Still here?

February 8, 2014 1:38 PM

Just curious, how many mefi "old-timers" are still around?

I occasionally get a "wow" feeling when I see a user number of 3 or 4 digits. Not that it means anything about the user, but I do feel kind of impressed that mefi seems the kind of place where people don't fade away at as high a rate as other places.

It's hard to tell by user number alone, though. I am on my second account, for example. I'm just wondering, accounting for brand new days and leave-but-then-return-later, how many of the first 1000, first 10000, first 20000 users are still around?

And how do you feel that compares to other long-running community sites (SA, reddit, etc.)

posted by ctmf to MetaFilter-Related at 1:38 PM (417 comments total)

14K forever!
posted by languagehat at 1:59 PM on February 8, 2014 [18 favorites]

I hear #1 still stops by.
posted by HuronBob at 1:59 PM on February 8, 2014 [10 favorites]

#2's still a thread-shitter.
posted by gman at 2:01 PM on February 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

I started reading around 2001.

My original account number was between 20000 and 21000. I would have been a five dollar newb the day that signups reopened in 2004, but I was having trouble with PayPal (from Hell's heart I stab at thee) at the time.

I did my own BND because I discovered that my old user name could be easily linked to my real name.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:02 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

At #24675, I'm on the tail-end of what you consider older users. I refresh MeFi, AskMe, and MeTa on and off all day; other subsites, I visit less frequently. I haven't yet had occasion to disable my account, though I keep that idea in my back pocket as a possible productivity booster.
posted by Elsa at 2:03 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

My first user number was under 5000
posted by The Blue Olly at 2:05 PM on February 8, 2014

I don't feel like an old user? I still remember being like, wow, a usernumber under 1000, how did you even hear about this place.

As for other sites, I think I'm on my eighth Reddit account. I just forget the passwords and don't care enough to try and remember them.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 2:10 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've been here over a decade. I know I was here before the Kaycee Nicole brouhaha.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 2:12 PM on February 8, 2014

(And there are a lot of usernames that I miss. Whole different crowd with very few exceptions.)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 2:13 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm a 10ker.

Today I noticed--not an old timer user that I hadn't seen in a while--but a new (since the end of last year) user who said something I found exceptionally insightful. I realized it had been a while since a new user had caught my eye because of an insightful comment, rather than because of nonstop commenting or metatalk madness.

That was nice.

and now I've tainted it
posted by crush-onastick at 2:22 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

1782, I remember when this was all fields, etc etc.
posted by Catch at 2:24 PM on February 8, 2014 [14 favorites]

I was the last pre-anonymous user.
posted by grouse at 2:26 PM on February 8, 2014 [11 favorites]

I am not a number, I was 10425. - luv m ;-P
posted by Ardiril at 2:30 PM on February 8, 2014

#1296, so I guess I go back...yikes, to 2000.
posted by thomas j wise at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

15122. It's.. you know. It's not bad.
posted by kbanas at 2:36 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

17095, October 2002. But I lurked for a while before that, because I vaguely remember something about sign-ups only being available for three spots on the second full moon of the month, or something like that. I was honestly excited when I was able to join (for reals, I was a SAHM in the throes of post-partum depression at the time, this was seriously a big deal for me.)
posted by Ruki at 2:48 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

User number 58 disabled his 1999-vintage account with the 19700 comments sometime last summer, for reasons not known to me. We are the left-behinds.
posted by jfuller at 2:48 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm user #3796, so I've been lurking since 2001. Wow.
posted by mmoncur at 2:49 PM on February 8, 2014

Where's the high user number love? I blew my inheritance on sockpuppets to get a number this big!
posted by oceanjesse at 2:49 PM on February 8, 2014 [8 favorites]

I'm in the lower 17k bracket so have been here over a decade. I was quietly pleased when my secret quonsar gifter turned out to be from the 1.7k range this year,
posted by biffa at 2:57 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

#430
posted by Mick at 2:59 PM on February 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

Just looked and it will be 14 years next Thursday.
posted by Mick at 2:59 PM on February 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

#2238 still here. About 13 and a half years now.

I do know there are a lot of Old Farts (to me, that's more or less anybody under about 5k) from back in the day that visit the site but don't participate any more.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:05 PM on February 8, 2014 [8 favorites]

I'm such an old timer my original user number was negative.

If you win a Zoolander-style walk-off against someone with a lower user number at a meetup there's all this lightning and their favorites flow into you like The Quickening.
posted by XMLicious at 3:11 PM on February 8, 2014 [22 favorites]

I'm #441 and I still check in every 3 or 4 weeks or so. I think I found metafilter through kottke.org. I've taken multi-year breaks from the site in the past. I mostly just read MetaTalk these days for some reason. For a long while I was reading nothing but 'human relations' tagged questions on ask.metafilter.

I don't think I've faded away, as I was never really that active or felt like I was part of the community, though I did one of those mix-tape exchanges once, and that was fun.
posted by muta at 3:24 PM on February 8, 2014 [5 favorites]

Get off my lawn
posted by terrapin at 3:36 PM on February 8, 2014 [5 favorites]

I read for a year or so before I was able to slip in as a $5 n00b. I covet your low numbers.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:41 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

#10585 here. I believe I am near the tail end of the folks who were able to get in before the $5 fee.
posted by juv3nal at 3:54 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

1064. Been here since just about the beginning and have come here multiple times a day since. Still the very best place on the Internet for me, and nothing else has come close.
posted by Zosia Blue at 3:57 PM on February 8, 2014 [7 favorites]

i think i found this place from a link on Mahir's home page
posted by lampshade at 3:59 PM on February 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

[TURN TURN TURN PLAYS SOFTLY IN BACKGROUND]
posted by The Whelk at 4:01 PM on February 8, 2014 [5 favorites]

Second account, originally "wendell" (user #206, "Joined: sometime in 1999" before Matt started keeping track). Picked up "oneswellfoop" (user #20007 - so close to an incredible numerical coincidence) during the first days of $5 memberships because (1) it was my blog's name and I didn't want anybody else owning it and (2) I felt I owed Matt something. Later, in 2009, I decided to let "wendell" end well, reluctantly closed that account and became a full-time foop...

Statistics (combining both accounts):

Contributions:
MeFi: 517 posts , 9949 comments
MetaTalk: 72 posts , 5117 comments (including this one)
Ask MeFi: 27 questions , 145 answers
Music: 0 posts , 10 comments, 0 playlists
Music Talk: 0 posts, 1 comments
Projects: 4 posts, 44 comments, 217 votes
Jobs: 0 posts
IRL: 1 post, 7 comments

Favorites: 11024
Favorited by others: 20102

Interesting... just broke 11K on favorites given and 20K on favorites received... almost to 10K comments on the Blue... now I'm gonna be so "what do I say? what should I say?"
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:07 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sigh, on no other site could I be an active member for 8 years and still not be an oldtimer.
posted by milarepa at 4:18 PM on February 8, 2014 [42 favorites]

Don't worry, I'm still here.
posted by saladin at 4:22 PM on February 8, 2014

"I'm sorry to differ with you, sir. But you are the commenter. You have always been the commenter."
posted by Elsa at 4:22 PM on February 8, 2014 [5 favorites]

That's odd, normally the blood gets off on the second Meta Thread.
posted by The Whelk at 4:26 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was part of the "sometime in 1999" crowd, with a low 3 digit user number, but I only posted a couple of times; I don't remember why. I drifted away for several years, came back, lurked for a bit, then created this account. About a month and a half into the new account, a MeTa thread inspired me to ask about tracking down my original account and Jessamyn helped me out. She and I were both surprised by the results.

I think about going back to the old account every so often, but as much as I have an identity on here, tending towards being more a lurker than a poster as I do, it's this one.

I just realized that makes my sub 40,000 account my "new" account. Huh.
posted by booksherpa at 4:27 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

"#10585 here. I believe I am near the tail end of the folks who were able to get in before the $5 fee."

No, there's like seven thousand more people and three years after you. Pretty much the cohort of those of us from April 1st and 2nd 2004 were the last, excepting, you know, individuals here and there until November when the $5 thing began.

Personally, I don't think anyone with a user number of 14K or higher are old-timers. But that's sort of weird when even the 17kers are about to have their ten-year anniversaries.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:30 PM on February 8, 2014

If MeFi's Beloved The Whelk has a number in the 80,000s, I think the cutoff for oldtimers is now "six digits".
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:33 PM on February 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

Most of us are tinkers, some of us tailors
And we've got candlesticks and lots of cocktail sticks
We saw the lovers, the modern lovers, and they looked very good
They looked as if they could
We are the neighbours, the nosy neighbours, we think just like you would
We think just like you should
posted by maudlin at 4:39 PM on February 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

User #15969, joined September 2002 and lurked for a year before that, which I guess makes me an old 'un.
posted by orange swan at 4:43 PM on February 8, 2014

I think I may have set a record for "longest lurker". Joined in 2001 (user #6044), first comment in 2010.
posted by vasi at 4:49 PM on February 8, 2014 [23 favorites]

7K'er here. I still read often, comment on occasion.
posted by drezdn at 4:52 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

User #15692 (though I refreshed my username last year). Joined in August 2002, after lurking for the best part of a year and trying to snag a membership during the rare window of opportunity.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 4:53 PM on February 8, 2014

10k here. Never left, but i'm not much of a talker. I'm a lurker par excellence. Tend to read MF every day, pretty much
posted by stoneegg21 at 5:02 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

#1801. Second thousand.


This really just means I'm old as shit.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:04 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

If your user number is lower than that of any mod, then you are .... pre-modern?
posted by Rumple at 5:11 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Possibly a rocker?
posted by The Whelk at 5:12 PM on February 8, 2014 [9 favorites]

4772. Joined March 2001. Have been here everyday since, mostly reading, often learning.

No matter what happens, I always come back because this place is unique and special, and I care about the site and people who make it what it is.
posted by ltracey at 5:33 PM on February 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

1944. Not that I've done much with it.
posted by macrone at 5:41 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

True story: I remember having been a lurker at least as far back as 9/11, didn't get an account because I didn't use PayPal, but totally missed the point at which PayPal started just taking credit cards and ended up begging Jessamyn for an account long past the point at which I could have gotten one myself. Thanks, Jessamyn!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:46 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

You rang?
posted by NortonDC at 5:49 PM on February 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

User #2726 checking in.

When I started Metafilter was in black and white. Matt went by "Steamboat Matty."
posted by bondcliff at 6:12 PM on February 8, 2014 [21 favorites]

18312. I'm a $5 n00b.
posted by zarq at 6:12 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

#1983. Metafilter's done a great job at staying classy. I've witnessed a lot of old guard ragequits similar to other communities over the years, but MeFi's resisted the slow degradation that happens to most communities. Thanks to Matt and the mods for their hard work.
posted by frenetic at 6:13 PM on February 8, 2014 [13 favorites]

11065. I lurked for a while before that but then ended up joining five days before 9/11. The first big Metafilter thing I remember getting sucked into was the Kaycee Nicole thing.
posted by OolooKitty at 6:22 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

17479.
Still feel new.
posted by chococat at 6:29 PM on February 8, 2014

I haven't had my user account the whole time I've been reading the site. I was lurking back in 2005, or at least early enough to remember ColdFusion errors and the server in #1s closet.
posted by strixus at 6:29 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

long time lurker
posted by mmm at 6:38 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Number 225. Yes, flashbacks. Long term use takes its toll.
posted by de at 6:38 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

39k. Lurked for years before signing up as slow arriving n00b. Love this place.
posted by arcticseal at 6:46 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

7K-ish. Mefi is my internet home. In whatever reader-du-jour I've read every mefi related headline for (what feels like) forever.

