Comments on 7946 | MetaTalk

Thanks to the hard work of timeistight, we've now got some XFN features in place to do some of that social networking you've read so much about. As of right now, you can add folks as contacts, and describe the relationship optionally. Soon I'll have a page showing contributions to the site from your contacts, so if you have a favorite writer here, add them as a contact and hit that special page later when it's online. Imagine, ssoon you'll be able to say "show me all the questions asked by my friends to Ask MetaFilter" and get a page back showing just that, among other things.

I will definitely be working on the display of this info on user pages, as it currently looks like ass. Sky's the limit once we have this in place with some data. Oh, and I have no idea what a muse is either, anyone know?
posted by mathowie to feature requests at 12:13 AM (120 comments total)

Ponies, ponies, everywhere!

What did I just step in?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:17 AM on June 15, 2004

Neat, but may I suggest an option for private & public listing?
posted by riffola at 12:17 AM on June 15, 2004

well, since timeistight wanted to do it for the sake of xfn, it has to be public so that I guess bots can scrape the info and do stuff with the data. I have been meaning to add features like this for some time, but only so people can track their friends, which I don't mind keeping private.

Everything's totally public for now and if necessary, I'll add a public/private flag later.
posted by mathowie at 12:22 AM on June 15, 2004

I would very much appreciate a private option.
posted by NortonDC at 12:24 AM on June 15, 2004

And a removal option, since I'm now my very own friend.
posted by NortonDC at 12:30 AM on June 15, 2004

The ponies are great, thanks matt. I suggest to adjust the relationship attributes, they are a bit boring. Oh, and it would be nice if there was the possibility to delete contacts - I added Miguel and now I can't get him out!

no offence, migs ;)
posted by tcp at 12:30 AM on June 15, 2004

Is there a "nemesis/enemy" flag we can apply, too? ;)

Just kidding. I'm the only one I have.
posted by scarabic at 12:31 AM on June 15, 2004

yeah, removing folks will probably be done tomorrow.
posted by mathowie at 12:33 AM on June 15, 2004

I suggest to adjust the relationship attributes, they are a bit boring.

Specifically, there doesn't seem to be a good attribute for: "I see this person around on MetaFilter and like them and want to bind with them but not have children right away or even meet in the real world necessarily but perhaps we will just continue to cheer whenever we read each others' posts"

Or something like that. This seems to me probaby the most common of all MeFi "relationships," and "acquaintance" just doesn't fit somehow.
posted by scarabic at 12:38 AM on June 15, 2004

I need a removal option too. Inadvertently added the wrong person!
posted by web-goddess at 12:56 AM on June 15, 2004

This seems to me probaby the most common of all MeFi "relationships," and "acquaintance" just doesn't fit somehow.

This user has been killed by:
scarabic

posted by Danelope at 12:58 AM on June 15, 2004

Please pretend I'm retarded and don't know how computers work and explain to me what this is. Does it mean that I can click on a user and add him or her as a "friend"?

And if so, what does it do to do so that one cannot accomplish simply by listing on a userpage metaftiler users that one likes? Where does the linkage become useful? I don't understand this.
posted by interrobang at 12:59 AM on June 15, 2004

Hm. It would be nice if the 'contact' links were at the bottom of the user page, just above the 'other users near this user...' stuff, for those who like tweaking with the content in the user page area.
posted by kaibutsu at 1:04 AM on June 15, 2004

Ah here we go, fishy has his own twist to XFN.
posted by riffola at 1:06 AM on June 15, 2004

Holy crap Matt, when you got to town, you really go to town!
posted by eyeballkid at 1:12 AM on June 15, 2004

own twist my ass.

i've sown my seed everywhere and I'm proud to say I keep my shizz in the family, ok?
posted by fishfucker at 1:12 AM on June 15, 2004

yeah. i know. that didn't even make sense to me.
posted by fishfucker at 1:12 AM on June 15, 2004

