Sidebar link request

July 21, 2006 9:58 PM

could we get a sidebar link to a recent story on what's going on in the Mideast? i just posted a link that could serve, but if it's too recent or something of that nature, i wouldn't mind moving it all to another thread. it would just be nice to have somewhere to discuss all of this with y'all.
posted by spiderwire to Feature Requests at 9:58 PM (22 comments total)

You're recommending your own FPP for the sidebar... and as a feature request?

I think things normally gravitate there when numerous other members flag the post as being worthy.
posted by dobbs at 10:06 PM on July 21, 2006

no, i'm offering it as a place to gather since there isn't another one on the FPP. like i said, i'd be perfectly content to repost it all under another thread.

in the past, the threads that have been sidebarred as repositories for newsfilter content or ongoing issues (i'm thinking the karl rove frogmatching) have been somewhat arbitrary.

i was actually going to post this metatalk post on its own, but then found the juan cole article and decided that since i wanted to post it anyway, i might as well offer it as a place to post updates.

i was originally going to recommend this post because there's still some activity there, and that would be fine as well. i'm not picky. it would just nice to have somewhere to talk about it -- i don't care where.
posted by spiderwire at 10:36 PM on July 21, 2006

*isn't another one on the Front Page
posted by spiderwire at 10:37 PM on July 21, 2006

this post is fucking hysterical.
posted by shmegegge at 10:41 PM on July 21, 2006

somewhat arbitrary

I could be wrong but I can only think of three types of things that I've seen on the sidebar: 1) stellar posts which Matt wants to highlight; 2) when there are tons of posts about the same thing on the blue (michael moore, bush, whatever) and Matt is sick of people complaining about the deluge and tells everyone to post in the one thread and all others will be deleted and 3) announcements (like highlighting music.mefi). In short: not arbitrary. Though I could be wrong. :)
posted by dobbs at 10:51 PM on July 21, 2006

i wonder if spiderwire bought his account from someone? he posted one comment in 2001, shut up absolutely for all of 2002 and 2003 and the first 11 months of 2004, then he started talking a blue streak.
posted by quonsar at 11:04 PM on July 21, 2006

In short: not arbitrary.

like i said, i was thinking of the karl rove stuff, because i had a thread deleted that was clearly much better than the first one i'd posted, and the first one was sidebarred since it was, well, first.

i'm not saying that what goes on the sidebar is arbitrary, i'm saying that when consolidating a deluge (your 2nd case), there's not necessarily a "best post" to choose for the discussion.

in this case, i don't care which post is sidebarred, i just thought i'd point out that i think the situation is becoming serious enough that a sidebar might be warranted. hopefully this will all die down and i'll be proved wrong.

this post is fucking hysterical.

why? i was posting the link and spent a long time for an appropriate thread to put it in, since i don't like newsfiltering things, and didn't find one, so i thought i'd point it out here so that other people wouldn't have to do the same and we could save space on the front page.

i mean, i think the link stands on its own, i'm just trying to keep the blue as clean as possible. this isn't self-promotion and matt and jess are free to ignore it. it's just a suggestion.
posted by spiderwire at 11:05 PM on July 21, 2006

i wonder if spiderwire bought his account from someone? he posted one comment in 2001, shut up absolutely for all of 2002 and 2003 and the first 11 months of 2004, then he started talking a blue streak.

what? i've talked to you on IMs before. i tend to come and go here. if you really look closely, you'll see that i'll spend a few months commenting like crazy and then i disappear. recently, this has had a lot to do with my world of warcraft usage. (there, i said it... that was an embarrassing admission) but, i canceled my wow account recently, and now i'm back here with all you folks :)

the answer to your question is no. i registered this account a long, long time ago, my freshman year in college -- i think i saw a link from plastic.com or something. i lurked for a long, long time, and eventually decided to start posting and talking. i've ducked in and out depending on the demands of school and work and so forth.

i'm a little miffed at the accusation of being a sockpuppet, but it's understandable. however, no. i'm just shy. =P matt can probably confirm this if he likes, as my email address hasn't changed since i made the account and it was tied to my school address.
posted by spiderwire at 11:10 PM on July 21, 2006

hah! and as if you needed any more confirmation, my first comment was comparing richard reed (the shoe bomber) to mr. fantastic. wow, that's a sobering demonstration of what a total dork i am. bad comment, too. yow.
posted by spiderwire at 11:14 PM on July 21, 2006

Wait, you "spent a long time" looking for an appropriate thread, and somehow missed this one which is still on the front page? Huh.

