November 17, 2003

Mathowie is working on getting new people into MetaFilter.
posted by Kimberly 20 years ago
  • That new .kobayashi. is quite a talker!
  • Heh. Yeah I saw that. I wonder if that's his inherent personality or if, as I said I might feel, he's trying to prove himself.
  • Well, looking at his profile I'm going to guess that he's the talkative kind. On preview: nothing, except I always wanted to say that.
  • I understand Mathowie's position, and think his plan is a workable one (and probably the most sane), but as someone who is more of a commenter-type than a FPP-poster-type I fear that it lowers my chances for getting in to MeFi pretty dramatically. Guess I'd better start huntin' for good links...
  • I was actually surprised by what he said. I enjoy many of the random links that I find there, but I also enjoy the discussion that goes on. It was all the discussion that got me hooked on MetaFilter in the first place. Maybe I'm shooting myself in the foot to say so, but it's true. I can understand his frustration, because most of the posts that get high comments are the poltical "You're wrong! No you're wrong!" variety and that's gotta be irritating. Matt's point brought up a question for me though. Has the community deviated from his original intentions past the point where Matt can do anything about its direction short of shutting it down or changing its features? It seems to me that MeFi has taken on a life of its own. I know that I wouldn't want to run it.
  • I agree with you, Kimberly: I enjoy the discussion more than the links more often than not. Otherwise why would we all know the posters so well? As for the site's purpose and how it's changed, it does seem like it's going to implode eventually. It's disturbing how many comments MeTa posts get compared with the (more relevant) MeFi posts.
  • Having a place to complain about MeFi guarantees there will be complaints about Mefi.
  • I'm beginning to agree with you Mickey. Especially after reading MeTa threads like this. I had to stop after a while because it got so nasty and pointless that it was painful. It makes me a little more sympathetic with Mathowie's position. I'm positive he's tired of that crap and just wants some happy fun links again and honestly I'm not sure that can happen.
  • I wonder if part of a fix for MeFi might be insisting that people stay on topic. (Although now that I write it and prepare to send it out into the wide world, it seems a bit simplistic.) What I mean is that threads have begun, very quickly, to break down into partisan bitch sessions about points of view, rather than discussing the point at hand. Granted, some of the FPPs are created to incite the bitching (and maybe that's part of the solution as well
  • Maybe the teeming thousands of MeFi lurkers is a myth after all, seeing as how few folks have made the trip out to the hinterlands of MoFi. I suggest Mathowie just shuffle us in the MeFi deck and call it a day.
  • Pfft, yeah, since I was worrying about all the bandwidth all the wannabes would take up. But I'm reading the thread Kimberly linked to above and thinking, holy crap, do I really need to be a part of this? Meh.
  • You're not the only one. Mefi _can_ do things very well, however I think the good stuff really gets drowned in these few (albeit increasing in frequency) nasty posts. As to the teeming hordes? I'm sure there are probably a whole _heap_ of people who wouldn't mind actually joining, but going so far as to _do_ anything about it runs rather counter to human nature... ;) Or perhaps I've just been working in IT too long.
  • MonkeyFilter: We're Vaguely Productive
  • Hee! I love it! That tagline could easily apply to me. I was thinking about inviting all my friends to come post, but I have a feeling it would turn into SquoogyFilter if I did that so I've been keeping it on the down-low for now. (I cannot believe I just said "keeping it on the down-low.)
  • The user count has gone up by one to 17171. Not that I watch that number constantly. Honest.
  • That was referring to metafilter, now that I realise how vague it sounds. Our member count is up to ten! One of those is an old friend of mine from usenet (Hi!) whose sushi link I liberated for strategic mofi purposes.
  • Completely and totally off topic, but tracicle do you know what the down low(pdf file) is? All communities implode eventually, it's just a question of what one can snatch from the jaws of disaster and how much fun one can have while doing so.
  • Eight times I previewd that trying to get the html to work and I still didn't notice I'd attributed the comment to the wrong person. For tracicle read Kimberly.
  • I have a single digit user number. I don't think I'll get any more work done today.
  • I must admit that I'm am MeFi'd out at the moment. I'm DEFINITELY MeTa'd out. Talk about a lot of talk about nothing. This comment from this MeTa thread really nailed it on the head: [I'm not HTML literate so I don't know how to do the links right - my apologies!] "Still confused/annoyed? Here's the accepted behavior: A question is posted, everyone yells for a bit, we all get a sense of the prevailing sentiment on the issue, and it's done. Then there is a lot of pointless babbling." http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/3670 As for the teeming hords, I'm sure they are out there. But if they don't read MeTa they may not know WE are out here. Perhaps an email to Matt requesting this site be an FPP or an item on the sidebar? He might be happy to oblige seeing as it would send lurkers here rather than them sending him repeated emails wanting MeFi membership. Just a thought. On preview: What Tracicle said on preview.
  • Sooooz: Here's how to make links in html (just replace the brackets with < >) [a href="url" title="mouse-over description"]link text[/a] So [a href="http://juju.net.nz/mfx/results.php" title="Monkeys!"]MonkeyFilter[/a] would produce: MonkeyFilter
  • And still, nothing.
  • I don't care about it anymore. I like it here as it is. It's more cozy.
  • Me too, it's fine. And if for some reason you need to throw something at the mothership, there are plenty of friendly MeFiers around who'll pass it through.
  • Yes, yes, good times. Good times.
  • Caffienated time for me, but yeah, that's good times.
  • For a good time, call 555-mnky
  • Good point, BlueHorse -- both MoFi and the MeFi complex do resemble graffitti at times.