Sometimes when I realize I was already out of college for a years or two before mefi existed I'm kind of dumbfounded. What did I do before?
posted by tayknight at 6:48 PM on February 8, 2014

I remember when user numbers hit the low 60k range, and feeling like maybe I was no longer a n00b because there were as many after mine as before...

I don't post much, but I still read Metafilter almost every day.
posted by rollbiz at 6:59 PM on February 8, 2014

My user number is four digits in hex: 0x9D0E.

I learned about metafilter from the 2002 April Fool's Day merger of Kuro5hin and Metafilter to form Met4filter.org (which I notice has lapsed and was taken by someone else long ago). I lurked for years, trying and failing to be a new user on signup days, before the advent of $5 n00bism.

Lotsa folks from K5 made it over here, but few stayed (localroger being a notable and welcome exception).
posted by infinitewindow at 7:06 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

#1951 here
posted by briank at 7:07 PM on February 8, 2014

16k. Kids, lawns, et cetera.
posted by scody at 7:12 PM on February 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

13877. And I knew that without hovering.

What I find interesting is how long I thought people have been here. For instance, I always assumed scody pre-dated me.
posted by dobbs at 7:15 PM on February 8, 2014

528. Mostly on Ask rather than MeFi proper these days.
posted by judith at 7:16 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm a 22Ker, been here for 8 years, lurked on and off longer than that, and I still don't feel like an oldtimer.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:22 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

"For instance, I always assumed scody pre-dated me."

Once scody arrived, it was like she'd always been here and we couldn't imagine MeFi without her. I mean, not me, I didn't get here for another two years. But MeFi without scody is like MeFi without ... Miguel. Gulp. Don't ever leave, scody, it won't be the same without you!
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:34 PM on February 8, 2014 [5 favorites]

10493 - but I still feel like a noob, really.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:35 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

15658 here, still learning and growing with the site!
posted by jasper411 at 7:35 PM on February 8, 2014

17Ker, albeit indirectly. You're only as old as you feel.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:37 PM on February 8, 2014

I did some light info-dumpster diving. I considered anyone that joined before 2004-11-18 (the day $5 signups began) to be an "old" user, and everyone else a "new" user. By that metric, there are 15,987 old users (25.4%) and 46,932 new users (74.6%), for a total of 62,919 users. Then I checked users that were active in the last six months, where active is defined as having posted, commented, or favorited. There were 1,572 active old users (11.2%) and 12,477 active new users (88.8%), for a total of 14,049 active users. I considered further breaking that down by volume of activity, but then it would have ceased to be "light" info-dumpster diving.

You can interpret that as you want, but I don't think there are many other web sites that can make the claim that one in ten of their active users has been a member for approximately a decade or more.

Disclaimer: The cutoff I used was somewhat arbitrary. It does not account for people who switched accounts. The measure of active users does not account for lurkers, or people who have an account but read the site without being logged in. Do not taunt happy fun ball.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:39 PM on February 8, 2014 [21 favorites]

14995 still here, for the most part.
posted by Zonker at 7:41 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

16328, although I feel like about 15K.
posted by timsteil at 7:41 PM on February 8, 2014

flapjax at midnite here, friends, offering you quality posts, songs, poems and more, as well as friendly and timely comments (and the occasional MeMail for that personal touch!) since 2005. A solid track record of excellence in posting that speaks for itself! 594 posts to the blue! 13146 comments! And songs? You want SONGS? Well, we deliver, friends! 178 songs posted to MetaFilter Music (yes, Virginia, there IS a MetaFilter Music!), including my latest, "Random Pictures of Strangers" which was, lo and behold, inspired by a MetaFilter comment! You see, it all comes together! Right now! Over you!

In closing, let me just say that your continued support of Flapjax At Midnite Industries is deeply appreciated, friends, and here's wishing you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons from here throughout eternity and beyond.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:45 PM on February 8, 2014 [11 favorites]

10825, joined Aug 30, 2001. I still feel like I'm not one of the cool kids.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:48 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm under 18000, and when I get the matching number of favorites I will light up and play music.
posted by davejay at 7:51 PM on February 8, 2014 [7 favorites]

17040; a little over 11 years. I didn't have to pay $5, but I did have to click the new member signup every morning for like a year, so I think that counts for something. Been here pretty much every day since well before the signup page finally let me in back in 2002.
posted by obloquy at 7:52 PM on February 8, 2014

My first account was in the mid-3,280's. That guy was a dick, though, so I rejoined in the early 22,060's. Eventually my posting history felt burdensome, so I made a new name for myself.

I'm much happier now at 120,890.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:52 PM on February 8, 2014 [8 favorites]

Totally not one of the cool kids, though. More like someone else's dad occasionally making goofy jokes and giving fatherly advice in an annoying monotone.
posted by davejay at 7:52 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

the beer that made Milfamee walk us!
posted by davejay at 7:53 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

10370. I lurked for quite a while, then was ready to join but had to wait until new users were allowed again. I don't post often, but I still stop by several times a week.
posted by sueinnyc at 7:55 PM on February 8, 2014

I may be a six-digit guy, but if my nefarious plan succeeds I'll become the oldest of the old-timers. (Conveniently, all the Mefites I need to bump off are played by Alec Guinness.)
posted by in278s at 7:57 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

18763. I was a day late for the $5 noobs. It's pretty amazing when you consider that the proper $5 noobs started in the 17K range and the next day we were in the late 18Ks.

Most of us who were $5 noobs were lurkers (and possibly had MetaChat and MonkeyFilter accounts) for an age before open signups allowed us to flood in. I distinctly remember reading MetaFilter at college, and I graduated in May 2003, so "long lurkerdom" had set in.

It really doesn't feel like it will be 10 years soon, though.
posted by graymouser at 7:57 PM on February 8, 2014

I'm just amazed I haven't been banned yet...
posted by HuronBob at 8:01 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

I've been reading since lord knows when, but didn't try to sign up until the days when signups were limited each day, and could never successfully be one of those chosen few. Then Matt said something like, if you really want to sign up, paypal me five bucks and I'll put you through, and that's when I finally signed up, before he just made that the rule rather than the exception. One day I just decided "Hey, I have five bucks, what the hell, let's do this thing".
posted by padraigin at 8:04 PM on February 8, 2014

I'm not around. They were right: the 14k newbs ruined Metafilter with their rock and roll and blue jeans.
posted by birdherder at 8:25 PM on February 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

10995 here. I found Metafilter thanks to the Brill's Content article in 2001, lurked for a few months until signups reopened (they were closed at the time I found MeFi), then signed up on September 4, 2001.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:37 PM on February 8, 2014

Here's the aforementioned Brill's Content article.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:43 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

User # 744, been here since April 2000. As Zosia Blue said upthread, I still check in several times a day.
posted by Lynsey at 8:48 PM on February 8, 2014 [5 favorites]

We are the 88.8%.
posted by arcticseal at 8:58 PM on February 8, 2014 [6 favorites]

Ardiril: "- luv m ;-P"

Now *that* takes me back all the way to Plastic.

I'm 15k and it makes me feel old that this might somehow qualify me as an old user. One of these days I'll trade in this username for a less stupid one, but that'll be after the one of these days when I read all of the excellent FPPs I favorited with this account to go back and read when I have the time.

My wife signed up the first day of the five-dollar n00bs and I still call her n00b. And somehow we're still married. Does that make sense to you?
posted by stet at 9:07 PM on February 8, 2014

I'm here - 15411, joined 12 (!!) years ago. I am an old.
posted by tristeza at 9:07 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm just amazed I haven't been banned yet...

They thought they had. Then you had to pipe up...
posted by fatbird at 9:08 PM on February 8, 2014

I lurked for what then seemed like a long time, and then signed up on Leap Day, so I only come to life once every four years before I return to a state of life-like stasis. I think that means you should multiply my user number by 366, divide by the number of cats currently living in the house, multiply it by the number of times I've shouted "Shut up Bob" or "Shut up Matt" in the last 30 hours, and subtract the number of times I've been overly verbose.

That's the user number of my soul. That's the only one that counts.
posted by julen at 9:15 PM on February 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

Recently I noticed aramaic, being all 1658, and said "whoa."
posted by mr. digits at 9:26 PM on February 8, 2014

Here. I remember having a different username that was in the 600s but I'll be damned if I can remember the username/which email address it was associated with.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 9:29 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

One of these days I'll trade in this username for a less stupid one, ...
posted by stet

With a username like that I really don't think you should change it.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:30 PM on February 8, 2014 [19 favorites]

19k, lurked for a long time before the $5 option arrived. Still do much more lurking than commenting, actually.
posted by bitmage at 9:34 PM on February 8, 2014

I am still the same punctuation and grammar challenged lass of yesteryear (when giants once walked the earth.)
posted by jadepearl at 9:49 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

huh wha...?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 9:55 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

#7330 here. Can't quit this thing.
posted by prototype_octavius at 10:13 PM on February 8, 2014

I'm just amazed I haven't been banned yet...

There is a campaign you nothing of. Hurons don't name their kids Bob.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 10:13 PM on February 8, 2014

I was sort of on the fence about joining for a while, but when I read the 9/11 thread in 2001, I decided at the next opportunity I'd sign up. Almost a year later the gates opened.... No other site membership has lasted that long for me, or meant as much over the years. Lots of people come and go, but I think I'm stuck here, for better or worse.

And how do you feel that compares to other long-running community sites (SA, reddit, etc.)

Reddit? What's that?

Actually, I don't know how it compares. I still login to Metafilter every day, and I don't really do that with other sites. On my phone, the first tab on the Dolphin browser is permanently dialed up to the front page. On my laptop and desktop, in Firefox I always have a window with several MeFi tabs open, usually from the blue as well as Ask and Talk.

I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all....
posted by krinklyfig at 10:25 PM on February 8, 2014

I've been lurking since 2000.

I didn't get an account until 2007 though because... well, every other place I had an account caused me to flame out when some dipshit was an asshat and I just couldn't abide.

By 07, I felt like I was able to walk away from fighty comments more and so far, that has been true. So... I'm not an old timer, but... I've been here a while.

Metafilter: best of the web.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 10:38 PM on February 8, 2014

I'm here, too.
posted by brina at 10:38 PM on February 8, 2014

3220

I TASTE NOTHING

I FEEL NOTHING

LET ME REST
posted by furiousthought at 10:44 PM on February 8, 2014 [7 favorites]

I thought it was 2007 when I joined, but nope, 2006. 8 years. I check the site every day, still.

I wouldn't really consider myself an older user, but maybe not a complete noob either. 38430

I have never switched accounts. I am who I am, and really haven't had a moment where I wanted to change that with this account.
posted by annsunny at 11:06 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Is there a way to look up the newest user numbers? I'm just curious as to what numbers are at now, not in any hazing, haha!
posted by annsunny at 11:13 PM on February 8, 2014

There's the infodump, but it's only updated weekly. Still, the last update was less than 24 hours ago and at the time the highest occupied user number was 193898.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:37 PM on February 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I joined in 2004, but I was lurking since sometime in 2000. By the time I got around to wanting an account I found myself waiting for an opening.

Of course once I DID register an account I...still lurked. I've seen the community vibe change over time, but not really. Every time I hear people bemoan the loss of the civility of the olden days...oh damn; such rose-tinted glasses.

I always tell myself that I'll comment more. Maybe I will eventually! Maybe.
posted by Stunt at 11:42 PM on February 8, 2014

Every time an old user gets banned or posts drunk, they get permanently bounced to the MetaMirror site, which is also where all the new users go by default.

The MetaMirror site has all the posts -- but none of the comments -- of the real site, five minutes behind (so mods can excise any inadvertent mention of the mirror site's existence before it reaches the mirror.)

