1: The First One

February 16, 2007 1:35 PM

Hey kids, it's the first MetaFilter podcast.

• play
• pause
• stop
• min volume
• max volume

posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 1:35 PM (125 comments total)

Links to stuff mentioned:
Writers Block from goodnewsfortheinsane

Popular Favorites page we use as a jumping off point:
http://www.metafilter.com/favorites/all

The Smart Kids post, and robocop is bleeding's comment/story.

The sweet forts post.

Story about jessamyn's dad.

Why Work? question.

Laughing Policeman post, along with massless' comment.

88 lines about 44 Mefites

1500 Cat pictures.


Director's commentary:
Keep in mind this is our first attempt and we still have to get the pacing, length, and sound just right. It's about 20 min of talking about 4 or 5 minutes of music, and ideally, I'd like to get it all down to 10 minutes done every Friday morning, with a faster pace and less wandering. I figure it'll take me and jessamyn 3 or 4 shows before we start to get our sea legs for it.

Enjoy, and I swear next week's will be better.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:37 PM on February 16, 2007

Wow, so cool!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:48 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Shit, now I have to get an MP3 player. My birthday is coming up!
posted by Mister_A at 1:51 PM on February 16, 2007

Whoa. Wasn't expecting this. Cool idea!
posted by danb at 1:52 PM on February 16, 2007

Is it broken for anyone else, or just me? Can't download the MP3, or listen in the flash player.
posted by matthewr at 1:53 PM on February 16, 2007

So how will you speak "." in a voice post?
posted by ardgedee at 1:54 PM on February 16, 2007

Working perfectly here, matthewr. (Camino, Tiger) - Very nice!
posted by lodev at 1:54 PM on February 16, 2007

This is great, how did you record this?
posted by emptyage at 1:55 PM on February 16, 2007

It was working for me, and then I tried to skip around a bit and now it's not.

"So how will you speak "." in a voice post?"

I was under the impression that meant 'moment of silence' so it should be pretty obvious.
posted by Eideteker at 1:56 PM on February 16, 2007

Still not working. So what, do you just read out URLs or something? I've never listened to a podcast.
posted by Eideteker at 1:57 PM on February 16, 2007

This ain't no pony. Heck, it ain't even a unicorn. This, my friends, is the legendary triceracorn.
posted by yeti at 1:58 PM on February 16, 2007

It was pretty easy to record, here's what I used:

- Skype, plus Call Recorder

- I have a Logitech USB headset, jessamyn just uses the built-in macbook microphone.

I brought the resulting file into Garageband and edited out 15 minutes of junk and this is what I was left with. As long as everyone is on broadband with Skype, you can almost sound like you're in the same room.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:01 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

In case anyone else wants to add this to iTunes:

1. Click on Advanced in the menu
2. Choose "Subscribe to Podcast"
3. Enter the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/MeFiPodcast
4. Profit.
posted by emptyage at 2:02 PM on February 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

Eideteker, copy and paste this URL:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MeFiPodcast

Open iTunes, go to Advanced, Subscribe to Podcast, then paste it in and you're set.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:02 PM on February 16, 2007

this is our first attempt and we still have to get the pacing

I read this as we still have to get the panting ...
posted by jamesonandwater at 2:03 PM on February 16, 2007

"Open iTunes, go to Advanced, Subscribe to Podcast, then paste it in and you're set."

Was this directed at me, or was that an error? I'm one of those no-iTunes guys.
posted by Eideteker at 2:05 PM on February 16, 2007

Also, sorry cortex for not one but two cortex jokes in it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:05 PM on February 16, 2007

(it's playing for me now, yay!)
posted by Eideteker at 2:07 PM on February 16, 2007

Click here to automagically load the podcast into iTunes
posted by niles at 2:08 PM on February 16, 2007

Here's the actual MP3 that odeo is streaming and itunes is downloading from.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:10 PM on February 16, 2007

I vote for one of those bells they have at doctor's offices, to signify the ".". Leaving it unsaid could cause it to be lost in translation a lot of times.

Anyway, awesome job.
posted by allkindsoftime at 2:10 PM on February 16, 2007

Holy shit! Awesome.

"That guy'll record anything."

