Mefites' Choice 2013 winners, Week One

December 8, 2013 1:27 AM

Aaand the results are in for the first week of this year's "Mefites-Choose" all-singing, all-dancing Most Fantastic Posts! (Reminder: the contest is going all month, so please keep voting – using the "fantastic post" flag!)

This year, Blasdelb kicks it off with the most votes for his post "Where My Ladies At," featuring a video commentary by science communicator and YouTube educator Emily Graslie, and a handy-dandy linked list of her recommended "awesome female science educators online with channels that focus on Science Technology Engineering and Math."

Congrats to one of our great, always-helpful Mefi scientists, who will receive from me this cool bacteriophage coffee cup (if I can persuade the artist to create another one), or similar phage-branded useful and/or cool item to delight the soul of a Blasdelb.

In second place, gelatin has boldly gone where no Mefite has gone before, winning the runner-up position with a SSTSLYT – seasonal Star Trek single-link YouTube post of Picard and the crew singing "Let it Snow" – with a little help from the video editor. Such enterprise should not go unrewarded, and Zarq will make it so with a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.

Just a whisker whisper behind, and true to his Metafilter nom de guerre, the man of twists and turns takes the bronze with his in-depth look at America’s conspiracy theory culture in Might As Well Have Been. (Secret Update: GUR PNONY UNF VFFHRQ N FGNGRZRAG GUNG VG'F ABG GBB YNGR VS NALBAR JNAGF GB WHZC VA JVGU N CEVMR SBE GUR ZNA BS GJVFGF NAQ GHEAF.)

Finally, I'd like to award my personal favorite to Iridic for his post pointing out The Readings of Elizabeth Klett and other excellent Librivox readers, and spawning a great thread with more recommendations. Since it looks like Iridic was recently seeking short stories by lesser known authors, my prize will be Mefite Sokka shot first's story anthology Puzzle Box e-book (see the Mefi Mall).

Happy first week everyone; go forth and post and vote!

posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 1:27 AM (41 comments total)

Also, check out the Wiki to see prizes offered for both "most fantastic" post winners and also special topic prizes.
posted by taz (staff) at 1:53 AM on December 8, 2013

Yay! The cup looks awesome! The thread even went pretty astonishingly well. I've never won anything on the internet before.
posted by Blasdelb at 5:13 AM on December 8, 2013

Also just a quick reminder from the previous thread,

Jessamyn: "Just a reminder that voting is using the Fantastic Flag. We haven't seen many votes coming in for this first week of entries and folks who are interested in making this a bit of a contest (and not just mods voting because I hassle them to vote) should start flagging posts they really like for this week."

posted by Blasdelb at 5:13 AM on December 8, 2013

Congratulations to this week's winners! But any word on who will be hosting the Choosies Awards ceremony for the final week? I guess you'll be producing a star-studded gala at a famous Hollywood theater on "Choose Day," 31 December. Looking at my diary I am actually free that night! Just saying.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:26 AM on December 8, 2013

This needs some sort of banner or something on the front page.
I sort of knew a competition was happening but had no idea that we the proles could get involved in *gasp* upvoting *gasp* something.
posted by adamvasco at 7:02 AM on December 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I [!] of this post.
posted by arcticseal at 7:06 AM on December 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maybe an addition to the banner that is already there?
posted by Blasdelb at 7:19 AM on December 8, 2013

Perhaps a wardrobe malfunction to get people's attention?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:02 AM on December 8, 2013

We don't use such tawdry tactics as wardrobe malfunc... oh, hey, does this color look like Mefi blue to anyone else?
posted by taz (staff) at 8:37 AM on December 8, 2013 [7 favorites]

Can I submit this award for credit in my independent study class?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:51 AM on December 8, 2013

Question on topic/category prizes: are the winners selected by the prizegiver or are they culled from the Most Fantasticateds?
posted by psoas at 8:59 AM on December 8, 2013

Prizegivers set the conditions of their prizes, I think, so it can be either.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:18 AM on December 8, 2013

One of the reasons for the low vote counts may be that posts cannot be flagged from the front page.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:27 AM on December 8, 2013

had no idea that we the proles could get involved in *gasp* upvoting *gasp* something.

This is also how we did it last year and I think it's just voting, not upvoting. Using the built in Fantastic flag made more sense than having pb build a whole new thing for this (which I think we did one year) and it makes the judging part easier.

posts cannot be flagged from the front page.

