A request for MeFemail 1.1 March 20, 2008 12:53 PM Subscribe
Any chance MeFemail can be enhanced such that a MeFite can email multiple MeFites at once?
I can see the possibilities for abuse, but it seems like it might have more positives than negatives. What's the current admin thinking on this?
I can see the possibilities for abuse, but it seems like it might have more positives than negatives. What's the current admin thinking on this?
I don't see much positives in giving people a way to blanket contact everyone. That path leads to so much abuse, and even innocuous things like mailing everyone in Chicago to tell them there is a meetup could lead to bad blood from people that don't want or care to attend a meetup for whatever reason.
What would you use multiple recipients for?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:57 PM on March 20, 2008
What would you use multiple recipients for?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:57 PM on March 20, 2008
I like knowing that when I get a MeMail, whoever wrote it was writing specifically to me (or took the time to send it specifically to me).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:58 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:58 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
To reduce the possibility of abuse, you could limit the number of recipients (say to five), and/or limit the feature to a user's contacts.
posted by brain_drain at 1:01 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by brain_drain at 1:01 PM on March 20, 2008
The only thing I think this could be useful for is for meetups.
On one hand, it would be nice to be able to nudge a bunch of people to say "hey, you are within X miles of this city, you interested in a meetup." However, I don't know if people who are here just for askme want to get harrassed all the time.
Maybe a single use option for meetup posts? Maybe if we get, when a location is finalized, to ping the relevant users that there is a meetup posted near them (which they can easily opted out of).
also if a meetup is finalized, it would be neat if a little text box, like the flickr box, showed up at the top of the post, with the location, date, time and link to the "official" summary comment. If the post starter had abilities to flag similarly as 'best answer' and then be prompted to input the googlemaps url location etc. it would fill out that box, and post to the metatalk meetup feed, that would be pretty cool. And add incentive for people to list their cities.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:03 PM on March 20, 2008
On one hand, it would be nice to be able to nudge a bunch of people to say "hey, you are within X miles of this city, you interested in a meetup." However, I don't know if people who are here just for askme want to get harrassed all the time.
Maybe a single use option for meetup posts? Maybe if we get, when a location is finalized, to ping the relevant users that there is a meetup posted near them (which they can easily opted out of).
also if a meetup is finalized, it would be neat if a little text box, like the flickr box, showed up at the top of the post, with the location, date, time and link to the "official" summary comment. If the post starter had abilities to flag similarly as 'best answer' and then be prompted to input the googlemaps url location etc. it would fill out that box, and post to the metatalk meetup feed, that would be pretty cool. And add incentive for people to list their cities.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:03 PM on March 20, 2008
What would you use multiple recipients for?
Generally speaking, there have been times where I wanted to ask one of the mods a questions, but didn't know which one would be the most appropriate, but otherwise, for off line conversations. I guess you're right, the potential for bad behavior is quite high.
posted by psmealey at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2008
Generally speaking, there have been times where I wanted to ask one of the mods a questions, but didn't know which one would be the most appropriate, but otherwise, for off line conversations. I guess you're right, the potential for bad behavior is quite high.
posted by psmealey at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2008
Generally speaking, there have been times where I wanted to ask one of the mods a questions, but didn't know which one would be the most appropriate, but otherwise, for off line conversations. I guess you're right, the potential for bad behavior is quite high.
posted by psmealey at 1:04 PM on March 20 [+] [!]
Use the Contact Form
posted by mrzarquon at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by psmealey at 1:04 PM on March 20 [+] [!]
