What have been your best and worst links posted?

July 29, 2004 7:46 AM

A what-makes-a-good-post question I'd like to see other MetaFilter dinosaurs answer along with me: What are the best and worst links you ever inflicted on the front page?
posted by rcade to MetaFilter-Related at 7:46 AM (66 comments total)

I'd like to see other MetaFilter dinosaurs answer along with me:

*lets Fred Flintstone slide down his neck*

but I think this is my best and this is my worst.
posted by jonmc at 7:59 AM on July 29, 2004

When I jumped the time-zone gun and posted too quickly the results of a particular television phenomenon, I feared for my MeFi life.

On the other hand, this thread makes me very, very proud indeed.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:59 AM on July 29, 2004

I honestly don't think I have any truly awful posts, but a few I'd probably take back include Howard Dean asking supporters about matching fund, Bill Frist's office doctoring an internet poll; and maybe Condi Rice testifying before the 9-11 commission (although I at least tried to spin that one towards some interesting discussion). These are all basically political newsfilter, and although the first two were marginally internet related, they still weren't really that interesting.

The ones I really liked were government statistics (although a lot of people hated me for that one); economists in hell and the monty hall problem; papercraft; Earth Scientist's periodic table; and Diebold problems in the California recount. Mostly I like cool sources of new information. That last one about Diebold is a political news post, but it was an important one that wasn't getting any mainstream play, and unfortunately, never really did.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:06 AM on July 29, 2004

Ask yourself, how would I have responded to this if Miguel had posted it?

anyway, I "post it and forget it." I honestly don't recall most of my posts and am not interested in looking them up.
posted by konolia at 8:09 AM on July 29, 2004

Which of those was the best?
posted by hama7 at 8:15 AM on July 29, 2004

Ask yourself, how would I have responded to this if Miguel had posted it?

Ask me that question after I post 30 more of these questions on the next 30 days.
posted by rcade at 8:26 AM on July 29, 2004

Ever? That would take to long to sort out. How about recent posts: I think this was my last good one and this was my last bad one.
posted by homunculus at 8:44 AM on July 29, 2004

Ask yourself, how would I have responded to this if Miguel had posted it?

Ask me that question after I post 30 more of these questions on the next 30 days.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...
posted by konolia at 8:50 AM on July 29, 2004

...and so does walking to the bathroom to take a piss. Your point?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:51 AM on July 29, 2004

Good:
I enjoyed posting this last one because I hoped a lot of people would benefit from it.

Bad:
I regret posting this one because it was apparently a doublepost, but also because it inspired one of the more (and alas one of the many) misguided & boneheaded RacistFilter discussions here.
posted by dhoyt at 8:53 AM on July 29, 2004

I actually like most of the stuff I post when I post it--else why would I be moved to share with the group?--but in retrospect I'm a little embarrassed I let the world know how much of a giggly boy Ben Curtis turned me into.
posted by WolfDaddy at 9:01 AM on July 29, 2004

My worst was my first: a geeky newsfilter double post on a SciFi remake which turned out to be not so good. My best is everything else I've ever posted.
posted by brownpau at 9:07 AM on July 29, 2004

I'm still very pleased with all of my (very small number of) posts. This one is still my favorite (though I'm unreasonably proud of my Iron Chef reference). This one probably didn't need to be posted, but I still like it.
posted by gleuschk at 9:21 AM on July 29, 2004

Also, I'm shocked to learn that it's been over 2 years since my last post to the front page. Huh. Didn't miss it.
posted by gleuschk at 9:22 AM on July 29, 2004

...and so does walking to the bathroom to take a piss. Your point?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:51 AM PST on July 29

You, sir, are a fuckwad.
posted by the fire you left me at 9:34 AM on July 29, 2004

I'd have to say that my first was the worst and that my last was the best, though this would be a close second.
posted by MrAnonymous at 9:50 AM on July 29, 2004

Are we voting? Will there be prizes?
posted by milovoo at 9:50 AM on July 29, 2004

From the 139 I've posted so far, I have a few good ones and tonnes of bad ones, hard to choose but here are my best and my worst contributions.
posted by riffola at 9:50 AM on July 29, 2004

Worst. Best. Had a couple deleted. due to re-postage. Haven't we all.
posted by yoga at 9:50 AM on July 29, 2004

I love all my posts equally. In fact, for me, this page is pretty much the best of the Internet.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:54 AM on July 29, 2004

My first, and absolute worst.

