May 19, 2005

• I was thinking of this idea just the past hour, as I'd be curious to see what everyone else is up to. I second the idea of a Self-Link Day.
• Wiki?
• The wiki is nice, but it would be good to have something here on MoFi proper.. And periodical too.
• This sounds excellent to me. I appreciate all the work that went into the Wiki, but I for one would like to be able to post on the main site, and without other people being able to edit what I post.
• No. Self linking is always bad. That's what the wiki is for.
• Ok, it's settled then. Thread over.
• What rocket said, sorry. That was the absolute exact reason I set up the Wiki. No one has yet edited anyone else's posts to the project page, except to add divider lines and comment on the projects themselves. And after the last three posts, I'm kind of burnt out on anything self-link related right now.
• Maybe if we're not Canadian it'll be ok.
• Actually, I think having one thread a month for self-linking is a great idea! I don't read the wiki, as it's more work, and I look at pages like MoFi because they save me the effort of looking for cool stuff! Also, this is a cool community, and I'm sure that members are doing nifty things but are too polite to post them. I like this idea. How about, on the first of every month, whoever gets to it first posts a "MeMoFi!" post (short for "MeMonkeyFilter")(or whatever convention you all settle on), wherein community members post descriptions and links to cool things they've done over the past month. It's clean and neat on the front page, and anyone curious to look at self-postings can follow the thread. Those that loathe them can ignore it. If it gets busy I suppose we can go weekly. Thoughts?
• You like to "show off"? What sort of person likes to "show off"?
• You like to "show off"? What sort of person likes to "show off"? Who doesn't! Assuming it's a socially accepted forum approving of such displays...
• Thoughts? You missed the comment by the administrator of this site.
• Reading a wiki is work? Do you have no fingers, or no eyes? /attempt at humorous/ironic snark
• Or perhaps some other organ is missing? /pile on because we love you.
• Maybe if we're not Canadian it'll be ok. *consults zabasearch, ratchets down poutine catapult
• I believe the wiki/work point is that wiki navigation is not nearly as easy as it is here. OTOH, there is a link to the projects page right there on the front page
• How about this for a compromise position: let's all of us keep an eye on the wiki project page, and if there's a user project that seems worthy of posting at Monkeyfilter proper, go ahead and post it. That way we get the benefits of having an objective observer filtering out the worthy stuff, but we still get to highlight the projects of our fellow community members. Additionally, it's sometimes interesting to click through to random monkey's pages. That's how I ended up writing this post, for example. While all of the projects currently in the wiki strike me as interesting and worthwhile, only one really feels to me like a suitable subject for an front page post. And you know what? I'm going to go post it right now.
• How about this: "Curious george: I was wondering what creative things people did this month." That seems totally legal under current posting rules. Self-links are allowed in comments anyway, anyone who's uninterested can skip over the whole thread.
• I think if everyone is hellbent on putting it on the front page (and I agree with tracicle that it's simple enough to keep it on the wiki, 2 clicks away after all) at least make it a little less often than once a month. I highly doubt there will be enough people regularly making interesting content every single month to make it worthwhile. Skipping threads is an interesting argument. There's a reason double posts and self links are removed from the front page rather than we just "skip over what we don't like" and that's because they are nothing but junk on the front page. In my opinion a front page post about current projects which already show up in the Wiki is basically a double post anyway. But that's just my opinion.
• I thought the reason self-links were removed was to discourage the jackasses who come here just to flog their blog (that rhymes!) or whatever and have no interest in joining the community. I hardly think one post a month about what we're up to is a big deal. I mean, we put stuff like "curious george: what memory should I put in my coumpter?" up there all the time. [not bashing those kind of posts, that is one of mine, actually]
• I guess I probably fall into the category of monkeys that loathes seeing a large handful of curious george posts on the front page, especially when they end up being the "What places do you like to eat at?" "What's your favorite color" type posts. But there is a good amount of monkeys that do enjoy these types of posts so I was just voicing my opinion on it. I don't see it as a big deal, I just think there's already a place for personal projects, why try to make another one (against the admin's wishes even)?
• And just so we're clear, I think what's being proposed here is 1 post per month TOTAL, and everyone links their stuff under comments, as opposed to FPPs about each individual project.
• but genial, what IS your favorite color?
• Black, which isn't really a color at all. Meanwhile I tend to cook my own food, but when I eat out I like hole-in-the-wall family restaurants. I also like racquetball, pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain. Seeking SWF for friendship. No smokers, asstat is +1 doublegood.
• Quick, everyone who has a blog link to each other. A virtual daisy chain.
• The idea of one post per month, with all the self-links heaped into a single comment thread, is a really good compromise. OK, I'm outta here, got a pot pie in the oven.
• Reading a wiki is work? Do you have no fingers, or no eyes? Yes, reading the wiki is work. In addition to the 40+ hours I spend on teaching, grading papers, planning lessons, and trying to get my students to awaken from the zombie status into which the media empires are attempting to lull them, I also do assloads of work with East Timor solidarity groups, Amnesty International, and other organizations. So when I have five minutes of spare time, I like to read my friends' blogs and check in on CommonDreams, Democracy Now, and MonkeyFilter. To make an extra trip on a regular basis to a wiki to search the Recent Changes page for artistic projects would add an extra burden that I hoped to alleviate with this idea. I will always be indebted to you for your incredible work making MoFi what it is, Tracy, but I'm sad that this (IMHO) reasonable proposal has been so soundly rejected out of hand. (And for the record, I produce creative projects on a regular basis [last one is an mp3 audiocast link]. And because I work so hard on them, I do indeed like to show them off.)
