Displaying post 1 to 50 of 141
from
meta
One moment, you're a noob; the next you're old furniture. If fairly lax criteria were applied (say at least one post, even if it's only a brief lackadaisacal or flippant comment per month -
but no no less! (more prolonged absences, for whatever reason, counting for nothing, whatever the original date of joining), just how many old-timers or veterans (inveterates even) does MetaFilter have? Who are these people? The interesting question being, of course, what made them (you) stay and, as it were, stay regular, despite all the alleged turmoil and changes we've been through?
P.S. This might be a silly question and I'm not painlessly aware of this.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 12:28 PM on December 14, 2004
(111 comments)
It would be nice if the question
Are there any other community weblogs where you regularly participate? could be added to the standard welcome questionnaire ("What's the deal with your nickname? When did you first start using the Internet?" etc.)
[More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 11:19 PM on November 29, 2004
(56 comments)
How do you regard the time you spend on MetaFilter? Is it information time (
keeping up with the web; news-gathering); social time (
discussing; engaging with others); fun pure and simple; vegetative-time (
like watching indifferent TV); time-wasting when having a break from work...or what?
[
Apologies if this question is of no interest to anyone but me.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 9:20 PM on November 10, 2004
(53 comments)
Perhaps it's time to reconsider using MetaTalk to denounce single comments and only slightly contentious single posts. [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 1:03 PM on October 26, 2004
(53 comments)
Is anyone interested in helping to organize a
MeFi Searchathon? [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 3:45 AM on September 15, 2004
(29 comments)
"Troll" may have a respectable lineage on the Web but, frankly, for some of us who joined later in the day, it seems like a quaint, medieval way of classifying anyone who's the least bit provocative, thought-provoking or even unorthodox. Recently, any forceful, strongly-worded attempt to spark discussion with a non-mainstream viewpoint, generally from the Left, has been lamely denounced as a "troll". Could it be time to give the
ye olde troll accusation a well-deserved rest? I hope so. The English language is one of the richest in the world and
troll sounds parochial, pimply, nerdish, cliquey, incestuous and, ultimately, meaningless.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:56 PM on August 30, 2004
(78 comments)
MetaFilter is an American weblog. Europeans here, whether British or continental, are mere tokens. Perhaps we should all give up the international pretense. The truth is that MetaFilter, for those of us not lucky (or, to be frank, unluckly) enough to live in the U.S. or Canada, is fast becoming a domestic concern with an ever-decreasing regard for what happens in the (enormous) rest of the world. Whereas (the few remaining) Europeans here are curious about America, Americans here seem boringly and predictably obsessed with themselves. Is isolationism the growing trend on this board? It certainly seems so. Say the word, by the way, and you can have it all to yourselves, no hard feelings.
It is not a good idea but it's a stone's throw away...
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 8:43 PM on August 15, 2004
(373 comments)
I now find myself (temporarily perhaps) in a growing class of MetaFilter users not often mentioned: the
relurkers. [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:15 PM on July 26, 2004
(128 comments)
Can we - even if only briefly - discuss stuff on AskMe or not?
