Oh, no, it was deleted and no one can tell August 31, 2007 1:13 PM Subscribe
Is there any disincentive to posting crap comments in AskMe? Should there be?
We write stern emails to serial post crappers. We timeout or ban the folks who don't cut it out. People start angry Meta threads about crap comments that don't get deleted quickly, often times publicly chastising said commenters.
That's about all I can think of off-hand.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:17 PM on August 31, 2007 [2 favorites]
That's about all I can think of off-hand.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:17 PM on August 31, 2007 [2 favorites]
which is a disincentive for those who care about the permanence of their crap, i suppose.
posted by shmegegge at 1:20 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by shmegegge at 1:20 PM on August 31, 2007
I think that the moderation team does an amazing job with keeping askme clean. Obviously we're not privy to everything that happens behind the scenes, but I wouldn't be surprised if users have been banned after repeatedly crapping in threads.
The disincentive for me at least is trying not to look like a jackass. I can't count the number of times I have had a clever little reply or snarky comment all typed up and ready to go, and opted to erase and not post in a thread.
I think it helps that the mods are so well known. When you post a crap comment, you are making needless work for somebody you "know" and respect.
Which is why I started feeling guilty at around the three thousandth favourite I gave PST, and decided to stop (until today, when I tested the favouriting limits).
posted by davey_darling at 1:21 PM on August 31, 2007
The disincentive for me at least is trying not to look like a jackass. I can't count the number of times I have had a clever little reply or snarky comment all typed up and ready to go, and opted to erase and not post in a thread.
I think it helps that the mods are so well known. When you post a crap comment, you are making needless work for somebody you "know" and respect.
Which is why I started feeling guilty at around the three thousandth favourite I gave PST, and decided to stop (until today, when I tested the favouriting limits).
posted by davey_darling at 1:21 PM on August 31, 2007
There's one you missed, Cortex, and it only works on certain people.
I made a crap, throwaway, off-topic comment in AskMe pretty recently. Not vulgar or over-the-top, basically just dumb, superfluous, and didn't answer the question.
An hour later it had been deleted. And that made me feel stupid. And for me, feeling stupid is a strong, strong disincentive to posting crap.
posted by vito90 at 1:21 PM on August 31, 2007 [6 favorites]
I made a crap, throwaway, off-topic comment in AskMe pretty recently. Not vulgar or over-the-top, basically just dumb, superfluous, and didn't answer the question.
An hour later it had been deleted. And that made me feel stupid. And for me, feeling stupid is a strong, strong disincentive to posting crap.
posted by vito90 at 1:21 PM on August 31, 2007 [6 favorites]
I'm just seeing more and more AskMe threads where people post junk and then people post junk replies, and no one gives it a second thought because they know they'll be flagged and deleted. But someone has to do that actual cleanup... it's not magic. And maybe it would help if there was an offsetting action to that invisible deletion. Like a scarlet A in their profile. Or a comment timeout, maybe an hour for every deleted comment.
But I see you're on it, behind the scenes.
And there is a disincentive to posting crap MeTa posts... now I can't post again in the next week, even if something pisses me off.
posted by smackfu at 1:24 PM on August 31, 2007
But I see you're on it, behind the scenes.
And there is a disincentive to posting crap MeTa posts... now I can't post again in the next week, even if something pisses me off.
posted by smackfu at 1:24 PM on August 31, 2007
And further, I have to publicly defend myself against people who consider the post crap. Both good disincentives. And the disincentive to posting bad FPPs is that the post lives forever, you get a snarky deletion reason, and it might get dragged into MeTa.
posted by smackfu at 1:26 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by smackfu at 1:26 PM on August 31, 2007
man, if that crap meta post disincentive actually works, I shudder to think of all the garbage people AREN'T posting here.
posted by shmegegge at 1:27 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by shmegegge at 1:27 PM on August 31, 2007
I shudder to think of all the garbage people AREN'T posting here.
I think you'd be surprised (or not).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:31 PM on August 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
I think you'd be surprised (or not).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:31 PM on August 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
We write stern emails to serial post crappers.
