First-Person Post? Finally Passed Prelims? Fondling&Petting Prohibited? August 2, 2007 1:42 AM   Subscribe

RedundancyFilter: is it called a Front-Page-Post because there is some ninja-stealth method for posting to "inside" pages? (But then that would just be commenting, right?) Sure, MeFi has its structural and terminological idiosyncracies, but FPP just always seemed... off the mark.
posted by progosk to MetaFilter-Related at 1:42 AM (88 comments total)

It's called a Front Page Post because Metafilter.com, AKA "The Green," is considered the front page of MetaFilter, whereas AskMe, MeTa, Travel, Jobs, etc. are considered subsites.
posted by Brittanie at 1:45 AM on August 2, 2007


You mean "The Blue."
posted by amyms at 1:49 AM on August 2, 2007


Oops. I was just reading AskMe.
posted by Brittanie at 1:58 AM on August 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


I'm pretty sure FPP was in use well before we had AskMe and so on....
posted by Pigpen at 2:09 AM on August 2, 2007


Ah, right. I would imagine that the more active a MeFite is, the less that hierarchical view will hold true, with the Green and the Grey becoming as, or sometimes even more eminent than the Blue. But maybe that's just the MeFi version of the mullet strategy.
posted by progosk at 2:13 AM on August 2, 2007


It's no more redundant than an ATM machine or a PIN number.
posted by grouse at 2:47 AM on August 2, 2007


You should have seen what we called FPPs before we revised and simplified everything!
posted by Meatbomb at 2:56 AM on August 2, 2007


Some people call comments "posts" and that's why users began (long before AskMe) saying "front page post".
posted by taz at 3:15 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


I WILL EAT YOUR....

oh, fuck it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:15 AM on August 2, 2007


No, wait, unfuck it.

Are you really so challenged that you couldn't parse this out for yourself?

WHEN YOU GO TO METAFILTER.COM YOU GET THE 'FRONT PAGE'. IT IS BLUE. METATALK ASKMETAFILTER ET AL ARE SUBDOMAINS. THEY ARE NOT 'FRONT PAGES'. WHEN YOU POST TO METAFILTER YOU POST TO 'THE FRONT PAGE'.

DUH.

FPP was a much-reviled acronym when it started to appear a few years back, and mathowie Himself said he hated it (go search the archives for once, you 5-dolla newbie bastard you), but it has settled into the vernacular and will never be pried loose.

Ever. So get goddamn well used to it.

Now sit down, be quiet AND LERK MOAR. Stop idle-fancy threadpost attention-whoring, or I'll amble over there and poke stinkbugs into your urethra. Friendly-like.

Love,

wonderchicken
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:23 AM on August 2, 2007 [17 favorites]


Yes, it is hot here, and I am cranky.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:24 AM on August 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


erm, that was uncalled for, and unfunny, to boot, stavros, no matter what your thermometer reads.

moving right along...
posted by progosk at 3:34 AM on August 2, 2007


Totally called-for. Funny? Well, that's always debatable, of course.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:37 AM on August 2, 2007


No, it really wasn't funny or called for.
posted by grouse at 3:48 AM on August 2, 2007


Right-ho then. Carry on with the inane questions and zingy 'Finally Passed Prelims? Fondling&Petting Prohibited?' comedy gold, and I'll shut the fuck up and keep my unfunny, uncalled-for annoyance at the ceaseless shitting-up of Metatalk to myself, as much as I am humanly able; chagrined, downcast and chastened by the disapprobation of my peers.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:59 AM on August 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


[Note: not to be construed as a binding promise to shut the fuck up.]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:00 AM on August 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


Christ, stavros, time for a bath. The sand in your crack is making you irritable.

progosk: My parsing of the term has always been this: a 'post' is a generic word for leaving a comment that can be seen by others. There's two flavors of posts on MeFi, basically: topics and comments. But they're both posts, and FPP arose as a way of differentiating between the two.

