December 09, 2003

• I have to say, having watched this site for a week or two... the thing that makes MeFi more interesting that MoFi is the discussion. Even the MeTa discussions are ace - and that just doesn't seem to be happening here. Maybe the site's too new? There are little flares of activity, but looking at the MoFi front page, it's hard to find a thread with more than ten comments. So, yes, I want in! Oh, and an rss/rdf feed...
• Dizzy, I'm offended by your comparison of Monkeys and Mathowie. I'm calling you out to MonkeyTalk.
• Monkeyfilter is only at 272 members - which is of course, 256 more than in the second last week of November. Discussion will happen, but it won't be as active. And, sometimes, as I think of 100+ comment metafilter threads, I really like Monkeyfilter. So...what's a rss/rdf feed?
• The onus is on you, to a degree. It is a new site, and there are to be a lot of interesting folks here, but they seem to be preoccupied. Go back and look at Metafilter's early days. It took a while for the community to get reved up. Give us something to talk about and I bet we'll do it.
• see? Comments. I knew all you had to do to get comments was to comment on the lack of comments. Ask Monkeyfilter? A very worthy thought - could be very useful, but also would be much work to set up. But maybe 272 monkeys know as much as 17000+ mefiers : ).
• Dr. Z-- Let's pretend THIS is MoTa. I'll start: "You piece of shit! Your asshat assumption is typically Bushie doublethink. Read the thread, Fred! On preview, what JonMC sez!" ok. Now your turn.
• jb - metafilter's rss feed; it's best viewed in Shrook or, uh, I can't remember the name of the Windows app I use at work. Why go to the websites you love when they can come to you? Yes, you're totally right that this is a small, young community. We'll give it time to build. And then we'll crush the big blue. Dr. Zira - props for the best handle I've seen so far on MoFi.
• I absolutely love the emerald green background! That being said, what happened to quonsar's earlier "Where do babies come from?" post? Did anyone catch it? Possibly someone took offense to the egregious "stork vagina" comments?
• All right. Here goes: Personally, I'm not offended by asshat as an insult, but that was really uncalled for, fuckwit. You have totally derailed this thread and are a complete insult to everything MonkeyFilter stands for. Also stop stalking me and shitting all over my blog. Oh, yeah, and Miguel sucks.
• But I'm afraid I'm still in the dark - what is an rss feed? What does it do?
• Dizzy, it may be too soon to ask those questions. It seems that we're not the site where Matt is going to for new members, so we either need to make this a place where we pretend to be Mefites, or better, or just have fun with what we have. For myself, I'd just as soon be a member of a 200+ community where most everyone is active, as one of than a 17,000+ blog (remember, it's just a web-site) where most of them have fallen by the wayside. Metafilter has linked to a few "via monkeyfilter" sites, so I don't think you guys are doing badly. Does anyone really think we're second rate?
• What path said. I think it could prove to be a pretty interesting study in how a community evolves.
• I think Dr. Zira could be all of metafilter by herself.
• rss feeds basically take content from dynamic sites - or at least, sites that change often - and put it into a quick, easy-to-read form that can be picked up by an rss reader. it's like having a direct newsfeed on your desktop. so when a new thread gets added to metafilter, it shows up on my rss reader, rather than me having to visit MeFi. ver useful for news sites, too - the bbc has great rss feeds, it's better than e-mail.
• Path-- Yes. Yes.Yes. Yes. Maybe we're not Nacho Spicy enough? Dunno. But I like civilized, mostly. Maybe we should CLOSE REGISTRATION NOW, so as to generate a little heat and see if a third generation would perk things up. I know this isn't a race. Oh, and Dr. Z.: On preview, Migs does suck, you Gypsy!
• You see, right now, we're like Canada and Metafilter is like the United States. We haven't quite formed our own identity yet; in fact, we'll have to spend a great deal of time reminding everyone that we're NOT Metafilter. But gosh darn it, we're nicer and we brew better beer. Eventually, every English speaking person travelling through Europe will sew a Monkey on his or her backpack.
