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frequently asked questions
--- Accounts ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| How do I sign up for a MetaFilter account? |
| What is my username? Can I change my username? |
| What if I forget my password? Can I change my password? |
| I signed up but had a PayPal problem and now they say my username isn't available. What now? |
| I want an account but I don't want to use PayPal. What do I do? |
| Can I have more than one account? Can I change accounts? |
| Can I give someone a gift MetaFilter account? |
| Can I close or delete my account permanently or temporarily? |
|
--- Profiles and Personalization --------------------------------------- |
| I'm new. What should I do first? |
| Why are you asking for my email? How do I change my email address? |
| Why are you asking for my birthday? |
| Why are you asking for my geographic coordinates? |
| Who can see the information on my profile page? |
| How do MetaFilter display preferences work? Can I customize the fonts and background color? |
| What's with the share buttons everywhere? Can I turn them off? |
| What do "Links to" and "Linked by" mean on my profile page? What does it mean if someone has called me a crush, or muse, or spouse? |
| How do I view my own (or someone else's) previous posts, questions, and comments? |
| How do I find someone's profile page if I only know their username not their user number? |
| Can I publicly mention details from someone else's profile page? |
| What does "I help fund MetaFilter" on profile pages mean? |
| What does secure browsing do? |
|
--- MeFiMail, Contacts, Social Stuff ----------------------------------- |
| What is MeFi Mail? |
| What are MeFi Mail reminders? |
| What about adding more email-like features to MeFiMail? |
| What are meetups? Can I be alerted if there's one in my area? |
| What are contacts? Someone made me a contact, now what? |
| How do I see if a user is online or not? |
| How do I link to my other online communities/social sites in my profile? |
| How do I suggest a new online community/social site for the "also on" section of the profile page? |
| How do I see who else belongs to a given online community/social site? |
|
--- Favorites ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| What are Favorites? |
| Why can't I add favorites? |
| What is My Favorites? |
| What do the counts on the Popular Posts or Popular Questions page mean? |
| Why is my old post/comment getting new favorites? |
| How many favorites can I add in a day? |
| Can I change how favorites are displayed for me? Can I hide them entirely? |
| Can I search within my favorites? |
|
--- Other ways to follow site activity or personalize your experience -- |
| What is Recent Activity? |
| What does the comment highlighting in Recent Activity mean? |
| What is My Mefi? What is My Ask? |
| Can I follow all the threads I have commented in, by looking in one place? |
| Can I choose to see only posts or questions with certain tags or in certain categories? |
| Can I see which posts or comments have received the most favorites? |
| Can I see which threads are currently most active? |
| Can I make a selective list of threads that I want to follow? Can I follow threads without commenting in them? |
| What sort of RSS feeds does MetaFilter have? |
| What is a greasemonkey script? |
|
--- Posting and Commenting: General ------------------------------------ |
| How soon can I post after signing up? |
| How soon can I post again after making a post? |
| How long do threads remain open? |
| How do I edit or delete my post? |
| How do I edit or delete my comment? What are the rules about the edit function? |
| How do I comment anonymously? |
| How do I link to a specific comment? |
| How do I make a link? Can I use HTML in my posts? |
| How do I post code or other marked up text? |
| How do I create the [more inside] jump when posting? |
| Are posts or comments edited by mods? |
| If a thread has been deleted, can I still find it someplace? |
| If a comment has been deleted, can I still find it someplace? |
| There is a problem with a comment or post. What should I do? |
| Someone made a official-seeming comment in small type, with square brackets. What does that mean? |
| My Mefi post or AskMe question was edited to remove my cute "more inside" play on words, wtf? |
| My HTML seemed to work in the live preview but didn't come through correctly. Is this a bug or intentional? |
| What are the keyboard shortcuts for MetaFilter? |
| How do tags work on MetaFilter? |
| What are some guidelines for tagging my posts? |
|
--- Posting and Commenting: Etiquette and Lingo ------------------------ |
| What is the etiquette concerning members' or non-members' personal details and profile information? |
| What does a single period in a comment by itself mean? |
| What does 'threadsitting' mean? What does 'threadshitting' mean? |
| Where can I find a list of common lingo and Mefi-specific abbreviations? |
| What are self-links? Are self-links ever okay on any part of the site? |
