September 22, 2002

8:34 AM

MetaFilter is mentioned in today's Boston Globe - oddly, though, it's this nine-month old thread about Provigil that is the topic, and the source of quotes (unattributed to specific users).

a group weblog with thousands of chatty members

Well, that sounds about right.


posted by yhbc to MetaFilter-related at 8:34 AM (44 comments total)

The actual members quoted in the article, btw, are kindall, kaefer, and mathowie himself.
posted by yhbc at 8:45 AM on September 22, 2002

I wish this post from chaz was quoted:

Dolphins don't have REM sleep, and those little fuckers are awesome. Perhaps this drug will give us the ability to splash around, turn flips in the air, and eat massive quantities of fish.


posted by birdherder at 9:12 AM on September 22, 2002

heh. that big old white space is sitting there, screaming out to be filled. your editor is pissed about your long, boozy lunches of late. a pharmeceutical conglomerate which buys a pantload of lucrative print ads is expecting some 'newsvertisement'. what to do? snarf a nine month old thread from the web and paint it like a breaking development. oh yeah carey, that's journalism! is the boston globe a fox affiliate?
posted by quonsar at 9:28 AM on September 22, 2002

weird. why didn't they attach names to the quotes like they did for everyone else quoted in the article?
posted by mathowie at 11:04 AM on September 22, 2002

Yeah, this seems to be accepted as par for the course - using a thread as the main source of quotes and then just lazily saying "one member said...while another said...". It's not only rude but bad journalism. If a quote is attributed to a name then you have to give the attribution. I'd also have imagined that a link to MetaFilter (or even to the actual thread, God forbid) wouldn't kill them. Are they afraid someone could actually check what was reported? One would have thought that would have enhanced the story's credibility.

Matt's right. There's definitely a double standard at work and it sucks.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:31 AM on September 22, 2002

Yes, double standards, all right. Just like on MetaFilter. Feel free to read our comments - no self-links here.

The good news is, that the comments on our site will be read by quite a few journalists.

Thanks a lot Miguel, for pointing out the double standards.
posted by neu at 12:07 PM on September 22, 2002

Don't thank me, neu. I wasted my time trying to talk some sense into you; corrected your link; assumed you meant well and went out of my way to try to understand your point of view. With no results. All you did was show ugly pride and a scorn for MetaFilter and its members which made me regret my gullibility. Now you try to leach on to me in an entirely unrelated thread.

Please, if you will, gently and slowly fuck the fuck off.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:23 PM on September 22, 2002 [7 favorites]

You actually did it neu!!
You made Miguel go apeshit!!!

I don't think you will be around here much longer, but that's something. Forty interesting days, weren't they?


posted by matteo at 12:28 PM on September 22, 2002

metafilter: gently and slowly fuck the fuck off.

i ?<3 the migs!br>
posted by quonsar at 12:31 PM on September 22, 2002

<shit!
posted by quonsar at 12:31 PM on September 22, 2002

full kottke stubble, indeed.
posted by quonsar at 12:32 PM on September 22, 2002

neu, please keep your breakdown in the thread you trashed downstairs. Thanks.

I can see why a journalist wouldn't want to use user handles in his article, but all the people quoted have user pages with their real names. I'm with quonsar on this. It just looks like a late night google search to fill a little space and show that the globe down with the online world.
posted by skallas at 12:32 PM on September 22, 2002

err, the globe IS down with the online world.
posted by skallas at 12:34 PM on September 22, 2002

I am vastly, vastly amused that they quoted THAT comment of mine and not the meatier one I made right before it.
posted by kindall at 12:58 PM on September 22, 2002

Miguel: why do you think they do the types of brain implants in Portugal, which would never be approved by FDA of USA?
posted by neu at 1:01 PM on September 22, 2002

This isn't NeuFilter.
posted by riffola at 1:06 PM on September 22, 2002

NeuFilter?

Wasn't it NewsFilter?

posted by matteo at 1:08 PM on September 22, 2002

I know. But self-linking isn't allowed. This is the site where the leader tells 14thousand plus members about the good (and bad) aspects of recreational drugs. Oh well.

