Comments on: Comments on 17326

Post number 17326

johnnydark — Thu, 23 May 2002 05:23:10 -0800

[this is bad] Now you can buy your way onto Filepile.

By: drgonzo

drgonzo — Thu, 23 May 2002 05:37:32 -0800

hey bastard! you're not supposed to talk about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 23 May 2002 05:41:14 -0800

The circle has been broken. But Cory broke it first. You are both bad men. Very very bad men.

By: BentPenguin

BentPenguin — Thu, 23 May 2002 05:57:35 -0800

Ebay brings out the whore inside all of us...

By: nedrichards

nedrichards — Thu, 23 May 2002 06:40:55 -0800

for $40. Ouch. FP is good but not that good.

By: benh57

benh57 — Thu, 23 May 2002 06:42:50 -0800

Why is this bad, exactly? Selling something is "whoring"?? I thought it was "american"? That's what microsoft says, anyway. :)

By: johnnydark

johnnydark — Thu, 23 May 2002 06:49:10 -0800

Filepile shouldn't be about selling and buying. It should be about sharing. And Cory is a success-driven egoist who would sell out just about anyone for a publication credit.

By: Su

Su — Thu, 23 May 2002 06:58:08 -0800

Minor irritation, but why is it that when you try to view a file and don't have an account, you're told to create a new one at [link], which then tells you membership is closed and to go somewhere else to find out the reason?

By: shagoth

shagoth — Thu, 23 May 2002 06:58:11 -0800

Filepile has long since ceased to be about sharing, it's about elitism with some sharing on the side. The thing that has amazed me is that there isn't an alternative Filepile anywhere.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Thu, 23 May 2002 07:03:44 -0800

a mefite who shall remain unnamed wrote me a few weeks ago and told me how much he loved my blog and that he was going to pull some strings to get me into filepile. never heard anything after that. [shrug]. i'm just not l33t enough i guess!

By: schlaager

schlaager — Thu, 23 May 2002 07:06:55 -0800

They open it up for new members once in awhile. I was lucky enough to catch a day about a year ago when new memberships were allowed. The bad thing is though, even with limited membership, you still get the "Server Busy" graphic with every link you click.

By: Werd7

Werd7 — Thu, 23 May 2002 07:18:50 -0800

I happen to have an account because one of my old coworkers (adampsyche) told me to sign up a little less than a year ago. Until now, I never realized how special and desired an account is. I almost feel guilty for only looking at it once every few weeks and not appreciating the pile. If you're one of those people dying to be a member and feel shut out, don't sweat it. As nedrichards said, it's good, but not $40 good.

By: animoller

animoller — Thu, 23 May 2002 07:47:10 -0800

It's nothing to do with elitism. The reason you get the "server too busy" messages is because there are already a shitload of users. André doesn't get paid to run it, so it's only fair that he can stop new users being created, because there's nothing worse than going over your server limits. But yes, I concur with shagoth and am surprised that something similar hasn't popped up. Unless there is something similar that we just don't know about.

By: doctorow

doctorow — Thu, 23 May 2002 07:55:23 -0800

And Cory is a success-driven egoist who would sell out just about anyone for a publication credit.

Well, that would explain all the hyper-commercial fiction I've been writing, especially the Star Trek novels. BTW, who are you and what have I ever done to offend you?

By: Eamon

Eamon — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:01:24 -0800

It's just a shame that that $40 (or more!) isn't going to go to Andre to actually support FilePile. I wonder if he'll consider selling new accounts, to pay for additional servers/bandwidth. I was once thinking of building a music-only FP clone (even wrote the code for it), but once I really thought about how hard (and expensive) it would be to get such a thing hosted (not to mention the legal issues), I promptly gave up. It really made me appreciate what he's doing with FilePile.

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:06:30 -0800

wow, never knew how desirable a fp account was.. i stopped going a bit ago because of too many server busy messages.. this is motivation for me to drop be again.

