MeFi24 in 2023

July 14, 2023 9:03 AM

Today is MetaFilter’s 24th anniversary. To put things in perspective, this invaluable source of knowledge, conversations and learning was founded the same year the Euro launched, boy bands were on the rise, the first Matrix movie was released, and "Believe" by Cher was hitting the top of the Billboard Year-End chart. We'd like to celebrate this milestone by raising a virtual toast to the countless discussions, friendships, and shared knowledge that have blossomed here.

When Metafilter was born, it pioneered in the advent of Web 2.0. Websites were mostly static and impersonal, comments were still a rarity; this community allowed people to engage in thoughtful and meaningful conversations and still does!

Today, social media platforms are experiencing a well known crisis. And yet, here we are, away from corporate jerk control and looking towards the future with a glimpse of hope, working to become a more member-driven website where community members are the backbone.

The traditional 24th anniversary gift is an opal, symbolizing love, hope and prosperity so why not, use this thread to share anecdotes and stories of love, hope, and prosperity that you have experienced via Metafilter throughout these years?

posted by jessamyn (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 9:03 AM (107 comments total)

Folks are also chit-chatting on the blue, too.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:40 AM on July 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

Viva Mefi! I am so glad we're still here, still making it after all these years. <3
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:40 AM on July 14, 2023 [15 favorites]

Hooray for the amazing and wonderful MetaFilter, and for everyone who's contributed to making it so wonderful! I am grateful you exist.
posted by kristi at 10:13 AM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm glad my favorite website is the one that hasn't disappeared, that attracts the smarties (i.e. you can read the comments here), and that it's maintained its identity on the surface while also expanding the subsites over the years and growing administratively. It retains its BBS-like feeling, which is what attracted me to it in the first place—that sense of local virtual community, even if we all are strewn across the planet physically. It's remained egalitarian, well-moderated, not-too-crowded... Just, it's amazing someplace like this still exists on the web. Also, I met my sweetie at a MeFi meetup over 15 years ago [added to favorites]. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Here's some Opal.
posted by not_on_display at 10:15 AM on July 14, 2023 [10 favorites]

let's all have a listen, since Jessamyn mentioned it
posted by dismas at 10:42 AM on July 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Other songs on the 1999 Billboard year-end list include 'My Love is Your Love,' 'Last Kiss,' 'Kiss Me,' and 'Doo Wop (That Thing).'
posted by box at 11:15 AM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

I met two of my best friends through MetaFilter (hi cortex & Secretariat) and have grown immeasurably as a human being thanks to the posts and comments and discussions on this site. I would not be the person I am today without it.
posted by curious nu at 11:17 AM on July 14, 2023 [13 favorites]

I've learned so much about so much from hanging around here for the past 13+ years. Thanks everyone!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:27 AM on July 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

I often imagine someone going through my computer/phone after I die and being ASTOUNDED at how much time I spend on MetaFilter. I'm not super active, but I'm here every day (and have two T-shirts to prove it)!

Thanks to all of you for the fascinating posts and illuminating discussions. I came here from memepool decades ago, and now MeFi is my internet home.

(Note to other users: if you wanna kill some time, visit MetaTalk and hit the "Random" button. Talk about going down rabbit holes of timesuck.....)
posted by kinsey at 11:34 AM on July 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm grateful MetaFilter has kept going for all these years. I dip in and out, but I keep coming back. Because while my energy and attention is inconsistent, everyone here keeps being interesting. This is the one place on the internet that has kicked off multiple virtual and IRL relationships that really matter to me. Thank you all!
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:43 AM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

I joined in 2001 and am still around because I always find something interesting here that I probably would not have come across via any other source. In 21 years, there have been few days I didn't stop by.

Next year is the 25th! Silver! There ought to be some kind of major celebration of that occasion.
posted by beagle at 12:17 PM on July 14, 2023 [8 favorites]

Huh, I never quite put it together that Metafilter is a few months older than my relationship with my partner. Goodness. We were all such BABIES.

