March 22, 2001

11:03 AM

reboot?is MetaFilter or are any metafilterians taking part in this? I think it sounds kinda fun. But I don't know what I'd do on a week without MetaFilter....work?
posted by darkpony (30 comments total)

I guess I'd be a little more impressed if it didn't read so much like a marketing brochure.
posted by Irontom at 11:38 AM on March 22, 2001

Hm... well, phonezilla9 is on the way... but having my site down from April 25 - May 1? Naaah.
posted by hijinx at 11:44 AM on March 22, 2001

zzzzzzz
posted by Sapphireblue at 11:54 AM on March 22, 2001

Actually, this sort of thing really pisses me off. I put up a fairly lengthy diatribe about Reboot at lagparty.org, but I don't really want to retype it all here. Basically it seems to be a ill-formed publicity stunt that actually does more to harm your community than build community.
posted by kcalder at 11:56 AM on March 22, 2001

We should hold nominations for sites that we want to see go down for a week.
posted by gimli at 12:00 PM on March 22, 2001

*lol*

go gimli.

as far as taking a site down, i don't update mine enough to bother. it is Virtually down for weeks at a time.
posted by th3ph17 at 12:20 PM on March 22, 2001

It's really not that weird. It may have a lot to do with what corners of the web one frequents. For the designer side, this kind of thing - reboots, battles, etc. - are pretty common, a type of intracommunity communication.
posted by gsh at 1:18 PM on March 22, 2001

Um, can someone translate all that damn marketing-speak into easily-comprehended English?
posted by bgluckman at 1:44 PM on March 22, 2001

Wow. MetaFilistines seems apt.

The active and immensely creative web design community is basically going to have a huge opening on May¹, and are publicizing it. There is nothing wrong with a desire to get work seen, especially when it promotes values that differ from materialist sensibilites that usually dominates the industry.

More power to James and Andres for rallying visual artists together for this. There should be more like it.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:59 PM on March 22, 2001

I wouldn't mind the dense marketing-speak as much if they printed it in legibly sized type.
posted by jennyb at 2:09 PM on March 22, 2001

I think the sole fact that you're not sure what you'd without Metafilter is a strong indication that you need a week (or more) away from it =)
posted by Satapher at 2:57 PM on March 22, 2001

Dude, I read two paragraphs and came up with no idea what this thing is about. I have a better record with James Joyce, works in German, and literary criticism.
posted by dagnyscott at 3:17 PM on March 22, 2001

The active and immensely creative web design community is basically going to have a huge opening on May1, and are publicizing it.

Ooooh. Good for you. Yawn.
posted by kindall at 3:25 PM on March 22, 2001

If nobody can understand what they're talking about, they're not publicizing anything except their own arrogance and/or incompetence.
posted by aaron at 3:56 PM on March 22, 2001

It's an artists' statement. I once had a long conversation with an artist about how flipping silly most artist's statements are. Nonetheless, it's difficult to talk an artist out of writing one.

Ignore the statement, enjoy the art. While I think taking a site down for a week is downright goofy, I will be cruising around the result on May 1, just like I cruise around the galleries on First Thursday.
posted by frykitty at 4:13 PM on March 22, 2001

I just don't get the 'down for a week' part. A group of designers collectively agreeing to re-launch their sites on the same date seems like a good way to get some attention, but why penalize people who already visit?

Unless nobody currently does and there's no content beyond the 'design', of course.
posted by normy at 5:08 PM on March 22, 2001

People who really care about the web are into this; Overly critical pedestrians are pissing on a parade they aren’t interested in.

Some people will check out websites made by a sampling of the best web designers working on May 1st. I, for one, am expecting to be entertained and find out what talented visual artists are up to. Anyone with a website should be interested in this project, as well as people looking to brush up on their aesthetic sensibilities.

Judging from a lot of websites of MetaFilter posters, there is quite a lot to be learned, but some of you seem to tired or boorish to care. Which is too bad. You could benefit from this project more than you realize.

It’s fine if you don’t care, but there just isn’t any reason to be so aggressively negative about an art event which has absolutely no effect on your life.

I.e.; Sod off.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 7:16 PM on March 22, 2001

Ego-deflation is such an entertaining sport, and anyone who participates in such a blatantly self-important marketing stunt clearly has an ego worth deflating. What better way to declare yourself one of "the best Web designers working" than to participate in an event that's open to anyone who hears about it?

Can't blame us for taking potshots at the easy targets...
posted by kindall at 8:22 PM on March 22, 2001

The Web Standards Organization suggested that designers ask some of their visitors to use a different browser and invited upon themselves much ill-informed scorn (amongst the well reasoned discussion, it should be said). Whether one agreed with them or not (I did), their reasoning was presented in a logical, coherent and well articulated manner.

