TeenAsk

June 30, 2006 5:30 AM

someone suggested in a AskMe thread that we start a Teen AskMe section. I'm all for it since we are a level headed bunch (excluding some times at MeTa.) I am sure the grammar and butchering of the English Language would bug some of you. I think it would be better then all the banner ad sites that are trying to sell teens garbage. What are your opinions?
posted by wheelieman to Feature Requests at 5:30 AM (79 comments total)

I think level headed teens can do just fine posting in the same green as everyone else.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:41 AM on June 30, 2006

What are your opinions?

No and no, respectively.
posted by trondant at 5:45 AM on June 30, 2006

Nope
posted by rxrfrx at 5:47 AM on June 30, 2006

Ok, please close this, thanks!! No hard feelings.
posted by wheelieman at 5:51 AM on June 30, 2006

There are plenty of other places for teens to be teens, if that's the point. One AskMe is enough.
posted by Witty at 5:53 AM on June 30, 2006

I think it's great when the occasional teen drops in asks for advice. But to actively solicit that? Sounds like a potential legal nightmare. I'm imagining hoards of angry parents. Matt would need all manner of disclaimers, Legal Notices and Acceptable Use Policies to cover his ass.
posted by idest at 5:56 AM on June 30, 2006

Oh, and separate water fountains too please! Oh, not like that. I mean purely as a hygiene thing.

Seriously, as a teenager, I don't think any teens would want to use a Teen AskMe. It's the online equivalent of the smaller table at dinner parties. If we want to ask a question then I'm sure we'll have no trouble putting in the effort of adding a Y and an O in front of every U we type.

Seriously, give us some credit. It's hard work spitting in all your burgers.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 5:58 AM on June 30, 2006 [4 favorites]

Reflecting on what I've typed, my overuse of the word "seriously" has pretty much killed any point I was trying to make.

Okay, set it up then.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 6:00 AM on June 30, 2006

I googled these "teens" you speak of and was quite surprised at how many of them have their own paysites yet appear to lack sufficient funds for habiliment.
posted by mds35 at 6:05 AM on June 30, 2006

8==> omg rilly? whut a good idea im all 4 it 2! lol >o_o<
posted by naxosaxur at 6:10 AM on June 30, 2006

No, duh.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:20 AM on June 30, 2006

Having a "teen" version and a non-teen version of anything on the internet is an exercise in pointlessness. The defining characteristic of the Teenage Condition is a desire to see oneself (and, more importantly, be seen by others) as an adult. The only people who would hit a AskTeenMe are pre-teens who think being a teenager is awesome.

/me googles habiliment
posted by Plutor at 6:22 AM on June 30, 2006

Having a Teen AskMe would be the best way to get a bunch of teens to not join. Sort of like Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul is only ever read by middle-aged women and gay men.
posted by SassHat at 6:27 AM on June 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

The referrer logs would be interesting.
posted by staggernation at 6:27 AM on June 30, 2006

If teens have questions let them ask their friends, or the guy who sells them pot behind the dumpster at the 7-11, just like we used to.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:29 AM on June 30, 2006

This is the comment referred to by wheelieman.
posted by iconomy at 6:30 AM on June 30, 2006

Wasn't the guy who wanted to know how to hide a body a teenager? If we had seperate sections I'd miss out on that kind of thing.
posted by Mitheral at 6:35 AM on June 30, 2006

After certain dimwits chased (no pun intended) away a 13-year-old falconer and wildlife advocate from these parts last week, I'm convinced that we need more adults here.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 6:36 AM on June 30, 2006

Having a Teen AskMe would be the best way to get a bunch of teens to not join. Sort of like Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul is only ever read by middle-aged women and gay men.

Not by any gay men I know.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:36 AM on June 30, 2006

I'm in. Oh, wait. Is it teens only?
posted by ewkpates at 6:47 AM on June 30, 2006

Just popping in briefly to laugh at you and your ideas: HA!

