Selflinking in comments: quitcher bitchin

September 5, 2005 8:39 PM

I'm sorry to bring it up, but the thread regarding self-linking was closed, and no one made mention of it....
posted by zerokey to Etiquette/Policy at 8:39 PM (17 comments total)

According to the MeFi Posting guidelines:

" (note: it's ok to link to your own things as comments in threads, if it adds to the discussion and/or saves space because you're written a reply elsewhere)"

Many people were harping about the fact that someone self-linked in a comment. While I don't believe the content linked provided anything beneficial to the discussion, fact is, it IS permitted by the guidelines - in comments, not FPPs.
posted by zerokey at 8:39 PM on September 5, 2005

Yep. Within reason. Self-linking in a post is never permissible under any circumstances.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:41 PM on September 5, 2005

I also just realized that I should have had more info in the initial MeTa post. I clipped it a bit short and left the rest to the comment..my apologies.
posted by zerokey at 8:42 PM on September 5, 2005

Etherial Bligh, correct. The statement forbidding self-linking in FPPs is directly above the statement I quoted. I read the rules ;)
posted by zerokey at 8:49 PM on September 5, 2005

I read the rules, just can't read. Sorry Ethereal Bligh
posted by zerokey at 8:50 PM on September 5, 2005

It didn't seem to be adding to the discussion, it was more about driving traffic to another site, so it kind of fails on that.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:07 PM on September 5, 2005

" (note: it's ok to link to your own things as comments in threads, if it adds to the discussion and/or saves space because you're written a reply elsewhere)"

The guy was just posting links to his own news stories, regardless wether or not they applied to the current discussion.
posted by delmoi at 9:37 PM on September 5, 2005

I understand that. But the argument of several people was simply that fact that he was self-linking. I'm reading back and realizing that not as many people were nailing him solely for self-linking as I thought initially.

I'll just STFU next time.
posted by zerokey at 9:43 PM on September 5, 2005

No, I noticed the same thing. Without looking to check who it was, there definitely was the claim that his self-linking in comments was inherently a cause for banning. Which of course it isn't.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:55 PM on September 5, 2005

Not inherently, of course, but let's be realistic: If someone repeatedly self-links in comments that are only tangentially related to a given discussion, that's definitely not to be encouraged, and certainly gives the impression that the poster is simply link-whoring. I've posted thousands of comments here including hundreds of links and only felt the need to self-link maybe once.

AND when I did I labeled it as such, which again, did not happen here. You only find out it's a self-link after contributing your click to the site. So again, it adds up to something calling for some sort of disciplining, and I think Matt's was just about right.
posted by soyjoy at 10:04 PM on September 5, 2005

I was someone who just said that he self-linked and that was bad. I figured people could figure out that the problem was with scope and not with some single instance. We've all had the discussion enough in MetaTalk to have a sense of what the limits are, and my objection rested on community norms rather than on the letter of the law.
posted by OmieWise at 4:31 AM on September 6, 2005

There is no rule against self linking in a front-page post. The rule reads "Posting a link to your homepage and asking for feedback is a bad post." Therefore, it is within the rule to self link to a news story or just something cool that you think will interest others, as long as the reason for the posting is not simple self promotion.

Oh, yes, there's a convention against self linking, but the rules do not forbid it. A new poster could concievably not know the convention and self link, thinking it was OK.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:03 AM on September 6, 2005

Actually, from the posting page:

"Note: You read the guidelines, right? Because linking to your own site in this space will result in a deletion and your account will be banned."

I think that's a rule.
posted by frykitty at 8:23 AM on September 6, 2005

It's a rule for posting, not commenting. "This space" is the posting box.
posted by languagehat at 8:28 AM on September 6, 2005

I still don't think the rule is written clearly. Self linking is never absolutely forbidden on the posting guidelines page, though the posting page itself imples that it is.

Note that I am not advocating or justifying self linking, nor am I making a case for going easy on DetroitWonk.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:31 AM on September 6, 2005

>>It's a rule for posting, not commenting.

Yes, I was responding to MoonPie, specifically, who was talking about front-page posts.
posted by frykitty at 8:36 AM on September 6, 2005

So here, maybe, is the citation a lot of people are carrying around in their heads:

self-link v. int:
1. To link, within a front-page post, to one's personal site or a site with which one has direct creative involvement.

2. To link, within a thread comment, to one's personal site or a site with which one has direct creative involvement, in a context which does not add to the discussion or appear to be in good faith.
posted by cortex at 12:16 PM on September 6, 2005