I've always felt that MeFi should be a non-anonymous community, making "Outing" an irrelevance. There is no lack of places online for people to post anonymously to their heart's content.
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 8:25 AM on September 28, 2005

Once a week (or a month) caps could do a lot to curb abuse.

And I think that the flamewar quotient could be low. What seems to spark flamewars elsewhere in MeFi is the (infuriating) statement as obvious and factual what is actually a contentious, subjective, and/or outright biased assertion. When the bias is obvious and the subjectivity taken as a given, who needs to flame?

And people read rants because they're provocative and often funny! I... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 8:15 PM on July 19, 2005

Every conservative who, by choice or circumstance, finds himself in an overwhelmingly liberal environment, knows how to conduct himself amicably.

I'm a modestly high-profile MeFi right-winger (more right than ParisParamus on most issues, I'm sure), but, more importantly, I'm the token conservative among (most of) my friends and family and not only do they not mind, I think they actually like it -- consensus is the enemy of good thinking, and, moreover, they can see how... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 9:28 PM on July 9, 2005

Mathowie:

I humbly suggest that you not have your TOS or PP to be drafted by an active MeFite, be (s)he ever so good a lawyer. In my opinion, active MeFites have an actual or prospective conflict of interest as far as these issues.

Metafilter is sufficiently high profile that you can doubtless find a web-savvy lawyer happy to do this for you in exchange for a link and the development of a relationship.

I could... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 5:27 AM on February 23, 2005

I stand by my suggestion that an active MeFite ought not to draft TOS or PP for the reason is that such policies are, at their essence, creatures of their subsequent interpretation.

The drafting attorney, particularly in a case (such as this) where (s)he wouldn't have opposing counsel with whom to negotiate and refine provisions, is likely to be called upon subsequently to apply and determine breach of the rules, and, even if not... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 2:58 PM on February 23, 2005

Dios -- operators of Internet forums are generally not obliged to exercise prior restraint, but they're regularly required to act to remove or modify postings which are in one way or another legally improper. When the impropriety is violation of copyright, this obligation is explicit under the DMCA.

Operators of Internet forums also have a duty not to obstruct justice, which means that once a posting or poster becomes legally suspect, they can't delete the information,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 3:02 PM on February 23, 2005

"Don't. Post. Angry." is clearly good advice for yours truly. My post had the results of a troll, although I can honestly tell you that it was not intended to be that way. Frankly, it seemed at the time to me to be no less incindiery than (many) anti-war posts of late. Of course, that judgment of mine could have been wrong, and, in any event, I should have taken into account the increasing ideological tendency of Metafilter in terms of what kinds of incitements have what kind of... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 12:40 PM on February 23, 2003

I don't want to rehash the substantive exchange, but somewhere buried in the thread, I argued that the compassion that matters is not that of people talking to each other on the web (us), but actually extending hope and support to someone in need when such hope and support was extended you in your time of need. The Santillans had the chance to be thus compassionate, and refused -- the heart of my anger and the root of this entire (regretable? I'm not sure) situation.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 5:08 PM on February 23, 2003

I liked the posts ... and I'm certain enthusiasm will main to an acceptably moderate level over time.
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 2:22 PM on July 27, 2001

This morning, on a thread devoted to a wacky lady looking for love on AOL, Mathowie diverted a subdiscussion about the reasons why atheists would want to get married to QuickTopics.com (or "TakeItOffline.com," as he said).

May I object to that? I find that as often as not the digressions that a thread prompts are often as interesting, or more, than the initial topic which inspired them. Every conversation organically evolves, and you just can't force them back (or... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 10:16 AM on March 3, 2001

So, perhaps, the use of TakeItOffline would be an infrequent, case-by-case thing ... with the general principal remaining that digressions with a reasonable relation to the initial post are considered kosher.

I definitely am not advocating threading ... I know that I rarely read or post to /. or any of my old Usenet groups mainly because it's just too difficult and I (like to think) that I have a life. MeFi allows one to zoom through things in 2 or 3 five minute... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 3:30 PM on March 3, 2001

What strikes me about looking at the refer log is that it is "game over" for the search engines who are not Google! I feel very sorry for my friends at Inktomi... How long before Excite, Lycos and Alta Vista are simply portals to Google search results ... which will have the effect, of course, of killing off the meta-search engines (like my favorite, Profusion, whose raison d'etre is the existence of a multitude of discreet search technologies.
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 8:29 AM on February 16, 2001

Mathowie, I don't know whether anyone else among the small cohort of regular MeFi cohort whose views are right-of-center on political questions would agree, but I want to commend you for banning Ed V.

I am not sure whether or not he intended to troll, or was simply ignorant, but he was making no contribution to the conservative side of the discourse, and moreover, was displaying none of the courtesy towards his leftist adversaries that I have always felt has been... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 9:11 AM on January 12, 2001

Ericost, to follow mathowie rude-guy-at-a-party metaphor, I'm not certain that MeFi being overwhelmingly liberal bestows any rights on Ed V to say things which are inflamatory to the community -- who happens to be at the party gets to determine what is okay to say in the party.

(As a conservative with an overwhlemingly liberal group of friends, I'm very accustomed to the real-world need to keep my remarks within the bounds of (their) acceptability, and, also, to be in... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 2:14 PM on January 12, 2001

It seems to me that the whole point of Metafilter is to post interesting links, about which a variety of opinions can be held. A poster can express his own opinion with a "more inside" first comment if he wants.

However, there are definitely some posts lately which have as their only true intention to allow the poster to editorialize, and who's editorials really work (whether or not thus intended) more as trolls than as sparks of a worthwhile... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MattD at 8:59 AM on January 11, 2001