MetaChat - The MeFi Cult of Celebrity

There is no cabal.

posted by yhbc 02 June | 11:01

Move along.

posted by papercake 02 June | 11:02

And why don't I get more play on the blue? Any of me? You'd think that people are actually taking the proscription against front-page goatse seriously. Double-you tee eff?

posted by goatsetubgirlknifebutt 02 June | 11:06

I think there are certain posters who either post so much or with a certain style that they are especially memorable.

My question is, how do I become one of those people?

posted by drezdn 02 June | 11:07

I bet you think this song is about you.

posted by loquacious 02 June | 11:07

Double-you tee eff?
*mumbles quietly to self*
Oh! I get what you mean!

posted by Doohickie 02 June | 11:11

drezdn, who says you aren't?

posted by dabitch 02 June | 11:14

To be honest, I think that is why places like MoFi and MeCha spring up: To get away from the chosen few that dominate MeFi. We go back to MeFi for the occasional c00l link or the frequent meltdown thread. But most of us are too slow to say anything original on MeFi. Amberglow beats me to it every time (and usually make my point better than I could anyway).

posted by Doohickie 02 June | 11:15

; P

(i just have a big mouth, is all. and at work it's all go,go,go, then wait,wait,wait.)

posted by amberglow 02 June | 11:18

; P

(i just have a big mouth, is all. and at work it's all go,go,go, then wait,wait,wait.)

posted by amberglow 02 June | 11:19

and repetitive post disorder.

posted by amberglow 02 June | 11:19

and when amber's busy, I take over. It took months for us to work out a split shift arrangement. show some gratitude, dammit.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 11:20

Yeah, I always wonder if it's a combination of specific people simultaneously having enough time to participate in a shitload of threads and a distinct-enough style/message for them to get consistently noticed.

posted by cobra! 02 June | 11:21

Posting stats follow a powerlaw distribution (or something like that, lognormal?)

So do a lot of other social statistics.

I wonder why....?

posted by warbaby 02 June | 11:21

I find it refreshing to read a thread, think of a response or post, and then find out someone has already posted it.

Stretches the old noggin', and is a nice, bracing slap in the face - a reminder that original thought is very difficult.

Plus, it allows me to save my typing for other stuff, like creative swearing and insults.

posted by loquacious 02 June | 11:21

Are the insults creative as well, or just the swearing?

posted by Doohickie 02 June | 11:23

The first rule of The MeFi Cult of Celebrity is that you do not talk about The MeFi Cult of Celebrity.

(sorry, someone had to say it)

posted by iconomy 02 June | 11:23

I find it refreshing to read a thread, think of a response or post, and then find out someone has already posted it.

posted by arse_hat 02 June | 11:24

We have cult followings? I wish someone would've told me so I could've defiled my female worshippers. Or at least made Kool-Aid.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 11:25

Actually, jonmc, I'm glad you posted here... you're sort of a prime example of what I mean. I like your posts, and am always interested in what you have to say; but it's weird to me how often threads you participate in become public discussions about your personal pros and cons.

That's a weird group dynamic, I think. There are other people who post frequently with strong opinions, but they don't get the same constant mass-analysis.

posted by cobra! 02 June | 11:27

I just love The Smiths. Does anyone here have strong opinions about The Smiths?

And you wonder why threads that jonmc particpates in become discussions about his opinions.

posted by yhbc 02 June | 11:29

but it's weird to me how often threads you participate in become public discussions about your personal pros and cons.

Truth be told, I dislike it when that happens, too. But it's almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy, since those who dislike my stuff tend to be very vocal about it. I'd just as soon be one of the guys instead of some kind of celebrity.

yhbc: don't be a smartass. be a dumbass.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 11:30

I mean, it's like baiting bears with honey.

posted by yhbc 02 June | 11:30

In Soviet Union, the first rule of ult of Celebrity is that does not talk about you!

posted by Doohickie 02 June | 11:31

See?

