Who's had a post, comment or thread deleted on Mefi?

January 16, 2006 5:46 PM

Who's had a post, comment or thread deleted on Mefi? As I was posting to a MetaTalk item, it had already been deleted - this isn't new. Post/thread deletions are getting all too common here on the blue. Trolling, flame-outs, newsfilter posts and other lame FPP's seem to garnish enough merit to remain active in 'big brothers' eyes so I ask you, have you been edited on the blue and if so, what was it you said?

I know I've said some stupid shit that I wished I could have pulled but I don't think I want the Mefi police deciding that for me.
posted by j.p. Hung to Etiquette/Policy at 5:46 PM (211 comments total)

But that's the charm of the place.
posted by konolia at 5:51 PM on January 16, 2006

I am praying to my own personal cadre of eldritch deities that this thread is also deleted, making the circle of life complete.

Seriously, though, I have wondered in the past if deletion actually encourages noise, by allowing people with poor impulse control to think that if they just squeeze out whatever semicoherent brainfarts they want, well, somebody else will clean up after them.

I am far from certain that this is the case, though. Regardless, I suggest to you that if one makes an effort to actually increase signal as opposed to noise, and to stay the hell out of the shitstorm threads, ignore trolls, and be even a wee bit community-minded, one will find very few if any of their contributions disappeared.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:53 PM on January 16, 2006

they're watching us right now...
posted by puke & cry at 5:53 PM on January 16, 2006

Oh wah!

Everytime I've had something deleted... it was deserved.

And I took it... like a man...
posted by jpburns at 6:03 PM on January 16, 2006

I never look back.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:05 PM on January 16, 2006

I've successfully avoided deletion for ... blimey, has it really been five years? ...by posting platitudes, avoiding controvertial threads, steering clear of expressing political opinions, running from confrontation and generally being a wuss. Perhaps it might work for you?
posted by normy at 6:05 PM on January 16, 2006

bad spellig helps, too
posted by normy at 6:07 PM on January 16, 2006

Thank god that someone has finally discovered the Appropriate Censorship Metric, so we no longer have to rely on subjective and anecdotal opinions to determine whether or not #1 has finally crossed the line into anarchy/fascism.

May we open-source this equation so that it can be turned into a standard protocol?

<3 strike>Todd Lokken spider
posted by spiderwire at 6:10 PM on January 16, 2006

Heh. HTML parser ate that sig. Should have been:

[heart] [strike]Todd Lokken[/strike] spider

Ah well. Back to papyrus for me.
posted by spiderwire at 6:11 PM on January 16, 2006

I wished I could have pulled but I don't think I want the Mefi police deciding that for me.

They're not deciding to pull your comments for you but for the effect on the community. In the case of a recently deleted Metatalk thread that was a worthless pile-on on a poster, the least concern I have is for the feelings of the person who posted it. It was nasty and worthless and I'm glad to see its gone.
posted by vacapinta at 6:15 PM on January 16, 2006

I'm not whining about a post of mine that was deleted. I was trying to post to a thread and the thread was deleted by the time I hit "post". Whatever ... I'm merely pointing out that deletions are occurring more and more and I didn't think that was what the blue was about. If you are ok with a single entity deciding what is and isn't good for you, that's fine (it's a free country, ack, ack).
posted by j.p. Hung at 6:15 PM on January 16, 2006

no moderation would only make the place worse, there are reasons for deletion and it tends not to be heavy handed, and this is not a public forum but a privet web space. There may be responsible users but unchecked anonymity with no real world consequences tends to bring out the asshoelishness in people. And I, for one, applaud the edit button to minimize this. You want unchecked freedom to say what you want? GYOB.
posted by edgeways at 6:16 PM on January 16, 2006

Trolling, flame-outs, newsfilter posts and other lame FPP's seem to garnish enough merit to remain active in 'big brothers' eyes so I ask you

Oh brother.

If you want to know why something in MetaTalk was just deleted, it was because a former member that was banned for stirring shit up and fucking with metafilter in the past was stirring more shit up in regards to ParisParamus, which just reinforces the stupid knee-jerk tendency some members have here to shit on people they disagree with, esp. when it isn't warranted.

Here's a question: you think I'm "big brother" because I don't delete "Trolling, flame-outs, newsfilter posts and other lame FPPs" but all those categories are subjective reasons to delete things. Do you think more people or less people would complain if I deleted based on subjective reasoning?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:19 PM on January 16, 2006

Mathowie is the very model of the modern major meme.
posted by spiderwire at 6:23 PM on January 16, 2006

[I just wanted to get it in before the thread was closed.]
posted by spiderwire at 6:24 PM on January 16, 2006

If you've never had something deleted, you're not trying hard enough.

Stop playing it safe, people! Live a little!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:26 PM on January 16, 2006

I've been deleted, to the best of my recollection, twice. Once was because I asked please don't hate me what we could do about the fact that the spell checker didn't recognize either google or metafilter as words. Turns out this was a quintillionuple post on MeTa. I think it's an outright TRAVESTY that that gem of a post was deleted.

The other time was because I answered an (admittedly stupid and deletable) askme question with an infantile and lame joke answer. ANOTHER TRAVESTY.

There were other times that I've wanted comments of mine in others' threads deleted because they were shamefully stupid/immature/both. They were not deleted. I REFUSE TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR MY OWN STUPIDITY, DO YOU HEAR ME!?
posted by shmegegge at 6:26 PM on January 16, 2006

I said something about poop once. And I quoted Arnold one too many times.

Just for the record:
"Your clothes! Give them to me, now!"
posted by selfnoise at 6:28 PM on January 16, 2006

If you've never had something deleted, you're not trying hard enough.

Stop playing it safe, people! Live a little!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:26 PM EST on January 16 [!]

Dear Mr Davis: I love you.
posted by shmegegge at 6:29 PM on January 16, 2006

Is there any record of which users have had how many comments deleted?

Can we have a Top Ten list? Or just the record number?

The MeFi police have a whaaaambulance for posters injured in flame-outs.

God, I'm lame today
posted by spiderwire at 6:29 PM on January 16, 2006

I've had one or two comments deleted.

Oddly, all of my comments that say "Fuck you too, mathowie!" are still present and accounted for. This despite the fact that I flagged them all, immediately after posting.
posted by I Love Tacos at 6:32 PM on January 16, 2006

No one would complain about deletions if they never happened. Matt, I think you shouldn't edit the site at all. I agree about the thread you refer to but clearly people had something to say about it didn't they? How about tagging sites like they do with Craigslist? If a certain amount of people vote to delete, it's gone.

Look, there are tons of shitty threads here every week. I view them and decide what to and what not to debate/discuss. That's MY decision - as it is the 24,000+ other viewers here. You'll have to forgive me but after 6 years of "dear leader", I'm not interested in some Mefi 'entity' deciding what I should and should not read.
posted by j.p. Hung at 6:32 PM on January 16, 2006

I've had a couple of comments deleted, and they totally deserved it. In fact, one of them was so obnoxious that I won't even say what it was, because it invited abuse in a still-open thread, many months after a particular metafilter event.