Yup. We sort of want people to read them. Congrats to this week's winners and thanks for the nice write-up, taz.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:52 AM on December 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Ok, pb has updated the banner to let more people know about the contest. Vote early and often!
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:32 AM on December 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Can someone link that amazing periodic table breaking bad post? I wish to apply flags to it.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:27 PM on December 8, 2013

Hey, taz, that was a really funny and fun and well done write-up! You get my prize for best MetaTalk post! Just telepathic season's greetings, I'm afraid, but nevertheless, thanks for the lovely write-up!

Also, thank you to this year's winners and all the other posters who keep making MetaFilter the best of the web!
posted by onlyconnect at 12:53 PM on December 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think that the contest is only for posts posted during the month of December? (Although actually, I'm not finding where this is explicitly stated!) However, here is the Periodic Table of Breaking Bad post should you wish to revisit it anyway!
posted by beryllium at 12:53 PM on December 8, 2013

Yup, contest is December only.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 1:02 PM on December 8, 2013

Awesome. I think I say this every year, but I just wanted to reaffirm how fun I think this all is and how much it adds to end of year festivities. I look forward to it for months beforehand. Part of it is the quality posts that come out of it, part of it is that it's fun to try to be a little bit extra creative to try and win something. But mainly, I think it's just a really fun metafilter experience that brings the community together in a good way during one of the best times of year. Looking forward to the next few weeks.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:26 PM on December 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Is there a difference between the 'fantastic flag' and favoriting a post? I am having a hard time locating a fantastic flag to click on....
posted by Tandem Affinity at 4:35 PM on December 8, 2013

taz: "GUR PNONY UNF VFFHRQ N FGNGRZRAG GUNG VG'F ABG GBB YNGR VS NALBAR JNAGF GB WHZC VA JVGU N CEVMR SBE GUR ZNA BS GJVFGF NAQ GHEAF"

ABGR: GURER VF AB PNONY
posted by double block and bleed at 4:42 PM on December 8, 2013

Tandem Affinity - when you're in a thread, click the [!] next to the favorite [+] button, it'll show a drop-down and you can choose it there.
posted by antonymous at 4:45 PM on December 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thanks....I probably should have picked this up sooner but I always thought the ! was just for negative flagging....

I am off to fantastic-!-ize (when appropriate)....
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:14 PM on December 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow, I'm honored, and the more so to be in such fine company. Thank you, fellow MeFites!
posted by Gelatin at 5:45 PM on December 8, 2013

Jung vf vg gung znxrf gur zrzoref xrrc qenjvat nggragvba gb gurzfryirf jvgu gurfr pbafcvphbhf lrg syvzfl qravnyf?
posted by flabdablet at 3:13 AM on December 9, 2013

flabdablet: "Jung vf vg gung znxrf gur zrzoref xrrc qenjvat nggragvba gb gurzfryirf jvgu gurfr pbafcvphbhf lrg syvzfl qravnyf?"

Three, but only if you put them in backwards.
posted by not_on_display at 6:27 AM on December 9, 2013

taz: your wardrobe malfunction link lacks the LOLBUTTS tag.

BUTTSLOL
posted by lonefrontranger at 2:03 PM on December 9, 2013

Can someone link that amazing periodic table breaking bad post? I wish to apply flags to it.

I think that the contest is only for posts posted during the month of December?

Yup, contest is December only.

I don't mind if my Breaking Bad post isn't eligible for anything, but I gotta say, it still really, really bums me out that it got *zero* love from the Best Of blog, the sidebar, and even the monthly podcast. Normally that would sound like a really entitled complaint, but come on. It's like objectively the best post I've ever done here. Top three at least. Took a lot of thought and work during a pretty crappy time IRL, too. I've always aspired to the various sitewide highlights when I post, rarely reach them, so it was quite frustrating and dispiriting to have a shoo-in labor of love like that get completely overlooked.

Having it skipped over by every best-of part of the site was hardly the worst thing that's happened to me the last couple months (ASK ME ABOUT IT SOMETIME!), but it definitely didn't help. It just bugs me to have one of the few really positive things I managed to get done this season be soured by such a disappointing snub, even if the neglect wasn't intentional. (Or maybe even because it was unintentional. Dumb luck and all that.)

