"...the irrelevant, the tangential, the sidebar excursion to nowhere..."

July 17, 2016 2:07 PM

Just wanted to give a shoutout to whoever has been keeping the "New & Noteworthy" well-stocked with excellent bits and bobs from across the MeFi world. With horrid ongoing world events and super-bad news seemingly daily, taking a moment to check out something awesome means a lot. Plus it's easy to miss cool items from across the evolving MeFiverse.

Title clipped from this Errol Morris quote:

"I like the idea of making films about ostensibly absolutely nothing. I like the irrelevant, the tangential, the sidebar excursion to nowhere that suddenly becomes revelatory. That's what all my movies are about. That and the idea that we're in possession of certainty, truth, infallible knowledge, when actually we're just a bunch of apes running around. My films are about people who think they're connected to something, although they're really not."

posted by Celsius1414 to MetaFilter-Related at 2:07 PM (30 comments total)

Yes! That's primarily been LobsterMitten and taz, who have been doing a great job of circling back around to that regularly. That stuff is almost always posted to both the sidebar of the front page and (often with images and somewhat more expansive text) to Best Of, and it's honestly kind of a sane-making thing I think all around to try and find cool/neat/fun stuff to feature there when there's also a lot of serious or bad stuff in the air.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:10 PM on July 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

That sentence "There has been some good stuff around lately." at the top of the sidebar today was perfect. :)
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:12 PM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

Sometimes we workshop the content a little over IM or slack, and so there'll be queries like:

LM: pokemon go question

LM: within the semantic universe of pokemon, if you're a pokemon person who does pokemon like it was their job, what are you? a "pokemon trainer"? a "pokemon collector"?
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:18 PM on July 17, 2016 [10 favorites]

pokemon enthusiast
posted by poffin boffin at 3:36 PM on July 17, 2016

pokemon gender-neutral-master (pokemon mistress just.... doesn't work)
posted by Deoridhe at 3:40 PM on July 17, 2016

Here's someone who tried to literally make it her job, but she took down the ad due to concern she could get in trouble with Niantic.
posted by zachlipton at 3:54 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: it's honestly kind of a sane-making thing I think all around to try and find cool/neat/fun stuff to feature there when there's also a lot of serious or bad stuff in the air.
posted by Melismata at 6:01 PM on July 17, 2016

That's primarily been LobsterMitten and taz

Two of my favorite women right there, this seems to be a good opportunity to mention.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:52 PM on July 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

+1 to this -- I love the sidebar. Thank you, LobsterMitten and taz!
posted by kimberussell at 7:26 PM on July 17, 2016

I also appreciate the current sidebar curation. It adds a lot to my enjoyment.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:50 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Great job, always appreciate that extra bit of curation and content focus.
posted by Fizz at 9:15 PM on July 17, 2016

Every now and then I see something in the sidebar and think "that sounds boring". Then I always click on it anyway at some later point and it's always awesome. So last time I found myself doing the "... boring" thing I told myself straight up "no, you know it's going to be great so just shut up and click". And it was great.
posted by shelleycat at 11:45 PM on July 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

pokemonist
pokemonista
pokemonner


And I love the sidebar, too!
posted by From Bklyn at 2:05 AM on July 18, 2016

pokemon mitten
posted by ardgedee at 2:19 AM on July 18, 2016

"Pokepeeps," surely.
posted by notyou at 5:54 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

LM: within the semantic universe of pokemon, if you're a pokemon person who does pokemon like it was their job, what are you? a "pokemon trainer"? a "pokemon collector"?

The linguistic solution is suggested by this classic comment:

Q: You like pokemon? You are a person who likes the pokemon acts that we are currently engaged in?
A: Yes! I am! I like pokemon!
Q: You like pokemon! In fact, you are a person who likes pokemon as much as a prostitute likes sex!
A: YES I LIKE POKEMONY POKEMON AS IF IT WERE MY PROFESSION!! TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT
Q: YOU ENJOY THIS ACT YOU POKEMONY POKEMON PERSON etc.

posted by Dip Flash at 6:06 AM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I was just going through the sidebar a few days ago and thinking how nicely it has been curated. Good call out!
posted by blurker at 6:55 AM on July 18, 2016

yeah sidebar's been killing it lately!
posted by griphus at 7:32 AM on July 18, 2016

Thank you guys for the kind words -- it's really wonderful to hear people enjoy it. One of the ways we find stuff (especially comments) is through Fantastic flags, so do flag stuff or even drop us a note if you see something great that we may have missed.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:00 AM on July 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

MetaFilter: you know it's going to be great so just shut up and click
posted by Fizz at 2:51 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thank you taz and LobsterMitten!! I appreciate the curation and posting of interesting things on the sidebar.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 3:53 PM on July 18, 2016

Pokemonad.
posted by sciencegeek at 4:28 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

LobsterMitten and taz - this has been super handy.

It's been an almost unconscious go-to for me over the last few months. Thanks for putting in the manual curation time and effort to make it happen!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:32 PM on July 18, 2016

Pokémonite
Pokémonador
Pokémonist
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:16 PM on July 18, 2016

Maybe it's that I don't know where to click, but it's a mild bummer that I can't seem to see the sidebar items on my phone in mobile view.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:36 PM on July 18, 2016

On the Modern theme in mobile, sidebar stuff is all down below the main content; look for the downward pointing arrow icon off to the right at the top of the page to jump down.

I don't think we have a sidebar view in the Classic's mobile view, but you can pop over to Standard view via the footer, or hop over to Best Of.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:38 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is this something I would need a sidebar to understand?
posted by Brockles at 10:12 PM on July 18, 2016

Yes! More highlights and bringing in posts from the various sub sites.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 6:59 AM on July 19, 2016

Thanks, Cortex, I had no idea the information was at the bottom of the page. This is great.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:56 PM on July 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

More good stuff in the sidebar as of yesterday!
posted by exogenous at 8:30 AM on July 25, 2016