The Week You Joined MetaFilter

May 24, 2017 11:10 AM

This recent MetaTalk comment brought up some past bit of history, specifically posts that occurred during the first week of MetaFilter. It had me thinking. Were there any standout or significant posts that you recall from the week that you joined MetaFilter?
posted by Fizz to MetaFilter-Related at 11:10 AM (63 comments total)

The first week I joined Metafilter, I didn't even notice the sun going down.
posted by Melismata at 11:15 AM on May 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Nope. But I don't really consider my "join date" to be my join date because I had another account that I have disabled and also because I've been reading Metafilter since 2000. All I remember from reading posts in 2000 was thinking "That's a good post, I could make posts better than that." and "Metafilter is just like Fark." 17 years later I just don't have the stamina to make a post let alone a good post but Metafilter is still just like Fark.
posted by Rob Rockets at 11:20 AM on May 24, 2017

Hey, mods, how about turning the "joined" field in the profile to a link to the Metafilter page for that day? That'd be swell!

Among other things the day I joined Metafilter: Jason Robards passed away (at least his obit thread was that day), Russia lost radio contact with the Mir space station, and, surprise surprise, there was a mass shooting.
posted by bondcliff at 11:48 AM on May 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I drifted into MeFi and lurked for years before joining, so I dunno that my join week was significant to me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:57 AM on May 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I joined April 11, 2000. This post garnered some interest, I think!
posted by Lynsey at 12:07 PM on May 24, 2017

Same as others. It doesn't stick out in my mind because I'd been a semi-regular visitor for long before that day (March 5, 2008 ). I went back and looked at tags from posts the week I joined. Feels pretty similar to today: 25 music, 6 video, 5 science, 5 design, 5 art.
posted by not_the_water at 12:16 PM on May 24, 2017

I had a somewhat eventful week when I joined MetaFilter.
posted by headspace at 12:28 PM on May 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

For the past few years I had this memory of making a post about sandwiches during my first week but looking at my actual post history, that didn't happen until a few years later.

So even though my first post was about Marcel Proust, I didn't feel like a true member of MetaFilter until I posted this post about the 101 Best Sandwiches a few years later.

In my first week, I can recall this post about Tarantino's True Romance anniversary. I didn't post a comment but I remember bookmarking the article and being really excited about it. I was very nervous about posting and lurked quite a bit during my first few months.
posted by Fizz at 12:31 PM on May 24, 2017

I remember lurk-reading Metafilter compulsively in 2003 (and going back through ALL the archives!). Joined 4 years later, not sure what was going on at that time. Sporadically used the green. Just did my 1st post on the blue, 10 years after joining.
What can I say, I need some time to warm up...
posted by The Toad at 12:45 PM on May 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

> Nope. But I don't really consider my "join date" to be my join date [...] because I've been reading Metafilter since 2000.

Same here. Took me a long time to be able to get an account (you couldn't just pay five bucks in those days, kiddies). 14K-ers forever!
posted by languagehat at 12:51 PM on May 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hey, mods, how about turning the "joined" field in the profile to a link to the Metafilter page for that day? That'd be swell!

I love this idea.

I made a MeFi post the week I joined. The day I made a post there were seven other posts and five of them were by mathowie.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:01 PM on May 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Heh, yeah, that's an interesting idea. Will chew on it.

I joined the day before my birthday, right in the weird rush-then-lull period at the end of my senior year in college where I think I'd mostly done all the work that needed doing and was just waiting to take care of paperwork and graduate. I'll have to go look and see what was actually happening on the site that week; there wasn't a clear thing that drew me in, since I'd already been lurking for a while and didn't really get precociously active on the site for a bit yet. I do remember making a fairly dumb argument about something or other as one of my first acts, though, with comments I'd side-eye today in a post I'd probably delete today, so, hey! 2001.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:51 PM on May 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I joined in the 2002 membership window, right around the first anniversary of 9/11. The posts for the day I joined... geez, they're tough to read in hindsight.

"President Bush Monday told world leaders it will be the responsibility of the whole international community, rather than the United States, to determine what kind of regime should replace Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if his government is toppled by U.S. military action."

