often have thoughts or ideas when I'm in the car, but I have no easy way to capture them. I have an iPhone, but I don't want to fiddle with it while I'm driving. I'm seeking an app (or possibly a standalone device) that I can safely use while driving. Is there some app that is voice-activated (i.e., without unlocking the phone) and will transcribe short memos? Ideally, I'd like those transcripts to be available in some cloud site, so I can access them via a web browser on my office computer or home computer.

I'd even consider buying a standalone recorder that I can activate just by pushing a button. I looked on Amazon, but I didn't really see anything that can make transcripts and upload them to a cloud site. Just the audio files might work, but it would be much better for me to have transcripts that I can easily access from a computer.

My husband's (trauma-based?) anxiety runs to paranoia, and he occasionally makes angry and hurtful accusations at me. None of the accusations are true and are not really based in reality. Could this get better? My husband has been seeing a therapist who specialises in narcissistic abuse since spring of this year, following a set of realisations about past relationships and then decisions to cut contact with his best friend, his parents, and finally his only sibling. He tells me his therapist has tentatively suggested he may have cPTSD. Before he started therapy, he would in effect try to use me as his therapist and I have listened to him talk for many, many hours. I am sad that he has so few people in his life now but consider that he is better placed than I am to decide on the kind of relationships he should have with his family and friends.

My husband has also experienced IBS-related agoraphobia for about 8 years rarely leaving the house, and is entirely dependent on me financially. He came out to me, and my friends and family as bisexual early in the year. He is not engaging in any medical care except for his weekly therapist appointment on Zoom. We have sex very infrequently (and this is a mismatch for him) but otherwise have a very affectionate and loving relationship. He has always been supportive of me and been proud of my accomplishments inside and outside work. Before these very occasional accusations started happening, I felt generally like the character in Alanis Morrissette's Head over Feet.

He clearly has symptoms of anxiety including physical symptoms such as feeling dizzy and sometimes expresses paranoid thoughts about eg tradespeople that come to the house. Very occasionally he is angry at me. Sometimes this will be with a raised voice, other times with what feels to me like quite cold-blooded venom, sometimes it will be preceded by an obvious short period of silent treatment. It is always a long, confusing monologue, with vague insinuations and an insistence that I know exactly what he is talking about. He frequently claims that people say things 'subtextually' and sometimes specifically that I have clearly communicated something related to his insinuations 'subtextually'. Although I have never felt at risk of violence, when this anger happens I feel very physically frightened. I tend to remain silent, and my thoughts are focused on escape and the risks of escalation. I find his train of thought very difficult to follow, it is not concrete or specific and I am sometimes in panic mode. I am often very literal and am not sure that I really know what he means when he talks about things being 'subtextual'. Eventually he will make a specific accusation, or I will say something and that will lead to an accusation.

The accusations so far have been
•I am withholding sex deliberately to manipulate him
•I lack empathy and am manipulative
•I treat him badly in general and would be unhappy if he was no longer agoraphobic
•I have been having casual relationships with other people since we met 12 years ago
•I have at some point had a 'secret relationship' with a particular female friend.

The accusations are both unexpected and untrue.

After I have denied the accusation, eventually the anger will blow out and dissipate. There might follow another confusing monologue about his state of mind and the trauma he has experienced. Usually, we will then have a decent conversation (either immediately or the next morning) in which he provides some reasoning behind his accusation. They are generally based on very convoluted trains of logic and some snippet of a real-life event or comment. He interprets his accusations and my denials as a way of providing reassurance that I am not going to cause trauma like 'everyone else' has. He has some real sympathy for my being upset by them, but I am not convinced he understands how much they distress me. He has told me that wants me to have more empathy for his trauma and accept that he does not mean the accusations personally.

I find each anger and accusation event frightening at the time and destabilising afterwards. They have happened four or five times in this calendar year. Although I love him very much, I think that if they kept continuing, I would eventually want to leave. I am holding out hope that by continuing to work with his therapist they will stop at some point. Am I being wildly unrealistic? I recognise that I have a strong reaction to any anger. Is there anything I could do to reduce the impact it has on me in the meantime?

I unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to go to therapy for a very long time, and in the end, it was a friend of mine who convinced him, so my chances of talking him into any specific actions are low. But if he were asking for advice, what advice would you give?

In terms of my own real-life support, I have my own therapist that I have been seeing weekly for the past two years, mainly to help me cope with my husband's ill health and related issues. I am honest with my therapist about what is happening. One of my close friends also knows what is happening and I have a supportive colleague who knows some things. I have access to more than enough money to leave him in the short-term if I needed to and divorce would be expensive but not absolutely impoverishing.

Is there any way of using public transit for commuting to Los Gatos from San Francisco? I'd love to use Caltrain and some sort of shuttlebus combo, but have had a lot of trouble finding the correct combination of services. I've tried mapping the trip using transit.511.org but it doesn't seem to include Los Gatos in it's coverage area. I'll be working down there beginning next week, and would love to avoid driving as much as possible.

I'm feeling out of my depth and could really use some support. My 16-year-old daughter recently admitted to drinking alcohol, and I'm grateful she trusted me enough to share this. But now, I'm facing an even more complicated situation. Last night she came home late with red eyes. I was asleep, and my wife became suspicious of smoking weed. The next day asked me to speak with her. I had a private conversation with her, where I asked about alcohol and other substances. She denied it. I promised her that she could tell me anything, and I'd keep it confidential unless her safety was at risk or if I felt I couldn't help and needed to find someone who could. I assured her that if it ever came to that, I'd tell her first before involving anyone else.

With that reassurance, she admitted to drinking. I'm grateful she opened up, but now I'm worried this may not be the first time, and I'm feeling deeply concerned.

• Family History: My father's drinking led to emotional neglect and abuse when I was growing up. This makes me particularly hurt, sad, and fearful about my daughter's safety and the potential dangers of substance use.
•. Daughter's Challenges: She has attention issues and dyslexia, making school and focus a constant challenge. I worry that drinking or experimenting with substances could worsen these struggles.
• Parental Dynamics: I haven't shared any of this with my wife yet. My wife has a very strict, zero-tolerance stance on substance use and has even threatened to abandon our daughter if she ever used drugs or alcohol. To be clear that's just intended to keep her in line. I don't believe it would ever come to that —but I feel stuck and unsure of how to handle this delicate situation.
•.Social Concerns: My daughter's friends are important to her, and I don't want to damage her social life or push her away. At the same time, I need to find a way to set boundaries and keep her safe.

My Questions:
• How do I support my daughter, maintain her trust, and guide her toward safer choices without isolating her socially or damaging our relationship?
• How do I handle this situation with my wife while protecting my daughter's trust and managing the volatility of our family dynamics?
• How can I manage my own fears, given my past experiences with emotional abuse and my daughter's learning challenges?

Any advice, support, or shared experiences would mean the world to me. Thank you for listening.

The tragedy in the southeast is heartbreaking and motivates me to be more prepared for an escape in case of emergency. I'm looking for advice on the best practices for assembling a bug-out bag. Just after Katrina (where we were not severely impacted but were without electricity for 2 weeks ) I had put together a knapsack, but I've let it go in the last few years. I know there are resources online that offer recommendations, but I'd like to hear from this community about what you've found makes sense without going overboard. What are the essential items to include for a family of four? Are there any lessons learned from your experiences that might help ensure preparedness without feeling overwhelming? How do you organize it/them? How do you keep your bag(s) up to date, and where do you store them?

Thanks in advance for your input, and my heart goes out to those affected by recent disasters.

Quick, possibly embarrassing, question about using Shoe Goo... So, the soles completely (and cleanly) disconnected from the uppers of an old pair of Merrells of mine. Shoe Goo to the rescue, right? But, in typical fashion, I might be overthinking this. To wit...

Do you apply Shoe Goo to both surfaces to be bonded, like you would an epoxy? Or just one surface?

All epoxies I've ever used always make it clear you are to apply it to both surfaces, but the Shoe Goo instructions are kinda vague on the subject. Nowhere can I find instructions that specifically state applying to both surfaces. The instructions merely say "apply to surfaces" but it's unclear if it means both surfaces to be bonded, or is simply referring to the plurality of surfaces you can use the stuff on.

Yeah, I'm beanplating this like boss.

Hope me?

It's only the first day of August, but the weather in Portland is such that it already feeling like plural dog days have elapsed. And yet, through it all, a podcast episode drags itself through the sun-baked streets to appear, sweating and winded, on your doorstep. Come along with Jessamyn and I as we...chatter about MetaFilter? Basically what we normally do. This one's about an hour and 45.

