Thread deletion reason, please. September 25, 2011 6:28 AM Subscribe
This thread was deleted with the reason being "let's not". That reason is obtuse and may be difficult for some people to understand. Could we have a clear explanation of why the thread was deleted, please?
Your mum.
posted by Abiezer at 6:31 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Abiezer at 6:31 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that more politely, in a more politically-correct fashion.
I meant to say "sniveling wimpiness".
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I meant to say "sniveling wimpiness".
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Lets not, and say we did.
posted by cashman at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by cashman at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Let's not. Unless we need a victory dance.
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2011
Because, just maybe, there've been several metas, and many long term members have left over the gradual erosion of hardfought standards on the site? That maybe a lot of members don't really relish the idea of waking up to jokes based on race, gender, or sexual orientation? Just because another thread on a different site has no qualms about black jokes, gay jokes, or beaten women jokes doesn't mean we have to deal with that shit here. If you want to hang out with the folks who think that shit's hilarious, well hell, you're the one who brought us the link. You know where the party is. Have a blast.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:37 AM on September 25, 2011 [150 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 6:37 AM on September 25, 2011 [150 favorites]
It was a link to a singular reddit thread and was not going to go well.
My deletion reason would have been:
If you want to participate reedit is the perfect place to do so.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:37 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
My deletion reason would have been:
If you want to participate reedit is the perfect place to do so.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:37 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
it was having a hard time fitting in.
posted by taz at 6:37 AM on September 25, 2011 [17 favorites]
posted by taz at 6:37 AM on September 25, 2011 [17 favorites]
Let's not..
make jokes about, or tacitly endorse jokes about:
race
rape
paedophilia
etc etc
posted by MuffinMan at 6:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
make jokes about, or tacitly endorse jokes about:
race
rape
paedophilia
etc etc
posted by MuffinMan at 6:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
I flagged that thread as offensive and I presume dozens of other site users did so as well and this is obvious to anybody who ain't willfully obtuse.
Twoleftfeet is willfully obtuse on one axis, Brandon Blatcher is willfully obtuse along another. (The cause for deletion is not obtuse.)
posted by bukvich at 6:41 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
Twoleftfeet is willfully obtuse on one axis, Brandon Blatcher is willfully obtuse along another. (The cause for deletion is not obtuse.)
posted by bukvich at 6:41 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
I thought it was cool that I finally was up early enough to see a post that would obviously be deleted.
posted by sammyo at 6:42 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by sammyo at 6:42 AM on September 25, 2011
I am confused. Surely it was just vile? I thought "let's not" communicated that quite well.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 6:43 AM on September 25, 2011 [13 favorites]
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 6:43 AM on September 25, 2011 [13 favorites]
Can't decide whether to bookmark this thread for the looming flameout or not. It's like the point of decision between staring at or looking away from the car crash.
posted by supercres at 6:43 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by supercres at 6:43 AM on September 25, 2011
The only funny thing in that thread is twoleftfeet's unshakeable conviction that it is of earthshattering importance.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:43 AM on September 25, 2011 [62 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:43 AM on September 25, 2011 [62 favorites]
Nailed it in the third comment. This could only be a surprise to anyone who doesn't have the deleted threads script installed.
I didn't flag it myself, but it's about as far from being the best of the web as I've ever seen posted here.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:45 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I didn't flag it myself, but it's about as far from being the best of the web as I've ever seen posted here.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:45 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
twoleftfeet: "I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that more politely, in a more politically-correct fashion."
Is it time to link to that Stuart Lee video again?
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 6:48 AM on September 25, 2011 [10 favorites]
Is it time to link to that Stuart Lee video again?
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 6:48 AM on September 25, 2011 [10 favorites]
10/77/69 NEVAR FORGET
Seriously though (and I can't believe I'm writing this), someone with a 5 digit user # has been around long enough to know that something like that wouldn't wash.
posted by nevercalm at 6:50 AM on September 25, 2011
Seriously though (and I can't believe I'm writing this), someone with a 5 digit user # has been around long enough to know that something like that wouldn't wash.
posted by nevercalm at 6:50 AM on September 25, 2011
I will say I hate when people discuss the eminent deletion of a thread. I've had that happen in two posts I've made that survived. So then there's discussion that has nothing to do with the subject matter forever in the thread. There was more noise than anything in that thread.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:53 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cjorgensen at 6:53 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you want to participate reedit is the perfect place to do so.
Would that be reedit.com, or re-edit.com?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:54 AM on September 25, 2011
Would that be reedit.com, or re-edit.com?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:54 AM on September 25, 2011
I will say I hate when people discuss the eminent deletion of a thread.
Imminent. Hey, we haven't had a grammar thread in a while.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:55 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Imminent. Hey, we haven't had a grammar thread in a while.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:55 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Cowardice?
Who are you calling a coward (or a sniveling wimp) and why?
posted by pracowity at 6:58 AM on September 25, 2011
Who are you calling a coward (or a sniveling wimp) and why?
posted by pracowity at 6:58 AM on September 25, 2011
4chan's got a thread of people posting naked pictures! It's at 3,000 comments and it's going on right now!
posted by box at 6:59 AM on September 25, 2011 [17 favorites]
posted by box at 6:59 AM on September 25, 2011 [17 favorites]
You know, very few commenters in that thread actually told offensive jokes. Some did. But it wasn't turning into the same thing as the Reddit thread. It was turning into a genuinely Metafilter thread, where people think about what don't like, or at least pretend to.
The first step to go to when you don't like what you're seeing is to blame the messenger, and I knew that when I made the post. Yeah, "twoleftfeet made a link to a site and I didn't like the site so twoleftfeet is an asshole." Hey, I made the damn link because thousands of other people were thinking about it. I never made an offensive/racist/sexist joke and I defy you to find one in any comment I've ever made.
I like seeing people unload their collective angst in a totally harmless format. Tear the roof off the mother! Blow out the jams! Do your worst! Connect with your inner demons! Get down with your bad self. Make peace with whatever ails you.
I'm not scared when people make off-color jokes. I'm more scared when people take them seriously. But your mileage may vary.
Humor is an unpredictable thing. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be funny.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:02 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
The first step to go to when you don't like what you're seeing is to blame the messenger, and I knew that when I made the post. Yeah, "twoleftfeet made a link to a site and I didn't like the site so twoleftfeet is an asshole." Hey, I made the damn link because thousands of other people were thinking about it. I never made an offensive/racist/sexist joke and I defy you to find one in any comment I've ever made.
I like seeing people unload their collective angst in a totally harmless format. Tear the roof off the mother! Blow out the jams! Do your worst! Connect with your inner demons! Get down with your bad self. Make peace with whatever ails you.
I'm not scared when people make off-color jokes. I'm more scared when people take them seriously. But your mileage may vary.
Humor is an unpredictable thing. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be funny.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:02 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
It's like you're dressed in balloons standing in a trash filled park, flagging down cars and urgently saying "Look! There's old bubble gum wrappers over here!" This is really less of a big deal than you think it is. The post sucked, it got deleted. You're not presenting a report to congress. There have been other posts with links to jokes that have gotten deleted. And yes, if you didn't see the comment, Reddit does this "omg lets discover offensive jokes!" thread about once a month.
posted by cashman at 7:08 AM on September 25, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by cashman at 7:08 AM on September 25, 2011 [6 favorites]
twoleftfeet: "I'm not scared when people make off-color jokes. I'm more scared when people take them seriously. But your mileage may vary."
Well, my mileage isn't really in question. To take the example that comes to mind because I was reading about it this morning, I think the mileage of the people who yell Little Britain jokes at trans women in the street is more important. Whatever your personal reasons for believing that jokes don't matter between friends, and as long as you look over your shoulder to make sure there's no black people watching it's okay, I've seen said punchlines used against people in the street too often to sit in that chair myself.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 7:11 AM on September 25, 2011 [14 favorites]
Well, my mileage isn't really in question. To take the example that comes to mind because I was reading about it this morning, I think the mileage of the people who yell Little Britain jokes at trans women in the street is more important. Whatever your personal reasons for believing that jokes don't matter between friends, and as long as you look over your shoulder to make sure there's no black people watching it's okay, I've seen said punchlines used against people in the street too often to sit in that chair myself.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 7:11 AM on September 25, 2011 [14 favorites]
twoleftfeet, I haven't looked at the Reddit thread, so I'm operating on the assumption that it makes jokes about non-heterosexuals, non-males, non-whites, and non-physically and/or mentally impaired.
Q: Do you belong to any of the above groups? If the answer is no, consider that you might not have the moral authority to be justifying putting those jokes on metafilter.
If the answer is yes, consider that some of us who also belong to those groups find that those jokes are painful.
I don't know what benefit you think 'connecting with our inner demons' would follow. Perhaps go do that on your own time?
posted by angrycat at 7:11 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
Q: Do you belong to any of the above groups? If the answer is no, consider that you might not have the moral authority to be justifying putting those jokes on metafilter.
