MeFi Ancient History: When the gates opened

November 9, 2014 8:45 PM

Many many years ago, MeFi did not accept new members. But one day, someone posted their login information in a comment thread, and suddenly the gates sprung open: hundreds and hundreds of comments and threads by not-actually-members were unleashed upon the site, and it lasted for a while before the mods managed to clean it all up. Mods, do you remember that day? MeFites of Today- were any of you among that group that logged in and posted or commented for the first time ever that day, so excited for a peak behind the curtains?

This post inspired by one of those moments where you inexplicably remember something random from aeons ago.

posted by BuddhaInABucket to MetaFilter-Related at 8:45 PM (54 comments total)

Well, November 2004 is when I opened the floodgates for the $5 accounts, but if you're referring to a time where someone posted their login info, I think it was maybe twenty comments made in a metatalk thread that was quickly noticed and I disabled the account. This would have been ancient history, probably in 2002 or 2003 at the latest, when it was just me running the whole site.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:47 PM on November 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

It wasn't me. I was in jail in 2002 and 2003.
posted by 724A at 8:59 PM on November 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

"a peak behind the curtains" -- Did someone resurrect Christo to put a curtain around a mountain this time?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:20 PM on November 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

... Really?

Why do I remember it being way more awesome than how you make it sound?

This is why eyewitness testimony at trial needs to be taken with a grain of salt, I guess. I was definitely one of those comments though. I remember trying to get an account every time you let loose a trickle of new memberships but never being able to, so I was probably more excited than I should have been to post on the site.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:25 PM on November 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

Also, wow, in 9 days it will be my ten year anniversary of being an official MeFite!
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:29 PM on November 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

Mathowie, his arms open wide
Five dollars, same as in town.
posted by kev23f at 11:46 PM on November 9, 2014 [40 favorites]

Huh, very funny and I don't even remember that, even though that would have been back in the day when I was able to pretty much read every single thing posted on the site. Maybe the whole thing was deleted before I managed to see it. Or my memory just sucks (likely).

Happy Nearly Anniversary, BuddhaInABucket!
posted by taz (staff) at 12:25 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Gosh, yes, it was exciting: I had all these IMPORTANT THINGS to say in so many posts, and couldn't, and now I could!

I won't say it's been a let-down, but a good lesson in how your own sense of importance and entitlement is not shared by the rest of humanity, the fools.
posted by alasdair at 3:16 AM on November 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

User03
12345678

No, hang on, that's my bank account.
posted by Segundus at 4:32 AM on November 10, 2014 [6 favorites]

Possibly the incident discussed here?
posted by stebulus at 4:57 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

... if you're referring to a time where someone posted their login info, I think it was maybe twenty comments made in a metatalk thread that was quickly noticed and I disabled the account.

The demo incident of June 2003.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:24 AM on November 10, 2014 [15 favorites]

Probably not what the OP is referring to, but people who know say sharing login info was one of the things that first got Paphnuty in trouble.
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:14 AM on November 10, 2014 [6 favorites]

Segundus: "12345678"

No way! That's the combination on my luggage!
posted by Grither at 6:23 AM on November 10, 2014 [10 favorites]

Wasn't there a brief fling with an account called something like login?
posted by drezdn at 6:23 AM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

Man, one of these days we're going to get a new user who just digs the name "Paphnuty" and uses that as their name and no one is going to believe they really exist.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

EmpressCallipygos. You mean this guy?
posted by leotrotsky at 6:36 AM on November 10, 2014

Yeah to my mind it was the 'demo incident.' Kind of like having a big hootenanny while your parents were out of town :)
posted by carter at 7:53 AM on November 10, 2014

> The demo incident of June 2003.

Thanks, I'd forgotten all about that! Good times... Paphnuty was actually one of the demos; I'm pretty sure it's the last time he got loose from the dungeon. He suffers for us all.
posted by languagehat at 8:15 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Wait, the grey used to be called the brown??! I'll never look at this color in the same way...
posted by sockermom at 8:23 AM on November 10, 2014

Wasn't there a brief fling with an account called something like login?

Yep, MetaTalk had a goatse post. Got me at work.

Scamps!
posted by ODiV at 8:24 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

The past is truly a foreign country.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:51 AM on November 10, 2014

I guess I was drunk that day
posted by thelonius at 8:58 AM on November 10, 2014

"WAS IST DAS?"
posted by clavdivs at 9:28 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

The past is truly a foreign country.