Never mind my question, I figured it out. I still don't see the point, though.
posted by interrobang at 1:49 AM on June 15, 2004

Unless I misunderstand the question, it seems pretty obvious to me: A muse is someone who inspires you. I don't think being one of the nine classical greek ones is required.
posted by fvw at 1:50 AM on June 15, 2004

That's right; according to the XFN background page, muse:

describes a person who inspires you in some way. This may not be a strictly romantic or erotic type of inspiration, but might also be used to describe a person who has provided you with professional inspiration. The value landed in the romantic section because inspiration is a romantic concept in the general sense (rather than a rational concept).

posted by timeistight at 2:35 AM on June 15, 2004

Agree with scarabic. There are plenty of folks on MetaFilter who I might think deserve an appreciative nod, but to call them acquaintances seems presumptuous when they're only known from their comments hereabouts.
posted by normy at 3:13 AM on June 15, 2004

If you leave "met" unselected, you're impling a virtual relationship. There has been talk of adding "contact" to the XFN spec as a friendship level below acquaintence.
posted by timeistight at 3:27 AM on June 15, 2004

This whole friend/acquaintance/nobody distinction is giving me intense schoolyard flashbacks, so I'm skipping it. You're all amusing, so you're all muses.
posted by rory at 3:55 AM on June 15, 2004

Dang it how do you DELETE a contact. I added MidasMulligan as a co-worker by accident.
posted by attackthetaxi at 4:13 AM on June 15, 2004

I love ponies, but I'm with rory on this one. This whole social networking thing confuses me completely. Maybe I'm just autistic, but it looks to me like a way to recreate high-school cliques. Can someone explain the appeal to me?
posted by fuzz at 4:15 AM on June 15, 2004

Eh, never mind. I read the thread more closely. At least I get to be a corporate overlord for a day.
posted by attackthetaxi at 4:24 AM on June 15, 2004

Okay, I'm obviously not the most technological person in the world, (under 20% on the geek test) but how do you go about doing this exactly? The only change I see on my user page to add myself....

Also, I want an enemies list. I have a crappy memory but I like holding grudges and I want to remember who exactly has been a shit to me.

And Matt - I haven't mentioned it lately but you rawk.
posted by CunningLinguist at 5:01 AM on June 15, 2004

Oh duh, I have to go to the other people's pages.

I know perfectly well I shouldn't post after the third scotch or before the second cup of coffee.
posted by CunningLinguist at 5:05 AM on June 15, 2004

Alright!

Now I can know which of you bastards actually acknowledge my existence.

and, if you act now, I will add you as a friend, for only 14.95 a month! that's 95% off the retail price! you can't lose!
posted by Stynxno at 5:43 AM on June 15, 2004

My offer still stands.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 6:04 AM on June 15, 2004

Oh, and there should also be a category dealing specifically with GMail relationships: A gave GMail to B, X wants GMail from Y, etc. etc.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 6:09 AM on June 15, 2004

*opens trenchcoat*

psst. hey. trade you a gmail invite for linking.

^^
posted by casarkos at 6:19 AM on June 15, 2004

where is the "nemesis" category?
posted by jessamyn at 6:34 AM on June 15, 2004

Just out of curiosity, but how are the contacts ordered on your userpage? It doesn't seem to be by user number nor by the order in which they were added.

Dammit...I don't just want to indicate who my friends are so I can watch those excluded wail and gnash their teeth, I want to rank those I've added so I can watch the fun as they jockey for position!
posted by filmgoerjuan at 6:38 AM on June 15, 2004

can we add "worthy adversary" to the list of contact type?. That perfectly descibes my relationship with several people here, whom I never agree with but respect and dig sparring with.
posted by jonmc at 6:46 AM on June 15, 2004

interrobang, I think there are two levels. First off is the list thing - it's easier than writing out a list, and it will automatically show up on the other user's user page, so they will know right away (well, if they ever check their user page, so maybe they will never know... I don't know how often I go there -) that you've linked to them. And the second level is if there are easy searches available for recent posts by that person or those people - you can say, you know, so-and-so is always interesting/funny/whatever, let's see what s/he's said recently. I have often missed good threads because the title post didn't strike me as worth checking out, but perhaps if I'd known some interesting people would be responding, I'd have made it there.

