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AskMe is 2006 Site of the Year
January 3, 2007 8:52 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

ArtyPapers.com deems Ask Metafilter the 2006 "Site of the Year" (scroll down): "I dunno what magic concoction goes into cultivating a truly remarkable community but Matt Haughey, creator of several popular community-based sites does and Ask MetaFilter is one of the best."
posted by deern the headlice to MetaFilter-related at 8:52 PM (63 comments total)

Advertise here: Contact FM.


Actually, it's mostly jessamyn making the magic there.
posted by mathowie at 8:59 PM on January 3, 2007


It's true.
posted by jessamyn at 9:10 PM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]


We are the magic makers.
We are the dreamers of the dream.
We being Jessamyn, of course.
posted by carsonb at 9:11 PM on January 3, 2007


Hot diggety! Move the HTML Writer's Guild Banner and Top 5% of the Web ribbon over to make room!
posted by Stan Chin at 9:12 PM on January 3, 2007


And that is why we love jessamyn. So humble in victory.

Seriously, congrats to both of you. AskMe is a source of great joy in my life.
posted by quin at 9:14 PM on January 3, 2007


The hand is quicker than the eye!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:17 PM on January 3, 2007


woocha!
posted by jessamyn at 9:18 PM on January 3, 2007


I think Jessamyn deserves a gold star for that.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:26 PM on January 3, 2007


woocha!

Now, now. Nobody likes a show off.
posted by cillit bang at 9:26 PM on January 3, 2007


I like a show off!
posted by aubilenon at 9:31 PM on January 3, 2007


From the site: In the new social web 2.oh, lots and lots of sites will fail because the community itself won't grow roots

*whips Stan Chin*

Your name is Toby! Your name is Toby!
posted by ColdChef at 9:35 PM on January 3, 2007


Need I note that I started posting in 2006?
posted by loiseau at 9:38 PM on January 3, 2007


Congrats!
Obviously, this is a clear sign that the 2 week waiting period is a good thing.
Now we play the waiting game...
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:48 PM on January 3, 2007


Stan Chin! W00t!
posted by Lynsey at 9:50 PM on January 3, 2007


It's true.

Oh shit, she's achieved satori.
posted by popechunk at 9:58 PM on January 3, 2007


Also, not to derail; congrats to mathowie and jessamyn! W00t, metafilter! Your awesomnity is recognized!
posted by Lynsey at 9:59 PM on January 3, 2007


I do think that AskMe adds to the net sum of happiness in the world. Seriously. It may be a small quantum but it is definitely there.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:02 PM on January 3, 2007 [2 favorites]


I find it illuminating that he chose to reference the "Why is the opening at the front of men's briefs still there if it's rarely used?" thread as a statement of askme goodness. What it's illuminating, I don't know, but it sure is something.

Congratulations Jess and Matt.
posted by disclaimer at 10:05 PM on January 3, 2007


i_am_joe's_spleen raises an interesting point. How many people read AskMe per day? I have no idea what the actual numbers are so I'll just best guess this: I read in another MeTa thread that we get something like 70 posts a day. Over a year that works out to 25,550 posts overall. Assuming that most of those are answered, we have just bettered the lives of 20k some people. Add to that the number of lurkers, let's be deeply conservative and just double the number of MeFi members and put it at just shy of 100k. Average that out over a year and you come up with 36.5 million hits. Now, not everyone will find what they are looking for, but even if only a tenth of them find something useful, we have still touched [does math. Fails] A lot of people.

It's one of those sort of weird moments when you as an active member of the community have to step back and say 'wow, that's pretty cool. We've answered a lot of questions.'

I'm gonna go big here and say that AskMe has indeed made the world a better place.

Yay for us! And again, cheers to the admins for winning a well deserved accolade.

Speaking of stats, I know that our beloved admins don't want to give up our numbers to the bad guys, but some basic statistics could be fun to work with, is there anything we can do to make stats.metafilter.com a reality?
posted by quin at 10:36 PM on January 3, 2007


I read in another MeTa thread that we get something like 70 posts a day. Over a year that works out to 25,550 posts overall.

Yeah, so that comes out to:
posted by Rhomboid at 11:03 PM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]


*whips Stan Chin*

I read this as *wipes Stan's chin* and I was a little squicked out.

