Duplicate Posts: Keep the First One, or Keep the More Thorough One?

September 28, 2005 11:44 AM

The other one should be axed, not this one. I couldn't agree more. I know this has happened before- someone writing a well-crafted post is beaten (by about ten minutes) to the punch by a hastily-made, one-link post. I realize that technically, the "first" post wins, but shouldn't exceptions be made for cases like this? It's rewarding speed over substance.
posted by mkultra to Etiquette/Policy at 11:44 AM (37 comments total)

Yes, haste often does lead to some little problems.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:45 AM on September 28, 2005

*tee*
posted by eddydamascene at 11:48 AM on September 28, 2005

Hold your flag high!
posted by cortex at 11:49 AM on September 28, 2005

As a meta-comment in MetaTalk, your first link seems broken. At least, all I see is the flag-this-post UI. So I have no idea what "this" is.

But I think I agree with you.
posted by GuyZero at 11:49 AM on September 28, 2005

Ridiculous. How the fuck is anyone supposed to learn what makes an acceptable post if the one-link newsfilter post stands and the post that someone actually made the effort to put together gets deleted?
posted by Witty at 11:49 AM on September 28, 2005

I agree with Witty. Ugh. Way to encourage Newsfilter!
posted by dobbs at 11:51 AM on September 28, 2005

And the first link should have been here.
posted by dobbs at 11:52 AM on September 28, 2005

D'oh, sorry- correct link.
posted by mkultra at 11:53 AM on September 28, 2005

Wolfdog's first rule of posting would be that if you feel like there's a race on to get it posted before someone else does, it probably wasn't worth posting. If I made the rules, that is. (I don't.)
posted by Wolfdog at 11:54 AM on September 28, 2005

Not to tug at your heartstrings, but it was my first post. And I live in an orphanage.
posted by allen.spaulding at 11:54 AM on September 28, 2005

*bursts into tears*
posted by sciurus at 11:56 AM on September 28, 2005

There was nothing stopping the other person from posting his comment in the first post.

If we start going with which post seems better, then what's to stop a third person from putting an even better post up.

Personally I'm against these sorts of posts altogether but at least by keeping it as short as possible and by clearly marking it as newsfilter I succeeded in getting it out of the way quickly.

Say what you will about encouraging Newsfilter, but it was going to be a FPP irregardless. Take a look at what people have posted over the past few years on Mefi and come to terms with what Metafilter is.
posted by furtive at 11:59 AM on September 28, 2005

It's sad and frustrating that it happens this way, but I agree with the reason-for-deletion (and, on preview, furtive): Now that the shit post got to the page first, improve it by posting your FPP as a comment in that thread.

(If, that is, it's the content that counts, rather than ego)
posted by soyjoy at 12:01 PM on September 28, 2005

furtive - It's not a question of "better".
posted by Witty at 12:03 PM on September 28, 2005

On more thorough reading, I agree with the first two sentences of furtive.

This part...

Personally I'm against these sorts of posts altogether but at least by keeping it as short as possible and by clearly marking it as newsfilter I succeeded in getting it out of the way quickly.

Say what you will about encouraging Newsfilter, but it was going to be a FPP irregardless. Take a look at what people have posted over the past few years on Mefi and come to terms with what Metafilter is.

seems to me to be abject nonsense. If it was "going to be a FPP regardless," and you're "against these sorts of posts altogether," why didn't you sit back and wait, and we could have had a good FPP?
posted by soyjoy at 12:03 PM on September 28, 2005

But the posts were 8 minutes apart, and there were no posts between them and.. and...

it's a tragedy.

Congrats to allen for a good first post (as newsfilter goes). Please don't take the deletion of your post as a comment on the quality of it. We appreciate the effort. Really.
posted by raedyn at 12:04 PM on September 28, 2005

So I flagged it myself as a duplicate, as I'm sure others did as well. Don't worry about hard feelings.
There's no way around these situations and I think the general operating procedure of keeping the first is the only way to do it. For the record, I needed only to hit the preview button once to have prevented this.