"If there is a formula for toppling the US in this 'new way of war,' then it sounds like we're doing it ourselves by slowly embracing the oppression of the last failed superpower."
posted by Paragon at 2:52 PM on May 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think the big post the week I joined was the discovery of fire.
posted by Chrysostom at 4:02 PM on May 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I originally joined (as wendell) in the very beginning with a 3-digit usernumber when only other people with their own blogs were signing up and mathowie hadn't even set up a way to capture the join-up date. My blog then was oneswellfoop.com and when I finally got around to putting something here it was a long-time-disabled link to Yahoo News making a snarky joke comparing a new "high-tech band-aid" to an unimpressive anti-hacking proposal, to which mathowie replied in the first comment "ha! good one foopster..." So when I decided to get oneswellfoop as a backup (and to keep anyone else from poaching it) and paid the $5 membership I didn't use it until I decided to 'retire' wendell as a pen name. Good old times.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:04 PM on May 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

August 26, 2002 was mostly Iraq posts, so very depressing and probably what pushed me to finally join, but this one did make me laugh for its Peak 2002ishness:

AIM screen name 'satan' going for $15k
posted by gatorae at 6:14 PM on May 24, 2017

I lurked here a lot ca. 2000-2001, and sporadically in the years after, but I didn't create an account until 2006. So it's hard to recall the specifics of anything major from around the time I joined because Mefi had been occupying a chunk of my mindspace for a while before then.

I notice that political megathreads tended to top out at around 180 comments back when I joined, though.
posted by ardgedee at 6:42 PM on May 24, 2017

I joined 9 days ago (hello, everyone!). And haven't left since, it feels like.

Each day I go to the politics megathread, tell myself I'll step away once I get to the end of the thread, then keep refreshing and refreshing and refreshing....
Despite the fact that my current work project is my last reliable source of income for the year and thus needs all of my available hours, I just cannot. leave. the. thread.
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 6:59 PM on May 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Whoa! Today, I've been on MF for exactly 7 years. I lurked for about a year before I joined.
Dear mods, Can you tell me the HOUR I joined? Ha ha!
posted by hot_monster at 7:06 PM on May 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Just over 16 years ago for me. There was a week wait (and a mandatory comment count) before I could post. I'd been lurking on MeFi for a while, stalking the web log A-list ex-Blogger team around the web, and spent spring break of my sophomore year of college freaking about about The Mayday Mystery. I just had to show the MeFi literati this crazy cool thing I'd seen in the real world.

The week while I waited was pretty interesting. Timothy McVeigh had just been executed, DHTML debuted on the front page of Yahoo News (in an ad, natch), and Icy Hot Stuntaz made Anil Dash consider ditching the Internet forever. There was also still a head-spinning amount of FPPs (though we're pre-FPP as a term here, I believe, so people were calling them top level posts) that were closer to personal blog posts than what we consider to be appropriate for the front page these days.
posted by carsonb at 8:33 PM on May 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

26 February 2001.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us was a big thing. (pracowity was so over the word 'meme'. Want to know if something is a popular search? Why, just check lycos!)

Napster was a thing.

3D printing was a 'breakthrough'.

You could totally just let everybody know about GoDaddy's great hosting rates and nobody got upset.

There were grumblings about the Taliban.

The Segway was still a mysterious 'IT' but people were guessing it was a scooter. People used 'e-' in front of everything without irony. 'Weblog' was a word that didn't sound archaic. A 'dot com' was a big, important thing. People still used ICQ. People asked questions on the blue because there was no green.

And of course, MetaFilter was ruined.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:41 PM on May 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I had been lurking in Metafilter for at least a year before I joined on September 13, 2001. No prizes for figuring out what prompted me to join that week.
posted by Jubey at 9:40 PM on May 24, 2017

When I joined up at the end of March 2013, people were hot on Walmart's unethical business practices, wanting to be like The Doctor, what will those crazy atheists do next, and everybody loves those doofy "Before" people in the infomercials!

The post that inspired me to go from lurker to member was about TV characters who were originally written as one sex but ended up being cast as another.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:34 PM on May 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I waa brought by ask. I googled something and askme had the answer. A week later i commented in the blue. My next blue comment was 4 years later. It's always been about askme for me.
posted by chasles at 4:31 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I joined on October 20, 2000. That week had featured the third presidential debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and the resulting megathread was a whopping 73 comments long!

There were a bunch of high-profile domain name hijacks, as the "real" world was still not-too-savvy about this interweb thingamajig.

And predictions of Amazon.com's imminent demise were taken with a grain of salt.
posted by briank at 5:48 AM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, the first lurking date is really what I want to know.

I like to think I finally joined because of I AM A WOMAN NOT A TRAFFIC JAM
posted by knownassociate at 6:54 AM on May 25, 2017

Yes, I joined September 14th, 2001, to better follow the ongoing Sep 11th discussion. I had just graduated college and was trying to get a job while living with my parents. Dark times.
posted by agregoli at 7:13 AM on May 25, 2017

Yeah, the first lurking date is really what I want to know.