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Misc
- the wikipedia article on 175 has, since recording, lost the specific nag it had when we were discussing it!
- jessamyn has been catsitting
- more like the hooey decimal system
- wellllll, Godot? We're WAAAAAAITTIiiiing!
- freedom to tinker
- you ever (Stevie) Wonder about the clavinet?
- it's a BEACH that makes you OLD
- jessamyn's maple dealer


Projects
- Quarantine Happy Hour concert archive by hades
- Recollections Of A Summer by dng
- The Sound of the Far Future by ignignokt


MetaFilter
- Patterns by They sucked his brains out!
- A unanimous vote for the right to repair. by mhoye
- Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates joining Howard University by Nelson
- Whammy Clavinet by Harald74
- His last purchases—beer, cigarettes, pot—occurred 18 years ago. by Grandysaur
- Happy birthday, Metafilter! by Melismata
- Shawty Got Low in Those Apple Bottom Memes by jonp72
- All mountains are old, but the Appalachians are incomprehensibly old by Karmakaze
- The world's first 1541 disk drive graphics demo by JHarris


Ask MetaFilter
- What to do in Vermont when traveling companion has mobility issues? by The Pluto Gangsta
- How does MetaFilter have such a high user engagement compared to others? by oracleia
- Nouns that you would never say "the" before? by ftm
- Library book with potentially valuable author's signature by clair-de-lune
- What song is this? by Trespassers William
- Songs with radio clips? by ftm
- Voices coming out of my iPad in the middle of the night by squink
- Why is my gas bill so high? by artificialard
- Friends' anxiety makes me angry/anxious by unicorn chaser
- Dating Failure by Aranquis
- How commonplace is crossing one's arms at Catholic communion? by Charity Garfein


MetaTalk
- Metatalktail Hour: Sneaky pet/kid stories by LobsterMitten
- MetaFilter's new Privacy Policy document by cortex
- A change in moderator coverage of the site by cortex
- 1. money 2. budget 3. ??? 4. profit!! by bendy
- Donated By "Anonymous" by cursed


MeFi Music
Featured in this episode:
- Car Music by gt2
- You Should Eat Your Yellow Vegetables by not_on_display
- Brazilian Brooks by CarrotAdventure
- Signal Tower by edlundart

Jessamyn and I managed to stumble our way into and through a podcast despite both having the needle pegged hard to E this afternoon, and here is recorded evidence of that fact, at about 75 minutes.

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Misc
- Jessamyn is still cleaning out her mom's house.
- like seriously that's a lot of books
- Also, it is Virgo month of leisure, which seems fair, he works really hard in his movies and—oh, I'm being told that Viggo
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge is not Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and, by the commutative property, vice versa

Jobs
- Writing Editor by parmanparman

Projects
- Antarctic survival manual: art for the pandemic and other disasters by SinAesthetic
- New England Carnegies by jessamyn
- Pattern Explorer by reventlov
- Procedural bit-pattern art by suetanvil
- The Camera Offset Project: Hide your face. Save the world. by missjenny
- thoughts.page by wesleyac

MetaFilter
- Cats. Trees. Cat trees. by ardgedee
- 40 albums, 1 year, & Mike Townsend hit a Grand Slam by CrystalDave
- Nandi Bushell and Foo Fighters by mokey
- AIDS denialism in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? by The Ardship of Cambry
- Frank Herbert heard "shows within shows" and got excited by cortex
- All Your Mashups Belong to Us by WCityMike2
- If you're not Kubla Khan by Sokka shot first
- Come as you are? Nevermind by girlmightlive
- Hot coffee + brandy + tranquilizers + turpentine = Houses of the Holy by jessamyn
- Chuck Close 1940 - 2021 by ardgedee

Ask MetaFilter
- Can anyone identify this song? by marimeko
- Music copyright and TV licensing by soonertbone
- 2020 Olympics Best-Of, No Spoilers Edition by exceptinsects
- Cashing old checks by Anonymous
- Is the concern over vegetarians getting enough protein overblown? by rjacobs
- Commonly taught facts/trivia that are oversimplifications by Seeking Direction
- a comment by backseatpilot
- 1883 House - Money Pit? by imjustsaying

MetaTalk
- August is MetaFilter fundraising month by cortex
- Hey, it's a MetaFilter newsletter! by cortex
- Call Me By My Name: Mefi Newsletter 2, the Denominated by taz

I accidentally wrote "make a podcast" on a colander instead of the calendar, so on the downside this episode is pretty late but on the upside it has been thoroughly rinsed. Is that anything? Can we do anything with that? Anyway, here's a podcast, it's about 90 minutes, and it involves me and Jessamyn getting off on at least a couple different tangents on the subject *of* getting off on tangents, so it's a very MetaFilter podcast indeed.

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Misc
- look at this pretty and invasive Emerald Ash Borer
- I still think Louis DeJoy sucks honestly
- the kids on TikTok have been confounding me lately with what, it turns out, is audio of Adam Driver saying "good soup"
- I feel like jessamyn's sister Kate isn't contributing enough
- at some point we said something about librarycarpentry.org
- also I am supposed to watch The Unbelievable Truth but I do not remember which one now
- a flowchart of distractible storytelling

Projects
- 1,228,178 genetic variants, 2 million years by clawsoon
- Datasette Desktop (macOS application) by simonw
- Copying a mid-century stool....mid-14th century BCE by brachiopod (MeFi Post)
- Wildcard Bicycle Novelties by adamrice
- Invisible Sun by cstross
- A channel vocoder walkthrough by ignignokt

MetaFilter
- What I learned about my writing by seeing only the punctuation by eotvos
- "Also would've accepted Nine Inch Oates" by carrienation
- DO YOU REMEMBER
- Can someone explain how this video has 4.1M Views but has 200 likes????? by theodolite
- "If we make more angry content, we get more engagement." by They sucked his brains out!
- Rewild Your Attention by MonkeyToes
- One Woman's Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia by cgc373

Ask MeFi
- Can you help find the current location of this old Vienna address? by Miss T.Horn
- Can you solve this mystery about a book? by grumblebee
- a comment by pocams
- Should my child's school's PTA accept cryptocurrency? by Toddles
- Nervous system hacks/resets by danceswithlight
- What's the oldest thing I can buy, just to have? by tiamat
- "Y'know, this stuff is kinda wasted on just ponies..." by Wordshore
- Preventing maggots in trash by Anonymous
- a comment by Jack Karaoke
- Looking for 90s sci-fi story about a librarian & all-knowing computer by kaisemic
- Please help me solve a VERY DUMB plumbing emergency. by centrifugal

MetaTalk
- Metatalktails: Must be the season of the ... which? by taz

We got a rootin' tootin' podcast here. Darn tootin'. Can you both rootin'- and darn'- something that's tootin' in the same paragraph like this? I don't know. I really don't know. I might be going to podcast jail. Before that happens, though, here's me and jessamyn chattering about MetaFilter, the nature of daylight, representation vs. allusion in crappy old Sierra erotic comedy adventures, MetaFilter, the concept of (for some reason) No Nut November, "Meta", and who knows what else because we're both still getting used to the time change. It runs exactly, precisely, to the second 90 minutes.

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Misc
- Jessamyn is a bee
- I got a tattoo and literally everyone guessed right
- remember, remember, the No Nut November, the Poe's Law'd Sienfeldian plot
- Jess recently enjoyed reading Finna
- I recently enjoyed rereading Dune, I don't have a link or anything, I just did is all
- also Sierpinski Triangles
- okay, on review I totally recognize that yodel breakdown in Focus' Hocus Pocus

Jobs
- Property project management and maintenance by Barbara Spitzer
- Drop off a document at the PA Secretary of State in Harrisburg by Sheydem-tants

Projects
- The Worst House On The Internet by missjenny (MeFi Post)
- Are You a Clickbait Genius? by malevolent
- Saturday Afternoon Ikea Trip Simulator by dng (MeFi Post)
- Mini-Project: Convert exported Metafilter comments to HTML, JSON, or MBOX by Kadin2048
- Mystic Paths - A new word board game! by meinvt

MetaFilter
- anyone who enjoys wild birds is a birder! birding is for everyone! by jessamyn
- Aspirational rhetorical loquaciousness by simmering octagon
- The United States Postal Service: "Non oficialis motto!" by not_on_display
- Uh oh by Cookiebastard
- Fractal vise by clawsoon
- Welp, there goes my evening ... by dancestoblue
- Off, dud, over, under, upon, hot, ono, oof, hi, lo, etc. by tss

Ask MetaFilter
- help me find more podcasts by jessamyn
- HBTY HBTY HBD* HBTY by QuakerMel
- How fast/reliable is TSA's lost and found? by LSK
- What's a good name for an office can crusher? by box
- Programming/computer science/IT terms that refer to obsolete tech? by potrzebie
- Burying ethernet cable (or wireless??) by wenestvedt
- I want to learn art by Brittanie
- Donated to take a campaign over its goal. Goal changed afterwards. wtf? by scruss
- Have Jazz Hands, Will Jazzercize by meese

MetaTalk
- MeFi Mall 2021 by hippybear
- MetaFilter Gift Swap 2021 Signups by curious nu
- MeFi Holiday Card Exchange by needlegrrl
- NaNoWriMo 2021 by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were
- Roll, Truck, Roll by lauranesson

In our triumphant return to posting podcasts at the turn of the month, Jess and I talk about time management and reminders, complicated conversational dynamics, the assassination of JFK (but only very briefly), and a bunch of somewhat more MetaFilter-centric things. We time-managed our way up to about 93 minutes. Also I play a euphonium.

