LRB Shoutout | MetaTalk

Metafilters own......
posted by adamvasco at 8:58 AM on October 10, 2007

That is just about enough of that.
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:05 AM on October 10, 2007

I think it's a bit off that she mentions Katullus post about Baudelaire yet psmealey's post about Husker Du? Nothing.
posted by oh pollo! at 9:05 AM on October 10, 2007

Where's my shout-out, Jenny? I won't be buying your book now, you know. If you could flounce off in a huff in text, that's what I'd be doing now.
posted by Abiezer at 9:06 AM on October 10, 2007

It's really more of a MetaTalk shoutout, although there's no direct link.
posted by Lezzles at 9:06 AM on October 10, 2007

Mostly like it, some bits near the end I disagreed with, biggest of which was mentioning a banned users medical condition. Politely suggest she check out 4chan or some such to get a good sense of what unchecked forums look like.
posted by edgeways at 9:07 AM on October 10, 2007

Man, that's not a shoutout, that's a love note. Thanks, Jenny!
posted by cortex at 9:07 AM on October 10, 2007

Because appearing even pseudonymously in the LRB would leave me chuffed to bursting
posted by Abiezer at 9:08 AM on October 10, 2007

(Fact checking, though: I didn't come on until early 07, and well more than 5% of the readership reads Metatalk.)
posted by cortex at 9:12 AM on October 10, 2007

MeTa Pony Request: Tag navigation and perpetually open MeTas for stuff like this.

Who the hell is Mickey?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:13 AM on October 10, 2007

After this comment J Diski became my all time favorite semi famous Mefi celeb.

take that asavage!
posted by afu at 9:14 AM on October 10, 2007

(Fact checking, though: I didn't come on until early 07, and well more than 5% of the readership reads Metatalk.)

I was just going to ask about that. Thankfully, my life is not flying by as fast as I was fearing.
posted by probablysteve at 9:16 AM on October 10, 2007

'Mickey' is an obfuscation of a similar two-syllable male nickname handle. Whether or not that would come up was one of the first things that I wondered when I saw this was a bit longer of a writeup than "where do you spend time online" blurb from the wasting-acres thread. Because boy was that a hell of a thread; whether and how to convey the long, slow-burn arc of that banning which came to a head in the same thread in which jenny first (as far as I can tell) had a conversation re: authority with the user in question, I don't know, but it struck me at the time.
posted by cortex at 9:21 AM on October 10, 2007

When quoting someone from across the pond, is it customary to change their spelling to the local version (like changing "civilized" to "civilised")?

Obviously, it could've been an affectation on Matt's part, or maybe he's Canadian, who knows? Or it could be an LRB stylebook thing. Just curious.
posted by breezeway at 9:21 AM on October 10, 2007

Ohhh.
Confusing, since the other legit usernames in the piece are also in quotes. Can't say I approve of that, or her characterization of that particular incident.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:28 AM on October 10, 2007

FREE INSOMNYUK
posted by quonsar at 9:34 AM on October 10, 2007

I'd still like her to be my ether bunny.
posted by Floydd at 9:43 AM on October 10, 2007

Great, just what we need, metafilter to become innundated by liberal-minded intellectuals. Well, you can't have the LRB links, they're mine...all mine...
posted by criticalbill at 9:49 AM on October 10, 2007

She's really been paying attention.
posted by iconomy at 9:56 AM on October 10, 2007

I've heard of her! Hooray of MetaFilter for being famous!
posted by Plutor at 10:01 AM on October 10, 2007

We need to open a personal ads section immediately to accommodate the influx of witty would-be adulterers.
posted by Abiezer at 10:04 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Who the hell is Mickey?

...from her description, it sounds like davy.
posted by horsemuth at 10:07 AM on October 10, 2007

Wow. I find it interesting that someone would pay so much attention to what goes on on the site, but not comment that often. Maybe as a professional writer, she doesn't want to waste keystrokes? Not that it's a bad thing, just interesting.

I still like this comment about this comment

_{_{So naturally, I look through her posting history, and I see one of her answers on ask.metafilter is simply one word:

"lies"

And I'm all, "Shit, that's ballsy! Nothing constructive, just calling the question a bunch of lies? Dang! How feisty!" Then I clicked on the link to see the full the question.

Imagine my disappointment.

posted by Greg Nog at 10:25 AM on September 21}}

posted by delmoi at 10:17 AM on October 10, 2007

Yeah, it must be d*vy. She (and cortex, above) go some way to disguise his username/ID. I didn't know he was permabanned though, so - how did she? Was it announced?
posted by dash_slot- at 10:19 AM on October 10, 2007

Quick, jack up the membership fee to $50! British money is worth like a million of real money, so it is only fair. I heard it on the TV.
posted by ND¢ at 10:19 AM on October 10, 2007

I'm pretty sure it came out in that same (gigantic) thread, dash_slot-.
posted by cortex at 10:24 AM on October 10, 2007

Did she get paid for that?