Anyway, MeFi brought me my dearest friend, and I will always be grateful for it. And Fanfare Hannibal discussions fed me gently into other parts of fandom elsewhere, where most of my other dear friends these days now come from. So directly and less directly, I owe this place for most of my most beloved connections. Happy anniversary!
posted by Stacey at 1:19 PM on July 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

Oh sure, 1999 was so great, with the Matrix, and a common currency in the EU, and Cher's conquest of bauxite mines almost a mile and a half deep... just so long as you're not a cat who's been wedged in a scanner for the past 24 years now.
posted by Flunkie at 1:36 PM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

So THAT's what the annual cat.scan post is all about -- they've never been compelling enough for me to explore.
posted by Rash at 1:40 PM on July 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

Opal Anniversary Metafilter

=

Avert Pitfall - Err Mayonnaise!

A Fry Online - Taters Primaeval!
posted by lalochezia at 2:01 PM on July 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

Raising a virtual toast. Live long and prosper, MeFi!
posted by Splunge at 2:48 PM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

Love this place, love you all.
posted by cortex (retired) at 3:47 PM on July 14, 2023 [43 favorites]

There’s a bunch of us here who’ve lived a peripatetic life, for one reason or another, moving around the world, having to rebuild a social life in new places, with new people.

I think I can speak for all of us in that particular subgroup of MeFites that having an online community that’s stuck around and remained recognizably itself for nearly a quarter-century has been incredibly valuable.

It’s a third space I carry with me wherever I am in the world. So thanks, all of you, for being a community that sticks around, that remains itself, that values human beings as human beings.

And also, thank you for being interested in off-beat topics, for answering questions on any subject, for talking about how we should behave and be, for discussing movies and books and Eurovision, for making music, and just for adding some words to our wonderful little text-based community, that provides a feeling of belonging on an internet that strives for atomization.

I’m incredibly grateful to have all of you in my life.
posted by Kattullus at 4:04 PM on July 14, 2023 [57 favorites]

Personal story: my first meetup with you fine folks was the tenth anniversary. That was around the peak of my social anxiety, but I still managed to convince myself it'd be worth it.

I kept in touch with some of you that I'd met for a while, which would've been worth the risk for its own sake. But that night was the first time I'd ever met a group of strangers and felt like I belonged.

It was a profound shift. Not a magical cure for that anxiety, but it started to change how I thought about myself when in those situations.

I even went on a few first dates for the first time in years, one of whom is now my spouse. And I can also say that it probably wouldn't have worked out if not for the social and emotional and general education I continue to get from this community. This site changed my life and I'm so grateful you've had the warmth and patience to let me be a part of it.

Happy Birthday, MetaFilter, and thank you. Let's make sure irl.metafilter.com has enough server resources for the quadranscentennial.
posted by Riki tiki at 4:41 PM on July 14, 2023 [20 favorites]

I've said it here before and I'll say it again (like right now): I have learned more on MetaFilter and AskMetaFllter than I ever learned in school, and I have what they call a terminal degree. I have learned more about how to argue in good faith (and bad) here than was ever a part of my schooling. I sincerely hope to meet some of you next year for 25th birthday hijinks.
posted by mollweide at 5:35 PM on July 14, 2023 [8 favorites]

Two of my most prized relationships have anniversary days beside each other. Yesterday was my 20th wedding anniversary and then there’s today. I care deeply for both and obviously, if given no option and I had to give one them up it would be MetaFilter that loses but I would be grieving. For a very long time.

Happy birthday MetaFilter! Don’t ever stop being engaging, interesting and above all, continue to be a home for so many of us.
posted by ashbury at 5:46 PM on July 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

MetaFilter: The best of the web...
posted by Windopaene at 6:29 PM on July 14, 2023 [8 favorites]

I have learned a LOT from being on this site for so many years.