I got an e-mail from Jessamyn about it, and apologized. No big deal. The moderation is pretty light around here.
posted by interrobang at 6:33 PM on January 16, 2006 [1 favorite]

Oh, and I don't really have any problem with my deleted comments. I can see where some sticklers for consistency might find the patterns a bit odd, though.
posted by I Love Tacos at 6:35 PM on January 16, 2006

I was trying to post to a thread and the thread was deleted by the time I hit "post".

Yeah, that's one of the most frustrating things here. But it's not really *that* frustrating. I was getting ready to post something to tonight's self-link MeTa when Matt closed it. *shrug* Just take a breath, exhale and go on.
posted by mediareport at 6:41 PM on January 16, 2006

Jesus, j.p. Hung -- are we really rehashing the Matt-shouldn't-ever-delete-anything debate? If you aren't interested in "big brother"/"some MeFi entity"/"dear leader" deciding what you should and shouldn't read, then that's your clue that this isn't the community for you. Matt's willingness to delete stuff that doesn't comport with the general ethic around here isn't a secret, nor was it back in November 2004 when you signed up. If it's as much of a problem for you as your acerbic comments make it seem, then I can't imagine that any of the 24K+ members will question your decision to reroute *.metafilter.com to localhost on your personal machine and find a nice little online commune to join.
posted by delfuego at 6:43 PM on January 16, 2006

I was getting ready to post something to tonight's self-link MeTa when Matt closed it.

When that happens, I grab a nice warm cup of kitten juice.

this is a fine example of a post that could be safely deleted.
posted by I Love Tacos at 6:44 PM on January 16, 2006

How about tagging sites like they do with Craigslist? If a certain amount of people vote to delete, it's gone.

You mean, like, with flags and everything?
posted by stet at 6:48 PM on January 16, 2006

If a certain amount of people vote to delete, it's gone.


Yep, and to steal a line, it's one man, one vote. Mathowie's the man, he's got the vote.

Then woman's suffrage came along, and jessamyn got the vote too.

See, it's just about as workably democratic as it can be, and I like it that way. After all, I am the master of my killfile and the pilot of my soul.
posted by eriko at 6:52 PM on January 16, 2006

You can pay the cover, but it's still the bouncer's decision what stays and what goes.

Hey, I'll tell YOU when I've had enough, alright, pal?


Fine, fine, just don't hurt me!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:53 PM on January 16, 2006

Hey, I've had stuff deleted. Did I agree with the rationale presented? Absolutely. But that's not the point. And Jesus nothing: the general ethic is what (was unaware there was one here)? I thought it was a free-exchange of ideas. Enlighten me delfuego: what is this community? Is it self-policing as it says in the header? Is it bound by a specific "ethic"? Why are you so concerned someone would suggest that a single censor is not good for a 'community'?
posted by j.p. Hung at 6:54 PM on January 16, 2006

For the record, I typically agree with Matt's positions on things so by default, his choice in censoring is probably in line with my thinking but...

it's still censorship.
posted by j.p. Hung at 6:57 PM on January 16, 2006

You seem to be hung up on that word without thinking your argument through.
posted by smackfu at 7:00 PM on January 16, 2006

I thought it was a free-exchange of ideas the snide off-topic remark I pulled out of my ass last.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:03 PM on January 16, 2006

How about tagging sites like they do with Craigslist? If a certain amount of people vote to delete, it's gone.

You know that IS basically how it works around here, don't you?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:03 PM on January 16, 2006

Matt, I think you shouldn't edit the site at all.

Ah, then you have the wrong room. Three doors down the hall, and to the left you'll find usenet. That's what you really want.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:05 PM on January 16, 2006

it's still censorship.

Lemme see (grabs dictionary)

CENSORSHIP: broadly, any government restrictions on speech or writing; more precisely, government restrictions on forms of expression before they are disseminated

Nope, that's not it. MetaFilter isn't part of the government, is it?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:08 PM on January 16, 2006

MetaFilter isn't part of the government, is it?

It will be when we finally achieve our goal of autonomy and independence. Viva the Republic! Viva Metafiltaria!
posted by Jimbob at 7:12 PM on January 16, 2006

No one would complain about deletions if they never happened.

I think you underestimate us.

But what I really want to know is how any of you know when you've had comments deleted. I mean, do you go back through all of the threads you've posted to, checking on your words of wisdom? Do you keep a log? I rarely remember what and where I posted an hour after the fact, and I don't post that much.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 7:23 PM on January 16, 2006

j.p. hung, this is not your website. You do not have to post anything here. But what you do post is subject to moderation like any of a hundred other community websites, bulletin boards, newsgroups, email lists, or classifieds. Get over it. View what you post as a submission. If you can't find something to post that meets the relatively low standards that apply here, you truly are a moron. The fact that you can post something so critical of the administrators here, and it remains viewable, speaks volumes about just how easygoing mathowie and Jessamyn are.
posted by Roger Dodger at 7:23 PM on January 16, 2006

Meh. I had an FPP deleted once. It was badly formatted and pretty lame. I now regret posting it. After Matt deleted it, I made a whiny holier-than-thou post in MeTa, which I also regret, but I think that's still there, befouling my otherwise average (I certainly won't say immaculate) history. We all do dumb things, and sometimes Matt and jessamyn are nice enough to hide our mistakes for us.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:34 PM on January 16, 2006

it's still censorship.

Lemme see (grabs dictionary)

CENSORSHIP: broadly, any government restrictions on speech or writing; more precisely, government restrictions on forms of expression before they are disseminated

Sorry, Matt, but that's bullshit.

Censorship is not government-dependent. Webster's 11th describes the verb "to censor" as:

to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable


I don't know which dictionary you're grabbing, but deleting comments is absolutely censorship. The word is not inherently attached to The Government.
posted by interrobang at 7:34 PM on January 16, 2006

I think Matt's point is that he has no responsibilities with regards to the First Amendment, which those who cry foul over deletions consistently invoke. No, it has not yet been mentioned in this thread, but it's only a matter of time. There is no constitutional protection for anything posted here, so he cannot be accused of "Censorship". And besides, what he is doing is not censorship. It is editing, pure and simple.
posted by Roger Dodger at 7:39 PM on January 16, 2006

I once had a comment stricken from AskMe. As best I could tell, the only reason it was deleted was that I tagged it with a sarcastic small-font postscript attributing its resolute sentiment to my Republican credentials. Judging by the tenor of MetaTalk that morning, several threads were on fire and the sole on-duty admin was in a bad mood. I figured my comment was collateral damage; an already pissed-off liberal admin probably read it, got annoyed, and clicked DELETE. C'est la vie.

It happens. First: It's a bjorkin' website, so relax. Second: It's a damn big site, and it's managed by two people. Neither is perfect, so don't be surprised when they make mistakes. Personally, I think they should go heavier on the DELETE button, not lighter — so chalk me up for a "nay" vote.