Do you feel sufficiently ridiculed now? Good. Carry on then.
posted by dgaicun at 6:56 AM on June 30, 2006

Scarleteen.
posted by Lotto at 7:05 AM on June 30, 2006

Will they post hot pictures of themselves?
posted by klangklangston at 7:07 AM on June 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

someone suggested in a AskMe thread that we start a Teen AskMe section

Yeah, that's all we need to do. Attract the teen crowd. That would really make this a better site.
posted by Afroblanco at 7:13 AM on June 30, 2006

I'm convinced that we need more adults here.

Saucy Intruder, I have found the problem:

I'm imagining hoards of angry parents.

Somebody is hoarding the adults.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:18 AM on June 30, 2006

Ok, so that sounded really snarky. I don't want to downplay the contributions of teenage MeFites, I'm sure a lot of them have good things to say.

However, if MeFi went out of its way to attract teens, I don't think that the new members that would result from this effort would make the site a better place.
posted by Afroblanco at 7:19 AM on June 30, 2006

dirtynumbangelboy - the first time I ever encountered that book was in the home of a gay dude in his 30s. He wouldn't my friend and I (actual teenagers at the time) borrow it.
posted by SassHat at 7:20 AM on June 30, 2006

For the most part I think it's better for teens to play on the big playground with all of us.

I'm not sure what JoshuaK's objective was--maybe a place where the people responding are all teenagers, but there's no easy way to enforce that with any certainty. (I'm sure there are a lot of people here that would be dying to jump in and respond to questions on this hypothetical version of AskMe.) I think anyone that understands and is willing to keep to the spirit of AskMe is fine participating in the existing version, and if this teen version won't have the same spirit, then it's kind of pointless (see numerous 'banner ad sites' that already exist).
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:22 AM on June 30, 2006

Kids today. When I was a teenager on the Internet, at least I had the decency to pretend that I was in my twenties.

(Of course, now that I'm in my twenties on the Internet, I have to pretend that I've matured in some meaningful way since I was a teenager, but that's beside the point.)
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:25 AM on June 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

I think joshuak is just frustrated because us grownups don't understand how AWKWARD AND HAAAAARD it is to be a teenager. That's the reason nobody was willing to tell him it's okay to go ahead and cheat on his girlfriend while he's out of town; it's because we're too old to know how it feels to be tied down to just one person while there are HORDES OF BOSTON HOTTIES CLAMORING FOR MY BOD.
posted by Gator at 7:33 AM on June 30, 2006

After certain dimwits chased (no pun intended) away a 13-year-old falconer and wildlife advocate from these parts last week, I'm convinced that we need more adults here.

Jesus H. Christ, his name is Chance.

in other news, OMFUG, teh idea of teens anymore gives me the CBGBs.
posted by carsonb at 7:40 AM on June 30, 2006

Jesus H. Christ, his name is Chance.

Yes, but alona and ori kept calling him Chase, see...
posted by cortex at 7:58 AM on June 30, 2006

I think it's great when the occasional teen drops in asks for advice.

I'd bet AskMe already has a lot more teens than most people think. They seem to do just fine, joshuak's masochistic questions notwithstanding.
posted by mediareport at 8:01 AM on June 30, 2006

Yeah, that's all we need to do. Attract the teen crowd. That would really make this a better site.

What do you mean, Afroblanco? joshuak, for instance, has been a valuable member of this community. Well, okay, so he's never commented in the blue, and only once in the grey (about himself), but he has posted nine questions to the green, including such valuable questions as, "My parents gave me a car, but it's not cool enough! Waaa!" and "I'm bored with my girlfriend. But I still like her. But she's really clingy. But it would be awkward to break up. Help!"

How could you not want to encourage this kind of useful, thought-provoking questioning from members who so clearly understand the importance of giving as well as receiving, and who so obviously spend time getting acquainted with the community before drawing on its resources, as evinced by joshuak's question:

Also, is there like a teenage version of ask mefi? Or how might I go about making one? Who created this one?