I don't think I have a best, although I still kinda like my Sally Cruikshank one, if only because I was surprised she had never been linked before.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:55 AM on July 29, 2004

You, sir, are a fuckwad.

No, you don't get it: he's smarter than everyone who ever looked into Zen Buddhism or Eastern religion or any of that hokey crap that's no match for a good blaster.

I have no good posts, but I can top you all on the bad posts. Mentioning it was the New Year (EST) for no good reason (and about a case of bad reasons) tops any of your weak shit. I would point out I wasn't home alone, as suggested in said post's comments.
posted by yerfatma at 10:06 AM on July 29, 2004

I don't qualify as a dinosaur, but I think this is my best post to date. Why? Because madamjujujive double posted it later on! And that is a sure fire way to gauge that the link must've been great! :)
posted by soundofsuburbia at 10:17 AM on July 29, 2004

My best one was deleted.
posted by bondcliff at 10:21 AM on July 29, 2004

Huh, it sounds like I'm accusing madamjujujive for blatantly stealing my post. I'm not, you know.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 10:24 AM on July 29, 2004

This was easily my worst, and there are 2 or 3 more stinkers in the list. Of the rest, a few are near to my heart: my first, gywo, Amy Goodman's Clinton interview, and how men can fight sexism.
posted by sudama at 10:25 AM on July 29, 2004

I think this is your best post, Wolfdaddy. I don't know why, but I love it, and it's the one I usually mention when I tell people about MetaFilter.
posted by iconomy at 10:31 AM on July 29, 2004

As for RacistFilter, no one was able to address the charge of colonialist humiliation fetishism at all. I'd say Mkultra won that round.
posted by sudama at 10:35 AM on July 29, 2004

oooohhh, rough. Roger Ebert and the validity of the Oscars in wartime.

I really liked this post, on teenage agnst poety, and remember being really dissapointed that it didn't get the attention I thought it so rightly deserved.
posted by Quartermass at 10:35 AM on July 29, 2004

oooohhh, rough. Roger Ebert and the validity of the Oscars in wartime.

I really liked this post, on teenage angst poety, and remember being really dissapointed that it didn't get the attention I thought it so rightly deserved.
posted by Quartermass at 10:36 AM on July 29, 2004

see what I did there? Misspelled angst. Sorry for "shitting" all over the grey.
posted by Quartermass at 10:37 AM on July 29, 2004

I've been a member since April 11, 2000 and I think I still like most if not all of my 49 posts. YMMV.
posted by Lynsey at 10:42 AM on July 29, 2004

I don't know about 'best' and 'worst' -- this post is a wretched newbie mistake (oh so many things wrong) that I learned a great deal from and this post was lots of fun to write (and I love the comments in the thread).

This post, however, is my favorite link that I've posted thus far.
posted by anastasiav at 10:45 AM on July 29, 2004

As for the best reaction, I think more people dug the post about Samorost -- the little flash puzzle game.

I think the worst may have been the one where I made a comparison to the number of people who died in auto wrecks in a year with the number of people who died of smoking cigarettes, to the number of people who died in 9/11, and was roundly trounced for trying to minimize the terrorist tragedy too close to the actual event for people to be rational about it. Now, almost 3 years later, I'd bet people are even less rational about it than they were then.
posted by crunchland at 10:45 AM on July 29, 2004

no one was able to address the charge of colonialist humiliation fetishism at all. I'd say Mkultra won that round.

