Candidate for deletion?

April 10, 2007 4:32 AM

There's a thread in AskMefi that may be a candidate for deletion or at least expunging identifying info. It includes personal info of third parties and asks if a business is a "scam" with no evidence/logic. And after this inflammatory claim there is no follow-up by the OP.
posted by sparrows to Etiquette/Policy at 4:32 AM (11 comments total)

asks if a business is a "scam" with no evidence/logic

the logic is that lots of businesses are using the same address, just like a solitary scam artist with a lot of fronts might.

The "personal info" on third parties is (gasp!) links to their websites, the address from where they do business, and an unfavorable BBB rating. All matters of public record, and not even obscure ones.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:44 AM on April 10, 2007

It actually seems like this issue if pretty well addressed in the thread. The discussion is rational and there is no attempt to googlebomb or anything. It would be nice to see a follow-up, but it doesn't seem like a candidate for deletion to me.
posted by OmieWise at 4:49 AM on April 10, 2007

Nah, if I were the seller I'd be glad of that thread, it is a bug report on my marketing on the reseller site, generated by the free market as the good Adam Smith intended. Free markets work most fairly when there's equal access to information. The seller can post on the thread to explain, etc. and actually improve his/her online profile.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:52 AM on April 10, 2007

The results of Googling someones names is invading their privacy?
posted by smackfu at 5:54 AM on April 10, 2007

Okay, this makes sense. You're right, it's not "personal" info at all; what I meant was that the focus on this business's particular contact info will (IMHO) pollute its google results because this thread is a debate about scam-or-not that's not simply resolved (as we know, not everyone reads a result's full text rather than just skimming or reading the top)...
posted by sparrows at 6:04 AM on April 10, 2007

It's an honest-to-goodness page on the web that mentions the business. It's not "polluting" anyone's results; that's how Google is supposed to work. It's a web search, not a business directory.

That's also how AskMe is supposed to work: people ask good-faith questions about things and get answers. That's exactly what happened in that linked thread.
posted by mendel at 6:14 AM on April 10, 2007

The first best answer cracks me up.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 6:26 AM on April 10, 2007

It's fine. Usually, in the first place, we're a little more lenient with having business information there than true personal information -- so if you post the results of a WHOIS search with someone's name and phone number we will often remove it -- and we also look at what the thread says and what the intent is. In this case it worked out okay -- or at least the group fell out on the side of "not scam" -- and anyone who read the thread would catch that.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:32 AM on April 10, 2007

Cool, I will certainly bow to a staff answer! This is my first MetaTalk post, good to learn from.
posted by sparrows at 6:49 AM on April 10, 2007

sparrows, you can also feel free to email the three admins for stuff like this.
posted by mediareport at 7:45 AM on April 10, 2007

He got the book, hooray. This MeTa thread makes me wonder how Chalupa's ear infection turned out.
posted by boo_radley at 9:40 AM on April 10, 2007