Of course, it seems like there will be certain people linked to by hundreds of users, and others who will relive the humiliation of being the kid sitting alone at lunch... But hey, we're not in middle school anymore. (We eat lunch alone on purpose now.)
posted by mdn at 6:48 AM on June 15, 2004

what jessamyn said (or, barring that, what jon said) ; >
posted by amberglow at 6:48 AM on June 15, 2004

I have to agree with scarabic and jessamyn, to keep balance we need to have a [nemesis, mortal enemy, constant irritant] option.

Ya know, for fun.

Oh, and on preview, "adversary" too. Maybe above "irritant" and below "mortal enemy"
posted by milovoo at 6:52 AM on June 15, 2004

"worthy adversary", "irritant", "mortal enemy", "nemesis" and "giving home address to scarabic." oh and what about 'dolt'? i guess that comes under irritant.

we could use "crush" to designate nemesis, but that could send the wrong message.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:04 AM on June 15, 2004

...or "evil muse" someone who's numbskullness compells me to post.
posted by milovoo at 7:06 AM on June 15, 2004

I predict a whole lot of islanders.
posted by cortex at 7:16 AM on June 15, 2004

I predict a whole lot of rangers.

But what's hockey got to do with it?
posted by jonmc at 7:22 AM on June 15, 2004

got to do with it
what's hockey
but a Canuckistani passtime
posted by cortex at 7:25 AM on June 15, 2004

*checks cortex into the boards*

*shoots, scores*
posted by jonmc at 7:28 AM on June 15, 2004

The nine Mousai were goddesses of music, song and dance and the source of inspiration to poets. As the patrons of literature they were also, by extension, the goddesses of knowledge and were said to know of all things that had come to pass.

And by name, the Nine Muses are Calliope the Fair Voiced, Clio the Proclaimer, Erato the Lovely, Euterpe the Giver of Pleasure, Melpomene the Songstress, Polyhymnia, She of Many Hymns, Terpsichore the Whirler, Thalia the Flourishing and Urania the Heavenly.
posted by y2karl at 7:46 AM on June 15, 2004

the muse is what makes the cursr mve.
posted by quonsar at 7:56 AM on June 15, 2004

It would be nice if the search function worked such that I could find users without having to comb through threads for them. I had a hell of a time finding rodii.
posted by LionIndex at 8:15 AM on June 15, 2004

And the tenth muse is Maurice "le Rocket" Richard.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 8:19 AM on June 15, 2004

Great. Now I actually have to make friends here?
posted by Quartermass at 8:24 AM on June 15, 2004

Use this, LionIndex: Just change the username to whomever you're trying to find. I actually keep this url on my userpage; so much easier than searching or trying to remember user numbers.
posted by iconomy at 8:30 AM on June 15, 2004

as much as i love shiny new things, this new pony sorta adds a new level of high school bullshittery to the joint. still, it's so shiny... it sparkles... *total distraction*

good work arthur...

If you leave "met" unselected, you're impling a virtual relationship

in some cases yah but truly i feel completely ridiculous ticking off the "met" box when adding my spouse and my daughter. i think my relationship to them, once i list them as such, pretty much implies we've met 8-)
posted by t r a c y at 8:37 AM on June 15, 2004

Wow. Neat lil' feature.
posted by dobbs at 8:53 AM on June 15, 2004

How about:

"thinks is an asshole"
"has taken embarrassing pictures of"
"has gotten drunk with"
"would TOTALLY do"
"wants to buy them a beer sometime"

(In retrospect and in looking at the above list, perhaps I'm more of a fratboy than I thought.)
posted by Vidiot at 9:00 AM on June 15, 2004

Thank you for these features mathowie and timeistight. After using it, I'd like to make one small request. In the page titled "Add a Contact", it would be helpful if the user's name you are adding appeared in the page in some manner. I understand I could just use the "back" button, but in a case I just created for myself, by opening several links as tabs, the back button isn't useful. Now I have no idea who I'm adding as a contact.