This Sopranos thread started off as a question but the discussion of last night's episode was inevitable and almost irresistible. My own opinion, fwiw, is that it would be nice if a little discussion was indeed allowed or, as has happened already, generously overlooked.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 11:38 AM on May 17, 2004
(10 comments)
Is there any way we unfortunate non-Californians can help to ensure that MetaFilter becomes a 24-hour operation once more? [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 4:45 PM on May 6, 2004
(36 comments)
After so many months of effort, repression and downright self-censorship in order to post less, occasioning not a little (deserved) abuse from fellow members for my prolixity, I note
with a happy heart there are now no less than five friends with a higher contribution index than me. This after many months with an embarrassing index of over 11. "There's hope for all", I think is the lesson. For the benefit of these over-eager newbies, what would be the perfect contribution index for the perfect user?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:02 AM on April 8, 2004
(56 comments)
More than any other community weblog,
MetaFilter and
MetaTalk are associated with drunkenness and even alcoholism. This is an honest question: do most members here drink more than others/they ought to/than what's good for them? Is it OK to post while drunk, unless you really foul up? Is it considered funny or something? Why are there (comparatively) few other drugs extolled here? In sum, is MeFi quickly becoming MeFried?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 9:38 PM on March 21, 2004
(94 comments)
When MetaFilter's down, parallel-universe websites like
Orkut contain valuable information as well as friendly confraternization - witness the
MetaFilter board on the same website. Plus you get photos and intimate details of your favourite MeFi posters, whether friends or foes. How important are these parallel-universe network sites? Is Google's patronage indicative of things to come? And, yes, should we take over while it's hot? Does anyone want to be invited?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 12:31 AM on February 20, 2004
(153 comments)
A boring, very minor quibble with a view to absolute perfection: accent xenophobia continues to run rampant in MetaFilter's and MetaTalk's posting boxes. [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 7:39 PM on January 28, 2004
(43 comments)
It would be nice, for the sake of closure, if there was a quick way of checking what solutions were eventually chosen by those who Ask MetaFilter, after having considered the answers provided to their questions. [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 7:10 PM on January 13, 2004
(24 comments)
Shouldn't MetaTalk, recently flooded (and, imho, diluted) by AskMe queries, be about MetaFilter alone and AskMe have a reflective sidekick of its own? [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 9:37 PM on December 29, 2003
(52 comments)
How important, with MeFi or Meta posts and comments, are extraneous factors like time, caffeine, midwork intervals or alcohol? Is there really a before and after coffee; a morning and late night inflection; according to how long you've been up and what you've ingested to get through the day? I think there is. Is the time-stamp your best counsellor and friend? Specially considering the wildly disparate time-zones? No names mentioned; just saying. In my humble opinion, the hour (and the perceived condition or, more generally, circumstances) says as much as the name. If not more.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 9:00 PM on December 25, 2003
(41 comments)
Ask MetaFilter is currently only available to those of us who come to MetaTalk. Since it's probably the best thing on MeFi since the sliced-bread thread, wouldn't it be an elementary courtesy to extend the service (and information) to the blue-only crowd? Is it really so marvellous that it deserves to be kept for us
aficionados alone? Fwiw, I think we could use the extra minds and souls. Why not include a link (plus sidebar mention) on the main page? Or is it meant to be an insiders' secret? This, imho, is just wrong!
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 6:43 AM on December 21, 2003
(34 comments)
It's do-it-yourself MeFi
Numerology Time!
17171, MetaFilter's most recent member has a very good number. So do
Rich, who is
123;
Eirixon, who is
11111 and, of course,
Matt who is number
1 in more ways than one. Now that membership is opening again, good numbers, like primes, become increasingly rare. How long will 17171 remain the coolest? And are there any even cooler numbers attributed to non-posters, like the beastly
Hafif, who is
666? [
Please delete if this is too silly for words.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 3:50 PM on November 27, 2003
(89 comments)
I have mixed feelings about hoopyfrood's
Michael Jackson belongs in jail post. On the one hand, I agree with the general "don't editorialize" philosophy and its corollary "save it for a comment in the thread." On the other, this isn't exactly the New York Times and a poster's take on their subject is arguably an integral part of the post. "Letting the link speak for itself", when it involves a news item, is all very well - but perhaps keeping one's opinion out of the front page text is also an exercise in obfuscation and even dishonesty. Has current policy on editorializing changed? (
I speak as a frequent editorializer, I should add. Even though I agree "pedophile of pop", with its dubious inverted commas, and all-capitals IN JAIL!, as well as the idea that everyone is innocent until proven guilty except Michael Jackson, are way too extreme a way of going about it.)
