FFFFOUND is LLLLOST
April 13, 2017 8:29 PM Subscribe
The great image-sharing site ffffound.com is closing down as of May 8. For sure, the site has a lot of pictures of exposed breasts there, but also a whole swath of other photos of all kinds from all sorts of sources.
Ah...that's not good to hear. I'll miss it. Seems Tumblr has taken that space up.
posted by rmmcclay at 9:00 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by rmmcclay at 9:00 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
Andy Baio (Mefi's own) posted a great piece on this: Closing Communities: FFFFOUND! vs MLKSHK.
Disclosure, I was a heavy MLKSHK user and plan to migrate to MLTSHP as soon as it becomes fully available to do so
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:10 PM on April 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
Disclosure, I was a heavy MLKSHK user and plan to migrate to MLTSHP as soon as it becomes fully available to do so
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:10 PM on April 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
I tried to join years ago but it was closed to registrations and I don't know if it ever opened them up or if you needed to be cool or something, or you yourself needed to be "curated" (argh) by someone else..... but the same sort of thing happened with Mlkshk, so I dunno, I can't really feel too bad about this, seems they wanted my eyeballs but not my input so
It's like, you can't build a community with only cool people, because those people will move on. I suspect MeFi would have been gone by around 2008 if not for new sign-ups starting in 2004.
posted by Rumple at 9:13 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's like, you can't build a community with only cool people, because those people will move on. I suspect MeFi would have been gone by around 2008 if not for new sign-ups starting in 2004.
posted by Rumple at 9:13 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well 2008 was when I signed up for Metafilter, so that's why it is still around.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:19 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:19 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
You had me at exposed breasts.
posted by ColdChef at 9:25 PM on April 13, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by ColdChef at 9:25 PM on April 13, 2017 [8 favorites]
You lost me at exposed breasts.
posted by lauranesson at 9:38 PM on April 13, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by lauranesson at 9:38 PM on April 13, 2017 [10 favorites]
You exposed me at lost breasts.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:40 PM on April 13, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:40 PM on April 13, 2017 [16 favorites]
You breasted me about a Lost exposé
posted by Going To Maine at 10:11 PM on April 13, 2017 [23 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 10:11 PM on April 13, 2017 [23 favorites]
"It's like, you can't build a community with only cool people, because those people will move on."
It has definitely happened to the small forum (basically cool-kids-only off-LiveJournal convos) that's been a meeting place for many of my friends since 2001. Attendance is almost nil these days.
[this might be offensive] is still technically up and running but activity continues to decrease and most days the HoF doesn't even have 100 posts in it.
I hear the same is happening to filepile but I never was cool enough to get my foot in the door, not that I put a lot of effort into it.
At first I was struck by FFFFOUND!'s "you only get one invite ever" setup because I was like, "Oh man that's cool, keep out the riff-raff" but it doesn't take a long examination to guess that this ... uh ... one-child policy doesn't lead to sustained growth. Of course I'm not saying that's why it's shutting down - I don't know the 'why' of that decision. I'm just saying it sounds cool in theory but if I ever get young enough again to start my own social/sharing service I'm gonna learn from these mistakes and make it open registration.
posted by komara at 10:13 PM on April 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
It has definitely happened to the small forum (basically cool-kids-only off-LiveJournal convos) that's been a meeting place for many of my friends since 2001. Attendance is almost nil these days.
[this might be offensive] is still technically up and running but activity continues to decrease and most days the HoF doesn't even have 100 posts in it.
I hear the same is happening to filepile but I never was cool enough to get my foot in the door, not that I put a lot of effort into it.
At first I was struck by FFFFOUND!'s "you only get one invite ever" setup because I was like, "Oh man that's cool, keep out the riff-raff" but it doesn't take a long examination to guess that this ... uh ... one-child policy doesn't lead to sustained growth. Of course I'm not saying that's why it's shutting down - I don't know the 'why' of that decision. I'm just saying it sounds cool in theory but if I ever get young enough again to start my own social/sharing service I'm gonna learn from these mistakes and make it open registration.
posted by komara at 10:13 PM on April 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
Thanks for keeping us abreast of your responses, all
posted by Merus at 10:14 PM on April 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Merus at 10:14 PM on April 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
That's so very sad to hear. I check into ffffound.com every once in a while, and it always makes me feel uneducated. Sure, there is an endless number of images, and they are almost entirely without context. Sure, the "You may like these images" section is a rabbit warren of weird and wonderful related images. And, yes, exposed breasts. I asked how to become a member once, and did not receive a reply. But I will miss ffffound.com because it is so thought-provoking.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 10:25 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 10:25 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
All I ever wanted to know is what the hell is the deal with their creepy-ass logo? It's like some lumpy hairy teratoma out of bad Rubber Johnny concept art, and it's picking up its (equally upsetting) textual equivalent. Who knew a font could be so gross.
