Flutterby™! : Baby with bathwater

Baby with bathwater

2011-04-20 20:07:37.68485+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

A few months ago, after having essentially ignored the site as "the place where old-school bloggers who've abandoned their own blogs go", I finally broke down and bought a Metafilter account. I've participated a little bit.

Today I realized that the Metafilter culture is horrendously hostile to anything Ayn Rand, and Ask Metafilter is overrun by people trying to figure out their enabling behavior towards dysfunctional people who can't live without them.

"Hmmmm", he said ponderingly, raising an eyebrow.

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-20 21:14:29.908371+00 by: Mars Saxman

This cracks me up. I've been hanging out on metafilter as long as I've been checking in here - I discovered both sites during the great blog eruption of 2000/2001. Not sure where I found either one but they both seemed like part of that big milieu of interlinking commentary that seemed like the future, way back when.

I wouldn't say Metafilter is the place the old-school bloggers go to retire so much as it's a place where old- school bloggers have been hanging out ever since they were the new school. Matt's done a good job at managing the site's growth; it's changed over the years, of course, and people continue to come and go, but it's still basically the same kind of place it always has been.

Ask Metafilter does have its share of agony aunt questions but there's so much random weirdness in there that I keep on reading. Random books and movies people remember from childhood, nerdy how-tos, all kinds of stuff. The questions that really baffle me are the ones where people ask, "I left this random bit of food out on the counter overnight. Is it still safe to eat?" - to which the answer is always "probably, but you're an idiot - throw it out and move on".

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-20 22:29:16.020554+00 by: Dan Lyke

Grins. Yeah, I remember when Jessamyn and Matt actually had blogs! (Yeah, they still do, kinda...)

And I keep reading, it's just that I haven't felt so old or sensible for a long time...

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-20 23:13:47.013454+00 by: Dan Lyke

Oh, in the "I can't believe I'm mashing reload on this site" department: 33 comments and 47 favorites on a post about urban exploration in the London Post Office Railway, 332 comments and 56 favorites on Lady Gaga vs Al Yankovic. Sigh.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-21 10:36:17.607923+00 by: DaveP

It's not just Ayn Rand that MeFi is hostile to. Pretty much anything that smacks of personal responsibility is looked down upon, unless you're telling someone in ask MeFi to DTMF.

I have to leave there for my own sanity at least once a year, and I've been in a "read but hold my tongue" mode for the past six months or so.

But yeah, it's been over a year since I've updated my blog, so I can't really argue with your first point.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-22 13:23:22.037317+00 by: TheSHAD0W

DTMF?

Do you mean DIAF?

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-22 13:45:21.164961+00 by: Dan Lyke

No, it's relationship advice. "Dump The ...". Often with an "A" for "Already" appended.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-04-22 16:36:34.170353+00 by: ebradway

Back during the first dot-com bubble, Slashdot was the place to see interesting ideas torn to shreds by trolls and other idiots. I wasted a lot of time wading through the muck, looking for the occasional gem.

MeFi strikes me as the Web 2.0 version of Slashdot. It encompasses a wider variety of topics, pushing more into the realm of the mainstream. And it seems to gather a lower form of troll. Not quite as bad as reading the comments on Fox News. But it's up there.

I only venture over to MeFi when Dan (or someone else) links to it. Kind of like I only go to the bathroom at the bus station when I have no other choice.