Wow, this Metafilter thread is just plain depressing [the thread discussion was mostly about attacking each other, although the original post link was on a depression study: think of 3 snarky comments, then read on]. Granted I haven’t been reading mefi regularly recently, but it seems the sense of community and (well, sometimes) discourse has been at this point completely displaced by asshattery. Just one of the complete WTF moments:

db: Sorry, I posted before reading your apology. But on the other
hand, this is mefi: if you don’t want to run with the big dogs you can
always stay on the porch.

posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:12 PM
PST

Who is this guy I’ve never seen before talking about big dogs? Oh, joined this year. Actually, pretty much everyone in this mess joined this year. Honorary distinction for 327.ca, who should probably know better.

“Blaming it on the newbs” is a broad stroke, I agree. Metafilter will survive, and reach some sort of equilibrium as new members are enculturated, like it has done every time membership has been opened, but I think that it may be reaching a point where some additional features might help with scaling issues:

• Killfile (w/ public stats, details) see also below
• Extension of contacts system to allow flagging/highlighting/deprecating of threads and comments
• Overlay w/ user information/stats in each thread
• Some sort of per-post (reflected to user) rating. This should be kept a rubric on contribution to conversation (could be multi-axis if there’s a good interface)
• Community censure

I’ve listed those suggestions from what I think is easiest to hardest. Actually, the last one might not be the hardest to implement from a technical perspective, but I think has the most implications and really needs to be thought about in a larger context of what Metafilter’s goals are.

[Just some disclosure: I started reading Mefi in 1999, but stopped for a long while, then got an account when I picked up Cold Fusion. (worst. web language. ever) I went to a mefi meetup once but it was weird.]

Update: Matt links to this on MeTa (I think stinkycheese hits on a pretty good point). Also, to elaborate with some context on my technological suggestions (for what is essentially a social problem), the point isn’t that people can’t or shouldn’t disagree, but to help encourage an environment of productive discourse. I think that civility and empathy should be at least two minimal requirements. That being said, I don’t speak for anyone else in the community, who collectively will ultimately decide its character.