Crossposting

June 13, 2006 4:48 PM

The AOL cancellation call on Metafilter, BoingBoing, and The Consumerist.

Substations as houses on Metafilter, and BoingBoing.

The Aymara people on Metafilter and BoingBoing.

The Spanish Castle Illusion on and BoingBoing.

Transparent street signs on Metafilter and BoingBoing.
posted by Mr. Gunn to MetaFilter-Related at 4:48 PM (96 comments total)

yes?
posted by edgeways at 4:50 PM on June 13, 2006

Shouldn't BoingBoing just get their own discussion forums?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:50 PM on June 13, 2006

All that's missing now is a BB post about the crossposting.
posted by Gyan at 4:51 PM on June 13, 2006

I understand that many of the posts are slightly different, and that a different kind of discussion will happen here, but the links above are all single-link news items that are more the kind of thing that BoingBoing and Fark specialize in.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:53 PM on June 13, 2006

Who reads BoingBoing? I sure don't.
posted by mischief at 4:53 PM on June 13, 2006

Oh for christ's sake. I bet a lot of stuff on MeFi has showed up on del.icio.us too, and like 20 different mailing lists. So what?

More to the point - not everyone here reads BoingBoing. I used to, but it's pretty rare now. There's too much crap I don't care about, like Mashed up Bus schedules and designer thongs with Escape keys glued to them. So I would be pissed if someone *didn't* post something cool here because it showed up there.

Lastly, correlation does not imly causality. The implication of your post seems to be that people are just reposting here what they see there - has it occurred to you that it might just show up *both* places from some other source?
posted by freebird at 4:57 PM on June 13, 2006

I missed that castle thing, awesome.
posted by puke & cry at 5:01 PM on June 13, 2006

You don't find the same correlation with material found on other sites as much as with BoingBoing. BoingBoing also doesn't have a discussion forum, and I've often wanted to see what people think about stuff posted there. The question is, should we serve as their de facto discussion forum, or are people creative enough to come up with uniquely interesting things.

_{I understand some duplication will occur, but half the stories in a 24 hour period? come on!}
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:02 PM on June 13, 2006

you've posted one link. STFU.
posted by empath at 5:03 PM on June 13, 2006

I've seen stuff here that ended up at BB later, perhaps we should pull out stuff once it gets mainstream, or not post something cool seen elsewhere? If this is a callout of SiLPs (single link posts) I don't have much sympathy.
posted by edgeways at 5:03 PM on June 13, 2006

In fact out of all those aboce links only the AOL one was posted to BB first.
posted by edgeways at 5:05 PM on June 13, 2006

the links above are all single-link news items

By what metric are most of those "news" items? They seem, to me, to be unique things on the web that folks here find interesting. Which is why we're here, n'est pas?
posted by bradlands at 5:07 PM on June 13, 2006

WHAT

WE MUST GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:09 PM on June 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

Mr. Gunn writes "the links above are all single-link news items"

News items? I don't think so.
posted by mr_roboto at 5:11 PM on June 13, 2006

So, would you like people to double check BoingBoing before posting here? What other sites too? And how do you know people aren't suggesting things at BoingBoing they saw here first? Should they be deleted from here after they get posted there?
posted by freebird at 5:11 PM on June 13, 2006

In conclusion, BoingBoing needs to stop stealing our shit.
posted by grouse at 5:12 PM on June 13, 2006

They all made interesting posts, so I don't know what the issue is, esp. considering MeFi apparently beat BoingBoing to the punch on all of them but one.

The audiences of both sites are similar no? So it wouldn't seem outrageous that they might have similar posts?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:13 PM on June 13, 2006

OKAY

WE ARE AT THE BOTTOM

NOW WHAT?
posted by onalark at 5:14 PM on June 13, 2006

TUNA CASSEROLE
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:16 PM on June 13, 2006

that was a false bottom, ha-ha!
posted by freebird at 5:16 PM on June 13, 2006

It's just an interesting phenomenon. I'm not pointing fingers. I was wondering why the sudden up-tick in duplications, and why BoingBoing and not other sites? You gotta admit, that's a lot of crossposting...
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:20 PM on June 13, 2006

And not one mention of Cory's book getting nominated for some award here on Metafilter. Obviously, we're asleep at the switch.
posted by crunchland at 5:21 PM on June 13, 2006

I gotta admit nothin'.
posted by scarabic at 5:21 PM on June 13, 2006

Duke sucks.
posted by Cyrano at 5:23 PM on June 13, 2006

No, the US soccer team sucks.