;-)

posted by yhbc 02 June | 11:31

Damn... what happened to that first C? Shit.

posted by Doohickie 02 June | 11:32

I'm neutral on the Smiths, but I love playing "Death of a Disco Dancer" because I just put up a wall of weird guitar noise.

posted by cobra! 02 June | 11:32

[smears honey on yhbc's ass]

posted by Orange Swan 02 June | 11:33

*plugs ears and ignores discussion of Smiths*

LA LA LA LA! I can't HEAR you!

posted by Doohickie 02 June | 11:33

[smears honey on yhbc's ass]

citrus waterfowl, all the honey in the world won't make me go near da commish's ass.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 11:34

You're not a real bear, then, Jon. We just need to bide our time until say, Winnie the Pooh comes along.

posted by Orange Swan 02 June | 11:40

Of course, I'm not a bear. I'm more like a hyena.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 11:41

Don't fret the typos, Doohikie.

posted by iconomy 02 June | 11:49

oh so that's what I've been doing wrong all these years.

posted by dabitch 02 June | 11:53

Can we have a list of the celebrity members? For all sorts of reasons...

posted by gsb 02 June | 12:08

That dingo ate my baby!!

posted by loquacious 02 June | 12:12

There are high-profile posters? Like who?

posted by orthogonality 02 June | 12:37

Can we have a list of the celebrity members? For all sorts of reasons...
me
jonmc
Brad Pitt
Tom Cruise
Paris Hilton
Lindsay Lohan
Tara Reid
...

posted by amberglow 02 June | 12:47

oh, jon, do you remember that older lurker guy who came to a meetup? (i think it was the matt meetup at Pete's Tavern) i saw him fri night when i was out with matteo and cinzia--he remembered me.

(he's creepy tho)

posted by amberglow 02 June | 12:49

Hopefully he doesn't read metachat.

posted by iconomy 02 June | 13:05

actually, i just like to say smock.

posted by quonsar 02 June | 13:06

q's like the Walter Cronkite of MeFI, no?

iconomy, i hope you're right

posted by amberglow 02 June | 13:14

he seemed OK at the matt meetup, but then again I'll tolerate anyone who'll listen to me.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 13:19

I'm not in the know on the Walt Cronkite thing, but I like the format: If (dubious mefi celeb) was a real life celebrity, what celebrity would they be?

posted by rainbaby 02 June | 13:21

Truth be told, I dislike it when that happens, too.

I'll take your word for it because I feel the same way. But I think it's a natural and reasonable suspicion to suppose otherwise. There are people who love to be the center of attention, good or bad.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think that your example is very close to what I think of my own. Frankly, I'm uncomfortable being the center of attention—I'm certainly not like the people I know who are performing personalities. But what I think happens in both our cases is that we lack to some degree an awareness of when some threshold has been crossed where other people would have made damn sure they're out of the limelight already. It's not so much being self-centered as it is a social impairment of some sort.

However, I'm more generous and forgiving than most (I think) and being so, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone on mefi that I'm sure is thrilled when a thread becomes All About Them. quonsar, I think, is a performer; but he's pretty careful to moderate his participation so that the spotlight is on him only for those moments when he wishes it.

posted by kmellis 02 June | 14:10

But I think it's a natural and reasonable suspicion to suppose otherwise.

And I really wasn't trying to accuse anyone... I'm mostly curious as to why it happens to some people and not others.

Take, for example, nofundy. Shows up in a lot of threads, says argument-provoking or attention-getting things, and it rolls off of the collective's back. You see occasional complaints, but it's certainly not the case that threads frequently become about nofundy.

(not, by the way, that I'm saying that there's any similarity between what either of you two, jonmc and kmellis, and nofundy post. I chose him because he was the first example I could think of where a person posts a lot but never really gets discussed)

posted by cobra! 02 June | 14:37

"And I really wasn't trying to accuse anyone..."

I didn't assume so. But I think most everyone has such suspicions...excepting the target, of course.

posted by kmellis 02 June | 15:08

they used to be more about nofundy in the past, i think...now that there are so many more people and new people, it's less likely that one member will stand out i think, unless they're a troll or say something incredibly provoking.

posted by amberglow 02 June | 15:25

And then there are those who yearn for more!

Do You Have 'Blogebrity' Status?
"Two weeks ago, if you 'Googled' the term 'blogebrity,' you would have received zero results. Today you'll get more than 80,000." [CNET | June 02, 2005]

posted by ericb 02 June | 17:17

This would be a good Ask MeFi question.

posted by sjvilla79 02 June | 17:18

in the socratic pedigree which pillages my heart, a deeply held bung cropper awaits the dawn with glee. for only so much as telephatic embraces can fondle the fruit of lawn boys, the gossamer toothpick sings. i am truly then, an allen wrench of fuzzy math.

posted by quonsar 02 June | 17:49

i love it when people fill in gaps or save me the trouble of typing
hope it happens here
if it's not too game to play mute

jonmc: i can explain a specific example in your case later that may help

--signed the devil's quonsar in BizarroFilter

posted by ethylene 02 June | 18:11

jonmc: i can explain a specific example in your case later that may help

As Ross Perot said, I'm all ears. Consider my curiosity piqued.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 18:27

I'll tolerate anyone who'll listen to me.