For example you could change:

What's your relationship with this user? (optional)

to:

What's your relationship with sequential? (optional)
posted by sequential at 9:07 AM on June 15, 2004

I don't think being one of the nine classical greek ones is required.

But it doesn't hurt, I suppose. The other eight are still available, whenever registrations open up again.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:08 AM on June 15, 2004

t r a c y: for all we know you could be a deadbeat.
posted by biffa at 9:15 AM on June 15, 2004

I will happily trade an invite to that elite email service for friendship. Except if you're that Becky girl. She didn't friend me back on LiveJournal! Lil snot! Now she'll never know what kind of kiss I am!

Seriously, though, this is a nice pony. Thanks for working on it, timeistight. Beyond fearing middle school friending antics and wishing for an "Owes Me a Beer/I Owe Them a Beer" function, it looks great!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:16 AM on June 15, 2004

Hail All!

By the glory of our gracious lord, Matthowie has granted us a means of camaraderie! As such, I announce that I will be starting a Metafilter clan, called The Asskissers of Stan Chin, and we will participate on the Metatalk Server. Huzzah! Come join on our rich bounty of witty comments and snarks, and soon my friends, we shall rule this Metafilter land!

Rangers need not apply, only chaotic neutral or evil.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:26 AM on June 15, 2004

To everyone saying it's high school cliques and BS -- please give me a day to show you what you can do with the information.

You'll want to see contributions from your contacts, trust me, it's a killer feature.
posted by mathowie at 10:01 AM on June 15, 2004

Matt, for those of us in NYC, the list gets too darn long, can you please move it down a little? Below the profile question?
posted by riffola at 10:05 AM on June 15, 2004

Anyone who adds me as a friend gets a dollar*! I think this is a neat idea, even if it is a bit jump-on-the-bandwagon. It also has a bit of Slashdot-friends-and-foes-ness about it, but hopefully it'll be done with a bit more style around here...

* voucher redeemable against future purchases from reklaw of $500 or more
posted by reklaw at 10:09 AM on June 15, 2004

Wow, you even put in the effort to defend the feature. I'm looking forward to where you're going with this.
posted by quasistoic at 10:11 AM on June 15, 2004

reklaw: where's my voucher?
posted by quasistoic at 10:13 AM on June 15, 2004

And the tenth muse is Maurice "le Rocket" Richard.

Tenth and Eleventh Muses are Booze and Caffeine. Maurice is further down the list.

...to call them acquaintances seems presumptuous when they're only known from their comments hereabouts.

How about a "Fan" or "Admirer" option instead of Acquaintence?

Or how about "Member of Clique/Cabal" instead of Family?
posted by Shane at 10:23 AM on June 15, 2004

t r a c y: for all we know you could be a deadbeat.

true, but that doesn't change the fact that in some instances selecting the "met" box is redundant.

To everyone saying it's high school cliques and BS -- please give me a day to show you what you can do with the information.

i apologize for being needlessly critical earlier, i wasn't feeling truly harsh about this new feature. even just as a superficial member it's wonderfully shiny and smart, so i assume all this new stuff is going to be valuable to the serious members.
posted by t r a c y at 10:24 AM on June 15, 2004

Euterpe the Giver of Pleasure

I'll take some of that.
posted by kindall at 10:26 AM on June 15, 2004

There is no K5 cabal.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:33 AM on June 15, 2004

timeistight Wow! well done.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:42 AM on June 15, 2004

Thanks, ike.
posted by LionIndex at 10:53 AM on June 15, 2004

My userpage says this now: Contacts: This user links to 17 MetaFilter user(s).

