Best of MeFi

April 21, 2002 2:06 PM

Best of MeFi, would it be possible to revive it? Matt pointed out it was too much work to do it daily, and he already puts in way too much time and effort running this place. Perhaps it would be better if it was a weekly or a bi-weekly email, with a volunteer guest editor picking the threads. What do you think?
posted by riffola to feature requests at 2:06 PM (14 comments total)

Thanks to MUD for pointing out the link to the MeFi Mail archive.
posted by riffola at 2:08 PM on April 21, 2002

Great! It's definitely worth reviving - but only if Matt chooses the threads. That's the only selection all of us would be interested in, as it would also serve as an example of the guidelines.

A thread-of-the-week, apart from those he picks for the sideblog, would be wonderful, as long as everyone understood he hasn't time to read them all. By my reckoning there's generally one very good thread every day - or, rather, seven a week.

Would it help for members to nominate their thread-of-the-week, so that the choice could be narrowed down? Just thinking.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:38 PM on April 21, 2002

i think settle should pick the threads.
posted by jcterminal at 2:54 PM on April 21, 2002

I tried an experiment on my userpage some months back. The remnants of that small stint with madness can still be seen there. I know. It sucks. No need to email me and let me know that cuz I already know. I thought maybe if everybody in MeFi used their userpages to create their own "best of" list, we'd have the next best thing. However, I conclude that there's three main reasons why this idea won't work.

1) it never caught on, because most rightfully think it's a waste of time,
2) there's just way too much material to trudge through, and
3) there's no way to list the links in a way remotely useful to other people.

Filtering MetaFilter is overkill. There's simply no way to do it. Good idea though. I wish it was plausible. Suggesting a Best Of that Matt does on his own is cruel and unusual punishment. He's got enough on his plate. Miguel admitting that most people would only be interested in a Best Of that featured only Matt's opinion further reinforces my conclusion that it's not feasible. First he'd have to find the time to do it. Then after he does it, there'd inevitably be people pissed off that none of their threads were chosen for Matt's list. It's a socio-political nightmare for him. The closest you'll ever get to that is Matt's sidebar on the right side of the front page. That's good. That works. No need for Matt to do more than that.

Ultimately, if you personally like the idea of a Best Of for MeFi, go to your userpage and try to build one for your own edification. If other people like it they'll let you know. If they don't they won't, but at least you'll have your own little best of page that you can cuddle up with at night and coo sweet nothings to. Me? I'm seriously considering deleting all that crap on my userpage and replacing it with a picture of Carrot Top.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:54 PM on April 21, 2002

I totally agree with Zach. (How's that for a milestone, Zach?) If riffola or Miguel or whoever finds it worthwhile, THROUGH THE MAGIC OF THE WEB and its sidekick the A tag they can do their very own MetaMeFi just by linking to threads they like. Do it, publicize it, and who knows, people might come. Why invoke the Metafilter nameplate or ask Matt to do it? It's a DIY world.
posted by rodii at 3:12 PM on April 21, 2002

Although Beelzebub did order a space heater from sears.com, hell's not freezing yet so there's no worries. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 3:32 PM on April 21, 2002

Filtering MetaFilter is overkill.

Metafilterfilter?
posted by feelinglistless at 4:50 PM on April 21, 2002

...or MeMeFi. I seem to recall our own j.edwards is working on something similar. How's that coming, jed?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:10 PM on April 21, 2002

This isn't about a personal best of list, because not everyone reads all the threads, I know I don't. A guest editor would make it interesting, because you'd get to see what someone else considers a good thread. As I mentioned above Matt said he doesn't have the time for it, but he did say that he is/was open to the idea of having someone else do it.

Anyway it was just an idea.
posted by riffola at 6:22 PM on April 21, 2002

Filtering MetaFilter is overkill.

metaoverfilter?
posted by ashbury at 6:29 PM on April 21, 2002

I think of the idea as something akin to Heather's guest curators over on The Mirror Project, perhaps MeFi links chosen by subject or other more ineffable variables.

Great! It's definitely worth reviving - but only if Matt chooses the threads. That's the only selection all of us would be interested in, as it would also serve as an example of the guidelines.

Miguel, you never miss an opportunity to kiss ass, do you?

;-)
posted by evanizer at 6:33 PM on April 21, 2002

Why doesn't some industrious Metafiltarian do this? I would sign up. I don't think its all that hard to pick out what threads had "not to be missed" discussions.
posted by xammerboy at 10:18 PM on April 21, 2002

How's that coming, jed?

Not good right now, as I am super-busy with other projects, but I have some code hashed out. Of course, any filtering system is going to be biased; such is the nature of it.

The important thing here is that if the community at large were to get to contribute to a metametafilter, it would contain nearly every thread; a way to prevent this would be to make it so that no one could contribute a thread they posted, and we get into all sorts of trust issues about pacts between users and alternate user-name submission.

The current system I have implemented is too cumbersome. What eventually will happen is this: An updated page (a crude example) which contains the relevant info. What needs to happen (and which I do not currently have the time to generate, though I will try and get to it soon -- if anyone has an easier way, either do it or e-mail me about it) is for a bookmarklet to be generated which allows people who have the bookmarklet to "send" a thread to the page; it will get the thread name, thread poster, and a brief description of the thread from the sender.

The basic problem with this system is that it is inherently elitist, i.e., who gets the bookmarklet? This is where is breaks down, but I think that setting something up with active, respected users (the 'A-List Bastards', if you will), and a system limiting posting and allowing for easy introduction of new contributors would work.

Would people participate? I dunno. Another concern I have is that Metafilter rocks, and I don't want to seem like I'm slashing away at it. I don't have time to read all the posts. I know a lot of people don't. Between us, though, we can, and we have the sense to know what's good and what isn't. I'll see what I can do.
posted by j.edwards at 2:52 AM on April 22, 2002

re : bookmarklets

There's a bookmarklet that does something not completely dissimilar at blogrolling.com which Jason might let you borrow...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:32 AM on April 22, 2002