Heh.
posted by cortex at 2:14 PM on February 16, 2007

This is fun! I'm shouting back at the podcast and calling Matt and Jess idiots, just like the real MetaFilter!
posted by Eideteker at 2:15 PM on February 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

This is great! There's so much potential for future podcasts too. Thanks, Matt & Jess.
posted by lagreen at 2:19 PM on February 16, 2007

The player doesn't work for me. FF 2 & XP

Listening to the mp3 now.

Strange to hear your voices...
posted by jouke at 2:21 PM on February 16, 2007

So when are we gonna do the Metafilter conference call....?
posted by jouke at 2:23 PM on February 16, 2007

Bu..b...bb...but... neither of you sounds how I imagined.
posted by dobbs at 2:24 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

http://media-c03.libsyn.com/media/mathowie/MetaFilter_Podcast_for_Feb._16_2003.mp3

Do you have a more current one?

(i kid, i kid, this is awesome)
posted by eyeballkid at 2:28 PM on February 16, 2007

cool.
posted by nola at 2:31 PM on February 16, 2007

Fascinating to now be able to put a voice to the name and face of Matt and Jessamyn.
posted by ericb at 2:33 PM on February 16, 2007

jessamyn: pick up a headset. The great big room sound on your end vs. the dry close mic sound on Matt is fairly distracting.

Also, some compression on the vocals would be a really good thing. Even it out a bit when Matt busts out laughing, ferexample.
posted by cortex at 2:33 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Also, I had not even anticipated such a public analysis (and rejection!) of my pronunciations of mefi lingo. Heh. Maybe we can get delmoi to clarify his username for us.
posted by cortex at 2:40 PM on February 16, 2007

This is fun. Can I say hi to my mom?




Hi mom!
posted by slogger at 2:43 PM on February 16, 2007

Total derail, apologies:

You know what would be cool: if there was a system for seamlessly including URLs in podcast mp3s, without the awkwardness of the them being read out. I can think of two ways of doing this; both are implausible but would be cool if they actually happened.

First, you could include links in the RSS (podcast) file associated with a timestamp in the MP3. For example, inside the item tag:
<link time="3:19" href="http://metafilter.com/9622/" />
Then, at 3:19 something in your media player would alert you, and give you the option to click on the link. Or all the links could be shown and highlighted when playback reaches their timestamp. Of course, the description can (and does, in the case of this podcast) fill this role to some extent. But it's not as seamless as it could be. Which leads me on to the much more ambitious but ultimately cooler second way:

Embedding information, in this case a URL in the sound file itself. I realise MP3s are highly compressed, but what if a short noise (presumably similar to modem noise) could be used to store information, like an audio barcode. Then, your media player could show you a link to the relevant content when it 'hears' the barcode (there's no reason for it to sound as unpleasant as fax/modem noise, it could be quieter). Of course this requires both authoring software and a plugin in the playback software.

I realise this is all fairly pie-in-the-sky stuff, rivalling the 'why can't we put up a huuuge umbrella/mirror' comments one finds in global warming threads for harebrained-ness, but how cool would it be if it could actually work?

If you make millions from this, have the decency to send me a cheque. Cheers.
posted by matthewr at 2:46 PM on February 16, 2007

matthewr, you can do that, but only in AAC files. In iTunes, I could do a big "click here to see 1500 cats" thing in the album art as we talk about it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:54 PM on February 16, 2007

Is mefi (pron. mayfee) becoming totally audio? You know; a post is a small podcast, a thread is a skype conference call.

That would be horrible; the shouting. The jostling for attention.
And everybody would hear my dutch accent. Argh.
posted by jouke at 2:55 PM on February 16, 2007

OK, I just listened to the podcast and Matt talks about SMIL and Apple's extensions to podcasts that (apparently) totally solve what I'm talking about above. Neither seem to have majorly caught on. Oh, well.
posted by matthewr at 2:55 PM on February 16, 2007

Dammit, Matt, I've been actively avoiding podcasts and now you go and put together one I just cannot avoid.

Ah well, maybe this'll get me off my butt and start on a project I've been thinking about for a while.
posted by fenriq at 3:03 PM on February 16, 2007

You two sound GREAT! Yea, I like cortex' suggestion about head-phones, but for a first time out, this is fantastic.
posted by snsranch at 3:06 PM on February 16, 2007

I will be able to listen to an entire podcast when, and only when, you have goodnewsfortheinsane do it.

