Oh where, oh where, oh where has my post gone...?

July 9, 2007 2:26 AM

Just wondering what happened to my Metafilter post (why it got deleted). Did I do something wrong? I checked my email and there was no reason given over there too. Sorry if I'm being a bother Jess; just wanted to know if there was something I could've done better to make the post stay up (liked the andaman site that I'd linked it to).
posted by hadjiboy to MetaFilter-Related at 2:26 AM (35 comments total)

Have you got a link to it hadjiboy?
posted by Meatbomb at 2:37 AM on July 9, 2007

I don't have a link to the original post, but here's a link to the andaman site, and the article which spurred on the FPP.
posted by hadjiboy at 2:47 AM on July 9, 2007

This post was deleted for the following reason: pretty much done previously -- jessamyn
posted by mullacc at 2:48 AM on July 9, 2007

It was essentially a double post, hadjiboy;

http://www.metafilter.com/62739/The-Natives
posted by Justinian at 2:48 AM on July 9, 2007

Oops, sorry about that--thanks for the deleted link though.
I thought I'd posted some copyrighted material that I wasn't aware of (had no idea that this topic was covered before).

Sorry again Jess:)
posted by hadjiboy at 2:59 AM on July 9, 2007

hadjiboy, if you were monitoring your post, you would've noted several comments in the thread indicating that it was basically a double, and in fact kind of a triple. But maybe you weren't able to check the comments as they came in? I know sometimes I make an FPP then have to cut out right away, or go to sleep or whatever...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:16 AM on July 9, 2007

Do deleted posts show up on "My Posts"? Maybe they should, so folks can track them, reducing the number of "where did my post go?" MetaTalk entries.
posted by Eideteker at 3:39 AM on July 9, 2007

Eideteker, the occasional 'where did my post go?' enquiry is fine. It's the continual petulant barrage of 'why the fuck was my post/comment deleted you cockwads?' entitlement that is the MetaTalk problem.
posted by peacay at 3:53 AM on July 9, 2007

Ahhh a happy ending for once.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 3:59 AM on July 9, 2007

It's ok to email an admin if you have a question.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:01 AM on July 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

flapjax, yeah--I think I'd made the post yesterday evening and checked it once or twice before going to bed and then had no idea what'd happened to it when I checked on it today.
Eideteker makes a good point because the first thing I did was to check my "My Posts" entry, and didn't find it there either. It would be nice if you could connect back to your deleted post from that page and read the reason for its deletion.
Brandon, yeah, that's probably what I should've done.
posted by hadjiboy at 4:12 AM on July 9, 2007

Plutor's Mefi deleted Greasemonkey script lets you see all the deleted threads across the sites. It's great.
posted by peacay at 4:26 AM on July 9, 2007

"Eideteker, the occasional 'where did my post go?' enquiry is fine."

It's not about MetaTalk posting volume, it's about usability.
posted by Eideteker at 4:33 AM on July 9, 2007

the occasional 'where did my post go?' enquiry is fine."

I disagree, peacay. Email's the way to go for that, not MeTa. It can't help but look petulant when you post to MeTa without bothering to email the admins first.
posted by mediareport at 4:49 AM on July 9, 2007

I'd say hadjiboy is coming off as anything but petulant, mediareport.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:01 AM on July 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

I had a double deleted recently and iirc I was able to find it-and the reason-in My Posts.
posted by konolia at 5:18 AM on July 9, 2007

I'd say hadjiboy is coming off as anything but petulant, mediareport

I agree with Meatbomb, wholeheartedly:p

(I decided to make the post here instead of emailing since I hardly get to use this part of the site anyways, but maybe that's a good thing as Eid has pointed out.)

