Uimitoarele Aventuri ale Muschetarilor

October 2, 2011 12:03 PM

What is the official guideline on posts in thematic series? How do MeFites feel about them?

So far I've really enjoyed Trurl's intermittent series of FPPs on important or overlooked films (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.). Less recently, we have enjoyed Dune Week. The topics of my FPPs are also pretty limited in range.

One guideline I've gathered from an email to cortex is that if you feel like including a "previously" to one of your own posts, you've gone too far. On the other hand, I'm sure I could make a hundred FPPs about Soviet and other European animation that would seem completely unrelated to me, and someone else could chime in with "Don't we have an open Soviet animation FPP?"

(Previously, ten years ago.)

posted by Nomyte to Etiquette/Policy at 12:03 PM (27 comments total)

oh please please do another soviet animation post, that was fucking awesome.

n.b. obvsly i am in charge of nothing official here except my own awesome opinion.
posted by elizardbits at 12:11 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Working on one! In fact, working on an overview of an entire studio's animated output. The problem is that it's a bigger job than I anticipated, and, related to that, the YT links keep rotting as I write the post. Basically, the presumptive distributors of this content in the US keep flagging the videos.
posted by Nomyte at 12:21 PM on October 2, 2011

Oh, the important thing is just to have lots of links, it doesn't matter if they're all broken moments after your post goes up.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:22 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

One guideline I've gathered from an email to cortex is that if you feel like including a "previously" to one of your own posts, you've gone too far.

Well, that's a bit more hardline than what I was trying to say back in July when you wrote to us. It's not a black-and-white "if you ever previously your own post, you've crossed a line" thing at all; I was more trying to caution against getting into weird That Guy territory where people start to react to you and/or your posts more on the basis that Oh Look, It's That Thing Happening Again than on the merits of the post itself.

Generally, if you've got a topic you're really interested in and you want to put a solid post together about more than one facet of it, that's fine so long as the posts really are distinct and not just sort of a "hey let's talk some more about my pet topic" thing and so long as you aren't just posting the hell out of them in terms of volume and frequency. Moderation in all things, mostly; posts that happen to have topical commonality is not so much a problem, someone being Mr. ConstantlyPostsAboutX is a bit more of a thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:23 PM on October 2, 2011

Only accredited mefites are allowed posts like this.

Seriously though, sounds like you asked cortex and got an answer. What more do you need?
posted by cjorgensen at 12:25 PM on October 2, 2011

I am in charge of gnomes, cake, spacecraft from lot B4 to K7 and the small weapons (Earth based). You may make a another post on Soviet animation.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:25 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

How many Soviet animation posts… I'll shut up now.
posted by Nomyte at 12:26 PM on October 2, 2011

Wait, let me show you my credentials.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:26 PM on October 2, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh, the important thing is just to have lots of links, it doesn't matter if they're all broken moments after your post goes up.

Possibly it's too obvious to need saying (my sarcasm meter is having difficulty picking up a signal from all the MeTa background radiation), but this is not good advice.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 12:32 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wait, let me show you my credentials.

I thought since that court order you were no longer allowed to "show your credentials" in public?
posted by elizardbits at 12:48 PM on October 2, 2011 [5 favorites]

Moderation in all things, mostly; posts that happen to have topical commonality is not so much a problem, someone being Mr. ConstantlyPostsAboutX is a bit more of a thing.

Yeah this can be tricky. Because some people of course will think you're That Guy if you just post twice about any one topic, other people will rightfully complain when it seems like you're using MeFi as a substitute for starting your own blog about a topic. So people have to be sort of sensitive to the reception they are receiving here and be totally 100% okay moving to their own blog if a topic has run its course here (and ask if you're not sure, we'd be happy to give you a frank assessment). And, of course, some esoteric bit of interestingness that you like to post about is very different from axe-grinding on a topic that goes badly here, so it's a lot better to be That Astronomy Guy than That Israel/Palestine Guy. If you're posting about your own topic every week or so, then yeah a "previously" sort of begs the question of why you aren't just adding links to your own thread. So if peopel are saying "Don't we have an open soviet animation thread?" it may be worth at least thinking somewhat about whether that's your answer to the "How much is too much?" question.

