Clean up possible misquote to avoid nuclear fallout

April 9, 2006 4:37 PM

Cleanup on aisle 50764.

While I appreciate what a fun fireball the thread might turn into, the subject of the FPP is miffed by syntax in the FPP which might be construed as attributing a quote to her (when in fact it is a quote by someone else whom she is disagreeing with), and the FPPer has also said he/she has no problem changing the syntax, so in the name of avoiding nuclear fallout, could Jessamyn or Matt edit the FPP?
posted by Bugbread to Bugs at 4:37 PM (44 comments total)

Whoops. Not a bug. Sorry, wrong category.
posted by Bugbread at 4:43 PM on April 9, 2006

I see no problem with you putting all of your MetaTalk posts in "bugs", until we get a "bread" category.
posted by mendel at 4:56 PM on April 9, 2006

I thought Afroblanco's post in that thread summed it up pretty well:

I don't know about you guys, but I didn't assume the "skinning Torrie" quote was something that Nikki had said. I just assumed that it had something to do with the content being linked to, which it did.
posted by hototogisu at 4:59 PM on April 9, 2006

I'm with Afroblanca: I didn't assume it was something she said, just that those words appeared somewhere on the page. However, on reflection, I can see how someone might assume it. More importantly, mischief gave his/her OK, so, while I agree with Afroblanca, I figured it might be better to change nonetheless. (Of course, this is not my judgement call, I just didn't think there were enough people reading the thread for flagging to alert mattamyn, so I put it up here for them to read and do or do not as they see fit)
posted by Bugbread at 5:02 PM on April 9, 2006

I also agree with Afroblanco; anyone who didn't immediately recognize the quote from American Psycho would have seen that it was the first phrase quoted from the book on the linked page. Craft's histrionics notwithstanding, the post is fine; the comment thread, on the other hand, could use a good nuking.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:03 PM on April 9, 2006

I also didn't assume it was a quote by Craft. It should probably reworded, regardless, not to simply appease Craft, but because it could indeed be confusing. Granted, I recognized it as a disturbing quote from American Psycho.
posted by loquacious at 5:06 PM on April 9, 2006

Previous Nikki Craft MeTa thread.
posted by loquacious at 5:13 PM on April 9, 2006

So remove the quotation marks?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:17 PM on April 9, 2006

I think mischief's recommendation was to attach "- BE Ellis" (er, presumably without quotes around it) after the Ellis quote.
posted by Bugbread at 5:19 PM on April 9, 2006

Nikki Craft : American Activist ; (review) "..." - BE Ellis American Psycho
posted by mischief at 5:30 PM on April 9, 2006

I guess cleanups in aNew York aisle are "in" the aisle, whereas everywhere else they are "on" it? I only knew we stand in line....
posted by ParisParamus at 5:43 PM on April 9, 2006

The woman is incredibly annoying, but she's right that anyone not familiar with MeFi would think that was her quote.

The argument to the contrary has actually descended into analyzing colons versus semicolons, which strikes me as incredibly silly.

People aren't making that argument because it's correct, but because she's shrill and unpleasant.
posted by Malor at 6:00 PM on April 9, 2006

but she's right that anyone not familiar with MeFi would think that was her quote. The problem is that this simply isn't, certainly not in any absolute sense--I doubt even a majority of people would have trouble parsing that sentence as originally written.

Clearly most of us aren't having difficulty with it, so it would be nice if people would stop asserting their agreement with her position as if it were self-evident and indisputable.
posted by hototogisu at 6:08 PM on April 9, 2006

Her position is self-evident and indisputable.
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:23 PM on April 9, 2006

Tee hee.
posted by hototogisu at 6:29 PM on April 9, 2006

If the only name in the post is Nikki's, and there is a sentence in quotation marks, it is going to appear that she is being quoted. Why not just remove it? Like so:

Nikki Craft : American Activist, strongly dislikes Brett Easton Ellis"

Or just axe the post, which seems pretty pointless anyway.
posted by LarryC at 6:52 PM on April 9, 2006

NikkiCraft (I will use her username now that I know she has one) does not strike me as someone who is going to lose any sleep over critics of her views, a trait I highly admire. I found the content of her various websites to be intriguing, unique and thought-provoking. I do not agree with much that she writes, but I can easily imagine a live debate with her would be quite intellectually stimulating.
posted by mischief at 6:59 PM on April 9, 2006

"I found the content of her various websites to be intriguing, unique and thought-provoking."