I guess I just can't do podcasts. I kept feeling like I was listening in to the weekly phone conversation between matt and jess where they call each other and talk about metafilter. This seems like it's just a little too... er... meta for me. I can't really say why it's never bothered me to leave endless comments about posts about web sites about things, but I suddenly feel like a colossal nerd when I listen to people talk about comments about posts about web sites about things.

Of course, now I'm commenting about people talking about comments about posts about web sites about things.

*sinks in chair*
posted by koeselitz at 3:08 PM on February 16, 2007

mathowie doesnt sound anything like i expected.
posted by keswick at 3:11 PM on February 16, 2007

bah, a friend who works at the NSA has been sending me mp3s of Matt's and Jessamyn's phone calls for months -- that's where the good stuff is.

(and yes, they get monitored because of y2karl's posts here)
posted by matteo at 3:11 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

(but, re: the podcast I enjoyed the debate on how you're supposed to pronounce "mefi")
posted by matteo at 3:13 PM on February 16, 2007

Further to the wax recordings of Walt Whitman thing, there's a huge Poetry Archive site with British poets reading their work. Hearing Tennyson read The Charge of the Light Brigade is quite cool.
posted by matthewr at 3:17 PM on February 16, 2007

Okay, I got as far as the pronunciation debate.

"MEE-FYE?" Huh. Now I'm going to have to go around saying "meetafyelter."
posted by koeselitz at 3:19 PM on February 16, 2007

Meefye is my greatest enemy.
I liked how cortex pronounced it. It sounded exotic, like a british accent.

It's "Mehf-Eee", of course.
posted by muddgirl at 3:25 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

I expected him to sound more like Bruce Willis.
posted by armoured-ant at 3:30 PM on February 16, 2007

Is this why MeFi was down for a couple of hours earlier?

(I hate to be the one, but mark me down with a "Why?" for this).
posted by klangklangston at 3:32 PM on February 16, 2007

mathowie guesses a lot...
posted by i_cola at 3:35 PM on February 16, 2007

At last! I am vindicated in my (correct) pronunciation of "MeFi." Suck it, all you "mehffy" and "mee-fee" haters.
posted by armage at 3:36 PM on February 16, 2007

So is it del-moy or del-mwah then?
posted by matthewr at 3:38 PM on February 16, 2007

I haven't been able to listen to it yet, but the talk about including links to URLs reminds me of Maciej's Manifesto, in which, two and a half years ago, he pegged why I hate almost all of these things. (But I am sure I'll love this one. Also, text is king.)

We do the pronunciation thing every 18 months or so, I seem to recall. Never goes anywhere. Mee-Fie is still correct, and I can usually manage to forget that there are misguided people in the world, until the next go-round. Having one of those poor delusional souls commit his indiscretions to music is just too sad even to talk about.

And wasn't the player pink for a while?
posted by gleuschk at 3:38 PM on February 16, 2007

On an unrelated note, it's interesting to have voices to put to the faces and names. I agree with armored-ant, though. I just don't hear a voice that sounds like it has a banhammer hiding behind it...

Kudos, though. I look forward to a nice, compact, fast-paced 10 minute version.
posted by armage at 3:40 PM on February 16, 2007

That was fun. But:

ideally, I'd like to get it all down to 10 minutes done every Friday morning, with a faster pace and less wandering

Yeah, definitely. Way too meandering right now; I have to admit I shared koeselitz's reaction a lot of the time. Maybe limit yourselves to one minute per topic? And if there's a way to do postproduction where you cut out the "um, like, uh" stuff, that would help too.
/technical ignoramus

On the MeFi pronunciation thing, I don't care whose site it is, you're both wrong and muddgirl is right: it's Mehf-Eee (or Meffy). Languagehat hath spoken.

Also, on the Laughing Policeman thing, I'm not sure either of you actually listened to massless's mp3, but the point wasn't that there was an earlier laughing song, which wouldn't be at all surprising, but that it was the exact same song:

The Laughing Song and The Laughing Policeman are the same music and melody, though the song's subject and lyrics changed significantly at some point as "a fat and jolly red-faced man" was sung as "here comes a dandy darky" instead... It was published in 1894 nearly 30 years before the recording of The Laughing Policeman and Penrose (Lolly) does not appear to be credited.