The Mirror site, then, consists of the posts from both sites and the comments from the banned, the drunk and the new.

Meanwhile the real site gets only the posts by and comments from the old users who have never been banned and never post drunk. Which means the posts are very, very good, and the conversation is very, very boring.

Also, nobody reads the posts down there.
posted by davejay at 12:11 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

4123 checking in. Comment far less than I used to, but MeFi is one of my daily must-reads. MeFi, Ask, and MetaTalk. Never got into the other subsites.

MEFI4EVR!
posted by davidmsc at 12:26 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

My god, I just looked and it’ll be ten years in April, and I still don’t feel like an old-timer. Though I do get to gloat over the five bucks I saved.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 12:30 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

My first username is a hair over 20,000 - not sure if that qualifies.
posted by running order squabble fest at 12:31 AM on February 9, 2014

who cares about you fogies, your lawn is ugly and i'm having a rainbow dubstep twerk party all over it with my 166 homies.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:01 AM on February 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

17244, joined in November 2002, but was reading since some time in 2001. I got lucky with a free signup window.
posted by knapah at 2:58 AM on February 9, 2014

DID I MAKE IT IN TIME FOR THE DICK SWINGING CONTEST?
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 4:24 AM on February 9, 2014

No, but your shouting would seem to indicate a certain urgency. The nurse who deals with dick swinging adjudications, readjustments, panty liner trimming und so weiter will step in when the frothing stops.

Couple of hours should fix it.
posted by Wolof at 4:30 AM on February 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

Your user number is seven lower than mine, old-timer.
posted by Decani at 4:49 AM on February 9, 2014

Oh wait. No it isn't; I was looking at the wrong place, Johnny-come-lately.
posted by Decani at 4:50 AM on February 9, 2014

I'm old everywhere else, I might as well be old here too.
posted by JanetLand at 4:51 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

14643, going on 12 years this August. Introduced by Saladin, 10964, my college roommate.
posted by The Michael The at 4:57 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

#2666; the first bookmark I click every morning for ~13 years.
posted by gleuschk at 4:58 AM on February 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

DID I MAKE IT IN TIME FOR THE DICK SWINGING CONTEST?
posted by GooseOnTheLoose

Anserinysterical!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:05 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

9 13 2001
posted by 0 at 5:10 AM on February 9, 2014

17,698, and it burns me that it's so high. I lurked for a year or more, decided to join, and then had to wait, like there was a velvet rope or something, for room. Sign-ups were closed like the first three times I tried. Oh and this is my only account.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:45 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

4448, so I qualify as an old fart by Stavros's definition

Also by most other definitions
posted by ook at 5:47 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

#7810. Less farty than some, fartier than others.

I want that on my gravestone.
posted by emmtee at 5:49 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

As a n00b I'd just like to say, great question and thread, thanks everybody.

Also: 98K REPREZENT! (Rounding down, of course!)
posted by marienbad at 5:50 AM on February 9, 2014

#15556, Aug 2002. Lurked for two years before that. Still here.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:41 AM on February 9, 2014

#17938.

Still feel like a newbie.
posted by kyrademon at 6:47 AM on February 9, 2014

1174, low enough to fit on a baseball jersey, if they ever come back...
posted by mimi at 7:27 AM on February 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

That's the user number of my soul. That's the only one that counts.

Mine involves the number of times the cat sang opera last night multiplied by the coffee it's going to require to get through today as a result.
posted by arcticseal at 7:30 AM on February 9, 2014

There is going to be a thread to end all threads on Nov. 18th of this year when all us $5 n00bs can finally call ourselves Olds. (I lurked from about 2002)
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:32 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

10299. I also watched from the sidelines lurkylurky style all through the 9/11 threads and after, unable to add my useless two cents. In retrospect, I'm glad I wasn't able to join yet, Lord knows how cringy my comment would have been.
posted by pomegranate at 7:42 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Question: how did all you really old timers find out about the place? How did the word spread back in the olden days?
posted by SLC Mom at 7:46 AM on February 9, 2014

I was the first 14K'er, at 14007.
posted by Curious Artificer at 7:47 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

And to the question; I'm pretty sure from a Yahoo site of the day mention some time in 2001, although I didn't actually get in until early 2002.
posted by Curious Artificer at 7:48 AM on February 9, 2014

How did the word spread back in the olden days?

I knew who mathowie was but I didn't really know about the site. I thought MarkAnd told me about it but he joined way after me, so I assume I first heard about it through jjg. Looking through my old blog it seems like I discovered Napster and then was noodling around online looking for MP3s and Napster info, found this post, and joined.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:55 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

#16151—I’ve been a consistently infrequent poster since joining in Sept. ’02, and a consistently frequent reader for a bit longer than that.
posted by misteraitch at 7:58 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

For a long while I was reading nothing but 'human relations' tagged questions on ask.metafilter.

Finally, somebody I can relate to on this.
posted by solarion at 8:15 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

In on the 14k sign up lottery, and was lurking before that, back when 9622 didn't have them newfangled longboats. *lights the Migs signal*
posted by romakimmy at 8:16 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

milarepa: "Sigh, on no other site could I be an active member for 8 years and still not be an oldtimer."

Yeah, I'll be a $5 newb forever.
posted by octothorpe at 8:23 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

How did the word spread back in the olden days?

I had some friends who were in the 3-digit class that had another blog they were editors on and would occasionally link to discussions here. I might have visited before that, but the first thread I remember reading was a personality test that figured out which philosopher you were, which I think was back in May 2001 or something. I think the member counter in the upper right was somewhere in the 8000s at that point, so delaying my signup until December cost me a digit.

I still think of 9/11 as the dividing line between new and old members.
posted by LionIndex at 9:11 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I considered anyone that joined before 2004-11-18 (the day $5 signups began) to be an "old" user

I think we should go for an "ancient," "medieval," and "modern" schematization here. Mostly because I want to be medieval. Huzzah!

I remarked on this here and here. To expand on it a little, as I recall, around 1999/2000 Feed profiled several popular bloggers of whom one was metafilter's sapphireblue. I then discovered metafilter through her blog. Then I promptly forgot about it for two or three years.

I tend to think of the "old" users as the early bloggers and the members who joined pre-September 11th.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:15 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

>17544 reporting for duty, one of the very last dregs of the old generation before the $5n00bs flooded in with their fresh faces.

I lurked a couple of years before that, but will celebrate my 10th signuppiversary this August, same time as I turn 40 - what a great 30th birthday present that was from my big bro, old-timer fabius, aka 9078. I think he wheedled a link to the backdoor signups out of mathowie at a time when they were officially closed, and I was SO EXCITED.
posted by penguin pie at 9:31 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

9 years next month and I'm a n00b.
posted by infini at 9:37 AM on February 9, 2014

I'm kind of startled that I am 1132. I guess I signed up early on but probably didn't actually come back for several years. I have a memory of $5 signups and wondering if I already had an account and surprise! yes, I did.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:03 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm always surprised that I'm a 22Ker. I feel more like I should be somewhere in the 60-70s.
posted by gaspode at 10:12 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Matt could make big money by auctioning off the unused low number accounts.
posted by octothorpe at 10:12 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I discovered MeFi sometime around the beginning of 2003 and I have no idea how. I didn't read the sites that many mefites say they learned of MeFi from. It's a mystery to me. I think maybe my awareness of MetaFilter just happened from osmosis due to MeFi's pure awesomeness.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:12 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

9648. I check the site most days, never felt like going anyplace else. Found out about MeFi from mentions on bluishorange and megnut. Got an account thru some weird back door at the ticket stub site mathowie used to run. I'll never be prolific or notorious, but I do consider this my Internet home.
posted by donnagirl at 10:28 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

How did the word spread back in the olden days?

Pretty sure I found MeFi via Kottke.
posted by davidmsc at 10:34 AM on February 9, 2014

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure I found Metafilter via Lileks, who I used to read regularly in the pre-9/11 era. I lurked for at least a year, maybe longer, before I signed up in Sept. '02.
posted by scody at 10:37 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

(originally sub-1000)(barely, and just a lurker)

I don't know which came first, but at the time I was into the personal blog thing. Somehow I hit into the 'A-lister' network and just browsed people's blogrolls whenever I was bored. Camworld, megnut, powazek, could have been any of them. (never a big kottke fan, oddly enough, and I don't know why.) I'm pretty sure I found memepool from metafilter and not the other way around, but I could be wrong.
posted by ctmf at 10:41 AM on February 9, 2014

Anil dash, maybe. Don't tell him I said that.
posted by ctmf at 10:43 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just think it's weird that despite efforts to prevent it, almost all online communities eventually degenerate to wastelands of garbage and everyone bails. Metafilter just keeps on being Metafilter.
posted by ctmf at 10:47 AM on February 9, 2014

#1899, read daily. Metafilter is such a basic part of the background chatter of my life (and thoughts) I barely register it as such. I could certainly do worse in that regard.
posted by argybarg at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Original account was in the 5ks somewhere, but I never really used it. This account is in the 12ks and officially over twelve years old, which is over a third of my life. That's...kind of crazy.

Still visit more or less daily. Don't comment near as much as I used to though.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Anil dash, maybe. Don't tell him I said that.

The first 'web log' I ever saw was Anil Dash's ... back in 2000 or some such and back then I was just like meh over the idea of an online public diary, so to speak. Don't tell him I said that either ;p
posted by infini at 11:11 AM on February 9, 2014

how did all you really old timers find out about the place? How did the word spread back in the olden days?

I got cross-pollinated here via Memepool, back when that was a thing. I seem to remember a lot of people saying the same in a long-ago iteration of this thread.

But you have to remember the web was a lot smaller back then. Yahoo! used to just be an alphabetical list of All Of The Websites, because that was a thing that could reasonably be done.

Man, I can feel myself fossilizing even as I type this.
posted by ook at 11:20 AM on February 9, 2014 [8 favorites]

> The first 'web log' I ever saw ....

I remember thinking "Why in the world would I be interested in the log files created by someone else's web server?".
posted by benito.strauss at 11:26 AM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

I actually stumbled onto Metafilter via a Google search, right after moving out to SF and going to work for one of those newfangled interaction design agencies... and I've never had Metafilter show up again ever during a search, how odd is that? gives kev the hairy eyeball
posted by infini at 11:27 AM on February 9, 2014

Wow. It seems like a quarter of the searches I make have ask on the first page.
posted by Mitheral at 11:31 AM on February 9, 2014

#10635, circa 2001, although I'd been reading for at least a year before that.

I've always been a mostly-lurker, never posted on the blue, couple of Asks, comments here and there. But I read pretty much every day, as I have for over a dozen years.
posted by Superplin at 11:34 AM on February 9, 2014

My first account is around 20K.
Came here from kuro5hin, there are a few around - localroger, pyramid termite, Ruston himself.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:40 AM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Somewhat ironically given Metafilter's old logo, I found this place via Plastic.com.
posted by octothorpe at 11:43 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I was octothorpe on Kuro5hin too.
posted by octothorpe at 11:44 AM on February 9, 2014

I joined in like, 2005 or so due to some random Outrage Filter. But I'd been lurking since 2002 when William Gibson name checked the site on his (now-defunct-moved-to-twitter) blog.

You don't want to know what he thinks about you all now.
posted by digitalprimate at 11:44 AM on February 9, 2014

Although I am getting ready to have lunch with a very early MeFite that I met in the old #mefi IRC room over a decade ago and have maintained a close friendship with. Little things like that are probably a reason I have such a fondness for this place.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:46 AM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

17735, a Five Dolla Noob, but like so many of us I had been trying for years to get in, after as ook says cross pollinating here from memepool. And I'm still here every day. For my sins. And because I love it.

