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MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

11 June 2007

What's your niche? I created an FPP for MeFi tonight about crafting with plastic bags, and as I worked on it I mused that, although I'm a lacklustre poster, I do seem to have a niche: unusual craft posts. Over here, of course, my niche is telling stories. What do you feel you do as a MeFite or MeChazen that distinguishes you a little from the herd?
post by: Orange Swan at: 23:55 | 69 comments
Nothing really. I don't much stand out on-line me thinks.
posted by arse_hat 12 June | 00:00
eek, that's easy for me: anything to do with bicycles.

i'm sometimes good at annoying people without cause.
posted by lonefrontranger 12 June | 00:10
I'm known around these parts for the size of my... sock drawer.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 12 June | 00:29
I think most people already knows what my niche is.
posted by puke & cry 12 June | 00:42
knows
posted by puke & cry 12 June | 00:46
Well, I think my niche is pretty obvious by this point: I'm scody's go-to guy for things Strummer-related - a role, I might add, in which I feel quite comfortable.
posted by bmarkey 12 June | 01:14
firmly within the herd, though it does seem that I have a knack for being the last commenter in those threads where I post (of course it won't happen with this one)
posted by PY 12 June | 01:22
I was thinking about what my niche is and should be lately, but after my contributions to the Ralph Wiggum Thread, I may be re-defining myself as a source of reasonably plausible but totally made-up explanations of things, and I could seriously get into that.
posted by wendell 12 June | 01:30
Like arse_hat, I'm pretty much one of the crowd both here and at MeFi.
posted by dg 12 June | 02:16
On occasion, I have been known to have one or two things to say about a certain British musician who's not Joe Strummer (bmarkey's got that covered!). Also, I tend to weigh in on questions pertaining to relationships and modern art. One of these days I expect to craft a post combining all three.
posted by scody 12 June | 02:21
I'm nobody special on MeCha, but on #bunnies I am known well for talking about my love life way too much.
posted by Twiggy 12 June | 02:23
Oh, I'm known for the various memes I've created (examples: LOL, linking to other websites, various emoticons other than ':P').

A few people know me as the guy who solves every relationship AskMe question, but only through anonymous emails to the OP. I invented the flame-out and the call-out. The pink bunny on the hill decays at a rate determined by my calculations.

I convinced the elephant to pose for the elephant-pissing pic. I caught the fish that is now in the pants.
posted by mullacc 12 June | 03:13
mullac = Al Gore
posted by doctor_negative 12 June | 03:38
I'm the cute one.
posted by jonmc 12 June | 05:54
I'm late to every thread. It annoys me to no end that I'm often the last comment, and I wonder if anyone even reads what I say. That and I'm convinced that I never say it as well as so many others do. So, pretty much, I'm just part of the herd.
posted by redvixen 12 June | 06:43
I don't think I have a presence at mefi...too infrequent a poster. Here, I dunno for sure, but people do seem to recall that I am a rather proud dad, and I seem to be considered a decent fella.

Of course, truth be told, I don't have children, or a wife. I am a single dude living in Wyoming with three ferrets. I'm also short, and have straight hair.
posted by richat 12 June | 06:50
I'm the flirt.
posted by WolfDaddy 12 June | 06:57
I am the greek. What? What do you mean you did not know I am the greek? Maybe I should post more about Greece then!

Yes, yes, taz is greek too. Fine. Well, she is american-greek. I am greek-american. Oh, not the big fat greek wedding again, please. Yes, okay, we are like that. A bit.

Yeah, okay, continue to ignore me, please.
posted by carmina 12 June | 07:27
I am the greek.

I'm not convinced. Can you run around breaking dishes or open a diner or something?
posted by jonmc 12 June | 07:44
There is not a single dish in my household that is not chipped. I break dishes even when I do not want to break dishes.

Diner. See, a real greek is not one that opens a diner. Few manage to do that. A real greek is the one that talks about it 'man, we should open a greek diner here'. That I do often. Every greek abroad does it at some point. I am sure of that.
posted by carmina 12 June | 07:51
With my original userid (craniac is my sock puppet, and an attempt to consolidate my identity across the net) I have been on the blue since 2000, and posted 28 times. Mostly eclectic, small posts about stuff like Aglets, not using shaving cream, a bruce sterling essay, and generally stuff I've known about for a while and feel like talking about. My average number of comments is about 14. I will occasionally post things that look very true but may be B.S. so that the super sleuths of the Blue will tunnel down to reality for me. So my niche is odd personal hobbies and conspiracy debunking (by others).
posted by craniac 12 June | 07:53
I'm a threadshitter.
posted by Hugh Janus 12 June | 08:00
craniac, I loved that aglet post.

carmina, you are not one to be ignored...heehee. I love that you think you're known as the greek. That totally tickles me, for some reason.

This is a great question. I never knew I had an online persona until soyjoy at metafilter pointed it out in an email. He mentioned 'the iconomy brand' which at first made me go huh and then made me go hah.

