Have we given up? September 16, 2004 10:02 AM   Subscribe

How is one link to MSNBC and solicitation of opinions "The Best Of The Web?" Or have we given up on that and just become a political site?
posted by keswick to Etiquette/Policy at 10:02 AM (33 comments total)

Cue: "Best of the web" is so passe.
Cue: Didn't we just have this conversation?
Cue: God, you guys do a lot of bitching.
Cue: If you don't like it, scroll past it.
Cue: This site has always been about discussion.
Cue: Shut up shut up shut up.
Cue: We're always been about politics.
Cue: If you don't like it, leave.
Cue: If you don't like it, post something better.
Cue: If Matt doesn't delete it, it's obviously good.
Cue: If you don't like it, the terrorists have already won.
Cue: At least it wasn't about Bush.
Cue: Choo choo!

Did I miss any of the more obvious responses to this post?
posted by BlueTrain at 10:09 AM on September 16, 2004


Not following the link and only going by what the post says, I don't see how this is a political post. It is, however, a DiscussionFilter post. There's probably twenty things a day that I'd like to post a "Hey, isn't it interesting that X? What do you guys think?", but don't, because I realize that I'm not supposed to post that kind of stuff.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:14 AM on September 16, 2004


EB, you're right. It's too early for me to be posting MetaTalk posts. Political is not the word I intended to use.
posted by keswick at 10:18 AM on September 16, 2004


Choo choo!
posted by Krrrlson at 10:45 AM on September 16, 2004


Did I miss any of the more obvious responses to this post?


Cue: Implicit in this querelous query, this clearly rhetorical exercise where the very asking makes plain the plaintive intent, is the assumption not only that there is a "Best", but that there is a "Web". The former has, I think, been sufficiently dismissed in my previous missives, so let us focus here on the latter.

To give a name to a thing lends it a cognitive substantiality not easily dismissed. But is that valid in this case? Does such a thing as a "Web" really exist in a meaningful sense? Surely, few would argue that there is such a thing as the "internet" - though I might insist that there in fact is only a protocol, and a fractally unmeasurable set of agents using said protocol, so that in fact there is really no "thing" in the usual sense such as the internet, but I will leave that alone for now. But the "Web"? Cleary, what is referred to is a social and cognitive construct of those narratives and information sources carried on the aforementioned and here-unquestioned "internet", not the physical and technological underpinnings thereof. And in this context, we mean even more specifically a set across which to lay our tired, atrophied notion of what's "Best". But once we are in the social and narrative sphere, surely we must include those aspects of the "real world" (I know, I know) which color our color our interpretations of this "web"? And if this is the case, surely the "Web" as experienced in say Bagalore is not the same web experienced in say San Francisco? Clearly not.

So - while we have long known there is no real "Best" we now also see that there is no "Web". So surely this thread is but navel-gazing theough smoke and mirrors, when there is no navel nor even stomach or body. Only an eye with which to do the not-perceiving.
posted by freebird at 10:45 AM on September 16, 2004


Cue: One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small.
posted by chicobangs at 10:54 AM on September 16, 2004


This has to be Dubya's fault.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:07 AM on September 16, 2004


Cue: pic from quonsar
posted by Vidiot at 11:09 AM on September 16, 2004


Cue: pic from wendell
Cue: "Sportsfilter!"
Cue: "Why must you impose your personal taste on others?"
Cue: appearance by Seth around comment #30

pretty good list, though, BlueTrain
posted by scarabic at 11:57 AM on September 16, 2004


cue: ball
posted by jonmc at 12:08 PM on September 16, 2004


How did Seth hijack keswick's account?!
posted by terrapin at 12:08 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: Choo choo!

Gesundheit!
posted by kirkaracha at 12:23 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: general agreement from all and a unanimous pledge to never post a similar thing again. Hugs all round.

/alternate universe
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:31 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: Jrun error.
posted by Krrrlson at 12:40 PM on September 16, 2004


"Or have we given up on that..."

Years ago.
posted by mischief at 12:41 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue : Cat.
posted by soyjoy at 1:06 PM on September 16, 2004


...and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.
posted by mcsweetie at 2:16 PM on September 16, 2004


MetaFilter: We've Given Up on That and Just Become a Political Site
posted by JollyWanker at 2:16 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: Choo choo!


You seem to miss the point, BlueTrain, that's actually only meant as a thorn in *your* side.

Cue: quonsar feeling pretty in his gondola smock.
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:23 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: Cue: Ka-choo.
posted by i_cola at 2:27 PM on September 16, 2004


Keswick, this thread answers your question. No, the post in question is not the best of the web, and yes, the community has given up trying to police itself. In fact, it is unpopular to be seen as appealing to the concept of self-policing. You have in fact just made a faux pas. You dick.
posted by Hildago at 2:33 PM on September 16, 2004


jonmc - OK *dims the lights, turns on Barry White*
posted by troutfishing at 2:57 PM on September 16, 2004


In fact, it is unpopular to be seen as appealing to the concept of self-policing.

As it is in a declining society, so it is in a small September community. Tune in next time, as the cookie crumbles, bastards.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:55 PM on September 16, 2004


trout, is that stetson your wearing?
posted by jonmc at 4:09 PM on September 16, 2004


I always thought troutfishing was more of a Hummer fragrance kinda guy than stetson, but I guess you never know do you.
posted by freebird at 4:30 PM on September 16, 2004


I blame Dick Cheney.
posted by Kwantsar at 5:50 PM on September 16, 2004


cue: The 'self' in self-policing does not refer to the 'community' but to the individual. ;-P
posted by mischief at 6:33 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: brick
posted by ook at 8:49 PM on September 16, 2004


keswick, I'm honored that you took my post into MetaTalk but you know what? I did want to solicit some opinions, I wanted to see what the community thought of it.

Do I need to post a half dozen links to make it a worthy post?

Some of the discussions that have followed from posts have been the Best of the Web. I appreciate the interaction as much as the random cool post that truly is the Best of the Web. If Matt told me to quit it, I'd quit it.

Otherwise, sit back, relax and it'll all be over soon.

Cue: Muzak and the nurse in white with a big syringe.
posted by fenriq at 9:14 PM on September 16, 2004


yes, the community has given up trying to police itself

Not quite; I'm still on you bastards.
posted by scarabic at 9:15 PM on September 16, 2004


Cue: Zippity BOP!

(Sorry, but this thread was funny and friendly and brought back old memories, for some reason).
posted by gd779 at 11:38 PM on September 16, 2004


Otherwise, sit back, relax and it'll all be over soon.

I've heard that it helps to think of England.
posted by soyjoy at 8:36 AM on September 17, 2004


soyjoy, England in the springtime when the trees are in bloom and there's a crisp bite to the air, that England?

Ahhh............
posted by fenriq at 3:18 PM on September 17, 2004


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