MeFi 20 Planning Thread May 17, 2019 3:00 PM   Subscribe

OK! I am having people over to my house in Massachusetts on Saturday, July 13 where we will raise a toast to mathowie and, quite probably, eat a lot of cheese and maybe play some board games. I'll put up an IRL post soonish but this MeTa thread is to nudge people to start thinking about their own "What am I going to do for MeFi's 20th birthday?" planning ideas. First post was July 14, 1999.
posted by jessamyn (retired) to MetaFilter-Related at 3:00 PM (73 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite

So - from the mod side, we don't have an overall top-down plan right now; working on an online component tba. But people who want to start organizing should by all means!
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 3:01 PM on May 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


Also, thank you to longtime Mefite indienial, who asked us about this a couple weeks ago and spurred us to get going on the online component.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 3:04 PM on May 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


Hmm. Maybe this might spur a Tokyo meet up, if only so we can post “First!” in the grand spirit of message boards in 1999!
posted by Ghidorah at 3:23 PM on May 17, 2019 [9 favorites]


Yay! For once I might actually be around for an anniversary meetup!
posted by bondcliff at 3:34 PM on May 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


DC folks, let's do this!

Meet up at a restaurant? In a park? At someone's house? Another ice cream social, maybe?
posted by duffell at 4:22 PM on May 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


OMG, I'm so old!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:20 PM on May 17, 2019 [12 favorites]


I'm totally up for a London thing, but I'm also quite tempted to try and find a reasonably priced flight to Massachusetts.
posted by knapah at 5:28 PM on May 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Mini McGee turns TEN next week, which marks 10 years at MeFi for me. My sister introduced me to it over Christmas 2008 when I was pregnant, I read on and off, and then I started reading obsessively in May 2009 when Mini McGee was born and I was suddenly breastfeeding constantly and in need of things easy to scroll with one thumb. :D

I didn't join until January 2010 but I consider Mini McGee's 10th birthday my 10-year-anniversary at MeFi! Of course in summer 2009 I hadn't even made an account yet and meetups were out of the question, but I was intrigued by reading the 10-year meetup threads, and I am excited for 20!

(Also MetaFilter breastfeeding mafia represent, there are SO MANY OF US who got hooked and read obsessively during breastfeeding because it loads fast and reads well with one hand and is reliably interesting in 20-minute chunks!)
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 5:45 PM on May 17, 2019 [23 favorites]


MetaFilter breastfeeding mafia represent

Fond memories of baby + Boppy pillow + MeFi while nursing.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:55 PM on May 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


Oh man so close to my 2 weeks of in the mountains of NC vacation. Otherwise I'd be where ever
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 6:02 PM on May 17, 2019


Twin Cities planning thread
posted by Kwine at 6:15 PM on May 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


MetaFilter breastfeeding mafia represent

I am nursing the new baby right now, in fact
posted by purpleclover at 6:50 PM on May 17, 2019 [11 favorites]


Maybe this is the meetup at which I will finally MEET JESSAMYN!
posted by ChuraChura at 7:24 PM on May 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


Sign me up for a thing. This year a thing like this is accessible to me and Metafilter literally saved my life so I want to celebrate that.
posted by bilabial at 7:32 PM on May 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Your not old Flo, I thought she lived in Vermont.
posted by clavdivs at 7:46 PM on May 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Another vote for DC Ice Cream Social.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:50 PM on May 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


I thought she lived in Vermont.

I do. Since my dad died in 2011, my sister and I keep his house in MA for summer hangout time. My apartment in Vermont is small. My dad's place in MA is... less small. It's good for parties.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:02 PM on May 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


Ah wow. We are old.

I will randomly not be in Philly but rather LA that weekend visiting a friend...any LA peeps that wanna work together on a celebration?
posted by lazaruslong at 8:06 PM on May 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


July 21 is National Ice Cream Day!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:09 PM on May 17, 2019


I really should try to get off island for a gathering at jessamyn's- I've only ever met her on the highway in two moving cars. I'll try to clear my schedule for it.
posted by vrakatar at 8:33 PM on May 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


and quite probably, eat a lot of cheese

do you have some medicine for the inevitable crockety bloat
posted by lalochezia at 11:33 PM on May 17, 2019


Exciting! I will organise something in Paris, tune in to find out if it’s more than just me and motdiem2...
posted by ellieBOA at 1:51 AM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I will be all alone that weekend (family away) and would love to join in a shindig!
posted by Liesl at 4:33 AM on May 18, 2019


July 14th is also my 30th birthday; I'm already planning a party for the 13th, so I'll eat some cheese with metafilter in mind at some point during it.
posted by terretu at 5:00 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'll be out in SW Virginia camping that weekend, but if Richmond VA wants to do a weeknight meetup that week I'll organize...
posted by COD at 5:41 AM on May 18, 2019


Ooh, this is gonna be fun. I remember being drunk and silly at the NYC 10th anniversary meetup. I was so young.

