Is MetaFilter starting down that slippery slope toward Theme Days

October 16, 2003 4:05 AM

Is MetaFilter starting down that slippery slope toward Theme Days (like on The Mickey Mouse Club)?
October 15th examples: We started the day with regrets and apologies, got playful with Hello Kitty, Fisher-Price and double Legos, and then it got ugly: bad wedding dresses, worse plastic surgery, nazi architecture, a nazi dog, a dinosaur frog, finishing up with maggots. Am I the only one seeing a pattern here?
And does this mean today will be Fun With Music Day? (Miguel, you jumped the gun)
posted by wendell to Etiquette/Policy at 4:05 AM (37 comments total)

No.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:15 AM on October 16, 2003

The dinosaur frog is not ugly. It's a cute froggy. And it has Cleopatra's nose.
posted by ginz at 4:17 AM on October 16, 2003

All right... so apologies, then playful, then ugly. What's the supposed theme?
posted by crunchland at 4:45 AM on October 16, 2003

Yes
posted by backOfYourMind at 5:09 AM on October 16, 2003

What Stav said.
posted by i_cola at 5:10 AM on October 16, 2003

As long as the theme isn't 'Iraq', 'Religion Is Bad', or 'Bush Is Evul', I'm all for it.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:29 AM on October 16, 2003

A theme is bad if it takes away from other posts, like if you had a 'post-modern art museums only day'. Having two tangentially related posts is not taking away from the other hopefully good posts of the day.

Though I would like to see people just add their related posts as a comment if they could, just to remove the clutter a little.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:39 AM on October 16, 2003

What i_cola said.
posted by anathema at 6:23 AM on October 16, 2003

My Oct. 15 doesn't show the same list, since I'm in a different time zone... I won't go through the 23 posts that show on my Oct. 15, but it's a pretty mixed bunch, with the only evolving theme showing up in three posts: Lego / Lego-Escher / Fisher-Price. Personally, I really like seeing nice posts that can be tracked back to earlier posts, until, as in Space Coyote's example, it becomes something like 'post-modern art museums only day', which I really, really (really!) don't think is going to happen.
posted by taz at 6:28 AM on October 16, 2003

I propose a "no news" theme day. Or...... maybe a month. Can we please have a "no news" theme month?
posted by y6y6y6 at 6:30 AM on October 16, 2003

How about a lifetime?
posted by walrus at 7:05 AM on October 16, 2003

The pattern is there, folks! You just have to look BEYOND THE POSTS to find the hidden MEANINGS! Your STUPID TALKING DOG TEACHERS have made you BLIND to the TRUTH!
posted by UKnowForKids at 7:10 AM on October 16, 2003

Fun With Music Day? (Miguel, you jumped the gun)

Miguel Cardoso jumped the gun!
Miguel Cardoso jumped the gun!
posted by mcsweetie at 7:12 AM on October 16, 2003

What anathema said. (Unless stav was answering the last question rather than the first, in which case: What backOfYourMind said.)
posted by languagehat at 7:53 AM on October 16, 2003

It's natural I think, for one person's post to remind another about a neat site they saw recently. I like seeing that sort of thing on the front page.
posted by amberglow at 8:27 AM on October 16, 2003

On preview, what languagehat said.
posted by anathema at 8:29 AM on October 16, 2003

bad wedding dresses, worse plastic surgery, nazi architecture, a nazi dog, a dinosaur frog, finishing up with maggots

I don't see any kind of pattern here.

Is this one of those 'see the teapot' visual thingies? ;-P
posted by mischief at 8:40 AM on October 16, 2003

No pattern that I see.

Hey, let's have a patterns day!
posted by me3dia at 9:31 AM on October 16, 2003

Wendell linked the maggots post for Fun With Music Day--intentional or terminal doofidity? Doofinquity? Doofustiness? Doofurreality?

Am I the only one seeing a pattern here?
posted by y2karl at 9:35 AM on October 16, 2003

What anathema said. Again.
posted by rhapsodie at 9:37 AM on October 16, 2003

Heh, I thought that sounded familiar:

Backmasking? Backlinking? Backsliding? Backstabbing? Back massage?
posted by NortonDC at 9:38 AM on October 16, 2003

Not to mention RabbitFilter.
posted by me3dia at 9:42 AM on October 16, 2003

I've thought the theme for the past 2 days was imitating NPR. The ancient frog, marriage demographics, Walmart's size, the LA strikes, & China's space launch were all surfaced and well-covered by various NPR programs. MeFi FPP's have appeared on these stories practically in lock-step. Now, naturally, some of these big news stories are going to get around. But I've been saddened by the amount of overlap this week. And that's not even considering the general anti-newsfilter sentiment that abounds here. NPR is a pretty middle-of-the-road source, and I hope MeFi doesn't wind up resembling it too much.
posted by scarabic at 9:53 AM on October 16, 2003

I hope MeFi doesn't wind up resembling it too much.

