Big Big Question: an unofficial chatfilter sanctuary experiment

November 30, 2007 8:41 AM

I'd like to introduce Big Big Question, an experimental home for hypothetical chatfilter and other "big discussion" questions.

The site is my attempt to answer the desire we've heard voiced repeatedly in Metatalk for some way to accommodate bull-session and what-if type Chatfilter questions that don't really fit the AskMe guidelines. While Metachat is in some cases a viable option and a great place in general, as a site it has a broader focus and its own social culture.

I'm hoping that Big Big Question will be a better fit for some of these things: by focusing specifically on just one big question a day, it might be a really good destination for the kind of creative, clever and imaginative conversation that makes some AskMe threads so dang painful to delete.

It's not an official Metafilter project, nor is it beholden to any Mefi goings on or in any way Mefi's responsibility -- I'm running this sucker as a side project, so, in essence, take it up with me. The FAQ has some brief guidelines, the key one being Don't Be A Jerk. In general, I hope the overall feel and ethos isn't far removed from what we aim for in the best of Metafilter itself.

The basic plan is one new question each day, and relatively free-form discussion of that. User-submitted questions are welcome and encouraged, but selection and posting is all behind the scenes at the moment, just to keep things simple.

I'm very interested in ideas about how folks see it working and how it can be refined or improved. This is, as I see it, a rough draft -- just a gussied-up Wordpress install. If this takes off and gets some momentum (and especially if it outgrows the wordpress model), I'd be keen on putting time into a more featured 2.0 version in the future.

Registering is totally optional: you can submit and answer without doing do. On the other hand, low, low userids are pretty sweet. Just sayin'.

So questions, suggestions, bug reports, etc: fire away. I hope y'all enjoy yourselves.

posted by cortex to MetaFilter-Related at 8:41 AM (108 comments total)

*cough* Projects *cough*
posted by cog_nate at 8:46 AM on November 30, 2007 [13 favorites]

BBQ? So...it's a site about meat-smoking?
posted by ColdChef at 8:47 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

selflink, banned
posted by [@I][:+:][@I] at 8:48 AM on November 30, 2007 [7 favorites]

sounds great! can we get a link on top next to the rest? or is that out of the BBQ?
posted by ClanvidHorse at 8:52 AM on November 30, 2007

My wife pretty much wants to kill me for the "BBQ" thing. It was not intentional. Heh.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:52 AM on November 30, 2007

can we get a link on top next to the rest?

Nah, this isn't a mefi subsite. More of a cousin. If it lives through the week, I'll throw it on the wiki.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:53 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

How could BBQ not be intentional? Good gods, man. You're akin to the friend of mine who gave his son the unfortunate initials of LSD and never noticed it until I pointed it out to him. Good luck carrying that personalized duffel bag into your new job at the precinct.
posted by ColdChef at 8:57 AM on November 30, 2007 [8 favorites]

The first thing I thought was the same than cog_nate. Then, I registered because I love the idea.
posted by Memo at 8:57 AM on November 30, 2007

To clarify, 'cause that came off sounding rather jerkish, I think you should post it to Projects so folks can vote it up if they like it.
posted by cog_nate at 8:58 AM on November 30, 2007

ERROR: This username is invalid. Please enter a valid username.

Fail.
posted by ND¢ at 9:00 AM on November 30, 2007

I dig it, cog_nate, and I'll get around to it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:00 AM on November 30, 2007

It seems that yahoo mail accounts (which I used because of the gmail issue) are not working either.
posted by Memo at 9:02 AM on November 30, 2007

The idea is good. That question is weird. How the hell do I know what the going rate is for a kidney, or an eyeball?