Use the Contact Form
posted by mrzarquon at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2008
there have been times where I wanted to ask one of the mods a questions, but didn't know which one would be the most appropriate
Always use the contact form instead, which goes to all three of us and we can triangulate on solving the issue over email. There's a message on the send mail form for all of us saying something like this.
but otherwise, for off line conversations
I swear I'm trying not to look for abuse in all the suggestions, but I don't see "conversations" being good when they are one-to-many instead of one-to-one. Just going off email, aside from group email lists, I rarely have a conversation with multiple people.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2008
Always use the contact form instead, which goes to all three of us and we can triangulate on solving the issue over email. There's a message on the send mail form for all of us saying something like this.
but otherwise, for off line conversations
I swear I'm trying not to look for abuse in all the suggestions, but I don't see "conversations" being good when they are one-to-many instead of one-to-one. Just going off email, aside from group email lists, I rarely have a conversation with multiple people.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:07 PM on March 20, 2008
also if a meetup is finalized, it would be neat if a little text box, like the flickr box, showed up at the top of the post, with the location, date, time and link to the "official" summary comment.
mrzarquon, that's what the meetup sidebar is supposed to do. You can link to any comment in a thread to turn it into an official meetup thread. The hope was that people will link to the one comment with the location/time details after it gets finalized.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:11 PM on March 20, 2008
mrzarquon, that's what the meetup sidebar is supposed to do. You can link to any comment in a thread to turn it into an official meetup thread. The hope was that people will link to the one comment with the location/time details after it gets finalized.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:11 PM on March 20, 2008
I completely agree with TPS on this one, the few times that I've received MeFiMail, it was nice to know that the person had to jump through some very minor hoops to get it to me. In my daily life, it's not uncommon for me to get better than 100 e-mails a day through work, and generally less than 1% was actually directed at me personally.
I actually get a bit excited when I see a new message in that corner because it's something I haven't felt in a long time: the thrill of internet communications that haven't in any way been subverted by ads, spam, or people unintentionally adding me to a list along with hundreds of others.
It may reduce the functionality a small bit, but like desjardins suggests, if you need to send it to more than one, copy and paste is your old and faithful friend.
posted by quin at 1:13 PM on March 20, 2008 [2 favorites]
I actually get a bit excited when I see a new message in that corner because it's something I haven't felt in a long time: the thrill of internet communications that haven't in any way been subverted by ads, spam, or people unintentionally adding me to a list along with hundreds of others.
It may reduce the functionality a small bit, but like desjardins suggests, if you need to send it to more than one, copy and paste is your old and faithful friend.
posted by quin at 1:13 PM on March 20, 2008 [2 favorites]
Ok, fair enough. All good points, thanks.
Contact form is here, mrzarquon.
posted by psmealey at 1:14 PM on March 20, 2008
Contact form is here, mrzarquon.
posted by psmealey at 1:14 PM on March 20, 2008
Has the [Block this sender] been there all along? And if you try to send something to someone who has you blocked, do you get a message to that effect, or are you left to pound sand in frustration for whatever you did to get blocked in the first place?
posted by Dave Faris at 1:18 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by Dave Faris at 1:18 PM on March 20, 2008
I've seen the "use the contact form to get in touch with admins" advice a bunch of times recently in the grey, but until then I had no idea what the point of it was, or frankly that it existed - is there any way you're supposed to know about that other than choosing to explore a tiny, unexplained link at the bottom of the page?
posted by Wolfdog at 1:19 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by Wolfdog at 1:19 PM on March 20, 2008
mrzarquon, that's what the meetup sidebar is supposed to do. You can link to any comment in a thread to turn it into an official meetup thread. The hope was that people will link to the one comment with the location/time details after it gets finalized.
I know. However on my first attempt I flubbed it, and just posted to the main metafilter post. On quick review, 3 of the 7 upcoming meetups link to the start post, one links to #comment, and 3 to the proper comment in the post (and that counts me correcting my post). I didn't try overposting the original submission with my corrected one to fixit, since it wasn't a high priority, i pinged cortex over mefimail for it.
I think having a big button in thread that says "Mark as Meetup Details" for the originator of the post, that then links them to the little submission form might work well.
Being able to get notifications when a new meetup is posted within X miles would nice for the folks who don't always hang in metatalk, but would still want to grab a few drinks with folks when they happen (and don't always subscribe to the RSS feed).
on preview: grabbed the wrong link for the form.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:21 PM on March 20, 2008
I know. However on my first attempt I flubbed it, and just posted to the main metafilter post. On quick review, 3 of the 7 upcoming meetups link to the start post, one links to #comment, and 3 to the proper comment in the post (and that counts me correcting my post). I didn't try overposting the original submission with my corrected one to fixit, since it wasn't a high priority, i pinged cortex over mefimail for it.
