In celebration of mefi connections

September 28, 2016 8:19 PM

I'd like to declare September 28th Reach Out to a New Mefite day.

Two years ago today, elephantsvanish messaged me out of the blue about this question I'd posted two years previously, wondering what career path I'd ultimately decided on. Clicking through her profile, I noticed she'd made previous comments about zines and zine culture. As it happened, I'd just finished doing a training program for my new career and writing a zine about that experience. I wrote back and suggested we skype sometime. One Skype conversation led to another, which led to her coming to visit me in Philly, which led to two more visits across three different states. Here we are on a train across Michigan this past summer.

One year ago today I had a lovely memail exchange with nebulawindphone about Andromeda Klein, the book I take my user name from. In messaging back and forth, we came up with some possible scenarios for Andromeda Klein fanfic. I tweeted about wanting to write said fanfic, and the author of the book got back to me and told me to go for it. (I can't uncover the back and forth because going through old tweets is an exercise in futility, but trust me it happened.) I also found out that nebulawindphone and I are part of the same small hobby community, and have friends and acquaintances in common through that network. We've only met once briefly, but there's a high probability that we'll cross paths again through said community.

Two years is a pretty good streak for new friendly exchanges, and I'd like to keep it up. So I'm declaring September 28th Reach Out to a New Mefite Day. Got someone whose comments you've always admired? Have a question for another mefite who shares a particular interest with you? Today's as good a day as any to message someone.

Mefi has brought so many lovely people into my life. May today be a day that you, too, talk to someone great.

posted by ActionPopulated to MetaFilter-Related at 8:19 PM (27 comments total)

I like this idea but have no idea how to support it.
posted by workerant at 8:49 PM on September 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Not to pick on ActionPopulated's idea, but there's one problem that happens with frustrating regularity when someone proposes a special day.

Next year, maybe…
posted by Pinback at 9:59 PM on September 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm probably being dense but I'm not sure what probably you are referring to, Pinback.
posted by JenMarie at 10:38 PM on September 28, 2016

In Pinback's image, the post is listed under September 29... for a special day on September 28.
posted by ktkt at 11:08 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

This sounds super cute. I look forward to sending hellos to a lot of people I admire once I figure out what to say and how to gently quiet down any "OMG senpai noticed me!!!" thoughts that may arise as I participate in this event.

Thank you for suggesting it!!
posted by Hermione Granger at 11:14 PM on September 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Planning 364 days in advance would be cool, but maybe we can just agree to make it a week from today?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:20 AM on September 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

I support this and am going to memail whoever has favorited the most of my comments.

*digs through infodump*

Huh, it turns out that the person who has favorited my comments the most is...me*. Well that was easy. I can't wait until next year.

_{*Unfortunately not really me and I don't expect the infodump to update quickly enough to go and stunt favorite a bunch of my own comments.}
posted by Literaryhero at 7:18 AM on September 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Great prompt, have got slightly more into memail recently and just sent a new one!
posted by ellieBOA at 7:44 AM on September 29, 2016

Yes! Almost every interaction I've had with MeFites beyond Metafilter itself has been great! I've connected with a bunch via Twitter, MeMail, email, Facebook, etc. Almost all of these connections began with one of us thinking "I find this person interesting and I'd like to know more about them."

So yes, connect with MeFites you find interesting! Reach out. Follow. Friend. Favorite. Do it yesterday. Or tomorrow.
posted by bondcliff at 7:50 AM on September 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Not to be confused with mefi enspousenation day
posted by k5.user at 9:18 AM on September 29, 2016

I like this idea. I've reached out to MeFites to refer them to my trivia league, to invite them to my house and to swap snacks with. it's always worked out well and I recommend it.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:17 AM on September 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

This sounds like a lovely idea, and I'll try to make a moment to send some MeMail fan letters to various people I don't know at all, but whose contributions I appreciate and enjoy.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 10:30 AM on September 29, 2016