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:50 PM on November 19, 2003
(84 comments)
Amidst all the talk about grudges and nemesii; stalking and vendettas; personal beefs and antipathies, the fact remains that, when you've been on MetaFilter for a while, the chances are that you've also made a few friends - or, at least, established some pleasant, lasting empathetic online relationships. Are they - or can they be - considered friendships? Or are they better considered fleeting and virtual, ready to evaporate at the first hastily answered (or unanswered) e-mail, not worth the paper they weren't written on in the first place?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 6:28 PM on November 15, 2003
(74 comments)
I'm sorry if this is a stupid, self-indulgent post (so no problems if it's deleted forthwith) but it's based on over two years of reading MetaFilter almost completely. It certainly seems interesting to me - but I may be wrong. See? I've noticed several users becoming ever more adept at expressing themselves: from more drawn-out to pithier; from abstruser to clearer; from all-over-the-place to more-to-the-point. Does anyone else find, by merely participating here and being exposed to MeFi's notoriously severe critique, that they're writing better than when they first joined? Specially foreigners (or non-Americans) like me? To what an extent is MeFi interaction good practice for writers?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:32 AM on October 29, 2003
(57 comments)
A lot of excellent, original posts, like
this one from homunculus, get zero comments because users (I'm guessing) feel it's lame just to say "Thank you"; "Good post" or something equally trite, though
sincere. My feeling is that outsiders, when they see
0 or
1 comment, erroneously judge that it reflects on the post and pass on. Which is a great pity.
Can't a simple system be devised whereby those users who've appreciated a post click on a "I enjoyed this" or "(this is good)" button, the result appearing much as the trackbacks do now?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 7:28 PM on October 27, 2003
(28 comments)
Considering the increasing amount of recent MetaTalk posts that have been deleted or generally derided, perhaps the time has come to propose that some
Posting Guidelines, similar to those which already and profitably
exist for MetaFilter, could be useful here too. Following the same dichotomy ("What makes a good thread post to MeTa?"/What makes a bad post to MeTa?"), what essential, make-or-break, very general guidelines (in the "minimum of hard rules" spirit of this community) would users suggest?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 8:03 PM on October 20, 2003
(43 comments)
GeoCities is, of course, notorious for falling to pieces if more than three people click on one of its sites (though anastasiav's secondary links more than make up for her first). It's happened to everyone, so I wonder whether more experienced posters have untold ways of guessing what sort of traffic a posted website will bear? Are there any ways to avoid the "MetaFiltered" meltdown? Are there any steps posters can take to preempt the predictable outcome, besides including the (unsatisfactory) Google cache? Can the content be saved in another way, in order to answer users' queries?
In short, what is the best policy for fragile links, assuming they're worth posting anyway?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 11:53 AM on October 7, 2003
(15 comments)
It's great that Matt is just one of the guys when it comes to posting but, with respect,
this post of his seems way below average. It's a short news item, from a big media source, which will already be known to those who follow the news. The post, though, is not the point. My question is "To what extent are we allowed - or able - to criticize his posts as if he were just another user?" Is it ungracious, ungrateful or downright rude, for instance? Fwiw, my opinion is that special treatment and undue deference are just as annoying and even insulting.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 6:01 PM on October 2, 2003
(135 comments)
Our
group Web log gets a mention in the
NYT.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 2:39 PM on September 28, 2003
(50 comments)
Now that
MeFi Distilled has been dormant throughout September, how are time-challenged and reassurance-seeking users to know what's worth reading on MetaFilter? I wonder how many readers rely on extraneous filters to get a handle on what to follow here. MeFi Distilled is good. Are there any other time-saving devices for those of us too occupied to read every single word?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 8:10 PM on September 11, 2003
(29 comments)
"One day everyone will rely on
Dong Resin's Joint and MetaFilter". Along with other, less interesting sources. This seems to be the gist of this recent
Online Journalism Review column by Mark Glaser. And it sounds good to me. So the question is: what danger is there of what we take to be parochial and almost private actually going mainstream? Is MetaFilter still a secret? What is lost and what is gained if it suddenly goes mainstream on us?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 6:58 PM on September 4, 2003
(41 comments)
The 10K Generation, to which I belong, being member 10947 of September 3, joined MetaFilter between August 1 and September 5 2001, just before the 9/11 influx, and is currently enjoying its second anniversary here. Does each generation, according to how and when they joined, have its own personality? Mine, I would say, judging by a quick survey, is moody, quiet and difficult. What's yours like?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 7:46 PM on August 31, 2003
(124 comments)
Is the MeFi demographic overwhelmingly white and pale-faced? Where are the minorities?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:00 AM on July 2, 2003
(112 comments)
Who said MetaFilter doesn't
do religion well? This truly
soul-searching thread bears witness to what can be accomplished when the thread-raiders and thread-destroyers are good enough not to intervene and users are good enough to actually weigh in with their considered feelings and thoughts. Isn't it therefore self-defeating to conclude,
avant la lettre, that MeFi is only good at certain, non-controversial, non-polemic issues? Why shoot ourselves in the foot if, given the right circumstances - perhaps happenstance, luck or magic - our boots are often so clearly and movingly made for walking?