Wow, what's that like?

posted by dg 02 June | 19:01

I imagine it's like sleeping with a woman.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 19:31

a drooling one, or the standard version?

posted by andrew cooke 02 June | 19:37

Eeee hee heeee that was funny, AC.

posted by Specklet 02 June | 19:41

a drooling one, or the standard version?

Don't knock the drooling ones, they always swallow. They dribble it back up again, sure, but still.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 19:47

Hey, a swallow is a swallow.

Of course, one swallow does not a summer make, but it can sure make your day.

posted by dg 02 June | 20:30

my jonmc moment:

Once upon a time very recently in a place not far away barring server error, a single user was trying to figure out for the first time if she was banned for life, as she wanted to change her profile page or have it removed. In the muzzy missive she sent to Grandsteward jessamyn, she rambled forth in response to an unclear definitive as she scanned the old place and caught an exchange in a thread by jonmc.

Was this the jonmc she thought she had recognized from comments past? Had she mixed up her mcs and jons? good lord, had she been misinterpreting a clever turn of phrase where and there to the wrong user and for how long?

No, jonmc was jonmc, but the sentiments expressed did not jibe with what she thought was jonmc because of how he was expressing himself in forging ahead to defend the point behind a metaphor or usage of language behind a comment long past, despite the mounting cries to admit the aspect being discussed was not his launch point.
His point made, he lumbered off to his own interest which had waned in the bother. As to his return i do not know.

Was that the first she saw of this jonmc, her impressions would have not need adjustment, had she closely observed his other encounters of this nature, she would not have noticed. Did this change her jonmc notions? Not really, just another piece of the puzzle but to some all they had seen of the jonmc in action of their notice.
"Ooh that, jonmc." some boiled, "it spouts off without compunction all the time on all manner of sport. What tupping liberty this jonmc takes! Why have I not the liberty to assume as I please? Should I take this passionate moment to act?"

enter x=quonsar or any variable you assume to have worth

but before that other tale is told, what happened to the user and the unknowingly revalued jonmc?

the user received a an immediate sawbuck infusion from a good fairy with a paypal wand who wished her not to give up on the easy of use to navigate it by means of its growing railways and footpaths, despite that she knew not if she would need a railway pass, but gamely accepted half as a sign of good faith, continuing on with her travels and travails. She saw the jonmc and nodded, and waved greeting at the other creatures she knew as dispersing crowds mumbled of the jonmc.
To dooce him? To rail? should one study the jonmc for points of weakness? but my crops need watering, possibly with the piss and vinegar born of jonmc! My carefully constructed buttress has been passed unnoticed by the likes of jonmcs! Why does no one stop him?

Some endeavored to read the books of jonmc but tired, some skimmed for things to support their outrage, but the adventures of the jonmc kept growing--

What happened to the jonmc? Really wanna read that book? What's happening to the jonmc? Much easier to gather at leisure if it catches the eye at all, but look over there, someone set off a sparkler with the force of his own flatulence! Whee, i bet he knows the arcane sciences the buttclench. Look at how the crowd marvels! i wonder what the unquantified jonmc thinks?

posted by ethylene 02 June | 21:25

That's beautiful, ethylene, but for the life of me, I have no fucking idea what you're talking about.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 21:33

well pick a language mode, ya mook, and i'll email it to ya

it's not all about you
*hmmff*

posted by ethylene 02 June | 21:35

how about plain-spoken American English? It's always worked for me.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 21:38

the moral of the story is how much do you really care? it's become an issue but enough to change to adjust it? Well, that would take effort, and the enviroment continues to change around you according to every buttsparkler and buttsparkling crowd--

just don't light a buttsparkler just because someone else has

that would ruin my jonmc notions entirely
and don't run at the buttsparks just because everyone else is, or maybe less, if you care to change the tone of books of jonmc at the free lending library of your online history

posted by ethylene 02 June | 21:59

the moral of the story is how much do you really care?