An eyeball-- wait, did mathowie put you up to this? Is this an elaborate craiglist WTB ad?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:10 AM on November 30, 2007 [3 favorites]

WTF, BBQ?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:16 AM on November 30, 2007

Can we all post personal projects to MetaTalk or is it just a mod thing?
posted by necessitas at 9:20 AM on November 30, 2007

I hope lots and lots of mefi users spend lots and lots time there whiling away their bullshittin' days and you thrive and flourish and drink lemonade and I get the gray to myself. My fondest dream.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:21 AM on November 30, 2007

I'm guessing the outgoing SMTP queue is overloaded and that's the reason I don't have my password yet?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:22 AM on November 30, 2007

Needs to look more like MeFi. A thin row of comments doesn't cut it for me.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:25 AM on November 30, 2007

Damn, when the mods start self-linking you know we have jumped the shark.
posted by caddis at 9:26 AM on November 30, 2007 [8 favorites]

Can we all post personal projects to MetaTalk or is it just a mod thing?

Yeah, a little weird. It's not affiliated with metafilter at all, but it's posted in metatalk?

Oh well, it's good to be king.
posted by justgary at 9:26 AM on November 30, 2007

what crash said.
posted by mlis at 9:28 AM on November 30, 2007

ND¢, you do realize that you tried logging in before you registered, and that's why you got the "user name invalid" thing, right? (Apologies if you're making some sort of joke that's just going right over my head.)
posted by Iamtherealme at 9:37 AM on November 30, 2007

What happens if you blithely ignore the gmail warning and then try to register the same name with a different email address?
posted by cedar at 9:37 AM on November 30, 2007

I love it. What else would be cool is if front page posts to MetaFilter could have a flag titled "BBQ This Mothafucka!" and once a certain threshold was reached, it would automatically be stripped from the blue and pushed over to BBQ. I've never asked for a "pony" before but if I were to want one, this would be it.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:39 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Pretty interesting site; I just registered and threw my answer up. Now to sit back and wait for the "take it to BBQ" callouts for chatfilter questions.
posted by TedW at 9:40 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

I hope it goes well, but throwing the ball around in the backyard isn't half as fun as throwing the ball around inside the house.
posted by R. Mutt at 9:42 AM on November 30, 2007 [16 favorites]

My uncle Sid was often heard to yell "Get your own damn BBQ!" at the dinner table. Sid had a bad relationship with paint, forklifts and hygiene.
posted by jbickers at 9:42 AM on November 30, 2007

"Which is better, wet BBQ or dry BBQ?"
posted by caddis at 9:43 AM on November 30, 2007

December 1st:

So hey, guys. MetaTalk sure is a lot more pleasant now, huh?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:00pm EST

I guess.
posted by Jessamyn at 12:15pm EST

[this thread is closed to new comments]

December 2nd:

Hey everyone. Just checking to see how my favorite mods are doing!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:01pm EST

Fine.
posted by cortex at 1:00pm EST

[this thread is closed to new comments]

December 3rd:

Hey guys, any plans for today?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:02pm EST

Not really. Work stuff, I guess.
posted by mathowie at 1:30pm EST

[this thread is closed to new comments]

December 4th:

Why do you guys keep closing my threads so early?!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:03pm EST

Guys?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:31pm EST

For real, what's going on?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:35pm EST

Okay, I know you're around, because i saw you deleted that thread about Ron Paul being voted the most amazing person in human history on some website. Don't ignore me.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:36pm EST

Fine. I'll ignore you, too. See how you like it.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:36pm EST

You know, I wouldn't be treated like this if I went over to BBQ.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:37pm EST

You know what? Fuck you guys. I'm going to BBQ.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:38pm EST

I think we're done here.
posted by Jessamyn at 4:16pm EST

[this thread is closed to new comments]
posted by shmegegge at 9:44 AM on November 30, 2007 [36 favorites]

Q: Can anyone post a question?
A: No, questions are only posted by a site moderator, but we’re happy to take suggestions.

I do understand this, really, I do, but it is less fun.

All joshing aside, good luck with this new site.
posted by caddis at 9:46 AM on November 30, 2007

Could we agree to refer to it henceforth as "The BBQ"? If not for the implicit institute-ish sheen it lends it, then at least for sentences popping up here like "Take it to the BBQ" or "That will be a great question for the BBQ".

