How did leather, latex, and vinyl get to be the most popular and celebrated materials in the kink/BDSM world - as opposed to say velvet, silk, organza, lace, muslin? [more inside]
posted by divabat on Sep 25, 2012 - 24 answers

Can you recommend a good men's blog or community? [more inside]
posted by zooropa on May 23, 2012 - 5 answers

What are the pop culture references cited in Season 1 of the TV show Community? [more inside]
posted by pleasebekind on Feb 18, 2011 - 16 answers

What are the five metrics you would use to measure the health* of an online community? [more inside]
posted by A Terrible Llama on Sep 12, 2009 - 10 answers

I've decided that I want to research / work in the development of strong, sustainable local communities using social networks, web and mobile technologies and urban design practice (particularly new urbanism). The problem is, I don't know how or where to get started in this field. [more inside]
posted by pipstar on Mar 19, 2008 - 1 answer

What were some of the most idyllic communities to have ever existed? I’m not looking for opinions, I’m looking for hard anthropological examples or studies that have been carried out on such cultures. [more inside]
posted by heylight on Aug 29, 2006 - 9 answers

Has anyone found a place on the Internet that describes the culture of different places in the United Staes? (sorry if this is a bit US-centric). Having lived in eight states in my twenty two years, I've found a vast difference in many respects --- i was thinking that a neat project would be to start a web site where people could submit reviews and comments about cities/neighborhoods, etc....especially given how often people move to new, unknown places these days. Thoughts? is there something like this out there? (And i'm not counting something like epinions.com, they're almost always overwhelming positive, and not that helpful)
posted by jare2003 on Jan 13, 2004 - 8 answers