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Misc
- talkin' about fake cash which led to an old MeFi post
- Chicken in the Corn
- hey it's cranberry jelly
- twitter discussion about trauma dumping
- CALENDRICAL
- jessamyn did some filing

Jobs
- Greasemonkey (or other) script to enable downloads by jessamyn
- Shop at arch salvage store in Portland, OR for me by arnicae
- Full Stack Developer by jchan

Projects
- Skittish, a playful space for online events by waxpancake
- The Fucking Bible (warning: 7.5 MB) by ignignokt
- The Stick Princess by Peach
- I finally got my Murder Ballads book back into print! by Paul Slade
- Princess Unlimited by yankeefog
- "How to Sous Vide," a helpful cookbook by veggieboy
- Formula Non (2009 - 2019) An Alternative F1 Photo Project by lawrencium

MetaFilter
- "The real Pacific Princess had a crew of 373, rather than 6" by jessamyn
- a comment by cortex
- a fluegelhorn is probably not a fluegelhorn, and vice versa by cortex
- Film shows McD's trained new staff in proper use of Vulcan death pinch by not_on_display
- Islands in the Stream by dorothy hawk
- Divorced, beheaded, live! by Lorc
- at the world you've left / and the things you know by fight or flight
- Why so many people undercharge for their work by Bella Donna
- Those who exist, have existed, or will exist in the vicinity of Omelas by brainwane
- "the distance between reader and character or narrator" by brainwane

Ask MeFi
- a comment by brainwane
- Where did the "Rock and Roll Ending" come from? by bondcliff
- Why would I use a hot glue gun instead of just glue? by trevor_case
- Tennis Pro decoded opponent's body language and serve? by umber vowel
- How do you manage your time? by unicorn chaser
- Then we'll take it higher - pop songs that are actually protest songs by Frowner
- Waltham, MA ca. 1988 - 1990: Manufacturer of Geiger-Mueller Detectors? by ZenMasterThis
- Seeking reputable carbon offset programs by Osrinith
- Fun classic rock songs (Grateful Dead & more) to walk down the aisle to by Neely O'Hara
- logistics! by everybody had matching towels

MetaTalk
- How MeFi (and other providers) deal with trust & safety issues by brainwane
- Obit post: Speedlime by Pallas Athena
- Newsletter 3: The Handovering by Eyebrows McGee
- MetaFilter Gift Swap 2021 THANK YOU! by mochapickle
- Mefi Art & Makers Group, Update by Glinn

I checked in with management and apparently we have to do a 2022 now even though we just finished wiht 2021. Jessamyn and I do our best to roll into the new year and talk about MetaFilter stuff and get in a philosophical discussion of the nature of the literal horizon qua solar objects. Runs about 90 minutes.

Helpful Links

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Misc
- Jessamyn's 2021 wrapup
- Library twitter to remain menace
- Elmo says worker's rights

Jobs
- Need a portfolio site for my writing / editing / translation business by Sheydem-tants

Projects
- Noddy screams "It's Christmas!" for one hour by Shepherd
- Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day by brainwane (MeFi Post)
- Emma Goldcoin by motty
- Triple Tautonyms by malevolent
- Overtime (a seasonal Laundry Files tale) by cstross

MetaFilter
- Wordle: A daily word guessing game by hurdy gurdy girl
- Wow'en Wilson: The Quiz by Pater Aletheias
- HarDCore Videos by Cash4Lead
- Free thread! by cortex
- Bro. ... Bro. *Bros.* by rewil
- Are you a good person? by dancestoblue
- Um something has come up... HOOOOOLLLYYY SHIIIITTTTTTT by jessamyn
- street fighter, more like, uh, sheet...highlighter by cortex
- Sorry, Steve, but we'll use your scene in the DVD's bonus footage by not_on_display

Ask MetaFilter
- Mental breaks at work by roaring beast
- How do I help a friend with cleanup and moving forward? by zooropa
- a comment by The Wrong Kind of Cheese
- What do healthy people do? by coffeeand
- I need to talk to Santa then I need Santa to talk to my kid... by If only I had a penguin...
- What's that weird instrument: The Beatles: Get Back edition by 2N2222
- Animal Doctor, M.D. by averageamateur
- Recommend boring people taking about kind of boring things? by aspo
- EMDR therapy: True or Woo? by Anonymous
- Can I (re)read this? by Gotanda
- How to disassociate fan behavior from fandoms? by The Adventure Begins

MetaTalk
- It can be terrifying to make a Front Page post. Please be kind. by bondcliff
- Metafilter Webring by beesbees
- Newsletter 4: Secrets by Eyebrows McGee
- Newsletter 5: Farewell to 2021 by Eyebrows McGee
- Your video games of 2021 by curious nu

Back to MetaFilter for a second to talk about Babble Royale
- Scrabnite? Fortble? by backseatpilot

I love podcasts, woo woo woo! I love podcasts, how 'bout you? Here's episode 181, with jessamyn and I contemplating the idea of a week and a month and talking about misc. MetaFilterian stuff. Runs about 90 minutes.

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Misc
- my penance for being late getting this up is reusing last months experimental horn version of the original podcast theme even though it hurts to listen to now
- rabbit rabbit, apparently
- 181 is a palindromic prime
- I haven't gone back to figure out if I started doing the podcast at episode 34 or earlier, but god it's been a while either way
- Jessamyn, when the reference didn't land

Projects
- The year I won a year's supply of cheese by jessamyn
- The Rocinante, my hand-painted ship model from The Expanse by rachaelfaith
- The 885 films I saw and reviewed in 2021 by growabrain
- Birdsong Audio Separation by kaibutsu
- So I made a Wordle clone (with some extra features) by RustyBrooks
- Return to the Planet: a Zine Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of FFVII by subdee

MetaFilter
- "Life's hard enough, and I'm looking to make people feel better" by jessamyn
- WKRIP by guiseroom
- No More Waiting For The End Of Time by chavenet
- Up to 30 stitches per inch! No bobbins! Quiet! by metaquarry
- What came first? Or last, or in between? by brainwane
- A Brief History of Windfuckers by oulipian
- Ex-NM labor official shares real world experience: capitalism sucks by wenestvedt
- "There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time." by oulipian
- JEOPARDAMY! by Going To Maine
- Look at the quality of this 3D animation by They sucked his brains out!
- "It's like people who try to clone their dogs" by jessamyn
- Free thread! by cortex
- Free Thread Returns by cortex
- Free Thread Forever by cortex
- Free Thread & Robin by cortex

Ask MetaFilter
- HELP, there's an elk in my freezer! by MonkeyToes
- What was that music video with the giant blue butt sculpture? by mermaidcafe
- what's that song? by peppercorn
- What's that weird instrument: The Beatles: Get Back edition by 2N2222
- When was Van Halen's 1984 album released? by Short End Of A Wishbone
- Help identify this mystery object? by scody
- What do they call a stupid SOB in your neck of the woods? by Gotanda
- Rock music puns? by OrangeVelour
- Do I need a bank with a real building I can go to? by DMelanogaster
- Parsing Amazon reviews by Cozybee

MetaTalk
- Introduce yourself! by cortex
- Our favorite under-loved comments of 2021 by MonkeyToes
- a comment by kimberussell

Psst, hey kid, wanna buy a podcast?

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Misc
- I've been enjoying dry British trivia show Only Connect
- jessamyn watched The Sparks Brothers
- move over Wordle, here comes Semantle
- the old 100K user raffle video, Rafflers

Jobs
- Illustrator for Rider–Waite style drawing by wesleyac

Projects
- Quantle by lipsum
- DNDle - Wordle, but you're picking stats to guess D&D monsters by avapoet
- The World's First Granny Square Pattern by rednikki (MeFi Post)
- Saturday morning cartoons by Gucky
- WordleWordle by willF

MetaFilter
- Today's Wednesday...? Really? What does time even mean anymore? by not_on_display
- Russia orders troops into Ukraine by russilwvong
- twosday by fight or flight
- The story behind and after the photo by brainwane
- lol, buddy, good luck finding the Lincoln tunnel by bondcliff
- "Graham's number is effectively zero compared to TREE(3)" by mubba
- It was a great day for America, everybody by Rhaomi
- Crease and repeat by janell
- Do You Know Who That Worker You Just Hired Really Is? by Toddles
- "Back then longevity itself was a newsworthy topic." by jessamyn
- Thursday! What A Concept! by cortex

Ask MetaFilter
- How cold could I comfortably keep my house if I dress really warmly? by Juffo-Wup
- How can I monitor the temperature over time in several rooms? by unus sum
- Preserving Paper by roue
- Defunct blogging platforms by wesleyac
- Can I kill somebody with a sock and a hockey ball? by Zumbador
- Can you show an Iowa cow at the Illinois State Fair? by Ishbadiddle
- You mean I have to do this every night until I die? by Jubey
- Chronic Fatigue, dealing with by Brandon Blatcher
- Why do (some) people hate athlete profiles? by alex1965

MetaTalk
- Newsletter 6: Happy belated Valentine's Day! by Pronoiac
- Shoutout to Wenestvedt on His 150,000th Favorite Given by theora55
- A Long Bet Pays Off by Rhaomi
- Dearest Reader by the primroses were over
- 22222 by loup with congrats to it takes twototututoo

It was a very busy turn of the month so we're wandering in pretty late with this episode. I talk a little bit about my recent decision to transition away from running MetaFilter (but we'll, inter alia, keep podcasting); Jessamyn and I talk about MeFi stuff as per usual; we establish that she started watching the wrong show and couldn't figure out why people liked it; and we chatter about at least three words we're not sure how to pronounce and establish, once more, that neither of us can read IPA. Runs our usual "about 90 minutes".