Thanks to all of you, and to those not among us any more (by choice or RIP).
posted by wenestvedt at 6:32 PM on July 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

Cheers.
posted by Fizz at 7:43 PM on July 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

*!*
posted by amtho at 8:27 PM on July 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

While many voices from the early days are gone, sadly missed, some passed away, there are new voices here now too. Metafilter doesn't just have to look to the past, it can show the way to the future, that the web is valuable just for being itself. May some of the old folk come back, and may Metafilter survive and prosper for decades to come, or even, dare I hope, longer. I think it's the best place on the internet.
posted by JHarris at 10:02 PM on July 14, 2023 [13 favorites]

We should have a bunch of parties on as many continents as possible next year, when we hit 25. And we should get some media attention. 25 years in internet time is a hundred thousand years. Think of all the websites/communities that have come and gone since 1999.
posted by vrakatar at 10:52 PM on July 14, 2023 [19 favorites]

Thank you one and all.

And Happy Birthday!
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:50 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Happy birthday Metafilter! Long may it continue! I've been a member of the site for 23 years, over half my life; I've learned so much from others here and I've hopefully shared some things that have helped others. Lately I've been spending a lot of time on Fanfare, which surely has to be one of the best and last remaining non-shitty places for film and TV discussions!
posted by adrianhon at 2:08 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

I stopped participating, but I still read it every single day, as I’ve done for about 21 years.

Happy birthday to y’all

🎉🎉🎉🎉
posted by growabrain at 3:21 AM on July 15, 2023 [14 favorites]

Happy birthday, my friends.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

MetaFilter made me the man I am today. You'll be hearing from my lawyer.
posted by briank at 6:35 AM on July 15, 2023 [28 favorites]

When everything feels like it's being burned to the ground, I come back to metafilter either for hope, information or distraction. Thanks to everyone for making this place what it is.
posted by Gorgik at 8:00 AM on July 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

We used to take pictures at Metafilter meetups. I was fortunate to attend two of them, the 8th anniversary meetup and the 19th anniversary meetup, both in Portland, Oregon USA. Check out the faces from the past!
posted by Lynsey at 8:35 AM on July 15, 2023 [12 favorites]

I lurked for years, too broke to afford the $5 and never on it at the right time to get in while memberships were open. This site has provided me with my window onto the internet, and a path to a LOT of personal growth. I don't know most of you, because I've never been fortunate enough to meet you in person, but I love all of you in a vast impersonal way.

Here's to 24 more years of one of the few sites on the internet not to have enshittified.
posted by ChrisR at 8:41 AM on July 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

Happy birthday Mefi!
posted by ellieBOA at 10:55 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

METAFILTER: away from corporate jerk control and looking towards the future with a glimpse of hope





... and everything else, too, of course.
posted by philip-random at 11:35 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've almost met some of you on two separate occasions. 25th anniversary though! That seems promising.
posted by Glinn at 11:54 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was a lurker until memberships opened up 19 (! Really?) years ago.
Thanks to every person who has made this one of my favorite places, virtual or otherwise.
posted by dbmcd at 12:55 PM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

I just got home from a two week vacation in Canada. While there, a Mefite (though to be fair, someone I knew before Metafilter) came to join us for a few days. On the ride up I stopped by to see a certain Mefite who lives in Vermont. Perhaps you know her.

A few weeks ago my niece got married and my autistic transgender 6'2" child was not able to shop for a dress for a number of reasons. I asked a Mefite I know who is a sewing wizard if she would make my daughter a dress on commission. My daughter, not really a clothes person, attended the wedding, confidently wearing her beautiful bespoke dress.

The last two times I've gone to NYC I've hung out with a dude I know from Metafilter. I hung out with another Mefite when I was in Indiana. I was in Pennsylvania a couple years ago and had two different meals with two different MeFites. I feel like no matter where I go there is a Mefite to have a meal with.

This place has had its ups and downs but I still believe in it. When the rest of the internet is getting swallowed up by the Suck Monster, Metafilter remains. Still the same. Still blue.
posted by bondcliff at 1:29 PM on July 15, 2023 [34 favorites]

I'm not sure when I started reading MetaFilter. I was already reading it, account-less, by 9/11; that much I do remember.

I've drifted away and back a few times but I can't deny that I think of myself as a member of this community. I am of this place! It has helped me form who I am, in all kinds of ways; it can't be underestimated. I wouldn't say I've made any close enduring friends here, but I know I'm a better person (low bar) thanks to y'all.