• hey, dr. z - i have images of paul frank merchandise, for some reason. MeFi envy?
• Actually, hamfist, I was planning on sewing a real monkey to my backpack. But that Paul Frank stuff might work okay...
• what happened to quonsar's earlier "Where do babies come from?" post? Was this a MetaTalk post that's since been deleted? Is that why I saw "There have been 187 [or whatever] new comments" but could only find half that on the actual page? See, I have to come to MoFi to find out this stuff! Anybody who saw the post and thread, please dish the dirt.
• Something that is mentioned twice in this thread is the lack of discussion that MonkeyFilter currently aquires, although I think we're doing well for something so small! To increase the number of comments, we'll need new members. Right now MonkeyFilter is only known about by visitors to Metafilter and maybe a few others via links on the web. IF we want to increase in size, we'll need to find ways to increase the number of readers and members. I think more members might be a good thing, but it may lead to eventual large increases in bandwidth use and server load. One quite amazing thing is despite having so few members, there are a large number of front page posts every day. Proportionally, we are more active than Metafilter in that respect.
• Aha! Dr. Zira has joined my conspriacy to mention Canada in every single thread, and soon we will have domination!
• well, jb, i WAS going to mention that I've been drinking delicious, Canadian, micro-brewed ale whilst reading/posting tonight...
• Can we consider the quality of comments as opposed to the quantity? And how about the number of comments compared to the number of members we have? Compared to the number of unique members posting to MeFi? In the posts I follow on MeFi it seems to be the same handful of members posting consistently. I won't mention any names. *cough* miguel *cough* I'm sure there's some sort of quantum mechanics equation in there somewhere that would give us the answer. And it would probably be 42. On preview: You're all a bunch of assclowns.
• One quite amazing thing is despite having so few members, there are a large number of front page posts every day. Proportionally, we are more active than Metafilter in that respect. I am going to stick my neck out and say that's probably because this hasn't turned into smackdown central just yet. Long may it not.
• The green hurts my eyes! Makes baby Jesus cry!
• If you compare this very, very new *Filter with all the other *Filters it appears we aren't doing too bad in terms of activity. (Granted, they tend to be subject-specific...)
• Frankly, I like it better here. Not quite as much pointless political flamewar and macho grudge crap. We're more laid back, but not to the point of ego-stroking lovefest that a typical LJ has (of course a typical LJ serves a different purpose). Less political ax-grinding, more um, monkeys. Monkeys are cool. I'm rambling. I'm sorry. I'm very drunk and horny right now.
• Okay, I'm pretty happy here. Although my initial reaction to seeing 'AskMetaFilter' was "Gee, it took Matt only three hours to get that up, but he still hasn't found time to work out the new members issue." Harrumph! I suppose the code was really already done, but still.
• You know what -- and bear in mind that I'm drunk here, coming back from my second Christmas party in two days -- forget MeFi. MeFi is not the parent that brought us into this world. Nor is it our sibling. We don't need to compare ourselves to it constantly and wonder how we're doing. All we need to do is have a damn good time and enjoy each others company and find interesting things to discuss, so that we can have more of a damn good time and more enjoyment! /Kettle One-fueled outburst Goodnight from New York.
• Seriously, asshats, we're way more active than metafilter was at the beginning. Take a look way back in the archives sometime and you'll see that Matt was virtually the only poster and mostly got one or no comments. Y'all suck, and why do you hate America? (I thought I'd posted, like, half a day ago - I'm losing my mind.)
• Hang on, Trace, we'll get this sorted shortly. (Anyone who doesn't understand why Tracy might be frazzled should go and check her blog
• MonkeyFilter is doing just fine. The posts are great and so are the people (must be descendants of bonobos.) Really, it's a huge relief to come here knowing there's none of the ridiculous and totally unnecessary trolling that you find on MeFi. Rock on, monkeys!
