Best of the Web

February 17, 2009 6:54 AM

Metafilter is one of Time's top blogs of 2009.
posted by empath to MetaFilter-related at 6:54 AM (109 comments total)

Ironically, Time is not one of MetaFilter's top news magazines of 2009.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:57 AM on February 17 [26 favorites]

Major subheads on Time:

U.S. Politics. World. Business & Tech. Best & Worst Lists.

Really?
posted by smackfu at 7:04 AM on February 17

Metafilter is the Time of 2009.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:08 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure Time was bought by Cracked sometime last quarter. Anyone got a link?.
posted by dirtdirt at 7:08 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

No "I'd like to thank the Academy" speeches from you boys, eh?
posted by empath at 7:09 AM on February 17

ludicrously diverse, huh.
posted by lunit at 7:11 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Whatever, I was person of the year in 2006.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:11 AM on February 17 [8 favorites]

Whatever, I was person of the year in 2006.

Indeed, YOU were.
posted by gman at 7:13 AM on February 17

Well, so were YOU.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:14 AM on February 17

BEST AND WORST COMMENTS OF THREAD 17369:

BEST:

-"Ironically, Time is not one of MetaFilter's top news magazines of 2009."

- Metafilter is the Time of 2009.

WORST:

- BEST AND WORST COMMENTS OF THREAD 17369
posted by popechunk at 7:18 AM on February 17 [5 favorites]

Said the Gramophone got a shout out, too. It's my favorite mp3 blog and run by one of MetaFilter's own.

So who is going to put together the detailed post on mini-golf?
posted by defenestration at 7:21 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

if we could edit comments, that could be recursive
posted by popechunk at 7:21 AM on February 17

The Tater MeTa put us over the top. I know it did.
posted by jerseygirl at 7:24 AM on February 17 [2 favorites]

I was excited about this until I saw that the steampunk gang was listed as well....
posted by HuronBob at 7:24 AM on February 17

I can foresee an "eternal September" in Ask as $5 Time joiners start posting inane questions there.

Oh wait -- we're already pretty good at posting inane questions.
posted by killdevil at 7:27 AM on February 17

Second Annual Time.com Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Blog Excellence
posted by ALongDecember at 7:28 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

When's someone going to host a Top 25 "Top 25 list each on its own page with no index only a next button so you have to click through to get maximum ad views", each on its own page with no index only a Next button so you have to click through for maximum ad views" page? It'd be like picking up money off the floor and I'm ashamed of you for not thinking of it.
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:30 AM on February 17 [7 favorites]

MAN THE LONGBOATS ARR
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:36 AM on February 17

ok, that's it. we've jumped the shark.

I predict the flood of boingboing-style FPPs to start in earnest next week, along with broken comments from the entire population of pitaland.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:37 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

time show me mefi, i show steampunk. why no?
posted by defenestration at 7:42 AM on February 17 [11 favorites]

Pitaland is lovely this time of year.

Actually I was just saying that I hope Pita comes around again soon, makes the place colorful.
posted by Bango Skank at 7:45 AM on February 17

My guess: appearing in print won't have a significant impact on signups.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:47 AM on February 17

Congratulations to every MeFi member, lurker, and first time guest. It's the hugs. I just know it.
posted by netbros at 7:48 AM on February 17

What a crap article.

The last time I actually tried to read an issue of Time, they only had 3 articles longer than a single page, and only one article longer than 2 pages, which was the cover article. Fully half of the pages were ads, and a decent chunk of the non-ad space was given to fluffy "product reviews" and shilling time.com. When photos were taken into account, the actual written word content dropped to around 1/4 of the actual pages. It took me well under an hour to read the entire rag from front to back, and at least another hour t bitch about how pathetic it was that this cost as much as a real magazine.
posted by paisley henosis at 8:00 AM on February 17 [7 favorites]

Falter, Time.
posted by cortex at 8:05 AM on February 17

That's right: recognize, motherfuckers.
posted by The Straightener at 8:06 AM on February 17

Btw, was there actually a detailed history of miniature golf fpp or do i need to make one?

