MetaFilter
By Jessica Scott
Web logs are an increasingly popular form of Interactive Entertainment
on the Internet. They are a place where you can post your thoughts
or interesting things you've found on the Internet completely uncensored.
There are many popular weblogs, but there are a lot more, such as
those on places like www.livejournal.com,
where people can create their own, but the chances of their thoughts
being seen by more than just their close friends is slim.
MetaFilter is different from most weblogs. It's content comes from
the thousands of users who update it daily. The content comes not
just from one person, but from anyone who wants to join. Anyone can
post an idea or interesting link to the site, and it can be featured
on the front page of the site. This is ideal for those who don't have
the time, energy, or interest to maintain a daily weblog, but would
still like to share the occasional idea or thought with the rest of
the Internet Community.
In addition to just posting something, the post can also be followed
up with comments and replies. The premise of the site is very similar
to the popular slashdot.org, which is a technical news site with articles
posted by the readers. However, the scope of MetaFilter is far more
broad; anything and everything goes here.
I have found a lot of interesting things on MetaFilter that I may
have never learned about elsewhere. The Internet is such a vast place,
its nice to have a place where anyone can recommend something interesting
for you to check out. Its also the first place you'll find those funny
little Internet fads, such as the "All Your Base Are Belong To
Us," joke, which was sent to me by a friend before anyone I knew
had heard of it, because he had read about it on MetaFilter.
If you are interested in starting your own weblog, but aren't sure
if you have the time or energy needed to dedicate to it, you might
want to check out MetaFilter. Its one of the few successfully executed
web "communities" I've seen.