If the answer is yes, consider that some of us who also belong to those groups find that those jokes are painful.
I don't know what benefit you think 'connecting with our inner demons' would follow. Perhaps go do that on your own time?
posted by angrycat at 7:11 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
Reddit does this "omg lets discover offensive jokes!" thread about once a month.
With all due respect... 4000.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:12 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
With all due respect... 4000.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:12 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
It was turning into a genuinely Metafilter thread, where people think about what don't like, or at least pretend to.
Posts are supposed to be about the link, not the discussions.
Single link posts to Reddit threads are dubious at the best of times. This one, which was a link to a string of very weak jokes, most of which had little going for them beside their offensiveness. Furthermore, large numbers of them were racist and/or sexist -- and many weren't even jokes, but were a function of what happens when you provide people with a forum that allowed them to express their racial and sexual anxieties without fear of condemnation -- you get weird expressions of impotent rage -- that are the opposite of funny, they're actually rather scary because you know that the people posting this shit actually believe it, they just don't get too many opportunities to say it in public.
If you feel like you need to take a shower after reading something, it's probably not a good fit for Metafilter.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [22 favorites]
Posts are supposed to be about the link, not the discussions.
Single link posts to Reddit threads are dubious at the best of times. This one, which was a link to a string of very weak jokes, most of which had little going for them beside their offensiveness. Furthermore, large numbers of them were racist and/or sexist -- and many weren't even jokes, but were a function of what happens when you provide people with a forum that allowed them to express their racial and sexual anxieties without fear of condemnation -- you get weird expressions of impotent rage -- that are the opposite of funny, they're actually rather scary because you know that the people posting this shit actually believe it, they just don't get too many opportunities to say it in public.
If you feel like you need to take a shower after reading something, it's probably not a good fit for Metafilter.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [22 favorites]
With equal respect, twoleftfeet, there wasn't much in your original post about 10,000-comments or blowing out the jams or thousands of other people thinking about making the post.
posted by box at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Wow, everybody look at twoleftfeet: a real pioneer, showing us all how we can let down our hair and tell dirty jokes. Like a latter-day Richard Pryor or George Carlin, twoleftfeet will probably telling us soon that we are actually allowed to say words like s*** and f*** without censoring ourselves.
posted by koeselitz at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Reddit does this "omg lets discover offensive jokes!" thread about once a month.
With all due respect... 4000.
Okay, putting aside the content for a moment (and perhaps the FPP was badly framed) and giving you the benefit of the doubt, with all due respect:
What is the significance of the rapidly rising number of comments? Is it the subject matter alone or the site which is grown?
posted by infini at 7:17 AM on September 25, 2011
With all due respect... 4000.
With all due respect: so fucking what? So fucking what if it goes to 10K, or a 100K? The length of reddit threads is an incredibly insignificant thing, on the web or off (and yes, also the length of Mefi threads). Yet you cling to it like we're watching some kind of amazing history being made.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:18 AM on September 25, 2011 [43 favorites]
With all due respect: so fucking what? So fucking what if it goes to 10K, or a 100K? The length of reddit threads is an incredibly insignificant thing, on the web or off (and yes, also the length of Mefi threads). Yet you cling to it like we're watching some kind of amazing history being made.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:18 AM on September 25, 2011 [43 favorites]
Now that I've woken up for this, here's some explanation.
That was the most flagged post in the last couple months. On the weekends we tend to have some gaps in mod coverage as we sleep and live our lives, etc, it's hard to ask everyone to be here 24/7 literally.
I woke up at 2am and fixed a few things, went back to bed and missed this post. I woke up again around 6am and saw the bazillion flags on my phone, tapped out something quick, and went back to bed for an hour.
If I wasn't on my phone, I'd tap out more than just a ten character deletion reason, but it should be pretty apparent that a massive amount of people found the entire thread and many comments within offensive. It's mostly playground jokes from when we were kids. Not too funny, mostly just dumb jokes at the expense of others. So it's gone.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [51 favorites]
That was the most flagged post in the last couple months. On the weekends we tend to have some gaps in mod coverage as we sleep and live our lives, etc, it's hard to ask everyone to be here 24/7 literally.
I woke up at 2am and fixed a few things, went back to bed and missed this post. I woke up again around 6am and saw the bazillion flags on my phone, tapped out something quick, and went back to bed for an hour.
If I wasn't on my phone, I'd tap out more than just a ten character deletion reason, but it should be pretty apparent that a massive amount of people found the entire thread and many comments within offensive. It's mostly playground jokes from when we were kids. Not too funny, mostly just dumb jokes at the expense of others. So it's gone.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [51 favorites]
The fact that many of you can't see the transparent intent in Brandon's post is about as funny as most of the jokes in that reddit thread.
posted by gman at 7:20 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by gman at 7:20 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
because you know that the people posting this shit actually believe it
Sorry, that should have read *some* of the people.. blah, blah, blah. Damn that lack of an edit facility!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:20 AM on September 25, 2011
Sorry, that should have read *some* of the people.. blah, blah, blah. Damn that lack of an edit facility!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:20 AM on September 25, 2011
Also, fuck reddit. If we're going to link to them for the thousandth time, it should be for something truly good and extraordinary. This wasn't it, now matter how many comments a thread has there.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:22 AM on September 25, 2011 [99 favorites]
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:22 AM on September 25, 2011 [99 favorites]
So, you can post animal abuse turds like this, but off-color jokes may offend someone?
posted by rain at 7:22 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by rain at 7:22 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
Metafilter : fuck reddit
posted by wheelieman at 7:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [15 favorites]
posted by wheelieman at 7:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [15 favorites]
So, you can post animal abuse turds like this
Barely anyone flagged that. The reddit post that's the subject of this post was the most flagged thing of the last two months.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:24 AM on September 25, 2011
Barely anyone flagged that. The reddit post that's the subject of this post was the most flagged thing of the last two months.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:24 AM on September 25, 2011
That was the most flagged post in the last couple months.
Really? A link to "what is the most offensive, off-colour, disgusting joke you know?" was actually flagged? (As "offensive", I would hope.)
At least it wasn't a double.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:25 AM on September 25, 2011
Really? A link to "what is the most offensive, off-colour, disgusting joke you know?" was actually flagged? (As "offensive", I would hope.)
At least it wasn't a double.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:25 AM on September 25, 2011
So, you can post animal abuse turds like this, but off-color jokes may offend someone?
Rather than wasting your time posting here, shouldn't you be out picketing a lab or something?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:26 AM on September 25, 2011
Rather than wasting your time posting here, shouldn't you be out picketing a lab or something?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:26 AM on September 25, 2011
Uh oh, mathowie. I think you must have missed twoleftfeet's comment in the deleted thread:
twoleftfeet: "Don't you dare delete this. Don't you dare pretend that this isn't funny. It's almost 3000 comments now, less than 15 minutes after my post. Don't you dare delete this!"
See? "Don't you dare." I think twoleftfeet is going to go tell mom now.
posted by koeselitz at 7:28 AM on September 25, 2011 [16 favorites]
twoleftfeet: "Don't you dare delete this. Don't you dare pretend that this isn't funny. It's almost 3000 comments now, less than 15 minutes after my post. Don't you dare delete this!"
See? "Don't you dare." I think twoleftfeet is going to go tell mom now.
posted by koeselitz at 7:28 AM on September 25, 2011 [16 favorites]
Really? A link to "what is the most offensive, off-colour, disgusting joke you know?" was actually flagged? (As "offensive", I would hope.)
At least it wasn't a double.
What a strange place to make your stand.
(On the bright side, because I was awake apparently around the same time as mathowie, I got to see the red deletion box for the third time in a week or so.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:30 AM on September 25, 2011
At least it wasn't a double.
What a strange place to make your stand.
(On the bright side, because I was awake apparently around the same time as mathowie, I got to see the red deletion box for the third time in a week or so.)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:30 AM on September 25, 2011
I like seeing people unload their collective angst in a totally harmless format.
Even if twoleftfeet meant this post to reveal some sort of sociologial/anthropological/pathological insight into reddit posters, it's still a poor FPP for us. How is this best of the web, or even "Hey, this is cool because..."? Not fascinating original material; nothing but jokes that you know are going to set off a shitstorm over "funny and harmless" vs. "offensive and tiresome"; not even a meta look at what the import is of a huge and recurring style of post. It's just warmed-over crap that's going to start arguments and cause ongoing headaches for mods. That's not harmless. Appropriate deletion, says my .02.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:31 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Even if twoleftfeet meant this post to reveal some sort of sociologial/anthropological/pathological insight into reddit posters, it's still a poor FPP for us. How is this best of the web, or even "Hey, this is cool because..."? Not fascinating original material; nothing but jokes that you know are going to set off a shitstorm over "funny and harmless" vs. "offensive and tiresome"; not even a meta look at what the import is of a huge and recurring style of post. It's just warmed-over crap that's going to start arguments and cause ongoing headaches for mods. That's not harmless. Appropriate deletion, says my .02.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:31 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Q: How many [members of minority group] does it take to roof a house?
