Annoyed by "What [x] are you most like?" Sites

December 10, 2001 11:42 AM

Am I the only one who finds the proliferation of What [x] are you most like sites on the Internet annoying? Note that I'm not saying they shouldn't be linked on the front page, just that most of the ones I've seen on the Net as a whole have been pointless and increasingly nonsensical. The sites that attempt to tell you how [y] you are with a percentage are equally ludicrous. I am not, for example, 22% goth.
posted by anapestic to General Weblog-Related at 11:42 AM (33 comments total)

Nope, I'm tired of them too. It was fun at first, but like everything else fun on the Internet it has been beaten to death.
posted by briank at 11:45 AM on December 10, 2001

I was 87% sick of them.

But, I tried changing two of my answers and became only 42% sick of them.
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:48 AM on December 10, 2001 [1 favorite]

"What are you" tests are not worthy of MetaFilter posting, IMO. Still, I do want to sneak in this quiz: John Ashcroft or Joe McCarthy? (via Fark.com).
posted by Carol Anne at 11:58 AM on December 10, 2001

I concur. I've only liked one of them, and that was because it was self-referentially mocking. Overall I find them useless, unpleasant, and generally nauseating, like discarded cheese.

They don't seem to serve much of a purpose, and the days when the result of when actually reflected a person's personality or tendencies seem to be long gone, so I'm not even sure what the relevancy is anymore.
posted by j.edwards at 12:04 PM on December 10, 2001

Anapestic is, of course, a staggering 78% Goth. Make the night your cloak, my friend.

I wouldn't mind the quizzes if they were clever or non-halfassed, but by and large they aren't.
posted by Skot at 12:07 PM on December 10, 2001

I hate them as well, but then the 'what painting are you' picked out one of all-time my favorite works (Garden of Earthly Delights) and now I love them. Haha. but seriously, though, there's no need for them to be on the front page of MeFi.
posted by cell divide at 12:08 PM on December 10, 2001

They are an important lesson in memethusiasm; they taste good for a minute and then -- right after you've posted them to your blog -- there's that realization that you never want to think about them again. Like Men Without Hats.

Maybe in ten years we'll all be saying "remember the 'What-X-Are-You?' trend?" and telling our friends about the cool archive of tests we just found.
posted by BT at 12:09 PM on December 10, 2001

Hmm.. "memethusiasm." I like that. Is the .com available?

Yes it is
posted by mkn at 12:46 PM on December 10, 2001

I am 34% anapestic.
posted by iceberg273 at 1:20 PM on December 10, 2001

So 30.6% of anapestic is underwater? Or 59.4% of iceberg273 is dry pesto? Wait, I'm confused. Anybody got a pencil?
posted by gleuschk at 1:29 PM on December 10, 2001

Some pencils. And there are plenty more where those came from, too....
posted by mattpfeff at 1:33 PM on December 10, 2001

Perhaps this little chunk from G.Elton Warrick's notorious "The Mechanics of Writing" will elucidate you, gleuschk:

Here is a nice list of different feet for you beyond what you know exists. And it is only the tip of the iceberg:

TYPES OF METER
--------------------
iambic - +
trochaic + -
anapestic - - +


Geddit, wink wink, nudge nudge? :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:54 PM on December 10, 2001

What is more fascinating to the ignorant than a mirror?
posted by UncleFes at 2:01 PM on December 10, 2001

two mirrors?
posted by Kafkaesque at 2:04 PM on December 10, 2001

shiny pieces of glass?
posted by Kafkaesque at 2:04 PM on December 10, 2001

A pencil?

(Where, by "pencil", see, you know, I'm drawing like a comparison to, like, personal websites, and stuff? And then that "drawing" thing there? That was like literary and stuff?)
posted by gleuschk at 2:10 PM on December 10, 2001

very small rocks?
posted by jpoulos at 2:12 PM on December 10, 2001

Pornography!

Color me ignorant.
posted by Skot at 2:20 PM on December 10, 2001

Fish!
posted by mattpfeff at 2:28 PM on December 10, 2001

A DUCK!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:31 PM on December 10, 2001

*gasp!*
posted by Kafkaesque at 2:33 PM on December 10, 2001

I love shiny things (and rocks, fish, and pornography). What's your favorite shiny thing(s) and why?

If you were a shiny thing, what kind would you be?
posted by jheiz at 2:38 PM on December 10, 2001

* 100% cries *
posted by baby_jessamyn at 2:53 PM on December 10, 2001

Yes, very much so. I read blogs and it's all one test after another. Not only that, but I am getting tired of the "what is your favorite" threads too. Can't we discuss the merits of the thing under consideration itself?
posted by Charmian at 5:18 PM on December 10, 2001

I'm my favorite shiny thing.
posted by shinybeast at 5:31 PM on December 10, 2001

I posted a similar objection about a month ago, and while they seemed to decrease, they're back again. Someone should start a blog where people can just post their favorites of anything. Metafilter's not the place.
posted by gramcracker at 5:51 PM on December 10, 2001

I disagree. As usual. If you don't like a post, don't post to it. If the topic interests you, have a go at it. There's a lot of FFPs on the front page right now that do not interest me personally. I don't come in here and bitch about every single one. For example, I care not about Astroboy, customized bikes, and while personally I have enjoyed the films of David Lynch, I could care less about the state of his website. However, I'm assuming there must be other people out there who are interested in these topics, so I just skip those particular threads and move on to those that I am more interested in.

If Getting To Know You threads don't work for you, ignore them.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:33 PM on December 10, 2001

So if the mirror weighs more than a duck.....?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:12 AM on December 11, 2001

I disagree. As usual. If you don't like a post, don't post to it.

And if you've posted the same sentiment countless times and have nothing to say about the particular topic being discussed, maybe you just shouldn't post at all.
posted by anapestic at 5:23 AM on December 11, 2001

who is weighing the shiny ducks?
posted by clavdivs at 7:58 AM on December 11, 2001

Now look what you did back there! Boy, standards are slipping if baby jessamyn cries and the next poster just doesn't care. Tsk tsk.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:58 AM on December 11, 2001

You mean a laden shiny duck or unladen?
posted by Kafkaesque at 2:06 PM on December 11, 2001

If there was a funniest MeFi poster award poll, I'd vote for Kafkaesque. On topic: Shitty things obviously don't belong on the front page. Only unshitty things belong on the front page. That is, things that wholly lack shittiness.
posted by gleemax at 6:51 PM on December 11, 2001