Or: “What MetaFilter Means To Me”
I forgot to commemorate it at the proper moment, but October 2007 was my 5-year MetaFilter-versary. I started reading the site from my dad’s work computer in 1999, and have since spent 8 years lurking heavily and gleaning much. I officially became a member in 2002 (membership was harder to come by back then: it required tenacity, which I had, or a credit card, which I didn’t), and over 5 years later it’s the only online account of that age that I still access.
Although I have always read MetaFilter closely, I don’t post many FPP’s or make many comments. In fact, if you looked at my membership profile, which charts published content, it would seem like I’m barely aware of the site. To the contrary, I login and refresh its pages multiple times daily and view my membership as a kind of sentimental link to my first days on the Internet — the re-beginning of my life. Especially before going to college and meeting lots of other like-minded young people, MeFi was my hidden knowledge kingdom. I’d wile away hours, saturating myself in information and the idea that there was an entire community of people who shared my addiction to clever things. And today I still find myself gleefully prefacing interesting points and stories with “I read on MetaFilter that…” or “I was reading this thing on AskMetaFilter where…”
Anyway, the one thing I haven’t done in my long, life-bettering relationship with this website is make it to a MeFi meetup. I’ve put a few on my calendar while I have been traveling, but so far it hasn’t worked out. I actually think it might ruin some of the magic of the site for me. I did meet Number One, Matt Haughey, at SXSW last year however, and that left me bumbling and speechless. Coming face to face with a veritable hero of your young adulthood will do that to you.