What are the greatest AskMeFis of all time?
September 13, 2023 2:45 PM   Subscribe

#metafilterfundraiser2023 I finally figured out my chatfilter question!

Even though my profile tells me I've been here since 2015, I still feel like a newbie.
Reading AskMetafilter is a daily part of my life and sometimes the recent questions aren't quite enough to keep up with my necessary daily allowance of problems and advice. I go through the old questions through various means, but what better way than for you guys to point me to the best!

I love you all, Metafilter4Evah!
posted by Jenny'sCricket to Grab Bag (49 answers total) 91 users marked this as a favorite
 
One word: Banjo.
posted by latkes at 2:51 PM on September 13, 2023 [10 favorites]


Fedora Guy
posted by fluttering hellfire at 3:00 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


The shawl question.
posted by carrienation at 3:02 PM on September 13, 2023 [26 favorites]


Another word: Cheese

(it was a guy who somehow acquired multiple pounds of cheese, perhaps illicitly - I can't find the post right now.)
posted by hydra77 at 3:03 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]




We've helped a few people escape bad situations from time to time.
posted by Alensin at 3:05 PM on September 13, 2023 [6 favorites]


I think that this is the Cheese story.
posted by ashbury at 3:09 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


Duh, it's the "how to dispose of a body" thread.
posted by wenestvedt at 3:16 PM on September 13, 2023 [16 favorites]


I don't know about greatest-of-all-time, but here are some I liked from before you joined in 2015:

A Human Sorting Algorithm
The Zenni of Other Things
Listening to Angry Women
Worth Every Cent!
Best BBQ Party Trick
Least Sprawling US Cities
The Dream of the '90s is... What?
posted by box at 3:35 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


Well, I loved reading about Minty.

But it's an answer, not a thread.
posted by jgirl at 3:37 PM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]


Wasn't there one where AskMeFi broke up a human trafficking ring, or something like that?

And hopefully that one didn't thereafter succumb to the thread equivalent of Milkshake Duck....
posted by Flunkie at 3:37 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]




The guy who wanted to arrive at a wedding - as a guest, not the groom IIRC - by swimming out of a lake clad in a wetsuit and then remove the wetsuit to reveal formal attire. I wonder about him all the time. If he actually achieved it I would pay good cash money to watch that video.
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:46 PM on September 13, 2023 [13 favorites]


I *still* tell people about these: Do I need to call an eggsorcist? and the follow-up You found WHAT in your drawer?. Good times. And a great question, Jenny'sCricket!
posted by DrGail at 3:55 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]


I can't find it ... there was one about how to I stop thinking of books as things to collect
posted by falsedmitri at 3:57 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]


I found this via an entry 'Popular' on a menu bar near the top of the AskMeFi page:


https://ask.metafilter.com/home/popularfavoriteall

The human traffricking thread appears there with the title 'Help me help my friend in DC' - I think that's it.

Another thread there is 'What's the Best Thing You've Ever Seen Here?'
posted by JonJacky at 4:01 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]






Searching the site for the metafilterhistory tag has some of the ones mentioned above and many more!
posted by merriment at 4:09 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]


Link in my post above is broken, missed the editing window. This works:

Most Favorited Questions of All Time
posted by JonJacky at 4:09 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


I followed this question from 2012 about Tina, a cat that got lost at Devil's Tower National Monument while her owners were moving across the country (and who was eventually safely reunited with her people!) with my heart in my throat.

It's such a good example of what this community can accomplish when it puts its heart and resources together for a good cause.
posted by jesourie at 4:35 PM on September 13, 2023 [11 favorites]


Here's the banjo question Latkes is talking about.

I wonder if that guy is fedora guy.
posted by jgirl at 4:36 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


For some reason the half of a deviled egg question has stuck with me for literally more than a decade.
posted by eponym at 4:49 PM on September 13, 2023 [7 favorites]


Where's the one where MeFi's Own(tm) Adam Savage helped someone break into their house?
posted by cgg at 4:52 PM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]


The question I posted in 2005 "What experience most shaped who you are?" was made in the early days of Ask Mefi, and almost got pulled as chatfilter until I explained my motivation for posting it.

It stayed and created a little bit of controversy when some questioned whether some of the responses were fabricated. It even escaped the confines of MeFi and had a mini-viral moment on the web. Four years after the question, Mefi user philosophistry converted the thread into a book.
posted by jeremias at 5:45 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]






Am I imagining the ask about how to clean a sweater that fell into a dish of salmon lasagna that was under someone's bed for an extended period of time? Not turning up anything with my searches. Its been stuck in my mind for ages, but perhaps I dreamed the whole thing up.
posted by JennyJupiter at 6:11 PM on September 13, 2023 [8 favorites]


Am I imagining the ask about how to clean a sweater that fell into a dish of salmon lasagna that was under someone's bed for an extended period of time? Not turning up anything with my searches. Its been stuck in my mind for ages, but perhaps I dreamed the whole thing up.