Happy birthday, MeFi!
posted by fleacircus at 2:07 PM on July 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

When I moved all the way across the country to a new state and city where I knew absolutely nobody, I met some great folks through the local IRL meetups that I never would have met otherwise some of whom ended up becoming my social circle and some of the best friends of my life. Without them I might still be a shut-in with no friends at all. I'm forever grateful to this site for introducing me to lots of amazing people, both local and online. And of course, for being my favorite place to think and laugh and make my own silly comments!
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:51 PM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

I met my only internet friend through Metafilter; we almost met up once but circumstances canceled that meeting. I'm older. I cannot fathom having a virtual friend, but here we are - I have joined the future where virtual friends are real friends.

How cool is that!!!!
posted by mightshould at 3:08 PM on July 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

Happy Anniversary, Metafilter!
posted by drezdn at 3:11 PM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Over 2+ decades I have been a member of this community, and it has always felt like a protected harbor that I could retreat to whenever the seas get stormy. Thus my engagement here has ebbed and flowed over the years. But every time I return I'm immediately reminded why I love this place and you people. No other online community has held my interest and affection for so long. And it really is because of the people here. I LOVE YOU GUYS! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
*sobs*
posted by JeffK at 3:30 PM on July 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

I often mention my "Internet friends" when I bring up a MetaFilter post as part of dinner table conversation, and no one in my family remarks on it anymore.

So thanks, Internet friends!
posted by wenestvedt at 4:33 PM on July 15, 2023 [16 favorites]

well, if one post can help or inform or lift the mood, it is well worth it.
who could argue with that.
posted by clavdivs at 5:44 PM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

d'oh!
posted by clavdivs at 5:45 PM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Kattullus, you really hit on something I hadn’t been able to articulate before: Two continents, three countries, several careers and through it all MetaFilter has been a constant in my life. Cheers, one and all.
posted by fruitslinger at 6:17 PM on July 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

So I haven't been around much - I've been busy being re-radicalized by the communists over at Mastodon. So glad that metafilter has its own instance going, it's been nice keeping up with the Mefites over there. Thanks Pronoiac! I hope I spelled that right.

If the prosperity index were measured in electric basses, this has been a good year at the ranch, despite long-term uncertainty. (Retire? Wha?) As I have added a Rickenbacker 4001 & 2 more Precisions to the stable just this year. I have somewhat lost count. On the emotional prosperity index, my daughter got married to another Lockheed engineer in April (I love weddings! I HATE FLORIDA!) and my granddaughter is now 5.5 years old and absolutely raising hell.

In tech news, I wrote an email using voice dictation on Friday. We're living in the future - ask me how I know.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:44 PM on July 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

I'm so happy you're all still here, newest members, longterm members, lurkers. Happy Birthday! I hope to celebrate the 25th in some terrific way with some terrific MeFites.
posted by theora55 at 7:24 PM on July 15, 2023 [12 favorites]

Metafilter has been a part of almost my whole adult life... I wanted to sum up how important this place is to me, but everyone above has put it so elegantly and evocatively! So, ditto.

metafilter, you're my glob
posted by Baethan at 8:18 PM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Besides all the warm fuzzies that I share with everybody, MeFi has helped me have a career as a web dev, and has also helped guide me in my still pretty dang new foray as a SFF author. A toast, my friends!
posted by signal at 9:01 PM on July 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

Devils Rancher: "As I have added a Rickenbacker 4001 & 2 more Precisions to the stable just this year."

I just added a Cort A5PLUS (five strings, neck through body, active, sweet!) in celebration of selling a SFF story that I worked a lot to get done. It was paid for with the proceeds of said story.
posted by signal at 9:37 PM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have learned so much about so many things indeed. That is probably the best way of summing up what this place means for me also, although it is hard to express just how much learning and how important it has been. I am so grateful. (Forgive me for being the one to inject a negative note, while that learning is ongoing, there is not as much as there was during peak posting, but it is getting better. May we survive and thrive and avoid the enshittification curse always.)
posted by blue shadows at 11:05 PM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

My account will be of legal drinking age in two weeks, which is nowhere near half my life and not quite a third. Thanks for all the fish!
posted by billsaysthis at 12:48 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

🍩🎂🥂
posted by rjs at 3:10 AM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: It’s a third space I carry with me wherever I am in the world
posted by chavenet at 3:31 AM on July 16, 2023 [6 favorites]

Happy birthday, home.