Now, a different group of web designers suggests denying access entirely, to all, for a week, failing to provide a persuasive reason why they should. It's hardly surprising that some (myself included) fail to see the wisdom of such a suggestion.

Count me as a critical pedestrian.
posted by normy at 9:26 PM on March 22, 2001

biff bam bop. you folks are brutal. I commend Capt. C, but i think this is all falling upon deaf ears...My perfect audience....

I think alot of those site are beautiful. pretty eye candy, maybe not much more, but pretty regardless... and mostly developed by one person or a small group... AND its alot of work....hold on hold on...

these are not BLOGS. These are sites that get major updates monthly at best...I don't think they are locking up thier content. I've looked at many of these sites, enjoyed them.. maybe bookmarked them...should I check in on them hourly(like I do MeFi). no way... nothing much is gonna change in an hour...so how often SHOULD I check in on them? daily? weekly? monthly? randomly is probably best...oh, wait... how about some event that says.... May 1st = new content. stop by and take a look.

does it have to be more than that?

I'll see ya there on may first Capt. C. I'm looking forward to it.

Dp
posted by darkpony at 9:55 PM on March 22, 2001

May 1? Oh darn, I'm afraid I cannot participate. I'll be too busy celebrating International Workers Day and joining forces with my oppressed brothers to stage the Global Strike Against Corporate Tyranny.
posted by aaron at 12:41 AM on March 23, 2001

Well said, Dp. Apples and oranges. It's a big world with room for everyone, and let's hope it stays that way.
posted by gimli at 6:19 AM on March 23, 2001

People who really care about the web are into this;

Capt., I was willing to live and let live and not remark about my disinterest (because I agree that it's rather pointless) until you made it personal.

My response? Fuck you. You have no idea how much and how deeply I care about not only the Web, but the Internet as a whole, and for you to say "If you don't care about this you don't care about the web" is just plain rude.

I care about the Web because at it's core it's a dramatic step forward in our advancement as a society. Not USA's, not North America's, but the entire world's. It's ability to facilitate communication, the methods it's created to present and access a previously unrecordable amount of data.

To say that I don't care about the web because my primary concern is not with forwarding it as a visual media is to insult me personally, and I hope you reconsider that generalization.
posted by cCranium at 8:47 AM on March 23, 2001

cCranium, I think I love you.

I'm not pooh-poohing anyone's art. yay redesigns! yay art! ---i am, however, pooh-poohing the idea that anyone's going to "build community" by shutting down a whole slew of websites for a whole week. I bet there are a lot of people who might well be interested in a massive-scale reboot day (which by itself sounds like fun) but who just aren't willing to go dark for a week.

and um, yeah, I'm *definitely* pooh-poohing the marketing speak on that website. who wrote that thing? I thought *I* was good at using too many words to say very little but these folks put me to shame.
posted by Sapphireblue at 9:07 AM on March 23, 2001

Yeah, Cap'n, I'm generally sympathetic to your postings, but you really came off as an asshole. Sod off indeed.
posted by norm at 7:51 PM on March 23, 2001

This event is aimed at an almost entirely different community than the one MeFi readers occupy. As far as I can tell, that's why so many people here are so against this event, and why all the designers I know (including myself) are totally interested to see what happens... what people come up with. There's this kind of 'celebrity' thing among designers.. (k10k, surfstation, kiiroi, threeoh), where young designers (and not-so-young ones) idolize the people putting together the event, and seeing everyone at one time put forth redesigns is interesting and exciting. And it IS a way for the 'community' to come together, because instead of us all redesigning at will and no one knowing about it, we can all gather new inspiration from eachother, starting May 1. This vehement anti-reboot sentiment here is quite confusing to me.
posted by alternatekev at 7:08 AM on April 25, 2001

Cc, I should’ve said “web design.” That would’ve changed the whole meaning of the post, and been closer to what I meant. Saying just “web” brings in a lot of issues I wasn’t commenting on, or have an interest in.

And, I’ll be happy to fuck you, but I’m not making breakfast.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 9:41 AM on April 25, 2001

Now, hold on. I invented saying "fuck you" to capt. crackpipe over six months ago. DON'T STEAL MY IDEAS!

A little more seriously: he just became a little over-passionate in trying to convey his feeling that there "isn’t any reason to be so aggressively negative about an art event which has absolutely no effect on your life." Which, you know, is true.
posted by sylloge at 1:21 PM on April 25, 2001

(newer skiboot thread)
posted by mathowie at 5:28 PM on April 25, 2001

Wow, can I ever not tell the difference between March and April ... this is stale stuff.
posted by sylloge at 5:37 PM on April 25, 2001