The power of the Reddit AMA

May 8, 2012 3:52 PM

The power of the Reddit AMA: Forbes on the "interview revolution that has everyone talking." "Comedian Louis CK took a chance on a Reddit AMA by offering Redditors the chance to purchase his Live at Beacon Theater performance for $5 through his website. The result: over $1 million in sales in the first 10 days and a new distribution method. (previously) ... One New York Times bestselling author I spoke to saw their Amazon rank jump from 800 to 400 and stick, meaning a spike in hundreds and possibly thousands of books a day for more than a week." Just today, Kevin Smith and Steve Albini stopped by to chat with Redditors; other celebs who have done AMAs include Bob Odenkirk, Ken Jennings and Molly Ringwald. But it's not all about celebrities -- ordinary people with interesting stories do AMAs as well, including a former "Daily Show" intern and a couple who met through a Craig's List missed connections ad.
posted by Clustercuss (74 comments total)

love reddit, love AMAs. you forgot krugman's recent AMA.
posted by Avenger50 at 3:57 PM on May 8, 2012 [7 favorites]

I'm mostly pretty snide about Reddit, but the IAMA feature is pretty good. I particularly liked the malware developer.
posted by Nelson at 3:58 PM on May 8, 2012

Someone should point out that they don't always work out: Woody Harrelson's ended up back-firing.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:59 PM on May 8, 2012 [25 favorites]

I love them too, but Louis CK's Live at Beacon Theater wasn't tied to Reddit at all. He did some promotion through Reddit as well as other methods, and there's undoubtedly a large market for him there. But that opening statement is very misleading.
posted by Magnakai at 4:03 PM on May 8, 2012 [5 favorites]

The AMA subreddit is a great example of Reddit moderation working well. It used to be a free for all, with people posting stuff like "IAMA person who just took a poop, AMA" and other noise. There also wasn't any method of verification. People could post saying they were pretty much anyone.

Then after a while, a bunch of moderators took control of the sub and announced more aggressive rules: posters must be somewhat interesting or notable, or their posts will be deleted. Also, there's now a three-color system of showing whether the poster has proven their identity to the mods. There was whining at first, but since this reorganization, AMA has really taken off, with the various celebs listed above putting Reddit on the map.

Another great example of an aggressively-moderated subreddit: /r/askscience. That one's great because they aggressively delete all the pun threads and joke comments that pervade the rest of Reddit. They delete answers that are based on speculation or weak science. As a result, they maintain a very high quality of discussion. I wish more subs were as aggressively curated.
posted by malapropist at 4:06 PM on May 8, 2012 [18 favorites]

oh and there's a whole reddit that puts AMAs into a tabled format. makes for easier reading. there's a bunch of AMAs that happen in other reddits too, like this recently awesome one by eric stephenson of image comics.
posted by Avenger50 at 4:07 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

i'm confused by that first part - louis ck offered his $5 stand up to everyone and as part of the publicity did an AMA. i heard about it on (i think) conan (certainly one of the late night shows) before he even did that AMA. not saying it didn't help, just, that's not really reddit's to claim.
posted by nadawi at 4:07 PM on May 8, 2012

Previously on Metafilter.

This part of reddit is getting more popular it seems, as celebrities or other people in the public eye realize what social media can do for their reputation. Ken Jennings is a good example of this. Many people wouldn't have given him much thought before his AMA, but he's basically revered over on reddit for how he handled the questions and interview.

Other celebrities are getting the hint, and are jumping on board. Kevin Smith did one today, and in the Tenacious D and Stephen Wolfram will be doing them.

I almost find the more "mundane" ones to be more valuable. When I was considering becoming a teacher, I searched through all the old AMAs for one done with teachers and professors, which I found to be highly valuable and interesting. Today someone with synesthesia is doing one, and a corporate recruiter who did four different AMAs, all with really cool advice.

Anyway, it's a really cool way to hear about experiences you might never have heard about (or even considered hearing about).