I realize some of you believe that everything we write should remain online, untouched, for eternity. I think you're insane; and I'm glad statistics show that, despite your penchant for trite political chatter, few among you actually vote.
posted by cribcage at 7:45 PM on January 16, 2006

If you can't find something to post that meets the relatively low standards that apply here, you truly are a moron.

I don't normally think quoting Matt chapter and verse is a good idea, but I'm totally going to remember that one. Well played!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:47 PM on January 16, 2006

What I would like is an admin that is actually here for a good amount of time. That way selflinks are deleted in minutes instead of hours.
posted by puke & cry at 7:50 PM on January 16, 2006

"what he is doing is not censorship. It is editing"

No, it's censorship.
posted by mischief at 7:50 PM on January 16, 2006

Sure, it's censorship, in the broadest sense of the word. So what? A synonym for this kind of censorship is moderation.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:52 PM on January 16, 2006

censorship of dumbasses.
posted by puke & cry at 7:53 PM on January 16, 2006

"So what?"

Just calling a spade a spade.
posted by mischief at 7:53 PM on January 16, 2006

Calling it censorship isn't actually an argument.
posted by smackfu at 7:55 PM on January 16, 2006

MetaFilter isn't part of the government, is it?

Metafilter has its own government. Now, it just needs a football team and an airline, and it'll be a real country.

moderation like any of a hundred other community websites

No, it has its own unique brand of moderation, which is in this case as in most, a euphemism for censorship. It seems to work quite well, most of the time.
posted by sfenders at 7:55 PM on January 16, 2006

I'm all for censorship, as long as it is not sanctioned by the government. Everybody is free to decide what speech is allowable in their own house. You want to go uncensored? Go to another house.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:58 PM on January 16, 2006

Every time you get worried about "censorship" here, go and surf Usenet archives for a while. Trust me, it'll make you feel a lot better.
posted by spiderwire at 7:58 PM on January 16, 2006

If you want to see some crazy ass deletion swing by LGF sometime and post something reasonable. It will be vapor.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 8:04 PM on January 16, 2006

this="shut the hell up"

censorship="shut the hell up or you're goin' to jail"

</oversimplification>
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:05 PM on January 16, 2006

The threat of jail is not part of the definition of censorship.
posted by mischief at 8:12 PM on January 16, 2006

So, Jb, how much of Metafilter's bandwidth have YOU paid for this month?

That's what I thought.

Look, not only have I had stuff deleted, I have had the banhammer descend upon me not once but at least twice (under another nick, but still. ) I personally have no problem with how Matt and Jessamyn handle the joint in general. Occasionally I will disagree with a particular deletion but I do not object to their right to delete in the first place.
posted by konolia at 8:17 PM on January 16, 2006

this="shut the hell up"

censorship="shut the hell up or you're goin' to jail"

Nah.

this="shut the hell up"

censorship="shut the hell up"

</oversimplification>
posted by Rothko at 8:18 PM on January 16, 2006

The threat of jail is not part of the definition of censorship.

The threat of a punch in the nose is not part of the definition of being an Internet Tough Guy. <winky emoticon>

Yeah, I know. I didn't think that one through, and I committed the cardinal sin of making a funny that wasn't actually funny. But internets censorship! laws-a-mercy! eek! whinefests that degenerate into pointless semantic arguments never cease to annoy me, and I ended up muddying the waters even further. My bad.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:18 PM on January 16, 2006

What I would like is an admin that is actually here for a good amount of time. That way selflinks are deleted in minutes instead of hours.

Yeah, how dare I take off for a couple hours to get some dinner and give my child a bath. The nerve. Is this what passes for service around here?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:24 PM on January 16, 2006

I had dinner, sorry about that.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:26 PM on January 16, 2006

"I didn't think that one through, and I committed the cardinal sin of making a funny that wasn't actually funny."

Been there. ;-P
posted by mischief at 8:30 PM on January 16, 2006

I find it demoralizing to read a Meta about comments in a thread and then when I get to the thread, the comments are gone.

But then again, I often feel demoralized when I'm left out of fun things.

Continue to delete, Jess and Matt; my morale is not uppermost in the scheme of things.
posted by leftcoastbob at 8:33 PM on January 16, 2006

PLEASE LISTEN TO ME I NEED YOU TO KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT STUFF
posted by Krrrlson at 8:34 PM on January 16, 2006

What a festering cesspool this place would be if Matt and Jessamyn didn't delete the most vile comments. As is, there are way too many personal vendettas and pissing contests. I would love to see more moderation/deletion.
posted by LarryC at 8:36 PM on January 16, 2006

mathowie and jessamyn are busy.

Flags don't work. Trolls are welcome. Who cares? At least AskMe is still pretty sweet.
posted by I Love Tacos at 8:38 PM on January 16, 2006

i thought we had non-disappearing threads now?

what was this: http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/11046?

i could swear matt claimed the other day he had implemented the code sitewide. wtf?
posted by quonsar at 8:39 PM on January 16, 2006

Could we have some sort of pony that constantly monitors how many users think everything is fine? Like, so people could see some sort of "21,568 users think MetaFilter is okey-dokey right now" before they post stuff like this?
posted by MrZero at 8:40 PM on January 16, 2006

Flags don't work. Trolls are welcome. Who cares? At least AskMe is still pretty sweet.

Agreed.
posted by Rothko at 8:44 PM on January 16, 2006

I flag some comments because I figure if I flag enough it will fill up the disk and crash the server and then I won't have to see the comments I don't like.
posted by wakko at 8:45 PM on January 16, 2006

*masturbates furiously*
posted by Slap Incognito at 9:04 PM on January 16, 2006

*masturbates furiously*

Oh look, isn't that cute and clever†? A mini-quonsar wannabe!


(†The correct answer is: no, it's not. It's not cute or clever at all.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:11 PM on January 16, 2006

Yeah, how dare I take off for a couple hours to get some dinner and give my child a bath. The nerve. Is this what passes for service around here?

I'm not talking about one instance. There's a pattern around here of threads needing attention/deletion and the calls of "where's matt?" and a lag of hours to days. And excuse me but I thought this was your fucking job.
posted by puke & cry at 9:12 PM on January 16, 2006

maybe he just likes to masturbate.
posted by wakko at 9:12 PM on January 16, 2006

slap i mean.
posted by wakko at 9:15 PM on January 16, 2006

maybe he just likes to masturbate.

That's cool. It's good for your prostate. But doing it all over Metafilter is a little much, don't ya think?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:19 PM on January 16, 2006

And excuse me but I thought this was your fucking job.

Most people only work about 40 hours a week, get lunches and coffee breaks, and don't actually perform the same task over and over again without exception during their time at work.

A sense of entitlement is not a particularly useful trait when playing with someone else's toys.
posted by solid-one-love at 9:23 PM on January 16, 2006

There's a pattern around here of threads needing attention/deletion and the calls of "where's matt?" and a lag of hours to days.

And this affects you personally, how exactly?