A: Are you insane? You want to roof your house with soon to be rotting human flesh? What the fuck is wrong with you?
posted by Meatbomb at 7:32 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
A: Are you insane? You want to roof your house with soon to be rotting human flesh? What the fuck is wrong with you?
posted by Meatbomb at 7:32 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
Q: What's the best part of sex with a free-speech martyr?
A: Listening to them try to explain it afterward.
posted by box at 7:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
A: Listening to them try to explain it afterward.
posted by box at 7:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I don't know what's scarier - that vile reddit thread, or our dear leader's sleeping habits.
posted by Think_Long at 7:34 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by Think_Long at 7:34 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
Q: How many [members of minority group] does it take to roof a house?
A: Are you insane? You want to roof your house with soon to be rotting human flesh? What the fuck is wrong with you?
posted by Meatbomb at 3:32 PM on September 25
c.f: the feminist favourite...
Q: How many men does it take to wallpaper a room?
A: It depends how thinly you slice them.
posted by Decani at 7:34 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
A: Are you insane? You want to roof your house with soon to be rotting human flesh? What the fuck is wrong with you?
posted by Meatbomb at 3:32 PM on September 25
c.f: the feminist favourite...
Q: How many men does it take to wallpaper a room?
A: It depends how thinly you slice them.
posted by Decani at 7:34 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Offenders gonna offend" is not news. That more than 3000 4000 billions! lined up to "share" isn't news either.
And, I was under the impression that MeTa is not the place to try and rerun the thread that got deleted....
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
And, I was under the impression that MeTa is not the place to try and rerun the thread that got deleted....
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Just a lousy post, really. Why wouldn't it be deleted?
twoleftfeet: "The first step to go to when you don't like what you're seeing is to blame the messenger"
You're not a messenger, you're the person bringing in a steaming piece of shit and saying, "look at this shit! Isn't it great?"
posted by Red Loop at 7:42 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
The only funny thing in that thread is twoleftfeet's unshakeable conviction that it is of earthshattering importance.
That is pretty fucking hilarious.
So, you can post animal abuse turds like this, but off-color jokes may offend someone?
i) That's a decent piece.
ii) What the fuck is wrong with buzkashi? From all appearances they treat the horses quite well, it's not like the dogfighting.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
That is pretty fucking hilarious.
So, you can post animal abuse turds like this, but off-color jokes may offend someone?
i) That's a decent piece.
ii) What the fuck is wrong with buzkashi? From all appearances they treat the horses quite well, it's not like the dogfighting.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
A guy who's post was deleted walks into a bar
posted by P.o.B. at 7:45 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by P.o.B. at 7:45 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Just to be clear, Twoleftfeet made the deleted post, Brandon Blatcher opened this meta.
posted by Think_Long at 7:49 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by Think_Long at 7:49 AM on September 25, 2011
MetaFilter: look at this shit! Isn't it
great?
posted by 6550 at 7:50 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
great?
posted by 6550 at 7:50 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
A guy who's post was deleted walks into a bar
And demands that we lower it.
posted by pracowity at 7:50 AM on September 25, 2011 [123 favorites]
And demands that we lower it.
posted by pracowity at 7:50 AM on September 25, 2011 [123 favorites]
Decani: "Q: How many men does it take to wallpaper a room?
A: It depends how thinly you slice them."
That sounds more like a Body Worlds joke.
posted by mkb at 7:53 AM on September 25, 2011
A: It depends how thinly you slice them."
That sounds more like a Body Worlds joke.
posted by mkb at 7:53 AM on September 25, 2011
twoleftfeet: " Reddit does this "omg lets discover offensive jokes!" thread about once a month.
With all due respect... 4000."
With all due respect... What the hell is wrong with you?
posted by Splunge at 7:55 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
With all due respect... 4000."
With all due respect... What the hell is wrong with you?
posted by Splunge at 7:55 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
With all due respect... 4000.
FFS, who do you think this is appealing to? Putting aside way more relavent questions about comment-counts (ie, does this matter w/r/t making a MetaFilter post?), do you somehow think that A) offensive joke posts are rare on Reddit, or B) think that these post counts are, ugh, historic or something?
A) Offensive+Joke yields a giant shitty buttload of results (and that's just r/AskReddit)
B) Hey Reddit, what is the most jaw droppingly offensive joke you know? (for research purposes) [4 months ago][7189 comments]
What is the most offensive joke you've heard?[5 months ago][1974 comments]
Your most offensive joke of all time. [8 months ago][1087 comments]
OK, this is a dare: post your most offensive joke ever. DISCLAIMER: Don't read this thread if you're easily offended. (the opinions of the posters may not reflect the opinion of the submitter) [1 year ago][2507 comments]
And there are way more 1000+ comment posts after those.
Post was shitty for a lot of reasons, and I hope at some point you can recognize that it wasn't deleted because the coward-mods or sniveling MetaFilter userbase can't take a joke / can't understand the historical & sociological contexts of humor. It. Was. Just. A. Really. Shitty. Post.
posted by NolanRyanHatesMatches at 7:56 AM on September 25, 2011 [21 favorites]
FFS, who do you think this is appealing to? Putting aside way more relavent questions about comment-counts (ie, does this matter w/r/t making a MetaFilter post?), do you somehow think that A) offensive joke posts are rare on Reddit, or B) think that these post counts are, ugh, historic or something?
A) Offensive+Joke yields a giant shitty buttload of results (and that's just r/AskReddit)
B) Hey Reddit, what is the most jaw droppingly offensive joke you know? (for research purposes) [4 months ago][7189 comments]
What is the most offensive joke you've heard?[5 months ago][1974 comments]
Your most offensive joke of all time. [8 months ago][1087 comments]
OK, this is a dare: post your most offensive joke ever. DISCLAIMER: Don't read this thread if you're easily offended. (the opinions of the posters may not reflect the opinion of the submitter) [1 year ago][2507 comments]
And there are way more 1000+ comment posts after those.
Post was shitty for a lot of reasons, and I hope at some point you can recognize that it wasn't deleted because the coward-mods or sniveling MetaFilter userbase can't take a joke / can't understand the historical & sociological contexts of humor. It. Was. Just. A. Really. Shitty. Post.
posted by NolanRyanHatesMatches at 7:56 AM on September 25, 2011 [21 favorites]
At least it wasn't a double.
No, it was just a post about a double on another site.
(The cause for deletion is not obtuse.)
The problem isn't the people that understand why the post was deleted. The problem is people who don't. It's good to have a more explicit reason(s) for the latter.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:57 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
No, it was just a post about a double on another site.
(The cause for deletion is not obtuse.)
The problem isn't the people that understand why the post was deleted. The problem is people who don't. It's good to have a more explicit reason(s) for the latter.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:57 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
Rather than wasting your time posting here, shouldn't you be out picketing a lab or something?
Take that, hippie.
posted by mintcake! at 7:59 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
Take that, hippie.
posted by mintcake! at 7:59 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
If I didn't know that toddler membership is extremely rare on MeFi ('lil ubu doesn't count or type for that matter) I'd say this was a authority checking tantrum with drumming feet on the floor. For a member who has been around long enough the responses just don't make sense (has your account been borrowed?)
posted by infini at 8:02 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 8:02 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
The problem isn't the people that understand why the post was deleted. The problem is people who don't. It's good to have a more explicit reason(s) for the latter.
It's good but not vital, and with something flagged up the wazoo I'd say less vital yet. This was a poor post defended bizarrely within by the poster for no apparent reason that only lived as long as it did because it was posted in the middle of the night. It's not exactly a prime cut of "this deletion reason is not sufficiently nuanced" meat.
And, and this is just metatalk-posting-sensibility jawing here so not a huge deal but if we're gonna talk about it, with the poster of the original thread already being sort of weird and aggro therein it seems like maybe not such a great thing to volunteer more space for that. If twoleftfeet had really, really wanted a forum here to say shitty things after the deletion, he could have started the thread himself.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:04 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
It's good but not vital, and with something flagged up the wazoo I'd say less vital yet. This was a poor post defended bizarrely within by the poster for no apparent reason that only lived as long as it did because it was posted in the middle of the night. It's not exactly a prime cut of "this deletion reason is not sufficiently nuanced" meat.
And, and this is just metatalk-posting-sensibility jawing here so not a huge deal but if we're gonna talk about it, with the poster of the original thread already being sort of weird and aggro therein it seems like maybe not such a great thing to volunteer more space for that. If twoleftfeet had really, really wanted a forum here to say shitty things after the deletion, he could have started the thread himself.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:04 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
bukvich: “Twoleftfeet is willfully obtuse on one axis, Brandon Blatcher is willfully obtuse along another. (The cause for deletion is not obtuse.)”
Did you read the thread at all? Brandon Blatcher clearly didn't bring it here because he wanted a rehash. I can only guess at his motives, but I would assume that he brought it here to make it clear that this shit is stupid and doesn't fly, and hopefully to make sure this crap doesn't happen again. And I'm totally with him on that, if that's the case.
