Comments on: Metafilter is....

Metafilter is....

moxiedoll — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:44:35 -0800

Earnest Opinion.

(far from news, dangerously close to scurrilous).

By: Ragma

Ragma — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:46:16 -0800

That domain is blocked where I am. Anyone want to share the good news?

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:47:09 -0800

If we try a little bit, we're only a eensy bit away from becoming scurrilous.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:47:50 -0800

I don't care how clever your goddamn 2x2 matrix is, don't resize my browser.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:48:36 -0800

Anytime someone complains about NewsFilter, we should post this link.

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:49:04 -0800

Their rollover says:

MetaFilter: "Random people can blog about anything they want; why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery."

Well, Matt Pressman and Keenan Mayo, you are just two way-cool dudes. BTW -- who the fuck are you?

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:49:10 -0800

Metafilter: Why anyone reads it may be the web's greatest mystery.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:51:02 -0800

Metafilter: Slightly more opinionated than Michelle Malkin

By: padraigin

padraigin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:54:38 -0800

They sure do like Stuff White People Like though.

By: box

box — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:54:58 -0800

Metafilter: Less of a news site than Stuff White People Like.

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:58:00 -0800

Yeah, I can't get at this either. Color me confused.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:59:18 -0800

It resized my window. My opinion, earnestly held, is that Vanity Fair is worse than Hitler and that we should crush their web morons, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their women.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:00:41 -0800

By: Miko

Miko — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:02:40 -0800

why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery

Funny, that's what I think about Vanity Fair.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:03:07 -0800

Too close to Michelle Malkin for my tastes.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:03:37 -0800

Great, now I have another reason to hate Vanity Fair. I'd wipe my ass with copies of their dead-tree mag but that means I'd actually have to buy it and touch it. Daily Kos is more earnest? The Free Republic? What the fuck!? I don't think they actually spent much time on any of the sites they're rating.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:03:39 -0800

Earnest opinion?

These aren't opinions! Don't they know that I'm. Always. Right?

By: splice

splice — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:03:59 -0800

Firefox needs to block browser resizing like it blocks popups. Except those snopes.com popups. If I had more Javascript knowledge I'd try to Greasemonkey a snopes.com cleaner, but they seem to have a few different kinds and they're tricky and obfuscated enough that it's not even immediately clear exactly how they work.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:00 PM on June 12

You can block that, yeah.

1. Edit -> Preferences -> Content
2. Click "Advanced" at the right of "Enable Javascript"
3. Remove the check from "Move or resize windows"
4. Praise the Fox!

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:04:09 -0800

Metafilter: measures high in both snark and community, represented by the invisible 3rd and 4th dimensional axes not pictured. Once you factor in that 4th axis, we come out damn close to the lolcats.

Vanity Fair: pretending to be relevant by commenting on the relevancy of others.

By: panboi

panboi — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:04:44 -0800

I don't think we should have any more comments on this - it's ruining the mystery.

By: dw

dw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:04:59 -0800

Apparently, Vanity Fair's Websense filter was set up over a weekend by Nick Douglas, with Calcanis delivering the beer TMZ bought and the pizza Gothamist chipped in for.

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:07:03 -0800

Don't they know that I'm. Always. Right?

No. Actually, more often than not you are WRONG!

; ) I keed, I keed.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:08:04 -0800

I smell a GrudgeMatchSmackDownCageFest.

Matt, Jess and Cortex (save the English guy for a spare in case Matt loses his glasses) versus Pressman, Mayo and 3 of their coke-addled interns.

My money is on Team Meef.

By: grateful

grateful — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:08:16 -0800

Their rollover says:

MetaFilter: "Random people can blog about anything they want; why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery."

I am totally getting a shirt that says "Random Person" right across the front.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:08:26 -0800

So mefi is more "opinion" than Littlegreenfootballs, Michelle Malkin, Atrios, and Kos.