[Please add a thank-you note to all the posters who truly enlarged my perception of a big, weighty issue as is belief or non-belief in God.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 11:20 PM on June 25, 2003
(25 comments)
Dear Matt: given that most people here use IE, when will you modernize the MetaTalk posting page? You've known for ages that anyone hitting the "Back" button to edit their post will lose everything because of IE browser settings.
When will it be as easy as the MetaFilter one? How is someone who knows no HTML supposed to post to MetaTalk with the appropriate links, bold and italic emphases and whatever?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 9:18 AM on June 19, 2003
(53 comments)
Rohini Kapur of Rediff.com
mentions the "ever-popular" MetaFilter in an not uninteresting article.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 5:57 PM on June 15, 2003
(21 comments)
Whatever happened to good old
via? Lately attributions on MetaFilter have become rarer and rarer. Have we all suddenly started finding our own links the hard way or has the habit sadly declined?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 7:58 AM on June 13, 2003
(25 comments)
Newbies. I miss newbies. Are there still any newbies out there? Remember newbies? I miss newbies. [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 3:07 PM on June 2, 2003
(90 comments)
How authoritative is a poster on MetaFilter? [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 6:18 AM on May 13, 2003
(50 comments)
A forlorn plea: is there any chance of reinstating on MeTa the weblog-related category?
Blogroots is just not the same - or even vaguely similar. MetaFilter is where so many bloggers hang out and, imho, discussions of blogging are part of the history and character of this place. As it is, items which would have been posted to the old MetaTalk category - such as
this one - are showing up on the blue. I doubt whether many users here have the patience and fortitude to take them all the way to Blogroots.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 2:43 AM on May 9, 2003
(35 comments)
Why is
MetaFilter only
No.28 in the
BlogShares online game, recently written about on
Rediff? What does it mean, if anything? Just how influential is MetaFilter, compared to other blogs? Is it really true that "
The sphere of influence a blog is generally gauged by the blogs linking to it. That means a blog's importance grows if several other important (well-linked) bloggers link to it"?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:26 PM on May 3, 2003
(23 comments)
How kosher is posting websites in languages other than English? Aren't we missing out on a sizeable - and
valuable - part of the Web? The available online translation machines I've tried so far (
Babel Fish et al.) are dreadful and hinder more than they help, but I've recently found
WorldLingo to be appreciably less bad. MetaFilter users seem, to me at least, to be very interested in - and open to - "foreign" languages. Should posters risk posting a machine translation along with a link to a website in a non-English language, for instance?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 10:26 AM on April 28, 2003
(17 comments)
Old farts; hippies;
soixante-huitards; baby boomers - there are a few of us on MetaFilter who are over 40, aren't there? To what extent is a lot of internal conflict here attributable to simple generational differences that are commonplace - though no less violent and, I should add, inevitable and ultimately unimportant - in our everyday lives?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 3:02 AM on April 23, 2003
(95 comments)
What was your very first impression of MetaFilter, that first time you visited? [
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 1:12 AM on April 17, 2003
(89 comments)
The common wisdom is that MetaTalk is more for venting than preventing; that it's read by an (obsessive) minority of users and that its suggestions and strictures are ineffective. And yet...[
More inside.]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 7:43 PM on April 12, 2003
(91 comments)
The
e-mail undercurrent: how important are private exchanges between MeFi users in day-to-day posting and, indeed, in the running of MetaFilter ? [
More inside]
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 8:15 PM on April 7, 2003
(137 comments)
Would it be possible to offer for purchase the complete (and, if possible. updatable online) MetaFilter and MetaTalk archives? Would enough people buy it for it to be worthwhile for Matt, revenue-wise? How much would such a treasure cost? Could it be produced on demand, to minimize costs? I know I'd buy it.
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso
at 6:49 PM on April 2, 2003
(46 comments)
