AskMe Deletions

December 18, 2006 9:47 AM

Edumacate me. Why are AskMe questions deleted in two distinct ways? For example, why is this one still visible but not this one?
posted by mds35 to Etiquette/Policy at 9:47 AM (24 comments total)

Very rarely someone will post something to AskMe that shouldn't be on the site at all. Hack attempts, outing of other members, superduper illegal stuff. Matt can delete these permanently.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:50 AM on December 18, 2006

Regular ignorance or dumbassery gets visible deletion in the hope others will learn from the mistake. Questions that are offensive in some way (legal, moral, or other) get bit bucketed.
posted by Mitheral at 9:50 AM on December 18, 2006

The 2nd one might not have been deleted, but could actually be an anonymous post that hasn't been approved yet. Those are much more common than nuked questions.
posted by smackfu at 10:11 AM on December 18, 2006

smackfu, if the second one were an anonymous question pending approval from an admin, would the deleted threads bookmarklet show it?
posted by mds35 at 10:24 AM on December 18, 2006

Yes, since the anonymous questions get added to the DB in the order they're submitted. After approval, they show up on the front page, and their thread-numbers are always out of order.
posted by gleuschk at 10:31 AM on December 18, 2006

The deleted threads bookmarklet doesn't know a question has been deleted; it just knows that there's an unexpected gap in the number. (Leastways, the version I use. And anyway, a slicker version might check each gap-question to see if it loads a q from anonymous, but if the question ain't posted yet, blammo.)
posted by cortex at 10:50 AM on December 18, 2006

Some, like postwar Europe, are shaped and built by the destruction wrought upon them. Smashed and sculpted by deletion into new forms, they live on made truly themselves only by a visible end. Others, like Atlantis, sink beneath the waves to be lost forever, for this world is sullied even by their hidden existence.
posted by freebird at 11:00 AM on December 18, 2006 [6 favorites]

Some, like postwar Europe, are shaped and built by the destruction wrought upon them.

We're not going to bring the Treaty of Westphalia into this, are we?
posted by languagehat at 11:06 AM on December 18, 2006

I should hope not. I much prefer the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
posted by mds35 at 11:14 AM on December 18, 2006

Well, it all goes back to 1648, when representatives of several Western European nations signed a pair of treaties (the Treaty of Münster and the Treaty of Osnabrück) that brought to a close the Thirty Years' War that had ravaged what we now think of as Germany. "What does this have to do with contemporary AskMe deletion policy?" you might ask. Well, it set the paradig...

Oh.

Sorry.

I'll just drop it now.
posted by googly at 11:25 AM on December 18, 2006

caprice?
posted by boo_radley at 11:34 AM on December 18, 2006

Giving the asker the benefit of the doubt, I wonder if that first question might have actually been about a game that the asker had played and was trying to identify, rather than a new one she wants to name. If this is the case, then the question was poorly phrased, but not worthy of deletion. The hive mind has identified things based on less information before.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:37 AM on December 18, 2006

First linked question: Need help coming up with the name of a game. It's played on a canvas using flat marbles. Sorry, not much to go on. Anyone have suggestions?

It's unclear to me whether this was a "please think up a name for a game I invented" question or a "please help me identify this game I played once and barely remember" question. If the latter, it should have been allowed to stay. At least, it should have been allowed to stay up until moonlite could clarify which she meant.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:38 AM on December 18, 2006

On failing to preview, what Faint of Butt said.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:40 AM on December 18, 2006

I wonder if that first question might have actually been about a game that the asker had played and was trying to identify

It makes a lot more sense that way.
posted by teleskiving at 11:50 AM on December 18, 2006

If the latter, it should have been allowed to stay. At least, it should have been allowed to stay up until moonlite could clarify which she meant.

I agree; furthermore, I think she might be thinking of Pente. If I didn't remember the mechanics of gameplay, I probably would have described it like that too.

I would have just e-mailed that answer to moonlite if she had her e-mail listed. Let that be a lesson to you: list your address!
posted by kyleg at 11:56 AM on December 18, 2006

Oh, and if moonlite finds her way here, many editions of Pente feature a board printed on canvas, which can be rolled up, and the Pente stones could conceivably be described as "flat marbles." Any chance that's it? (On preview: kyleg beat me to it!)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:00 PM on December 18, 2006

DevilsAdvocate is having a sad afternoon :(
posted by dorisfromregopark at 12:12 PM on December 18, 2006

I'm pissed and slightly baffled.
posted by mds35 at 1:56 PM on December 18, 2006

*sign* Fine, mds35. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was a very important moment in Mexican History.
posted by koeselitz at 2:15 PM on December 18, 2006

Oh, and Faint Of Butt and DevilsAdvocate are wrong. That first question should have been deleted, simply because frieze gave had already given an answer to it that was better than any that anyone else could possibly give.
posted by koeselitz at 2:17 PM on December 18, 2006

gave
posted by koeselitz at 2:20 PM on December 18, 2006

I'm sorry but I don't see what Pente has to do with the Little Entente.
posted by freebird at 3:49 PM on December 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

I love me some freebird.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:51 PM on December 18, 2006