MeFi IRL

Go to the New User page to read about accounts and follow the link to sign up and pay for the account. The current sign-up fee is US$5; it's a one-time fee and is the only cost associated with using the site. Once the PayPal payment is completed, your account will be active and you will be allowed to make comments on various MetaFilter threads. Please note that there is a waiting period to create a post to the front page of MetaFilter, however you can create an Ask MetaFilter post immediately.

We enforce a strict rule against posting your own work or work you've contributed to or are posting about in a promotional capacity, except on MetaFilter Projects or MetaFilter Music. Posting a link to a site you're connected to, or posting for promotional purposes (except on Projects or Music), will result in a ban with no refund.

If the signup fee is a financial or logistical hardship, you can drop the moderation team a line via the Contact Us form to ask about a complimentary signup.
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IRL is the subsite for organizing meetups and get-togethers with other site members In Real Life (IRL). There is a feature in IRL meetup threads that allows users to link to photos of their meetup. When this option is used, a little icon of a photograph shows up next to the meetup location in the MeTa sidebar.

To see what meetups are coming up, look at the Proposed, Future, or Upcoming tabs, or use the search box to find events by location. Upcoming meetups are listed in the sidebar of MetaTalk as well. You can see past meetups in a similar way. (Historically meetups were organized in Metatalk's meetups category, if you want to look back at some historical meetup threads.)

To propose a meetup, begin with the New Event form linked in the header of IRL. Your meetup will initially appear in the Proposed tab. When a meetup is proposed, people can work out the details in the comments section. When details are finalized, you can switch your meetup over to Confirmed and it will show up as a Future or Upcoming event. IRL threads track "yes" and "maybe" responses from users planning to attend.

If a meetup needs to be cancelled, or just isn't coming together, you can note that with a comment in the thread and contact a mod to close the thread.

To be notified about upcoming meetups in your city, go to your profile page. If you have entered a location for yourself, under "Contact Preferences" you will be able to check a box for IRL notifications.

There are two types of IRL alerts you can choose to receive via Mefi Mail. The first type of alert tells people in a geographic area that there's a new post they might be interested in. Those alerts go out once per day at midnight Pacific time. They alert everyone with a location, distance, and the option to get these set in their profile. The second type of alert tells people who have indicated that they're attending the meetup that something (like the location or time) has changed. Those go out around 15 minutes after the change happens, and they go out to everyone who has indicated either 'Yes' or 'Maybe' that they're attending.
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Meetups are when people who know each other from MetaFilter (or just have an interest in MetaFilter in common!) get together in real life. These In Real Life (IRL) meetings are usually pretty informal, and happen all over the world. The IRL.metafilter.com is a subsite specifically for planning and organizing meetups and other events. Upcoming meetups are listed in the sidebar of MetaTalk as well. See here for more details.

Users can opt to be notified of meetups happening in their area in their user profile preferences. To do this, select "Receive IRL alerts?" under Contact Preferences. This feature will only work if you have entered geographic coordinates for yourself. You can set your geographic coordinates with this lookup.
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After you have posted a thread (a post in MetaFilter, a question in AskMetafilter, etc), you have to wait this long before posting a second thread in that same area of the site. There is no similar limit for comments.

MetaFilter - 12 hours
AskMetafilter - no limit
FanFare - no limit
Projects - no limit
Music - 24 hours
Jobs - 24 hours between posting job Openings; you can only post one Availability total
Podcast - only admins post the podcast
IRL - no time limit, but you can have no more than 10 active IRL threads at a time
MetaTalk - one week

Note that these waiting periods are per-person, not per-account, so if you have two accounts you still can only post at these intervals. Using two accounts to get around the posting limits is against the rules and may result in your post being deleted and your second account closed.
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It is entirely optional to give your geographic coordinates in your profile. If you give a longitude and latitude, you will be able to use certain features that are geolocation-based. These features include: seeing which other members live near you (you can specify a distance for "near"); getting a message if there is an In Real Life (IRL) meetup scheduled near you; seeing how far away from you each job posting is in Jobs. You can choose whether other members will also be able to see your location by selecting 'Available to Members' or 'Private' in the Geographic Coordinates section of your site preferences.
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MeFi Mail reminders are system messages sent from MetaFilter to your MeFi Mail inbox. The most common messages are reminders to update Ask MetaFilter threads 30 days after posting. You'll also receive messages about new posts you make to any MetaFilter site. Those message include the post URL which can help you find the post again in the future. If you opt-out of MeFi Mail reminders you won't receive these messages.

You can also receive MeFi Mail notifications about meetups happening near you. To set this up, go to your Preferences page. If you have entered a location for yourself, under "Contact Preferences" you will be able to check a box for In Real Life IRL notifications.
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