• Oh, go rub some ointment on your sandy penises. Currently, I see MeFi beating MoFi on 3 points, one of which is totally selfish on my part: 1) More discussion (but that will happen as members increase) 2) A proper domain name 3) And the selfish one: Better color scheme. I like MoFi, but I still find it so hard to look at.
• WHAT color scheme? I'm using Safari on my iMac, and the field is snoooow white. And the letters are ashy-grey. Am I color blind?
• I thoroughly agree with not only our two drunken Monkeys above, but with ambrosia and several other Monkeys in different threads as well: I really like it here at MonkeyFilter. I also like MetaFilter, but I don
• Yeah. It's meant to have a lavendar background. I'm with Certainsome1. At the moment I feel like we're trying to be Metafilter's younger sister, putting on her clothes and looking in the mirror to see if we look cool yet. If we want to be "radically different" to Metafilter, we should start by not saying "We're not as good because of x" or "We're better because x" every ten minutes. In answer to the original question: I never thought I'd say this but... Nah. Not interested in joining Metafilter any more. I'm fine right here, ta.
• Sorry
• I like the way we do things around here. Outside of our nice little tree all sorts of predators. As for the rest of it, we are two different sites with two different groups. One has lost a lot of minds over the years for various reasons and one hasn't yet had its first "I'm never posting here again" snit.
• You're asking for it, Pez.
• By the "color scheme", I was referring to rust-red and grey. The text and background look fine, but the links just don't grab me aesthetically (and, being the type of page this is, there are a LOT of links). Actually, I was wondering if it would be possible to have multiple style sheets, so we could pick the "look" of the page.
• Never wanted to join MeFi, though I like reading it from time to time, find it ossified and too self-aware to be fun. Don't intend to join MeFi. Monkeyfilter is fun, and cosmopolitan in contrasdt to MeFi -- I like it here, and like the friendly tone which prevails here (thus far, anyway), and hope we don't turn into MeFi.
• Not that I'm saying we will or anything. User attrition for various reasons (fire, flood, zombies, famine and the like) is not a guaranteed event. Attrition through annoying the management on the other hand...*ducks, quacks a grin*
• I don't have a hell of a lot to add to this thread except to say that I don't think we should see ourselves as Son of Metafilter Part III. That said, I think we should cultivate a symbiotic relationship with MeFi. For example, since Matt seems unwilling to ever add MeFi users in any appreciable number, we might ask him if he will add a prominent link from his site to this one. It will give MeFi turned-aways a place to post, and will assure that a certain number of quality posters will be added to this one. If he were a swell guy he would do that :-) I just hope the whole thing doesn't turn adversarial .
• MonkeyFilter good. F8xmulder like.
• niccolo: One quite amazing thing is despite having so few members, there are a large number of front page posts every day. Proportionally, we are more active than Metafilter in that respect. tracicle: Seriously, asshats, we're way more active than metafilter was at the beginning. This is because Monkeyfilter is an escape hatch for MeFi wannabes. Seriously, in 1999, how many people would have found out about MeFi quickly? Our "building" arose when there were already plenty of people asking for shelter in front of the Mefi "building" with its door closed. They saw this one open and they flocked here in the couple of weeks since. Now the rate of influx of new users has waned. The proportion of new users that contributeto MoFi will be similar to that of MeFi. Sooooz: And how about the number of comments compared to the number of members we have? Compared to the number of unique members posting to MeFi? Give it enough time and that dynamic builds up in *any* community. 10% of the users contribute half the interaction. Another 20% contribute 40%, with occasional snippets from the remaining 70%. certainsome1: MeFi is not the parent that brought us into this world. Nor is it our sibling. We don't need to compare ourselves to it constantly and wonder how we're doing. According to the sidebar on the main page, MeFi is the parent. But you're right. We don't need to compare ourselves. But as Tracy commented in her blog, this site currently uses up 3GB a month from her 5GB limit. According to her, it might handle a hundred users more. Which will take another month, I suppose. MeFi, OTOH, now seems to be a community with a stable income to sustain itself . It might be easier for Matt to just absorb 1500 new users .