(And before the snark begins, I want to link to a comment I made a couple days ago about some of the cool things that have come out of reddit, including a couple neat AMAs).
posted by marcusesses at 4:13 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

ken jennings has had a high reputation among the nerds since his stint on jeopardy and how he handled all of the press afterwards. also, maybe the general person at reddit didn't care previously, but it wasn't the first rodeo for him in social media.

a lot of neat shit starts at reddit, but not nearly as much as they'd like credit for.
posted by nadawi at 4:19 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

Fake Grampa Wiggly drama, which may or may not have included a faked IAmA.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:22 PM on May 8, 2012

From a few days ago, former Bush speechwriter David Frum's AMA was fascinating, he described himself as one of the last Republicans that supports Romneycare.
posted by bobo123 at 4:23 PM on May 8, 2012

my personal favorite: 10 years from now I am a scientist working at the Large Hadron Collider.

r/IAmA, sorted by top, all-time
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:24 PM on May 8, 2012 [5 favorites]

Let's try to keep the comments strictly about Rampart please.
posted by ND¢ at 4:26 PM on May 8, 2012 [25 favorites]

Generally speaking I don't like celebrity AMAs. They usually seem too formulated and either skirt around interesting questions or give non-answers. The Bear Grylls one was particularly annoying to me. It just seemed like a promotion for his shitty show.
posted by Somnolent Jack at 4:28 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

I know I sound like a broken record by now, but this is a Forbes (think Huffington Post) blogger post not Forbes magazine...


aaagh.... is reddit something I should take the time to get to know and start using? I was comfortable smugly thinking of Metafilter as the anti-Boingboing and anti-reddit and I didn't need anything else
posted by Bwithh at 4:28 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

They had Shane from Vice on there yesterday I think
posted by Hoopo at 4:38 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Stoya scheduled for the 12th. Porn AMA's are always remarkably interesting.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 4:40 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Not ashamed to admit I'm an avid reddit lurker. And metafilter lurker. Lurk.
posted by joecacti at 4:41 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

is reddit something I should take the time to get to know and start using?

Sure, just as long as you don't mind being randomly exposed to racism, homophobia, misogyny, pornography , and complete idiocy.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:44 PM on May 8, 2012 [10 favorites]

I like the Reddit AMAs, but they are trending in the direction of becoming another marketing opportunity for celebrities. I'd like to see it go the other way, where completely ordinary people try to answer any question posed by the internet community. Really, ask me anything! Anything at all!

So there would be an auto mechanic in Des Moines, Iowa, and the entire world (the Reddit part of it, anyway) would essentially show up on his doorstep and badger him with weird questions. "Explain the connection between post-Socratic maieutics and deconstructivism." "How do I rotate my tires?" "What is the meaning of life?" And this guy would have to try to answer all the questions he could, using whatever he could think up on the spot.

Shit, if they were like that, I'd even do an AMA.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:44 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

Robert Reich.
posted by bukvich at 4:47 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

For my purposes Reddit provides more of what a social network should provide than social networks do.
posted by esoterica at 4:53 PM on May 8, 2012 [6 favorites]

I recently did a reddit IAMA in the askscience section (not the regular IAMA section) about my work with solar power, it was a lot of fun.
posted by thewalrus at 4:54 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

twoleftfeet: Shit, if they were like that, I'd even do an AMA.

Well, can you prove that he's really an auto mechanic, and not some armchair "theoretical" mechanic? Or just some jerk who wants to see you get oil on your face while trying to do an oil change yourself?

Oh, you can prove he's a mechanic? Cool. How do I change the "headlights engaged" light on my 2001 Prius? The light went out, and I don't want to dis-assemble my whole frickin' dash board just to change a little light.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:55 PM on May 8, 2012

benito.strauss: "Someone should point out that they don't always work out: Woody Harrelson's ended up back-firing."

God, that was just painful. I can only imagine the fate of the PR person who set the thing up, only to see the film become a laughing stock and Woody Harrelson gain a reputation as a date raper of drunk virgins.
posted by jack_mo at 5:01 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

is reddit something I should take the time to get to know and start using?

Bwithh, I will give you a non snarky answer. Reddit gets something like 21.5 million unique visitors each month (as of September last year), so it's essentially a big city. But contained within that big city is a bunch of smaller communities (called subreddits) with varying degrees of moderation. People are also free to create their own communities. This isn't always a positive thing, as some pretty vile things communities can be created (like the jailbait subreddit, which was shut down recently), and the majority of the crowd is 20-something males, so the opinions of 20-something males tends to get amplified over other viewpoints.

But good things come from it as well. EarthPorn contains gorgeous scenic shots of the Earth, for example, and many of the smaller subreddits dedicated to sports/academic subjects/niche interests can be quite civil. AskScience, as Malapropis mentioned is quite interesting.