(hard agree on Mefi being the stable thing— I used to move every few years for work, now I just travel a bunch for work, but either way it’s nice having a constant that works even with a marginal internet connection)
posted by nat at 4:20 AM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

It seems inconceivable that I’ve been on MetaFilter for more than half its existence. How is that even possible?
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:37 AM on July 16, 2023 [5 favorites]

Damn. I just checked, and I missed the start of my fifteenth year here by a day. Glad to have this place around. It’s done me a world of good. To more and better for all.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:00 AM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

Gidorah, you joined one week before me. Throw a slice of cake in the freezer, wouldja?
posted by wenestvedt at 5:34 AM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

/through bulging cheeks smeared with blue and yellow frosting:

Cake? What cake? It was gone when I got here!
posted by Ghidorah at 5:54 AM on July 16, 2023 [8 favorites]

DAMMIT
posted by wenestvedt at 5:58 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

The cake is a lie. The cake is always a lie.
posted by Phanx at 6:29 AM on July 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

A MetaCalculation...

MetaFilter has been going for 24 years and 2 days, or around 210,432 hours. During that time there have been exactly 200,000 front page posts.

Which means, on average, there has been one front page post every 63 minutes.

Extrapolating this trend, the one millionth front page post will be on Monday 24th July 2119 (probably around afternoon tea time).
posted by Wordshore at 8:56 AM on July 16, 2023 [15 favorites]

Wenestvedt, try making a summer squash cake, Blue icing and yellow summer squash are thematic.
posted by theora55 at 10:29 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

For 19 years, this has been my internet home. I’ve been through three blogs, broken up with Flickr and Facebook and Twitter, picked up and dropped an unknown number of brief online obsessions but I keep coming back here. I always will. I’ve hung out with mefites here and so many wonderful times IRL, gotten drunk with mefites , suffered through hangovers with mefites, mourned, rejoiced and raised my voice. Metafilter suggested the place I live now to me; I met a fair number of my closest friends here. I really wouldn’t be me without y’all. And I pretty much like the Old Me I am becoming, so that means I pretty much like all of y’all!
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:16 PM on July 16, 2023 [22 favorites]

I love y'all. Happy birthday, Metafilter!
posted by hydropsyche at 4:01 PM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

I first heard of MetaFilter back when I used to read the SF Chronicle on the regular because a columnist I liked mentioned it. I've forgotten her name, and a websearch is turning up bupkis, but if the author of Live! Rude! Girl! is reading this, thanks for pointing me in the direction of this invaluable resource.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:28 PM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've been on MetaFilter long enough that now I've grown rings documenting different eras of my life and the ways MetaFilter did and didn't intersect with it. Gosh.

I can't count how many ways discovering MetaFilter in my late teens made me basically suck less, and for a few years I met a lot of new people via MeFi, and they were impossibly smart and cool and lovely in ways I hadn't ever really encountered before. (I feel like we all became Facebook friends, and then I stopped using Facebook, and then I moved cities—oops! But that is a life-ring I will forever be fond of.)

On another note, and I don't know how to say this without sounding more cynical/negative than I intend: years and years of reading and participating in MetaTalk discussions about community governance grew me such an understanding of how challenging community management is, and such an insanely thick skin to boot, that when I participate in other communities and their management kerfuffles I feel like I'm in the Matrix. Plenty of people have found ways to be mad at their communities, but MeFi brings a staggering virtuosity to the table; everywhere else feels simple by comparison.

I really do mean that more earnestly than it sounds. The discussions here over the years have been phenomenally eye-opening on so many different fronts.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 4:43 PM on July 16, 2023 [19 favorites]

I miss Miguel, stavros, quonsar. So, so many others also. I joined MeFi 7,693 days ago and, like many, I do drop in and out occasionally, but the people here have shaped my thinking to the extent that, even if I'm 'away from MetaFilter' for a time, I often think about what people here would say on all sorts of topics. In that way, people here continue to shape my thoughts even when I'm not here, which is kind of weird and slightly scary.

