Sidebar Love

August 31, 2015 6:44 PM

Can I just say thank you to whoever is responsible for keeping up the sidebar on the Blue? I have loved seeing it come to life in the past month or two and really appreciate being able to rely on it for awesome posts or comments I have missed. I'm sure I'm not alone in this (ahem).
posted by Atrahasis to MetaFilter-Related at 6:44 PM (24 comments total)

Yay! It's taz! She is the bestest. [Confetti emoji!]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 6:45 PM on August 31, 2015 [17 favorites]

I should also say, the other mods do find stuff, and members write in to us and fantastic-flag stuff (thank you all). And we've got a new place (a Slack channel) where we're keeping track of this stuff on the back end, which is a nice process improvement. But the driving force of it all is the taz awesomeness machine.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 6:49 PM on August 31, 2015 [4 favorites]

Sidebar love!
posted by rtha at 7:22 PM on August 31, 2015

Yay taz! And also the other mods, but in this instance mostly taz!

But yeah, the active sidebar is great.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:37 PM on August 31, 2015 [2 favorites]

taz makes the sidebar great! And everyone else helps! Hooray! 🎉
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:23 PM on August 31, 2015 [2 favorites]

I had a post I made featured on the sidebar a few weeks ago, and I can see the long tail effects of having it there. It fell off the front page proper quite some time ago, and closed to new comments today, but it picked up a new favourite as recently as 3 days ago.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:28 PM on August 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

For me, it's become much more a "must check" part of the front page than it had been. Thanks!
posted by wallabear at 8:36 PM on August 31, 2015 [5 favorites]

This is a good meta!

Seconding wallabear: it's my 'must-check' item every day even if I'm really busy.

I love what the sidebar writers are doing lately: spotting themes or similarities across all segments of Mefi and drawing them together. This is very hard to do!

So excellent stuff, taz - and others - but mostly taz, it sounds like. Although I suspect cortex is responsible for the recent mefi music one by jake.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:55 PM on August 31, 2015

(This one by jake.)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:58 PM on August 31, 2015

(What is this Slack channel? Is it mods only or can anyone join?)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:01 PM on August 31, 2015

Mods only. But suggesting stuff via the contact form or flagging as fantastic works, and most of what goes in the channel eventually makes its way to the sidebar.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:08 PM on August 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sidebar Love

I've been surfin' all night, my hands numb on the keys
There's a voice in my head that tells me please
It's MeFi callin', says I need you here
And it's half past four in the blogosphere

When days are boring and Facebook friends get too much
MeFi sends a message comin' in from above
Don't need no Tweets at all!

We've got a thing that's called Sidebar Love!
We've got a section class <divvvv>...
Sidebar Love...

With apologies to Golden Earring...
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:41 PM on August 31, 2015 [5 favorites]

Yes I only noticed all the awesome content in the sidebar recently, and I am very happy with it. Thank you Taz and everyone else.
posted by wilful at 10:14 PM on August 31, 2015

Oh yes indeed, congratulations and thank you mod(s) - you give great Sidebar. The work you put in is very much appreciated, I check it every time I land on the blue.
posted by valetta at 11:35 PM on August 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

<@ <@ roses for taz
posted by Cranberry at 11:49 PM on August 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes, the sidebar updates have been great, and I have been steered to several amazing things that I would otherwise have missed because of it.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:05 AM on September 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I, too, have noticed, this, and I greatly greatly appreciate. Missing out on great mefi bit is a haunting and ever-present fear; Taz et al, you are helping me conquer it one link at a time!
posted by smoke at 4:30 AM on September 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yay for taz! And yay for the mods helping her with the sidebar! And yay for everybody who is posting great stuff!

I may also be just a bit excited to discover today that one of my comments made the sidebar.
posted by metaquarry at 5:28 AM on September 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. It's a multi-effort with suggestions from members and mods, via contact mail, favorites, and fantastic flags. It's actually kind of mind-blowing how much great stuff is posted, so thank you x1000 to everyone who takes the time to share all these fun, mysterious, enlightening, analytical, explanatory, silly, warm, bright, clever, whimsical, beautiful, surprising, intriguing posts and comments. <3
posted by taz (staff) at 5:38 AM on September 1, 2015 [12 favorites]

Agreed with all pro-taz sentiments and sidebar enjoyment.
posted by theora55 at 6:25 AM on September 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

[Confetti emoji!]

🎊 🎉🎊 🎉🎊 🎉
posted by filthy light thief at 8:33 AM on September 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was just thinking I wanted to post a meta about how great the sidebar has been. Really thoughtful curation that brings stuff I would have otherwise missed to the fore.
posted by latkes at 11:35 AM on September 2, 2015

We have seen a couple of posts today about cool stories -- the Indian stepwells and the ancient golden cloth woven from seashell fiber -- that were posted to the sidebar. I wonder if they launched from sidebar to wider blogosphere and then came back around. Yay for posters finding cool stories!
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 3:08 PM on September 2, 2015

Another voice of acclaim for taz's topnotch sidebar!
posted by Sheydem-tants at 6:48 PM on September 5, 2015