Who indeed. Perhaps a better question: Who still thinks this site benefits from anyone being able to get in for $5? Who thinks you should be able to post a question a week if you make no other contributions to the community, and know so little about it that after four months you still don't know who mathowie is?

A teen metafilter? Spare us the agony.
posted by Dasein at 8:06 AM on June 30, 2006

argh, I fucked up his name, I know. It's like a virus. Sorry, Chance. They called him Lance, IIRC...
posted by Saucy Intruder at 8:06 AM on June 30, 2006

They were sort of all over the board with his name, in fact. Poor Charles.
posted by cortex at 8:15 AM on June 30, 2006

Dasein: "Who still thinks this site benefits from anyone being able to get in for $5? Who thinks you should be able to post a question a week if you make no other contributions to the community, and know so little about it that after four months you still don't know who mathowie is?"

I do. And to paraphrase mediareport, I'd bet MeFi has a lot more community ignorami than most people think.
posted by Plutor at 8:15 AM on June 30, 2006

Dasein, your problem is with one member, not all teens. Can the bigotry.
posted by mediareport at 8:16 AM on June 30, 2006

There are loads of teenagers that have mefi accounts, and I wager there's a fair few people that signed up while they were still a teen. I did, and I can assure you that it was not because I was so impressed with the lightning wit of my classmates that I wanted more of it.
Teenagers only act like pathetic children because that's how our society treats them. One of the great things about this here interwebs is that those 'kids' that are mature enough to hang out with the adults can do so without being instantly spotted and kicked out. Putting them in age-segregated ghettos is just about the opposite of what we should be doing.
Of course, you can't spot them. Why? Because they don't act like stereotypical 16 year olds.
I think your problem is with joshuak, he's a whiny little bitch and the only impressive thing about him is his enormous sense of entitlement. Seriously, I think that this kid (and I use the word without any reference to age) represents everything that the rest of the world hates about The Great SatanAmerica.
posted by atrazine at 8:43 AM on June 30, 2006

We should be doing MORE to keep these damn kids off our lawn. It's not like they've ever contributed anything of value in the green, anyway.
posted by absalom at 8:49 AM on June 30, 2006

what're the chances you'd link to that particular answer, absalom? pun intended.
posted by carsonb at 8:50 AM on June 30, 2006

NO
posted by agregoli at 8:56 AM on June 30, 2006

I think it would be better then all the banner ad sites...
...the grammar and butchering of the English Language would bug some of you...

than/then
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:58 AM on June 30, 2006

Could we train these teens to fight bears and win consitantly? If not, I'm not interested.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:06 AM on June 30, 2006

When it comes to fighting bears, I just use teens for BAIT. Bear fighting is best left to the real men.
(And I too miss Chaz.)
posted by Floydd at 9:18 AM on June 30, 2006

As I read it, joshuak really meant 'where can I talk to other teens?'. As I see it, there is no potential value in setting up a 'mefi for teens', either to mefi or to teens. Therefore: no.
posted by jacalata at 9:37 AM on June 30, 2006

I'm sorry to derail, but caould one of the admins please have a conversatioon with joshuak? His questions are snotty, self entitled and whiny and as has been pointed about by daesin, he contibutes little else to the site. He's been called out multiple times and has been a general thorn in people's side. I'm not saying he should be banned, but any type of warning I feel would help him cut back on this.
posted by piratebowling at 9:49 AM on June 30, 2006

I don't know, piratebowling. I keep hoping that the "tough love" of AskMefi will relieve some of the terminal retardation that affects joshuak. He's a teenager of the worst sort--maybe getting beat on by (sometimes) reasonable adults is exactly what he needs.
posted by schroedinger at 9:53 AM on June 30, 2006

Normally, I'd agree with you schrodinger, but it clearly hasn't worked. Plus, he keeps thinking it's us who don't underthand and not just him being a fucktard of the highest order.
posted by piratebowling at 10:02 AM on June 30, 2006

understand, not "underthand", obviously.