I think having a big button in thread that says "Mark as Meetup Details" for the originator of the post, that then links them to the little submission form might work well.
Being able to get notifications when a new meetup is posted within X miles would nice for the folks who don't always hang in metatalk, but would still want to grab a few drinks with folks when they happen (and don't always subscribe to the RSS feed).
on preview: grabbed the wrong link for the form.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:21 PM on March 20, 2008
Wolfdog: it actually says right in the mefimail if you are trying to mail cortex, jessamyn or mathowie:
If you have a Metafilter administration request, please use the contact form instead of MeFi Mail, thanks!
posted by mrzarquon at 1:23 PM on March 20, 2008
If you have a Metafilter administration request, please use the contact form instead of MeFi Mail, thanks!
posted by mrzarquon at 1:23 PM on March 20, 2008
This will not "wendell" unless everyone remembers that multi-mailing has happened before.
posted by Cranberry at 1:24 PM on March 20, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by Cranberry at 1:24 PM on March 20, 2008 [2 favorites]
Huh, so it does.
Can I shoehorn a request that we could send mail by typing in the username rather than having to navigate to the user's page somehow first? Or does that also exist and I'm stupid about that too?
posted by Wolfdog at 1:27 PM on March 20, 2008
Can I shoehorn a request that we could send mail by typing in the username rather than having to navigate to the user's page somehow first? Or does that also exist and I'm stupid about that too?
posted by Wolfdog at 1:27 PM on March 20, 2008
And there was I thinking that MeFemail was a part of this site withheld from me based purely on my gender.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 1:36 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 1:36 PM on March 20, 2008
How about a slightly different question: Why can't we mefi mail ourselves? That would be a convenient way to save drafts of posts or comments, or just remember things related to the site that we think are worth remembering.
posted by Pastabagel at 2:00 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by Pastabagel at 2:00 PM on March 20, 2008
On one hand, it would be nice to be able to nudge a bunch of people to say "hey, you are within X miles of this city, you interested in a meetup." However, I don't know if people who are here just for askme want to get harrassed all the time.
I proposed something like this a little while ago. People were mostly against it.
posted by PercussivePaul at 2:02 PM on March 20, 2008
When I was setting up a movie meetup, I was really wishing we had this. It sucked trying to contact everyone individually.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:12 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by miss lynnster at 2:12 PM on March 20, 2008
PercussivePaul- I think the difference is there wouldn't be a way to actually spam users with it, if the users in the area X were just given an automatic system generated mefimail saying "there has been a finalized meetup posted here. click here to not get this anymore" and have it an option on the userpage, next to where you plug in your coordinates that says "check here to receive notifications of metafilter events in your area via mefimail"
posted by mrzarquon at 2:31 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by mrzarquon at 2:31 PM on March 20, 2008
Has the [Block this sender] been there all along? And if you try to send something to someone who has you blocked, do you get a message to that effect, or are you left to pound sand in frustration for whatever you did to get blocked in the first place?
I was curious myself, so I tested it by having someone block me- when you try to send a message to someone who has blocked you, you get an error message:
Sorry, this user has blocked messages from you.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:35 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
I was curious myself, so I tested it by having someone block me- when you try to send a message to someone who has blocked you, you get an error message:
Sorry, this user has blocked messages from you.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:35 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
my ISP hacked my MeMail account and changed the password.
posted by quonsar at 2:51 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by quonsar at 2:51 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
How about a slightly different question: Why can't we mefi mail ourselves? That would be a convenient way to save drafts of posts or comments, or just remember things related to the site that we think are worth remembering.