I'd hate for people to come here looking for that and be disappointed.
posted by empath at 8:14 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Does this mean I'm a blogger now? Dammit.
posted by ardgedee at 8:30 AM on February 17

I was going to share a detailed comment on my opinion with everybody, but it seemed too trivial to post here.
posted by quin at 8:33 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Personally, I would never count a site that only syndicates a headline and a sentence or two as a "best blog". I read much less from the NYT because of that. I know: kids, lawn.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 8:33 AM on February 17

I couldn't tell the difference between their best of and worst of lists.
posted by QIbHom at 8:36 AM on February 17

You know who else Time...





Sorry.
posted by Infinite Jest at 8:44 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Oh, com on, that time.com graphic in the sidebar is a bit too much.
posted by paisley henosis at 8:48 AM on February 17 [4 favorites]

Apparently, they had that in the sidebar before I posted this. I didn't notice that till just now.
posted by empath at 8:50 AM on February 17

Actually this isn't a bad tagline: a ludicrously diverse encyclopedia of surprisingly useful and shockingly useless knowledge.
posted by jessamyn at 8:54 AM on February 17 [7 favorites]

Gee, 2009 just flew right by!
posted by mds35 at 8:57 AM on February 17 [3 favorites]

Time. Heh.
posted by Hovercraft Eel at 9:10 AM on February 17

So for those of us too lazy to look, did we make the best or the worst list?
posted by cjorgensen at 9:13 AM on February 17

A recent online food fight over whether the lead character in the old Road Runner cartoons said "beep-beep" or "meep-meep," was finally settled by a MeFi contributor who once had dinner with the cartoon's animator.

I'd like to see how you would solve that problem, Time.
posted by 7segment at 9:22 AM on February 17

Actually this isn't a bad tagline: a ludicrously diverse encyclopedia of surprisingly useful and shockingly useless knowledge.

Well, it's not bad except for the extravagantly overwrought use of a preposterously excessive number of adverbs.
posted by dersins at 9:36 AM on February 17 [8 favorites]

I was going to share a detailed history of miniature golf with everybody, but it seemed too trivial to post here.
posted by terranova at 9:36 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Actually this isn't a bad tagline: a ludicrously diverse encyclopedia of surprisingly useful and shockingly useless knowledge.

Agreed. And while I'm as cynical and mocking as the next MeFite, but I thought that this list was less fucking stupid than most of them.
posted by desuetude at 9:49 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

I liked the Top 10 Zany Letterman Interviews.
posted by agropyron at 9:49 AM on February 17

Actually this isn't a bad tagline: a ludicrously diverse encyclopedia of surprisingly useful and shockingly useless knowledge.

If I can remember it it'll be a useful answer to the question that I'm often asked by friends:
"So wtf is that website that you keep on going on about?"
posted by ob at 9:54 AM on February 17 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: Well, it's not bad except for the extravagantly overwrought use of a preposterously excessive number of adverbs.
posted by Rumple at 10:16 AM on February 17 [2 favorites]

You know, that Adolf Hitler Man'o'the'year cover is pretty striking, with its mediaeval wheel of hanging corpses above the mad organist.
posted by Rumple at 10:19 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]

ANOTHER FUCKING PAGE VIEW WHORE SLIDE SHOW ARTICLE
lol scrolling is hard!
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:25 AM on February 17

For the lazy: MeFi is #4, after Talking Points Memo, HuffPo, and LifeHacker. MeFi beat out Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan, Freakonomics and BoingBoing! Clearly, the list is not alphabetical, so it must be in awesome points.

agropyron - funny, that was already covered, providing proof that dirtdirt was right. Which is kind of scary.

