50 Best Websites 2009

There are lots of collaborative voting and comment sites out there — Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon — but there is only one worth joining, even if it does cost $5: Metafilter, or "MeFi" for those in the know. In fact, that fee ends up feeling like a feature rather than an impediment, because it manages to keep the site remarkably free of trolls, griefers and other anonymous jerks. As a result, MeFi has the public-spirited flavor of a small town or good university, and the answers on AskMeFi can be helpful.

See the 25 best blogs of 2008.