nearly every one of cleverusername's FPPs contains, somewhere in it, a link to The Escapist.

September 25, 2006 9:34 AM

For instance, nearly every one of cleverusername's FPPs contains, somewhere in it, a link to The Escapist. It's true. Check it out.
posted by interrobang to Etiquette/Policy at 9:34 AM (73 comments total)

Clever!
posted by orthogonality at 9:38 AM on September 25, 2006

What can be the meaning of this?
posted by thirteenkiller at 9:47 AM on September 25, 2006

Weirdly, lots of cleverusername's submissions to digg also feature The Escapist.

Most of his StumbleUpon posts also do.
posted by matthewr at 9:49 AM on September 25, 2006

So he really likes escaping. Don't we all, really?
posted by Plutor at 9:50 AM on September 25, 2006

I love it when a plan comes together.
posted by yhbc at 9:51 AM on September 25, 2006

Geez. If he's not some kind of creepy self-linker, he's certainly obsessive.
posted by interrobang at 9:53 AM on September 25, 2006

He's a self-linker. His IP traces back to the company that runs escapist. banned.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:54 AM on September 25, 2006

So, then, what the hell just happened? Was he trying to get caught or something? Was this penance for being one of the creeps in that article he linked, or what?
posted by interrobang at 9:55 AM on September 25, 2006

Can you delete the rest of his posts, too, or would that too much effort for too little reward?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 9:56 AM on September 25, 2006

Whoa. He really got his $5 worth, didn't he?
posted by iconomy at 9:58 AM on September 25, 2006

I deleted the ones that featured escapist prominently.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:58 AM on September 25, 2006

Hmm. I was going to do an updated "Ashleeturfing" post -- wonder if I should include his deleted link to the interview with one of the shills.
posted by jca at 9:58 AM on September 25, 2006

Perhaps he simply feels that the folks over at The Escapist are so good, so right, so clearly not skeezy in their ways and means that it wasn't guerilla marketing, it was just rilly, rilly serious enthusiasm.

Also worth noting that there's nothing wrong with such behavior on digg or del.icio.us—it may not be penance or self-outing or anything of the sort, so much as clueless failure to switch modes to respect local metafilterian law.
posted by cortex at 9:59 AM on September 25, 2006

And the Iron Chain's links grow ever stronger!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:00 AM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

good catch, Prospero.
posted by crunchland at 10:03 AM on September 25, 2006

So he's one of those self-hating guerilla marketers. That was rather weird ! A postmodern post in its own way. Posting a post about an article denouncing the very thing that the post is a first-rate example of... it's strangely beautiful. It's an example of transgressionary postmodern (posting) art, or else reaaaly stupid. Maybe a little of both.
posted by Mister_A at 10:04 AM on September 25, 2006

Huh? Is Michael Chabon somehow to blame for this?
posted by xmutex at 10:04 AM on September 25, 2006

Damn, and I made a funny in that topic, too.
posted by Captaintripps at 10:06 AM on September 25, 2006

Wow, MeFi Police pwned.

Now I don't believe in nothin' no more. I'm going to law school.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:06 AM on September 25, 2006

And both of AlmostApril's comments are spam too.
posted by Joeforking at 10:06 AM on September 25, 2006

One of Almost April's comments was favorited. Do you think this was a mistake by someone trying to flag her, or do flags appear as favorites under the "user's comments marked by other users" page?
posted by micayetoca at 10:17 AM on September 25, 2006

Wow, so nutty. It's the metafilter equivalent of the serial killer writing "STOP ME BEFORE I KILL AGAIN" on the mirror with lipstick. I wish there was a way to know the whole story.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:29 AM on September 25, 2006

The escapist annoys the hell out of me. Also the new trend of starting websites ending in "ist" LAist, DCist. STFUPLZist.
posted by delmoi at 10:44 AM on September 25, 2006

posted by yeti at 10:46 AM on September 25, 2006

These are the times when MetaFilter really feels like a community: gathering around the warmth of the pyre.
posted by NinjaTadpole at 10:52 AM on September 25, 2006 [2 favorites]

"cleverusername" is such a generic username too. I mean, You see variations of that theme on lots of websites.
posted by delmoi at 10:54 AM on September 25, 2006

I feel a little...betrayed. I've enjoyed some of his posts without realizing well...that he was a dirty...I can't even say it...

