"Second Editions"

July 14, 2008 4:47 AM

I would like to know what people's thoughts are on the idea of allowing Metafilter posters to make a "second edition" of a post after a certain amount of time has passed (a week?, a year?).

I think that the new version of the post would not merit appearing on the front page - but perhaps it could be made accessible via a sidebar in the manner of "resolved" askme questions. The new version would be linked from the original post (and vice versa). New posts could attract their own comments; perhaps a new version would cause comments to be closed on the original version. The sorts of scenario I have in mind are:
1. There have been developments since the original post: for example there might have been a thread about an upcoming movie - now it is released.
2. Somebody commented on the original post with a far better link: sufficient to merit a re-writing of the post.
3. The URLs given in the original post have atrophied - new ones are required.
- Sorry if this has been asked before - my search was unable to bring up anything however.

posted by rongorongo to feature requests at 4:47 AM (16 comments total)

No.
posted by blasdelf at 5:02 AM on July 14, 2008

I reckon we could file this under "Lily gilding".
posted by Jofus at 5:19 AM on July 14, 2008

If something has changed dramatically (not like a URL) then a new post would always be fine. We've seen years-later follow-up posts that are interesting. However, anything more recent than that would veer into double post territory and it seems to me like you'd have a bunch of peopel saying "double!" and then other people saying "well the URL changed" and then people would debate that.

Generally speaing "updatefilter" sorts of posts -- like the one you describe with a movie being released -- aren't really great posts for MeFi so it doesn't seem like something that's worth coding in a bunch of new tools for.
posted by jessamyn at 5:28 AM on July 14, 2008

Flagged as "double".
posted by DreamerFi at 5:41 AM on July 14, 2008

Well, the URL changed.
posted by box at 5:56 AM on July 14, 2008

We put up cat scan every year.
posted by caddis at 6:33 AM on July 14, 2008

Then people would delete that.
posted by three blind mice at 6:36 AM on July 14, 2008

Wrong-o!
posted by katillathehun at 7:04 AM on July 14, 2008

I was thinking this was going to be more of a MefiReloaded pony request. You know, you've composed an awesome post only to have site search reveal that madamejujive posted the same site to the front page 6 years ago. At which point the posting dialog would give you the option of posting it to reloaded.metafilter.com if the double was more than 3 or so years old.
posted by Mitheral at 7:34 AM on July 14, 2008

Is there such a shortage of new MeFi posts that we need to go back and revisit old ones?
posted by ook at 10:03 AM on July 14, 2008

You know, you've composed an awesome post only to have site search reveal that madamejujive posted the same site to the front page 6 years ago.

I got away with that once. y2karl was pissed!
posted by carsonb at 10:07 AM on July 14, 2008

ook writes "Is there such a shortage of new MeFi posts that we need to go back and revisit old ones"

But there's the thing, for a good portion of the user base 3 these posts aren't being revisited. And those posts wouldn't be mixed in with others on the front page so those who have been here since the woolly old days wouldn't be bothered.
posted by Mitheral at 12:46 PM on July 14, 2008

Personally I think it's a great idea (in some way). Or a mechanism to contribute new links with short comments in closed threads.
posted by stbalbach at 1:34 PM on July 14, 2008

You could get the same effect by just browsing at random through the MeFi archives, couldn't you?

* New developments since the original post: these frequently do get reposted to MeFi, if the changes are significant enough. If the changes aren't significant enough, then a new post isn't merited.
* Somebody commented with a better link than in the FPP: I don't see why this merits a whole new post; anyone who's reading the conversation will see the better link anyway, usually because several other people will point it out.
* Fixing linkrot: I could sorta kinda see the utility in letting people add updated URLs to old posts, for the benefit of future archive browsers, but I don't see how a changed URL merits a whole new FPP.
* mjj posted the same site years ago: the only thing lost by not allowing a repost is the ego boost for whoever gets their name on the front page.
* "But it's new to me..." : if something was posted to MeFi n years ago, it's at least n years old, and if it's any good has made the rounds already; users who didn't see the link here back then, probably saw it somewhere. OK, some number of them never saw it at all; perhaps there's a market for a "Best Of The Wooly Old Web" site. Somewhere. Not here.

Seriously, if somebody wants to cull through the archives, curate a best-of, and build Metafilter Regurgitated, more power to them. I'd probably even read it. Especially if it was named that.
posted by ook at 1:47 PM on July 14, 2008

However, anything more recent than that would veer into double post territory and it seems to me like you'd have a bunch of peopel saying "double!" and then other people saying "well the URL changed" and then people would debate that.

A recent FPP of mine fell into this category. It was a years-old double (home made rollercoaster) and my search did not bring up the original post. I had never seen it before, despite the vast amount of time I waste online. I was surprised it hadn't been FPPed before, so I posted it. Of course someone noted the double, and someone else noted that the old link was dead. Fortunately, that's as far as the is-it-a-double-or-not comments went.

All that to say, my rollercoaster FPP was not derailed. But it easily could have been.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 2:11 PM on July 14, 2008

ook writes "You could get the same effect by just browsing at random through the MeFi archives, couldn't you?"

Which I do. However at least some of the value to me of Metafilter is the discussion.
posted by Mitheral at 9:07 AM on July 17, 2008