He just can’t remember what course he’s taking. "At Phoenix, members of the armed forces can earn an associate’s degree by taking one five-week online class, “Written Communication.” They can make up for the other 19 courses required for an associate’s degree with credits for classes taken elsewhere, military experience including basic training, and passing grades on tests that gauge knowledge of a subject area. Not surprisingly, says one critic: "I’m afraid that the ease with which these outfits hand out diplomas is matched only by the disappointment of their graduates when they find out how little their degrees are actually worth.” [more inside]
posted by nj_subgenius on Dec 15, 2009 - 38 comments

A US Senate Committee just released its report on online loyalty programs. Combined, Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue have made $1.4 billion in the past ten years charging customers $10-$20/month for marketing program memberships. Unfortunately, many of their customers (4 million this year) have no memory of authorizing the charges. [more inside]
posted by Nelson on Nov 18, 2009 - 26 comments

Four years ago metafilter was introduced to Pandora. This weekend, the New York Times introduced the world to the minds behind the music genome project. [more inside]
posted by jefficator on Oct 19, 2009 - 76 comments

Fundable.com is closed permanently. According to the site's current index, there is bad blood between the two founders of the site, Louis Helm and John Pratt. The recent story of Mary Robinette Kowal being ripped off was apparently the final straw. [more inside]
posted by clockworkjoe on Oct 1, 2009 - 116 comments

Discussed several times in the green, Mint.com announced today that the company will be acquired by Intuit.
posted by ericales on Sep 14, 2009 - 44 comments

La Pura Vida features monthly group shows edited by various photographers. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Sep 10, 2009 - 3 comments

Just how credible is Wikipedia? While some have tested this empirically, others have chosen more dubious methodology. For a site that gives no credit to its post authors, one wonders, why even bother?
posted by iamkimiam on Sep 3, 2009 - 94 comments

Maciej Ceglowski of Idlewords has made a new bookmarking service called pinboard. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Jul 14, 2009 - 41 comments

Art house films for £3 a pop. Stream them from here
posted by muggsy1079 on Jul 8, 2009 - 17 comments

Item Not As Described: A website that explores the differences between items for sale on craigslist and the photos provided. ( via Miko via metachat )
posted by The Whelk on Jun 23, 2009 - 27 comments

Time to listen to Bird Song Radio - A 'filler' radio station that played on DAB radio in the UK until this week has been pulled from the air, much to the chagrin of thousands of listeners. Reportedly, Terry Pratchett is a fan, saying "There's something about the sound of the outdoors that adds texture to a room. It cools the room down, makes you feel relaxed." [more inside]
posted by Happy Dave on Jun 2, 2009 - 13 comments

"When masses of people who own the means of production work toward a common goal and share their products in common, when they contribute labor without wages and enjoy the fruits free of charge, it's not unreasonable to call that socialism."The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online, a provocative article in the new Wired magazine, examines the effects of the growing influence of online collectivism. I thought this might make for an interesting read and discussion by members of an online community.
posted by Benny Andajetz on May 27, 2009 - 63 comments

Readernaut. Share your reading experience by writing notes, tracking progress, and engaging in meaningful discussions with friends.
posted by chunking express on May 6, 2009 - 23 comments

Touch screen. Awesome graphics. Online community. No, I'm not talking about the latest handheld device to hit the market, I'm talking about Control Data's PLATO system. [more inside]
posted by WolfDaddy on Apr 27, 2009 - 31 comments

The Gorillaz documentary Bananaz has premiered online and can be viewed in full on Babelgum. [more inside]
posted by slimepuppy on Apr 21, 2009 - 17 comments

Newspapers might be dying, but does it matter? Here's what journalism 2.0 looks like: Spot.us is crowd-funded news for the masses, ReportingOn is Twitter for journalists, Everyblock is ultra-hyperlocal and Connectifyed tells us it'll analyze our social networks.
posted by nospecialfx on Mar 16, 2009 - 41 comments

"A friend of mine has come up with an idea to stem the tide of bile. He wants people to post, as a comment, on as many opinion-garnering web pages as possible, as often as they can be bothered, the phrase: 'It just goes to show you can't be too careful!'" [more inside]
posted by WPW on Mar 15, 2009 - 54 comments

A visualization of the estimated 1.4 million deaths resulting from the Khmer Rouge. (Single Link Big Picture) There is no "more inside", thank goodness.
posted by metastability on Mar 7, 2009 - 40 comments

Ahorn is an online magazine dedicated to contemporary photography, directed and edited by Daniel Augschoell and Anya Jasbar.
posted by chunking express on Feb 12, 2009 - 9 comments