My life in the 21 years and change I've been on MeFi has been a bit of a roller coaster in some ways, but MeFi has been that one constant and, no matter how shitty life has been at times, I've always found solace here. Not to say that things are always rosy and happy here, but mostly people behave as people should and there's more respect for each other here than I see almost anywhere. [this is good]
posted by dg at 5:26 PM on July 16, 2023 [20 favorites]

MeFi has been one of the few constants in my life, and I really feel like it's helped me grow as a person. Might sound melodramatic, but it's true.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:28 PM on July 16, 2023 [11 favorites]

Metafilter: Might sound melodramatic, but it's true.

That's it, that's the tagline we were looking for.
Thanks folks, you can pack up and go home, now.
posted by signal at 6:21 PM on July 16, 2023 [7 favorites]

I'm grateful that Metafilter is here. I just checked and I've been here for over 16 years now (my anniversary was in April). I thank you all for your wisdom and kindness.
posted by apartment dweller at 6:37 PM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

My gratitude to Metafilter and the community here is immense.

I lurked a long time before becoming a member 16 years ago. I have learned so much about the US, pop culture and civics through this site. All things that made it easier for me to acclimatize to living in the US.

Thanks to the few Mefite IRL meetups I've attended, I have also met intriguing and exciting people on my travels on the east coast, and west coast.

Similar to what others have attested: Metafilter has made me a better, more understanding, person. For that I am immensely grateful. Thank you Mefites for being part of my life.
posted by Rabarberofficer at 7:28 PM on July 16, 2023 [6 favorites]

I just checked, too, and if I've done the maths right, for me it will be 17 years in less than a month. Still the first site I look at each day, and stays open in a tab until bed time.
posted by maxwelton at 3:04 AM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

Woo-hoo, MetaFilter!

My "opal" is Ask. I've repeatedly gotten specific and general advice that has made my life easier. I've learned things, gotten technical advice, and seen others doing the same. It's a net good for MeFites, but also the world, as new folks stumble across search results on their questions about whether or not to eat a plate of beans that's been in the fridge for six days.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:48 AM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

ILU MeFi. I started posting when I was a literal teenager (20 years ago), so you could say I've grown up with it. Thank you all for raising me to be a semi decent human... Who asks and doesn't guess.
posted by socky_puppy at 7:40 AM on July 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

I can (mostly) thank Jessamyn for my and turtlegirl's move to Vermont in 2005. She opened her home to us while we tried to decide if Vermont was for us (spoiler: It is); and has been a wonderful friend since including officiating our 20th anniversary vow renewals last year.
posted by terrapin at 8:20 AM on July 17, 2023 [11 favorites]

Despite being ancient - born in September of '68 - am still somehow here.

11 and a bit years active as a MeFite, and several years lurking before. Personally I've matched that only with Flickr and Twitter, the latter of which is useless apart from messaging the few friends still active on there. So guess my two constants this last few decades have been Flickr and MetaFilter.

I wax and wane on here for many reasons, but keep coming back to it, which says something. Moving into my 4th and (gulp!) final career, I'll probably keep doing same; it's an invaluable source of soft and hard information, useful personally, socially, politically and in undertaking research. Quietly reading some posts and AskMeFi responses, without commenting, has also led to avoiding making (seriously bad) choices or mistakes on several occasions (one of which would have been fatal and newspaper-front-page-worthy).

And despite never going to a meetup, I've now met 31 MeFites - some accidentally, 4 at a party in Birmingham, 2 while carrying out what's best described as an act of political sabotage, and several before I'd properly signed up here. A few appear to be friends for life.

MetaFilter: it's a pleasant and smart community to grow gracefully/disgracefully old in.
posted by Wordshore at 9:16 AM on July 17, 2023 [19 favorites]

I just realized that as of next week I'll have been here 15 years. I've stuck with very few things in my life for that long (apart from a few ratty and faded t-shirts).
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:57 AM on July 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've been here longer than I could manage to stay married. Cumulatively.
posted by JanetLand at 12:05 PM on July 17, 2023 [14 favorites]

I have been here over 16 years now as of last March and I can definitely say it has changed me for the better and helped me grow into a decent person. I was in college at the time and found Ask from some other website. I eventually found the Blue too and now I'm here every day. I lost my phone for a few days by leaving it in a cab and let me tell you not having Metafilter for those days was hard. What was I supposed to do while everyone else was busy or sleeping? They later found my phone and it was such a relief to have this site back. Love you all!
posted by downtohisturtles at 12:30 PM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

I've been here longer than I could manage to stay married. Cumulatively.