Damn. I gotta figure out a way to get paid for this.

Jenny, email me and let me know how you managed to get an editor to bite on that!
posted by klangklangston at 10:42 AM on October 10, 2007

Cortex (Matt or Jessamyn for that matter), what are the use/view percentages? The blue vs. green vs. gray, etc. I was surprised that Ms. Diski would say that only 5% of members participate on the gray. Is there some place we can view what sort of traffic each page sees? Oh, wait. Is that a pony I am asking for? If I get it, I am TOTALLY naming her Cricket.
posted by msali at 10:49 AM on October 10, 2007

There's not really a public view of the stats at this point, no. I'm kind of fond of that sort of data dorkery, so it's something I'd like to see in the future, but for now we just have to do some digging and estimating.

Last I heard, AskMe gets the slim majority (or at least plurality?) of site traffic, with the blue close behind; metatalk sees significantly less raw traffic, but that doesn't correllate directly to userbase traffic because Metatalk presumably does not get much casual, non-member readership. If what Jenny saw was one of the raw pageview figure that's been shown around before, the 5% number is a reasonable if flawed supposition.
posted by cortex at 11:06 AM on October 10, 2007

She likes us! She really likes us!
posted by brain_drain at 11:17 AM on October 10, 2007

She likes us! She really likes us! God-damn she likes us!
posted by ericb at 11:22 AM on October 10, 2007

Swapping the world of fluffers for one of fluff, klang?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:23 AM on October 10, 2007

Shit, sorry for the reveal. I just assumed that was all common knowledge (the comments and the banning from that particular thread, and the meds part from 50% of "mickey" 's own comments). Cortex, please feel free to delete my previous comment if that was somehow out of bounds.
posted by horsemuth at 11:26 AM on October 10, 2007

I don't think it's a great big deal, horsemuth; it was polite if maybe not necessary of her to bother in the writeup, and I was willing to run with it, but davy is as much a part of the history of the site as any other highly visible member, so we don't have any real need to avoid mentioning him.
posted by cortex at 11:30 AM on October 10, 2007

She (and cortex, above) go some way to disguise his username/ID
Wow. Didn't see that comment. Open mouth, insert foot...
posted by horsemuth at 11:37 AM on October 10, 2007

oh, and preview is good too. Thanks cortex.
posted by horsemuth at 11:39 AM on October 10, 2007

We thought she was into ether, but turned out someone had slipped her a Mickey!
posted by Abiezer at 11:40 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is just one guy's opinion, but we're already marketing heavily to the "literary and/or British Isles" segment. I mean, that's why we acquired jessamyn. We've already got the musician-geek thing covered, too, so we should probably concentrate our efforts henceforth on getting mentions on hip-hop radio and televised wrestling events.
posted by koeselitz at 11:49 AM on October 10, 2007

*Raises homemade HAUGHEY 3:16 sign*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:51 AM on October 10, 2007

Good call, koeselitz. Less Adam Savage, more Randy Savage.

"Flag into a Slim-Jim", he'll cry, and then break a folding chair over jonmc's back.
posted by cortex at 11:55 AM on October 10, 2007

When quoting someone from across the pond, is it customary to change their spelling to the local version (like changing "civilized" to "civilised")?

You go with the style guidelines of the paper (or whatever outlet) that's publishing the piece.
posted by Miko at 12:00 PM on October 10, 2007

god she loses it towards the end doesn't she... metafilter geeks? what does she mean by that?
posted by criticalbill at 12:13 PM on October 10, 2007

We got some stats on AskMe vs MeFi vs MeTa usage in this thread last year,
posted by roofus at 12:17 PM on October 10, 2007

"Acquiring Jessamyn" is "marketing heavily to the "literary and/or British Isles" segment?" Whatever-t-f does that mean,
koeselitz? IIRC, jessamyn was contributing awesome answers to Metafilter and AskMe well before she graciously accepted the thankless task of co-moderator. What are you going on about? And if that is how you see this place, how do you categorize "acquiring Cortex?"
posted by Lynsey at 12:25 PM on October 10, 2007

I'd be the "musician-geek thing", I think. And I'm pretty sure he was just kidding around, Lynsey.
posted by cortex at 12:27 PM on October 10, 2007

Didn't they get cortex for Paul Coffey and a third-round draft pick?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:27 PM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Acquiring Jessamyn would be an awesome book/song/band title.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:29 PM on October 10, 2007

Holy cwap! I can't believe I got a mention in The London Review of Books! Holy moley! That's one way to perk up the day.

