The early days of MeFi

May 2, 2005 10:27 AM

Looking back in the archives, almost every post (except for 4) in August of '99 was submitted by #1. I wonder if those first few months of MeFi's life was frustrating.
posted by C17H19NO3 to MetaFilter-Related at 10:27 AM (24 comments total)

I wonder if those first few months of MeFi's life was frustrating.

Er. Were frustrating.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:29 AM on May 2, 2005

(Is this some sort of allegory?)
posted by nobody at 10:30 AM on May 2, 2005

That's the golden age that everybody's always yammering about.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:33 AM on May 2, 2005

This place probably started out like eveyone else's blog. Somehow, we all got pulled in. What a bunch of suckers we are.
posted by Doohickie at 11:10 AM on May 2, 2005

This post is so cute now.
posted by smackfu at 11:30 AM on May 2, 2005

Can you say 'magnetic personality'?
posted by mischief at 2:49 PM on May 2, 2005

That is cute smackfu. Interesting thing is my CD changer handles MP3s. I can listen to the contents of my changer during a two week driving vacation and never hear the same song twice.
posted by Mitheral at 2:52 PM on May 2, 2005

Well, it was just Matt and his friends back then (y2k stuff--it seems like a hundred years ago)...was the first big influx 9/11?
posted by amberglow at 2:54 PM on May 2, 2005

It always seemed like everyone was too intimidated to post in those days. We just watched as Matt auto-conversed. Now everyone's fearless, and loud, and threatening corpse-rape and such.
posted by dhoyt at 3:00 PM on May 2, 2005

almost every post (except for 4) in August of '99 was submitted by #1. . . We just watched as Matt auto-conversed.

How did he ever find the time to have a baby?
posted by LeLiLo at 4:34 PM on May 2, 2005

And to think the only Mefi user to carry on a completely solo conversation since then (at least here, heh) has been Jim Jones, who appears to be currently carrying a grudge against #1 for some conspiracy or other.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 4:48 PM on May 2, 2005

[Insert joke about fearless leaders' sexual prowess here.]
posted by shmegegge at 5:16 PM on May 2, 2005

I think the problem was that everybody who knew about the site in 1999 already had a blog, so the incentive to come here to post something that would only be read by the exact same people who would read it on your own site was, well, pretty small. Also, the whole "blog-with-comments" idea was pretty new and took some adjustment.

was the first big influx 9/11?

My recollection is that people other than Matt's friends started finding the site in early 2000, and then there was a big bang in the election season later that year. ("Nader Nader Nader!")
posted by jjg at 6:30 PM on May 2, 2005

User numbers were already up over 11000 by early September of 2001.
posted by anapestic at 10:36 AM on May 3, 2005

By contrast, user numbers were around 2100 at the time of the 2000 election, so the big spurt was mostly early in 2001, though of course the 2000 election season went on longer than most.

And, of course, on a percentage basis, the growth in the last couple of months of 2000 was quite large.
posted by anapestic at 10:43 AM on May 3, 2005

ahh..of course, the real fun didn't start until us 14kers got in, right? ; >
posted by amberglow at 11:04 AM on May 3, 2005

did someone just say 'big spurt'?
posted by quonsar at 11:34 AM on May 3, 2005

We're we already into lottery mode in 2001. I remember it taking me _months_ to get an account and I joined in September 2002.
posted by Mitheral at 11:58 AM on May 3, 2005

Thats: Were we already into lottery mode in 2001?
posted by Mitheral at 11:59 AM on May 3, 2005

i don't think so...i was lurking since 9/11 and couldn't get in til July 02 in the 20 a day at 3pm lottery. People snuck in tho.
posted by amberglow at 12:11 PM on May 3, 2005

There was the 5k backdoor way in for a while too, so that those who knew the sekrit could get an account even when signups were technically closed. But that's neither here nor there.
posted by norm at 12:38 PM on May 3, 2005

those who knew the sekrit could get an account even when signups were technically closed
Which is how most of the 14k brigade got in, I think. Which just proves how much smarter than everyone else they are.
posted by dg at 3:08 PM on May 3, 2005

i don't think so...i was lurking since 9/11 and couldn't get in til July 02 in the 20 a day at 3pm lottery. People snuck in tho.

Me as well, and I just stopped trying until I read about the $5 deal this fall. That's a lot of lurking, now that i think about it.
posted by Miko at 8:08 PM on May 4, 2005

longtime lurker here too , though not sure I've really done much more since I squeezed in
posted by doogyrev at 12:23 AM on May 20, 2005