fine. if this gets me a meccachat shirt, i'm in.

aaaah, I like your evil schemes!

Yes! I finally have a reason to do my 100 link post concerning the worldwide affect of the song "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Phillip Baily.

I've had an awesome idea for a post for a long time. Now's the time!

Why, though, are comment number/quality a part of the judging of the post?

Wow, anastasiav - putting your money where your mouth is, and being all pro-active like, eh? You're gonna make the rest of us look bad!

Plus... Great idea!

cool---perezhilton (the former pagesixsixsix) hasn't been FPP'd yet.

Why, though, are comment number/quality a part of the judging of the post?

Because I want to know what the community thinks, not just what I think.

If, for example, and Art-related post got six comments and they were all "doesn't work for me in Firefox" (or whatever) that's something I'd need to take into consideration.

Note I didn't say the "most" comments -- just that I would take the number and quality/content of the comments into consideration when I make my decision.

ana, want me to link this in MeTa?

amberglow-already done by kenko.

ana-Way to show 'em what you got.

Yes! I finally have a reason to do my 100 link post concerning the worldwide affect of the song "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Phillip Baily.

Damn you. You stole my idea!

Yay! I've been waiting to do my post about Karl Rove, and it seems like I was right to wait!

jrun, that doesn't mean you have to have a tantrum and close down MeFi. I've been getting jrun errors for some time, and now I'm getting a 403 Forbidden. Ickypoo, and bad on you.

Thanks to Kenko for crossposting this to Metatalk.

A clarification request (not that I'm planning to compete): It's the best link, not the best FPP?

anastasiav, this is a most magnanimous gesture.

If your aim is to highlight what you think's good or raise the general standard or the like, then I'm curious as to what you think is lacking/oversupplied on MeFi at the moment? Do you think we need something added to the 'good post' definition (umm..wherever it is? wiki?) or am I reading tooooo much into your gesture? In other words, do you have any aims from this venture, other than to spur on the troops for the day, as it were?

(this should be very fun to watch, fireworks-wise) ; >

/me ducks.

Has anyone offered up a bounty for Take Back MetaChat Day yet?

i was offering my bluefly credit but who knows now
/ready to battle the meatworld

peacay, see this post for the basic answer.

I don't think all newsfilter is crap. But I'm sick of seeing the same eight or ten mainstream news sources all over the front page.

I want to encourage people to find independent voices out on the web and then post their finds to metafilter. Big Corporate Media and Big Corporate Corporations -- stuff I can find on the front page of Yahoo, or with a quick glance at Google news -- those aren't (to me) 'good posts'. Good posts are things I wouldn't see, not because I'm not interested, but because I've never stumbled across the corner of the web where they're sitting....

Maybe this out-of-the-mainstream stuff is news. Maybe its opinion. Maybe its art. Maybe its history. Maybe its just weird. Maybe its a blog. Maybe its commentary. But, whatever the topic, it engages me and makes me think. It might encourage discussion or argument, or it might just encourage reflection. Maybe its just fun and brings me joy.

So what are my aims for this venture? To make Mefi fun and surprising to read again, just for the day. To encourage people to think in a different way about what a "good post" is. To encourage commentary (I'm betting we'll see some interesting lobbying going on). To make people go out and scour the web and look at things they never would have seen before. To have fun.

Thanks for the depth of response anastasiav. But OUCH! One of those posts was mine. heh - unusually for me (I think), I did have a linky or 2 from MSM.

But you make very valid points and I hope it at least makes people think a bit before jumping for the 'post' button.

A clarification request (not that I'm planning to compete): It's the best link, not the best FPP?

nobody, good question. Although I wrote best 'link' I did, in fact, mean, best Front Page Post -- it could certainly be more than one link. Although, to be frank, if you look back through my past lists of best MeFi posts you'll see, I think, that I do tend to favor single link posts over link-o-rama extravaganzas.

Awesome idea, anastasiav. I can't wait to see the results.

