First time jitters

December 12, 2006 5:33 AM

NervousAboutMyFirstPostToTheBlueFilter: So, I was surfing a few cartooning blogs, I came across this news story about the creator of Mallard Filmore's recent DUI address.

I was considering posting the news to the blue thusly:

"Edward Bruce Tinsley, creator of the comic strip Mallard Fillmore, is no stranger to controversy, nor apparently is he a stranger to irony. For while he has presented Exhibit A in "Irony Isn't Dead" it turns out that his recent arrest might be Exhibit B."

But before I did so, I wanted to make sure it was FPP-worthy. And who better to weigh in than Meta?

(it's my first time, please be gentle)
posted by ShawnStruck to Etiquette/Policy at 5:33 AM (55 comments total)

Er, and also, I would have remembered the left bracket and a for the image link. Ergh.
posted by ShawnStruck at 5:39 AM on December 12, 2006

Man up, Shawn. Less handwringing, more quality posting.
posted by Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey at 5:53 AM on December 12, 2006

As for the post, meh. Some random cartoonist gets a DUI?
posted by signal at 5:56 AM on December 12, 2006

Even the greatest posters have been ridiculed for crappy posts. I don't find it particularly interesting, but I also wouldn't go into the thread to snark about it. It's not like a one-link YouTube video of a llama eating a hamburger or anything. Go for it, Shawn. There's no teacher like experience.
posted by Plutor at 5:57 AM on December 12, 2006

The purpose of MetaTalk is not to audition FPPs.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:58 AM on December 12, 2006

It's not like a one-link YouTube video of a llama eating a hamburger or anything.

Hey, cool, you got a link to that?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:59 AM on December 12, 2006

There's no teacher like experience.

Don't ever follow advice that concludes with this line, unless you want a Darwin Award someday.
posted by Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey at 6:01 AM on December 12, 2006

Even the greatest posters have been ridiculed for crappy posts.

you don't have to tell me.
posted by jonmc at 6:22 AM on December 12, 2006

Post something. But not this. You've just posted this, so doing it again means a double post.
posted by ardgedee at 6:31 AM on December 12, 2006

Well, I wouldn't complain about it, nor even flag it if it were on the blue, but since you're asking, I don't find it particularly FPP-worthy. If you're going for "random cartoonist gets a DUI," then, so what? OTOH, if you're going for "conservative cartoonist gets a DUI," I think we already get more than enough schadenfreude in the blue.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:35 AM on December 12, 2006

There was that 21y.o. dude the other day on AskMe who couldn't get it up becauase he was thinking too much.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 6:47 AM on December 12, 2006

Whether you decide to post this or not (and it would be a Bad Thing if everybody brought their post ideas to MeTa for a trial run), for the love of God don't add "(it's my first time, please be gentle)" to your first post. This is for your sake as well as mine. I'll try not to mock you for it, but someone is sure to.
posted by languagehat at 6:48 AM on December 12, 2006

This post was a much worse idea than the potential FPP, which was a poor idea to begin with. Stop now.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 6:51 AM on December 12, 2006

"it's my first time, please be gentle"

Pansy.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:06 AM on December 12, 2006

Wow. 2+ years and still no FPP? There should be some sort of statute of limitations on members who don't post to the blue.
posted by grateful at 7:07 AM on December 12, 2006

Thanks for the input, everyone. Sorry my attempt at self-depreciating humor fell flat.

Thanks also for the input on the post content itself; I'll keep reaching for that brass ring of something FPP-worthy that someone else doesn't beat me to first. :)
posted by ShawnStruck at 7:10 AM on December 12, 2006

Wow. 2+ years and still no FPP? There should be some sort of statute of limitations on members who don't post to the blue.

No, there should be an award for members who go two years without posting to the blue. It shows they have self-restraint and high standards which are all too rare on MeFi. Keep reaching for that brass ring, ShawnStruck, and don't lower your standards just because everyone else is grabbing the steel rings.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:12 AM on December 12, 2006

Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey writes ...

Hee, didn't take long for that phrase to get from Graeme Garden's mouth to MetaFilter username!
posted by jack_mo at 7:18 AM on December 12, 2006

don't lower your standards just because everyone else is grabbing the steel rings

In counterpoint, no one ever learned how to do something by not doing it.

I have made some blazingly bad FPPs and am a better MeFite for it. People forget the dreck. People remember great posts. Pain in temporary. Greatness is forever. Well, unless you're this guy.
posted by GuyZero at 7:21 AM on December 12, 2006

Please make this post—I've never before had an online, public opportunity to mock Bruce Tinsley.

