"news items for discussion" or "interesting web stuff"

November 28, 2001 1:31 PM

Not terribly original, but how about asking people to tag their FPPs either "news items for discussion" or "interesting web stuff." Then give people the choice in luser options to view one or both. The 'filter needs a filter.

posted by luser to feature requests at 1:31 PM (6 comments total)

The categories would have to be either really granular, or really vague. One's too much work , the other essentially useless. And then we get into the question of whether to allow multiple categorization. And how many?

Categorize these for me:
News item about an art project/opening: News or art?
Software art: Tech, art, or just "interesting stuff"?
The Osama & Bert link: News or humor?

Posting something inherently says it's interesting, at least to you and the person who published the page. Having an "interesting" tag hanging at the top of a link is just an easy target for the one loudmouth who doesn't like your post.
Besides, the confusion above, filtering by category means I'd never get to see some posts at all, and the random discovery that's based off nothing more than someone's descriptive text is nice sometimes.
posted by Su at 3:39 PM on November 28, 2001

i found the metaprojects page again today so maybe i could hide out there. Might get lonely though;)
posted by worldsystema at 5:16 PM on November 28, 2001

That's the first step down a slippery slope that might eventually make Metafilter more like Plastic. Which is to say, useless. My vote would be against it.

posted by Hildago at 6:08 PM on November 28, 2001

Su, I'm not suggesting any subjective categorization. FPPosters would select one of two designations: "news" if it's a link to an article from one of x number of predetermined domains (including NYT, ananova, guardian, usatoday, etc.) and "notnews" if it's not. Nothing too granular or vague about that. It's objective enough to be scripted.

Users could choose to see ALL or "notnews only". Choosing the ALL view, you'd see no different Metafilter than you see now. Choosing the other view, you'd see a more interesting Metafilter (in my opinion).

Slippery slope, Hildago? I don't see how. Matt changes what he wishes to change. The laws of physics don't apply.

Of course, the other option would be to just reject all FPPs pointing to the list of "news" domains, but I'd like the ability to see those at times like 9/11.
posted by luser at 5:18 AM on November 29, 2001

luser, I don't know that your suggestion is the solution, but I'm certainly aware of the problem, and I sympathize. I'm getting really sick of the I like X... What do you like? threads. Maybe it's just a phase Metafilter's going through. Or maybe it's a permanent drift of Metafilter's usage. I hope it's the former.
posted by owen at 12:58 PM on November 29, 2001

There are a lot of people who would argue Ananova being news. I'll leave that right there. Also, I consider Lines&Splines news. Sounds to me like you're defining news as the media sources you're tired of being pointed at. There's that subjectivity again. I'll repeat what many others have said before: Don't Click the Link.

To counter your first statement, though, you originally used the word "interesting." Hardly supports non-subjectivity. But beyond that quibble, even News and Not- are subjective. Look at my examples again.
I'd be much more interested in "news" of a certain new software release than in the latest update to the Current Situation. I'll argue, however, that most people would stick that in your Not- category. So does that require a new "not-News news" category, or just people shutting up and dealing? Not going to happen. People will probably eventually start clamoring for more categories. And ponies. I already see Owen requesting a monotopic category *grin*

I like the fact nothing's categorized. You dig through the pile, and click on what looks promising. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes you make a new discovery. Sometimes MeFi is like a box of chocolates.
Yes, the pile is getting big, but I don't think this is the best way to deal with it. If it comes down to a change in the system, the idea of breaking MeFi into cells with people randomly reassigned was very neat, but also complicated. More practically, maybe a slight redesign to use two-colums and a generous FPP word-limit might help keep things visible a little longer and cut back on scrolling. I dunno. Honestly don't have a real suggestion myself at the moment, but my vote definitely goes against this one.
posted by Su at 3:52 PM on November 29, 2001