58: December Awesome Post Contest Results

It's the results from our December Awesome Post Contest! The podcast runs 1 hour, 5 minutes and covers a lot of our favorites. We reveal the grand prize winner and then follow it up with dozens of our favorites, but we never quite figured out the other categories. Don't fret: they are contained within this post.

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From the podcast:

Best Post Winner is The Post That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong by Rhaomi (would have been his 42nd post, with 42 favorites, with amazing comment by yoz to give even more info.)

Mega-link mentions

Mystery Science Theater 3000 round-up

All about Misfits

Everything about fritters

Video posts mentioned

Fuck your Honda Civic, I've a horse outside

Dancing alone to pony (reminded me of the Oops video)

Pug in a toilet

Mirror effect transforms a video

Put a GoPro Hero camera on a sword, amazingness ensues

What happens when you steal a hacker's computer

Dad records his family coming downstairs for Christmas every year for 25 years

High speed photography + water = water sculptures

30 inches of snow in 30 seconds time lapse

Single link posts mentioned

Eating nothing but Christmas candy for a week

Random photos from a day at Bell Labs in the late 60s

Cutaway drawings

Retronaut, a blog about yesteryear (50 years of japanese concept cars, 3 year photo exposure)

Understanding the Pac-Man Ghost Behavior

Alter Ego game

Photoshopped house party (with cheat codes)

Why are there no great women chefs?

Multi link posts

European 14th Century Cookbooks

Snowball cam

Deer on ice, getting trapped, and how (and how not) to fix it

Mr. B Virdot, hero of Canton, Ohio

Augmented reality for the color blind (iPhone app)

Charles Darwin post about his worm research

The Cleveland Browns response letter

A post of links leading to many examples of micro/tiny/small things (also: look at this little thing tumblr blog)

Nethack post explained by JHarris

Various categories we made up links

News, as it unfolded on MetaFilter: Don't Ask Don't Tell, Delicious shuttering, and Gawker passwords hacked.

Longest tennis tournament

"Today you... tomorrow me" story from Reddit

Every episode from the TV Show Connections

Loads of dice-driven games

Vivian Maier photographer, discovered from an estate sale

Vanishing Act: the story of Barbara Newhall Follet with her own private language

Neil Armstrong drops a comment on a blog about the Moon landing

notable posters mentioned: bwg, woodjockey, kipmanley, woodblock100, JHarris, Rory Marinich, infinite intimation, Rhaomi


Runner-up category winners:

best single-link post: Bell Labs photos by channey
best multi-link post: Hero of Canton by filthy light theif
best megalink post: MST3K by JHarris

Thanks again to everyone that posted an insane amount of great links in December. I had over 40 favorites and I only got to mention about 8-10 on the podcast, and overall I was really happy with the high bar set for MetaFilter posts last month. Thanks all, and winners, we'll email you to ask additional questions to figure out what prize you want sent where.

posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 11:55 AM (68 comments total)

Yesterday my post on Dragonstrike made it to io9 and today I find out Pug in a Toilet is in the podcast. I'M FAMOUS! WORLD FAMOUS!

congratulations to the winners of the November best dressed contest or whatever
posted by griphus at 11:57 AM on January 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Seriously, though, sincere congratulations to channey, filthy light thief and JHarris. That is best of the web.
posted by griphus at 11:59 AM on January 10, 2011

But what we really want to know griphus is how do you pronounce your username?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:02 PM on January 10, 2011

Congrats to the winner, runners-up, and other contestants! And a special shout-out to Miko, felled by the tragic, inescapable fact that Thanksgiving is in November.
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:11 PM on January 10, 2011

Well, it's a Latin word (it means "riddle" or "enigma") but damn if I know the original pronunciation. I pronounce it "gri" as in "grin" and "phus" as in "fuss." Everyone else seems to think the first syllable is "gri" as in "grind." Much like my with my Foreign real first name, I have stopped bothering to correct people who do not actively inquire as to the pronunciation. Unlike my Foreign real first name, not a soul has ever pronounced "griphus" the way I do.
posted by griphus at 12:11 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does Rhaomi get a gold star now?
posted by doublehappy at 12:15 PM on January 10, 2011

I'M FAMOUS! WORLD FAMOUS!