Hold me.
posted by muddgirl at 10:57 AM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

Posting a post about an article denouncing the very thing that the post is a first-rate example of...

*head explodes*
posted by juv3nal at 10:58 AM on September 25, 2006

We might also want to be on the lookout for economics related posts linking to the Ludwig von Mises institute, like lewrockwell.com or mises.org . I know Digg was spammed with these in bursts of a month at a time, with every article reaching the front page. Just an fyi.
posted by Pastabagel at 11:03 AM on September 25, 2006

Can you delete the rest of his posts, too, or would that too much effort for too little reward?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 12:56 PM EST on September 25 [+] [!]

I deleted the ones that featured escapist prominently.
posted by mathowie at 12:58 PM EST on September 25 [+] [!]

Huh. Is that a policy? I'm wondering if that's really fair to the people who commented on those posts to have their entire discussion disappear months after the fact. There have been a lot of very long threads based around fpp's linking to academic papers, I'd hate to see some of those vanish because it was discovered well after the fact that they were self-links, for example.
posted by Pastabagel at 11:07 AM on September 25, 2006

well pastabagel, my point in removing the older escapist posts is to deny the benefit of google rank on the site. There weren't too many comments in the threads I removed. A lot just had a few actually.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:16 AM on September 25, 2006

Do you think this was a mistake by someone trying to flag her

Yeah that was me.
posted by sciurus at 11:42 AM on September 25, 2006

Am I the only one who gets really irritated by FPPs with links from every single letter?
posted by ninjew at 11:48 AM on September 25, 2006

Ninjew, I hate that shit too, cuz I'm old.
posted by Mister_A at 11:50 AM on September 25, 2006

So he's one of those self-hating guerilla marketers.

No, no - plausible deniability!
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:53 AM on September 25, 2006

We should do to the escapist what far did to annanova, just ban the whole site.
posted by delmoi at 12:00 PM on September 25, 2006

I wonder what the record is for banning accounts in one day - and what's the record for deleted posts in a single day? Are we on track to reach any of these?
posted by Mister_A at 12:02 PM on September 25, 2006

Note that smith186 (mentioned by neustile) and cleverusername don't both just link exclusively to The Escapist, the fact that they have adjacent user numbers (26176 and 26177) suggests that they're sockpuppets operated by the same guy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the account names of smith186 and cleverusername also comment on each other's posts on MetaFilter and elsewhere.

The user smith186 comments on cleverusername's link to The Escapist on MetaFilter.

In the first comment to a post on GameDev by smith186 mentioning The Escapist, cleverusername compliments him on a great find.

smith186 and cleverusername both seemed to have dugg the same things on digg (example) back before smith186 was deleted from digg.
posted by RichardP at 12:33 PM on September 25, 2006 [2 favorites]

Wow.
posted by cortex at 12:39 PM on September 25, 2006

How bizarre. I'm going to have to blog this.

But I won't self-link ;-)
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:45 PM on September 25, 2006

Trust no one.
posted by black bile at 1:35 PM on September 25, 2006

Pastabagel writes "Huh. Is that a policy? "

The guys setting policy is doing the deleting so I'd say appears to be.

Pastabagel writes "I'd hate to see some of those vanish because it was discovered well after the fact that they were self-links, for example."

This would seem to be a pretty minor disadvantage in comparison to letting a self link stand. With the possible exception of EB none of us has all that much time invested in any one thread.

RichardP writes "Note that smith186 (mentioned by neustile) and cleverusername don't both just link exclusively to The Escapist, the fact that they have adjacent user numbers (26176 and 26177) suggests that they're sockpuppets operated by the same guy."