Anyway, I've been trying to avoid venting about it, but seeing that single-link Breaking Bad Cookie Clicker parody make the new podcast really got me. It's not a bad post at all, but still -- it stings.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:11 PM on December 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Rhaomi, I feel certain that I saw a mod or two comment on how awesome that post was, and possibly was it also Metatalked because it was linked somewhere else of prominence? But it was AWESOME and if it was not sidebarred imho it should have been. Also, would you please, please, please memail me your address because I would like to mail you some cookies, because your contributions here are works of art. Thank you for all the time, effort and thought you put into your posts.
posted by onlyconnect at 8:30 PM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hey Rhaomi, that post was great. I know it took a lot of work and tons of people on the site loved it. (I haven't seen Breaking Bad myself, is why I'm going by other people.) The podcast and even the sidebar are a little catch-as-catch-can, so sometimes great things get missed, and I hope you don't feel as if it's any disparagement of your effort in that post.

I'm sorry to hear other parts of life are tough right now, too.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:38 PM on December 10, 2013

it was quite frustrating and dispiriting to have a shoo-in labor of love like that get completely overlooked.

My apologies. If I recall there was a lot of other stuff going on at the time and the post, while totally terrific in every way, also broke some stuff formatting-wise that took us a lot of back and forth work to fix.

It was posted to MetaTalk. It was favorited a ton of times. I'm the person who does almost all the BestOf stuff and I don't watch Breaking Bad and so while I appreciated the effort you put into it, content-wise it just wasn't my thing. I'm only saying this because there seems to be some sort of a question coming along with your comment. We mention you in many podcasts. You win many best post contests. I'm sorry this one post didn't hit the sweet spot that you were hoping it would. It was an exceptional post.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:41 PM on December 10, 2013

I... had not seen that MetaTalk post, or the Neatorama mention. Now that just makes me feel -- a weird mix of happy and embarrassed. Happyassed?

But thank you, really, and sorry if all that came off as snitty or unappreciative. I think part of it is that, due to other circumstances, I haven't been able to participate here nearly as often as in the past -- I missed the Quonsar signup, am posting at a five-year low, haven't read the site RSS regularly in a year -- so it takes more than the usual motivation to do something cool and thus feels higher-stakes than it would otherwise. So it hurt more than usual when things didn't go how I thought they typically would. For instance, the only other time I can remember ever feeling shortchanged podcast-wise was a few years ago, after finally managing to pull together a giant 90s Nickelodeon post I'd been tinkering with off and on for years. I felt very let down at the time when it didn't get a shout-out (especially when somebody noted the absence and cortex explained it like this... talk about feeling taken for granted). But I got over it pretty quick, as 2011 was a largely upbeat, high-participation year for me with a lot of other stuff I was able to share.

So it's not so much anger at some imagined deliberate snub (that's reserved for a job that scheduled me 48 hours short of qualifying for health insurance next year), but general frustration that things happened the way they did at this particular juncture. Like randomly getting every red light on your commute -- mildly annoying most days, but it feels worse if that doesn't normally happen and you really need to be on time that day. (And like a traffic light, there's no logical reason to be mad at anyone or anything other than chance, even if it still feels good to vent.)

It reminds me of last summer, when I had first started listening to Radiohead beyond Creep and Karma Police for the first time, became fascinated by the story behind their early years, and was inspired to rush to put together a long OK Computer post about what was becoming my favorite album of all time, just in time for its 15th anniversary!

And then less than two hours later, a stage collapse in Toronto killed one of the band's longtime stagehands in a terrible tragic accident and put a horrible full stop on what was shaping up to be a great conversation.

Like having your birthday on 9/11, it soured what was supposed to have been a really pleasant day, but in a way you can't really blame or even credibly grouse about without feeling petty. Just one of those things. At least here I don't feel like I'm disrespecting someone's life by expressing disappointment at how things went.

(It also occurs to me that lamenting about the podcast/blog/etc. implies a discounting of the discussion that happens ITT. Not at all! I loved reading the real-time liveblogging of the finale, and really appreciated the warm feedback and favorites and feel-good vibes -- even some very kind Mefi mail. It makes the effort worth it. It's actually why making the podcast makes my day: because it both offers yet more viewpoints on the topic from some of the most perceptive people on the site, and highlights and prolongs the whole thread in a way that helps to keep it from just blending into the archives. It's the cherry on top of an already very good dessert.)

I'm only saying this because there seems to be some sort of a question coming along with your comment.