People know when threads "need to go" - and we know that they will, eventually. As far as I'm concerned, even if matt is making a living off this place, he's still entitled to a standard 8-hour day / 40-hour week like all reasonable people. In the meantime, people can use the doomed threads to post amusing variations on the pancaked-bunny-image theme. No harm done, and as a bonus we get a refreshed and relaxed moderator who isn't expected to keep a constant watch on the site 24 hours a day incase some dickhead makes a double post or self-link.
posted by Jimbob at 9:24 PM on January 16, 2006

Sorta random suggestion that's been made before, I'm sure: a moderator in Europe, Asia and/or Australia. Might help catch self-linkers before they get much of a traffic boost.
posted by mediareport at 9:24 PM on January 16, 2006

And excuse me but I thought this was your fucking job.

Are you kidding?
posted by exlotuseater at 9:35 PM on January 16, 2006

posted by keswick at 9:38 PM on January 16, 2006

Are you kidding?

No, he's not.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:40 PM on January 16, 2006

I've had a couple MeTa posts deleted, but very few, if any, comments (as far as I know). But even if I were being CENSORED all the time, I have about 73,542 more important things to worry about than to feel wronged by Matt's or jessamyn's CENSORSHIP.

I kinda wanted to use the blingk tag, but I restrained myself. But it's gone, anyway, isn't it?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:49 PM on January 16, 2006

It would appear so.
posted by keswick at 9:55 PM on January 16, 2006

What?!

Do you know how many hilarious comments I would have missed out on if doomed threads were deleted immediately? Hell, there should be a minimum lifetime for threads so people can get their silliness out of their systems.
posted by spiderwire at 9:59 PM on January 16, 2006

Do you know how many hilarious comments I would have missed out on if doomed threads were deleted immediately?

Agreed. The pile-ons can be quite entertaining. Almost as good as a crispy fish taco.
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:02 PM on January 16, 2006

And excuse me but I thought this was your fucking job.

Are you trying to be funny, or actually that fucking clueless about what real jobs entail? Rudeness is to be expected, but that much cluelessness is almost entertaining.

Seriously - have you complainers *seen* the Rest of the Web?
posted by freebird at 10:07 PM on January 16, 2006

Could we have some sort of pony that constantly monitors how many users think everything is fine? Like, so people could see some sort of "21,568 users think MetaFilter is okey-dokey right now" before they post stuff like this?

I second this. Lately, its become too much of the greasy user gets the wheel, or something like that.
posted by vacapinta at 10:15 PM on January 16, 2006

Times have changed,
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock,
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today,
Any shock they should try to stem,
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them!

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now God knows,
Anything goes!
Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose,
Anything goes!
If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old limbs you like,
If Mae West you like,
Or me undressed you like,
Why nobody will oppose.
When every night the set that's smart is
Intruding in nudist parties in studios,
Anything goes!




Reactionary is the new liberality!
posted by Mr T at 10:17 PM on January 16, 2006

i repeat:

i thought we had non-disappearing threads now?

what was this: http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/11046?

i could swear matt claimed the other day he had implemented the code sitewide. wtf?
posted by quonsar at 10:24 PM on January 16, 2006

I did the links thing sitewide, not the deleted threads, that was just on ask mefi.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:30 PM on January 16, 2006

And excuse me but I thought this was your fucking job.

wow, i kinda wish you would lose your fucking job, and your ability to pay for an internet connection.
posted by slogger at 10:35 PM on January 16, 2006

puke & cry: his job is also to try to code new features, fix bugs, implement a redesign, and largely try to figure out a way to escape cold fusion/jrun hell in such a way that won't break him or the site too badly. There's also a ton of other stuff in there that I'm not thinking of, but the point is this:

you're getting your 40 hours out of him a week, you incomparable prick, you.
posted by shmegegge at 10:36 PM on January 16, 2006

Oh, we're calling people pricks now, huhh? Well let me take this opportunity to call you, shmegegge, a giant walking talking piece of shit, asshole!

And by the way you ass kissing cunt, coding in 'cold fusion/jrun' is like digging ditches with a fucking toothpick. Metafilter has taken a turn for the worst since Matt has had more time to spend on 'administration'. So far Matt has spent his time deleting comments and threads to the detriment of the site.
posted by Mr T at 10:48 PM on January 16, 2006

You know, I'm starting to think a killfile might be the way to go after all.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:52 PM on January 16, 2006

I'm tellin' ya, it's tempting...
posted by mediareport at 10:55 PM on January 16, 2006

Maybe you could find a killfile that kills yourself?
posted by Mr T at 10:57 PM on January 16, 2006

waaah fuck waaah. waah. fuck fuck waah.
posted by exlotuseater at 11:02 PM on January 16, 2006

wtf
posted by keswick at 11:04 PM on January 16, 2006

posted by keswick at 11:05 PM on January 16, 2006

Well, the customer is always right. Except in this case.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:07 PM on January 16, 2006

This is Performance Art, right?
posted by exlotuseater at 11:08 PM on January 16, 2006

One hopes so, but suspects not. For possibly the first time ever, though, I'm with keswick :
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:10 PM on January 16, 2006

since the last site from which I was banned

Priceless!
posted by LarryC at 11:11 PM on January 16, 2006

Holy #$%^! What a trainwreck. LarryC beat me to the punch.

Is puke & cry's last comment showing up with the wrong time for anyone else? I see 11:04 and it looks like it should be 1:04. I seem to recall this bug being discussed before, so I'm going to refrain from making the MeTa post until the AM.
posted by spiderwire at 11:22 PM on January 16, 2006

I've had one comment deleted. I had to get it off my chest. I knew it was likely gonna be deleted, but I posted it anyway. It was rude, vile, mean, and vindictive, and I meant every word; or I wouldn't have posted it.

I'm still glad that I said what I did. Now anyone who matters in that tiny arena knows my opinion on THAT specific issue. I'll never have to adress it here again.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 11:23 PM on January 16, 2006

I'm not sure whether this is a "spectacular flameout" or an Andy Kaufmanesque joke.
posted by solid-one-love at 11:27 PM on January 16, 2006

spiderwire: I'm not sure it's a bug- view the source- someone's messing with the css- I don't think P&C even posted that. Somebody else did with a workaround.
posted by exlotuseater at 11:29 PM on January 16, 2006

Is puke & cry's last comment showing up with the wrong time for anyone else?

*views source*

Waaaaiit a second. spiderwire's right -- fandango_matt looks to be pulling some shenanigans here.

Not that puke & cry hasn't said as much and as offensive before, and Mr T apparently means what he said, but that's not good at all. What the hell is going on here?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:29 PM on January 16, 2006

While we're waiting, PareidoliaticBoy, who are you (other than)? Some others have expressed an interest but I don't remember you answering.
posted by Mr T at 11:30 PM on January 16, 2006

I'm so observant! :)

You know what's funny -- I've thought of doing that before, but figured that it was so patently obvious that it couldn't possible be allowed.