Does she have a newsletter?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:51 PM on April 9, 2006

She certainly raises many intriguing and unanswered questions.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:59 PM on April 9, 2006

And I thought the Nudist Hall of Shame was going to be photos of naked fat people. That would have made a fun thread.
posted by Joeforking at 2:28 AM on April 10, 2006

I love Nikki, she's like an old school Usenet kook.

Ms. Craft reminds me of that tinfoil hat guy, they both seem to spend a great deal of time trawling about the internets for mention of themselves and then obsessively responding to every perceived slight.
posted by cedar at 6:18 AM on April 10, 2006

The woman is incredibly annoying... she's shrill and unpleasant.

I love Nikki, she's like an old school Usenet kook. Ms. Craft reminds me of that tinfoil hat guy

Wow. How depressing. Anyone who doesn't fit the MeFi ideal of cool, hip, detached, ironic, outraged-only-about-Bush is "annoying" and "unpleasant" and crazy. I have acquired newfound respect for mischief, whose take on her is perfectly sensible.
posted by languagehat at 7:02 AM on April 10, 2006

Anyone who doesn't fit the MeFi ideal of cool, hip, detached, ironic, outraged-only-about-Bush is "annoying" and "unpleasant" and crazy...

No. People who post stuff like: "Probably just one of those nudist pedophiles all upset the feddies are comin' to get em..." are unpleasant, annoying and crazy.
posted by cedar at 7:44 AM on April 10, 2006

spend a great deal of time trawling about the internets for mention of themselves

Referrer logs. It's not hard to notice traffic to your site.

People who post stuff like: "Probably just one of those nudist pedophiles all upset the feddies are comin' to get em..." are unpleasant, annoying and crazy.

It was a provocative thing to say in her Note, and I think that in context she should have known better, but it wasn't a random comment; we sort of had a nudist pedophile thread a while back.
posted by cortex at 8:23 AM on April 10, 2006

History question, related, for those who remember better: in that old Grey thread, were there originally some number of then-deleted comments by NikkiCraft, as seems implicit from some of the quotes in comments? I was surprised to find that she had a months-old user account but no old comments when I looked at ther userpage this morning.
posted by cortex at 8:26 AM on April 10, 2006

cortex : "I was surprised to find that she had a months-old user account but no old comments when I looked at ther userpage this morning."

I may be misunderstanding you, but her userpage indicates 8 comments in the grey, and she has 8 comments in that old grey thread.
posted by Bugbread at 8:32 AM on April 10, 2006

!

You are not misunderstanding me; I am. At some point before I ever got to this thread I concluded that she must have commented here; and that, from there, if she had commented here and had comments in only one metatalk thread, she had no comments in the old one; and hence and so forth &c.

That upon subsequently reading this thread I never saw her make a comment did not trip the wires it ought to have. I goofed utterly. Apologies.
posted by cortex at 8:44 AM on April 10, 2006

The argument to the contrary has actually descended into analyzing colons versus semicolons, which strikes me as incredibly silly.

Me, too. Most people have no idea about how or when to use a semicolon in any sentence. How can you expect them to pick up its meaning in that FPP?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:04 AM on April 10, 2006

Eventually, everyone on MeFi will be complaining that everyone else is too cool, hip, detached, ironic, and outraged-only-about-Bush.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 9:40 AM on April 10, 2006

And on that day, my work will be done.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:49 AM on April 10, 2006

"Ms. Craft reminds me of that tinfoil hat guy, they both seem to spend a great deal of time trawling about the internets for mention of themselves and then obsessively responding to every perceived slight."

Having quotations around a quote about "skinning Torrie" with my name beside it is not a "perceived slight". "Trawling" about the internet?" Hardly. My own website's stat report page showed a slew of visitors from a Metafilter and I simply clicked the link. I posted comments protesting it on my own website and asked that it be corrected.

I'll explain it again on this page: There is currently a entry on metafilter that has only the quote that says my name beside it, with a big ol' block of Metafilter's advertising under it (for non-member visitors, apparently), and no thread discussion (without clicking on a link) nothing that clarifies the quote is not mine. This is not a perceived slight. This is a serious misrepresentation and I would say that block of advertising complicates this matter legally for Metafilter, but of course I'm no lawyer, and I could well be wrong about that. At this point I have made it more than clear what the problems are with the placement of these quotation marks and it has not been corrected. That is not right, ethically, and even perhaps, legally. --Nikki Craft
posted by NikkiCraft at 2:53 PM on April 10, 2006

I'm kinda surprised that the syntax hasn't been changed yet...

