headline/title June 29, 2011 7:58 AM Subscribe
If comments clarifying what this misleading meat post are going to be deleted, could a mod at least fix the post? It's not about "the" Chicago Fire.
It takes literally two seconds to figure out, if you have not already from context, that the post is not about a city burning but about a soccer team. Your comment, mentioning and linking to two different sorts of Chicago fires, took longer to make sense of than the post itself.
It's okay to be momentarily annoyed at an ambiguity, but it's the sort of thing that is probably better kept to yourself than made a cranky first comment in a post.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2011 [11 favorites]
It's okay to be momentarily annoyed at an ambiguity, but it's the sort of thing that is probably better kept to yourself than made a cranky first comment in a post.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2011 [11 favorites]
DU : " If comments clarifying what this misleading meat post are going to be deleted, could a mod at least fix the post? It's not about "the" Chicago Fire. "
No, it's about "the Ultras of the Chicago Fire." Says that quite clearly. Doesn't seem misleading to me at all.
posted by zarq at 8:03 AM on June 29, 2011 [5 favorites]
No, it's about "the Ultras of the Chicago Fire." Says that quite clearly. Doesn't seem misleading to me at all.
posted by zarq at 8:03 AM on June 29, 2011 [5 favorites]
Different things have the same name! How will we prevent the universe from collapsing?
posted by yerfatma at 8:06 AM on June 29, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by yerfatma at 8:06 AM on June 29, 2011 [7 favorites]
Momentarily annoyed? Context? WTF are you talking about?
I read that post and thought "Huh, 'red', 'chicago fire'--there must have some division of the fire brigade called the 'ultras' in 1871. Sounds pretty neat." It was only when I clicked inside and read the *previous* deleted comment that I had any clue it was actually about something completely unrelated. Never heard of this basketball team and I can't be alone. Non-US readers, for instance.
posted by DU at 8:06 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
I read that post and thought "Huh, 'red', 'chicago fire'--there must have some division of the fire brigade called the 'ultras' in 1871. Sounds pretty neat." It was only when I clicked inside and read the *previous* deleted comment that I had any clue it was actually about something completely unrelated. Never heard of this basketball team and I can't be alone. Non-US readers, for instance.
posted by DU at 8:06 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
read that post and thought "Huh, 'red', 'chicago fire'--there must have some division of the fire brigade called the 'ultras' in 1871. Sounds pretty neat." It was only when I clicked inside and read the *previous* deleted comment that I had any clue it was actually about something completely unrelated
But that's kind of your own train of thought's fault, not the OP's.
posted by Think_Long at 8:08 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
But that's kind of your own train of thought's fault, not the OP's.
posted by Think_Long at 8:08 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
Is "Living in the Red: The Chicago Fire Soccer Team Fan Base, Section 8" the original title of the post? Because that seems pretty clear to me.
posted by that's how you get ants at 8:08 AM on June 29, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by that's how you get ants at 8:08 AM on June 29, 2011 [4 favorites]
That's not a "train of thought". That's a "primary association for 90% of people alive in the world".
And you have to click inside to read the title.
posted by DU at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2011
And you have to click inside to read the title.
posted by DU at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2011
"Chicago Fire" is also the name of an inferno that used to burn pretty hard in the 1870s. We are legally obligated to make that distinction.
posted by griphus at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2011 [13 favorites]
posted by griphus at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2011 [13 favorites]
And you have to click inside to read the title.
And we expect people to do that if they're complaining about lack of context.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2011 [25 favorites]
And we expect people to do that if they're complaining about lack of context.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2011 [25 favorites]
It's a soccer team. You can tell this from the part where the title of the post mentions that it's regarding fans of a soccer team, and from the part where you click on the only link in the post and it goes to a video about fans of a soccer team.
Put a little more filter between your first blush reactions to posts and what you type into the comment box and this problem is solved. I'm genuinely sympathetic if you're bummed about not getting some historical goodness re: that time Chicago caught fire, but that's not the poster of that thread's fault and talking about it in that thread is not making the thread a better read for anyone else.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2011 [3 favorites]
Put a little more filter between your first blush reactions to posts and what you type into the comment box and this problem is solved. I'm genuinely sympathetic if you're bummed about not getting some historical goodness re: that time Chicago caught fire, but that's not the poster of that thread's fault and talking about it in that thread is not making the thread a better read for anyone else.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:11 AM on June 29, 2011 [3 favorites]
That's not a "train of thought". That's a "primary association for 90% of people alive in the world".