I guess it's cause he used the "small" tag rather than the "smallcopy" class, so the regexp didn't match up.
posted by spiderwire at 11:44 PM on January 16, 2006

**possibly

I suck, I'm going to bed
posted by spiderwire at 11:53 PM on January 16, 2006

I've done that miming thing before as an obvious joke, but this seems like an extremely dangerous example. (Without bothering to view source, you can tell it's fake by checking the timestamp's anchor number (in this case identical to the previous comment) and I think that given the allowed tags here you can't mime the proper light gray for the "posted by." Oh, it's also missing its flag exclamation point. The more clever thing would have been to include the flagging link (assuming in this case that many people would click it, probably a good assumption) but have it point to a wikipedia entry on ventriloquism or something).
posted by nobody at 11:56 PM on January 16, 2006

posted it to MeTa. agree that it's tricky.

i'm guessing that there's already some code to filter out the [!] ...
posted by spiderwire at 12:05 AM on January 17, 2006

ventriloquism ... that would have been awesome
posted by spiderwire at 12:06 AM on January 17, 2006

Sorry Mr. T, I don't understand your question. Please elaborate.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 12:06 AM on January 17, 2006

Sorta random suggestion that's been made before, I'm sure: a moderator in Europe, Asia and/or Australia. Might help catch self-linkers before they get much of a traffic boost.

I volunteered for this role about a year ago. Nay, demanded this role. And do you think the bugger would give me Moderator powers?

;)
posted by uncanny hengeman at 12:07 AM on January 17, 2006

Look, Mr T, this site is the crappiest, ugliest, most poorly-run turd of a website since the last site from which I was banned. I've requested features and changes but the piss-poor site administrator obviously thinks he has better things to do than implement the changes I have requested he make. Until Matt Haughey gets off his lazy ass and stops wanking to his 5.1 minutes of fame on CNN and Wired, I will use my five dollars to call Matt Haughey and his pathetic excuse for a website as the crap that they are.

posted by puke & cry at 11:04 PM on January 16

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is a fake comment from keswick.
posted by puke & cry at 12:09 AM on January 17, 2006

indeed
posted by puke & cry at 12:17 AM on January 17, 2006

now i have no idea what fandango_matt is doing, and i can't verify w/o access to the db really, but i don't think keswick wrote that comment. matt tricked the filter by using an HTML entity in puke's username rather than an ampersand, and used the small tag rather than the smallcopy class.

it's easy to verify. the fake "post" in question has an a name attribute of 280423, which is fandango_matt's comment, and the fake link (cleverly rewritten) actually points to the preceding comment, 280422.
posted by spiderwire at 12:25 AM on January 17, 2006

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is a fake comment from keswick

Nope, it was fandango_matt taking a joke a bit too far.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:26 AM on January 17, 2006

oh, i know what he's doing, he's making fun of puke & cry. and i screwed up the joke. sigh. sorry.
posted by spiderwire at 12:26 AM on January 17, 2006

spiderwire, calm down. There's no filtering or CSS or db tricks. It's just a copy and paste with the small tag around the posted by line.

Example:

now i have no idea what fandango_matt is doing, and i can't verify w/o access to the db really, but i don't think keswick wrote that comment. matt tricked the filter by using an HTML entity in puke's username rather than an ampersand, and used the small tag rather than the smallcopy class.
posted by spiderwire at 12:25 AM PST on January 17 [!]

See? whoop de do. It's clearly a fake, posted by me. It's rarely used, and usually only done for jokes. I don't think it's a horrible security hole or anything.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:29 AM on January 17, 2006

Nope, it was fandango_matt taking a joke a bit too far.

oh, ok. It's just a joke. ha ha.
posted by puke & cry at 12:34 AM on January 17, 2006

You know puke and cry we had this discussion before, when you started acting like a 3 year old. I believe others have linked to that thread, I personally can't even be bothered to look.

If you so seriously dislike the job that Matt does here, stop coming here. Or better yet YOU design and administer a better site, and show us all how it's done.

Now , 'll repeat my offer from that other thread once last time. If you do stop whining about the piss-poor jobs that the admins do , I will personally refund you your precious $5. In fact, I'll double it.

BTW, anyone have any idea what Mr T was on about?
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 12:34 AM on January 17, 2006

well, i do think that spoofing is a problem, and i'd like to try to fix it. (if you'd let me in the sandbox, i'm pretty sure i could gin up a way to fix that colorchange and get it to look right. almost had it in the sandbox.)

regardless, look at what happened to this thread at 3 AM... i shudder to think what would happen if dios shit on a thread and flew off and then someone spoofed him back in and argued for a few hours. then he'd be pissed about his account getting stolen, the mefites arguing with him would feel foollish, everyone's pissed, and everyone's lost a lot of time.

i just want to see if it's possible to do it in a convincing way, and if so, to come up with a simple CSS solution to fix it.

off the top of my head, i think you should declare links in comments as a different color than links in the smallcopy footer. that alone would make it much harder to spoof, and the link is much more apparent than the background text.

and my regexp at the top would work too.
posted by spiderwire at 12:59 AM on January 17, 2006

spiderwire, seriously, this has been around since the site began. Once a year someone spoofs another user, 75% of the people that read it get a chuckle out of it, and a few people think it's real and demand that Something Must Be Done.

If this becomes a problem, I'll write some code to prevent it from ever happening or I'll start banning people that run around impersonating others. So far we're looking at a single occurrence that most people see as fake.

It's not a problem at the moment.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:04 AM on January 17, 2006

It's clearly a fake, posted by me.

Not clear at all. I was looking, and I can barely tell. Scanning a thread quickly, as I was when fandango_matt pulled his shit, I didn't notice at all. I think you overestimate how fake it looks, to be honest.

No biggie, but I'd strongly discourage people doing this, perhaps by forcing them to spend time in a room with puke&cry and Mr T.

zing!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:36 AM on January 17, 2006

spiderwire, will you please stop mucking about with the site?
posted by mathowie at 2:29 AM CST on January 17 [!]


Yeah yeah, I'm almost done...
posted by spiderwire at 1:37 AM on January 17, 2006

spiderwire, seriously.
posted by mathowie at 2:29 AM CST on January 17 [!]


OK, I'm done, promise. I'll come up with some way to fix that color problem :)
posted by spiderwire at 2:14 AM on January 17, 2006

[none of those comments are by matt... i was just sandboxing]

there is still a problem with that extra div closing that you might want to fix, matt. night.
posted by spiderwire at 2:16 AM on January 17, 2006

actually that fucking clueless


.



posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:59 AM on January 17, 2006

I didn't agree with p&c on his previous outburst but after seeing Matt pull crap like this, one has to wonder about this place even being worth the $5.
posted by bouncebounce at 4:10 AM on January 17, 2006

Ummm... I thought that was a pretty concise answer.
posted by antifuse at 4:45 AM on January 17, 2006

*masturbates furiously*

Oh look, isn't that cute and clever†? A mini-quonsar wannabe!


(†The correct answer is: no, it's not. It's not cute or clever at all.)