Though, of course, my username gets misspelled. Which seems to be my curse in life. My real first and last names get misspelled all the time too. Hell, the US government doesn't even spell my name right. Still, any spelling error is out-weighed by the fact that I got mentioned in the London Fucking Review of Fucking Books!
posted by Kattullus at 12:30 PM on October 10, 2007

Jenny, that's pretty awesome. Like Abiezer, I hope we get some "Disinherited, disenfranchised Persian mystic-writer[s]" and "Attractive, well appointed lad[ies]" and maybe even some "18th century farmhouse[s] to rent."

p.s. I'm glad you weren't offended away by last time this happened! Not just anyone gets a sardonic weenie waggle around here...
posted by mosessis at 12:39 PM on October 10, 2007

Metatalk: Same old Foucauldian world.
posted by R. Mutt at 12:42 PM on October 10, 2007

Acquiring Jessamyn

The trick, when acquiring Jessamyn
Is to notate her taxonomy.
A carefully measured specimen
Yields a metric tonne of bonhomie.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:51 PM on October 10, 2007 [6 favorites]

Nice piece. I too was a little annoyed by the last part, but then when I tried to analyze why I was annoyed I realized I pretty much agreed with her, it was just that I felt conflicted about, as she put it, "some intractable tension between freedom and function," and she was rubbing my nose in it. Good writing there.
posted by languagehat at 1:03 PM on October 10, 2007

Hey! I sent an errata and they corrected it! Sweet! Too late for the print edition, but who cares what's printed as long as it's googlable :)
posted by Kattullus at 1:13 PM on October 10, 2007

"Swapping the world of fluffers for one of fluff, klang?"

Oh, if only. The last thing I got paid to write about (well, due to the slow wheels of justice, I haven't gotten my check yet) was pornographic comics.

It pays more than I used to make, but why are the only places that will publish me interested in either prurient fluff or long, tedious and dry discussions of public policy minutiae?
posted by klangklangston at 1:15 PM on October 10, 2007

(Well, pay me to publish, rather).
posted by klangklangston at 1:15 PM on October 10, 2007

London Fucking Review of Fucking Books!

I propose they change the official name of their publication to this.
posted by trip and a half at 1:31 PM on October 10, 2007

Something tells me that, in years to come, the instant they put the word "stavrosthewonderchicken" in print will be seen as the beginning of the end for the LRB.

No offense, stav. It coulda been anybody.
posted by felix betachat at 1:47 PM on October 10, 2007

Yay. I had not heard of Jenny Diski before, and now I am reading her old articles with pleasure. And so the great circle of life continues, or something.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:51 PM on October 10, 2007

If you like her writing, I_am_joe's_spleen, I recommend the book Smoking Around America.

Hasn't one of the links to other pieces by Diski at the bottom of the article changed? I'm sure I remember something about a beautiful vagina.
posted by Lezzles at 2:18 PM on October 10, 2007

love it!
posted by Wilder at 2:36 PM on October 10, 2007

Wow that "horrible thread" was just a month ago. 609 comments. I'm glad I missed it.
posted by delmoi at 3:00 PM on October 10, 2007

Sometimes I feel like I'm part of an ant colony posting here.
posted by empath at 3:16 PM on October 10, 2007

err an Ant Farm, rather.
posted by empath at 3:16 PM on October 10, 2007

I really enjoyed "Acquiring Cortex", and I'm pretty sure it's a shoe-in for this years foreign-language documentary Oscar.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:28 PM on October 10, 2007

I, too, am interested in acquiring a jessamyn. Can I get the one with the 'whip off glasses and loosen hairtie revealing an impossibly gorgeous supermodel' function as seen in 80s rock videos, please?

man, I didn't even realise they were on sale!
posted by Sparx at 3:30 PM on October 10, 2007

Wow, that was fast, Jenni!

(She mentioned to me that she really wanted to write the article but was busy on other stuff. So I had figured this MeTa wouldn't show up for a month or two...)
posted by miss lynnster at 3:59 PM on October 10, 2007

in years to come, the instant they put the word "stavrosthewonderchicken" in print will be seen as the beginning of the end for the LRB.

I won't write 'em off until I see "goodnewsfortheinsnae" AND "It's Raining Florence Henderson" AND "Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America" AND "East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94". Then, we will know for sure that we at MetaFilter have thoroughly poisoned the well of culture.
posted by wendell at 4:02 PM on October 10, 2007

I this something I would need a subscription to Times Select to understand?
posted by slogger at 4:10 PM on October 10, 2007

T I M O T H Y
M C S W E E N E Y ' S

ANCIENT CHINESE RELIC APPARENTLY
HOLDS NO SUPERNATURAL POWERS.