• frankly, there's 17,000-some of them, and 250-some of us. why be little fish in a humungous pond? i like it here.
• Gyan: It might be easier for Matt to just absorb 1500 new users . Which is a bit like saying MeFi has better oranges than MoFi's apples, so we should eat oranges instead. They're two distinct sites, two distinct personalities. And yes, technically MeFi is the "parent" of MoFi. I meant to write something in there about us having a declaration of emancipation — we're our own thing and don't need to lean on MeFi.
• certainsome1:Which is a bit like saying MeFi has better oranges than MoFi's apples, so we should eat oranges instead. They're two distinct sites, two distinct personalities. MoFi sprung as an outgrowth of MeFi. Most of the users are here because they want(ed) to be members of MeFi with its 'orangish' character. Given the relative paucity of participation here, I don't think our 'appleish' character has really taken root yet, in order for it to be a stumbling block in the current MoFi community's desire to get integrated within MeFi.
• Gyan, what we are disagreeing it seems to me is that you're saying MoFi only exists to become integrated within MeFi and I'm saying that now that MoFi exists, it's become its own thing and that integration is not its raison d'etre. Our "appleish" character will come with time, and becomes more apparent every day. All I'm repeatedly saying is that we should forget the MeFi comparison angst and get on with being what we are -- whatever that is. But whatever it is, it ain't MeFi. And I'm not sure where you get "paucity of participation" from -- it's been shown above that we're a small but comparatively very active group.
• disagreeing about... disagreeing about... I meant to write.
• We are not our own thing, exactly. The vacuum that MoFi fills is one that was very clearly left by MeFi. Obviously Mo is a different place than Me. As the aggregate result of a different set of peoples contributions how could it not be? But there is no operational difference. Some of us have stars on our bellies and some of us don't. MoFi is a very small moon orbiting a very large planet.
• Moon of the apes?
• I like string.
• Here's a good example of how 50+ comments in a thread isn't neccessarily a good thing. You can keep your metafilter, monkeys are good enough for me.
• Of course, my comment is a 50+er itself.
• I like MonkeyFilter a lot, but I have love enough for two websites, so I would still like to join MetaFilter, if the call ever comes. I will say though, that should that happen I would be a fool to neglect the Monkey. We here have developed a distinct personality and I look forward to watching that grow and change.
• certainsome1: it seems to me is that you're saying MoFi only exists to become integrated within MeFi and I'm saying that now that MoFi exists, it's become its own thing and that integration is not its raison d'etre. True. But that's because Matt hasn't reopened registration yet. If he chooses to open it before Christmas, I'm predicting that MoFi might not sustain itself till say, March of next year. The longer that MeFi remains closed, the greater chance that MoFi will survive. But I don't think we are past the critical time period yet, where we are unlinked from MeFi's opening. That critical time period is either 1000 members or mid-Jan. All I'm repeatedly saying is that we should forget the MeFi comparison angst and get on with being what we are -- whatever that is. There is no angst here, so I'm not sure where that comes from.
• True. But that's because Matt hasn't reopened registration yet. As I (and I'm sure at least a couple of other people) have said, I'm no longer very interested in joining Metafilter. Here we've got youth, vitality and danger, and it makes me feel a little bit like a virtual pirate sailing the seven seas of the internet, which is good.
• dirtdirt: Some of us have stars on our bellies and some of us don't. Is this where navel-gazing comes in? Seriously, I like it much better here. It feels like a dinner party. Discussion and good manners are encouraged, people have plenty of interesting things to say, and even though it's late, no one wants to go home.
• Gyan: That critical time period is either 1000 members or mid-Jan. How did you come up with this deduction? Is this based on MeFi's early days? Or some other *Filter? From the comments in this thread and others, I don't get the sense that all Monkeys are going to jump ship if/when MeFi opens up membership. (Besides, I see Matt's efforts going elsewhere, a la MetaAsk, as IgnorantSlut pointed out.) Once we hit 1000 members or reach mid-January without going bust, does that solidify the site in some way? Are we on shaky ground until then? Personally I don't think so.
