All your cats are belong to MeFi

August 21, 2012 9:25 AM

This month's Wired Magazine features an article about teh intarwebz fascination with cats, and the first entry in its "Invasion of the teh Kittehs" timeline credits MeFi!

Unfortunately the article is not available online to non-subscribers, but I got kinda giddy when I saw "July 1999: Cat-Scan.com - images of cats pressed on flatbed scanners - is the first post on community blog MetaFilter" so I wanted to share it with everyone.

posted by radioamy to MetaFilter-Related at 9:25 AM (52 comments total)

Hooray and Meow!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:30 AM on August 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Credits? Or blames?
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:36 AM on August 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

yay! That's pretty cool, thanks for the scan.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:36 AM on August 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

mathowie: "yay! That's pretty cool, thanks for the scan."

scan huh? Well played, cat scan guy, well played...
posted by cavalier at 9:40 AM on August 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

I have no idea how these people got MetaFilter into their magazine, or why.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:43 AM on August 21, 2012 [16 favorites]

I'd love to hear how that article topic came up at the Wired creative table.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:49 AM on August 21, 2012

scan huh? Well played, cat scan guy, well played...

be careful where you go with this recursive crap, we'll have a Hasselhoff event, and I'm not sure how good Matt looks in a speedo.
posted by HuronBob at 9:51 AM on August 21, 2012

and I'm not sure how good Matt looks in a speedo

Weird that you happen to mention that, as I actually have a picture.
posted by phunniemee at 9:55 AM on August 21, 2012 [20 favorites]

imkimiam, I am also curious. It was an interesting read, not particularly groundbreaking, but the author (Gideon Lewis-Kraus) does travel to Japan to meet the owners of the Musashis and to sample some Cat Cafes.
posted by radioamy at 10:01 AM on August 21, 2012

Tired: Posts about cats.
Wired: Posts about posts about cats.
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:04 AM on August 21, 2012 [7 favorites]

Wired? At this point, shouldn't they be excited when they're mentioned by us?
posted by ODiV at 11:26 AM on August 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Tired: Posts about cats.
Wired: Posts about posts about cats.

MetaTalk: Posts about MetaFilter-Related posts about posts about cats.
posted by tilde at 12:01 PM on August 21, 2012

Wired? At this point, shouldn't they be excited when they're mentioned by us?

I believe their internal mail server is clogged right now with a discussion of this MeTa.
posted by vidur at 12:23 PM on August 21, 2012

Weird that you happen to mention that, as I actually have a picture.

That's actually cathowie.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:46 PM on August 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

Wired.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their MeFi wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by asnider at 12:52 PM on August 21, 2012

MetaTalk: Posts about MetaFilter-Related posts about posts about cats.

boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats and boots
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:11 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wait, I thought cat-scan.com was some weird site where people talk about why they love some other weird site. I must be missing something.
posted by item at 1:58 PM on August 21, 2012

Boots or Hearts

Speaking of falling apart, the site looks a little broken right now in FF, IE and Chrome.Just me?
posted by maudlin at 2:29 PM on August 21, 2012

Wired? At this point, shouldn't they be excited when they're mentioned by us?

Remember how the web was new and animated gifs were new and everybody thought they were the bees knees but then time passed and everyone realized animated gifs were actually just gimmicky and annoying and started to hate them and then more time passed and now animated gifs are a vital, treasured part of the greater internet discourse again except for the situations in which they're just terrible still, and we're all like, oh, this is a complicated thing, this is a thing with facets, plural, a simple yes or no doesn't do it?

I figure Wired is sort of like that except that it doesn't do animated gifs very well in the print version.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:49 PM on August 21, 2012 [11 favorites]

I kinda meant my comment to come off as a good natured jest. Definitely reads more 'asshole' than intended. Maybe a winking emoticon was in order?
posted by ODiV at 2:53 PM on August 21, 2012

i wish "teh" would die in a fire.
posted by WhitenoisE at 3:37 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I figure Wired is sort of like that except that it doesn't do animated gifs very well in the print version.

You aren't riffling the pages fast enough.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:52 PM on August 21, 2012

Wired.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time.

I know this is a joke, but actually, wired.com bothers me, a lot. I visit it frequently, and every time I do I find myself wondering why the site for what was once (and may still be -- I haven't seen the print version for years) a magazine that prided itself in if not great at least interesting and creative design can be so relentlessly, painfully ugly to look at.

It's just weird, and it's been that way forever.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:27 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Did they mention AskMe's unwritten yet ironclad rule, that you can't ask a question about your cat without linking to a picture of your cat? Or the recent AskMe about the kitten wedged in the underside of a car, followed by another AskMe by the owner of the car about the perplexities involved in what to feed said kitten now that he's a member of the family?

We're about so much more than the cats wedged in scanners. We're about cats wedged in other places. We're about well-balanced cat discussions. We do cats with artistry and style.
posted by orange swan at 5:33 PM on August 21, 2012 [9 favorites]

I'm liking the whole "have you noticed how cats are a thing on the internet? What's up with that, am I right?" thing. It's a good example of "this thing has been around for twenty years, let's notice things about it and put way too much thought into the whole thing because... erm... nostalgia..." journalism. Which quite frankly, I blame baby-boomers for. Nostalgia became much more interesting for them once they had stuff to remember, which is pretty much the same time the first baby boomer journalists started getting to make their own editorial decisions.