Maybe this out-of-the-mainstream stuff is news. Maybe its opinion. Maybe its art. Maybe its history. Maybe its just weird. Maybe its a blog. Maybe its commentary. But, whatever the topic, it engages me and makes me think. It might encourage discussion or argument, or it might just encourage reflection. Maybe its just fun and brings me joy.

But a lot of the news posts are just that. Are you clicking on all the links or are you immediately writing off something because on first glance it's about a current event or terrorism or politics? (my judge's sentencing/anti-patriot act thing was crooks and liars' very own scoop, and i would never have seen it otherwise.) And opinion is frowned upon on the front page, no?

anastasiavMoneyFilter is very vague, i think.

*rolls up sleeves, gets to work*

Are you clicking on all the links or are you immediately writing off something because on first glance it's about a current event or terrorism or politics?

I don't write off anything, but if I click a link and am driven immediately to a Yahoo, BBC, or CNN page, the chances are I won't read the content and will just move along.

Look, I'm not saying that my tastes are the only tastes -- I'd love to have another long time member pick up the idea for September 1st. What I am saying is that Variety is the Spice of Life.

(if you had started this idea without first bitching about newsfilter, i would be reacting differently i think)

I look forward to seeing the links that come out of this - I may even see what I can come up with

I have thought about this, and this is what I think:

You can't force serendipity.

And that is why I usually want to shake people who say, "Hey, you don't like all the crap on MeFi? Fight back! Post something wonderful, hot shot!"

At a given time, there's only so much wonderful stuff you can find. There may be none at all. The interstices should be steeped in silence, not crammed with crap.

I've never actually shaken anyone.

≡ Click to see image ≡

Well, i think if this was ana's aim all along, then it wouldn't be called "Take Back Metafilter".

It reminds me of all the shit Miguel used to get for ChatFilter, and it's insulting. Take it back from who? Take it back from what? And is newsfilter worse than the offensive shit allowed nowadays? Is it worse than the accusations of treason? Is it worse than the recent allowing of ethnic/sexual/weight-based insults? I guess apparently so.

As someone who lurked for ages and only truly knew i wanted to belong bec of the 9/11 thread--which was Newsfilter by the way (and i know there are many thousands of newer people after me who have the same thought, because they were lurking all during the election and liked what they saw), it's some weird passive-aggresive thing--if you want to encourage something, don't shit first. I'm just glad that most of the newer members don't have to endure the shit us older newbies did and still do.

I'm sorry you don't like how MeFi is now. I don't like that trolls and asses are allowed to run free myself. It changes all the time, and it's still changing. That's the curse and the charm.

If i had a "Take Back MeFi" thing, it would be to encourage and support (and it wouldn't be called "Take Back" anything). I'm sorry you tried the stick (like our self-appointed sheriffs--like Steve @--a while ago), and then turned to a carrot.

Juju and Plep and many others who consistently and faithfully post interesting things don't bitch about the lack of comments or that newsfilter gets more attention--they're happy just to share (which is what us newsfilter people are doing too, in case you didn't realize, and which is what 99% of all posters are doing--probably 100%). Nor do they launch any campaigns to "Take MeFi Back". I really wish you had thought of this before your bitching about "Newsfilter Crap".

amberglow - I don't think anyone's accusing you of being personally responsible, or anything like that; and I hope you're not taking it that way.

Anyway, what's wrong with carrots? That's why we're all here, isn't it? -> bottom right hand corner ;)

i'm not taking it personally, but i wish this would have been ana's first reaction to her unhappiness with "newsfilter crap"

I've been working for over an hour for a long reply to this, amberglow, but after much thought I'll sum it up with this:

1) I thought about the whole "Take Back Metafilter" name very carefully before I used it.

2) Go back and read my original post again -- what are the questions I'm asking? Am I asking why its all news? No, I am not. My focus question was this:

Has the web really been that completely saturated with commercial crap that its not possible to find new independent content?