• I still really like MetaFilter. There are some very interesting links over there. I highly recommend donating some money to Matt's present whether it's five or ten bucks because we do owe our little community in part, to what he's created and maintained. What's lost its appeal since the birth of MonkeyFilter is all the MeFi drama. I'm much less likely to read the comments of a particular type of posts, because I can run through what most of them will say in my head. Often the really long threads are flame wars or rehashing old opinions. There are a couple of ways that MonkeyFilter wins for me: 1) The point for us includes the discussion. Although Matt really would like MetaFilter to be about interesting links, we here at MoFi like the discussion and encourage it. 2) We try to be nice. 3) There is less worry over FPP etiquette. I mean, I've looked at some posts and said, "Meh" (some heavily commented on, some not), but no one has felt the need to say "this post stinks!" We just let it scroll down and move on. I love that. I'm just really hoping that "Be nice" can stay our motto for a long while.
• Monkeyfilter: youth, vitality and danger!! Plus IgnorantSlut standing tall for nonconformity. I say, "Sock Monkeys For EVERYONE!!"
• Sooooz:How did you come up with this deduction? I've joined quite a few boards/communities in the last 4-5 years and remember a lot of them going defunct. Not all of them were ill-focused troll-laden ventures. A lot of them couldn't sustain since they couldn't really continue growing. The specific numbers I quoted, I just pulled out of my ass (but with a little thought) The thing is that technically MeFi and MoFi are both aiming for the same thing - "high quality" posts. It's not like MeFi is dominated with FPPs of advances in biology or politics of Vermont. A post that is considered good at MoFi can be considered good at MeFi. Both places don't have an explicit topical focus, that really provides a distinct character. And I don't see anything in the way of MoFi members posting the same FPPs they would have here, once they become MeFi members. Currently, the chief genuine difference that does exist is that MeFi has a higher-than-desired (IMHO) politically themed FPPs. And because of the abundance of such posts in MeFi history, there's a discernible polarity that's developed and is visible, with majority of the members described as "liberal". But unless, MoFi bans political posts or actively discourages them, I don't see how MoFi won't avoid the same fate 6 months from now.
• I can see your point Gyan. I'm having a little mini-struggle with myself about what to post here and what to post on my blog. There is definitely tention there (and much less than what would happen if all MoFiers became MeFiers). I await further developments with much interest. However, I would really, really, really not like to start with the whole "high-quality posts" thing. That leads to "Your post sucks!". I think that a community evolves based on what its membership is interested in. If the community has people who want to talk about politics (there is a major--in many ways--election coming up after all) then by all means, post about politics. I think the difference must be that people who don't want to read another post about whatever topic just .... wait for it ... don't read that post or comment on it. If no one wants to read those kinds of posts and no one comments on them, then people will stop posting them because they are of no interest to the community.
• Just out of interest, would anyone else like to see a MeFi-style political compass? At the moment a few people have mentioned the wider range of political views, but I've seen little, if any, evidence of this.
• I don't see how MoFi won't avoid the same fate 6 months from now. And I don't see why it's necessary to keep kvetching about the future in vague, helpless ways. You are right about MoFi's chances being better the longer MeFi doesn't take on new members and that we are in a precarious situation in general, as are all new online communities. Very well. Now: what can we do to make MoFi a better community that will last?
• certainsome1:And I'm not sure where you get "paucity of participation" from Well, since I've 90 free minutes right now and am pretty stubborn, I'll do a little digging. [digging...] :) [done] *whew* Mofi Dec 7-8: 17 posts & 125 comments. For calculating average, I'm going to discard the exceptions, hence the most commented thread & the least commented thread (28 & 1). The average works out to 96/15 = 6.4 comments. As I understand it, till Nov 25, MoFi had User IDs assigned till 17, Between Nov. 26-Nov. 30, User IDs jumped upto 220, from Dec 5-current, User IDs went from 266 to 288. Clearly, the flood has subsided considerably. The quick user population accumulation is mainly a testament to the MeTa thread advertising MoFi. Now, that its effects have subsided, the question remains, how is MoFi going to continue to grow. If the current instantaneous growth continues and Matt reopens intake by Christmas, I think that MoFi might stagnate. What MoFi needs is a defined unique focus, to continue participation.
