I was a member of a large MSN group, called Losers. I joined there in 2001, when MSN posted on their front page a link "how to meet losers." I thought, "what could that possibly be?" The group grew to 5000 members, but I had a friend who would find the most awesome posts, and later he directed me to Metafilter, and told me to tell no one of its existence, since he got a lot of his stuff from Metafilter. In 2001 I knew nothing of the web, I had just learned how to use Email. The world opened up to me, and suddenly I was not an isolated working, single, Mom, and frustrated artist. Later MSN groups basically went down, and Metafilter remained, full of interesting, timely, discussion, and interesting people. Thanks for existing.
Being recognized in any way, good or bad.
I read in Metafilter every day, I joined a few years ago, when suddenly I had $10 and I also joined my friend, who told me about the place. Recently I wrote a stream of consciousness piece about a brief film of slo-mo jello, and another Mefite formatted my post into poetic form. Our works were joined together by another Mefite, and I felt gelled in to this place. There are so many memorable pieces, and places where good happens because of the attention this place can focus on pressing issues, whether global or personal. I like this large group, I enjoy belonging here.