By: eriko

eriko — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:07:00 -0800

Well, that would explain all the hyper-commercial fiction I've been writing, especially the Star Trek novels. Well, yeah. How else are you going to afford that beowulf cluster of xServers for BoingBoing? (Besides -- the money's in Buffy novels now, silly)

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:14:02 -0800

(Besides -- the money's in Buffy novels now, silly) Make that Buffy vs Britney novels.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:21:16 -0800

I can't fathom where all this filepile hatred is coming from, and I especially cannot fathom why anyone would slag Cory. First off, did everyone forget that I sold a usernumber to MetaFilter before? (it started as a joke, but still) Filepile is elitist? What the flying fuck are you talking about? Its membership is closed because it's a nightmare on bandwidth and system resources to run. Since it's also free, there's no way to support it indefinitely with user signups open. Need I also remind anyone the irony of claiming elitistm when MetaFilter is also blocked to new users? There isn't a clone of filepile floating around because the bandwidth is expensive and only someone with a free t3 line they don't mind being maxed out could run one. I doubt we ever see a filepile clone that is open wide to the public because it's impossible to scale while affording it. And Cory is an egoist? He writes a great blog (which no one is forced to read), articles here and there, and some sci-fi books. How does that make him a bad person or a sellout? The bottom line is that filepile is not about buying and selling now, someone took it upon themselves to sell their ID. As far as I can tell, it's not Andre doing it. Anyone on MetaFilter could have done that ages ago. It does nothing to change the site, it's just that some member is selling their ID (probably for a laugh). Filepile can't be open to the public because the cost of running it would be insane. How many broadband sites are there now that allow for large video and audio downloads? CNN.com got rid of their video and is charging for it now. By the way, people making big donations to MetaFilter for the past few months have been able to get userIDs from me. I never said anywhere that I would accept it or make it a new policy, but people began sending in $20 and asking for a signup, so I thanked them for supporting the site and giving towards the new server (which is going to be shipped tomorrow to New York) and gave them what they asked for. Does that make me an egoist or a sellout?

By: Hankins

Hankins — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:31:25 -0800

The thing that has amazed me is that there isn't an alternative Filepile anywhere. There's BabePile and Swoptimo, however Swaptimo is also closed for new membership.

By: jonah

jonah — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:32:51 -0800

Have any Mefites sold their usernames? I can't imagine that someone wants to post so bad that they would pay for it, but who knows.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:37:53 -0800

[this may be offensive] I don't know what 733t-ism you are referring to. I have a great deal of fun with the Web site, and though any community has more active and vocal members (hmm...), I never felt that I wasn't welcome, and most of my posts there have been voted fairly.

By: Hankins

Hankins — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:39:31 -0800

For what it's worth, I'd much rather read Cory's "success-driven egoist" comments, than JohnnyDark's Guide to rape drugs for potential rapists.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:44:13 -0800

You can have my FilePile username when you pry the mouse from my cold, dead hand.

By: bunktone

bunktone — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:45:51 -0800

I would sell my user name but I can't remember my frickin' password. There used to be an area to email and ask them to send you your pass if you forgot it but I don't see it anymore. They probably figured good riddance to me because if I can't get in I can't take up bandwidth. Well good for them, they will never get to see the likes of "hair pie" or "worship nyomi" again.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:50:37 -0800

I can't remember my frickin' password Same here. I signed up early and only used it once. It doesnt hold that much attention for me. If you really want some of the files, especially the mp3s, just use WinMx or some other file-sharing program to get them.

By: luriete

luriete — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:51:47 -0800

I don't understand all the hubbub, bub. I got my acct like a year ago - don't hit the busy icon very much, and it seems like a bunch of fun & entertaining people sharing files. Why all the subtext?

By: GriffX

GriffX — Thu, 23 May 2002 08:56:59 -0800

Cory - you probably already figured this out, but Johnnydark is essentially the Jeff K. of filepile and mefi. And boingboing as well, apparently.

By: kfury

kfury — Thu, 23 May 2002 09:00:22 -0800

There's an old saying: The difference between a slut and a bitch is that a slut will sleep with everyone. A bitch will sleep with everyone except you. I think what we have here is a big pile of sour grapes, with FilePile as the bitch. Inclusion (and hence, exclusion) automatically sparks the ire of those not on the inside, and whether it's elitism, a meritocracy, nepotism, or just blind luck, those who want and can't have will bitch about the lucky ones who have what they want. At the moment, elitism can be bought for a paltry $37. That's a bargain.

By: mantid

mantid — Thu, 23 May 2002 09:04:37 -0800

hi! its just a website. but i would need about $3k to even consider giving up my account. for what its worth, andre claims the selling is funny and fully approves.

By: pigasus

pigasus — Thu, 23 May 2002 09:09:36 -0800

Bah! Stay away!