I saw a comic on Facebook or somewhere recently, can't find it, but it featured someone smiling in front of a monitor and the caption was "2004: I can't wait until everyone else gets online!" and then in the next box they're looking all horrified in front of a laptop and the caption is "2014: Everyone else is online!" Yes, it struck a chord. At least here I don't have to worry so much about being disillusioned by my real life friends.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:00 PM on February 9, 2014 [8 favorites]

12427 here - joined in 2001. I mostly hang out on Ask these days. I still wish my username were more clever.

I find it charming that the profile page still asks about "the internet" as some sort of novelty, even though it's basically like air now.
posted by O9scar at 12:10 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

They were right: the 14k newbs ruined Metafilter
I think you mean that the 14k newbs made MetaFilter!

how did all you really old timers find out about the place? How did the word spread back in the olden days?
It was a link from Web Monkey that first brought me here, but sign-ups were closed at the time. Because of the nefarious methods many of us used to get in before sign-ups went all mainstream, I consider the 14k brigade to be the last of the old-timers, although there don't seem to be many left :-(.
posted by dg at 12:35 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

After lurking for a couple of years, I stumbled across $5 n00b day and so got a mid-1700 number. Can't stay away though less enthralled with the site than in the early days - probably because it's composed of Humans, rather than some more sentient species.
posted by Hobgoblin at 12:39 PM on February 9, 2014

Started lurking sometime in 2000 and joined early 2001. I think I either heard about mefi in Wired or via a blog they mentioned. I was fairly active up until 9/11, and then I took a very long break from pretty much anything that didn't serve strictly as a diversion from the awfulness all around. Started poking my head in occasionally around '08, and I'm back to checking in almost daily and making the occasional post.
posted by gimli at 12:44 PM on February 9, 2014

It smells like old in here.
posted by maryr at 12:44 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

I was number 6, but I got past the Rover.
posted by pjern at 12:48 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

#12409 here, old enough to make fun of 5-dollar n00bs. But I've paid Matt $10 for two sockpuppet accounts which, between them, have fewer than ten posts/comments.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:54 PM on February 9, 2014

Look, I should really be member no. minus 35, but
because


lurking
posted by Namlit at 1:04 PM on February 9, 2014

You don't want to know what he thinks about you all now.

I'm only surprised he hasn't used metafilter as a plot device.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:06 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Was reading from 2000, finally signed up for an account in 2001. #12990. Those were the days (I miss the late 90s web something fierce, from time to time). Pretty sure I made it here via either Rebecca Blood or Jessamyn's blog, having had the pleasure of getting to meet her back in 1996. *old moment* lemonyellow, Geegaw, Dust From a Distant Sun....
posted by jokeefe at 1:10 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

When I got here you had to post links uphill in the snow, with no shoes on. And we didn't have Live Preview for comments. And we were thankful!

Fuckin' kids...
posted by homunculus at 1:46 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

*lurks*
posted by iceberg273 at 1:51 PM on February 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

*coughs*

I remember feeling jealous of two-digit user numbers.
posted by daveadams at 2:20 PM on February 9, 2014 [7 favorites]

I found Metafilter either directly or indirectly from Kuro5hin, which is an incredible shithole now.

I like these threads where the lurkers de-cloak.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:23 PM on February 9, 2014 [7 favorites]

#885, hi.
posted by snarkout at 2:23 PM on February 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

lurker also. hi.
posted by PugAchev at 2:24 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

Hey, wacky, this was posted on my thirteenth MeFi birthday. Something something cakeday picture of my cat.

I lurked for a while before joining, so maybe I did tell Jessamyn, but I think probably not.
posted by MarkAnd at 2:25 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

I'm 12851, which, yeah, not a three digit number or anything, but I was lurking for a bit before managing to sign up in a strange hour of the night, when odd stars came into alignment and Matt opened registration for a while.

I remember having the feeling of being one of the young ones on the site; I was 20 in 2001. And 32 now; so I've been a member for a third of my life! funny, that.
posted by kaibutsu at 2:40 PM on February 9, 2014

I was lurking for a bit before managing to sign up in a strange hour of the night, when odd stars came into alignment and Matt opened registration for a while.

It seems like there's a bunch of us in this thread. Got in after the post-9/11 shutdown, but before the lottery, apparently at Matt's unannounced whim in late December of '01. It looks like we're mostly in the high 12K-low 14K range.
posted by LionIndex at 2:43 PM on February 9, 2014

12090. And still bitter about the loss of the IMG tag!
posted by Slithy_Tove at 2:44 PM on February 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

I found Metafilter either directly or indirectly from Kuro5hin, which is an incredible shithole now.

Kuro5hin is an awesome haunted mansion, yo. Restless trolling ghosts.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 2:46 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I wonder how many users are younger than the site.
posted by helicomatic at 2:48 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I hope that answer is somehow less than zero.
posted by The Whelk at 2:49 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: Something something cakeday picture of my cat.

Ha, that felt good.
posted by Catch at 2:53 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

save alive nothing that breatheth: "I found Metafilter either directly or indirectly from Kuro5hin, which is an incredible shithole now.

Kuro5hin is an awesome haunted mansion, yo. Restless trolling ghosts."

It was great in its day. I really don't understand why rusty didn't pull the plug a decade ago.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:54 PM on February 9, 2014

Guys! My great aunt Hortense died leaving me everything in her will , the only stipulation is that we have to spend the night in a haunted discussion thread!
posted by The Whelk at 2:56 PM on February 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

Creature of habit, I guess. Look in more than once on most days, but the link is right there in the toolbar, so easy click. Seems like there are fewer sites to direct attention towards anyway. To get all oldtimey, the internet doesn't feel as interesting as it did 14 years ago. I first found this place through a site that each day featured a new website pushing the possibilities. Didn't at first see why Metafilter merited attention. I was more interested then in the artistic personal expression sites, or the story-telling sites, with Flash and DHTML, and this site just sat there. (Shame that those other types of sites don't appear to exist anymore.) But in the following months I kept seeing it mentioned on other "blogger" sites, like Zeldman and Kottke.

Never had that much to say. Dropped away for awhile after making a snarky comment in the first posting of Kaycee Nicole and seeing Matt disapprove of some of the comments soon afterwards. Came back commenting in the excitement of the investigation after that story turned. Realized this place was somehow different when the first scholarships were offered. Most constant part of my browsing rotation for years now.
posted by TimTypeZed at 2:57 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

I had no idea that user numbers had gotten so high! I'm #11,939, though I lurked for about a year prior to registering. I thought that was a really high user number, but I guess not anymore. Still active, all these years later.
posted by waldo at 3:07 PM on February 9, 2014

It was great in its day. I really don't understand why rusty didn't pull the plug a decade ago.

Same reason haunted house owners don't just all get quick and easy exorcisms.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 3:29 PM on February 9, 2014

Real estate agents own all the haunted houses, get millions in quick turnover fees.
posted by The Whelk at 3:32 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ah, it's been a long time since we had a creation story thread. I love it when the oldest of the old timers surface - here are two other threads that had a high percentage of the ancients.

Remembering our friend Brad, a sad one about the passing of longertm member bradlands (#371).

Solistrato's (#850) thread of birthday thoughts from an old timer.

I am #15971, here about 11.5 years. I am going to adopt octobersurprise's label of medieval since I wasn't one of the ancients. I could have been if I hadn't been too intimidated because I was reading since the beginning -- heck, I remember seeing bloggers coin the word "blog" instead of the more cumbersome "web log" or "weblog." But it wasn't til I started posting at blort that quonsar (#986) dragged me here.

Here's a very fun list of all many early weblogs by Jesse James Garrett, of the JJG that brought jessamyn here. It presents many of the so-called A listers' blogs -- the proprietors of these blogs populate many of the under 1k user numbers here.

Young or old, love y'all. Thanks for making mefi a long-term addiction.
posted by madamjujujive at 3:37 PM on February 9, 2014 [14 favorites]

I've been here since 2001. The only contribution I have made that i am really proud of out of about 8000 comments is:

I can totally understand how someone could lose it in the presence of bubbles. Those things just radiate tension in every direction.

That's just about my hit rate in real life as well.
posted by srboisvert at 3:39 PM on February 9, 2014 [3 favorites]

I still think of myself as a noob most days.
posted by mediareport at 3:44 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I am sure matt lavallee told me to check out mefi.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 3:51 PM on February 9, 2014

My user number is 125 - does that make me old?

I don't still read every day - I have people to do that for me.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 3:57 PM on February 9, 2014 [7 favorites]

Mr Thowie himself invited me to join. We were hanging out in the same elitist cab... er... web based discussion group over at Lance Arthur's place.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 4:03 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Is Matt Haughey still around? He does have the low userid to beat all low userids.
posted by double block and bleed at 4:19 PM on February 9, 2014

I'm still here daily. I will outlast you all. I am death.
posted by ColdChef at 4:53 PM on February 9, 2014 [29 favorites]

Not quite the old-timer at #37485, but I lurked for a while and the reason I eventually did get an account was because I had never used Paypal and thought a $5 transaction with reasonably stable people seemed like a good test case. 3rd best fiver I ever spent.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:00 PM on February 9, 2014

18324 $5 n00b as the floodgates opened and let the rabble in. That was 10 years ago this coming november. There should be a party and cake.
posted by adamvasco at 5:01 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm just a filthy five-dollar noob. #20539, joined 2004.
posted by matildaben at 5:07 PM on February 9, 2014

You people are all lucky I got in before it cost me five bucks because if I was trying to get my money's worth outta this place I'd be so much more annoying.
posted by dogwalker at 5:07 PM on February 9, 2014

3rd best?
posted by Mitheral at 5:43 PM on February 9, 2014

Mitheral: "3rd best?"

Well, one is inflation. Used to be $5 same as in town. I am that old. Two, was the beer I purchased for me and this gal at the Burwood Tap in Chicago circa 1986. After that beer, we ended up dating for two years.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:53 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

ColdChef: I'm still here daily. I will outlast you all. I am death.

Well, if you're not death, you're at least death's valued assistant.


milarepa: Sigh, on no other site could I be an active member for 8 years and still not be an oldtimer.

My only other long-term community site was Discogs, and I joined that site over a decade ago (Aug. 28, 2003), but I haven't been active there in over 5 years. The site was (is?) run pretty much by a single guy, but it used to rely on a core group of volunteers to vouch for the data integrity, and I was invited to be part of that group. The one guy changed the site a number of times without ever asking us, to the point where I joined a group who wanted to build our own Discogs. That effort faltered, and soon after, MetaFilter became my online home, as much as I have an online home. I've been here a bit over 5 years, an 80k noob (#81680).
posted by filthy light thief at 5:59 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

adamvasco: 18324 $5 n00b as the floodgates opened and let the rabble in. That was 10 years ago this coming november. There should be a party and cake.

I won't say that you're not special, but if we had a party and cake for every 10th anniversary, we'd all be drunk (on cake) from July '09 until heat-death.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:13 PM on February 9, 2014

Man this site is *old*.
posted by Neale at 6:14 PM on February 9, 2014 [5 favorites]

I'm an 18k $5 noob. And proud of it. Most days.
posted by FlamingBore at 6:25 PM on February 9, 2014

#20842, and I'll go with 'medieval,' too. I can't remember where I first encountered the site, though.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:25 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

19389. I paid five bucks and happily joined in November 2004 around the same time as a bunch of other people. I still feel sort of new-ish.

