March 17, 2004

Curious George Metafilter's charter is to present the 'best of the web'. Monkeyfilter seemingly follows that as well. Maybe, we could expand that a bit.

I'm suggesting that we incorporate a new feature (like Curious George). Initially, once a week, a thread is started where monkeys can recommend (and discuss) to the community interesting and entertaining offline resources like a movie, a book, a magazine or a music album or anything else accessible. Something like a 'book and movie and music and reading club'. Furthermore, if it works out, we can start a monkeyswap network. What say you?

posted by Gyan 20 years ago
  • A monkeyswap network sounds good to me.
  • Sounds okay to me. There's a good swapping/friendster-type network at Mediachest. There's a MoFi group already set up. We could do it here or there -- maybe there would be better, I don't know.
  • That makes me cry: name: tracicle friends: 0
  • I like the idea. We're so centered on the internet that it would really be interesting to discuss some offline things. I especially like it if it's as more of a book or music club then an exchange. I don't think that an exchange network would foster the sense of community discussion that a straight up club would where everyone would be reading/watching/listening to the same thing at the same time. That's just my thoughts though, I have no idea how things would be picked and/or organized or anything.
  • Gyan, it's an interesting thought, certainly, but have you any idea what postage rates or air frieght rates are between countries where monkeys seem to live? Anyway, it's something that gives me pause. I guess I'm asking -- is this practical for a group that's fairly interenational?
  • Oh, for pity's sake -- ..."international", dammit.
  • The swap thing is a separate thing from the offline-stuff discuss club.
  • Swap? What the hell kind of club is this? Whatever, count me in.
  • MonkeyFileter: Fairely interenational.
  • The offline-stuff discussion group sounds very attractive. So when do we start, and would we use the MoFi at Mediachest?
  • Swapping DVDs in an international arena would get rather screwy because of regional encoding. I like the movie/book club idea though. Mediachest looks sweet but it wigged out when I tried to sign up. I think it would be fun to have a something called the Soapbox or Banana Crate or whatever, where once a week a lucky monkey gets to bestow their simian wisdom upon us on a topic close to her or his heart. MonkeyFilleter: Get Your Bush Meat Here.
  • I'm in. Same questions as beeswacky.
  • I don't know whether we want to use the mediachest thing. It seems more like a way to see what other Monkeys own than getting recommendations, so really a separate entity. I'm nosey and always looking for good ideas, so that's why I opened a mediachest account. I've just finished cataloguing a decent chunk of my media into it, and I personally would be interested in seeing what other people have. dng, I have one friend now!
  • MonkeyFilleter...Get Your Bush Meat Here No no no, not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin! Lovely puns, sciurus -- fo it again!
  • *sigh* ..."do" for fo.
  • I gots your bushmeat right here. [grabs crotch, flees rotten tomatos]
  • Oh, I didn't understand the the swap and offline discussion were being proposed as two seperate ideas when I made my previous comments. I really like the idea of having an book/music club or whatever. Maybe we could use some Project Gutenbeg texts, so we don't pull a Oprah and make publishers millions........ (yeah I know most people have read a lot of the 'classic' books there, or would be too bored to even bother, just a thought) I think that Mediachest could be integrated into a larger discussion of offline media. Maybe as being part of a profile link/option or something? Like tracicle,I would be curious to see what everyone else has, to give me an idea or two - not really for trading, but more for just curosity. I have no idea how the site works, but would it be possible to graph/chart favourites of the Mofi community? So we could have a page of the Top Dvds, Books etc.??? As interesting as seeing what people have seperately, it would be interesting to see the trends overall.
  • (Not worth its own thread, but, speaking of online communities, I think I found, while googling for something else, the bottom of the barrel.)
  • For those into being able to play DVDs from any region: Keep your eyes peeled on Ebay for cracked DVD players. I have an Apex AD-1500 which has had the chip futzed with to allow it to play copy protected DVDs. I actually have a good excuse for this as I cut performance reels for actors here in LA and could not use consumer level DVDs as source material for their reels without it, but if any monkeys out there want to take advantage of a similar player to watch movies from around the world, I say go for it!
  • I bought a region-free one. It was about $US60 new, and it works like a charm.