The best introduction to Reddit is probably the tl;dr subreddit, which is like a "best of" compilation of posts of the day. If you are new to reddit and want to avoid most of the vileness and memes, I'd recommend starting there.
posted by marcusesses at 5:03 PM on May 8, 2012 [4 favorites]

Oh, you can prove he's a mechanic?

That is a good thing about the AMAs now, that they do check up on the poster and try to make sure they aren't being scammed. They got fooled a few times before they started to get serious about that.

But I mean, what if the reason to ask somebody a bunch of questions isn't to get some benefit of their expertise, but rather to see how ordinary people deal with the questions of life? One of my favorite things to do is to sit down next to some slightly inebriated person in a bar, strike up a conversation about the weather and sports, and then quickly morph it into a conversation about the meaning of life. Ordinary people are actually pretty interesting. Everybody has their own world view, whether they want one or not. Most people never get a chance to really probe their world view, but if you had hundreds of strangers interrogating you about yours, you might learn something.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:06 PM on May 8, 2012

Some people do an AMA and never leave. Neil deGrasse Tyson just pops in whenever you mention his name now. We, as a society need to keep these people off reddit lest it harm their productivity. I can't help but feel a little sad NDT is now wasting his considerable brainpower commenting in /r/offbeat.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:10 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

is reddit something I should take the time to get to know and start using?

Most of the good stuff ends up here anyways.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:14 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

I was reading through the Kevin Smith one and I just wanted to come in, post a link to this question, and say publicly that I love my Father more than my life…
posted by ob1quixote at 5:19 PM on May 8, 2012 [4 favorites]

Most of the good stuff ends up here anyways.

While this is certainly true, there's the added bonus of civil discussion here that's been sorely lacking from Reddit for the last few years (I swear there was once a time when opening a Reddit comment thread didn't make me cringe audibly, although that may just be me getting older).
posted by SomaSoda at 5:27 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Woody Harrelson debacle was one of my last straws with Reddit.

Celebrity agrees to ask questions from the community. Random user accuses celebrity of crime – in a public forum, mind you. Celebrity's PR person goofs and asks to focus on the movie that they're obviously trying to promote. Community responds by bashing celebrity.

Look, I don't suppose it's impossible that Woody Harrelson is a dirt bag, but why is he being a dirt bag by not wanting to comment on the totally unsubstantiated accusation of rape during what amounts to an online press conference-cum-interview?
posted by deathpanels at 5:28 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

And of course, I meant to say he agreed to answer questions.. not ask them. I haven't eaten dinner yet. please have mercy on me
posted by deathpanels at 5:29 PM on May 8, 2012

The most important thing this post taught me is that Steve Albini writes a goddamn cooking blog, and that it is hilarious.

"I ended up with some chestnuts, not sure how that happened. I think maybe I walked by a big bin of chestnuts and thought, 'fuck me, chestnuts.' Maybe I'm a Dickensian rascal. No, that would be 'fuck, me chestnuts!' Whatever, there were chestnuts."
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:31 PM on May 8, 2012 [8 favorites]

Unfortunately the few gems of reddit are absolutely dominated and subsumed by the front page; a veritable hive of scum and misogynists.
posted by kylo at 5:32 PM on May 8, 2012

IamA is about the only part of Reddit that I'll get onto either. You do find some really good ones on there, like the guy earlier this year who wrote a book about his experiences as a teacher for two years (can't find link), or the (XY) woman who has androgen insensitivity syndrome (link).
posted by AMSBoethius at 5:36 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ah, but you can customize your front page, kylo. I rarely see the horrible parts of reddit because I don't subscribe to them, and thus they don't appear on my front page.
posted by lovecrafty at 5:36 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

"Reddit is more like a restaurant with an awesome eclectic flight of wines. And some of the most popular selections are actually glasses of sewage. And the wine flight is well known to local drinkers for the sewage, whether because they're annoyed about it or because they're big fans of shit-in-a-glass. And if you want to have some friends out to the joint to drink some wine for the first time, you have to give them preemptive instructions on how the first thing they should is carefully dump out all the glasses of sewage and then order some other wine instead. Because the pinot is really nice." -- cortex
posted by benzenedream at 5:59 PM on May 8, 2012 [4 favorites]

Sure, just as long as you don't mind being randomly exposed to racism, homophobia, misogyny, pornography , and complete idiocy.