I joined in November 2007. I’ve been on this site for a third of my life now. Isn’t that insane?
posted by ocherdraco at 5:48 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


Are these all meant to be simultaneous? If so, lazaruslong, I am not an LA peep, but I expect I will be there for a conference on the night of July 13th and would try to make it to a meetup if it were geographically feasible for me.
posted by eirias at 6:28 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm going to put a cat in a scanner.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:45 AM on May 18, 2019 [15 favorites]


I'm totally up for a London thing, but I'm also quite tempted to try and find a reasonably priced flight to Massachusetts.

Yeah, I thought that, but flights to Massachusetts are really expensive, presumably because everyone's returning from 4th July holidays to Europe. And also the pound's in freefall right now.

I'm definitely up for coming to London (or even Paris), though.
posted by ambrosen at 9:28 AM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'll go to a Toronto meetup if there is one, and I bet there will be.

I'm also going to knit myself a MeFi sweater (yarn is bought, sketches are made, just need to quickly finish up the 99% complete two projects I am currently working on before I get started on it), write up the pattern, and put it on Ravelry for free as my anniversary gift to the community, or at least as my gift to those members of the community who knit/know someone willing to knit it for them.
posted by orange swan at 9:33 AM on May 18, 2019 [10 favorites]


we will raise a toast to mathowie and, quite probably, eat a lot of cheese

If I could be there, I'd bring plates of beans, bowls of taters and cookie sheets of croutons!
posted by carmicha at 9:33 AM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


do you have some medicine for the inevitable crockety bloat

Carrots.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:39 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


write up the pattern, and put it on Ravelry for free as my anniversary gift to the community,

I've been knitting for two decades and never attempted a sweater. A MeFi one would be the perfect graduation into the genre!
posted by greermahoney at 10:48 AM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]




Can we have a group nap portion to the global meetup teleconference?
posted by loquacious at 1:16 PM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'll wait to see what the Chicago cabal is doing so I can make sure I can go to that, but I'll also host a weekend park picnic meetup like we did last summer, out in the north suburbs, where kids can play on the playground and grown people can chat and eat icecream or picnic or whatever. Maybe the weekend before or after!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 1:16 PM on May 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


MetaFilter: reads well with one hand and is reliably interesting in 20-minute chunks

(no, really!)
posted by chavenet at 2:00 PM on May 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


Hooray! Like ocherdraco, I’ve been on MeFi more than a third of my life. Yikes. I also met my husband hippydeano here, as part of the MeFi 10 planning! Which is why I remembered the anniversary. Now we have two small people so MeFi will live on in future generations.

The shenanigans may be slightly different in Brisbane this time around as we are all a bit more encumbered with the trappings of age but I’m looking forward to a sake bomb anyway (pretty sure that’s the only time anyone has ever actively looked forward to one while sober, and let me assure you it’s for purely sentimental reasons.)
posted by indienial at 5:10 PM on May 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I will be in Paris on vacation! See you there, ellieBOA?
posted by hydropsyche at 5:10 PM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


MeFi's 20th anniversary means it's been 10 years since the #mefi10nola party in New Orleans. That was so much fun! I forgot I left this note for the Columns staff.
posted by radioamy at 5:12 PM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


The NYC party ten years ago was off ALL the hooks. Paging stickycarpet, fuq, pinksuperhero, empress, ocherdraco, roperider, skygazer, mulp, and so many more! BRING ICE!
posted by vrakatar at 6:07 PM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


Looks like I might be in Vancouver. Looking at my wife’s google calendar I can’t tell if her conference is in Vancouver BC or Vancouver, WA (hello Portland!)
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:10 PM on May 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I've been a member for more than half the site's life (I joined in July 2008), and a reader for much longer...and the last meetup I attended may have been MeFi's 10th anniversary. I'm still in Portland, too. I think I should actually plan to leave my hermitage to attend the 20th!

It happens to be a good year for me for other reasons, too, as I have a milestone of my own to celebrate. Anyone happen to remember my AskMe query about finding a Pagan monastery from back in 2011? Well, I spent many years looking, and I didn't find anything even close to what I needed. So my co-founder and I have finally started one.
posted by velvet winter at 1:18 AM on May 19, 2019 [10 favorites]


I'll be in Prague that evening, if there are any Czech Mefites around, or those traveling like I am.

> I can’t tell if her conference is in Vancouver BC or Vancouver, WA (hello Portland!)

I'd bet dollars to donuts, it is in Vancouver, B.C.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:21 AM on May 19, 2019


Previously.

That thread has several links to photos taken that night, some are dead now but some still work.
posted by vrakatar at 5:56 PM on May 19, 2019


July 13 I am in Brussels, July 14 in Barcelona during the day (and in the mountains in Benasque by nighttime). So I suppose I will look for meetups happening in places starting with B!
posted by nat at 12:31 AM on May 20, 2019


Any other mefites doing the Seattle to Portland bike ride this year? Cause that's what I'll be doing for Metafilter's 20th!
posted by Grither at 6:52 AM on May 20, 2019


I joined MetaFilter on my daughter's 4th birthday. She graduates from high school next month.