Yeah, but Mefimail would only be good for that the way that gmail or notepad.exe or a draft post on your own blog would be good, and we're intentionally trying to keep Mefimail pretty simply and not all-purpose. So there's not really any motivation to add self-mailing as a feature, basically.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:52 PM on March 20, 2008
Yeah, but Mefimail would only be good for that the way that gmail or notepad.exe or a draft post on your own blog would be good, and we're intentionally trying to keep Mefimail pretty simply and not all-purpose. So there's not really any motivation to add self-mailing as a feature, basically.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:52 PM on March 20, 2008
So there's not really any motivation to add self-mailing as a feature, basically.
I can't say I disagree with you, but it does seem weird that there seems to be a specific block on Memailing yourself (you get this message if you try: Couldn't send your message. Sorry, sending messages to yourself isn't allowed...). Is there a technological reason for this, or is there some other motivation to remove the feature?
posted by ssg at 3:58 PM on March 20, 2008
I can't say I disagree with you, but it does seem weird that there seems to be a specific block on Memailing yourself (you get this message if you try: Couldn't send your message. Sorry, sending messages to yourself isn't allowed...). Is there a technological reason for this, or is there some other motivation to remove the feature?
posted by ssg at 3:58 PM on March 20, 2008
Look, if people start memailing themselves all over the place we'll all be drowning in ...
*ahem*
Never mind. Look, it's just a bad idea, okay?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:05 PM on March 20, 2008
*ahem*
Never mind. Look, it's just a bad idea, okay?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:05 PM on March 20, 2008
Can we please have mass-mefimails as an opt-in option?
Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites. (Yes, there are secret, non-public, invitation-only meetups. Indivudually mailing users is a huge, huge pain in the ass in this day and age.)
Sure, it's nice to have an individual note and feel like a special snowflake, but we're not talking about paper-and-pen ettiquette here. If anything, I feel bad that someone had to spend all that time copying-and-pasting (still feel special?) all of those individual invitations.
Allowing mass-mailing would also allow for special interest group lists, which would be fantastic within the citidel of MetaFilter.
Yeah, SIG lists exist outside of MeFi. This is part of the problem, in that they are too inclusive.
Having some quality SIG lists or active groups within the filtering agent that is MetaFilter would, I'd imagine, increase the quality of such exchanges a great deal.
Making it an opt-in option that by default is "off" will eliminate any grounds for complaint about spamming or unwanted messages.
I want this option.
posted by loquacious at 4:11 PM on March 20, 2008
Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites. (Yes, there are secret, non-public, invitation-only meetups. Indivudually mailing users is a huge, huge pain in the ass in this day and age.)
Sure, it's nice to have an individual note and feel like a special snowflake, but we're not talking about paper-and-pen ettiquette here. If anything, I feel bad that someone had to spend all that time copying-and-pasting (still feel special?) all of those individual invitations.
Allowing mass-mailing would also allow for special interest group lists, which would be fantastic within the citidel of MetaFilter.
Yeah, SIG lists exist outside of MeFi. This is part of the problem, in that they are too inclusive.
Having some quality SIG lists or active groups within the filtering agent that is MetaFilter would, I'd imagine, increase the quality of such exchanges a great deal.
Making it an opt-in option that by default is "off" will eliminate any grounds for complaint about spamming or unwanted messages.
I want this option.
posted by loquacious at 4:11 PM on March 20, 2008
Why is the idea of a special-interest group handled through one of the many, many available external solutions and limited only to those people who you like and who happen to be mefites not a workable solution? If you need an ongoing mass-mailing list, put one together. There is basically no reason MefiMail would have to support that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:20 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:20 PM on March 20, 2008
"Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites. (Yes, there are secret, non-public, invitation-only meetups"
There is no cabal.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:42 PM on March 20, 2008
There is no cabal.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:42 PM on March 20, 2008
Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites. (Yes, there are secret, non-public, invitation-only meetups. Indivudually mailing users is a huge, huge pain in the ass in this day and age.)
No, use email. Why should your sekrit clubby meetups be facilitated with MeFiMail? Assumedly once people are in the club you can exchange "real" email addresses.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:15 PM on March 20, 2008
No, use email. Why should your sekrit clubby meetups be facilitated with MeFiMail? Assumedly once people are in the club you can exchange "real" email addresses.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:15 PM on March 20, 2008
Pony request: MeSpam!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2008
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2008
Why is the idea of a special-interest group handled through one of the many, many available external solutions and limited only to those people who you like and who happen to be mefites not a workable solution?