Of course, mocking him is pointless, since this cartoon parody of Mallard Fillmore so completely destroyed that strip that he had to spend a week explaining to his dipshit readers that he himself didn't draw it.
posted by interrobang at 7:38 AM on December 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Wow. 2+ years and still no FPP? There should be some sort of statute of limitations on members who don't post to the blue.

No.
posted by kosem at 7:39 AM on December 12, 2006

There should be some sort of statute of limitations...

Haha motherfuckers I am sculpting my own statue of limitations! Enjoy that shit bitches!
posted by Mister_A at 7:56 AM on December 12, 2006

interrobang, that's...stunning. I hadn't seen that. Thank you.





Wow.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:56 AM on December 12, 2006

With some of the extra links provided by interrobang, there's a 'Mallard Fillmore Agonistes' post worth putting somewhere.

But um, yeah. Stress less about what's FPP-worthy. Concern yourself with what you think is interesting enough to share with others. So sayeth the guy whose only FPP so far was deleted as a double.
posted by ardgedee at 8:06 AM on December 12, 2006

Mod note: fixed the link in the post
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:09 AM on December 12, 2006

may i just add...nice nick
posted by ShawnString at 8:12 AM on December 12, 2006

Wow, I hadn't realized what a douche that cartoonist is. That's what I get for not seeing anyone in the funny papers these days.
posted by OmieWise at 8:14 AM on December 12, 2006

Story that may or may not interest you:
Sometime in early 1994: Chicago Sun-Times starts running Mallard Fillmore (it's since been dropped). Every time I see the comic I think "this is awful, what sort of asshat actually thinks this stuff," etc.

First week of fall semester 1994: I'm taking a magazine editing class at IU that's open to undergrads and grad students in the J-school. The teacher has us do the standard first-day-of-class icebreaker where you find out things about the person next to you, then you go around the room and introduce your partner to the rest of the class. Someone in the back of the room introduces their partner, a mild-mannered looking grad student named Bruce. They finish the introduction with "and he draws a comic that just got syndicated this year." The teacher asks what the comic is. Answer: Mallard Fillmore. Yep, it was Bruce Tinsley!
(He actually seemed okay in person. I didn't talk to him too much, though.)
posted by SisterHavana at 8:58 AM on December 12, 2006

# neighbour, the post looks ok to me, not great. No single link in it is very much the best of the web, and the whole is not astoundingly greater than the sum of its parts. Don't ask to be gentle, its a red flag before bullshit. And, in general, I think FPPs that include links to imageshack or other temporary picture hosting services should be minimized. But don't be discouraged and if/when you do post it or something else, don't let the bastards get you down. For there will be bastards.
posted by Rumple at 9:06 AM on December 12, 2006

wtf?
posted by chunking express at 9:08 AM on December 12, 2006

If I were you I'd expand the subject of the post a bit to cover celebrity DUIs, conservative hypocrisy, or cartoonists and their unsavory desires. Or something.

As it is it's just a strange little newsfilter-y post.
posted by bshort at 9:12 AM on December 12, 2006

If you're nervous about your first post to the blue, then don't make your first post to the blue a newsfilter post. Find something on the web that's intrinsically awesome and post that.
posted by mendel at 9:25 AM on December 12, 2006

Shawn!!!! You're alive!!! (Although still in Texas, so I suppose it balances out).
posted by Karmakaze at 9:43 AM on December 12, 2006

The purpose of MetaTalk is not to audition FPPs.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:06 AM on December 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Shawnstruck: what you've done here is gone to all the trouble of creating a post, and at the same time opened yourself up for more criticism and scrutiny than you'd have had if you'd simply posted it on the blue.

I suggest you ignore this thread (really! pretend it never happened), because this is not the way people would have responded in the blue had you posted there without an explicit invitation to criticize the content and structure of your post. Now you can't post this to the blue, and you may have lost some confidence, which loss can hamstring you next time you want to post.

By posting here first, you set yourself up for failure and disappointment. Put this behind you as soon as you are able, and don't worry whether everyone will dig your next post - because not everyone will.
posted by Mister_A at 10:14 AM on December 12, 2006

Well, unless you're this guy.

