Self Link?

January 11, 2008 2:45 AM

Perhaps I'm overly suspicious, but this post smell like a self link/Pepsi Blue.

It's mostly a feeling, I couldn't find a smoking gun. However, here's what set me off:

1. Links to SEO sites draw my attention, many of these sites feel like spam.
2. The post in question links to the entire blog, not to the permanent link for the article in question.
3. The poster, Bodyguard, made a previous reference to the seoptimization.blog.com in this MetaTalk request, but the text of his request very closely matches the text of a comment left by seoptimization.blog.com at this article at Social Computing Magazine.

posted by RichardP to etiquette/policy at 2:45 AM (57 comments total)

seems to me like someone is optimizinghis search engine placement.
posted by vivelame at 2:57 AM on January 11

But when it comes down to it, aren't we all SEO marketing scum deep down inside? Perhaps rather than casting the stones of judgement and tossing the broken body of disgrace down the well of hypocrisy, we should embrace our inner spammer, the inner spammer that unites us all and reminds us of what it truly means to be human.
posted by cmonkey at 2:58 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

This will GiveWell.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:07 AM on January 11 [12 favorites]

Got it! The comment by seoptimization.blog.com at Social Computing Magazine has a user profile which mentions search-engines-web.com. On this page search-engines-web.com is listed as the web site for 5url.com and Security USA. The 5url.com web site lists "Security Usa" as an example commercial website that they developed, completing the link. Not to mention Bodyguard posted a Project mentioning the redesign of the Security USA web site.
posted by RichardP at 3:08 AM on January 11

Oh, and of course Bodyguard links to Security USA in his Metafilter profile.
posted by RichardP at 3:10 AM on January 11

In the end, Bodyguard did not pass the MetaFilter interview process.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:12 AM on January 11 [10 favorites]

He did something similar almost precisely a year ago.

The confusing part is the 368 days and 4 reasonable-seeming posts in between.
posted by dersins at 3:17 AM on January 11

Well played, RichardP. You have progressed to the next interview round.
posted by StephenF at 3:20 AM on January 11 [4 favorites]

I don't want someone this stupid protecting my life.
posted by oh pollo! at 3:28 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Oooh-ooh, That smell!
posted by chillmost at 3:28 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

4 reasonable-seeming posts

Or maybe I take that back. There's something weird about all four of those URLs, and, strangely, none of them work any longer.
posted by dersins at 3:29 AM on January 11

dersins, I don't think those links are suspect. Most if not all of those links are news links — it's not uncommon for stale links to articles at news sites to no longer work after a couple of weeks or months.
posted by RichardP at 3:34 AM on January 11

I don't care if it's self-linking or not. If he's being paid to linkspam, that's no better.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:36 AM on January 11

/Furtively uncorks bottle of paraffin, surreptitiously pokes oily rag into bottle neck, quietly whistling a selection from the Mikado while looking up and to the left, thoughtfully swirling the gravel with his left foot
posted by Jofus at 3:40 AM on January 11

I should have learned my lesson from "The Bodyguard". If I hadn't fallen in love with Bodyguard this would be much less heartbreaking.
posted by burnmp3s at 3:52 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Bodyguard you are but a nail that must be hammered...BANHAMMERED.
posted by poppo at 4:26 AM on January 11

*idly sharpens pitchfork*
posted by Skorgu at 4:29 AM on January 11

Isn't this the time on MetaTalk when we do our rude and crude search engine optimization?
posted by Captaintripps at 4:51 AM on January 11

In the dim light beyond the campfire, I heard rustling and bustling; every now and then the glint reflected from a pitchfork tine, a guttural angry muttering, crackle of pitch-pine as a torch ignited. The hair all stood up on my nape. The night was heavy with a palpable sense of impending violence.
posted by Abiezer at 4:52 AM on January 11 [6 favorites]

Now, everyone remember to remain civil and extend the pinkies *thusly* when tarring and feathering -- the New York Times may be watching!
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:19 AM on January 11

Hey guys, you can tie torches to the tines of your pitchfork! No more having to choose!
posted by eriko at 5:21 AM on January 11 [4 favorites]

I've got a hankering for some spankering!
posted by dirtdirt at 5:24 AM on January 11

yes, yes. But what do you want to happen to Bodyguard?
posted by patricio at 5:30 AM on January 11

....blood vessels dilate, muscles contract and the hands of a frightened and angry populace tighten around farming implements hitherto used only for honest toil. The silence takes a shape. The shape becomes the night. The only sounds are the keening of the animals, the grinding of a thousand sets of teeth and the cheery clank of lawnchairs being opened.
posted by Jofus at 5:36 AM on January 11 [3 favorites]

Bodyguard, no matter what happens, I will always love you. You, darling, I love you. Ooh, I'll always, I'll always love you.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:36 AM on January 11

Blazecock! No! For the love of God, man, no!
posted by Abiezer at 5:43 AM on January 11

Swept along by the inchoate frenzy of mob, it was as if I was watching myself from some little distance. And what I saw and heard had no narrative, only a disjointed jumble of sudden moments of horror, flash photography at a crime scene, cries in the night. A pallid face twisted in rage, mouth agape, eyes burning; the sickening crunch as metal pierced bone and sinew; the *pop* *pop* *pop* as the puffed kernels struck the lid of the pan.
posted by Abiezer at 5:51 AM on January 11 [4 favorites]

but this post smell like a self link/Pepsi Blue

I think it smells of wenis.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:58 AM on January 11

That was an impressive show of wrongth on Bodyguard's part. So banned.
posted by cortex at 6:11 AM on January 11 [3 favorites]

cortex, the way you wrote that last sentence it read to me like a logical conclusion: "therefore banned." I think what you meant was "So banned."

