Threads I wish weren't closed

May 24, 2004 7:17 PM

There's some threads on AxeMe that I find myself wishing weren't closed. I know you've been busy and haven't had much time or possibly inclination to work on AxeMe, Matt, and I think/hope that maybe these threads will return via a sidebar or such...

But in the meantime, I was wondering what #1 and the gang's opinion would be on occasionally reposting questions that might benefit from the occasional update. I'm thinking of the fave reads, fave listens, and desktop threads in particular.
posted by keswick to etiquette/policy at 7:17 PM (12 comments total)

I think it's a bad idea. There are plenty of other websites out there that cater to things like that.
posted by riffola at 7:23 PM on May 24, 2004

[derail]I thought we'd agreed not to call AskMe by that bastardization AxeMe? [/derail]
posted by birdherder at 7:24 PM on May 24, 2004

riffola: Like what? I'm not being bratty, I'm genuinely curious. Besides, I think the appeal of AxeMe (to me, anyway) is that we are soliciting fellow MeFites' opinions, rather than members of website X's opinions.

birdherder: You may have agreed, but I certainly did no such thing.
posted by keswick at 7:31 PM on May 24, 2004

Cutomize.org, Deskmod.com, etc are places where people upload their desktops. Heck even the mighty K10K has a desktop screenshot section. If geek desktops are what you are looking for, no better place than K10K.

As for music, there's a whole bunch of music sites out there heck there was/is even a MusicFilter.

As for fave blogs, most people with sites will list their favourites some place, just follow the profile of someone you like and check out their site, you might also find who else they like.
posted by riffola at 7:34 PM on May 24, 2004

Flickr

I thought we'd agreed not to call AskMe by that bastardization AxeMe?
Not everyone agreed, only those with good sense.
posted by dg at 7:35 PM on May 24, 2004

I'd like to add to threads I've started as I've got good info now I've actually carried out the tasks I was asking about.

IIRC Matt is planning to add this feature when he gets round to the next build of AskMe.
posted by i_cola at 7:45 PM on May 24, 2004

I thought we'd agreed not to call AskMe by that bastardization AxeMe?

Yeah, totally. It's "AxMe" already.

On the subject of FaveLists, etc... I hear ya, keswick. It's true that there are other sites out there that are more specifically catered to sharing musical recommendations, but to any of us who've invested time getting to know the MeFi crowd a little bit, it doesn't matter. I don't want to know what Amazon shoppers like. I want to know what MeFi users like.

The only question is whether AskMe is the correct solution to this problem, or if MeFi at long last needs to find a way to supplement #mefi with a straight-up message board for random bullshit run-of-the-mill archived, searchable discussion. Clearly, Matt has no interest in supporting a mere message board, but others here would seem to have the hot air to spare on one.

There's the Orkut group. There's the Wiki. I dunno if these have the power to suit the need. If Epinions had "groups" we could do something book/music/movie-related there. I don't know what the answer is. But AskMe is perhaps not the best receptacle for the "I want to know what y'all are listening to" queries. Appropriateness aside, it doesn't offer great features for such an endeavor anyway.
posted by scarabic at 8:01 PM on May 24, 2004

I think one short-term fix could be to let AskMe questions stay on the front page of the green for a longer time, before they become "archived." Or maybe we could develop a convention in which AskMe FPPs are limited to one or two lines, to reduce the quick scroll.
posted by bingo at 10:52 AM on May 25, 2004

For example, people are still posting to the engagement ring thread, and the organization of AskMe would suggest that that thread is long gone.
posted by bingo at 5:41 PM on May 25, 2004

Why not simply leave a thread open until no one has commented on it in the last, say, two weeks?

The vast majority will still close as normal, and the ones that don't probably shouldn't
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 8:20 PM on May 25, 2004

The vast majority will still close as normal, and the ones that don't probably shouldn't

Matt established the automatic thread-closing to combat cult threads like 9622 . Mitigating the server load generated by hundreds or thousands of people pulling down a 1MB+ page on a daily basis far outweighs the necessity for communal noisemaking that arises from threads that remain open indefinitely.
posted by Danelope at 12:31 AM on May 26, 2004

Password change please
posted by CrazyJub at 5:35 AM on May 28, 2004