• ...I'm sad that this (IMHO) reasonable proposal has been so soundly rejected out of hand. It could be because I went to a fair bit of effort setting up a place for people to do what's being requested here that seemed a reasonable compromise, but apparently isn't.
• Perhaps this could be settled with rock scissors paper.
• Methinks there's more to this than the pressing need to avoid the incredible burden of making one click.
• Rules is rules. There's a wiki- use it or don't.
• I wonder if the issue is that posting it here in MoFi would presumably achieve wider coverage than a link on the wiki will get. That's understandable, but I envisioned it as simply a way to get the word out to other monkeys, not to the world at large. Perhaps I've been overly naive -- it wouldn't be the first time. :)
• Yeah, one click is not difficult. Bookmark it. Then you can go straight there. If it's about wider coverage, well, I think tracicle is right to point to the wiki. That way, those of us who want to, can check it out. Those that don't, don't have to. And if it means it'll be harder for spammers to find and exploit than an FPP and monthly thread, so much the better.
• There's a real market for someone to provide a service that promotes blogs. I mean really, how many new blogs are added everyday? Hundreds? Thousands? (and most of them are inane) Any doofus can put up a site but it takes talent to get linked across the blogosphere. There's a demand for such a service. People are willing to do anything to be heard in this clamorous world. Look at Fark if you want a prime example. The content is often paid for and they're making big bucks from it. Users provide the content here. There is no paid content. We don't have to read stealth marketing posts about Halls Fruit Flavored Buttplugs. (thanks scaramouch) The deleted posts bin is full of them. (posts, not buttplugs) There is a great demand for traffic. The world is saying "look at me" There are so many people wanting to be heard I see something like this happening; I start a new blog where I feature close up photos of my nose hair and my Star Wars cereal box collection. A friend tells me about a free site that gets nice traffic where I can join for free. I also can post for free and once a month I'll get to promote my blog on the front page. Damned right I'm joining. Maybe I'll post a comment once or twice but just think of the traffic I'll get from that once a month personal projects FPP. Unrealistic? maybe...but It still amazes me what people will do to be heard, Oh yea, Use the wiki, it rocks.
• I just discovered that the user profiles here have a 1000 character limit, but the wiki user pages don't. Which makes the wiki super duper cool. Thanks so much to tracicle and michaelh!
• Hundreds? Thousands? More like hundreds of thousands...
• ok whatever tracicle decides is fine. But I think we've gone a little bit overboard with ascribing sinister motivations to people who came out in favor. I think I speak for all of us when I say, we had no secret plan to market our own work via monkeyfilter. We just know and love the monekyfilter interface, it has the newest comments right there when you come to the page so you can see whenever something new is posted, we thought it would be a great system to see who's doing what and support each other. And one more curious george post a month would hardly be a big deal or clog up the site in any noticeable way.
• I'll get to promote my blog on the front page ps no one ever proposed letting anyone promote anything on the front page. read the original post.
• read the original post. reading original post... I propose one FPP What does fpp mean? I ferget..
• It's short for "fapp".
• In lieu of FPP's, can't we just put "Wiki" at the top right of the front page? I always have to dig the wiki.monkeyfilter.com out of my bookmarks.
• I want to give it a little more time to find itself before I promote the Wiki too heavily. We've still got a ways to go as far as figuring out what it's going to be used for and how.
• Here's a thought: The goal of "showing off" should be to people who appreciate it. The membership here, though generally squishy and adle-pated, doesn't appreciate self-links, even if they are cool (it's got to do with that thing called netiquette, that I keep reading about in Slate articles). But, if you post to the projects wiki, chances are someone who may be interested in your creative project and who has no real qualms about putting up crap links (like me) might be interested enough to FPP it. Then you're being shown off, not showing off, and everyone is moderately happy. See how that might work?
• Hello scartol. You have the occaisional "five minutes of spare time". To make an extra trip on a regular basis to a wiki to search the Recent Changes page for artistic projects would add an "extra burden". But you could just bookmark the one wiki page, instead of seeking out a monkeyfilter post every month. You "produce creative projects on a regular basis" and because you "work so hard on them" you "like to show them off". And that is your real point, isn't it? Because your argument about being too busy defending human rights to make one bookmark is laughable. Said with a lot of respect towards an interesting monkey doing very interesting stuff. Also I like your blog.
• Tzu Kung remarked, "A gentleman does not boast. But if custom appoints a special day for self-posting, surely he need not then have recourse to the wiki?" Confucius said, "To acquiese in silence when the Bashi has spoken; that too may perhaps be accounted virtuous." Analects, Chapter 5 verse 28
• Can we just have one FPP a month where MoFi folk can post pictures of their cocks? I mean, I realize that there's another place for that (Craigslist), but I have a pretty nice cock, and I like to show off. What do you think?
• I would like to see your cock, js. Also, I would like to see my cock, too, but I appear to have mislaid it somewhere
• "Tis by no means a poultry loss...
• Fowl joke, bees.
• *tries desperately to think of some relevant pun about putting my capon, or something similar, but fails terribly*
• Just say t' shell with it?
• I mean, I realize that there's another place for that (Craigslist) It's funny 'cause it's true!