Also, I was trying to be clever by circumventing the discussion on Delay and focusing on what he'd do once out of office. Serves me right.
posted by allen.spaulding at 12:07 PM on September 28, 2005

The newsfilter version of the DeLay post already had 50 or so comments in it by the time I saw allen.spaulding's well-crafted post, so removing that one would have been unfair to everyone who commented in it. I think it's good advice that if you don't have time to make anything but a lame newsfilter post out of a breaking news story, then sit back and let someone else make a better post out of it.
posted by jessamyn at 12:13 PM on September 28, 2005

I was going to delete the newsfilter one but was too lazy to move 50 comments over one by one to the better, second post.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:13 PM on September 28, 2005

but was too lazy to move 50 comments over one by one to the better, second post.

You have to move them one by one? It's almost like the site could do with some refactoring by those dozens of people who have repeatedly offered to do it for you. Just sayin.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 12:17 PM on September 28, 2005

I liked your post allen, but knew it was doomed. Like so much else.

And I agree, too, that it's a shame that the better post couldn't have stood.
posted by OmieWise at 12:35 PM on September 28, 2005

P_G: That's crazy talk, and you know it.

Personally, I would have cashed out rather than let a community slowly bleed out, but that's just me becoming more mercenary in my old age.

MetaFilter, a Viacom Property
posted by keswick at 1:28 PM on September 28, 2005

"If we start going with which post seems better, then what's to stop a third person from putting an even better post up. "
Yeah, that'd be a tragedy. AND WHAT IF AN EVEN BETTER FOURTH POST WAS MADE? OH NOES!
Delete/move the worse ones forward. Laziness nonwithstanding.
posted by klangklangston at 2:33 PM on September 28, 2005

It is too bad there isn't a way to simply move the entire thread (comments and all) into the comment section of the second thread... (easily that this)
posted by edgeways at 2:48 PM on September 28, 2005

I agree. Reward substance. Punish the half-assed.
posted by quadog at 3:09 PM on September 28, 2005

Not Metafilter: Reward substance. Punish the half-assed.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:19 PM on September 28, 2005

Punish the half-assed? Unthinkable!
posted by five fresh fish at 4:15 PM on September 28, 2005

I selectively agree with everyone. I say delete ALL posts, in fact, delete them BEFORE they're posted. And disconnect the server from the internet. Allow posting only to those with physical access to the box, and large amounts of money. Flying monkeys indeed!
posted by blue_beetle at 4:53 PM on September 28, 2005

keswick wins. and hey, a cool user profile too.
posted by McGuillicuddy at 5:02 PM on September 28, 2005

I was going to delete the newsfilter one but was too lazy to move 50 comments over one by one to the better, second post.

Can you instead modify the original FPP to include the worthwhile links from the second?

Mountain, Mohammed. Mohammed, mountain.

More a suggestion for future instances than this one in particular.
posted by Aknaton at 9:03 PM on September 28, 2005

Matt: Why didn't you just include spauldi's comment as an 'update by matthowie'?

Oh well.
posted by delmoi at 9:46 PM on September 28, 2005

Who cares if there were already 50 comments in the "newsfilter" thread. That'll teach people not to post in them. It wouldn't have been the first 50-comment thread to be deleted.
posted by Witty at 7:04 AM on September 29, 2005

My suggestions were based on my assessment of the momentum of the other thread, not the quality of the posts. [I don't know if it was apparent from my tone in the deleted thread (re-reading it it seems terse) but I liked allen.spaulding's post as well and thought it worth mentioning to him and others here.]
posted by safetyfork at 8:56 AM on September 29, 2005

A thought on how to handle this in the future... Delete/lock the newsfilter post. In the superior FPP, make a comment linking to the newsfilter entry, so that people can go there and read that thread, but will have to reply in the thread of the better post.

That will improve FPP quality, and folks won't lose the work they did writing up thoughtful comments in the 'bad' version.
posted by Malor at 10:08 AM on September 29, 2005

I am intrigued by your views and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
posted by klangklangston at 10:15 AM on September 29, 2005

i'm surprised that no one's posted about roberts being confirmed ... but not disappointed ... we've done talked that to death

and no, i'm not going to fpp it
posted by pyramid termite at 10:34 AM on September 29, 2005

I kind of like Malor's idea, though I'm not sure why it would be hard to just "move" the comments from the bad FPP to the good one- isn't the ThreadID just a field in the comments table that you can update?
posted by mkultra at 2:02 PM on September 29, 2005