  • Excellent idea (Thanks Gyan). Bananas all the way around. Anxious for the discussions and Monkey-swap-meet!
  • Perhaps music trading? See, I'm a bit of a music buff... Is this "offline" something you'd have to have a "life" to know about?
  • Is this "Project Gutenberg" suggestion anything to do with reading a "book" on screen? *runs screaming*
  • Most DVD players can be switched to region-free. I also had an Apex in the US and a quick google search showed me what combination of buttons would bring up a hidden region menu. (I also have a small collection of genuine Hong Kong side-of-the-road VCDs complete with Mandarin subtitles and audience walking around in front of the screen.) Wolof, I have that same thing with reading anything longer than a screen-length. Pity, because I have a really fascinating 15-page .pdf to get through. You should (never) try reading an eBook on a PDA. Argh. Anyway, we could do some sort of regular Book Club cheesy thing, whereby if a user wants to recommend something they could link to available sources of said book (or movie or CD) on mediachest.
  • Sounds like a good idea to me. I am, as they often say in the movies during a hacking moment, in. But if we were to do a book discussion type thing for example (which I would be v. interested in), and assuming that anyone interested was willing to purchase the book with their own moolah, how would we decide which book to read? Leadership, anyone?
  • I was just thinking of Project Gutenberg for the simple fact that I didn't know if everyone would want to schill out large amounts for newly released books. I know that many of the classic books on there can just as easily be picked up for 4 or 5 bucks at the local bookstore if you wanted to get a paper version of the same thing that you could download for free. I agree though, if we're going to do some leadership to make some choices. Maybe someone could propose a list of 5-7 books and then everyone who wanted to particpate could vote on these titles? I just think it would be pure chaos if we have completely open suggestions.
  • Most of us will probably have access to public libraries. I know my local county library has 2,000+ DVDs, tons of albums and of course, lots of fiction/non-fiction books. I would assume this is true, elsewhere in the US and the West. So, no need to pay anything. Maybe, my "book club" analogy was wrong. I wasn't looking for a consensus-chosen book to be read or movie to be seen every week. More like this: Poster1: Hey, I read the DaVinci code last week, Great book, ...... Poster2: There's this wonderful, but obscure movie by ...... and so on.. The users are free to pick what they want to read or see or listen, from within each thread. If you want a consensus-thing that's fine too...
  • Libraries yes.. I just know that the libraries here are grossly underfunded and I will have to kick, beg, and scream with the other patrons who want the same book as me if it's anything near recent. That's why I end up buying all the books that I *really* want to read. I guess the I like the idea of a suggestion list. But maybe it should be limited to one topic. Like talk about obscure movies this week, books next or something? I just see the discussion losing a lot of its value if it's all over the place.
  • Ok, that's a decent constraint. This week, let's make it light fiction books. Someone think up a good 2,3 word title.
  • Yes Yes Yes! I say. Books! Music! Movies! Sharing! I like the idea of a suggestion list as well. A suggestion for the suggestion list: perhaps each week the topic is somewhat narrowly defined, such as "A Book That Changed My Life," "A Book That Made Me Laugh So Hard Milk Came Out My Nose," "A Bad Movie That I Love," "Best Music For Wandering Around The City At Night," "Favorite Music For Night Driving,"... etc.? I'm also completely, totally, unreservedly into doing a music swap like those MeFites do. I'd even be willing to organize such a thing, with a little help (help = figuring out what would need to be done to make it happen).
  • certainsome1: I think that's a great idea! A theme would help narrow things down, and still allow everyone to throw in stuff they like. Should we have different terms for music, books and movies? Eg., Soul Music for music posts, Moving Pictures for movies, and Ook for books :) It's usually not this easy to see that I'm a Pratchett obssessive.
  • i think this is a good idea. so long as we can stop ourselves from turning it into "i recommend this book because i read it, which makes me better than you and of course also a book snob. it's a classic novel, and it sucks but was painful enough for me to read that i now inflict it upon you. and if you don't finish it i'm still better than you." but "this is a tough book, it's a lot of work to read but if you can force your way through it there's an amazing message to be obtained at the end" - that i would welcome. as well as the "yep this is supposed to be a classic novel, but it's actually shit. don't bother." that would also be nice to hear once in a while. hi. my name is frogs, and i am a book snob. (to the extent that all my cheap fiction is kept on a shelf in the basement, rather than in the living room with the nice hardcovers...)
