Publicizing mefi IRC

May 17, 2004 2:34 PM

I had a crazy idea, just now. How about some sort of tiny advert for #mefi on the metatalk front page some place? I think the channel could (use new blood/be more visible/have rollerskating waitresses).
posted by angry modem to MetaFilter-Related at 2:34 PM (45 comments total)

What's #mefi?

And aren't you going to pony up some cash for the ad?
posted by Kwantsar at 2:35 PM on May 17, 2004

You youngins and your quest for new blood! What is wrong with my old blood?

Anyone needing to find a way to #mefi, click my profile.
posted by riffola at 2:36 PM on May 17, 2004

Yeah, new blood is good, but how many of the new people will survive our hazing rituals?
posted by beth at 2:36 PM on May 17, 2004

#mefi is the metafilter irc channel. if that makes no sense, than don't worry about it. and I've taken a textad out before for it.
posted by angry modem at 2:39 PM on May 17, 2004

then
posted by angry modem at 2:39 PM on May 17, 2004

Better yet go to the MeFi Wiki entry for #mefi
posted by riffola at 2:40 PM on May 17, 2004

The mefi irc page is linked of the /etc page, on the main metafilter nav.

I don't feel right linking it here on MetaTalk directly, since it's an unofficial side channel that I rarely have time to visit. And I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a support channel or not, I got the feeling it was more a shoot-the-shit place, and MetaTalk is kinda here for support issues.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:03 PM on May 17, 2004

I wish someone would tell that to the screaming throngs of people visiting #mefi to ask "Is MetaFilter down?...It is? OK, bye!"

OK, I lied...they don't actually say goodbye
posted by filmgoerjuan at 3:07 PM on May 17, 2004

Hey, at least that's better than all the people we got asking about ripper....
posted by beth at 3:12 PM on May 17, 2004

ooo, ripper! you guys killed him, right? ; >
posted by amberglow at 3:31 PM on May 17, 2004

You were there amberglow. You remember, right? Or are you know denying that you ever knew us?

*sniff*
posted by eyeballkid at 3:37 PM on May 17, 2004

Anyone recommend a good stand alone IRC prog for OS X.3? Or is there such a thing that can work with Safari how wot like Mozilla does?
posted by i_cola at 3:51 PM on May 17, 2004

Ah, #mefi. I remember it fondly.
posted by jonson at 3:53 PM on May 17, 2004

ooo, ripper! you guys killed him, right?

deader than shit.
posted by quonsar at 3:57 PM on May 17, 2004

Then again I should stop being a lazy-arse & read the Wiki...
posted by i_cola at 4:18 PM on May 17, 2004

i_cola, when do you arrive here? sgt. landed today, i think.

(how could i ever forget #mefi, ebk? I love each and every one of you)
posted by amberglow at 4:53 PM on May 17, 2004

hmm, forgot about the etc page. oops.

at least it was another sly way to plug it, heh heh.
posted by angry modem at 5:04 PM on May 17, 2004

Colloquy is a good OS X IRC client. http://colloquy.info/
posted by chunking express at 5:31 PM on May 17, 2004

Is #mefi down?...It isn't? OK, bye!
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 5:33 PM on May 17, 2004

amber: Land from LA on 25th...I'll email you my US cell...been living in the desert for a month so not sure how to cope with people/buildings etc ;-)

chunking: Thanks!
posted by i_cola at 5:54 PM on May 17, 2004

cool, i_cola--have fun on the way. : >
posted by amberglow at 6:39 PM on May 17, 2004

well, as long as all the new people don't take my spot on the couch.

my ass has made the perfect grove.
posted by Stynxno at 9:06 PM on May 17, 2004

Grove? A pleasure orchard at #mefi?
posted by taz at 9:22 PM on May 17, 2004

How about some sort of tiny advert for #mefi on the metatalk front page some place?

Well, as long as the ad notes anything one says there can and will be posted online later by one of the friendly members there. In fact, that is something that should be posted on the #mefi page on the MetaFilter Wiki. Shoot the shit but remember--it might as well be carved in stone.
posted by y2karl at 9:44 PM on May 17, 2004

Linking to it here is even worse, as you well know. What the hell is the matter with you lately, Karl? Your point could just as easily and credibly made with reinvading your fellow members' privacy. How would you like it if #mefi participants reconstructed your own forays?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:58 PM on May 17, 2004

Shoot the shit but remember--it might as well be carved in stone

Unlike what people post in MetaFilter which is instantaneously deleted using techniques that meet or exceed DOD standards.

Or in other words: message board, e-mail, IRC — once it's out there on the world wide Intarweb, it's out there. Why does this come as a big surprise? And really, quoting IRC conversations is the least of anyone's worries. There's no proof that anyone said any of those things in the quote you linked to...and even if anyone said those things, there's no proof of who they were. Comparatively, MeFi posts are a bloody glove whose blood matches that of the body in the trunk of your car.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 10:14 PM on May 17, 2004

Well, as long as the ad notes anything one says there can and will be posted online later by one of the friendly members there. In fact, that is something that should be posted on the #mefi page on the MetaFilter Wiki. Shoot the shit but remember--it might as well be carved in stone.

y2karl, you do realize the majority of online communication is in plaintext and thus readable by anyone along the network line, so to speak? I didn't believe the story, but thought it was hilarious. He said it in an open, non-secret channel. I don't see the problem here.

