November 25, 2003

MeFi Will See You Now... It feels like we are sitting in the MeFi waiting room, thumbing through old copies of Highlights and Newsweek. (Not to criticize the FPPs, which have been good.) How can we gather more members? And what else can we do to make MoFi its own thing?
  • Someone had suggested that we get a MeFi member to broadcast a message to the MeFi Lurkers, letting them know about us... Or should we be actively recruiting people? Do we need to find some kind of raison d'etre other than lurking for MeFi? Should we try and come up with some kind of Mission Statement? Questions questions questions.
  • We're getting a couple of signups a day at the moment. I have no clue where they're coming from (apart from Nemo, who was mentioned in the amazon.com thread), but I'd like to see everyone contributing something. At the moment it seems like there's just five or so of us participating. Mind you, I looked back at the first year of mefi the other day and almost every post for the first couple of months was Matt's, so we're doing all right in that respect. I guess it all boils down to how people feel about the current state of mofi - it's about what I envisioned at the moment. If you feel like letting others know about mofi (whether through Metafilter or other means), go ahead. The more the merrier.
  • I'd support getting someone to officially announce our presence in the grey but I can't speak for the server load. Do we have a limit? When can we close signups and cry "growing pains"? (joking!) Proposed Mission Statement - "We don't need no stinkin' MetaTalk." If we can avoid having that kind of rancor in this community, whatever else we want to accomplish here is just fine by me. By the way, I would love to hear from other current members. Don't be shy! Post away.
  • The server took a minor beating the other day because I was having some problems archiving random stuff also on the server. It's fixed, and we should be good to go for some time yet. I don't know that Matt would take the time to put something on MeTa for us, where a regular mefite might. Anyone feel like taking on the task of greasing up a mefi regular or two?
  • Tracicle
  • I'm pretty happy to let things go on as they are and just grow more members organically, (friends, random hits, ...) but I also could ask someone I know a little bit to post us in the grey when he thought it was appropriate, if others are keen on this. If two of you tell me to do it, I will.
  • Okay, now I go back and read the thread again, and there *are* two requests. Two more will push me into action, whether they are made by the same people or not. (Consider it a mini-plebiscite, or an unscientific survey of the membership.) Vote early! Vote often! Vote against this suggestion! Or not!
  • I emailed Matt, but whether we get a response remains to be seen.
  • if not MeTa, at least a link on the ETC page might help.
  • Wolof, I'm voting twice. If a post in the grey gets us another 20 serious Mefi/Meta lurkers who want to participate, I think it'd be spectacular. Does anyone think Matt would be against us advertising that way (i.e., he'd delete the post)?
  • My brother is a MeFi member and has graciously offered to help us out with a post if we want. I can't imagine Matt would delete a MeTa post about MoFi, although I could be wrong. (It's happened a few times.) Let me know what you guys think and I'll let him know. I think overall it couldn't hurt. As for the idea that we're in the MeFi waiting room, I personally think we should just be our own entity and thrive in that way, rather than feeling like we're just waiting for the gates to open. Given that, it will take time to get new members and for people to start posting and commenting regularly. MeFi wasn't built in a month! Neither will this site, but I feel certain we have more civil folks here. Thank God.
  • And posting on the ETC page would be great.
  • I agree with everything above this point. Below it is a whole other issue.
  • I'm not too clear on what you might disagree with, Tracicle. Details?
  • Hey, weird, I only posted that this morning and somehow it's ended up halfway down the page. I wonder if it's because of time zoning. (And it was meant to be a joke...)
  • As for the idea that we're in the MeFi waiting room, I personally think we should just be our own entity and thrive in that way, rather than feeling like we're just waiting for the gates to open. Completely agree with this, which is partly why I brought it up in the first place. We can, and should do whatever we want with the place (small example: I personally have no problem with people posting news stories as FPPs —a MeFi no-no — as long as they have something specific they want to discuss pertaining to the story.
  • That's okay Trace.. I got your joke, and even thought it was kinda funny and clever and stuff. *wipes nose subconsciously*
  • or.. you know.. unconsciously. *sigh* *buys a nice sofa to put in faux pax corner, knowing he's gonna be there a while*
  • Subconscious nose, eh? How Freudian...
  • Okay, I hear you. Will send mail, probably this arvo Oz time.