As far as I'm concerned, FPP applies to al the subdomains, but I don't think that's universally accepted. I rarely see FPP applied to anything but the Blue.
posted by Malor at 4:03 AM on August 2, 2007


Occasionally people call comments "posts". It's a misnomer, but FPP was possibly coined to prevent that confusion. It's also possible that MetaTalk existed before that phrase was coined. In my first five minutes of searching, this (28 Nov 01) is the first use of the term I can find. I'm almost certain it's older, though.
posted by Plutor at 4:05 AM on August 2, 2007


My vote is for funny and called for. In particular the:

I WILL EAT YOUR....

oh, fuck it.


[It's a little bit chilly here but that's not unexpected what with it heading toward night time. A 13 to 20 degrees spread is quite pleasant and certainly preferable to current temperatures in Europe]
posted by tellurian at 4:21 AM on August 2, 2007


Called for or not, I'm still laughing.

LERK MOAR - hee!
posted by lysdexic at 4:44 AM on August 2, 2007


Hmmm, tastes like chicken.

I still love grumpy wonderchicken, because he hardly ever gets grumpy anymore; plus, he's one of the grumpy assholes of metafilter (looking at you, too, dave faris) that for some reason (maybe it's their brains?), I can't help loving.
posted by taz at 4:46 AM on August 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


Oh, and y'all don't usually notice it, but interrobang gets fairly grumpy sometimes. He's another one of my prickly loves.
posted by taz at 4:48 AM on August 2, 2007


When the hell am I getting my stavrosthewonderchicken ass chewing ? I've been overdue know for a while. I'm starting to think I've been posting Back Page Posts all this time .
posted by nola at 4:53 AM on August 2, 2007


Hi I am on MetaTalk and I could overthink a plate of beans.
posted by carsonb at 5:15 AM on August 2, 2007


Here's a prior use (21 June 2000). And that thread deserves a "metafilterhistory" tag for a different reason.
posted by Plutor at 5:15 AM on August 2, 2007


because Metafilter.com, AKA "The Green," is considered the front page of MetaFilter, whereas AskMe, MeTa, Travel, Jobs, etc. are considered subsites

No, that's incorrect. It's called a Front Page Post to separate it from the posting you do once inside (aka comments). The term goes farther back than AskMe, to when the MeFi Global Empire was just a tiny outcropping of rocks in the turbulent seas of the internet, but its use extends far outside the boundaries of our realm. IIRC, Slashdotters use the term as well.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:15 AM on August 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


It's called a Front Page Post to separate it from the posting you do once inside (aka comments).

And just to clarify further, you do in fact post a comment (see button) so the distinction is valid.
posted by carsonb at 5:19 AM on August 2, 2007


[No really, I do feel a little bad if I made progosk feel bad. I am getting impatient with idly chatty Metatalking lately, but my intention was as much to make the exasperated funny with a point rather than go off on him with a half-assed afterthought komedy kandy koating.

So, yeah, I am sorry if I hurt your feelings. I really will try to limit my asschewing to the occasional plate of chicken butts (a delicious Korean snack (seriously)). OK, bye now.]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:23 AM on August 2, 2007


No, Yes, it really wasn't funny or & called for. A grouse is a grump I believe.
posted by adamvasco at 5:26 AM on August 2, 2007


Is it called a Front-Page-Post because there is some ninja-stealth method for posting to "inside" pages?

Yes.

But now that you've posted this to MeTa, nobody - not even this guy - will ever tell you what it is.
posted by googly at 5:51 AM on August 2, 2007


MeFi = Front Room
AskMe = Back Room
MeTa = Back Alley (don't go there).
posted by blue_beetle at 6:00 AM on August 2, 2007


apologies accepted, thanks. now i feel doubly wonderchickened.

nice to know i'm not the only one to dislike (or having difficulty parsing) this less-than-perfect acronym. so it goes.
posted by progosk at 6:12 AM on August 2, 2007


I'm the grump? Really?
posted by grouse at 6:17 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: LOL TAUTOLOGY!

I seriously looked that word up last night.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:32 AM on August 2, 2007


Some people call comments "posts" and that's why users began (long before AskMe) saying "front page post".

What taz and others said. The first occurrance of "FPP" in the post text of a Metatalk thread is July 19th, 2001, but, as Plutor has cited, the expanded form was in use earlier than that; the post he linked is from June 21, 2000, and is the first use in Metatalk post text, and it's Matt himself breaking out the phrase.