Hey Stan? You wouldn't happen to be Animal Chin's brother, would you? If so, could you get him to autograph my skateboard? Err, I guess throwing up on it is kind of like an autograph, yes, thanks.

Animal Chin is indeed alive and well. A friend of mine called me a few days ago to inform me that he had seen him at a soup kitchen in SF. I don't know about the soup kitchen thing either, long story, it's SF, etc. But they were both drunk! And shouting! It was awesome. I wish I could have been there.
posted by loquacious at 11:23 PM on January 3, 2007


*OK, nods to Rhomboid for a well laid snark.*

I don't disagree that some of AskMe's questions are... well, just silly. But even using your numbers, [as wonderfully made up as my own] the 5k moving questions are somewhat useful, and the 550 Immigrant, overweight, deaf, pregnant sister's queries are our bread and butter. And even if we didn't help millions or even thousands; helping a couple of hundred peoples woes is pretty awesome, No?
posted by quin at 11:25 PM on January 3, 2007


Well I joined in 2006 so it was I who clearly made MetaFilter the best.
posted by liquorice at 11:34 PM on January 3, 2007


Animal Chin is indeed alive and well.

Yeah, but he's covered in acne, apparently.
posted by Greg Nog at 12:24 AM on January 4, 2007


liquorice, you do have that "person of the year" aura about you.
posted by maxwelton at 2:22 AM on January 4, 2007


wow. artypapers.com. we've really hit the big time now!
posted by quonsar at 4:28 AM on January 4, 2007


img src
posted by matteo at 4:33 AM on January 4, 2007


wow. artypapers.com. we've really hit the big time now!

Heehee. So is someone from that well-reknowned site a mefite yet?

Actually, it's mostly jessamyn making the magic there.

She's the bee's knees. It's true. But I think it's more than mostly jessamyn. It's also, you know...the people asking and answering the questions.
posted by iconomy at 5:58 AM on January 4, 2007


She's the bee's knees.

Also the wasp's nipples. In fact, the erogenous zones of every major flying insect in the Western hemisphere.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:01 AM on January 4, 2007


She is also the tarantula's fuzzy hairy things and those serrated pointy things on the back legs of crickets.
posted by iconomy at 6:05 AM on January 4, 2007


Don't forget the headlice.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 6:16 AM on January 4, 2007


I think she's the cat's (flannel) pyjamas.
posted by goml at 6:30 AM on January 4, 2007


yeah, mathowie is pretty cool too.
posted by goml at 6:30 AM on January 4, 2007


I've noticed that since Jessamyn starting moderating (thus leaving Matt some free time) that Ed Helms disappeared from the Daily Show. Coincidence? I think not.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:44 AM on January 4, 2007


Congratulations mathowie and jessamyn.
I can think of one word that sums up my joy for you but I can't bring myself to say it.
You're not going to use that award logo are you?
posted by nj_subgenius at 6:56 AM on January 4, 2007


goddamnit. congratulations.
posted by phaedon at 7:10 AM on January 4, 2007


Hurf durf makes every day better.
posted by jerseygirl at 7:18 AM on January 4, 2007


Resolved: mathowie is jessamyn's bees' nipples.
posted by cortex at 7:28 AM on January 4, 2007


"Ask MetaFilter is the Site of the Year!"
  --R. Marie Cox, artypapers.com

"'Santa Claus 3: The Escape Clause' is the best movie of 2006!"
   -- Frank Finkelstein, finkelsteinsflix.net

(I kid because I love).
posted by pardonyou? at 7:47 AM on January 4, 2007


! We'll have a three week interregnum in no time.
posted by OmieWise at 8:26 AM on January 4, 2007


Thanks for dropping a word which I had to go look up. That hasn't happened in years.

Thankfully since it's a piece of (admittedly not so minor) religious errata, I don't feel so bad. Anyone want to play Scrabble?
posted by loquacious at 8:33 AM on January 4, 2007


Only if you pay me.
posted by iconomy at 8:42 AM on January 4, 2007


Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos instead. I give lessons.
posted by yeti at 8:53 AM on January 4, 2007


No, see, you're mistaken. You're supposed to pay me!