Apparently I lisp a bit when I type.
posted by piratebowling at 10:04 AM on June 30, 2006

"excuse me, ma'am, can you tell us where all the high school girls hang out?"
posted by Stynxno at 10:21 AM on June 30, 2006

Like others said, I'm sure there are a hell of a lot of teenagers here already who have no problem behaving and contributing just as constructively than the 'adult' members, if not better.

The member who suggested MetaTeen^* has a bit of history of being a putz; I sincerely doubt that a jury of his peers would be any more tolerant or patient of his antics than GenPop.
They'd probably resent being considered his peers, actually.

Besides, the Sock Puppeteers would have a field day.

^*Nananana na naana! Go MetaTeen!!!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:27 AM on June 30, 2006

I think level headed teens can do just fine posting in the same green as everyone else. - Wolfdog

End of conversation.
posted by raedyn at 10:33 AM on June 30, 2006

joshuak is the new Keyser Soze.

I'm sure there are plenty of teenagers on Mefi and the ones that get respect and interaction out of adult members are the ones that don't pepper their repsonses with 'cuz' and 'Mmmkay' and 'kewl'. I don't care how well intentioned a teen's post is, when I see crap like that I can't take it seriously.
posted by pieoverdone at 10:42 AM on June 30, 2006

Images of screwing dogs and cocks going into hens are still cool though, right? As long as they're being posted by someone over 21, I mean.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:46 AM on June 30, 2006

piratebowling writes " He's been called out multiple times and has been a general thorn in people's side. I'm not saying he should be banned, but any type of warning I feel would help him cut back on this."

dios, quonsar and Paris are going to retire eventually, we've got to start grooming replacements.
posted by Mitheral at 10:53 AM on June 30, 2006

paris, being unwilling to retire, was retired, iirc. and quonsar is a gem in the crown of metafilter.
posted by shmegegge at 11:14 AM on June 30, 2006

20 million * $5 = $100 million.

Plus the sockpuppets. Just let me in on the IPO, Haughey.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:15 AM on June 30, 2006

shmegegge writes "quonsar is a gem in the crown of metafilter"

That's why the grooming. We need to get this kid up to q's level.
posted by Mitheral at 11:40 AM on June 30, 2006

Damnit, pie overdone, I only opened this thread to post that exact comment. Good thing I'm not a teenager.
posted by sugarfish at 12:28 PM on June 30, 2006

Some misspellings are not caught by spellcheck, I'm sure you meant to write "a germ in the crown of metafilter."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:43 PM on June 30, 2006

I think someone should knock up an impression of what TeenAskMe would look like.

This is your assignment for the holiday weekend, losers! LOLOL!
posted by Decani at 12:53 PM on June 30, 2006

Just let me in on the IPO

Just imagine the Myspace cross-promotion possibilities. I'm talking liquid. Enough money to have your own jet. Enough money not to waste time. Fifty, one hundred million dollars. A player.
posted by Mr. Six at 1:02 PM on June 30, 2006

I think someone should knock up an impression of what TeenAskMe would look like.

And score some Stat. Rape charges? No thanks!
posted by cortex at 1:39 PM on June 30, 2006

There's already a teen version of AskMe
posted by the_bone at 1:46 PM on June 30, 2006

Not all teens regularly call attention to their age. (Nor should they, of course, unless it's relevant to the question.) Don't assume that every teenager will provide unintelligent answers.

That said, a Teen MeFi seems like a bad idea, because of the parent issue. And because there's a comparatively smaller percentage of teens that would fit into the community here.

/still teenaged for a few months
posted by danb at 3:17 PM on June 30, 2006

I coach high school debate. In the ten years I've been doing this, the majority of teen competitors have been very well informed about world events, exceptionally level headed and very well spoken.

Of course, I've also met a number of teenagers who are well on their way to becoming complete idiots. Until their idiocy is validated by a high school diploma, they will have to settle for being incomplete idiots.

I've also met a fair number of adults who are idiotic, inflexible, judgemental and entirely vile and awful. Of course, there are plenty of adults who are intelligent and even handed. To say "oh great, you've let adults in to Metafilter, now the place is going to go down the crapper" would be a ludicrous statement.