My niche at metafilter, back when I was doing front page posts, used to be the whimsical or arty or weird thing. My posts were never popular. It seems to be too much effort to do fpps anymore - I stopped doing them due to total lack of interest on everyone else's part. No one ever commented on mine except languagehat, shane, taz and some random dude. Yeah I like feedback, sue me.

So now I have no niche. I am nicheless. I see-saw back and forth between smart ass and nice person, depending on my mood.
posted by iconomy 12 June | 08:07
i don't have a niche as much as a weird mental aversion to sentence case...
posted by syntax 12 June | 08:07
My MeFi niche is pretty much folklore and/or history sites. I tend toward the 'term paper' type post, picking a topic with a few facets and finding several angles on it with good web content. At 40-something posts I am not a prolific poster, but I tend to wait until I think I've got something really good.

Here on MeCha I just blather on endlessly.
posted by Miko 12 June | 08:17
I (breezeway) used to post cool images, back when one could post images.
posted by Hugh Janus 12 June | 08:37
I don't really know. Usually, online and off, I assume I'm invisible and go blithely on my way only to be completely startled when it turns out that other people do in fact know I exist. Occasionally I get fan mail - that always surprises the hell out of me. Other than that I feel kind of like iconomy: "the whimsical or arty or weird thing." Nobody pays much attention to my FPPs either but that's okay - they're just a range of stuff I like. I don't think I'm consistently on Mefi enough to be noticed there much though. Anyway. All I'm usually trying to do, either there or here, is be funny (usually fail, I think) and give good sensible advice to forlorn new parents and the lovelorn.
posted by mygothlaundry 12 June | 09:01
Yeah, Ask Mefi has totally drawn me away from Mefi. I have a gajillion more responses and posts there. My ask.mefi questions are usually home repair or anonymous stuff about my marriage.
posted by craniac 12 June | 09:10
I work mostly in the medium of jerky, sometimes I dabble in pemmican.
posted by Divine_Wino 12 June | 09:14
tickle, tickle, heehee.

now I am tickled too: what do you think I am known as, iconomy?
posted by carmina 12 June | 09:18
I don't know what anyone else thinks about you, but I think of you as intriguing, smart, funny, very honest, and probably really fun to hang around with.

And ticklish too!
posted by iconomy 12 June | 09:21
I almost didn't post this, but I'm known for my lurking.
posted by bigmusic 12 June | 09:23
ack, that is entirely the answer I did not expect. You, cunning iconomy. You won this one. For now.



and hi, bigmusic!
posted by carmina 12 June | 09:27
I'm basically here to continually express my hatred for Hugh Janus, although he has no idea.

Also - general idiocy and cloaked cries for help.
posted by Hellbient 12 June | 09:28
I have no idea either, but I'd like to say that I think of Miko as the Wisdom of Metachat, not a blatherer, and mgl, you ARE very funny.
posted by rainbaby 12 June | 09:32
Definitely no niche on mefi, for I mainly lurk. Here, usually a "me too" role. Original thoughts aren't really my forté. Every so often, someone makes fun of my accent.
posted by gaspode 12 June | 09:33
Miko as the Wisdom of Metachat

ACK! Wisdom from me should come with a huge disclaimer in big red letters "USER DISCRETION IS ADVISED."

But thank you!

AskMe was kind of my MeFi gateway drug. Civility standards are so much higher there, and the spirit of helpfulness so valued, that it's easier to get involved with. Also, for some reason it's easier to get a handle on personalities, maybe because people mention more about themselves and their personal experiences. It's almost a bridge to MeCha, which is friendly like AskMe but without stringent use requirements.
posted by Miko 12 June | 09:41
Just glad to be here. I have pretty much been in one online community or another since '94. As I have said before, this (mecha) seems a cut above.
posted by danf 12 June | 09:47
I have no niche. Like the Higgs field, I am everywhere.
posted by cobra! 12 June | 09:48
My niche:

Mathowie rolls his eyes and says, I guess I won't delete it.
(Third link in last linked post is still, active.)
posted by shane 12 June | 10:01
I just kind of consider myself a semi-amusing jackass.
posted by jonmc 12 June | 10:05
I'm here (on MeCha) to make hellbient feel smart and capable.
posted by Hugh Janus 12 June | 10:18
or I'm eye-candy. whatever.
posted by jonmc 12 June | 10:21
I am the mother fucker in the DTMF ask.me relationship threads.

posted by stynxno 12 June | 10:29
I'm also the friend that doesn't love you back.
posted by stynxno 12 June | 10:29
I know a lot about the Federal legislative process, and I know everything there is to know about linking to the THOMAS website. I tend to contribute a lot on food threads, especially DC-area ones, and I like to read crazy-people sites.
posted by mrmoonpie 12 June | 10:48
Oh, and I'm more active than most when it comes to meetups. I like meat-space, I guess.
posted by mrmoonpie 12 June | 10:51
My niche is very bad posts that no one else cares about and that often get deleted.
posted by Doohickie 12 June | 11:09
I'm also here to help make Hugh thinks he thinks I'm making him make me feel I think smart and calpable.

