Electionfilter! June 27, 2007 2:13 PM   Subscribe

The newsvine elections area is pretty cool. Vote inside...
posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 2:13 PM (70 comments total)


posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:13 PM on June 27, 2007


I'd love to run this for a time across the site, maybe below the tag listing on comment pages? Maybe just for a week.

I wonder if we'd all vote for Obama or Kucinich or heck, even that crazy Ron Paul guy.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:15 PM on June 27, 2007


Everyone vote Brownback!
posted by geoff. at 2:16 PM on June 27, 2007


where is the "none of these fuckers" option?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:23 PM on June 27, 2007


Here are the results so far.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:24 PM on June 27, 2007


where is the "none of these fuckers" option?

Looks like an X in a red box at the top right corner of my screen, but I'm running Windows.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 2:24 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


Can I vote for Jessamyn?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:26 PM on June 27, 2007


DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:29 PM on June 27, 2007


HOWIE DEFEATS JESSMAN
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:30 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


Obama? You stupid motherfuckers. Richardson 4 life!

(There, there's a taste of 2008, you premature electorators).
posted by klangklangston at 2:32 PM on June 27, 2007


If Matt wants to put this up, hey, it's his site, but at this point, the last thing I want to see is another poll about presidential candidates.

Plus it's American-centric navel gazing and do you really want to hear those lesser countries bitch about American-centric navel gazing?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:32 PM on June 27, 2007


I don't care if he died, I still support Pat Paulsen.
posted by wendell at 2:32 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


Between Paul, Kucinich, Gravel and Richardson, which one's the most pro-weed? Not that namby-pamby sick-people-need-medicine pro-weed, I'm talking about hotbox-the-Oval-Office pro-weed.
posted by box at 2:34 PM on June 27, 2007 [5 favorites]


Well, if the internationals want their election to have a poll, they can write the code for one and submit it to be posted.

Also, Paul 4 Lyfe.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 2:34 PM on June 27, 2007


Is there some sort of wikipedia-esque place I can go and get a rundown of where each candidate stands on certain "key issues?"

Furthermore, is there an RSS feed I can subscribe to for updates when they change their positions?

Because I really have no clue what their stance on anything is.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 2:34 PM on June 27, 2007


Plus its American-centric navel gazing and do you really want to hear those lesser countries bitch about American-centric navel gazing?

I'm running a Greasemonkey script that filters out any comment not made in the US.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:39 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


I voted for Sanjaya.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:43 PM on June 27, 2007 [3 favorites]


This is a cool little widget. But why I can't I vote Bloomberg?

do you really want to hear those lesser countries bitch about American-centric navel gazing?

Yes. Yes, I do.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:43 PM on June 27, 2007


I'd love to run this for a time across the site, maybe below the tag listing on comment pages? Maybe just for a week.

Then be prepared to delete every "OMG [candidate of choice] scratched his/her ass" post that we'll get. I know that a lot of people really really care about this election, but my personal feeling is that it's encouraging ElectionFilter posts which are already starting to be a problem in their ungoodness as MeFi posts. Maybe we can put a disclaimer on the posting page "If this is about the US Election..."

Citrus: VoteSmart.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:49 PM on June 27, 2007 [3 favorites]


Yuck. We are a year and a half out. Do we have to encourage this kind of talk or focus? As if we aren't all going to be beaten down to a near-suicidal state by the election this time next year, do we have to start the process now?

Please no. Please don't encourage this crap.
posted by dios at 2:54 PM on June 27, 2007 [2 favorites]


What dios said. You seem to be making a rod for your own back here.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 2:56 PM on June 27, 2007


I'm torn. I voted above, but I'm not a US citizen, and it is awfully goddamn early, and... dios may in fact be right.
posted by blacklite at 2:59 PM on June 27, 2007


The only reason I'd want to have it around is to see MetaFilter on the big shiny list right beside Facebook, but that's a pretty immature reason to put something on the front page, and I'm sure I won't care after a week of seeing it splashed across the site (which, in 2007, is still one of the tidiest websites out there.)

(And besides, who wants to compete with Facebook? It's only for spoiled people. Or whatever.)
posted by blacklite at 3:02 PM on June 27, 2007


Wow, thanks for the tip jessamyn.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 3:09 PM on June 27, 2007


Pataki?
posted by ibmcginty at 3:10 PM on June 27, 2007


This is an extremely surprising suggestion.

Seriously, a widget about candidates in a US election over a year away?