By: Dark Messiah

Dark Messiah — Thu, 23 May 2002 09:15:16 -0800

I find the claims elitism funny, coming from a group of people who seem to race to 'expose' double posts and other 'transgressions' against the MetaFilter. *shrug* Whatever gets your honey to suckle, I suppose. And, frankly, claims of elitism always seem to come from those excluded from the group and who so desperately want in. (No, I don't have an FP account but, I'm not complaining.)

By: rcade

rcade — Thu, 23 May 2002 09:38:54 -0800

And, frankly, claims of elitism always seem to come from those excluded from the group and who so desperately want in. Gee ... you think?

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:02:11 -0800

yep. i signed up as well, awhile ago, to post a message or something, and uh, i can't seem to get in anywhere. guess they don't like fish fetishists. i cry myself to sleep every night.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:05:12 -0800

its just a website. but i would need about $3k to even consider giving up my account. The unmentionable file trading site ceased to be useful about 8 months ago. Server timeouts and overloads have made it virtually useless. To that end, I'll offer my uid to anyone willing to pay $500 which I would turn around and give to Andre, for the upgrade and upkeep costs of the site. And anyone slagging Cory for mentioning it is an idiot who doesn't have any clue whatsoever.

By: stx23

stx23 — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:14:08 -0800

I only ever achieved Dangerous, I never achieved Elite.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:16:54 -0800

The unmentionable file trading site ceased to be useful about 8 months ago. Server timeouts and overloads have made it virtually useless. Although in the past this was true, whenever I've popped in during the last few months, I've never gotten a single timeout, even in the middle of the day.

By: jmccorm

jmccorm — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:19:03 -0800

I'm very happy with FilePile, and the friends who I've turned onto the site seem to enjoy it as well. Mind you, I probably wouldn't have paid $30 for it, but I believe I definately get that much value out of it. Pictures and movies which make me smile, or think. And great stuff to share at the office. And self expression with a closed audience. It really is a fun site.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:21:08 -0800

Although in the past this was true, whenever I've popped in during the last few months, I've never gotten a single timeout, even in the middle of the day. Indeed, when the server got clogged this week, everybody noticed because it had been the first major backlog in a long time. 8 months ago is like an eternity in FilePile time.

By: nstop

nstop — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:28:06 -0800

I've had pretty good luck accessing files, too. And if the server is busy (esp. Friday afternoons -- no surprise there), then I just check back later. Personally, I think ~$40 is a bargain for a membership given all the entertainment I've gotten out of that site.

By: mgoyer

mgoyer — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:29:51 -0800

If you're looking for a 'music filepile' check out Emergent Music.com.

By: rhyax

rhyax — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:31:27 -0800

maybe elitist isn't the right word, exclusive is. and yes, metafilter is also exclusive. which is sorta sad, but there's really no solution. paying for the privilege of having a membership is elitist.

By: catatonic

catatonic — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:32:45 -0800

People who don't like the Pile obviously don't get it. Most of the community wouldn't want them around anyways.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:33:03 -0800

Although in the past this was true, whenever I've popped in during the last few months, I've never gotten a single timeout, even in the middle of the day. Well, even better then. The offer still stands. $500 for my uid, made payable to Andre. Interested? Drop me a note.

By: anildash

anildash — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:33:51 -0800

it's about elitism with some sharing on the side They open it up for new members once in awhile. I think you're seeing the tension between Andre and Jack. Andre's always been really open about it, but Stamp is a dick who'd have closed us all out if he got the chance. Which, of course, wouldn't make the pile very fun.

By: mecran01

mecran01 — Thu, 23 May 2002 10:55:17 -0800

Same here. I signed up early and only used it once. It doesnt hold that much attention for me. If you really want some of the files, especially the mp3s, just use WinMx or some other file-sharing program to get them. the pile can be both funny and disgusting. I'm trying to cut back on the pile. But--the above post raises an interesting idea. Why not make some sort of filepile p2p? Because what is interesting with FP is the moderation and the creative/weirdo users. Roll that into some sort of p2p client and you solve the bandwidth prob.

By: boogah

boogah — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:02:01 -0800

BTW, who are you and what have I ever done to offend you? methinks someone is envious. it's actually a syndrome that i've dubbed "kottke blast radius". jason links you so therefore you must be "better than him". nothing but player hatin' going on. actually, you scrounge up plenty of good crap which keeps me coming back [and borrowing the occasional link off you for my blog]. boingboing.net = good links, good commentary johnnydark.blogspot.com = shocking ego driven drivel

By: tranquileye

tranquileye — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:12:40 -0800

Die, thread, die.

