Is this post acceptable?

January 6, 2011 4:34 PM

I flagged this post (as other) on the blue because 1) It doesn't do what it says on the tin 2) it's behind a paywall 3) it has one link with no other information. Should posts only linking to a paywall be on the blue?
posted by rebent to MetaFilter-Related at 4:34 PM (61 comments total)

I can access the article fine.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 4:36 PM on January 6, 2011

Yeah, I wouldn't normally equate registration-wall with paywall.

On second look, I can get to it even after logging out of NYT.
posted by supercres at 4:38 PM on January 6, 2011

Or maybe not.

Well, whatever. It was worth it for this comment:

This isn't taking a sick dog and performing a miracle cure on it. This is taking a sick dog and putting a bee costume on it. And then removing the dog.

posted by supercres at 4:39 PM on January 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ditto, all appears fine on my side (in Firefox, running NoScript), and the label on the tin is a pullquote from the article. It doesn't mean what you think it means, or is perhaps a bit vague, but it applies directly to the linked article.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:40 PM on January 6, 2011

Just a link to the NYT is not best practice, but it happens. I think your first instinct to flag was perfect. Now I'd move on.
posted by m@f at 4:41 PM on January 6, 2011

Paywall?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:42 PM on January 6, 2011

All of Scoop's posts are just links to the New York Times.
posted by iconomy at 4:42 PM on January 6, 2011

iconomy: "All of Scoop's posts are just links to the New York Times"

Huh. Weird Month. Gettin' Weirder.
posted by boo_radley at 4:45 PM on January 6, 2011

I can access the article and I don't even have a NYT account. Simply flagging the post if you were concerned would have been more than enough, in this case.
posted by dg at 4:48 PM on January 6, 2011

Not that weird. A new user who might stick to NYT for interesting reading. He or she could branch out for other sources for post-worthy tidbits.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:52 PM on January 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

1) You're right - it's hard to know what the post text has to do with the content of the article, but that's not really grounds for deletion.
2) It's a registration-wall, not a paywall; this makes it less bad than the USA-only or Windows-only content that is often linked around here. If it was a real paywall, yes, I think it would be deleted.
3) There's no rule about needing more than one link in a post.

With all that said, the article is - to me - entirely without interest and the very definition of a "thin post". I'd kill it.
posted by nowonmai at 4:52 PM on January 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like it.
posted by Stynxno at 5:12 PM on January 6, 2011

I'm gonna go ahead and...
posted by fixedgear at 5:31 PM on January 6, 2011

...Rub NYT all over it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:36 PM on January 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lose a turn.
posted by special-k at 5:37 PM on January 6, 2011

I'm not registered at NYT and I can read the article just fine.

Now back out and then come back in. I got it to load once.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:45 PM on January 6, 2011

That's what she said.
posted by Dumsnill at 5:49 PM on January 6, 2011 [9 favorites]

I don't have an account and never could get any article to load at all. And apparently my bugmenot firefox extension doesn't work on that login page for whatever reason. I finally just went to bugmenot and found a login that works.
posted by dead cousin ted at 5:53 PM on January 6, 2011

I made an account at NYT ages ago and just have always used that. Do people have a moral disagreement with the Times that keeps them from registering?
posted by flatluigi at 5:59 PM on January 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

3) it has one link with no other information

Better that than one link padded out with 74 Googlespunked 'supporting' URLs wrapped around every second word in a multi paragraph borefest, followed by individual pointers to some no mark band's entire discography on YouTube that no one in their right mind will ever sodding well watch.
posted by a little headband I put around my throat at 6:10 PM on January 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

flatluigi: Do people have a moral disagreement with the Times that keeps them from registering?

I have a moral disagreement with any website that requires registration in order to view content.
And I hate SLNYT for that reason - sure, I can jump through some hoops and eventually get to the content without me myself registering, but who has time for that nonsense?