Anyhoo, this is awesome.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:48 AM on November 30, 2007

Waiting...waiting...waiting... "You have no new messages."
waiting...
posted by Sailormom at 9:50 AM on November 30, 2007

Imagine a world without hypothetical situations.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:51 AM on November 30, 2007 [6 favorites]

Not a moment too soon.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:52 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Better yet, refer anything to BBQ thusly:

"Throw it on the BBQ"
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:53 AM on November 30, 2007

I just conclusively proved to myself that I am incapable of following simple written instructions by reading the goddamn registration information and then submitting a gmail address anyway.

*facepalm*

Well, back to digging ditches.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:53 AM on November 30, 2007

This will smokewell.
posted by dw at 9:55 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is there an option to re-request a signup password? I followed the no-gmail rule and now Yahoo mail seems to have eaten my registration message.
posted by casarkos at 10:05 AM on November 30, 2007

If you're waiting on a confirmation email that's Just Not Coming, go ahead and email/mefimail me and I'll manually confirm you. DreamHost != Win right now.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:05 AM on November 30, 2007

Dreamhost has never been 'win'.
posted by Memo at 10:07 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Why is this site so Gmail-ist? Some kind of G-had?
posted by Mister_A at 10:08 AM on November 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

cortex, speedy enough for me.

shmegegge, that looks blissful, in an Annie Wilkes sort of way.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:10 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

BBQ needs a comment counter at the top, so I can stop refreshing.
posted by ColdChef at 10:13 AM on November 30, 2007

I can haz BBQ hacks?
posted by Mister_A at 10:13 AM on November 30, 2007

I just realized that it lacks preview.
posted by Memo at 10:20 AM on November 30, 2007

Cortex, I think this is a great idea, and your high-profile on this site might actually draw people there. But I think a couple of things about the way it currently works will stop it from being useful -- at least via my definition of useful.

1) One question per day. I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that Monday's question gets closed on Tuesday. That kind of sucks, because if these really ARE big big questions, they may take longer than a day to hash out. As it stands, one-day only means, at times, Big Questions mashed up with lite discussion. I'd rather see Big Questions served by deep discussion. Deep discussion tends to take time.

2) Moderator-only questions. Why? Yeah, you need this if it's only one question per day, but why just one per day? I get that you don't want the site to be overwhelmed. So do the MeFi thing and allow people to only post one question per week or some variation of that.

If I have a question, then that question is important to me. It won't be fun to ask it and then wait, hope and pray that it will be chosen. I just won't bother asking in the first place.

Why not make it more like AskMe, but with sort of the opposite rules re: chatfilter. If someone asks about where to buy a good toaster, direct them to AskMe.

Please ignore my suggestions if they seem to be moving your site in a direction you don't want to take it. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your purpose.

It IS a cool site. Sort of an Interesting Thing To Think About Each Day site. But I don't think that, as it stands, it fills the chatfilter hole.
posted by grumblebee at 10:28 AM on November 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

Does this mean questions like astronauts vs. cavemen have a home now? Because that would rock.

Also this might work better once a week. Maybe post a new one each Friday?
posted by Tehanu at 10:38 AM on November 30, 2007

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that Monday's question gets closed on Tuesday.

Wrongly! They'll stay open indefinitely. I think I should find a way to make that clearer on-site, if that's what people are getting from it. It's one new question a day, but I'd like to think they'll have long tails.

Moderator-only questions. Why?

Because I'd rather be a bit restrictive and aim for high quality stuff out of the gate than open the flood gates. I really don't know (a) how popular the site will be or (b) what the tone will be like once it's had a chance to run for a bit, but the last thing I want is a wasteland forum where everybody posts questions and almost nobody gets answers.

In the long run I can see moving away from the one-a-day, moderator-only questions, but to start it off I'm erring on the side of stability while I feel folks out.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:38 AM on November 30, 2007

Why does it hurt when I do this?

*ow*

Maybe I'm asking in the wrong place.....
posted by gomichild at 10:38 AM on November 30, 2007

I love the one-a-day question format. It's like a daily present of "hey! have fun with this!" and if you get a question posted it'll feel like an accomplishment.
posted by shmegegge at 10:42 AM on November 30, 2007

Very interesting! Thanks for attempting this!
posted by agregoli at 10:42 AM on November 30, 2007

cortex, will you queue submissions for consideration chronologically a la icanhascheezburger? I think you oughta.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:51 AM on November 30, 2007

I have a suggestion: how about coupling the site to a traditional message board, one of those out-of-the-box php solutions. To me, that would be the best of both worlds. One great value of your one-big question is that it's an ice breaker. Even if you don't have a question of your own that day, it's worth checking the site, because the main question might be interesting.

