onfocus

This is a special site for MetaFilter's 12th anniversary where members share their favorite memories. Matt found the domain of the first site linked from MetaFilter and bought it for this.

Area Man runs group weblog! "Thirty-five miles from Portland is the home of one of Oregon’s hottest tech properties. It’s a long way from the 'Silicon Forest' of local startups." Nice profile of Matt and his awesome Lifestyle Business that I'm happy to be part of.

This site comes in handy when you suddenly realize you're having a dream within a dream.

"Metafilter moderator Josh Millard talks to Brooke about what you do when a celebrity joins your website anonymously in order to attack his critics." Great interview with Josh on one of my favorite radio shows.

Matt's SXSW talk has lessons from 11 years of moderating a large online community. Quick summary: get the community to help, find patterns that lead to good/bad behavior, build tools around those patterns, find awesome moderators.

Matt Thompson discusses some ways Jessamyn approaches moderation at MetaFilter. This is great: "Let me model some good behavior for you. That person said something really s---y. I’m just going to ignore it. Watch me."

Wait for it...

The lesson: "Create a service experience around what you publish and sell." Some nice words about MetaFilter and an interesting way to view online audiences: "Why Wasn't I Consulted?"

400+ Moby Dicks!

Gloves that work with an iPhone. Great idea!

This post is a great antidote to all of the benchmark lists you see that tell you where your child should be. [via caterina]

Interesting discussion about different approaches to managing an online community.

A quick behind-the-scenes look at "20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web" that explains some of the unique features of HTML5.

Nicely designed "book" about the Web.

Interesting experiment that creates web icons with pure CSS.

Matt was profiled in the McMInnville paper. I snuck into the picture somehow.

Images from around the Web. Looks like a fun way to browse, but I wish the images were a bit bigger.

Matt told some MetaFitler stories at GEL this year in a great talk about unconventional community lessons.

Looking at MetaFilter as an example for magazines. "Can the content produced by readers be a part of a magazine? This is crucial question that a lot of media are asking."

"He is not giving a speech or a lecture - he is giving a performance. And like any good actor, he knows that you have to learn your lines."

Yes, please. [via middleclasstool]

"The goal is not to prevent them from making mistakes, but to allow them to. Risk assessment, trust development, value determination, responsibility, self-direction — all of these very important skills grow out of the opportunity to explore, to experiment, to make mistakes and correct them."

"I spoke with Haughey this week about how he grew Metafilter from a side project into a profitable venture. In our conversation, he stressed three main things: build the site you want to use, listen to the community, and stay small."