Mathowie should do an AMA July 14, 2014 5:56 PM Subscribe
MetaFilter is a long-running site with plenty of long-time members, but it's always stayed fresh through a slow and steady influx of new users to add new perspectives and replace those who've left. With the recent slump in Google traffic, we should consider ways to more actively promote the site elsewhere, in order to maintain this healthy growth and make sure the site and its values do not become complete unknowns to newer generations of web users. In that spirit, I've acquired the subreddit /r/MetaFilter and given it a fabulous CSS makeover with loads of informative links on MeFi history and culture.
While Reddit, like any millions-strong platform, can be noxious in places, its sprawling subreddit system has active and high-quality pages for most popular fandoms and communities. I hope this space can serve as a way to mingle the best of both sites: compiling lists of quality subreddits, explaining MeFi to newcomers, sharing the highlights of both sites with a larger audience, and hopefully attracting new members interested in strengthening our community.
(Special thanks to redditor SplashyMcPants for stewarding /r/MetaFilter up until now. Subreddit transfers always have the potential for squatting and drama, but he was a great sport about it, and did a fine job keeping it free of spam in the meantime. Thanks also to shekmalhen for being similarly generous with /r/MeFi, which is now a redirect to /r/MetaFilter and should aid in searching and browsing.)
I don't expect this to become a big thing in any way (unless new subscribers from here manage to land the subreddit on the trending section of the front page, in which case I might need some back-up). More of an informal side-channel like MetaChat or IRC. But if you're interested in helping out and have a good understanding of Reddit's functions, send me a MeFi Mail with your Reddit username and I'll see about adding a few people as co-moderators if things do get busy. I'd also be happy to add anybody from Team Mod with a Reddit account a sort of "honorary mod" status that would let you post distinguished comments and have oversight on the moderator log without being pinged by mod alerts or being otherwise directly responsible for upkeep.
If you're interested in finding your fellow dual citizens, check out the Social Explorer page which lists all 382 MeFites with linked Reddit accounts.
Some potential ideas for this subreddit:
If anyone has any more ideas or advice for ways to use this new community page, please share it here! And feel free to drop a post or comment when you visit -- I've got some example posts up, but it's a little lonely over there at the moment...
While Reddit, like any millions-strong platform, can be noxious in places, its sprawling subreddit system has active and high-quality pages for most popular fandoms and communities. I hope this space can serve as a way to mingle the best of both sites: compiling lists of quality subreddits, explaining MeFi to newcomers, sharing the highlights of both sites with a larger audience, and hopefully attracting new members interested in strengthening our community.
(Special thanks to redditor SplashyMcPants for stewarding /r/MetaFilter up until now. Subreddit transfers always have the potential for squatting and drama, but he was a great sport about it, and did a fine job keeping it free of spam in the meantime. Thanks also to shekmalhen for being similarly generous with /r/MeFi, which is now a redirect to /r/MetaFilter and should aid in searching and browsing.)
I don't expect this to become a big thing in any way (unless new subscribers from here manage to land the subreddit on the trending section of the front page, in which case I might need some back-up). More of an informal side-channel like MetaChat or IRC. But if you're interested in helping out and have a good understanding of Reddit's functions, send me a MeFi Mail with your Reddit username and I'll see about adding a few people as co-moderators if things do get busy. I'd also be happy to add anybody from Team Mod with a Reddit account a sort of "honorary mod" status that would let you post distinguished comments and have oversight on the moderator log without being pinged by mod alerts or being otherwise directly responsible for upkeep.
If you're interested in finding your fellow dual citizens, check out the Social Explorer page which lists all 382 MeFites with linked Reddit accounts.
Some potential ideas for this subreddit:
There's no official tag system in place at the moment, btw, but by all means use any obvious descriptive ones you'd like in the title ([Ask], [News], [Remaster], [Idea], etc.) to help identify the type of post you're making.Site News: Find a great article about MeFi? Has a celebrity poster dropped in? Did we just get another 1,000 subscribers? Spread the word here.
Best of the Website: Share your favorite posts and comments from MetaFilter history. Browse your random favorites page to rediscover hidden gems!
Cool Tools: Apropos of that last link, share useful and interesting tools, sites, and userscripts for enhancing your MeFi experience.
