my ideal of a perfect thread

August 19, 2002 1:29 PM

Someone said that there needed to be positive as well as negative examples of Metafilter Behavior. This comes close to my ideal of a perfect thread.
posted by hob to Etiquette/Policy at 1:29 PM (11 comments total)

The post itself was unoriginal and unexceptional - just a review article and a question lifted from it. Luckily, it attracted knowledgeable people not showing off but raising questions and sharing insights in an unguarded, informal way, which is ideal for bringing (very) different viewpoints to an open-ended, satisfyingly inconclusive but meaty discussion.

It's all down to luck and absolutely depends on the quality of those who chose to comment. There's no way you could draw any posting lessons from the thread. Except what we already knew - that it helps tremendously if people at least speed-read the link. Not because of its intrinsic worth but because it provides a common framework on which to hang the discussion. It even allows creative detours - as it did there.

Btw, I get the impression that reading links is on the wane in recent times and that more than half (?) of the comments are reactions to other comments or just to the post description.

Perhaps it would help for posts to have one clear main link to a fairly brief piece, separated (by a "More Inside") from any others; rather than the current fashion of running them all together?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:35 PM on August 19, 2002

No offense Miguel, but I was hoping that hob had linked to this.
posted by machaus at 2:45 PM on August 19, 2002

haha, that's funny, i didn't even click on that link machaus. different strokes, and all that... meanwhile in miguel's thread i think i'm coming off as a crazy cultural supremacist...
posted by rhyax at 3:12 PM on August 19, 2002

Well, rhyax, you did say (and I quote): "eurocentric culture is the best"*. What did you expect, man?

*The fact you preceded this remark with the cowardly qualification "I am absolutely not saying that..." is neither here nor there. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:19 PM on August 19, 2002

Sorry. This can't be an example of an ideal thread.

I commented in it. Sorry. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 5:15 PM on August 19, 2002

hear hear.
posted by mlang at 6:39 PM on August 19, 2002

Anyone else notice that a lot of links on aldaily wind up on metafilter? Not that there's anything wrong with that, I wish they would get a comment system. Just about any link on that page would probably result in a good discussion.
posted by bobo123 at 7:31 PM on August 19, 2002

i just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate ALL the people whom have posted today. this was a GREAT day for links and commentary.

rock!
posted by jcterminal at 8:35 PM on August 19, 2002

OK, I'll cheerlead too...I linked that thread from my blog yesterday as a must-read, which I rarely do. Thanks to all involved. There have been a couple others recently that have been great as well (couple of trainwrecks, too, but c'est la etc).
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:08 PM on August 19, 2002

Then there are those notorious users, like this fellow, who post just one tremendous thread and never do it again. How can they be publicly shamed into doing it again?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:38 AM on August 20, 2002

Reverse psychology Miguel.

Evanizer, that post was shite. You couldn't produce another half-decent attempt given another ten years and a vulcan mind-meld (whatever that is).
posted by Frasermoo at 9:34 AM on August 20, 2002