Popular Comments Across MetaFilter

By Parasite Unseen in "Tri-System Theory" on MeFi

Parasite Unseen — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 19:51:06 GMT

Back in January 2025 when the wildfires were burning all around Los Angeles I was at my office and I received a phone call from one of our clients, who is a medium-famous film director whose name most people here would probably recognize, even if they don't generally think highly of his work. We were discussing business matters unrelated to the fires when he said, "The Hollywood sign is on fire."

"It isn't," I let him know. "I can see it from my window."

"Yes," he insisted, "it is. I'm watching a video of it on YouTube."

"I am looking at the Hollywood sign with my own two eyes and direct line of sight and I promise you it is not on fire," I said.

He was unmoved by my assurances that my own eyes were more reliable than a YouTube video, and eventually I was able to change the subject. This guy, to some extent, is media and really ought to know how these things work and how image can be manipulated (especially if he was the sort of director who, to pick a totally random example that we'll say is unrelated to this story, was in charge of making a documentary about let's say a First Lady of the United States of America), but he was convinced that he had the real story because the computer showed it to him.

I don't know what to tell you; a lot of people are just dumb as fuck.

By waving in "What should you never buy second hand? " on Ask MeFi

waving — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:29:20 GMT

Regarding not buying used linens or "any items that go in the mouth" due to hygiene reasons, consider that the bedding in hotels and silverware in restaurants has been in close physical contact with many humans. Literally hundreds of people have slept on those linens, often naked and having sex. And possibly thousands have had that silverware in their dirty mouth before you. Obviously you want these items cleaned well before you use them. You can't go to hotels and restaurants if you are queasy about not using these things.

By mod_adrienneleigh in "mo' trends, mo' problems" on MetaTalk

mod_adrienneleigh — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:00:42 GMT

Hi, folks. I'm still getting up to speed and haven't started modding yet, but i am actively getting trained on the mod tools this week and i wanted to drop a note in here with some info for the conversation about flagging. Flags do not disappear, and moderators absolutely can see flag history, both for a specific comment and for a user. However, there is a queue of incoming flags which have not been reviewed yet, and mods on shift remove flags from that queue as they go through them, at which point they are less immediately visible to folks who come on duty later.

Flags that have been removed from the queue can still be reviewed! They're just not out in front on the mod dashboard. But if the same comment gets flagged again, for instance, mods will definitely see "oh, this is the 4th flag on this comment"; that's all set up to be very visible in the tooling. Flags do not disappear into the ether, and i, for one, already love seeing "flag with note"s that clearly identify an issue!

You'll definitely hear more from me as i get up to speed and get to work over the next couple of weeks, but i did want to offer that little bit of clarity, as i am currently having this exact learning experience :)

By BlackLeotardFront in "Is Sam Altman's mouth moving?" on MeFi

BlackLeotardFront — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:09:43 GMT

Chesky stayed in contact with the tech journalist Kara Swisher, relaying criticism of the board.

I was reporting on this whole debacle as it happened, and we were all both jealous and disgusted at Swisher's access here (we were all frantically emailing Ilya, Greg, etc). At first we were like, how did she get this inside info on what happened in the room, but within half a day we realized she was acting as mouthpiece for the Sam faction, very directly and uncritically. She was always too close to the other side but this one really bothered me.

Some good new info here, some of it from Altman, who must have decided it was worth the gamble to get a profile in the New Yorker even if it's ultimately skeptical of his entire enterprise. As usual, he and his supporters will cast this as a big "he said, she said" battle of perspectives, so Farrow was smart to frontload the "this is a years-long pattern of deception across many venues" aspect.

I can add my part: Altman lied to me, to my face, or at the very least prevaricated. At an event I asked him in person whether OpenAI had used zlibrary, books3, or another extralegal book database to train models. Sadly I wasn't recording, but as I recall he said something along the lines of, of course not, we wouldn't knowingly walk into that kind of legal peril - but you should ask Mira (the CTO). When I asked Mira, she said she would need to check. Of course, they absolutely did use these databases, and they both knew it, but were both savvy enough to avoid an unqualified "no." I didn't trust them then, but after that I knew that I needed to scrutinize everything they (especially Sam) said for potential, shall we say, truthlessness.

By moosetracks in "Sorry I can't meet you, I'm busy getting medical procedures " on Ask MeFi

moosetracks — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:56:21 GMT

I wouldn't start things off with a lie. I also wouldn't go into details. I'd just be honest.

