How old is too old for a good Metafilter Post?

April 16, 2013 3:18 AM

I have read the guidelines, but there is no mention of age of info. Example: I know that a particular youtube video (in this case it's a dance performance but it could be anything) has not been posted to Mefi before, and yet it was originally uploaded 4 years ago. If I feel that MeFites will like the content, does it matter how old the original content is? As mentioned, I have searched for it in the archive, and it's not a meme - or meme related, so is it reasonable to assume that most Mefites wont have seen it or be aware of it? Finally apologies, I didn't know if / where to put an apostrophe in MeFites so I left it out. My brain cannot seem to parse correct grammar today :S
posted by Faintdreams to Etiquette/Policy at 3:18 AM (68 comments total)

No, it does not matter how old the original content is. Go forth and post that sweet link!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:28 AM on April 16, 2013

It's not old. It's classic.
posted by safetyfork at 3:30 AM on April 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

Yeah, if it's interesting it's interesting, Metafilter is not the meme police.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 3:30 AM on April 16, 2013

Although some people will grouse about the age of a link but they can often be safely ignored. Unless there's some specific reason it's time-sensitive after all I say post away.

If you have any other concerns about a potential post you can always talk to the mods via the contact form.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 3:33 AM on April 16, 2013

Thanks, I think this can be closed now as I have my answer.

Ta muchly. :)
posted by Faintdreams at 3:42 AM on April 16, 2013

I didn't know if / where to put an apostrophe in MeFites

Like this: * M'e'F'i't'es *

Because the term is a contraction of "My Excellent, Funktastic- Intellectuoid Technophiles"

Not a lot of people know that.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:41 AM on April 16, 2013 [17 favorites]

Too slow!
posted by pompomtom at 5:15 AM on April 16, 2013

It is a bit embarrassing when songs that have been #1 for weeks get breathlessly posted to MeFi.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:15 AM on April 16, 2013

Old is fine. Well-covered is not. Even if there hasn't been a post about it, it may have been linked many times from comments. I think the basic acid test is "why would *I* have been the first one to find this link and post it to MeFi?" Maybe it's a niche interest or only circulated in a small community that puts you in a unique spot to bridge the gap. Or maybe you are just the last one on the Internet to find this thing and everyone already knows about it, which is the reason there was no post.

That said, even a well-trodden ground can be trodden again if you do it in a fresh way. More context, for instance.
posted by DU at 5:34 AM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Although some people will grouse about the age of a link but they can often be safely ignored.

I've posted youtube videos and articles that were 5, 6, 7 years old. It's virtually impossible to know what people have or haven't seen. Go for it!
posted by zarq at 5:43 AM on April 16, 2013

Hang on, I was wrong - it's "Me'Fi't'es", meaning "Megafauna Fisting-technique Abhorrences".
posted by the quidnunc kid at 5:45 AM on April 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

It varies a bit, I've had a post deleted because it showed video of old technology.
posted by Mitheral at 5:53 AM on April 16, 2013

Yeah, I don't think embarrassing is the word for it. Everything is a new thing if you haven't heard it.

My sister once came into my room with her headphones on, this is when I was in college and she was just entering high school, she said, "man, Bob Dylan is really good!" and it wasn't embarrassing, it was just somebody getting into a thing on their own time.

I'm working on two posts that are about >2,000 year old technologies.
posted by gauche at 5:58 AM on April 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

I was going post about that Bob Dylan guy, but gauche just mentioned him. Maybe I'll wait a couple weeks and then put it up.
posted by Area Man at 6:03 AM on April 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

There is no time limit, as I understood it(?) Hence not too bothered that still haven't gotten round to making an FPP about the "Abe Lincoln playing with his kitten" YouTube video. One day...
posted by Wordshore at 6:06 AM on April 16, 2013

Hang on, I was wrong - it's "Me'Fi't'es", meaning "Megafauna Fisting-technique Abhorrences". posted by the quidnunc kid

I can't vote for that.
posted by zarq at 6:09 AM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Bob Dylan, I love that guy!

I really like that one-dude-with-an-acoustic-guitar-and-a-harmonica thing he's got going--I just hope he doesn't fuck with the formula.
posted by box at 6:09 AM on April 16, 2013 [5 favorites]

Mesmerizing Fishhook Agglomerates - "Me'Fi'tes". This one is right.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:18 AM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Sometimes content must be aged to perfection, so you're good to go.
posted by mazola at 6:26 AM on April 16, 2013

The OED just emailed me - it's actually Mathowie's effusively itchy aardwolves, "M'ef'it'es". Who knew?
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:30 AM on April 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

I say post it and simply ignore anyone who thinks this is a current events review, or that anything older than 6 weeks is not "relevant" (to what?).
posted by thelonius at 6:31 AM on April 16, 2013

...Metafilter is not the meme police.