Chatfilter: Run into your weekly limit, or have a chatty/BBQ-style question not fit for AskMe? Post it here and get some off-the-cuff answers. Also good for sharing updates for closed posts that don't merit a new FPP.
"Remastered" FPPs: Got a great old post with debilitating linkrot? Repost it to /r/MetaFilter with updated links and a prominent pointer up front linking back to the original thead. A great post and discussion get renewed exposure, and since Reddit posts remain permanently editable, the links can always be fixed if they break again later. Here's an example (with news updates) using my old Ted Chiang post, where half of the links (even official ones) had broken
Subreddit curation: Share lists of your favorite high-quality and niche subreddits to enrich the experience of your fellow users.
If anyone has any more ideas or advice for ways to use this new community page, please share it here! And feel free to drop a post or comment when you visit -- I've got some example posts up, but it's a little lonely over there at the moment...
Good for you, that's some nice diplomacy there. I'm the same username there as here and feel free to add me as a mod :)
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:42 PM on July 14, 2014 [12 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:42 PM on July 14, 2014 [12 favorites]
posted Opinions in your stickied meta
posted by postcommunism at 7:05 PM on July 14, 2014
posted by postcommunism at 7:05 PM on July 14, 2014
Yeah, you're welcome to make me a mod too though that doesn't necessarily translate to me ever doing anything. Or on reddit!
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:08 PM on July 14, 2014 [21 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:08 PM on July 14, 2014 [21 favorites]
A mathowie AMA would be fun, but are you going to attract the same demographic that was "lost" in part because of one of the frequent changes to the Google algorithm?
Obviously I don't think you will. Reddit is massive, and the audience would be people who are interested in, say, building web communities, or running a lifestyle business or whatever.
The massive amount of traffic it took to generate revenue from Ask MetaFilter were people looking for solutions to problems, typically relationship problems, or health problems, that sort of thing.
If they are on Reddit, they will be someplace other than a mathowie AMA.
Relative to the small size of the community, MetaFilter already gets quite a bit of "earned media" in terms of media mentions and links, so I can't see how guest blogging (frowned on by Google!) is going to help.
If you really want to increase the eyeballs on MetaFilter (and remembering that it's Ask that is profitable in terms of ad clicks), it almost makes sense to do you *own* Adwords campaign to point people at the site.
The challenge is of course that the keywords that people are searching for (dating, health, etc) are going to be very competitive (ie, expensive).
I still think that working with Google to figure out a way to deal with the algorithm penalty is the best bet.
It doesn't make any sense why Google is off the radar: a very old domain, human-curated, a focus on semantic search terms (AskMe), a ton of people linking to you from a ton of relevant domains, a ton of interlinking within the site, a ton of "fresh" content, a ton of engagement...
Getting some links and some traffic will do nothing to reverse whatever black magic has been inflicted by the change to the algorithm.
We talk to folks at Google all the time about these issues. There are even online forums. There must be a way to engage Google about this.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:11 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
Obviously I don't think you will. Reddit is massive, and the audience would be people who are interested in, say, building web communities, or running a lifestyle business or whatever.
The massive amount of traffic it took to generate revenue from Ask MetaFilter were people looking for solutions to problems, typically relationship problems, or health problems, that sort of thing.
If they are on Reddit, they will be someplace other than a mathowie AMA.
Relative to the small size of the community, MetaFilter already gets quite a bit of "earned media" in terms of media mentions and links, so I can't see how guest blogging (frowned on by Google!) is going to help.
If you really want to increase the eyeballs on MetaFilter (and remembering that it's Ask that is profitable in terms of ad clicks), it almost makes sense to do you *own* Adwords campaign to point people at the site.
The challenge is of course that the keywords that people are searching for (dating, health, etc) are going to be very competitive (ie, expensive).
I still think that working with Google to figure out a way to deal with the algorithm penalty is the best bet.
It doesn't make any sense why Google is off the radar: a very old domain, human-curated, a focus on semantic search terms (AskMe), a ton of people linking to you from a ton of relevant domains, a ton of interlinking within the site, a ton of "fresh" content, a ton of engagement...
Getting some links and some traffic will do nothing to reverse whatever black magic has been inflicted by the change to the algorithm.
We talk to folks at Google all the time about these issues. There are even online forums. There must be a way to engage Google about this.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:11 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
Sure, okay, but none of that is mutually exclusive with setting up a subreddit and building interest in other corners of the web.