But if you do have a question, you can post it on the message board, which is linked to at the top of the BBQ page. People who read the Big Question might also go to the message board and answer your question. (Maybe some message-board questions can get promoted to the front page, but that couple be a later feature.)

This is pretty much how the Straight Dope site works, and it works really well. There's a featured question and then a message board for other questions/discussions.
posted by grumblebee at 10:54 AM on November 30, 2007

There you go again with the insightful and helpful commenting grumblebee :)
posted by Mister_A at 11:02 AM on November 30, 2007

I agree with grumblebee. It's a neat concept, but it could be so much neater!
posted by languagehat at 11:08 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yeah, grumblebee, that'd probably be a decent way to handle the long run. Managing an out-of-the-box forum install, or a WP-driven partner blog styled up forumish—wouldn't be too hard if I went that route, so it's an idea I'll definitely keep in mind.

And if I went that route, I'd definitely want to cherrypick great forum questions for the front page, yeah.

will you queue submissions for consideration chronologically a la icanhascheezburger?

I don't know! For now, no, not planning to do anything besides sit on the lockbox, at least for a few days, but I can see the appeal in having a "this stuff is in the hopper" view of some sort.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:11 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

To Whom It May Concern,
Please find enclosed our top 10,000 features that we are requesting to be implemented immediately. We look forward to discussing them with you at our earliest, and your most inconveniet, time.

Sincerely,
The Metafilter
posted by blue_beetle at 11:22 AM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

"this stuff is in the hopper" view of some sort.

More than that, though, you could (like icanhas...) allow voting on questions, i.e., sift through submissions and allow people to vote them open (or not). That might add to the feeling of community involvement (though you might have to deal with people gaming the system, too).
posted by CiaoMela at 11:23 AM on November 30, 2007

cortex, what about doing a dig type system for questions? People submit possible questions, and then users vote for the ones they like. Questions that get to a certain threshhold, or the question with the most votes for the day is posted.
posted by Autarky at 11:24 AM on November 30, 2007

Meanwhile,

Inside the mind of cortex...

OH GOD WHAT HAVE I BROUGHT ON MYSELF!?
posted by shmegegge at 11:29 AM on November 30, 2007

I miss the old BBQ.
posted by bac at 11:45 AM on November 30, 2007 [11 favorites]

BBQ will be an interesting place, moderation-wise, I imagine.

happyuser: I'm wondering where I can find the proper salve to put on the particular rash I have. Can you help me?

cortex: This question is specific, can be answered, is clear and coherent, and is spelled correctly. As such, it violates the guidelines. TAKE IT TO METAFILTER, BUB.
posted by koeselitz at 11:55 AM on November 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

> Can we all post personal projects to MetaTalk or is it just a mod thing?

Yeah, a little weird. It's not affiliated with metafilter at all, but it's posted in metatalk?

Oh well, it's good to be king.

Actually, I can't say it isn't a little weird, and I thought a lot about whether to go the Metatalk route or not. I ran it by the team for a sanity check, just to be sure that no one (particularly Matt) would scream and wave over to the side of the road.

I consider this an exceptional case because, though it's not an official project, this is something I've built primarily with mefites and an established mefi need in mind—I certainly hope the site does well and grows into its own shoes, but for now it's basically all about mefites specifically being able to scratch the niche itch of hypothetical/chat stuff that we just can't let run free on AskMe.

Take Metachat as another odd exception: users build off-site solution specifically for mefites, to address a perceived (and in some ways pretty similar) need. A read through the birth of Metachat metatalk thread puts some of that in context, by example.

