baby weblogs like Crunchlandfilter, Miguelfilter, Foldfilter, and Sudamafilter

August 14, 2003 10:08 AM

If each user's page of posted links had comment counts and an RSS feed, Metafilter would instantly turn into a community with hundreds of baby weblogs like Crunchlandfilter, Miguelfilter, Foldfilter, and Sudamafilter.
posted by rcade to Feature Requests at 10:08 AM (20 comments total)

I'll hold out for clavfilter.
posted by yhbc at 10:20 AM on August 14, 2003

Context would be tricky, though. And, to be honest, would it be good to encourage users posting in threads for the sake of their own body of work? (I guess I find the best comments to be the ones contributed for the sake of the thread and its subject, not for the self-satisfaction of the commenter in question.)
posted by mattpfeff at 10:26 AM on August 14, 2003

Good idea rcade, though I have to strike the difficult balance between the potential community building with me becoming a free hosting service for people.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:30 AM on August 14, 2003

Would the feed grabbing involve additional processor usage and bandwidth? I guess it could be static or limited to the last 10 comments.
posted by riffola at 11:20 AM on August 14, 2003

I don't understand why this is preferable to the current system. If I think a particular poster is good, I can either look at their links (such as what was posted) or check out their own weblog, assuming they have one. Am I missing something?
posted by norm at 12:54 PM on August 14, 2003

RcadeFilter.



But seriously, I agree with Matt that it could have a big divisive effect. If everyone had an RSS feed of just their own posts, what is to stop them from making MeFi their private pseudoblog? I could see this taking us in a direction we've railed against in the past.
posted by me3dia at 12:55 PM on August 14, 2003

I agree with mattpfeff and me3dia in that this would, rather than build the community, divide it into a collection of personal sites.

Surely trackback and similar technologies cater for users desires to link their personal work into the community?
posted by dg at 5:02 PM on August 14, 2003

I think it would provide another way to filter the site -- if you like someone's front page link, you could view their links page to see other things they have posted. And if you really want to follow that user's posts here, you could subscribe to the RSS feed.

I don't think it would change people's behavior, unless they could post things to their user page which didn't also go on the front page. I'm not suggesting that -- though it sounds like something Matt could charge for if he wanted to get into the weblog hosting business.

Current ability to post on a front page viewed by thousands: big incentive.

Proposed ability to see the same post on a user page viewed by dozens: considerably smaller incentive.
posted by rcade at 6:06 PM on August 14, 2003

... if you like someone's front page link, you could view their links page to see other things they have posted. ...

P.s. I know this already can be done, but the lack of comment counts reduces its usefulness.
posted by rcade at 6:09 PM on August 14, 2003

Oh, I see what you're saying rcade. In addition to the post/comment counts, you're saying grab the last X number of posts and show them with comment counts, as well as making RSS feeds of people?

That's a great idea and something I should throw on the to-do list. I would love to keep track of posters that don't post often, but post high quality stuff.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:19 PM on August 14, 2003

would it be good to encourage users posting in threads for the sake of their own body of work?

YES!!!
posted by mischief at 8:57 PM on August 14, 2003

are we talking front page posts, or all posts?
posted by crunchland at 9:10 PM on August 14, 2003

Ahah. Apologies, rcade; I misunderstood, and through no fault but my own.
posted by mattpfeff at 9:14 PM on August 14, 2003

Likewise - sounds like a good idea. Forgive me if I am off track, but I guess the RSS feed would enable a user to syndicate just their own posts onto their own site?
posted by dg at 9:42 PM on August 14, 2003

but I guess the RSS feed would enable a user to syndicate just their own posts onto their own site?

Or, if I am a casual reader of MeFi and I've noticed that user232 writes great posts every so often, I could ignore mefi and only read user232's rss feed each day, hoping they post more of the good shit.

Heck, you could subscribe to 3-4 feeds of your favorite users and ignore the website completely.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:33 PM on August 14, 2003

Isn't that getting fairly close to the export comments idea? Not that I'm complaining; perhaps the two could be combined. (I don't have a real need for such a feature myself anymore - did it by hand with a spot o' grepping - but an export feature would have made things easier, and might be useful for others.)
posted by rory at 8:08 AM on August 15, 2003

ignore the website completely.

Done.
posted by gleuschk at 7:52 AM on August 16, 2003

RSS feed = good idea
posted by angry modem at 8:47 AM on August 17, 2003

Ah, The Virtue of Nothingness.
posted by clavdivs at 12:12 PM on August 18, 2003

But comment counts dont mean quality often quality FPPs have few comments.
posted by stbalbach at 5:38 PM on August 18, 2003