It's workable but not ideal.
Because I don't know the interests of every MeFite out there, I can't just collect them, there's no easy, "low cost" way for me to announce, create or join a MeFi-specific special interest group outside of the usually inefficient ones.
I can probably think of a thousand workable solutions. Heck, I could start a usergroup dedicated to, say, DJing within an old web-port of MajorBBS within the doorgame MajorMud, using the in-game messages only. That doesn't mean that the medium fits the message or facilitates such communication.
Which is why I'm asking for and supporting both opt-in mass MeFi-mail, and grouplists. It facilitates the goal of a MetaFilter-specific form of mass communication.
I think within MetaFilter that the spam problem would be edgecase. People more or less self-police here, and since it would be "opt-in" for users to recieve mass communications it shouldn't be such an issue. Also, actual abuses and sending something that even resembles a commercial marketing attempt can be reported and dealt with very easily, here.
Dissolve the list, remove the group, disable that specific user's ability to mass-message - or simply banhammer.
I would love to be able to send invites to a party or gathering to just a geographical region, or to a specific interest group - specifically within MetaFilter.
Because the media is often, indeed, the message - or the massage, whatever.
And, frankly, I've seen this all before. Community starts - signal high, noise low. Community matures - signal degrades by function of increased noise due to backchannel communication, more anonyminity. The smart community adapts - creating filtering agents and communications tools. (First MetaTalk, in this case. Then flagging, favoriting. Now MeMail, too.)
Community further develops, grows more complicated - and the smart ones generally develop more sophisticated and varied means of communication, sometimes even inventing new forms. See: The Well, or even MySpace.
posted by loquacious at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
It's workable but not ideal.
Because I don't know the interests of every MeFite out there, I can't just collect them, there's no easy, "low cost" way for me to announce, create or join a MeFi-specific special interest group outside of the usually inefficient ones.
I can probably think of a thousand workable solutions. Heck, I could start a usergroup dedicated to, say, DJing within an old web-port of MajorBBS within the doorgame MajorMud, using the in-game messages only. That doesn't mean that the medium fits the message or facilitates such communication.
Which is why I'm asking for and supporting both opt-in mass MeFi-mail, and grouplists. It facilitates the goal of a MetaFilter-specific form of mass communication.
I think within MetaFilter that the spam problem would be edgecase. People more or less self-police here, and since it would be "opt-in" for users to recieve mass communications it shouldn't be such an issue. Also, actual abuses and sending something that even resembles a commercial marketing attempt can be reported and dealt with very easily, here.
Dissolve the list, remove the group, disable that specific user's ability to mass-message - or simply banhammer.
I would love to be able to send invites to a party or gathering to just a geographical region, or to a specific interest group - specifically within MetaFilter.
Because the media is often, indeed, the message - or the massage, whatever.
And, frankly, I've seen this all before. Community starts - signal high, noise low. Community matures - signal degrades by function of increased noise due to backchannel communication, more anonyminity. The smart community adapts - creating filtering agents and communications tools. (First MetaTalk, in this case. Then flagging, favoriting. Now MeMail, too.)
Community further develops, grows more complicated - and the smart ones generally develop more sophisticated and varied means of communication, sometimes even inventing new forms. See: The Well, or even MySpace.
posted by loquacious at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
No, use email. Why should your sekrit clubby meetups be facilitated with MeFiMail? Assumedly once people are in the club you can exchange "real" email addresses.
Who says its a secret club? People have limited space and time to invite people into their homes. What if its not a meetup, but just a dinner that someone had limited space to invite people to?
What's wrong with trying to facilitate this? WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS!? WHAT'RE YOU PEOPLE, GODHATING PINKO COMMIES?
((include.not-actually-yelling-sarcasm-detector-target))
I'm not even talking about any events functions I've done, anyway. I'm generally more prone to invite everyone.
posted by loquacious at 5:30 PM on March 20, 2008
Who says its a secret club? People have limited space and time to invite people into their homes. What if its not a meetup, but just a dinner that someone had limited space to invite people to?