Also, how many axes are there in this equation? How do they relate to each other? How can something be obtuse on an axis? Are the triangles sort of set up on the axes so that their angles are exceeding them in a certain way? I'm really confused here. Maybe you can draw a diagram.
posted by koeselitz at 8:04 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Did you read the thread at all? Brandon Blatcher clearly didn't bring it here because he wanted a rehash. I can only guess at his motives, but I would assume that he brought it here to make it clear that this shit is stupid and doesn't fly, and hopefully to make sure this crap doesn't happen again. And I'm totally with him on that, if that's the case.
Also, how many axes are there in this equation? How do they relate to each other? How can something be obtuse on an axis? Are the triangles sort of set up on the axes so that their angles are exceeding them in a certain way? I'm really confused here. Maybe you can draw a diagram.
posted by koeselitz at 8:04 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
the poster of the original thread already being sort of weird and aggro in thereit
I would take offense at being called "weird and aggro in thereit" if I knew what that meant.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:06 AM on September 25, 2011
I would take offense at being called "weird and aggro in thereit" if I knew what that meant.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:06 AM on September 25, 2011
It was a shitty post, just linking to a thread in another forum. And it was obviously gonna get deleted as that's the way things go here. Having said that, I wish people had made a better go of the jokes...because you guys can do it so much better than the other lot.
posted by Not Supplied at 8:06 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by Not Supplied at 8:06 AM on September 25, 2011
The problem is people who don't.
"People"? Is there a second person who doesn't undstand why that post was deleted?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:06 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
"People"? Is there a second person who doesn't undstand why that post was deleted?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:06 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
It's good to have a more explicit reason(s) for the latter.
What for? Do you seriously expect twoleftfeet to apologize or something? Or do you think some people may have missed the fact that these jokes are horribly offensive, mostly unfunny and do not sit well with the community?
Guy makes a poor post, it gets flagged all to hell and deleted. I don't see what this MeTa is doing, except for providing our daily dose of GRAR, particularly when I don't see anybody defending the post.
posted by Dr Dracator at 8:07 AM on September 25, 2011
What for? Do you seriously expect twoleftfeet to apologize or something? Or do you think some people may have missed the fact that these jokes are horribly offensive, mostly unfunny and do not sit well with the community?
Guy makes a poor post, it gets flagged all to hell and deleted. I don't see what this MeTa is doing, except for providing our daily dose of GRAR, particularly when I don't see anybody defending the post.
posted by Dr Dracator at 8:07 AM on September 25, 2011
I would take offense at being called "weird and aggro in thereit" if I knew what that meant.
Too late, I've already cowardly abused my admin powers or something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:08 AM on September 25, 2011 [21 favorites]
Too late, I've already cowardly abused my admin powers or something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:08 AM on September 25, 2011 [21 favorites]
The guy has an edit window, and he recognizes its utility and makes use of it. There is something to that.
posted by Meatbomb at 8:11 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 8:11 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Hey, I made the damn link because thousands of other people were thinking about it.
Thousands of people on another site? So what?
posted by rtha at 8:12 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Thousands of people on another site? So what?
posted by rtha at 8:12 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
I don't suppose you'd want to abuse an "er" into my "undstand"?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:14 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:14 AM on September 25, 2011
Also, how many axes are there in this equation?
If you listen closely to the sounds of grinding, each axe makes a slightly different sound....
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you listen closely to the sounds of grinding, each axe makes a slightly different sound....
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I don't see anybody defending the post.
I'm not even defending the post. It doesn't surprise me that it was deleted. I thought it was an interesting post, but I knew that it might be deleted, due to the general timidness of Metafilter standards. For a while I thought that the Mods had taken a principled stand to protect free speech, even of an offensive nature, and as minutes went on I began to respect them more and more for not deleting the post, but it doesn't at all surprise me that ultimately Metafilter proved more conservative in its editorial practice than Reddit. Metafilter mods have to listen to flags. Metafilter is a much smaller forum, with tighter community controls, than other more popular online communities. That's one of the reasons I love it so much.
I frankly don't give a shit if anybody thinks it was a bad post. I've made so many bad posts at this point that they don't register as "bad" for me anymore. I've also made some "good" posts. It's more interesting to me now to make "interesting" posts.
And cortex, it still hurts when you call me "aggro". I think.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:21 AM on September 25, 2011
I'm not even defending the post. It doesn't surprise me that it was deleted. I thought it was an interesting post, but I knew that it might be deleted, due to the general timidness of Metafilter standards. For a while I thought that the Mods had taken a principled stand to protect free speech, even of an offensive nature, and as minutes went on I began to respect them more and more for not deleting the post, but it doesn't at all surprise me that ultimately Metafilter proved more conservative in its editorial practice than Reddit. Metafilter mods have to listen to flags. Metafilter is a much smaller forum, with tighter community controls, than other more popular online communities. That's one of the reasons I love it so much.
I frankly don't give a shit if anybody thinks it was a bad post. I've made so many bad posts at this point that they don't register as "bad" for me anymore. I've also made some "good" posts. It's more interesting to me now to make "interesting" posts.
And cortex, it still hurts when you call me "aggro". I think.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:21 AM on September 25, 2011
So you're whole DON'T YOU DARE DELETE THIS POST schtick was just for the lulz then?
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
That's right, they're conservative. They're conservative for not liking stupid jokes.
posted by koeselitz at 8:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by koeselitz at 8:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
i swear to god i know the difference between YOUR and YOU'RE.
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Don't we already have an 1100 and counting comment thread on FPP quality and what makes a good post on MetaFilter and what is MetaFilter all about?
posted by infini at 8:24 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by infini at 8:24 AM on September 25, 2011
twoleftfeet: "free speech"
I hate this metafilter drinking game.
/slides under the table
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 8:24 AM on September 25, 2011 [48 favorites]
I hate this metafilter drinking game.
/slides under the table
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 8:24 AM on September 25, 2011 [48 favorites]
And cortex, it still hurts when you call me "aggro".Then perhaps in the future you might want to avoid jumping into threads by accusing people of cowardice? For example?
posted by Flunkie at 8:24 AM on September 25, 2011 [16 favorites]
I knew that it might be deleted, due to the general timidness of Metafilter standards.
What you see as timidity, I see as courage.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:25 AM on September 25, 2011 [29 favorites]
What you see as timidity, I see as courage.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:25 AM on September 25, 2011 [29 favorites]
I've spent more time than anyone probably should lurking around the most contentious and ugly threads in the history of metatalk. I'm not proud of how entertaining I find them, and wouldn't recommend anyone else doing the same thing.
As a result, however, I think I speak from an extremely well-informed position when I say that nobody's ever achieved anything useful or important by addressing the community, much less the moderators, as "cowards". And given how little is at stake, when the larger context amounts to "redditors telling a whole bunch of crass jokes," even the temper tantrums thrown by a toddler look dignified by comparison.
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:25 AM on September 25, 2011 [6 favorites]
As a result, however, I think I speak from an extremely well-informed position when I say that nobody's ever achieved anything useful or important by addressing the community, much less the moderators, as "cowards". And given how little is at stake, when the larger context amounts to "redditors telling a whole bunch of crass jokes," even the temper tantrums thrown by a toddler look dignified by comparison.
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:25 AM on September 25, 2011 [6 favorites]
For a while I thought that the Mods had taken a principled stand to protect free speech, even of an offensive nature, and as minutes went on I began to respect them more and more for not deleting the post, but it doesn't at all surprise me that ultimately Metafilter proved more conservative in its editorial practice than Reddit.
If we're talking about Reddit-as-a-whole, that's like being taller than a puddle. One of the constant refrains of folks trying to defend Reddit as an actually readable place rather than an undifferentiated firehose of crap is that you're supposed to identify specific subreddits that actually appeal to you and have an ethos and moderative style that fits your personal preferences and needs. Which makes sense: people who want unchecked whackadoo can go to the subreddits that provide that, and folks who want something a little more structured can get that, and good for all involved.
Metafilter is pretty laid back about speech outside of the narrow bands of actual racist/sexist slurs, but, yes, this is one of those places where taking a verbal dump unchecked is not gonna fly.
That said, linking to a reddit thread where people are being naughty doesn't really come into it that directly: it's a poor post for metafilter, there's no clear reason why reddit doing that is interesting and worth a post, and deleting that poor post for being a poor post isn't much of a commentary on freedom of speech so much on crappiness of posts.
I frankly don't give a shit if anybody thinks it was a bad post. I've made so many bad posts at this point that they don't register as "bad" for me anymore.
You may not give a shit, but we sort of do, and it would be nice if you could show a little bit better judgement. That said, bad posts happen by accident, your intentions can be good and you still whiff. That's not a huge deal. Making a big fuss about it in the thread itself, however, is really not okay and that basically needs to never happen again.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:30 AM on September 25, 2011 [24 favorites]
If we're talking about Reddit-as-a-whole, that's like being taller than a puddle. One of the constant refrains of folks trying to defend Reddit as an actually readable place rather than an undifferentiated firehose of crap is that you're supposed to identify specific subreddits that actually appeal to you and have an ethos and moderative style that fits your personal preferences and needs. Which makes sense: people who want unchecked whackadoo can go to the subreddits that provide that, and folks who want something a little more structured can get that, and good for all involved.