• What MoFi needs is a defined unique focus, to continue participation. Do we not have a defined unique focus? According the FAQ, "The point is to hang out and have fun. Like metafilter, we basically aim to find interesting, bizarre or just plain random links on the web, bring them here to show off, and discuss them." That seems like a good enough "focus" to me. Can we not just exist and post and comment and see what happens six months from now? I certainly hope the site continues to flourish and we do attract new members, whatever way we decide to. But I agree with certainsome1 - instead of kvetching (I just love that word) let's spend our time and effort on creating interesting FPPs and contributing thought-provoking comments. Or do you mean a defined unique focus with which to entice new members to join?
• We have all at one time or another figured out what we don't like about Mefi, and I for one am not exactly eager to let that same kind of hostility fester here. We could certainly be unique from Mefi in that way. But Gyan, we're barely out of the gate and already we're doomed by Christmas? Don't you think that's going a little overboard? Or are we boring you already?
• That being said, I still think it would help to have a link on the MeFi Etc. page. Would one of you MeFi members out there be so kind as to email Matt with that suggestion? I would guess he'd pay more attention to an email from a current member rather than a lurker.
• But unless, MoFi bans political posts or actively discourages them, I don't see how MoFi won't avoid the same fate 6 months from now. I really don't think that this is a good idea. How about instead of a blanket ban or 'discouragement' of political threads, we encourage people to utilize certain guidelines (cred to BBF) in discussing them? Respect for other's viewpoints is key to avoiding 'flame war' type conflicts. I think a ban on political threads would in fact have the opposite of its intended effect, ie: encourage hostile sniping when the inevitable thread arises that may or may not be political in someone's eyes.
• Sooooz: The point is to hang out and have fun. Like metafilter, we basically aim to find interesting, bizarre or just plain random links on the web, bring them here to show off, and discuss them The keywords above: "like metafilter" Mickey:But Gyan, we're barely out of the gate and already we're doomed by Christmas? Read my earlier comment (15 minutes earlier than yours) about user growth here on MoFi
• Nickdanger:I think a ban on political threads I'm not advocating this, just speculating.
• The keywords above: "like metafilter" Yes, but *unlike* MetaFilter we actually have open membership. I think that makes us unique enough for people to join, don't you?
• Gyan: I'm not advocating this, just speculating. Gotcha.
• Sooooz: Yes, but *unlike* MetaFilter we actually have open membership. Which is why I said our growth potential is linked to MeFi's opening. Matt has said that he is going to open up membership. In a MeTa comment, he said that "two projects popped up at work" resulting in the delay of the opening up. I see it as a matter of a couple weeks (unless something happens leading to a change of mind)
• Gyan, given the choice between a site that offers membership with a click of a button (and a 24 hour waiting period) and one that requires an audition/judgment phase, I would hazard to guess that the choice would be clear. As for Matt actually opening membership, I'll believe it when I see it.
• We're MeFi's wacky younger sibling. We're smaller and more flexible, we're not afraid to be silly, we're not established so getting a hold of us is easier, and most importantly: we're trying to learn from big sib's mistakes so we can be our own, different entity. I say let's sit back and watch it happen instead of worrying about it. I think the FAQ captures what I've envisioned as the spirit of this Band of Monkeys and I'm going to do my best to live up to it.