I'll make a post for a Triangle-area gathering if no one else does in the next little while. I'd love to entice MeFites from all over NC to join us, if possible. I know there are pockets of you in the mountains, on the coast, and in Charlotte. Raleigh was created to be centrally located, so it seems fitting that this historic anniversary celebration be held "within 10 miles of Isaac Hunter's tavern."
posted by Rock Steady at 7:23 AM on May 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


I'll be in Bangalore, India. Any one around? I propose Koshy's as a meeting place.
posted by dhruva at 10:07 AM on May 20, 2019


Rock Steady: I organized the 2009 Triangle meetup. And then I moved away a few years later. Say hi to everyone for me!
posted by hydropsyche at 3:45 PM on May 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


The Calgary MeFi crew is working on a get-together in the neighbourhood of the 14th; if anyone is going to be in Cowtown around then, please chime in on the thread!
posted by CarrotAdventure at 6:24 PM on May 20, 2019


While I can't host this time around, I am fully up for helping to organize the L.A. meetup.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:23 PM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


20th Anniversary gift is traditionally china, but "cheese" begins with the same letters.
posted by rhizome at 12:35 PM on May 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


20th Anniversary gift is traditionally china

New Metafilter merch opportunity! We could keep our commemorative plates in our [more inside] tote bags.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:44 PM on May 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


Any Seattle-area MeFites interested in doing something during the day? Maybe we could reserve a picnic shelter at a park and do a potluck kinda thing?
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:34 PM on May 21, 2019


Today is my nineteenth year metafilter anniversary. Wheeeee!
posted by mecran01 at 1:59 PM on May 22, 2019 [4 favorites]


indienial: "Like ocherdraco, I’ve been on MeFi more than a third of my life. Yikes. "

I third your yikes.
posted by signal at 7:52 AM on May 23, 2019


Also, if there's enough people in Chile, we could meet at Liguria or something, or my house even.
posted by signal at 7:53 AM on May 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm happy to work on trying to recruit an Antarctic showing. (Hat tip to Nat, a colleague who convinced me to join the site and made the seventh continent party happen ten years ago.) I'm in the northern hemisphere, but I know a few people who are wintering, including at least one who was present for the 10 year party. If anyone else is working on this, I'd be happy to chat.

South pole winterovers from 2009 will be having a reunion meetup this year in Colorado, but, sadly, it's a few weeks early. We'll toast Metafilter anyway.
posted by eotvos at 9:46 AM on May 23, 2019 [4 favorites]


I'm happy to help with a Portland Meetup. I've got smallish sized backyard. Maybe a picnic in the park would work best if there's a big group though
posted by vespabelle at 12:56 PM on May 23, 2019


There are precious few active MeFites in the Netherlands, but if someone other than me would be interested in a meetup (maybe in Utrecht because it's central) I'd totally be up for that.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:58 PM on May 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


Have just added a Toronto proposed event!
posted by wellred at 9:18 AM on May 24, 2019


I just bought my tickets. See you soon!
posted by ColdChef at 12:47 PM on May 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


The Sydney Mefites are planning on a cheese and whisky/rum party (#CHEESEPARTY2019) but it might have the happen a week early or our cheese maker may not be around.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:40 PM on May 24, 2019


I was feeling all smugly young since I have not been here for a third of my life, but then realized I have been around for well over a quarter of it :/
posted by ferret branca at 5:14 PM on May 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


> I joined in November 2007. I’ve been on this site for a third of my life now. Isn’t that insane?

I hope not, because I've been hanging out here an even larger portion of mine. I lurked a long time before I joined, but I remember reading MeFi in a particular cubicle I worked at roughly 2000 - 2002.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:58 PM on May 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


I hope not, because I've been hanging out here an even larger portion of mine. I lurked a long time before I joined, but I remember reading MeFi in a particular cubicle I worked at roughly 2000 - 2002.

Likewise. I joined in November 2002, but was reading for at least a year/year and a half before that and I've now been reading things here for more than half my life. Wow.
posted by knapah at 1:24 PM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


DC MeFites: I opened a proposed IRL asking for input.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:47 PM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


I will attend the Toronto event, but I just want to say that anticipating this makes me all sorts of sad. The 10 year anniversary party in Toronto was a fabulous party organized by gman and it chokes me up to think he won't be there for 20.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:15 AM on May 27, 2019 [7 favorites]


I just noticed that there is no NYC IRL post yet (N.B. - this is NOT me volunteering to coordinate anything). I like to think it's because our 10 year party was such a complete and utter blast that we're all still recovering.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:26 PM on May 28, 2019


Same for LA...someone do eeeeeet
posted by lazaruslong at 2:29 PM on May 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I’ve been here since 2001, (gamergated into changing usernames), and while I don’t normally fight my anxiety well enough to do big public events, I would totally be up for a Dallas area or Austin meetup. For the tenth anniversary, I think that’s the one where I made a cake decorated as a plate of beans, I’ll have to come up with something cooler for the 20th.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:49 PM on June 5, 2019 [1 favorite]




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