Thanks for the Katrina coverage!

September 5, 2005 4:34 AM

I don't know if this is really an appropriate thread to post, but I feel like it has to be said: a big thank you to the Metafilter community for some really fantastic coverage and discussion on Katrina and its wake. Even though at times it may be biased, uncivil, inane and (of course) newsfilter (KatrinaFilter?), the articles and fantastic range of opinions expressed are truly awesome. My life is richer for having discovered this place. So again, thank you all.

And though a lot of MeFites cringe whenever I say it, this is NPR truly the best of the web.
posted by joshuaconner to MetaFilter-related at 4:34 AM (40 comments total)

Hear hear!
posted by qwip at 6:02 AM on September 5, 2005

I've thought about posting to say just the opposite, but I knew if I did that I'd be shouted down, pelted with garbage, spat upon, hounded from the village by torch-bearing mobs, excommunicated, pronounced anathema, banhammered, suckerpunched, generally poo-pooed, and roundly held to be a Very Bad Man.

We had a seemingly endless spate of threads after September 11th, too, about September 11th, as was, in retrospect right and good, and this too shall pass.

I suppose for many of us there's no place quite like Metafilter to, well, semi-anonymously work through our shit in the face of human disaster like this (by telling people to fuck off, in some cases), and that's a sign of how important the place is to many of us (and how much we like to shout fuck off, at least virtually).

Me, I think we could've done with a little less of it, but that last paragraph is the reason I didn't bother suggesting there might be a bit much of the DisasterFiltering. It's natural, and it has for the most part been Good. It'll stop, I guess, when it is time for it to stop, and hopefully that'll be scant minutes before top members of the Bush administration are indicted.

Heh.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:18 AM on September 5, 2005

I was gonna do one of these specifically to give a shout-out to amberglow, who has been on FIRE this week. We owe him a debt of gratitude.
posted by Quartermass at 6:38 AM on September 5, 2005

Fuck off! You're a VERY BAD MAN!

BAD TOUCH!
posted by loquacious at 6:38 AM on September 5, 2005

I'd like to disagree. This place is turning more into an average "what are we obsessing over today" blog every day. I know the mission statement "the best of the web" isn't popular with everyone here, but I for one mourn its passing.
posted by fvw at 7:00 AM on September 5, 2005

I disagree too. And stavros, I still want to know what the fuck you think is so funny.
posted by languagehat at 7:07 AM on September 5, 2005

Speaking as someone who made a non-Katrina post at exactly the wrong moment, I am both heartened by the energy of Metafilter's posters and in agreement with some of the above comments. There were probably too many posts about the issue but I think they helped a lot of people, both practically and emotionally. So I'm happy to wait for (hopefully) a higher percentage of non-news posts to return.
posted by selfnoise at 7:13 AM on September 5, 2005

And stavros, I still want to know what the fuck you think is so funny.

'thought' would be more accurate. I wish I could remember, honestly. Must have been something at the time, is all I can say. It may have been a response to comments about Bush's bumblefuckery. Or not. Sometimes I just have brainfarts, you know?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:18 AM on September 5, 2005

Also, you know, pretty much everything is funny somehow, although I doubt that's what I was thinking at the time, 'cause I'm not totally heartless or anything.

Comedy equals tragedy plus time, but as a wise man once said, time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:34 AM on September 5, 2005

Good enough for me.

...Is it lunchtime yet?
posted by languagehat at 7:56 AM on September 5, 2005

and how much we like to shout fuck off, at least virtually

it's illegal now. according to matt, paleocon got banned for saying "fuck off". loquacious should then be banned, also, under the new rule.
posted by matteo at 8:01 AM on September 5, 2005

work through our shit

It's not just that. What I've found here this past week is accelerated processing of ideas. A wide range of points of view were aired, discussed, and tested. Some floated, and some fell. The arguments I have encountered here, and seen either well supported or destroyed, I have been better able to handle in my real-world response. It is a court of common sense that puts ideas through the wringer, and the ones that emerge are stronger. Those strong ideas then filter their way out into other media, into dinner-table conversations, into moral decisions. They change what happens.

Could some of the posts have been better? Doubtless. Would I have spent this much time on any other site, with any other group of people this week? No way.
posted by Miko at 8:02 AM on September 5, 2005

loquacious should then be banned, also, under the new rule.