How to Argue With Zompist: Or Social-Skills 101 A helpful guide for online discussion and debate written by Mark Rosenfelder with some help from notmydesk and others.
posted by The Whelk on Feb 11, 2009 - 31 comments

Three browser-based shmups for channeling your internet rage: Blueshift, Arcanacra and Rapture Capture. Tips inside. [more inside]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing on Jan 25, 2009 - 9 comments

Can nonprofit news models save journalism? The advertising-supported, for-profit institutional model of journalism (skip this ad) is on the wane. Except for a few large and successful outlets, investment in comprehensive reporting has suffered from a shrinking bottom line, even as the hoped-for development of citizen journalism has been generally underwhelming. But some see a solution taking shape in not-for-profit, independent, citizen-supported online news organizations that would employ skilled professional journalists. Pointing to the encouraging recent growth of NPR and PBS as news outlets, many industry thinkers are starting to agree that "The only way to save journalism is to develop a new model that finds profit in truth, vigilance, and social responsibility." Editors are beginning to experiment with models like that of Paul Stieger's ProPublica (a sort of reporting clearinghouse), Geoff Dougherty's ChiTown Daily News, The NYC Center for an Urban Future's City Limits, and Scott Lewis' Voice of San Diego. Great idea - will it work?
posted by Miko on Nov 23, 2008 - 35 comments

19-Year-Old Commits Suicide on Justin.TV. [previously.]
posted by chunking express on Nov 21, 2008 - 128 comments

The Online Time Travel Pharmacy. It is the combination of Indian manufacturers and Canadian pharmacists working together that allows us to do this. By the same guy who brought you this and this. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Oct 31, 2008 - 13 comments

"The Baldwin Project seeks to make available online a comprehensive collection of resources for parents and teachers of children. Our focus, initially, is on literature for children that is in the public domain in the United States. This includes all works first published before 1923." [more inside]
posted by bitter-girl.com on Oct 5, 2008 - 10 comments

Something to make the inner geek that is inside your inner geek do the boogie-woogie: "Weird Al" Yankovic announces that thanks to digital distribution, he will begin releasing songs as he records them, while the parodied song is still fresh in the public's mind, instead of waiting for an album release every three to four years. The first one will come out on October 7. iTunes will have first dibs on the new singles for the first 14 days, after which they'll go to other online music retailers. (via /.)
posted by WCityMike on Oct 3, 2008 - 73 comments

"What would you say if I told you that I filled my entire living room with completely original works of art for less than $300?" Andrea Dickson from Wise Bread has found an unlikely -- though, the more you think about it, almost obvious -- place to find original art from new artists: Ebay. If you can filter through the crapload of "artistic nudes", there are plenty of gems, and usually at buyers' market prices. And, as Andrea's mother mused, when it comes to decorating the house, it beats buying mass-produced art from Costco, which is about as original as a Big Mac.
posted by chakalakasp on Oct 1, 2008 - 35 comments

How's your hues? Test your color hue ability with this online test. Horizontally drag 'n' drop the squares in the correct hue order.
posted by zardoz on Sep 16, 2008 - 220 comments

So Open it Hurts. Web 2.0 visionaries Tara Hunt and Chris Messina blogged and twittered about their romance to all of geekdom as if it were one of their utopian open-source projects. Sharing their breakup has been a lot harder. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Jul 29, 2008 - 53 comments

£17,000 damages for victim of fake Facebook profile. Matthew Firsht found a fake facebook profile created in his name, and he has successfully sued the person who did it. Amol Rajan knows exactly what having your facebook online ID 'stolen' feels like, as do many others. Are your social networking friends always who they say they are?
posted by dabitch on Jul 29, 2008 - 31 comments

Breakdown. First-hand accounts of the impact and stigma of mental illness. Moving subject matter presented in a way that updates traditional newspaper reporting.
posted by GuyZero on Jun 23, 2008 - 18 comments

Self Made Scholar hosts a comprehensive collection of links to online classes in over 80 subjects. They also link to collections of free books and audiobooks.
posted by Upton O'Good on Jun 1, 2008 - 7 comments

Medici.tv is an online "television" dedicated to performing arts and music documentaries. Its current catalogue includes many classical concerts, documentaries by Johan van der Keuken and on the Kinshasa musical underground (previously), portraits (lots of Glenn Gould, Shostakovich by Sokurov, Maya Plisetskaya...), and plenty more. Launched April 30th, it's streaming its full contents in lovely quality for free until May 15th. [more inside]
posted by progosk on May 8, 2008 - 8 comments

