Make that list of user blogs into a sideblog

June 21, 2001 4:04 PM

Blog of the Moment? Perhaps you could randomly cycle through the user database and highlight a blog every 10 minutes or so, like at the top of the sideblog. It may be a way to temper the urge to self-link.
posted by owillis to Feature Requests at 4:04 PM (14 comments total)

ah, good idea, and simple to do.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:44 PM on June 21, 2001

You forgot the part where I said the frequency of sites appearing is inversely tied to how low their user number is, starting at 536...

:)
posted by owillis at 5:38 PM on June 21, 2001

Gosh, the possibilities... Maybe blog.metafilter.com could redirect to a random member's weblog on every page load.

Maybe every page view on Metafilter should launch a popup with a member's weblog.

Maybe Matt can set up a script to do the same thing but with nude photos of the A-listers...

Errr, scratch that last idea...
posted by fooljay at 6:34 PM on June 21, 2001

Can we opt out? I don't have a weblog, just a crappy links page that needs updating.
posted by rodii at 9:03 PM on June 21, 2001

Actually an opt in in the user's profile seems like a good idea. Not everyone has a valid, active or up to date site to link to. It may save a lot of broken and garbage links if the users have to actually do something in order to get their site displayed.
posted by lagado at 10:49 PM on June 21, 2001

Maybe Matt can set up a script to do the same thing but with nude photos of the A-listers...

As a community service, I'd like to point out that this feature is already available on my website.
posted by bradlands at 11:36 PM on June 21, 2001

tease
posted by john at 2:41 AM on June 22, 2001

but with nude photos of the A-listers

well, maybe just Meg?

Seriously, folks...

I like the idea in principle, but what's to stop porn merchants from signing up to MeFi just to get the (albeit occasional) free plug?
posted by jpoulos at 8:48 AM on June 22, 2001

jpoulos: perhaps a requirement that someone on the blog list have posted x number of comments? i think the bigger problem for mefi is not the porn merchants that might abuse the service, but rather the people who would sign up just for free traffic to their blogs without really contributing to mefi. not that i am arguing that i contribute much of value to mefi or anything, but you get the drift i suppose.
posted by moz at 10:26 AM on June 22, 2001

I'd leave the "Blog of the Day" business to Blogger, et.al.

Rodii and jpoulos both point out weaknesses in trying to implement this, even with opt-in (or opt-out), and I'll bet there's other gotchas just waiting to surprise you.

I don't notice any big uptick on self-posting except by the occasional clueless git.

I'm happy just to check someone's profile for a link and go visit them that way.
posted by briank at 10:31 AM on June 22, 2001

I like the idea in principle, but what's to stop porn merchants from signing up to MeFi just to get the (albeit occasional) free plug?

This is a feature, not a bug... ;-)

I'd leave the "Blog of the Day" business to Blogger, et.al.

Not everyone uses Blogger. In fact, I'd say that a disproportionate amount of Mefi users fall into that category.
posted by fooljay at 12:36 PM on June 22, 2001

That's not the point, fooljay. It's easy enough to click on someone's profile to get a blog link (if they have one). And even if people don't use Blogger, they certainly can go visit it.
posted by briank at 12:40 PM on June 22, 2001

How many porn operators do you think are really gonna take the time to register just so a handful of folks from Mefi will visit?

If it's an opt-in function, I can't see too much of a downside.
posted by owillis at 5:22 PM on June 22, 2001

I don't want to seem like I'm seriously opposed to the idea, I just wouldn't care that much about it, that's all.
posted by briank at 11:38 AM on June 23, 2001