  • My brother will submit a MeTa post, referencing this MeTa comment, and we'll see what happens. Get ready for the flood gates to open!! Now where are my galoshes?
  • Good one, Sooze. I won't hassle my guy out until the next round of begging for members, then. So as to avoid double-post (smack on wrist!), etc.
  • I wonder if Matt will let it through...?
  • Hiii everryboodddy. I've been sick otherwise I would have chimed in sooner. I've been thinking about our little group recently especially in relation to MeFi and I would love it if we turned into something different (from MeFi). I think being forced to restrain ourselves (due to non-membership)on MeFi has changed lurkers into a mutated form and I'm looking forward to see what rises out of the goo. So bring on the MeFi lurkers! I'd love to hear what you have to say. Also, I've really enjoyed all the posts here. I think once we hit critical mass as certainsome1 said, it'll be aces. For the time being, I try to comment on everything to encourage people to post more.
  • Hi all. I just joined up after seein the MetaTalk post. I vote that we get our own little thing going, something different than MeFi. WHy? Because Metafilter sucks! THat's right, I said it. So bring on the goatse!
  • Wow strong words hairywreck. Is it all the bickering that's annoying you or MetaFilter as a concept? (Curious.) Speaking of, I can't connect to MeFi this morning even though the wiki says it's up. I wonder if my company is finally blocking access.
  • Kimberly, I can't connect either - I get the "site not found" error when I enter the URL. This happens every now and then but keep trying and eventually you'll probably be able to connect. If your company has blocked access, I know Matt has created other URLs to bypass such ploys. Let me know if that's the case and I'll track them down for you.
  • Hairywreck, you can see what happens when the goatse is brought on. Ugh, no thanks. Anything in particular about Mefi that annoyed you? What would you do differently here?
  • I really was just kidding, I don't have a problem with Mefi. I just think it would be great if Mofi became its own, unique community rather than the MeFi minor leagues.
  • Oh! I knew that! Yah! Mefi sucks! *cough*
  • MonkeyFilter: We only recognize sarcasm when it's actually pointed out to us.
  • Here's a link to the MetaTalk discussion of MonkeyFilter.
  • And we've left our teens! Twenty monkeys and counting! MonkeyFilter: More fun than a Barrel of Goatses
  • I've asked my brother to post a reply that tells the MeFi folks that we are a new community weblog in its own right, rather than an audition site for MeFi. (At least, I think that's what we are, right?) That should clear up some of the confusion on the thread.
  • I noticed that too, Sooooz. I did not sign up and participate as an audition to MeFi (as I made clear in my letter to Orange Swan), and I honestly would love to help build a community of our own. That being said, I definitely wouldn't turn a MeFi membership down were it offered.
  • With exception of cock's posts, the posts at monkeyfilter are at or above par with mefi. I almost posted a link from meta after stumbling upon mofi over the weekend but thought against it due to bandwidth issues. I think mofi can be --and should be-- more than the farm leagues for mefi. The idea of having tryouts seems sort of snobish to me. I got into metafilter the old fashioned way -- i signed up and was one of the lucky 14kers. I hope people who are mefites are also welcome here.
  • The more the merrier I say. Welcome!
  • Birdherder, we're very happy to have you here, and thank you for your kind words. I didn't expect anyone other than Mefi lurkers to join. A Mefite? Wow!
  • Absolutely MeFites are welcome here. Welcome. *hands birdherder a banana*
  • I didn't expect anyone other than Mefi lurkers to join. We heard you can post Goatse links to the front page here. Pity about the italics, though.
  • First other people are getting ponies and now bananas. What a jip!
  • you can use [em] and [strong]. I have no clue why it's picky about that stuff.
  • It's an xhtml compliance thing. I think I'll destroy it. Once I've eaten the entire secret banana cache, of course.
  • I CAN POST! I CAN POST! I CAN FINALLY POST! Oh, sorry.
  • d'oh!!!
  • and one for you... *hands banana to Kimberly* and one for you... *hands banana to tracicle* and you... *hands banana to SideDish* ...we've run out of bananas. I'm afraid everyone else will have to either settle for cake, or death.
  • And can I just say wow. Every time I refresh the screen we have two new members. Better order more bananas.
  • Here's one ex-mefi who just joined. Thanks for having me!
  • Death! No.. wait.. I meant cake.