So it's a rare thing, and a little bit weird but I think in this case pretty much justified. But I hear ya.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:06 PM on November 30, 2007

Too bad you didn't do some variation of "FAQ" for the site name... like "FrequentlyUnansweredQuestions.com" (abbreviated as FUQ)... but I see it's already taken (and not by me).
posted by wendell at 12:10 PM on November 30, 2007

Cortex, I know you're an admin and all, but really this should have been put in Projects, just like every other user. It's kind of bad form to post this here when other people would have been chastised for doing so.
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:15 PM on November 30, 2007

So it's a rare thing, and a little bit weird but I think in this case pretty much justified. But I hear ya.
posted by cortex

Well, now that a little time has passed, I would take back my snark (which it wasn't intended to be, but came off that way).

While your site isn't affiliated with metafilter, it could be an answer to one of the problems here that you, being an admin, are well aware of. So I can understand where you're coming from. Not a big deal to me.
posted by justgary at 12:30 PM on November 30, 2007

I agree with kickstart70. Plenty of people create projects that are metafilterish in nature, or cater to the needs of the metafilter community. I'm sure they'd LOVE the traffic boost and ready-made audience that comes from a self-link post on one of the more active sections of metafilter (blue, grey, green).

It seems like a worthy project and all, but it also seems like an abuse of power to directly go against the rules that apply to everyone else. This really should have been posted to projects and then, when it catches someone's eye, it would have been posted by someone else to one of the more active sections. Yes, the middleman is a ridiculous dance; however, it is the dance that everyone else does.
posted by necessitas at 12:32 PM on November 30, 2007

Oh pucky, it has to do with MeFi and since Projects only allows one-way feedback to the poster, it isn't an ideal medium for a discussion of the project's strength, weaknessness, and potential.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:45 PM on November 30, 2007

let the race for low user numbers begin.

And, it could go to projects and be posted from their to the blue. Putting it here is just fine. Relax people.
posted by Rumple at 12:46 PM on November 30, 2007

It's metafilter related. You'd think we had high standards for MetaTalk posts by the way some of you are acting.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:03 PM on November 30, 2007 [3 favorites]

It isn't about MetaTalk standards, it is about the self-link policy and projects, which was created exactly for posts like this.
posted by necessitas at 1:08 PM on November 30, 2007

cortex: without questioning the admin privilege to choose questions, it could be fun to know what questions people want to be asked. Since all big questions will stay open, why not use one of the first BQ to ask: "What BQ would you like to ask?". That way, everyone would see the list and would be able to add questions.
posted by bru at 1:12 PM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hopefully this will last longer than that other site, about the baseball cards, and stuff. You know the one.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:15 PM on November 30, 2007

Cortex, I know you're an admin and all, but really this should have been put in Projects, just like every other user. It's kind of bad form to post this here when other people would have been chastised for doing so.

... it also seems like an abuse of power to directly go against the rules that apply to everyone else.

Oh, for fuck's sake, people. I hope all you party-poopers get BANNED FROM BBQ for your nannying. That'll teach you!

Seriously, "abuse of power"? Get a life.
posted by languagehat at 1:16 PM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

So, did we figure out a work around or what to do since yahoo is eating the emails, too? Or is it problem, like crash mentioned?

What happens if you blithely ignore the gmail warning and then try to register the same name with a different email address?
It will tell you that that user name is already registered.
posted by thatothrgirl at 1:21 PM on November 30, 2007

Re: abuse of power:

Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
posted by Mister_A at 1:22 PM on November 30, 2007

On scroll back, just go ahead and ignore the first part of that comment I made up there^.
posted by thatothrgirl at 1:27 PM on November 30, 2007

So, judging but the sudden pile of gmail I'm getting, I think the Dreamhost mail server situation is improving, if only in fits and starts. I don't think it's fixed yet, exactly, so the proviso remains in force for now: if the conf email is AWOL, mail me and I'll fix it up manually.

it also seems like an abuse of power to directly go against the rules that apply to everyone else

I don't want to argue this into the ground, but there's actually a fair amount of precedents for metafilter-specific projects being presented in Metatalk—things like Metachat or Alvy's new podcast project, datamining experiments, surveys and research, greasemonkey/applet announcements, and so on. I agree with the notion that Metatalk shouldn't be a O HAI HEREZ MY BLOG dumping ground, but in this case this is a site that I built pretty much specifically for mefites, to do a thing that mefites have vocally wanted to be able to do.