What's wrong with trying to facilitate this? WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS!? WHAT'RE YOU PEOPLE, GODHATING PINKO COMMIES?
((include.not-actually-yelling-sarcasm-detector-target))
I'm not even talking about any events functions I've done, anyway. I'm generally more prone to invite everyone.
posted by loquacious at 5:30 PM on March 20, 2008
Who says its a secret club?
You...did? Is this a trick question?
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:51 PM on March 20, 2008
You...did? Is this a trick question?
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:51 PM on March 20, 2008
You...did? Is this a trick question?
I didn't say club. Nor did I say cabal. I haven't insinuated anything other than the fact that it is useful to be able to message a group of users for a number of reasons, including that of inviting specific users (say, by region, or by lists) to something.
posted by loquacious at 5:58 PM on March 20, 2008
I didn't say club. Nor did I say cabal. I haven't insinuated anything other than the fact that it is useful to be able to message a group of users for a number of reasons, including that of inviting specific users (say, by region, or by lists) to something.
posted by loquacious at 5:58 PM on March 20, 2008
Anyway, I'm not super-invested in this other than the fact that I support the idea and I'd personally make good use of it.
Besides, if I just wait long enough someone else will suggest it and it'll probably be implemented anyway, like being able to pull up random AskMe questions, or having some users do backtagging. *gloats serenely in infuriatingly useless cleverness*
posted by loquacious at 6:01 PM on March 20, 2008
Besides, if I just wait long enough someone else will suggest it and it'll probably be implemented anyway, like being able to pull up random AskMe questions, or having some users do backtagging. *gloats serenely in infuriatingly useless cleverness*
posted by loquacious at 6:01 PM on March 20, 2008
Who says its a secret club?
You just did. Unless "non-public invitation-only" is supposed to imply something other than club.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:09 PM on March 20, 2008
You just did. Unless "non-public invitation-only" is supposed to imply something other than club.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:09 PM on March 20, 2008
Well, to be clear, it's not that your idea is bad and you should feel bad. It's more that there are a lot of why and why now questions, and also that your description of this as something to do because there are no 'easy, "low cost"' solutions currently is kind of darkly hilarious considering how far from easy and low cost this would be from an implementation and maintenance perspective for us. Great for the folks who want to use it, sure, but at a significant front end and ongoing cost to us.
Hugs!
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:30 PM on March 20, 2008
Hugs!
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:30 PM on March 20, 2008
You just did. Unless "non-public invitation-only" is supposed to imply something other than club.
I protest the use of the word "club" as something that implies membership - and most dictionaries define "club" as such.
I disagree with the seemingly negative connotations in which it is being used to describe my side of the argument - when again, I insist I mean no such damn thing and will continue to take umbrage at it's implied use and meaning and being told what I'm trying to say.
I don't think that inviting a few people to dinner or a movie or something or wanting to simply limit it to geographically-based invitation is implicit in the secret hanky-panky I feel I'm being accused of.
posted by loquacious at 7:22 PM on March 20, 2008
I protest the use of the word "club" as something that implies membership - and most dictionaries define "club" as such.
I disagree with the seemingly negative connotations in which it is being used to describe my side of the argument - when again, I insist I mean no such damn thing and will continue to take umbrage at it's implied use and meaning and being told what I'm trying to say.
I don't think that inviting a few people to dinner or a movie or something or wanting to simply limit it to geographically-based invitation is implicit in the secret hanky-panky I feel I'm being accused of.
posted by loquacious at 7:22 PM on March 20, 2008
No one is accusing you of anything.
If you want to invite a few people who happen to be MeFites to dinner or whatever in a non-MeFi environment there just isn't any compelling reason to rework the MeFiMail application for that purpose.
If you start with less hyperbole, you'll generally receive less in return.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:43 PM on March 20, 2008
If you want to invite a few people who happen to be MeFites to dinner or whatever in a non-MeFi environment there just isn't any compelling reason to rework the MeFiMail application for that purpose.