Too late.
posted by mischief at 10:21 AM on October 16, 2003

For the record, the "Fun With Music" link was supposed to go to the Chic thread, and, yes, I am a doofus.
posted by wendell at 10:21 AM on October 16, 2003

Well, for what it's worth, Mefi beat NPR on the $87 billion meme by a couple of days at least. The page got a mention on WAIT, WAIT! DON'T TELL ME! during the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round. (Last link on the bottom of the page.)
posted by crunchland at 10:57 AM on October 16, 2003

What UKnowForKids said. You are all educated stupid.
posted by eddydamascene at 11:03 AM on October 16, 2003

MetaTalk, lovable scamp that it is, just ate my response, so here's the I'm-already-late-and-haven't-left-my-house version: What does my frog post have to do with a Nazi dog (or a cat), other than the fact that they're both related through their connection to living organisms that aren't people? I thought it was a pretty cool discovery (that had an interesting picture with it, to boot) that happened just very recently--I don't see the point of holding off on the thread until a day with no animal stories on the front page (mine's not even a mammal!). As for NPR, I've never listened to it in my life (it's uniquely American, no?), and I don't think we're so damned cool that we have to be the first to discover something (if that was the case we'd have to be writing the articles).

I know mine was a dreaded "news" story, but I thought it was different enough that it warranted posting.
posted by The God Complex at 11:33 AM on October 16, 2003

Yeah, cool frogger. Try knitting that pattern Wendell.

I croak because I love.
posted by ginz at 11:56 AM on October 16, 2003

"and then it got ugly: bad wedding dresses, worse plastic surgery, nazi architecture, a nazi dog, a dinosaur frog, finishing up with maggots. Am I the only one seeing a pattern here?"

The handlers of the dinosaur frogs - which prefer to be described as "purple donut shaped frogs" - have indicated that they are extremely upset that said frogs were categorized as "ugly." The frogs weren't happy about it either and currently in therapy to help raise their wounded self esteem.
Be kind to our little purple friends. It's not easy being a sudden media star.


Oh wait, you're being deep aren't you? We all end up at the Big Finish with the maggots! Toys indicating childhood, the rest I'm not sure of, then ending in death - there's the theme, the ages of man! Remember thou art mortal...
Or is that not what's going on?
*confused*
posted by batgrlHG at 12:17 PM on October 16, 2003

As for NPR, I've never listened to it in my life (it's uniquely American, no?), and I don't think we're so damned cool that we have to be the first to discover something (if that was the case we'd have to be writing the articles).

Not to be a big fat American snob, but I don't think being American-only makes something *not* a mass media outlet.

The guideline says: "most people haven't seen it before"

It doesn't say you have to be the first to discover, but it does imply you really oughta be ahead of the mass media. This stands to reason. If we just echo them, we have no reason for being.

NPR is a mass media outlet. I don't know whether any British broadcasters carry it, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's practically in the same league as Reuters or the AP for syndication. Their content should certainly be subject to the same rules as CNN's, which is widely frowned upon as FPP material. I think the BBC front page counts as well, even though I'm not in Britain.

However, radio stories do present a unique challenge, in that they're not always fully searchable online. I'm more forgiving in this case.

I'm not a big newsfilter cop in general. It's hard to argue that the Chinese launch shouldn't be here. I just got sick of seeing the NPR news reproduced on MeFi all week, without supplement or embellishment, or, frankly, much discussion potential.

I would characterize the frog thread as "giggling and farting" not "discussion."
posted by scarabic at 12:52 PM on October 16, 2003

What rhapsodie said, provided it's not taken out of context.
posted by ed at 12:55 PM on October 16, 2003

MeFi is my 'mass media outlet' of choice. ;-P
posted by mischief at 1:20 PM on October 16, 2003

What the other person who said what some other person said said, unless somebody who had previously been referred as somebody to who said something takes offense, in which case I wholeheartedly offer my sincerest apologies.
posted by signal at 2:01 PM on October 16, 2003

What signal said.
posted by dg at 3:08 PM on October 16, 2003

I would characterize the frog thread as "giggling and farting" not "discussion."


Sorry, I forgot we're a discussion board.
posted by The God Complex at 5:18 PM on October 16, 2003

It is one of the 3 criteria... Just sayin'.
posted by scarabic at 5:30 PM on October 16, 2003