Goddamn, I really can't believe 2004 was ten years ago.
posted by thivaia at 6:45 PM on February 9, 2014

Sub 10K Users Posting in The Thread Thus Far

125 CrazyUncleJoe
161 Neale
225 de
292 jessamyn
430 Mick
441 muta
528 judith
534 julen
673 daveadams
744 Lynsey
801 maudlin
803 iceberg273
805 TimTypeZed
885 snarkout
1009 fluffy battle kitten
1064 Zosia Blue
1132 Lyn Never
1135 terrapin
1174 mimi
1296 thomas j wise
1782 Catch
1801 Joseph Gurl
1899 argybarg
1944 macrone
1951 briank
1983 frenetic
2238 stavrosthewonderchicken
2666 gleuschk
2726 bondcliff
2782 NortonDC
3220 furiousthought
3343 jfuller
3410 gimli
3568 MarkAnd
3796 mmoncur
4123 davidmsc
4448 ook
4772 ltracey
4823 PugAchev
6044 vasi
6142 ArmyOfKittens
7025 srboisvert
7330 prototype_octavius
7612 drezdn
7683 ColdChef
7810 emmtee
7887 tayknight
8426 gwint
9183 mmm
9648 donnagirl


If you're interested in seeing everyone, open your browser console and paste:

p=[];$('.smallcopy a[href*="/user/"]').each(function(){var ss=$(this).attr("href");p[ss.substr(ss.lastIndexOf('/')+1)]=$(this).text()});for(var a in p){console.log(a+" "+p[a])};
posted by gwint at 7:08 PM on February 9, 2014 [11 favorites]

Heh, I think I pointed this out before, but mediareport, homunculus and I all joined on the same day.

As someone that has bronzed in several things, that is probably my favorite. (and I seriously say that out of respect)

It was (IIRC) one of those weird times where five memberships opened up randomly and you had to hit the "join" link to even see if you got to register. Long before you Lincoln Noobs.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:09 PM on February 9, 2014 [6 favorites]

Ladies and gentleman, the great Shirley Bassey. (in memory of Brad and in honor of the best friends I've ever had on The Internet).
posted by girlhacker at 7:14 PM on February 9, 2014 [8 favorites]

I probably don't count, but I'm still here. Somehow.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:15 PM on February 9, 2014

19k, $5 n00b, and my meetup count far exceeds my post count. Maybe I'll do an FPP this year, it's only been nine since I joined...
posted by evisceratordeath at 7:35 PM on February 9, 2014

Ok, ok, if we're making a list...
posted by flestrin at 7:40 PM on February 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

1061 checking in, I'm a daily reader of the blue and green via RSS but don't visit the front pages often.
posted by nicwolff at 7:48 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

You know, now I'm wondering if I couldn't have put that $5 to better use.
posted by davejay at 8:00 PM on February 9, 2014

19 K, but lurked since 2002 or so.
posted by dhruva at 8:04 PM on February 9, 2014

13K still checking in daily, grey and green more than blue.
posted by chiababe at 8:07 PM on February 9, 2014

Who you callin an old-timer, kid? Get off my damn lawn.
posted by theora55 at 8:12 PM on February 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

17160, from just before the period of no new signups allowed, if I'm remembering correctly, but have mostly been lurking (albeit daily) since then. I had a co-worker who pointed me here, plus, I went to school with user 7491, and was childhood friends with 202.
posted by Davidicus at 8:31 PM on February 9, 2014

13K still checking in daily, grey and green more than blue.
posted by chiababe

Hello, co-MeFiversarian!
posted by LionIndex at 8:32 PM on February 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also 13K here, far more reading than typing.
posted by scottymac at 8:36 PM on February 9, 2014

Hi. Pre $5 secret backdoor signup, post new user cutoffs. I'm mostly alive still.

Yeah, there used to be a secret backdoor URL that was totally open as long as you knew the URL. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still there. I have no idea if it was ever widely known or shared. I was invited by my brother, who was a friend of mathowie's at the time.
posted by loquacious at 11:34 PM on February 9, 2014

8k-er here (though only just).

I'm not sure how I got here, really. In the late 90s / early 00s I was thinking of becoming a web designer and I hung out at places where web designers hung out. I think I participated in Astounding Websites, and I'm pretty sure I was involved in the spin-off Fathom Five somehow. I also read Zeldman, Glassdog, A list apart and similar sites. I suppose I got to Metafilter through one of those places. As far as I can remember I signed up for an account, forgot about it for a while, came back and dove in. I've been around pretty much ever since, lurking far more than I post.
posted by rjs at 11:42 PM on February 9, 2014

3929. It's prime, and a palindrome.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 1:05 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

#482. Probably got here via Camworld or Kottke or the like. I have a weird thought that I have an even lower user number but I forgot the username and password and email (and everything else, it seems).
posted by adrianhon at 1:13 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

sevensevenzero via robotwisdom. I think the mefi confederated industries is a bit more daunting these days overall. Lots more threads and users and many fewer braincells to keep up with. I still visit but it's more lurking that jousting on the whole. That's ok. Relationships grow and evolve. I'm still all "I wonder what mefites are saying" about some topical or tricky story or another.
And, because I forgot/neglected to do so last time we had a user bellybutton perusal...
*waves to Lynsey* !!
posted by peacay at 2:23 AM on February 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

Joined on August 27, 2001 so I'm one of the last of the pre 9/11 crowd.

I think I followed a link on Kottke or Evhead or some other weblog in 2000 and lurked for a year before signing up.
posted by vacapinta at 4:11 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's great to see so many names from when I used to be a lowly lurker who couldn't figure out paypal.

Now that they're all here, when does the cull start?

praise be the cull. life comes from the cull. the cycle must continue. new users from old numbers
posted by Ghidorah at 4:26 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

3518 still here
posted by pracowity at 4:36 AM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

17135! But wanted in a few months before that, back when it was tough to get in.
posted by COBRA! at 5:36 AM on February 10, 2014

9194
Part of the Kaycee Nicole wave.
posted by Grangousier at 5:39 AM on February 10, 2014

Yeah, there used to be a secret backdoor URL that was totally open as long as you knew the URL. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still there.

I just checked, and it is gone.
posted by grouse at 5:51 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Been here since it was free to sign up, in 2001.
posted by agregoli at 6:12 AM on February 10, 2014

I have no idea how I got here. Maybe Metafilter was on a list of interesting stops on the information highway for people wondering where to point their Netscape next.
posted by pracowity at 6:57 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

It wasn't hard to find because at first there were so few large-scale bloggers and it seems like they all knew each other. There was a lot of cross-linking. I am kind of amused about the things I read online back then that I was totally not that interested in, just because they were in this new medium and it was fun to explore.
posted by Miko at 7:14 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I learned about Metafilter from links on this guy's blog; nice to see he is still around.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:15 AM on February 10, 2014

I just checked, and it is gone.

Now that it is safe to do so can you post what the backdoor was because I have wondered for YEARS

I vaguely recall that it had something to so with some other site that shared login code with MeFi back in the earliest days for some reason, maybe? but that's all I ever managed to figure out

I am terrible at puzzles
posted by ook at 7:37 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

The "A-list"...wow, that takes me back.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:44 AM on February 10, 2014

Reporting in. Evertyhing's tickety-boo.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:45 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I am terrible at puzzles

Ok, I was wrong. It wasn't the ticket stub site, it was the5k.org. Here is a MeTa thread mentioning it, a few days after I used it to sneak in. Basically you registered there, and the credentials worked at MeFi even though signups were closed.
posted by donnagirl at 7:49 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

10254 and it still galls me that I missed a 4 digit ID. My interest in the site has waxed and waned over the years but I always come back. Only ever asked one question on AskMe. My wife knows it as "The Blue Site" and she's always been a bit jealous.
posted by euphorb at 7:50 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

euphorb: My wife knows it as "The Blue Site" and she's always been a bit jealous.

If we ever set up a support group for MeFite spouses, it should really be called "That Blue Site".
posted by Rock Steady at 7:56 AM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

I am not even kidding when I say my inability/disinclination to join MetaFilter back in the olden days continues to be a major itch in my brain. I am pretty sure I am one of those "hasn't completed the sign up process" from back in, like, 2000. I know for sure I was reading regularly by 2001. I joined MonkeyFilter* in 2003, anyway, so clearly I was hung up on MetaFilter then but not able to do anything about it.

I think of myself as this sort of sullied, never will be old-time enough person. But I've been here for 9 years.

*I have a great usernumber at MonkeyFilter - 255! Great not because it is low but because of its 8 bit cred. Also, that is just nuts that MoFi has 380051 users. That has to be a mistake, doesn't it? Tracicle?
posted by dirtdirt at 8:02 AM on February 10, 2014

*Waves at peacay!* 700'ers rule!

Also, I think I was directed here by Cool Site of The Day, back in 1999 or so and after I got over being intimidated by how awed I was by cool people like Mathowie, jjg, Caterina, Rebecca Blood, girlhacker, kottke, etc who were the prime users back then, I signed up in 2000.
posted by Lynsey at 8:19 AM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

BND. My original account was married to Spider-Man until I made a deal with Mephisto Mathowie.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:26 AM on February 10, 2014

HEY! Where did jonmc go?!
posted by Melismata at 8:31 AM on February 10, 2014

I was a 16k'er who got in just before the $5 wire. I lurked for forever and then came over officially after Memepool began to peter-out.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:41 AM on February 10, 2014

HEY! Where did jonmc go?!

jonmc has left the building
jonmc done split
he left a message saying
he'd be back in just a bit
we ain't seen hide nor hair
of dear ol' jon
since that sad day
but he's drinking beer
somewhere in Queens
it's pretty safe to say
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:41 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Melismata: "HEY! Where did jonmc go?!"

Elvis left the building about six months ago. He's come back at least once before, might happen again.
posted by octothorpe at 8:41 AM on February 10, 2014

He stopped by the NYC meetup to say howdy!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:43 AM on February 10, 2014 [7 favorites]

Thanks. Is/was jonmc the lowest active user besides #1?
posted by Melismata at 8:43 AM on February 10, 2014

We spotted him in the wild last Christmas.
posted by Miko at 8:52 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

If miss-lapin isn't going to brag on her number here, I'm going to brag on it for her. #6624.

(It is because of her that I am here. But it is entirely my fault that I lurked for five years before ponying up the $5. As a result, my number is so high that it is too embarrassing to mention. Although it does have three 8's in it, which is kind of neat.)
posted by bakerina at 9:06 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

My account only goes back to early 2007, hence #67400, but does lurking since 2001 count at all?
posted by valkyryn at 9:29 AM on February 10, 2014

7961, still visiting daily.
posted by beagle at 9:34 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yup, still here!
15.578k.
posted by carter at 9:34 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I am barely a whisper now. A chill wind in the darkness. But I keep thinking. I'll just stay one more hour, one more day. A year. I am afraid of what lies beyond.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:44 AM on February 10, 2014 [7 favorites]

9139

Still here.

Still fucking hate every one of you.
posted by eyeballkid at 9:53 AM on February 10, 2014 [23 favorites]

I'm favoriting all comments by 14Kers, so if you're in that category but haven't posted yet, come on in and get your FREE FAVE!

Also: goddammit, jonmc, get yer ass back here.
posted by languagehat at 9:57 AM on February 10, 2014 [5 favorites]

All the mr_crash_davises seem to be taking a break at the moment, too.
posted by Curious Artificer at 10:02 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

1658? That can't be right.
posted by aramaic at 10:03 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Still fucking hate every one of you.

Late at night, I sometimes read the site by the burning light of your hate, so thanks, old-timer.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:06 AM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

It wasn't the ticket stub site, it was the5k.org. Here is a MeTa thread mentioning it, a few days after I used it to sneak in. Basically you registered there, and the credentials worked at MeFi even though signups were closed.

This earlier MeTa thread alludes to such a cross-over potential. I wasn't there, I just found it by way of the the5k tag. Here's an archived login page for metatalk.the5k.org, stating "You must login before you can participate in metatalk." It's a page on Archive.org, so it doesn't work anymore.