I declare a day of amnesty due to my posting this so late. Send your appreciative memails today! Well, send them anytime, but official
holiday can be bumped to today.
posted by ActionPopulated at 10:41 AM on September 29, 2016

I'm glad you suggested this. I was going to post here at some point about what's the etiquette for linking to other MeFis, but this post leads me to think it's simply "go ahead and do it."
posted by xenization at 11:08 AM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes, I am one of those September 29thers too. So let's make October Reach out and touch a Mefite day?
posted by infini at 11:12 AM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Your own personal Mefite
Someone to hear your [+]s
Someone who [!]s
posted by rollick at 11:22 AM on September 29, 2016 [31 favorites]

I've sent a lot more out of nowhere MeMails in the past two years or so than before, but that's still only like maybe five.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:29 AM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

A number of you have also sent me MeMail over the last year to thank me for various posts. And it's always this heart-warming feeling when that happens. It only reminds me that I need to do that myself for others, to just send them a note that I appreciate their post and their contributions. So I'm glad this post is here, I need to get on that.

I've connected with a number of you via twitter. I'm fairly active in that social media platform. So for anyone who is interested, please give me a follow, I'd love to follow you back and see you more on that platform. Cheers.
posted by Fizz at 2:13 PM on September 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

I have never been shy to ask/canvas mefites with questions or crys for help in situations where I felt like a memail wouldn't be awry. I certainly fall into the Ask column of the famous Ask vs Guess folks....

Anyway, I've never had a problem with any of it. Some folks may not reply or, more commonly, may say they can't or aren't able to help, but it's almost always helpful and productive and a good way to accomplish this or that task.

Hell it led me to the best Lemongrass Tofu in Memphis, that's for damn sure. It was a weekly staple for our year there, just a take out box *FULL* of stirfried tofu squares. We ate off that thing for 3 days between the two of us, budget was tight then but I digress....

So, yea, expressing my support for this ad encouraging folks to ping me if they ever think my puny butt can be of assistance with anything, I'll not be shy with the honesty in return.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:45 PM on September 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

"Reach out and Ta-ta-ta-take it"

-Cheap Trick
posted by clavdivs at 8:29 PM on September 29, 2016

Yes, what Fizz said. While I've always been chuffed to receive out of the blue memails, I need to send them more.
posted by infini at 9:31 PM on September 29, 2016

For what it's worth, a MeFite reached out to me yesterday (9/29) over a very deep in the weeds jokey comment I made and we had a nice little exchange that made me smile the smile of finding one of My People.

I've also had other great out-of-the-blue memails, and I always appreciate them, even though I can be a terrible one-on-one communicator.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:04 PM on September 30, 2016

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 I love everything about this and I am deeply biased and I just don't care.
posted by elephantsvanish at 5:26 PM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I, too, love this.
posted by rhizome at 12:45 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I encourage everyone here to go to meetups. You are probably gonna meet people you like, even if you don't recognize them from the site. Any day can be Reach Out to a New Mefite (or an Old Mefite) day.

Also I met my sweetie (see user 292) of 8+ years via a meetup, cause I wanted to ask her, "How the hell do you moderate a website with so many posts and users!?" This is one of the first pictures of us, from that meetup.
posted by not_on_display at 9:59 PM on October 4, 2016 [5 favorites]

Also I met my sweetie (see user 292) of 8+ years via a meetup

I was at that meetup. Ten minutes into it you were swapping hats and making goo-goo eyes at each other. It was adorable.

That's also where I met y'all. Yes, everyone should go to meetups!
posted by bondcliff at 7:20 AM on October 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is a great idea! There are so many people here whose comments and posts educate, inspire, and entertain me, and in general there can never be too much love and appreciation.

Another testimonial for meetups: if you are someone who thinks like me and has an internal dialogue along the lines of "hey,theres a meetup by me! maybe i should go... or not, i dont know, i wont know anyone there... how will i find them once i get there? eehhhh... maybe next time" JUST GO. They are so much fun. You will not regret it.
posted by Fig at 7:38 AM on October 5, 2016 [2 favorites]