MetaFilter gestation period?

September 6, 2009 3:10 PM

What is the typical (is there such a thing?) MetaFilter gestation period?

How long (how much reading) does it usually take for a new MetaFilter enrollee to realize that it is OK to comment and snark in the blue and stick to business in the green?
I am still hesitant a little... my first blue attempt was smushed and I had to ask why.

posted by Drasher to MetaFilter-Related at 3:10 PM (86 comments total)

More to the point, where do they gestate? In a text box?
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:13 PM on September 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

Making Metafilter posts is like making sausage. Don't over think it too much. Just jump in and get your hands dirty. If you fail the first time, you can always make more sausage tomorrow.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:19 PM on September 6, 2009

I think that if you jump into the sausage machine, you're not going to be making any more tomorrow.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:24 PM on September 6, 2009 [11 favorites]

No damn clue. I've been reading MeFi since 2001, but didn't get an account until this January, and I still have no idea what I'm doing.
posted by Mizu at 3:27 PM on September 6, 2009

Good heavens, it's just a website! Post away, there are so many noobs here now that if you screw up we won't remember you did it.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:32 PM on September 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

how i type box
posted by TwelveTwo at 3:38 PM on September 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

INSIDE THE BIG MEFITE IS

ANOTHER MEFITE
posted by hifiparasol at 3:39 PM on September 6, 2009 [9 favorites]

OK, focusing on the "tragedy" of my smote post was not the idea...
I am over that (sniff)... it's been a long time and the wounds have healed...
posted by Drasher at 3:41 PM on September 6, 2009

More to the point, where do they gestate?

On the backs of other users, like gremlins.
posted by The Whelk at 3:42 PM on September 6, 2009

More to the point, where do they gestate?

Ideally, in the withered out, souless husk of someone with a pre-17k user number.
posted by marxchivist at 3:45 PM on September 6, 2009

Metafilter: Your bun is stuck in the oven.
posted by disillusioned at 3:46 PM on September 6, 2009

I have no idea. I'm still gestating and it might be a while yet before I know why I'm here.
posted by futureisunwritten at 3:46 PM on September 6, 2009

HOW IS MEFFITE FORMED?
posted by Cold Lurkey at 3:58 PM on September 6, 2009 [10 favorites]

HOW URL GET POSTED
posted by mattdidthat at 4:04 PM on September 6, 2009

Cold Lurkey: "HOW IS MEFFITE FORMED?"

They need to do way instain mod> who delete uor psots. becuse these fornt pgae psots cant frigth back it was on the metatalk this mroing a mod in pdx who had delete a post on the blue they are psoting the deleted post on yrou own blag my pary are with the mefite who lost his deletde psot ; i am truley sorry for your lots
posted by idiopath at 4:14 PM on September 6, 2009 [32 favorites]

...if you screw up we won't remember you did it.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:32 PM on September 6 [+] [!]

Pardon me while I take a sip of this refreshing beverage and then read your comment again.

...we won't remember you did it.

PSSSSSSHHHHHHHahahahahaha.
posted by logicpunk at 4:15 PM on September 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

Just remember as well: if you jump into a sausage machine, you'll probably end up making a lot of self-links.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:17 PM on September 6, 2009 [105 favorites]

I was reading the site for a while before I signed up, and once I did I pretty much started commenting right away. Everybody (including the mods) seemed nice, so I wasn't really intimidated that much. I figured that if I really made a dumb comment it would get deleted and that would be that.
posted by kylej at 4:20 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Posting to mefi is like making sausage: It's all assholes.

;)
posted by smoke at 4:24 PM on September 6, 2009

Posting? I just came here looking for a used car.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:25 PM on September 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

hahaha...self-links....bravo UbuRoivas.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 4:32 PM on September 6, 2009

Just remember as well: if you jump into a sausage machine, you'll probably end up making a lot of self-links.

Usually I just favorite and move on, but holy shit. This was genius.
posted by hifiparasol at 4:35 PM on September 6, 2009

I am the Abe Frohman of Metafilter.
posted by mrmojoflying at 4:36 PM on September 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

There's really no one golden rule about this, to be honest. Learning comes from doing, I think. Like the time I posted a SLYT Downfall parody without realizing that there are approximately 543,279 Downfall parody videos on YouTube. That got deleted quick. Ah ben coudonc, as they say in Québec. Just laugh it off and move on. Think of it as a rite of passage.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:36 PM on September 6, 2009

CHICKEN SOUP for the MEFITE'S SOUL: 101 STORIES OF INTERNET COURAGE

#1: The Newb

Once upon a time, a newb made a post. It was a SLYT montage of animals "talking," and everyone hated it. Furthermore, everyone hated him, and they told him so. The newb vowed after this experience that he would never post again. But he did. This time, it was a link to an Op Ed that required a login which couldn't be found on BugMeNot. He padded his post with Wiki links, but it wasn't good enough. Again, the newb tried to post and again the post was deleted. Again and again and again.