There might still be anothr hidden URL, but you'll have to ask #1 for that info.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:17 AM on February 10, 2014

Has anyone linked Andy Baio's Metafilter user growth chart from 2009?

The big spike in spring 2001 is probably the Brill's Content article SisterHavana mentioned above.
posted by mediareport at 10:19 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

> the profile page still asks about "the internet" as some sort of novelty, even though
> it's basically like air now.

If you mean like the air in Beijing, yeah.
posted by jfuller at 10:26 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

The big spike in spring 2001 is probably the Brill's Content article SisterHavana mentioned above.

Posterboy for "Human Portals" (the article in question, found via this old MeTa).

And if anyone was curious about "the ticket site," it was Ticketstubs, which was going to/did also reside on a shared MetaFilter server/DB.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:34 AM on February 10, 2014

dirtdirt: "I am pretty sure I am one of those "hasn't completed the sign up process" from back in, like, 2000."

That wasn't a thing until $5 signups were initiated. Before then there wasn't a need for a step between "choose username" and "get account".
posted by Mitheral at 10:45 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Has anyone linked Andy Baio's Metafilter user growth chart from 2009?

I was going to ask for something like that. And it's amazing how uniform the growth rate has been. Anyone know if the ~ 450 new users/month rate continued to hold after 2009?
posted by benito.strauss at 10:47 AM on February 10, 2014

#753. I lurk.

Hi!
posted by hijinx at 10:52 AM on February 10, 2014 [8 favorites]

Hey, look! It's a thread where I recognize a significantly larger proportion of the usernames!
posted by carsonb at 10:59 AM on February 10, 2014 [7 favorites]

OK, OK. A man can only take so much beseeching. (and good to see some oldtime names in this thread).

As far as my user number, back in '99 I was living in Kendall FL and unemployed. I had found out about Memepool from a magazine and followed a link here. After a few days reading I made a post. Since most of the early users were early bloggers and such, I figured they all looked on saying "Who the hell is this guy?" The post went uncommented so I lurked until just after 9/11. As lots of people have said, I've come and gone occasionally.
posted by jonmc at 11:17 AM on February 10, 2014 [39 favorites]

Yes it all comes back to me thanks

As User 9816, I would like to say that maybe the front door should never be opened. Instead, have everyone go through the same process I did, where they read MetaFilter for awhile, then move on to MetaTalk, where they stumble onto this thread telling them about the backdoor at the5k. That way, most of the people who sign on will presumably have an inking about what MetaFilter's all about beforehand

And to think they used to call us elitist
posted by ook at 11:19 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Next year is my 10th anniversary on the site. I still don't qualify as an old-timer, even though that's like a geological epoch in Internet time.
posted by Harald74 at 11:43 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Browser console? :(
[Firefox]
posted by Melismata at 11:48 AM on February 10, 2014

*Sigh, on no other site could I be an active member for 8 years and still not be an oldtimer.*

Having been a Big Fish in too many Little Ponds, I savor my n00b status and lack of importance here.
posted by Michele in California at 11:50 AM on February 10, 2014

i used to be 986.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 12:18 PM on February 10, 2014 [7 favorites]

I used to be 0, until Matt nefariously erased it.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:26 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

That's user ID 0.
posted by 0 at 12:34 PM on February 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

Zero.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:37 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

14K in the house. Spent several days waiting for midnight PST to roll around and then clicking right as the clock struck. Finally got lucky.

Have since hired someone through metafilter and been hired.
posted by ursus_comiter at 12:52 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

i used to be 986.

Nice try, I bet you're going to claim you used to be quonsar or something too.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:54 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

18k-er, which seems old to some of you until I tell you that I just spent 10 minutes swearing and squinting at my profile to figure out how to find out what my fucking Metafilter Number was. (for the equally confused; roll over your own name on a comment and it pops up at the bottom of the window!)

I guess I haven't yet been here long enough to need to find that out. Until now.
posted by emjaybee at 12:55 PM on February 10, 2014

14, 14!

I think I guilt-donated $5 once MeFi started charging though.
posted by JoanArkham at 1:13 PM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

This is my 4th account. I had one in the 17k range, one in the 14k range, and one in the 10k range, so I am responsible for 3 of the second 10,000. I lurked prior to getting an account (I never felt like I was cool enough to post/comment much [a feeling that has never really left me]), and was introduced to the site via memepool.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 1:14 PM on February 10, 2014

#1932. Still here. Reader more than commenter, but I at least browse the headlines here daily.
posted by dnash at 1:21 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

$5 n00b. Here is the thread from our 5 year $5 anniversary.
posted by tizzie at 1:23 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

My first account is still here! I registered but wasn't sure if it "took" as my computer froze, and just made a new one a few months later. Number 10075. Maybe I'll start using it?
posted by jokeefe at 2:00 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

emjaybee: "for the equally confused; roll over your own name on a comment and it pops up at the bottom of the window!"

It's also shown if you hover over your name above the comment box.
posted by Mitheral at 2:04 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's really cool to see people de-lurking. We should have a general "De-lurk And Say Hello!" MetaTalk thread once a year or something.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:07 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

971 here. Reading every day, commenting regularly enough that I ain't no lurker, but I can't help thinking I should have ten times as many comments as I do. Tying it to my real identity might have had something to do with that. (At one point I got a sock puppet to see if anonymity would help my posting rate, but then never used it. It's probably 10 years old at this point too... I should dig it out to claim some sort of time-from-joining-to-first-comment record.)

Here was our 2012 version of this thread.
posted by rory at 2:14 PM on February 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

While MetaFilter goes through another bout of growing pains, it's time to regroup and reprogram to better handle the crowds. During that time all new user signups are closed.

I'm an old timer (had a different name before this one). I think I found Metafilter around 2002, or whenever the server closed, so I was shut out for years. The above message was the bane of my existence, but I kept faithfully reading the site until I could pay my $5.
posted by crapmatic at 2:23 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm a 14ker, but I post so little I might as well be a n00b. I do check the sight regularly however.
posted by Julnyes at 2:25 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't think you're an old timer if you have more than 4 digits.
posted by Kwine at 2:44 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I love my nice round user number but sometimes regret signing up with my own name.
posted by jonathanbell at 3:47 PM on February 10, 2014

That is a pretty user number!
posted by thinkpiece at 3:56 PM on February 10, 2014

oneswellfoop: ""what do I say? what should I say?""

Glad you're still here, foop. :)
posted by zarq at 4:01 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

16k here. It was such a pain trying to time the open windows of free sign-ups using only the computers in the library lab. (I didn't know about the $5 backdoor)
posted by leotrotsky at 4:16 PM on February 10, 2014

10648 (August 26, 2001). I visit daily-ish, but too busy to comment or post as much as I used to.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:41 PM on February 10, 2014

I'm always happy to see an old citizen of the original 9622.net. I've met many of them in the real world. Ain't been to Portugal yet, but it will happen one day.
posted by ColdChef at 4:53 PM on February 10, 2014 [7 favorites]

I still think all the 9622ers should go to Portugal, if he won't come to us.
posted by tizzie at 6:36 PM on February 10, 2014 [6 favorites]

#2381. Was an active lurker back in the day, though never an active poster. I learned about the 9/11 attacks from reading the blue, after coming home from a morning run. Kaycee Nicole will probably always be my strongest memory of group detective work (a decade before anyone knew what "Catfishing" was). I went to one meetup (people still do those??) and may have gotten lucky as a result...ahem. I fall away for months at a time, but always seem to find my way back home again. I have not kept up my end of the social contract by being a contributing citizen of this community that has been a formative part of my online growing-up...I must do better.
posted by ChrisTN at 6:48 PM on February 10, 2014

10ker who joined in August, 2001. I lurk everyday and sometimes ask stuff. Jeez… 12+ years!
posted by jabo at 7:41 PM on February 10, 2014

I'm #19215, which isn't particularly low but I'd been reading (more than posting, as I still do) far more for years so my appreciation for the site has solidly pre-dated my official membership.

As someone who's a VERY low # member of a different, but still thriving site of similar vintage, I totally get the novelty of this. Its interesting to reflect on the idea that this simply couldn't have been a "thing" in the pre-internet era. Or maybe in some other, indirect way but I think not on such a scale.
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:44 PM on February 10, 2014

28ker... And yeah, this year I'll at least have been lurking around here for 10 years, though 10 official years is next year (that's also how my work start date is, weirdly enough—I lurked around there in one capacity or another for about a year before I was official).

My Awl user number is much better (1011)!
posted by limeonaire at 8:55 PM on February 10, 2014

It's weird to think about how the boundaries for "old timer" keep getting more and more abstract. Is this the golden age?
posted by klangklangston at 10:10 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Anyone know if the ~ 450 new users/month rate continued to hold after 2009?

Here's a quick and dirty plot of signups per day using the latest infodump data. The rate has actually tailed off somewhat in recent years. The spikes kind of obscure the ordinary days, so here's a zoomed and cropped version. These could be a lot prettier if I was more experienced with matplotlib, but they were quick and dirty. I did ensure however that the x-axis minor ticks correspond to months, so that you can pick out the dates of the spikes.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:31 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

#2951. Needs new account and clever or stupid name. I just keep putting that off.
posted by raysmj at 10:49 PM on February 10, 2014

"Here's a quick and dirty plot of signups per day using the latest infodump data."

Heh, I bet that corresponds closely with the blood pressure of an owner and a mod or two.
posted by vapidave at 12:26 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

14014
posted by lee at 12:26 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

15153. August 2002. This blows my mind because I swear I was a regular during 9/11. Maybe I was a lurker much longer than I thought I was. Anyhow, pre-$5 and all reasonably active 11 years later.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:17 AM on February 11, 2014

I registered but wasn't sure if it "took" as my computer froze, and just made a new one a few months later.
That reminded me I made a 15k account for my then-partner when I lucked on the brief time in the middle of the night or something that a few spots opened up every day. She decided she hated MetaFilter and never used it. I logged in to see if it still worked and was greeted with:
106950 links and 5062536 comments posted since your last visit
That's gonna take some catching up on ;-).

That she hates MetaFilter isn't the only reason she's now an ex.
posted by dg at 1:58 AM on February 11, 2014 [5 favorites]

lee: "14014"

That short story on your profile page is amazing.
posted by double block and bleed at 4:49 AM on February 11, 2014 [6 favorites]

klangklangston: "It's weird to think about how the boundaries for "old timer" keep getting more and more abstract. Is this the golden age?"

No, that's twelve.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:35 AM on February 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

6000. I read this site most days, but rarely comment.
posted by salmacis at 6:50 AM on February 11, 2014

#824 or something like that, and I have visited daily (with rare exceptions) since six months before I signed up. I don't comment much unless it's being a know it all on the green. Right now I am in my bathroom hiding from my toddlers to get a fix before facing another round of diapers-feeding-face washing-screaming-tickles-joy. From the sounds outside the door they have found my empty coffee mug and are banging it around to try and entice me out.

Not yet, younglings. I haven't checked the green yet today.
posted by annathea at 9:11 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

From the sounds outside the door they have found my empty coffee mug and are banging it around to try and entice me out.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:21 AM on February 11, 2014 [4 favorites]

I am a PayPay refusnik, so I read for a long time before joining. Without PayPal I tried to get Math Owie to agree to accept five bucks via U.S. Mail, and eventually I got an account set up. (Maybe if I had tried harder I would be in the 50k's instead of 70k-something!)

I still don't do Pay Pal, but I have been a happy MeFite ever since.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:26 AM on February 11, 2014

1308, yo.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:31 AM on February 11, 2014

23k, I miss the IMG and the longboat.
posted by schyler523 at 9:51 AM on February 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

It would be nice to have the IMG tag on certain goofball threads, but I think its removal was an overall positive for the site.