I just don't see how you can be naive to think there's any such thing as privacy online in the first place. A few irc logs should be the least of your worries.
posted by angry modem at 10:22 PM on May 17, 2004

naive enough
posted by angry modem at 10:25 PM on May 17, 2004

Not to mention that at all times there are at least six people idling, each likely archiving the conversation.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:29 PM on May 17, 2004

What filmgoerjuan said is spot-on. Anything you say on, in or through the Internet is subject to being read by anyone sharing the Internet with you (and that is a whole shitload of people). You should act accordingly, or at least be able to establish an alibi. Either one will work.
posted by dg at 12:07 AM on May 18, 2004

i've still got a copy of that irc log where the jerk o-ds. each time i'm pissed off by some agressive, adolescent youth i re-read it - cheers me up no end.

i don't get why y2k is annoyed by this log, though. is he dios?
posted by andrew cooke at 8:40 AM on May 18, 2004

Was he annoyed by it? I thought he was just citing it as an example of archived chat. (And I assumed the story was an elaborate joke; it certainly was funny as hell.)
posted by languagehat at 8:57 AM on May 18, 2004

filmgoerjuan is just trying to cover his butt. we all know he sends all his irc logs to the FBI.
posted by Stynxno at 9:07 AM on May 18, 2004

#mefi is pretty cliqueish...not sure they really want more Mefites over there.
posted by rushmc at 11:28 AM on May 18, 2004

Actually, we prefer to be called a cabal, rush. Clique really just scratches the surface.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 12:23 PM on May 18, 2004

hmmm
posted by lazy-ville at 1:21 PM on May 18, 2004

We genuinely like newcomers, but you'll find that IRC channels are all the same in that it's sometimes a tight group of people that can't just be hopped into without observation for a time at first.

Like I said before, I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape about irc logging. Maybe it has something to do with the rampant foilhatting and general chickenlittling on this site and the perspectives that go with it.

Either way, it's not for everyone, but it's no sweat off anyone's balls if the channel turns out to not really be their thing.
posted by angry modem at 12:12 PM on May 19, 2004

IRC chat happens in real time or as close to it so that the social activity it most resembles is a conversation--a technologically assisted group conversation. One analogy that comes to mind would be a telephone chat line: there a sentence could read, more or less, I don't know why people get so bent out of shape about their calls being recorded and re-played elsewhere. IRC chat can be spontaneous and candor is encouraged. Yet how many people are sufficiently aware that their repartee can and will be logged and posted elsewhere ? It be may be widely known for many but I was not aware of this time honored custom until stumbling across the example at hand. It certainly has changed my feelings about IRC chat upon learning about it.
posted by y2karl at 1:12 PM on May 19, 2004

<y2karl> I went out my door this AM and found my bike gone.
<y2karl> I never locked it, not for a year--it was an OK bike & $5 at a rummage sale

<y2karl> I saw a bald eagle over my building yesterday--I thought that was a good omen

<y2karl> I still love to swing on swings

Yeah, I can see how you'd want to keep juicy morsels like this out of the public record.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 9:16 AM on May 20, 2004

The motto still should be: Hey, guys, we're taping live at #mefi! You say it and we'll replay it!

Let it be noted no one has bothered to put forth a defense of why recording chat and reprinting it without the permission of those participating is ethically cool.

So, far, it's been like Hey! Everybody does it! Get used to it!

Some defense of the moral equivalent of taping your phone calls for late re-broadcast that is.
posted by y2karl at 10:06 PM on May 22, 2004

Some defense of the moral equivalent of taping your phone calls for late re-broadcast that is.

You still haven't shown how is IRC equivalent to taping someone's phone calls? When was the last time that you had a phone call that involved between 10-30 people, most of whom you didn't know? If you had such a phone call, would you say the same kinds of things as you would if it was one-on-one with someone you knew? Of course not. If you had a phone call between 10-30 strangers, would you have the same expectations of privacy as if it was one-on-one with someone you knew? Of course not. IRCing is not the same thing as (nor equivalent to) a telephone call. Stop comparing apples to oranges.

Yet how many people are sufficiently aware that their repartee can and will be logged and posted elsewhere ? It be may be widely known for many but I was not aware of this time honored custom until stumbling across the example at hand.

Did you also know that someone could cut and paste something you sent them in a private e-mail and put that up on a webpage for all to see? Perhaps you should stop e-mailing as well as IRCing. On the basis of your hyperbolic statements, one would get the impression that there's a constantly updated record of everything you and everybody else says in IRC being posted. It just isn't so.

People *can* do all these things, I've yet to see you provide any evidence that people *are* doing these things on anything like a regular basis and in any way other than to share an amusing snippet of conversation with others.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 1:35 AM on May 25, 2004

y2karl is insane. I don't even know why anyone bothers replying to him. Besides entertainment.
posted by angry modem at 9:54 AM on May 25, 2004

Here is proof that y2karl is right. It truly is tantamount to phonetaps to log irc conversation, and even more unethical when you single out a single person and compile anything said by him or said about him into a single file and post it to metatalk.
posted by lazy-ville at 11:17 AM on May 25, 2004

Lazy, I see that you're prepared to post logs of other people's #mefi conversations, but what *you* have to say on that channel is noticeably absent.

Since turnabout is fair play, I've compiled a log of lazy-ville chat from #mefi.

I hope this serves as a lesson to you that no one is above having all the embarrassing things they say in IRC posted for everyone to see.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 1:53 PM on May 25, 2004

fgj always has something to say to/about me
posted by angry modem at 2:00 PM on May 25, 2004