Just when the newb was about to give up hope, someone else posted to Metafilter. Someone newer than the newb. And her post was a link to a blog that made fun of people who shop at thrift stores! The original newb visited that post, saw just how bad it and how cruel the other MeFites were being to her, and do you know what he did? He joined them. In fact, he snarked so much this newer newb flamed out in a MeTa thread that would be referenced for years to come. And it felt good. It felt right. He had found his role in the community at last. All he needed was for someone to fail harder than he had. All he needed... was faith.

The End

*closes book*
*tucks you in*
*checks once more and then turns out the light*
posted by katillathehun at 4:37 PM on September 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

About 9 months. Same as in town.
posted by loquacious at 4:42 PM on September 6, 2009

Good heavens, it's just a website! Post away, there are so many noobs here now that if you screw up we won't remember you did it.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:32 PM

If you get the buttery, melts-in-your-mouth irony in this comment, then I basically trust you to post anything you fucking want.
posted by hermitosis at 5:04 PM on September 6, 2009 [11 favorites]

I'm still waiting to get the hang of this place. Any day now.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:05 PM on September 6, 2009

*checks once more and then turns out the light*

#2: The Troll

The dust ruffle around the bed rustles and growls. You pull the covers tight up under your nose and look for likely hiding places around your shadowy, once-familiar room. Lightning crashes outside and then

It is pitch black. ...
posted by carsonb at 5:05 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have this image of an enthusiastic new mefite, finally ready to interact with the site in earnest, celebrating the moment by bursting violently out of John Hurt's chest.

There's no standard or fixed gestation period, Drasher; everybody seems to do it their own way, whether by lurking at great length before tentatively dipping their toes in the water or by leaping ass-over-elbows into the first abortion thread they come across to explain the secrets of the universe to all assembled.

Feeling bashful is perfectly normal, and you're under no pressure to hurry up and participate, so my advice would be to take it easy and when something comes to you as a good idea to share with the site, do it then. Don't go looking, don't feel like you've just Got To Make A First Post, etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:08 PM on September 6, 2009

Here's an unusual gestation period:

I have been reading MeFi since about 2000. I have never, not once, posted to the blue.

What happens when you don't ever post to the blue? It builds up. It builds up in your head until you start thinking of grand schemes: "I am going to start researching X Important Celebrity, so that when and if he ever dies, I will write the best obit post ever." Or "I will write a post about bunnies, a thorough, unbiased, observant and hilarious post. The best post ever."

But you see, once you allow FPP-ing to build up like that in your mind, it becomes an ordeal of such magnitude that you literally cannot ever post to the blue.

So please. Go do it. Now. Or you'll end up like me.
posted by brina at 5:10 PM on September 6, 2009 [7 favorites]

I was apprehensive about my first post, so I made it so good that no one liked it. Except that my German wasn't as good as I thought it was, so people made fun of me. Which was Ok, because, you know, I'm not all het up about how good my German is; they lost the war.

Then I ate some hash brownies and here I am 100 or so posts later and nearing 10000 favorites and I totally had sex with another Mefite not too long ago and that was pretty cool (though, you know, you probably shouldn't mention Metafilter in coitus, like, "Hey, there was just some dude talking about totally sticking his drill into some chick and taking her to new levels of femininity, and here I am doing it!").

But that's just some of the fun that I forget where I was going with this. Anyway, watermelon, vodka and simple syrup along with a little soda water makes a pretty good summer drink, amirite?
posted by klangklangston at 5:15 PM on September 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

I totally had sex with another Mefite not too long ago

Did you post it to projects?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:18 PM on September 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Did you post it to projects?

You can actually download the mp3 in MeFi Music.
posted by hermitosis at 5:20 PM on September 6, 2009

loquacious: About 9 months. Same as in town.

Ha! You don't know how right you are:

7,558 MeFites have posted to the blue, and their average MeFi age at time of first post is 267.9 days. That's near enough 9 months.

Their median age is only 109.1 days, and the standard deviation is 386.3 days, so there's a hell of a lot of variability.
posted by FishBike at 6:00 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Gorsh darn it!