Metafilter is pretty laid back about speech outside of the narrow bands of actual racist/sexist slurs, but, yes, this is one of those places where taking a verbal dump unchecked is not gonna fly.
That said, linking to a reddit thread where people are being naughty doesn't really come into it that directly: it's a poor post for metafilter, there's no clear reason why reddit doing that is interesting and worth a post, and deleting that poor post for being a poor post isn't much of a commentary on freedom of speech so much on crappiness of posts.
I frankly don't give a shit if anybody thinks it was a bad post. I've made so many bad posts at this point that they don't register as "bad" for me anymore.
You may not give a shit, but we sort of do, and it would be nice if you could show a little bit better judgement. That said, bad posts happen by accident, your intentions can be good and you still whiff. That's not a huge deal. Making a big fuss about it in the thread itself, however, is really not okay and that basically needs to never happen again.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:30 AM on September 25, 2011 [24 favorites]
I'm so glad you posted again. Now my comment is relevant. If I knew better, I'd say it was a great example of trolling, but I'll have a go at it anyway:
First and foremost, the "it's harmless" bullshit justification is infuriating. There are too many things wrong with accepting or praising or even marvelling at the veiled hate speech that devolved from what may have originally started as a round of crude humor. It's not funny or fascinating or anywhere in-between. Providing people with more stereotypes and terrible examples of populations they're already afraid to interact with creates consequences that can extend far beyond the computer screen. And, honestly, half of those3000 4000 comments weren't even jokes. But, if you're really into counting, I've got a joke-multiplying machine to sell you.
What do you do when you see a nigger with half a head? Stop laughing and reload.
What do you do when you see a chink with half a head? Stop laughing and reload.
What do you do when you see a faggot with half a head? Stop laughing and reload.
What do you do when you see a zombie with half a head? You get the idea.
Offensiveness aside, the post was perfect for riling up everyone's anxiety about the pecking order of social media websites. People flee from intellectually decaying communities for greener pastures without realizing they carry that same risk to the new community. Reddit doesn't want to be Digg, MeFi doesn't want to be Reddit, and nobody wants to be 4chan.
Though ill-conceived, your thread and my registration are two pretty good embodiments of this site's inevitable identity crisis.
posted by Johann Georg Faust at 8:32 AM on September 25, 2011 [6 favorites]
First and foremost, the "it's harmless" bullshit justification is infuriating. There are too many things wrong with accepting or praising or even marvelling at the veiled hate speech that devolved from what may have originally started as a round of crude humor. It's not funny or fascinating or anywhere in-between. Providing people with more stereotypes and terrible examples of populations they're already afraid to interact with creates consequences that can extend far beyond the computer screen. And, honestly, half of those
What do you do when you see a nigger with half a head? Stop laughing and reload.
What do you do when you see a chink with half a head? Stop laughing and reload.
What do you do when you see a faggot with half a head? Stop laughing and reload.
What do you do when you see a zombie with half a head? You get the idea.
Offensiveness aside, the post was perfect for riling up everyone's anxiety about the pecking order of social media websites. People flee from intellectually decaying communities for greener pastures without realizing they carry that same risk to the new community. Reddit doesn't want to be Digg, MeFi doesn't want to be Reddit, and nobody wants to be 4chan.
Though ill-conceived, your thread and my registration are two pretty good embodiments of this site's inevitable identity crisis.
posted by Johann Georg Faust at 8:32 AM on September 25, 2011 [6 favorites]
I flagged the post as "breaks the guidelines" because it was a link to a comment thread on some other site, pretty thin regardless of content. I didn't really care whether the jokes were offensive or not.
posted by jozxyqk at 8:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by jozxyqk at 8:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sometimes I remember a user name because they say something amazing or relevant to me. Sometimes it's a pattern of funny or insightful that I notice over time. I recognize your name now as, "Hey it's that guy that keeps posting things that get deleted." No big thing to me. I'm not the one who has to clean it up. But if you do love this place, as you say, then maybe you could give the owner the respect due when he asks that you not do this in his place.
Knowing that what you post is likely to be deleted, saying you don't care, and then martyring yourself on free speech hill afterwards do not give a combined appearance of loving this place.
posted by Babblesort at 8:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [10 favorites]
Knowing that what you post is likely to be deleted, saying you don't care, and then martyring yourself on free speech hill afterwards do not give a combined appearance of loving this place.
posted by Babblesort at 8:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [10 favorites]
You may not give a shit, but we sort of do, and it would be nice if you could show a little bit better judgement. That said, bad posts happen by accident, your intentions can be good and you still whiff. That's not a huge deal. Making a big fuss about it in the thread itself, however, is really not okay and that basically needs to never happen again.
The whole idea of "bad" and "good" was rejected long ago in the philosophy of aesthetics. (The words "sucky" and "awesome" still have currency in modern parlance, however.) So my point was that "interesting" is a far more valuable metric in assessing post worthiness. An interesting post might break either way... people might flag it or favorite it, and it's not always possible to predict which will happen beforehand.
People were saying nasty things about me in the original thread. I did not say nasty things about them, but instead chose to attempt to clarify the purpose of the original thread. I will not do that any other way in the future, because I don't know how to do it any other way.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:40 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
The whole idea of "bad" and "good" was rejected long ago in the philosophy of aesthetics. (The words "sucky" and "awesome" still have currency in modern parlance, however.) So my point was that "interesting" is a far more valuable metric in assessing post worthiness. An interesting post might break either way... people might flag it or favorite it, and it's not always possible to predict which will happen beforehand.
People were saying nasty things about me in the original thread. I did not say nasty things about them, but instead chose to attempt to clarify the purpose of the original thread. I will not do that any other way in the future, because I don't know how to do it any other way.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:40 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
What do you do when you see a zombie with half a head?
Actually, you shouldn't be laughing when shooting zombies, as it can throw up your concentration and aim. However, reloading is very good advice.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:40 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Actually, you shouldn't be laughing when shooting zombies, as it can throw up your concentration and aim. However, reloading is very good advice.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:40 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
I think that part of the disconnect here is that some people think that moderators delete threads based on personal reasons, when the reality seems to be closer to most posts being deleted because of flag count. One solution to this might be to include the flag count with the deletion flag... although that just seems like it'd make people more likely to flag, and make the site more antagonistic.
and nobody wants to be 4chan
Judging from what I've seen of what gets recycled and where, I'd say that maybe nobody wants to be 4chan, but everybody certainly wants to steal their jokes (just look at the abomination that is the rage face comic genre). I'm no 4chan evangelist, but for as much shit as they catch on every social site on the web, people still don't mind taking their leftovers.
posted by codacorolla at 8:42 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
and nobody wants to be 4chan
Judging from what I've seen of what gets recycled and where, I'd say that maybe nobody wants to be 4chan, but everybody certainly wants to steal their jokes (just look at the abomination that is the rage face comic genre). I'm no 4chan evangelist, but for as much shit as they catch on every social site on the web, people still don't mind taking their leftovers.
posted by codacorolla at 8:42 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
The words "sucky" and "awesome" still have currency in modern parlance, however.
"Sucky posts," then.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
"Sucky posts," then.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
So my point was that "interesting" is a far more valuable metric in assessing post worthiness.
What exactly is interesting about a post on another site that's nothing but people telling jokes? If you had a larger point to make about...something, then you should have made it. As far as I can tell, what you thought was interesting about the reddit post was that it was moving fast. And again, so what?
posted by rtha at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
What exactly is interesting about a post on another site that's nothing but people telling jokes? If you had a larger point to make about...something, then you should have made it. As far as I can tell, what you thought was interesting about the reddit post was that it was moving fast. And again, so what?
posted by rtha at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
twoleftfeet: “The whole idea of "bad" and "good" was rejected long ago in the philosophy of aesthetics.”
Yes, we enlightened moderns of the latter days know that racism and sexism may seem "bad" but they're fun because they're so interesting.
posted by koeselitz at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
Yes, we enlightened moderns of the latter days know that racism and sexism may seem "bad" but they're fun because they're so interesting.
posted by koeselitz at 8:44 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
SRSLY I may just skip the football and watch this thread all day
posted by nathancaswell at 8:47 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by nathancaswell at 8:47 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
No, no. It was the quantity of jokes that made the post interesting.
posted by ryanrs at 8:47 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by ryanrs at 8:47 AM on September 25, 2011
As NolanRyanHatesMatches already noted, the link was the definition of mundane -- just about every month reddit has a large thread for the purpose of telling offensive jokes.
