Eternal September started in November.

November 18, 2012 6:15 AM

It's been eight years since hell frozenth over! Happy five dollar newb day everyone!
posted by octothorpe to MetaFilter-Related at 6:15 AM (74 comments total)

That's an interesting, and sometimes sad thread... I miss some of those names..... And, since I missed putting a note in there at the time, it would only be right to open that sucker back up so I can correct that error....

If I had spent that night doing anything but reading metafilter, I would have a kid in the 2nd grade now...
posted by HuronBob at 6:22 AM on November 18, 2012

It really was a two-day event. Day Two! Day Two!
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:23 AM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

OMG YAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL MY FELLOW $5 N00BS!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:30 AM on November 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
Proud 'neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now
posted by growabrain at 6:34 AM on November 18, 2012

Five dollar... five dollar... five dollar newb daaaaay.
posted by Autumn at 6:40 AM on November 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

I like to think of us as the Greatest Generation, those who were willing to sacrifice $5 in order to be a part of something awesome.
posted by arcticseal at 6:40 AM on November 18, 2012 [9 favorites]

Other things I have done for eight years

1-


(The artist formerly known as grapefruitmoon, paid my $5 on Nov 22, 2004)
posted by sonika at 6:48 AM on November 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

Aw, people actually welcomed new users in that thread.
posted by Memo at 6:53 AM on November 18, 2012

Funny — my comment on it eight years ago wouldn't be something I could post now that we have autocorrect.
posted by orange swan at 7:00 AM on November 18, 2012

Wow I just about made it to that thread, last but one comment before it closed.
posted by dhruva at 7:34 AM on November 18, 2012

Well how about that. Eight years tomorrow. Happy birthday everyone!
posted by altolinguistic at 7:49 AM on November 18, 2012

Happy day my $5 brethren and sistren!
posted by Miko at 8:53 AM on November 18, 2012

So that thread led me to the rapehaiku MeTa, and, um, wow. It really puts into perspective how much this site has matured since then.

Anyhoo. Happy $5 newb day to me!
posted by naoko at 9:11 AM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wow I just about made it to that thread, last but one comment before it closed.

MetaTalk threads didn't automatically close at that point, but they'd still mostly peter out after being pushed off the front page. If I recall, the 30 day policy was instituted the following summer (and before that point there was -- if I'm remembering correctly -- a neat MeTa thread which received no comments besides that of the OP, who, after it slipped off the front page, kept commenting for months afterwards, maybe as though going a bit crazy in his/her isolated padded gray cell).
posted by nobody at 9:17 AM on November 18, 2012

As a 16k'r, I invoke my right to scoff.

And also my right to block all scoffs directed towards me from 15k-and-belowers.
posted by item at 9:39 AM on November 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

placeholder text reserved for his majesty
posted by Meatbomb at 10:02 AM on November 18, 2012

16k represent. See back then it was all about the timing. Eagerly checking everyday to see if sign-ups were open, up on the chalkboard in the old town square. In those days the chalkboard was hung on an old air filter, thus the origin of the site's name. Back then, in order to get a login you needed to beat Miguel in a cocktail mixing competition.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:22 AM on November 18, 2012

My old account and this one are the best $10 I ever spent.
posted by double block and bleed at 10:30 AM on November 18, 2012

$0.0017/day, and dropping. I think I've got my money's worth
posted by mce at 11:13 AM on November 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

I remember my panic when I discovered signups had been opened up for a few days and I had not known about it and I was afraid they would close again. Luckily for all I got an account!
posted by OmieWise at 11:32 AM on November 18, 2012

I'm not really sure about this place. Still kind of trying it out.

I might want my five dollars back at some point.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:36 AM on November 18, 2012

Happy us day.
posted by Cranberry at 11:45 AM on November 18, 2012

a neat MeTa thread which received no comments besides that of the OP, who, after it slipped off the front page

Here it is! It was Jim Jones.
posted by dhruva at 11:55 AM on November 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

I remember it like it was three years after 9/11.
posted by Aquaman at 11:56 AM on November 18, 2012

Here it is! It was Jim Jones.