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Misc
- Jessamyn has been reading The Rabbi Small Mysteries
- I have been tweeting about Semantle and word2vec
- turns out it's psychosomatic, ADDICT, insane, not "attic", which does make more sense
- we didn't do an April Fools thing this year, but there was a nice thread chatting about 4/1 stuff past

Jobs
- Distinctive Collections Coordinators by mfoight
- Distinctive Collection Librarian / Archivist by mfoight
- Call for submissions for women's writing anthology by Flock of Cynthiabirds

Projects
- A VR Schizophrenia Simulator for Us All by Lillitatiana
- Anoited by ignignokt
- You think you're addicted to Spelling Bee? by AMyNameIs
- Hermit Crabs of Paradise Cove, Vanuatu by dobbs
- Brass sextet for 6 trumpets and epic digital signal processing by range
- Crafting: Ceramics and Metal Wire Trees by gemmy
- Guess the AI Jukebox artist by Rhaomi

MetaFilter
- "Get Free Gold Rush Land Today!" by jessamyn
- You are now subscribed to Random Ball Facts! by loquacious
- How to make writing easier to read for everyone by storybored
- Not what I usually associate with talking mushrooms by clawsoon
- Guess the Secret Word! by not_on_display
- Mission Accepted.....Mission Complete. by Fizz
- These boots were made for narrative photographic essaying by cortex
- "reform all the tawdry inefficiencies" by brainwane
- The Inevitability Of Bushveld by cortex

Ask MetaFilter
- You too can be "Jew for a Day!" by Drasher
- Funeral smalltalk by b33j
- How to find what was on p29 of a 1954 issue of Canadian Bride magazine by paduasoy
- This is the best __________ I know of.... by dobbs
- Looking for sounds that shout their gender by nosila
- How do you interpret Maimonides' levels of charity in a modern context? by dorothy hawk
- Outdoor art installations around the world? by cyndigo
- Have there been any art shows where the art didn't exist? by andoatnp
- Do cavemen have more fun? by Jubey
- It's a round...thingy? by cortex
- Have the things you find on the ground changed in the last 30 years? by bdc34
- Name this fragment of a tune by mpark
- Help me buy a great film! by JimN2TAW
- a comment by jessamyn

MetaTalk
First steps in some MetaFilter changes by cortex

I didn't edit or write this month's podcast (other than this little bit)! Thanks so much to eotvos for all his work on this; note his note at the end of the podcast about other possible contributions as well! In any case, Jessamyn and I talk about MetaFilter as we are wont to do; it runs the usual 90-ish minutes.

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Projects
- BOKEH game by malevolent
- Reunion Tour by Valrus
- Set Side B by JHarris
- Ancient Animals by moonmilk

Jobs
- Usability and Delops cluster hire by rockindata
- Freelance project uploading to our CMS by Magami (filled)

Metafilter
- Elon Musk wants to buy twitter by joannemerriam
- the fail whale could not be reached for comment by fight or flight
- Harder Drive: Hard drives we didn't want or need by zengargoyle
- Medical Gaslighting by dancing leaves
- Calleafgraphy by curious nu
- I promise you, all of us up here tonight, we WERE that kid! by hippybear
- This is the time, and this is the record of the time by oulipian
- The Onions Has Been Permanently Banned from Twitter by DirtyOldTown
- A LaserWriter dreamscape by furtive
- I'm better at this than you are at everything you do. by Etrigan
- Gonna go down to Black Mesa and get myself a BajaaAAaaAa Blast by cortex
- "...a lot of fuss over a flight with one takeoff and one landing." by jessamyn

Ask Metafilter
- what have you got in your pocketses? by RobinofFrocksley
- Holes found in Net by storybored
- Umbrella/generalist terms for jobs/roles that have distinct subroles? by cortex
- Where is a pot a kettle? by evilmomlady
- Heavy, flat and cheap? by bondcliff
- What media hit you differently the second time around? by jeszac
- Find me gentle, fictional, happy ending TV by rednikki

Fanfare
- Our Flag Means Death: Season 1 by gladly

Metatalk
- Ch-ch-ch-changes! by Eyebrows McGee
- Transition Team Post #1 by warriorqueen
- Transition Team initial discussion summary and kickoff by cortex
- Masto and other accounts by Fiasco da Gama
- https://metatalk.metafilter.com/26053/Four-years-of-Mefi-Card-Club by Sparky Buttons

Music clips
- Hope After Despair by gt2
- Halt to Start by q*ben
- Chase Music for an Imaginary Low Budget Cyberpunk Movie by thatwhichfalls
- The Only Load the Lord Has Given Me, with Thanks for His Grace by youarenothere
- Plumbium by q*ben

It's episode 185 of the MeFi Monthly Podcast, with Jessamyn and I talking for a good chunk up front about the whole process over the last couple months of figuring out transferring ownership of the site from me to her. We also talk about, like, good stuff from the site for most of it.

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Once again I am gloriously doing almost no work in causing this post to be here; thanks again to eotvos who has once again done all the actually fiddly bits in turning Jess and I rambling on mic into an actual mix down and pile of text as seen below.

Projects
- I made Some Tools by bondcliff.
- The Daily Brief -- News as Information by jkrobin.
- ... a look back at your Amazon shopping history by ph00dz.
- Every .horse domain by Shepherd.
- Dark Patterns Now Available on Android and iOS by cosmic owl.

Metafilter
- Mechanical Watch by Devils Rancher.
- blank blank in the blank of blankety blank, blank blank? by Ten Cold Hot Dogs.
- The "FU" is how you answer the phone when the man tries to bring ya down by not_on_display.
- The Uselessness of Phenylephrine by brainwane.
- Something Went Very Wrong by cavenet.
- Things that Make White People Uncomfortable by box.
- The Mefi-wiki page about Givewell.
- Now you know your A-B-Trees by secretdark.
- You're welcome, Matt, by zenon.

Ask Metafilter
- Everything Everywhere All At When? (streaming) by fleecy socks.
- How should I learn Linear Algebra? by cortex.
- Expressing a line figure as a set of triangles by Tell Me No Lies.
- Advice on Art Appraisals, by Saxon Kane.
- Navigating complicated grief for alcoholic father by showeringsuns.
- What happened to the squatters? by wesleyac.
- Is saying "I'm proud of you" patronizing? by Dressed to Kill.
- Is it wrong to use these antique postcards as postcards? by The corpse in the library.

Metatalk
- Paperwork & Bodywork: short virtual anti-procrastination calls by brainwane.
- [MeFi Site Update] May 25th by loup and staff.
- MetaFilter: A Utopia of Rules? by General Malaise.
- A MetaFilter User Survey by curious nu and the transition team.

Music clips
- Bigass Pizza Blues by CarrotAdventure
- Look At Me by transitional procedures.
- One Month Dragon by srednivashtar
- For Each One To Discover (AO) by q*ben.
- End Credits by CarrotAventure.

Random podcast bonus content! Jessamyn and I decided to do a mid-month episode to just chat about a couple media things we liked. Is it a FanFare podcast? I dunno! Will we keep doing it? I dunno! But it was fun and so here it is. We talk about V Rising, a survive-o-craft vampire game I have been very much enjoying, and about Severance, a TV show that we have both enjoyed tremendously. Runs just about an hour.

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- V Rising's homepage
- Severance on FanFare
- that's all for links, what do you want from me, I don't even work here

It's episode 186 of the MeFi podcast, with Jessamyn and I...and loup! Who joined us to talk a bit about their experiences with internet past and present and their last couple of years as they've been working here. The three of us have a long and winding conversation about community management, internet ethics, MeFi in particular, the recent transition process, etc. Runs about 90 minutes.

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We were so busy just talking about Stuff that we did very little of the normal thread review this time, so the notes are real short. We mentioned in passing:

- jessamyn's adventures with the filtering Facebook
- the latest Transition Team update
- goofy amazon reviews e.g. this old post

Music

- On The Blue (With Apologies to John Coulton, Valve, Et Al) by cortex
- Make it Out Alive by Maaik
- A Conversation by thatwhichfalls

Belated podcast for August, American summer is just like that. No idea what we talked about, but I know we had a good time.

