the bester on the bestof

December 4, 2006 4:07 AM

Unlike the time you gave up on Slashdot, you eventually came back to Metafilter.
posted by progosk (41 comments total)

This should probably be in MetaTalk which strangely enough never appears on any of these Top X lists...
posted by slimepuppy at 4:10 AM on December 4, 2006

Ugh, their #1 Blog isn't even a blog. Yes, you can host your cartoons on Blogspot and still have it not be a blog.
posted by rxrfrx at 4:11 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

Does it have to be a personal-diary-type-thing to be a blog? Or does it have to be text? Or is posting just images in a reverse-chronological-order sufficient? I agree with your point that indexed doesn't seem to have bloginess, but I couldn't really tell you what I think the rules are.
posted by Plutor at 4:42 AM on December 4, 2006

While I don't read Slashdot anymore, I'm apparently not cool enough to have given up on Metafilter yet.
posted by Malor at 4:54 AM on December 4, 2006

Metafilter: Not as good as that blog about buttons.
posted by furtive at 4:57 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

I've never given up on Metafilter, what's wrong with this guy?!
posted by Hildegarde at 5:04 AM on December 4, 2006

Plutor, it's a web log, which denotes--at least in my estimation--textual communication. The reasons for this textual communication could vary, but I've always thought of a "blog" as being some kind of interface by which you are exposed to the personality of the person or people behind the website. Indexed, while interesting, doesn't seem to be a log, per se, so much as a series of images--a project, if you will. In much the same way, if someone were to just post a serial novel on blogtspot, with one new part every week, it likely wouldn't fall under the strictest "blog" headline.

That said, more and more, the popularized usage of "blog" seems, quite simply, to be a personal website that is updated with some frequency. I can't say I care much to argue about it, either.

On an entirely different note, does anyone actually believe this guy really reads five hundred different blogs? And if he does, how much time does he spend on each? Doing some quick math, if he did a five-day cycle (one hundred blogs every day for five days) and spent eight hours a day doing nothing except reading blogs, that would be less than five minutes per blog that he "reads". If his cycle was slower, allowing more time for each visit, the amount of information for him to catch up on--even to maintain a cursory knowledge of the blog--would increase dramatically. In short, I could have dismissed his absurd claim with a short sentence instead of a paragraph, but I'm delirious for lack of sleep.
posted by The God Complex at 5:06 AM on December 4, 2006

Great list added one to my feed. December is the month of the "best of".
posted by stbalbach at 5:24 AM on December 4, 2006

18. See also: Ask.Metafilter, the real reason this site deserves to be here.)

See also: fimoculous.com, the real reason these comments deserve to be here

8. I'm as surprised as you that a USA Today blog makes this list

But you made the list!!!! How can what you've written surprise you so much?
posted by localhuman at 5:35 AM on December 4, 2006

Odd--I read many of those.
posted by MrGuilt at 5:37 AM on December 4, 2006

The God Complex: "Plutor, it's a web log, which denotes--at least in my estimation--textual communication. The reasons for this textual communication could vary, but I've always thought of a "blog" as being some kind of interface by which you are exposed to the personality of the person or people behind the website. Indexed, while interesting, doesn't seem to be a log, per se, so much as a series of images--a project, if you will. In much the same way, if someone were to just post a serial novel on blogtspot, with one new part every week, it likely wouldn't fall under the strictest "blog" headline."

Would a fictional blog still be called a blog? If so, where is the line drawn between a fictional blog and a "normal" novel in first-person that is posted serially online? If not, where is the line between truth and fiction? (If I embellish, exaggerate, and change names, is my blog still a blog?) Does indexed not expose you to the personality of the artist? Are you arguing that a picture (or in this case, illustration) is not worth a thousand words? If indexed was a website that described the observations in question instead of illustrating them, would that meet your definition of a blog?
posted by Plutor at 5:40 AM on December 4, 2006

Odd--I read many of those.

Same here. How depressing to find that our tastes are so common!
posted by jack_mo at 6:06 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

God, that list is crap. Metafilter is pretty much the only site on the internet where you could learn new things of depth and substance on a regular basis just by reading the comments. Metafilter does not always have what's new on the internet first, but when it shows up here, it's framed in the proper context as to engender some intelligent discussion.

A more interesting list would be blogs you stopped when you discovered metafilter.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:07 AM on December 4, 2006

While I don't read Slashdot anymore, I'm apparently not cool enough to have given up on Metafilter yet.