Nikki, I think you're wrong about the legal implications, but I'm no lawyer either. Regardless, I have to applaud you for putting "perhaps" and "I could be wrong" in relation to things you aren't certain of. That's a habit that I wish would spread.
posted by Bugbread at 3:02 PM on April 10, 2006

"Cedar" wrote: "No. People who post stuff like: "Probably just one of those nudist pedophiles all upset the feddies are comin' to get em..." are unpleasant, annoying and crazy."

Nah "Cedar"...the ellipse, where you wrote three periods to indicate you removed my text, only replaced three other text characters. Three periods to replace three of spaces of text. You didn't put the ellipse to save space, but for no other reason that to misrepresent my statement. What you removed was : ) You're the mean spirited and humorless one; and in this instance not contributing much toward correct representation and clarity to your readers here on Metafilter. Untrustworthy.

My original statement read:
"Probably just one of those nudist pedophiles all upset the feddies are comin' to get em. : )"

Yes, "Cortex", you are correct it was "provocative" and I'll confess here that sometimes I write to entertain myself as much as anyone who might read it. : ) Yes you are also right that it was in reference to the prior thread and that, yes, I probably should have known better than to make an obscure reference like that; but it was a little too timely and a little too funny for me to pass up. Besides that, the smiley face at the end of the sentence generally is understood to make the content of the sentence a joke, at least I thought so anyway. Nikki Craft
posted by NikkiCraft at 3:28 PM on April 10, 2006

NikkiCraft : "Besides that, the smiley face at the end of the sentence generally is understood to make the content of the sentence a joke, at least I thought so anyway."

Yes and no. It does, nominally, indicate a joke, but it's also often used as a "free pass" to say something not wholly in jest. For example, there was a guy in my college dorm who would say the most awkward, embarassing, and demeaning stuff, and then immediately say "just kidding!". It was pretty clear that he wasn't just kidding, but he was under the impression that the phrase could be used as a kind of bad-karma-windex that slid his comments right off him.

So, if you say that the sentence was a joke, I'll believe you, but keep in mind that, if a joke is targetted at someone, especially someone who hasn't dealt with you before and doesn't know you well, and even more especially, if it's someone that you are disagreeing with at the time, and expressing anger at at the time, they may not interpret the ": )" as being entirely pure.
posted by Bugbread at 3:46 PM on April 10, 2006

An unsubstantiated accusation of pedophilia against a stranger isn't funny, however many smileys you dress it up with.
posted by normy at 4:06 PM on April 10, 2006

Shucks... I left the emoticon off. I actually thought about that and figured it wasn't important. Guess I was mistaken.

I'm glad your entertained... I knew we should have eaten your heart the first time you were tazed and flopping on the pavement.
posted by cedar at 4:12 PM on April 10, 2006

There needs to be an emoticon to represent not finding a joke very funny. Maybe this one:

:O --your joke was not very funny
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:26 PM on April 10, 2006

The more NikkiCraft writes, the more I dislike her.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:35 PM on April 10, 2006

Fucking niggers and spics, pedohiles and pederasts, we should send them all back to where they came from :)

See, that's cool because I put a little smiley thing at the end. I'm not real big on typography conventions, but hell; I've been online since 1995 and know what a friggin' smiley face means.
posted by cedar at 4:52 PM on April 10, 2006

Must learn brevity from cedar.
posted by Bugbread at 4:55 PM on April 10, 2006

Astro Zombie: :| --I am not amused/deadpan.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:53 PM on April 10, 2006

This is comedy gold. Now we can call each other names-in-quotes, "NikkiCraft", and this plus your ToddLokkenism will firmly ensconce you in the realm of mefi in-jokes for decades to come.
posted by beth at 4:24 AM on April 11, 2006

Why wasn't the FPP edited as mischief suggested? Everyone seemed to be on board with that.
posted by mullacc at 3:00 PM on April 12, 2006

Well people seemed in general to not think the post would be worse for the change, but that's a loose interpretation of "everyone seemed to be on board".

The likely answers: (1) Matt didn't agree, or (2) Matt didn't think it was a very big deal, or (3) Matt didn't get around to it.
posted by cortex at 3:06 PM on April 12, 2006