• Gyan: I'm not advocating this, just speculating. What are you advocating for? That we need a focus to differentiate ourselves from MeFi? If so, then what kind of focus? Only links about monkeys? Only links about board games? Which is why I said our growth potential is linked to MeFi's opening. Matt has said that he is going to open up membership. In a MeTa comment, he said that "two projects popped up at work" resulting in the delay of the opening up. I see it as a matter of a couple weeks (unless something happens leading to a change of mind) So... do you want to change his mind and keep MeFi closed to save MoFi? I'm perplexed about why you're in such a hurry to announce the imminent demise of MoFi. So you can say "I told you so" after the fact? Or are you just killing time until you can pop over to MeFi and blow this popsicle stand and hang out with the more evolved homo sapiens?
• Also, I can imagine Monkeyfilter being a place where the people who failed the hypothetical audition would congregate. Which would mean that this place would become a home for bitter, unhappy failures, but that's just fine by me.
• Come on girls, you're both pretty. To whoever asked about multiple stylesheets, I'm going to say this once and NEVER AGAIN: read the FAQ before asking questions/complaining.
• Sooooz:Gyan, given the choice between a site that offers membership with a click of a button (and a 24 hour waiting period) and one that requires an audition/judgment phase The audition part might be demeaning to some, but if you are committed to posting high quality posts after registering, it shouldn't be a big problem to come up with one, before. Also, Matt has indicated that the MeFi "no-doubleposts" pool should check all entries every few hours or once a day. So, you might have to wait around 30 hours at most to gain membership.
• Certainsome1: I think Gyan is being analytical and practical. All things being equal, what Gyan says is a possibility--especially given the many, many communities (not to mention MeFi spin-offs) that have faded into obscurity. I think we're more than the sum of our parts though, and due to an undeniable bias I'm more optimistic about our chances.
• I love this thread. Now let us all get out there and actually POST!
• I second Dizzy: if we're this opinionated about MoFi, I'm sure we all have opinions about more important things that are being or should be posted. It makes me laugh that the posts with the most comments are (so far) the posts dedicated to Mefi vs MoFi. I think we'll just put everyone in one of those WWF wrestling cages and we can have a deathmatch. Sorry, I'm tired today and somewhat grumpy. Ignore me.
• LOWER THE THUNDERDOME!!!!
• **THUNDERDOME LOWERS** Oooh. I didn't know we had a Thunderdome, it's really -- ooh! look! Ponies! *claps hands together like a little boy and forgets entirely what he was arguing about*
• Two blogs entah! ONE BLOG LEAVES!
• How is this thread different from most Metatalk threads? I say we have evolved to Mefi level already.
• Bite your tongue.
• I understand why you said that, T_C, but now I'm forced to say something on topic to make myself feel better. (Although now I feel like I'm dissing mefi when really I love it like a fat kid loves cake - isn't that the lyric?) I'm certainly not doing any extra portals (apart from, eventually, a Bug-Page), but geez, if you guys think we warrant them, go for it. At the moment we're small enough to get away with an Ask MonkeyFilter right here on the front page anyway.
• I'm going to have to agree with Gyan on both issues: First, I think MoFi will have to hit critical age to avoid being sucked up by MetaFilter. If signups start soon, I see it heading towards attrition. Second, I think Gyan is merely stating a possible fact, like "Children who play with fire and TNT have a high likelihood of blowing themselves up". It doesn't mean it's a good thing or that I want it to happen. It just is. Whether or not his contention is true is a subject possibly worthy of debate, but giving reasons why MoFi should survive if critical mass / age isn't reached doesn't really affect whether it will survive. Personally, I think that critical age is more important than critical mass. There are enough posters here that, if everyone gets good and thoroughly settled in, if MeFi's signups happen far in the future, people will be less likely to leave and MoFi will be more likely to survive.
• But does metafilter have moonkeys? I don't see how it would be the same without monkeys
• I'm sorry - bad spelling. I should always preview. I also wanted to say that the MonkeyFilter logo is terrific, charming, with a great sense of design.
• First, I think MoFi will have to hit critical age to avoid being sucked up by MetaFilter. If signups start soon, I see it heading towards attrition. I thought this too, initially, but I'm finding that MonkeyFilter has a unique voice that complements MeFi very well. I suspect it has something to do with having more girls and Canadians;) Metafilter's not Carousel; as Monkeys get called up, I think that the 18k'ers will remember their roots...