This word you keep using, I do not think it means what you think it means.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:09:52 -0800

1. Edit -> Preferences -> Content
2. Click "Advanced" at the right of "Enable Javascript"
3. Remove the check from "Move or resize windows"
4. Praise the Fox!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

By: Pax

Pax — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:09:58 -0800

Incontheivable!

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:12:50 -0800

Metafilter: Way less earnest than The Sartorialist.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:14:59 -0800

For those who are confused, it is a big graphical coordinate chart (like that XKCD fruit graph that stupid, rotten idiots who don't appreciate the glory of the grapefruit thought was funny) called the VANITY FAIR Blogopticon, plotting various websites from "News" to "Opinion" on the Y axis and from "Scurrilous" to "Earnest" on the X axis. Metafilter was deemed totally Opinion and just on the Earnest side of zero on the X axis. It is not as stupid as some no-class fucker denigrating the noble and mighty grapefruit, but almost.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:16:10 -0800

Sweet, thanks, no more dealing with that bullshit.

Firefox: It's like open source, but not annoying!

By: WPW

WPW — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:17:11 -0800

Metafilter: Wedged Between Arianna Huffington and Michelle Malkin in an Angry Threesome

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:17:35 -0800

Has It's Raining Florence Henderson taken the sockpuppet "Random People" yet?

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:19:45 -0800

Instanpundit: University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds's popular libertarian bull____. (4 letters)

By: nanojath

nanojath — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:23:13 -0800

Ugh, I just saw that you can mouse over the graphical website icons for little "explanations" of the sites, e.g. Metafilter is "Random people can blog about anything they want." They claim "only Richard Pryor" is as funny as "Stuff White People Like." Putting that piece of crap into the same league as Richard Pryor makes me want to do that oranges trick from The Grifters to the people who wrote this. But with grapefruit.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:23:14 -0800

MetaFilter is slightly more difficult than a watermelon, slightly less tasty than a pineapple.

By: fantabulous timewaster

fantabulous timewaster — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:24:53 -0800

Metafilter: random people blogging about anything they want, except themselves or their friends.

How anyone shows such restraint may be the Web's greatest mystery.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:26:21 -0800

MetaFilter: "Random people can blog about anything they want; why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery."

because knowing what to expect and why one should expect it is a lot less interesting and awfully old-media-fashioned

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:26:41 -0800

See, I was going to say this was presented amusingly, if mistakenly, and that it reminded me of the fondly-remembered Filler column that Suck.com (RIP) used to do (and how heartwarming, really, that Terry Colon created at least two of the logos on that chart) ...but then I looked at the fruit graph that nanojath linked to, and: green apples tastier than red apples? FUCK THAT NOISE.

By: Gucky

Gucky — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:28:07 -0800

Wait, I see a lot of the same posts on Boing Boing and MetaFilter. Does that mean that if someone FPPs a $1000 steampunk keyboard and we constantly slather about Little Brother, we magically become news?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:30:05 -0800

So what I'm getting from this is that "opinion" and "news" are supposed to be poles on a continuum, and that they're using that as an axis rather than a continuum from "news" to "not actually about news one way or the other, what the fuck, why is news presumed to be a determining component in your analysis of a community websites, do you ever leave the house"?

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:31:12 -0800

I can believe that the Free Republic is more earnest than Metafilter.

Those assholes really believe that shit.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:33:09 -0800

I think they've totally underestimated the number over stick-up-their-butts over-earnest people in this site.

By: Random Person

Random Person — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:34:06 -0800

Well this was certainly worth $5.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:34:11 -0800

Malkin is not scurrilious?

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:34:24 -0800

You guys do realize that posting bullshit "data" like this is just link-pandering, don't you? And we've fallen neatly into their trap.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:34:43 -0800

Flagged as...

Wait, can I flag an external site?

FLAGGED AS CRAP

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:36:08 -0800

Sometimes it's just more fun to let your hair down and be used, Dave.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:46:00 -0800

So you're saying that if we were less earnest, this would be more newsworthy?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:47:41 -0800

Or that if we could do a good Ernest impression, we might get on the news.