Stavros, DOOD. A pill. A chill pill. I made a very tiny, very uncute joke. I was deliberately pissing on this stupid thread. God, dood. Might want to have someone look at your "heated up over nuthin" filter.
posted by Slap Incognito at 5:02 AM on January 17, 2006

So... the "Fucking job" thing was still legit?
Wow.
Just wow.

On one hand, I'm appalled at the sense of entitlement, on the other, I'm delighted to have witnessed the birth of a new MeFi catchphrase.

Where they hell were you, Mathowie & Jessamyn?!?
There was a spider in my bathtub, and I think I swallowed a toothpick!
Isn't it your fucking job to hold my hand through life???
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 5:03 AM on January 17, 2006

Ummm... I thought that was a pretty concise answer.
posted by antifuse at 12:45 PM GMT on January 17 [!]

True and normally I might agree with you. I just felt it was pretty glib and not at all helpful. If Metafilter was a shareware app and this was a response from the dev, I'd be pretty annoyed at this answer.
posted by bouncebounce at 5:24 AM on January 17, 2006

The timezone is what really trips these things up. The comments I see are all in EST. The fakey ones are either in CST, GMT, or don't have a timezone at all. It's not super-glaring, but if someone was like "Wow, I don't believe that user said that!" [though that's not the case with the first faked P&C post, alas...] anyone can figure out what's up without checking the DB. At the very least it will look strange to mathowie OR me because we're in different timezones.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:45 AM on January 17, 2006

FWIW the MefiQuote script recognizes those comments as spoofed, and doesn't drop the little "quote" link after the [!]. Helps make them stand out as fake.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:53 AM on January 17, 2006

Can I have some popcorn too?
posted by wheelieman at 6:03 AM on January 17, 2006

Does fandango_matt think he helped his case by faking that comment?
posted by smackfu at 6:26 AM on January 17, 2006

I was just messing around with my comments seeing if I could get the color right (hence I didn't bother even trying to put the times in order), but I would like to point out that my [!]'s, in fact, do point to the Wikipedia entry for Ventriloquism.
posted by spiderwire at 7:56 AM on January 17, 2006

99% of the posts of mine that were deleted were sucky as hell. It's the one percent that I think were unjustly deleted that I lose sleep over. Oh, my little babies, cut down in their prime! :(
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:18 AM on January 17, 2006

Not clear at all. I was looking, and I can barely tell. Scanning a thread quickly, as I was when fandango_matt pulled his shit, I didn't notice at all. I think you overestimate how fake it looks, to be honest.

I'm with stavros. It wasn't clear at all on first pass that it was a fake comment; the "posted by" color is *very* easily overlooked. Our comments are who we are here; pretending to be another user is a bullshit move that has the potential, at least, to become a much bigger problem, and when someone does it without immediately owning up they should get at least a timeout.
posted by mediareport at 8:23 AM on January 17, 2006

[Matt, I know you're getting a lot of shit lately, but I'll note as politely as I can that you've basically just given folks a green light here to ramp up the fake comments.]
posted by mediareport at 8:26 AM on January 17, 2006

I'm with stavros and mediareport. I didn't notice the fakery, either.
posted by I Love Tacos at 8:33 AM on January 17, 2006

FWIW, every comment prior to this one attributed to me in this thread was posted by me.
posted by keswick at 8:34 AM on January 17, 2006

BTW, anyone have any idea what Mr T was on about?

He might be referring to jonmc's strange belief that you and I are the same person.
posted by solid-one-love at 8:35 AM on January 17, 2006

you've basically just given folks a green light here to ramp up the fake comments.

Please scroll up and read where I said if this truly becomes a problem and gets done more than once in a blue moon, I'll code around it and ban people that abuse it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:37 AM on January 17, 2006

[Matt, I know you're getting a lot of shit lately, but I'll note as politely as I can that you've basically just given folks a green light here to ramp up the fake comments.]

Matt gives the green light to a lot of terrible behavior. I'd be willing to wager that he doesn't even glance at flagged ParisParamus posts, wrongly assuming that all the posts are flagged on idealogical grounds.

It's not really news that trolls are welcome on the blue. I guess they're good for business, and this is Matt's business. It sucks that the blue has been administratively doomed to permanent hate fiesta status, but such is life.
posted by I Love Tacos at 8:44 AM on January 17, 2006

I have some news for you all.

There are actually OTHER FORUMS on the internet.

You are no longer trapped in the utter hell and degradation of the Mefi gulag-go forth, little soldiers, be free!

(/sarcasm)
posted by konolia at 8:49 AM on January 17, 2006

Mr T:

You, sir, are a herpetic sore on the lip of metafilter. You are the result of metafilter twiddling the ballsack of some late night bottom feeder down at the docks a couple weeks ago, and as solitary and desperately understandable as that lonly excursion may have been, your comments, like herpes, will unfortunately be around for the remainder of the site's history, a painful and shameful reminder of just how low metafilter sank that lamentable night when it first allowed you to make your presence known.

Your every typed letter is a hammer's blow against common decency, coming as they do from such a paragon of depravity and malignant tomfoolery. Each screed, each malformed utterance of yours is a parable in fire crying out, "Look ye on the works of evil, and despair!" Each new thought you clumsily shlep from that underdeveloped cranium of yours to dump like so much dog shit on our threads is a cautionary tale detailing the many reasons why we all should do everything within our realms of capability to avoid contracting such a "social disease" as yourself.

Ah, but who'm I kiddin'? I still love ya, ya big lug. But to answer your question: Yes, we are calling people pricks, now. Specifically puke & cry.
posted by shmegegge at 9:02 AM on January 17, 2006

Test
posted by mathowie at 12:49 AM PST on January 17 [!]

Intresting
posted by delmoi at 9:08 AM on January 17, 2006

My solution would be to make "official" links a different color then non-official links. That would require more tooling with the color scheme, but I don't think the gold is that great to begin with. Maybe bright blue on the blue and bright green on the green? And uh, purple on the grey.
posted by delmoi at 9:10 AM on January 17, 2006

Metafilter: a herpetic sore on the lip of Metafilter
posted by Rothko at 9:23 AM on January 17, 2006

This type of thread is why I always wear latex gloves when engaging in casual blogging.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:28 AM on January 17, 2006

beedogs.com is the premier online repository for pictures of dogs in bee costumes.
posted by wakko at 9:43 AM on January 17, 2006

Oh yeah? Well, what about the beeFROGS? Huh? Answer me that!
posted by Gator at 9:47 AM on January 17, 2006

He dropped the PST. Doh.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:07 AM on January 17, 2006

