April 24, 2008

Curious George: Posting Let's talk about FPPs, monkeys. How, and where, do you find yours? Are there any particularly good FPPs that you think serve as emblematic of MonkeyFilter at its best? In general, what sort of subject matter/site etc you consider worthy of bringing to the MonkeySphere? And what do you consider unworthy?

After our belly button staring session of the last few days, I found myself wanting to save MonkeyFilter by posting a new link on the front page, and damned if I couldn't think of anything. Hell, I even went over to MeFi to see if there was anything worth stealing, but nothing caught my eye. So spill your secrets, Monkeys, and help us all become better at this posting business.

posted by Nickdanger 16 years ago
  • If I'm in the posting mood, I generally start with an interesting subject that has recently been on my mind. I'll play with it; dig & poke around to see if the subject leads to anything new (lotta googling I suppose). I'll have my bevy of links, and will then attempt to compose a FPP based on the select few that I feel makes a complete "story" of sorts. Or, I will come across something truly random and bookmark it for later posting. What usually happens: the FPP posts that I think will be good go nowhere... and the ones that I think will be "so-so" take off! Of course this is not always the case, but seems to be a regular occurrence. Before I posted much, I generally hesitated. Now, I say "the heck with it!" You never really know what's going to get a lot of good response and interest. And what's the worst that can happen? Zero comments, an Eeeked thread to play in, or the occasional flame-war... The Curious George posts in which members pull together to help someone out in a pinch, those are the ones that I feel are most emblematic of MonkeyFilter at its best. I feel that this is a community that can be counted on in any situation. And after a bout of serious talk, a hearty round of merriment and jest can always be expected. That is all.
  • I don't post all that frequently but when I do it's usually just some random item that catches my eye that I think (often incorrectly) that other monkeys will find interesting and/or will have unlikely to have seen. Occasionally I will post an "agenda" item to spark ) discussion (again, mostly unsuccessfully on some subject that interests me (usually music related). I have a few of these up my sleeves for a rainy day. I too am curious how TUM, Hank and Homunculus et al. find their bits of fascinatia.
  • I suppose it may also come natural with one's line of work or routine habit. I remember when Side Dish was here, she posted like clockwork every day. I would sometimes wonder, "where does she come up with this stuff!?", but then would remember that she was a journalist.
  • I post on several relatively unrelated forums on such diverse subjects as sports, religion/philosophy and cars. Every once in a while I find something kind of interesting and post it. Sometimes I will simulpost to the Mothership, MoFi and MetaChat... then it's not stealing from any of them, is it?
  • My typical MO is to naturally acquire interesting links while pursuing my own interests. That takes a long time, though, as I only rarely find a site that I think is suitable. I have absolutely no compunctions about swiping a link from Metafilter or BoingBoing as long as it's legitimately interesting and something that I think Monkeys would find appealing.
  • Yeah, I'm like you Nickdanger. I actually find most links on LJ because I follow a bunch of linky journals on there.
  • I enter random ascii characters and just hope they link to something.
  • My dual home pages are my Google RSS reader and SFGate.com, the local rag's website.... in addition, I have a lot of friends on IM who seem to spelunk the darkest depths of teh intarwebs, and like to share the results with me. so a lot of things pass my eyes daily, and i try to share ones of monkeyinterest.
  • I'll die before I tell you anything.
  • For me, it depends on what I'm doing. If I come up with something, like the 31 days of posts I did for Gothtoberfest last year, I have a theme in mind and Google like mad. I started searching as soon as the idea hit me, in June. I spent four months searching, collecting, organizing, checking, discarding, and re-organizing links for that. And still had to do some last minute changes and substitutions when links turned out to be dead or someone else found and posted one of the things I was hoarding. I expected that to happen, and tried to have more links than I actually was going to need. I periodically post something from the leftovers (such as the post I did on Nick Brandt a while ago.) Most of the rest of the time, it's stuff I happen to find randomly while surfing around or reading the blogs of friends. Both of my last FPPs came from that. It's much more difficult and rare to find something new and interesting that way that hasn't already been here, so I don't post often when I'm going at it that way.
  • It's a price we're willing to pay-spill it, Hank.
  • I often feel that if I've seen something on one of the usual linky type sites, most Monkeys have probably seen it too. It may be a case of intertubes overload as well - there's so much crap to wade through just to get at the good bits and even an inveterate slacker like me only has so much time. Perhaps, monkeys being a more clever and discerning bunch, ( not that I'm particularly clever or discerning myself )a lower volume of posts is partly a reflection a general Monkey preference for quality over quantity. Even when the posting trails off a bit, most of the ones that do appear are thought-provoking, funny, artistic or quite silly, all worthy criteria, IMHO. Christophine's Gothertoberfest marathon was an example of both quantity and quality.
  • *applauds Christophine*
  • It's a price we're willing to pay He can only regenerate a certain number of times you know.
  • Yeah, I've only got, like, one left. I'll have to steal some human's body, and they decay too easily. Last time I got Eric Roberts, and that was awful. I might be persuaded to post a list of The Links I have all neatly categorised in my bookmarks file - but this would be a large list, and someone would have to tickle me just right. And then, of course, I would have given away, Prometheus-like, the secret html hunting grounds of links that I read thru' daily, and would no longer be obliged to share chunks that I find, since now the list would be out, and lack of posting on MoFi could not be blamed on too little time, not enough interesting stuff read, kids, work, etc, because you have The List, which can generate an interesting linkie in less than 15 min. So in fact I'm probably doing you a favour in not listing all my linkies. Plus, you might have to have Asperger's Syndrome like me to collect info the way I do. And sit on your arse all day with no responsibility, smoke weed, fall arse-backwards into MILFs & money, plus wear a fez. This solemn burden I bear for all mankind, as a sacrifice.
  • *weakly*I could wear a fez...
  • Come on, guys. It would be like, I don't know, Prospero giving up his books. You'd totally have make him, like, Duke of Milan or something.
  • So, if I read that right, Hank's secret weapon is Asperger's Syndrome.
  • I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you post something worthwhile
  • MonkeyFilter: sit on your arse all day with no responsibility, smoke weed, fall arse-backwards into MILFs & money, plus wear a fez That's truly beautiful, Hank. *wipes tear
  • * (added as a public service to Bluehorse)
  • Hank, I think giving up your deepest secrets is a bad idea, but giving us some clues as to how to find interesting stuff would be most courtly of you. We might not even find the same interesting stuff.