So is Belgium.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:18 AM on November 10, 2014 [6 favorites]

In reading the question, the first thing that came to mind was the "login" mess that stebulus links. But it could have been the "demo" thing, although I don't remember that resulting in stuff like goatse in Metatalk like occurred with "login".
posted by dios at 10:24 AM on November 10, 2014

Well, November 2004 is when I opened the floodgates for the $5 accounts

And January 2005 is when I started working. Coincidence?
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:33 AM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

You guys have been jogging my memory- it must have been the login thing- the password was login too, right?
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:48 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

So is Belgium

Belgium... Is the past?!
posted by curious nu at 11:04 AM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

did you know if you actually post your pw Metafilter automatically stars out most of the characters? its cool

lorelaiG***reshusb***d19*8

See?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:15 AM on November 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

I think I remember this, back when I was a lurker. I vaguely recall trying the login, saw that it worked, and quickly logged out.
posted by slogger at 11:28 AM on November 10, 2014

The past is truly a foreign country.

With inline images.
posted by carter at 11:36 AM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

The only thing I remember is the login incident caused a lot of unhappy people to get goatse'd for the first time.
posted by homunculus at 11:38 AM on November 10, 2014

did you know if you actually post your pw Metafilter automatically stars out most of the characters? its cool

Really? Let's see now...

D***k*Y**r*Ov**t*ne

Hey, it works!
posted by RedOrGreen at 11:38 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

G*F*ckY**rs*lf.

Mine didn't.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 12:15 PM on November 10, 2014 [20 favorites]

Username: BuddhaInABucket
Password: P00pSt1ck!

Have fun!
posted by cjorgensen at 3:18 PM on November 10, 2014

cjorgensen: my actual password is so, so, so much less secure than that. excellent password design, 10/10 would use.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 6:50 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh man, that demo thread. I remember that, reading back through it, though I don't think I was actually reading that thread in time to be one of the demos or tests and maybe wouldn't have been even if I had been.

Whereas the login thing apparently flew completely under my radar. That was during the Dark Days when I had no internet connection at work, so that might be part of why.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:06 PM on November 10, 2014

"Already people are talking about it like this was some haha moment we'll all remember with a laugh someday. Remember the "login" fisaco? Haha. That sure was funny. Ummmm no. "
August 2, 2004
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:47 PM on November 10, 2014

I wonder whether the people who were demo for such a brief time remember which comment was theirs?
posted by h00py at 4:07 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Already people are talking about it like this was some haha moment we'll all remember with a laugh someday. Remember the "login" fisaco? Haha. That sure was funny. Ummmm no. "

Just checked the time stamp for scarabic's famous AskMe response. Don't know whether to be relieved that it's a couple of months prior to this comment.
posted by arcticseal at 5:53 AM on November 11, 2014

My sense of resentment kept me lurking and staying at monkeyfilter and linkfilter.

Man, I miss the unmourned aggregators of old. Whither memepool?
posted by One Hand Slowclapping at 7:17 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I totally logged in with those demo credentials when they were posted. I think I might have been responsible for the pancakes comment. 2003 was a long damn time ago, though.

I still don't feel this question has been satisfactorily answered. So, who here likes pancakes?
posted by killdevil at 12:41 PM on November 11, 2014

Mais ou sont les agrégateurs d'antan?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:44 PM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ils ne quittaient jamais.
posted by killdevil at 1:53 PM on November 11, 2014

I still don't feel this question has been satisfactorily answered. So, who here likes pancakes?

Indeed!
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:06 PM on November 11, 2014

Indeed!
posted by stebulus at 6:03 PM on November 11, 2014

Watches this rapidly disintegrate into a recipe thread and waits for schmoopy...

oh wait...
posted by infini at 1:24 PM on November 12, 2014

Indeeeeeeeed!
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:13 PM on November 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pancakes and Cat Scans...14 years a member!
posted by bjgeiger at 7:45 PM on November 12, 2014

Wow, people were really pretty caustic with each other here in 2004. Threatening to literally take a plane to someone's house to beat them down "Jay and Silent Bob style"? Keeping in mind this was for posting Goatse. I mean, if it was some argument about bike helmets I could understand ...
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 3:24 PM on November 13, 2014

Ah, the days of Turks and Caicos.
posted by clavdivs at 5:58 PM on November 14, 2014

clavdis is Johnny Worricker? That explains so much.
posted by homunculus at 6:14 PM on November 14, 2014

Don't be silly, I hate art.
posted by clavdivs at 11:51 PM on November 14, 2014

I had my nose pressed against the blue glass for a couple of years, reading Metafilter avidly but unable to get an account. My first post here was under the Login user loophole, in a thread on the blue that was deleted within hours. Then there was some event where Matt opened up Metafilter to limited number of new users and I think I missed that. I came in with the first wave of $5 noobs, and was so very happy to be here.
posted by LarryC at 12:57 AM on November 18, 2014