Jessamyn tells all!

October 15, 2009 8:51 AM

An interview with Jessamyn West: lifeguard, librarian, mod. "AskMe anything, in moderation." At The Big Interview.
posted by ocherdraco to MetaFilter-related at 8:51 AM (57 comments total)

"AskMe anything, in moderation." So we can ask inappropriate/disgusting/private questions, as long as we only ask once?
posted by Plutor at 8:53 AM on October 15

This page explains more thoroughly what The Big Interview is.
posted by ocherdraco at 8:53 AM on October 15

Who is The Big Interviewer? I can't seem to find who is behind the site. Whois on the domain says the registrant is "Matthew Liddy".

Nice interview.
posted by ericost at 9:01 AM on October 15

Q: How did it come to pass that you won Matt Haughey’s complete trust, and you joined him as a MetaFilter moderator?

A: It’s not like it was a contest.

GODAMMIT.

*Stops clipping boxtops*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:02 AM on October 15 [6 favorites]

Great interview!

Jessamyn, your license plate is very cool. :)
posted by zarq at 9:02 AM on October 15 [1 favorite]

I love the picture that goes with the interview. It's like Metafilter: Criminal Intent with mathowie channeling Vincent D'Onofrio.
posted by mrmorgan at 9:11 AM on October 15 [2 favorites]

There's a typo in the article. Having a light*tough* ....
posted by watercarrier at 9:13 AM on October 15

That picture is via Jessamyn's webcam when we were all in Vermont about a month ago.
posted by cortex at 9:16 AM on October 15

cortex: "That picture is via Jessamyn's webcam when we were all in Vermont about a month ago."

I thought "shit, they're gettin' the band back together!" when I saw that.
posted by boo_radley at 9:16 AM on October 15

Jess, do you actually use that license plate and if so is it a total nut magnet?
posted by The Straightener at 9:17 AM on October 15

"butts lol" might be the greatest t-shirt ever.
posted by slogger at 9:28 AM on October 15 [2 favorites]

Well done! And lovely photo of you, Jess. I love sideways mathowie in your webcam shot of the 3 of you, as well!
posted by Lynsey at 9:54 AM on October 15

Whoa, a lifeguard, too! Maybe you should take up literal shepherding next.
posted by ignignokt at 9:56 AM on October 15

I had to get CPR training and lifeguard training to be a librarian.
Is this a typo, or is being a librarian even more dangerous than I already thought?
posted by metaBugs at 9:59 AM on October 15

That's a great interview. Congrats jessamyn.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:14 AM on October 15

The key to good moderation: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
posted by geoff. at 10:15 AM on October 15 [4 favorites]

Awesome personalized plates.
posted by grouse at 10:19 AM on October 15

metaBugs: "Is this a typo, or is being a librarian even more dangerous than I already thought?"

It's a typo. It wasn't CPR training. It was AK-47 training. Simple misteak!
posted by Plutor at 10:20 AM on October 15

Jess, do you actually use that license plate and if so is it a total nut magnet?

Yes. And surprisingly, no. That is, sometimes people ask me what it's about and I'm like "I'm a public librarian." Actually it goes more like this....

- Ask you what?
- Anything
- Well, like what?
- I don't know, I'm a librarian. That's two questions already; want to go for three?

I'll drop Matthew a line about the typos. We did the interview over a few back and forth emails over the past few weeks.
posted by jessamyn at 10:23 AM on October 15

First picture: Is that Acadia? Cause I totally feel like I *know* that tree from my childhood...
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:29 AM on October 15

I'm pretty sure it's in Lubec Maine at Quoddy Head State Park, but it could possibly be in Acadia because I was there also.
posted by jessamyn at 10:48 AM on October 15

That is a totally awesome picture of you guys!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:02 AM on October 15

Woo, down with library fines!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:30 AM on October 15 [2 favorites]

I think library fines are basically a regressive tax on poorer members of the community and I’m against library fines generally.

I don't like them either. But are there other ways to get people to return stuff?
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:30 AM on October 15

I don't like them either. But are there other ways to get people to return stuff?