It's truly amazing that nobody seems to have been aware of this before the MeFi Detective Squad got on the case.
posted by languagehat at 3:40 PM on February 16, 2007

I guess my mistake was pronouncing it like an Arabic word, when I should have been pronouncing it like the name of an old soda.
posted by koeselitz at 3:41 PM on February 16, 2007

Oh, one other thing: if it was me who'd asked that question about whether it was important to have a career, I'd be mortified at having it turned into fodder for podcast jokes. Might want to steer clear of discussing personal-dilemma questions as opposed to "how many bears would it take to kill a raging two-year-old?" (Well, I guess that's a personal dilemma too, but you know what I mean.)

And how do you pronounce delmoi, delmoi?
posted by languagehat at 3:46 PM on February 16, 2007

Two things— Teddy Ruxpin used cassettes. And it's /mi-faɪ/. Like Hifi. Jeez.
posted by klangklangston at 3:48 PM on February 16, 2007

Reminds me of the digg podcast. And while listening to it, I decided most of us here are probably not the target audience for the podcast. The stuff you covered was either brought up on metatalk... so, um, the podcast was mostly a rerun for me.

Who is the target audience for the podcast anyway?
posted by Dave Faris at 3:50 PM on February 16, 2007

Seconding what languagehat said above. I think some podcasters advocate making episodes as unplanned, chatty and "natural" as possible — they're wrong. Planning, forethought and strict time limits really do pay off.
posted by matthewr at 3:55 PM on February 16, 2007

Mee-fye foes fume. Wait, that's not quite right, either.
posted by cairnish at 3:56 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Mee-Fie? Seriously?
posted by trip and a half at 4:15 PM on February 16, 2007

I've always pronounced it as Mee-Fie. So when I hear Meh-Fee, like in cortex's 88 Lines, it takes me a second to figure it out.

But we've had this discussion many times in Meta, and every meetup I've been to.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:17 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ah, reading pronunciations. I used to say ve-HEM-int for vehement, among other barbarisms.

<speculation mode>
The MeFi = MEH-FEE = MEE-FYE = MEE-FEE thing happens because we're all alone in here almost all the time. None of us says the words aloud or hears the words aloud, with the exceptions of the cabal who don't exist folks who go to meetups (and cortex). So we make up a pronunciation and go with it, and unless or until we speak our personal internal pronunciation aloud, there's no chance to bump into other pronunciations for convergence. If this podcast gets popular, jessamyn & mathowie's authoritative MEE-FYE's will probably become canon, and languagehat will be forced to concede.
</speculation mode>
posted by cgc373 at 4:37 PM on February 16, 2007

cgc373: "The MeFi = MEH-FEE = MEE-FYE = MEE-FEE thing happens because we're all alone in here almost all the time."

Well said, kuh-guh-kuh-three-hundred-and-seventy-three.
posted by koeselitz at 4:40 PM on February 16, 2007

Heh. I should probably oughta dump an explanation in my profile for the ugly moniker, huh?
posted by cgc373 at 4:42 PM on February 16, 2007

Well, I've got the part where cardinality-mapping comes in: 3=c, 7=g. What the hell it means is something I've wondered now and then.
posted by cortex at 4:45 PM on February 16, 2007

It's a weird confluence thing, cortex. My actual initials are C G C, and the day I got my first email account, through Earthlink 'cuz it came with my first personal computer, was the 7th of July, 2003. I write dates using the YYYYMMDD format (actually I'm YYYYYMMDD 'cuz of the Y10K Long Now people but that's a real tangent), so in my world, it was 020030703, shortened, 373, the same as the cardinal map you mentioned. The coincidence was too much to pass up, so I went with it. Now I'm cgc373 pretty much everywhere I am on the web.

And I'll cut-n-paste this into my profile.
posted by cgc373 at 5:06 PM on February 16, 2007

I look forward to listening to this when I get home. Thanks Matt and Jess.

And it's Mee-Fye you heretics. Get it right.
posted by quin at 5:11 PM on February 16, 2007

omg, voices from my computer are talking about me!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:17 PM on February 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

Who is the target audience for the podcast anyway?