Also:
posted by Rhaomi at 11:47 PM on April 13, 2017
Also:
Ads via The Deck:(
posted by Rhaomi at 11:47 PM on April 13, 2017
dang. my story is like all the others - found years ago, tried to join, never could, check back once in a while.
I guess I'm more surprised that it's lasted this long.
posted by rebent at 4:58 AM on April 14, 2017
I guess I'm more surprised that it's lasted this long.
posted by rebent at 4:58 AM on April 14, 2017
What struck me, glancing through the site (and being irritated at the "we're closing down" overlay on every new page) is how desultory the NSFW content was. Like, most of the pics are really pretty cool, but on almost every page someone felt compelled to throw in some random nudes scraped from Tumblr. I'm not saying it's deliberate, but if you wanted to drive site traffic down by making sure that most people couldn't browse it from work, that would be an easy way to do it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:08 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:08 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
request a ZIP file of all their images
Their images? That's a rather confused view of ownership, given that everything on the site is ripped from other sources.
(MLTSHP's "we're too sophisticated as human beings to use a big commercial platforms, so let's use Slack" angle is also pretty funny. Self-distance measured in fractions of ångströms.)
posted by effbot at 5:12 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Their images? That's a rather confused view of ownership, given that everything on the site is ripped from other sources.
(MLTSHP's "we're too sophisticated as human beings to use a big commercial platforms, so let's use Slack" angle is also pretty funny. Self-distance measured in fractions of ångströms.)
posted by effbot at 5:12 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's been a long time since I spent much time scrolling there, but I guess I'm a bit surprised that it is shutting down -- it seems like something that would be at least somewhat self-replicating and doesn't from the outside look like it would take a huge involvement, more like a group Tumbler account. I am sure I am missing all the details, though (like the hosting costs, which must be significant), so I don't mean that to sound critical at all.
It is too bad that shutting down will mean the loss of all access, rather than just no new contributions. I get why that is, though as noted in the linked piece above, they also prevented archiving, which seems unfortunate.
how desultory the NSFW content was
Glancing at the first few pages, yes indeed. The other images are mostly interesting, making the NSFW shots stand out and not in a good way.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:42 AM on April 14, 2017
It is too bad that shutting down will mean the loss of all access, rather than just no new contributions. I get why that is, though as noted in the linked piece above, they also prevented archiving, which seems unfortunate.
how desultory the NSFW content was
Glancing at the first few pages, yes indeed. The other images are mostly interesting, making the NSFW shots stand out and not in a good way.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:42 AM on April 14, 2017
"Their images? That's a rather confused view of ownership, given that everything on the site is ripped from other sources."
Speaking as a former MLKSHK user and a photographer I can assure you that there was a decent chunk of original content on there, not just from me but from most users. I doubt it made up even a quarter of everything posted, but it was there. That's one reason I liked the site - it wasn't just scraping other parts of the web. I got to know people's faces, their pets, shared recipes, everything. That's something I've never gotten from my time on Tumblr which is (on the surface) the exact same thing, a site where internet randos go to share pictures of stuff and sometimes write comments.
Maybe FFFFOUND! has no OC, but MLKSHK did, so I feel obligated to defend it on that point.
posted by komara at 6:47 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
Speaking as a former MLKSHK user and a photographer I can assure you that there was a decent chunk of original content on there, not just from me but from most users. I doubt it made up even a quarter of everything posted, but it was there. That's one reason I liked the site - it wasn't just scraping other parts of the web. I got to know people's faces, their pets, shared recipes, everything. That's something I've never gotten from my time on Tumblr which is (on the surface) the exact same thing, a site where internet randos go to share pictures of stuff and sometimes write comments.