As does this post. Seriously, stop posting all this stupid shit to MetaTalk, people! Either flame out or shut up!
posted by languagehat at 5:25 PM on June 13, 2006

MetaFilter is a filter of filters; ergo, it picks up and presents things found at other filters.

Duh.
posted by aaronetc at 5:28 PM on June 13, 2006

I'm sniffed and mightily raffled.
posted by mds35 at 5:36 PM on June 13, 2006

You mean people post the same things on different sites?
posted by cellphone at 5:37 PM on June 13, 2006

dugg.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:38 PM on June 13, 2006

Maybe -gasp- there's been a rise of interesting things on BoingBoing lately?

I know that 90% of BB these days consists of "Xth iteration of thing that we find amusing that you could care less about."

When they actually post something interesting, I don't mind seeing it re-posted to the Blue.

If anything, I just see a BB re-posting as kinda lazy, but not really annoying or offensive.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:38 PM on June 13, 2006

Popurls is a good place to start if you want to make sure your link isn't already old news.
posted by mullingitover at 5:47 PM on June 13, 2006

i don't read Boing Boing or Fark or Digg or Slashdot. In fact, i get all my news from Metafilter.

In a more pointed fact, without MeFi i'm pretty sure i would wither and die.

So there's that.
posted by quin at 5:51 PM on June 13, 2006

You gotta admit, that's a lot of crossposting...

I do not. Crossposting is when one person posts to multiple channels. What you see here is called WORD OF MOUTH.
posted by cortex at 5:57 PM on June 13, 2006

You got a pretty mouth.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:00 PM on June 13, 2006

Popurls is a good place to start if you want to make sure your link isn't already old news.

And a million other places. As others have mentioned, del.icio.us and livemarks for instance. You can guarantee the latest coolness will appear on Livemarks within an hour. Face it - the internet is now so instant, and so automated (what with RSS and aggregators and so forth), that any cool site is going to be duplicated everywhere immediately. I find BoingBoing to be quite behind the times, sometimes. And the more obscure and cool a link is, the quicker it is going to be spread around. After all, where do you think BoingBoing get their links from? It's just Metafilter-via-email.

I mean, we knew the "blogosphere" or whatever the cool kids are calling it is full of duplication anyway. Stop worring about it. If you read Metafilter, you don't need to read BoingBoing or Digg - you should be happy about that.
posted by Jimbob at 6:01 PM on June 13, 2006

dirty chicken! unclean chicken!
posted by cortex at 6:02 PM on June 13, 2006

Discussion about the reposting of BoingBoing links on MetaFilter on MetaTalk.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:02 PM on June 13, 2006

i get all my news from Metafilter.

:(
posted by ODiV at 6:07 PM on June 13, 2006

Mr. Gunn, what's your point? You observed that several links today show up on both MeFi and BoingBoing. Fine. Now what do you propose should be done about it?
posted by brain_drain at 6:09 PM on June 13, 2006

Now what do you propose should be done about it?

Send Cory Doctrow a cease and desist letter.
posted by Jimbob at 6:14 PM on June 13, 2006

BoingBoing is a pile of shit, Metafilter is not.

Nothing else needs to be said.
posted by Ryvar at 6:25 PM on June 13, 2006

yah, fuck boinkboink.
posted by quonsar at 6:29 PM on June 13, 2006

BoingBoing is an excellent weblog with no comments and way too many goodamn ads, Metafilter is kind of, sometimes, not, and sort of, mostly.

There's always something more to be said.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:31 PM on June 13, 2006

Also, geek snootiness (Boingboing totally sucks! Fark is for teh stupidheads! Digg is dumb! Slashdot is for fatsos! Our website is more betterer than your website! bwah!) is hilariously goofy.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:33 PM on June 13, 2006 [2 favorites]

I missed the transparent street signs one; thanks for the recap.
posted by yhbc at 6:34 PM on June 13, 2006

I don't think I've ever once read boingboing... even though I've often times seen "this was posted on boingboing, jerkface!" in many threads.

The name is kinda neat... and I don't know anything about it at all so I can't have anything against it.. but I've never read it...