I feel like maybe I pushed too far in one direction by stressing the not-metafilter-affiliated aspect of this; my intention wasn't to say that it's not mefi-related (it's inescapably so, mefi's the reason I built it) but to be clear that any problems or headaches that occur with the site should not be blasted at Matt or Jess or treated like Metatalk Callout issues, any more than what happens on MeCha or irc or with greasemonkey maintenance should be. Big Big Question shouldn't be their headache, just mine, essentially, was my point.

Hopefully this will last longer than that other site, about the baseball cards, and stuff. You know the one.

It's just an indefinite hiatus. A really, really indefinite hiatus. I've got all kinds of baseball cards in the wings.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:35 PM on November 30, 2007

> On the other hand, low, low userids are pretty sweet. Just sayin'.

You are a manipulative jerk. Also, either the login/registration process blows chunks or somebody registered with my username already. I'm going to start bigbigquestionsucks.com in retaliation.
posted by ardgedee at 1:41 PM on November 30, 2007

I'm going with "process blows chunks", ardgedee. Check your mefimail.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:44 PM on November 30, 2007

Where do I get to see my promised low userid number? It doesn't look like it appears in my profile URL...
posted by amro at 1:59 PM on November 30, 2007

I need to do some work under the hood to make profile stuff a little more useful. I hope to work on some of the feedback stuff this weekend. Your userids will see the light of day yet.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:06 PM on November 30, 2007

Cortex is the keenest guy in the universe and bigbigquestion.com is the best website ever. I was not bribed to write this message.
posted by ardgedee at 2:26 PM on November 30, 2007

I'm fairly certain if this had gone in projects, someone would have noticed it and started a Metatalk thread to gripe about how it should have gone here, since it's inherently Mefi-related.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:01 PM on November 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

tl;dr
posted by terrapin at 4:31 PM on November 30, 2007

Thanks, cortex. This is turning out to be fun!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:44 PM on November 30, 2007

Start userID numbering at 10,000, and go backwards. When you hit 0, ring a bell and call it done.
posted by davejay at 4:51 PM on November 30, 2007

This is a great idea, and I really like it. I realize it is still new and developing and whatnot, but can I just say that I really don't like the format at all? Let me just highlight two things that I love about the MeFi that the BBQ is missing:

1. Comment located above (and more prominently than) name of poster. This to me exemplifies the MeFi principle that what you say matters more than who you are.

2. Full screen width. For some reason, I just can't stand reading long stretches of 400 px wide text. For the kind of comprehension and digestion that will be required of comments on the BBQ, I feel it needs the full width of the screen to lean back and stretch its legs.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:08 PM on November 30, 2007

"Start userID numbering at 10,000 11817, and go backwards. When you hit 0, ring a bell and call it done."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2007

I especially like the Big Big Usernames. Good fonts, too -- some of us are in what a student once referred to as "the presbyopic years," after all.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:41 PM on November 30, 2007

Yeah, I'd really like to see integration with metafilter user accounts. In fact, what I'd really like is a way to authenticate metafilter accounts to outside sites. I would have setup a site like this long ago if it could be done.

(Actually, my idea for a site would be something like 'chatfilter' except focused on writing ask-me quality comments. Metachat is very insular and unfocused)

btw, I still haven't got my conformation mail.
posted by delmoi at 10:34 PM on November 30, 2007

(oops, I see it's not working with gmail)
posted by delmoi at 10:37 PM on November 30, 2007

Woohoo... time to revisit Bear vs. Monkey!
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:53 PM on November 30, 2007

Chuck this on after the snags are done.
posted by flabdablet at 10:58 PM on November 30, 2007

delmoi: Inspired much?

BTW, it works with Gmail, it just takes much longer.
posted by Gyan at 2:15 AM on December 1, 2007

one big question a day
Wow! you totally stole my idea and extended it a little. Good luck.
posted by tellurian at 4:19 AM on December 1, 2007

In fact, what I'd really like is a way to authenticate metafilter accounts to outside sites.