Maybe FFFFOUND! has no OC, but MLKSHK did, so I feel obligated to defend it on that point.
posted by komara at 6:47 AM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
(MLTSHP's "we're too sophisticated as human beings to use a big commercial platforms, so let's use Slack" angle is also pretty funny. Self-distance measured in fractions of ångströms.)
I've spent a small amount of time in the Slack channel (mostly just keeping up with friends that I met via MLKSHK). I can't speak definitively on this, but the impression I get is that they're using it strictly for organizational purposes, mainly for coding, debugging, and finding a method to make it a sustainable model. I don't get the impression it's going to be a long-term important aspect of the site for members once it's up and running.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:57 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I've spent a small amount of time in the Slack channel (mostly just keeping up with friends that I met via MLKSHK). I can't speak definitively on this, but the impression I get is that they're using it strictly for organizational purposes, mainly for coding, debugging, and finding a method to make it a sustainable model. I don't get the impression it's going to be a long-term important aspect of the site for members once it's up and running.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:57 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is not great. It feels like another of the thousand cuts that our (idiosyncratic, non-walled-garden) web of a former time is taking. That said, yeah, the boobs were always surprising in their multitude and banality.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:02 AM on April 14, 2017
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:02 AM on April 14, 2017
Wow, you guys aren't kidding about how boring and prevalent the boobs are. The front page seemed pretty much SFW, aside from one shot that was basically a MAXIM cover. But, starting from page 2, there they are, in all their perfunctory glory.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:34 AM on April 14, 2017
posted by tobascodagama at 8:34 AM on April 14, 2017
the boobs were always surprising in their multitude and banality.
Is that too long for a user name?
posted by bongo_x at 11:05 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
Is that too long for a user name?
posted by bongo_x at 11:05 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is not great. It feels like another of the thousand cuts that our (idiosyncratic, non-walled-garden) web of a former time is taking.
I can't say it any better. Most of what I perceived as valuable about the web came through the eyes of graphic designers. That such sources aren't archived makes me deeply angry and suspicious. Scarcity and privilege require fabrication.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 11:31 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I can't say it any better. Most of what I perceived as valuable about the web came through the eyes of graphic designers. That such sources aren't archived makes me deeply angry and suspicious. Scarcity and privilege require fabrication.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 11:31 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is not great. It feels like another of the thousand cuts that our (idiosyncratic, non-walled-garden) web of a former time is taking.
I can't say it any better. Most of what I perceived as valuable about the web came through the eyes of graphic designers. That such sources aren't archived makes me deeply angry and suspicious. Scarcity and privilege require fabrication.
An alternate take is that better things have come along and replaced FFFOUND. Like, it’s sort of odd for me to see the site called a “non-walled garden” when membership was exclusive and the content seems to have been mostly reposted material. (MetaFilter, by contrast, has exclusive membership -in exchange for cash and the possibility of post deletion- but some space for creativity in the nature of what one posts.) If Pinboard and Tumblr took the good bits of FFFOUND and made them better, then bully for ‘em.
As noted in the Andy Baio piece linked by Ufez Jones, the unique bits of both found and MLKSHK are their communities. The latter worked to save their, while the former isn’t willing to do the work. If everyone who has a found account sets up a tumblr and they all follow each other, on the other hand, the group can continue sort of as before.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:44 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I can't say it any better. Most of what I perceived as valuable about the web came through the eyes of graphic designers. That such sources aren't archived makes me deeply angry and suspicious. Scarcity and privilege require fabrication.
An alternate take is that better things have come along and replaced FFFOUND. Like, it’s sort of odd for me to see the site called a “non-walled garden” when membership was exclusive and the content seems to have been mostly reposted material. (MetaFilter, by contrast, has exclusive membership -in exchange for cash and the possibility of post deletion- but some space for creativity in the nature of what one posts.) If Pinboard and Tumblr took the good bits of FFFOUND and made them better, then bully for ‘em.
As noted in the Andy Baio piece linked by Ufez Jones, the unique bits of both found and MLKSHK are their communities. The latter worked to save their, while the former isn’t willing to do the work. If everyone who has a found account sets up a tumblr and they all follow each other, on the other hand, the group can continue sort of as before.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:44 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I used to love Ffffound (aside from never remembering exactly how many Fs, ugh, that stupid name) as a source for discovering new (to me) artists, but my usage tapered off when it started mixing straight up porn into everything. It became impossible to use at school to kill 15 minutes and maybe write down the names of a couple interesting artists as a result, and as a result, I just kinda moved on.