By: team lowkey

team lowkey — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:47:59 -0800

Yeah, it's tough to be actually insulted when they so clearly have no idea what they are talking about. A blog where any random person can say whatever they want? Why would anyone read that? That has nothing to do with MetaFilter, of course, but the point is valid.

By: lysistrata

lysistrata — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:48:41 -0800

Sometimes it's just more fun to let your hair down and be used, Dave.

Just remember to close the blinds first.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:50:15 -0800

You guys do realize that posting bullshit "data" like this is just link-pandering, don't you? And we've fallen neatly into their trap.

It's a diabolical plot! No, it's just a graph! *ducks*

By: lysistrata

lysistrata — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:51:25 -0800

Or that if we could do a good Ernest impression, we might get on the news.

I must have watched Ernest Goes to Camp a thousand times when I was a kid which is terrible, yes, but I was a horny pubescent girl and there were boys in it.

By: quin

quin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:52:19 -0800

Wait a minute... are they saying that Michelle Malkin is more earnest and less opinionated than us?! Are they actually suggesting that LGF and Stuff White People Like are closer to news than us!?

Am I high? I must be high or drunk or something, because, well, just because!

This is just open and unabashed lunacy.

By: zamboni

zamboni — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:55:58 -0800

If we assign Tasty/Untasty to Opinion/News, and Difficult/Easy to Earnest/Scurrilous, we discover that Metafilter is actually a lemon.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:59:08 -0800

Sometimes it's just more fun to let your hair down and be used, Dave.

That's ... what ... she ... said ...?

Can I make that joke? Oh fuck it. Sweater stuffers! Sweater stuffers! Sweater stuf...

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:59:28 -0800

I must have watched Ernest Goes to Camp a thousand times when I was a kid which is terrible, yes, but I was a horny pubescent girl and there were boys in it.

I watched it over and over because I thought it was hilarious. Also when he sings to the turtle, I am sad.

By: everichon

everichon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:01:15 -0800

I sometimes feel scurrilous.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:10:24 -0800

A metatalk-free day, ruined by this?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:15:17 -0800

Beats yesterday, anyway.

By: lysistrata

lysistrata — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:15:31 -0800

I watched it over and over because I thought it was hilarious. Also when he sings to the turtle, I am sad.

Aww, I totally forgot about that song! I do remember though that after I saw it the first time I ran around outside yelling, "I am Josef Mengele!" with no clue who he was. Neighbors must have thought I was very special.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:26:01 -0800

Yeah, it's tough to be actually insulted when they so clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

You're just not trying hard enough.

By: box

box — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:28:47 -0800

So let's say that I created a similar chart, except with magazines. Would it hurt VF's feelings more to say that they were vapid and banal, or just to leave them off entirely?

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:28:55 -0800

It resized my window

Is this something I would need a browser that can't open links in new tabs to understand?

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:33:30 -0800

We are more scurrilous than Malkin? It is to laugh.

Meanwhile, these douches stole the idea from New York magazine anyway.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:37:45 -0800

I just like to say "Scurrilous." Scurrilous scurrilous scurrilous.

(Hey, now that you mention it, "Mengele" 's kinda fun too...)

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:42:28 -0800

1. Edit -> Preferences -> Content
2. Click "Advanced" at the right of "Enable Javascript"
3. Remove the check from "Move or resize windows"
4. Praise the Fox!

Funny enough, I thought I already had that accomplished, but it turns out you have to uncheck the boxes, not check them all like I thought. I guess I never actually read the instructions there.

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:47:27 -0800

That's because you're scurrilous.
Hey this is fun!