If you start with less hyperbole, you'll generally receive less in return.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:43 PM on March 20, 2008
I think mod 1, 2, and 3 are correct that doing this would create moderation headaches; the cost would be > the value.
And I think you should reread what you wrote, loquacious; specifically:
Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites. (Yes, there are secret, non-public, invitation-only meetups. Indivudually mailing users is a huge, huge pain in the ass in this day and age.)
I have to admit that I thought you were describing ongoing secret meetups. I was starting to feel left out.
*goes back to lurking*
posted by ericost at 8:07 PM on March 20, 2008
And I think you should reread what you wrote, loquacious; specifically:
Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites. (Yes, there are secret, non-public, invitation-only meetups. Indivudually mailing users is a huge, huge pain in the ass in this day and age.)
I have to admit that I thought you were describing ongoing secret meetups. I was starting to feel left out.
*goes back to lurking*
posted by ericost at 8:07 PM on March 20, 2008
Loq: "Yeah, SIG lists exist outside of MeFi. This is part of the problem, in that they are too inclusive."
Isn't the issue here then that to get more people involved (if they want to) is announce it on metatalk as is the standard, name the place and time, say it's for SF gnome-fanciers, come along if you want. I'm sure the current system caters for this perfectly well.
Loq: People have limited space and time to invite people into their homes. What if its not a meetup, but just a dinner that someone had limited space to invite people to?
But here you're talking about a completely different meetup that isn't suited for mefi. Surely for that type of venue/size of group, grab the emails from folk's profiles and contact them separately.
Why should Matt code up a part of the site to help you arrange your dinner, or your outing to a movie? Metafilter is just a big blog, but Matt's kindly given us some added extras to make us feel at home and a little more connected. For the kind of options you're looking for there's Facebook, for example.
Loq, I do understand what you're talking about, you're going to a Donald Trumbull double-bill in SF, maybe hit the Zeitgeist and chat to the weird 50yr old Oz divorcees who are going to take SF's marijuana industry by the throat, and you want some mates along, those that like Trumbull, Stella and unisex portaloos. I get that. But as community-friendly as MeFi is, I don't see that functionality you want happening.
Of course, you write that previous paragraph as a metatalk thread and it happens in September and gets sidebarred, I'll fly over.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 8:08 PM on March 20, 2008
Isn't the issue here then that to get more people involved (if they want to) is announce it on metatalk as is the standard, name the place and time, say it's for SF gnome-fanciers, come along if you want. I'm sure the current system caters for this perfectly well.
Loq: People have limited space and time to invite people into their homes. What if its not a meetup, but just a dinner that someone had limited space to invite people to?
But here you're talking about a completely different meetup that isn't suited for mefi. Surely for that type of venue/size of group, grab the emails from folk's profiles and contact them separately.
Why should Matt code up a part of the site to help you arrange your dinner, or your outing to a movie? Metafilter is just a big blog, but Matt's kindly given us some added extras to make us feel at home and a little more connected. For the kind of options you're looking for there's Facebook, for example.
Loq, I do understand what you're talking about, you're going to a Donald Trumbull double-bill in SF, maybe hit the Zeitgeist and chat to the weird 50yr old Oz divorcees who are going to take SF's marijuana industry by the throat, and you want some mates along, those that like Trumbull, Stella and unisex portaloos. I get that. But as community-friendly as MeFi is, I don't see that functionality you want happening.
Of course, you write that previous paragraph as a metatalk thread and it happens in September and gets sidebarred, I'll fly over.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 8:08 PM on March 20, 2008
Because it would be sooooo much nicer for private meetup invites.
I feel excluded, yet relieved.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:12 PM on March 20, 2008
I feel excluded, yet relieved.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:12 PM on March 20, 2008
OK, so here's what you do.
