MetaFilter
Type of site | Community Weblog |
|---|---|
| Owner | MetaFilter Network LLC |
| Created by | Matthew Haughey |
| URL | http://www.metafilter.com/ |
MetaFilter, known as MeFi to its members, is a community weblog whose purpose is to share links and discuss interesting websites.
Community
Metafilter was founded by Matthew Haughey in 1999. From its early beginnings as a small community of webloggers who traded links, the weblog now enjoys international popularity. Members are permitted to make one post to the front page per day, which must feature at least one link. Members may then comment on these posts.
Although membership was initially free and unrestricted, growing membership forced frequent extended closures. On November 18, 2004, Haughey reopened signups, but with a 5 USD lifetime membership fee. Although registrations have topped 39,000, a design flaw in the counting process counts users who abandonded the signup process midway; the actual number of posters is smaller. The number of non-members who have not or could not previously join, and who simply read and lurk, may be much higher.
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) would be the best of the best. Posters are presumed responsible for selecting only the most interesting or novel websites to link, and users' reputations are largely determined by overall posting quality. Half-baked posts, self-promotion, open-ended questions, and other fare common on other community sites and internet forums are strongly discouraged at MetaFilter, though such things do sometimes make it through. The post must contain a link, and the site linked 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, although far less frequently than at sites like Fark. Net and blog culture discussions also percolate through MetaFilter, reflecting its early connections with Blogger, but this is becoming less common as membership expands.
NewsFilter
Open posting permits less rigorous items as well. The derisive term for this on MetaFilter is NewsFilter (or similar -Filter names for specific news topics, e.g. IraqFilter). Links to op-eds with no other point or framing are strongly discouraged and frequently deleted, as they almost without exception generate more heat than light. Nevertheless, it is accepted that some discussion of current events and politics in particular is inevitable, and a certain level is tolerated. If more than one post is made about a news topic, the extras are often deleted and discussion is redirected to the "canonical" post about the topic, usually the first one made. Important news items or political arguments can turn into very long discussions, such as 9/11 (2001), the London Bombings (2005), or Hurricane Katrina (2005)—which generated over 80 Front Page Posts in about a week. The first example of this was arguably the Nisqually earthquake of 2001.
Politics
As in any discussion forum, the topic of politics often comes up. Although MetaFilter is not a political site per se, 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). Many members do not fit these categories, of course (otherwise, the discussions would be shorter and generally less interesting), and disagreements often fuel heated discussions in the comments. Over the years, a few conservative members have felt unwelcome in this climate and have subsequently left the site.
Investigation
MetaFilter members have uncovered deception and scams, and their level of Internet savvy often allows them to dig up online clues that point to the truth. This manifests itself in many minor ways, from uncovering "self-links" (where a link is posted to one's own site to drive traffic to it) to detecting surreptitious advertising or fraudulent auctions. More than once, however, this tendency has uncovered a surprising twist to a story, such as the Kaycee Nicole hoax in which a woman made up a teenage daughter who was dying of cancer and played this role online, fooling many bloggers and garnering sympathy and gifts until MetaFilter members (and others on various sites around the Web) "outed" her after she faked Kaycee Nicole's death.
Moderation
One of MetaFilter's founding tenets and an important factor in the "feel" of the site is the idea that the bulk of moderation is done through social norms and peer pressure, referred to as "self-policing" in a site tagline. Posts that do not meet the community's standards for quality are often "called out" to MetaTalk, an administrative area of the site, and interested members discuss how the post could have been improved, or, in some cases, ruthlessly mock the offender. (Sometimes the community consensus, after discussion, is that the call-out was unwarranted.) On rare occasions, Haughey steps in and bans egregious offenders from the site temporarily or permanently. Particularly good posts are, conversely, called out for plaudits and are regularly selected by Haughey to be featured on the main page's sidebar.
For the site's first few years, this practice of self-policing ensured a high level of quality and allowed Haughey to use a light touch in moderating the site. However, as the community has grown, Haughey has taken a more active role, and in 2004, Jessamyn West began assisting him with moderation duties. A relatively recent addition to the site, a flagging capability that allows members to suggest substandard (or superlative) posts for review, has allowed members to continue to have input in shaping the site while quickly alerting the moderators to potential trouble spots.
Haughey has long resisted adding killfiles and Slashdot-style scoring systems to MetaFilter, as he feels the former would fragment the community and the latter would result in users trying to "game" the system.
Subsites at MetaFilter
As discussed above under Moderation, an administrative area known as MetaTalk, or MeTa for short, allows for meta-discussion of the community, including bug reports, feature requests, and "self-policing."
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.
At the end of 2005, Metafilter Projects was launched. This area of the site is for members to announce Web projects they have been working on -- the one place on the site where so-called "self-linking" is permitted. Members can vote on projects and the best eventually end up posted to the main site.
In 2006, MetaFilter Music launched. This site allows users to upload their own musical creations, which others can listen to via a Flash player, along with playlist and favorites features.
Later, August 24 2006, MetaFilter Jobs was added. This section was created for members to post job openings.
Sites inspired by MetaFilter
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, linkfilter, MeatFilter, ZenFilter, WHEDONesque, SportsFilter, Nerdfilter, Devoter, MetaChat, Viewropa (closed in November 2005). The largest of the MeFi-inspired sites is Monkeyfilter (external link), and has similar goals. It was originally started for lurkers of MetaFilter when membership was closed, but has since developed into its own community. Madame Martin is also a general-purpose filter site, but in French. Several software packages, including PHPilfer, MetaPhilter and 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.