MetaTalk

The Bar: Precursor to the Modern Sidebar? [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jul 20, 2011 - 56 comments

I should know this, being one of MeFi's last surviving "early adopters" (user #206), but I don't...
MetaFilter's NO multiple-threads, chronological order, NO sigs or avatars, permalinked format for comment pages has become the standard default style for blog comments, used by most blog software out there. (And that format has been, with all its abuses, one of the major reasons why MeFi has been my favorite Web Hangout for most of its 4 years).
So, Matt, why is it so? Did you duplicate some even earlier weblog pioneer I don't remember? Did you just follow a K.I.S.S. methodology? Or was it all/partly about the limitations in the Cold Fusion database or your then-newbie abilities with it? Tell me, for the record, how much credit (or blame) do you think you deserve for "The Way We Do Comments"?
posted by wendell on Sep 19, 2003 - 15 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 - 56 comments

From what I understand, Mefi began as a forum to discuss Web design, whereas it has become a forum to discuss news, ideas, whatever, with a Web site almost incidental to the discussion. Opinions as to when this happened; a specific day or week (these kind of questions interest me)? Also, as much as some people bemoan this evolution, wasn't it inevitable?
posted by ParisParamus on Dec 4, 2001 - 24 comments