| Should I use an URL shortener or link shortener, like I would on Twitter? |
|
--- Posting and Commenting in MetaFilter ------------------------------- |
| What makes a good front page post to MetaFilter? |
| Why was my MetaFilter post deleted? |
| Why was my MetaFilter comment deleted? |
| What is double posting? Is there a statute of limitations on double posting? |
| How can I check if something has been posted before, to avoid double posting? |
| If my post has more than one link, or the link isn't first, do I need to use the URL box? |
| Can I post a link to just a short news bulletin if there's a breaking news story? |
| Can I post a link to something behind a free registration? |
| Can I post a fundraiser, or a petition for a worthy cause? |
| Should I include an NSFW warning if my link is not safe for work? What about spoilers? |
| Should I include a trigger warning about upsetting content in my post? |
| Should I add a [via] link if I found it from another site? |
| What does "Pepsi Blue" mean? |
|
--- Posting and Commenting in Ask MetaFilter --------------------------- |
| What makes a good question for Ask MetaFilter? |
| My Ask Metafilter question was removed as chatfilter. What does that mean? |
| Why was my Ask MetaFilter post/comment removed? |
| When is it okay to do a "Critique my X!" post on Ask MetaFilter? |
| How do I include a picture or photo with my AskMe question? |
| How do I post an anonymous question in AskMe? Is there a function for anonymous follow-ups? |
| How long does it usually take for an anonymous question to be posted to Ask Metafilter? |
| Is there a way to turn a non-anonymous old question into an anonymous one? |
| Why are some people's answers in AskMe highlighted in their own box? |
| How do I mark my question as "answered" (e.g. green check mark)? |
| Why can't I remove a 'stumped' or a 'resolved' tag from my AskMe question? |
|
--- Posting and Commenting in MetaTalk --------------------------------- |
| What is MetaTalk for? |
| I think I found a bug. Should I post it to MetaTalk? |
| I have a request for a new feature. Should I post it to MetaTalk? |
| I want help finding an old post or comment. Where should I post this question? |
| Why are some MetaTalk threads closed? |
|
--- Other subsites, related sites, fun stuff --------------------------- |
| What is FanFare? |
| What's the policy on spoilers in threads at FanFare? |
| What do the "First Watch", "Rewatch", "Show Only", and "Books Included" labels in FanFare mean? |
| What is MetaFilter Projects? |
| What is MetaFilter Music? |
| What is IRL? |
| What is the podcast? Are transcripts available? |
| What is MetaFilter Chat? |
| How do I log in to Chat? |
| What is the MetaFilter wiki? |
| What are other MeFi spinoff sites? |
| Is there an archive of MetaFilter April Fools Day pranks? |
| What are some other MetaFilter traditions? |
| Can I get a Metafilter t-shirt? |
| What is the Infodump? Does Mefi release other data for study? |
| How can I find out various MeFi statistics, like who has posted the most, or had the most favorites in a given month, etc? |
|
--- Problems ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| The site seems down or really slow, is there a status blog? |
| I'm having a problem, might be a bug. What should I try before contacting the mods or posting to MetaTalk? |
| Someone threatened me or threatened to harm themselves. What should I do? |
| What is being done to prevent bullying on MetaFilter? |
| A sketchy or inappropriate ad is showing on the page. What can I do? |
| How can I switch to the mobile view of the site? |
| It looks like I am logged in with some other person's username. What's up? |
| Why doesn't the timestamp in live preview match the time in my actual timezone? |
| I can't see video content linked in a post. What can I do? |
| Why did my HTML get screwed up, when it was fine in live preview? |
| I get an error saying: 400 Bad Request, Size of a request header field exceeds server limit. What is this? |
| Why can't I get favorites to work? |
| Why is there a referral code on the Amazon link in that post? |
|
--- Moderation, flagging, banning, etc. -------------------------------- |
| Who is in charge here? Are there admins and moderators like other sites? |
| I need to get in touch with a site admin in a hurry. How do I do this? |
| How can I tell if a comment was made by a moderator? |
| What is flagging? How can I flag a post/comment for the moderators to look at? |
| The reason I want to flag something isn't listed, what should I do? |
| Are flags anonymous? |
| What's up with banning? What does one see when they've been banned from MeFi? |
| Can I come back to MetaFilter after I have been banned? |
|
--- About the site (Ads, Copyright, Code) ------------------------------ |
| How does advertising on MetaFilter work? |
| Who owns the copyright on MetaFilter content? |
| What should I know about privacy at Metafilter? |
| How can I donate money to support the site? |
|
"It's moist, but thanks." |