Similarly, thinking that an increased presence of teens who are interested in the sorts of discussions we have here would in any way lower the bar is ludicrous.

What would lower the bar, IMO, is to invite MeFi's teen members to a Teen Mefi ghetto. While I appreciate wheelieman's positive intention in proposing this idea, I think it is far more valuable for teenage participants to be treated exactly the same as adult participants.

In fact, I think that the exceptional teen participants at MeFi likely raise the level of discourse - as, of course, do the exceptional adult participants.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:45 PM on June 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

'Ask Metafilter: For Kids!'

The 'Post A Question' page will feature a warning that you're only allowed to talk about boys/girls, clothes, makeup and 'popular' music here because the "grown ups on the real AskMe (typed in the most patronising manner possible) get grumpy when you ask such trivial things there.

In short, no sir, I don't like it.
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:59 PM on June 30, 2006

It's really too much to task teenagers that they try and use proper grammar and English?
posted by xmutex at 5:44 PM on June 30, 2006

As long as we don't expect them to proof read their comments so they don't make simple spelling errors, I think everything will be all right.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:50 PM on June 30, 2006

Ok, please close this, thanks!! No hard feelings.

Never give up this completely just because three people chime in to kick your nuts.
posted by scarabic at 5:58 PM on June 30, 2006

so they don't make simple spelling errors

*laughs* The extra "t" is the least of the grammatical problems in that sentence.
posted by mediareport at 7:35 PM on June 30, 2006

xmutex : "It's really too much to task teenagers that they try and use proper grammar and English?"

Did you mean "ask", or are you using the ManagerSpeak version of "task" as a verb?
Did you mean to write "to try" instead of "that they try"?
And shouldn't it be "try to", not "try and"?

Note: I am not Christian. I can cast stones even though I have sinned aplenty, and probably in this comment itself.

Maybe teenagers have changed a lot, but when I was a kid, the last fucking thing I would have asked for was a special section for teenagers. When I was a teenager, anything specifically aimed at teenagers was basically shit. It wasn't so much that I "wanted to be treated like an adult" or anything as patronizing as that. It was more that anything aimed at teens was inevitably created by adults painfully out of touch with teens, and littered with either dumbass mascot characters, or lots of ExtrEEM shit, or awkward teen lingo, or any number of other annoying things. So, judging from joshuaK's history of posting questions that get everybody riled up, paired with his actually asking about a "teen" version of AskMe, I am having a really, really hard time believing that joshuak is actually a teenager. I don't deny that it's possible, but he's certainly like no teen I ever met when I was one.

That said, wheelieman, it certainly wasn't a bad question, so this shouldn't be taken as anything negative towards you.
posted by Bugbread at 9:59 PM on June 30, 2006

When I was a teenager, anything specifically aimed at teenagers was basically shit.

Yup.
posted by bingo at 4:34 PM on July 1, 2006

It's really too much to task teenagers that they try and use proper grammar and English?

Can I jump on here to ask what the proper response to a poster who has completely ignored capital letters and punctuation is? I hate to pollute AskMe with non-answers, but would a gentle request to follow normal Metafilter standards be completely out of place (assuming that nobody else has already done it) ?
posted by teleskiving at 4:19 AM on July 2, 2006

How, exactly, are you harmed when other people ignore punctuation in their posts? Does it bring down property values in the neighborhood or something?

I mean, sure, it annoys the crap out of me too. But I don't go around asking for response guidelines for things that annoy me. I just mutter to myself and move on.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:42 PM on July 2, 2006

nebulawindphone writes "Does it bring down property values in the neighborhood or something? "

Yes.
posted by Mitheral at 9:51 PM on July 3, 2006

Lower property values = Lower property taxes, ergo I declare it a Good Thing.
posted by raedyn at 9:00 AM on July 4, 2006

Um, raedyn, I hate to tell this but anyone charging you property taxes is scamming you man.
posted by Mitheral at 11:24 AM on July 4, 2006