Ooo. I want one of those. I want a stern email from cortex. I'm going to post "I have no idea how to answer your question but I just wanted to tell you that your idea is really cool!!!" in every AskMe until I get one.
posted by iconomy at 1:59 PM on August 31, 2007 [2 favorites]
Ooo. I want one of those. I want a stern email from cortex. I'm going to post "I have no idea how to answer your question but I just wanted to tell you that your idea is really cool!!!" in every AskMe until I get one.
posted by iconomy at 1:59 PM on August 31, 2007 [2 favorites]
It's embarrassing, and we know that because people come over here to cry about their crappo answer and why they thought it was okay, attempting to justify their behavior so nobody will think ill of them, which as we all know, works really well.
Anybody remember any good zingers that they lost to moderation? My biggest step out of line was probably
Q: Can Stephen Hawking Have Sex?
A: Ask your Mom.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:12 PM on August 31, 2007 [2 favorites]
Anybody remember any good zingers that they lost to moderation? My biggest step out of line was probably
Q: Can Stephen Hawking Have Sex?
A: Ask your Mom.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:12 PM on August 31, 2007 [2 favorites]
I want a stern email from jessamyn. It would be like a verbal spanking. whee.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:19 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:19 PM on August 31, 2007
Is there a standard form for the "stern emails" or is it totally to the moderator's discretion how much (a) shaming (b) threatening (c) mocking is enclosed therein? Are the "stern emails" as entertaining as the reasons for thread deletion? Would any recipients of "stern emails" like to make them public? Do the "stern emails" have anything to do with Howard Stern, Howard K. Stern, Isaac Stern* or NBA Commissioner David Stern? Am I going to get a "stern email" for this?
*If you don't know who this is, but DO know the name before, shame on you.
posted by wendell at 2:44 PM on August 31, 2007
*If you don't know who this is, but DO know the name before, shame on you.
posted by wendell at 2:44 PM on August 31, 2007
What do we have to do to get a stern phone call in an exotic American accent? Theoretically.
posted by maudlin at 3:22 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by maudlin at 3:22 PM on August 31, 2007
If you're going to poop in a thread, be sure to wipe.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:35 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by porn in the woods at 3:35 PM on August 31, 2007
I have a solution, but I don't think anyone is going to like it.
There's been a lot of talk over the past few years along the lines of inventing a TCP/IP compatible stabbing or slapping machine. There is, of course, an overwhelming demand for such a product.
Well, about 6 years ago I had the opportunity to purchase several shipping containers of those old CueCat "barcode readers". Yeah, those CueCats.
At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with them. They were very cheap. I think the final cost was something like 3 or 4 CueCat devices for every 5 cents spent.
I spent approximately $10k all told, which thankfully included the shipping containers. That is a lot of CueCats. More than enough for everyone here, and many future users as well.
So a few months ago I was monkeying around with some of them and I realized that I could replace the LED/laser module with a solenoid coil or a servo or other cheap "haptics".
The solenoid could be fitted with, say, a sharp knife, or a rubber fist, and a quick perl script later I had a software client and working TCP/IP stack - and one genuinely electrified TCP/IP-compatible stabbing machine.
The future is now. We can mail all these out to current users and all incoming new users. We can protect AskMe by making use of the device mandatory. Granted, it won't actually stop people from being idiots in AskMe - it just stops them from continuing to breath afterwords.
There's a catch, though, and that wasn't it. I'm not very good at UI design. I figured that the best way to ensure mandatory compliance - as well as to ensure effective stabbing/punching ranges - was to dip 'em in some Plastidip and fit them anally.
And I'm just not sure exactly how many people are going to keister a small, plastic cat with an electromechanically actuated knife in its mouth.
posted by loquacious at 3:36 PM on August 31, 2007 [8 favorites]
There's been a lot of talk over the past few years along the lines of inventing a TCP/IP compatible stabbing or slapping machine. There is, of course, an overwhelming demand for such a product.
Well, about 6 years ago I had the opportunity to purchase several shipping containers of those old CueCat "barcode readers". Yeah, those CueCats.
At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with them. They were very cheap. I think the final cost was something like 3 or 4 CueCat devices for every 5 cents spent.
I spent approximately $10k all told, which thankfully included the shipping containers. That is a lot of CueCats. More than enough for everyone here, and many future users as well.
So a few months ago I was monkeying around with some of them and I realized that I could replace the LED/laser module with a solenoid coil or a servo or other cheap "haptics".