Thanks for doing this Rhaomi!
posted by dialetheia at 7:20 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
Thanks for doing this Rhaomi!
posted by dialetheia at 7:20 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
On a related note:
"Remastered" FPPs: Got a great old post with debilitating linkrot? Repost it to /r/MetaFilter
I feel like this should be solved by a MeFi feature, not something for which we need Reddit. But I'm not Matt, so I can't say whether it rises to the level of being worth the time and resources required to design, implement, and maintain it. I'm sure it's been considered before.
(Throwing open the doors on FPP editing is probably not a good idea. One could imagine other ways of approaching the problem.)
posted by secret about box at 7:28 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
"Remastered" FPPs: Got a great old post with debilitating linkrot? Repost it to /r/MetaFilter
I feel like this should be solved by a MeFi feature, not something for which we need Reddit. But I'm not Matt, so I can't say whether it rises to the level of being worth the time and resources required to design, implement, and maintain it. I'm sure it's been considered before.
(Throwing open the doors on FPP editing is probably not a good idea. One could imagine other ways of approaching the problem.)
posted by secret about box at 7:28 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
Please don't interpret that "should" as "MeFi needs to do this". It's more of a friendly, ideal "should" that happily ignores all the realities of running MeFi and making changes to it.
posted by secret about box at 7:31 PM on July 14, 2014
posted by secret about box at 7:31 PM on July 14, 2014
I've started to just assume that old links are dead, which is too bad. The slow problem of acidic paper in books took a long time to show up, but things online crumble away so fast in comparison.
I'm not a reddit participant, but this looks like a great way to use what works well there.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:44 PM on July 14, 2014
I'm not a reddit participant, but this looks like a great way to use what works well there.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:44 PM on July 14, 2014
A mathowie AMA would be fun
Don't we already Ask Mathowie Anything already?
mathowie: are there still things we haven't asked you?
posted by aubilenon at 8:16 PM on July 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
Don't we already Ask Mathowie Anything already?
mathowie: are there still things we haven't asked you?
posted by aubilenon at 8:16 PM on July 14, 2014 [5 favorites]
Well, if this thing takes off I think I'll have to get a new reddit account, because 1) I've lost the password for my previous one, and 2) I only created it to post one comment, so the user name is 'skdjfhlsfhj'. (I just googled it to check that I only posted once. Google asked me "Did you mean: alskdjfhg". Oh Google!)
But good on you, Rhaomi. Now, how do I upvote this post?
posted by benito.strauss at 8:16 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
But good on you, Rhaomi. Now, how do I upvote this post?
posted by benito.strauss at 8:16 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
The only time links are bad is when they come from obviously irrelevant sites. Back in the early days of this thing of ours (10 years ago), people set up directories where you could list your site. Sometimes it was aping the various "portals" and "web directories" of the day, like Yahoo (or even Google itself way back when) and over time the equity and domain authority of these directories-for-the-purpose-of-directories (link farms) built up. A lot of things changed in 2010 or so.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:18 PM on July 14, 2014
posted by KokuRyu at 8:18 PM on July 14, 2014
Someone should claim r/truemetafilter, get in ahead of things.
(Metafilter users talk about revolution, but Reddit users regularly overthrow their leaders either by running them out of the existing sub or moving things to a new sub.)
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 8:29 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
(Metafilter users talk about revolution, but Reddit users regularly overthrow their leaders either by running them out of the existing sub or moving things to a new sub.)
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 8:29 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
Jessamyn, a moderator on Reddit but not on MetaFilter. What Hath God Wrought.
Also, turns out the reason comments were mis-rendering was because I had Reddit Enhancement Suite on and it was generating boxes around comments in a different style from the CSS. I'm turning it back on now while I work on fixing that; anybody who has RES can just disable the subreddit style in the meantime until it's fixed (should only be a few minutes).
posted by Rhaomi at 8:45 PM on July 14, 2014 [11 favorites]
Also, turns out the reason comments were mis-rendering was because I had Reddit Enhancement Suite on and it was generating boxes around comments in a different style from the CSS. I'm turning it back on now while I work on fixing that; anybody who has RES can just disable the subreddit style in the meantime until it's fixed (should only be a few minutes).
posted by Rhaomi at 8:45 PM on July 14, 2014 [11 favorites]
This is like chocolate and pickled herring.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:03 PM on July 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by cjorgensen at 9:03 PM on July 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
benito.strauss: "But good on you, Rhaomi. Now, how do I upvote this post?"I actually hid downvoting with the CSS, which some subs do to discourage negativity. Upvoting is the favorites [+] icon (oh ho ho), while you can always flag bad content with the "report" link.
