Comments on: zarq's 500th post

zarq's 500th post

filthy light thief — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:24:34 -0800

A tip of the ol' fedora to zarq, for 500 posts of quality.

By: Egg Shen

Egg Shen — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:28:45 -0800

Peer recognition!

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:30:13 -0800

Huzzah!

By: griphus

griphus — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:32:04 -0800

...and a moment of silence for the 500 he's had deleted.

Mazal tov, zarq!

By: Jahaza

Jahaza — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:33:05 -0800

Your prize is a banjo from a secret admirer.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:35:55 -0800

ArtW just felt a subtle quickening - there is another

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:37:59 -0800

Huzzah for zarq!

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:44:40 -0800

zarq is my favorite user with the letters z, r, and q in his username.

By: m@f

m@f — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:45:59 -0800

So what's the threshold to make first ballot Hall of Fame?

By: Egg Shen

Egg Shen — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:47:28 -0800

ArtW just felt a subtle quickening

He could coast for a long time in 3rd place.

y2karl on the other hand may want to get his act together.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:01:00 -0800

Go zarq! You are good at MeFi.

By: gauche

gauche — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:03:03 -0800

Huzzah!

By: brina

brina — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:03:50 -0800

I like you, zarq. You're a good egg.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:11:53 -0800

Quality stuff.

By: Phire

Phire — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:28:48 -0800

shakespeherian: "zarq is my favorite user with the letters z, r, and q in his username."

Across the US, three lonely users quietly shed a tear at being denied shakespeherian's boundless affection.

By: smoke

smoke — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:37:55 -0800

Thanks, Zarq. I always look forward to your meaty - and excellently tagged! - posts.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:39:38 -0800

Across the US, three lonely users quietly shed a tear at being denied shakespeherian's boundless affection.

It's true, I'm a prick.

By: zarq

zarq — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:43:56 -0800

A friend, on gtalk: "You been called out in metatalk."
Me: "Aw shit. Again?! What did I do now?"

Thanks, flt! Was nice of you to notice. :)

Especially since um... I didn't? Forgot I was getting so close and didn't realize I was making post #500 last night. Totally didn't know until I saw this post. Had been working on a biggish fpp about Browncoats: Redemption and figured that would be #500. Instead, I made a SLNYT. Doh.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:53:07 -0800

Yay, zarq!

By: Kevin Street

Kevin Street — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:05:58 -0800

Congrats, zarq!

By: Mrs. Pterodactyl

Mrs. Pterodactyl — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:14:49 -0800

zarq is my favorite user with the letters z, r, and q in his username.
posted by shakespeherian at 4:44 PM on October 10 [+] [!]

I thought about registering an account called "zrqfuck off shakespeherian" but I decided not to because I am classy and cheap. On the other hand, I thought it was funny enough to mention. I recognize that this sentiment might not be universal.

Also, yay zarq!

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:47:30 -0800

zarq, if you like, I could get all fighty in your 500th thread and see if I could take it out with me. Or you could somehow subtly one-up the Browncoats post, earning it spot #501.

The Whelk: ArtW just felt a subtle quickening - there is another

Egg Shen: He could coast for a long time in 3rd place.

y2karl on the other hand may want to get his act together.

That jonson guy should get back in the game. Postroad is next in line for the #5 spot. And I feel bad that mathowie lost #1 spot in the very month of his 40th birthday. homunculus is a jerk.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:51:14 -0800

He could coast for a long time in 3rd place.

That's a little frightening. Especially as I'm not sure the othe 2 post that much these days.

By: AElfwine Evenstar

AElfwine Evenstar — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:12:23 -0800

It's true, I'm a prick.

Yes, but you're our prick dammit! And I have to second the mazal tov for zarq.

By: cmyk

cmyk — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:14:46 -0800

zarq is awesome all around. Yaaay!

By: cooker girl

cooker girl — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:24:14 -0800

Had been working on a biggish fpp about Browncoats: Redemption

For the love of all that is good and shiny, do not give up on making that post.

By: zarq

zarq — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:34:28 -0800

Or you could somehow subtly one-up the Browncoats post, earning it spot #501.

For the love of all that is good and shiny, do not give up on making that post.

Definitely still working on it! It's going to be a few days tho. I have WAY too many links to organize into something coherent.

Thanks, everyone. *hugs all around* :)

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:38:08 -0800

AND THE RESULTING MASS HUG KILLED SEVERAL.