The solenoid could be fitted with, say, a sharp knife, or a rubber fist, and a quick perl script later I had a software client and working TCP/IP stack - and one genuinely electrified TCP/IP-compatible stabbing machine.
The future is now. We can mail all these out to current users and all incoming new users. We can protect AskMe by making use of the device mandatory. Granted, it won't actually stop people from being idiots in AskMe - it just stops them from continuing to breath afterwords.
There's a catch, though, and that wasn't it. I'm not very good at UI design. I figured that the best way to ensure mandatory compliance - as well as to ensure effective stabbing/punching ranges - was to dip 'em in some Plastidip and fit them anally.
And I'm just not sure exactly how many people are going to keister a small, plastic cat with an electromechanically actuated knife in its mouth.
posted by loquacious at 3:36 PM on August 31, 2007 [8 favorites]
No, mathowie's identical twin sister Dingo should show up and give you a good spanking if you post a crap comment.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:46 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:46 PM on August 31, 2007
crap
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:46 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:46 PM on August 31, 2007
Basically the prescriptivists rage against the uncontrolled verbal diarrhea, while the descriptivists make notes.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:47 PM on August 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by blue_beetle at 3:47 PM on August 31, 2007 [1 favorite]
I want to be the first person to get called out negatively in a podcast;
Matt: And then there is the comment that quin posted.
Jessamyn: I know, it was shocking. I didn't think words could be put together in a way that could be that offensive.
Matt: I heard that several readers actually suffered from mental breakdowns because of what it did to them. They couldn't sleep for weeks.
Jessamyn: Right right, I heard that too.
Matt: So we banned him for a week?
Jessamyn: Yep.
posted by quin at 3:57 PM on August 31, 2007 [3 favorites]
Matt: And then there is the comment that quin posted.
Jessamyn: I know, it was shocking. I didn't think words could be put together in a way that could be that offensive.
Matt: I heard that several readers actually suffered from mental breakdowns because of what it did to them. They couldn't sleep for weeks.
Jessamyn: Right right, I heard that too.
Matt: So we banned him for a week?
Jessamyn: Yep.
posted by quin at 3:57 PM on August 31, 2007 [3 favorites]
And so quin explains why there is no public shaming: Because some people thrive on it.
posted by vacapinta at 4:17 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by vacapinta at 4:17 PM on August 31, 2007
I want to be the first person to get called out negatively in a podcast
Yes! We need a reading of the rolls, as it were, for every transgression. The podcast recording will take DAYS, and meanwhile nobody will be able to moderate, and the podcast after that one will take WEEKS.
posted by davejay at 4:33 PM on August 31, 2007
Yes! We need a reading of the rolls, as it were, for every transgression. The podcast recording will take DAYS, and meanwhile nobody will be able to moderate, and the podcast after that one will take WEEKS.
posted by davejay at 4:33 PM on August 31, 2007
Yes! We need a reading of the rolls, as it were, for every transgression.
Perhaps not every single transgression, but I'd finally make it past the ten minute mark on a podcast if it featured mathowie (as Redd Pepper) and jessamyn (as Kenneth Williams) reading tiddly little MetaTalk spats in their comedy voices. They'd maybe need to wheel in quonsar (as Paris Hilton, doing the 'posted by...') to make it really sing.
posted by jack_mo at 5:00 PM on August 31, 2007
Perhaps not every single transgression, but I'd finally make it past the ten minute mark on a podcast if it featured mathowie (as Redd Pepper) and jessamyn (as Kenneth Williams) reading tiddly little MetaTalk spats in their comedy voices. They'd maybe need to wheel in quonsar (as Paris Hilton, doing the 'posted by...') to make it really sing.
posted by jack_mo at 5:00 PM on August 31, 2007
However they're read, the background music should be Dick Hymen playing the Moog.
posted by davejay at 5:44 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by davejay at 5:44 PM on August 31, 2007
No, mathowie's identical twin sister Dingo should show up and give you a good spanking...
I'm not sure identical means what you think it means.
Either that, or you're hankerin' for a spanking.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:01 PM on August 31, 2007
I'm not sure identical means what you think it means.
Either that, or you're hankerin' for a spanking.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:01 PM on August 31, 2007
Jessamyn: Right right, I heard that too.
