Happy Blogiversary, Metafilter!

July 15, 2007 6:40 AM

Happy Blogiversary, Metafilter! Metafilter gets a mention in a Wall Street Journal article celebrating 10 years of blogs. (WSJ subscription required)
posted by dcjd to MetaFilter-Related at 6:40 AM (38 comments total)

Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of craigslist, listed Metafilter as one of his favorite blogs.
posted by dcjd at 6:50 AM on July 15, 2007

If I never hear the word "blogosphere" again, it will be WAY too soon. Also "paradigm", That word sucks too.
posted by disclaimer at 7:12 AM on July 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Metafilter.com (community blog anyone can edit)

Um, what? I mean, some of us can edit it, of course, but "anyone"? I don't think so.
There is no cabal.

(WSJ subscription required)

I don't have one, and I read it with no problem.
posted by languagehat at 7:14 AM on July 15, 2007

I think the Wall Street Journal is using "anyone" to mean "anyone with a credit card and a fiver," which is probably true enough in their circle of friends.
posted by Tuwa at 7:22 AM on July 15, 2007

Hm, actually maybe Buckmaster put that description in; if it had been the WSJ it would probably be in square brackets instead.
posted by Tuwa at 7:31 AM on July 15, 2007

Yet another blog-history roundup with no mention of Suck.com, which started in 1995 and will always be the first weblog to me. It's always astonishing to me how few folks remember Suck, which for a while in the mid-90s was *the* site for daily linkage and commentary.
posted by mediareport at 7:40 AM on July 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

If I never hear the word "blogosphere" again, it will be WAY too soon.

According to a recent British poll, some of the top ten most despised words to come out of Internet culture are: folksonomy, blogosphere, blog, netiquette, blook, cookie, and wiki. The poll asked people what words made them "wince, shudder, or want to bang your head on the keyboard.
posted by ericb at 7:49 AM on July 15, 2007

It's always astonishing to me how few folks remember Suck, which for a while in the mid-90s was *the* site for daily linkage and commentary.

I miss Suck. ("a fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun").
posted by ericb at 7:51 AM on July 15, 2007

I think the Wall Street Journal is using "anyone" to mean "anyone with a credit card and a fiver," which is probably true enough in their circle of friends.

You're talking about posting. This guy says "edit." You know, change the wording. Which very few of us can do. But I've said too much.
posted by languagehat at 8:25 AM on July 15, 2007

I am the king of glossing over important details.

Thanks, languagehat (can I call you HatMan?)
posted by Tuwa at 8:36 AM on July 15, 2007

Aside from Suck, Slashdot and Blue's News are both older than Robot Wisdom.
posted by empath at 8:38 AM on July 15, 2007

At least some things in this brave new world haven't changed.

Tom Wolfe is still an asshole.
posted by afu at 8:39 AM on July 15, 2007

BFD
posted by quonsar at 8:40 AM on July 15, 2007

I think Ain't It Cool News might be older, too.
posted by empath at 8:44 AM on July 15, 2007

Rules number one and two, lhat. Enjoy your week vacation from the post-hoc recontextualization committee, you sink-shipping nitwit.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:57 AM on July 15, 2007

The word 'blog' certainly came later than other similarly updated link sites, long after the first 'online journal', and way after the earliest chronological random net news pages. Given that the ideas had been around long before the word, marking the date of it's coinage seems a tad nonsensical.
posted by MetaMonkey at 9:07 AM on July 15, 2007

Huh, that Netscape "What's New" page is a blog if anything is.

That was back in the days where one could conceivably track EVERYTHING new on the internet with a few links per day.
posted by empath at 9:18 AM on July 15, 2007

I'm confused. Is a blog a personal site with regularly updated original content, or is it a site that catalogs links to other sites with or without commentary on them?

Because if it's the former, blogs have been around since the first personal sites appeared in the early 90s. If it's the latter, then technically wouldn't gopher be the first blogging CMS?

I was thinking a bit about that -- I was posting original content in 1995, but my personal blog didn't start until 2000.

I miss Suck. I wish someone would revive it. Ditto Brunching Shuttlecocks.
posted by dw at 9:26 AM on July 15, 2007

Not forgetting Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:27 AM on July 15, 2007

Ditto Brunching Shuttlecocks.

If only we could track down the guy responsible.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:41 AM on July 15, 2007

Tom Wolfe uses too many metaphors and takes too much space to simply say that things on the Internet are sometimes wrong.

Probably for the best, I don't know how he'd romanticize the lifestyles of bloggers in a Code Naste publication.
posted by geoff. at 10:10 AM on July 15, 2007

Suck.com was what made me go from liking the internet to loving the internet. I miss that site so damn much.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:29 AM on July 15, 2007

It's nice and all, but a bit of a volestorm in a vagina IMHO.
posted by Mister_A at 10:37 AM on July 15, 2007

*ships some sinks to cortex*
posted by A dead Quaker at 10:49 AM on July 15, 2007

I thought Plastic was the only place they fetishized Suck so much.
posted by absalom at 10:49 AM on July 15, 2007

Nope, us too! Though I did have a plastic.com email address…
posted by blasdelf at 11:22 AM on July 15, 2007

In Indonesia, Tom Friedman reported, only 5% of the population could get on the Web, but these 5% spread rumor as fact: "They say, 'He got it from the Internet.' They think it's the Bible."

Tom Friedman saw it on the internet, so it must be true.
posted by qvantamon at 11:53 AM on July 15, 2007

I thought Plastic was the only place they fetishized Suck so much.

Plastic was into more of a heavy denial, Pet Semetary kind of thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:57 AM on July 15, 2007

Tom Wolf does a pretty poor job of not sounding like an old fart, God bless him.
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 12:26 PM on July 15, 2007

Don't forget Justin Hall. I was so addicted to his site back in the day.
posted by SisterHavana at 12:46 PM on July 15, 2007

Back in the day, we didn't have no fancy internet with its series of tubes. We had Brunching Shuttlecocks and Suck and we were damn glad to get 'em!

you kids get off my lawn!
posted by misha at 2:48 PM on July 15, 2007

I also miss Suck, but not as much as I miss Breakup Girl. That site was the highlight of Monday mornings.
posted by teleskiving at 3:24 PM on July 15, 2007

I thought Plastic was the only place they fetishized Suck so much.

Anyone with a brain and a net connection in 1995 who didn't love Suck was being a fool. Everything about it was perfect for the time - the origin story (overnight using Wired's computers on the sly), the hilarious don't-give-a-fuck snark - everything. It set the template at so deep a level people forget it fucking existed.
posted by mediareport at 4:50 PM on July 15, 2007

Suck didn't.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:40 PM on July 15, 2007

We'll know that the blogosphere has truly subverted the dominant paradigm the day WSJ celebrates getting a mention on Mefi.
posted by flabdablet at 8:38 PM on July 15, 2007

Suck.com was what made me go from liking the internet to loving the internet. I miss that site so damn much.

You can, at least, get your fill of Polly Esther at Rabbit Blog (google it; I can't access it from here; contains bunnies)
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:47 PM on July 15, 2007

Kibo was first.
posted by meehawl at 4:38 AM on July 16, 2007

I miss Suck. I wonder what Carl Steadman is up to, or if he's just working behind the scenes of Plastic.

I didn't start the derail, I just went with it.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:22 PM on July 16, 2007