It's not *that* bad, but....

November 15, 2007 5:40 PM

Sometimes I want a flag along the lines of "this whole thread needs special attention." What should I do when this happens?

The most recent example is the bike sex question. There's nothing wrong with the question per se, but people are understandably having a hard time taking it seriously, so there are a lot of responses right now that don't really answer the question. I don't want to flag each and every individual derail, so I just flagged the post itself "other." I was also tempted to do this with the question about undisclosed bisexuality (I don't remember if I actually did or not), where the combination of barebones question (before the poster came back to clarify) and tags was ruffling a lot of feathers.

So I guess my question is: what would be a helpful thing to do when a post isn't really against the guidelines, but for whatever reason is prone to trouble?

posted by brett to etiquette/policy at 5:40 PM (23 comments total)

If there's sort of a general problem with a thread, you're always welcome to drop Matt, Jess or me a line.
posted by cortex at 5:44 PM on November 15, 2007

Post the entire text of the treaty of Westphalia, that always gets the admins attention.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:00 PM on November 15, 2007

I think flagging it as other is exactly the right thing to do.
posted by Kwine at 6:13 PM on November 15, 2007

Flag as other. I flagged this thread as other.
posted by SassHat at 6:20 PM on November 15, 2007

Flag as other, email one of us if you want.
posted by jessamyn at 6:36 PM on November 15, 2007

Unless popcassady is planning to have sex with a bicycle, that question should be deleted. AskMe is (supposedly) a place for practical answers.
posted by Eideteker at 7:02 PM on November 15, 2007

Eight-count bodybuilders always worked for me.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 7:41 PM on November 15, 2007

cortex, just for the record, I understand the desire to reduce MeTa callouts via email, but in this case I'm actually glad brett posted this, if only because I'd vaguely wondered the same thing about that bicycle sex thread and wasn't quite sure if it was flag-worthy or what.

and off topic but St. Justinian's jodphurs, is the entire rest of the planet having shitty weather or an increase in booby-hatch escapees or something? It seems like MeFi's had an unusually high dose of Teh Crazee lately.
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:31 PM on November 15, 2007

Oh, I'm not saying that brett should have emailed us with this question. I'm saying one of the key answers to the question posed in this right honorable thread is to email us if something hard-to-flag is up.
posted by cortex at 9:06 PM on November 15, 2007

I always call Matt, Cortex, and Jess on their cells as soon as I see anything like that. Then I follow up with an email, and then flag the thread as "other."

If the thread is deleted, I then make a follow up "thank you" call, and then mail some cookies. About a week later, I call to make sure they got the cookies, and to make sure (this is important) that they actually ate them. At least two each. Let's just say that helps to keep them mellow.

Or, I guess you could skip right to the "flag as other" part.
posted by The Deej at 9:22 PM on November 15, 2007 [2 favorites]

I really think if there were a 'flag as crap' option, more people would indeed 'flag and move on' and less people would 'flag, hang out, then threadshit.'

Flagging as "other" is really psychologically unsatisfying, when all you want to do is say something to someone that the thing you just read was crap and move the hell on with your life.
posted by blenderfish at 9:57 PM on November 15, 2007

The Deej: I always call Matt, Cortex, and Jess on their cells as soon as I see anything like that.

Amateur! I go to their house in the middle of the night and knock excitedly on their bedroom windows. I do it in this order: Matt, Jess and Josh, cooing their screen-names into the perfervid umbra. Ah, but you say, how do you do that in one night, as they live so far apart. To which I say, I see you've memorized their addresses too! The secret is pneumatic tubes. The federal government built a series of tubes between various sites in the continental United States in the 50's and 60's (also known as "intertubes," oh and Hawai'i is shit out of luck... sorry enfeebled, colonized savages!). If you learn their arcane routes you can zip around these American geographies like a human-sized person in a pressurized air cylinder. I'm telling you, it's the only way to effectively pester the living shitlights out of Corsawie (that and make up absurd combinations of their MeFi handles).

In conclusion: Stop trying to be my friend, I don't care if you buy me expensive drinks with gold lamé umbrellas, all I want to do is use you as a footstool.
posted by Kattullus at 11:17 PM on November 15, 2007 [2 favorites]

I think we need the addition of a "clean up in aisle 8" flag.
posted by necessitas at 11:47 PM on November 15, 2007

Or aisle 5. Don't know what my fingers were thinking.
posted by necessitas at 11:49 PM on November 15, 2007

This thread was a good example of this sort of problem.

I flagged it "other", and flagged two comments as offensive, because I am a crotchety old man. The best flag for the thread would have probably been something like "this is going to go really horribly, and if I were an admin I would probably want to have a drink now, but, uh, here we go, I guess."

On the other hand, I guess it went as well as ... it could have gone anywhere, online. And eventually even the "lol haha" viewpoints even started making a little bit of sense in a strange way.

In conclusion, "other" probably works.
posted by blacklite at 1:33 AM on November 16, 2007

Corsawie

Messamex.
posted by blacklite at 1:34 AM on November 16, 2007

Corsawie

Messamex.

What about pb?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:01 AM on November 16, 2007

Brandon Blatcher: What about pb?

Nobody messes with the pb. If you do he'll install Upside-Down-Ternet into your face!
posted by Kattullus at 7:10 AM on November 16, 2007

Amateur! I go to their house in the middle of the night and knock excitedly on their bedroom windows.

Is that the Big Blue House with yellow trim with the 'No Trolls!" sign outside where all the mods sleep in a big triangular bed in blue footsie pajamas and and every morning slide down a fireman's pole into the top secret underground lab to unchain Pb and merrily continue work on their intertube experiments?
posted by Sparx at 7:15 AM on November 16, 2007 [3 favorites]

Oh, you've visited?
posted by cortex at 7:40 AM on November 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

I first thought of a sarcastic "Flag it as "mother." Then I thought of the movie Mother, Jugs and Speed, and started thinking about which mod would be which. Then I decided that it was too easy, and even a little bit weird, to be thinking about that.
posted by klangklangston at 8:15 AM on November 16, 2007

(Cortex is Speed.)
posted by klangklangston at 8:16 AM on November 16, 2007

That's so funny, Sparx, I wish I could favorite you twice.

I always picture the mods sitting together drinking coffee, chatting.

Suddenly, an alarm goes off, bells ring, lights flash, the whole place is bathed in a red glow.

Oh noes! Someone's about to flame out in the grey!

And then they go tear-assing down the firepole into their batcave...
posted by misha at 5:54 PM on November 16, 2007