Have we another dhoyt in the making? I love seeing this stuff unravel, it's like CSI: MetaFilter.
posted by Mitheral at 1:59 PM on September 25, 2006

prospero For instance, nearly every one of cleverusername's FPPs contains, somewhere in it, a link to The Escapist.

cleverusername Um, cause I don't really go to many sites that are interesting so I don't really have anything else to offer. Buy coke.

liiiiiaaaaar
posted by petsounds at 2:11 PM on September 25, 2006

How close are you to catching Nicole Brown Smith's killers?
posted by bardic at 2:41 PM on September 25, 2006

Bah! cleverusername was just ripping off the more clever [insert clever name here].
posted by quin at 3:58 PM on September 25, 2006

RichardP just won "Columbo Idol".
He has a choice of prizes!
1) a dishevelled raincoat and a recording contract to say the words "just one more thing"
2) an invisible but referenced wife who'd love an autograph
3) a fake eye
posted by NinjaTadpole at 4:14 PM on September 25, 2006

This was awesome. Quelle entertainment! And since no one else has, *holds muddgirl* (at least until either of our respective SO's shows up)
posted by Eideteker at 4:51 PM on September 25, 2006

Um, cause I don't really go to many sites that are interesting so I don't really have anything else to offer. Buy coke.

Hm...that backpedalling sound...why does it seem so strangely familiar...?
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:16 PM on September 25, 2006

Have we another dhoyt in the making? I love seeing this stuff unravel, it's like CSI: MetaFilter.
posted by Mitheral at 1:59 PM PST on September 25 [+] [!]

This thread is awesome. Go go gadget gumshoe!
posted by Tuwa at 5:47 PM on September 25, 2006

Uh, has anyone said "Fuck the self-linking morons at the Escapist and their lying 'oh I'm so sorry I had no idea this was inappropriate" horseshit yet?

If not, I'll volunteer.
posted by mediareport at 6:11 PM on September 25, 2006

All the excitement of CSI, without the blood and guts. I love this site.
posted by furtive at 7:26 PM on September 25, 2006

Has anyone even contacted Escapist? I'd love to hear their justification.
posted by Kickstart70 at 8:17 PM on September 25, 2006

Wouldn't that involve visiting their site?

Fuck that idea.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:53 PM on September 25, 2006

I can't believe I didn't look at the site itself earlier. I just now did so, and noticed that the name associated with the smith186 account (i.e. "Jason Smith") exactly matches the name of the The Escapist's IT Director^*.

_{* I've been using rel="nofollow" on my links, so as to deny any inadvertent seach engine juice to Escapist}
posted by RichardP at 9:05 PM on September 25, 2006

I knew there was another reason to hate the Escapist other than their stupid layout.
posted by bob sarabia at 11:24 PM on September 25, 2006

My name is Alexander Macris. I’m the CEO of Themis Group, which publishes The Escapist. This thread was brought to my attention this morning by way of a letter to the editor.

Here are the facts as I currently understand them:
1. Both smith186 and cleverusername are employees of Themis Group.
2. Smith186 is a director of our corporate IT group. He self-linked on Metafilter under his real name (Smith), was caught doing so, apologized, and has not done so since.
3. Cleverusername is a community manager from a separate division of Themis Group (that is, he is not part of The Escapist staff). Cleverusername has habitually linked The Escapist on Metafilter, as well as on Digg, Del.icio.us, and Stumbledupon. While this is acceptable practice on Digg, Del.icio.us, and Stumbledupon, it is not on Metafilter.
4. When caught self-linking a recent post, cleverusername lied and denied his activities.
5. The two employees, smith186 and cleverusername, have indicated to me they were not aware of each other’s activities.

The Escapist has 3,932 links on Technorati, so we have obviously benefited from tremendous organic support from the communities of the web. Unfortunately, it is now obvious that the support we have gotten from Metafilter has not been organic at all.

In self-linking on Metafilter, both posters violated your community’s rules, but cleverusername’s activities were clearly knowing, egregious violations. The company was not aware of the extent and nature of cleverusername’s activities, but it is our responsibility to police the activities of our team and we have failed to do so appropriately.

The irony of the activities of one of my employees guerilla marketing an article lambasting guerilla marketing is not lost on me, and lends an understanding as to why the Japanese invented seppuku.