Our Minigolf section is a bit thin at the moment, but I'm sure that will be corrected in the near future.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:44 AM on February 17

Here's the full list. Is it in any particular order, because it's not alphabetical?
posted by jessamyn at 10:48 AM on February 17

DIVE DIVE DIVE!!!!
posted by edgeways at 11:01 AM on February 17

Anything that doesn't use popunders is on my list of blog of the year.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:07 AM on February 17

Time Magazine is one of the most to obviously the internet. MetaFilter as much.
posted by clearly at 11:23 AM on February 17

By the way, in case my snark way up top wasn't clear, congratulations to Matt for being recognized for this incredible achievement, congratulations to cortex and jessamyn for encouraging the good stuff and discouraging the bad stuff, and to pb for keeping the lights on, the trains running, the metaphors metaphoring, etc.

I always have trouble explaining Metafilter to people. It isn't really a news site, and it isn't a reddit-type link aggregator. So I describe it as the best way to explore modern human civilization in all its silliness, ugliness, gore and glory.

I think Metafilter is a positive contribution to the world, and perhaps more importantly enables other people to make positive contributions. For that, you all have my respect and admiration.

Now about that color scheme...
posted by Pastabagel at 11:43 AM on February 17 [2 favorites]

Interesting list, but some obvious omissions: FiveThirtyEight could replace any of the political blogs (isn't HuffPo way more magazine than blog?), Consumerist is the greatest thing ever to escape the clutches of Nick Denton (and made last year's list) and Neatorama is BoingBoing for the NOT tragically hip. And they included Bleat and Dooce but not Whatever?

There does seem to be a ranking to the list since #2 #3 and #4 are last year's #1 #2 and #3; but I think it's more of a General-to-Specific thing than a Quality judgment, sadly.

Still, the placement of MeFi on the list right after the blog that 'repurposes' AskMeFi on a regular basis (for the second year straight) is... interesting. And they corrected last year's most glaring mistakes: Beppe Grillo?!? And Indexed is a webcomic, not blog. Time did get one thing right for us techblog addicts: Mashable is hot, TechCrunch is not.

The only pleasant discovery for me was Generación Y. And for casual websurfers, I'm happy they included synthesis.

The "Entry You'll Never See" bit was funny at first but wore out its welcome faster than the excess jokes in the new Simpson opening. But at least the ubiquitous 'belly fat' ads are non-graphical on Time.com.
posted by wendell at 12:01 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]

Its too bad our front page right now is 2 back-to-back links to Huffington Post articles.

Maybe this is a good time to pull out that post I've been wanting to make about Goethe and early 20th century quantum physicists...
posted by vacapinta at 12:04 PM on February 17

Most Overrated Blogs

* TechCrunch
* Gawker
* Jim Cramer's Blog
* PerezHilton.com
* Daily Kos: State of the Nation

BAH-ZING!
posted by P.o.B. at 12:16 PM on February 17

Awesome! Whudathunk The Time loves MetaFilter?

Oh-wee-oh-wee-oh
I - I've been reading U
I think I wanna post here (post here)
Said U, U R a ludicrously diverse encyclopedia of surprisingly useful and shockingly useless knowledge
Mefi, I love U most, dear (most, dear)

Oh-wee-oh-wee-oh
My Meta love, yeah
I think I wanna post here (post here)
Meta love
Mefi, I love U most, dear (most, dear)
etc.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:40 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

The graphic logo in the sidebar offends my delicate sensibilities.
posted by exogenous at 12:40 PM on February 17

I never read MetaFilter. Is it really that good?
posted by found missing at 12:43 PM on February 17

[BoingBoing] entry you'll never see : If Sony hopes to stay alive in the music and film business, it's got to start cracking down on Internet pirates.

Actually, I did see that entry on BoingBoing, before it was unpublished.
posted by mattdidthat at 12:52 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

Yay me!
posted by Meta Filter at 12:54 PM on February 17

Amazing how people can see into the future to be able to divine what was the best of the year in February (probably January when they wrote it). It seems that the race to be the first with the "best of the year" lists has reached the ludicrous stage.

