AskMetafilter is awesome at identifying things.

June 5, 2005 6:39 PM

The "ID this [blank]" results at Ask MetaFilter are pretty amazing.
posted by jca to MetaFilter-Related at 6:39 PM (22 comments total)

My ID this movie request was answered with nothing more than a single scene description from a fleeting memory of an obscure film from decades ago. I was surprised they got it.

I haven't tracked all the "ID this [blank]" (movies, music, etc.) questions in AskMefi -- is there a high success rate for these type of request on the green? Are there other sites that cover IDing movies in this way? I already know that they have sites covering music ID requests. ;) [no self-linking]
posted by jca at 6:40 PM on June 5, 2005

(The [no self-linking] in my post was pointed at myself and our music site, not for the rest of you.)
posted by jca at 6:42 PM on June 5, 2005

it's okay to self-link in comments.
posted by jessamyn at 6:52 PM on June 5, 2005

This one is my favourite.
posted by dhruva at 7:44 PM on June 5, 2005

odinsdream's elevator music thread has to be the best ever. "Can you hum a few bars? In text?"
posted by Galvatron at 8:04 PM on June 5, 2005

AskMe does an amazing job at this sort of thing. It has identified a couple of books for me, one is especial that I had been looking for for 18 years and had despaired of every finding. One other time I was trying to identify a poem for a friend. It began with the words, "God is dead. We have burned him in the ovens of Auschwitz." I still don't know the name or poet, but one of the people who was working on it was a librarian for the National Museum of the Holocaust in Washington, D.C. This is the illustration I most often use when I'm trying to describe the wonders of AskMe to a non-Mefite.
posted by orange swan at 8:14 PM on June 5, 2005

They aren't all of them successes, however.
posted by cortex at 9:00 PM on June 5, 2005

It makes a pretty powerful demonstration of the value of transparency and the virtues of democracy. When everybody gets their say, enormous blunders are harder to make and solutions are easy to find.
posted by warbaby at 10:12 PM on June 5, 2005

I'm pretty sure this one wins.
posted by rfordh at 10:59 PM on June 5, 2005

Transparency is the new synergy. I'm sure we'll discover it can cure cancer and turn water into wine next week. Nothing personal, warbaby. I just get very very weary of the cure-all buzzword of the week.
posted by cali at 11:21 PM on June 5, 2005

It is truly awesome.

Actually, warbaby, I thought it was a demonstration of how the Hive Mind will supplant democracy and overcome everything in its path until even the path itself is nothing more than a memory being forgotten by one part of the mind while another part venerates it.
posted by OmieWise at 5:59 AM on June 6, 2005

rfordh writes "I'm pretty sure this one wins."

Indeed!
posted by OmieWise at 6:01 AM on June 6, 2005

doot-doot-doodle-oodle oot doot do do
posted by grateful at 6:34 AM on June 6, 2005

cortex writes "They aren't all of them successes, however"
Nope. I should repost my question, maybe some of the new blood will have an answer.
posted by Mitheral at 8:36 AM on June 6, 2005

toot
posted by Rumple at 1:15 PM on June 7, 2005

I wonder when this will be closed.
posted by kenko at 5:52 PM on July 5, 2005

Not yet!
posted by kenko at 6:38 PM on July 5, 2005

Maybe in a minute.
posted by kenko at 6:38 PM on July 5, 2005

You can't stop me mathowie!
posted by kenko at 6:38 PM on July 5, 2005

This is remarkably immature.
posted by kenko at 6:38 PM on July 5, 2005

Plus if it's not closed at 8:39 it'll seem pretty stupid too. Or rather, more stupid.
posted by kenko at 6:39 PM on July 5, 2005

Ah, well.
posted by kenko at 6:39 PM on July 5, 2005