Pinterest does the same thing just as well, anyhow, so.
posted by byanyothername at 11:50 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Pinterest does the same thing just as well, anyhow, so.
posted by byanyothername at 11:50 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Though I guess with Pinterest, you need some vague starting point to launch from. What made Ffffound interesting was being able to just scroll down until something caught your eye. If only the site had bothered to be more user-friendly and done a better job sorting content.
Anyway, it seems to be a big collection of 502s now.
posted by byanyothername at 11:55 AM on April 14, 2017
Anyway, it seems to be a big collection of 502s now.
posted by byanyothername at 11:55 AM on April 14, 2017
I've spent a small amount of time in the Slack channel (mostly just keeping up with friends that I met via MLKSHK). I can't speak definitively on this, but the impression I get is that they're using it strictly for organizational purposes, mainly for coding, debugging, and finding a method to make it a sustainable model.
This. I've spent a bit more time there, having been in that slack early along with Jessamyn (who deserves massive kudos for spearheading a ton of the organizational work to make the mltshp transition a reality) to help brainstorm and organize the whole effort. Slack wasn't chosen because of outré hipster cred, it was chosen because it was there and easy to spin up so we could get on with all the other shit that needed doing. It was that or another tool; that one was handy, we used it.
Seems like an odd sort of rubbernecking hostility to frame it as some sort of failure-of-self-awareness that people trying to get some shit done picked a tool and got to work.
posted by cortex at 3:02 PM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
This. I've spent a bit more time there, having been in that slack early along with Jessamyn (who deserves massive kudos for spearheading a ton of the organizational work to make the mltshp transition a reality) to help brainstorm and organize the whole effort. Slack wasn't chosen because of outré hipster cred, it was chosen because it was there and easy to spin up so we could get on with all the other shit that needed doing. It was that or another tool; that one was handy, we used it.
Seems like an odd sort of rubbernecking hostility to frame it as some sort of failure-of-self-awareness that people trying to get some shit done picked a tool and got to work.
posted by cortex at 3:02 PM on April 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
or you yourself needed to be "curated" (argh) by someone else.....
Not in my experience. Years ago a few of my pieces ended up being posted there but my emails went unanswered and they certainly didn't contact me.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:29 AM on April 15, 2017
Not in my experience. Years ago a few of my pieces ended up being posted there but my emails went unanswered and they certainly didn't contact me.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:29 AM on April 15, 2017
Their images? That's a rather confused view of ownership, given that everything on the site is ripped from other sources.
Yeah, that's an uncharitable generalization. At least half of my posts were my original content, & when I posted something that wasn't, I did my best to provide an attribution. A lot of people would post (via) links under found content. There were even a couple instances Whan I couldn't determine attribution & another MLKSHK member would chime in with an attribution in the comments.
I alway thought of MLKSHK as the cool nerd's sekrit Imgur, but it wasn't just entirely random crap.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:46 AM on April 15, 2017
Yeah, that's an uncharitable generalization. At least half of my posts were my original content, & when I posted something that wasn't, I did my best to provide an attribution. A lot of people would post (via) links under found content. There were even a couple instances Whan I couldn't determine attribution & another MLKSHK member would chime in with an attribution in the comments.
I alway thought of MLKSHK as the cool nerd's sekrit Imgur, but it wasn't just entirely random crap.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:46 AM on April 15, 2017
One of the things I love about Mlkshk and want to continue at Mltshp is the prompt to include the original source, or at least a via attribution. I want my clever friends to get credit, and the vast majority of blogs I've followed in the last few years I got to by clicking the source links below stuff that made me laugh.
posted by harriet vane at 5:43 AM on April 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by harriet vane at 5:43 AM on April 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
You can import your FFFFound account to Pinterest using this tool:
https://pinterest.github.io/ffffound/
but do this before 15 May
posted by Ahmed_Nabil at 2:19 PM on May 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
https://pinterest.github.io/ffffound/
but do this before 15 May
posted by Ahmed_Nabil at 2:19 PM on May 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
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