Comments on: Big Big Question: an unofficial chatfilter sanctuary experiment

Big Big Question: an unofficial chatfilter sanctuary experiment

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:41:54 -0800

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.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:46:31 -0800

*cough* Projects *cough*

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:47:58 -0800

BBQ? So...it's a site about meat-smoking?

By: [@I][:+:][@I]

[@I][:+:][@I] — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:48:01 -0800

selflink, banned

By: ClanvidHorse

ClanvidHorse — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:52:25 -0800

sounds great! can we get a link on top next to the rest? or is that out of the BBQ?

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:52:50 -0800

My wife pretty much wants to kill me for the "BBQ" thing. It was not intentional. Heh.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:53:54 -0800

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.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:57:06 -0800

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.

By: Memo

Memo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:57:28 -0800

The first thing I thought was the same than cog_nate. Then, I registered because I love the idea.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:58:43 -0800

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.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:00:05 -0800

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

Fail.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:00:26 -0800

I dig it, cog_nate, and I'll get around to it.

By: Memo

Memo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:02:53 -0800

It seems that yahoo mail accounts (which I used because of the gmail issue) are not working either.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:10:55 -0800

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?

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:16:16 -0800

WTF, BBQ?

By: necessitas

necessitas — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:20:26 -0800

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

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:21:01 -0800

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.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:22:43 -0800

I'm guessing the outgoing SMTP queue is overloaded and that's the reason I don't have my password yet?

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:25:03 -0800

Needs to look more like MeFi. A thin row of comments doesn't cut it for me.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:26:20 -0800

Damn, when the mods start self-linking you know we have jumped the shark.

By: justgary

justgary — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:26:25 -0800

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.

By: MLIS

MLIS — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:28:56 -0800

what crash said.

By: Iamtherealme

Iamtherealme — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:37:24 -0800

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.)

By: cedar

cedar — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:37:58 -0800

What happens if you blithely ignore the gmail warning and then try to register the same name with a different email address?

By: KevinSkomsvold

KevinSkomsvold — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:39:40 -0800

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.

By: TedW

TedW — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:40:27 -0800

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.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:42:21 -0800

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.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:42:53 -0800

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.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:43:28 -0800

"Which is better, wet BBQ or dry BBQ?"

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:44:39 -0800

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]

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:46:02 -0800

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.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:48:35 -0800

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.

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:50:55 -0800

Waiting...waiting...waiting... "You have no new messages."
waiting...

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:51:23 -0800

Imagine a world without hypothetical situations.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:52:32 -0800

Not a moment too soon.

By: BozoBurgerBonanza

BozoBurgerBonanza — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:53:10 -0800

Better yet, refer anything to BBQ thusly:

"Throw it on the BBQ"

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:53:51 -0800

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.

By: dw

dw — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:55:57 -0800

This will smokewell.

By: casarkos

casarkos — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:05:09 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:05:46 -0800

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.

By: Memo

Memo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:07:17 -0800

Dreamhost has never been 'win'.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:08:03 -0800

Why is this site so Gmail-ist? Some kind of G-had?

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:10:29 -0800

cortex, speedy enough for me.

shmegegge, that looks blissful, in an Annie Wilkes sort of way.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:13:28 -0800

BBQ needs a comment counter at the top, so I can stop refreshing.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:13:38 -0800

I can haz BBQ hacks?

By: Memo

Memo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:20:28 -0800

I just realized that it lacks preview.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:28:02 -0800

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.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:38:24 -0800

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?

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:38:27 -0800

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.

By: gomichild

gomichild — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:38:32 -0800

Why does it hurt when I do this?

*ow*

Maybe I'm asking in the wrong place.....

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:42:00 -0800

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.

By: agregoli

agregoli — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:42:59 -0800

Very interesting! Thanks for attempting this!

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:51:37 -0800

cortex, will you queue submissions for consideration chronologically a la icanhascheezburger? I think you oughta.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:54:46 -0800

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.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:02:04 -0800

There you go again with the insightful and helpful commenting grumblebee :)

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:08:14 -0800

I agree with grumblebee. It's a neat concept, but it could be so much neater!

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:11:50 -0800

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.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:22:37 -0800

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

By: CiaoMela

CiaoMela — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:23:33 -0800

"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).

By: Autarky

Autarky — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:24:22 -0800

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.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:29:13 -0800

Meanwhile,

Inside the mind of cortex...

OH GOD WHAT HAVE I BROUGHT ON MYSELF!?

By: bac

bac — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:45:44 -0800

I miss the old BBQ.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:55:33 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:06:43 -0800

> 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.

By: wendell

wendell — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:10:52 -0800

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).

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:15:58 -0800

By: justgary

justgary — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:30:23 -0800

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.

By: necessitas

necessitas — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:32:53 -0800

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.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:45:00 -0800

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.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:46:31 -0800

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.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:03:39 -0800

It's metafilter related. You'd think we had high standards for MetaTalk posts by the way some of you are acting.

By: necessitas

necessitas — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:08:10 -0800

It isn't about MetaTalk standards, it is about the self-link policy and projects, which was created exactly for posts like this.

By: bru

bru — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:12:31 -0800

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.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:15:22 -0800

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

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:16:28 -0800

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.

By: thatothrgirl

thatothrgirl — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:21:40 -0800

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.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:22:11 -0800

Re: abuse of power:

Come and see the violence inherent in the system!

By: thatothrgirl

thatothrgirl — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:27:15 -0800

On scroll back, just go ahead and ignore the first part of that comment I made up there^.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:35:45 -0800

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.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:41:47 -0800

> 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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:44:54 -0800

I'm going with "process blows chunks", ardgedee. Check your mefimail.

By: amro

amro — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:59:37 -0800

Where do I get to see my promised low userid number? It doesn't look like it appears in my profile URL...

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:06:08 -0800

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.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:26:47 -0800

Cortex is the keenest guy in the universe and bigbigquestion.com is the best website ever. I was not bribed to write this message.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:01:17 -0800

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.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:31:55 -0800

tl;dr

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:44:08 -0800

Thanks, cortex. This is turning out to be fun!

By: davejay

davejay — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:51:52 -0800

Start userID numbering at 10,000, and go backwards. When you hit 0, ring a bell and call it done.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:08:22 -0800

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.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:31:09 -0800

"Start userID numbering at ~~10,000~~ 11817, and go backwards. When you hit 0, ring a bell and call it done."

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:41:16 -0800

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.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:34:30 -0800

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.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:37:16 -0800

(oops, I see it's not working with gmail)

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:53:30 -0800

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

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:58:20 -0800

Chuck this on after the snags are done.

By: Gyan

Gyan — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 02:15:25 -0800

delmoi: Inspired much?

BTW, it works with Gmail, it just takes much longer.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:19:57 -0800

one big question a day
Wow! you totally stole my idea and extended it a little. Good luck.

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 05:29:28 -0800

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!

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 07:15:46 -0800

"WTF, BBQ?"

OMG!

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:31:53 -0800

I hope it turns out to be so fantastic that people never leave it.

By: mdn

mdn — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 10:42:51 -0800

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...

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:08:28 -0800

delmoi: Inspired much?

Huh? It's a pretty obvious idea.

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:15:10 -0800

cortex, This Is Good. I can't wait to see my low, low user I.D.!

By: empath

empath — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:45:58 -0800

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.

By: breezeway

breezeway — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:10:24 -0800

I was "banned" for self-linking in a public park.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:11:21 -0800

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.

By: bugbread

bugbread — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:58:11 -0800

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.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:26:15 -0800

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!

By: lodev

lodev — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 10:57:37 -0800

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.