Oh, there are ways.
posted by atrazine at 11:47 AM on October 15 [4 favorites]

I understand, Jessamyn, why you'd need CPR training for a library. But why lifeguarding? Is the library on a lake or a pond, or even a stream?
posted by jgirl at 11:48 AM on October 15

I too am a (well, was) lifeguard. Out of the pool people!
posted by GuyZero at 11:54 AM on October 15

I suspect that was probably an editing error-- in that sentence, substitute "lifeguard" for "librarian." The prior sentence is about qualifications for becoming a librarian, the subsequent sentence is about qualifications for becoming a Metafilter mod, so it would only make sense for that sentence to be about the other occupation.

Or you were kidding, maybe.
posted by dersins at 11:56 AM on October 15

No, jessamyn is a lifeguard because, when you get in over your head in research, she can dive in and pull you out. *nods* And I am going to keep pretending that's what it meant.
posted by adipocere at 12:07 PM on October 15 [1 favorite]

Don't underestimate the strength of the rip currents that can develop in the Children's Reading Corner Pillow Pit.
posted by CKmtl at 12:20 PM on October 15 [2 favorites]

Great interview with some very, very useful tips on being involved in online communities.
posted by panboi at 12:38 PM on October 15

That "lifeguard training to be a librarian" line was mine originally apparently, just an accident, lalala!

Perhaps I work at this library.
posted by jessamyn at 12:50 PM on October 15

This is going swimmingly.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:45 PM on October 15

I agree, m_c_dmII:JO. I'm drowning in the details.
posted by slogger at 1:47 PM on October 15

I've always kind of wondered what the Metafilter interface looks like to the mods. Where is the "flag queue" you mention in the interview located? Do you guys have a special mod tab, or are there just little mod-y things sprinkled in throughout the regular site, like edit/delete options after comments? How drastically different is it from our experience? Have screenshots ever been posted?

(I hope this kind of thing is ok to ask. I'm just super curious.)
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 1:52 PM on October 15

Our view of the site itself is almost identical to the normal interface—we've got a couple extra widgets on bylines (IP search links, edit and delete buttons) and an admin link up in the menu, but that's about it.

We also have a completely separate admin page that has flag hotspots, search fields for username and email and such, and links to a number of other tools that get used varyingly often. There's a couple of pictures of this on flickr: 1, 2, 3.

We're actually working on sprucing up the normal site view a little bit right now to make it easier for us to sort of take in what's happened in a thread so far at a glance (tracking flags and edits and deletions, etc), but that's a brand new work in progress that pb is still just now kind of digging into.
posted by cortex at 1:59 PM on October 15

Just like to point out that the library at the University of Queensland in Ipswich, Australia has a river running through it. Sometimes there's fish in there (if someone didn't leave the grate off the filter), and apparently, hidden in the undergrowth, is a gnome. Maybe Jessamyn should consider using her lifeguard skills there.
posted by b33j at 2:03 PM on October 15

Funny that you should ask, we've been messing with the mod view this week since cortex is back.

If you've come to a meetup, you've probably seen the admin interface. mathowie has a blurry screenshot in Flickr. Up top of regular MetaFilter where people see the links to MeFi, AskMe, etc, we have another link that says Admin. The main admin page is mostly just what's been flagged the most and a few lookup tools. We have an admin view of each user that gives us some details about them [what's been deleted, times stuff has been flagged, notes, a few more things].

Up until this week, our view of the site has been the same as everyone else's except that we see a little "edit [x] [IP:whois|search]" link next to all the footer information for the comments. So we can edit comments or posts [and don't unless someone asks us or there's something broken] and delete comments or posts and do a whois on the IP address and/or look up the IP address in the MeFi database. Lately we've been experimenting with having a toggle for the site where the admins could see threads with deleted posts/comments inline [but greyed out] and some information about the comments [how many times they've been flagged, not sure what else].

I haven't been using that interface much yet, but it's good to have if cortex and I are both sort of on and off and it's an easier way to see what, if anything, has been done on a thread already in case we've, say, deleted a few comments without leaving a note. We can, on the back end, see what the other person has done, but it's very hard with the existing model to see how a particular thread is going flagwise and deletion-wise and this gives us a better top-down view. So this has been itneresting to try out, but it's definitely not a mature featureset. The admin panel which is just top flagged stuff and some lookup boxes is really most of what we work from.
posted by jessamyn at 2:08 PM on October 15

How drastically different is it from our experience?