  • When discussing music, art, culture, or literature, it is important to remember that my opinions are always truthful, unquestionable facts, while yours are all lies. LIES!
  • How about this to get the book thing off the ground: for a limited time (say two days or whatever), we have an open thread where anyone can suggest a book. At the end of the time period, we compile a list of all the suggested books in a new thread and vote on them. Everyone then reads the book with the highest number of votes, and then we all fight about discuss it. Not the most sophisticated or trouble-free idea ever, I'll admit, but it might be enough to gauge the initial level of interest. I think the idea of a theme isn't bad, but in reality it would just give us another thing to decide on, which is sort of adding to the problem...
  • maybe if all of you sends all of your dvd's to me and then maybe once a week maybe I pick the best and maybe write a little sumthin. no?
  • maybe if all of you sends all of your money to me and then maybe once a week maybe I spend it and maybe write a little sumthin about what i bought with your money. no? ;)
  • I wouldn't think the Theme idea would be difficult to pull off. You only allow one per day (or two days or week or whatever) and whoever gets there first sets the Theme. Or am I still wearing my rose-colored glasses? I can't tell sometimes.
  • I like the theme idea too. Just really have to decide what is a fair time frame? Every day? Once a week? or what? I think that it could really work to point out some new/cool stuff that people would like to take a look at. Now it just needs a cool name.
  • I'm in for a book exchange.
  • Also, for those of you who don't follow the green : delicacy-swop is also tempting... Does anyone live in Chicago? I'd kill for a bottle of bbq sauce from bebop's.
  • NETFLIX is twenty bucks with a free first month and ships in a few days. We could do movies purty easy. let me know when you start this and i'll go second or third.
  • I like all of this. It is good. Themes, especially, is good. I am so in. There's some other thoughts which have been floating around my head about possible MonkeyFeatures, and which I'll post here because I'm lazy and it's such a long way over to tracicle's blog. No derail intended... 1) We've got something of a divergence in the Curious, Georges. What was originally designed to be an AskMe-type feature (eg, "Curious, George: My oven's broken down, and it's not the fuse. What do you think might be wrong with it?") has become more of a social/census feature (eg, "Curious, George: How many monkeys here are registered sex offenders?"). Now that's not a bad thing - personally, I'm very fond of the more social threads - but maybe it might be an idea to explicitly distinguish between them? Perhaps retain Curious, George for those seeking expert advice, and (say) Social Primates for the census/discussion threads? 2) Now that self-linkiness is verboten, I liked the idea of a regular (monthly?) thread where Monkeys are invited to show off the products of their skillz - stories, art, music, blog entries, whatever. A Talented Little Monkeys thread could perhaps be just another element of the "Monkeys Recommend..." thing, except instead of books or films or whatever, we're recommending ourselves. Or recommending forky's blog, one of the two. 3) A section where we can get stuff off our chest, and just rant about whatever's annoying us. This would be called The Apes of Wrath. (sorry, that one's a pun and nothing else...)
  • Nice idea, flash, but the site would become awfully self-oriented then, and I can't imagine we'd keep the same number of actual filtery posts, because everyone would use their daily post to ask questions like, "Curious, George: ice cream or frozen yoghurt?" That said, I like the idea of a weekly book/movie/music exchange/discussion/club. I'm still a little "meh" on the whole self-promotion thing, but I guess once a month would be okay (oh, and isn't it forky's hot counter?). Perhaps we could cut back a little on the "Social Primates"-type threads. Although as a growing community I can see the value in getting to know each other. Maybe another weekly first-in-gets-to-set-the-theme post? Your puns are delightful, btw. *hands over banana-flavoured frozen yoghurt*
  • I like the idea of using Mediachest as a bouncing-off point- I'd be really interested to see what other Monkeys are reading/watching/listening to, and while I think that geography may limit the feasibility of actual swapping, it could be a great resource for suggestions. Also, I think that the "Social Primate" type threads were best when we were a smaller group- I just can't get my head around 700+ different individuals. It's likely a Dunbar Number thing. However, they have been useful, and I was thinking of suggesting to tracicle that links to the existing ones (I'd be happy to chase down the links and email them to her) be posted in the FAQ, so that newcomers can find them and add to them, if they wish, so that we aren't creating a new set of Social Primate threads every few months. Oh, and flashboy is quite the Witty Monkey, isn't he?