Mikey-San: "I feel like this should be solved by a MeFi feature, not something for which we need Reddit."I discussed the Remastered thing with Matt over email a few days ago. He wasn't opposed to it.
It first occurred to me a few years ago, when I reformatted part of my Stephen Biesty post as a comment for a thread about one of his books. There was a hugely positive response -- 600+ upvotes, dozens of thankful responses, cross-posting to /r/BestOf. Somebody even bought me Reddit Gold.
Although Reddit supports the ability to make the same kind of posts MeFi does, it tends to focus on image memes, sensationalist headlines, and the occasional comment-centric thread. And while MeFi obviously has worthwhile comments and a strong culture, that isn't readily visible to new visitors, especially if they're turned off by the format.
The way I see it, if folks here are willing to renovate their labors of love the way I did, sharing them on Reddit with a link back is the most effective way to immediately impress upon people there why MetaFilter is worth reading. It doesn't just say "you can find other great posts like this here," but "this community inspired me to put this together in the first place." By combining the personal testimonial of a Remastered FPP with direct links to great posts and discussions from other users, you have a constantly rotating sampler of choice content, an excellent introduction to the best of MeFi. That it offers a way to "future-proof" posts against linkrot is just a bonus. (And something I've been itching to be able to do here for a very long time.)
thelonius: ""community subreddit" - nice"You'll love the rotating taglines in the upper right, which should be working now that the CSS is back.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:54 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
Hi mathowie. Long time fan. I only have one quick question for you.
Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses, or 1 horse sized duck?
posted by loquacious at 10:34 PM on July 14, 2014 [17 favorites]
Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses, or 1 horse sized duck?
posted by loquacious at 10:34 PM on July 14, 2014 [17 favorites]
And do any of these words or phrases mean anything to you?
Jolly Rancher nodule? Swamps of Dagobah? Cumbox? Narwhal? Bacon? Unidan? Silly and non-sexual? Vagina bacon?
posted by loquacious at 10:38 PM on July 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
Jolly Rancher nodule? Swamps of Dagobah? Cumbox? Narwhal? Bacon? Unidan? Silly and non-sexual? Vagina bacon?
posted by loquacious at 10:38 PM on July 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
Everyone's always so fighty!
Why not ask a more positive question: Would you rather make out with 100 duck sized horses, or one horse sized duck?
posted by aubilenon at 11:01 PM on July 14, 2014
Why not ask a more positive question: Would you rather make out with 100 duck sized horses, or one horse sized duck?
posted by aubilenon at 11:01 PM on July 14, 2014
I would rather fight them, to be honest.
posted by WalkingAround at 11:18 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by WalkingAround at 11:18 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
Would you rather eat 100 turducken, or one horducken?
posted by chavenet at 11:28 PM on July 14, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 11:28 PM on July 14, 2014 [8 favorites]
Wow, following that /Metafilter link makes me feel mildly bewildered and really uncomfortable. What an odd reaction that was.
Reddit and I just don't see eye to eye, I guess, but then I knew that already. What I didn't know was what a viscerally negative reaction I'd have to seeing metafilter-esque livery draped on it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:21 AM on July 15, 2014 [11 favorites]
Reddit and I just don't see eye to eye, I guess, but then I knew that already. What I didn't know was what a viscerally negative reaction I'd have to seeing metafilter-esque livery draped on it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:21 AM on July 15, 2014 [11 favorites]
Which is not to say anything bad about this effort -- I myself don't understand it, but that's my problem, and enthusiasm is always a good thing. You go, redditors!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:28 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:28 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Jolly Rancher nodule
Do not look up the history of that one if you plan to eat any time soon.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:28 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
Do not look up the history of that one if you plan to eat any time soon.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:28 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
What is this reddit that I need it in the same bowl as my metafilter.?