Well, I do care if anyone is actually getting the point of what i'm trying to communicate at any given moment, and oddly enough, it's been the most unlikely candidates who do.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 22:04

Ah, now I get it! ethylene is a sockpuppet for thomcatspike.

posted by dg 02 June | 22:08

i remember ethylene.

posted by quonsar 02 June | 22:14

but those are individual points of light in a sea of match sticks
they've become acquainted with your name before whatever face you are presenting if they even bother to give it a look

is it that hard to step back and see what you present to the casual or occassional user and do you care or should you?

whatever you present at whatever time could be all anyone ever knows of you. you haven't let that inhibit you before, but how much of this is habit or disturbs your identity/integrity

you could be an entirely different aspect of jonmc here

look what happens when you go "behind the quonsar"

posted by ethylene 02 June | 22:17

whatever you present at whatever time could be all anyone ever knows of you.

But that's they're problem, not mine. And everyone who's ever seriously engaged with me, including people who perenially disagreed with me has eventually figured out what I'm about, so the one's who don't get it can quite frankly go fuck themselves.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 22:20

exactly, and that's what you have so clearly expressed

ta da

so why does it bug ya?

posted by ethylene 02 June | 22:24

because I have to deal with the putzes who don't get it everyday, and that gets extremely aggravating, and the temptation to cut them down to size is soooo great.

posted by jonmc 02 June | 22:26

you are too close to the picture
step back and take a good perspective view
are you using your handle just for venting?
stick it on your profile page for whoever gives a shit.

you like the back and forth, the thinking out loud, in type
some people are wondering who the hell we think we are taking up their valuble eyespace

to engage you is reliably to engage, but when some people may want to add a comment or an aspect, you are still in rant mode about what pissed you off and blowing them off just the same
and you know it, is the thing
you may come back and recant but they don't happen to see what you thought.

they infer we are attention seeking because that could explain why we bother.

there are always easy answers when you make the points so small

it's context

you are bad, i am evil, q is the chick who makes james bond stuff

posted by ethylene 02 June | 22:36

should anyone try and punctuate me
damn well get the inflections right

posted by ethylene 02 June | 22:42

"Celebrities"? I remember when people who spent their lives online were called NERDS!

Why do threads frequently stop being about whatever link was posted and instead become discussions about a given high-profile poster?

Ok--semi-serious half-drunken answer: because the all the net is fiction and melodrama is the easiest kind of fiction to write. Caricatures are the easiest to write a melodrama around and caricatured posters who write a lot are even more melodramatic. Everyone wants a wack at jonmc's working class hero or EB's logorrheic egghead 'cause they're low-hanging fruit. Same reason soap opera stars always get pregnant. T'aint nothin' wrong with that, necessarily. It's just the dynamics of rhetoric.

posted by Tacky O. Assis 02 June | 23:13

That shit's "whack" not "wack".

posted by Tacky O. Assis 02 June | 23:16

what's with the cheerleader skirt, girlfriend, when you tryin' to be all down wit' the nerds--

sassy

posted by ethylene 02 June | 23:32

what's with the cheerleader skirt

'cause I feel so free!

posted by Tacky O. Assis 02 June | 23:49

welcome to the internet
*clink glasses*

posted by ethylene 02 June | 23:54

Jeez, ethylene here is like some frightening hybrid of thomcatspike and...and...help me out, somebody.

posted by kmellis 03 June | 00:11

do quantify me in your barbaric tongue

posted by ethylene 03 June | 00:16

thomcatspike and...and...MiguelCardoso?

God help us all.

posted by dg 03 June | 00:26

I miss Miguel. Seriously.

posted by ColdChef 03 June | 00:26

but who do you miss most of all?

posted by ethylene 03 June | 00:41

I miss Miguel too. If nothing else, he was a gentleman.

I miss Evanizer too. He was no gentleman, but I liked him anyway.

posted by dg 03 June | 01:50

and i weep copious tears for fear of what jonmc is thinking
no, seriously

posted by ethylene 03 June | 02:37

A really easy way to become a MeFi Celebrity is to post "right-wing" stuff.

You'll get noticed right quick.

posted by Linnwood 03 June | 18:24

Celebrity Cults are so Last Year on MoFi.

posted by wendell 03 June | 21:15

02 June 2005