You implement some bog-simple Tumblr-esque functionality where everybody can post items to their profile, like a miniweblog thingy. Saving items from the site, they appear there, or just integrate and repurpose favorites to do it. Post what you want to, if it's text. Every single member gets a miniweblog, see. You can use that as a notepad scratch area to compose posts, keeping it private until you're ready to toggle it public, then send it to the front page as a public post. Other people see something they like on your miniweblog thingy, hit a button, and after some automagical checking to see that it's not a double, it gets promoted to the front page, like a Projects post can.
RSS feeds for every user's profile page, others can subscribe, allow tagging of items so you can filter for stuff like loquacious is talking about, let items be public or private to selected users or group of users, leveraging the contacts infrastructure, tralalalala!
Wait, did I just reinvent Facebook? Ah, damn.
(No, I'm not serious. It just all popped into my head, like.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:29 PM on March 20, 2008
You implement some bog-simple Tumblr-esque functionality where everybody can post items to their profile, like a miniweblog thingy. Saving items from the site, they appear there, or just integrate and repurpose favorites to do it. Post what you want to, if it's text. Every single member gets a miniweblog, see. You can use that as a notepad scratch area to compose posts, keeping it private until you're ready to toggle it public, then send it to the front page as a public post. Other people see something they like on your miniweblog thingy, hit a button, and after some automagical checking to see that it's not a double, it gets promoted to the front page, like a Projects post can.
RSS feeds for every user's profile page, others can subscribe, allow tagging of items so you can filter for stuff like loquacious is talking about, let items be public or private to selected users or group of users, leveraging the contacts infrastructure, tralalalala!
Wait, did I just reinvent Facebook? Ah, damn.
(No, I'm not serious. It just all popped into my head, like.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:29 PM on March 20, 2008
implicit in the secret hanky-panky I feel I'm being accused of.
Mefimail: that's where I'm polyamorous.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:57 AM on March 21, 2008
Mefimail: that's where I'm polyamorous.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:57 AM on March 21, 2008
I guess I will have to construct another meetup pony post, possibly, to see if I can get this floating by seperate from the mass mailing post. But that will take 3-4 days because I already posted about my own meetup here. Which I am really excited about, because I am meeting an entirely different cross section of seattle that I have never met before, that I wouldn't run into in my daily journey's at work and my existing circle of friends. The only common denominator is that they may have paid $5 (or more, for sock puppets) to participate on this site, and that they live in the Seattle area (or in the case of Fuzzbean, she has just been accepted to UW grad school and is moving here).
So I want to make it even easier to keep this from becoming a weird secret gathering among mefites, and instead make it so we can get some pretty cool cross sections of folks, because as a whole, metafilter is some pretty cool and interesting people. The sidebar is nice, but having it so when you enter your gps / location coordinates you can check a box to get pinged if there is a metafilter event in the area (only once per event, and it wouldn't be an invitation, just a "hey, would you be interested in this" sort of thing) it could get more people involved in the coolness that is the metafilter. And help people meet other people from their neighborhoods they might never talk to otherwise, break down social divides, and create world peace. Or something.
Also there would be a secondary option that the gps coordinates / location would be private or public, so you could be informed of events in the area, without it publically known to the intertubes where you live.
posted by mrzarquon at 9:58 AM on March 21, 2008
So I want to make it even easier to keep this from becoming a weird secret gathering among mefites, and instead make it so we can get some pretty cool cross sections of folks, because as a whole, metafilter is some pretty cool and interesting people. The sidebar is nice, but having it so when you enter your gps / location coordinates you can check a box to get pinged if there is a metafilter event in the area (only once per event, and it wouldn't be an invitation, just a "hey, would you be interested in this" sort of thing) it could get more people involved in the coolness that is the metafilter. And help people meet other people from their neighborhoods they might never talk to otherwise, break down social divides, and create world peace. Or something.
Also there would be a secondary option that the gps coordinates / location would be private or public, so you could be informed of events in the area, without it publically known to the intertubes where you live.
posted by mrzarquon at 9:58 AM on March 21, 2008
I'm sorry, psmealey. After thinking about this, and carefully weighing the opinions of Matt, jessamyn, and cortex, the answer to your request is no.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:03 AM on March 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 10:03 AM on March 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
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posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:56 PM on March 20, 2008