It looks like the computer interface in Minority Report. Cortex has three albinos in a tank in the apartment next door to his. Several hours before someone posts "I love Glenn Beck", a ball drops into a little holder with the userid on it. That's why you never see that stuff around here.
posted by GuyZero at 2:09 PM on October 15 [2 favorites]

We have an admin view of each user that gives us some details about them [what's been deleted, times stuff has been flagged, notes, a few more things].

Damn. One more summary of my person that I neurotically suspect is negative in nature.
posted by jefficator at 2:19 PM on October 15

Also, I sent jessamyn this today, probably along with ten million other people. http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/15/radical-militant-lib.html
posted by jefficator at 2:29 PM on October 15

I used to wanna be an organizedhome.com mod, but this is so much more fun!

And, Jesse James Garrett! Too cool...
posted by jgirl at 2:33 PM on October 15

Jessamyn can also field strip a mimeograph machine and reassemble it while blindfolded. It is part of what makes her a reference librarian and not just a librarian.
posted by boo_radley at 3:11 PM on October 15 [1 favorite]

Lifeguarding is better training than first aid at work, so it makes sense if you have a rational employer.
posted by Not Supplied at 3:18 PM on October 15

Ericost: Who is The Big Interviewer?

I'm the Big Interviewer. I'm a journalist and writer from Brisbane, Australia (and thus have seen with my own eyes the river that b33j mentions runs through the University of Queensland library). I guess I should have spelled out a little more about me on the Big Interview site, but I was hoping to put the focus on the interviewees more so than myself.

Thanks to various parties for pointing out the typos, they're all fixed now. It's amazing how difficult it is to spot them all in such a long interview (that's my excuse anyway).

I'm glad the Jessamyn interview was of interest, and am hoping to keep them coming. (Blatant plug: Casey Pugh is up next; he's the creator of Star Wars Uncut.

(I'm a long-time listener, first-time caller at MetaFilter -- and somewhat surprised my first post is on MetaTalk.)
posted by mattliddy at 4:15 PM on October 15 [3 favorites]

Heh. Hiya.
posted by cortex at 4:17 PM on October 15

Cool. Congrats.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:21 PM on October 15

"How drastically different is it from our experience?

It looks like the computer interface in Minority Report. Cortex has three albinos in a tank in the apartment next door to his. Several hours before someone posts "I love Glenn Beck", a ball drops into a little holder with the userid on it. That's why you never see that stuff around here."

It's called PreGRAR.
posted by potch at 4:33 PM on October 15

Good god, we've got a level 2 hoppitamoppita going down thirtyseven minutes from now. Somebody get the pb-in-a-jar plugged into the nav, we need coordinates for the flag squad pronto!
posted by cortex at 4:49 PM on October 15 [5 favorites]

My library has a koi pond in front of it. Luckily, it's not very deep.
posted by box at 5:19 PM on October 15

"Good god, we've got a level 2 hoppitamoppita going down thirtyseven minutes from now."
posted by cortex

Your weed smoking terminology confuses me, earthling.
posted by not_on_display at 7:14 PM on October 15

Cool!

Jessamyn, is that picture from Vancouver Island?
posted by ageispolis at 7:33 PM on October 15

I'm pretty sure it's in Lubec Maine at Quoddy Head State Park, but it could possibly be in Acadia because I was there also.
posted by jessamyn at 8:26 PM on October 15

That is a great interview, thanks for linking to it. And thanks jessamyn (in a non-playing the referee way) for doing what you do. I like the assessment of the GTD people as wanting an excuse to go shopping -- that's it really, solve your life through a better in basket.
posted by Rumple at 10:11 AM on October 16

I'm a bit concerned about jessamyn. Judging by those lines on her forehead, it looks like the strain of moderating this place is starting to get to her.

Take her away from the computer and put her beside a lake and they all disappear.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:01 AM on October 16

Its not moderating the site, its moderating cortex and matt
posted by sandraregina at 6:20 PM on October 16

For some reason I read that as "modulating cortex and matt" which made me think of them as giant iTunes visualizations projected onto the wall. I should go to sleep, but the colors are so cool....
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:22 PM on October 16