Post quality improving.

August 31, 2001 6:11 PM

Am I the only one (and I am a longtime reader, albeit not poster - almost 2 years) who thinks the quality here has gotten BETTER? I've gotten so used to the complaints in MetaTalk about posting that recent content (with some exceptions) has been a nice surprise.
posted by bwanabetty to MetaFilter-Related at 6:11 PM (8 comments total)

The quality of the good posts has gone up, however they seem to fewer than they were only six months ago. It seems that most posters are trying to be more selective with their posts and I really enjoy reading most of them.
posted by bjgeiger at 7:27 PM on August 31, 2001

I'm new as a member of MeFi, but I've been reading it for months. I think there have only been a few stinkers of late, and generally I don't have to check the link or comments to =see= that it's a stinker.

For all the complaints about vitriolic threads, it's nowhere near the nasty levels that drove me out of USENET so many years ago. And sheer stupidity -- I still shudder over the sci.math threads over "Divide by zero" and ".999999.... = 1?" that broke out once AOLiots found it.

My two posts so far haven't received many comments, but they really weren't meant to -- I just found them odd news stories, which are wont to crop up during August. Perhaps I would've gotten more bites had I ended them with leading questions like "what else should NASA do to raise money?" and "what's the most creative way you've ever gotten rid of trash?"

that definitely seems the modus operandi for procuring comments, and will probably try it out on future posts.
posted by meep at 4:05 AM on September 1, 2001

To make the long story short, yes bwanabetty, you are the only one, or one of the few.
posted by kchristidis at 4:22 AM on September 1, 2001

It's nice to hear a diversity of opinions on this matter, so thanks bwanabetty for posting this. All I've until now is the opposite viewpoint, so it's nice to hear there are a few people that think it's getting better.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:32 PM on September 1, 2001

I'd like to chime in an say, Matt, your presence on the front page has been more frequent, and I think it helps. You've been posting more the last few days, and pretty well-crafted ones, at that. A good role model.

But I also believe that the Internet itself gets better at the end of August/the beginning of September. At least content-wise. The journalists and editors for all the pubs come back from vacation, the evergreen space-filling stories are all used up, the temps go temp somewhere else, the site-enriching fall advertising campaigns begin, the politicans return from their vacations, the campaigns for the primaries and the November elections heat up, the last-minute rush is being put into corporate public image in order to prepare for the third quarter earnings reports, the interns are no longer running things or screwing things up, the college students and their fat pipes and copious free time (and ambition and endless clever ideas and projects) are back at university, etc., and the grade schoolers are no longer stuck in the house with nothing other to do than to troll.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:27 PM on September 1, 2001

I think the quality is about the same. You will get some bumps when their is a flux of new folks. I am looking at four great posts on the front page posted between 11am and 2:19 pm on September 1 that are great. The threads in them have good discussions that open my eyes to new things that are on the web or in the world around me. This is what I love about MeFi. In the little over a year I have been reading MeFi (I did not sign up to post until February) the items that are of interest to me personally go in waves. There will be a flood of things that I am amazed with others I really enjoy, which may ebb with a week or so of nothing that really interests me. The continual new blood helps. The caustic tone, by a rare few, is about the only thing that bugs me about MeFi of late. It is wonderful to go to a conference or meeting where there are other MeFi folks and watch the eyes light up when people recognize each other from MeFi. There is usually an instant wonderful bond. This has been similar to the many other online communities (including usenet and listserves) I have had a part in since 1992.
posted by vanderwal at 2:35 PM on September 1, 2001

Add my name to the list of those who don't think MetaFilter has taken a sudden turn for the worse, despite all the handwringing on the matter. Pre-vacation, post-vacation, high user number, low user number-- it's all good to me.
posted by jess at 6:17 PM on September 2, 2001

Agreed. But unfortunately I was too concerned with being clever-clever to make the point as well.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:14 AM on September 3, 2001