  • Hi all, Just signed up following MeTa post. Given the lack of MoFiTa or equivalent, I am forced to post this question here, considering it to be the most appropriate of given choices. Is there somewhere a quick and dirty tag FAQ which will tell me what thags I can use in a MoFi post? I have been lurking on MeFi for a very long time and am excited about MoFi's potential. Additionally, would a FAQ warrant a FPP (by somebody far more experienced than myself) in order to assist some of us who are new to the posting game? People have posted comments showing tag suggestions, but for me they do not work, just show up in the preview body. Sorry for being such a noob, but better to ask than to not?
  • wherein thags = tags (and a poor preview job)
  • Fez.. my, but you seem to be a wordy one. 1999 comments - I'm surprised you haven't been tempted to round it off.. :) Your defection has been noted , however... (Sorry.. never did figure out how to link to specific comments)
  • Coriolisdave, you're lucky we're the church of MonkeyFilter. (Also, links to the specific comments are found within the time posted for each comment. So just right click on the time, save shortcut or copy link or whatever your browser likes and paste that.) Shotsy (Welcome!) brings up an interesting point about FAQs and such. I'm kind of resisting the idea because I feel like we're still figuring out what we we're doing here (not to mention I don't want to start down the path of "Your post sucks!"), but clearly something general is called for.
  • Sixty-three monkeys and counting!!I feel so proud of our little site. Yay yay yay! Bananas all around!
  • Monkeyfilter: Running, jumping, climbing trees; putting make-up while we're up there. Thankyou for the tip, Kim.. I feel really rather retarded at this time ;) While I'm being sctoopid - where's the UTC time zone? On the subject of FAQ's and suchlike, I feel we possibly _do_ need some form of MeTa, if only to weed out the bugposts and provide an area for FAQ's and suchlike. Can probably leave the etiquette portion out, though, as we're all such lovely people.
  • and suchlike. *sigh* Glad I bought that couch, now.... ;) Mental note: posting before first coffee = bad. Very bad.
  • I'd like to state now, for the (permanent) record, that I love that banana. And peanut butter and jelly with a baseball bat.
  • *waiting to see who joins as Mathowie*
  • sorry coriolisdave but we're out of cake. who knew there'd be such a run? homunculus -- great, now everyone's going to want peanut butter & jelly with their bananas
  • ( happy dance ) It's peanut butter jelly time! And also - Le sange est sur la branch.
  • Is there somewhere a quick and dirty tag FAQ which will tell me what tags I can use in a MoFi post? There must be somewhere we can link to that gives the basic tags, yes? I'm in the same boat as shotsy here and am learning as I go along. I'm specifically interested in figuring out a tag that does the same thing as <small>.
  • First, thanks to Tracicle for putting this together, after lurking for an eternity on MeFi. Second, yikes! I wasted enough time at work just *lurking* on Mefi- now I can actually post, and comment? uh-oh... Third, le singe, le singe... le singe est disparu.
  • Mais non, le sange n'est pas sur la branch... le sange est... posting a MoFi.
  • *looks around with interest* Great! Now I have even less time to get any work done at work. I may have to get a second job so I have enough time for MeFi and MoFi. tracicle, you can allow any HTML you want as part of the MetaPhilter configuration (but you probably know that).
  • Some traditions shouldn't die. MeFi Oolong. MoFi Oolong.
  • Oh wow. WOW. Hi guys!!!
  • News just in - MeFi sign-ups to re-open
  • Scott
  • And now user sign-ups have stopped. COINCIDENCE?!?!? (We got up to 108 so far though!! whee!)
  • hello monkey bretheren! i be just another mefi migrant who seeks a change of pace and to hear some new voices ... looks good in here! my eyesight is slowly returning now thanks to the soothing red and lavender background!
  • I was just sitting here practicing a MoFi lurk position, savoring the ambiance, wondering where it's all gonna lead. Really, tracicle? Is this what we're about? Monkeyfilter: taking on the task of greasing up a mefi regular or two.
  • *looks around* Yoo-hoo! I think we did good (^_^)
  • Remember when 73 comments seemed like a crazy number? I do.
  • Hey! Move along you two. This here tour's for paying customers only! Scat!
  • Hmmm...
  • I wonder how long I will sit here in my bathrobe following you wackos?
  • Nickdanger - I posted the first old comment. I think I get a complementary pass. Or part of the blame.