All right, no one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle. Even... and I want to make this absolutely clear... even if they do say, "Jehovah."
posted by yhbc at 8:08 AM on September 5, 2005

I'd like to disagree. This place is turning more into an average "what are we obsessing over today" blog every day.

Well, we were (are) in the middle of a national emergency. The site was the same after 9/11 (even more so), and it bounced back eventualy. Relax.
posted by delmoi at 8:23 AM on September 5, 2005

I've whined about 'newsfilter' in the past. And Katrina will become newsfilter at some point. But I think that at times over the past few days Mefi's had some of the best coverage of Katrina out there, especially the in-thread sharing of links. News-wise, it's been breaking the news, in some ways, rather than just cut-and-pasting the news. I'm thinking particularly of all the links to people on the ground saying 'This is BS!' This stuff just isn't generally out there anywhere else, at least not in a collected, conversational form. It's such an emotive issue, we have to talk about and share this somewhere. Hats off to everyone who's contributed to these discussions! Now let's stay away from the death-ray and giant squid theories ...
posted by carter at 8:34 AM on September 5, 2005

I would just like to say this:

Without MetaFilter, I would be lost right now. It's where I can connect to the outside world. You've all helped me deal with the crisis that is my constant living life now.

MetaFilter helped me help get someone out of New Orleans. MetaFilter let me know that people like atchafalaya were not waiting for the government to ask their help, they were taking the problem head on. MetaFilter helped me find my in-laws in Mississippi, who we had previously feared dead. MetaFilter helped me find out the condition of my mother-in-law's camp on the Bay St. Louis coast.

Mostly, though, MetaFilter gave me hope. It lifted my spirits and let me know I was not alone. So many members have reached out to me in the past week, it is overwhelming. When this is all over, I'm going to take the "COLDCHEF VICTORY TOUR" and go visit DC, New York, North Carolina, Boston, Ohio, Kentucky, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, London, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles...these are all places that MetaFilter members have offered me shelter and food and anything I need. And I can't tell you how much that means to me right now.

I can understand the frustration of members in other countries who want to discuss other topics. All I can do is echo delmoi, and say that this, too, will pass.

Thank you all for everything you've done and continue to do.
posted by ColdChef at 8:36 AM on September 5, 2005

Mefi's had some of the best coverage of Katrina out there, especially the in-thread sharing of links.

I'd agree with this. Even though I had the TV news channels going 24/7, aside from the visuals and the emotional impact, there was almost nothing I heard there first. I found it all here first. Many thanks to amberglow and ericb, in particular, for finding news sources, direct reports, and government documents.

There were many times the information was coming so fast, and I was processing so fast, I felt like I was back in the newsroom.
posted by Miko at 8:39 AM on September 5, 2005

(ColdChef: let me know when you're gonna be in DC. I'm nearby, and I gotta couch you can use.)
posted by Corky at 8:40 AM on September 5, 2005

ColdChef: I completely agree. From the bad to the good (that 18 yr-old "looting" that school bus and saving lives, for instance), I've gotten most of my information through MetaFilter. This place has been a comfort in the past week. If I weren't here, I'd be slamming my head against the wall. Thanks, folks.
posted by brundlefly at 9:16 AM on September 5, 2005

Although MeFi experienced it's own flood by way of Katrina, the threads will become a trickle, possibly as early as today. While filled with emotion, the threads these last few days lacked the torrential teeth-gnashing vehemence toward other members that is the usual.
posted by mischief at 9:17 AM on September 5, 2005

I thought the threads were, and still will be for at least a few more days, appropriate. Lots of good information is collected in one place on a most compelling topic. The raw emotions most of us have felt need an outlet and I can not think of a better group of people with which to discuss this. Metafilter is a vast body of thoughtful and intelligent people. This is the place for such an outpouring.

Shortly, we will return to our normal complacency and posts about quirky little websites.
posted by caddis at 9:30 AM on September 5, 2005

as someone who lacks a television due to being a poor student who just moved into a new apartment, this past week metafilter has connected me with what's going on in a more personal and direct way than I can imagine television would have done. as far as I am concerned the times-picayune deserves a medal of honor, but even with all they've done, metafilter has still been irreplaceable to me. thank you all.
posted by jann at 1:15 PM on September 5, 2005

I've thought about posting to say just the opposite, but I knew if I did that I'd be shouted down, pelted with garbage, spat upon, hounded from the village by torch-bearing mobs, excommunicated, pronounced anathema, banhammered, suckerpunched, generally poo-pooed, and roundly held to be a Very Bad Man.