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Jobs

Transfering faculty profiles (~150) into a new format by Shepherd
UX/UI Design Intern (Sep-Dec 2022) by jchan

Projects

Woefully Neglected by Devils Rancher
Nelson's Linkblog by Nelson
IUDs for All by thandal
Making a watermlon chair from green wood by twirlypen
Every Diner in Whatcom County, WA by cidrab
Latent Space Netsuke by gwint
AUTOEXEC.CAT by oulipian
I... HAVE... THE POWER ️ by Rhaomi
The Kubrick Times by malevolent

Metafilter

"with this sign for beautiful, there is no objection" by jessamyn
You really should watch a manhole entrance get replaced by majick
Nice threads by janell
"Have you ever wondered what happens to the things you leave behind?" by Kattullus
The word on the Bird by storybored
I AM IN SO INTO YOU by MollyRealized
There was good money to be made as a beatnik by wesleyac
Ten Million Power by ThePinkSuperhero
"What's it like to be a girl in a band?" by box

Ask Metafilter

My friends are struggling but I am also struggling. How to balance? by anonymous
When did cars stalling fall off as a movie/TV trope (and in...reality?) by cortex
Out of Sync by invincible summer
Your favorite stars-with-fans videos? by wenestvedt
How do I maintain a happy little kitchen? by pleasebekind
Tell me your one weird trick for loved one caretaking/advocacy by rednikki
Comedy Suggestions to Watch with my 70-year old Mother by pdxhiker
Does anyone else mishear the chorus in "Institutionalized"? by Boxenmacher

Metatalk

Metatalktail Hour: Life's Unwritten Rules by Taz

Miscellaneous

Ronni Solbert, Children's Book Illustrator, Dies at 96
Sign for MA Route 187
Wikipedia's entry on One Eighty Seven
The Untold Story of the Zip Code
zipmap.net
WHAT IS THIS?
Complexity 2022: Innovations in Weaving
Sleater-Kinney (Three Interlinked Wireframe Cubes)

Some difficulties hitting escape velocity with this one. We recorded it in October 5th and, well, here it is now.

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Misc
Jessamyn's Weird Bathroom
Damn Bitch, You Live Like This?
Buttplug.io

MeFi
Lumper or Splitter, Tag Yourself
Elon Musk Says Fuck It
The Deaf Child in Area is Now an Adult and He's Hot
The Chess Drama is Over
20 Years of Languagehat
History is Freaking Cool You Guys
This Post Brought to You by A SYNC
I don't Have 1 Billion in the Bank, I Don't Drive Lexuses
Oh Bother
If You Find A Strange Puzzle Box No Touchy
This Isn't How Grief Goes
Evil Across Millenia
A lumpy toaster a goat exoskeleton and a harmless car walk into a bar
Do You Remember
I Pray the Tomb Is Shut Forever I Pray the Rock Is Never Rolled Away
The Captain and Tenebrous Spiels

AskMe
What is your favorite song covered by another band
Best Video About X Is Y
Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors
Autumn Wedding Poems Please
How to Ensure A Happy Old Age
Field Specific Terms for We Don't Know

MeTa
We are Healthy and Vibrant and Remarkably Long Running
Have You Read TFA
Steering Committee Check In October 2022
Why Does a Librarian Own a Social Media Site Thats Been Around for Long

Music
Twitter Blues by lipsum

Cortex and I decided to make up for lost time after the delayed previous episode by knocking out another one quick-like, and here it is! Catching up on what we can of the last couple of months of MeFi, and also ranting and philosophizing a little bit about recent seismic changes in the social media sphere and also about design skeuomorphism and the semiotics of interfaces? That last bit is probably overselling it a little? Anyway, runs about 90 minutes.

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Misc
- Do some last minute holiday shopping at The MeFi Mall
- Jessamyn's hone game memory was Kubrix

Jobs
- Setting up and moderating a Mastodon instance (but not hosting) by Shepherd
- Business Process Automation Specialist by chiefthe
- Software development guru by Dansaman

Projects
- Daily MRRP! by ignignokt
- Finishing my grandfather's work: stained glass menorah by cortex (MeFi Post)
- Part I of my graphic memoir "Growing In My Gray" by DMelanogaster (MeFi Post)
- Get Blogging! by bwerdmuller (MeFi Post)
- You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All by adrianhon
- More "More Info" for Netflix (desktop web) by staggernation

MetaFilter
- Dear Twitter Advertisers by autopilot
- Subterranean birdsite blues by nthdegx
- a comment by mark k
- Cohost, a new social media site by brainwane
- Mastodon is having its moment in the sun by toastyk
- Sick of Musk? by dobbs
- PSA: do not use services that hate the internet by mecran01
- We knew this was coming by May Kasahara
- Advent Incremental by juv3nal
- No, that can't be done.... WHAM!!! by Pendragon
- To a Nacreon in Heaven by Rhaomi
- Yummy: Spammer on Toast! by rcade
- Colonel Mustardle in the Yardle with a Petardle by taz
- The Great Purpling by Etrigan
- Explore Quasi-Periodic Tiling by gwint
- Everything in Conway's Game of Life can be constructed from 15 gliders by automatronic
- "we were, in effect, rewriting our own childhoods" by jessamyn
- The State of Ketchup in 2022 by Fizz

Ask MetaFilter
- What's your Check Please hand signal, and what does it signify? by cortex
- Help me give myself the gift of freedom by rebent
- MeFiGiftGuide2022 - The Metafilter Gift Guide by rebent
- Comparing apples and oranges by Just this guy, y'know
- What is up with these old french cars? by selenized
- Sci-fi Survey Course by darchildre
- Carnivorous Lamp by Just this guy, y'know

MetaTalk
- Mefi Mastodon server? by Pronoiac
- MeFi Posts for "Sale" by jessamyn
- What The MeFi BIPOC Board Does by brainwane

MeFi Music
Snippest of tracks this episode, at the beginning and end respectively:
- Death Scene Music for an Imaginary, Low-Budget Cyberpunk Movie by thatwhichfalls
- 73 Keep It Beautiful by chococat

Back on track this year. We resolve to get these out on time. More or less. Maybe. Cortex and I talked on January 3rd about our usual nonsense for a tight 87 minutes. Thanks for listening.

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FanFare
Letterkenny: Entire Season by fizzix
Leverage Rdemption

Projects
Face To Face: Portraits of People of Color Before Photography by Horace Rumpole
jamstats: data analytics for roller derby games by gurple
lowercase t: A Very 8-Bit Christmas by ShawnStruck (MeFi Post)
The Library Workers' Field Guide to Designing and Discovering Restorative Environments by 10ch
Everybody Wins, the greatest board games ever made by Hogshead
Psychedelic Drug Legislative Reform and Legalization in the US by jedicus

MeFi
"Epic put children and teens at risk" by jessamyn
It's a book! It's a great wheel! It's a Book Charkha! by janell
"We're all the same piece of little stardust energy..." by Ten Cold Hot Dogs
They say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is... by Etrigan
Ana de Armas Fans' Lawsuit Puts Studios at Risk Over Deceptive Trailers by Etrigan
The inspiration and raw material to create something new by biogeo
"Let me guess. Somebody stole your sweetroll." by Fizz
Ah, yes, the [complex plane coordinates] genders by cortex
"You don't want little children questioning their budding little bodies" by box
"The common good stands as a menace to the status quo." by box
Advent Incremental by juv3nal
a funny comment by phooky
a funny comment by house-goblin

AskMe
Favorite Internet Radio Stations? by COD
Why is it called a "countersink"? by ignignokt
(Fewer) papers please by happyfrog
Keep me off the streets this winter by escape from the potato planet
Looking for books and media with positive neurodivergent representation! by daikaisho
Please recommend a book about writing non-fiction books by nezlamnyy
Voracious reader of fanfic seeks help by sequel
Please help me figure out which edition of a library book I read by Ceridwen

MeTa
Appreciate your MeFi Holiday Cards here! by HotToddy
6th Annual Mefi Valentine Mail Exchange by SunPower
The Ongoing Modern Pen Pal Project by chiefthe
Lèse-majesté by y2karl

Music is from ccMixter and is Dolorem Ipsum by economix

More or less on time! New theme song! We talk about heating up water and heating up ourselves. cortex read a lot of MetaFilter this month, Jessamyn's still reading old FanFare threads. Runs about 82 minutes.