So, the whole it's not good or bad, it's INTERESTING argument really fails here too.
posted by lesli212 at 8:49 AM on September 25, 2011
So, the whole it's not good or bad, it's INTERESTING argument really fails here too.
posted by lesli212 at 8:49 AM on September 25, 2011
You know reddit gets bashed a lot here but if it weren't for them we probably wouldn't have gonewild.metafilter.com. Just something to think about.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:50 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:50 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
The fact that people elsewhere make racist jokes does not strike me as being interesting or uninteresting. It could have been made interesting by framing it in an interesting way. This was not done. Instead, it seemed like the idea of people telling racist jokes was inherently presented as being interesting. But what is interesting about that? People tell racist jokes, and there are example of this all over the web. It's not timidity to ask for a higher standard.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:51 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:51 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
perpetuation of sexism, racism and homophobia isn't interesting; it's just about the most banal thing anyone could do. These are things that exist in the world, negatively impacting the day to day life of so many people. If you think it's important to perpetuate these things because it's 'interesting,' I feel sorry for you. Because that's exactly what these kinds of jokes do: they give people (racists, sexists, etc) a shield to express all kinds of bullshit under the aegis of, 'well it's just a joke, and everyone knows it's kinda true,' except that, generally speaking, it's _not_ kinda true, and the joke itself is just one person in an already privileged space getting their lulz off at the expense of people who are less privileged, wedging these hypothetical-in-joke-land-but-really-very-real people into stereotypes that they have no control over. There's nothing interesting about that, though; it happens every fucking day.
posted by kaibutsu at 8:53 AM on September 25, 2011 [26 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 8:53 AM on September 25, 2011 [26 favorites]
They weren't just sexist, racist, and homophobic jokes. They were also offensive for many other reasons. There was a range of offensive humor not present in previous Reddit posts.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:56 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:56 AM on September 25, 2011
My completely unsubstantiated theory is this is coming out of some sort of backlash to the quagmire of overly PC tiptoeing and offended-ness that Mefi is / can be / has become. It annoys me but I've pretty much learned to just ignore it. Not to try to aggressively push the boundaries or whatever. Regardless the post wasn't a good post, no. No indeed. Although the Stevie Wonder answering the iron joke made me laugh out loud.
posted by nathancaswell at 8:57 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by nathancaswell at 8:57 AM on September 25, 2011 [5 favorites]
twoleftfeet, it was a useless, boring post. All you did was link to a thread of really stupid, old, boring, tasteless, crappy jokes, most of which I stopped laughing at when I was in sixth grade, because they're not funny. I'm not sure why you think a single link to a lame, boring Reddit thread makes for a good post in any way at all. Is it because it was a fast-moving thread with lots of comments? There have been more recent threads on Reddit that have moved fast and that are a hell of a lot more interesting. You could have posted the thread about the girl on Reddit who was sexually assaulted, posted about it there, and was quickly eviscerated by Redditors for "faking it" until she posted a video proving her facial bruising wasn't FX makeup. Or the recent uptick of media reports on the Reddit "jailbait" threads and Angie Varona the "unwilling pinup star". Either one of those would have sparked an interesting conversation here.
Instead, you linked to a thread full of stupid, boring jokes. For no good reason. And you called us all cowards for not thinking you're cool, or whatever.
Maybe you should just hang out at Reddit full time, if you prefer the way they run things.
posted by palomar at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2011 [12 favorites]
Instead, you linked to a thread full of stupid, boring jokes. For no good reason. And you called us all cowards for not thinking you're cool, or whatever.
Maybe you should just hang out at Reddit full time, if you prefer the way they run things.
posted by palomar at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2011 [12 favorites]
Jesus fuck, twoleftfeet, did you even read the link that you posted? It seems, based on my look at the top of the thread, like it's about 80% racist and sexist jokes. You're being willfully obtuse. Did you hear the one about the racist who smeared shit all over the bathroom? It happened because he didn't realize all the shit was coming out of his mouth.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
They weren't just sexist, racist, and homophobic jokes. They were also offensive for many other reasons. There was a range of offensive humor not present in previous Reddit posts.
I find it strangely fascinating and bizarre that not one single comment you have made - here or in the original thread - does anything at all to bolster either the suitability or the 'interesting' justification for that thread. Like nothing.
Yet you keep going. It was a single link (needs to be good to survive) post to another site (a site which has historically needed to have REALLY good content to fly as a link) about a 'post a joke' thread.
It is not best of the web. It is not interesting to Metafilter based on its usual content. I personally found some of the jokes hilarious, but I cannot fathom how anyone with more than 3 comments posted on this site would consider it at all what works or interests this community.
posted by Brockles at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
I find it strangely fascinating and bizarre that not one single comment you have made - here or in the original thread - does anything at all to bolster either the suitability or the 'interesting' justification for that thread. Like nothing.
Yet you keep going. It was a single link (needs to be good to survive) post to another site (a site which has historically needed to have REALLY good content to fly as a link) about a 'post a joke' thread.
It is not best of the web. It is not interesting to Metafilter based on its usual content. I personally found some of the jokes hilarious, but I cannot fathom how anyone with more than 3 comments posted on this site would consider it at all what works or interests this community.
posted by Brockles at 9:05 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
Twoleftfeet is like some general that keeps drawing the boundaries of his territory smaller and smaller as he loses battles. "See!" he says as he points to his remaining lands, "I am undefeated!"
Or he's a just a drunk.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:14 AM on September 25, 2011
Or he's a just a drunk.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:14 AM on September 25, 2011
I'm wondering what the "cowardice" and the "sniveling wimpiness" factors in? Is it the part where you make an awful, offensive and stupid front page post in the middle of the night for the mods, when there's more chance it'll stick around for more than a couple minutes, or is it the part where it's a lazy link to reddit?
posted by crunchland at 9:16 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by crunchland at 9:16 AM on September 25, 2011
This pile-on probably has gone on enough. Sorry for how much I've helped keep it going. I think maybe twoleftfeet gets the point; if not, there's no point pounding it home any more.
posted by koeselitz at 9:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by koeselitz at 9:16 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Making a big fuss about it in the thread itself, however, is really not okay
I would hope all that "In before deletion!" noise that occurs is also not okay.
posted by cribcage at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
I would hope all that "In before deletion!" noise that occurs is also not okay.
posted by cribcage at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
*Puts on her "Hi! I'm An Aesthetician!" cap*
The whole idea of "bad" and "good" was rejected long ago in the philosophy of aesthetics.
No, it wasn't.
posted by meese at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [26 favorites]
The whole idea of "bad" and "good" was rejected long ago in the philosophy of aesthetics.
No, it wasn't.
posted by meese at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [26 favorites]
Pretty much everything in that thread was far from ok.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by Meatbomb at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
I would hope all that "In before deletion!" noise that occurs is also not okay.
We've said a number of times that we'd rather people not do that and that it can really fuck up otherwise okay threads, yes.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:21 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
We've said a number of times that we'd rather people not do that and that it can really fuck up otherwise okay threads, yes.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:21 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I have one comment. Flag it and move on is a good approach, however, I suspect that some folks may feel like I do and want to insert something in the thread (for the benefit of those readers who may not know much about MetaFilter) to indicate that this whole community isn't in line with the FPP's message/voice/intent/whatever. I realize that isn't always helpful, my apologies when it makes the site more difficult to manage.
posted by HuronBob at 9:29 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by HuronBob at 9:29 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
The whole idea of "bad" and "good" was rejected long ago in the philosophy of aesthetics.
Q:What did the aesthetician say after after they cocked their shotgun?
A: "Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the degree." BLAMMO
posted by Think_Long at 9:31 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Q:What did the aesthetician say after after they cocked their shotgun?
A: "Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the degree." BLAMMO
posted by Think_Long at 9:31 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Here's a sick joke. A guys walks into a bar with a small girl and says to the bartender "I'd like a whiskey. And I could I get another one for the little girl?" And the bartender says, "I can't serve whiskey to a little girl." And the guy says, "Really, why not? Did you know she was blind?"
The little girl, who is really blind, hears this and says "it's OK if I don't have a whiskey, because when my parents died I learned to deal with the harsh reality of death, so whiskey won't really change that. This guy is my uncle, and he has done his best to take care of me, even when he lost his job at the factory. We don't have health care, so he doesn't have a way to get treatment for his alcoholism, but he has been begging on the streets to get cans of tuna fish to feed me, and I really respect him for that."
And the bartender says, "Yes, I hear that a lot these days."
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain. Because I can hear other people laughing at their pain. Because, in my mind, that laughter is an antidote to pain and laughter is better than anger. Sniveling wimps for not having the courage to notice that people think these kinds of things about other people but are too fucking polite to ever mention it but instead go about their business in a way that never notices how much other people suffer because God forbid we even joke about it, however easy that might be as a way to acknowledge discomfort with a deep reality. Stuck up self-righteous know-it-alls who assume that there is ONE RIGHT WAY and anybody who disagrees is just Wrong Wrong Wrong, with no subtlety, no grey area, no nuance. Ignorant busybodies meddling with the way folks deal with uncertainty, as though they owned Certainty and can tell me what it is. Short minded greedy stiff souls who stand upright and look down at anyone making shit up. You know who you are.
