You may have wondered what I’ve been up to this past week. I’ve had the flu, but there has been one productive outcropping from this mildly hallucinatory daze punctured by coughing fits: MemeFirst.com, a new collaborative project with Matthew Rose and Felix Salmon, and hopefully you.

StefanGeens.com has played host to colorful debates among friends. But there is no way for you to post your own stories here, and the commenting system is very basic. So while this blog is fine for my own musings, it comes up short for the kinds of debates we could be having.

But I also confess that MemeFirst exists in part to turn the tables on the likes of Eurof and Charles — now they too can subject themselves to peer review and be found horribly wanting. I look forward to the opportunity.

This blog continues unabated, but with a slightly modified purpose; overtly political posts and links with wide appeal will now show up on MemeFirst. The more personal stuff stays here.

So make MemeFirst.com a stop on your daily web rounds — in addition to this blog of course.

[Fri, Jan 17 2003 – 07:44] kartika (email) thank heavens(not literally) but just as I was ready to burst into print, I was cruelly deprived of the chance as this link was not working.

Now, if I understand correctly the meme site is for our well elucidated opinions which are to be subjected to public scrutiny. This site on the other hand is for the more informal and intimate tete a tetes…

Is that correct Stefan?

[Fri, Jan 17 2003 – 12:57] eurof (email) actually i hate memefirst. it sucks. also, i keep what opinions i have to myself and don’t feel the need to stick them up for the world to gawk at. of course, should you wish to masturbate publicly about your ever so original, lyrical and deep thoughts on the great affairs of the day (affairs which very very rarely ever affect you personally, and over which you have basically no influence, so I wonder why you bother) then feel free, go on, express yourselves, let your spirits free!! Pretentious wankers.

but it’s also a pain in the arse to use (this site is simple), it’s incredibly patronising, telling you how to reply to posts for chrissake, and so far is about as amusing as chalk, given that all the posts so far are about everyone trying to be andrew sullivan, writing about norf korea or evil lefties being handwringingly hypocritical about the war, or stefan clarting on about globalisation. and andrew sullivan isn’t very amusing.

i think the fact that neither me nor charles comment on the site is that it feels similar to walking in on a bunch of nursery school children playing doctors and nurses, and saying “stop being silly, you’re not actually doctors or nurses”, or worse, joining in yourself, pretending to be a brain surgeon. both are sort of beneath one’s dignity. best let them carry on until they get tired.

[Fri, Jan 17 2003 – 13:46] Stefan (email) Charles is in Nairobi, and then Kabul, and he will have little web access for the coming weeks. You, however, are in London, with plenty of exposure to MemeFirst, and I know you have been reading every post avidly from work (I know your IP address; nobody else in the Economist Building reading MemeFirst yet I expect). Oh look, you have your own sad little bio page. How corporate dronish of you.

I expect your self-declared exile from MemeFirst to be perfect torture. Oh the urge to put down your fellow man! Oh the need to show your superiority in all matters telecomical! But you can’t comment anonymously, can you? Oh no. What a quandary. How will this end? Give in, resistance is useless, you will assimilate.

[Mon, Jan 20 2003 – 06:41] eurof (email) well yes i have been reading it, but much in the way that pete townsend says he accesses kiddie porn: to look and be outraged. there’s much headshaking and tutting involved. i just did another trip through. also i’m bored.

it just doesn’t get me as excited as this site did. i can’t help it. this one is all small and intimate, like sitting around in st. dymphnas insulting each other. memefirst is more like a public readings session for a group of authors who write for vanity publishers.

what’s more worrying is that i always thought that it was just you who was a frustrated wit and raconteur, but instead it looks like all of you have turned into weirdos. matthew, felix, the lot of you. there are also some others on the site who i don’t know.

you’re right, eventually i probably will give in and start commenting on stuff i read there, but i worry it won’t be as much fun as this one.