KEVIN SMITH MOVIES RENAMED TO INCLUDE METAFILTER USERNAMES, MAKING THEM SEEM VAGUELY PORNOGRAPHIC IN THE PROCESS. BY GOODNEWSFORTHEINSANE ----

Wrangling Wendell

Procuring Poolio

Hiring Hadjiboy

Shanghaiing Stavros

Conscripting Cortex

Drafting Delmoi

Recruiting Roofus

Annexing Amberglow

Luring Languagehat

Dios

----

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:27 PM on October 10, 2007 [3 favorites]

Damn you,  .
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:28 PM on October 10, 2007

Disclosure: we spent a lot of words via email talking about the history of Metatalk and Metafilter before she finished the piece, so any error in terms of facts are probably more my fault than Jenny's.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:29 PM on October 10, 2007

# Wrangling Wendell
# Procuring Poolio
# Hiring Hadjiboy
# Shanghaiing Stavros
# Conscripting Cortex
# Drafting Delmoi
# Recruiting Roofus
# Annexing Amberglow
# Luring Languagehat
# Dios

no Jumping Jonmc?

also who is this chick again?
posted by jonmc at 4:40 PM on October 10, 2007

I think it would be "Jacking Jonmc." To go with the whole "acquiring" theme.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:44 PM on October 10, 2007

And the "vaguely pornographic" theme.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:44 PM on October 10, 2007

Lynsey: ""Acquiring Jessamyn" is "marketing heavily to the "literary and/or British Isles" segment?" Whatever-t-f does that mean,
koeselitz? IIRC, jessamyn was contributing awesome answers to Metafilter and AskMe well before she graciously accepted the thankless task of co-moderator. What are you going on about? And if that is how you see this place, how do you categorize "acquiring Cortex?""

Erm. Sorry.

(1) As someone said above, it was a joke, although perhaps not a very apt or witty one. I'm in sales, so marketing jokes are funny to me. You know, since metafilter has nothing to do with marketing, and I think it's kind of funny to think about it as though it does. It's kind of impersonal to talk about "acquiring" people, I know; that was kind of the joke.

(2) jessamyn is a librarian. Hence the "literary" thing. She's also a very literate and literary librarian, I might say, and a pretty good writer. So that's where the "literary" thing came from.

(3) The "musician/geek" thing, which is probably one part I really regret, was supposed to refer to cortex, who is oh-so-much-more, but I wasn't putting too much effort into it.

(4) Both jess and cortex are awesome contributors, and I think they're pretty fantastic mods, too. Just saying so there's no confusion, and so that there's no fallout between me and MetaFilterCorp. Wouldn't want this to get in the way of our marketing pending contracts, y'know.
posted by koeselitz at 4:47 PM on October 10, 2007

blue_beetle: "I really enjoyed "Acquiring Cortex", and I'm pretty sure it's a shoe-in for this years foreign-language documentary Oscar."

Acquiring Cortex? Man, I fucking hated it. She always sends me to the goddamned Wallgreens for that crap. Embarrassing as hell.
posted by koeselitz at 4:50 PM on October 10, 2007

... got a mention in The London Review of Books! Holy moley!

Then again, what about those people over at the LRB now thinking, "... we got a mention on Metafilter! Holy moley!"
posted by woodblock100 at 5:04 PM on October 10, 2007

I'm also quite pleased that I indirectly got Sean Bonney his first mention in the London Review of Books. Now I'm all the more pissed that Sean Bonney happened to be reading in Providence at the same time as another event I had already paid $21 to see.
posted by Kattullus at 5:18 PM on October 10, 2007

"When quoting someone from across the pond, is it customary to change their spelling to the local version (like changing "civilized" to "civilised")?"

One does not change anothers writing with a quote. That is why god made ibid
posted by Megafly at 5:23 PM on October 10, 2007

Acquiring Jessamyn would be an awesome book/song/band title.

sorry, IRFH, but in my deeply researched study of "___________ would be an awesome band name" on metafilter (which was published in the February 2006 issue of The Journal of Fabricated Studies), i have come to the conclusion that this statement is never true in any permutation, and if metafilter were in charge of naming bands, every band in the world would have a corny-ass in-joke name like "We Have Cameras" or "Hurf Durf Portobello" or "Jonmc Hammer."
posted by Hat Maui at 6:02 PM on October 10, 2007

One does not change anothers writing with a quote.