By: SweetTeaAndABiscuit

SweetTeaAndABiscuit — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:39:59 -0800

Congrats! Your name is on my short list of users I expect good things from. (The list of users I expect bad things from is much longer).

By: deborah

deborah — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:18:05 -0800

You guys planned this, didn't you?!

Gratz, zarq!

By: arcticseal

arcticseal — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:44:55 -0800

Zarq is one of those names that I look out for when check to see who has made an FPP. Consistently good material and thoughtful comments. Thanks zarq!

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:23:14 -0800

Ah man jonson was good people. Fie on zarq! BOOO!

Nah just kiddin' zarq's good people too.

The zarquon triplets though, don't get me started!

Nah just kidding.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:47:30 -0800

All of the zrq possessors are good dudes.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:53:21 -0800

Neato!

By: jgirl

jgirl — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:20:09 -0800

Love me some zarq!

By: smirkette

smirkette — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:21:14 -0800

Hear, hear! (Or should that be, "read, read!")

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:17:15 -0800

Yay zarq! Here's to 500 more!

By: Pogo_Fuzzybutt

Pogo_Fuzzybutt — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 22:33:16 -0800

My contribution index* is exactly one.

Heh.

* It is simply the sum of all the times a user has posted on Metafilter (comments or threads on the blue, gray and green) divided by the number of days they have been a member.

By: IndigoRain

IndigoRain — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 03:42:09 -0800

YAY zarq! <3

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:28:36 -0800

Yay, zarq!

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:09:26 -0800

deborah: You guys planned this, didn't you?!

Nope. Well, he didn't plan on this follow-up. zarq posted about my 500th without prompting, and I saw that he was close to his own 500 mark. I couldn't let it go by un-noted, so I made this post. zarq wasn't warned ahead of time.

zarq: I have WAY too many links to organize into something coherent.

Says you. There is no such thing as too many links. You just need to spend an inordinate amount of time crafting the structure of the post. I am generally available to consult on such undertakings, should you wish to tackle a very large post.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:10:23 -0800

I shouldn't feed the monster that is the MegaPost trend, but I have fun digging through them, and there are still enough short threads that I think the MegaPost isn't the norm.

By: bearwife

bearwife — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:50:48 -0800

Thanks, 500 times over, zarq!

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:57:10 -0800

Megapost is for wimps. I am working on gigapost! That's why I haven't posted anything in so long!

By: zarq

zarq — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:03:19 -0800

filthy light thief: " Says you. There is no such thing as too many links. You just need to spend an inordinate amount of time crafting the structure of the post. I am generally available to consult on such undertakings, should you wish to tackle a very large post."

Heh. No, I meant, "I have way too many links to organize into something coherent, so I won't be getting it done today. It will take me a few days." I love digging deeply into megaposts. They're one of my favorite things about this place. But man they do take time to construct.

Can I ask you a question, since you're a mefite who makes consistently fantastic link-heavy posts? Do you ever find your final product looking very different from what you originally envisioned? It seems to happen to me a lot -- I find some compelling thing while researching a post that changes either my outlook on a topic, or the way I want to present it to the community. This is a good example of a post where that happened. It began as a single link to the Audacity essay. But then I read the entire True Stories section on their site and it contained that powerful collection of Unemployment essays. The final version of the post wound up burying the Audacity essay in a group of other links.

Do you find the process similarly organic? Or do you have a clear idea of how each post is going to be structured when you begin?

By: Ranucci

Ranucci — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:35:41 -0800

This is Metafilter, we don't tip our fedoras, we tip our trilbys...

By: immlass

immlass — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 09:55:20 -0800

Late to this party, but much love for zarq and his quality posts!

By: 404 Not Found

404 Not Found — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:23:44 -0800

also late..... 500 posts wow..... oct 11 i was here 10 years and still haven't found what i'm looking for

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:17:56 -0800

Do you find the process similarly organic? Or do you have a clear idea of how each post is going to be structured when you begin?

If I think I know the topic fairly well, say if I've read an interesting book or article recently, I'll have an idea for the direction of the post. But if I'm learning about a topic as I compile the post, the end product is often different than what I first had in mind.

And sometimes, after stewing on a post for a while, I realize my first outline could be compacted by presenting the information differently, reducing some redundancies and whatnot. For example, I tried to re-write the the Orbital mega-post after seeing how long the first draft was. I pruned down a portion of the beginning, but ended up keeping most of the remainder, as I had become happy with the flow of it.