• I also like that logo. Who designed it?
• *peers around in bewilderment* Let me get this straight. You guys are arguing about whether and to what degree MoFi might lose members if and when Matt gets around to prying open a tiny hatchway into MeFi? And you're making fun of our "gyp" thread? Sheesh. You monkeys, I swear. Personally, I think there's no danger unless MoFi evolves as nasty, belligerent, and paranoid a style as MeFi/MeTa, in which case people might prefer to do the nasty in a bigger arena. Until then, this place is so much more pleasant to hang out in that I suspect even those who get into MeFi will choose to keep spending time here, where there's so much less risk of popping a blood vessel. stepself: I believe it was designed by taz, who also did my oft-praised Languagehat banner.
• The logo was designed by metafilter's taz. Oh, but languagehat has well and truly beaten me to the punch. Thanks. I've got a spiffy one hidden away for whenever I get the bug/technical page up, but you'll have to wait and be amazed when it happens. I didn't make it, so you know it's quality.
• Is this going to be MoFi's first 100-comment thread?
• Yes! Now go post something. And put a sweater on.
• No, you forgot the blogstop thread Wendell started.
• Tracicle---SSSHHH! (I'm just trying to put the kids to bed...)
• I think we need to keep in mind the words of the Desiderata: If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Alternately, we could keep in mind the words of the Deteriorata: Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their advice even though they be turkeys; know what to kiss and when. Some of the most wonderful things on the web have burned like Roman Candles lit at both ends and burned out, leaving their creators with third-degree burn-out. I hope MonkeyFilter does not become one of them, but the lovely-and-talented tracile appears to be doing this with eyes wide open and one eye on the short-to-middle-term future (anything past that requires technological optics far beyond those of the Hubble). Two things are certain: (1) MonkeyFilter, right now, has gone way farther in the right directions than MetaFilter had when I became its 206th member, four web-centuries ago. (2) In the short weeks since MonkeyFilter's bastard birth, MetaFilter has gotten better... and trac' & the monkeys deserve somewhere between 30 and 70 percent of the credit for it (yes, I'm equivocating big time). My incredibly unsolicited advice to tracicle: Keep up the good work; react quickly when something goes badly wrong, but hold back when it goes a little wrong; you aren't always going to like maintaining this site, but keep it up as long as you love it; and don't move it to Monkeyfilter.com until you're certain you'll be still doing it two weeks after the domain renewal date.
• On preview: don't EVER forget a thread I started...
• And, come to think of it, I apologize profusely for the contribution that thread has made to the server load...
• Jeez. Lets get on making posts and making comments in other posts already. Posts need nurturing so that posters feel more confortable making creating posts. And I'm not talking about me and my 0-comments posts. I'm fine and I'll continue posting like a tail-trapped rat squeaks all day long until dead.
• ...making creating posts. good God!
• zemat--keep it down(!) (wendell is sleepwalking again and is headed towards the hamper--you guide him back to his bunk and I'll change the plastic sheeting, ok?)
• Nobody worry about bandwidth and/or server space. Everything's peachy keen. I've found a sneaky way to fix (read: almost completely rewrite) the front page so everything will run fine. Now if I could only end world hunger...
• Congrats, tracicle! That being said... I can no longer read the menu at the top right corner of the page. The colours are virtually identical. Or is this just my computer being silly? (IE 5, WinXP)
• Probably something in the stylesheet. I'll fix it.
• No, you forgot the blogstop thread Wendell started. Well, see, I thought of that more as a leftover MeFi thread... *flees the wrath of wendell*
• It must be because MonkeyFilter is not yet 2 months old at this point and perhaps has some simian insecurity. But, as I've said in every single other thread in this trek in this vein on this trek, not to disparage "the blue" but I've never found a reason to wander over to MetaFilter.
• Ah you're missing some of the piquant that underlies the true Internets then.
• BOO METAFILTER BOO!!! /throws tomater
• pooty parper.