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:47:52 -0800

Who cares where MeFi is on the chart? I mean, they just picked the closest open space to plonk down the logo on the chart. If they were using little tiny bullets instead of giant icons, I might believe they put some actual thought into locating blogs at the appropriate points on the graph.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:49:01 -0800

Instanpundit: University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds's popular libertarian bull____. (4 letters)

Does Reynolds still support the war in Iraq? Cuz I'm pretty sure having a trillion-dollar war fought for dubious reasons and paid for by debasing the national currency isn't exactly on the libertarian platform this year.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:49:45 -0800

BTW, aren't the definitions of scurrilous and news somewhat antipodal? Perhaps they meant to imbue the word with a new definition such as tongue in cheek?

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:50:27 -0800

This is going to be hilarious in four years. And quite scurrilous in its own right.

By: turgid dahlia

turgid dahlia — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:54:29 -0800

I like that finally, in some small way, Vanity Fair has recognised my contributions to humankind.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:08:23 -0800

People, people... why fling poo and rail against the site... we're bigger than that.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:16:31 -0800

wow. this is pretty sobering.

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:19:46 -0800

man, what happened in late April? Big election story?

By: zennie

zennie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:28:26 -0800

what happened in late April?

The Miley Cyrus photos.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:30:45 -0800

Will this cheer you up?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:34:21 -0800

So election was a typo, then.

By: zennie

zennie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:48:53 -0800

No, the entirety of Vanity Fair is a typo.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:07:58 -0800

Lordy, look what a push-up bra and pregnancy does to Angelina Jolies boobies.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:17:42 -0800

More traffic at other sites? Big Deal. Perhaps that proves that we mefites are elite. Didn't you always suspect it?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:21:33 -0800

You know why we didn't wind up in scurrilous, right? Cause we don't feed the scurrils!

*rim shot*

The trolls, maybe, but not the scurrils...<>

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:23:18 -0800

Lordy, look what a push-up bra and pregnancy does to Angelina Jolies boobies.

And MetaFilter's.

By: h00py

h00py — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:30:49 -0800

"I don’t play accurately - any one can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression."

Don't any of you know the vital Importance of Being Earnest?

By: xod

xod — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:42:03 -0800

The terms, scurrilous and earnest, express a strict opposition between which bacon appears to be suspended.

Now, if those terms are the expression of a logical opposition stated as a pair of negatives, they can be transformed by a simple inversion into the same polar opposites but expressed positively. That is, the not-scurrilous is, according to the logic of a certain kind of expansion, just another way of expressing the term earnest, and the not-earnest is, simply, scurrilous. The expansion to which I am referring is called a Klein group when employed mathematically and has various other designations, among them the Piaget group, when used by structuralists involved in mapping operations within the human sciences. By means of this logical expansion a set of binaries is transformed into a quaternary field which both mirrors the original opposition and at the same time opens it. It becomes a logically expanded field.

Another way of saying this is that even though bacon may be reduced to what is in the Klein group the neuter term of the not-scurrilous plus the not-earnest, there is no reason not to imagine an opposite term - one that would be both earnest and scurrilous - which within this schema is called the complex.

Because it was ideologically prohibited, the complex had remained excluded from what might be called the beginning of ceiling-cat-posts. Our culture has not before been able to think the complex, although Metafilter have thought this term with great ease. Bacon and lolcats are both scurrilous and earnest. Which is not to say that we are an early, or a degenerate, or a variant form. We are part of a universe or cultural space in which bacon is simply another part - not somehow, as historicist minds would have it, the same.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:43:58 -0800

a HANDBAG?

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:17:04 -0800

1. Edit -> Preferences -> Content

For me, this is 1. Tools -> Options -> Content, in case anyone else was puzzled by the instructions. And I add my thanks!

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:29:34 -0800

Earnest Opinion? Jim Varney posts here?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:36:27 -0800

Too slow, Jon.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:43:16 -0800

Yeah. I sometimes make a comment without reading the rest. I usually always regret it.

