I like to call out the commenters in this post on credit card billing for being awesome. [more inside]
posted by phyrewerx on Jul 17, 2009 - 10 comments

I AskedMefi about writing term papers for money. I stirred up a hornet's nest if the number of removed comments vs. time is any indication. Let's talk about it here. [more inside]
posted by GilloD on Oct 23, 2008 - 231 comments

I know... it's about the links, not the discussions... [more inside]
posted by prefpara on May 30, 2008 - 43 comments

Does the five bucks make a difference in the quality of our discussions? There's a Freakanomics post on the NY Times today that points to a web page set up to compare comment-streams on MetaFilter and YouTube. [more inside]
posted by mmahaffie on Apr 10, 2008 - 151 comments

This is how to do ObitFilter. [more inside]
posted by dirtynumbangelboy on Feb 11, 2008 - 33 comments

This (Medical Marijuana ask.mefi thread) is a good example of an ask metafilter thread where people don't answer the specific question of the poster, but still remain civil and helpful. Yay. So there's an existence proof that people can be helpful while not answering the question asked (and not fall all over themselves to be jerks).
posted by zpousman on Feb 22, 2007 - 120 comments

I only whine because I care.
posted by tkolar on Jan 21, 2007 - 79 comments

Earlier on AskMefi there was a question from "siahny" asking to identify a painting via email. I've got the picture (which is a Word document). The thread seems to be deleted, but should I post it up anyway? She really does want the painting identified...
posted by divabat on Jan 6, 2007 - 55 comments

In which I posit that the two-week waiting period has had no impact on the volume of questions.
posted by knave on Jan 2, 2007 - 119 comments

How about a discussion area in MeFi Music for members to set up collaborations? There's a lot of talent among the members, and I think it would be pretty cool to have the opportunity to collaborate with people across the world.
posted by Alexandros on Jul 11, 2006 - 12 comments

Mmmm. A one-link post to a mediocre commercial.

I dont think there is anything worth discussing about this commercial. [more inside]
posted by mathowie on Jun 13, 2006 - 235 comments

Stinky Kitty vs. Baby? This post seems to be about to turn into a debate regarding kittens' ability to survive versus infants'. Very interesting.
posted by k8t on May 23, 2006 - 14 comments

Two people have assumed, incorrectly, that I don't think DUI offenders are criminals. I would like to vent without further derailing the thread. (more inside)
posted by mullacc on Apr 20, 2006 - 28 comments

You ain't got nothing Doctorow.
posted by allen.spaulding on Jan 29, 2006 - 75 comments

I'm confused. What is more important to mefites, actually responding to the content of FPPs, or rating their quality? I see a general (hence, no links in this question) preponderance to the former. It seems that many responses to posts are actually rating the quality of it and/or the poster, rather than the content of the FPP. I've read a lot of the sites about Metafilter and maybe I'm missing a concept or something.

I am truly not trying to be a smartass, I'm genuinely interested in understanding this. Thanks.
posted by Slap Incognito on Dec 13, 2005 - 93 comments

When is a one-line FPP with no (or little) description appropriate for MeFi?

Oh really? Is that so? Well, is this a good example then [MI]?
posted by sjvilla79 on Nov 14, 2005 - 42 comments

I'm kind of dissapointed with the way things turned out in a post I made to Metafilter yesterday. I was hoping to discuss how many of the leaders of the fat acceptance movement are feeders and the consequences this might have in terms of it's future progress. Oh and I also wanted to discuss the new slate piece I linked to. But of 140+ comments, very few seem to even reference the links I made. Most just gave their opinion on fat people . I read all of the comments, and the general consensus seems to be that topics regarding obesity cannot be discussed sensibly at Metafilter. What should I do in the future to make a better FPP and what other topics should I wholly avoid?
posted by skjønn on Nov 4, 2005 - 73 comments

In the interest of avoiding further derail of the Aryan Justice thread, I am going to accept amberglow's invitation to bugbread and state that deliberately cryptic commenting is annoying as hell and is counterproductive to the idea of communication.
posted by John Smallberries on Mar 29, 2005 - 74 comments

Boo. There were a lot of fairly well-thought out and witty references to MetaFilter history, past and present, in that thread before it was closed to further comments and had its middle taken out.

Not every thread here should be a linear progression from a problem to a solution. There should be some room for frivolity and banter. Without it, we lose our sense of community and shared experience.

