Comments on: Now can we stop posting these?

Now can we stop posting these?

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:39:58 -0800

C o n t a g i o u s M e d i a ......................................................................

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:40:46 -0800

That should make 'em all double posts from here on in....

By: DaShiv

DaShiv — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:43:12 -0800

Not after this post is deleted, no.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:45:07 -0800

True. But a lad can hope, yes? And it's not like I took up much space in the blue...

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:47:20 -0800

What is this contagious media?

By: fenriq

fenriq — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:48:54 -0800

What is the point of this post?

By: jsavimbi

jsavimbi — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:49:26 -0800

every time someone posts one of those stupid sites, the baby Jeebus wails in horror.

By: Simon!

Simon! — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:50:32 -0800

Well I think it's a good post. These sites have a neat kind of pathetic desperation about them, like an awkward teenager desperately trying to get everyone's attention. It reminds me of the early days of the web, when people truly believed that their wacky Geocities webpage would make them international celebrities. Plus, it'll make everyone who posts one of these on the blue feel bad about themselves. Which is always a noble goal.

By: klarck

klarck — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:52:49 -0800

We had to deface the front page in order to save it.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Thu, 26 May 2005 09:55:22 -0800

I think in a post 9/11 World, preemptive posts are justified.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:00:43 -0800

[I fixed the space in the first word, not sure if this is an improvement or not]

By: Specklet

Specklet — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:01:47 -0800

What purpose could this post possibly serve?

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:02:20 -0800

My intentions precisely, R. Mutt. It may be an effort doomed to deletion, but now no-one can say I never tried...

By: gurple

gurple — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:03:42 -0800

Good on you, dersins. Great idea -- stop the madness!

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:04:55 -0800

Specklet: The purpose was quite simple: these stupid things have all been posted now, in very compact form. May we never have to see another link to one of them ever again. Jessamyn: Thanks. I think.

By: Simon!

Simon! — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:05:55 -0800

Well, the post made sense before the main link and the point of the entire thing was edited out.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:07:41 -0800

jessamyn...there is only ONE possible improvement.... It is amazing, after a couple of discussions regarding this concept, which usually resulted in an overall negative conclusion (a generalization here, but I think fairly accurate), that someone would feel it necessary to post this crap again.. oops, did my opinion slip out there....?

By: gurple

gurple — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:12:46 -0800

We had another one of these posted just this morning, HB. I don't think the trend is gonna end all that soon unless someone does something like this about it, or there's a moratorium declared on the contagion.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:13:19 -0800

Ouch, the Ringtone Dancer site made my eyes bleed.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:13:59 -0800

Oh man, I was just working on the exact same thing... Props, dersins.

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:16:26 -0800

See, this sets a great precedent. Now the next time someone screeches "Iraqfilter" or somesuch thing, someone can just post every, single Iraq link and we can be done with it.

By: kozad

kozad — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:17:27 -0800

Would it be cheating if someone were to tell me what these sites have in common i(f anything) before it's deleted. I only have so much time to waste. Thank you.

By: gurple

gurple — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:19:11 -0800

False analogy, Cyrano. Iraq is real and generates new and interesting information spontaneously. The Contagion is a constructed link site. Posting those links is like posting every MoFi link here.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:21:33 -0800

Kozad: it's a stupid Viral Marketing Competition. It was in my original post, but when Jessamyn fixed the extra space I'd managed to insert into the post, that link was somehow dropped. Or were you being facetious?

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:23:30 -0800

I attempted to post to Metatalk on Tuesday asking Matt to somehow make a public declaration on the contagious media links, so as to avoid the daily submissions. The site crashed on my submission and I forgot to submit it again. Thanks. This should help at the least identify the URL's if someone at least does a cursory search.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:24:45 -0800

kozad...the purpose of these sites is to see which one can generate the most traffic... (on preview...what dersins said) basically, you're being used for the amusement of others... and, as for posting them here on meta... it's old ..and now just lame, meta deserves better than this (IMHO) ...ok, not so "H"

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:37:42 -0800

Well done, dersins. You did have to kill the front page in order to save it. Thank you.

By: Specklet

Specklet — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:41:26 -0800

Specklet: The purpose was quite simple: these stupid things have all been posted now, in very compact form. May we never have to see another link to one of them ever again. Oh, I got that, I just didn't think it really needed to be done. I was wrong apparently, per the responses in this thread...

By: nims

nims — Thu, 26 May 2005 10:47:36 -0800

The multiple points are really annoying. But anyway, [goodpost]

By: nkyad

nkyad — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:11:06 -0800

nims writes "The multiple points are really annoying." If you're on Firefox, get Linky. This extension will give you a context menu to open all links in a page or open all selected links. Then you can just select the whole post line and "Open all selected links" in tabs or windows. If you're not on Firefox, may God have mercy on your soul.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:13:13 -0800

or...better yet, don't open them at all!

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:16:20 -0800

here ... now everything's a double post as far as i'm concerned, i won't regard any of the links above as being double posted, seeing as the post was not specifically designed to draw attention to an individual website or subject ... it seems to be an attempt to ban a specific domain or type of website from future posts here they deserve consideration on a case by case basis, like everything else that's posted here that isn't saying i'd post them, of course ...

By: nola

nola — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:30:25 -0800

first i should say this is nothing against you dersins, i'm not trying to jump you or anything , but there is no way in hell , i'm going to click on any of those links. what are there. . .ok i lost count after 30. 30! single character links! jesus! i just hate that. no idea what any of them are, no idea if i should start with the first one, or the last. no indication that my time in clicking the first all the way to the last will be rewarding or just annoying. lastly, i can not for the life of me, remember a time when a post aforementioned , was worthy of anyone's time. please stop the madness! :)

By: NickDouglas

NickDouglas — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:31:06 -0800

Yeah, some of these are clever; you're just pissed they found a decent publicity machine.

