Where do people find things to post to the Metafilter?

December 10, 2009 8:31 AM

Where do you people find the things you post to the "blue", and how do you consistently find them before the rest of us? Specifically, those of you who make art or photography posts here on Metafilter, where do you first learn of the things you link here? Reddit? Stumbleupon? Digg? Certain blogs? Where is the bleeding edge of the internet?
posted by Pastabagel to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

This should probably be in MetaTalk.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:32 AM on December 10, 2009

Response by poster: This question is motivated by my frustration at having over 20 failed attempts to post something to the front page, only to learn that it was posted a few days or weeks before.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:33 AM on December 10, 2009

I still don't know what makes something MetaTalk worthy.
posted by MustardTent at 8:33 AM on December 10, 2009

I don't post very often, but when I do it's usually the product of looking for something entirely different and stumbling onto a hidden gem.
posted by JoanArkham at 8:37 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I find interesting things in obscure blogs, myself.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:37 AM on December 10, 2009

Just let it come to you. I don't post a lot on the blue, but when I do, it just sorta happens, like JoanArkham mentioned.

And then, there will always be someone who takes you to task for posting whatever you have found, no matter how original or interesting it is.
posted by Danf at 8:43 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you.
posted by monospace at 8:47 AM on December 10, 2009

I still don't know what makes something MetaTalk worthy.

Stated simply, it's stuff that has to do with the behind-the-scenes operations of MetaFilter. Also, meetups.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 8:48 AM on December 10, 2009

I'm new to posting and hardly prolific, but I seem to have a high success rate so what I'm doing must work sometimes. Here's my secret: I don't try very hard.

In the lurking years I caught glimpses of the posts that would pop in and out of existence due to being doubles. These were often the more popular items on other aggregate sites or the bigger blogs. So I don't even try to make posts on these big fish.

I thought of, and abandoned, the idea of pulling in RSS feeds for some of the quirkier blogs I read, but that smacked of effort. And the lag on some of them would make it unlikely to get something truly fresh.

So in the end I go about my normal surfing and just keep an eye out for what interests me, noticing when something is on a feed that wasn't there a moment ago. The more esoteric, the more likely it is that it won't be quickly redistributed. It's partly luck, and partly just keeping up with what I'd want to keep up with anyway.

So to sum up: In the immortal words of a fictional character, "Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, Never Try."

And it helps to be weird.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:00 AM on December 10, 2009