By the way, if you use the Mondo Image script, you can see most linked images inline.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:33 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Chrysostom: It would be nice to have the IMG tag on certain goofball threads, but I think its removal was an overall positive for the site.

It's really quite amazing how restrained use of the IMG tag was, even in the its last days. I miss it too, but I must begrudgingly agree that it was probably a good thing that we lost it when we did.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:41 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

The IMG tag should be reintroduced on a severely limited basis, allowing for only pictures of bunnies with pancakes on their head.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:48 AM on February 11, 2014 [3 favorites]

11K.. and still here daily... I lurked for awhile before 2001 after I was drawn in from following The Gus, Kottke and Halcyon from Prehensile Tales.
posted by Benway at 10:49 AM on February 11, 2014

It's really quite amazing how restrained use of the IMG tag was

*Inserts animated gif of elephant urinating.*
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:50 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Looks like the 2013 dropoff on that graph must be from Reddit. I know I've been spending a lot more time over there, especially after unsubscribing from most of the crappy front page subreddits.
posted by crapmatic at 11:08 AM on February 11, 2014

*Ceiling Cat peers down*
posted by Chrysostom at 11:08 AM on February 11, 2014

10636 here and I'd say most days I read through the current page of AskMefi questions.
posted by mmascolino at 11:31 AM on February 11, 2014

14474. I don't comment much but I typically lurk at least once a day, usually when I should be doing something else.
posted by Stynxno at 11:46 AM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

21202. I don't have to look the number up, which probably says something about me. I was a Five Dollar Noob in 2005. Still feel new, too.
posted by cmyk at 2:17 PM on February 11, 2014

Being the narcissistic jerk that I am, I often click through to the profile pages of the people who have favorited me. I love finding the ones who have like 6 comments total, the last one being in 2001.

I wonder what the ratio between active commenters and active lurkers is?
posted by double block and bleed at 2:29 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

16k here. But I'm Slashdot user number 404. There was probably a time I could have cashed in on that somehow.
posted by dmd at 3:03 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

This post got me curious... how have different generations of MeFites been contributing to site activity? So I grabbed the requisite infodumps and wrote a little Python script to crunch the data and spit out heat maps.

You can look at the entire set on flickr.
This is a heat map of all activity for all sub sites for which there is data in the infodump. I have also made an annotated version highlighting interesting patterns.

The grid resolution is 1 month on each axis.
The x axis (horizontal) is simply time and the y axis (vertical) is the time of signup.
So every horizontal line represents the activity of a particular "generation" of MeFites over time and every vertical line represents total site activity at a particular point in time.
Activity levels are indicated by color: no activity (black) - average activity (red) - high activity (yellow).
Activity levels have been normalized for each point in time so general increases and decreases in overall site activity are not reflected.
A few user number milestones are marked in the heat maps as well (in white).

I've made individual heat maps for both comment and posting activity for the sub sites available in the infodump (MeFi, MeTa, AskMe & Music) and I have made cumulative heat maps for all posting activity and all comment activity across the four sub sites.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:58 PM on February 11, 2014 [16 favorites]

Well, that just makes everything weird and sorta awkward. Huh.
posted by aramaic at 7:06 PM on February 11, 2014

#1526 and still without an FPP.
posted by eamondaly at 8:07 PM on February 11, 2014 [3 favorites]

7615.

I still read Metafilter every day. It's my longest-standing digital habit.
posted by yellowcandy at 8:53 PM on February 11, 2014

Hairy Lobster, those charts are pretty. Like, seriously, it's nice to look at them. Also, the dark ages... what happened there? Can any mods explain how or what happened with that chunk of the userbase?
posted by Ghidorah at 9:24 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thanks Ghidorah! Yeah, I was wondering that myself. It's interesting to see that great chasm of darkness followed by a thin bright yellow line as if a lot of people suddenly signed up and became super active. Weird.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:49 PM on February 11, 2014

Oh those are pretty indeed.

Why, I do believe my user number puts me in that thin bright yellow line?
posted by infini at 9:57 PM on February 11, 2014

Or, in another sense, if a great many users has signed up, all at once, and then gone silent...

/Alec Guiness head shake, look of exhaustion and sadness
posted by Ghidorah at 10:22 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hm, I don't think so, sorry. You joined in 2005, right? The yellow line is in late 2004.

I'm also intrigued by the 2 vertical artifacts in the lower left. They seem to line up with the beginning and end of the "dark ages". They seem to indicate a shift of activity from pre-2003 users to 2003 users and then to 2005 users.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 10:22 PM on February 11, 2014

The November 2004 great reopening, yes... I missed that and joined 3 months later. That was a big batch of new users, which explains the spike.
posted by infini at 10:30 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

and damn, but it'd have been cool to be part of a "thin yellow line" ;p
posted by infini at 10:31 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Living Fossils

I like the idea of being a coelacanth.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:33 AM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

I always wondered, myself...
posted by Dark Messiah at 6:50 AM on February 12, 2014

Hairy Lobster, those are very pretty indeed. So pretty, in fact, that I'm jealous and want to know how you made them. Would you be willing to post your code somewhere? Nothing fancy and guaranteed to run for others, just so I could see how you used whatever graphics package you used, and maybe learn some of your (I'm guessing) numpy-fu? Pastebin.com?
posted by benito.strauss at 7:54 AM on February 12, 2014

Ghidorah: Also, the dark ages... what happened there? Can any mods explain how or what happened with that chunk of the userbase?

It's got to be some kind of glitch in the data, right? Like the activity of all those users is getting glommed into the thin yellow line near 20K somehow?
posted by Rock Steady at 8:03 AM on February 12, 2014

The dark period is when signups were (mostly) closed down for a couple of years. That started in late 2002 (yes, that is as far as I can tell the definitive "signups are closed" metatalk, weirdly enough), and continued on through late 2004, with one major brief bump in April 2004 when a loooot more than twenty people signed up.

Keep in mind that Hairy Lobster's graphs are scaled by time, not by userid. That great yawning dark gap is a couple years long but only captures a few thousand userids; the bright line in the middle of it is the 4/2004 failure-of-gated-signups experiment; the core-of-the-sun-bright yellow line right after the dark period is a giant rush for signups the day that ungated $5 signups re-opened.

There were I believe a couple of little backdoor situations that could be exploited during the dark period, plus Matt would give out accounts if folks asked and may have experimented with some other gated/limited signup ideas during that as well, which is why the void isn't 100% jet black. But that's the basic situation: for a couple years you mostly just couldn't sign up, and so for that corresponding stretch of time there's not much activity from folks-who-signed-up-then as a cohort.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:06 AM on February 12, 2014 [3 favorites]

Oh, I get it. I would probably have made the Y-axis be userid, but easy for me to say.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:19 AM on February 12, 2014

Fascinating graphs, Hairy Lobster! I wonder if the band of persistence at the 10k user ID mark corresponds to the September 11th activity spike? I'm also curious about what happened in Spring and December of that year that also caused unusually high persistence.

Pony: It'd be great if you could make one scaled by user ID, and with years marked out on that.
posted by adrianhon at 8:26 AM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hairy Lobster, those graphics are awesome from a structural standpoint and from a pure data visualization standpoint, and I'm having a blast looking at them and figuring them out, and I would love to know exactly how you made them, but from a stylistic perspective, that shade of green on that shade of gray for text is totally hard to read. If you stuck with a white/transparent alpha layer for the background, you wouldn't have to worry about things like that as much, and readability would improve with minimal effort.
Just giving my perspective as someone who used to fiddle with all of the plot structures in MATLAB to produce things like this in grad school before realizing it was actually the opposite of helpful to add those additional details.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:34 AM on February 12, 2014

"Fascinating graphs, Hairy Lobster! I wonder if the band of persistence at the 10k user ID mark corresponds to the September 11th activity spike? I'm also curious about what happened in Spring and December of that year that also caused unusually high persistence."

Unfortunately, by design (in order to be a heatmap of activity) the graph is showing absolute persistence by membership date, so there simply being a large number of people who joined in a particular week will mean that they will appear to be more persistent because their collective activity will be greater than the activity of others, even if half of them dropped away while another, smaller cohort all remained active on MeFi until the present.

So we can't quite compare persistence unless we correct for absolute size of cohorts. This is why the earliest cohorts seem to have dropped away while November 2004 are bright yellow up to today. Being few, the earliest cohorts can't lose many people without it seeming that their cohort has fallen away while, in contrast, the November 2004 cohort may, for example, have lost more than half but will still be bright yellow. That's just a hypothetical, I don't know what really happened.

The graph could be regenerated but with the activity calculation being relative to the highest period of activity for that particular cohort and that would show us cohort activity over time in a way that makes it possible for cohorts to be compared to each other.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:04 AM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

. for the img tag.

I kind of wish there was one day a year where the img tag was allowed. I've been tempted to make a Metatalk post about it, but Metatalk frightens and confuses me.
posted by drezdn at 9:24 AM on February 12, 2014

5112: I also have an account in the 3000s that I don't use. Matt use to work for blogger, and I found out about metafilter opening through that somehow, can't remember how. Waiting a few weeks to join.
posted by justgary at 10:23 AM on February 12, 2014

benito.strauss: " I'm jealous and want to know how you made them. Would you be willing to post your code somewhere?"

Oh boy, I'm no trained programmer (even though coding/scripting is part of what I do for a living). This'll be embarrasing... I know how tough the code crowd can be around these parts. Let me clean things up just a bit. If I'm gonna have to let my pants down I'll at least apply some Boehner-grade tanning lotion first :D

cortex: "Keep in mind that Hairy Lobster's graphs are scaled by time, not by userid. That great yawning dark gap is a couple years long but only captures a few thousand userids; the bright line in the middle of it is the 4/2004 failure-of-gated-signups experiment; the core-of-the-sun-bright yellow line right after the dark period is a giant rush for signups the day that ungated $5 signups re-opened."

adrianhon: "Pony: It'd be great if you could make one scaled by user ID, and with years marked out on that."

Ah, this explains a lot. I'm not familiar enough with ancient MeFi lore so I wasn't aware of the great barring of the entrance. Fascinating stuff. Anyhow, this should be easy to do. I still have some time on my hands so I can try and make a set of user ID based heatmaps. Thanks for the info!

oceanjesse: "but from a stylistic perspective, that shade of green on that shade of gray for text is totally hard to read. "

Yeah, I knew that when I did it. I did the annotations very quickly in a Google Drive doc and wasn't paying much attention to making that pretty. Sorry :(
posted by Hairy Lobster at 10:27 AM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]

I still visit pretty regularly but rarely comment anywhere but on Ask. #1808
posted by kindall at 10:30 AM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]

I am of a large and persistent cohort.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:56 AM on February 12, 2014

I'm reading a Turtledove alternate history, and cohorts are just Ronams in armour.
posted by infini at 11:25 AM on February 12, 2014

One cannot have just one hort. There are always at least two co-horts. This is largely why henchmen must travel in braces. It is extremely uncommon for a hort to hench alone.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:45 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]

I co your hort and raise you a hench.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 2:48 PM on February 12, 2014

#235 I don't even have a join date.
posted by palegirl at 3:25 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]

This is largely why henchmen must travel in braces.

In addition, a solitary goon is a rare sight. They are almost exclusively grouped in squads.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:05 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Isn't that only when they're coming to town?