Y'know, Matt, I'm just another jagoff on your website, but you have seemed a lot more prickish lately. And I don't really feel a lot of sympathy for the 40-hours-an'-out argument. You run a business: hire someone else to help. I'm not gonna pretend to know how the balance sheet stands between the $5 for signups+ads versus hosting costs and your salary, but I'm gonna lay odds that you're not hurting. You've never been an exemplary admin (and the bullshit "Well, he lets us criticize the admins here! That's permissive!" is toadying of a disgusting degree), and you're not the strongest coder. You had a great idea, and now the community sells itself. The "If you don't like it, there's always usenet" is the same thing as any business telling its customers to get bent. They may be able to still turn a profit, but it's prickish.
Hire someone else, Matt. Spend more time with your kid. Go get dinner. That way, you can do so without people complaining about the festering self-links, the persistent derails in AskMe and the trollish bullshit in every newsfilter post. Jessamyn does an amazing job (as far as I know, she even does it for free). You should be taking lessons from her on how to be genial, a good contributor, and a great moderator. And if you can't be like her, hire someone else who can be. You'll be happier, and many of the members will be happier (aside from the chronic malingerers). But admit that the site is too big for just the two of you to police, and that you have no desire to be Craig at the center of a trembling spider's web.
posted by klangklangston at 10:45 AM on January 17, 2006

I was trying to think of a nice way of showing my disagreement with klangy but I don't really have the time so let me just say "bollocks". No disrespect intended klang but I really don't think MeFi needs more administration. Self policing works up to the point where the banhammer is wielded and that suits me just fine.
posted by longbaugh at 10:59 AM on January 17, 2006

If this site were perfectly moderated it would suck. Also - does anyone else have the totally unjustifiable* opinion that the people who yell the loudest about the quality of the site tend to be the people who most actively drag it down in the first place? (Like I said - it's a totally unjustifiable* opinion.)

*By me, because I'm lazy, and I don't really care that much because, like I said - I think this place would suck if it were perfect.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:08 AM on January 17, 2006

klanglangston, you're conflating a lot of things I've said into me being a prick.

Let me break down a few. I mentioned usenet because someone insisted that the entire site must be unedited completely, with no deletions ever, no matter how bad. That is precisely what usenet is and I made a little light hearted joke about it. I wasn't telling them to fuck off, I was trying to tell them that it's been done and it kind of sucks. Editing has its time and place.

You say Jessamyn is doing a great job and I agree, but she and I gets truckloads of crap for it. It took me about four years to trust her enough to hand over some admin power and people have complained since the day I did that and how it leads to inconsistent admin behavior. Finding someone else I could trust is next to impossible, and throwing another person into the mix has great potential to cause more trouble.

It's really, really hard to find good coders that know what they're doing and can work within this environment. It's magnatudes harder to find people that understand a light editorial touch and have read the site deep enough and for long enough to understand the patterns of bad behavior and when to intervene.

You can sit there and say 1) be more consistent 2) don't be a prick or complain 3) hire everyone necessary to make the site work better and be free of problems while also remaining consistent and no one can be pricks, and I can sit here and tell you I'm doing the best I can and it's much harder than it looks, but that sounds like me complaining and you're probably convinced I'm making a mint while turning into an asshole.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:12 AM on January 17, 2006

I'm happy enough with the level of imperfection I find at Mefi.

Except the assholery, pricking and cunting.

(I'd bet 90% of the mods in the world woulda deleted that and banned the user. Some people can't see the wood for the trees.)

It's disappointing to me that more regulars did not protest that particualr comment. Yes I know mathowies a big boy, big enough & ugly enough to take care of himself. Even so, there are community standards - and that was a clear breach.

As an aside, I wonder what's the gender balance is Meta these days? I see very few recognisably female posters in here.

Coincidence? I think we should be told.
posted by dash_slot- at 11:16 AM on January 17, 2006

I for one am continually and deeply disappointed that MetaFilter is not perfect. For $5, we should get perfection! Fortunately, I have devised a solution.

Give every registered member the power to delete threads and comments.

This would surely result in removing all double-posts, offensive remarks, and single-link newsfilter posts. What's left would have to be the best of the Web. It would also make for a lot more space on the front page.

Mr. Haughey could spend all his time coding ponies.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:17 AM on January 17, 2006

It's disappointing to me that more regulars did not protest that particualr comment. Yes I know mathowies a big boy, big enough & ugly enough to take care of himself. Even so, there are community standards - and that was a clear breach.

What comment exactly are you referring to as "that" in these sentences?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:22 AM on January 17, 2006

Intresting
posted by delmoi at 12:08 PM EST on January 17 [!]

not really. one of the oldest tricks in the mefi book.
posted by quonsar at 11:23 AM on January 17, 2006

FWIW, I disagree with whomever claimed upthread that MeFi has taken a turn for the worse since Matt dedicated himself to it fulltime. Server uptime is dramatically improved, the jruns are nearly gone, and there's been a contant stream of little useage improvements that add up to the site being much better than it was six months ago.
posted by raedyn at 11:28 AM on January 17, 2006

Word. And if you think about how many people complain about too much getting deleted, and how many complain about not enough getting deleted, there must be a delicate balancing act going on.

MeFi is changing, that's what it means to be alive. Share your critiques and requests, but don't be a jerk about it.
posted by freebird at 11:32 AM on January 17, 2006

i cannot believe the whining and belly aching going on here, but it is awesome.

just for the record i would like to say that this is the single best 5 bucks i have ever spent.
posted by poppo at 11:47 AM on January 17, 2006

Clearly female poster here.

I have had just about enough of posts like klangklangston's. Totally fed up.

If you want perfection, start your own danged community blog and see how "easy" it is.

Matt, you already know this, but in any large group there will always be people looking for something to bitch about. Just run this place the way you feel like it. The rest of us will enjoy, or tolerate, or leave, our choice. But this place is unique-and I really think the perceived inconsistency is part of what makes this place what it is.

Those of you who like totalitarianism, go to TWOP. Those of you who want anarchy, head to usenet. Meanwhile, I will happily stay here and enjoy the Republic of Metafilter.

Now let's all go have pancakes.
posted by konolia at 11:54 AM on January 17, 2006

test
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:02 PM on January 17, 2006

Y'know, Matt, I'm just another jagoff on your website, but you have seemed a lot more testy lately.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:05 PM on January 17, 2006

icles
posted by quonsar at 12:05 PM on January 17, 2006

Ok, you can't post fake "posted by" lines anymore.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:05 PM on January 17, 2006

Yeah right quonsar/mathowie. Like I'm falling for that...

Who's real anymore? Anyone? Anyone?
posted by longbaugh at 12:17 PM on January 17, 2006

one of the oldest tricks in the mefi book.

Exactly, it was a harmless bit of fun, and now a few sanctimonious jerkoffs have ruined it. "Look, if we whine and bitch and bang on the bars of the crib Daddy will have to take it away!" Well done. Now let's see if we can force him to put every other comment in a different color, just because we haven't got anything better to do on a Tuesday afternoon.

And this shit is just pathetic. Showing some basic understanding and politeness is not the same as toadying.
posted by languagehat at 12:51 PM on January 17, 2006

What comment exactly are you referring to as "that" in these sentences?

I believe he's referring to puke&cry's insults.