One thing that's starting to really bug me about MeFi is people's assumption that "if you read site X, you read sites A, B, C, D, E and F, too, so nothing should ever be duplicated on both"... Guess what? I only read site X.
posted by twiggy at 6:49 PM on June 13, 2006

I was putting together a post about how Bettie Page ran a nanotechnology lab in a secret space under Magic Mountain at Disneyland....but, eh, I think I'll hold off.
posted by gimonca at 6:52 PM on June 13, 2006

It's just as bad when people don't post the cool stuff that's making the rounds to MeFi. About a week later, someone on the tail end of the fad sees it and thinks it is amazing. They search MetaFilter to see if they missed it and are amazed that it wasn't. How shocking! So they post it anyways, and now everyone is already sick of it.
posted by smackfu at 6:55 PM on June 13, 2006

Also, geek snootiness (Boingboing totally sucks! Fark is for teh stupidheads! Digg is dumb! Slashdot is for fatsos! Our website is more betterer than your website! bwah!) is hilariously goofy.

It's OK to be snotty and succinct when you're objectively right.
posted by Ryvar at 6:56 PM on June 13, 2006

I missed the transparent street signs one; thanks for the recap.

Me too. Think you could do this once a week or so, Gunn?
posted by ODiV at 6:59 PM on June 13, 2006

One thing that's starting to really bug me about MeFi is people's assumption that "if you read site X, you read sites A, B, C, D, E and F, too, so nothing should ever be duplicated on both"...

One thing that's starting to really bug me is people who say 'I only read Metafilter and am blithely oblivious to the rest of the internet,' so maybe we cancel each other out!

It's OK to be snotty and succinct when you're objectively right.

True, perhaps, but there is no such thing as objective truth when it comes to opinions. Or anything else for that mater, I suspect.

My new mooting skills are unstoppable!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:06 PM on June 13, 2006

So let me get this straight. The green is for thoughtful answers and the grey is for pile-ons?

My questions(in case you missed them) were:

Are we serving as the discussion board for BB?
- It looks like the answer is no, since things tend to show up here first.

Why the sudden uptick in posts appearing on both sites?
- Who knows? That's why I asked! I was inviting wild speculation, not asking for some kind of ban on BoingBoing links.

Why BoingBoing and not, um, some other site?
- Well, I kinda knew why, there's an overlapping demographic, both are very high-traffic, and I can't really think of another site that would be more likely to have such correspondence. Maybe someone can.

_{So what's up with all the YouTube posts lately? ;-)}

posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:09 PM on June 13, 2006

Why the sudden uptick in posts appearing on both sites?

As I alluded to, as we get more and more "Web2.0", as everyone installs new plugins designed to instantly show them what's hot the minute it happens, as everyone gets involved in more and more "social" websites, as content increasingly appears everywhere due to new syndication methods, as more and more meta-sites appear that are designed to show you exactly what people are clicking on that very second...suddenly differentiation dissapears. It all becomes the same. The latest cool website appears on del.icio.us instantly, on Digg and Metafilter and Slashdot within an hour, on BoingBoing within a day, all over Blogspot within the next day, in your local newspaper or TV news by next week, and on Memepool by October.

I find myself turning to Usenet to find interesting links now days, because there are fewer and fewer corners of the web that have anything unique.
posted by Jimbob at 7:19 PM on June 13, 2006

you've posted one link. STFU.
posted by empath

I disagree with Mr. Gunn, but that was a joke, right?

Right?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:20 PM on June 13, 2006

Sounds like the lode of "best of the web" is getting mined out.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:21 PM on June 13, 2006

So let me get this straight. The green is for thoughtful answers and the grey is for pile-ons?

Have you ever read the grey?

And anyway, what are we supposed to do if boingboing posts things that have been posted here? I don't read boingboing, I read metafilter, and I'd hate to think I'm missing things just because other people have overlapping interests.
posted by delmoi at 7:21 PM on June 13, 2006

...and on Memepool by October.

Heh. Well played.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:25 PM on June 13, 2006

He can't be a man because he doesn't read - the same websites as me.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 7:44 PM on June 13, 2006

Alright that's it I'm out of here. Fuck you and your boingboing, you sonsofbitches.
posted by disclaimer at 7:46 PM on June 13, 2006

That's an interesting theory, Jimbob, but both MeFi and BB have been around for quite some time, and neither have "Post to" bookmarklet, as do Digg and delicious. There's little overlap between Slashdot and MeFi, and Digg and delicious are completely different kinds of sites from those two. So yeah, there's more content being spread around and noticed by more people, but nothing has happened this week to explain the five-fold difference between "cross"posts this week and the last.

delmoi - my only previous experience with MeTa is discussions linked to from MeFi or AskMe. I was under the impression that this is where you went if you wanted to talk about the site itself. I didn't realize that by merely posting here I was suggesting there was a problem that needs to be fixed. Yeah, personally, I think there's enough interesting stuff to go around that three sites don't have to post the same stupid recording of some guy calling AOL, but obviously that kinda stuff happens. It's just that it happened way more this week than anytime I recall in the recent past, and I thought someone might have some insight as to why. Did no one else notice the sudden uptick?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:19 PM on June 13, 2006

PANTS ARE FORBIDDEN
posted by loquacious at 8:45 PM on June 13, 2006

...and on memepool by October.

