MetaFilter

What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.



My name's Geoff, and I'm a biologist.

I ran my username through MarkovFilter and got this result: "Yes, a Markov chain with a completely normal change in libido can create fear that he's cheating, or that he will be willing to use it isn't infringing on your free speech, it's recognizing that potency that makes this doubly frustrating." Now I'm worried it's becoming self-aware, and horny.

Here's a few MeFi comments I'm proud of:

What my grandfather taught me about the conflict at the heart of American history.

I have opinions about computationalism.

I have a problem with p-values.

Democrats deserve credit for the Internet.

Government should be run like a government.

From the sequence Nixon - Reagan - Bush I - Bush II - Trump, I make a prediction.

There won't ever be a technological magic bullet for solving climate change.

Sometimes the news is easier to stomach if you imagine it as something else.

Sometimes I make stupid math puns.

I put way more effort into this poem than it was worth.

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From July-December 2023 I took a hiatus from MetaFilter precipitated by a series of frustrating interactions, but largely due to my realization that I did not like the person I was becoming in my interactions with the site. Some time away helped me to better understand and accept that while I like this community and love many of the people in it, as a whole, it is a community that in many important ways does not share certain of my core values. This is okay: I don't think I've ever been part of any community that shares all of my core values. My core values are personal to me, and it's not fair to other people, or to myself, to expect others to share them. While I will continue to advocate for them when appropriate, it's a mistake for me to get upset upon discovering that other Mefites have values that are sharply at odds with my own.

At the time, I wrote the following note on my user profile.
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I think it is time for me to step away from MetaFIlter for a little while. I hope I will be back some day, but for right now, I no longer enjoy spending time here. The vast majority of you are absolutely wonderful weirdos, and although sometimes not all of us always get along in every respect, I think most MeFites make a real effort to try to meet each other halfway. I think that's really special, and I value how much I have learned from you all over the years.

That said, there's also a really ugly undercurrent of hostility and bad faith on MetaFilter. We've been talking about it for years now, but no one seems to know what to do about it. To me, at least, it feels like it keeps getting worse. The casual nastiness and hostility routinely on display has become unbearable for me, and I find myself behaving in ways I do not like in response.

As the cliche goes, one bad apple spoils the bunch. I don't believe people are apples, good or bad, but bad faith and hostility are contagious. MetaFilter, as a community, seems unable or unwilling to really address this issue; indeed, I have no prescription of my own to offer up, other than to say that I have the least confidence in those who are most certain they know what really ails MetaFilter.

I have no intention of disabling my account at this time, and for those of you I've chatted with amiably over the years, a MeMail would thrill me no matter how long it's been since I've been active. But I think it's best for me to spend my time elsewhere, at least for a while.

July 2023.
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