For what it's worth, I think you're doing a very good job indeed for the most part, Matt, even if I don't always agree with your decisions. To judge how good a job, I'd have to see your tax returns. ~wink~
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:05 PM on January 17, 2006

it was a harmless bit of fun, and now a few sanctimonious jerkoffs have ruined it.
Too true - the fake "posted by" was always there, but very rarely used and only in the spirit of fun. Some people just can't accept that not everything has to be completely controlled - for years we have been able to have that little toy to play with because it was used responsibly, but now mathowie has had to spend time fixing something that wasn't broken in the first place just to shut up thw whining. For those of you that picked at this until it bled, thanks a fucking lot.
posted by dg at 1:13 PM on January 17, 2006

(and you could always know if it was faked or not by looking at the mycomments page, since the "posted by" format was completely different.)
posted by raedyn at 1:15 PM on January 17, 2006

Is this pony really dead?
ghosted by malthowie at 6:66 AMPM PST on January 17 [!]



posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:26 PM on January 17, 2006

For all the people complaining about how Matt runs his business, let me remind you about the nature of free enterprise.

Consumers vote for the businesses they prefer with their wallets. If you don't like the place, patronize some other forum.

Problem solved.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 3:42 PM on January 17, 2006

OMG It's Raining Florence Henderson totally just haxx0red m3fi! h3 p0wnz!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:47 PM on January 17, 2006

Y'know, Matt, I'm just another jagoff on your website, but you have seemed a lot more l33t lately.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:51 PM on January 17, 2006

He might be referring to jonmc's strange belief that you and I are the same person.

posted by solid-one-love at 8:35 AM PST on January 17

REALLY? The time that I spend here is so minimal that I can't imagine any situation where my name would have come up without my presence, let alone as part of some bizzaro Internet conspiracy, or plot. What an odd concept. How on Earth did he develop such a strange belief?

Some people really DO have too much time on their hands.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:06 PM on January 17, 2006

Sorry if that was vague...I was saying that I'm surprised at the lack of protest at the abusive language upthread.
There was comment, but not enough, dammit!
In other news, I can announce that I have also been taken over by me mum's taste in music and booze. Bring back Mario Lanza and Amontillado!
posted by dash_slot- at 4:28 PM on January 17, 2006

I see this dusky pheonix rising again on wings of minor variation.
qosted by jean grey at 4:27 PM PST on January 17 [!]


Word up, my x-mizzle.
posted by cortex at 4:29 PM on January 17, 2006

Quick, somebody write a greasemonkey script and start a MeTa thread about it!
posted by cortex at 4:30 PM on January 17, 2006

Is this a good time to say GYOBFW to the haters upthread?
posted by Lynsey at 9:04 PM on January 17, 2006

Ok, you can't post fake "posted by" lines anymore.

Not the solution I would have used, but ok. A simple statement that folks who misused it would be banned would have worked fine, I think. I was just wondering why that statement wasn't made, Matt. It was the "maybe I'll start banning abusers in the future" thing that didn't make any sense to me.

it was a harmless bit of fun, and now a few sanctimonious jerkoffs have ruined it.

Yeah, right. Pretending to be someone else, knowing that at least some of the users here will be fooled and take your comment to be coming from the user you're impersonating, is "a harmless bit of fun." Whatever.
posted by mediareport at 9:06 PM on January 17, 2006

sanctimonious anti-fun fascist.
posted by quonsar at 9:53 PM on January 17, 2006

I FEEL THREATENED WHEN PEOPLE BREAK THE ANCIENT AND UNIVERSALLY RESPECTED RULES OF INTERNET CONDUCT.
posted by Krrrlson at 9:59 PM on January 17, 2006

Considering that people have consistently pointed out and snickered at spoofed comments in the past, I don't thinkt he horrific impersonation scenario you're worrying about is there.

It is, in fact, a harmless bit of fun in almost all cases; in this case, there was tinge of nastiness to it that led all the more quickly to double-takes and outing by perceptive readers. Sky continues not to fall.

But perhaps we should also ban sarcasm, and metaphor, and quoting, and any use of the various forms of the infinitive "to be". Make 'em bannable offenses, protect this great mass of unwashed illiterates who are Metafilter's user base from the dangers of anything other than sterile, provable assertions.
posted by cortex at 10:03 PM on January 17, 2006

See, now all of you thought it was cortex that said that.
posted by euphorb at 10:07 PM on January 17, 2006

THAT'S BULLSHIT

I DONT TALK LIKE THAT
posted by cortex at 10:09 PM on January 17, 2006

you guys seriously need to get a life. seriously.
posted by keswick at 10:16 PM on January 17, 2006

there was tinge of nastiness to it

Yeah, that's what I was reacting to. Anyway, given that Matt's solution to this one leaves spoofing wide open, y'all can keep playing to your heart's content.

I FEEL THREATENED WHEN PEOPLE BREAK THE ANCIENT AND UNIVERSALLY RESPECTED RULES OF INTERNET CONDUCT.

*laughs*
posted by mediareport at 10:37 PM on January 17, 2006

Vain, stupid, self-regarding as ever.

Keep talking it up, fat boy.
posted by Wolof at 4:38 AM on January 18, 2006

My god, every other comment is the best answer!

THIS IS A CONTENT-RICH THREAD!
posted by cortex at 6:42 AM on January 18, 2006

Just today I had a comment on an AskMefi post get deleted. Someone had a question about a wedding, and I made a quip about the SF city ordinances requiring you to have a permit before dancing is allowed. *poof* went the comment.
posted by drstein at 3:24 PM on January 18, 2006

I made a quip

Right under the text input:

note: Ask MetaFilter is as useful as you make it. Please limit comments to answers or help in finding an answer. Wisecracks don't help people find answers. Thanks.

Any other questions?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:54 PM on January 18, 2006

Is a quip the same as a wisecrack? Inquiring minds want to know.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:05 PM on January 18, 2006

I'm not sure we have enough info to be sure that drstein intended that as any sort of complaint.

drstein, please elaborate.
posted by cortex at 6:07 PM on January 18, 2006

Is a quip the same as a wisecrack? Inquiring minds want to know.

And how are they in turn related to gags, gibes, jests, jokes, sallies, witticisms, snarks and most importantly, teh funney? It's a headscratcher, all right.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:43 PM on January 18, 2006

*scratches thewonderchicken's head*
posted by raedyn at 6:30 AM on January 19, 2006

raedyn, I don't want to alarm you, but the last person who did that got the avian flu.
posted by languagehat at 7:53 AM on January 19, 2006

A question was posted about stuff to do at a wedding where the folks didn't want dancing to be the main focus.. I replied with a joke about "Have it in San Francisco where you'll need a permit for anyone to dance" and linked to an article about how dance permits are required in the city and legally, you're supposed to tell me to to stop dancing if they start to dance and you don't have the proper permits.
I was amused by my own stupid comment, but I guess someone else wasn't as it vanished from the list of replies. I can't elaborate any further, because that's really about it. I was just surprised to see the comment simply vanish like it did.

And a "quip" simply means "a witty remark."
posted by drstein at 1:36 PM on January 23, 2006

A "squib" means "a small firecracker type thingy."
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:36 PM on January 23, 2006

A "squab" means "a young, newly hatched, or unfledged pigeon."
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:40 PM on January 23, 2006