  • flashboy, dammit, you made me choke on a cheesy noodle with that pun! This is all pretty vague--lots'o good ideas here--now who/how to firm it all up? I must commend frogs and naxosaxur: they have gotten immediately to the point of many book/movie/music clubs--pontification and bloviation
  • [ frozen yogurt ]
  • I like the idea of limiting the 'social primates' (good name), to once a week, just like we'd be limiting any sort of favourite book/dvd etc. As valulable and interesting as those treads are, I don't think that they could overrun us if we're not careful. The limit is a good idea. Speaking of integrating Mediachest though, I really like the idea. I added a link to mine on my profile, if anyone cares to look. That might be a starting point.
  • Well done, dng! I'd completely forgotten about the "favorite breakfast" thread. The only thread I'd suggest adding isn't really a "who are we" thread, it's more of a "how are we" thread- the Self-policing re-hash. Edumacational reference for new Monkeys.
  • I am one of the creators of Mediachest and I really like the ideas you guys are discussing here and I will try to implement them into the site in order to make it more useful for this community. If you can think of what features you would find most useful and put them in order, I will try to put them in based on that order. I am not really trying to do some self-promotion, but instead I am trying to find out what people want and make the site better for communities. I am always available on AIM if you have suggestions on how to make things better.
  • Someone called "Ned" from mediachest has joined and will be adding some valuable contributions to this thread, I believe. It's like, wow, we're influencing other sites, or something. Ambrosia, good idea. I'll bookmark this and add them to the FAQ asap (hopefully within a year).
  • Honey, my counter is so HOTTTTTTTTT you wouldn't believe it. /hot forking action is just a click away...
  • I had a nice chat with Ned today -- hello, Ned -- and their site might fit in nicely with our Monkey ways.
  • Sooooooo... it seems we've come to a proposal, sorta: Once a week (on what day? Tuesdays could always use some spicing up in my opinion) there'll be a thread, to be started by the first Monkey who's so inclined, that will be about books/music/movies/games/food/whatnot, possibly in the form of a question to shape the discussion: "What's your favorite music to snake your drain to?" or something like that. What think we, fellow monkeys?
  • I like the proposal certainsome1. I agree that the question is important. It would be nice to have a discussion that has a definite direction to it. We just need a name for it I think... A cool name. On an unrelated note, my favorite music to snake my drain to is 'Kiss me' by Sixpence None the Richer...... don't ask
  • Got inspired by goetter here: (ok, I stole most of it from him) What about Multi-Monkey MoFi Madness?
  • Or perhaps-- being shorter -- Monkeymania?
  • The Monkey's Shelf Monkeycafe Connosieur Chimp Arts for Apes Rhesus Recreation ...
  • I vote for The Monkey's Shelf. I like that one alot, and it doesn't make us sound crazy stuck up either heh.
  • Monorail!
  • Ohhhhh no dubya -- you can't lure me into this thread that easily... oops.
  • oooh oooh oooh *jumps up and down*
  • What, BlueHorse? Do you need to go to the toilet?
  • I like 'Arts for Apes'. These are all wonderful ideas.
  • i like 'the monkey's shelf' as well.....it lends itself to the themes of what monkeys keep and put on their shelf....such as /books ...../music.../movies... BlueHorse is just excited at how to put her horses up for discussion....rightly so!
  • Well, in honor of our Grandmama, let's call our swap posts Gift Horse. Donum Equus?
  • de ora equi simiae
  • Gift Horse: Come, look us in the mouth. Everybody is right about everything, by the way.
  • ambrosia, thanks for the Dunbar reference. I've been looking for that for a while, but didn't have a name by which to seek it.
  • Alnedra, you shall have chocolate covered bananas tonight! Of course, GramMa® loves the name Gift Horse. Can I interest anyone in a set of hand-crocheted horseshoes or some premium home-packaged rose fertilizer?