Thanks for the link peacay!
posted by hadjiboy at 5:43 AM on July 9, 2007

DletaFilter?
posted by strawberryviagra at 5:45 AM on July 9, 2007

Another find-yer-post expedient: drop a comment into your own post, so that it shows up in My Comments.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:10 AM on July 9, 2007

And yeah: hadjiboy, no biggie and thanks for not being all ARRR INJUSTICE BEFALLS ME RAWR and stuff; yeah, email is probably the best route for a deletion inquiry (and people do do that a lot); and Plutor's script is awesome sauce in an economy-size can.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:12 AM on July 9, 2007

Usually the tag team combo of Plutor's script, the deleted thread blog and looking in your own history for the URL of your post wil answer these questions but we're also happy to answer them in email or MeTa. I bet there's a way to make a bigger richer non-double post about the Andaman, but the post you made wasn't quite it. It's a great topic though.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:19 AM on July 9, 2007

Every good site I come across then think would make a good post turns out to have been posted by plep years ago. I hates him. Or is it loves him?
posted by Abiezer at 7:15 AM on July 9, 2007

mediareport, if people don't know to email someone and/or are generally unsure and need to ask a question, then the fact of their asking the question here is/should be fine. I'm not saying we want to encourage people to make MeTa posts, just that this is in fact a place where unsure people ought to be able to ask for help.

I know, it's disappointing that there's seldom any blood or screaming, but it seems to me that this (answering site specific, even if trifling, questions) is actually part of the reason MeTa exists. I'm sure I would hesitate before emailing J, M or C if I didn't have the confidence etc. And I'm not always sure about beating up on people if they miss some bit of detail in the copious wiki/FAQs notes that I hear exist around these parts. You know how they say that you can judge a country by how they treat their prisoners as an indication I guess of their social compassion? Maybe web communities can be judged by how they treat their newbies. What?! That doesn't work as a comparison and is practically irrelevant? Oh. K.
posted by peacay at 7:34 AM on July 9, 2007

I always check LoFi for deleted posts. Might be a good URL to bookmark for future reference.
posted by maudlin at 7:46 AM on July 9, 2007

Detect deleted threads bookmarklet ... I didn't write it, just put it in another public place. Drag the link onto your browser toolbar, then, when you're on the front page, click it, and a new tab opens up and displays the recently departed.
posted by Dave Faris at 7:53 AM on July 9, 2007

cortex: "...and Plutor's script is awesome sauce in an economy-size can."

jessamyn: "Usually the tag team combo of Plutor's script..."

Hey Matt, do you use my script? Can I add "used by all three admins" in my full-page NYT/WaPo/LATimes advertisements next Sunday?
posted by Plutor at 8:06 AM on July 9, 2007

Sadly, I do not. I try to have as close of an experience as regular users of any site I design, so I don't use adblockers or greasemonkey (don't even have it installed) or special extensions. If I did, chances are I'd miss some glaring bug or error someday that a browser add-on was hiding from me.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:26 AM on July 9, 2007

Matt, do you read this site while hungover at work? That'd be very authentic.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:49 AM on July 9, 2007 [4 favorites]

f I did, chances are I'd miss some glaring bug or error someday

*opens mouth to speak, considers, slams mouth shut*
posted by quonsar at 10:08 AM on July 9, 2007

...that a browser add-on was hiding from me.

Jessamyn, have you been editing q's experience feed again?
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 10:50 AM on July 9, 2007

Metafilter: awesome sauce in an economy-size can.
posted by niles at 5:07 PM on July 9, 2007

I'm not saying we want to encourage people to make MeTa posts, just that this is in fact a place where unsure people ought to be able to ask for help.

But the first thing on the posting page, peacay, is a suggestion to email:

For specific, personal and/or immediate problems, contact mathowie or jessamyn directly or use the contact form. MetaTalk is not the most efficient or the quickest way to contact an admin.

You kind of have to get past that to post a MeTa thread, which hadjiboy did just to break his cherry or something. Again, I'll disagree that "the occasional 'where did my post go?' enquiry is fine." That's exactly the kind of "specific, personal" thing that should go to email.
posted by mediareport at 6:54 PM on July 9, 2007

Righto. Fair enough. I don't read so much of the permawords around here I guess.
posted by peacay at 11:13 PM on July 9, 2007

I must've missed that too. Sorry about that, guys.
posted by hadjiboy at 7:41 AM on July 10, 2007

Please don't close this thread. hadjiboy will open another MeTa asking why this MeTa was closed.

I kid, I kid, hadjiboy! :)

posted by The Deej at 8:24 AM on July 10, 2007