It's a really interesting question though. (but it's chat)

April 6, 2007 8:19 PM

I would like to participate in a disscussion about dumb, funny, or peculiar advice found in a self-help books. Oh, and I'll go first.
posted by bigmusic to Etiquette/Policy at 8:19 PM (25 comments total)

it's a borderline post, yeah, but they're asking with the goal in mind of buying more so it's a bit of a stretch but I guess that's the problem to solve, helping them find more bad/funny/strange advice books.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:24 PM on April 6, 2007

Well, there's the end of that disscussion =)
posted by bigmusic at 8:29 PM on April 6, 2007

Question looked legit to me, too, although I'm not, you know, a moderator or anything, so who cares?
posted by cgc373 at 8:29 PM on April 6, 2007

but they are and that just called for a wall of post-it notes.

As funny as it is, the entire thread is complete chatfilter. Until this:

but they are and that just called for a wall of post-it notes.

So it's actually a good example of how you could do chatfilter by tacking a project aspect into the question somewhere.

(Not that I encourage that sort of thing.)
posted by dhammond at 8:31 PM on April 6, 2007

oops, ignore that first line
posted by dhammond at 8:31 PM on April 6, 2007

I thought it was pretty borderline personally, but it wasn't overwhelmingly hated according to the flag queue when I saw it.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:44 PM on April 6, 2007

Trifecta. It didn't seem quite bad enough; and, to offer a subversive angle to the whole decision-making process (and I can't speak for Matt or Jess on this), it maybe doesn't hurt to let a harmless one slide now and then, especially when, as this post demonstrates, the guiding principle is pretty firmly established in the minds of the community.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:49 PM on April 6, 2007

AskMe: it wasn't overwhelmingly hated.
posted by trip and a half at 9:02 PM on April 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

I thought it was a viral plug for The Secret. However, apparently, calling Pepsi Blue on something is now verboten.
posted by who squared at 9:24 PM on April 6, 2007

STOP SNITCHING
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 9:38 PM on April 6, 2007

"what [sic] is the dumbest, funniest, most peculiar piece of advice you have ever found in a self-help book?"

Hmm... Fountainhead, or Atlas Shrugged? (I know, low-hanging fruit.)
posted by Eideteker at 9:39 PM on April 6, 2007

Snitches belong in ditches.
posted by jayder at 10:30 PM on April 6, 2007

So unlike with arak and ouzo, you don't mix Colombian aguardiente with water, right?
posted by davy at 11:59 PM on April 6, 2007

Enjoying Easter are we?
posted by strawberryviagra at 12:19 AM on April 7, 2007

I wondered about this one - is a best answer possible given the questioner wants to know "is it ethical" and implies she'd like to know "how ... to feel about it"? Seems chatty to me.
posted by paduasoy at 1:42 AM on April 7, 2007

I thought it was a viral plug for The Secret.

Really? Because saying that something is laughably dumb seems a poor way of plugging said thing.
posted by juv3nal at 2:47 AM on April 7, 2007

Try the eel.
posted by loquacious at 4:17 AM on April 7, 2007

So people now get a once per solstice question and then it has to be flagged by the flagulators, then called out by question questioning ninnies and finally be vetted by moderators.

When did we let the wikipedians in? I remember being able to ask questions when I had them and getting some reasonable answers fairly quickly from people who seemed like friends without feeling like I was tiptoeing through a social minefield and wasting one of my twelve questions per year.
posted by srboisvert at 4:40 AM on April 7, 2007

one of my twe^H^H^H fifty-two questions per year.

fixed that for you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:15 AM on April 7, 2007

Does this count as a question?
(dang.)
posted by Dizzy at 8:02 AM on April 7, 2007

I remember being able to ask questions when I had them...without...wasting one of my twelve questions per year.

I'm sympathetic to your point, but I'd submit that anybody who has ever asked a mixtape question is automatically disqualified from making the "limited resource" argument.
posted by cribcage at 8:21 AM on April 7, 2007

one of my twe^H^H^H fifty-two questions per year.

fixed that for you.


Wait.

Do we get once per-week questions now? If so, I missed the memo.
posted by !Jim at 10:18 AM on April 7, 2007

Oh, there it is.
posted by !Jim at 10:23 AM on April 7, 2007

I've been noticing an unusually high number of chat filter posts in the past week or so. What's going on lower standards or higher tolerance?
posted by necessitas at 11:10 AM on April 7, 2007

sheesh... you need to go easy on the crack, kids.
it's a question for specific information to be used in a specific contest. it couldn't be further from chatfilter.
posted by krautland at 2:30 PM on April 7, 2007