I love twistori.
I hate twistori.
I think twistori is awesome.
I believe twistori is pointless.
I feel uncomfortable reading twistori.
I wish I could stop.
From twitter, inspired by wefeelfine [previously], using summize.
posted by carsonb on May 5, 2008 - 101 comments

In the spirit of those who have patented living organisms, the State of Oregon Legislative Counsel Committee is demanding $30,000 from Justia.com for the right to publish Oregon Revised Statutes -- the laws of Oregon -- on their website for two years. [more inside]
posted by msalt on Apr 23, 2008 - 36 comments

Free math courses online, from very basic to brainiac. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Feb 26, 2008 - 19 comments

During a January blizzard thirty years ago in Chicago, Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss came up with the idea for a computerized bulletin board system. One month later on February 16, 1978, the first public online community was officially established, and it was named CBBS. [more inside]
posted by SteveInMaine on Feb 16, 2008 - 26 comments

10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online.
posted by nickyskye on Jan 29, 2008 - 15 comments

Housing, preserving, and providing access to these small-scale, homemade rags that document some corner of [often do-it-yourself and punk rock] culture, zine archives can be found via independently operated centers in Georgia (physical library in construction), New Orleans (myspace link, www address out-of-commission), Florida, Minneapolis, Denver, Cambridge, Olympia, Chicago, Seattle and... [more inside]
posted by ethel on Jan 19, 2008 - 21 comments

10 Places to Get a Free Business Education Online
posted by nickyskye on Jan 2, 2008 - 12 comments

"DVD sales are in free fall. Audiences are flocking to pornographic knockoffs of YouTube [NSFW], especially a secretive site called YouPorn [NSFW]. And the amateurs [NSFW]are taking over. What’s happening to the adult-entertainment industry is exactly what’s happening to its Hollywood counterpart—only worse."
posted by bigmusic on Nov 30, 2007 - 92 comments

Play 666 Nintendo games in your browser with Virtual NES. (some suggestions of the best games) It joins the extensive EveryVideoGame , the slow GameBoy Online, and the beloved Virtual Apple. [prev. and prev.]
posted by blahblahblah on Nov 6, 2007 - 37 comments

Read Print. Online books, poems and short stories.
posted by St Urbain's Horseman on Oct 29, 2007 - 11 comments

The Internet Hype Machine Bubble. Idolator has an introspective on the boom and bust cycle of the online indie music scene, focusing on the band Black Kids, who with only one EP under their belt, are already being hyped to an extreme extent. With the conversation taking prominence over the music itself, are we seeing the dark side of the Cluetrain? [more inside]
posted by zabuni on Oct 26, 2007 - 29 comments

StupidFilter is a work in progress which aims to recognize online stupidity programmatically. Keep in mind we grade stupidity on a scale of 1 to 5. Someone might get a 1 or 2 for a comment that used no punctuation, whereas a comment consisting of nothing but text message abbreviations with a dash of LOLLLLL thrown in for good measure would probably rate a solid 4 or 5. There is a certain amount of subjectivity, and our software is aware of that; scoring will be normalized to eliminate excessively generous or harsh estimations of stupidity. Read some examples of "the tyranny of idiocy" in their collection of Random Stupidity .
posted by amyms on Oct 18, 2007 - 69 comments

Be difficult. Be compelling. But above all—be contrary. A brand new debating site. Not a lot of content yet, but it seems to have potential.
posted by signal on Sep 30, 2007 - 18 comments

Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. Examining the social rules and norms, as well as the pitfalls, of electronic "friending" (yes, it's a verb now - or is it a gerund?). Via.
posted by amyms on Sep 24, 2007 - 54 comments

Librarian Chick is a blogger who has put together a wiki of literally hundreds of online learning sources with over twenty categories for "students, educators & anyone else who's hip to learning." [more inside]
posted by jonson on Sep 21, 2007 - 18 comments

On the internet, nobody knows the G-strings aren't yours. Or how murderously they infatuate. Or whom they're infatuating.
posted by Firas on Aug 23, 2007 - 85 comments

Sumo Volleyball - online competition at its finest. Yep, Friday flash fun on Tuesday. For those of you who used to have ICQ, this game will be very familiar. Four different variates of play are offered. 1 on 1 is by far the favorite and the most fun, IMHO. One tiny downside, activeX based, and thus, pretty much IE only. There are also other games via the home page, of which Kung-fu chess is also very popular.
posted by killThisKid on Jul 23, 2007 - 8 comments