Fighting off a viral infection

May 23, 2005 12:43 PM

Could we perhaps have a voluntary moratorium on viral contest entries from Contagious Media?
posted by dejah420 to MetaFilter-Related at 12:43 PM (12 comments total)

Why? Each one as a standalone site is a pretty cool project worthy of mention here. It's MetaFilter's bread and butter to link to this kind of material.

I know there's some sort of boost they get in the contest the more people link to them, but I don't think any fix is in -- I think people are finding interesting wacky sites and posting them here.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:48 PM on May 23, 2005

*crickets*
posted by quonsar at 1:53 PM on May 23, 2005

Sweet. I have my next 26 FPPs lined up.

I got dibs on all of them!
posted by dios at 1:59 PM on May 23, 2005

Meh.
posted by Specklet at 2:12 PM on May 23, 2005

If I had the time, I would make a massive FPP that contained the top n sites on their leaderboard. Then any other mentions of them would be a double post.
posted by grouse at 2:12 PM on May 23, 2005

Matt, I'd agree, if I weren't seeing them also blasted across every other blogosphere site, and if most of them weren't created by ad agencies to show proof of concept for viral spread. (Which, according to the rules of the contest is acceptable, as long as no specific client is mentioned.)

I'm not suggesting that MeFi users have anything to gain by posting them here...I guess I just thought the blue was supposed to be a viral free zone considering how hard people jumped on the various pepsi-blue type fpps - even the ones that weren't product specific. I mean, getting anything posted here is a huge gain in viral spread, even if it has been on the other dropsites first. Heck, eyeballs to click ratio is huge here, even for ads, compared to most sites, as everyone who has ever advertised here can testify.

But, if it's ok with you, then far be it from me to complain. :) Feel free to kill this post. Groove on, you crazy viral marketing agencies.
posted by dejah420 at 2:14 PM on May 23, 2005

I didn't know lameass ad companies got into it, I thought it was all just independent bloggers with ideas (like the Site That Shall Not Be Named Due To The First Rule's contest last year). That does color my opinion slightly into the negative, but I figure the good ones have all been mentioned so we're probably done pointing at them by now.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:45 PM on May 23, 2005

Didn't we also have a moratorium on links to engrish.com?

If not, I know a site with some amusing cartoons that's probably due for a link by now as well.
posted by yhbc at 3:52 PM on May 23, 2005

dejah, it's mr. spirit foam you're talking to, after all. ; >
posted by amberglow at 4:11 PM on May 23, 2005

Grouse, that would be fair. Just get it over with.

But it still won't address the problem of "that's so weird -- is it a spoof?" The internets are a very strange place.
posted by warbaby at 6:16 PM on May 23, 2005

dejah420:
I totally agree with wanting to keep the horrible ego-stroking version of meta-Pepsi Blue away from MeFi, but the fact is that this place is so thickly infested with the bloggerly-self-obsessed that you'd have to do some serious butt knifing to prevent it.
posted by Ryvar at 8:04 PM on May 23, 2005

Butt knifing? Owie! And not the math kind, either.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:24 AM on May 24, 2005