I thought that was this guy.
posted by Rangeboy at 12:16 PM on January 10, 2011

If it's Latin, it's probably "GREE-foos".
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:17 PM on January 10, 2011

Although my instinctive mental pronunciation was "GRIH-fuss".
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:17 PM on January 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

I thought that was this guy.

I'm from Russia -- we traded all our definite articles for Finnish tractors a few decades before I was born.
posted by griphus at 12:18 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yay Rhaomi!
posted by Jofus at 12:25 PM on January 10, 2011

Yay Rhaomi!

Yayomi!
posted by special-k at 12:26 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm sticking with GRIP-huss.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:29 PM on January 10, 2011

Oh, crap, congrats Rhaomi!

The Ted Chiang post (and its subsequent republishings/linkings-to) was a real mitzvah, too!
posted by griphus at 12:29 PM on January 10, 2011

Rhaomi...for the win!
posted by zerobyproxy at 12:32 PM on January 10, 2011

I prefer the post that mentioned me. But I might be a bit biased about that.
posted by theichibun at 12:33 PM on January 10, 2011

griphus: "we traded all our definite articles for Finnish tractors a few decades before I was born."

Russians know good deal.
posted by boo_radley at 12:33 PM on January 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

and congrats to everyone. Like that this post came on 2011's do-over day.
posted by boo_radley at 12:33 PM on January 10, 2011

I won! I won!

Oh, wait....
posted by nevercalm at 12:34 PM on January 10, 2011

Congratulations winners! Each one of those posts is fantastic. I'm honored just to have my post mentioned in the same podcast as them.
posted by 256 at 12:36 PM on January 10, 2011

Thanks, the "today you, tomorrow me" story was a great pick-me-up for what has been quite a tough start to 2011.
posted by onalark at 12:37 PM on January 10, 2011

256: Each one of those posts is fantastic. I'm honored just to have my post mentioned in the same podcast as them.

Your detailed Misfits post is fantastic, don't sell yourself short.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:39 PM on January 10, 2011

> Augmented reality for the color blind (iPhone app)

Is it still a multiple-link post if two of the three links are in-house (one to a previous MeFi thread and the other to a mefite's member's page)?

not that I intend to quibble over being recognized as awesome. because, hey, woot!
posted by ardgedee at 12:41 PM on January 10, 2011

I feel warm and fuzzy in my heart.

my tiny, tiny heart
posted by NoraReed at 1:05 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, this is an awesome group of posts! Congratulations to Rhaomi, for the best post I've ever seen on MeFi! And congratulations to all the runners-up. Fantastic work, folks. :)
posted by zarq at 1:30 PM on January 10, 2011

This was a great month for posts. Thanks for hosting the contest!
posted by SpacemanStix at 1:47 PM on January 10, 2011

Congrats to everyone and thanks for all the awesome posts!
posted by rtha at 1:48 PM on January 10, 2011

I'm going to make a single-serving Tumblr of audio clips of people trying to pronounce my username. I'll call it DANCING ALONE TO OINOPAPONTON.
posted by oinopaponton at 2:06 PM on January 10, 2011

I always pronounce it "Pope Onions." I like to think you & Pope Guilty have a band. And awesomely tall hats.

Way to go, Rhaomi. That was an awesome post.
posted by mintcake! at 2:15 PM on January 10, 2011

Amazingly, the first comment in the winning thread has, at this moment, 42 favorites.
posted by slogger at 2:23 PM on January 10, 2011

rhaomi exhibited great 42de and is rightfully deemed champion.
posted by the aloha at 2:23 PM on January 10, 2011

Just finished the podcast -- it was a wonderful surprise to find while stuck snowed in with one bastard of a cold/flu. Congratulations to all the other winners! And special thanks to Mefi's Own yoz for taking the time to contribute his epic backstory comment, which made that post ten times better.

(Out of curiosity, did anyone actually manage to get the game running using the installation instructions? There wasn't much follow-up on that point.)