Matt's talked about openid a couple times now; I suppose that's the first best hope for that sort of thing. I considered trying to set up a cross-site authentication to make it slick as snot, but that seemed a little overly ambitious to start with and I would have been improvising with account data, which seemed like a bad idea.

Woohoo... time to revisit Bear vs. Monkey!

Oh heck yeah. allkindsoftime will finally have his animal-combat day in the sun.

Wow! you totally stole my idea and extended it a little. Good luck.

Ha!
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:29 AM on December 1, 2007

"WTF, BBQ?"

OMG!
posted by Eideteker at 7:15 AM on December 1, 2007

I hope it turns out to be so fantastic that people never leave it.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:31 AM on December 1, 2007

Yeah, I like grumblebee's suggestion of having more of a message board feel to the questions. One of the things about "big questions" is that they've very often been asked dozens of times before, but for whatever reason, some new group of folks hasn't talked enough about it with each other yet to be bored with it. So the "blog" style approach of questions, having a brand new unique topic every day, could mean that the actual "big questions" that people want to chat about don't often make it to the front page, because the moderators are gonna think, well, we surely don't need to address death / god / psychic abilities / dreams / (whatever) again, when those are precisely what some portion of chatfilter-inclined folks are looking for. Even when it's been done to death, everyone still has two cents to throw in. So if you want to find a place to catch those inclinations, I'd vote for allowing for a pre-blog style continuous discussion...
posted by mdn at 10:42 AM on December 1, 2007

delmoi: Inspired much?

Huh? It's a pretty obvious idea.
posted by delmoi at 2:08 PM on December 1, 2007

cortex, This Is Good. I can't wait to see my low, low user I.D.!
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 2:15 PM on December 1, 2007

other people have announced personal metafilter related projects in metatalk before.

I don't think anyone has been banned for self-linking in the grey.
posted by empath at 2:45 PM on December 1, 2007

I was "banned" for self-linking in a public park.
posted by breezeway at 3:10 PM on December 1, 2007

My comment at least was more joke than serious. Yes, people sometimes selflink in the gray, but it is only acceptable when it it Metafilter related. Cortex's post most assuredly was. It was still worthy of some ribbing given his position at MeFi.
posted by caddis at 3:11 PM on December 1, 2007

Cortex, I have a pony request already!

Could you make per-question RSS feeds? If I understand correctly, there will be no shut-down on individual questions, so somebody might make a really cool answer on a question a week or a month from now. I'd never know unless I checked every question for perpetuity. If you had a per-question feed (like MeFi uses for per-post feeds), I could subscribe to the feed of a question I thought was interesting, and whenever anybody else added a comment, it would pop up in my feed reader.
posted by Bugbread at 5:58 PM on December 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I agree that the one per day pace is going to be a throttle, not least because everyone whose question isn't posted (which will be most people) is going to feel bitter about it. But that aside I think great projects only blossom when they're given some room to breathe and take on a life of their own.

Better than one moderated question per day would be a big sandbox of questions with one per day promoted, by a moderator, to a front page. That homepage would hit the same quality bar while allowing the site to get some momentum going. And you'd have the added benefit of choosing "quality" posts based not only on how you guess the question might play out but on the actual quality of people's contributions. Who knows - it could be a LOT higher quality that way.

I guess it would be trickier to build... though not much, necessarily. Think of it, structurally, as a message forum with a blog tacked on to highlight the best stuff. Not too scary.

This is most certainly a self-link but I can see why it makes sense to announce it here: it's very shortly going to be a common deletion reason :)

Enjoy the new project, cortex!
posted by scarabic at 12:26 AM on December 2, 2007

Yeah, I'd really like to see integration with metafilter user accounts. In fact, what I'd really like is a way to authenticate metafilter accounts to outside sites. I would have setup a site like this long ago if it could be done.

OpenID would allow this. If Metafilter could be an OpenID provider (and preferably a consumer too) we'd be able to do this.

Matt, I know you have your doubts about MeFi becoming an OpenID consumer - even though I don't agree with you on this - , but becoming a provider is pretty much risk-free, innit? Feel free to mefimail me if you want help with this.
posted by lodev at 10:57 AM on December 2, 2007