With you on that. And I don't know how to take the news that I'm more than a year more ancient than Wordshore, though as you get up there in years it comes as less and less surprising that you're older than everyone. Soon we'll be in a world when telling folks your birth year starts with a "1" will have them goggling at you like you're a coelacanth.
posted by maxwelton at 12:30 PM on July 17, 2023 [6 favorites]

maxwelton WHOA!!! hold on there. "more ancient than Wordshore" had me assuming he must be in his late 70s or something...but I am older than Wordshore too (by about 6 months) and I do not identify as ancient just yet!! we are only 55, we have years to go in which to enjoy the coming depredations of the climate crisis.
posted by supermedusa at 1:02 PM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

According to my own very questionable calculations, I have been here for 7,791 days as of today.

I have no idea of how long that is in dog days.
posted by y2karl at 4:14 PM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

to be fair neither do dogs
posted by cortex (retired) at 4:15 PM on July 17, 2023 [21 favorites]

In theory, every dog has at least one.
posted by y2karl at 5:03 PM on July 17, 2023 [12 favorites]

Despite being ancient - born in September of '68
Pfft, that's not ancient - it's barely even grown-up! I have seven years on you. Also not grown-up, but that's unrelated to age.
posted by dg at 7:34 PM on July 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

I am sad oneswellfoop isn't here.
posted by JHarris at 11:26 PM on July 17, 2023 [14 favorites]

I've been here almost 22 years and, like others, MeFi has been a comforting constant to me during two decades of great changes. When I joined in 2001, I was living in San Francisco and getting over a painful breakup. After two years of living together, she and I could just not make it work.

A few years later, after finding each other through blogs of all places, I met and started corresponding with a Portuguese girl. We started a trans-Atlantic relationship. She came to San Francisco. I flew to Lisbon.

It was during one of those Lisbon trips that I messaged Miguel and asked if he was up for a meetup. He responded positively and we set up something tentative. I asked Lucia if it was ok that I was using some of our time to go see some Internet guy named Miguel Cardoso. Her response was something like "Wait!! What?! You KNOW Miguel Cardoso!?" It turns out he was one of her favorite writers and she was just stunned that she might get to meet him in person.

Well, I never met up with Miguel. We had set a time and place but he had a last-minute change of plans. That's ok. My cross-oceanic relationship did work out and I was married in 2008. I've since learned Portuguese and even passed their citizenship exam. My spouse and I are living happily today here in Amsterdam.

Different part of the world. Lots of new friends and new experiences over these decades. But Metafilter is still here.
posted by vacapinta at 11:53 PM on July 18, 2023 [41 favorites]

Vacapinta, I love that story so much.
posted by theora55 at 7:46 AM on July 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

Eat it, corporate jerk control!
posted by ignignokt at 9:57 AM on July 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

Seeing people calculate how long they've been here made me curious myself.

June 27th 2008 was 15 years, 0 months and 21 days ago, which is 5,499 days.

Which works out to 758 out of my allotment of 4,000 weeks.

I'm glad I've spent them here with y'all.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:33 AM on July 19, 2023 [6 favorites]

Hey, for next year, can MetaFilter do another raffle for user number hundred thousand (if whoever won the last raffle accepts) and maybe two hundred thousand too?

As the self-proclaimed spokesbody for the triple-zero community, I’d really like to see some quintuple-zeros around.
posted by Kattullus at 2:14 PM on July 19, 2023 [6 favorites]

We also should make 25th merch. Fundraise the blue blazes out of this upcoming 25th.

I've got at least a half dozen wacky, groovy MeFi tales. but this is probably the best one.
posted by vrakatar at 9:23 PM on July 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

Cool story! I don't recall that thread - it must have been during one of my MeFi sabbaticals.