By: NickDouglas

NickDouglas — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:32:43 -0800

no indication that my time...will be rewarding or just annoying. *cough*welcometotheinternetenjoyyourstay*cough*

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:32:53 -0800

pyramid termite writes "they deserve consideration on a case by case basis, like everything else that's posted here" Meh. The only thing an FPP on any of these sites will do is generate floods of "is this for real"'s and accusations that MeFi is going all PepsiBlue(tm) on us. If I wanted to feel used by people with ulterior motives I'd go back to Fark...

By: cedar

cedar — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:33:05 -0800

The Contagious Media sites, as #1 pointed out, are exactly what MetaFilter was made for. This kind of preemptive strike isn't going to accomplish anything beside polarize opinion about Contagious Media as a whole rather than allowing each site to stand or fall on it's own merits.

By: MaxVonCretin

MaxVonCretin — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:36:25 -0800

The whole idea of launching an eclectic bunch of silly sites, then tracking how they spread is really quite interesting - in a purely techno-dorky way. But it seems to me that by revealing which sites are participating, and making their data public during the observation period, you completely spoil the experiment. It looks as if the organizers' desire for their project to be "contagious" itself trumps any purported quasi-academic goals. Their self-absorbed "art exhibit" would seem to back this up.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:36:39 -0800

it seems to be an attempt to ban a specific domain or type of website from future posts here Nope, it's a collection all of the participants in a contest. Now if somebody posts one of these in the future, we can look back and laugh. If the link is still worthy, it'll likely survive, I would think. No censorship, just awareness.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:41:05 -0800

Cedar: Actually, #1 isn't quite as fond of the contagious media links as you think.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:43:43 -0800

Nope, it's a collection all of the participants in a contest. when i get home from work, i'll just post the xanga top 50 blogs for the day ... that way, no one else will get to build a post around them this would have been a better post if it had actually concentrated on the contest as a subject

By: gurple

gurple — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:51:00 -0800

For the people in favor of the Contagion links... do you actually like what you see there, or is it just a matter of principle? Because most of those links that have made it to MeFi have been fair at best As dersins points out, this morning's atrocity was deleted just for sheer lameness. I'm very anti-fast-food, and I love to see McDonald's parodied, but that looked like somebody had spent 10 minutes with Flash and moved on to their next Contagion half-assed effort.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:52:49 -0800

Pyramid: The contest as a subject has been hashed and rehashed in several FPP discussions and MeTa threads over the last couple of days. I got sick of seeing the links, and hearing the same damn discussions. My hope was to bring closure to the whole subject. Now let us never speak of this again.

By: cedar

cedar — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:54:44 -0800

Dersins, #1 isn't fond of bad Flash and hot cheeseburger lovin'. He may, as far as I know, feel entirely differently about ringtone dancing or crying while eating. That'd be the whole "letting sites stand or fall on their own merits" thing.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 26 May 2005 11:58:49 -0800

I sadly missed the MeTa opportunities to express how fucking stupid this is. I'm glad you're reposting it so I can make my opposition official.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:01:58 -0800

i'm wearing panties that can make your garage door open all by itself.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:13:24 -0800

Well that's a mental image that'll require therapy to rid from the theater of my mind.

By: cedar

cedar — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:16:26 -0800

i'm wearing panties that can make your garage door open all by itself. Even better, they act like an Invisible Fence for your fish.

By: kozad

kozad — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:30:43 -0800

dersin: no, I wasn't being facetious...but now that's it's lunchtime and I have had time to Google "contagious media," I get it...

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:56:11 -0800

The Contagious Media sites, as #1 pointed out, are exactly what MetaFilter was made for.- cedar To be fair, if you'll note farther down the thread, he made that statement *before* he realized how many of the top entries were created by ad agencies to show proof of concept for viral spread.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:58:20 -0800

nola: but there is no way in hell , i'm going to click on any of those links. Good. I think that's the point of dersin's post. dersin is saving us from ourselves, and from crappy attempts at viral humor.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:59:42 -0800

What is this viral marketing that you speak of?

By: nola

nola — Thu, 26 May 2005 13:26:23 -0800

Good. I think that's the point of dersin's post. dersin is saving us from ourselves, and from crappy attempts at viral humor. oh . . . thx? :P

By: fenriq

fenriq — Thu, 26 May 2005 13:37:31 -0800

Being saved by pre-emptive posting seems like trying to put a scuba mask on a fish. I am not convinced that it needed doing and I'm less convinced that the fish is any better off. But at least I know quonsar can get a rise out of his garage door. Now if only those panties would converge with the GPS panties. Then I could know when and where quonsar was raising doors at any time. And then I'd post the tracking site to the front page.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Thu, 26 May 2005 14:21:35 -0800

:-) "I got sick of seeing the links, and hearing the same damn discussions. My hope was to bring closure to the whole subject." guess it didn't work, eh?

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 26 May 2005 14:42:52 -0800

we'll see. just so long as it's confined to this thread... at least quonsar's magical panties of opening are a new...err...twist on the discussion.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 26 May 2005 16:56:44 -0800

[sorry, really fixed now]

By: krysalist

krysalist — Thu, 26 May 2005 17:34:57 -0800

This is perfect. Thank you dersins.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Thu, 26 May 2005 18:46:14 -0800

Thank you dersins, for saving us from ourselves...

By: Kloryne

Kloryne — Thu, 26 May 2005 19:05:01 -0800

Ah ha! Very clever, dersins...

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Fri, 27 May 2005 01:32:45 -0800

Thanks, dersins.