But the list is gone. Where it be?
posted by iconomy at 10:54 AM on June 15, 2004

I would like to apologize for looking a gift pony in the mouth. I promise to never ever ever do it again.

But my intentions were honourable!
posted by filmgoerjuan at 10:58 AM on June 15, 2004

To everyone with new relationship suggestions: I wrote this to conform to the XFN profile. It's up to Matt of course, but I think that if we add new relationships, then it's not XFN any more.
posted by timeistight at 11:00 AM on June 15, 2004

film broke it! blame him!

he's also a tramp! did you see how many sweethearts he had?!! scandalous!
posted by Stynxno at 11:01 AM on June 15, 2004

even i think it's cool and fun. so i have to say [struggles valiantly] ...WELL... [oh god give me strength!] ...DONE... TIMEISTIGHT [the pain! oh god make it stop!] AND MATHOWIE! [phew, that was hard.]
posted by quonsar at 11:02 AM on June 15, 2004

How do you find out who's linking to you?

I mean, hypothetically.
posted by hama7 at 11:06 AM on June 15, 2004

iconomy, i spoke with mathowie a short while ago. the list will return within a few hours. it will be linked from the "This user links to X users" and "X users link to this user" statements. it'll work just like the posts and comments links!
posted by quonsar at 11:06 AM on June 15, 2004

Why, quonsar, you old sweetie pie. I'm genuinely touched.
posted by timeistight at 11:07 AM on June 15, 2004

Thanks, quonsey. And you're welcome, LI ;)
posted by iconomy at 11:09 AM on June 15, 2004

Hmm. That answers that.
posted by hama7 at 11:12 AM on June 15, 2004

Please be my friend, I have some really cool G.I. Joes that your parents wouldn't buy for you and an original optimus prime and the mobile command center.
posted by drezdn at 11:19 AM on June 15, 2004

If you leave "met" unselected, you're impling a virtual relationship. There has been talk of adding "contact" to the XFN spec as a friendship level below acquaintence.

Jeezus.
Anybody wants me, I'll be at the Nighthawk. Ask for Joshua Elegiac. Bring molecules.
posted by Opus Dark at 11:34 AM on June 15, 2004

Anybody wants me, I'll be at the Nighthawk. Ask for Joshua Elegiac. Bring molecules.
I have no idea what that means or references, but it sounds good. You're going on my muse list as soon as it gets back into working order.
posted by fvw at 12:02 PM on June 15, 2004

I've turned the stuff back off, and will relaunch it tonight or tomorrow night in a better working fashion, with links to all contributions by contacts, etc.

Thanks for the quick beta test everyone, we're off to a great start.
posted by mathowie at 12:26 PM on June 15, 2004

I think the default XFN categories are truly lousy. They're simply not well-suited to online (virtual) relationships.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:10 PM on June 15, 2004

Eh, cliquey or no, toys like this are fun to play with. Thanks, Matt.
I'll put MeFi on my list of sites to send $5 to next paycheck. Woo hoo, right?
posted by Shane at 1:38 PM on June 15, 2004

I'm so confused. Who am I supposed to hate?
posted by me3dia at 2:21 PM on June 15, 2004

I think the default XFN categories are truly lousy. They're simply not well-suited to online (virtual) relationships.

I agree somewhat, and the problem is probably due to a few geeks coming up with this without a specific application in mind. MetaFilter just may be the biggest creator of xfn data at this point, so maybe we can help improve it by flushing it with users instead of engineers.
posted by mathowie at 2:24 PM on June 15, 2004

Ooo I see possible killfile uses of XFN.
posted by riffola at 3:20 PM on June 15, 2004

Flushing users, eh?

A sliding scale for "friend/foe" would be a good start, say ranked 1-5. This would allow one to create social network diagrams showing the strength of relationships. Though I fear discovering what such a thing would show me.

Likewise, a "distance" scale would be good, to help us see how proximity affects the social network.