Or is there more to the "Time" title than we know - maybe they really can travel through it?
posted by dg at 12:57 PM on February 17

Does this mean I'm a blogger now? Dammit.

No, you're a weblogger. Big difference. The logo in the corner says weblog. Time is clearly confused.
posted by Caduceus at 1:03 PM on February 17

It turns out that mini-golf has a surprisingly interesting history, extending back to 1867 in Scotland, crossing the pond in 1916, and enjoying all sorts of faddish success in the 20s and 30s. It is a fabulous FPP topic with plenty of connections to art-historical and social movements, and there are many interesting links out there but I won't be able to get to it tonight. Empath, or anyone else who wants, it's all yours.
posted by Miko at 1:08 PM on February 17 [9 favorites]

Miko, that's great. I'll be puttering around with that all day.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 1:30 PM on February 17

I vote we let This Guy post that exact post and blow Tom McNichol's mind.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:33 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]

This is probably because all the press from when mathowie twittered about surviving the server crash.
posted by srboisvert at 2:04 PM on February 17

I'd like to think it's all thanks to me.

Really, I would like to think that, so please don't correct me.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 2:10 PM on February 17

Our Minigolf section is a bit thin at the moment, but I'm sure that will be corrected in the near future.
From the 1999 post - That's real shame re: British Mini Golf Association. Just one of many victims:

20. This is very frustrating and angishly wrong for AOL not to at least had the decency to emailed their hometown members of this closing of "hometown.aol.com.html" so we could have been MORE AWARE of this closing. If anyone starts a liable law suit on AOL for this outrage action, please put my name down as a victim of this hanious action taking AOL members.

posted by tellurian at 2:42 PM on February 17

So when are we going to see the Little MetaFilter Urban Achievers?
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:58 PM on February 17

*saves metafilter.com.html*
posted by Pronoiac at 3:25 PM on February 17

There goes the neighborhood.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:37 PM on February 17

I'd hit it.
posted by buzzman at 3:37 PM on February 17

The great thing is, this is the best 2009 blogs. Guess what, it's only February! We still have most of the year left to screw around now that we've already made the list. For example, I'm about to post my latest FPP, "I was going to share a detailed history of miniature golf with everybody, but it seemed too trivial to post here."
posted by mullingitover at 4:10 PM on February 17

Time's arrow done gone shot us in the butt.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:22 PM on February 17

Ha, some reporters they are. They completely failed to notice that most of us are voiced by Bill Cosby, except when we sing as the Junkyard Band.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:46 PM on February 17

Gawker is "coasting on reputation?"

I don't understand.
posted by longsleeves at 5:23 PM on February 17

updating my resume now.
posted by boo_radley at 5:24 PM on February 17

I'm pretty sure Time was bought by Cracked sometime last quarter

What a crap article.

I was excited about this until I saw that the steampunk gang was listed as well....

What's up people? Some notice, some accolades, some success (if you will) and we have to tear things down???!

It's almost like Metafilter is . . . Irish or something.
posted by donovan at 6:32 PM on February 17

Ludicrously diverse? I thought we were just diversely ludicrous.
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:36 PM on February 17 [6 favorites]

It's almost like Metafilter is . . . Irish or something.

Holy cow! You nailed it! It all makes sense now. How could I have missed the signs? The aura of unfocused depression and defeat, the black humor, the frequent donnybrooks and emotional scenes, the meeting up in bars over drinks for convivial conversation and attempts to stave off creeping, wraithlike futilty from the dark corners where they reside...

No wonder I feel like MetaFilter is just like a family...

The faeries! The faeries have taken me!
posted by Miko at 6:42 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]

Know what Time really needs?

A less professional blue background.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:56 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

How could I have missed the signs?

cf. taters.
posted by cortex at 6:58 PM on February 17

quick, man the barricades! Up the fee to $50, mathowie!
posted by five fresh fish at 7:06 PM on February 17

quick, man the barricades!