Also, I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned filthy light thief's literally last-minute Christmas Lectures post, which was so lengthy that cortex was unable to stitch the whole thing together after a posting problem forced some of the material into the comments. The very definition of a megapost.

And I don't have an iPad -- but I do still have this three-and-a-half-year-old first-gen iPod Touch with a cracked screen and a bug that's stopping me from updating it. So thanks, Matt, for the opportunity to finally upgrade! And for the opportunity to finally make some posts -- sometimes a deadline is the best incentive for getting shit done, and finishing all these posts (some of which I've had in mind for months) was really satisfying. I'm glad everyone enjoyed them, and I'm glad there were so many other great posts to enjoy over the last month. Here's to you, MeFi.

PS: I'm from Alabama, Matt, not Australia... where'd you get that idea, mate? :P
posted by Rhaomi at 2:35 PM on January 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Pope Onions is my least favorite kinky sex act.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:40 PM on January 10, 2011

Congrats to the winners and everyone who made amazing posts in December, and a tip of the cap to Rhaomi for the series of fantastic posts. Mine felt like quick hacks compared to the posts by you and others who made proper stories, not just overwhelming amounts of information under one general heading.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:45 PM on January 10, 2011

Considering how many podcasts I listen to, I am ashamed to admit this is the first MeFi podcast I have ever heard. And may I just say that our mods have really charming and fun voices for radio/podcasting. That is all.
posted by norm at 2:46 PM on January 10, 2011

Also, I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned filthy light thief's literally last-minute Christmas Lectures post, which was so lengthy that cortex was unable to stitch the whole thing together after a posting problem forced some of the material into the comments. The very definition of a megapost.

I had meant to mention that! And like a dozen other things. Too much content!
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:50 PM on January 10, 2011

Yeah, well, the only reason Rhaomi ended up winning is because MeFi's own Tao Lin lacked the foresight to make his epic post before the end of December deadline.
posted by gman at 2:54 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Tao Lin was robbed!
posted by shakespeherian at 2:56 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dude, Tao Lin was too late.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:05 PM on January 10, 2011

TIMING!
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:10 PM on January 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh, man. I'm pretty sure my post was mathowie's accidentally closed tab at 20:51. Dang.
posted by Toekneesan at 3:15 PM on January 10, 2011

slogger: "Amazingly, the first comment in the winning thread has, at this moment, 42 favorites."

I also noticed that two of the three posts below the "omg 42!" note in the podcast write-up -- the Misfits one and the fritters one -- had 42 favorites at the time it was posted.

he said, in the 42nd comment of the thread
posted by Rhaomi at 3:23 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Rhaomi: he said, in the 42nd comment of the thread

Damn, you're good.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:12 PM on January 10, 2011

I got all ....unreasonably happy for a second when I saw mathowie had favorited one of my posts.

I know I know. I'll wear the dork cone now.
posted by The Whelk at 4:34 PM on January 10, 2011

After seeing this video of Gabriel Garcia Marquez getting down, I really wanted to make a famous authors dancing post. The first one I tried was Margaret Atwood, which led to this, and I thought I had an awesome post, a contender even. But the next dozen or so authors I tried came up empty handed, which is why I'm posting these here instead of in a potentially prize winning post.

Congrats to the winners!
posted by yellowbinder at 4:59 PM on January 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

I pronounce it "gri" as in "grin" and "phus" as in "fuss." Everyone else seems to think the first syllable is "gri" as in "grind." Much like my with my Foreign real first name, I have stopped bothering to correct people who do not actively inquire as to the pronunciation. Unlike my Foreign real first name, not a soul has ever pronounced "griphus" the way I do.

Unless I'm misinterpreting your pronunciation guide, I'm pretty sure I've been pronouncing it like you do in my head.

I got all ....unreasonably happy for a second when I saw mathowie had favorited one of my posts.

I know I know. I'll wear the dork cone now.

Got another dork cone to share? I did the same thing.
posted by kmz at 5:08 PM on January 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure I've been pronouncing it like you do in my head.