No one addressed the "colonialist humiliation fetishism" (giggle) because none existed in relation to the topic at hand. Kinda pitiful you'd think people emerge as "winners" or "losers" after a conversation like that anyway. Feel free to email me before derailing this thread further.
posted by dhoyt at 11:11 AM on July 29, 2004

no one was able to address the charge of colonialist humiliation fetishism at all.


I'll address it. Part of equality is that when one is caught doing something stupid or wrong, one is subject to the same ridicule as anyone else caught in that position. To do otherwise is to place "minorities" in moral diapers and one's self in a paternalistic position, which is racist in and of itself.

Besides that phrase is the type of half-baked pseudo-Freudian claptrap that gives leftism a bad name.
posted by jonmc at 11:17 AM on July 29, 2004

And while it's maybe not the best post ever, whenever I think about why I like MetaFilter, Vacapinta's Harry Stephen Keeler post jumps to mind. I was exposed to something amazing that I previously had no knowledge of.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 11:22 AM on July 29, 2004

I still get a lump in my throat when I think about the link I posted to Paul Battaglia's Web site, proudly showing off his World Trade Center office and view. I got the nicest note from his stepdad thanking me for sharing it.

But then I posted a cool Christmas deal from Scandinavian Airlines that I still think was relevant and cool (they had a monthly online advent calendar, a deal each day, and then opened up all the deals for one day). But I got dogged for it being too advertisement like.
posted by GaelFC at 12:47 PM on July 29, 2004

In four years, I've posted... er.... seven links to the front page, and the last was over three years ago. Hmmm.

The best of those seven was also the least appropriate for Metafilter - big earthquake hits downtown Seattle; not only was it a news post, but it was just text with no link. I couldn't find a link, because nobody else had reported it yet. It was pretty damn cool to scoop the entire global news media, and if it happened again I'd probably succumb to the same urge, but it really had nothing to do "the best and most interesting of the web".
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:27 PM on July 29, 2004

While this thread is sheer wankery (and I shudder at rcade's idea to "post 30 more of these questions on the next 30 days" -- didn't Stan Chin once do something like that?), I'd like to take the opportunity to agree with bondcliff about his deleted thread. I miss it, and if anyone has a copy of it, I'd love a link. That is all.
posted by languagehat at 1:45 PM on July 29, 2004

Now, almost 3 years later, I'd bet people are even less rational about it than they were then.

So, your worst post was the one where everyone else was irrational and couldn't understand the point you were making? Humble, crunchie.
posted by jonson at 2:14 PM on July 29, 2004

If you got any denser you'd be a black hole, languagehat. I'm not intending to ask any more questions like this.

I asked this one because it seemed like a good way to solicit some examples of good and bad MetaFilter posts. Normally, we only do that in the course of beating the shit out of some poor bastard who sinned against the front page, and that process isn't always as constructive as it could be.
posted by rcade at 2:46 PM on July 29, 2004

More like my worst post was where I was blatantly out of touch and non-empathetic. I'm sure you've been in my shoes, Jonson.
posted by crunchland at 2:57 PM on July 29, 2004

I'm still embarrassed about my first post. Somehow I didn't know that there was such a thing as a community (and a small one, at that time) of webloggers, and that Lance from Glassdog was one of them, and had this oddly proprietary feeling towards him and his site that I (without thinking to deeply about it) assumed most people had only just barely heard of, it at all.

What a doofus.

I've decided to start making up for it by posting to the front page any real goodies I find, on a regular basis, after being lax indeed in that department, yea, since unto the Olden Times.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:35 PM on July 29, 2004

my personal fav was when i posted pictures of matt molesting goats at a petting zoo while frightened children watched (he deleted it before most of you saw it, unfortunately) and my least favorite was when i killed that hiker and then posted proof here while high on a variety of substances. thankfully he also deleted that one, thinking it a troll. good ol' matt. an accessory after the fact.
posted by bargle at 3:52 PM on July 29, 2004

bargle, that was you? A mirror of that site is now my home page here at work! Thanks!