You couldn't make a joke if your life depended on it. And it does.
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:36 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
The little girl, who is really blind, hears this and says "it's OK if I don't have a whiskey, because when my parents died I learned to deal with the harsh reality of death, so whiskey won't really change that. This guy is my uncle, and he has done his best to take care of me, even when he lost his job at the factory. We don't have health care, so he doesn't have a way to get treatment for his alcoholism, but he has been begging on the streets to get cans of tuna fish to feed me, and I really respect him for that."
And the bartender says, "Yes, I hear that a lot these days."
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain. Because I can hear other people laughing at their pain. Because, in my mind, that laughter is an antidote to pain and laughter is better than anger. Sniveling wimps for not having the courage to notice that people think these kinds of things about other people but are too fucking polite to ever mention it but instead go about their business in a way that never notices how much other people suffer because God forbid we even joke about it, however easy that might be as a way to acknowledge discomfort with a deep reality. Stuck up self-righteous know-it-alls who assume that there is ONE RIGHT WAY and anybody who disagrees is just Wrong Wrong Wrong, with no subtlety, no grey area, no nuance. Ignorant busybodies meddling with the way folks deal with uncertainty, as though they owned Certainty and can tell me what it is. Short minded greedy stiff souls who stand upright and look down at anyone making shit up. You know who you are.
You couldn't make a joke if your life depended on it. And it does.
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:36 AM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
So we tell racist jokes to heal our pain?
How many black people are telling those 'nigger' jokes do you think?
posted by Think_Long at 9:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
How many black people are telling those 'nigger' jokes do you think?
posted by Think_Long at 9:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
Look, if I want to comment on Reddit posts, I go to Reddit. End of story.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by KokuRyu at 9:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
Sorry for how much I've helped keep it going.
This is an ongoing thing you do and I'd like you to do less of it, please.
Here's a meta topic: That thread was not even a borderline thread. Reasons for deletion are a courtesy to users and we try to be clear but sometimes we're in a pinch timewise or techwise and we are brief or possibly unclear. When the owner of a site removes your post early on a weekend morning, opening up a MeTa thread at 6 am their time to ask about it seems impolite, to me. Or, rather, it seems like it's just opening up another place where people can make their racist/sexist jokes in a sort of "hey isn't this ironic" way before everyone has had their coffee.
Also single links to Reddit are rarely good posts. Reddit is a great site that is something somewhat different from MeFi and people who like it are more than welcome to hang out there, but cross-posted stuff often suffers from sudden absence of context and doesn't always go well.
For a while I thought that the Mods had taken a principled stand to protect free speech
I do that in my other job. twoleftfeet, you may need to step away from this thread for a bit, I don't even know who you are calling names anymore.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [15 favorites]
This is an ongoing thing you do and I'd like you to do less of it, please.
Here's a meta topic: That thread was not even a borderline thread. Reasons for deletion are a courtesy to users and we try to be clear but sometimes we're in a pinch timewise or techwise and we are brief or possibly unclear. When the owner of a site removes your post early on a weekend morning, opening up a MeTa thread at 6 am their time to ask about it seems impolite, to me. Or, rather, it seems like it's just opening up another place where people can make their racist/sexist jokes in a sort of "hey isn't this ironic" way before everyone has had their coffee.
Also single links to Reddit are rarely good posts. Reddit is a great site that is something somewhat different from MeFi and people who like it are more than welcome to hang out there, but cross-posted stuff often suffers from sudden absence of context and doesn't always go well.
For a while I thought that the Mods had taken a principled stand to protect free speech
I do that in my other job. twoleftfeet, you may need to step away from this thread for a bit, I don't even know who you are calling names anymore.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [15 favorites]
I frankly don't give a shit if anybody thinks it was a bad post.
There's yer trouble
posted by EatTheWeek at 9:42 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
There's yer trouble
posted by EatTheWeek at 9:42 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain.
I think the people who thought that was a bad post are not the ones who need to grow a thicker skin here.
You made a post. It was not a good post. Its deletion is not a judgement on your character, personality, or morals. It is not a violation of your free speech (of which you have none on this site). Its deletion is also not a statement about how mefites Just Can't Handle the Truth, man (or whatever); it is a statement that it was not a good post for metafilter.
If you want to prove how human and sensitive you are, how the expression of pain can be shared through the telling of jokes, you can do that in the reddit thread. Isn't the internet awesome like that?
posted by rtha at 9:45 AM on September 25, 2011 [19 favorites]
I think the people who thought that was a bad post are not the ones who need to grow a thicker skin here.
You made a post. It was not a good post. Its deletion is not a judgement on your character, personality, or morals. It is not a violation of your free speech (of which you have none on this site). Its deletion is also not a statement about how mefites Just Can't Handle the Truth, man (or whatever); it is a statement that it was not a good post for metafilter.
If you want to prove how human and sensitive you are, how the expression of pain can be shared through the telling of jokes, you can do that in the reddit thread. Isn't the internet awesome like that?
posted by rtha at 9:45 AM on September 25, 2011 [19 favorites]
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain. Because I can hear other people laughing at their pain.
Oh, I'm sorry, was the Reddit thread some kind of community outreach program for sad people? Because dude, your entire paragraph up there is completely incoherent and I have literally NO IDEA what you're talking about with all your dramatic flailing. WTF?
posted by palomar at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2011 [9 favorites]
Oh, I'm sorry, was the Reddit thread some kind of community outreach program for sad people? Because dude, your entire paragraph up there is completely incoherent and I have literally NO IDEA what you're talking about with all your dramatic flailing. WTF?
posted by palomar at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2011 [9 favorites]
twoleftfeet: "Here's a sick joke. A guys walks into a bar with a small girl and says to the bartender "I'd like a whiskey. And I could I get another one for the little girl?" And the bartender says, "I can't serve whiskey to a little girl." And the guy says, "Really, why not? Did you know she was blind?"
The little girl, who is really blind, hears this and says "it's OK if I don't have a whiskey, because when my parents died I learned to deal with the harsh reality of death, so whiskey won't really change that. This guy is my uncle, and he has done his best to take care of me, even when he lost his job at the factory. We don't have health care, so he doesn't have a way to get treatment for his alcoholism, but he has been begging on the streets to get cans of tuna fish to feed me, and I really respect him for that."
And the bartender says, "Yes, I hear that a lot these days."
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain. Because I can hear other people laughing at their pain. Because, in my mind, that laughter is an antidote to pain and laughter is better than anger. Sniveling wimps for not having the courage to notice that people think these kinds of things about other people but are too fucking polite to ever mention it but instead go about their business in a way that never notices how much other people suffer because God forbid we even joke about it, however easy that might be as a way to acknowledge discomfort with a deep reality. Stuck up self-righteous know-it-alls who assume that there is ONE RIGHT WAY and anybody who disagrees is just Wrong Wrong Wrong, with no subtlety, no grey area, no nuance. Ignorant busybodies meddling with the way folks deal with uncertainty, as though they owned Certainty and can tell me what it is. Short minded greedy stiff souls who stand upright and look down at anyone making shit up. You know who you are.
You couldn't make a joke if your life depended on it. And it does."
Why are you so angry at yourself?
posted by Splunge at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2011
The little girl, who is really blind, hears this and says "it's OK if I don't have a whiskey, because when my parents died I learned to deal with the harsh reality of death, so whiskey won't really change that. This guy is my uncle, and he has done his best to take care of me, even when he lost his job at the factory. We don't have health care, so he doesn't have a way to get treatment for his alcoholism, but he has been begging on the streets to get cans of tuna fish to feed me, and I really respect him for that."
And the bartender says, "Yes, I hear that a lot these days."
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain. Because I can hear other people laughing at their pain. Because, in my mind, that laughter is an antidote to pain and laughter is better than anger. Sniveling wimps for not having the courage to notice that people think these kinds of things about other people but are too fucking polite to ever mention it but instead go about their business in a way that never notices how much other people suffer because God forbid we even joke about it, however easy that might be as a way to acknowledge discomfort with a deep reality. Stuck up self-righteous know-it-alls who assume that there is ONE RIGHT WAY and anybody who disagrees is just Wrong Wrong Wrong, with no subtlety, no grey area, no nuance. Ignorant busybodies meddling with the way folks deal with uncertainty, as though they owned Certainty and can tell me what it is. Short minded greedy stiff souls who stand upright and look down at anyone making shit up. You know who you are.
You couldn't make a joke if your life depended on it. And it does."
Why are you so angry at yourself?
posted by Splunge at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2011
^^^ crazy like woah
posted by nathancaswell at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by nathancaswell at 9:46 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
opening up a MeTa thread at 6 am their time to ask about it seems impolite, to me
Since he was up, I figured he was awake, hence the creation at that time.
Or, rather, it seems like it's just opening up another place where people can make their racist/sexist jokes in a sort of "hey isn't this ironic" way before everyone has had their coffee.