Yup. It seems to me matt has taken a hands off approach the last few days, understandably so. But I'll save my debt of "gratitude" for when it ends.
posted by justgary at 1:43 PM on September 5, 2005

Agreed - this is the best of the web, for all the reasons stated above and many more. Also, good luck to Cold Chef, a Mefian whose presence here I have enjoyed for many years, and everyone else in the disaster's wake. May you live long and enjoy life again, as soon as possible.
posted by Lynsey at 4:29 PM on September 5, 2005

what Lynsey (and some others) have said--we are a community.

and thanks Quarter and Miko--posting everything i found about it was my way of processing it--and my rage about it all.
posted by amberglow at 6:48 PM on September 5, 2005

posting everything i found about it

All meta, no filter. Maybe Kottke was right.
posted by justgary at 6:58 PM on September 5, 2005

All meta, no filter

Most of what amberglow posted was within relevant threads, justgary.
posted by Miko at 7:07 PM on September 5, 2005

I know. But the whole site has lacked filter lately. It'll return.
posted by justgary at 7:56 PM on September 5, 2005

seconded.
posted by Smedleyman at 8:25 PM on September 5, 2005

*hugs Coldchef, not neglecting to reach around for a bit of inappropriate touching*
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:12 AM on September 6, 2005

as far as I am concerned the times-picayune deserves a medal of honor

Pulitzer. No question. I'm not sure which one, but there's gotta be one in there somewhere.

I do agree with the poster, but I also hope that things go back to normal and that this doesn't give people the wrong impression of what MeFi is and what is acceptable. But of course it will. It may be very important for those of us who oppose NewsPoliFilter to keep the pressure on once things return to normal.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:23 AM on September 6, 2005

Interesting to read the responses. I don't think MeFi should be newsfilter all the time, but this place has had the best and I think most balanced* coverage of the hurricane and its aftermath of anywhere, hands down.

When ColdChef wrote: "Without MetaFilter, I would be lost right now," that really really summed up what I was trying to say in the original post.
posted by joshuaconner at 2:36 AM on September 6, 2005

*Yeah, MeFi can tend to tilt towards the liberal end of the spectrum, but at least here everyone, regardless of ideology, can get their point across. You don't find this often in the media or in other blogs.
posted by joshuaconner at 2:38 AM on September 6, 2005

I guess I'm in 2 minds about this. On the one hand, this was/is a great news source and obviously a good place to 'vocally' process things but the politics ---- phee...eeeeeee..uw! The whole blame game and point scoring. Blah. I didn't/don't enjoy that almost at all. Some people want to tag the opposition when I thought the focus should have been on the human disaster and reality on the ground err...water. I would have, in my utopian MeFi dreamworld, had the navel gazing and political debates next week. So I'm ambivalent about it I guess.
posted by peacay at 6:36 AM on September 6, 2005

Politics and government are what we have created to take care of the public good---they're inextricably entwined and exist to serve us--the public.

As Bush and his surrogates are now blaming the state and local officials (and the media, and Clinton, ...), don't dare ask anyone else not to point out that the stated and official responsibility is at the Federal level. Many thousands of people died because of inaction and incompetence. That inaction and incompetence can't be pushed aside, since it's still ongoing, and directly impacts all of us.
posted by amberglow at 7:41 AM on September 6, 2005

And the whole country if not the world saw a whole flooded and damaged city of people without food and water left on their own for days---Asking why that was, and how it could happen are both real-world and inherently political questions. We rely on the government exactly for things like this.
posted by amberglow at 7:44 AM on September 6, 2005

What peacay said. My ambivalence exactly.
posted by languagehat at 8:20 AM on September 6, 2005

"I would have, in my utopian MeFi dreamworld, had the navel gazing and political debates next week."

By next week, North Carolina (or any other state between Texas and Maine) could be experiencing their own hurricane-related disaster. Also, the 4-year anniversary of 9/11 is next week, so don't rule out other possibilities.
posted by mischief at 1:13 PM on September 6, 2005

that's the thing--every terrorist on Earth, homegrown or not--knows now that we can't even protect ourselves (if they didn't know that already).
posted by amberglow at 1:52 PM on September 6, 2005

Anyone wishing for a return to normal should take some positive steps and POST! Quit your bitching and start posting.
posted by caddis at 6:27 PM on September 6, 2005