Actually in the past month or two I've seen mefi get scooped by memepool (damn their lack of good post linking) at least two times, and it's something I've always thought went both ways about equally. Although we all just read it for the amusing taglines, amirite?

More to the point of the thread, I find it really odd that Boingboing posts (recently) are blatantly, "let's discuss this!" without any mode for discussion besides taking it to mefi. I guess boingboing is the inter-net holla back girl to mefi's baby's mama.
posted by kaytwo at 8:57 PM on June 13, 2006

Metatalk: Either flame out or shut up!

Ok, that being said...

Also, geek snootiness (Boingboing totally sucks! Fark is for teh stupidheads! Digg is dumb! Slashdot is for fatsos! Our website is more betterer than your website! bwah!) is hilariously goofy.

Agreed. Gone there? Poked around? Found out you weren't interested? Fine.

Never been? Never even been curious?

"I get all my news from FOX..."

My new mooting skills are unstoppable!

I don't read mnftiu, so I have no idea what you're talking about.
posted by Cyrano at 8:58 PM on June 13, 2006

PANTS ARE FORBIDDEN

FISH ARE MANDATORY
posted by gleuschk at 8:59 PM on June 13, 2006

I didn't realize that by merely posting here I was suggesting there was a problem that needs to be fixed.

Yeah, honestly, you have to frame a genuinely neutral MeTa post with considerable care if you don't want folks to read a vector of complaint or snarkiness into it. This is not your fault, per se, but it is the way of things. And now you know!
posted by cortex at 9:07 PM on June 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

It's just that it happened way more this week than anytime I recall in the recent past

Your recollection is bad or your sample is faulty; it's been happening on and off to varying degrees as long as the sites have been around, but usually the complaint goes more like "I see BoingBoing posts on Mefi days later! I wish folks wouldn't do that!" Anyway, it's still not clear why on earth you felt this needed its own thread.
posted by mediareport at 9:20 PM on June 13, 2006

Yeah, honestly, you have to frame a genuinely neutral MeTa post with considerable care if you don't want folks to read a vector of complaint or snarkiness into it.

What kind of bullshit generalization is that you supererogatory hegemonic piece of reactionary troll! So now we're all jerks here who can't fucking keep an open mind? Who fly of the handle given the slightest god damn provocation? Jesus, listen to yourself! WE ARE RATIONAL INTERNET PEOPLE!

Sorry if I did read to much complaint into your obsesrvation Mr. Gunn.
posted by freebird at 9:32 PM on June 13, 2006

I'm confused; do they have a fish in our pants, or do we have a fish in their pants?
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:37 PM on June 13, 2006

MeFi and BB have been around for quite some time, and neither have "Post to" bookmarklet,

That's the sacriest thing I've ever read. Can you imagine a Post-To-Metafilter bookmarklet?

*shudder*
posted by Jimbob at 9:45 PM on June 13, 2006

wow ... i just realized something shocking ... EVERY ONE of the posts on metafilter were posted on ANOTHER WEB PAGE SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!

just what the hell is going on here, matt?
posted by pyramid termite at 9:48 PM on June 13, 2006

MetaBoingDiggSlashFarkFilter.
posted by SenshiNeko at 10:03 PM on June 13, 2006

MetaBoingDiggSlashFarkFilter

That would be this.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:14 PM on June 13, 2006

Huh. I scooped BoingBoing on my Spanish Castle Illusion post AND my Chicago Street Sign post. I should go work for BoingBoing, I hear those fuckers make like $200K EACH (yes, even Xeni) a year, just from the ads.
posted by jonson at 10:35 PM on June 13, 2006

JIMBOB IS SPAMMING FOR LIVEMARKS!
posted by shmegegge at 11:03 PM on June 13, 2006

BAN HIM!
posted by Jimbob at 11:17 PM on June 13, 2006

I was under the impression that this is where you went if you wanted to talk about the site itself.