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Job
Lead Product Designer by jchan

Projects
Mondrian's Toothpicks by cortex
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences®
The Real Problem With the New Dungeons and Dragons License is Capitalism by overglow
Isle of Beasts by Zarkonnen
Dither All the Things - Atkinson Dithering for the Web by AndrewStephens
Rock Scissor Paper Machine by Literaryhero

MeFi
Snail Mail Security by cardioid
A new kind of smartwatch with a special living component by tiny frying pan
10 PRINT "YADA YADA YADA" / 20 GOTO 10 / RUN by Atom Eyes
AV Club: AI Seinfeld show has been given a Twitch suspension
"one of many years of Scrabble that I hold dear" by jessamyn
"...mourning the loss of yet more games that will soon be lost to time," by Fizz
On this website, everyone knows you're a dog by not_on_display
Vacuum Cleaner Defense League
Knolling for fun and profit by Bella Donna
MLTSHP: Dutch emergency services have a gear knolling meme going
The Met: Studley Tool Chest
Instagram: HAIRCUT
Fresh and Full of Life by May Kasahara
The Stink A by Etrigan
Some Days, the Viewing Felt Like a Curse by logicpunk
The Quizzing Equivalent of Holey Moley by Etrigan
Remember Y2K? A similar issue will happen in the year 2038. by buffy12
The Mystery of the Dune Font by cgc373
Making Math into Art by duien

AskMe
ELI5 "Perpetual fireplace" videos by jackbishop
Parents: how do you handle non-negotiable extracurriculars? by malhouse
a comment by Alensin
IRS How? by Alensin
"Ingredients people" citation? by shadygrove
Another Thing For the Book Of Conflicts by EmpressCallipygos
Looking for a sci fi technobabble parody by cheesegrater
What is the musical interval/harmony in this song? by unknowncommand

FanFare
Special Event: The Return of Blaseball by valrus

A nerdy debate about the relative term "this week" and "last week" and that mystery week in between them. We got together on March 4th and tried not to talk about the weather too much. Runs about 105 minutes.

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No Jobs Except Cortex's New One

Projects
Lirdle - Like Wordle, but with one lie per answer by morspin (MeFi Post)
Word Searches for Dad (and special meta one) by jasondigitized
bondcliff's creation
My portrait of COVID Toronto in maps by sindark (MeFi Post)
Jessamyn's Zipper Epiphany

MeFi
Penta, Mariya: Rejected by shino-boy
The Genetics of Chernobyl's Dogs by bryon
Could you live without a cellphone? by SituationNormal
Kill Six Billion Demons by curious nu
I've heard it too many times to ignore it by DigDoug
Nice social media account, shame if something were to happen to it... by gwint
The thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts by gwint
The natural destination of poor editorial judgment is the court of law. by curious nu
What went wrong at the New York Times? by DarlingBri
Playdough surgery by gottabefunky
Lightning Crashes by Etrigan
All The Malevolence Of A Grade School Music Class In A Box by NoxAeternum
Infinite Mac by Fiasco da Gama
Into the rest of the 20st century by gwint
playing a 2x4 through a tacklebox head into a foamcore cabinet by cortex

AskMe
Tell me about your adventures with pre-internet physical bulletin boards by wowenthusiast
Unsmooth the motion on a hotel tv by quintessence
Help me find the blowup doll of my youth by queensissy
a comment by Larry David Syndrome
a comment by BlueHorse
How do I make a cake when my resources are depleted? by toucan
Please Tell Me about Pre-internet Personals Ads by wowenthusiast

FanFare
Kaleidoscope: Kaleidoscope (miniseries, all episodes) by adamrice
Physical: 100: Physical: 100 by autopilot

MetaTalk
Open Gaming Thread: What are you playing right now? by Fizz
Best of the Web anniversaries and transcripts by Pronoiac
New Moderation Team Member by loup
ChatGPT-filter by EndsOfInvention
March is Steering Committee election season by Rhaomi
Snow sounds from Directory Audio

cortex has a new job and was hard to track down and we had a few months of missing each other. We found some time on August 14th and tried to play catch-up. Runs about 97 minutes.

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not_on_display did the mixing on this one and I think it hopefully sounds better than last time?

Preroll
Heat pumps!
BestofMeFi on Facebook

Jobs
Flickr Commons and Jessamyn's new part-timey job
Federal Gov't Administrative Support Specialist by kinsey

Projects
We built a giant eagle pupper for Iceland's national day by Nothing
Have You Played? by adrianhon
adrianhon on peglin
Our Backyard by joannemerriam
Banned Book Book Club by bwerdmuller (MeFi Post by Paul Slade)
Jessamyn's tips for dealing with haters
FLW inspired Bird Feeder by Marky
Infinite LP records from the Boston Public Library via archive.org by metatuesday
Today in Tabs

Meta MeFi
Site Update by jessamyn
Happy birthday, Metafilter! by Melismata
MeFi24 in 2023 by jessamyn

MeFi
Jeopardy! contestants weigh 2nd shot at glory vs. crossing picket line by Etrigan
The Greatest Animated Series in the Surreal Sci-Fi Toilet Horror Genre by AlSweigart
Police Log: "Misdemeanors: blahblahblhablahb" by not_on_display
"For me, being an artist means being in community with others." by jessamyn
To be more specific, he's a surgeon. by Fizz
when you get your ass handed to you, just hand it right back by cortex
"A counterexample to established techno-utopian histories" by box
Design notes on the 2023 Wikipedia redesign by Etrigan
Writing to possible or impossible audiences by brainwane
WAH WAH WAH! [wah wah wah wah waaaaaaah] by cortex
a comment by unearthed
a comment by dephlogisticated
Redditors, in defense of Reddit, destroy Reddit by Rhaomi
a comment by sdrawkcab
What Should We Learn from Reddit? by Bottlecap
Room Temperature Superconductivity? by ZakDaddy
The Unreality of Pro Wrestling by Pachylad
"Don't rub it too high or someone will cry, and steal your homerun away" by The Pluto Gangsta
Iocaine Powder by clawsoon

AskMe
Memory Filter: what is the name of this design thinking author/blogger? by mecran01
Rhinos named Clara by johngoren
What does " T—S.T.D.—B" mean in a book? by whitewall
Best "I quit Twitter and my life is richer for it" story? by Jon44
Recommend me brilliant biographies about brilliant women by underclocked
I bought a dremel. Tell me everything! by cortex

MeTa
2023 MeFi Fundraising Month by loup

FanFare
The Afterparty
Peacemaker
Mrs. Davis
Silo
TV Shows Not Set in the US or England
Forged in Fore

More MeTa
A Memorial Day
shoesfullofdust passed away

I am very sad to let the MeFi community know that one of its staunchest supporters and all around good guy digaman (Steve Silberman) has passed away as reported by his spouse on Bluesky. For people who didn't know digaman well, you might know his book NeuroTribes (MeFi post), the Grateful Dead box set he co-produced So Many Roads, or one of his 184 posts to MetaFilter (all from 2010 and before). He was always a great internet friend to me especially lately over on Mastodon and I know I will miss his voice. May his memory be a blessing, we are lucky to have known him.

Welcome to another week of the MetaFilter 2024 Fundraiser! Our community is mostly run by member contributions like yours and, as always, you can help the community by contributing directly to the site, via Paypal, Credit card or through our GoFundMe Campaign. But, seriously, we also want to have fun, don't we? To kick things off, we'd love to help us build our own Community Cookbook and prepare questions for the Ask Mods Anything Podcast... oh, and did you forget about the Pet Tax Wall? There's still time...

The Joy of MeFi Cooking: A Community Cookbook We'd like to hear all about your food adventures and traditions in this thread! Share your favorite dishes, the ones you can't stand, the ones you like but don't know how to cook and, of course, share any secret recipes you've concocted. Game Rules: 1. Use this thread to ask for recipes you are interested in and to talk about the food you love and miss. 2. Use this form to share your recipes for the cookbook. 3. Wait for the full recipe book and enjoy trying new recipes. Ask the Mods Anything 2.0: The podcast Want to know more about the ins and outs of the mod team? We want to make a podcast where Jessamyn will chat with Loup and ask questions directly from the community and you can vote on which questions get to be asked via one time contributions. Game Rules: 1. Use this form to submit your question (questions can be anonymous) 2. Wait for the next post to vote for your favorite questions.

So I bought a pack of "Twist of Fate" Twisties here in Melbourne AU - and the packaging tells you to "open the Meta Filter".

(the Meta Filter in question is an Instagram fortune-telling filter. The link is to my photo of the package.)

In this post Shepherd suggested a book mark exchange and mine arrived today. Thanks to Shepherd for both idea and execution and to everyone who sent in bookmarks. I got a lovely selection, including a library one you can use to track your reading (I mean, I use StoryGraph, but more manual methods are also good) and 3 bookmarks for non Anglophone bookshops. If other people taking part could check in, that would be lovely.

I feel like I've seen MeFites say they have a printshop, for yard signs, tee shirts, swag, etc. We may order signs (Harris Walz, Obviously) and I'm happy to support a member with a business and competitive pricing.

Hi there!

Welcome to this month's Site Update!

You can find the last update here.