Huh, that lasted just under 30 days. Maybe I'm wrong about when the auto-close-after-30-days policy came into effect on the gray?
posted by nobody at 12:10 PM on November 18, 2012

So, in honor of the title, just when is AOL Added Usenet Access Day, a day that will certainly live in infamy, again ? or, tl;dr: AKAISWYDT
posted by y2karl at 12:58 PM on November 18, 2012

Jim Jones, I never knew you. *cry*
posted by Melismata at 1:04 PM on November 18, 2012

I somehow missed the announcement in a flurry of travel during that period, so it took me a bit longer to become a $5 newb, and it's actually one of the few "early adopter" things I've seriously/hilariously regretted.

So many names in that thread that have instant recognition for me, and it's nice to see that a good portion of them are still contributing awesomely.

Thanks again for braving the Grand Experiment, mathowie!
posted by batmonkey at 1:35 PM on November 18, 2012

Membership used to MEAN something. Back before you could BUY it.
posted by ColdChef at 1:37 PM on November 18, 2012

y2karl: September '93 is as granular as it gets, since it's in reference to the school-year based influx that had been recognised by early netizens suddenly breaking that boundary into perpetuity.
posted by batmonkey at 1:38 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

I paid $5.

I am sorry.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:40 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Eternal September started in November.

... which gets me wondering. How many people who signed up that first day are still with the site? How many flamed out, wreaked carnage as they went? And who was the first to do so?

and also, Meatbomb, you probably did ruin Metafilter by joining. It's just taking way longer than you expected.
posted by philip-random at 1:44 PM on November 18, 2012

I thought the harbinger of Eternal September was Prodigy's usenet gateway, not AOL's? I remember AOL not being as big of a deal yet.
posted by hattifattener at 1:59 PM on November 18, 2012

y2karl: September '93 is as granular as it gets...

I think if you re-read my comment, you will see that I know that. The acrocnym for AlsoKnownAsISeeWhatYouDidThere, for instance, was to note that Eternal September in the title noted that it was being remembered as the month that, for its original members, Usenet was ruined forever as AOL linked to it and brought in a bunch of rude, ignorant idiots who promptly ruined it for everyone else. Which is what Eternal September originally meant to my understanding. YMMV, of course.
Or, if you prefer - tl;dr: Well, Duh...
posted by y2karl at 2:08 PM on November 18, 2012

I bought a $5 account in spite of being a freaking three-digit original because I felt I owed it to Mathowie (and I wanted to save this name I was using as a blog url so nobody else could use it). It turned out useful when I decided to stop using Wendell as a nom de plume (I had written some professionally as Wendell Wittler, something Cortex Millard couldn't do). But then, I've mentioned this in every nostalgic MeTa thread of the last two years... I am so boring.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:21 PM on November 18, 2012

September '93 is as granular as it gets, since it's in reference to the school-year based influx that had been recognised by early netizens suddenly breaking that boundary into perpetuity.

I remember that. Still have a newspaper clip in my junk in the attic, says "Internet Now Has 2 Million Users" . It goes on to explain what the internet is and how most of the 2 million are students or government workers.
posted by Miko at 2:43 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Jim Jones was my scholarship Mefite. So proud!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:15 PM on November 18, 2012

Frozenth. Oh my god. Frozenth.