"Familiarity," too, might help (although it's probably tightly correlated with the strength of the friend/foe scale; the more familiar one is with someone, likely the stronger the feelings about him/her.)

A "Hot/Not" scale might be moderately amusing, at least to those of us who are not more than moderately ugly.

The XFN system should also have data regarding the individual's who are participating: GPS coordinates, sex, sexuality, scale of religiousness, scale of social political view, scale of economic political view, scale of religious political view, etc.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:33 PM on June 15, 2004

Ooo I see possible killfile uses of XFN.

oh please oh please oh please...
posted by GeekAnimator at 3:34 PM on June 15, 2004

I'm against any negative (e.g., enemy) relationships. There's enough of that shit around here already without adding tools to facilitate it.
posted by timeistight at 3:42 PM on June 15, 2004

well, the only way to use it as a killfile would be to add *everyone* but the few people you don't like, but I don't think the generated page will be all that helpful vs. the standard way metafilter looks.

We're talking a single page with say the last 20 comments/posts to all parts of mefi by your contacts.
posted by mathowie at 3:53 PM on June 15, 2004

We're talking a single page with say the last 20 comments/posts to all parts of mefi by your contacts.

Added bonus: all your contacts will now see that 3AM drunken screed you posted at the bottom of a three day old, 168-comment thread.

Peer Pressure not to post. I like it.
posted by Ufez Jones at 4:06 PM on June 15, 2004

Oh right, good point, I was thinking one would just minimize or dim any comments or threads by user listed in the killfile.
posted by riffola at 4:06 PM on June 15, 2004

Sorry for the sort of off topic:

I was thinking about the quickest way to implement a killfile without taxing the database much & preventing gaps in the conversation.

The idea I came up with is adding the username in the class of the div surrounding a user's comment. For example:

Here's what my last comment looks in the source code:



<div class="comments">Oh right, good point, I was thinking one would just minimize or dim any comments or threads by user listed in the killfile.<br>

	<span class="smallcopy">posted by <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/user/814">riffola</a> at <a href="/mefi/7946#156779">4:06 PM</a> PST on June 15 </span></div>

I propose adding the username to the class="comments" to make in my case class="comments riffola"



<div class="comments riffola">Oh right, good point, I was thinking one would just minimize or dim any comments or threads by user listed in the killfile.<br>

	<span class="smallcopy">posted by <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/user/814">riffola</a> at <a href="/mefi/7946#156779">4:06 PM</a> PST on June 15 </span></div>

Thus now, all that is needed is to define me in the user's CSS *if* I am to be ignored.



.riffola {

background: inherit;

color: #999;

}

.riffola a {

background: inherit;

color: #999;

}

.riffola span {

background: inherit;

color: #999;

}

Now all my comments will be dimmed, thus being an effective killfile, that on one hand let's us ignore the comments of the person we want to ignore, is not too DB intensive, and at the same time prevents gaps in the conversation.

Here's an example of this thread with me defined in the killfile.
What do you all think of this idea?

Of course to prevent generating too many CSS classes, there would be a limit to the number of people one can add to the killfile.
posted by riffola at 5:22 PM on June 15, 2004

riffy is a freakin' genius.

Only mod I'd suggest would be to allow us, in our profiles, to modify the default 'killfile' css if we wish, for one or more user-defined classes of user. The possibilities are endless!

(Which would spawn a whole new class of questions from people about why everything looks funny when they mess up their code, probably, but still....)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:35 PM on June 15, 2004

...but I don't want to build killfiles.
posted by mathowie at 5:54 PM on June 15, 2004

Well it was worth a shot :)
posted by riffola at 5:55 PM on June 15, 2004

Killfiles are a terrible, terrible idea.