Profit & Loss – You can find this month's Profit & Loss report here. The previous reports are here. Admin – I'm working with the mods to make adjustments to the Guidelines and Content Policy based on the feedback from this thread. Our aim is to have clearer policies that allow us to step in and avoid derails and comments aimed at enraging other members and where we can set clear expectations with the members who get moderated. Fundraising – So far, we have raised $5,281.00 in one time contributions (17% of our original goal) and $200.00 in new Subscriptions (8% of our goal). We still have a lot of money in the bank, so while this is not where we wanted to be, there is no imminent emergency. On one hand I'm deeply grateful for the contributions received so far and we'll make the best of it but on the other I know the frustration this generates. We were hoping to have the new entity in place before the fundraising started this year. Since last year's run, we knew we would not be able to spin a full fledged campaign while rebuilding the site; moderation has been busier than usual in the past few months. That being said, we decided to move ahead with the fundraising and do our best. I'm still running to continue with the activities we had planned and we'll keep going with the fundraising activities until we're ready to give access to the new site for testing (more details on that below). Then, we'll put copies of the Pet Tax wall and Cookbook for sale and proceed with the Podcast. Tech – Early access to the new site has been delayed in order to include more complete features and actions that users can test and kirkaracha and I are expecting to make it available by Sunday, September 29. – Added affiliate links to bookshop.org – Fixed multiple errors connecting to external APIs – Server fixes keeping maintenance tasks running without breaking BIPOC Advisory Board – Thyme and I will resume our work with the BIPOC Board this month. Next meeting is scheduled for September 21st. Once the meeting happens we'll report back on our plan to get back on track with the minutes and the cadence of the work with the BIPOC Board. If you have any questions or feedback not related to this particular update, please Contact Us instead. If you want to discuss a particular subject not covered here with the community, you're welcome to open a separate MetaTalk

As part of the events for this year's fundraising we'll have an Ask the Mods Anything Podcast. Drop any burning questions you have below we'll have them answered with an especial podcast.

If you want to know more about the ins and outs of the MeFi team, their philosophy, want to know more about them as humans, or have any burning questions about anything else; you've come to the right place! Just drop your questions here (questions can be anonymous) and wait for the next post to vote for and decide which questions get to be asked during a podcast with Jessamyn and myself. Now, let's take a minute to talk about the fundraiser. You can read more about it and ask any questions you have in this month's update, but so far, we have raised 17% and 8% of our original goals in one time contributions and new subscriptions respectively. Why do we have a Fundraiser? Our community is mostly run by member contributions that help us pay for web hosting, moderators, web developers, and initiatives like rebuilding the website and the work of the BIPOC Board; and, while the site's finances are stable, we want to give better resources to the MetaFilter Community Foundation to help them achieve the goal of becoming a truly member-driven community. How can I help with the fundraiser? – Sign up for a subscription that will give you early access to test the new MeFi Website. – Spread the voice and contribute to our GoFundMe Campaign. – You can invite your friends to join our community.

I know a lot of us are in the path of Helene in Florida and Georgia (Alabama, Tennessee, SC, NC, too! It's a big storm!). I thought it might be nice to have a (text-based, low bandwidth) place to check in and provide information updates as it moves ashore this afternoon and across the Southeast overnight and through tomorrow.

Both an idea (for outreach/promotion) and a confession. The day before I was set to table at the local zine symposium, I was scrambling for another mini-zine idea, and ended up excerpting some of the answers to an Ask Me I made earlier this year"What's your random (but regular) act of public service?" Here's a link to the one-page mini zine (mod note: link removed, see this note).

In retrospect, this is very much of the "ask for forgiveness not permission" M.O. that I usually hate on. But also it seems like an idea for getting the word out about Metafilter to potential members. My tablemate at the zine fair was all (paraphrase) "oooh, I'll check that out. I love the idea that it is old school." People whose answers I used and MeFi mods, please forgive me for not asking in advance. I didn't use any usernames, but obviously if someone finds the original post there is only the usual level of anonymity. People in general, what do you think about making a Metafilter zine series? I think the DIY ethos of zines is very much in the spirit of MeFi, and zines also spans across the generations (aka gen x-ers, millennials, gen z-ers etc). It could be an internal fundraiser (like stickers and magnets) but I think it would be more fun if it was directed to non-members?

Many MeFites are in the track of this beast, and there's a post on the Blue to share info. I thought we could use a space to check-in and keep each other company, share best wishes, worries, hopes and suggestions for staying safe.

A few updates about the MetaFilter Community Foundation

1) My previous post was mistaken about incorporation. Incorporation is going to happen soon with a boilerplate set of bylaws, and then the first board for the newly incorporated org will adopt the full bylaws after a round community feedback. 2) Some clarifications about the new structure, which came up in the last thread. -MetaFilter.com members Participate on metafilter.com Volunteer on committees and activities for the Website and MeFiCoFo Provide input and feedback via MetaTalk and other channels -MetaFilter Community Foundation fellows Criteria to be a fellow: Time on site (proposal is for 6 months), contributions (A combination of posts/comments) Can be pseudonymous Can vote on MeFiCoFo governance issues, including MeFiCoFo board members -MeFiCoFo Executive Director Responsible for day to day management of MeFiCoFo and staff Execute policy from the Board -MeFiCoFo Board of Directors Manage the ED Set and direct policy with input from members, fellows and staff. Overall governance 3) Incorporation updates: Should be happening very soon We'll post the full initial draft of the bylaws for comments/feedback in the next two to three weeks as well. 4) Assistance we'll need soon -Bylaws feedback (as mentioned above) -Various tasks related to ED search as needed -Assistance with the full board elections (Selecting/implementing voting platform for board elections, Other tasks as needed) If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post here or reach out via memail

Hi there!

Welcome to this month's Site Update!

You can find the last update here.


Profit & Loss – You can find this month's P&L report here. The previous P&L reports are here. Admin – You can read the latest updates about the MetaFilter Community Foundation here. – We are still going over adjustments to the Guidelines and Content Policy based on the feedback from members. So far we're planning on expanding guidelines specific to each subsite and we'll share a draft of these changes on a separate Meta post once it is ready. Fundraising – We have raised $11,959.00 in one time contributions and $340.00 in new Subscriptions. These contributions are a huge lift and we'll work with the Community Foundation to put that extra revenue to good use. We'll wrap the fundraising by the end of this month with the release of the new site's MVP, the MeFi Cookbook, the Pet Tax wall, the AMA Podcast and a special Halloween Virtual Gala. Tech – Early access to the new site is delayed due to some issues with the new host service. kirkaracha is working as we speak to fix it and we hope to have it ready later this week. – Fixed geolocation bug with IRL that was blocking posting. – Removed time limit on Projects posts. BIPOC Advisory Board – Thyme and I will resume our work with the BIPOC Board this month as the previous meeting was canceled. Next meeting is scheduled for this Saturday, October 21st. Once the meeting happens we'll report back on our plan to get back on track with the minutes and the cadence of the work with the BIPOC Board. If you have any questions or feedback not related to this particular update, please Contact Us instead. If you want to discuss a particular subject not covered here with the community, you're welcome to open a separate MetaTalk thread for it.

Signups for the 2024 MetaFilter Gift Swap are now open! The Metafilter Gift Swap takes place annually from roughly November - December. Each participant sends a gift to an awesome Mefite; each participant receives a gift from an awesome Mefite. Awesomeness and gifts abound.