You are not imagining it.
posted by sigmagalator at 6:16 PM on September 13, 2023 [10 favorites]


@cgg it was my boyfriend’s boss’s house and that was
amazing. also this was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO howwwww
posted by tatiana wishbone at 6:37 PM on September 13, 2023 [6 favorites]


There were many thoughtful and wonderful answers to I'm ugly, now what?, but none more moving and honest and inspiring and, yes, beautiful than the one that began, My wife is ugly.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:14 PM on September 13, 2023 [6 favorites]


Steve Wozniak checks in to answer da question about a poster featuring him dressed as a wizard by uploading and posting an image of the poster (sadly link no longer works). And his original comment for a while held the most favourited comment position.

Also there was the real time assistance to help birdlady escape her locked bedroom. On preview I see already linked.

Or the one where (recollection fuzzy) one user asked a relationship question about their spouse and the spouse, also a user, showed up to answer.
posted by Mitheral at 8:06 PM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]


The Ask that I remember is from a recently married woman who was worried that her husband was trying to kill her. He took her on hikes and was standing very close to her, near cliffs or other places where she might be seriously hurt or die. Does anyone remember the story? It was a long time ago and, iirc, we never heard from her again either. That story has remained with me till now. I often wonder about her.

I also remember one winter how the AskMe community surfaced an astroturfer. This episode made me realize the power of online commentary and discourse to promote products and how easily these “personal” comments by astroturfers could manipulate general public opinion And yet this person’s /group’s machinations were pointed out by the more perspicacious members here and this is how I learned that this technique exists. This must have been oh, ten to twelve years ago?
posted by seawallrunner at 9:16 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


Decoding Cancer-Addled Ramblings was written about in Slate. That was how I found out about this site.
posted by FencingGal at 9:17 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]


seawallrunner the Cliff Husband Ask.

(I hope that that anon is OK. I don't think her husband was probably trying to kill her but that inference says a lot was wrong somewhere.)
posted by away for regrooving at 1:09 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]


I think there was a metatalk about it where some one said it closely followed the plot of a particular novel? I can't search right now but it was quite a bitter meta if I'm not mistaken, with people leaving mefi and stuff
posted by glasseyes at 2:44 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]


I think that this is the Cheese story.

Yes! I love Wordshore's questions because they always seem to end up with ludicrous amounts of delicious things, viz. chocolate and cake as well as cheese. Goals!

This is such a good question, thank you for posting! I'm feeling sick-but-not-sick-enough-to-stay-in-bed right now and this is such a good distraction... And makes me feel grateful to be part of this awesome community.
posted by unicorn chaser at 3:40 AM on September 14, 2023 [4 favorites]


the Cliff Husband Ask.

(I hope that that anon is OK. I don't think her husband was probably trying to kill her but that inference says a lot was wrong somewhere.)

I think that question was just someone fucking around; it was mentioned that it shared the plot of some movie or short story. (Still worth a read, though)
posted by bearette at 5:11 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]


This question, about a person who wanted to be secretly barefoot at work, has stuck itself in my head.

Salmon lasagna was my first thought.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 5:15 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]


The guy who wanted to arrive at a wedding - as a guest, not the groom IIRC - by swimming out of a lake clad in a wetsuit and then remove the wetsuit to reveal formal attire. I wonder about him all the time. If he actually achieved it I would pay good cash money to watch that video.

The one I’m remembering, but cannot find, was the groom. The question also might have considered parachuting in? Or a Point Break-style parachuting into the water with a wetsuit?

Anyway there were some good answers how one could pull such a thing off, but years later the Asker mentioned on MeTa that the performance would have been too distracting from his bride and he didn’t want to take attention away from her.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 5:55 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]




Ah it was "maxpower" not "Max Power". Here's the followup
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:00 AM on September 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


Orange Dinosaur Slide, that's it! That's the one! And . . .wow. . . that was a looong time ago.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:49 PM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]




Ask v Guess was transformative for me, and I was just referring to it last week, although it showed up as a comment rather than a whole ask.
posted by gingerbeer at 6:35 PM on September 14, 2023 [11 favorites]


When ottereroticist rescued the fellow who was injured at Occupy Portland. (Can’t link; on my phone.)
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:59 PM on September 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


There was a question about brewing the perfect cup of tea. So many answers! I sent the link to my SIL and she was fascinated.
posted by Enid Lareg at 7:14 AM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]


Which Way Do You Face In The Shower
People have some very strong feelings about this.
posted by oxisos at 1:09 PM on September 15, 2023 [2 favorites]


JimN2TAW: When ottereroticist rescued the fellow who was injured at Occupy Portland. (Can’t link; on my phone.)

That's here, and yes it was a great one.
posted by capricorn at 12:16 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]


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