I'm betting that people used both quite a bit in comments before their respective headlining debuts on Metatalk, but I don't have time to track down the cites right now. Suffice it to say that it's a redundancy born of need, and at this point is enshrined irrevocably in the metafilter vocabulary.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:38 AM on August 2, 2007


(And if you really want a redundancy at which to point and laugh, check out the hot google action for "FPP post".)
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:41 AM on August 2, 2007


*dies a little inside*
posted by gleuschk at 7:00 AM on August 2, 2007


i asked (almost) this very question to a moderator recently. i was too embarrassed to ask it here. and the moderator didn't give the same answer. the moderator i emailed didn't say that the blue was the front page and the green and the grey were the dirty back pages.

my lovely moderator just said that any post was a front page post. or something akin to that.

(i'd say who/what was said, but i think i read somewhere that what goes on in email, stays in email....)

but i think i'm taking that to a ridiculous level....

anyhoo....i'm soooo glad someone else is a bloody idiot, not just me. i really hate it when i'm the only nincompoop that doesn't see "the obvious".
posted by taff at 7:00 AM on August 2, 2007


progosk- the ninja-stealth mode is reserved for sites like travel.metafilter.com.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:01 AM on August 2, 2007


dorks.
posted by Stynxno at 7:07 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


taff: a bloody idiot
posted by tellurian at 7:12 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


I am getting impatient with idly chatty Metatalking lately

Fuckin' a, man, me too. I'm normally a huge MeTa fan, and even a fan of the idle chatter (if it's funny and semi well-intentioned). But lately the flame is low, lame, and ubiquitous. Mincing post after stupid, self-important, mincing post, topped off with mounds of uncalled-for megaharshing on jessamyn. I'm hangin' on, but the grey is suffering.
posted by kosem at 7:16 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


What that dork Stynxno said.
posted by signal at 7:32 AM on August 2, 2007


I thought I smelled a plate of beans coming from this thread.
posted by Dr-Baa at 8:16 AM on August 2, 2007


Knock Knock
Who's there?
SLBOE
SLBOE who?
SLBOE Milosevic.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
FPP
FPP who?
Fap fap fap.
posted by yeti at 8:23 AM on August 2, 2007


Hey, guys, it's OK. Not everybody knows everything, that's the whole reason this MetaTalk section is here. People who are calling you bad names don't really mean it, they are just teasing and in their own way trying to have fun. There was a time when they were new, too, and they also had to find out these things.

Sometimes people want to be mean to feel like they are better. Don't worry. You are a good person, too, just as good as they are.

And you just go ahead and ask anything you like. Some people might be a little zealous in their teasing, but their hearts are in the right place. And eventually someone will come along and give you a direct answer, so don't worry.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:17 AM on August 2, 2007


*takes Meatbomb's hand, jointly skips around the room scattering butterflies from a basket, and blowing kisses, playfully knocking across the jaw everyone in the room with a frown or a heart rate over 90*

Say it with, pals! "The Gray will be okay. Tomorrow is another day. Caloo, Callay, a-baby-BAY-bay!"
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:45 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


What's this "post" business? It's called a "blog". See, I just made a blog.
posted by Mister_A at 9:51 AM on August 2, 2007


This is another blog! See!
posted by Mister_A at 9:51 AM on August 2, 2007


Hai, I can haz blog nau?
posted by Mister_A at 9:51 AM on August 2, 2007


There was a time when they were new, too, and they also had to find out these things.
Yes, but most of them did it without blatantly advertising themselves in a "gee fellas, help me out, hold my hand, I'm just so gosh darned cuh-lue-less and can't make it on my own" fashion.

It's one of the things that makes the place attractive, as far as I'm concerned.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:00 AM on August 2, 2007


Fox 5 News in NYC says every night, "Log on to myfoxny and post your blog."
posted by yeti at 10:01 AM on August 2, 2007


I always thought it stood for Full Plate of Pintobeans.
posted by ORthey at 10:33 AM on August 2, 2007 [2 favorites]


I call them Text With Links On The Main Blue Front Page Of The Metafilter Website or TWLOTMBFPOTMWs. Much more accurate and catchy.
posted by mattbucher at 10:38 AM on August 2, 2007


SO it's resolved: the new acronym is FPBB, for front-page bean blog.
posted by Mister_A at 10:40 AM on August 2, 2007


MeTa = Back Alley (don't go there).