The dates this year are: Signups: Now (10/21) - Nov 9 Assignments: Nov 10 - 15 Send-by: Dec 8 As in the past, the standard gift guidance is $20 USD. Signing Up There will be a link at the end of this post. Follow it! We need an actual MeFi username, an email address you check, your name & mailing address, and some good guidance for the person who draws your name. You will get a confirmation email that will show you the information you submitted. It will come from Google Forms and it will look like the form you just filled out. Please check your spam/junk mail folder. If you do not get this confirmation within 48 hours, send an email to the swap Gmail account (metafiltergiftswap@gmail.com). If you have not gotten a confirmation email, you may not be signed up or you entered the wrong email address. We can fix that. Fun Fact: Every year, several people accidentally typo their own email addresses, which leads to confusion and consternation, and sometimes no gift for someone until late in the season. You will get your draw via email. It will contain key information about the person you will be gifting: MeFi username, a real world name, mailing address, and hopefully helpful guidance from the person you drew. It should allow you to get off to a running start. If you are having trouble putting together your guidance section, ocherdraco put together a list of questions to help you focus. You don't have to answer all (or any of) the questions, but this is a good place to start if you are stumped by the Guidance section. We will not share, abuse, or sell any of your information. The person who draws your name will not get your email address. We will delete all emails sent and received at the end of the exchange season, as well as all personally identifiable information. The Rules 1) Email us or use the gift trackinator when you mail your gift out, along with the tracking number(s) if available. 2) Email us when you receive your gift, even if you're going to wait to open it. 3) Please either post in the main gift exchange thread when you open your gift, or contact your gifter directly. We get a LOT of emails from people who put time, energy, and a great deal of care into selecting and mailing gifts, and they want to make sure it gets to you okay. Please help us ensure that's as smooth as possible. =) If you failed to send your giftee a gift last year without working it out with us, you're ineligible to participate this year. If you do try to sign up, your name will be removed from the swap. You can try again next year, but two strikes and you will be out. If you find that you can't participate after signing up but before the draw, after all, send an email to the swap Gmail account (metafiltergiftswap@gmail.com). We'll remove your entry. If you find that you can't participate at all after the draw, please send an email to that same Gmail account as soon as possible so we can contact the folks who drew you and whom you drew and redirect or reassign as appropriate. If you do not think you can mail a gift in a reasonable amount of time, please do not participate. It's not OK to plan now on finding and sending your gift after your life calms down in January or late December or on Valentines Day. Hey! You have a question! We're happy to serve as anonymizing middlepeople if you have a question for your recipient, to send messages to your recipient on your behalf, to find out if a package has been sent or has been received. Send us an email at our Gmail address (metafiltergiftswap@gmail.com), and we'll see what we can find out for you. A Note About the Swap Groups If we do not get enough people to do a swap in a group, we will contact folks in the underpopulated swap groups to see what can be done before the swap. In 2022, we removed the International Spirit group due to low participation and reverted back to a single International (Physical) group; that remains in effect this year. A Note about International Shipping We STRONGLY recommend mailing as early as possible if you are going to send anything internationally, especially if the US is involved. Customs holds up lots of packages for varying amounts of time (with some, it seems forever). If you sign up for the International option, please be aware that shipping times may stretch out longer than you'd prefer. Signing up for the international swap does not guarantee that you will get a gift from and/or will send a gift to someone outside of the country in which you live (particularly if you live in the USA). If you specifically do want to send/receive internationally, please note that at the end of the sign-up form and we'll do our best to accommodate. A Note About Data Collection The organizers have access to all of the information submitted, including names, addresses, and email communications. We promise that none of this is saved or shared outside of this group. At the end of the exchange (generally sometime in February when we're sure everything that's going to ship/arrive has done so), all of this information is deleted; no personal information is carried over year-to-year. Communicating with Us Unless you need to contact us specifically about one of the organizers, please use our Gmail account, metafiltergiftswap@gmail.com. This will help us make sure we don't overlook anything and can be as efficient as possible. Who we are This year, the organizers are rhyspenbras and okayokayigive. If you drew one of our names and need information about your giftee without spoiling the surprise, contact the other one for answers. =) Gift Swap funding help As in previous years, we have a pool of funds to assist members who would like to participate in the swap but doing so would be financially difficult for them. If you'd like to take advantage of this, please complete the sign-up link and then contact the team at metafiltergiftswap@gmail.com with your username and the best way to get funds to you (Paypal or Venmo are easiest, but other options are available). These are first-come, first-serve. You won't be asked to justify or explain your situation; if you say you could use the help, we trust you. Most Importantly, Sign Up Here Happy gifting!

Hello, folks. I would like to know 1) if it's common practice for mods to edit users' comments without any indication of a mod note, 2) when this practice began, and 3) if it's been disclosed as a community practice here. As a member of the mefi community it's certainly something I would like to provide feedback on!

I noticed that a recent dumb joke comment of mine was altered at some point after it was posted. The comment in question:

Where's the mugshot. There are no known photos of this guy after like 2006 Found it. (Content warning: gory image) posted by phunniemee at 3:22 PM on October 22

The bold text--the content warning--was not added by me. There is no mod note either in my comment or elsewhere on the thread indicating that this was edited in any way. Was my comment in poor taste? Yeah sure, many of the things I do are. If a comment picks up flags, please delete it. Or add a content warning that says "MOD NOTE: CONTENT WARNING FOR GORY IMAGE" if you must. That's the community I have been a part of--moderation by deletion with active mod involvement in the thread. I absolutely do not want to be in a community where people's comments are EDITED by a mod without any indication that the text was written by someone other than the poster. My own comment here and the relatively minor edit is about as stupid as it gets in the specific, but I'm feeling genuinely scandalized right now and deeply uncomfortable to find out that our mods are editing users comments in secrecy. I've been on metafilter for a decade and a half, and I know the people here only because of the things that people say online. It's important to me that our names are appended to the things we actually say. This is a staggeringly bad path for metafilter moderation to take and I think the community needs some disclosure on how often this happens. [phunniemee's note: Loup did reach out to me over email to explain that this edit followed the policy from the FAQ to add a content warning where deemed necessary by a mod, but that it was an error to not leave a mod note or to let me know the edit had occurred. That the mod team has discussed and agreed that a mod note will always be included in the future. I appreciate that individual errors happen and I believe it's most likely that this was an edit made in good faith. However. There have been a number of mod calls this year that have eroded the faith that I have in the ongoing moderation of the community I love, and I would like to continue forward with this metatalk to ensure we continue to be a community that's moderated thoughtfully and with active user engagement.]

I know some of you already dressed up and went to your parties last weekend. And some of you have parties this weekend. And tonight (in the US) it trick-or-treat free-for-all. How have you decorated? What are you wearing?

We'll showcase the costumes during the podcast (scheduled to be recorded November 11) and pick three winners who will all get a free copy of the Pet Tax wall and the digital cookbook. Loose categories. * Spookiest costume * Simple but effective * Best Overall Costume Show us what you've got!

It's the 8th MeFi Holiday Card Exchange!

Sign ups are open, and will close approximately 8am EST 11/17. I hope to have assignments out by end of day EST 11/19 - if you haven't gotten yours by end of day Friday 11/22, please check your spam/junk and contact me. This is our eighth year of the card exchange. We have 5, 10, and up to 20 options available. You can choose US only, send anywhere (international) or Europe only (if there are enough signups for this). Most of the people participating are in the US and Canada, so if you sign up for international, you will mainly get those addresses. I try to spread them out. If you're in Europe, and want a limited number of US addresses, just let me know in the notes section - I likely won't be able to give you 20 non-US/Canadian addresses, but I will do my best! (same if you'd rather mostly have US and Canadian addresses. I will do my best with specific requests.) Other answers to commonly asked questions- - There isn't a specific timeline on when you need to have your cards sent out by, just whenever you can. - If something happens and you can't send out your cards after all, send me a message, and I will happily send some for you! - Any type of card is fine - store-bought, handmade, postcards, etc. - While this is a holiday card exchange, and most people do send holiday themed cards, I have received all sorts of cards, so do what makes you happy! - Number of card options are 5, 10, and up to 20. If you are open to more than 10, but not 20, you can add that to the notes. Sometimes the sorting works out that I have some odd numbers. Also, if you choose up to 20, it is possible that you will have a duplicate (because you may be in two lists of 10) - so it may not work out perfectly evenly (I do my best to avoid this!). If you don't have the bandwidth to do the card exchange, but you'd like to get a holiday card anyway, I am happy to send one - just memail me your info! (Seriously - Costco had holiday stamps, and I said "oh, I'll take two!" and phew, I have a lot of stamps now!) I do have the form set up so that it sends a confirmation with a summary of what you've chosen - this means that it has to collect your email. If you don't want to let it do that, you're welcome to memail me, and I will add you to the spreadsheet. I'll try to check into this thread daily, but if you have an urgent question, please memail me. This is (still) truly one of my favorite things all year, so thank you for participating! Sign up form is here!

Share something good or nice in here. Someone excellent win in your district? Kid or grandkid get a good job, or accomplish something hard? Maybe you found a welcoming, progressive group in your community? Maybe you'll enjoy A Post-Election Day Poem by Rebecca Faulkner, assembled from words sent in by the Reasons to be Cheerful community.

Or maybe you just need to watch a couple golden retrievers jumping into giant leaf piles. There's still time to sign up for the end of year gift swap or join the holiday card exchange. Please put your (extremely understandable) doom, hostility, anger, upset, fightiness and horror somewhere that is not here, thank you!

As of November 1, 2024 (it took some time for the notice to arrive), the Metafilter Community Foundation exists as an officially registered Delaware nonprofit non-stock corporation.

What this means:
1. We can now get an EIN, apply for a bank account, and apply to the IRS for not-for-profit designation.
2. The interim board of directors can get to work. We will have to adopt bylaws, approve (with community input) a policy and procedures manual, obtain insurance, and transfer the existing LLC and its assets into the new entity, among many other tasks.

We have a lot of work ahead.

Many people have expressed concern about this process, how long it's taking, and the future of the site. We share these concerns, which is why we've been donating so much of our time to this task. It will soon be time for members of our community to run for the Board of Directors, choose officers, join committees, and generally start doing all of the "community" things people have been calling for over the years. Think you know how to improve Metafilter? Now's the time to prove it. Friends, this is a long way from being over, but I believe that our community's best days are ahead of it. I expect that many people are going to be seeking internet communities in the coming months where civility and thoughtful discussion are still the norm, rather than the exception. If ever there were a time to do more outreach for new members and promote our site and what it can do, what it might yet be, this is it. If there's any silver lining to the current tumult in the world, it's that it gives us even more impetus to band together, talk to each other, and over-analyze those plates of beans. Now, let's get organized!