The reason why this MetaTalk thread was created has already been mentioned.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2011
Since he was up, I figured he was awake, hence the creation at that time.
Or, rather, it seems like it's just opening up another place where people can make their racist/sexist jokes in a sort of "hey isn't this ironic" way before everyone has had their coffee.
The reason why this MetaTalk thread was created has already been mentioned.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2011
When the owner of a site removes your post early on a weekend morning, opening up a MeTa thread at 6 am their time to ask about it seems impolite, to me.
Twoleftfeet didn't open this Meta, Brandon Blatcher did.
posted by nooneyouknow at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2011
Twoleftfeet didn't open this Meta, Brandon Blatcher did.
posted by nooneyouknow at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2011
Twoleftfeet didn't open this Meta, Brandon Blatcher did.
Thank you for saying that.
I hope all of you have the chance to defend yourself for three and a half hours, for over one hundred MetaTalk comments, for making a post on Metafilter.
It almost makes me wish that I had made an offensive joke myself, instead of just linking to a Reddit thread about them.
I'm volunteering at a local charity, so I need to go now.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:03 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Thank you for saying that.
I hope all of you have the chance to defend yourself for three and a half hours, for over one hundred MetaTalk comments, for making a post on Metafilter.
It almost makes me wish that I had made an offensive joke myself, instead of just linking to a Reddit thread about them.
I'm volunteering at a local charity, so I need to go now.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:03 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Jeezle Pete dude, now you're grandstanding about ... actually, I'm not even sure. How well you understand the pain of some people you've imagined? Or something? And how racist jokes make it better? Maybe? Your shitty post got deleted. That's all that's going on here.
Ignorant busybodies meddling with the way folks deal with uncertainty, as though they owned Certainty and can tell me what it is.
SILENCED ALL MY LIFE
posted by EatTheWeek at 10:04 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
Ignorant busybodies meddling with the way folks deal with uncertainty, as though they owned Certainty and can tell me what it is.
SILENCED ALL MY LIFE
posted by EatTheWeek at 10:04 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
I hope all of you have the chance to defend yourself for three and a half hours, for over one hundred MetaTalk comments, for making a post on Metafilter.
There's a big disconnect here. Posting comment total updates was not a defense, calling the owner of this site a coward was not a defense, even this self righteous charity volunteering time out stomping off is over the top.
If nothing else, let the rest of us drop this thread. There's something more to all of this than just what we're reading and perhaps poking at it with our sticks isn't the best way to spend a Sunday.
posted by infini at 10:09 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
There's a big disconnect here. Posting comment total updates was not a defense, calling the owner of this site a coward was not a defense, even this self righteous charity volunteering time out stomping off is over the top.
If nothing else, let the rest of us drop this thread. There's something more to all of this than just what we're reading and perhaps poking at it with our sticks isn't the best way to spend a Sunday.
posted by infini at 10:09 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
Do we need this MeTa to still be open? I'm not sure there was any of the confusion that Brandon Blatchner alluded to in the first place (and I don't really think that opening a thread to continue the argument in the deleted thread was a great idea), but it's been explained by the mods and now it seems what this thread is doing is allowing a pile-on, maintaining an easy-to-find link to a bad post, and goading twoleftfeet into making a series of posts that he'll likely regret after a few hours away from the keyboard. Closing time?
posted by kagredon at 10:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by kagredon at 10:19 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
the post sucked. so did peoples response. flag and move on.
posted by JPD at 10:20 AM on September 25, 2011
posted by JPD at 10:20 AM on September 25, 2011
I hope all of you have the chance to defend yourself for three and a half hours, for over one hundred MetaTalk comments, for making a post on Metafilter.
This post was not a call to defend yourself, but rather a request for clarification as to why the post was deleted, in case others didn't understand.
You are entitled to defend it or not, but by now it must be obvious that this sort of thread will not fly, and your defense of it is academic. You have not made a case for a change in policy, but rather that somehow you have courage and others don't. And that's not a defense -- it's not even a statement if fact. It's an opinion, and one which others probably don't share. And so, rather than an earnest defense of your post, and an opportunity for reasoned discussion, we have people shouting their differing opinions back and forth.
In the meanwhile, posts like yours will continue to be deleted in the future. And you can disagree with that, but it's probably worth considering before you post again.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
This post was not a call to defend yourself, but rather a request for clarification as to why the post was deleted, in case others didn't understand.
You are entitled to defend it or not, but by now it must be obvious that this sort of thread will not fly, and your defense of it is academic. You have not made a case for a change in policy, but rather that somehow you have courage and others don't. And that's not a defense -- it's not even a statement if fact. It's an opinion, and one which others probably don't share. And so, rather than an earnest defense of your post, and an opportunity for reasoned discussion, we have people shouting their differing opinions back and forth.
In the meanwhile, posts like yours will continue to be deleted in the future. And you can disagree with that, but it's probably worth considering before you post again.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:23 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
I'm volunteering at a local charity, so I need to go now.
This is the best joke you've made so far!
posted by to sir with millipedes at 10:27 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
This is the best joke you've made so far!
posted by to sir with millipedes at 10:27 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I can assure you that the number of jokes stolen from George Carlin in Reddit's Offensive Jokes thread is close to ZERO. Because ol' George was often profane, angry or poking at injustice, but he was NOT offensive. And I have proof.
I saw him perform on his last tour when he was 'working out' material for his last HBO show. He changed gears at one point and told the audience he was going to do an experiment, where he was going to tell three terribly offensive jokes, each one worse than the last, and dare the audience not to laugh. 90% of the audience didn't; it was the worst audience reception of anything he did that evening (partly because it felt very much out-of-character for him - I can imagine a lot of comedians pulling that schtick off, but not George). He did declare, after each joke "you may not laugh at it now, but you'll be telling it to all your friends in the next 24 hours." I don't know about the rest of the audience, but I couldn't even remember any of those jokes the next day (except that one went the 'dead baby' route, and another involved the sex organs of nuns and none of them used racial or other 'group' insults). And he did not use the bit in his HBO show, which, since it turned out to be his last show, was a relief to me.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:29 AM on September 25, 2011
I saw him perform on his last tour when he was 'working out' material for his last HBO show. He changed gears at one point and told the audience he was going to do an experiment, where he was going to tell three terribly offensive jokes, each one worse than the last, and dare the audience not to laugh. 90% of the audience didn't; it was the worst audience reception of anything he did that evening (partly because it felt very much out-of-character for him - I can imagine a lot of comedians pulling that schtick off, but not George). He did declare, after each joke "you may not laugh at it now, but you'll be telling it to all your friends in the next 24 hours." I don't know about the rest of the audience, but I couldn't even remember any of those jokes the next day (except that one went the 'dead baby' route, and another involved the sex organs of nuns and none of them used racial or other 'group' insults). And he did not use the bit in his HBO show, which, since it turned out to be his last show, was a relief to me.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:29 AM on September 25, 2011
This post was not a call to defend yourself, but rather a request for clarification as to why the post was deleted, in case others didn't understand.
If anyone actually needs clarification for the deletion of a post like that, they're hopeless.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:31 AM on September 25, 2011
If anyone actually needs clarification for the deletion of a post like that, they're hopeless.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:31 AM on September 25, 2011
They weren't just sexist, racist, and homophobic jokes. They were also offensive for many other reasons. There was a range of offensive humor not present in previous Reddit posts.
I saw the original thread. I flagged it and moved on. After seeing this thread, I would answer Brandon's original question with "Deletion reason: This is not MetaFilter and you are banned."
The mods are much less trigger-happy than I am, clearly.
posted by psoas at 10:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
I saw the original thread. I flagged it and moved on. After seeing this thread, I would answer Brandon's original question with "Deletion reason: This is not MetaFilter and you are banned."
The mods are much less trigger-happy than I am, clearly.
posted by psoas at 10:38 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sanctimonious pusswads telling me to shut up because I can hear people in pain.
I just want to point out the completely and utter howling fucking stupidity of this horseshit by posting the top vote in the thread you linked.
What did the black woman name her 5 sons? Tyrone, Tyrone, Tyrone, Tyrone, and Tyrone. How did she tell them apart? She just called them by their last names.
Who is the one laughing at their own pain there?
posted by empath at 10:41 AM on September 25, 2011 [9 favorites]
I just want to point out the completely and utter howling fucking stupidity of this horseshit by posting the top vote in the thread you linked.
What did the black woman name her 5 sons? Tyrone, Tyrone, Tyrone, Tyrone, and Tyrone. How did she tell them apart? She just called them by their last names.
Who is the one laughing at their own pain there?
posted by empath at 10:41 AM on September 25, 2011 [9 favorites]
Sanctimonious pusswad is my stripper name. I'm not a very good stripper, though.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:41 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:41 AM on September 25, 2011 [11 favorites]
Yeah, I'm not seeing a lot of good in the offing here. Have a good Sunday, everybody.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:47 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:47 AM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:30 AM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]