Thanks a lot; now the meme police, they live inside of my head.
posted by TedW at 6:46 AM on April 16, 2013 [10 favorites]

Why would there be an apostrophe in MeFites? Unless you're talking about our plates of beans. Plural != Possessive.
posted by kmz at 6:54 AM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, if it's interesting it's interesting, Metafilter is not the meme police.

The meme police! They live inside of my head!
The meme police! They think this link is too widespread!
The meme police! They're coming to flag it and move on!
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:16 AM on April 16, 2013 [8 favorites]

I look forward to the Meme Police procedural drama web-based reality series. I heard it got three times the funding request through Kickstarter. That theme song is just too damned catchy!
posted by filthy light thief at 7:24 AM on April 16, 2013

Anyway, back to the topic: there was a "classic" video posted in the last months, something that most people had seen one way or another, but most hadn't thought about in years. And for some, it was still brand new. I'm totally blanking on what it was.

If you're sure it's not here, share away. What's the worst that could happen? It's actually a duplicate? Then it's deleted, and you try again with something else.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:26 AM on April 16, 2013

It is a bit embarrassing when songs that have been #1 for weeks get breathlessly posted to MeFi.

Embarrassing to who?!

So silly to care about these things.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:31 AM on April 16, 2013 [7 favorites]

That Batman/Beatles story posted on the Blue yesterday was originally from 2008. FYI.
posted by themanwho at 8:33 AM on April 16, 2013

(police, police)
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:43 AM on April 16, 2013 [5 favorites]

"breathlessly" what? lol.
posted by nadawi at 9:07 AM on April 16, 2013

Apostophe solved:

Me'fites for Me'rights to Me'Partay...
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:17 AM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

DEAR MEFITE'S
PLEASE USE CORRECT
"GRAMMAR"!
THANX :)
posted by Kabanos at 9:33 AM on April 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

You know, this morning there's Totoro stuff and Cheap Trick jokes and and kittens and a whole 'Paul Is Dead' thing and I realize I lean on this place when I feel cruddy and it delivers HARD like 90% of the time. Boom, you guys. Boom for real.
posted by mintcake! at 9:40 AM on April 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

... an eager young newspaper reporter approached him one day, notebook in hand. "Well, Professor Einstein," he asked, "what's new in science?"

Einstein looked at him with his deep, soft eyes and replied, "Oh? Have you already written about all the old science?"
posted by RobotHero at 9:50 AM on April 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

"I look forward to the Meme Police procedural drama web-based reality series."

Actually, Meme Police is a near-singularity police procedural novel by Charlie Stross with an ironic Detective Chief Inspector Marie Atame and her gruff, working class Detective Sergeant Miles Crafton, who together are chasing a serial killer who terrifies his victims to death by attacking their partially-uploaded minds with carefully crafted, individualized memes, some of which are discovered to have been originally off-hand story ideas Richard Dawkins suggested to Douglas Adams when Adams wrote for Doctor Who.

The novel has a neologism density of approximately 4.6.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:56 AM on April 16, 2013 [7 favorites]

yo you heard about mentos and diet coke
posted by klangklangston at 10:02 AM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait where are the Totoro stuff I could use some Totoro stuff
posted by Phire at 10:04 AM on April 16, 2013

Unless it's some old TV video of Cat Stevens randomly performing one of his hits.
posted by Ardiril at 10:15 AM on April 16, 2013

When I was just out of school (yes, there were schools in those days) I overheard two junior high girls in the record section (yes, there were records in those days) of the drug store gasping in astonishment, "Oh my god! Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!"

This isn't at all relevant to to the topic but it is a fun story.
posted by trinity8-director at 10:33 AM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Actually, Meme Police is a near-singularity police procedural novel by Charlie Stross with an ironic Detective Chief Inspector Marie Atame and her gruff, working class Detective Sergeant Miles Crafton, who together are chasing a serial killer who terrifies his victims to death by attacking their partially-uploaded minds with carefully crafted, individualized memes, some of which are discovered to have been originally off-hand story ideas Richard Dawkins suggested to Douglas Adams when Adams wrote for Doctor Who.