*Falls asleep in deck chair*
posted by adamvasco at 4:23 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
*Falls asleep in deck chair*
posted by adamvasco at 4:23 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
So can you turn off the comment threading in the subreddit?
posted by octothorpe at 4:45 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 4:45 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
This is me up voting octothorpe's request.
posted by phunniemee at 4:52 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by phunniemee at 4:52 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
You could change the styling so that child comments are not indented, but they would still be laid out in the same order as if they were threaded, making things even more confusing. You could somewhat fix that by hiding the per-comment reply link, forcing everyone to use the top level reply functionality. And you'd have to somehow induce everyone to switch the sort order from its default of "best" to "old" to put the now-flat comments in chronological order. But any such changes by a subreddit stylesheet can be overridden and disabled by the user, either in the site preferences or by various browser addons, so you would still have people on occasion replying to individual comments, causing their replies to be seemingly inserted into the middle of the page rather than being appended.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:54 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Rhomboid at 4:54 AM on July 15, 2014
And, you'd lose the orangered notification of replies, which is one of the best things about Reddit.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:56 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Rhomboid at 4:56 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
I could hide the Reply button with CSS, but anybody could bypass that by turning off the theme. I don't think it's possible to order comments chronologically with CSS alone.
edit: what Rhomboid said
posted by Rhaomi at 4:56 AM on July 15, 2014
edit: what Rhomboid said
posted by Rhaomi at 4:56 AM on July 15, 2014
I didn't actually think you could fix the comments, but that is the main reason why I seldom read Reddit.
posted by octothorpe at 5:03 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 5:03 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's got its pros and cons. The flow of conversation is not as clear, but you can easily skip sidebars and derails by simply collapsing any parent comments you're not interested in reading, since any child comments are going to be replies (or replies to replies, etc.). Also, Reddit Enhancement Suite has some useful comment management tools, like clearer delineations between conversations, counters for new comments posted since your last visit, a way to collapse all child comments by default so you only have to expand the conversations you're interested in, and lots more.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:11 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 5:11 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
The killer feature of RES for me is the keyboard navigation. There is a highlighted "current" comment, and j/k move to the next/previous comment, while J/K move to the next/previous sibling comment. That makes all the world of difference -- you can follow a conversation by pressing j, but when it becomes tiresome or if you want to skip the whole sub-thread you can press J to stop descending any farther and move on at the same level of hierarchy, or up a level of hierarchy if there is no sibling comment. I spend hours at Reddit navigating huge comment threads without ever having to take my hands off the keyboard.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:16 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Rhomboid at 5:16 AM on July 15, 2014
r/metafilter: You'll love the rotating taglines in the upper right
posted by thelonius at 5:30 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 5:30 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Also, we're not trending, but I made mention of the revamped page in the daily trending post. (Getting a little flak for it though, despite the post's invitation to "Feel free to discuss other interesting or notable subreddits.")
posted by Rhaomi at 6:07 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Rhaomi at 6:07 AM on July 15, 2014
So mefi can hook into reddit like just another tinkertoy, but the at first blush it seems the reverse is...unimaginable? Interesting.
posted by telstar at 6:16 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by telstar at 6:16 AM on July 15, 2014
j/k move to the next/previous comment
This works here, too.
posted by winna at 6:40 AM on July 15, 2014
This works here, too.
posted by winna at 6:40 AM on July 15, 2014
Great idea, great execution!
...
Reddit Enhancement Suite is a must-have for Reddit.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:41 AM on July 15, 2014
...
Reddit Enhancement Suite is a must-have for Reddit.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:41 AM on July 15, 2014
This works here, too.
But only to move through comments. With RES you can navigate the entire site, including the post listings, and opening links/expandos in comments/posts, etc.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:47 AM on July 15, 2014
But only to move through comments. With RES you can navigate the entire site, including the post listings, and opening links/expandos in comments/posts, etc.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:47 AM on July 15, 2014
Heh. I went to join the sub and... I'm already a member. :) Thanks for doing this, Rhaomi!
posted by zarq at 6:49 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by zarq at 6:49 AM on July 15, 2014
Can you set up the flair option to be editable so those of us with a different handle on Reddit can show our MeFi username as flair?
posted by tdismukes at 7:06 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by tdismukes at 7:06 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
What I didn't know was what a viscerally negative reaction I'd have to seeing metafilter-esque livery draped on it.