*picks up iron pipe*

*hides behind dumpster*

*waits*
posted by quin at 10:44 AM on August 2, 2007


*Asks quin if he knows where the ATM is?*
posted by Mister_A at 10:47 AM on August 2, 2007


*kicks quin out of his dumpster, snaps pipe like a twig*

I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL AND SHIT SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS, MR. PRETTY-PONY CUPCAKE
posted by loquacious at 11:31 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Okay, so I'm looking at the first link cortex provided. And that link itself links here.

Hoo doggy! Remember when it was okay to make a single link newsfilter post complete with heavy editorializing in the post text AND a [more inside] full of soap box evangelizing? Ah, those were the days.
posted by shmegegge at 11:36 AM on August 2, 2007


Yeah, I totally stole that. For it is awesome.
posted by loquacious at 11:42 AM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


shmegegegge, heh. And I love this'n:

The goalposts are once again moving all over the place. The only thing we can be certain of is that Metafilter has more rules than Mornington Crescent.

Take that, you frickin' stasi!
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:52 AM on August 2, 2007


There's a fucking travel subsite? Holy shit! Amazing!
posted by GuyZero at 12:09 PM on August 2, 2007


There it is in a nutshell -- it's hard to provide even-handed moderation when so much of your day is taken up with moving the goalposts. They're heavy. and you have to dig holes.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:10 PM on August 2, 2007


"I call them Text With Links On The Main Blue Front Page Of The Metafilter Website or TWLOTMBFPOTMWs. Much more accurate and catchy."

Yeah, but I shorten that to LOTPOTs.
posted by klangklangston at 12:20 PM on August 2, 2007


Being a moderator at this site seems a little like being the clean-up guy at Bukkake Films, Ltd.
posted by Mister_A at 12:25 PM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


"I call them Text With Links On The Main Blue Front Page Of The Metafilter Website or TWLOTMBFPOTMWs"

As opposed to the secondary blue front page, or the main blue back page?

FAIL
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:31 PM on August 2, 2007


*Has seen Mefites favorite noun-adjective-adverb often. Is relieved to know that the F in FPP stands for Front*
posted by Cranberry at 12:38 PM on August 2, 2007


I call them Text With Links On The Main Blue Front Page Of The Metafilter Website or TWLOTMBFPOTMWs. Much more accurate and catchy.

You must not have seen the memo, that's the old system.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:57 PM on August 2, 2007


Isn't it time someone started a new MeTa thread about a post that was deleted from the Blue? Want. Fresh. Blood.
posted by poppo at 1:02 PM on August 2, 2007


Here you go, poppo.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:15 PM on August 2, 2007


Isn't it time someone started a new MeTa thread about a post that was deleted from the Blue? Want. Fresh. Blood.

Ahem.
posted by dersins at 1:16 PM on August 2, 2007


Curse you, mr_crash_davis!

I guess, instead, I'll take this opportunity to pimp for my latest Front Page FPP Post.

Which is awesome.

And should be viewed by everybody.

But not favorited.

Because favorites are for suckas!
posted by dersins at 1:18 PM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


I waited, and I watched, and sat silently by, and now, crowing quietly to myself, I lurk, raising not a finger to help but instead basking in the roseate glow of my evil genius, as progosk, all unknowing, strolls innocently into the snarling pack of wolves that is the brown, hands in his pockets and whistling a merry tune, drinking in his surroundings with touchingly avid curiousity, and, with a shy, self-effacing manner, pipes up cheerfully, "Hey, guys? Why is it called an FPP?"