I honestly can't tell if that's a deliciously vicious and pitch-perfect pisstake, or the synopsis of a real novel that I'll be buying in the next five minutes.
posted by jack_mo at 10:49 AM on April 16, 2013 [5 favorites]

Meme police, arrest this man
His posts are old
They stink like cheese
He's like an aged thing

Meme police, arrest this girl
Her ancient FPP
Making me feel passe
And we have burned her thread

This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with memes
posted by arcticseal at 10:51 AM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait, that is the ear worm? I thought it was this. Because it goes with the theme (and jazz is same syllables as meme).

Can you tell me why the bells are ringing?
Nothing's happened in a million years
I've been sitting here since wednesday morning
Wednesday morning can't believe my ears

Meme police are looking through my folders
Meme police are talking to my niece
Meme police have got their final orders
Mefite, drop your axe, it's Meme police!

Meme police I hear you calling
Meme police I feel so blue
Meme police I think I'm falling,
I'm falling for you

posted by infinite intimation at 11:19 AM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

"Oh my god! Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!"

Paul McCartney used to sing?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:20 AM on April 16, 2013

I'm confused, again. Have we decided whether I'm too old to read that thread? I'm cold. Can somebody help me find the bathroom? Wait... never mind.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:27 AM on April 16, 2013

Wait where are the Totoro stuff I could use some Totoro stuff

Totorororo?
posted by Kabanos at 12:10 PM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Enjoyed the video. Glad you posted it!
posted by futureisunwritten at 12:11 PM on April 16, 2013

...The novel has a neologism density of approximately 4.6.


Welcome back Ivan Fyodorovich.

(I would also probably read that book. I'm certain a younger me would have lied and said he had.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:28 PM on April 16, 2013

It's fine for YouTube videos, but I'd be careful with more complex stuff. The worst post I've ever done was about a site I'd seen on here awhile back (thesixtyone) that had done a cool sitewide redesign afterwards and released a neat iPad app. When I finally got around to posting it, it looked superficially similar to what I remembered but had turned to utter shit in terms of usability, presumably because the redesign had driven the community away, Digg-style, and the admins had just... abandoned it.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:44 PM on April 16, 2013

It varies a bit, I've had a post deleted because it showed video of old technology.

If I remember right, that was a case where it was actually an older-but-not-vintage video of then-new hard drive tech or something, that was sort of post-dated as a result of (not your fault, obviously) some scraper sleazebag running other people's content on youtube? So it was a bit of a mess.

But your point's worth mentioning in any case, yeah, because that's one of the odd circumstances where maybe age would come into it, at least in terms of presentation: if something's being presented as new, or as interesting because it's new/current, when it's actually not, it can annoy people and make for a sort of automatically-derailed conversation.

More than tech I'd say the best example I can think of that's happened a few times is an older essay or expose about some Scandalous/Outrageous thing being posted (usually as a mistake of missing a dateline or something, and CMS formatting can be no help there sometimes) as if it was being published Right Now and in reaction to one or another thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:56 PM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ivan, so good to see you again.
posted by medusa at 1:56 PM on April 16, 2013

Bob Dylan, I love that guy!

I really like that one-dude-with-an-acoustic-guitar-and-a-harmonica thing he's got going--I just hope he doesn't fuck with the formula.

I don't believe you. You're a liar.
posted by tigrefacile at 2:19 PM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

It is a bit embarrassing when songs that have been #1 for weeks get breathlessly posted to MeFi.

Conversely, it is always cool when I watch my local morning news and they do their human interest/internet story and it was on MeFi weeks ago.
posted by NoraCharles at 2:29 PM on April 16, 2013

It is a bit embarrassing when songs that have been #1 for weeks get breathlessly posted to MeFi.

Embarrassing to who?!

So silly to care about these things.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:31 AM on April 17


It just makes it feel like the community is out of touch when someone posts Thrift Shop or a Skrillex vid like its some huge new thing months after everybody's got sick of it.

What's the rule about posting a link that was deleted ages ago when posted by someone else, but the site's still good?
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 2:59 PM on April 16, 2013

It just makes it feel like the community is out of touch when someone posts Thrift Shop or a Skrillex vid like its some huge new thing months after everybody's got sick of it.

The demographic on metafilter skews older than on some similar sites. And stodgier. I know I don't really care to keep up with musical trends, but I'm happy with the balance of what's posted here.

"Everybody" doesn't really follow music on a weekly cycle, anyway. I sure don't--and I'm, like, 29.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:06 PM on April 16, 2013

The demographic on metafilter skews older than on some similar sites. And stodgier. I know I don't really care to keep up with musical trends, but I'm happy with the balance of what's posted here.