I'm pretty neutral on reddit and have no complaints/objections about a metafilter subreddit, but yeah, I had a somewhat odd gut reaction to just how close but not quite that css is to the classic metafilter layout? Feels like a sort of uncanny valley-ish thing...
posted by advil at 7:07 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'm pretty neutral on reddit and have no complaints/objections about a metafilter subreddit, but yeah, I had a somewhat odd gut reaction to just how close but not quite that css is to the classic metafilter layout? Feels like a sort of uncanny valley-ish thing...
posted by advil at 7:07 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'd join reddit but someone already has my username and I hate the idea of using a different one.
posted by octothorpe at 7:36 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by octothorpe at 7:36 AM on July 15, 2014
This reminds me of a subreddit I created as a joke (mostly) earlier this years when it seemed like every time Reddit came up on MetaFilter, the conversation seemed to turn to someone making the argument that, by pointing out community flaws with reddit (and usually very specific subreddits) meant that MetaFilter as a whole (as if such a thing exists) hated anyone who used the site.
r/DoesMeFiHateRedditors/
I think Rhaomi's community outreach is a lot better.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:51 AM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
r/DoesMeFiHateRedditors/
I think Rhaomi's community outreach is a lot better.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:51 AM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Happy cake day, MCMikeNamara!
posted by postcommunism at 8:23 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by postcommunism at 8:23 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Can the mefi reddit page just be a bunch of links to the donate page, and that's it?
posted by oceanjesse at 8:47 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by oceanjesse at 8:47 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Happy cake day, MCMikeNamara!
Okay, that's hilarious and awesome. Seven years with a Reddit account (I guess) and the first time that was ever said to me (or honestly that I ever realized when that date was) happened in a Metatalk thread, which feels wildly appropriate.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:53 AM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Okay, that's hilarious and awesome. Seven years with a Reddit account (I guess) and the first time that was ever said to me (or honestly that I ever realized when that date was) happened in a Metatalk thread, which feels wildly appropriate.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:53 AM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Neat, it's like having an embassy.
posted by prize bull octorok at 8:55 AM on July 15, 2014 [27 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 8:55 AM on July 15, 2014 [27 favorites]
What I didn't know was what a viscerally negative reaction I'd have to seeing metafilter-esque livery draped on it.
Doesn't bother me for two simple reasons: 1. It's common there. The Apple subreddit looks like Apple's page. 2. You can override the custom CSS on the site to be the base reddit CSS in your user preferences (and in every case I can't imagine why you wouldn't, but that's just me. You do what you like).
posted by cjorgensen at 9:04 AM on July 15, 2014
Doesn't bother me for two simple reasons: 1. It's common there. The Apple subreddit looks like Apple's page. 2. You can override the custom CSS on the site to be the base reddit CSS in your user preferences (and in every case I can't imagine why you wouldn't, but that's just me. You do what you like).
posted by cjorgensen at 9:04 AM on July 15, 2014
Rhaomi, you may want to put up a post in /r/newreddits, since this is a relaunch of the subreddit under new ownership.
(Full disclosure: I'm SplashyMcPants on reddit - the old steward. I didn't create it though - that was the mysterious and elusive "metafilterman").
posted by disclaimer at 9:04 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
(Full disclosure: I'm SplashyMcPants on reddit - the old steward. I didn't create it though - that was the mysterious and elusive "metafilterman").
posted by disclaimer at 9:04 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
We need flair!
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:14 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:14 AM on July 15, 2014
Oh wait I see we HAVE flair, isn't that clever.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:21 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:21 AM on July 15, 2014
I just went to reddit.com/r/plastic and was so disappointed.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:30 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 9:30 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
So I've always had a bit of trouble keeping Rhaomi and Rhomboid separate in my mind. Having them tag-team comment here is ... well, what's the term for when you have to actually think about something you're used to not having to think about, like when your usual brand of peanut butter changes labels, and you have to ask yourself "Wait, do I like salted or unsalted?" as opposed to "Get that label there."
posted by benito.strauss at 9:31 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by benito.strauss at 9:31 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Full disclosure:
A sort of disclaimer, even.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:38 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
A sort of disclaimer, even.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:38 AM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Adding user-editable flair is non-trivial, and opens up the thorny issue of people appropriating usernames that aren't really theirs. Send me a MeMail with your Reddit username, though, and I'll make a pass later and update the flair list, which is currently mods-only. (Speaking of which, cortex still needs to join Team J!)
