MetaFilter tools: new and updated

November 4, 2014 9:43 PM

MetaFilter tools: new and updated
Seven current Greasemonkey scripts and Chrome extensions written by me, six(ish) following the request of MetaFilter users. These scripts and extensions have been successfully tested with MetaFilter after its recent redesign, including support for both the modern and classic themes.

A couple of the scripts (or their progenitors) have been downloaded thousands of times from the now-defunct userscripts site. Not all my original MetaFilter scripts from userscripts are here, only those which had recent feedback from MetaFilter users and were subsequently updated.

Note that #7, the "You've Got Mail" sound clip MeMail notification script, was strictly a goof of my own amusement, written to test HTML5's new <audio> element. It is included for the sake of MetaFilter script completeness, and for anyone else easily amused by the lowbrow hack.

Role: programmer

posted by mdevore (11 comments total)

Awesome!

(Do you know if anybody has resurrected the MefiQuote script?)
posted by schmod at 8:18 AM on November 7, 2014

Thank you! Schmod, my mefi quote script is still working.
posted by 724A at 10:52 AM on November 7, 2014

To be honest, I don't follow other scripts for MetaFilter, although I see them mentioned, of course. However, if a script stops working and is verifiably abandoned by the developer(s)--so I'm not trespassing on anyone else's programming turf--I'm willing to take a look at it and see if there's a clear fix.

I do see mixed results reported on MefiQuote since the redesign, so I'm not really sure of its current status. Maybe it's a theme or platform issue?
posted by mdevore at 12:30 PM on November 7, 2014

This is great and good.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:12 PM on November 13, 2014

While I'm here, I love Howls of Outrage, but it seems to conflict somehow with a Stylish script that I am running to turn the green in the new MeFi design back to yellow. As soon as I "activate" Howls by passing my cursor over the "X favorites" it seems to "deactivate" the Stylish script and everything goes green again. If I reload the page, it's back to yellow.

It's not a huge deal, and the aesthetic damage is well worth the functionality of Howls, but I wonder if you might have some idea what causes this?
posted by Rock Steady at 2:15 PM on November 13, 2014

Howls only directly modifies the style on its created popup, so I'm not clear on the conflict possibilities from that situation. Looks like I would need a copy of the Stylish script to see what's doing, before i could suggest a resolution.

Ah, that's with Greasemonkey, but nope, the relevant style code is basically identical in Chrome. Yeah, I'd need the Stylish script to have much chance at figuring out the issue.
posted by mdevore at 5:48 PM on November 13, 2014

I have a few other scripts that I use that either I made or were made expressly for MetaFilter. Would you be interested in hosting some other scripts, especially hedgehog-pointer and the unicorn-narwhal submit/preview buttons?
posted by jessamyn at 6:23 PM on November 13, 2014

Not sure, you mean physical site type host? Greasyfork does a good job, it looks to be well on its way to replacing the toasted userscripts site as the go-to Greasemonkey public script repository, and they're adding new features. Dirt simple to post scripts there. Only reason I still host my scripts on my site besides Greasyfork is so there's something living at the script namespace URL, but I'm pretty sure namespace is only used as a unique identifier and doesn't need to have a script at the location. I'm simply anal about doing it for "historic reasons".

Or getting the scripts to work again following the redesign and/or keeping them working? Yeah, I got no problem with doing that. Display and action tweak scripts usually don't have much in the way of hair-pulling complexities to arouse dread and despair. There could be counterexample scripts out there to my foolishly optimistic view, haven't encountered them yet. I like the odds so far.

Or rather add the other scripts to the page's short description+link display list? I got no problem with doing that either, merely with my bad grammar. I would say MetaFilter Wiki maybe should cover that, but the few times I've peeked in over the years, last a few months ago, it seemed more than a smidge out of date, at least on the subject of scripts and extensions. I don't really know its status, if it's at 100% accuracy rate now, ignore my rash remark and all hail the wiki maintainers.
posted by mdevore at 11:38 PM on November 13, 2014

Thank you for creating these scripts, mdevore!

Also, the MeFi Navigator script seems to be semi-broken. If anyone knows more, let me know.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:18 AM on November 14, 2014

I guess I am the one Safari user who would want a pony named "Howls of Outrage" (or an actual alive pony named Howls Of Outrage, for that matter), so don;t wait up for me. I think it may finally be time to cut over to Firefox now! :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:14 AM on December 3, 2014

I guess I could use an excuse to renew my long-lapsed Safari development certificate, and refresh my memory on using their API and development model for extensions. Give me a few days to see what needs be done to make a Howls variant work with Safari. Always assuming there isn't some browser-specific gotcha looming just over the horizon.
posted by mdevore at 9:58 AM on December 3, 2014