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Contests
Over the years various official and unofficial contests have been organized. This page chronicles them and their results.
December Best Post Contests
In 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011 mathowie held a "Best Post Contest" in December. The site's moderators choose their favorite posts made throughout the month of December. Winners received prizes, provided by mathowie. In recent years, prizes have been awarded for posts based on various criteria. In 2012 the MetaFilter membership chose the best posts and donated the prizes awarded to the winners.
2006
Prizes:
- Wii
- iPod Nano
- iPod Shuffle
Winners:
2008
Announcement / Winners (announced in podcast 36)
Prizes:
- iPod Touch (16Gb model) or $299 cash or $299 donated to Creative Commons.
- iPod Nano (16Gb) or $199 cash or $199 donated to Creative Commons.
- iPod Shuffle (2Gb) or $69 cash or $69 donated to Creative Commons.
Winners:
- Classic Animation Remixed by Rhaomi.
- Just People, Talking (Studs Terkel) by Miko
- Namaste! Welcome to my kitchen! by Ambrosia Voyeur
- Special Category, Art Post: Otherworldly (Surrealist art by Maria de los Remedios Varo Uranga) by CheeseDigestsAll
Honorable Mentions:
- Some traditional Jewish holiday music by grobstein
- Swimming pools, movie stars. Cha-ching! by mudpuppie
- I've heard them calling my name (Rainbow Connection covers) by cavalier
- I walk the same streets. Why don't I notice these things? (Film location scout in NYC log) by grumblebee
- Don't forget your battery card (Classic Radio Shack Catalogs) by davebush
- Pill Art by rageagainsttherobots
- Pipe Cleaner Pixels by Knappster
- People doing strange things with electricity by funkiwan
- Some Sweet Eye Candy (100 Cereal Box Covers) by Brandon Blatcher
2010
Announcement / Winners (announced in podcast 58)
Prizes:
- Best Post: A new iPad or a $499 contribution to a charity of the winner's choice.
- Best Single-Link Post: $100 gift certificate to a store of the winner's choosing or a charity of their choice.
- Best Multi-Link Post: $100 gift certificate to a store of the winner's choosing or a charity of their choice.
- Best Megalink Post: $100 gift certificate to a store of the winner's choosing or a charity of their choice.
Winners:
- Best Post: The Post That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong by Rhaomi It was Rhaomi's 42nd post, which at one point had 42 favorites. Thread includes a comment by yoz one of the game's original designers.
- Best Single-Link Post: Don't let the oscilloscope fool you (Bell Labs photos) by channey
- Best Multi-Link Post: The Hero of Canton, the man they called Mr. B. Virdot by filthy light thief
- Best Megalink Post: An overload of Mystery Science Theater musical moments by JHarris
Honorable Mentions:
Mega-link posts
Video posts
- If you're looking for a ride...
- Giving Single-Serving Tumblr a Whole New Meaning
- Ba-whoosh (Pug in a toilet)
- Mirror, Mirror
- you cut me deep shrek you cut me real deep
- What happens when you steal a hackers computer?
- Down the stairs and to the right.
- Just Add Water
- The weather outside is frightful...
Single link posts
- The Candy Man Can (Eating nothing but Christmas candy for a week]
- The cutaway drawing and its artists
- If the past is a foreign country, this is your passport
- A Plate of Dots
- What if you could live your life over again?
- Bill Murray is playing at my house
- What makes a chef great?
Multi link posts
- European 14th Century Cookbooks
- Have a ball with this one...
- Holidays on Ice—or—Oh, Deer
- Have a spectrum-quantized Merry Christmas
- This is a subject of but small importance; and I know not whether it will interest any readers, but it has interested me. (Charles Darwin post about his worm research)
- I feel that you should be aware some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters.
- Not included: Tiny Dungeons and Dragons creatures, Tiny URLs
- Marvin. I hate Marvin.
Various categories the mods made up
- U.S. Senate Clears The Way For A Vote to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
- 404 Bookmark not found
- Bring It On
- Longest tennis tournament
- Hoy por ti, maana por m.