Right right. Haha. That made me laugh out loud. I always enjoy those in the podcast.
posted by probablysteve at 6:04 PM on August 31, 2007
Right right. Haha. That made me laugh out loud. I always enjoy those in the podcast.
posted by probablysteve at 6:04 PM on August 31, 2007
You know the unedited podcast is about 90 minutes of us shit talking and then 30 minutes of chatty back and forth about the site. It's going to be Casey Kasem-like if those raw recordings get out, but we should make one for 4/1/08 come to think of it. Otherwise, we try pretty hard to have the podcast not talk smack about anyone.
And as far as AskMe, what cortex said.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:07 PM on August 31, 2007
And as far as AskMe, what cortex said.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:07 PM on August 31, 2007
I want to apologize for shitting in iguanapolitico's thread. I think I might've been wasted. My bad.
(I pronounce, but swallow, the 'l' in salmon, because it's an artifact of English being my second language)
posted by nasreddin at 6:19 PM on August 31, 2007
(I pronounce, but swallow, the 'l' in salmon, because it's an artifact of English being my second language)
posted by nasreddin at 6:19 PM on August 31, 2007
Hey Mod Squad, why did my threat to assassinate the President get deleted from an AskMe thread about tuna recipes? The Voices say the relevance was obvious!
posted by davy at 6:27 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by davy at 6:27 PM on August 31, 2007
'Is there a standard form for the "stern emails"...?'
No. Sometimes Jessamyn gets damn witty, sometimes she borders on death threats. (Okay, borders on the way Sitka borders on Tokyo, but still.)
And Nasruddin, American English with a Baltimoron accent but I pronounce the L in salmon, and I pronounce "actually" as it's written. I do however sometimes crave "arn joos" with "vocka" in it. (The Wikipedia article is mistaken: only pretentious suburbanites pronounce the word "juice" correctly.)
posted by davy at 6:38 PM on August 31, 2007
No. Sometimes Jessamyn gets damn witty, sometimes she borders on death threats. (Okay, borders on the way Sitka borders on Tokyo, but still.)
And Nasruddin, American English with a Baltimoron accent but I pronounce the L in salmon, and I pronounce "actually" as it's written. I do however sometimes crave "arn joos" with "vocka" in it. (The Wikipedia article is mistaken: only pretentious suburbanites pronounce the word "juice" correctly.)
posted by davy at 6:38 PM on August 31, 2007
Waitwaitwait... quin's a dude?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:53 PM on August 31, 2007
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:53 PM on August 31, 2007
*checks*
Holy shit!
I am!
And I gotta say, this changes everything!
posted by quin at 9:55 PM on August 31, 2007
Holy shit!
I am!
And I gotta say, this changes everything!
posted by quin at 9:55 PM on August 31, 2007
It's going to be Casey Kasem-like if those raw recordings get out
Enjoy (foundrymusic.com, ads NSFW)
posted by shinynewnick at 10:15 PM on August 31, 2007
Enjoy (foundrymusic.com, ads NSFW)
posted by shinynewnick at 10:15 PM on August 31, 2007
stern emails to serial post crappers
Did anyone else read that as cereal Post crappers? What, what?
posted by Lynsey at 11:31 PM on August 31, 2007
Did anyone else read that as cereal Post crappers? What, what?
posted by Lynsey at 11:31 PM on August 31, 2007
"And I'm just not sure exactly how many people are going to keister a small, plastic cat with an electromechanically actuated knife in its mouth."
'Man, I had to pay $5, but now that you just have to get an anal probe, this place has gone downhill.'
(Yes, you get a stern warning if you post a lot of "Don't be stupid" in AskMe. Yes, you probably deserve it. But yes, it's so hard to stop when people are so stupid.)
posted by klangklangston at 12:25 PM on September 1, 2007
'Man, I had to pay $5, but now that you just have to get an anal probe, this place has gone downhill.'
(Yes, you get a stern warning if you post a lot of "Don't be stupid" in AskMe. Yes, you probably deserve it. But yes, it's so hard to stop when people are so stupid.)
posted by klangklangston at 12:25 PM on September 1, 2007
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posted by OmieWise at 1:14 PM on August 31, 2007