(Beep beep)
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:11 PM on February 12, 2014

me either, palegirl. (nice to see ya)
posted by jonmc at 4:55 PM on February 12, 2014 [4 favorites]

Ivan: Ah yes, thanks for explaining - that makes sense. I had thought that the temperature was normalised for each cohort but I'm sure you're right in that it's just an absolute value. Either normalising it with the current scale or running via user ID would help I guess.
posted by adrianhon at 1:46 AM on February 13, 2014

I once long ago made an infodump visualization of new user signups (going from right to left) and participation. Looking back at it I'm not sure what I was doing, but I kind of like it. You can kind of see the initial circle of members and how their contributions mapped over time, and how new users added to that circle. But that could just be me. Haven't looked at it in at least 5 years.
posted by localhuman at 8:15 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: Looking back at it I'm not sure what I was doing.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:08 AM on February 13, 2014 [4 favorites]

Fuck yeah 14K!
posted by mokujin at 10:13 AM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

"I am of a large and persistent cohort."
   — Walt Wittman
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:31 PM on February 13, 2014 [3 favorites]

I would subscribe to that cohort, the one that took the road less travelled.
posted by infini at 12:34 PM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

huh it says I joined in January '06 but I distinctly recall reading MeFi for years prior to that going back to the early Aughts. It was one of the best and least noisy of the early link aggregators. It's likely something on Ask triggered my desire to join but I don't even recall. So I'm a n00b from that sense (inasmuch as an 8-year-old internet account could be construed as "new") but it doesn't feel that way.

my participation comes and goes, mainly tied to how busy I am at work and soforth. I was a lot more engaged / active on the site when I was single / not in a LTR ('06-'09 roughly). I have been exceedingly bad at going to meetups since I got married, but that's more a function of how much my husband and I tend to spend more social bandwidth with our IRL network and do sportsy-Boulder things with them (skiing, riding bikes, Ultimate, running, etc.) I feel vaguely guilty about this from time to time, but apparently not enough to haul the fixie on the bus down to central Denver like I used to do all the time back when.
posted by lonefrontranger at 12:56 PM on February 13, 2014

Hi!
posted by whuppy at 1:35 PM on February 13, 2014

"I would subscribe to that cohort, the one that took the road less travelled."

I think you meant the road more traveled, where Walt Wittman met Robert Frahst coming the other way.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:14 PM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've got a 3 digit Slashdot ID, does that count for any cred?
posted by PenDevil at 1:00 AM on February 14, 2014

I'm a 5 dollar newb, but I know I had a pre-five dollah userid, and it has always annoyed the fuck out of me that I lost track of it. I tried all the usual suspects, but I must have registered something that I thought was clever (it probably wasn't), and done it using an email account to which I've long since lost access.

If anybody who has access to the userid database wants to hunt it down for me, PM me. It still drives me crazy on an intermittent basis.
posted by ereshkigal45 at 1:19 AM on February 14, 2014

The MetaFilter Infodump has a list of all active usernames. If this account wasn't disabled, it should be there. How do you think someone else will be able to find your username?
posted by grouse at 4:24 AM on February 14, 2014

In fact, my text on that page isn't sufficiently clear: the usernames file contains a record of all usernames for accounts that were successfully activated, including those eventually banned or self-buttoned. I should go amend that. But, yes, if you had a username for an account that you completed a signup for, it's in that file.

If you have specific leads to help narrow down the search (things like specific timeframe, ideas what the username contained, possible email addresses that were involved, etc) you can always drop us a line at the contact form and we can try and do a little more direct detective work as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:18 AM on February 14, 2014

I signed up as 4597 in March of 2001, probably as a result of the Brill's article, although I'm slightly doubtful of that because I seem to remember reading on the site about the Brill's article before I signed up. I then completely forgot that I had an account, and got another one (6604) the following month.

I still read almost every day, although I generally restrict my commenting to Ask (and recent events in attempting to comment on the blue have really brought home for me that I should stay over on Ask).

I, too, miss migs.
posted by anastasiav at 10:01 AM on February 14, 2014

If you have specific leads to help narrow down the search (things like specific timeframe, ideas what the username contained, possible email addresses that were involved, etc) you can always drop us a line at the contact form and we can try and do a little more direct detective work as well.

Yes, that's what I was thinking. However, I wasn't aware of the infodump because I'm a bad Mefite, who only drops in once in a while. I'll go poke around there.

Thanks, cortex!
posted by ereshkigal45 at 12:21 PM on February 14, 2014

All right, you asked for it... you got it.

Here's a new and improved set of activity heat maps mapping activity over time against user IDs instead of account dates! Data is normalized per column so overall changes in total site activity are not reflected, only relative activity of users.
Each grid point represents the relative activity level of a group of 1000 users during a given month.

This one is the heat map for total posting and commenting activity across all data-dumped subsites (MeFi, MeTa, AskMe and Music.

There's also per sub-site posting and and total activity heat maps in the set plus a all-posting-across-all-subsites one. I didn't break out commenting-only heat maps because they're virtually identical to the total activity ones due to the huge comments-to-posts ratio. I'd have to apply some additional weighting to make the total activity heat maps different from the comments-only ones.

The new heat maps include:

• a bug fix to my normalization logic
• better legend formatting
• a color range legend

As you can see a lot of us "new-ish" folks are really just a bunch of lazy lurkers standing on the shoulders of obsessively posting giants:

• the 15-20k-ers (late 2002) are the most consistent and prolific bunch up until today
• the fade from initial high activity to low activity seems to have accelerated between 2005 and 2011 (20-130k)... notice how each subsequent batch of users becomes less active more quickly
• beyond that new users seem to go start out in low activity/lurk mode right off the batch
• the very first 2k of users remain active but 2k-10k seems to have collectively turn lurkish for the last 10 years or so with the exception of the 7-8k band for some reason.

benito.strauss: "Would you be willing to post your code somewhere?"

OK, here it is on GitHub
I'm sure I'll embarrass myself
prolly a million coding crimes, sins and violations
*crawls in corner*
*assumes fetal position*

The script should run on most systems after you tweak some of the globals up top such as the font file paths etc.
I'm only using 2 non-standard modules: PIL and numpy.
Lemme know if you have any questions.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:29 PM on February 14, 2014 [11 favorites]

• the 15-20k-ers (late 2002) are the most consistent and prolific bunch up until today
• the fade from initial high activity to low activity seems to have accelerated between 2005 and 2011 (20-130k)... notice how each subsequent batch of users becomes less active more quickly
• beyond that new users seem to go start out in low activity/lurk mode right off the batch
• the very first 2k of users remain active but 2k-10k seems to have collectively turn lurkish for the last 10 years or so with the exception of the 7-8k band for some reason.

Those are some fascinating observations. Thanks!
posted by grouse at 12:33 PM on February 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

with the exception of the 7-8k band for some reason

User 7418, glancing around with embarrassment.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:36 PM on February 14, 2014 [5 favorites]

grouse: "Those are some fascinating observations. Thanks!"

You're welcome!

It does raise some interesting questions... if MetaFilter is heavily dependent on a concentrated subset of users such as the 15-20k-ers, is that a good thing? Something to be concerned about? What would happen if that "generation" began to move on? Why have new users become less active more quickly over the years? Do they feel increasingly less welcome/encouraged for some reason or are they just simply less interested/active in general?

Maybe MeFi needs it's very own Digital Prophet for futurism and strategery!
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:52 PM on February 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

with the exception of the 7-8k band for some reason

Aww yiss.
posted by emmtee at 12:53 PM on February 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

> OK, here it is on GitHub

Opens github page.
Looks around.
*blinks*
*blinks*

"My god, it's full of documentation!"

Many thanks, HL.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:53 PM on February 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

the 15-20k-ers (late 2002) are the most consistent and prolific bunch up until today

Also, finally we have scientific PROOF that the 17Kers are better than the 14Kers. I am quoting SCIENCE, folks.
posted by grouse at 1:04 PM on February 14, 2014 [5 favorites]

benito.strauss: "My god, it's full of documentation!"

Hah, thanks!

If I don't do that I can't read my own code when I get back to it even just a week later.
Learned this the hard way.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 1:05 PM on February 14, 2014

Hairy Lobster: "with the exception of the 7-8k band for some reason."

:(
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 1:08 PM on February 14, 2014

the 15-20k-ers (late 2002) are the most consistent and prolific bunch up until today
Also, finally we have scientific PROOF that the 17Kers are better than the 14Kers. I am quoting SCIENCE, folks.
Quantity does not equate to quality!
posted by dg at 1:18 PM on February 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

23k isn't that far away you know, i still think i should be in that bright yellow line
posted by infini at 1:48 PM on February 14, 2014

*ctrl-f ND¢*

RETURNS = 0

I haz a sad. one of the highlights of MeFi accounts is the freeform architecture of userids. I still wonder about accounts like "turntables" (made up of a string of ASCII) and some of the super insane ones like majortomdickandharryconnick[a bunch of stuff I forget]juniormints.

tbh it does make the mental process of reading comments in one's head a bit fraught when they do come up, but that's more of a feature than a bug imo.
posted by lonefrontranger at 1:57 PM on February 14, 2014

2k-10k seems to have collectively turn lurkish for the last 10 years or so with the exception of the 7-8k band

That's because by the time those 7-8kers turned up with their lolcats I had a lawn to mow, and plenty of whittlin' to get thrPULL YOUR GODDAMN PANTS UP OR I SWEAR TO BABY JESUS I WILL NAILGUN THEM UNDER YOUR ARMPITS.

Sorry, where was I? That's right. Whittlin'. Cools the blood.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:03 PM on February 14, 2014 [10 favorites]

Yeah, it does look like the 15-20k group are the backbone of the site. That makes some sense, though, as that 2004 cohort (both the April and November-December) is the group of people who joined after the longest period of sign-ups being closed. I think it's a safe assumption that this is a self-selected group of people who were a) lukers and already familiar with MeFi; and b) therefore highly motivated to participate.

There really hasn't been any other self-sorting mechanism like this with regard to a userid range.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:27 PM on February 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think it's a safe assumption that this is a self-selected group of people who were a) lukers and already familiar with MeFi; and b) therefore highly motivated to participate.

So true for me. I'd been lurking for a couple years and didn't have any inkling of a back door or of any other way to get in than to wait for signups to reopen. I was euphoric the day I saw them open up.
posted by Miko at 7:46 PM on February 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I waited about two years and beat you through the door by about 30 minutes, it looks like. Cohort! Cohort!
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:37 PM on February 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hairy Lobster: Here it is on GitHub
I'm sure I'll embarrass myself
prolly a million coding crimes, sins and violations

Are you kidding? That's looks like really clean idiomatic python, down to "if __name__ == '__main__': main()" - and there's enough documentation that I'll learn a thing or two! Thanks!

One teeny tiny quibble. (So predictable, right?) It's better to check the user environment and use their preferred python rather than the version that may (or may not) be in /usr/local/bin - in fact, I have python in /usr/local/Canopy_64bit/User/bin rather than /usr/local/bin. I've been nudged towards "#! /usr/bin/env python" as a more portable invocation.
posted by RedOrGreen at 7:47 PM on February 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

I followed Metafilter for a very long time -- I think I first stumbled on it in 2001? -- but didn't sign up until I accidentally stumbled onto a MeFi Meetup in NYC.

I was certainly never a personality on the site, but I still do read it quite frequently.
posted by ®@ at 3:42 PM on February 16, 2014

I still visit regularly, reading MeFi and AskMeFi posts, but I'm not a regular commenter or anything. (just felt like I had to represent the 200s a bit more!)
posted by stefnet at 9:01 PM on February 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

User 92371 here, in actuality #3306. I have no memory of why I chose this name. It's probably for the best.
posted by user92371 at 1:03 PM on February 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

User #1052 here. Been reading the site since Matt used to drop a stack of punch cards in an envelope and mail 'em out.
posted by webmutant at 8:24 PM on February 23, 2014 [5 favorites]

Kids, kids, kids.
549 (3 digits represent, yo)
posted by plinth at 1:27 PM on March 7, 2014 [5 favorites]