- Connections
- Just add dice
- Vivian Maier follow up
- Vanishing Act
- The Original MoonWalking
2011
Announcement / Winners (announced during podcast 68)
Prizes:
- Best Post Overall (winning an iPad)
- Best Single Link Post ($100 gift certificate or charity donation)
- Best Multi-link Post ($100 gift certificate or charity donation)
- Best Megalink (10 or more) Post ($100 gift certificate or charity donation)
- Mod's choice (Each moderator picked a favorite and came up with a prize for it)
Winners:
- Best Overall Post: Rock Me, Falco by hippybear
- Best Single-link Post: Free! Cabin! Porn! by middleclasstool
- Best Multi-Link Post: Open source online board game engine with over 1,000 modules (VASSAL, the open-source online board game engine) by JHarris
- Best Megalink post: Gigographies by Knappster
- Cortex' Favorite: You shall Hear things, Wonderful to tell (O Brother Where Art Thou Music Post] by Rhaomi and What if Sonic ran like an idiot? by hot_monster
- Jessamyn's Favorite: Sixteen Rabbits and Three Tabby Cat Legs (Mary Toft) by kittenmarlowe
- Taz' Favorite: The Secret Parisian Painter
- pb's Favorite: Spill, Then Poof by netbros and C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Roaming\Documents\Programs\Features\Gardening\Knitwear\Publisher\Developer\GameName\Sausages\X3426 (Rules for Games) by griphus
- Restless Nomad's Favorite: Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government by kittenmarlowe
- mathowie's Favorite: The unique looks of Drive and Bellflower How Drive got its look by morganw and (Halal) chicken and rice recipe by AceRock
Honorable Mentions:
Single-Link Posts
- I can't stop acquiring books
- Does what it says on the tin, though not how you may expect. (Pole dancing video)
- Is it organic? (David Lynch's coffee commercial)
- Seeking the elusive call of the endangered Cthulhu
- Seredipity?
- MURDER METHOD FOR VILLAIN TO USE: _SCORPIONS_
- Carts Of Darkness
- Just relax a little bit (Hugcam: looping video of hugs)
- Escaping the death trap (Submarine escape from WWII)
- Making boxes like a boss
- Will everyone on the internet go, “Pft! Are you kidding? Is that it? Your story?” Yes? Congratulations. Post it here. (Dull Rock 'n Roll anecdotes)
- mmmHop (Hanson Beer)
- Thanks for taking care of it for me
Multi-Link Posts
- What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics?
- Like a manpage for the web (Mozilla's HTML developer docs)
- Best Of 2011: Space and Astronomy
- 81 words (The story of homosexuality and psychiatry)
- Fugazi, Live
- PENDULUM MUSIC FOR MICROPHONES, AMPLIFIERS, SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS
- The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (The Jefferson Bible)
- You look really pretty this week
- How to fly with instruments
- Meet Benjaman Kyle
- In the Cut: how to shoot action sequences in famous movies
Megalink / Best Overall Posts
- You can hear the whistle blow, across the Nile
- Sixteen Rabbits and Three Tabby Cat Legs
- Welcome to Muppet Labs where the future is being made today!
- The (First) Crime of the Century
- Brandon Blatcher's Apollo posts: Apollo 15, The notable and not so notable firsts and A few things we learned on the way to the Moon.
- Bubblegum on Cardboard (Cereal Box Records)
- Good sports (International Fair Play Committee Winners)
- Northern Calloway, Sesame Street's David: 1948 to 1990
- Charlie Chan: The (Not Entirely) Fictional Chinese Detective
- You shall Hear things, Wonderful to tell (The O Brother Where Art Thou music post)
2012
- Main article: Contests/MeFitesChoice2012
For 2012, a MeFites' Choice contest was held in which the MetaFilter membership chose the best posts and donated the prizes awarded to the winners.
2013
- Main article: Contests/MeFitesChoice2013
There was a similar MeFite's Choice contest in 2013, with a twist: beyond the 2-3 winners per week, there were 20 additional theme-specific prizes that covered the entire month of December.
2014
- Main article: Contests/MeFitesChoice2014
In the tradition of the previous two MeFite's Choice contests, MeFites discussed another round of the MeFites' Choice Awards, and there was much rejoicing.
August Best Post Contests
2006
For each day in August 2006, one author was selected to receive $30 for making the best post of that day.
2012
In 2012 the August Best Post Contest was revived, in which mathowie awarded prizes to the three best posts of August. The winners were chosen by the moderators. The first place prize was a new iPad, the second place prize was $250, and the third place prize was $100.
- Announcement.
- Winners (announced during podcast 72).
Other Contests
MetaFilter Redesign Contest
On November 21, 2004 mathowie announced that he was holding a contest for redesigning MetaFilter. The best design submissions would receive prizes, such as an iPod and paid Flickr Pro acccounts.
MetaFilter Music Challenge
This is not a contest with prizes or voting, but rather an ongoing challenge to write original music that relates to a theme that is chosen every two weeks. Details.
Unofficial Contests
There have been several unofficial contests:
- February 1, 2013 - The Third MetaFilter Interactive Fiction Contest as suggested Here.
- August 1, 2005 - Best Post Contest: Announcement / Results.
- May 30, 2000 - Coolest Item Contest: I'm giving $30 to some Metafilter user.
See Also
- Yearly Traditions — over the years MetaFilter has acquired a number of annual traditions.