Nobody is innocent.
posted by neu at 1:10 PM on September 22, 2002

isn't it a little warbloggy to hum and haw every time mf is mentioned anywhere?
posted by donkeyschlong at 1:31 PM on September 22, 2002

donkeyschlong - but that's one reason we have MeTa! Of course, if it gets so that MeFi gets mentioned every other day in a dozen dailies, we might want to tone back.
posted by brownpau at 2:41 PM on September 22, 2002

Jeez. You go and watch a little football, and all hell breaks loose.

Two corrections: It's a ten month-old thread, and MetaFilter has thousands of chatty members and one complete nutcase.
posted by yhbc at 2:59 PM on September 22, 2002

is mattie (I mean mathowie) still unemployed???

Does he live on handouts or short-term assignments? How come 14thousand plus opinionated ones cannot help him find (and hold) a job?
posted by neu at 3:13 PM on September 22, 2002

Can someone please tell me who peed on neu's cornflakes?


posted by konolia at 3:34 PM on September 22, 2002

Now that you bring up Kottke.

What was this about http://www.kottke.org
bringing up a source code for quite some time, instead of a Well Designed Clone of a Web Site?

konolia: must have been the cat. The black one, I think, although he keeps denying it. But I would not know. I don't like cornflakes myself.

posted by neu at 4:26 PM on September 22, 2002

Is neu this scientist?
posted by Pancake at 4:29 PM on September 22, 2002

Please, if you will, gently and slowly fuck the fuck off.

miguel, that is a beautiful thing. In all sincerity, when I grow up I would like to have such a way with words as you do.
posted by ashbury at 4:37 PM on September 22, 2002

No, it's this one
posted by neu at 4:38 PM on September 22, 2002

Here's the much longer and better June 17 Washington Post article in which the reporter stays up for 40 hours. I'll bet this latest round of publicity is the result of a PR blast from the company to combat this: "Grubb's [Pharmacy] is filling only about five prescriptions a month for a drug named modafinil."

Has anyone emailed Carey Goldberg at the Globe ([e-mail]) to ask why she didn't use the names of the MeFi users she quoted? It might be a nice chance to find out why offline "person in the street" quotes usually include names but online ones don't.

It just looks like a late night google search to fill a little space

That might be just a bit unfair. Lots of beat reporters keep a file of good story ideas they haven't gotten to yet, and modafinil is apparently getting a bit of a push now.
posted by mediareport at 4:38 PM on September 22, 2002

mathowie: weird. why didn't they attach names to the quotes like they did for everyone else quoted in the article?

How should these quotes be attributed? By username (I've seen this for chat transcripts) or by verifying the identity of the source? I'm sure there may be bias against the first in print media -- editors may strike a fishfucker said, because in some cases it's just too distracting -- and for the second, some people are just willfully anonymous. Does anybody have examples?
posted by eddydamascene at 4:40 PM on September 22, 2002

Has anyone emailed Carey Goldberg at the Globe ([e-mail]) about the thread at Metatalk.Metafilter.Com bordering on libel?
posted by neu at 4:42 PM on September 22, 2002

miguel, that is a beautiful thing. In all sincerity, when I grow up I would like to have such a way with words as you do.

Unfortunately that will never happen, given the era you froze yourself into.

posted by neu at 4:45 PM on September 22, 2002

on second thought, I guess all of those quoted have full names and contact info listed in their profile. Maybe a better question is, should/would/could the Globe attribute a quote to fishfucker?
posted by eddydamascene at 4:48 PM on September 22, 2002

neu, I mean this in all sincerity. I am not trying to be funny at your expense.

You really need to seek some help. I finally got around to reading the other meta thread as well, and it is sadly obvious you have a problem.