That is all.
posted by languagehat at 6:48 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

The wrength of such wrongth brings much wrangth.
posted by steef at 6:50 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

"cortex, the way you wrote that last sentence it read to me like a logical conclusion: 'therefore banned.' I think what you meant was 'So banned.'"

So band.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:53 AM on January 11

Actually, it was an elliptical stage direction:

CORTEX: "...wrongth on Bodyguard's part." [Sob, and...]
posted by cortex at 6:56 AM on January 11

Our MetaFilter SEO is working perfectly well. Here is the number 1 result for the popular Google search term "metafilter fucktard".

It is about pants!!!11!11!
posted by Mister_A at 7:10 AM on January 11

I just want to express my appreciation for cortex's tireless efforts to dewrongify MetaFilter.
posted by grouse at 7:37 AM on January 11

Damn, y'all are good. Nothing seems to get by the hive mind. (It amazes me that no one caught my self-link.) Maybe we should add something to the membership page: Warning, if you are joining to link to something you made, just be aware that you will be caught, the post deleted, and you will lose your $5.
posted by dios at 8:14 AM on January 11

They sat in silence, smoking and listening to the crackle of dripping fat on the coals before them. Cortex spat, took a long draw from his flask and absently tapped the banhammer, still warm in its holster. From the edge of the clearing, the Bodyguard cast a lengthy shadow, his blackened corpse pinned to the makeshift stake, the tines of languagehat's pitchfork barely visible beneath the ribs.

Kosem wiped his brow, and gave the beans a stir.
Goat's about done, I reckon.
posted by kosem at 8:20 AM on January 11 [6 favorites]

You've gotta be fucking kidding me.

Nice one. Definitely brightened my day.
posted by tkolar at 8:32 AM on January 11

"The word 'apology' is tossed around a lot these days, but when it comes from in here..." [Homer motions towards his heart, prompting someone to throw a buzzsaw at him]

That's what this thread looks like in my mind's eye.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:10 AM on January 11

Mister_A, you've gone and screwed up the SEO for the Pants account. You should know the first rule by now.
posted by mumkin at 10:02 AM on January 11

dios, don't you think some might take that as a challenge?
posted by owtytrof at 10:25 AM on January 11

It depends on whether they think I was being serious or not.
posted by dios at 10:34 AM on January 11

Is this the part where we get someone fired?
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:19 PM on January 11

Only if we think they're rich.
posted by tkolar at 12:32 PM on January 11

So banned!
posted by ORthey at 12:52 PM on January 11

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Civilized cheering for a good banhammering, see?
posted by CKmtl at 2:46 PM on January 11

The night was heavy with a palpable sense of impending violence.

Redolent. The night was redolent!
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:46 PM on January 11

One of the great things about people trying to piggyback on Metafilter's pagerank is that they inevitably get outed in a MetaTalk thread, which then shows up in the Google search results for their company. For example, a Google search for Givewell for a week had the MeTa post on the first set of results (now, unfortunately, it's been relegated to the second page).

I can only hope the same will happen to this website.
posted by spiderskull at 8:48 PM on January 11

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh B'dygard Meh'ta wgah'nagl fhtagn.
posted by spiderwire at 5:49 PM on January 12

We should invite Holden and company to this thread.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:34 PM on January 12

We should invite Cthulhu and company to this thread.
posted by languagehat at 7:16 AM on January 13

We should remind the Board to listen to this, 'cause it's the best thing to come out of the whole debacle.

"You gotta know when to Holden, know when to fold 'em..."
posted by five fresh fish at 9:20 AM on January 13

What a night!
posted by humannaire at 8:19 PM on January 13

We should invite Cthulhu and company to this thread.

TOO LATE. THEY'RE ALREADY HERE.
posted by spiderwire at 8:19 PM on January 13

Whoa, weird.
posted by spiderwire at 8:19 PM on January 13

Whoa, weird.

And that was the last that was heard from spiderwire on the mortal plane.

Elsewhere, there was a sound of endless screaming.
posted by languagehat at 6:29 AM on January 14

And that was the last that was heard from spiderwire on the mortal plane.

Fortunately, Azathoth, The Seething Nuclear Chaos, has internet at his place.

The decor leaves something to be desired.
posted by spiderwire at 7:46 AM on January 14