Hell yes. That's why there's ShitRedditSays, the only subreddit that will ever matter:

"Have you recently read an upvoted Reddit comment that was bigoted, creepy, misogynistic, transphobic, unsettling, racist, homophobic, or just reeking of unexamined, toxic privilege? Of course you have! Post it here."

Seriously, the place is a goldmine of hilarity once you get into it. That site seriously has a problem with women and minorities from a systemic standpoint, and it gets fucking sad after a while. SRS is like a bizarro reddit where bigots and misogynists can see what it feels like when people are joking at their expense on the internet.

I urge anyone and everyone to participate in that subreddit. It really is the only good one.
posted by windbox at 6:08 PM on May 8, 2012 [5 favorites]

Sure, just as long as you don't mind being randomly exposed to racism, homophobia, misogyny, pornography , and complete idiocy.

I don't really understand how to use Reddit properly--the threaded comments on that scale is too confusing for me--but most of the time what I've seen is fairly tame. There's idiots, misogyny, racism pretty much anywhere, including the comments section of your local newspaper, so in that sense no I don't mind that much and it doesn't jump out at me as the defining characteristic. What I have seen tells me it's less safe for work than Metafilter though. Reddit is for home.
posted by Hoopo at 6:18 PM on May 8, 2012

Steve Albini is great.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:21 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Note the recent MeTa about reddit. It's still open! If people want to talk about the general post-worthy-ness of reddit, that's the place.

If people want a non-crappy reddit experience, they should 1) create an account so they can control what they see and 2) check out my user profile here where I give some suggestions about seeing good content. There are quite a few places on reddit where the general bigotry and inanity are simply absent, and you can make it so that those are the only sources of content you see.
posted by Jpfed at 6:46 PM on May 8, 2012 [6 favorites]

Reddit is basically the modern equivalent of USENET. The different subreddits have their own communities and rules, there is great stuff there but also a lot of pointless or offensive rubbish. The IAMA subreddit is one of the better ones.

If you find yourself at Reddit more than once or twice, it is worth making an account so you can control what you see on the front page.
posted by AndrewStephens at 6:50 PM on May 8, 2012 [10 favorites]

I've got to say, that I've been on reddit since 2007. I was there when digg imploded and all of it's userbase migrated to reddit. I've been with the site through most of it's transformations and I've loved it every step of the way.

The vile things you guys are talking about, they don't dominate the discussion of most threads. Those comments tend to get quickly downvoted and lost. So if you're seeing those things, you're using reddit incorrectly. Create an account, sort posts by best.

that's all it takes.
posted by tylerfulltilt at 6:51 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

Now I'm trying to imagine a Steve Albini cooking blog.

"All these flavors go to eleven! Except the main one. It goes to three. Two-and-a-half, maybe."

I've toyed with the idea of creating a /tomorrowsmetafilter subreddit, and doing nothing but reposting the reddit links that I know I will see within 24 hours on the blue. But then I figured that would be a sad and obnoxiously obsessive thing to do.

I've been reading reddit for a couple of years, and for all its Collij Hijinx! tomfoolery it's actually a broad and reasonably smart place, especially when you find the niche subreddits that cater to your interests. You can avoid a bunch of the dumber subsites and just fill your front page with the stuff you want, so you never even see the endless meme images and LOL GURLZ R DUM crap. I've found that, unlike the blue, where the comments tend to make the links worthwhile, reddit is best used as a link-dump, ignore the comments.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:52 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Don't be put off by the site's horrible appearance and interface, which Reddit Enhancement Suite exists to fix.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 7:07 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've been enjoying the Tales From Tech Support subreddit lately. The mods are pretty good about keeping the posts strictly text-based stories of IT woe. Whoever said Reddit is the modern-day version of USENET is right on. The diversity is incredible. All sides of the bell curve.

The Woody Harrelson AMA was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. His publicist hasn't been heard from since.
posted by Aquaman at 7:19 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

Don't be put off by the site's horrible appearance and interface, which Reddit Enhancement Suite exists to fix.