That wasn't my question...
I wanted to know how and when people figured out that the snarking and open commenting was OK in the blue but not in the green.

I'll have to ask again someday... and phrase it better for sure.
wow... they really focused on that deleted post, must be a sore spot...
posted by Drasher at 6:43 PM on September 6, 2009

Drasher: my understanding is that snarking HAPPENS in the blue, but is sort of socially discouraged, and anyone who has had a response deleted from the green quickly figures out why.
posted by hippybear at 6:51 PM on September 6, 2009

Oh. You were actually *asking* that. I thought it was just filler.

I am still hesitant a little... my first blue attempt was smushed and I had to ask why.

Your first blue attempt at snarking? Or at posting? See now I'm all confused. And genuinely trying to help. AT THE SAME TIME.
posted by katillathehun at 6:51 PM on September 6, 2009

I still get it wrong. I feel an urge to snark on the green all the time, and I've had an account here since 2001.
posted by Hildegarde at 6:52 PM on September 6, 2009

I've also been reading since 2001, grabbed an account when registration opened, and have yet to post to the blue. I shudder to think what it'd be like if every reader felt the need to post to the front page -- I can't keep up with it now. If you have something to post, do it, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't think there's any gestation period for commenting. No one will really notice you at all unless you are consistently inflammatory. I don't mean that in a bad way, just, no one is going to be all WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? Unless you're a raging asshole, the worst case scenario is you are just ignored.
posted by cj_ at 7:02 PM on September 6, 2009

my first blue attempt was smushed and I had to ask why.

What does this mean? Did you have a post deleted? Or a comment?
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:06 PM on September 6, 2009

My impression is that snark for the sake of snark isn't favored on the blue, either, but is accepted by the mods as part of the way that people interact here; you can't effectively dictate how people use a site. A lot of the snark I see is actually making a relevant comment or conveying information of some sort anyway. The green has a much less hands-off moderation policy than the blue does, since it has a much narrower focus on answering questions rather than facilitating enjoyment of the web, and so Mathessamortex's iron fist is more frequently seen there.
posted by hattifattener at 7:18 PM on September 6, 2009

what I want to know is what the html for that really small text people use is. I can't figure that out man. I'm not talking about small I mean really small.
posted by nola at 8:05 PM on September 6, 2009

The <small> tag can nest and nest and nest and nest...
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:08 PM on September 6, 2009

And yet, the &lt big &gt tag doesn't work and doesn't nest, so I can't make my M won't work.

We all know why—the mods are [BIG M-IST]s.
posted by klangklangston at 8:25 PM on September 6, 2009

Aww, bunkum. Can't even make an HTML &lt pun &gt .
posted by klangklangston at 8:27 PM on September 6, 2009

I wanted to know how and when people figured out that the snarking and open commenting was OK in the blue but not in the green.

If you'll notice, under the "Live Preview" box, on The Green the instructions read, "Wisecracks don't help people find answers."
On The Blue, however, it reads, "Aggressive snarking encouraged. Please correct grammar and point out the OP's moral, ethical, and personal failures in scornful detail. If it's a double post, punch them in the ballskin."

It does say that, right?
posted by Jon-o at 8:40 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Gestation complete!
posted by Jon-o at 8:40 PM on September 6, 2009

just get drunk and post, what could possibly go wrong1/!?!???
posted by kathrineg at 8:47 PM on September 6, 2009

bt your not supposed to drink when your pregnant so if you think about it if your'e pregnant with your post or comment you shouldnt drink.

it ould com out deformed ad have trouble generaliazing learning

>:O
posted by kathrineg at 8:48 PM on September 6, 2009

MetaFilter: it ould com out deformed ad have trouble generaliazing learning
posted by hippybear at 9:15 PM on September 6, 2009

how is kathrineg's comment formed? how mefite get pragnent?
posted by katillathehun at 9:30 PM on September 6, 2009

katillathehun - Oh, it was my first attempt at posting in the blue. I've posted a lot of green since. :)

CunningLinguist - (nice name) My blueish post was deleted for being a little too FPP. I read it now but don't try to post. I haven't found any interesting stuff on my own.

nola - Yeah, just do more and more smalls.

Oh, and thanks everyone for making my grey!
posted by Drasher at 10:09 PM on September 6, 2009

theres all supposed to be fppp

it stands for front page post
posted by kathrineg at 10:11 PM on September 6, 2009

kathrineg: fppp is forte-pianississamo, which is a nonsensical volume for playing a piece of music.
posted by idiopath at 10:20 PM on September 6, 2009

oops, I meant mezzo-pianissiissamo

or maybe the federal prison policy project
posted by idiopath at 10:21 PM on September 6, 2009

Drasher, I think I'm even more confused now than I was before. So, here's a questionnaire for you.