A quick count of Lebanon crisis-related posts this week:

Mon: 1
Tues: 0
Wed: 0
Thurs: 1 (and 1 that was a lame joke post)
Fri: 1

Looks like we're doing just fine holding off, spiderwire. When sidebar newsfilter posts evolve, they make sense to just about everyone. In this case, it's difficult not to imagine there was some amount of ego involved in your request.
posted by mediareport at 11:29 PM on July 21, 2006

[and boy, you sure are making this thread about you...]
posted by mediareport at 11:32 PM on July 21, 2006

i did miss that. i suck. i apologize for the redundancy, if this issue is sidebarred clearly the earlier posts would be better, and i wouldn't mind at all if my last one was deleted.

it's difficult not to imagine there was some amount of ego involved in your request.

yeah. i realize you only have my word for it, but i was just concerned that i might have missed a previous post (which i did), or it might have just recently expired off the front page, so i though i'd point it out on the grey so no one else was in the same position.

mea culpa. :D
posted by spiderwire at 11:37 PM on July 21, 2006

[and boy, you sure are making this thread about you...]

... hey, quonsar was the one that accused me of buying an account just 'cause i was a lurker for a long time. i was a little miffed.

as for not knowing the function of the preview button and having like 3 double posts on this thread already, um... yeah. i'm using it this time, i swear.

on preview: yup, another double comment.
posted by spiderwire at 11:39 PM on July 21, 2006

Relax, spiderwire. Relax. I think we got the gist. I too have been expecting a sort of "talk middle east" ->here<- link in the sidebar for a while now, though as a couple folks mentioned, we seem to be doing well self-regulating as the crisis unfolds.
posted by shoepal at 12:30 AM on July 22, 2006

thanks, shoepal. i really didn't mean for it to come off as "pleez sidebar me thanx" ... i just don't know what our accepted practice is for these sorts of posts. i would have rather put it in an ongoing thread, and much to my chagrin i missed the one on the front page. i apologize. i made the MeTa post to see if there was an ongoing thread and/or decide what we were doing with the mideast posts. the fact that i missed the FPP after reading down the blue twice is just embarrassing.

i'm actually decently pleased with the discussion that's gone on in the FPP, but like i said, i'd understand if others disagreed. if it gets yanked, i have no problem reposting it in comments somewhere.

i'm gonna go post one more comment there and go to bed. feel free to disregard this entire thread. i guess i'm just overly paranoid about getting called out for newsfilter posts, and it apparently wasn't necessary.
posted by spiderwire at 1:58 AM on July 22, 2006

So how does it feel to be deemed less worthy than the "Plastic parrot" and "How do you pee?" threads?
posted by Wolfdog at 3:37 AM on July 22, 2006

Disregards entire thread.
posted by Joeforking at 3:53 AM on July 22, 2006

The sidebar works pretty much like dobbs described it. Usually we'll only put stuff up about current events when people keep making FPPs about the latest updatefilter news and so we try to corral a lot of the conversation into one major thread. I haven't seen that happening with what has been going on in the Middle East and so haven't seen a need to put anything in the sidebar.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:17 AM on July 22, 2006

Bake him away, toys.
posted by dorisfromregopark at 5:17 AM on July 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

Ooh! Let's talk about pee more.

Sometimes, when I pee? I whistle at the same time. It's like double the bandwidth!
posted by cortex at 9:06 AM on July 22, 2006

Reiteration: whistling is like peeing air out of your mouth.
posted by cortex at 9:07 AM on July 22, 2006

cortex, sounds more like ISDN!
posted by shoepal at 1:00 PM on July 22, 2006