posted by Rhaomi at 9:50 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Rhaomi at 9:50 AM on July 15, 2014
Quick trivia: there are 42 MetaFilter members with names that begin with rh- followed by a vowel.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:06 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Rhomboid at 10:06 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
not sure how often I'll be active there, but I just registered as fffmongering.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:09 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:09 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Huh. I'm really interested to see what ends up on there, and how it works out.
posted by Fig at 10:36 AM on July 15, 2014
posted by Fig at 10:36 AM on July 15, 2014
Neat!
posted by ocherdraco at 12:37 PM on July 15, 2014
posted by ocherdraco at 12:37 PM on July 15, 2014
As per disclaimer's suggestion, I've got announcement posts up in
NewReddits
NotSoNewReddits
RedditFacelift
and BuildingSubs.
I'm also compiling links to the OK Computer music challenge for /r/radiohead, I know they'll get a kick out of that!
posted by Rhaomi at 12:44 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
NewReddits
NotSoNewReddits
RedditFacelift
and BuildingSubs.
I'm also compiling links to the OK Computer music challenge for /r/radiohead, I know they'll get a kick out of that!
posted by Rhaomi at 12:44 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
wa the INTERNETZ GOT ALL DAGGUNG MIXED UP
Y U NO HAZ
AWW.METAFILTER.COM CUTE
FUNNY.METAFILTER.COM LOOOOLLLOOOOLLLL
SPACEDICKS.METAFILTER.COM halp
posted by lalochezia at 2:44 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
So can you turn off the comment threading in the subreddit?
ಠ_ಠ
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:45 PM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
ಠ_ಠ
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:45 PM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Alright, dammit. This made me finally create a reddit account. I hope you're happy now.
posted by octothorpe at 2:47 PM on July 15, 2014
posted by octothorpe at 2:47 PM on July 15, 2014
wa the INTERNETZ GOT ALL DAGGUNG MIXED UP
You know how once a year all the comic strips in the newspaper would switch up and each artist would draw someone else's strip with their own twist? I think various popular websites should get together and make that happen for the internet.
posted by downtohisturtles at 2:55 PM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
You know how once a year all the comic strips in the newspaper would switch up and each artist would draw someone else's strip with their own twist? I think various popular websites should get together and make that happen for the internet.
posted by downtohisturtles at 2:55 PM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Alright, dammit. This made me finally create a reddit account. I hope you're happy now.
I... I'm not emotionally there yet, but maybe soon. /r/MetaFilter certainly looks good. All those friendly blues and yellows...
posted by Kevin Street at 3:00 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I... I'm not emotionally there yet, but maybe soon. /r/MetaFilter certainly looks good. All those friendly blues and yellows...
posted by Kevin Street at 3:00 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
OK Computer challenge revisit: posted. Give it a read if you missed the results first time around, there's a lot of amazing material there.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:04 PM on July 15, 2014
posted by Rhaomi at 3:04 PM on July 15, 2014
Sadly I am physically allergic to the Reddit UI, no matter how much makeup it puts on. But you guys have fun.
posted by trip and a half at 3:56 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by trip and a half at 3:56 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Here's the problem I have with reddit. I like the content. I hate the people.
I try to call out bad behavior like, "OP is a faggot! Know how I know OP is a fagot? He has a dick in his mouth!" I down vote it. I make comments after these comments, but those comments are down voted to oblivion.
Best of times, worst of times…
I would give reddit a total pass if it weren't for the sub-reedits. Some are robust, some barely have any involved, some have saved my career (or if not made my day easier).
I have a hate/hate/hate/like/love relationship with reddit.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:34 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
I try to call out bad behavior like, "OP is a faggot! Know how I know OP is a fagot? He has a dick in his mouth!" I down vote it. I make comments after these comments, but those comments are down voted to oblivion.
Best of times, worst of times…
I would give reddit a total pass if it weren't for the sub-reedits. Some are robust, some barely have any involved, some have saved my career (or if not made my day easier).
I have a hate/hate/hate/like/love relationship with reddit.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:34 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
This is going to end up like when they had three popes.
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:02 PM on July 15, 2014
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:02 PM on July 15, 2014
In an epic dance party? Or was that Orphan Black?
posted by Kevin Street at 8:17 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Kevin Street at 8:17 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
"This is going to end up like when they had three popes."