MeFi is, by design, a bit of a generalist place that skews geeky in a few directions. If people are appreciating your posts and you're not cluttering up the front page by doing whatever you do too frequently, it's probably fine. Less fine are the "Theme Day" things which can quickly get on everyone's nerves and are less okay. The other thing is, the Topic Guy thing doesn't scale. If you have ten people who all post about their topic every week or so, you quickly have a chunk of posts that is always about Niche Topics and that sort of thing as an overall site thing can get tiresome. On a monthy type of basis, much less of a problem.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:53 PM on October 2, 2011

Every single post I make is part of an undeclared theme or sequence with other posts that day. But I'm one who's likely to interpret themes broadly.
posted by klangklangston at 12:59 PM on October 2, 2011

I thought since that court order you were no longer allowed to "show your credentials" in public?

That was just in that one town that doesn't know how to have fun or recognize art.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:09 PM on October 2, 2011

IN SOVIET RUSSIA THE FPP'S ANIMATE YOU, HA HA HA
posted by item at 1:42 PM on October 2, 2011 [4 favorites]

So themes are not in and of themselves a problem but that when something that should logically be one post turns into two is. Cool! I've got some awesome posts to make!
posted by Blasdelb at 1:46 PM on October 2, 2011

Just wanted to say that I LOVE seeing a Romanian title on MetaTalk! Must be an absolute first. My 6-year-old self is having a field day!
posted by miorita at 2:21 PM on October 2, 2011

Looking at Trurl as an example, the posts are not a matched set. They're all in the theme, but they stand along as a good post. If you weren't paying attention you might not notice they were all by the same person.

If he had build a form letter type thing: "(Name of film) is an important film which is often overlooked. Coming out in (year) while (period news item) was still fresh in people's minds, it underlined the (adjective) effect of (some social phenomenon or another) in society." and then proceeded to fill in those blanks again and again it would have been more like those "How many..." FPPs from a week or so ago, no matter how good any of the posts might have been on their own.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:22 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think Artw is a good example. Almost all of his posts are about sci-fi and comics, but they're all distinctive and many are fairly meaty, leading to solid conversation threads where each one stands alone.

Also I am very very glad he's back!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 2:46 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah Trurl and Artw are both very good examples of how to do that well. They have broad topics they are inetrested in, but their particupation on this site isn't limited to those topics and the posts all stand alone as good posts not as "Continuing in the theme of X..." examples. I can think of other people who have topics they frequently post about that are less great [either by benefit of seeming axe-grindy or just because they don't participate on the site in any other areas so they seem like a one-note member or because they make posts on touchy topics consistently enough that it seems almost trollish] but it's usually just that, less great, it's rare that we have to talk to someone and say "Please stop posting about that topic, you're becoming That Guy"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:12 PM on October 2, 2011

y2karl and flapjax at midnite are both people who frequently post within an area of interest without seeming to move into bad territory. Both are also broadly represented on the site in other ways as well.
posted by OmieWise at 3:53 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Also from aforementioned Dune Week Learning Experience: the longer they're spread out, the better. Even if it seems like a really good idea at the time.
posted by curious nu at 4:45 PM on October 2, 2011

Yeah, it's not a series. It's just a subject that excites my FPP glands.
posted by Trurl at 7:34 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Did you know that there's also a klapaucius on MeFi?
posted by Nomyte at 8:55 PM on October 2, 2011

If I type Klapaucius over and over again will I get lots of money?

KlapauciusKlapauciusKlapauciusKlapauciusKlapaucius

Darn, now I have 30,000 Simoleons that I don't know what to do with.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:34 PM on October 2, 2011

Did you know that there's also a klapaucius on MeFi?

Also an "Ijon Tichy".
posted by Trurl at 8:39 AM on October 3, 2011

And a lem.
I never considered Tichy to be a part of the same milieu as the Cyberiad.
posted by Nomyte at 8:51 AM on October 3, 2011

Oh hey, it's almost Elephant Day.
posted by homunculus at 8:55 PM on October 3, 2011