I lurked for about half an hour and then was like "FIVE DOLLARS?? That's IT? You're kidding, it's worth WAY more than that!"
posted by Melismata at 7:34 AM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I, too, was a lurker/reader for some time before joining.

I was living in northern Thailand, so not in the tsunami-affected areas.

The request was made to stay off local sites and leave the bandwidth for those giving aid/in need/missing family, etc, so I opened MeFi and decided it was time to pony up.
posted by jaruwaan at 9:23 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't remember if this is a discovery I made the week I joined, but shortly after joining Metafilter, I discovered that I had been quoted on the site about two weeks previously, and hadn't even known it. (The link at that link goes to something I posted on Livejournal.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:27 AM on May 25, 2017

For those of you waiting with bait breath, here is my first comment.

"I think that Palestine, should have already been a nation, long ago. I think that the death of Arafat is a sad thing, and for better or worse, he stood by his people, and was a champion of his people, right to the end. I think it a gross omission, that high level diplomats did not attend his funeral, as if he were a beloved head of state. I think it skanky to attack any widow, especially before the casket is in the ground, or during interment. I think we as a nation should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. I don't like it when the big players, set us up like they are doing. I didn't buy a ticket for the Jingo-Wagon ride."
posted by Oyéah at 12:55 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I lurked for years, but finally joined on September 12, 2001. I know something was going down that week, but what....
posted by bendy at 12:55 PM on May 25, 2017

I joined March 11, 2008. Elliot Spitzer was Client #9. Hillary Rodham Clinton was running for the Democratic Primary against Barack Obama.

I miss my old life in the before times.
posted by Sophie1 at 1:09 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was desperately avoiding reading feedback about my bachelor's thesis.
posted by phunniemee at 1:15 PM on May 25, 2017

For those of you waiting with bait breath

Is that like worm breath, or something?
posted by Melismata at 1:55 PM on May 25, 2017

I joined back in 1999. It was a simpler more innocent time.

No , really.
posted by jonmc at 2:10 PM on May 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

When I joined the big media hand-wringing story was Terry Schiavo.

I... don't think that's the reason I joined.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:59 PM on May 25, 2017

jebus, what an inchoate asshole I was. So i apologize to community, the mods, esp. Matt who was quite tolerant, dunno, just wanna be that guy i was before clavdivs.
time to give back and i dont know quite how to do that.
I lost my best friend through memail because of a misunderstanding on my part and i can never get that back.

so its time to grow up. sorry for the derail but i needed to say that.
posted by clavdivs at 3:01 PM on May 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

I was one of the pre-9/11 babies. February 2001, apparently. I don't remember.

Paging through things, I see there was a backlash against AYBABTU around that time. And I was so bored with it all, don't you know. Oh, the troubles I've seen.
posted by pracowity at 3:02 PM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

jebus, what an inchoate asshole I was.

I used to speculate on what was up with you -- just knowing you through what and how you wrote here, you seemed a little irregular to me -- but you weren't any sort of asshole. I think. I thought people liked you. Were you an asshole? Was I an asshole? Who else was an asshole? I have trouble being a regular person. If I were the sort of person who gets their head examined, I'd get my head examined and report back here. The doctor would probably tell me I'm just an asshole.
posted by pracowity at 3:13 PM on May 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Who else was an asshole?

I was an asshole.

Wait... How far back are we talking about? I was talking about yesterday.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:03 PM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

well, you, chef, HAT, brother K, the commish, countless others told me to me to relax, be myself. thing is, i forgot who i was.

Was I an asshole? oh fuck no but your humor is as sharp as ever. i remember fighting with smock pants and the thimble of foon to no end and i love the dude today, so much i will not ambush him at his next gig with my pink 'Clavdivs loves you' hand-knit sign with the rotating neon jesus accessory pack.


FLO!
posted by clavdivs at 4:05 PM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

CLAV!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:08 PM on May 25, 2017

Aw c'mere, Clav. You were always my favorite. All these things seem so far away.
posted by Kafkaesque at 5:14 PM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Neat... I joined Sept 10, 2002, just a few spots after Paragon. I'd been lurking for quite some time, and I remember there was an open window I finally snuck in. Gulf War 2 was obviously the big story, and I see I screwed up in my first comment (and apologized in my second like a good Canadian). My fifth comment was about Buzz Aldrin punching yet another moon hoaxer.

But this comment I made ten days later... plus ça change...