also, free cake.

also, jon, yes, semi-amusing jackass sounds about right.

also, Doohickie - whatever.
posted by Hellbient 12 June | 11:34
I'm here to make hellbient butcher grammar and misspell words.
posted by Hugh Janus 12 June | 11:39
I'm the guy who always wants to talk about whatever music I'm really liking at the moment, or about some photographic/art thing I've found and like, or to share some kind of absurd/funny/ridiculous news item I saw. Also on weekends: drunken IRC crasher.
posted by BoringPostcards 12 June | 11:50
I don't think I do anything that makes me stand out, and I generally feel ignored here. I've had some good responses to things I've posted/asked here, but I haven't got the 'big' personality that would get me noticed in the way that some people are. Which suits me, most of the time, and in any case, I wouldn't know how to change.

Useless n00b on #bunnies. Which is why I don't go there any more - I'm easily intimidated.
posted by altolinguistic 12 June | 11:50
I don't think I've really developed a niche on either site, though with Mefi, I've been trying for 6 years.
posted by drezdn 12 June | 12:26
There: I put enough links in my first mefi post that I'm good for the next couple of years if I go at the rate of my second mefi post. Basically, I dunno.

Here: The infrequent and ambiguous commenter who talks about his band too much? That's my best guess.
posted by safetyfork 12 June | 12:38
What band? Tell us about it!
posted by Hugh Janus 12 June | 12:42
I'm the chick who yammers incessantly about her kids. Please know that I know I do it and I'm really sorry if it's annoying. It's just that, well, Mom is my job. Other people post about their jobs all the time. Sometimes I feel the need to post about mine.
posted by jrossi4r 12 June | 13:02
Also, I find it funny that many of you that feel you have no niche or are invisible are among my favorite posters. Guess I need to show y'all more love.
posted by jrossi4r 12 June | 13:04
Guy who shows up for about 2 weeks, makes half a dozen comments, join IRC and leave the client running without checking it, then goes away for another few months.

posted by qvantamon 12 June | 13:23
No niche that I'm aware of.
posted by deborah 12 June | 13:49
I'm the bleeding heart who gets way too invested in the bunny-ness, then goes away for a while. Though I think I should go to more meetups because it was way too fun hanging out with amberglow at the last one.
posted by TrishaLynn 12 June | 13:52
I do the shouting threads and the whuffles.
posted by Specklet 12 June | 16:15
ALWAYS late to the party in threads. Tends to disappear unexpectedly due to work-stress or computer issues. Always returns, with occasional inebriated cameos in IRC.

Frequent unintentional double-poster, rare poster on MeFi but quick to jump into mefi/meta threads in vain attempts at being charming/funny. Answers AskMe questions when they resonate on a personal level.

Frequent crush-er (and hopefully occasional crush-ee?). Bunnies (the animal) freak me out but bunnies (the mechazens) are one of my favorite types of people. Multiple-paragraph poster, to the chagrin of anal-type mefites.
posted by SassHat 12 June | 16:24
I'm not an anal-type MeFite, but I'm an astonishingly large anal-type MeChanism, and I like the multiple paragraphs.
posted by Hugh Janus 12 June | 16:28
I put the hammer down.
Then I pick it up and put it in it's proper place.
posted by Capn 12 June | 16:40
I'm not very good at reflective self-analysis.
posted by box 12 June | 17:53
I'm the one with the multiple contiguous consonants.
posted by initapplette 12 June | 20:23
I show up late to threads and make generic comments? Probably 80% of my comments are some variation of "awwww, cute!" or "happy birthday!" Also when I remember to visit IRC I seem to often be mistaken for a member of the other sex.
posted by casarkos 12 June | 22:33
i don't have a niche, and if i did have a niche it would chafe.
It would be a concavity i would be expected to occupy like the convexity of a label that sought to keep me covered, only proving itself a con against any pro and vexing beyond all reason. The only label i would tolerate would be something undeservedly unreservedly flattering and abstract, that, should i become fond enough of to want to keep intact, would cause me to disappear for the sake of its prosperity and preservation.
Inversely, a niche would have had to be a grave of my own making and therefore deserve to lie in buried and still, ceasing to cause further disturbance to the earth.

What good is a dust up without a damp cloth?
What good is a light bulb without a dead moth?
My lack of a label is someone else's failing of able articulation.
My lack of a niche is my own conscripted convocation.
i am by my own fault absent, no one and nothing
but i love.
posted by ethylene 13 June | 02:48
i think that my niche is something like the lyrics from graceland...everyone can always see that i'm blown apart.

but besides that i'm usually late or too early...
posted by Schyler523 13 June | 10:40
← Kids + Money || Safari, No Good →

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