A widget that doesn't link to the candidates' sites or have any kind of integration with the rest of the site features.. basically an ad, except in the wrong spot for an ad, and visible logged in?

Maybe it's because I'm in the UK now but this seems weird. Or maybe it's a satirical anti-election-filter riff?
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:13 PM on June 27, 2007


Gotta agree with jessamyn et al—it's a nice widget, and there's a certain perverse attraction in using a vote poll as a honeypot for merciless deletion material, but it's probably just going to aggravate the latent electionitis.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:17 PM on June 27, 2007


Do we HAVE to do politics right now? Can we wait at least until November?

I'm so freekin' tired of all the political crap and everyone demanding that I MUST CARE because OUR COUNTRY IS IN DANGER.

Just a sock in it. Give me four more months of lolcats, single link YouTube posts, and atheist threadjackings demanding that the Sekritt Xian Cabal(TM) stop censoring their posts. I can deal with any of that, but what I can't deal with is ONE MORE WORD ABOUT THIS ENDLESS POINTLESS IMPOSSIBLY LONG ELECTION SEASON.

That goes doubly for Ron Paul supporters.
posted by dw at 3:21 PM on June 27, 2007


What Jessamyn said. And the widget is bloody awful.
posted by cillit bang at 3:24 PM on June 27, 2007


I'm voting for Fred Thompson simply because seeing his picture in the background of the DA office on Law & Order would blow my mind.

Yeah, I'm the guy keeping Tom Jefferson spinning at night.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:25 PM on June 27, 2007


Please don't encourage this crap.

Eh, I thought it'd serve as a release valve. Like no more posts about Obama scratching his ass, instead go ahead and vote what you think instead. Also, I'm just kind of curious where everyone stands this early in the game.

But I hear you all loud and clear, I won't post it anywhere else.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:30 PM on June 27, 2007


Can I make an FPP linking to it here?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:35 PM on June 27, 2007


Eh, I thought it'd serve as a release valve. Like no more posts about Obama scratching his ass, instead go ahead and vote what you think instead.

That's a good thought. And if I thought for a minute that it might be the case, I'd be all for it. But my experience with politics on the internet is that it is like kudzu; once the seed is planted it devours everything. We've done a pretty good job of chopping it back recently. But something like this just screams that "this is a politically active and focused site; lets talk election!"

Maybe a link on the front page to the excellent devoter instead would be a more effective release valve? It would really help that site take off, and given the other value this site offers, I don't think it is a threat to steal eyeballs if that is the concern.
posted by dios at 3:37 PM on June 27, 2007


I've done what I think is a rather detailed search, but I can't find that ass scratching post.
posted by mss at 3:40 PM on June 27, 2007


That was a typo; jessamyn meant eye-scratching.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:48 PM on June 27, 2007


You wait until the Australian federal election is called. We are going to hammer you fuckers with inane posts about our election.
posted by Jimbob at 4:20 PM on June 27, 2007


Elections? We don't need no stinking elections! Here in Britain, we got ourselves a brand new PM today with none of this democracy nonsense.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:26 PM on June 27, 2007


Wait, I just thought of this. If internationals can complain about our election, can we complain about their elections?
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 4:27 PM on June 27, 2007


Well, hey, if you're not going to do it for our candidates, can we do it for the overseaers? I think plenty of Americans here would be more than happy to give their opinion on something they know less than fuckall about, and maybe those across the water would stop being so ruffled about Americentricity on MeFi if they had some of their own buttons to click.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:32 PM on June 27, 2007


You know, I voted, then I felt terrible for doing so. The widget made me feel bad.

Instead, can we have a widget that lets us vote for banning a single user every week? That, or naming a kitten that we collectively adopt.
posted by davejay at 5:00 PM on June 27, 2007


I think plenty of Americans here would be more than happy to give their opinion on something they know less than fuckall about, and maybe those across the water would stop being so ruffled about Americentricity on MeFi if they had some of their own buttons to click.

The implication here being that those outside America know less than fuckall about your quaint politics in USA. I think you'll find that that is frequently not the case. We tend to know marginally more than fuckall.

But, then, this may be a manifestation of Americas being happy to give their opinion on something they know less than fuckall about -- in this case, the American Politics savvy of overseasians.

VOTE WONDERCHICKEN 08!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:09 PM on June 27, 2007


Um, no, the implication is that Americans are more than happy to give their opinions about things they don't know anything about. I'm not sure how you've managed you parse my silly comment into something denigrating the political savvy of non-Americans, but hey, it's a free website.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:25 PM on June 27, 2007


VOTE WONDERCHICKEN I AM YOUR ONLY HOPE
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:30 PM on June 27, 2007


But I hear you all loud and clear, I won't post it anywhere else.