Unfortunately someone needs to fix RES. It is a resource hog and the developer admits it. It routinely locks up my browser, sometimes it's faster to force quit and restart to load the page, than to wait for it to finish loading that page.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:04 PM on May 8, 2012

Reddit has filled the niche left by Oprah Winfrey! Oprah Winfrey took over the niche occupied by schlubby white guy Phil Donahue. But it took a hive of schlubby white guys to replace Winfrey.
posted by bendybendy at 8:04 PM on May 8, 2012

I've been lurking the AMA page for quite some time now. I think AMA is great for publicity, educating others about certain topics such as illnesses or even careers, and creating dialogue by sharing personal experiences. Although, like anything, it's not always effective and there can be a lot of immature comments depending on which subreddits you frequent.

The website also lacks organization because there are too many users. Many answers get lost among a sea of thousands of other comments and responses. For instance, some questions have more than 5,000 answers and really, who has the time or interest to sift through that many answers...
posted by livinglearning at 8:21 PM on May 8, 2012

Fun tidbit: Porn star Kieran Lee did an AMA last week wherein in his introduction he sorta-bragged that his penis was insured for a million dollars. Then when he was asked about it, it turned out A) the company employing him took out the contract and B) Lee had not previously realized that he was probably not entitled to any of that money if a penis-destroying accident happened to him - until Reddit pointed that out.

AMA - helping people!
posted by mightygodking at 8:27 PM on May 8, 2012 [12 favorites]

reddit is great for giving minority communities a place to gather and gab with each other. r/atheism gets 2 or 3 young kids every week who are having trouble with their parents for coming out. They get advice and support which seems to help.

Of course there are a lot of reposts and circle-jerking going on but the good posts usually get voted up to the top so it's not hard to find.
posted by Bonzai at 8:30 PM on May 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

They delete answers that are based on speculation or weak science.

I'm apparently one of just a few non-expert laymen who can post top-level answers in that subreddit and not have them deleted on principle.

Most everyone else who answers regularly has a qualified tag as an expert or specialist in some field.

But I'm smart about it and I don't go spouting off about crap I don't really know about.
posted by loquacious at 10:05 PM on May 8, 2012

So much awesomeness in the Molly Ringwald link:

"Q: Hey, is it true you were offered to be the "Pretty Woman" but declined so Julia Roberts took the part?

Molly Ringwald: I think I saw an early draft and it was called "$3,000". I don't specifically remember turning it down. The script was okay but I gotta say, Julia Roberts is what makes that movie. It was her part. Every actor hopes for a part that lets them shine like that.

Q: Nice way of subtly calling her a whore for stealing your part."
posted by sour cream at 10:13 PM on May 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm apparently one of just a few non-expert laymen who can post top-level answers in that subreddit and not have them deleted on principle.

They don't know who actually has a degree and who doesn't. I don't think I've had any posts there deleted. If it's on topic and correct, in general it's fine. Plus, obviously people who aren't scientists will ask followup questions in the thread.
posted by delmoi at 11:51 PM on May 8, 2012

The Molly Ringwold one is spectacular. Who knew she was so cool?
posted by Afroblanco at 11:57 PM on May 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

BitterOldPunk: Now I'm trying to imagine a Steve Albini cooking blog. "All these flavors go to eleven! Except the main one. It goes to three. Two-and-a-half, maybe."

Actually, it looks like Albini is a fairly serious cook, and I'm impressed with his humility, thoughtfulness, and straightforwardness in that AMA, especially in reply to questions about some of the more obnoxious things he put out twenty-some years ago: "Yep. I was pretty full of myself back then."
posted by FrauMaschine at 11:58 PM on May 8, 2012

AMA is cool and I like the celebrity ones alright, but the ones that I really enjoy have been truck drivers, disney characters and Chucky Cheese workers.

There are also posts by people who want to share their experience with different drugs and medications and the ordinary people are often some of the most interesting.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 12:16 AM on May 9, 2012

Interestingly the Forbes article sites Reddit as being 20-something males. Being new to MetaFilter, I get the distinct impression that the clientele are 30-something males. (For the most part) I base this on the seemingly consistent references to subject matter that mattered to those graduating before 1995.
posted by whanisko at 1:50 AM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

From the Reddit Kevin Smith AMA:

"But, y'know - ain't gonna be many more movie sets of mine to be on."

Getting real tired of the Kevin Smith "I've quit making movies" shtick. Red State, despite several flaws, was crammed with brilliant performances and exciting plot twists. It could serve as a launching pad for taking his directing career to a whole new level.

