Discussing discussion: discuss.

November 6, 2001 6:52 PM

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 to MetaFilter-Related at 6:52 PM (6 comments total)

While reading threads such as the ones about "discussion changing your view on an issue" and the "Best of MeFi" (not to mention some of the truly excellent discussions linked to in the latter), my attention has been drawn to the importance of discussion at MeFi. Granted, some people are only here for neat sites, and I am in no way advocating linkless posts, but it appears that I'm not the only one who feels that the community discussion is integral to the MetaFilter mystique. Many have been cursing the rise in discussion and the decrease in 'quality links', but I'm not sure that the two are inextricably related.

Good discussion is good. Bad discussion is bad.

Good links are good. Bad links are bad.

The increase in discussion on MeFi doesn't have any particular relationship to the degradation of any of these two statements. Should we really, then, be questioning its role at MeFi?

(Of course, some of you may feel that no one is questioning the role of discussion at MetaFilter. In which case, I'm swiping at windmills. But am I the only one who has recently felt a bizarre antagonism towards MeFi as a "place for links [and discussion]"?)
posted by Marquis at 7:05 PM on November 6, 2001

i don't know, marquis; i've been waffling a bit on the issue. but i still believe that good links should be the focus, and let good discussion happen where it may but never be the focus itself.
posted by moz at 7:14 PM on November 6, 2001

Marquis: My feeling is that discussions happen anyway - they don't need to be encouraged, whereas good front page posts are few and far between and do need encouraging. Certain links which appear trivial have the knack of stimulating good discussions. Others are excellent for reading and bookmarking but don't really lend themselves to quick, internet exchanges.
I remember a suggestion by skallas a while back which didn't, IMO, get the consideration it deserved: ask the best posters to provide all the links for a whole week. That would be great for MetaFilter and an example for all of us less savvy people.

posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:29 PM on November 6, 2001

This is a collaborative weblog, and not a Chat Room. Some people love to gab here, and it gets to be a bit much.
posted by websavvy at 8:28 PM on November 6, 2001

Putting forth a link to something interesting on the web that promotes discussion is a good thing. If I put up a link to MAME and it sparks a discussion about video games people liked when they were kids, the techniques used in video game emulation, or the ethics of sharing the ROMs for Pac-Man, that's a good thing. Putting up a link to nothing in particular -- or a link to something that's a marginal twist on something that's already been discussed -- in the hopes of starting a discussion you'd like to have no longer strikes me as a good idea in most circumstances. You may, of course, disagree.

If you reduce the first method to the absurd, you get Memepool. If you reduce the second method to the absurd, you get "I like pancakes! Who else likes pancakes? What did you have for breakfast today?" Neither one of these is ideal, but I lean more towards the former.
posted by snarkout at 7:43 AM on November 7, 2001

Granted, some people are only here for neat sites, and I am in no way advocating linkless posts, but it appears that I'm not the only one who feels that the community discussion is integral to the MetaFilter mystique.

Well, neat sites is what Metafilter was created for. Call us conseravtives...

Really though, I don't care about in-thread discussion. Have at it. What I proposed MetaDiscuss for was to obviate the need for people to post things to the front page which weren't 'neat sites' but instead a cue for discussion.

It used to be that the other site was the focus. Now the links are often just a greeting.
posted by fooljay at 3:39 PM on November 7, 2001