Goodness me. The sound is the worst part.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:14 AM on December 12, 2006

Wait for joshreads.com to weigh in on this and then it will be a good post.
posted by drezdn at 10:19 AM on December 12, 2006

It's not that bad, but it's not that interesting either.
posted by delmoi at 10:59 AM on December 12, 2006

was going to say.. interrobang, if you need a place to rip Tinsley a new one, drezdn's link is the place to go... hell you don't need muchexcuse to just post a rant about him as it's comic related.
posted by edgeways at 11:00 AM on December 12, 2006

This may be the first self-Meta pre-callout in history. Congrats.
posted by euphorb at 11:21 AM on December 12, 2006

What I don't get is why Bruce chose a mallard to do his bidding. I mean, it's a fact that mallards are (simply adorable) liberals. It's like the Christian right and "March of the Penguins", it just doesn't work. Because emperor penguins are not model parents and they do worship the Be'aalge, an obscure diety that was born in Patagonia in 1833 and then travelled to the Arctic Circle on the backs of a few brave Magellan Penguins. If you don't believe me, look it up on Wikipedia - that is if not someone afraid of THE TRUTH has locked that page already.

Anyway, I digress. Swans, though! Swans are the most republican animal my alcohol fuelled brain can think of! Swan Fillmore, that would work!

So, Bruce Tinsley, if you're reading this: The next time, before you put pen to paper, get your facts straight. You're hurting the noble and sweet cheeked ducks and they won't stand for it much longer. And believe you me, come the mighty duck led revolution you won't be spared.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 11:35 AM on December 12, 2006

Well, I'd love it. I hate that strip like Britney hates underpants. But even if you don't, Ill always cherish this thread (& thx interrobang for the links).
posted by maryh at 11:51 AM on December 12, 2006

I resent Tinsley for taking the already unglamorous semantic baggage of having Millard Filmore's first name for my last and worsening the situation with this damned duck. Thanks a lot, dude. I'm naming my next poo "Bruce".
posted by cortex at 11:56 AM on December 12, 2006

Don't forget to bask in the glory of today's Mallard Fillmore.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 11:58 AM on December 12, 2006

What I don't get is why Bruce chose a mallard to do his bidding.

It's absolutely *only* because once you've learned how to draw that Donald Duck beak, they're the easiest fucking animal to draw, period.
posted by interrobang at 12:36 PM on December 12, 2006

Is that a beak or a bill? No snark, just wondering if every bird has a beak and a duck's is called a "bill" for some arcane (or logical) reason.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 2:18 PM on December 12, 2006

This is a beak. This is a bill.
posted by languagehat at 2:44 PM on December 12, 2006

And I thought I paid through the nose for power.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 2:48 PM on December 12, 2006

Oh my, it's like the blue, only it's the gray.

Oh Gawd.

Did the South rise again while I was at lunch? Why wasn't I paged???
posted by dw at 2:50 PM on December 12, 2006

dw: Yes, it did. We tried to call you but then we realized that only damn Yankees use phones.

That and we were too busy painting your car like the General Lee.

Yee-haw!
posted by champthom at 3:46 PM on December 12, 2006

Liar. The Bear used the phone to call Mama. (Damnit, can't find the commercial anywhere.)
posted by dw at 4:41 PM on December 12, 2006

Hey, if I had to spend my days writing and drawing Mallard Fillmore, I'd hit the bottle too.

(Someone had to say it.)
posted by Clay201 at 11:36 PM on December 12, 2006

With more and more first time posters fearing the snark their first time post might draw, with some even feeling the need to audition them at MeTa to try and avoid being blown up by the Metafilter Welcome Wagon, one wonders why anyone would be so evil and malicious as to give someone a Metafilter account for Christmas.

And on a related note, how many people would kick someone in the beanbag for giving them such a stress inducing gift.
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:42 PM on December 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

(T)here should be an award for members who go two years without posting to the blue.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:12 AM PST on December 12

Well, DA, you made the last comment in my most recent post, and that was more than four and a half years ago. What do I win?
posted by diddlegnome at 11:49 PM on December 12, 2006

Can anyone explain to me why, when I followed the link to the Mallard Fillmore archives on Jewish World Review, I was treated to an ad for "The Gentleman's Gold Club: Upscale Adult Entertainment in Baltimore"? Perhaps Tinsley was out cavorting with exotic dancers befor he got his DUI.

Anyway, any thread poking fun at Mallard Fillmore wouldn't be complete without a mention of his compatriot James K. Poult.
posted by TedW at 8:19 AM on December 13, 2006