But the reason the team is named "Chicago Fire" because of that primary association. It is literally impossible to avoid.
posted by Think_Long at 8:12 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
But the reason the team is named "Chicago Fire" because of that primary association. It is literally impossible to avoid.
posted by Think_Long at 8:12 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
You have to admit, DU making a MeTa complaining about his own threadshitting being deleted is pretty funny.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:13 AM on June 29, 2011 [23 favorites]
posted by BeerFilter at 8:13 AM on June 29, 2011 [23 favorites]
"The" Chicago fire means absolutely nothing to me. I know what ultras are. It was obvious that it was going to be about sport, or as I understand you say "the" sports.
posted by hawthorne at 8:14 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by hawthorne at 8:14 AM on June 29, 2011
I must be the only one who's never heard of this soccer team and sometimes clicks the links of the post before clicking inside. I thought hiding context on the "more inside" was wrong, but I guess that doesn't apply tot the title.
Close it up, apparently.
posted by DU at 8:17 AM on June 29, 2011
Close it up, apparently.
posted by DU at 8:17 AM on June 29, 2011
What? The Queen isn't dead?
posted by octobersurprise at 8:17 AM on June 29, 2011 [11 favorites]
posted by octobersurprise at 8:17 AM on June 29, 2011 [11 favorites]
While we're at it, could someone clear up the whole football/soccer thing? Based on the numbers, it would probably be easiest for the NFL just to change it's name to the American Rugby Association or something. Thanks in advance.
posted by bonehead at 8:18 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 8:18 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
I never heard of the team and don't live in the US, but it instantly said "sports post" to me.
posted by flabdablet at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
That's a "primary association for 90% of people alive in the world".
Is there a particular reason you're avoiding the zombie segment of the population? Some aversion to rotting flesh and monosyllabic peoples, is that it? Sure, New York may have welcomed gays finally, but where's the love for undead, huh?
Fucking lifeist.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2011 [4 favorites]
Is there a particular reason you're avoiding the zombie segment of the population? Some aversion to rotting flesh and monosyllabic peoples, is that it? Sure, New York may have welcomed gays finally, but where's the love for undead, huh?
Fucking lifeist.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2011 [4 favorites]
Also, "Misleading Meat Post" sounds like a bad machine translation of a German porn title.
posted by griphus at 8:24 AM on June 29, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by griphus at 8:24 AM on June 29, 2011 [8 favorites]
it would probably be easiest for the NFL just to change it's name to the American Rugby Association or something.
That might unintentionally lead people to believe that the NFL is an exciting, fast-paced sport like Rugby.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:27 AM on June 29, 2011 [5 favorites]
That might unintentionally lead people to believe that the NFL is an exciting, fast-paced sport like Rugby.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:27 AM on June 29, 2011 [5 favorites]
Nabubrush: "This isn't the ire-filled GRAR post I was promised."
But lo and behold we do have some flames and the makings of the fire DU was looking for....
posted by zarq at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011
But lo and behold we do have some flames and the makings of the fire DU was looking for....
posted by zarq at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011
That's not a "train of thought". That's a "primary association for 90% of people alive in the world".
How could you possibly know this?
posted by proj at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
How could you possibly know this?
posted by proj at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I read the title of this MeTa and assumed that the misleading post was about meat. I think it should be fixed.
By making the post about meat.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011 [23 favorites]
By making the post about meat.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011 [23 favorites]
I must be the only one who's never heard of this soccer team and sometimes clicks the links of the post before clicking inside. I thought hiding context on the "more inside" was wrong, but I guess that doesn't apply tot the title.
1. It's not wrong in any platonic sense; there are specific sorts of HA HA FOOLED YOU behavior that are not so great and probably a couple occasions ever where it's been something so weird and stunty that we've deleted a post on that specific basis. More generally speaking, it's good to not actively fuck with readers for no particular reason but there's not some "never let there by mystery or ambiguity in framing" rule.
2. Moot point here where the problem was not intentionally misleading context but lack of familiarity with the actual contextual clues on your part. You imagined some fictional Ultra fire brigade to satisfy your mistaken assumption about the subject of the post, which as a private dead-end branch of reasoning while figuring out what the actual subject is is fine but as a public complaint about the post is bizarre.
3. The title is part of the post. If you want to know more about the post without bothering to read the tags or clicking on the actual link, the title is a good place to go.
4. The whole point of the post being there is because someone thought some linked content was interesting and worth sharing. Clicking on the link is pretty much the fundamental thing you're supposed to do with a post before you have something to say about the post, because it's what the post is.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011 [15 favorites]
1. It's not wrong in any platonic sense; there are specific sorts of HA HA FOOLED YOU behavior that are not so great and probably a couple occasions ever where it's been something so weird and stunty that we've deleted a post on that specific basis. More generally speaking, it's good to not actively fuck with readers for no particular reason but there's not some "never let there by mystery or ambiguity in framing" rule.