As soon as Matt logs on, you will be gone and not our problem anymore. But you do have the rest of your life, and this type of behavior is not conducive to your own happiness in any portion of it.
posted by konolia at 4:55 PM on September 22, 2002

There's nothing here even close to libel, neu. Neither is a simple directive to keep self-links off the front page while tolerating them in comments a "double standard"--a term that refers to rules applied differently to different people. And I know you don't care as long as we're all looking at you, but dancing around MeFi in your underwear with your tongue hanging out and urine running down your legs isn't exactly doing much to boost confidence in NeuroProsthesis News.
posted by mediareport at 4:59 PM on September 22, 2002

dancing around MeFi in your underwear with your tongue hanging out and urine running down your legs isn't exactly doing much to boost confidence in NeuroProsthesis News.
say, i've heard that blogs theme song: i got my pants on (all by myself). keep up the good work, neu!

posted by quonsar at 5:37 PM on September 22, 2002

I wonder why these witty nuggets didn't make the cut?
"...One of it's adverse effects is insomnia? What the . . . Also, I'm not into even "mild to moderate" infection or nausea." posted by raysmj.
".... I love substituing drugs for health." posted by Down10.
"...It's still not indicated for anyone other than narcoleptics. Stick to crank for now. Or, if you want some real information on it, ask someone who doesn't stand to profit fom it." posted by jessamyn.
"....I'd give both amphetamines and Modafinil a wide berth, if I were you. But, at a pinch, if you're willing to make the sacrifice and pay with your health, amphetamines are more effective, whereas Modafinil is just annoying." posted by MiguelCardoso
"There's a reason you sleep. Your body needs it. You can't convince me that this doesn't have some nasty side-effect that either hasn't been documented yet or is being covered up until someone has already gotten richer from it." posted by scottkramer
"...The standard gimmick will be to take it all during the week, staying up for 96-100 hours straight, and crash-sleeping to make up for it on the weekends. It will shorten people's life spans by 10-20 years, but there are enough super-ambitious folks out there who will consider it worth it." posted by potsy



posted by gametone at 5:53 PM on September 22, 2002

Oh man, yesterday's episode is spilling into today's thread! I love metatalk. It's so suspenseful. We have an international conspiracy of journalists not citing their quotes... and a mad man who can't be stopped. Jimmy Smits as quonsar and Antonio Banderas as MiguelCardoso.
posted by geoff. at 11:01 PM on September 22, 2002

And I know you don't care as long as we're all looking at you, but dancing around MeFi in your underwear with your tongue hanging out and urine running down your legs isn't exactly doing much to boost confidence in NeuroProsthesis News.

Indeed. I've never heard of this little site but will go a long way around the block before checking it out now. Kindergarten was a long time ago.
posted by rushmc at 8:17 AM on September 23, 2002

FWIW, I emailed Carey Goldberg and got a polite, apologetic reply this morning; she confirmed that the reason she didn't name folks at MeFi was just a personal impression that "people posting on a website wouldn't want to be" named. Huh? Where did *that* come from? You're supposed to ask.

I can only hope that eventually journalists will stop thinking of people on the Web as red-headed stepchildren and start using the normal rules of style for quoting them. I figure it'll kick in by 2014 or so.
posted by mediareport at 11:43 AM on September 24, 2002

red-headed stepchildren

Huh?
posted by timeistight at 11:45 AM on September 24, 2002

"We used to be part of Jordan and now they treat
us like the red-headed stepchild,' said one former Palestinian."

"It isn't pretty and it doesn't smell very good...You might call it the red-headed stepchild of the lubrication industry."

Etc.
posted by mediareport at 3:51 PM on September 24, 2002

Sounds like Celt-bashing to me.
posted by timeistight at 4:11 PM on September 24, 2002

Jesus. The next time I see the word "MetaFilter" in print, I'm just going to keep my little mouth shut. Sorry, Matt.
posted by yhbc at 7:59 AM on September 25, 2002

> red-headed stepchildren
>> Huh?

"A stepchild might be singled out for abuse. But a red-headed stepchild (who presumably looks like his or her absent birth-parent) might be abused even more because he or she is so obviously different from the other children"
posted by t r a c y at 12:26 AM on September 26, 2002