By: perplexed

perplexed — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:18:29 -0800

I'm Andre from FilePile. Mail me today with the phrase that pays: "Andre is a success-driven egoist who would sell out just about anyone for a publication credit." To superfilepilegiveaway@torrez.org and I'll hand you an account. I'll hand out at least 20 accounts.

By: the_ill_gino

the_ill_gino — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:25:46 -0800

i dedicate my filepile account to the former members of OLEF BERSERKER! hi andre!

By: bittennails

bittennails — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:30:48 -0800

I bit, feel it's a fake though, lets see :) Everybody happy now.

By: chacal

chacal — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:32:48 -0800

now look what's happened metafilter account being auctioned off to benefit filepile

By: the_ill_gino

the_ill_gino — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:33:53 -0800

that's just sick.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:33:58 -0800

Does that mean you are giving away 40? ;-)

By: donkeysuck

donkeysuck — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:52:28 -0800

anil, i thought jack stamp helped code filepile, or is that some sort of alter ego? also, i hope mantid and crunchland make loads of cash to donate to andre and jon. filepile great don't hate, participate yes, that was embarrassing.

By: bittennails

bittennails — Thu, 23 May 2002 11:58:23 -0800

Well, well, perplexed is Andre. I should check out users more often, I guess I'm rich now, huh.

By: perplexed

perplexed — Thu, 23 May 2002 12:44:12 -0800

Aiyee! I posted that from home, drove to work, and all the filepile accounts have been taken. For the next Filepile giveaway, get on the FilePile notify list. (Damn, I should have charged..)

By: ed

ed — Thu, 23 May 2002 12:44:24 -0800

Cory's a sellout? Man, heaven forbid that anyone actually try to make a living from their writing or attempt to get their stories published. By that measure, can I be a more frequent sellout than I am these days? I think the answer here is something along the lines of Filepile 2: Vengeful Upstream. That is, if someone has the bandwidth to spare.

By: perplexed

perplexed — Thu, 23 May 2002 13:23:25 -0800

Well, Filepile 2: The P2P Software, would be a napster-like application where everyone hosts their files, and then people can rate and comment on them. I'd love to write it, but I'm far too busy to handle all the programming it'd require. If another C++/PHP programmer is out there with a good amount of network exp., I'd love to hear from you. The FilePile Giveaway is over.

By: jeblis

jeblis — Thu, 23 May 2002 13:25:46 -0800

What are the rules for filepile I keep hearing about? #1 is obviously not to tell new people about it. I think this is what pisses people off the most, not that memberships are closed: "You gotta check out this cool site...oh wait I'm not supposed to tell you about it. "

By: roboto

roboto — Thu, 23 May 2002 13:26:29 -0800

Outlander is coming for you all!! Make you time.

By: bunktone

bunktone — Thu, 23 May 2002 13:27:01 -0800

Okay, so what are the chances of me getting my account back?

By: ed

ed — Thu, 23 May 2002 14:06:38 -0800

Filepile 2: Electric Boogaloo. Why can't this happen? If someone were to organize a PayPal drive, I'm sure there would be more than enough people to contribute to it.

By: BlueTrain

BlueTrain — Thu, 23 May 2002 14:20:14 -0800

I love Andre! Apparently I was caller #1 and was awarded a free account. Long live MeFi! I mean, FilePile! Eh hell, they can share the accolades.

By: pzarquon

pzarquon — Thu, 23 May 2002 14:55:39 -0800

Not a fake... caller 17 here. I feel like I finally got the golden ticket to the Wonka factory. Thanks, Andre!

By: CrazyUncleJoe

CrazyUncleJoe — Thu, 23 May 2002 15:08:49 -0800

What are the rules for filepile I keep hearing about? #1 is obviously not to tell new people about it. I think this is what pisses people off the most, not that memberships are closed Not big on the pop-culture references, are ya jeb?

By: kchristidis

kchristidis — Thu, 23 May 2002 15:49:32 -0800

Btw, I'm selling account number 46 for $500 (or more!). If anyone's interested, let me know.