2. Moot point here where the problem was not intentionally misleading context but lack of familiarity with the actual contextual clues on your part. You imagined some fictional Ultra fire brigade to satisfy your mistaken assumption about the subject of the post, which as a private dead-end branch of reasoning while figuring out what the actual subject is is fine but as a public complaint about the post is bizarre.
3. The title is part of the post. If you want to know more about the post without bothering to read the tags or clicking on the actual link, the title is a good place to go.
4. The whole point of the post being there is because someone thought some linked content was interesting and worth sharing. Clicking on the link is pretty much the fundamental thing you're supposed to do with a post before you have something to say about the post, because it's what the post is.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:28 AM on June 29, 2011 [15 favorites]
I'm genuinely sympathetic if you're bummed about not getting some historical goodness re: that time Chicago caught fire....
Heh. :D
posted by zarq at 8:31 AM on June 29, 2011
Heh. :D
posted by zarq at 8:31 AM on June 29, 2011
Greg Nog: "Mods? Can we get a clarification that the Chicago basketball team is not made up of literal bovines? "
Seeing them go up against the Toronto Raptors would be pretty awesome, though.
posted by zarq at 8:36 AM on June 29, 2011 [6 favorites]
Seeing them go up against the Toronto Raptors would be pretty awesome, though.
posted by zarq at 8:36 AM on June 29, 2011 [6 favorites]
This post is not about a meat post. Can the mods at least fix the post?
posted by Specklet at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Specklet at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I made the same mistake that DU did, but wasn't interested in finding out who the "Ultras" were and how they failed to save Chicago.
I did not, however, feel as though my lunch money had been stolen upon learning the truth. My fault for not clicking through.
posted by DWRoelands at 8:38 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I did not, however, feel as though my lunch money had been stolen upon learning the truth. My fault for not clicking through.
posted by DWRoelands at 8:38 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
In fairness, naming a sports team after its city's most deadly disaster is a bizarre thing to do.
Unless the NFL team is changing its name to the New Orleans Flood.
posted by Trurl at 8:38 AM on June 29, 2011 [6 favorites]
Unless the NFL team is changing its name to the New Orleans Flood.
posted by Trurl at 8:38 AM on June 29, 2011 [6 favorites]
Not a big fan of the name mascot "Hurricanes" myself.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:41 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by BeerFilter at 8:41 AM on June 29, 2011
I always thought the "Atlanta Flames" was a great name. When they became the Calgary Flames, the name was less great.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:42 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:42 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Trailblazers" sounds kind of romantic, but a whole hell of a lot of people died in those wagon trains.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:43 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:43 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
You know, I'm from Chicago--still live here and have had family in the city since before the Great Fire--and to the best of my knowledge have never heard that there was a professional soccer team here, much less one called "The Fire". Even so, after the initial glance, I read the sentence "Living in the Red: A 15 minute student documentary on the Ultras of the Chicago Fire" and I did not think the post was about the Great Fire. I figured the post was about another roller derby team or an act in the Pride Parade or some entity that might have to worry about black or red entries in a ledger, but not the Great Fire or a soccer team. I must be one of them there 10% zombies.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:43 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by crush-onastick at 8:43 AM on June 29, 2011
DU : "I must be the only one who's never heard of this soccer team and sometimes clicks the links of the post before clicking inside. I thought hiding context on the "more inside" was wrong, but I guess that doesn't apply tot the title."
Allow me to remind you, while you're snacking on those sour grapes, of something that you said to me, two years ago:
DU: Here's the challenge: Find 3 random people and ask them how to keep cut apples from turning brown. If fewer than 3 of them say "lemon juice" (or the equivalent, such as orange juice, vitamin C, lime, etc) I will eat the entire Internet and put the video on YouTube (which I will have to regurgitate to post to, then eat it again).
You should try the irony, instead. It's DELICIOUS! :D
posted by zarq at 8:47 AM on June 29, 2011
Allow me to remind you, while you're snacking on those sour grapes, of something that you said to me, two years ago:
DU: Here's the challenge: Find 3 random people and ask them how to keep cut apples from turning brown. If fewer than 3 of them say "lemon juice" (or the equivalent, such as orange juice, vitamin C, lime, etc) I will eat the entire Internet and put the video on YouTube (which I will have to regurgitate to post to, then eat it again).
You should try the irony, instead. It's DELICIOUS! :D
posted by zarq at 8:47 AM on June 29, 2011
I read the title of this MeTa and assumed that the misleading post was about meat. I think it should be fixed.
By making the post about meat.
MMM, meat and the fire. Chicago-style.
posted by chavenet at 8:48 AM on June 29, 2011
By making the post about meat.
MMM, meat and the fire. Chicago-style.
posted by chavenet at 8:48 AM on June 29, 2011
I'm going to close this up. Please don't drag up other people's commenting histories generally speaking. It does not make MeTa threads better.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:55 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:55 AM on June 29, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:00 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]