Discuss.
posted by yhbc on Feb 15, 2005 - 153 comments

If someone posts a link to the front page that ends in a question mark, are they really linking to the best of the web, or are they just asking a leading question in order to generate discussion of their pet topic? And should we disallow front posts that are just trollish leading questions because they weaken the mefi brand and more importantly drive me nuts?
posted by craniac on Feb 12, 2005 - 21 comments

What is the appropriate role of links in making FPP’s? A lot of people seem to think that MetaFilter is, essentially, about discussion. But Matt deletes “bad” links, even when they might generate good discussion. Why? If I want to discuss a topic, why can’t I just go and find any old link to start things off? Or can I?

It’s an old topic, but maybe we should adapt to our new users. And short of a definitive pronouncement from Matt, the only way to determine appropriate behavior around here is through community consensus. So: What say you all?
posted by gd779 on Dec 20, 2004 - 127 comments

The pancakes are getting incredibly stale, people.
Metafilter used to be an addiction for me, but lately with more and more Newsfilter, and boring Newsfilter at that, can we really say we are the best of the Web anymore? Final straw was the posting of that Bush daughter photo.
Is this really what we want this place to be?
posted by konolia on Jul 21, 2004 - 250 comments

Can we - even if only briefly - discuss stuff on AskMe or not? This Sopranos thread started off as a question but the discussion of last night's episode was inevitable and almost irresistible. My own opinion, fwiw, is that it would be nice if a little discussion was indeed allowed or, as has happened already, generously overlooked.
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 17, 2004 - 10 comments

There's the agendafilter post.

And there's the giant pissfest in the thread.

Neither of which are totally cool, I don't think.
posted by trharlan on Apr 11, 2004 - 125 comments

In the post regarding the Fred Phelps putting up an anti-homosexual memorial in Casper, Wyoming and the insuing religous discussion regarding said terms, I am posting this thread so everyong can get what they need to say out, whatever it is.
posted by Keyser Soze on Oct 6, 2003 - 122 comments

At the risk of sounding like a newbie (and my user# is embarrassingly large), I have to ask: How long do people read the threads? I often read MeFi in lurk mode, and sometimes don't get around to visiting for a day or two, at which time I will find a thread I would like to comment in, but no one else has posted to for a couple of days. I don't mind missing out on a chance to post a smartass comment, but at times I might have something intelligent to add to the discussion. At what point does posting to a thread become pointless?
posted by TedW on Jun 19, 2003 - 19 comments

I'm sure this has been covered before, but I'm fairly new here (to posting, especially), so I thought I'd ask again. Please don't kill me, but:

I've had aspects of a meme-type thing that I helped to create posted about here. These linked to a site I contribute to but, since I didn't ask for or advocate the subject were in the clear.

Now, I've got a site dedicated to the subject that inspired the first game/challenge that the original story was part of. It seems to me that if people here enjoyed the tidbit on the matter they'd like to see the new whole site.

But...it would very obviously be a self-link, and I completely understand the point of outlawing those. What's a guy to do? Is there some third-party I could suggest a link to? Should I wait till a vaguely applicable post comes up and post it in the message boards? Should I just wait around and hope that eventually someone from here manages to find it?

I'd like to participate, but I'm too new to guess at these rules. I'm glad I at least found this area to post in (and I'm hoping that fact will shield me a bit from the flames I'm expecting to receive).
posted by davebug on May 13, 2003 - 24 comments

Despite MetaFilter's honourable roots and tradition, I get the feeling that a significant and increasing amount of members has no interest whatsoever in web design, computers, blogs, programming or, in fact, anything remotely technical or even geeky. A few seem to be unimpressed by the Internet itself. Are we witnessing the secularization of MetaFilter? Is our future broadly cultural and political rather than Web-specific?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 10, 2003 - 58 comments

Is this another horribly one sided news post, that does more trolling than informing. If the poster had made any attempt at exploring the other side of this issue, he could have included several examples, that show there's enough hypocrisy to go around, when it comes to this issue, but instead we got a lazy, one sided front page post, that was basically an opportunity for a bunch of gun control supporters to jerk each other off.

He could have posted any number of links about the famous arrest of liberal columnist Carl Rowan, who seemed to have an obsession with gun control. At least that is, until he was arrested for illegally keeping a handgun in his Washington DC residence, but that wouldn't have been as much fun I guess.