Therefore, I personally apologize and take responsibility for this incident, and for the breach of trust with your community. I will take appropriate steps to sanction and reprimand the individual responsible, as I am sure you will take appropriate steps to uphold the integrity of Metafilter.
posted by Arch0n at 8:59 AM on September 26, 2006 [5 favorites]

Well, that will make everything peachy again.
posted by taosbat at 9:03 AM on September 26, 2006

Thanks for the update Alex!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:06 AM on September 26, 2006

Wow.
posted by interrobang at 9:09 AM on September 26, 2006

By the way, your layout blows.
posted by interrobang at 9:09 AM on September 26, 2006 [1 favorite]

*flagged as ritual suicide"
posted by NinjaTadpole at 9:19 AM on September 26, 2006

Careful, the villains always come clean right before they try to kill you.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:30 AM on September 26, 2006

That's an impressive display of class, kudos.



So... you guys hiring right now?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:31 AM on September 26, 2006

I was one of the people that emailed 'em. Yay me!
posted by juv3nal at 9:39 AM on September 26, 2006

*begins watch for Escapist links from Arch0n...*
posted by dersins at 10:06 AM on September 26, 2006

In all seriousness, though, suspect a strong degree of disingenuousness on Mr. Macris' part. After all, the Themis group contains a division dedicated to marketing to what they call the "Netset, " which their market research shows "moves in its own insular circles." They do this in ways that ensure "the rapid conduction of your message throughout their network." (Sorry, no direct links to this irritating flash site.)

Anyway, shall we take a guess which division of the Themis group Mr. "cleverusername" works for?

And shall we also guess that, if he is actually disciplined, it will only be for getting caught at executing their marketing strategy, rather than for executing it in the first place?
posted by dersins at 10:20 AM on September 26, 2006

But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
posted by poppo at 10:50 AM on September 26, 2006

Umm...so you've got an employee who lied, broke rules, lied again, and then you are going to reprimand him? Is this not firing behaviour?
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:04 PM on September 26, 2006

Breaking the rules on some random website is not generally a fireable offense, Kickstart. For that matter, neither is telling (scummy) white lies on some random website.

Misrepresenting your employer might be, if your employer actually cares about the misrepresentation, of course.
posted by cortex at 12:27 PM on September 26, 2006

And now we see the violence inherent in the system.
posted by Tuwa at 3:25 PM on September 26, 2006

Careful, the villains always come clean right before they try to kill you.

Well I, for one, am impressed my Mr Macris' apology, so kudos, there.

On the other hand - that's the sinister, cynical one - my prediction is for an internal challenge amongst his marketing flacks to spam MeFi as cleverly as possible.

The price of freedom from self-linkers is eternal vigilance!
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:12 PM on September 26, 2006

Yeah, it was a nice apology, but I'm sure Alex knows it's hard to come back from this kind of thing unscathed. Since it doesn't hurt to take the Rogue Staffer explanation at face value until proven otherwise, that's what I'll do, but just the fact that an employee at Alex's company would think it's ok to pull crap like this says *something* about who he hires and how he trains them. That seems obvious.

I also think dersin's point is a fair one: there's really no way for us to tell the difference in this thread between a heartfelt apology and an apology that's just following the "how to apologize when one of your buzzmeisters breaks a community's rules" playbook. Tough luck, that. Still, I was glad to see the attempt to change the perception that The Escapist is made up of a bunch of assholes who don't give a shit about dealing honestly with online communities. Thanks for that, Alex.
posted by mediareport at 8:44 PM on September 26, 2006

Kickstart70 : "Umm...so you've got an employee who lied, broke rules, lied again, and then you are going to reprimand him? Is this not firing behaviour?"

Er, I don't think that's how it works. If he lied to the Escapist, broke Escapist rules, and then lied to the Escapist again, then that might be firing behaviour. But I doubt think that lying to anyone, breaking any rules, and then lying again to anyone is grounds for termination. There wouldn't be anyone left working in any companies if that were the case.

mediareport : "just the fact that an employee at Alex's company would think it's ok to pull crap like this says *something* about who he hires and how he trains them. That seems obvious."

Not to me. I've been at a company where someone stole and sold trade secrets. They were fired. I don't think it "said something" about who they hire beyond "they try to hire good people, but they're not omniscient". So, maybe the Escapist knowingly hired self-linking scum, and maybe they just hired someone who turned out not the be the upright guy they thought. What seems obvious is just that "probably one or the other is true".
posted by Bugbread at 3:10 AM on September 27, 2006