FanFare

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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FanFare is a site for discussing TV, movies, podcasts, and books and was launched in April, 2014.
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We'd like the front page of FanFare to be spoiler-free, so please limit above-the-fold descriptions of a show or film to the basics. Inside threads, feel free to discuss any plot point in that that episode or past episodes (or that film), but please refrain from discussing events that take place in future episodes (or sequels, etc). Also, please be considerate and refrain from discussing future events from other book/film/tv/comic versions of the story. (Note, this policy is different in threads that are labeled "Rewatch" or "Books Included.")
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We have some optional special labels for TV show posts on FanFare. They are used sparingly on posts and each label is defined below:

First Watch - Applied to shows that have long since been aired, but the person making the post has never seen them. Please no spoilers about future episodes or events from later in the series.

Rewatch - Applied to shows being watched again by viewers that are up to date on the show and have seen them before, but are rewatching the shows again (usually from the very start). Spoilers about later episodes can be freely shared here.

Show Only - These discussions strictly for discussing only the show, when the show has been adapted from books or other media. Any discussion from the books should not be mentioned and if it is, will be removed. That rationale for this format is that discussion of the story from other media may reveal spoilers for those who have only seen the show.

Books Included - A second half of the special case above (again, with Game of Thrones as the example) where any spoiler already covered in books is fair game. Anyone viewing these threads is assumed to have read the books and seen the shows.
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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 - one month
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 probably a comment by a moderator. See here for details.
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It's MeFi shorthand for a moment of respectful silence and is usually used in obituary threads.
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Similar to the single dot, the asterisk also signifies a moment of silence for an individual's passing, but notes that the person had problematic elements in their history. It is usually used in obituary threads and was first proposed within one.
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