Your favorite band gums.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:17 PM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Conversely, it is always cool when I watch my local morning news and they do their human interest/internet story and it was on MeFi weeks ago.

I am totally willing to trade off being slack on meme trends for being up-to-date on other stories.
posted by solarion at 5:23 PM on April 16, 2013

cortex: "If I remember right, that was a case where it was actually an older-but-not-vintage video of then-new hard drive tech or something, that was sort of post-dated as a result of (not your fault, obviously) some scraper sleazebag running other people's content on youtube? So it was a bit of a mess."

That's a good way of putting it: older but not vintage. I didn't really phase the post as the tech being cutting edge, I just thought it was cool in a how many straws can I stick in my mouth kind of way, but the thread went after the non bleeding nature of the video. Which in itself was quite informative, I liked where it went before it got deleted. Which I guess makes it also an example where the discussion can't save a questionable link.
posted by Mitheral at 5:58 PM on April 16, 2013

It just makes it feel like the community is out of touch when someone posts Thrift Shop or a Skrillex vid like its some huge new thing months after everybody's got sick of it.

I don't want to be confrontational about this point, but I'm curious why this seems to bother you. Since this website doesn't make any claims to being on the cutting edge of music or really anything particular thing, I have to say I suspect that your feelings about this have more to do with how you, personally, feel about people who seem to you to be out of touch with these things. Like maybe you're embarrassed on their behalf, or embarrassed to be associated with them. And, whatever, you feel how you feel and that's okay, but I wonder if you might not benefit a bit from examining that feeling and asking yourself how it helps you.

Personally, as someone who is resolutely, doggedly behind the cutting edge in a lot of areas, those posts which are about something I've been hearing about but never bothered to look up are a great help to me. If somebody made a big long post about Skrillex tomorrow I'd read it and be happy to know a little bit about somebody who seems to be influential, but if that same post had been written a year ago I wouldn't have read it, because I don't think I'd ever heard of Skrillex at that time. So that probably makes me out of touch in your eyes, but here's the thing: I'm not embarrassed by it because I don't think it diminishes me as a person. So, and again, I hope this isn't coming across as confrontational because I don't intend it that way, but why are you embarrassed for me? It doesn't do anything for me. What does it do for you?
posted by gauche at 6:25 PM on April 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'm usually pretty behind the time as well, and I mostly listen to niche stuff, but there's something odd about it. I dunno it's a combination of people who are usually so clued-in on stuff reacting with amazement to a song people are already sick of and how it interacts with the usual defensive 'I don't even own a TV/radio/Facebook' stance.'

Or maybe it is a demographic thing, and I'm embarrassed 'cause I'm getting old too.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:08 PM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Join us on the old side. It's so much comfier here. We have sweatpants!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:53 PM on April 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

I know Ke$ha as a nice young woman who appeared in an episode of the Planet Money podcast.
posted by Area Man at 8:08 PM on April 16, 2013

Needs more honey badgers.
posted by y2karl at 8:34 PM on April 16, 2013

It just makes it feel like the community is out of touch when someone posts Thrift Shop or a Skrillex vid like its some huge new thing months after everybody's got sick of it.

I second the motion to ban Skrillex videos.
posted by bongo_x at 1:08 AM on April 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I second the motion to ban Skrillex videos.

Very glad that I'm not the first to want to say this.

It just makes it feel like the community is out of touch..

Sorry, what? Out of touch with the dudebro community or what? I can live with that. Might even wear a t-shirt.
posted by pompomtom at 6:18 AM on April 17, 2013

Or maybe it is a demographic thing, and I'm embarrassed 'cause I'm getting old too.

Yeah, embrace that shit man. It's a lot easier.
posted by gauche at 6:40 AM on April 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Unless it's some old TV video of Cat Stevens randomly performing one of his hits.

I found a Cat Stevens children's book from the 70s in a charity shop the other day for a pound or so, and was really excited about it, until I got home and discovered half the pages had been cut out for some reason (and in such a way as you couldn't really tell they'd been cut out, but they had).

So it turned into the saddest afternoon of my life
posted by dng at 4:27 PM on April 19, 2013

He needed those pages back to make tables of paper wood. It's a collectors' edition.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:27 PM on April 19, 2013

Unless it's some old TV video of Cat Stevens randomly performing one of his hits.

In a just world, that would be a video of his public execution for his part of the soundtrack for Harold and Maude.*
*Of course, that goes for about anyone's part in any aspect of that production.

The horror, the horror!
posted by y2karl at 1:54 PM on April 20, 2013