You ask that like we planned it or something. It was just a lark, but I think we can definitely do better after a few more, and make it accessible for outsiders as well (by explaining posts better, etc).

I know all about the sound issues, my mic levels were too high when I captured it and I tried to cut mine down to match jess' but her's was free of clipping, so mine kind of sucked. We'll get the microphone thing worked out as well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:19 PM on February 16, 2007

Tell her not to call you "dude", too.
posted by yhbc at 5:23 PM on February 16, 2007

I am reluctant. There's the risk of enduring the same shock I received when I saw Garrison Keillor for the first time, after hearing him for years. Yikes!
posted by everichon at 5:26 PM on February 16, 2007

I like the "dude!" It's the only thing that lets me forget she's part of the godless liberal east coast elites.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:29 PM on February 16, 2007 [4 favorites]

make it accessible for outsiders as well

There clearly needs to be a podcast where you two cover mefi history: we have cameras, how to hide a dead body, tracking down an address in 1939 Vienna, administrator please hope me, etc.
posted by hindmost at 5:34 PM on February 16, 2007

I second asking for some better matching of your audio. Match your mikes and where you're talking from (i.e. big vs small room)
Guests are a fantastic idea. Hearing any of 'the 44' (less one or two) might be a good start.
I also recommend structure - not scripting as such, but time limits and categories that we can look forward to (or as need be, skip past).
Ten minutes is too stringent. I recommend 15 if you want a next goal.
mathowie, I heard you before, so not a surprise. You sound a bit like Adam Carolla if I may say so.
jessamyn, you have a bit of new yorkish in your voice.
For some reaon I expected either a Midwestern or New England accent.
One last suggestion - a Meetup review- pre and post.
This is fantastic. Thank you!
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:36 PM on February 16, 2007

"And I'll cut-n-paste this into my profile."

I can't imagine why.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:43 PM on February 16, 2007

Welcome to the social!

This totallywowcool. Sure it's a bit long, but it's sounds fun, you know? It works 'cause it's off the cuff, don't try to get it too polished.

So, when do you guys start doing video? :)
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:50 PM on February 16, 2007

You ask that like we planned it or something

which is the perfect tagline for askmefi, by the way

(I know realize I've always pronounced "askmefi" as "øx-MA'Y-ψ", is that ok?)
posted by matteo at 5:55 PM on February 16, 2007

I didn't mean to put pressure on you guys, Matt. If it's a lark, then it's a lark. If you plan on doing more, then I just wonder who will be interested in a rehashing of rehashing of metatalk threads about other threads elsewhere on the site (and I mean that in the snarkiless possible way). I think the idea of specialized podcasts, maybe with back stories of askme threads, or interviews (I nominate you interview Quonsar first), or mefi history lessons might have more appeal to the hardcore "mee-fie" junkies.
posted by Dave Faris at 5:58 PM on February 16, 2007

I like it a lot, but I agree it's too insular. Invite one Mefi user per week to come on the show and tell their real-life stories. Otherwise, it becomes reminiscent of that Chris Farley skit on SNL. "Remember that time that robocop is bleeding posted that story? That was awesome..."
posted by Saucy Intruder at 6:08 PM on February 16, 2007

I always said, "Meee Fie."
posted by sparkletone at 6:16 PM on February 16, 2007

I thought we all agreed to pronounce it meatafilter?
posted by Meatbomb at 6:29 PM on February 16, 2007

Move over, Gervais!
posted by Devils Slide at 6:29 PM on February 16, 2007

Holy shit, I was thinking about doing something like this, with a focus on Music.Metafilter, and only yesterday was going to post a Metatalk thread asking about the podnetcast-safeness, legally speaking, of re-streaming stuff from there as part of a radioshow thingy. But then I got distracted by beer and forgot.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:10 PM on February 16, 2007

Your podcast is awesome. I say this having edited podcasts: Once you are done, go through and remove your pauses, ums, ahs and such.
posted by boo_radley at 7:18 PM on February 16, 2007

So is somebody gonna start a blog reviewing these as they're produced?
posted by jtron at 7:27 PM on February 16, 2007

Good stuff. I like the way it's loose, and drifts away from the specifics of posts here into general and personal chit-chat.