In a recent podcast, KS said, "I'm devoting my life to smoking pot and chasing whimseys."

Wise words. But why can't these whimseys include filmmaking?
posted by Gordion Knott at 4:29 AM on May 9, 2012

To even further personalize your Reddit experience, I give you The Reddit Enhancement Suite with all these features.

Get yo' Reddit on.
posted by THAT William Mize at 4:31 AM on May 9, 2012

Reddit generally gets trashed whenever it is mentioned on Mefi, but I have to point out that it seems to be getting better/more mature in some ways - I think more people have taken ownership and started to more aggressively downvote/call out bad behaviour.
posted by davey_darling at 4:48 AM on May 9, 2012 [3 favorites]

James Fallows

Neil Strauss
posted by bukvich at 7:33 AM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

Huh. I don't reddit all that often, but I read that Ken Jennings AMA, and it really was masterful. Boosted my opinion of the guy tremendously. Not many people (including professional PR flaks) could handle an open interview that well.
posted by schmod at 7:51 AM on May 9, 2012 [2 favorites]

Celebrity agrees to ask questions from the community. Random user accuses celebrity of crime – in a public forum, mind you. Celebrity's PR person goofs and asks to focus on the movie that they're obviously trying to promote. Community responds by bashing celebrity.

The top rated comment about accusing him of having sex with a high school girl was not really directly related to why the thread ended up being such a debacle. The main thing was that he literally only answered questions with Rampart-related stuff, and since almost none of the questions were asking about Rampart most of them came off as non sequiturs. So any question that couldn't somehow be answered with "Rampart" didn't get answered, whereas every vague enough question like "What was your most fun role?" and "What was your most difficult role?" all got answered with "Rampart". Most of the memes resulting from it were about the Rampart aspect rather than the sex accusation thing.
posted by burnmp3s at 7:59 AM on May 9, 2012 [4 favorites]

What's the deal with AMAA = "Ask me almost anything"? I saw it on the AMA page, as an acronym spelled out, but no details.
posted by msalt at 9:46 AM on May 9, 2012

Molly Ringwald's AMAA was so cool, she even specified her subject restrictions in her opening statements, so Redditors wouldn't start with the mistaken impression:

"I'm here to answer all of your questions about Rampart."

Explanation by burnmp3s.

(To answer your question, msalt, "AMAA" is an up-front admission that you're going to put some topics explicitly off-limits. "IAMA Narcotics Undercover Cop - AMAA (except details that might give me away, like location)".
posted by IAmBroom at 10:49 AM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

"How do I change the "headlights engaged" light on my 2001 Prius? The light went out, and I don't want to dis-assemble my whole frickin' dash board just to change a little light."

First off, I love that this is a question from filthy light thief.

The answer is that you have to disassemble the whole frickin' dashboard. The headlight indicator is an LED on a wire, which you can only reach by taking apart the instrument cluster.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:17 AM on May 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

Four degrees before top-dead-center.
posted by schmod at 11:38 AM on May 9, 2012

mr_crash_davis, kindly take that kind of trash talk to Reddit, where it belongs.

We here on Metafilter seeks a higher level of discourse.
posted by IAmBroom at 12:36 PM on May 9, 2012

A neat local example is Rob Zerban, the 1st District Wisconsin Congressional candidate to oppose Paul Ryan in the fall. By going on Reddit, he raised $15,000 in 48 hours.
Disclaimer: I have donated to Zerban's campaign, met him, and signed his nominating petition. I have also met Paul Ryan, who is from my hometown.
posted by dhartung at 3:22 PM on May 9, 2012

My favorite recent one was done by Bad Luck Brian from the famous(?) meme. Apparently he tried to do one before but it got deleted by a moderator who is now universally reviled on Reddit.

I see Stoya, (SFW) the adult film star, is doing one next week. She's really intelligent (from what I can tell) so that should be an interesting discussion.
posted by Fister Roboto at 5:49 PM on May 9, 2012

Lets not forget the always hilarious Colin Mochrie (of Whose Line Is It Anyway fame). His is probably my favorite AMA that I've read so far.
posted by ashirys at 10:45 AM on May 10, 2012

I see Stoya, (SFW) the adult film star, is doing one next week. She's really intelligent (from what I can tell) so that should be an interesting discussion.

Here.
posted by homunculus at 4:05 PM on May 12, 2012