I have to admit that I'm somewhat encouraged, Matt, that you're occasionally as out-of-touch with the pulse of this place as I sometimes feel.
posted by Dave Faris at 6:04 PM on June 27, 2007


Uh... I think we broke Newsvine.
posted by wendell at 6:30 PM on June 27, 2007


second the "promote devoter.com", which could have a following and relationship to mefi similar to that of sportsfilter.
posted by Rumple at 6:42 PM on June 27, 2007


VOTE SAXON
posted by Dreamghost at 6:43 PM on June 27, 2007


I wanted to vote WONDERCHICKEN, but the site seems to be down for maintenance at the moment.
posted by yhbc at 6:52 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


That is pretty cool, actually.
posted by RMD at 7:05 PM on June 27, 2007


VOTE SAXON

But ... but ... he's evil.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:41 PM on June 27, 2007


I'm not voting for Wonderchicken until I read his position on low-fat kim chee.
posted by ardgedee at 8:16 PM on June 27, 2007


Elections, pff, you filthy bourgeois.
You wait till I start banging on about the politburo horse-trading at this autumn's Party congress. Which elaborately-coiffed sexagenarian functionary from the Ministry of Widgets will get the nod?
posted by Abiezer at 8:39 PM on June 27, 2007


At this moment, according to here, MetaFilter is voting 85% Democrat. By comparison, farther down the list, the Brevard County Young Democrats website is 82% Democrat. SayWHAT?!?
posted by wendell at 9:29 PM on June 27, 2007


Can we find out who are in the 15% ? Not that they shouldn't have the right to their delusions.
Now, see what you have started matthowie? The longboat was fun for the year+ that it lasted. An election season longer than that is no fun at all.
posted by Cranberry at 9:57 PM on June 27, 2007


Did I mention that I'm running for president of the US of A in 2016?
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:07 PM on June 27, 2007


Use your time machine. Go to 2017 and see if you were elected.
posted by Cranberry at 11:40 PM on June 27, 2007


I wanted to vote WONDERCHICKEN, but the site seems to be down for maintenance at the moment.

I have rectified that situation. Yes, I have too much time on my hands.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:10 AM on June 28, 2007


By comparison, farther down the list, the Brevard County Young Democrats website is 82% Democrat.

Traitors in their midst!
posted by gomichild at 5:28 AM on June 28, 2007


Can we sidebar this?
posted by empath at 6:13 AM on June 28, 2007


Your vote has been cast for this month!

View full results at Newsvine

Change Your Vote


Did you ever do something stupid like put bleach in the dark load or drop a plate and have a sudden, stupid urge to hit ctrl+alt+del, as if life's errors were as undoable as a computer command? I read that above and wondered how many American voters wish that this feature were integrated into real life.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 7:52 AM on June 28, 2007 [1 favorite]


I'm going to go with the sock-puppet on the left.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:29 AM on June 28, 2007


ctrl+alt+del ctrl+z

::sigh::
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 10:47 AM on June 28, 2007


I voted for the Wonderchicken 11 times.
posted by frykitty at 11:55 AM on June 28, 2007


Okay, but only if independent observers from Fark and LGF oversee the election and report on its adherence to regulations.

Also, don't forget there's another election going on.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:41 PM on June 28, 2007


I'm not voting for Wonderchicken until I read his position on low-fat kim chee.

Kimchi has no fat content. My official position on kimchi is that it is very nice indeed. Now VOTE WONDERCHICKEN!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:11 AM on June 29, 2007


goodnewsfortheinsane, you need to allow write-in candidates.
posted by Jimbob at 3:06 AM on June 29, 2007


My official position on kimchi is that it is very nice indeed.

Flip-flopper!

goodnewsfortheinsane, you need to allow write-in candidates.

Jimbob, I don't have any idea how.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:43 AM on June 29, 2007


By the way, all that VOTE WONDERCHICKEN stuff was about my Wonderchicken for President campaign thing, not the Moderator poll. I just saw that.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:13 AM on June 29, 2007


Yeah, what we'd really need on that front is a righty admin, so we could finally let a conservative moderate liberals.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:48 AM on June 29, 2007


He'd have to be able to work independently, of course, especially on the green.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:49 AM on June 29, 2007


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