With two users both named John XXIII and the excommunication of Aragon?????
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:31 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
With two users both named John XXIII and the excommunication of Aragon?????
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:31 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm all about celebrating folks who light a candle in the name of good, so...
WHOOO RHAOMI! light that reddit candle with your bad self!
Meanwhile, does this mean that mefis that come to us from reddit are Rhaomins? Rhaomites? Just wondering......
posted by anitanita at 9:02 PM on July 15, 2014
WHOOO RHAOMI! light that reddit candle with your bad self!
Meanwhile, does this mean that mefis that come to us from reddit are Rhaomins? Rhaomites? Just wondering......
posted by anitanita at 9:02 PM on July 15, 2014
cjorgensen: I try to call out bad behavior like, "OP is a faggot! Know how I know OP is a fagot? He has a dick in his mouth!" I down vote it. I make comments after these comments, but those comments are down voted to oblivion.
This is something Reddit has right, in my opinion: they believe the correct way to deal with trolls is to downvote but otherwise ignore them, and that engaging with them (even to "call them out") is more harmful to the overall thread atmosphere. So someone like yourself who attacks bad behavior will get slapped. I think that if MeFi has a problem with derailing threads, it often stems from the belief that it's morally wrong to let a problematic comment stand without being "called out" as often and as publicly as possible.
Or, to quote smoke from the previous thread about derails:
This is something Reddit has right, in my opinion: they believe the correct way to deal with trolls is to downvote but otherwise ignore them, and that engaging with them (even to "call them out") is more harmful to the overall thread atmosphere. So someone like yourself who attacks bad behavior will get slapped. I think that if MeFi has a problem with derailing threads, it often stems from the belief that it's morally wrong to let a problematic comment stand without being "called out" as often and as publicly as possible.
Or, to quote smoke from the previous thread about derails:
I feel like currently there is no disincentive for people to stop rising to the bait, or rephrasing one pithy rebuttal (all that's needed) in wordier and often angrier ways. This is what turns one threadshit into an open sewer.posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:21 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
See I deal with reddit by ignoring the shit. I like pieces of Reddit. That's how I consume it. Sign up for an account, remove the defaults, add some sweet subreddits that speak to you. I don't read every thread on mefi. Why would I read every subreddit on reddit, ESPECIALLY those that the reddit admins recommend? Note: I think the reddit admins are mostly shitty people.
posted by disclaimer at 11:01 PM on July 15, 2014
posted by disclaimer at 11:01 PM on July 15, 2014
With two users both named John XXIII and the excommunication of Aragon?????
Let's hope so.
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:00 AM on July 16, 2014
Let's hope so.
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:00 AM on July 16, 2014
Two questions:
When do I have to give reddit my 5$?
Can we have a special rate for redditors who want to join metafilter? (I'm thinking 10$).
posted by el io at 12:43 AM on July 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
When do I have to give reddit my 5$?
Can we have a special rate for redditors who want to join metafilter? (I'm thinking 10$).
posted by el io at 12:43 AM on July 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
Meanwhile, does this mean that mefis that come to us from reddit are Rhaomins? Rhaomites?
Friends of Rhaomi
posted by phunniemee at 4:50 AM on July 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
Friends of Rhaomi
posted by phunniemee at 4:50 AM on July 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
So is this happening?
Since there's no indication that mathowie has read this thread, maybe not?
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:24 AM on July 16, 2014
Since there's no indication that mathowie has read this thread, maybe not?
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:24 AM on July 16, 2014
You're saying mathowie doesn't read every word on the site? ILLUSIONS SHATTERED
posted by Chrysostom at 9:55 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 9:55 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Sorry, I keep titles hidden on the front page and so am still writing them in "oblique side joke for anybody who bothers to look" mode (see also: tags). If Matt (or anybody else of note) wanted to do one, that would of course be neat, but it wasn't a serious request.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:23 PM on July 16, 2014
posted by Rhaomi at 5:23 PM on July 16, 2014
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
No, because they are an unreadable white-on-almost-white.
I'm turning off the otherwise-awesome CSS at the moment since I'm on my phone and can't view source or troubleshoot. If somebody can share the relevant code snippet to turn comment boxes MeFi blue, I will love you forever.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:24 PM on July 14, 2014