A requiem for Viewropa

November 14, 2005 8:54 AM

A requiem for Viewropa. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 8:54 AM (22 comments total)

And thus, the book closes on the community weblog with a special focus on Europe which was conceived in the green pastures of AskMe and created thru the good efforts of some creative UK/EU Mefites. I certainly had a great time over there, but apparently it has lost its momentum over time. All I can do is echo the words quoted by humuhumu in its opening post, and add their now ominous continuation:

No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Farewell, Viewropa.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:54 AM on November 14, 2005

aw, bummer.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:55 AM on November 14, 2005

it was a good site--always interesting stuff.
posted by amberglow at 9:07 AM on November 14, 2005

I was considering posting this earlier, but i convinced myself that someone had beaten me to it and I was too dense to find the entry.

Sad to see it go, but I can hardly claim to have put a huge ammount oif effort into keeping it going. *sigh*
posted by twine42 at 9:10 AM on November 14, 2005

sorry.
posted by andrew cooke at 9:11 AM on November 14, 2005

Never even heard of it - shame, because it looks decent.
posted by fire&wings at 9:39 AM on November 14, 2005

It could still be saved.

Not to sound pithy, but a cursory glance at the archives revealed posts about news headlines and people of interest. For a more engaging take on European matters, a larger scope would've benefited. Where were the threads on linguistics, or economic profiles of provincial towns? Or the history of period music pretraining to a particular reign or movement? How do the shipping routes of today reflect or depart from the trade practices of prior centuries - more importantly, do those elements have as much hold upon perceptions of national pride as some would credit?

And what of the folklore? Where and when would allegory play an appropriate role within mores, or contemporary ambitions? Are such matters appropriate within our modern track toward advertising and drama? Which elements of government truly lead, and what to do with the penchant for egalitarian anachronisms?

That's where viewropa could find focus.
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:47 AM on November 14, 2005

I met some great folks during this wee experiment. I like to think of them all as friends - dodgy, taz, dabitch in particular for their skill, taste and optimism. Dodgy hosted and co-modded with taz - double thanks, you guys!
posted by dash_slot- at 9:49 AM on November 14, 2005

Sorry to see it go, even though I didn't spend much time there. I liked their mp3s. Dodgy and taz, see you on MetaChat!
posted by matildaben at 10:06 AM on November 14, 2005

Yeah, I'd like to thank all the people involved in starting it up. It was fun!
posted by sebas at 10:08 AM on November 14, 2005

.

Thanks to the hosties. I did hang there a bit but it was like putting post-it notes on the fridge for others to read. It was more of a notice board than a discussion site just because of numbers. Smart Dalek, there was a wide range of stuff posted I thought and I daresay quite a bit of it would be of the sort that doesn't generate much comment here at MeFi either. But all the things you so articulately outline mean a fair bit of work. It's kind of hard to muster that energy when there aren't too many people shuffling through. Chicken and egg in a way.
posted by peacay at 10:17 AM on November 14, 2005

It's a problem of critical mass and accessibility. I still think Matt should implement a TypeKey-like system and allow offsite forums with a metafilter URL (site.metafilter.com). Quickest way to bootstrap a promising site-idea.
posted by Gyan at 10:39 AM on November 14, 2005

also, there's fistful of euros and lots of other european sites, so it's hard to break in.
posted by amberglow at 10:59 AM on November 14, 2005

Thanks everyone, I'm glad so many people enjoyed it.

I would encourage folk to have a look through the archives - there's some great stuff in there that is as worth reading now as ever. I spent such a long time on the MP3 posts every week so go and check those out (there's this page here that might still work where you can hear all the tracks).

It's worth noting that if there had been no Viewropa then Metachat would've been a very different beast. Think of it more as reincarnation...
posted by dodgygeezer at 12:41 PM on November 14, 2005

Um, I kept meaning to post. Honestly. Fuck.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 1:13 PM on November 14, 2005

I wish I'd known about it before now. From a quick skim, it looks to have been pretty fabulous.
posted by jack_mo at 1:31 PM on November 14, 2005

OTOH, sportsfilter has managed to survive quite nicely.
posted by smackfu at 1:32 PM on November 14, 2005

Hey, if somebody wants to fiddle with the DNS, pass me a database dump and toss in some templates, I'd be happy to keep it alive indefinately.

It's not like the sucker is going to take a lot of pipe at the moment :)
posted by cedar at 1:42 PM on November 14, 2005

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posted by scarabic at 8:32 PM on November 14, 2005

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posted by Mr Bluesky at 9:29 PM on November 17, 2005

.
posted by OmieWise at 10:34 AM on November 21, 2005

Damn, that's sad. I really liked the site. As others have said, I should have put more time in posting instead of just reading.
posted by cameleon at 9:36 AM on November 22, 2005