"Hey, wanted to give you a heads up I have a couple medical procedures/appointments in the next few weeks that are taking me out of commission for a bit. Nothing serious at all, but I'm enjoying talking to you and otherwise would want to meet up this weekend! Want to pencil in something for the 28th?"

If they ask for details, just say "ah, I'll fill you in over coffee at the end of the month!" Do not trauma dump a bunch of health info on someone you've never met.

FWIW, if I got the messages above, I'd assume you were having a colonoscopy or a knee surgery or something along those lines — nothing serious, just not a great time to meet someone new.

By knobknosher in "HearHere Is A Missing Stair." on MetaTalk

knobknosher — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:26:07 GMT

regardless of what I feel about their posting style, this metatalk is a little much (a lot much, honestly). Maybe it's just because I am also often annoying to people, and kind of lazy writer, but I think it's quite harsh to call somebody a "narcissist" and a "missing stair" in this scenario.

You already argue with them and critique them quite a lot in specific threads, from what I can tell, and no one stops you from doing that. So that pretty much removes any possibility that they're actually a missing stair.

Even if that weren't the case, they're not abusive.

I do wish they would be more respectful and/or read the room. But I think this is also one of those scenarios where if you know someone annoys the piss out of you maybe just scroll on by instead of getting madder and madder

By Don Pepino in "Do I share the bad thing that happened to me with friends and family?" on Ask MeFi

Don Pepino — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:20:48 GMT

Yes, what everyone has said, and also, did the hospital offer you any emotional support help? If so, I think I might take them up on it, and if not, I might call that administrator back and just say, "Look, I'm having trouble with this; I think I was in shock when you first told me, but now it's starting to affect me and I'm quite overwhelmed. I'd like some help if you have any kind of support services you could offer." It goes without saying that this is very, very upsetting, and it's great they're dealing with the perpetrator responsibly, but they have a duty to you as well, given this happened to you under their care.

By Zumbador in "HearHere Is A Missing Stair." on MetaTalk

Zumbador — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:46:04 GMT

Ok sorry but this is absolutely not OK.
I have no idea what Hear Hear's neuro status is, but can I just tell you how hurtful and insensitive it is to accuse a person of being a bot or, failing that, having no theory of of mind?
Two things that are constantly being thrown at autistic people?
Regardless what you think of HH, (and I'm sorry if you're reading this thread, not cool) as an autistic person I'm learning how much thin slicing is going on here.

By octaviabutlerfan in "Do I share the bad thing that happened to me with friends and family?" on Ask MeFi

octaviabutlerfan — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:51:04 GMT

The first person I'd be telling is my lawyer, because you know what helps with having a serious disease or disorder (from experience)? Money. A lot of money to throw at the problem. If this all really happened as you say it did, you would likely have a successful lawsuit and you wouldn't have to do much of anything besides get a lawyer working on it, no cops needed.

Also, telling friends will mean accepting that your friends are people too with complex reactions to things and a desire to help, and you can't predict or demand their reactions to traumatic information. So let that guide whether you tell them or not. You can try to tell them how you want them to react, but that doesn't always go well either and you might find that they have helpful natural reactions and bring up good points and action steps.

By TheophileEscargot in "mo' trends, mo' problems" on MetaTalk

TheophileEscargot — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:07:17 GMT

If someone is being as dickish as possible, but trying to stay within the rules so they can keep on being a dick, someone with the ability to ban needs to:

1. Tell them to stop being a dick or they will get banned
2. If they continue to be a dick after that, ban them

This is a problem that requires social intelligence and a willingness to handle some conflict to fix. It's not really about workflows or protocols or technology. Some problems need to be fixed with a judgement call not a system.

By ftrtts in "HearHere Is A Missing Stair." on MetaTalk

ftrtts — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:24:31 GMT

For me, the problem with HearHere's participation is that they frequently ask big questions that require a lot of time to answer. However, they ask it without explaining why something is important or advocating for a solution, and sometimes without even asking a clear question. So, for example, their MetaTalk threads:

maybe we should talk about AI

maybe we should talk about the mission statement

This type of performance art posting about serious topics feels disrespectful to me. Like, I don't think we are building the Parthenon here, but I do appreciate that people engage sincerely and thoughtfully with the meta-community-building aspect of this site. Over the last year, it feels like this community thing might even actually work. Forgive me if I'm a little bit protective of it.

By Art_Pot in "Court finds Japanese sterilisation law lacks rationality" on MeFi

Art_Pot — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:27:35 GMT

Of course the law lacks rationality, because the only reason it exists is to control a woman's body

By logicpunk in "Tri-System Theory" on MeFi

logicpunk — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:50:34 GMT

even with faulty AI it looks to me (couldn't find it reported in the paper) that AI group overall outperformed brain-only

well, you're wrong.