Matt keeps the comment text boxes narrow like Parisian streets to prevent coup d'etats. :P
posted by cowbellemoo at 7:19 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]

coups d'etat.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:44 PM on February 17

Isn't Time the company that bought AOL? 'Nuff said.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:30 PM on February 17

Congratulations, MetaFilter. :)
posted by Kevin Street at 9:01 PM on February 17

"Holy cow! You nailed it! It all makes sense now. How could I have missed the signs? The aura of unfocused depression and defeat, the black humor, the frequent donnybrooks and emotional scenes, the meeting up in bars over drinks for convivial conversation and attempts to stave off creeping, wraithlike futilty from the dark corners where they reside..."

I'd be Donleavy, but I can't find a woman to support me while I fuck around and steal pocket money.
posted by klangklangston at 9:31 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

killdevil writes "I can foresee an 'eternal September' in Ask as $5 Time joiners start posting inane questions there."

$5 Time joiners! I hate them already!
posted by krinklyfig at 9:37 PM on February 17

Hey, I got an idea. Anyone from Timely comes over here, just pretend like nothing's going on. Like we're just hanging out. Maybe they'll think they got bad directions.
posted by krinklyfig at 9:41 PM on February 17

I'd be Donleavy, but I can't find a woman to support me while I fuck around and steal pocket money.

A perfect situation for tapping the resources of the green!

It'd be a bit like Fedora Guy, but with more drunkenness & fisticuffs.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:51 PM on February 17

Then we steal their watches?
posted by Science! at 9:58 PM on February 17

Oh Christ, what are they going to want this time?

Or should that be "Oh Christ, what are they going to want this TIME?"

A-hyuk, a-hyk.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:34 PM on February 17

Time heals all wounds, especially those left by Newsweek.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:25 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]

"I HAEAAAVVVVVVEEEEE NO TIME FOR TIME MAGAZINE OR ....
posted by clavdivs at 6:43 AM on February 18

The Tater MeTa put us over the top. I know it did.

I've tried to be a metatater, but I can't stay in those yoga positions for long.
posted by lukemeister at 7:08 AM on February 18

coups d'etat

merde!
posted by cowbellemoo at 7:21 AM on February 18

All your life is Time Magazine
I read it too
What does it mean?
posted by hangashore at 8:02 AM on February 18

cowbellemoo - we cannot be stopped (until the text boxes are coded differently).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:07 AM on February 18

"I HAEAAAVVVVVVEEEEE NO TIME FOR TIME MAGAZINE OR ....

Attention:
posted by terranova at 10:29 AM on February 18

That is a pretty good list of blogs. Nice company to keep.
posted by caddis at 6:35 PM on February 18

lukemeister: "The Tater MeTa put us over the top. I know it did.

I've tried to be a metatater, but I can't stay in those yoga positions for long."

Well, that really depends upon the position—are we talkin' the hardcore or the softcore?

Banter!
posted by defenestration at 9:58 PM on February 18

We're going to need a motorcycle, an above-ground pool, a shark, and a ramp.
posted by willpie at 6:31 AM on February 19

filthy light thief: :P
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:05 AM on February 19

out of curiosity, has this made a significant impact on people coming by the site?
posted by andywolf at 3:57 PM on February 19

I don't know if Matt wants to check the web analytics stuff as far as traffic goes. I feel like we've had a slight uptick in sketchy-seeming opportunistic spammish dongs registering accounts in the last 48 hours or so, but it's not significant enough that I'm convinced it's not random noise.
posted by cortex at 4:01 PM on February 19

taters also confirm the irishniss, innit. but the green's clairly misassigned.
posted by mwhybark at 10:17 PM on February 19

Whoa, just finally checked that out and saw my Road Runner question referenced. That's awesome. Anyone know if the list made the print version of the magazine so I can geekily hoard my contribution to Time?
posted by yellowbinder at 9:59 AM on February 21