1. Is this concerning a comment you made on a post on the blue? YES | NO

1a. If yes, was it your comment that was deleted? YES | NO

1b. If yes, why was your comment deleted?

2. Is this concerning a front page post (not a comment)? YES | NO

2a. If yes, was your front page post deleted? YES | NO

2b. If yes, why was it deleted?

3. Do you know the difference between a post and a comment? YES | NO

4. Do you know the difference between the green (Ask MetaFilter) and the blue (front page)? YES | NO

5. What is your question?

6. What the hell is kathrineg on right now?
posted by katillathehun at 10:39 PM on September 6, 2009

Well, I called somebody "morally bankrupt" on AskMe once. And it got pulled. Then I felt like a big bully. But I figured out not to do that any more.

It took just about that long.


*Would have been quicker, but it took me a while to figure out what happened to my post. That could use a little message or sumpin'.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:44 PM on September 6, 2009

a cat ran across my keyboard

might have drunk

YOU NE'R KNOW WITH A CAT!

sriously though i dont get this post at all but i feel that you are trying hard, op, to do the right thing, that is good and you should feel GOOD~ :)
posted by kathrineg at 11:15 PM on September 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you have six hours to spare, you can read this recent conversation about perceived snark on AskMe. Though you may want to shoot yourself by the end, as I'm sure most of us did.

Also, I'm willing to take up a collection to buy kathrineg more booze so she can post like this all the time. It's like having goliche back!
posted by hifiparasol at 11:17 PM on September 6, 2009

More to the point, where do they gestate?
Ideally, in the withered out, souless husk of someone with a pre-17k user number.
Then why do I feel so ... empty?
posted by dg at 5:45 AM on September 7, 2009

I don't think there's a single gestation period. I've noticed new users pretty much immediately start posting FPPs; I've been a member a year and a lurker about ten months prior to that, and I still don't have the nerve, and I'm not sure when I started posting in Metatalk or Mefi, but it was after AskMe commenting and AskMe-AskMes.

I kind of wanted to feel like I understood the unwritten rules a little better. But some people are blessedly unconcerned with stuff like that, and some people just process things a little faster and get the rules and just leap forward like posting gazelles into the blue.

I don't think there's a single standard, but I bet there's an average. There's a data dump somewhere I think you could figure it out with -- user registration dates versus user first post dates. But still, it's just an average and it doesn't anticipate individual behavior.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:53 AM on September 7, 2009

POWER UP!
posted by hermitosis at 7:17 AM on September 7, 2009

[Our relentless hero sleeps... later he wakes and sees a couple of toughs in trench coats. He is taken to a dark building; into a room woth a solitary table a couple chairs and a ceiling lamp hanging in the center.]

[Cue the organ music.]

katillathehun speaks:

Drasher, I think I'm even more confused now than I was before. So, here's a questionnaire
for you.

OK. HEY! Get that big light outta my eyes! What are you putting in my arm???

1. Is this concerning a comment you made on a post on the blue? YES | NO
NO

1a. If yes, was it your comment that was deleted? YES | NO
NO. This post's main subject is not about a post in the blue, but my first post in the blue did get deleted.

1b. If yes, why was your comment deleted?
Not about a comment.

2. Is this concerning a front page post (not a comment)? YES | NO
Oh, effen' 'ell! NOW I GET IT!!! The "FPP" mnemonic that I used means "First Page Post". When my post was deleted, that term was used and I thought is meant "First Person Post" (i.e. Too much about yourself.) AAAAARRRRGGGG!

2a. If yes, was your front page post deleted? YES | NO
Yup.

2b. If yes, why was it deleted?
It seemed to the admin that the post was too much about myself than about something cute/interesting/YouTube. [or simply refer to the angst above]

3. Do you know the difference between a post and a comment? YES | NO
Aye-yup. A post is like a big ol' hunk-a wood stuck in the ground. A comment is what we're in right now.... WHOA... the room is spinnin' a bit.

4. Do you know the difference between the green (Ask MetaFilter) and the blue (front page)? YES | NO
Wall-shore! Blue is a primary color and green is the same but with some yellow in it.

