Deleted AskMe comment?

June 19, 2005 8:28 AM

Anyone else having their comments deleted in AskMe threads? My comment in this thread was deleted as well as my answer in another recent thread. What gives? Am I just not that helpful?
posted by fletchmuy to Bugs at 8:28 AM (22 comments total)

I only see one deleted comment on Ask MetaFilter that was written by you in recent days. In regards to questions about the ruby programming language, your answer was "chunky bacon" whatever that means.

I don't see any other recent deletions.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:05 AM on June 19, 2005

chunky bacon
posted by puke & cry at 9:46 AM on June 19, 2005

there weren't any links, the entire comment was just the text "chunky bacon."
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:55 AM on June 19, 2005

my pantsfish comment was deleted from the fashion thread, and i received a prompt notification from an admin. i suggest adding an email addy to your profile.
posted by quonsar at 10:32 AM on June 19, 2005

So pantsfish are the hot new thing on runways next year?
posted by caddis at 10:50 AM on June 19, 2005

well, apparently not!
posted by quonsar at 12:37 PM on June 19, 2005

fletchmuy, I deleted the chunky bacon comment because people had flagged it as noise. I'm sure if you had linked it as puke&cry did, people might have understood what it was doing there and it would have remained inviolate. You weren't on IM at the time and I spent a few minutes checking your site for obvious mailto links and didn't find any. In general, having contact info in your profile will prevent mystery vanishings. I have only deleted the one comment, I'm fairly certain, so I'm not sure what went missing from the head-tingling thread.
posted by jessamyn at 1:03 PM on June 19, 2005

Once again we see that making short, cryptic comments that mean nothing except to the commenter and those few people either in the know or willing to do research on somebody else's apparently pointless comment, though a source of deep satisfaction to the commenter, is probably not a good idea.
posted by languagehat at 1:51 PM on June 19, 2005

self-stim
posted by grouse at 2:02 PM on June 19, 2005

So you keep track of how many are deleted for whom? Do you give people like xmutex time outs when they post enough wisecracks?
posted by SpecialK at 2:05 PM on June 19, 2005

I had a wise crack deleted from AskMe last week, and it was comedy gold, I tell you! Actually it deserved deletion, and I got a nice email note from Jessamyn.
posted by LarryC at 2:19 PM on June 19, 2005

"Once again we see that making short, cryptic comments that mean nothing except to the commenter and those few people either in the know or willing to do research on somebody else's apparently pointless comment, though a source of deep satisfaction to the commenter, is probably not a good idea"

WTF does that mean?
posted by I EAT TAPES at 6:12 PM on June 19, 2005

he was refering to the "chunky bacon" comment, which is pretty cryptic to those not in the know.
posted by puke & cry at 6:20 PM on June 19, 2005

Once again we see that making short, cryptic comments that mean nothing except to the commenter and those few people either in the know or willing to do research on somebody else's apparently pointless comment, though a source of deep satisfaction to the commenter, is probably not a good idea.

They used to be part of the life blood. C'est la vie.
posted by caddis at 6:38 PM on June 19, 2005

C'est la vie.

What is that, French? Am I supposed to know all the languages under the sun so that I can get your little Euro-refs? Delete!
posted by squirrel at 7:08 PM on June 19, 2005

Actually, caddis, I rather think that making cryptic comments that make sense only to the poster never was part of AskMe at all, let alone its 'lifeblood'.

You could make the argument that it was part of MeFi culture, I suppose, but that's not what's being discussed here. (Although I, personally, would argue that that sort of masturbatory posting is obnoxious no matter where it's done).
posted by Karmakaze at 7:11 PM on June 19, 2005

What is that, French? Am I supposed to know all the languages under the sun . . .

Sorry to stretch the unfolded brain. Really.
posted by caddis at 7:50 PM on June 19, 2005

Actually, caddis, I rather think that making cryptic comments that make sense only to the poster never was part of AskMe at all, let alone its 'lifeblood'.

I agree with this assessment 100%. Since day 1, AskMe has been less tolerant of noise than MeFi or MeTa: this has been one of its distinguishing features. If you're trying to answer an AskMe question, you should definitely be as clear and thorough as possible.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:29 PM on June 19, 2005

EVen more important, you should actually know the answer, not just be there to add another point to your score.
posted by dg at 9:03 PM on June 19, 2005

Peak oil.
posted by Krrrlson at 9:49 PM on June 19, 2005

posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:24 PM on June 19, 2005

Is this where I come to be sparky? Smarky? Snarkie?
posted by VulcanMike at 10:10 PM on June 20, 2005