Coming up, February theme post month: Doubles 💖 Jubilee January 26, 2022 12:21 AM   Subscribe

Hello, gentlepeople of Mefi! This is just a heads-up to prepare to dust off your bookmarks and favorites, because February will be (drumroll) ...

´*•.¸(*•.¸♥¸.•*´)¸.•*´...

♥«´¨`•°..! Double Post Month !..°•´¨`»♥

.. ¸.•*(¸.•*´♥`*•.¸)`*•. ..


wherein folks February-post their fave links from posts-past, your own or someone else's. To participate, dig out your most ❤️loved ❤️ posts (the ones you've loved from other people, or the ones you love that you posted), update the link url if it has gone bad, been changed, or moved, and remind us of the original Mefi post by linking to it, too.

Perhaps the original link has disappeared completely, but there are good links about the original item or topic! That's perfectly fine. Perhaps the original exists but you've found newer, better, or additional links. Also perfectly fine. The point is not necessarily to copy-paste the original post, but to re-introduce us to its subject matter, so hit us with your (probably reformulated) posts that are so nice, we need to love them twice!

We are looking forward to looking back with you, and thanks to youarenothere for reminding us of this idea. Please post any questions here!
posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 12:21 AM (14 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This gon be so fun, the archives are poppin' with so many jewels, I'm so damn excited, yes yes yes yes yes.
posted by youarenothere at 2:49 AM on January 26, 2022 [6 favorites]


Woohoo!! I am excited for this!
posted by lazaruslong at 3:19 AM on January 26, 2022


Super idea.
posted by Meatbomb at 6:27 AM on January 26, 2022


Hmm, I appear to have favorited 1,026 posts. Sorting may take some time . . . .
posted by JanetLand at 7:12 AM on January 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Dang, wish I'd kept track of all those posts I deleted because they were doubles.
posted by Mitheral at 8:20 AM on January 26, 2022


This is cool. Any guidance on timescale? Is a couple of years and some new additions reasonable? [Edit: also, any suggested tag to let us find them all?]
posted by eotvos at 8:25 AM on January 26, 2022


This is a GREAT idea. Yay!
posted by kristi at 9:19 AM on January 26, 2022


Yes! This means we can revisit the Politics Megathreads!

*ducks*

*runs*

posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:36 AM on January 26, 2022 [8 favorites]


eotvos, no time limit. You can repost any topic, but it needs a link or links that work -- doesn't need to be the same link as the original post, but it can be if that url is still working. Can also be an archived copy of an original link. You can also add additional links.

The tag will be "doublesjubilee." If anyone notices a repost without a tag, let us know and we can add it. (contact or flag with note)

/me chases down a non mouse, a cow herd, takes them to meet Paphnuty
posted by taz (staff) at 4:18 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


This is clearly meant for reposting interesting links from the Blue, but how do y'all feel about FPPs on the Blue about older posts on Music or AskMe? Looking through my own favorites, it's mostly amazing songs or questions that sparked really interesting answers on the Green. Are those worthy of their own FPPs in February, or are we going to stick to offsite links?
posted by Mayor West at 6:19 AM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Some things won't be retrievable at all if there is not enough info attached, but sometimes you can dig something up with a little forensic fiddling. Old youtube videos, for example, can be tough, because they are often posted without the title or uploader info, so all you have is a url to a dead page and a faint memory of what the video contained / look like. Here's one old favorite of mine from 2016 that leads to a dead page. But I searched the youtube url in Google images and was able to find a live version on a different channel. If all you can find is a screen shot, tineye.com could also be potentially helpful.

A lot of sites still exist and still have their older content, but have reorganized so it's not at the original link. Often just searching the site name and the keyword(s) will get you to the right place if they don't have a redirect link at the original. Some content is on blog platforms that have shut down, but searching the blogger's username or real name, or the exact title will find it on, say, the original poster's personal site. And where there's no hope of retrieving the original item, if it's interesting and unusual and not a complete one-off, there's likely to be other good content about that subject.

And we mustn't forget the Wayback Machine to help rescue some content. For example, here's a nice post about The mail chutes of New York City that links to Atlas Obscura, which still hosts the original article. But what happens if mail gets stuck? Well, you might never know, unless you wanted to buy that information from the NYT, but the Wayback Machine has the linked 1999 FYI column. Voila, unstuck!

And let's just pour one out for Flash games. Maybe you can find versions where the author remade their game on a new platform, but I haven't had much luck. Looking in my favorites, I really want to play Nevermore, but as the raven says, "this game is too aptly named!" :(
posted by taz (staff) at 6:44 AM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Mayor West, as I remember we mentioned that possibility, but didn't come to a conclusive answer. I think I can make an executive decision and say that if the content is good enough for an FPP, it doesn't matter that it came from a Mefi subsite. So, yeah, if you want to post a great Ask Me or Music post from the past, go ahead, but post it on the blue, not in the subsite, where things might become confusing.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:48 AM on January 27, 2022


taz: " So, yeah, if you want to post a great Ask Me or Music post from the past, go ahead, but post it on the blue, not in the subsite, where things might become confusing."

So would that be a link like "hey, look at this amazing AskMe question> link", or should it be more fleshed out?
posted by signal at 12:52 PM on January 28, 2022


I think that depends on the post. If the post is something like "what's the deal with X," where X is a particularly interesting thing, the thread will give info on that, but including additional link(s) to a quality article, video, etc. about that topic would be good, and more FPP-y. If the value of the post/thread is more in the individual responses, there's no need to try force something that doesn't really add that much.

If you have any doubts about which way to go, we'll be happy to have a look and offer an opinion (via contact).
posted by taz (staff) at 1:36 PM on January 28, 2022


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