By: krautland

krautland — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:48:17 -0800

the positioning and selection of sites on that chart seems rather arbitrary. "the sartorialist" is the most earnest blog the author could think of and boingboing is more news than mefi? the author apparently blocked out all cory "I mention my novel is so awesome every hour" doctorow posts and forgot to realize that comments about fashion choices are personal opinions, not news. unless he spots a hippo wearing a scarf.

By: Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America

Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:03:42 -0800

"Earnest opinion" is dead on, actually.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:30:54 -0800

All those sites in the bottom left are exactly the same.

By: Brian B.

Brian B. — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:44:23 -0800

Vanity Fair sounded absolutely bitter about Metafilter, considering they were upbeat about the tabloids and right wing bloggers with assmarks on their faces.

By: CKmtl

CKmtl — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:21:38 -0800

Stuff White People Like is marginally newsier than MeFi?

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:38:53 -0800

Metafilter: Wry commentary is best delivered by a busty anchor chick.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:02:18 -0800

Wry commentary is best delivered by a busty anchor chick.

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned by Watching Telemundo.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:08:29 -0800

Perhaps that proves that we mefites are elite.

I'm here. Just how elite could we be?

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:12:50 -0800

Metafilter: Where the elite meet to beat the salmon meat.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:23:57 -0800

lukemeister, don't be such a lox. ;>

By: A dead Quaker

A dead Quaker — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:14:46 -0800

Anyone want to share the good news?

That domain is blocked where you are.

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:34:41 -0800

Apropos of nothing, that particular 2-axis representation appears to be called a Voice Map.

I first came across it in this PDF describing a recent BBC website redesign. I don't know if the wanky design agency made up that term or not.

By: voltairemodern

voltairemodern — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:44:39 -0800

Yeah, "earnest opinion" is precisely correct. The only thing that's strange is that things like Michelle Malkin's blog made it onto the "earnest" side of the graph. It's got to be satire, I'm convinced of it...

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:07:15 -0800

Apropos of nothing, that particular 2-axis representation appears to be called a Voice Map.

What? How is it any different from a Magic Quadrant or any of the bajillion 2x2 comparison matrices that litter business school text books? Those wankers made that stuff up.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:12:21 -0800

How is it any different from a Magic Quadrant or any of the bajillion 2x2 comparison matrices that litter business school text books?

It uses Web 2.0!

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:29:21 -0800

Random? Random! By God I am not a random person. I sent in five dollars.

I want to know how Malkin is more news like than us? I mean if semi-circle = crescent = sekrit Islamo-fascist leanings is news then Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus is the McNeil Lehrer report.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:48:11 -0800

As I put this together I was thinking Holy Fucking Shit.

Then I added TMZ. That was kind of depressing.

Then I realized TMZ was an AOL creation and that the lowest common denominator of the web probably got their home page redirected there some time ago and haven't bothered to change it. OK, that's still depressing but slightly better.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:51:32 -0800

I'm here. Just how elite could we be?

Very, sir. For example, you are too elite to like Radiohead or Arcade Fire, to pull two examples of bands I generally like.

Metafilter is all hipsters.
Metafilter is all elitists.

We would do better to stop denying these things.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:01:55 -0800

I don't own a pair of bluejeans.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:06:43 -0800

I don't own a pair of bluejeans.

Christ, what an elitist.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:38:11 -0800

I don't own a pair of bluejeans.

Nor I. Like LBJ, I need the space.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:25:13 -0800

Erm, but it's possible to be earnest and scurrilous at the same time, so the x-axis doesn't make any sense. And the y-axis seems suited to news-related sites which feature news and/or opinion pieces. I'm not really sure how a site which over the last 24 hours has linked to human ovulation captured on camera, a photographer that uses over exposure to populate his cities with smoky spectres, and videos of exotic birds can be measured on that scale, or why you'd want to try.

As for the discussions, they're rarely particularly opinionated. It's more "here's something cool on the web", "here's a joke that relates to that thing", "another joke", "oh I know about about this thing, here are my thoughts" and occasionally "I made this thing, here are my thoughts".