Oh, but you did—asleep one night, fever dreams and sweat-slicked brow, you viz'd a great blue gorilla with flashing green eyes and grey tongue menacing you, and then drawing back, menacing, drawing back; and when at last you found that as you retreated in the glomming fog of the field on which this chase occurred and the ape no longer followed, in your heart was a stirring of regret and longing. And so you returned, arms wide and forgiving, to that lurking bluehair, and were crushed by its embrace, noticing only at the last that it had been wearing lipstick the whole time.
posted by cortex at 6:22 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: I wish I knew how to quit you.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:32 AM on December 4, 2006

no one quits, they just pay their 5 bucks and come back with better user names.
posted by johnny novak at 6:41 AM on December 4, 2006

Most of the sites on that list are pretty pathetic, at least to my tastes. Tastes differ.
posted by caddis at 6:51 AM on December 4, 2006

God, that list is crap.

On the contrary, it's a great list of newish and little known niche blogs. Frankly, MeFi is the weird outlier on the list. I haven't heard of half the blogs listed and I ended up subscribing to 3 or 4 new blogs.
posted by mathowie at 6:58 AM on December 4, 2006

Embarrassing to be a reader of a site that's included in a list that values corporate coffee gossip, filling that small space between "Snark Market" and "why Mamaduke is funny". I've gotta get out and surf more.
posted by crispynubbins at 6:59 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

Why should anybody care about this list or the entries on it?
posted by davy at 7:20 AM on December 4, 2006

I like how they've got rid of the clutter around our logo to it make it more twopointohey.
posted by cillit bang at 7:22 AM on December 4, 2006

would that meet your definition of a blog?

How 'bout my blog about the novelization of the movie Tron?

I'd say it's "some kind of interface by which you are exposed to the personality of the person or people behind the website," like Chewbacca Blogs and Cats That Look Like Hitler.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 7:24 AM on December 4, 2006

Metafilter, I just can't quit you.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:25 AM on December 4, 2006

"This should probably be in MetaTalk"

Flagged as YouN00bFilter.
posted by Eideteker at 7:51 AM on December 4, 2006

Better than most of these things; the presence of Pruned and We Make Money Not Art are great signs that make me want to check out the others I don't know.

crispynubbins: a list that values corporate coffee gossip

That's a bit of a mischaracterization of the Starbucks thing; it is from Romenesko, after all, and the tagline is "Monitoring America's favorite drug dealer." It's an odd combination of news reports about the company, official PR, manager/employee gossip and ordinary joes griping and praising - a strange mix, but I can see how "non-corporate coffee" folks would enjoy it. Plus, now I know how to make a ghetto latte.
posted by mediareport at 7:58 AM on December 4, 2006

Any blog list without Neddie Jingo on it is pure crap.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:04 AM on December 4, 2006

Typically, I am a "see also" - thus confirming my lifelong fear that I am personally a "see also." Sigh.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:25 AM on December 4, 2006

On the contrary, it's a great list of newish and little known niche blogs.
-mathowie

Aw, you're just saying that because he links to you in the 22nd entry.

I honestly don't know how people can keep up with so many blogs - yes, even with the miracle of RSS. After I do my 'Filterverse rounds, there really aren't any other "must see" sites or blogs that compel me to visit regularly.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:01 AM on December 4, 2006

A little late there, blue_beetle.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:21 AM on December 4, 2006

I give up on MetaFilter at least 3 times. A day.
posted by ninjew at 9:33 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

Meta-Metafilter
posted by Navelgazer at 9:58 AM on December 4, 2006

I went back to slashdot, too.
posted by namespan at 10:20 AM on December 4, 2006

I still can't go back to slashdot. Namely because if there's ever anything interesting there, it gets on digg, and every macfanboi site on the net. Either that or one of my plethora of linux geek friends send me a link in a pgp encrypted e-mail. Which makes me smack them.

How many people have internet burnout?
posted by daq at 11:05 AM on December 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

"Unlike the time you gave up on Slashdot, you eventually came back to Metafilter." = "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."
posted by Smedleyman at 1:02 PM on December 4, 2006

"How many people have internet burnout?"

I get it regularly. Each time, the site that gets me hooked again is MetaFilter. I'm not sure what that says about my pattern of addiction.
posted by FissionChips at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2006

Slashdot and /koffPlastic/koff lost me when $5 sign-ups began. Serves you right, matthowie, that's what happens when you ignore the forces of karma.
posted by Sparx at 4:22 PM on December 4, 2006

You silly Metafilterites. I list Metafilter every year on this list -- it's sorta like my in-joke to include the first online community where I started to really get it, and it was a big influence on other sites I started. And every year, there's always a snarkfest that follows.

See ya next year!
posted by rex at 7:02 PM on December 4, 2006

We can't help but revel, rex. We get so few chances.
posted by cortex at 9:51 PM on December 4, 2006

Oldschoolers add that zesty tang to the internet, without which we'd all be, well, less zesty. And tangy.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:54 PM on December 4, 2006

[this is good]
posted by Bael'Gar at 7:59 AM on December 5, 2006

How many people have internet burnout?

I got that when the AOLers arrived. And then those green card bastards made it worse. Topical ointment relieves the burning.
posted by meehawl at 7:57 PM on December 11, 2006