Bu..b...bb...but... neither of you sounds how I imagined.

You're telling me. jessamyn sounds exactly like my old Aesthetics professor, and mathowie sounds like rent on a K bender surprisingly sibilant and adenoidal.

So is somebody gonna start a blog reviewing these as they're produced?

What's the CC license? I'm thinking a translation into Latin would be useful.
posted by jack_mo at 8:34 PM on February 16, 2007

Invite one Mefi user per week to come on the show and tell their real-life stories.

I think that's the plan. While I find my own stories totally fascinating, that is not at all the same as thinking other people will share those feelings, and I'd rather hear other people talking anyhow.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:51 PM on February 16, 2007

excellent.
posted by de at 8:52 PM on February 16, 2007

kahn-ZAIR.
posted by quonsar at 9:11 PM on February 16, 2007

I picture you as sounding like Dr. Demento, quonsar.
posted by boo_radley at 9:12 PM on February 16, 2007

Oh yeah, the Nicholas Cage movie with the airplane. It sucked.
posted by yhbc at 9:15 PM on February 16, 2007

Con Air?
posted by boo_radley at 9:47 PM on February 16, 2007

* waits *
posted by yhbc at 9:53 PM on February 16, 2007

I can't believe there are people in this world that did not know to pronounce it as "Mee-Fye". neanderthals
: )
Seriously, I enjoyed it. Good first effort!
posted by spock at 10:36 PM on February 16, 2007

First off, I really enjoyed this podcast. I now have a podcast to listen to on my iPod! Hooray!

Second, I apparently had an inherent misunderstanding on how to pronounce the prefix "meta" at all.

May-tuh.

Those who pronounced it "incorrectly" may take off their dunce caps and hand them to me.

:(

Thank you for bringing it to my attention, though.

(And for the record, it's pronounced "KIT-roose FREE-ehk won-too".)
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:04 PM on February 16, 2007

Neither seem to have majorly caught on.

The CBC Radio 3 podcast, which is one of the more popular podcasts on iTunes, has used this for some time. They seem to like using the feature whereby you can include pictures to show a lot of odd pictures of the host.
posted by oaf at 11:09 PM on February 16, 2007

I can't believe there are people in this world that did not know to pronounce it as "Mee-Fye". neanderthals
Actually, in the valley of the Neander it is pronounced as mayfee. Nothing wrong with that.
And citrusfreak, throw off that dunce cap. Apparently you live in the valley of the Neander too and thus you say "may-tah". Stand proud!
(you can even say it with a Schwarzenegger accent)
posted by jouke at 12:20 AM on February 17, 2007

Hooray! I will continue my dictionary-ignoring pronunciations!
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:39 AM on February 17, 2007

I like it. You could do sort of ‘themed’ casts with for instance, the rules of mefi (link it in the faq) where you lay down the law, or that sort. You could drag up old metatalks about controversial isssues, what is the usual no-no’s that new posters commit, that sort of thing.
posted by Catfry at 3:19 AM on February 17, 2007

Cool! Can't wait for more!

SVES-keh-moos
posted by sveskemus at 4:09 AM on February 17, 2007

Do I need to note that Wendell is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable? WEHN-duhl. It does NOT rhyme with "end well" (and I wish to thank cortex for not trying to make it rhyme in the 88 Lines song) nor does it rhyme with "Deal or No Deal".

As for the Meta-pronunciations, it was always Meh-tah-filter like 'metaphysical', but when the "MeFi" abbreviation came along, I followed the "Hi-Fi" precedent and pronounced that Mee-Fie. When "WiFi" became popular (AFTER MeFi), that just helped set it in stone for me. MeTa, in order to set it aside from just saying "Meta", I pronounce Mee-Tah. And for AskMe, "Ask-MEE" is so much better than "AskMeh". Because there is nothing "Meh" in MetaFilter.
posted by wendell at 5:02 AM on February 17, 2007

Ahh..so you were doing a recon mission when you went on the BBoing podcast Matt?
Thanks. It was interesting enough and if it's put in front of me again I'll probably listen but I dunno..um....I'm kind of in the 'not sure why' camp. Between the popular favorites, the sidebar, Meta and continuous participation/reading of the site, the idea of a rehash podcast isn't grabbing me. Then again, if things wacky and interesting occur in them and a link is put in front of me, great.
posted by peacay at 5:09 AM on February 17, 2007

It's not mate-a-filter or meet-a-filter, it's met-a-filter.