Think MeFi has an air of exclusivity now? Killfiles will intensify that a tenfold.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:07 PM on June 15, 2004

OK, I feel retarded but I have no idea what's going on here...help?
posted by jmd82 at 7:11 PM on June 15, 2004

Killfiles would be a horrid horrid thing for metafilter.
posted by drezdn at 7:23 PM on June 15, 2004

Just for the sake of argument, how would greying out -- for yourself only, as demo'd by riffola -- the comments of people you consider annoying be a 'horrid thing'?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:30 PM on June 15, 2004

demo'd by riffola -- the comments of people you consider annoying be a 'horrid thing'?

Well, it could make for extremely disjointed and repetitive threads if people are missing half the conversation, for one thing.

Secondly, eliminating someone's ideas from the discussion, even if just to yourself, is an anathema to vigorous debate.
posted by jonmc at 8:01 PM on June 15, 2004

Jon, did you look at what riffola did, even? Nothing is deleted, nobody 'misses half the conversation'.

Make a halfhearted attempt to keep up, for chrissakes. The example he gave -- as I noted clearly, and riffola even more clearly demonstrated before that -- had the 'killfiled' comment greyed out. Not gone entirely.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:47 PM on June 15, 2004

Riffola's idea would be a step above a normal killfile, but it could create sort of comment cliques. Users could get use to overlooking comments that are grayed out and end up repeating statements made by users whose comments they don't normally read, or possibly miss a valuable point.

Granted, on the other hand it might prevent the long running grudges that tarnish the blue.
posted by drezdn at 10:54 PM on June 15, 2004

Well, I may be a newbie here, but I'm aware (without even reading Matt's book!) of the rationale behind many of his carefully thought out choices in the MeFi design. A big thing to him, apparently, was to avoid the whole thing of filtering people's posts and comments. That's why, for example, our nicknames appear at the end of our posts and comments. Killfiles are an extreme assault on that sensibility.

So, you know, I'm going out on a limb here and no doubt I'll be roasted for it, but how come I, the newbie who is supposed to be more quiet in the MeTa realm, knows this about Matt's aims for MeFi and so many longterm folks don't? When people argue about what MeFi "is supposed to be", how many (almost all of which are aware that there is, in fact, a final arbiter on this matter) are unaware of what Matt's already extensively written on these matters?

All that said, if you'd asked me beforehand what Matt would've thought about this sort of feature he's premiering here, I'd have expected (based upon what I've read that he's written in the past) he'd be hostile to it. But then, stuff he's said in this thread lead me to believe that he may have some really killer ideas for XFN. But isn't even "what my friends have posted" filtering and letting the camel's nose into the tent?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:39 PM on June 15, 2004

Well, I did say 'for argument's sake'.

I don't really care about killfiles (which seems contrary to my jumping up Jon's butt, but that was just me being annoyed at him not paying attention (thwak! that's satori!)), to be honest. I just like shiny things.

EB: You're right about Matt's stated design aims and preferences in your first paragraph. Many here do know about them (although that knowledge may be weighted more towards oldsters, a higher proportion of whom, I think, were and are technoids and geeks and designers and the like), and hold him in some small esteem for his sage decisions with regard to the deliberately simple design of interaction here, and the conviction to stand by them while the nattering nabobs of mefitivity throw rocks and garbage.

Still, it's fun to talk about.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:19 AM on June 16, 2004

LionIndex: http://www.metafilter.com/username.mefi/rodii
posted by rory at 12:50 AM on June 16, 2004

To everyone saying it's high school cliques and BS -- please give me a day to show you what you can do with the information.

My 'schoolyard flashbacks' comment wasn't supposed to imply it's cliquey (no worse than blogrolls or whatever); just that sometimes trying to decide whether a particular person is 'friend' or 'acquaintance' can be a pretty fine line, and can have unfortunate consequences if you make your judgement public. If you call it one way and the person concerned thinks the opposite, things can get awkward. 'I'm just an acquaintance now, am I? I thought we were friends!' Or 'Hmm, I didn't think we knew each other that well.' Or 'Shit, I'm being stalked.'
posted by rory at 12:58 AM on June 16, 2004

June 15, 2004 12:13 AM Subscribe

June 15, 2004
12:13 AM Subscribe