I didn't know what it stood for, either. But that's the longest sentence I've ever posted here.
posted by misha at 1:36 PM on August 2, 2007


the brown

Come now, this place isn't that shitty.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:45 PM on August 2, 2007


How about FPPost? As opposed to the NYPost?

stavros, your MetaOutburst was UNcalled for but VERY entertaining. Just be sure to keep it under 451 degrees Fahrenheit, or you may flame out.
posted by wendell at 2:31 PM on August 2, 2007


This was the best MeTa in days, people. Totally redeemed by stavros and then re-redeemed by the very-high-in-my-esteem taz (*hi, taz!*). Which leads me to share the love:

I ♥ stavrosthewonderchicken!
I ♥ ♥ ♥ taz!
posted by Lynsey at 3:39 PM on August 2, 2007


Back on topic:

Actually, I happen to work for the department of redundancy department, which is where I have a place of employment for my job, and our policy management guidelines dictate that the usage "FPP" is satisfactorily acceptable and adequately cromulent.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 3:50 PM on August 2, 2007 [3 favorites]


Sorry, Cortex, but the grey looks brown in this light. I think it's showing its age.
posted by misha at 6:02 PM on August 2, 2007


goodnewsfortheinane, I want to praise you with faint damnation. You have an uncanny grasp of the obvious, your skin runs deep and your unique universality is only matched by your stereotypical individuality. You embiggen me.

Oh, and that goes for taz too.
posted by wendell at 6:04 PM on August 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Nah, wendell, it should be FrPaPo, like the WaPo.
posted by hattifattener at 7:30 PM on August 2, 2007


goodnewsfortheinane,

Oh, I do hope that was deliberate.
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:48 PM on August 2, 2007


I'll shut the fuck up and keep my unfunny, uncalled-for annoyance at the ceaseless shitting-up of Metatalk to myself.

I've got a question. I should probably post it as a front page Metatalk question, just to be in keeping, but I've never posted an FPP to the gray yet, so why break the habits of a lunchtime?

My question is this: do lame questions/call outs/etc really shit up Metatalk, or is it the multitude of posts in response that shit it up?

Original question: three lines of twaddle.
Follow-ups: hundreds and hundreds of lines of twaddle

Which of these two is the bigger shit-up? Wouldn't it make more sense, if you genuinely do object to a question or whatever, to simply flag it and move on?

I'm just a five-dollar-newbie here, but I can't believe that this has never occurred to anybody before me.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:28 AM on August 3, 2007


In the long and storied history of Metatalk, which has always, perversely, been the Heart Of The Site for me, there have only been two occasions that I can personally recall where anything has been deleted from it. Flagging serves little to no purpose on the Grey (or Brown, if that's how you see it) -- I'm not sure why the links are even there.

So 'flagging and moving on' doesn't make sense here. It is all about talking the shit out here, at agonizing length, with (for better or worse) few if any limits, even soft ones, on what can be said or how. Sometimes that means the heights of yay!, sometimes it means the depths of SH1TCOKC!!1!ery.

Such is the charm of MeTa for me, because as often as it's dumb and loud, it's smart and sparkly.

I'm just a five-dollar-newbie here

Seriously, the five-dolla-newb thing I threw at progosk really wasn't meant as anything but a parody of that attitude -- if somebody is a net-positive contributor to the site, volume aside, it doesn't matter if they joined last week or 8 years ago. That said, not that either of you have done it, HOW DOES I MAEK THRED is always annoying, though, I guess.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:40 AM on August 3, 2007


OK, almost as often.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:41 AM on August 3, 2007


Flagging serves little to no purpose on the Grey (or Brown, if that's how you see it) -- I'm not sure why the links are even there.

Let's peg it at 'little'. The general characterization is right on—things mostly get left alone, even if they're screeching or hollering or whatever, but the really exceptional stuff does get responded to (and, tends to get a really unusual number of flags for a metatalk comment). So it's not quite the land of Do As You Please, but it's close. In the case that there's somewhere that a person would flag and move on to instead of just getting zenlike and moving on with their day, this is usually that place that they go. Last stop, Grand Central, etc.

Of course, the one unusual moderation tool we have here, vs. the rest of the site, is the ability to just close a thread instead of killing it, and when things are either resolved or stuck in an ugly loop we'll often do just that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:41 AM on August 3, 2007


Yes.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:02 AM on August 3, 2007


*high five*
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:04 AM on August 3, 2007


Woohoo!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:08 AM on August 3, 2007


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