By: skallas

skallas — Thu, 23 May 2002 16:27:36 -0800

There are a couple filepile clones out there, but they're specialized like babepile.com. I know someone who pieced a filepile clone minus the frills in no time. The problem is finding that much bandwidth. Filepile has something like 2mbs going for it and its constantly being used and then some. If someone yells loud enough that they have the bandwidth then the filepile cloners will come a runnin'.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 23 May 2002 16:28:34 -0800

How does that make him a bad person or a sellout? My very very bad men thing above was a joke, whether johnnydark's was or not. Sheesh. I was riffing on the "Rule #x : You don't talk about Filepile" thing, which of course is a riff on the Fight Club thing, and I thought it would be amusing to do it in the voice of Baboo from Seinfeld. Clearly that was a wee bit obscure. To be clear : Filepile is one of the greatest things in the history of mankind, and I would die to protect a single bit of it's massive dataflow from besmirchment. And Andre is a great and glorious sungod. And Cory too! Now, am I forgiven, oh great and glorious Oz?

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 23 May 2002 17:09:13 -0800

Jeez, what a suck up.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 23 May 2002 17:17:32 -0800

And goopy! All hail goopy!

By: jcterminal

jcterminal — Thu, 23 May 2002 17:54:53 -0800

dear matth and corey, it's not called selling out, it's called cashing in. :D

By: Neb

Neb — Thu, 23 May 2002 18:00:14 -0800

I know someone who pieced a filepile clone minus the frills in no time. That was me. It took about 2 evenings to work out all the basics in PHP. I'm working on fleshing the clone out to have some of the frills... If you've got the bandwidth to spare, drop me a note and we can unleash cloned kitty and porn goodness upon the internet (with Andre's permission of course).

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Thu, 23 May 2002 20:55:29 -0800

The unmentionable file trading site ceased to be useful about 8 months ago. Server timeout and overloads have made it virtually useless. I've been using it almost everyday since it's inception and I don't find it so bad that I'd turn away from it. The again, maybe I'm just and elitist bastard clinging to the only thing that gives my life meaning. (note sarcasm) Calling Andre an egotist is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. He is incredibly generous and humble, seeing as how anyone in his position could milk it for all the fame it's worth, he seems to actually avoid it. but then again, I do want to have his babies. (note lack of sarcasm) Either way, I don't care if someone makes a few bucks off their unused username. life will go on.

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Thu, 23 May 2002 20:57:34 -0800

And outlander will own your soul. it's already happening, there is no escape.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Thu, 23 May 2002 20:59:50 -0800

I can't fathom where all this filepile hatred is coming from I admit it, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about FilePile. I keep looking to see if Andre has opened it up for new accounts, but I'm always too late. [Just as I am apparently too late for the offer he made today..] It's the same feeling you get when there are no more seats left at the cool kids' table. "Aww shucks, I didn't want to sit at your stupid table anyway." I think that's where it's coming from.

By: canoeguide

canoeguide — Thu, 23 May 2002 22:34:18 -0800

Thanks for the ego boost all... I feel special now.

By: nyomi

nyomi — Fri, 24 May 2002 00:28:25 -0800

i don't think i can add much to the supportive comments about file pile, except that andre torrez has bent over backwards (not forward, but you could ask i suppose) to make the site a fun place for as many people as possible at one time. and the whole "rules of file pile" thing started out as a joke, kids. go rent yourself a copy of fight club. i'd gladly pay a subscription fee to use the site. not only do i get to participate in a creative, collaborative community that goes beyond mere file trading, but file pile is actually paying my bills. thanks to a friend i made through the pile, i landed an 11K web development contract with his company. i'm starting to feel like when i finally wrap up the job, i should tithe a portion back to the pile. :)

By: bittennails

bittennails — Fri, 24 May 2002 05:22:04 -0800

Thank you, andre. I shall now embark on the adventure of deconstructing my life even further via Filepile :)

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 24 May 2002 05:41:08 -0800

open bracket forward slash sarcasm close bracket

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 24 May 2002 05:42:53 -0800

Not surprisingly, I didn't even get a nibble on the uid offer. Maybe $500 was too overwealming. Or the fact that Andre gave away what I was selling -- that egoist bastard! Would anyone like to give him $100 for my uid?

By: eyere

eyere — Fri, 24 May 2002 06:27:56 -0800

eyere: outlander, what do you think of this metafilter/filepile controversy? outlander: eyere, This will not cause anything for us, but the problem will come badly of this! eyere: so you don't think any good can come of this then outlander? outlander: eyere, I do not think you know who I am.

By: patrickje

patrickje — Fri, 24 May 2002 10:11:32 -0800

woohoo...I was caller #18, I finally got a FilePile account.

By: perplexed

perplexed — Tue, 16 Jul 2002 17:39:11 -0800

I have 5 more accounts ready for pickup.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Thu, 18 Jul 2002 22:21:51 -0800

Stop trying to buy our love.