Also tried to picture myself in a MeFi blue blazer just for a minute there.
posted by dg at 11:08 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I joined on June 21, 2013, so happy belated tenth anniversary to me! This place is great, I love it, all the things everyone else said except I was late to the party when I got here and yet it still helped make me a better person. Thanks to everyone who supports this place in whatever way or ways they can. I appreciate you and MetaFilter very much.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:40 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

Have been reading the site since ‘99 but didn’t actually join until ‘04 because the Powers that Be closed signups just before I decided to create an account. One of the infamous flood of newbs who joined in the brief screwup that was supposed to allow a handful of new accounts but actually let in a whole bunch before mathowie et al fixed the bug.

Realizing today that I got married a little less than a year prior to the launch of MeFi, and here I am about to celebrate my 25th anniversary. Man. I’ve been reading this site a long time, one would think I’d have more posts by now?
posted by caution live frogs at 6:43 AM on July 22, 2023 [6 favorites]

Also tried to picture myself in a MeFi blue blazer just for a minute there.

In the early 90s I was a volunteer at LAX with Travelers Aid where I mostly worked in an information booth at Terminal 2. We had to wear these bright red blazers but now I'm imagining myself answering all those questions in AskMe green.
posted by Rash at 12:03 PM on July 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

vrakatar: “Fundraise the blue blazes out of this upcoming 25th”

For the record, they would be expensive — like, maybe 3 bills for the site to get a piece of the action — but custom blazers are an option. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation and psychic damage talking, but I've never wanted something more since I found the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce coffee mugs one time.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:33 PM on July 22, 2023

I hired someone I found via MeFi jobs to redo my business and personal websites, and my sites are so much better now.

When I go to in-person events in various settings and industries and so on, sometimes someone knows, or notices, or puts together, that my nickname is "brainwane." And multiple times in the past few months, an acquaintance or stranger has specifically thanked me for my front page posts on MetaFilter, in particular the short scifi/fantasy story recommendation posts that I did so many of a few years ago. I'm so glad that this little intermittent hobby of mine brought solace, welcome distraction, discovery, and pleasure to so many people.
posted by brainwane at 8:57 PM on July 22, 2023 [10 favorites]

This partly inspired me to finally join after maybe first coming across this place in 2008ish, I've been lurking and reading ever since. I've found a great deal of information on how to deal with anxiety, relationships etc and that along with other stuff has got me where I can now today, 40-years-old, say I am in a way better place in my life than I was 10–15 years ago. So thank you, looking forward to contributing in addition to reading every day.
posted by fridgebuzz at 5:16 AM on July 24, 2023 [8 favorites]

wow. Amazing. but I'm kinda sad that Mathowie #1 didn't pop in. How are you Mathowie?
posted by bluesky43 at 3:22 PM on July 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Don’t blame him, we voted #1 quidnunc kid.
posted by Kattullus at 5:31 PM on July 24, 2023 [9 favorites]

Been reading since 2001 or so. Tried to join a few times but missed the window, it was not trivial to send 5 USD to Portland from a town in Mexico back then.

I have BND’d a few times, had a digital stalker issue for a while, can’t remember when I first joined, must have been around 2006.

At this point I get mixed up, may have told the same stories on different accounts. In my “open in case the inevitable could not be evited any longer” sealed envelope I have my will, passwords, notes to some important people, and my mefi usernames for my daughter to read any stories I have not told her yet.

I miss many of the old timers, but am very happy to see new usernames and recognize old ones. Even if they are not reciprocal, just reading familiar voices and learning about their lives and minds makes me feel comforted. I also value very highly that this place works in such a way that one can disappear for days or years and no explanations are required when one pops back in.

I a bit of synchronicity I drove by Magdalena, Jalisco, a few days ago and decided that next time I travel that route I will plan for a stop to visit the opal mines there. If the prices are right I will add an opal to my minerals collection, it will be linked to mefi in my mind.

Let’s do another 24 years.
posted by Dr. Curare at 7:30 PM on July 24, 2023 [12 favorites]