"Random people can blog about anything they want; why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery" strikes me as a comment from someone that hasn't actually read Metafilter. For people that only really use the front page, it's not so much a case of reading as it is having your curiosity piqued.

So basically, to quote a Public Enemy song title: "Leave this off your fuckin charts".

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:27:16 -0800

Can someone explain to me how the fuck scurrilous and earnest are polar opposites?

(Pardon me for being scurrilous.)

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:30:26 -0800

"(Pardon me for being scurrilous.)"

And earnest.

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:43:22 -0800

I just like to say "Scurrilous." Scurrilous scurrilous scurrilous.

(Hey, now that you mention it, "Mengele" 's kinda fun too...)
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:37 PM on June 12 [+] [!]

My new favorite word this week is veep-vetter. Such a playful-sounding word. It raises an image of a Road Runneresque creature that zips around between senators and generals and goes "veep veep!" when coming across someone acceptable.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:01:47 -0800

I'm here. Just how elite could we be?

I ~~hate~~ love to burst your bubbles, but you're not exactly Joe Everydude, Jon. No matter how much bad beer and junk food you eat.

Joe Everydude doesn't know how to write a complicated thought down. Joe Everydude doesn't have your knowledge of modern music from nearly every musical style or subculture. Joe Everydude can barely boot a computer, much less own one.

Moreover, Joe Everydude - like the Noble Savage - is entirely a myth, and an externalized figment of our imagination for some lost ideal that never existed.

And if Joe Everydude actually existed today, he'd listen to Top 40 rap and R&B as opposed to The Boss. He'd drive a heavily financed truck or SUV (possibly lowered, and rarely taken off road or used to haul things) or an import sedan or sportscar. He'd shop (and possibly work) at Wal-Mart, and he'd be much less likely to work in a factory or on construction and much more likely to work at a cellular phone store or other major chain retail location. Joe Everydude drinks Budweiser, Coors and sometimes PBR, but not Rolling Rock. And even the Budweiser is probably too tony for Joe Everydude.

He probably wouldn't be caught dead working in a bookstore or record store. And Joe Everydude probably wouldn't like MetaFilter.

You only do yourself a grave and stupendous disservice, Jon. I know Joe Everydude. Joe Everydude is extremely boring, and thankfully you aren't him.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:17:00 -0800

If it's any consolation, Jon, you're as close to Joe Everydude as most of us white tower elitists ever get.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:19:11 -0800

*rises from his slumber, approaches MetaFilter, inhales deeply*

Ahh... I love the smell of false dichotomy in the morning.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:54:36 -0800

My new favorite word this week is veep-vetter

I hope that one of the elite can tell us how to say "Who vets the veep-vetter?" in Latin.

By: Life at Boulton Wynfevers

Life at Boulton Wynfevers — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:15:52 -0800

I read this entire thread. I don't know why. IT'S A MYSTERY!

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:45:24 -0800

The Importance of Being Ernest Goes to Camp.

By: splice

splice — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:09:54 -0800

For me, this is 1. Tools -> Options -> Content, in case anyone else was puzzled by the instructions. And I add my thanks!

Mmh, yeah... How'd that Edit -> Preferences get in there? It's not that for me either anyway.

Must be some hold-over from my phone rep days... It just rolled off my keyboard is what it is. Sorry for the confusion.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:28:43 -0800

New plan: rate blogs on a scale from Charizearnest to Squirtlous.

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:55:13 -0800

why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery'

You're right, VF. We'd all be much better off reading stuff like this:

CELEBRITY

Madonnarama!

As she nears 50, Madonna is searching for her true self. Whisked to L.A. for an intensive interview session, Rich Cohen explores the pop idol’s evolution.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:00:40 -0800

New plan: rate blogs on a scale from Charizearnest to Squirtlous.

Uhm, there really really needs to be an axis for how much they like Mudkips. Actually, that might be a useful metonym for discussing how much a site has or lacks the 4chan/Anonymous/SA/ED nature.

