A regular depository of "Best of the Web" sites

January 4, 2005 2:24 PM

PonyIdeaFilter: A regular depository of "Best of the Web" sites, as inspired by this question in AskMe. [+]
posted by Doohickie to Feature Requests at 2:24 PM (10 comments total)

My initial question which I almost posted to that thread was, "Would it be a good idea for someone to fashion them into a FPP and post it to the blue?" (I realize many of them would be repeats, but it would be Best of the Web, wouldn't it?) Maybe this could be a regular feature, where once a month, an FPP is started that is Best of the Web for a given subject (humor, images, etc.) that is posted annually to alert people of updates and solicit further Best of the Web contributions? The way I envision it, on the least busy day of the MeFi month (say, the first Monday or whatever), Matt posts an FPP to "MeFi's Best of the Web: Web Humor" and simply starts a page of nothing but humor sites on the web, with at most a one-line description of each. On preview, that doesn't seem clear. I think I mean this: An annual FPP thread in the blue, and a separate page where the only the links (and perhaps short descriptions) reside that is linked from the FPP. Also, the "Best of" pages could be linked via a sidebar for easy access.

The next month, it may be "Images", then "FreeWare", "Consumer Info", etc., for a total of 12 (1 per month). There could be tie-ins to seasonal stuff (make the Christmas-related stuff in December, for instance).

It could serve as a more interesting and readable alternative to the search function when one wanted to make an FPP regarding that general subject, to prevent things like multiple posts about vibrating brooms and stuff.
posted by Doohickie at 2:25 PM on January 4, 2005

If people here figure out how to decide and collect the 'Best of the Web' posts, I'll host it initially (if Matt's not interested).
posted by Gyan at 2:58 PM on January 4, 2005

Why not pick a category you're interested in, aggregate the posts in the MetaFilter archives that are the best of that category, and write a page in the wiki about it?
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:10 PM on January 4, 2005

I know y6y6y6 maintains(ed?) a self-selected collection of the best posts although they weren't organized by topic.

m_b: It'd be a lot of drudge work to look through the archives to sort relevant posts and furthermore decide if they're worthy of inclusion. Search probably won't be too effective as posters occasionally tend to obfuscate the content. Recently I've taken to bookmarking the music recommendation threads posted in AskMe, and the search doesn't turn up a few threads.

OTOH, an archive of best posts by category is much more feasible if the start date is set as Jan 1, 2005.
posted by Gyan at 6:03 PM on January 4, 2005

Any second now, someone will come along and say "just use delicious." I have no idea what the point of delicious is, since if I wanted to post a bunch of links I would stick them in a document on a web server and be done with it, but I'm sure someone is going to suggest it anyway. They always do.
posted by majick at 6:43 PM on January 4, 2005

Well, you just did.
posted by Gyan at 7:08 PM on January 4, 2005

And Del.icio.us enters the mainstream today with an article in this week's issue of Newsweek ...

The Web: A Tasty Way to Share
"Del.icio.us, a 'social bookmarks manager'will not only enable you to store your hard-won set of key links on its server—making it available to you on any computer—but enables you to share them with the world."
posted by ericb at 8:24 PM on January 4, 2005

Thanks for the input. I was thinking if it resonated with others, it might be a decent pony to add when Matt rolls out the redesigned MeFi. To be honest, I am not as familiar as I should be with either Wiki or Del.icio.us. Sad but true.
posted by Doohickie at 9:43 PM on January 4, 2005

People could always put em on del.icio.us - and put an agreed tag onto the links....for instance...del.icio.us is remarkably easy to use (even in IE)...
posted by mattr at 2:19 AM on January 5, 2005

I don't really see how this is different than the basic goal of the site. Except that doing it once a month would just generate a bunch of lists that would be incomplete and full of dupes. The site itself is a repository of best of the web. I think we all want to have categories here, to make it easier to browse, but monthly hoe-downs don't sound terribly useful.

You may have a decent idea for a website of your own, though. Something like Daypop, maybe, but on a monthly scale, not daily?
posted by scarabic at 9:53 AM on January 5, 2005