5. What is your question?
huh?

6. What the hell is kathrineg on right now?
I don't know but I'd like to know if her supplier delivers.
posted by Drasher at 7:58 AM on September 7, 2009 [3 favorites]

I wanted to know how and when people figured out that the snarking and open commenting was OK in the blue but not in the green.

So, my take on this distilled core of your question is that while I imagine some people remember this event (or a key moment in this process, a processing being the more likely characterization of that learning process) and could cite it like SLC Mom did overnight, for the most part it's probably not that epochal in the average user's mind.

Some folks have been around for as long as or longer than AskMe itself—they most likely acclimated to the differing guidelines on the green pretty much in real time, as that new place came into being and those guidelines slowly developed over the first year or two.

Some folks came to the site specifically for askme, in which case they were steeped in the culture of that subsite from the getgo and didn't really have to "unlearn" any habits from the blue or the grey.

A lot of folks lurked for a while before signing up, in which case they may have already been at least generally aware of these guideline and culture differences before they ever got an account and started commenting.

In all those cases, there's probably no discrete event to remember. But beyond that, there's a lot of other things that are more totemic about participation that are likely to be a much larger focus (for better or for worse) by a newer or self-conscious mefite. This thread keeps wandering back to the subject of first posts, for example, because that's one of the biggies, possibly the biggie. See also discovering Metatalk (whether by calling out or being called out or having your post deleted and seeking explanation/redress, or following a "take it to metatalk" user-or-admin intervention in an existing thread on the blue or green), getting a pile of positive or negative feedback for some contribution, ending up on the sidebar, etc.

So the notion of that moment or moments where a bit of the cross-cultural guideline differential between the green and the blue snap into place in a users mind doesn't leap out as the obvious point of discussion, in context. Doesn't make it not an interesting question (in fact, I'm pretty interested by it now that I'm thinking about it), but it's not the obvious one, which is why I think folks didn't seize on it from the original post and have been a little confused about what you were vs. weren't going for even with some of the clarifications. So it goes: presentation, as we say on a pretty regular basis, matters, sometimes in very unanticipated ways.

A post is like a big ol' hunk-a wood stuck in the ground.

If I decided to rewrite the FAQ, I'm starting with that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:34 AM on September 7, 2009

Alrighty then, this has been super confusing. I'm going to use the skills I've developed trying to parse people's requests at the reference desk and say that Drasher is asking when you first felt comfortable enough to snark around in someone else's posts, and maybe when you realized that wasn't kosher on AskMe.

It's not about a post he made that was deleted (which I can't find on deletedthread, btw).
It's not about any specific comment he's made.

He could have asked it like this:

Many of you seem to feel confident that your contributions in other people's posts are appropriate - e.g., gentle, knowing snark in the blue, just the facts for the green, and full on frontal attack in the grey. Let's call the time from the moment you first started reading Metafilter until you first had this feeling of confidence your "gestation period". Tell me about your gestation period, please.

Drasher, if I'm right, just shout DO OVER and please don't use any acronyms.
posted by donnagirl at 8:35 AM on September 7, 2009

aaaannnnd, I took too long writing that and got explanation-blocked by cortex.
posted by donnagirl at 8:36 AM on September 7, 2009

donnagirl - You won't be able to find the deleted post. (I couldn't) It is gone. You are right.

DO OVER (and... what she said) Oh, cripes! Don't start this thread all over again! We'll NEVER get home.
posted by Drasher at 8:51 AM on September 7, 2009

For what it's worth, the post isn't gone gone, it's just not easy to find if you don't know where to look. Being an admin, I have some extra places to look that make these a lot easier to find. Folks can also check with us via the contact form if they really need to track one down and can't figure out how.

Also, Drasher, you may have a mefimail from the day you posted it, telling you where it is, though I can't remember exactly when we implemented that notification mail so if it was after January of this year that's not the case.

The other thing to do is try searching the Deleted Thread blog, though it's compiled by hand and has gaps in it which seem to include this post, so it wouldn't have helped in this case.

All this said with the understanding that Drasher's question wasn't about the post and that getting a first post deleted isn't any great transgression regardless and etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:58 AM on September 7, 2009

Jeez, that post was from January! You've been wondering all this time, Drasher?
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:05 AM on September 7, 2009

Thanks cortex, I don't know where to look, but it seems somewhat important to others here.
(Heck, I spent ten minutes trying to find my frikkin' MeMail on my profile page until I remembered it was the little icon! [everything else was in text links])
I deleted the MeMail that advised me of the post deletion, that's another reason I couldn't find the original.
Aaaand, as it was, I had to specifically ask the admin why it was deleted... I just didn't understand (at the time).