Yeah, but all you did was post links, and that left it for the reader to guess your position. Since most people post here to criticize, that was the first guess. Especially since you were comparing MetaFilter to some other site.
posted by smackfu at 11:18 PM on June 13, 2006

word. I got the same impression from this post that a lot of people did, too. I'm not sure what the expectation is of this post if "we should stop posting bb links" ISN'T it.
posted by shmegegge at 11:21 PM on June 13, 2006

One thing that's starting to really bug me is people who say 'I only read Metafilter and am blithely oblivious to the rest of the internet,' so maybe we cancel each other out!

Are you seriously implying that boingboing is so popular that to not read it I must be ignoring the rest of the internet?

I read a ton of sites. MeFi is one of them, boingboing is not. I don't have to read the other sites you read to be worthy of reading MeFi. Why the hell should I care if the same post is made on two sites if I don't read both?

And if the sites are that similar - stop reading one of them. (example: Is there really much reason to read both Engadget and Gizmodo unless you're totally bored off your ass and can't feel like you missed even a single piece of gadget news?)
posted by twiggy at 11:42 PM on June 13, 2006

Are you seriously implying that boingboing is so popular that to not read it I must be ignoring the rest of the internet?

No, I was making a joke. Sheesh.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:12 AM on June 14, 2006

(Well, a joke packed with a delicious nougaty core of unadulterated truthiness, I'll admit)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:20 AM on June 14, 2006

True, perhaps, but there is no such thing as objective truth when it comes to opinions.

Maybe not with your opinions.
posted by Ryvar at 3:55 AM on June 14, 2006

I disagree with Mr. Gunn, but that was a joke, right?

Right?

Not really. I didn't like his tone at all. tut, tut... can't we do better than this? When he's made one FPP. Last year. If you want better links, post better links. And he's being completely disingenuous about his motives. The initial FPP here didn't include an opinion, but it certainly implied one, and his follow ups only made it more clear. It was a complaint, and based on a completely faulty premise -- that our posters are crossposting stuff here that they found on boing boing. Which is provably false in most of the cases that he mentioned. So what does he want? Fewer quality posts? Or fewer posts here that might conceivably some day end up being posted on another site? This whole thread is a waste of time.

People calling out the general quality of posts here without contributing any of their own get on my nerves. Sure, call out doubles or self-links, but complaining about some of the best links of the past week because some of the most popular sites on the internet happened to agree that it's the best of the web is fucking retarded.
posted by empath at 5:19 AM on June 14, 2006

GOD I HATE IT WHEN THE INTERNET WORKS AS ADVERTISED!!!
posted by Captaintripps at 5:32 AM on June 14, 2006

He says he wasn't complaining.

On the other hand, if he wasn't complaining, this post is even more pointless than I originally thought.
posted by languagehat at 5:34 AM on June 14, 2006

That's a valid point, empath. There's duplication because they're the consensus "most interesting" links.

Interesting discussion, everyone. Thanks for the thoughts and links.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:51 AM on June 14, 2006

Shouldn't BoingBoing just get their own discussion forums?
...the links above are all single-link news items that are more the kind of thing that BoingBoing and Fark specialize in.
...are people creative enough to come up with uniquely interesting things.

I think Mr Gunn is being disingenous with his whole "hey, not complainin', jus' sayin' is all" tack. He clearly was complaining (or at least bitching), albeit in a toned-down, passive way.
posted by signal at 5:52 AM on June 14, 2006

Happiness is a warm Mr. Gunn.
posted by SteveInMaine at 6:46 AM on June 14, 2006

Fair enough, empath. I guess I just didn't like your tone :D.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:48 AM on June 14, 2006

Is there an echo in here?
posted by grateful at 6:51 AM on June 14, 2006

Here?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:15 AM on June 14, 2006

That popurls thing is insane. In the membrane, even.
posted by OmieWise at 7:43 AM on June 14, 2006

MetaTalk:"Either flame out or shut up!"
posted by Mitheral at 9:04 AM on June 14, 2006

I don't read Boing Boing.
posted by terrapin at 10:39 AM on June 14, 2006

Good catch, Mitheral!
posted by mischief at 11:02 AM on June 14, 2006

Boing... boing? Never watch it.
posted by squirrel at 12:55 PM on June 14, 2006

thank god no one noticed my birdflu post on boing boing
posted by casconed at 2:18 AM on June 16, 2006