What I'm looking to encourage here is thougtfullness and balance, not the obliteration of current events discussions. What I was bemoaning in my original post was two things: first that the scales had tipped more than two to one in favor of nes, and second, that the vast bulk of that news was coming from a handful of very mainstream sites.

What I have always enjoyed most about Mefi was the balance between current events and random cool shit. What I saw yesterday, and what frustrated me, was a site where the balance was tipped over too far in one direction: "newsfilter" posts (mainly sourced from very mainstream sites like bbc, cnn, yahoo news, msn, nyt, etc) overwhelming (and possibly driving out) the 'other cool shit' by a margin of more than two to one.

3) I can't quite suss out why you seem to be so extremely insulted by this, but I'm sorry that you are. I hope you'll take some time to review my posting history before you decide to lump me in with the haters and the bitch-and-moan crowd.

On preview: So its the other post that has upset you then? Not this one? I have to confess to being somewhat confused here. "Newsfilter Crap" does not equal all news: I thought I'd been pretty clear about that. You want to talk about current events? Great! I'll be happy to read a good Troutfishing or even Y2karl post any day. I even miss Steve@ and ParisP. But there are other ways to present current events than to link to yahoo, bbc, cbc, cnn, and the same six or seven other sites. Be creative. The web is vast. We don't need to look at the same dozen sites every day.

Happy MeFi Birthday, by the way. (At least, it was your MeFi birthday when I started writing this....)

hm. Well I was writing this, as anastasiav was writing hers... I think we're agreeing.

Take it back from who? Take it back from what?

Take it back from being considered a primarily a "news blog" or "politics blog" (which is increasingly how it's being described these days) by trying to encourage other kinds of posts in addition to good news posts, which should stay. It's just something fun, and I think a very good time will be had on Monday.

You're obviously angry, amberglow, but nobody who has complained about the balance shift towards more and more news and politics posts has suggested getting rid of them. Well-made news posts are part of what I like about MetaFilter, and I think anastasiav feels the same way... but if had my preference, Metafilter wouldn't become a "news blog", and it would be the kind of place where people would feel encouraged to post their cool, unusual links when they find them.

I don't get amberglow's fury at all. It's an interesting, provocative idea, anastasiav. Hope it doesn't result in a flood of mediocre trying-too-hard posts on Monday.

I'll leave for a well-deserved vacation on the 31st, and I'll stay blissfully away from computers for about 2 weeks.

just sayin'

I will contact the winner on Wednesday, August 3rd via email

That's my 40th birthday. Therefore, I should win by default!

Also, having actually read the thread, I gotta say that you, amberglow, are part of the MeFi problem. No, seriously. You sent me an email once, a long time ago, that said pretty much the same thing to me, which I immediately trashed, because I just didn't care, so take this in the same spirit: I'm sure you're a helluva guy in person -- folks say so, and shoutout to you with disconcerting frequency and all that -- but you're one of the people that has dragged Metafilter (or the blue, which is Metafilter, I guess) into a shittier place, unapologetically and consistently, for a long time now. For what it's worth. I'm not attacking you, here, but you have this political axe-grinding vision of Metafilter that's just flat fuckin' wrong, from where I sit.

Not that I want you to shut up about it or anything -- do what thou wilt -- but I don't like it, no sir. For what little it's worth.

I support anastasiav in this.

if had my preference, Metafilter wouldn't become a "news blog", and it would be the kind of place where people would feel encouraged to post their cool, unusual links when they find them.

taz is way, way too softspoken here, I reckon. But that's because she's so freakin' nice, damn her eyes.

Ah fuck it, never mind. It's only a goddamn website.

i have one wan request if for some freakish reason get a chance to do this and win:
could i just have five dollars instead? send it straight to matt and let me get a new handle, how ever this works--
sure i'd like some meh mehchandise as well but whatever.

You already have a new account, though, don't you?

but i'll kill it, in that case