"Unsurprisingly, the AI-using experimental group did much better than the "brain-only" control group when the AI provided accurate answers, and much worse than the control when the AI was inaccurate."

a better reason to be skeptical of this paper is that the authors are consumer behavior and marketing researchers at a school of business, which positions are not absolutely indicative of being poor researchers, but there is a correlation. moreover, they name-check kahneman's 'thinking fast and slow' which is to decision science as hubba-bubba is to a well-balanced nutritional breakfast. their methods are sloppy and unclear, and really what they are calling "AI" seems to be just an answer that they label "AI." i can't find the 'web appendices' they refer to in the main text, but the AI component seems to be a maguffin; if you look at their pre-registered materials (https://osf.io/anmch/overview), the questions are basically middle-school math word problems. it doesn't seem that they test the extent to which subjects believe they were interacting with an actual AI, without which this is worse than useless for making claims about AI influence on cognition since they aren't actually using AI. the phrase 'cognitive surrender' is not an actual phrase used in decision science or cognitive science/psychology; it's a marketing term come up with by two business school professors (appropriately enough).

this manuscript is gonna do social media numbers and then it will fall off the face of the earth because even if it gets attention and agrees with some peoples' biases about AI use being poison, it's not good research.

By cortex in "Why Bell Curves Are Everywhere" on MeFi

cortex — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:32:32 GMT

issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the phrenology enthusiast Charles Murray. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to him"

By phunniemee in "HearHere Is A Missing Stair." on MetaTalk

phunniemee — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:32:54 GMT

If you want someone banned, take it to the board. That's why they're there.

The Board is absolutely not here to litigate the banning of individual MeFites. We're here to figure out some strategic operational goals for Metafilter so it doesn't wither to dust and take the community along with it.

Stop behaving like dickheads on this website, please. Subject of this MetaTalk, inclusive. Thank you.

By secret about box in "Court finds Japanese sterilisation law lacks rationality" on MeFi

secret about box — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:15:01 GMT

i hope this law can be destroyed as soon as possible. you own your body, nobody else. it is perhaps the only thing we truly own. full bodily autonomy and nothing less.

By 15L06 in "mo' trends, mo' problems" on MetaTalk

15L06 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:22:06 GMT

As an avid reader of metatalk i have a friendly request.
I am an artist who occasionally does performance art and concept art, and has colleagues practicing these art forms, and i really wish that neither performance art nor concept art be used as a (derogatory) descriptor or label of unwanted behaviour on metafilter. Both art forms are the products of concious choices of an artist, and created with intent.
Yes, i can (and do) scroll past its use in comments but i also have faint hopes that perhaps commenters might - if made aware - no longer use the terms in this way. Neither ought to be used as slurs.
And yes, i agree, metafilter is not a place for performance art. But then unwanted behaviour is not Performance Art.
I do realise this is a somewhat minor or even very minor issue, and promise to not raise it again.
Thanking you for your consideration,

By lalochezia in "Tri-System Theory" on MeFi

lalochezia — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:08:54 GMT

You have an auto-adaptive charismatic bulshitter on every conceivable subject on tap in your pocket. Furthermore everyone else says the bulshitter is the future. Yes this is exactly like "reading a convincing article" or listening to "someone charismatic"

By Winnie the Proust in "HearHere Is A Missing Stair." on MetaTalk

Winnie the Proust — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:27:41 GMT

I don't think this is an appropriate use of Meta.

We should not be using Meta's to analyze and criticize individual users. We shouldn't call for specific people to be banned because of their use of capitalization and punctuation. (Yes, I know it's more than that, but that was highlighted.)

I don't know HearHear and haven't noticed them being disruptive. But one of the refrains in Meta is that we, as a community, don't know how to get along. That we are mean to each other; that we drive people away; that we snark at people we disagree with until they give up and leave because its. just. not. worth. it.

Public threads like this don't help. They contribute to that problem.

If there is a real issue with a users behavior, it should be taken up with the mod team. If we don't have a fully functional mod team at this time, flag the issue and bring it up again when we do. If this were racism, transphobia, etc it would be more urgent. But I don't see that here. And I think a public callout like this over someone's affect sets us back as a community.

By snofoam in "HearHere Is A Missing Stair." on MetaTalk

snofoam — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:37:41 GMT

I just want to say, making everyone defend one of the most annoying posters is a real asshole move.