Oh, who am I trying to kid - I have the time for that kind of nonsense. And yet here we are.
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:16 PM on January 6, 2011

Good thing I get my NYT accounts by the foot.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:26 PM on January 6, 2011 [5 favorites]

I signed up for an NYT account years ago with the username and password 'optedout.' Keep it under your hat.
posted by box at 6:27 PM on January 6, 2011

In theory, the NYT is supposed to be rolling out a genuine paywall (with limited free access to a few articles a month and everything beyond that requiring a subscription) with a note that rollout was scheduled for January 2011. At that point, to my mind, linking to NYT articles (especially as a SLNYT) does become more problematic.
posted by librarylis at 6:37 PM on January 6, 2011

After doing this 5 times, I'm going to assume I can do it as many times as I want.

Hhhhhhmmmm, try it another 5 times.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:07 PM on January 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

I signed up for my nytimes.com account in 1997. It still thinks I live where I lived in 2000.

And mods, I'm sure you've looked into this... but username "Scoop" only posting links from one newspaper's website is fishier than fish with fish sauce on it and one of those fish-shaped red bean buns on the side (except with fish inside).

And a glass of fish on the side

BASS-O-MATIC '77
posted by jtron at 7:09 PM on January 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

I have no problem with the post but I'm creeped out by a new user who seems to have made the minimum number of comments and who's only four posts go to the NYT. Which has a new iphone app called the Scoop. Granted, that's a common, newsy term. But it still smells funny.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:09 PM on January 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

Rebent, if you decide to call out a post in the future, it's a good idea to put a link to the Metatalk thread into the original thread.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:11 PM on January 6, 2011

CunningLinguist: "I have no problem with the post but I'm creeped out by a new user who seems to have made the minimum number of comments and who's only four posts go to the NYT. Which has a new iphone app called the Scoop. Granted, that's a common, newsy term. But it still smells funny."

I noticed that, too! Funny, that. that. Shall I fetch the torches and kerosene?
posted by not_on_display at 7:22 PM on January 6, 2011

[disclaimer: previous comment not meant as an incitement, but as a joke. apologies to the mods in advance if that comment stirs up the angry mob.]

[also, a note to tonight's scrabble opponent: prepare to meet your doom bwahahahah]
posted by not_on_display at 7:25 PM on January 6, 2011

but who has time for that nonsense?


I hear ya. Too bad you're forced to read everything that is posted here.
posted by special-k at 7:26 PM on January 6, 2011

I click the link, and the NYT article opens. I close that, click the link again, and the NYT article opens again.

It won't open if you turn off your browser's cookies.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:27 PM on January 6, 2011

not_on_display, according to the SOP the correct procedure is to ignite the "BANHAMMER SIGNAL" whereupon cortex will appear, sporting a hipster slayer badge.

i wondered about that too.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 7:29 PM on January 6, 2011

I have no problem with the post but I'm creeped out by a new user who seems to have made the minimum number of comments and who's only four posts go to the NYT. Which has a new iphone app called the Scoop. Granted, that's a common, newsy term. But it still smells funny.

Can I stroke my chin, raise an eyebrow, and purr "Iiiiiiiiinteresting" now?
posted by Gator at 7:32 PM on January 6, 2011

I'll bite. I do agree that a sensational one liner excerpted out of concept from the NYT does meet the criteria of 'doesn't do what it says on the tin' and 'one link with no other information'.

Also stinks really hard of bad form now that the app to username dots have been connected.
posted by empatterson at 8:02 PM on January 6, 2011

Oh, come on, everybody loves apps. Hey, speaking of apps, which one's your favorite--box.net, or Dropbox?
posted by box at 8:12 PM on January 6, 2011

I prefer Boxee.
posted by jtron at 8:17 PM on January 6, 2011

No problems here.
posted by Artw at 8:30 PM on January 6, 2011

I prefer dropbox to box.net. They both work fine, but dropbox just seems to be a bit less work.
posted by dg at 8:31 PM on January 6, 2011

Your mom is my favorite app.
posted by special-k at 8:37 PM on January 6, 2011

Yeah, to be clear, it's a little weird, but there's also not a clear angle as far as we can tell so I think we're more at a "drop the user a note" stage than anything else.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:55 PM on January 6, 2011

It's not just a little weird, it's a LOT weird, maaaan!