CunningLinguist - it's not like I was pining for the fjords since January... it just crossed my mind again and I thought I would throw it out there.
posted by Drasher at 9:18 AM on September 7, 2009

I started reading MeFi in 2004, got an account in 2007, and made a post about a week later.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:02 PM on September 7, 2009

> I wanted to know how and when people figured out that the snarking and open commenting was OK in the blue but not in the green.

As I recall, I worked it out pretty much instantly. It only takes an hour or so to work out that people are jerks on the Blue, bigger jerks on the Grey and well-meaning but afflicted with Male Answer Syndrome on the Green. Also, I read where it says Found something cool on the web and want to share it with everyone else? Great! Just fill the blanks... on the posting page for MeFi proper and Please limit comments to answers or help in finding an answer. Wisecracks don't help people find answers. Thanks. the first time I posted an answer on AskMe. It surprises me when people take a long time to work out what the different sections of the site for, but the process does seem to take quite a while for a significant number of people. Perhaps it's because the site doesn't have an area for hanging out and chatting about off-topic stuff - each section has a function, and people do the general socialising elsewhere, in real life or IRC or longboats or whatever.

So some people get it straight away, some people take weeks or months and some never fit in and move on or get banned. The answer to your question is that there is no typical gestation period.

A very good habit to have before hitting the "post" button in any section of the site is to read back anything you have typed and think to yourself "does this say what I want it to say or have I loaded it with personal context that a stranger wouldn't understand". Most of my stuff that the admins have had to delete has come from failure to do this. I think you will agree that you would have phrased this MeTa post very differently if you had paused to consider how people will interpret what you have written.
posted by nowonmai at 12:07 PM on September 7, 2009

Those automated form letters for new posts started last October.


klangklangston: Can't even make an HTML &lt pun &gt .

You left out the semicolons. If you entered &lt;pun&gt;, you'd get <pun>.

also, if you want to see &lt;pun&gt; you have to enter &amp;lt;pun&amp;gt;
posted by Pronoiac at 12:19 PM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

It's named entities all the way down.
posted by nowonmai at 1:16 PM on September 7, 2009

So, to get &amp;lt;pun&amp;gt; you had to type &amp;amp;lt;pun&amp;amp;gt; ?!?!? That's crazy!

<I don't even know if this is sarcasm>
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 1:45 PM on September 7, 2009

There is something unsettling in Metafilter's tubes today.
posted by The Whelk at 1:46 PM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Whelk: "There is something unsettling in Metafilter's tubes today."

Yeah, I mean, seriously, is this all the slow consequence of the time magazine article or what?
posted by idiopath at 1:56 PM on September 7, 2009

end of summer crazy-waves wafting on gentle breezes, setting alight long dormant madness in the lazy hours of the Last Vacation?
posted by The Whelk at 1:59 PM on September 7, 2009

The gain tube has gone microphonic! Metafilter's amplification curve has gone non-linear!
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:11 PM on September 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

Jeez, that post was from January! You've been wondering all this time, Drasher?

Well, it has been nine months ...
posted by clerestory at 5:30 PM on September 7, 2009

After reflecting, and a bike ride:

I read metafilter but did not have an account for a significant period of time (I am not sure how many years, it slowly became more and more of my online reading over a period of time).

As important as the user getting to know mefi is, there is also something that happens when mefi gets to know the user. It is called a community weblog not because community is a word that liberal lefty types like, but because people here get to know one another, and develop relationships in text mediated by collective standards of the various colored pages here. Stick around awhile, get to know the culture, have something to give back, really engage, and it is almost like having friends or something. And if you are lucky it may even balance out to make the infuriating parts of participating here.
posted by idiopath at 5:56 PM on September 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

.. worth it.
posted by idiopath at 6:00 PM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Great example of a quick turnaround: WhySharksMatter
posted by b1tr0t at 7:35 PM on September 7, 2009

I dunno. I kinda jumped in at first, but these days (eight years later) I'm getting crotchety and paranoid - after having read you-know-who's detailed bios of mefi users gleaned only from their postings, and knowing that my posts and comments will linger FOREVAR kind of scares me, honestly. I'm not sure I want that much of myself out in the open and connected to my real name.

Then I tell the voices in my head to shut up and I go about my business again in peace.
posted by po at 7:53 PM on September 7, 2009

...you can't effectively dictate how people use a site.

That doesn't stop anyone on the net from trying though. :)
posted by zarq at 12:34 PM on September 8, 2009