By: philomathoholic

philomathoholic — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:11:05 -0800

So, what's with the Edit -> Preferences vs. Tools -> Options difference? I prefer the latter, but, a lot of times it's the former. Is this following some freedesktop.org standard? Is there some about:config setting?

By: deborah

deborah — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:15:33 -0800

I really wanna sockpuppet named Earnest Scurrilous. Or should it be Earnestly? Decisions... decisions...

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:41:21 -0800

I'd go with Ernest Lee Scurrilous, myself.

By: misha

misha — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:24:08 -0800

Why in the world are they so generous to Salon? I mean Salon today, which is not the same Salon we had a few years ago.

They don't make sites like they used to. These kids today blah blah blah...

By: wendell

wendell — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:44:22 -0800

NEWS FLASH: The Blogopticon chart was cropped. There's more to see and it's here. (via)

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:12:07 -0800

Scurrilous? More like Vanity Fair's scurrt.

No? Not eponysterical? C'mon...

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:13:08 -0800

By: philomathoholic

philomathoholic — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:10:39 -0800

I'm on Ubuntu, but I think you're on to something. My XP version of Firefox has Options, and the Ubuntu version has Preferences. I don't have Firefox installed on my Mac.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:14:17 -0800

I really hate how the vertical and horizontal axis don't line up properly. Grr.

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:10:42 -0800

DO NOT FUCK WITH MY BROWSER WINDOW, BITCHES.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:22:54 -0800

Hey, assholes, where the hell is catsinsinks.com? What has this world come to‽

By: plexi

plexi — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:18:42 -0800

"Random people can blog about anything they want; why anybody reads it may be the Web's greatest mystery."

I like Metafilter because it's motherfucking literary. And there is something appealing about its plain textness.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:21:32 -0800

Well, that's our copy right there, then:

Metafilter. Because it's motherfucking literary.

By: Gucky

Gucky — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:41:22 -0800

Metafilter is all hipsters.
Metafilter is all elitists.

I can't wait to tell all the folks at work that I am not a geeky nerdgirl who can't dress. I am an elite hipster. Suck it, fashionistas!

Or is this one of those "the higher your user number, the lower your hipster elite quotient is" things?

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:09:14 -0800

geeky nerdgirl who can't dress.

The funniest thing about calling people hipsters on the Internet is that whatever they say as evidence that they're not a hipster is usually in fact evidence for the opposite, especially because there's no real definition of hipster.

By: team lowkey

team lowkey — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:42:15 -0800

A real definition of hipster? That's easy. Hipsters are people who like things that I don't like, and the only conceivable reason is that they think it makes them appear cooler.

Or it's people who are really into to being fashionable, but, you know, not fashionable. Because that wouldn't be fashionable.

Fine. There's no real definition of hipster. But I can still mock them, right? Especially since no one self-identifies as one?

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:17:30 -0800

Aren't hipsters a sort of hip-related undergarment?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:53:09 -0800

Aren't hipsters a sort of hip-related undergarment?

God, what an unhip thing to say.

Or, a hip thing to say. I'm not sure which.

*puts on socks and sandals, adjusts hipsters, places 4 more pens into plastic shirt-pocket pen holder*

By: WPW

WPW — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:24:44 -0800

I thought the Hipster was a rejected name for the Extruded Plastic Dingus.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:57:53 -0800

When you put them on a chart like that, blogs look really stupid

By: dersins

dersins — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:58:39 -0800

When you put them on a chart like that, blogs look really stupid

Also when you don't.

By: theredpen

theredpen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:00:17 -0800

Hey, Vanity Fair, I got an opinion for you ... right here.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:55:58 -0800

And then I hold my crotch thusly.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:01:29 -0800

Your attempts to make Metafilter appear more scurrilous are admirable.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:29:01 -0800

So please you, Sir, we much regret
If we have failed in etiquette
Towards a man of rank so high —
We shall know better by and by.