Sunday, January 11, 2004
The Cast
Honestly, here's where my problem is, and hence the reason for this blog. I can't keep anyone straight, (no pun intended). I did come across someone else, a mefi user, who seemed to have had the same problem and I find his "handy one stop user defining guide" to be quite useful. As I have the time, I will add to that list with my own "user defining" jargon. In the meantime, I'm off to study the list just a little bit more.
Discovery
One would think that being a lurker for as long as I have that I would have the cast down pat by now, or at least some of them. This is not the case for several reasons: 1) the cast is huge and 2) I really don't pay much attention as to who says what. That being said, for me, it is more about the content than the people who actually write it. I thought that was what the site was for anyhow; a bunch of people finding and posting websites of interest and then "discussing" it. Sounds simple enough. Yeah, well, it isn't.
We're talking about people. Need I say more?
So, for me, it was about the content. The interesting sites people found good enough for an FPP, (Metafilter lingo for a front-page-post), was the reason I became a lurker in the first place. Who has time to sit at the computer and so-call "surf" anymore? Certainly not me. But Metafilter is one of those places where you can let them do the surfing and when you have time you just go to the one site and see what everyone found for you. Kinda like TiVo for the internet.
One day, while I was surfing Metafilter, I came upon the MetaTalk button at the top of the page and clicked. This was the day I realized that these are real people, with real feelings and real issues.
We're talking about people. Need I say more?
So, for me, it was about the content. The interesting sites people found good enough for an FPP, (Metafilter lingo for a front-page-post), was the reason I became a lurker in the first place. Who has time to sit at the computer and so-call "surf" anymore? Certainly not me. But Metafilter is one of those places where you can let them do the surfing and when you have time you just go to the one site and see what everyone found for you. Kinda like TiVo for the internet.
One day, while I was surfing Metafilter, I came upon the MetaTalk button at the top of the page and clicked. This was the day I realized that these are real people, with real feelings and real issues.
The Short Short Version
Ok, the short, short version: Metafilter started in July of 1999 according to it's own archives. It was started by some programmer named Matt Haughey. Great! It started out slow and grew into this big thing and now everyone wants to join. Except me. I've been a lurker too long to know better. This website is much better viewed from a distance, as I said, like a soap opera. Their are many ways in which it differs from a normal soap, but "drama" is usually the first word that comes to my mind when thinking of real soap operas as well as when I think of Metafilter. One of the ways in which it differs from a real soap is that there's lots and lots of comedy. Rarely do I come away from reading something on there that I don't find totally hilarious. It is this comedy that keeps me lurking back for more.
