MetaFilter
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Metafilter-screenshot-nov-23-2004.png
MetaFilter, known as MeFi to its members, is a community weblog whose purpose is to share and discuss interesting links.
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Community
Metafilter was founded by Matthew Haughey in 1999. From its humble beginnings as a gathering spot for webloggers to trade links, the community has grown into international popularity. Members can make one front-page post per day, which must feature a link, and comment on these posts.
Membership was free and open at first but growth forced frequent extended closures. On November 18, 2004, Haughey reopened signups, but with a 5 USD lifetime membership fee. Although registration has topped 20,000, many of those are abandoned accounts, and most members believe that regular posters are a much smaller number. MetaFilter has many members, and non-members who either did not or could not previously join, who simply read and lurk.
Metafilter has developed a fairly stable community with a variety of in-jokes. Members regularly gather for meetups in cities around the world, and there are numerous websites with strong connections to MetaFilter members and subgroups.
Content
MetaFilter's name derives from the idea that weblogs "filter" the "best of the web", and MetaFilter posts (guidelines (http://www.metafilter.com/guidelines.mefi)) would be the best of the best. Posters are presumed responsible for selecting only the most interesting or novel websites to link, and overall link quality is tightly tied to users' reputations. Half-baked posts, self-promotion, open-ended questions, and other fare common on other community sites and bulletin boards are strongly discouraged at MetaFilter, though such things do sometimes make it through. The post must contain a link, and the link must be of high quality.
Best of the Web
What gets posted is diverse. Online art, award-winning web design, photography galleries, and the like fit into a cool site of the day theme that is highly prized but often generates scant discussion. Flash games and funny online movies also appear but not in bulk. Net and blog culture discussions also percolate through MetaFilter, reflecting its early connections with Blogger, but this is becoming less common as membership expands. These posts ideally fulfill the template of best of the web.
NewsFilter
Open posting permits less rigorous items as well. The derisive term for this on MetaFilter, punning on the name, is NewsFilter. Op-eds with no other point or framing are strongly discouraged and frequently deleted. Posts of this type almost without exception generate heated argument. Nevertheless, it is accepted that some discussion of news events and politics in particular is inevitable. This is typically limited to as few threads a day as possible. Multiple posts the same day about the same news topic will often be deleted. Important news items or political arguments can turn into very long discussions.
Politics
As in any discussion forum, the topic of politics often comes up. Although MetaFilter is not a political board, the majority of users (who participate in political discussions) tend to express Left-leaning views. An informal survey of (self-selected) MeFi members in February 2003 found a clear tendency to the Left on economic issues and to liberalism on social issues (see this MetaTalk thread (http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/3046)). Many members do not fit these categories, of course (otherwise, the discussions would be shorter), and disagreements often fuel heated discussions in the comments.
Companion Sites
An administrative area known as MetaTalk, or MeTa for short, allows for meta-discussion of the community, including bugs, feature requests and what is referred to as self-policing. When a member's behavior is seen as abusive, other members may post and then comment on it in MetaTalk. This call-out is discussed by the membership and read by Haughey (the only person who can delete threads or comments or, in extreme circumstances, "time-out" or ban a member). Nevertheless, the discussion alone reinforces community standards. From 2005 on, a "report this" feature gives Haughey an immediate view of which threads or comments are generating the most community push-back.
In 2003, Ask Metafilter (short: AskMe) was launched. This forum allows members to pose questions to the community, without the link requirement. AskMe quickly grew to a strong side community with slightly different etiquette requirements and many daily threads covering every imaginable topic.
Inspired Sites
The simple and effective design of Metafilter has inspired the creation of several sites and software over the years. Currently active such sites include the topical BookFilter (http://www.bookfilter.com/), WHEDONesque (http://whedonesque.com/), SportsFilter (http://www.sportsfilter.com/), Nerdfilter (http://nerdfilter.com/), Devoter (http://devoter.com/index.php), and Viewropa (http://www.viewropa.com/). Monkeyfilter (http://www.monkeyfilter.com) (wikipedia) is the biggest MeFi-inspired site, and has about the same goals. It was originally started for lurkers when membership was closed, but has since developed in its own community. Madame Martin (http://www.madamemartin.com/index.php) is also a general-purpose filter site, but in French. Several software packages, including PHPilfer (http://holloway.co.nz/phpilfer/), conventia (http://conventia.blo.gs/about.php), MetaPhilter (http://mephi-fork.sourceforge.net/philter/) and FreeFilter (http://www.bigbold.com/freefilter/), exist to create Metafilter-like web applications, but people are also using generic CMS, custom software or even Haughey's original codebase to run them.
External links at MetaFilter
- MetaFilter (http://www.metafilter.com/)
- MetaTalk (http://metatalk.metafilter.com/)
- Ask MetaFilter (http://ask.metafilter.com/)
External links about MetaFilter
- MetaFilter.com/Etc. (http://www.metafilter.com/etc.mefi)
- MetaFilter Wiki (http://www.mssv.net/wiki.cgi)
- Metafilter FAQ on Wiki (http://www.mssv.net/wiki.cgi?FrequentlyAskedQuestions)
- MetaFilter political compass with average (http://linnwood.org/outbound/mefi/political_plot.gif)
- MetaFilter Contribution Index Calculator (http://dan.hersam.com/mefi_contrib_index.php?top=1&limit=100)