I lose my feckin' mind when people misuse the "-eth"ending anyway. But "Frozenth"? That's so far beyond the pale the only response that seems adequate is to open another bottle of wine.
posted by Decani at 4:34 PM on November 18, 2012

I can't believe it's been another year already. Hands down this has been the wisest $5 I've ever spent - a ticket to a neverending party of fun and insightful content and commentary. Not a day goes by without the community enriching my life; for that, I can only give thanks by contributing in like and with the rare comment such as this. So thanks, everyone, for being yourself :)
posted by Meagan at 4:57 PM on November 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Is there an official number bracket you have to be within to be part of the Flood of the Great Unwashed? What's the lower bound, and where do we draw the line on the upper bound?
posted by wilful at 5:02 PM on November 18, 2012

Ah yes that was a goood day. Thanks matt for letting us mess up your yard. I wonder if you imagined then what this place would become. I never fail to be amazed by the depth of knowledge shown here and frequently the patience of those that know how to explain to those that don't; as well as the high calibre nonsense and small animal videos. Pity the img tag had to be sidelined but life isn't perfect and as far as the inter webs go this is as good as it gets.
So thanks to all you other $5 noobs as well as the old freeloaders; long may it last.
posted by adamvasco at 5:07 PM on November 18, 2012

Lower bound is right around 17573--I signed up one week before the doors opened.

(Story I've told before: Years ago, I PayPal'd Matt ten bucks, and sent him a little note like 'Hey,you've got a great site here, I've enjoyed it a lot over the years, here's a little something to help it keep running.' He sent me back a nice little note like 'Thanks--here's a link if you want to sign up for an account.' I'm guessing he knew at the time that the door-opening was imminent.)
posted by box at 5:24 PM on November 18, 2012

Metafilter has been a part of most of my adult life. Except for personal relationships and career interests, I can't think of much else that has been a part of my life for that long.
posted by painquale at 5:40 PM on November 18, 2012

and there was migs manfully offering to help and welcome people ....... what a lovely man.

The 14kers are asleep under the mythical metahill awaiting jenleigh to sound the golden kazoo, upon which we shall arise and return mefi to an age where flamewars scorched the land and the clanging of the banhammer shook the walls of the meta-asgard sort of thing.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:46 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

January 12, 2005 MetaTalk threads will automatically close because, "I wish people had some constraint so that they didn't treat metatalk as a chat site where posting "bucket o' cocks!" a dozen times is considered a good contribution".
posted by unliteral at 5:52 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, it's true we did ruin everything.
posted by Miko at 5:58 PM on November 18, 2012

No, that was just ya'll.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:04 PM on November 18, 2012

and where do we draw the line on the upper bound?

There was a graph posted a while back showing the $5 surge -- from memory, it only went nuts for a couple days -- maybe 3, then it settled down to a steady stream of 10-20 new/now/wow folks a day. Anybody have a link to that graph? It seems like by about #20,000 or so, it had tapered from the mad rush.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:05 PM on November 18, 2012

Ah, here it is.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:11 PM on November 18, 2012

Bucket o' cocks!
Bucket o' co—

Aw, just forget it.
posted by slogger at 7:19 PM on November 18, 2012

And now, with increased granularity!
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:23 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Theoretically, any savage could join.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:31 PM on November 18, 2012

I remember when I used to be *exclusive* content.

Bucket o'cocks!
posted by mazola at 7:37 PM on November 18, 2012

The 14kers are asleep under the mythical metahill awaiting jenleigh to sound the golden kazoo...

Since it cannae be heard beyond the walls of Dundee, so the horde forever sleep through the MetaPocalypse, through the eventual heat death of all the multiverses..
posted by y2karl at 8:08 PM on November 18, 2012

The day I stopped being productive.

11/19 NEVAR FORGET111!!!!
posted by bardic at 8:25 PM on November 18, 2012

[high fives all around]

I remember I had been waiting for sign-ups to open up again for a while having missed the last couple and I panicked when I saw the $5 price tag.

Is the price going up again next time?!?

Pressures sales tactics worked and I signed up right away, creating this crummy throw-away login name.
posted by stp123 at 8:41 PM on November 18, 2012

I'm very happy I joined (2nd-dayer here). I appreciate all the different perspectives particularly on race, gender and sexuality. I'd like to think I've become a somewhat better and more accepting person because of the thought-provoking comments I've read here. My knee is just a little less apt to jerk these days.