O_O

...ok, ok, it's just a little weird.
posted by not_on_display at 9:36 PM on January 6, 2011

Whoaaa, to me the whole username being the same as the name of the app belonging to the website to which they link exclusively=super fishy, but IANAMod.
posted by elpea at 10:01 PM on January 6, 2011

I have a moral disagreement with any website that requires registration in order to view content.
I've been logging into the NY Times via the throwaway email account I made for these purposes for more than a decade. It took less than a minute, and I can access the most commonly linked site in the tubes.

That post is pretty thin gruel, though. There isn't enough substance there to fill a petri-dish. Its not even news of any sort. Fashion pimps have been whoring out ersatz libraries since the last millennium. I bet some of those cave drawings were never actually read by their owners.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 10:06 PM on January 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

cortex: "Yeah, to be clear, it's a little weird, but there's also not a clear angle as far as we can tell so I think we're more at a "drop the user a note" stage than anything else."

Aw, man. I shined up my pitchfork and everything. *kicks dirt*
posted by deborah at 12:19 AM on January 7, 2011

Pepsi vellum?
posted by Skygazer at 1:24 AM on January 7, 2011

First Tao Lin, then the NY Times - the way this thing is going next week we're going to have a post on the Ten Commandments by user jwvh.
posted by Dr Dracator at 2:24 AM on January 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I will begin posting exclusively about songs made of meat.
posted by sonic meat machine at 4:15 AM on January 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Have you heard about these new-fangled one-speed bicycles where you can't coast and must, must, must keep pedaling all of the time?
posted by fixedgear at 4:25 AM on January 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think the word "paywall" does not mean what you think it does.
posted by Decani at 4:59 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

If all it takes is a single link to post to the Blue, well then I might just start posting.
posted by arcticseal at 5:31 AM on January 7, 2011

Perhaps you'd like to practice burglary whilst clad in a tux.
posted by SpiffyRob at 6:29 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Whoaaa, to me the whole username being the same as the name of the app belonging to the website to which they link exclusively=super fishy, but IANAMod.

I don't really see what the point is though. It's not like choosing that username drives traffic to the app, and if they were really being fishy, wouldn't they choose some random name?
posted by smackfu at 7:02 AM on January 7, 2011

If all it takes is a single link to post to the Blue, well then I might just start posting.

That's all it takes.
posted by smackfu at 7:02 AM on January 7, 2011 [5 favorites]

FYI: username false and password false has been working on the Times site for as long as I can recall.
posted by JaredSeth at 7:34 AM on January 7, 2011

A few years back, someone let me know that the username/password combination "genital/genital" worked on almost every login-required site on the internet. And I'll be damned. It does.
posted by verb at 8:20 AM on January 7, 2011 [4 favorites]

I will begin posting only about Vidal Sassoon.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 10:45 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

No problems here.
posted by dougrayrankin at 11:15 AM on January 7, 2011

I'm waiting for the first link to an iPad only magazine article.
posted by Artw at 1:30 PM on January 7, 2011

I couldn't get through to the article the first time round (so I skimmed for interesting comments and moved on), but I just went back to the thread and tried it again, and I could view the article. I don't know how this NYT loginwall works.
posted by Gordafarin at 6:59 AM on January 8, 2011

I haven't been able to read any NYT articles since they made the last wall change a couplefew months (?) back, but I'm not sure if I have any cookie business going on.

Scoop app -> scoop user is hinky for sure, though.
posted by rhizome at 12:15 PM on January 8, 2011