Yes, one does, "one" being "all professional publications." Speak for yourself.
posted by languagehat at 6:11 PM on October 10, 2007

Kidding aside, though, that wouldn't have to be a fabricated study.
posted by cortex at 6:11 PM on October 10, 2007

god she loses it towards the end doesn't she... metafilter geeks? what does she mean by that?

*clears throat*
posted by loquacious at 6:19 PM on October 10, 2007

That is why god made ibid sic
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:22 PM on October 10, 2007

"ibid sic" would be an awesome band name
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:30 PM on October 10, 2007

(Parenthetically speaking, I know what you mean, Hat. In fact, the first time I wrote that line, I wote it as "Acquiring Jessamyn would be an awesome book/song/emo band title." But I didn't feel like arguing the possibility of such things as "awesome emo bands." So I self-edited to the more popular form. Should have known better.)
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:35 PM on October 10, 2007

nice, cortex. seems like a compendium of that search data is in order (nudge). i mean, aside from the fake one i did for my study.

and IRFH (or as i like to call you to myself, "erfah"), you should have gone with your first impulse. speaking for myself, i would have understood that by "awesome emo band name" you meant "totally awesome in its lameness." but i get you, ya know?
posted by Hat Maui at 7:08 PM on October 10, 2007

I think that's the best piece I've ever seen written about Metafilter. Well done jennydiski.
posted by peacay at 7:16 PM on October 10, 2007

There sure are a lot of famous people I have never heard of.

I'll go back to my cave now.
posted by konolia at 7:29 PM on October 10, 2007

i take it that the LRB doesn't have a policy against self-links. meh to it, then.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:43 PM on October 10, 2007

The point of the "MetaFilter geeks" bit was obviously to say that those of us who haunt MeTa are a more committed sub-section of the entire user-base, wasn't it? Like policy wonks.
posted by Abiezer at 12:42 AM on October 11, 2007

Heading LRB-wards steered me to this excellent article on Félix Fénéon. The Halperin book Barnes mentions in the piece is something of a triumph of scholarship.

To this extent I am truly grateful!
posted by Wolof at 12:55 AM on October 11, 2007

That is a great read, Wol, thanks. "I'm not here to write, but to be mad."
posted by Abiezer at 1:24 AM on October 11, 2007

"goodnewsfortheinsnae"

Ah, good news for the insane's Scottish sock puppet. He really disnae post enough.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:44 AM on October 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

He doesnae? Coosin Isnae was it postin' drunken screeds while ye waur still a wee bairn sucklin' at yer mother's teat!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:19 AM on October 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

So - pleased no one's (so far) is too offended.

Sorry about mistiming you Cortex, a case, I'm afraid of truth versus wordage.

Abiezer - I'm so sorry. In spirit you were there. Obviously.

Klang - I've been writing for the LRB for nearly 20 years. It's foot in the door.

English spelling is house style. It's what the LRB does. I'm never sure about changing the spelling of quotes but US spelling looks odd to the English reader. I was in Puerto Rico once and some guy asked me if I was French. I wondered why he thought I was. 'Because you speak English with a funny accent.'

Miss Lynnster: They had a sudden hole in the page. It's so nice to be wanted...
posted by jennydiski at 9:08 AM on October 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

I have favourited your comment as a token of my admiration, Jenny, and also as a form of subtle emotional blackmail, hoping to remind you that the Good Book tells us that the Spirit was made Flesh, and I similarly wish for a fully fleshed-out treatment should you find yourself writing about MetaFilter again. You know, maybe an "online weirdos I have encountered" piece or something.
posted by Abiezer at 10:48 AM on October 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sorry about mistiming you Cortex, a case, I'm afraid of truth versus wordage.

No sweat. I figure this thread is all the errata we really need, anyway; and the hardest-core of new LRB-inspired readers can confide knowingly the truth of the matter when Metafilter comes up at the cocktail party...

'Because you speak English with a funny accent.'

Ha!
posted by cortex at 11:05 AM on October 11, 2007

jennydiski: "I'm never sure about changing the spelling of quotes but US spelling looks odd to the English reader."

It looks odd to us over here, too. We've found a good solution is just to stop reading entirely.
posted by koeselitz at 11:41 AM on October 11, 2007

Thanks for the Barnes review, Wolof. I shook my head over this, though:

Novels in Three Lines by Félix Fénéon, translated by Luc Santé

There is no accent aigu on Sante, for the very good reason that the -e is silent, there only to make sure you pronounce the -nt- and don't just nasalize the a. Happily, that desecration was not committed elsewhere in the compte rendu.
posted by languagehat at 3:53 PM on October 11, 2007

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