I've also had lots of laughs and been deeply moved and have a sense of being part of a real community. I'm not a very social person and don't have many close friends--in fact most people really annoy me or scare me. But for all the rough and tumble of Metatalk and some of the more fighty threads, I feel like this is a safe place to share ideas and opinions, in no small part thanks to the tone Matt set right from the beginning and to the mods who do their jobs in such a caring and thoughtful way.

Thank you everyone for sharing a part of yourselves here.

Boy, I'm getting sentimental in my dotage--and I've not even been drinking.

XXOO Metafilter!
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:38 PM on November 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Membership used to MEAN something. Back before you could BUY it.
Sadly, that distinction has been lost in the mists of time. But we still know who really wanted to get in here and who just waltzed in on the back of their easy money. We know. And we remember.
posted by dg at 11:11 PM on November 18, 2012

Oh man, i remember that day. I had been lurking since around '02, and i was so! excited! To the extent that, when i realized signups were open, i spent roughly two seconds choosing a screen name--my actual middle name--and then *immediately* regretted the decision. And plunked down a second $5 for a marginally better handle.

And while i haven't been the most active contributor since, there have been very few days in the past decade i haven't been on Metafilter. It's been a wonderful constant in my life--entertaining, educational, absorbing. Best $10 i ever spent.

Thanks, Matt, Jess, Josh and the rest of the team. My life is better because of you guys.
posted by flod at 1:03 AM on November 19, 2012

I'm trying to remember back... I think I started reading MetaFilter before the signups were open, and I was all confused because I couldn't find where you registered an account, but I hadn't figured out MeTa yet... and then one day I found where you made accounts and thought I must have been so stupid to miss it for so long! And then later I found out that I maybe wasn't stupid, I just missed the old protocols entirely (and all of MeTa).

And then I lurked for like, half a decade before my first comment.

I'm sometimes a little slow to warm up.
posted by Deoridhe at 3:09 AM on November 19, 2012

I miss the old feel of a thread like this one - the written-out thanks and appreciation are nice and unquantified and gave this place some of its unique atmosphere. It's one reason I never liked the introduction of the favorite button very much.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:05 AM on November 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

No wolfdog, I won't take my favorite back.
posted by roboton666 at 6:15 AM on November 19, 2012

Thanks for that comment, Wolfdog.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:19 AM on November 19, 2012

Hoppy boofday to us!
posted by brundlefly at 8:33 AM on November 19, 2012

Thanks for that comment, Wolfdog.

Likewise, much appreciated.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:04 PM on November 19, 2012

Ugh, so not only does Google apparently no longer have that feature that used to let you see search result counts charted over time (now you can only see search queries mapped over time), but now when you restrict your search results to a custom range, it no longer gives you an estimate at the top of the page of the number of results found.

I was curious if thanking had really decreased after signups were reopened.

I know I've given and received explicit thanks on MeFi posts before, but if there is indeed a date after which thanking became less common, I'd guess it corresponds with the introduction of favorites and not the $5 floodgates.

Any chance someone with the proper skillset might think it's an interesting enough question for a dive through the infodumpster?
posted by nobody at 5:51 PM on November 19, 2012

(Oh, I somehow missed that Wolfdog already was hypothesizing a correlation with the favorite button. It's still an interesting question, as a small potential unintended consequence of a new UI feature.)
posted by nobody at 5:54 PM on November 19, 2012

Hey Wolfdog, that link still works! I favourited it to show my pleasure..
posted by wilful at 5:56 PM on November 19, 2012

Ah, here it is.

We are the long tail.
posted by arcticseal at 9:01 PM on November 19, 2012

That's not a tail.
posted by dg at 10:45 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

18387 whaaat?!
posted by exlotuseater at 8:11 PM on November 23, 2012

Welcome to all who have a number higher than mine!!! And to those lower "Nice toe see ya!"
posted by bjgeiger at 8:58 AM on November 24, 2012

I am the third comment.
And I'm still here!
posted by JtJ at 10:26 AM on November 29, 2012

Happy 9th birthday AskMe.
posted by unliteral at 7:17 PM on December 9, 2012