If your doing a front page post about a hot button issue, shouldn't there be at least a feeble attempt to post links that represent both sides of the debate?
posted by Beholder on Dec 7, 2002 - 58 comments

Danger! An idea is loose! KillkillkillkillKILL!

This guy is obviously an idiot and is best ignored.

Sir I hope your ignorance bites you in the ass.

Farenheit 451, anyone?

I'd like to ask this guy to blow me.

Fuck you....you dumb bastard and your attempts at public debate.

Well! I'm glad to see that the standard of Metafilter discussion is as high as ever! We wouldn't want this place to sink to the level of Fark, Plastic, or Free Republic, heaven forfend.
posted by Slithy_Tove on Aug 25, 2002 - 51 comments

Why is it necessary to point out to an author, that something that they posted and is being discussed, may have been talked about a year ago? I see this at least 4 - 5 times a week. Point in case today. I personally think this very rude, and falls under the "If you don't have anything productive to say, don't say anything at all" rule. Am I then only one who feels this way?
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood on Aug 22, 2002 - 15 comments

Kudos to Kottke for initiating and hosting one of the best metablogging discussions of recent weeks. (Cf. Andrew Sullivan's blogging manifesto.) It never rains but it pours.
posted by rory on Feb 27, 2002 - 14 comments

Metafilter -- dictatorship, monarchy, autonomous collective or religion? [more]
posted by feelinglistless on Jan 29, 2002 - 39 comments

It seems lately there have been a lot of MeTa threads recently discussing things that have already been discussed to a simply ridiculous level of refinement. Is it appropriate to begin encouraging members to search MeTa before posting in the same way people are encouraged to search MeFi?
posted by willnot on Nov 30, 2001 - 3 comments

Lately, many people have been promoting concepts such as MetaDiscuss, which implicitly attack the concept of discussion on MeFi. But is this what we really want? [More inside.]
posted by Marquis on Nov 6, 2001 - 6 comments

Do MetaFilter discussions ever change your opinion on anything? [more inside]
posted by gluechunk on Oct 27, 2001 - 31 comments

MetaFilterians don't need to be instructed to converse. Discuss...
posted by NortonDC on Oct 11, 2001 - 18 comments

MetaTalk of late has been living as accelerated an existence as the Mothership has. With complaints, controversies and crises coming in every few hours, it increasingly seems to me that MeTa needs to catch its breath. More inside.
posted by rodii on Sep 21, 2001 - 20 comments

Let's respect MeFi's past, while looking to chart its future. I've scanned through the archives and pulled up some of the more important threads in my time on MeFi, and I encourage you to do the same.
posted by hijinx on Jul 20, 2001 - 6 comments

Point CounterPoint - When I first came here, there was some serious discourse on topics. In the last year, this has simply decended into stupid banter (right-vs-left, SUV-vs-environment).

OK, the arguments are fine. However, the nature of the arguer has changed here on MeFi. No longer do we have people with a view. Now we get the reply post that goes after the poster and not the idea.

OK, I am tired. Been a long day and I can't really articulate this fully. In a short sentence: Mefi, despite the intelligence of its users, is looking pretty damn stupid these days.

Argue the point, not the person (or ideolgy)

(drawing concentric circles on my chest)
[Ok, I have only recently registered with MeFi. However, I have been online since the mid 80s, so cut me a little slack.]
posted by sardines on Jul 11, 2001 - 48 comments

Too many threads on one subject at one time ruins Metafilter.

I cannot help but acknowledge how stupid and trivializing it is to get wrapped-up in the (real or fictional) illness of someone through the Web when there are REAL people in distress near where you live (real caring and concern requires more than typing on a keyboard).

My main point is that Metafilter should not be taken over by multiple threads on the same topic, or discussions about threads on one topic: it ruins the place.
posted by ParisParamus on May 22, 2001 - 4 comments

Funding people through public markets. I thought it could apply to all sorts of people and ventures, like weblogs and independent content.

(Self blog, thats why it's here. If anyone wants to let the world in.. :) )
posted by owillis on Mar 7, 2001 - 2 comments

Matt (and everyone)--

Recently there have been several self-promoting posts, or posts that are simply for discussion. I know the problem is getting people to come to Metatalk, but wouldn't this be a better place to put that kind of thing? And while I don't want to volunteer Matt for extra work, maybe a good start would be to start moving those sorts of things here with a note on the front page saying you'd done it.

Just a thought, mind you.
posted by mrmorgan on May 30, 2000 - 6 comments

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 on May 30, 2000 - 4 comments