No question at all -- it would be stupid of me to suggest there's no appreciation of my contributions going on; I wouldn't do it otherwise. But people have told me I bottle up my feelings about stuff too often, and to be honest with the timing and circumstances of this particular instance -- and the way things kept coming up to remind me about it, like the universe kept poking me in the eye -- it was feeling unhealthy to not get it off my chest somehow. I do feel moderately better about it now, though. And who knows, with miko's Alice's Restaurant spectacular being revisited after three years, maybe mine too will get a second look down the road -- when the hit drama METÁSTASIS takes the world by storm. I got a good feeling about that one.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:24 AM on December 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

It may also be worth pointing out, just as a completeness thing, that one of the things that I consciously try to do with the BestOf/sidebar and podcast mentions is to spread the love around. Which means that some people who got mentioned early and often (Rhaomi, zarq, sonascope, ColdChef, filthy light thief, madamjujujive, Miko, just to name a few) aren't going to come up as often and that's actually sort of deliberate. It's a tough balancing act to make sure this place doesn't seem really cliquish to newcomers and part of making that the case from our end is making sure that everything doesn't become the same old folks and that there are ways to get noticed or mentioned (in a good way) that are available to everyone, not just people who have been here a long time.

It's tricky because obviously we want everyone who is awesome here to feel like they are awesome and we can never know when something may hit someone in a weird way. I try to favorite and comment in a positive way pretty often but this is not necessarily something that's a modwide thing. It can be really hard in a group of nerds to suddenly feel like you are a Chief Nerd whose job it is to actually give the thumbs up to other nerds and not just want thumbs-up for yourself. We could all use more thumbs-up, honestly, so I hear where you are coming from Rhaomi.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:32 PM on December 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

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posted by flabdablet at 8:02 PM on December 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

So, cortex and I haven't seen the last season of breaking bad yet- and Rhaomi, that breaking bad post is really really great to all appearances, but I had to hold myself back from digging into it because there's a note at the top that says there's spoilers! Which is a good warning. I don't know how up to date other mods are on the show... but perhaps the potential for spoilers kept the topic out of podcast conversation?
posted by Secretariat at 6:15 PM on December 12, 2013

It sounds more like many of them just don't watch the show -- or at least Jessamyn doesn't (and there was only one other mod comment at the time). Which makes me realize something else: a big part of why I was so confidently expecting shout-outs was because of the totally ecstatic reception early on ITT -- a reception coming almost entirely from -- hello! -- huge Breaking Bad fans. The post is probably a lot less viscerally impressive, memorable, or inviting to dive into if you're not already a big fan of the show, or even actively avoiding it. Cool formatting aside, it is essentially a ~100-item BrBa linkdump with some chemistry puns.

Jessamyn, what you said does make a lot of sense -- even MeFi itself was retired to "hall of fame" status in the Weblog Awards years ago, and I know one of the worst things about Digg before it died was how it seemed dominated by a handful of power-users. Posting limits make that not really doable here (with the possible exception of The Whelk!), and I don't post that often anyway. But obviously the various podcast/blog/sidebar areas are a different and more rarefied story. I just hope it's still possible to have the occasional truly exceptional post have a moment in the sun -- even after the slow transition from hotshot newb to old hand, impressing Team Mod with something cool still makes my day! (Of course, even a de facto "retirement" seems fair, just as long as I can adjust my expectations accordingly.)

It can be really hard in a group of nerds to suddenly feel like you are a Chief Nerd whose job it is to actually give the thumbs up to other nerds and not just want thumbs-up for yourself.

Speaking of which, one of my New Year's resolutions should be reading and participating on the blue more regularly. I've got a year's backlog of FPPs to get through, and it's pretty lame to be moping about unpaid kudos when you've been doling out hardly any yourself. There are so many fantastic posts and comments that I haven't even read yet, much less favorited/commented on/sent enthused MeMail about. Not cool, at all.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:35 PM on December 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

We should add a rookie award for best post by someone on the site under a year.
posted by shothotbot at 5:36 AM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

That sounds like a great idea
posted by Blasdelb at 8:09 AM on December 13, 2013

You can still add it to the MeFite's Choice contest. We could do the work to figure out which was the most favorited post by a newer user.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:22 AM on December 13, 2013

You can still add it to the MeFite's Choice contest

Oh right! I forgot about the self-organizing nature of the MetaFilter Ad Hoc Reward Collective.

Done and done.
posted by shothotbot at 10:40 AM on December 13, 2013 [2 favorites]