A melon jar.
posted by emelenjr at 7:14 AM on February 17, 2007

Is it down now? I was listening to it, spaced-out and clicked "back" and now I can't get it to load. It sounded cool, though.
posted by micayetoca at 7:52 AM on February 17, 2007

I think it would be cool to invite a mefi member or two to take part in the next one. A live performance from Cortex, for example?
posted by empath at 8:18 AM on February 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow, that is not what I imagined Matt to sound like.
posted by blasdelf at 8:49 AM on February 17, 2007

A live performance from Cortex, for example?

I'd like to suggest a live performance from Astro Zombie 3. I'm curious to know how he would pronounce his username.
posted by sleevener at 8:50 AM on February 17, 2007

Great idea. The two rooms sound is a bit freakish, but overall this was very well done. Will listen again.
posted by safetyfork at 9:10 AM on February 17, 2007

I say "May Fye."
posted by brundlefly at 11:47 AM on February 17, 2007

Thanks for this, Matt. I've been looking for weeks for a way to record Skype calls on Mac. Lots of plugins, but PC-only.

I'd actually come to the conclusion that it was physically impossible.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:11 PM on February 17, 2007

It's so true the American vs. European "What do you do?" thing. Europeans ask me when they meet me "So, what do you LIKE to do?" Americans it's always "So, what do you DO? Like, for a job?"
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:35 PM on February 17, 2007

Love it, love it! Now I need to get an mp3 player - the idea of enjoying MeFi on the subway thrills me endlessly.

While some people want it to be more planned out, I vote, don't change a thing. Overplanning and getting too fancy will just ruin the fun.

What's next? MetaTV?
posted by SassHat at 3:45 PM on February 17, 2007

Who is the target audience for the podcast anyway?

Us, obviously. We'll be tuning in each week to see if one of our posts or comments gets mentioned. It will be like the Oscars, only you don't get a statue or actual fame. But it will still feel good.
posted by fungible at 9:24 PM on February 18, 2007

This thread's got me worrying about all the words I've never actually heard, only read.

So... how do you pronounce ephemera?
posted by flameproof at 3:22 AM on February 19, 2007

It's not just the US ... they do the "what (job) do you do?" thing here in Canada and at home in Ireland too. Of course in Ireland it's generally followed by "do you own a house?" too.
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:18 AM on February 19, 2007

Very carefully, flameproof.
posted by cortex at 9:00 AM on February 19, 2007

If you are a Digger, you can Digg the Metafilter Podcast...
posted by Argyle at 5:27 PM on February 19, 2007

Listening to this on the train last night was one of the most surreal experiences I've had. I have never heard any MeFi username spoken out loud before and to hear that as well as discussion about MeFi generally did my head in in a big way. I enjoyed every banal moment of it, though and I eagerly await the next instalment.
posted by dg at 9:37 PM on February 19, 2007

I listened to the meh-fee podcast on my heh-fee stereo.
posted by jewzilla at 9:52 PM on February 19, 2007

He ain't heh-fee, he's my sockpuppet.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:14 PM on February 19, 2007

I finally just listened to the show. Most excellent.

Notes:

a) needs more drinking and foul language.
b) lots of people read 'stavros' as 'starvos'. Don't feel bad about it.
c) I feel stupid (OK, stupider) about posting yet another 'feel the love' thread after you guys mentioned how many examples of it there'd been recently.
d) Yay!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:09 PM on February 19, 2007

Hey, they do sound different than I expected. Weird. I think mathowie sounds younger and jessamyn sounds older.
posted by smackfu at 11:25 AM on February 20, 2007

You know, this is cool. I really like that Matt and Jess are actually trying to make some type of "product' for the consumption of the community. I think though, that in the end, it will serve a much more relevant purpose than just 'product'.
Thanks!
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 7:55 PM on February 20, 2007

this is cool---keep it up (or let others do it some weeks if you guy's can't) Matt, are you stuffed up?

i can't believe that Wheel story from robocop--i didn't see that thread at all...
posted by amberglow at 3:34 PM on February 23, 2007