Do you have any idea how annoying it is to type "<em>me</em>"!? Only slightly less annoying than typing &lt;em&gt;me&lt;/em&gt;, which is only less annoying than typing &amp;lt;em&amp;gt;me&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt; which is only less annoying than OK STOP ALREADY YOU MAD FREAK.
posted by loquacious at 8:57 AM on January 4, 2007 [2 favorites]


big deal, we're all time's person of the year, of course any site we touch is gold.
posted by dflemingdotorg at 9:31 AM on January 4, 2007


It's also, you know...the people asking and answering the questions.

Correct. You're all the magicians, I am like that gal in the hot pants backstage keeping track of the props.
posted by jessamyn at 9:47 AM on January 4, 2007 [1 favorite]


!

I'm concerned about the Orwellian implications of magic.
posted by The Confessor at 9:54 AM on January 4, 2007


librarian... gal... hot pants... props?


*BRAIN DETONATES*
posted by loquacious at 9:57 AM on January 4, 2007 [1 favorite]


Two points of curiosity: what word is nj_subgenius thinking of? And is it not a good idea to use <i>me</i>? (Honest question.)
posted by moira at 10:09 AM on January 4, 2007


<i> is deprecated. It still probably works in almost all browsers, but standards switched to <em> a number of years ago.

If I recall it had something to do with accessibility for screen readers for the blind and other accessibility issues, as not all international languages actually use italics, but emphasis could be considered a more universal application.

The same goes for <b>, by the way, which was replaced by <strong>. There are a few others.

Other, real webdev folks here could probably discuss it in more detail or point to relevant FAQs.
posted by loquacious at 10:17 AM on January 4, 2007


And now it begins sucking.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:24 AM on January 4, 2007


How geeky is it that I'm embarrassed to have been ignorant of that? (Probably not as geeky as if I hadn't been ignorant, I suppose.)
posted by moira at 10:27 AM on January 4, 2007


I say that in the best possible way, of course, being married to a geek and all.
posted by moira at 10:27 AM on January 4, 2007


w00t! Mad props (and hot pants) to jess!
posted by scody at 10:57 AM on January 4, 2007


<i> is deprecated.

Not so. Neither is <b>. Both are perfectly good if what you are looking to do is to italicize text or make it bold. For example, I italicized loquacious's sentence above when I quoted it. I certainly didn't want to emphasize it (nor emphasize it strongly); I just wanted the dang thing to be slanty.

In short: not deprecated; have their own uses.
posted by gleuschk at 11:01 AM on January 4, 2007


I can't find a link on their website, we but the green was also mentioned in PC World's "The Web's Most Useful Sites" article in their February issue. They have a section for Answer Sites, with the winner being Yahoo Answers and the Runner-Up being Live QnA Beta. Yedda was mentioned as an Also-Ran, as was AskMeFi.

Here's their blurb about us:
"Metablog site Ask MetaFilter (ask.metafilter.com) has some very smart people answering quirky questions, but it costs $5 to join."
posted by jmd82 at 11:29 AM on January 4, 2007


"Metablog site Ask MetaFilter (ask.metafilter.com) has some very smart quirky people answering quirky questions, but it [smartly] costs $5 to join."
posted by blue_beetle at 11:31 AM on January 4, 2007 [1 favorite]


You're all the magicians, I am like that gal in the hot pants ...
Hey, you've been tapping into my fantasies, havn't you?
posted by dg at 3:11 PM on January 4, 2007


deprecation.
hot pants.
magic.
religious errata.
insect anatomy.
flannel sleepwear.
It was like you read my christmas list and emailed it to each other.
posted by nj_subgenius at 3:48 PM on January 4, 2007


<i> is deprecated. It still probably works in almost all browsers, but standards switched to <em> a number of years ago.

No they're not. Only <s> and <u> are deprecated. The rest are "discouraged", which is meaningless in standards terms.
posted by cillit bang at 3:50 PM on January 4, 2007


Ah, see? Leave it to the experts.

And here I am still fascinated by the recursive, algorithmic way describing typing html-entities to describe typing html-entitiesto describe typing html-entities rapidly expands into Perl-like gibberish.
posted by loquacious at 4:42 PM on January 4, 2007


you can take my strike when you pry it from my cold dead hands!
posted by delmoi at 10:07 PM on January 4, 2007


(and yes I know about <del>)
posted by delmoi at 10:10 PM on January 4, 2007


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