After I got home and listened to the podcast, it turns out did jessamyn pronounced it correctly as well.

Now where the hell were you people when I was shaking hands in a Brooklyn bar and wondering if I've been mispronouncing my own handle for a decade.
posted by griphus at 5:20 PM on January 10, 2011

Wow! A double mention! For FPPs that I thought 'interesting', but in no way particularly memorable. Thanks, gang!

As for the Snowball Cam, to those of you who followed the original post, I bring you bad news. The 'Little Camera that Could' ... couldn't.
posted by woodblock100 at 5:46 PM on January 10, 2011

!

okay so you got a mention but you have to play it cool calm down

Congrats to Rhaomi, channey, filthy light thief, JHarris, and all the other amazing posters!
posted by Phire at 6:39 PM on January 10, 2011

woot!
posted by ocherdraco at 9:58 PM on January 10, 2011

*sigh*

Congrats to Rhaomi and everyone else!
posted by Ljubljana at 8:53 AM on January 11, 2011

Pope Onions is my least favorite kinky sex act.

If you do it under water you won't tear up as much.
posted by Kabanos at 9:08 AM on January 11, 2011

Watch those homophones!!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:13 AM on January 11, 2011

Sounds good, but it's a little hard to see them underwater.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:17 AM on January 11, 2011

Loads of dice-driven games

Despite the "Just add dice" title, my précis would have been more like "loads of free role-playing games." One of the games mentioned, Microcosm, doesn't use dice. (But that's just a quibble and I'm kvelling here already that a post of mine was mentioned.)
posted by Zed at 9:55 AM on January 11, 2011

Congratulations! Wonderful posts all of them.
posted by stoneweaver at 7:09 AM on January 12, 2011

*sob*

You like me! You really like me!
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 6:50 AM on January 13, 2011

I'm making a callout. Cortex's name is not in the song.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:18 PM on January 13, 2011

He's singing it, does that count? Remember back before he was in the podcast? I barely do.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:51 PM on January 13, 2011

I suppose it counts in a first-person narrative sense.
posted by P.o.B. at 6:02 PM on January 13, 2011

Point of pedantry!

I still say "album"

Why are old people always saying that? Albums are still called albums, grandpa.

Vinyl records, cassette tapes, compact discs, MP3s, et al. are forms of media; albums, EPs, and singles are denominations of content.

My dad, being an Upper Canadian of a certain age, rhymes 'record' with 'heck horde,' and that just drives me right up the wall.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:27 PM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've got a gut feeling that if the theme song were ever re-recorded to include Cortex's name, it would feel an awful lot like the version of the Wayne's World theme song they play for the first show after they sell out to Benjamin.
posted by SpiffyRob at 7:07 AM on January 14, 2011

It's a dilemma. I mean, I'm the person who would presumably do the re-recording, and, yeah, I haven't thought of some clever way to patch the existing theme to throw in an "and with them as always is cortex!" bit that wouldn't sound ridiculous.

Really what I need to do is sit down and write a new damn theme. It's been how many years now? But it's hard to just make something happen.

In the mean time, I just tell myself that it's my musical world, Matt and Jess are just living in it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:15 AM on January 14, 2011

Party down cortex.
posted by The Whelk at 7:53 AM on January 14, 2011

Your name is pronounced Al-Gar, right?

Okay.... WAYNE!
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:04 AM on January 14, 2011

Vinyl records, cassette tapes, compact discs, MP3s, et al. are forms of media; albums, EPs, and singles are denominations of content.

My dad, being an Upper Canadian of a certain age, rhymes 'record' with 'heck horde,' and that just drives me right up the wall.

I absolutely adore the way Steve Marriott says "This is from our new reh-cord album" on Humble Pie's Performance Rockin' the Fillmore.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:35 PM on January 14, 2011

What was that about MetaFilter Pro in the very beginning? Did I mishear something?

For the record, I will pay money for my beloved MetaFilter as long as everything stays the same forever.
posted by Jorus at 2:59 PM on January 14, 2011

(I mean more than 5 dollars.)
posted by Jorus at 3:05 PM on January 14, 2011