Did you come for the links or for the discussion?

May 30, 2000 1:02 PM

Ok, this *does* belong in MetaTalk, and I'll bet you no one even notices it here...

Has anyone noticed lately which threads are pulling all the comments? This place seems to be half weblog, and half Slashdot lately, and while we do it much better than they do these days (no one left their sense of humor in their other pants, notably, for the most part, and no one's anonymous -- but that's a topic for a different thread) I just think it's interesting the the actual *links* don't get much comment.

It's more the stuff that's almost 'designed' to engender lots of commentary that seems to be quite successful at it. Maybe that's a tautology, but *I* thought it was interesting.

Of course, maybe it's just me.

So many things are just me.
posted by baylink to MetaFilter-Related at 1:02 PM (4 comments total)

Could this be because so many people are now members and not all of them 'get' what a weblog is.
Give someone a soapbox and they'll use it in my experience, I'm actually surprised that MeFi has stayed as 'blog-like as it has with so many people posting to it.
As for people designing their posts in order to get comments, well that I fear is inevitable and i suspect it has more to do with people's confidence than an intention to change the style of MeFi. If you're a relatively new poster you're going to be worried about being well received and I guess an easy way to gain confidence is by posting something which plenty of people comment on.
BTW shouldn't this be in Metata...oh, it is ;-P
posted by Markb at 7:58 AM on June 1, 2000

You're saying this as if there's a problem with it. Why can't there be room for both? Generally my favorite posts either in here or elsewhere in the Blogging Universe is a post that links to something of interest and then the poster gives their take on it. Where it's more than Check this out cuz it's cool! but more of Well I came across this today and it reminded me of something some friends were talking about last week, or this really ticks me off because my opinion is this way.. or whatever. Where it more than just logging the Web, it's personalizing it. Where each individual is their own filter, and they're sharing not only what they find but what they brought to what they find. I think that's where MetaFilter's possibilities open up the most.

I must say for the record that I tend to comment and lurk in MF more than post, simply because so many are very touchy about what constitutes an acceptable post and what doesn't. And I tire of flamewars.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:10 PM on June 1, 2000

I concur, Zach. And I'll call your attention, recursively, to the lack of reply to this post, even now that Matt's linked it from elsewhere.

Thanks, Matt, BTW: "it made me think" is the reaction at the top of my list of favorites. :-)
posted by baylink at 8:13 AM on June 6, 2000

I think this is just evidence that at least circumstantially indicates when you 'move' topics of this sort to MetaTalk, it effectively kills the subject. Thus the people still rambling about the issue in MetaFilter every chance they get end up winning the argument.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:25 AM on June 19, 2000