So what did you think of the moratorium idea?

February 3, 2001 7:32 PM

And so it has been a week since the suggestion of a voluntary moratorium was proposed and discussed in this thread. Any thoughts about whether a discussion of MeFi protocol should be presented on the home page, or is everything fine and dandy?
posted by Avogadro to MetaFilter-Related at 7:32 PM (10 comments total)

I'm happy with how the new features have seemed to cut down on the noise. I'm working on the "this URL has been posted before" scripts, to cut down on double posts, so gimmie another day to finish that.

Haven't things gotten better in the past week?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:59 PM on February 3, 2001

Oh, I think so; though perhaps others think otherwise.
posted by Avogadro at 4:00 AM on February 4, 2001

Oh, and yes, I think that the new features are helping. I have noticed fewer new posts that draw directly from existing posts since the "recent comments" feature premeired.
posted by Avogadro at 4:03 AM on February 4, 2001

After a week away, I was greeted with around 150 new links and over 200 comments. Yikes!

Thing is, they were mostly interesting. I did a whole lot of glazing over, just to catch up, but I don't recall seeing a single duplicate in the past week, and although there are a couple of threads dealing with "old" issue (Dubya silliness, for instance) they're definitely new takes on 'em.

While it includes any editing and culling Matt's been doing over the past week, the overall effect seems that I've missed what's probably been the cleanest week of MeFi activity since the election posts started really gearing up in late September.

I'd say the changes are quite effective.
posted by cCranium at 7:44 AM on February 4, 2001

I, too, have been away for most of the past week, and had much the same experience as cC. I think the new features have helped a great deal, and we should keep the moratorium idea on ice until whatever new threshold of membership causes the next wave of distress over signal-to-noise issues. I still think it would be a very good approach in a situation where technical solutions weren't available.
posted by redfoxtail at 11:27 AM on February 4, 2001

Ha, cCranium, I was thinking about you. What a time to go on vacation!

I also think the sidebar is making people aware of general MFand MetaTalk issues, and that's helping.
posted by rodii at 3:09 PM on February 4, 2001

IMO, things are better. And the new features rock.
posted by ericost at 8:46 AM on February 5, 2001

I think that people are also acting a little more civil for whatever reason. I checked whether last week was a full moon, but that's not it. I guess without the double posts etc., people don't have much to fight about.
posted by iceberg273 at 10:25 AM on February 5, 2001

every time MeFi has fallen down, it's gotten up with aplomb. Kudos to mathowie for creating running such a clean, self-policing site. It goes to show that with genuine interest and talent, a webmaster can create a user-centered site that doesn't devolve into pointless flames, etc.
posted by chaz at 10:29 PM on February 5, 2001

I agree with Rodii that the sidebar is very helpful. It certainly has gotten me to read more MetaTalk posts than I'd ever read before.
posted by thc at 4:16 PM on February 6, 2001