WhitenoisE: i wish "teh" would die in a fire.

I feel the exact same way about that whole "capitalization optional" thing.
posted by SMPA at 5:42 PM on August 21, 2012

Is there any mention of cupcakes?
posted by unliteral at 6:24 PM on August 21, 2012

I found MetaFilter through Wired, way back in February 2001, in an article about the All Your Base meme, of all things.
posted by Kattullus at 6:32 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Funny cat pictures are the lingua franca of the internet.
posted by logicpunk at 7:03 PM on August 21, 2012

does anyone read the posts down here?
posted by eyeballkid at 7:58 PM on August 21, 2012

No.
posted by deborah at 8:19 PM on August 21, 2012

I do.
posted by John Cohen at 9:01 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

My sister got me a free subscription to Wired, and so I read it for the first time in more than 10 years.My reaction was "What the hell happened? flip .. flip .. flip .. Oh, they were bought by Conde Nast! That why it feels like a guide to helping purchasers of expensive watches feel comfortable while talking to the creatives at their company."

More pithily, Wired used to say "This is what we are doing" and now it's describing what others are doing.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:33 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I wish "die in a fire" and variants would fall down the well and drown.
posted by notyou at 9:44 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

"a well"

Oh well.
posted by notyou at 9:46 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: Cats wedged in other places...
posted by blue_beetle at 9:54 PM on August 21, 2012

I feel the exact same way about that whole "capitalization optional" thing.

Why are your letters so meek? It reads like someone's mumbling at the ground.
posted by WhitenoisE at 11:02 PM on August 21, 2012

Wow! Metafilter is internet famous, historically!
posted by infini at 11:05 PM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I learned "teh" from a friend, an expert on Gustav Mahler amongst others, who types really fast. He had a dog at the time.

No well.
posted by Namlit at 11:21 PM on August 21, 2012

That just goes to show me. I went to see when Joel Veitch posted the "singing" kitten video(s) and then checked BonsaiKitten.com, as I was inexplicably convinced they'd been earlier, but, no, both were 2000.

When the cat-scan link went up, it was posted on the Gothic Scouts messageboard and that's how I first found out about MetaFilter.

I wonder if ICanHazCheezburger.com technically owes Matt money...?

Goths love cats, you know.
posted by batmonkey at 11:30 PM on August 21, 2012

phunniemee: "and I'm not sure how good Matt looks in a speedo

Weird that you happen to mention that, as I actually have a picture"

That is so misleading a post, because that is definitely not a speedo.
posted by Red Loop at 3:27 AM on August 22, 2012

That's not Matt either. Lets drag phunniemee to the stockage and pelt with stuffed Pokemons.
posted by infini at 3:41 AM on August 22, 2012

stockade, damn edit window
posted by infini at 3:42 AM on August 22, 2012

Did you guys even read the tag on that cat's trunks? Poor thing is uncomfortable about his jiggly thighs. Who are we to judge?

Also, Jigglypuff, plz. Charizard looks pointy.
posted by phunniemee at 4:51 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

> Which quite frankly, I blame baby-boomers for.

Shove it.

Seriously, I'm tired of this boomer-bashing shit. Knock it off.
posted by languagehat at 7:43 AM on August 22, 2012

Seriously, I'm tired of this boomer-bashing shit.

What? Why? He seems to be having so much fun!

By the way, guys, did you know that you can type almost anything into the internet and find a picture of it? LOLZ.
posted by phunniemee at 7:51 AM on August 22, 2012

a quasar smoking a red giant...PIC!
posted by clavdivs at 7:56 AM on August 22, 2012

Boom.
posted by phunniemee at 8:12 AM on August 22, 2012

By the way, guys, did you know that you can type almost anything into the internet and find a picture of it?

Please let me introduce you to the wonder of shrinp.com.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:52 AM on August 22, 2012

Isn't it illegal somewhere for moderators on the interwebs to offer such temptation to their hapless users?
posted by infini at 10:08 AM on August 22, 2012

I'll have you know I already lost an afternoon to shrinp, thankyouverymuch.

My phone autocompletes thankyouverymuch. I consider this a win.
posted by phunniemee at 10:19 AM on August 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

phunniemee: "and I'm not sure how good Matt looks in a speedo

Weird that you happen to mention that, as I actually have a picture."
posted by phunniemee at 12:55 PM on August 21 [19 favorites +] [!]

Congratulations, Matt. At least 19 people clicked that link without knowing what it was.
posted by schmod at 12:49 PM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I find myself wondering why the site for what was once (and may still be -- I haven't seen the print version for years) a magazine that prided itself in if not great at least interesting and creative design can be so relentlessly, painfully ugly to look at.

Actually, the print version is pretty fucking hideous now, too. At least based on the last time I bothered to pick up a copy (which was sometime last year, I think).
posted by asnider at 8:23 AM on August 30, 2012