Mod Only Thread

July 22, 2013 6:20 AM

Using pb's lovely Mefi.Rnd() function I came across this Mod Only Meta! Is this the longest Mod Only Meta, or is there a longer one? Inversely, what is the longest meta before Mod input? Is there a huge thread with a "closing this up, cortex" at the bottom?
posted by marienbad to MetaFilter-Related at 6:20 AM (24 comments total)

pb's elusive and enigmatic (some say "evil," but I don't judge) twin is named qd, not pd, and he only gets called in for wetwork.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:29 AM on July 22, 2013 [9 favorites]

Do they together perform the works of the other forgotten son of JS Bach?
posted by kmz at 6:46 AM on July 22, 2013 [2 favorites]

I love pb's test post language:

This is simply a test of the Metafilter posting system. Had this been an actual post, it would have been followed by conversation.


He's like the Perd Hapley of moderators.
posted by Think_Long at 6:56 AM on July 22, 2013 [15 favorites]

I seem to recall at least one MeTa with no moderator comments. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to support this and may have imaginated the whole thing.
posted by double block and bleed at 7:14 AM on July 22, 2013

I think as riffs go that was not so much Perd as it was Emergency Broadcast System, but it works either way, yeah.

Is this the longest Mod Only Meta, or is there a longer one? Inversely, what is the longest meta before Mod input? Is there a huge thread with a "closing this up, cortex" at the bottom?

Those first two questions could be answered, and the third one at least partly answered, with the Infodump and a little bit of datawankery, but I'm not awake enough to go looking myself yet.

But the final one can be answered literally as yes—I've closed up some looong threads over the years with basically that note, as have other mods—but probably not what you mean based on the previous questions, since it's really unlikely for us to close up a metatalk thread we aren't looking closely at, and it's really unlikely for us to say nothing at all in a metatalk we're looking at closely.

I seem to recall at least one MeTa with no moderator comments.

I'm certain there's a number of these. Largely because meetups used to be planned in metatalk and we didn't really have anything that needed saying in the vast majority of those, but also because non-site-policy "let's talk about / plan / goof around re: x" conversations might not end up with a mod participating either.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:18 AM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

This also isn't what was asked, but my all-time favorite moderator pile-on was the one where cortex and jessamyn reinstated each other's deleted post, but I can't find it. A little help?
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:12 AM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mod Squad.


In color.
posted by The Whelk at 8:27 AM on July 22, 2013

Do they together perform the works of the other forgotten son of JS Bach

P.D.Q. Bach!
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:28 AM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

the one where cortex and jessamyn reinstated each other's deleted post

You're referring to the Keystone Kops incident.
posted by yuwtze at 8:29 AM on July 22, 2013 [5 favorites]

That's the one!
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:34 AM on July 22, 2013

P.D.Q. Bach!

Thanks Perd!
posted by kmz at 8:45 AM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

yuwtze: "You're referring to the Keystone Kops incident."

It probably says more about me than anything else, but reading that makes me chuckle every time it gets brought up.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:45 AM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

Mod-only thread   Number of comments
15346             5
17196             4
9745              3
15805             3
16133             3
28                2
12323             2
9797              2
19571             2
20608             2


Thread   Number of comments before mod response
9622     814
10638    345
18226    272
13019    221
19739    214
18560    198
13505    177
16979    171
16562    170
19680    169

posted by Rhomboid at 11:22 AM on July 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

(The second table doesn't include posts where there were no mod comments at all.)
posted by Rhomboid at 11:23 AM on July 22, 2013

Wow Rhomboid, cool stuff, thanks. The mefi 9622 thread is awesome.
posted by marienbad at 12:11 PM on July 22, 2013

That's not technically a mod-only thread. The OP isn't a mod!
posted by IndigoRain at 1:00 PM on July 22, 2013

Thanks Rhomboid. The #2 spot (MeTa 17196) is ... interesting. Check out the tags.
posted by jedicus at 1:56 PM on July 22, 2013

I was just noticing those tags and being delighted. It's been over two years since the last tag--I hope everyone's okay in there!
posted by beryllium at 1:59 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

yuwtze: You're referring to the Keystone Kops incident.

Firas' *smacks head on table* is just so perfect in that thread. One of my favorite MeFi moments of all time.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:31 PM on July 22, 2013

> The mefi 9622 thread is awesome.

You have no idea. It spawned its own offshoot site.
posted by languagehat at 5:37 PM on July 22, 2013

9622 reminded me of this, so much so that I had to question when I started lurking MeFi (I remember the now-defunct parody site unless there was another parody-site post years later) vs. when I got an account to leave a comment in that thread, after years of missing new user sign-up windows and then giving up.
posted by lordaych at 12:16 AM on July 23, 2013

Oh yeah, some of the early comments in #9622 linked to the original "pre-9/11" post, and I remember not being a lurker until 2002, which was thanks to WolfDaddy's (RIP) mentioning of THE MEEF on Everything2.com, in the ChatterBox live chat window, often called CatBox, which always seemed like an unfortunate abbreviation since that was my parents' abbreviation for "cat litter box," but then I realized not everyone shares this usage and it's kind of weird actually
posted by lordaych at 12:29 AM on July 23, 2013

Then there are times when the mods are thinking of us. They are great that way.
posted by Melismata at 10:28 AM on July 23, 2013

lordaych, I always took it that was the whole joke of nicknaming it the CatBox.

(It always makes me happy to see how many people here were on E2 back in the day.)
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2013