"...geez, this is all in response to a link about tree planting. We derailed a Boy Scoutesque post with US foreign policy mistakes. Is this all MeFi is about? Where's the Friday flash games already?"
posted by GhostintheMachine at 5:29 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Clav, I couldn't figure out what your game was, non-native English speaker? odd Britishisms? gaming the room? being a nut job to see what people would do? but I never read it as asshole, just sayin'.
posted by Lynsey at 5:35 PM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Likewise, nearly all the time.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 5:57 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

FLO! CLAV! Do you realize they have a Stella Yelling Contest in New Orleans every year? I have never thought either of you were or are a*holes. Nope.
posted by Oyéah at 9:14 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Every time I think about myself in the past I think about what an asshole I was, even though others apparently disagree. This leads to a weird situation where I know that future me is going to get all judgy about now me no matter what I do so screw that dude, I am going to go out, spend all my money, ruin a friendship and get an ill-advised tattoo out of spite. Let's see how he likes that, huh!

More to the point, Clav, I never thought you were an asshole. However, you did mention making commemorative Stargate busts in a MetaTalk thread a few years ago, which I promptly memailed you about and then never got a response. I am actually still a bit disappointed about that, but it was probably a flippant comment of yours that I took a little too seriously.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:27 AM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

And to be perfectly clear, the comment above (the clav part, specifically) is purely good natured humor- albeit true.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:28 AM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

More like the first month but I think back to "is an ebay fraud seller free?"
posted by starman at 5:23 AM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I, too, had an older account that I abandoned. I lurked for a couple of months before my join date, but my old account joined on September 11th, 2001.
posted by Thistledown at 5:39 AM on May 26, 2017

I joined one day in December. I was bored and lonely. My SO, now spouse, had left for Virginia for Christmas and I was sitting in the dark Swedish woods, a long-time MetaLurker™, and wanted a change. It took some time after that, but...the rest is (alphabet-thread-induced) history.
posted by Namlit at 9:15 AM on May 26, 2017

I lurked for like, 9 years, then finally joined as roboton666 in 2011, I was an asshole, metafilter learned me well then around 2013 I changed to Annika Cicada and ever since then have tried to be less of an asshole.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:37 AM on May 26, 2017

Hmmm. I lurked for a long time, since the login window was closed. Looks like I finally got my account on April 2nd, 2004. I do remember all that pretty well. I was living in a different country, didn't have internet, so I didn't have an option to sign up during the very short window. A now-inactive user helped sign me up through a thread on MonkeyFilter, and also got me a gmail invite (which had come out the day before, the last good tech April Fools).

Anyway, Shaolin Soccer is the first post, and one of my favorite movies, still. So, it all seems good.
posted by lkc at 12:09 PM on May 26, 2017

waiting with bait breath Bait breath is just not so sicky sweet as Victorian bated breath, as in, "I am waiting with bated breath for you next command, my darling." Bait breath is more a southern notion, accidentally putting your finger in your mouth, after baiting a hook. Bait breath is like being in momentary shock and disgust.
posted by Oyéah at 3:29 PM on May 26, 2017

Howard Dean, Cory Doctorow, Neo-Confederates, Girls Gone Wild at Burning Man, September 11th Truther conspiracies, and a Migs quiz asking "How Gay Are You?" were several of the topics under discussion the week or so after I joined in mid-August '02. At 73 comments, the Truther thread passed for a mega-thread, but wasn't laughed totally off the forum. I looked to see if the Truther conspiracist linked to was still active and he is! He appears to be a Trump fan.

(I was involved in an excruciatingly dull work project at that point in my life and I really joined to have something to goof off with instead. God knows metafilter has delivered on that promise.)
posted by octobersurprise at 4:21 PM on May 26, 2017

I joined on March 5, 2011. I had been lurking for a long time and I can't remember what made me finally take the plunge. Apparently the first thing I did was make a comment on a post in the green about humor - 10 days after joining.

I thought I remembered joining to comment on something specific but apparently not.
posted by bunderful at 6:33 PM on May 26, 2017

Almost eleven years ago! I remember nothing.
posted by Coaticass at 1:45 PM on May 28, 2017

This must be where I found out about The SCP Foundation. THANKS FOR ALL THE LOST SLEEP PROSPERO
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:12 PM on May 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Who else was an asshole?

I was an asshole.

Wait... How far back are we talking about? I was talking about yesterday.

I am only able to appreciate my assholism in retrospect, my existence is an ongoing series of hypnic jerks, trying to shake off that bad voodoo...

Luckily today I am better! Cured!
posted by Meatbomb at 4:46 AM on May 29, 2017

obiwanwasabi: People still used ICQ.

*cough*
I use ICQ to this very day.

That aside, I'm a newbie. I started out on AskMefi. I try to stay out of the way; please don't mind me.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:55 PM on May 29, 2017

Jesus... I don't even remember what I had for lunch. :/
posted by miss lynnster at 2:33 PM on May 30, 2017 [2 favorites]