Let's take Olympics posts to sportsfilter.com

February 12, 2002 4:31 PM

I've been tempted lately to request that people 'take it to sportsfilter.com' with the olympic posts. Since sportsfilter is a spawn of metafilter...it seems like doing so would help Both, but i'm not sure. It just seems like an excellent opportunity to reduce the number of posts here while helping build up sportsfilter.
posted by th3ph17 to etiquette/policy at 4:31 PM (13 comments total)

I usually go to sportsfilter reflexively when I see an olympics post here, since I know the commentary is going to be better, the link more relevant, etc. A sports links here just sends me there anyways.
posted by j.edwards at 5:00 PM on February 12, 2002

I'm one of the SportsFilter mafia, so I'd love to see more people using SportsFilter, but there are a couple of drawbacks to this particular approach.

In SportsFilter's Locker Room (MetaTalk equivalent) Matt's already said he hopes people don't do this because it would create the wrong impression that sports aren't welcome on MetaFilter.

And SportsFilter is more like a neice or nephew of MetaFilter than a child. It's a separate site with different owners and slightly different rules. (For example, news links are less of a problem on SportsFilter due to the inherent topical nature of sports.) So "take it to SportsFilter" would also reinforce the wrong impression that SportsFilter is part of MetaFilter, when it's not.

posted by kirkaracha at 5:03 PM on February 12, 2002

yeah...would feel like segregation almost. Then we would have to get a politicsfilter and a religionfilter and a bushfilter and a DuneFilter and everything would go to hell.

hadn't visited the Locker Room...should have thought about checking that before i posted this.

from matt:

It's touchy, and I hope people don't post things like "this would be good for sportsfilter too" because it just leads to the unwanted conclusion (that sports don't belong on metafilter). If you would like a sportsmined person at metafilter to know about this site, email them instead.

That sounds like a good plan. You can tap people via email and spread the word.

I only pay attention to cycling and fencing, and hardly at all even for those, so i'll stick to metafilter.



posted by th3ph17 at 5:26 PM on February 12, 2002

There are certainly aspects of sports with below on Mefi. I have not seen any posts which were so "WFAN" that they were wrong here.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:31 PM on February 12, 2002

metafilter can have sports posts. the way i look at it is, metafilter's a good place to go to discuss sports with just anyone. sportsfilter is a good place to go to discuss sports with sports people. either choice is fine.
posted by moz at 5:54 PM on February 12, 2002

it's definately a strange relationship. sometimes it seems like some links posted here should be posted there just for archival purposes--like today's snowjob2002.com--even if the discussion is played out already.
posted by danOstuporStar at 7:10 PM on February 12, 2002

th3ph17: first, you are assuming that all MeFier's know of the existence of sportsfilter. Second, you are assuming that everyone with an interest in the Olympics is interested enough in sports to want to go to sportsfilter.
posted by mischief at 8:22 PM on February 12, 2002

Interesting. I was wondering about this. I took my post on the pairs skating controversy to SportsFilter first, not assuming there would be a MeFi thread about it. And to be honest, I wouldn't have created a MeFi thread about it even if there hadn't been one. Perhaps it's the newness of SportsFilter or the smaller userbase that makes me less reluctant to post links to their front page, whereas with MeFi, it feels more like I'd be inviting a flamewar. Maybe it's guts I lack. I don't know. But I'll take anything sports-related to SportsFilter before I'd think of taking it to MeFi.
posted by evixir at 10:08 PM on February 12, 2002

If anyone wants to take it to SportsFilter.
posted by keithl at 10:36 PM on February 12, 2002

Metafilter and Sportsfilter, though similar in appearance, have completely different owners. Sportsfilter is not meant to replace metafilter as a place for sportslinks. Hopefully, Sportsfilter will be a success on its own.

That said, I think for the hardcore sports fan Sportsfilter will eventually have advantages over mefi simply resulting from its dedication to the topic.

The mefi member who is just a casual sports fan will probably stick to mefi. Sportsfilter will also gain members not interested in mefi at all.

As of now, mefi sports links have the advantage of a much bigger user base, while the advantage of posting to Sportsfilter is the link won't be buried in a matter of hours.

We can coexist, really =)
posted by justgary at 10:44 PM on February 12, 2002

/me registers ComplaintFilter.
posted by jcterminal at 11:00 PM on February 12, 2002

We can coexist, really =)
NO! There. Can. Only. Be. One.
posted by owillis at 11:03 PM on February 12, 2002

agreeing with the general consensus here; understanding that sportsfilter has different owners, etc.; still wondering: shouldn't sportsfilter be part of the metafilter network?
posted by mlang at 7:02 AM on February 13, 2002