I've only posted 6 FPPs in my 38 years here, and this one is a good reason why I don't do more.

You're welcome.
posted by chicobangs at 4:02 PM on July 29, 2004

someone else decide for me--i love all my posts. : >
posted by amberglow at 4:13 PM on July 29, 2004

Good. Good. Good. Bad. Bad. Bad.
posted by PrinceValium at 4:31 PM on July 29, 2004

This post inquiring about how people wipe their ass, is both my best and worst post.
posted by y6y6y6 at 4:58 PM on July 29, 2004

Jeez, rcade -- touchy, touchy! I didn't seriously think you were planning to do that. But you should be honored to be compared to Stan Chin. Here, to make it up to you I'll join the wankfest. Best (probably the most actual good I'll ever do in this world); worst (my first double!). Looks like I'm going downhill.
posted by languagehat at 5:11 PM on July 29, 2004

Okay, I posted five links in the first year I joined (2000) and they were all horrible. I've since realized where my talents do not lie, and have remained a lurker on the front page.
posted by Zosia Blue at 5:21 PM on July 29, 2004

Thanks, iconomy, that's a very nice compliment.

I still can't fold fitted sheets worth a damn.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:06 PM on July 29, 2004

Worst (dead for a good reason. It stunk.)

Best (well, my favorite, anyway)
posted by ColdChef at 7:24 PM on July 29, 2004

The british toilet association wasn't my best but it made me laugh.

I'm particularly fond of my links to the worlds worst poet and the spiritual exercises.
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:28 PM on July 29, 2004

Yeah, it was probably a tad harsh, languagehat. But thanks for the wank!
posted by rcade at 9:32 PM on July 29, 2004

My first post (about smokejumpers) was my best, I think. But I really like all of them.
posted by weston at 1:38 AM on July 30, 2004

My worst post was worsened by the fact that I (think I) didn't actually post it.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:52 AM on July 30, 2004

I'm realtively proud of this one, posted on the day the Supreme Court agreed to hear Lawrence v. Texas, which (as we now know) ultimately led to a finding that state sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

I thought this was a good catch of an unfortunately named .htm page (which the FBI quickly changed), but was the kind of NewsOfTodayFilter I probably wouldn't post now.
posted by pardonyou? at 6:24 AM on July 30, 2004

My 6 posts have attracted a grand total of 45 comments (of which 7 are mine). There's the first, worst, most commented, most ignored, and best. And considering the quality of posts I've started, it's probably a good thing I've done so few.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 7:59 AM on July 30, 2004

My worst was my first, but I've had a lot of bad posts. Sometimes though, there are things I would like someone to post about (for example "The Glass Bead Game") but don't think I can do the subject justice.
posted by drezdn at 9:27 AM on July 30, 2004

My one, only, regret - being the first person to post the 'So, this broom, it *vibrates*' link.

My FPP's tend to be train wrecks, so I stick to commenting and lurking.
posted by metaxa at 2:05 PM on July 30, 2004

Though some of my (few) posts generated some great discussions, as posts themselves, they were all pretty crappy.
posted by Skot at 2:22 PM on July 30, 2004

My favorite post would have to be the one which earned me, and several others, a trip to MetaTalk.
posted by euphorb at 11:48 AM on July 31, 2004

rcade: this thread is great fun. neat to see all this good old stuff in one place. i hope more people contribute.
posted by louigi at 10:38 PM on July 31, 2004

Looking back, it seems that most of my posts have been utter shite. Sorry.

However: Best, Worst, and Favorite.
posted by swift at 10:38 AM on August 1, 2004

The page of circa WWI color pictures from Russia remains my favorite ever link found on the Blue, but alas, I didn't do it. (jwells).


My own links, with a couple of exceptions, have been pretty poor choices, which is a reason I forebear from linking much.
posted by norm at 10:07 AM on August 2, 2004