Videos, and biological threads
Great post on Mefi about Sarah Mclaughlin's new video, World on Fire which cost US$150,000 to make. However, they spent only $15 on the video and spent the remaining $148,270 on charities.
The Mefi post: Worlds on Fire and Sarah Cares has some interesting reactions to Mclaughlin's philanthropy. Ranging from borderline misogyny to a discussion of the affects (primary and secondary) to a full blown discussion of choice in economic situations to trying to evaluate a celebrity's place in culture, this thread reminds me why I love reading MetaFilter. If the misogyny and trolling were gone, I don't know if this thread could have evolved the way it did.
I wonder if assigning a biological term or an attempt to view this thread through a biological lens, could help explain how the resulting thread was the result of factors, both positive and negative (to the thread's well being). Adaptation, some sort of evolution, game theory, among others, all could start to explain how a thread that (no offense) was somewhat shallow in content. I guess the right amount and types of comments could be looked as mutagens to the thread - if we thought of the thread as an organism.
The thread starts with a certain amount of content, and along comes comments which have a duality of context: the context of the person commenting (all her/his life history and knowledge) and the context of the thread itself, including all of the comments before. Included in this context is the shared cultural history of different sub-groups in MetaFilter, but also inside MetaFilter itself (think about all of the in-jokes). Game Theory comes into play when users decide to comment - they make their decisions based on the context previously outlined. This is how mediocre threads become good, and great threads die when people flame out and the thread becomes useless.
I don't know if I can adequately explain where I am coming from, or going to with this. Biological systems have always fascinated me, and can be used to try to explain things without using metaphor or simile. This construct is something different - it is process and systemization of ideas and regulations (written and unwritten).
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This is the permanent home of Videos, and biological threads. I wrote this post at 00:25 on September 28, 2004. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Living in the Suburbs Can Make You Sick or FBI intercepted al Qaeda transmission on 9/10? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
