Mods vs White Lobster

February 13, 2008 9:25 PM

This is an example of a double that should have been left alone.

There was a single post calling it a double followed by plenty of thoughtful comments from people who missed it the first time around.

Indeed, the original thread (posted November 1, 2007) doesn't even link to the same story that nickyskye found. Plus the original is closed to new comments.

Deleting doubles is great when the intention is to cull run away obit-filters or when similar posts are made within days of each other. However in this case it seems a little gratuitous as it squelched an otherwise fine thread.

posted by wfrgms to etiquette/policy at 9:25 PM (38 comments total)

Double posts are deleted.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 9:40 PM on February 13, 2008

Double posts are deleted.
posted by interrobang at 9:41 PM on February 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

Triple posts, however, are awesome.
posted by brain_drain at 9:43 PM on February 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

You want sympathy? You'll find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.
posted by Effigy2000 at 9:50 PM on February 13, 2008 [8 favorites]

But what do you think about quadruples?
posted by lalex at 9:50 PM on February 13, 2008

QUADRUPLES ARE DELETED.
posted by klangklangston at 9:57 PM on February 13, 2008

Not to be a complete thicko, but how is this a double? It's the same subject, but not the same links.
posted by Kattullus at 10:02 PM on February 13, 2008

OH SHIT
posted by lalex at 10:05 PM on February 13, 2008

It wouldn't have been deleted if it weren't a double, now would it? Get some sense in you, and stop thinking about things too much.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 10:08 PM on February 13, 2008

Nickyskye already posts more links in everyone else's posts than the original posters usually do. I think that post not making it through the double filter is quite alright.
posted by blacklite at 10:08 PM on February 13, 2008

Shame about it, 'cause there was some good stuff in that thread. I'm glad it was called out, frankly.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:35 PM on February 13, 2008

As a twin all this "deleting doubles" makes me very uncomfortable.
posted by pwally at 10:45 PM on February 13, 2008 [5 favorites]

Why can't a hippopotamus go to college?

Because it has no hippocampus.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:46 PM on February 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

Why did the fly fly?

because the spider spider.
posted by Rumple at 10:56 PM on February 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

So now we're complaining that we're not allowed to post the same newsfilter twice?

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a website that specialized in sharing the best of the web...
posted by tkolar at 10:56 PM on February 13, 2008

tkolar, why do you hate twins?
posted by Rumple at 10:58 PM on February 13, 2008

As a twin all this "deleting doubles" makes me very uncomfortable.
posted by pwally

I imagine that one of the most challenging aspects of any twin's personal maturation is the acceptance of your inherent redundancy. Your, shall we say . . . expendability.
posted by Ryvar at 11:09 PM on February 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

Ooh, that's cold Ryvar.
posted by Cranberry at 11:36 PM on February 13, 2008

Redundancy is a feature, not a bug.

Think of the spare kidneys, man.
posted by ook at 11:43 PM on February 13, 2008 [4 favorites]

tkolar, why do you hate twins?

Because they're fucking creepy. It's like their mothers stuttered while giving birth.

Plus, the study of twins *should* resolve the nature vs. nurture debate but it never actually does. This is because twins are purposely confusing the matter to further their own demonic agenda.

[Also, there was a really hot blonde twin in college who turned me down when I asked her out.]
posted by tkolar at 11:47 PM on February 13, 2008 [5 favorites]

Speaking as the original caller-out of the double in question...here's what I put later in that thread:

nickyskye - I wasn't trying to be a dick in pointing out the double, I've actually come to see the value in people pointing them out to have them cleaned up. I read this article about 24 hours before you posted it and something in my head said "this would be great on the blue" and then something else said "I think it might already be there."

So, I went, I searched, and lo and behold. Hence, I didn't post.

I realize that a lot of people didn't catch it the first time around, but that is why we have archives. I've posted stuff myself before that was a double, I got many people thanking me for re-posting cause they missed the first go round, but in retrospect - I'm glad my double got ganked in the end. It contributes to the long-term benefit of the site to all its users.
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:50 PM on February 13, 2008

Have to say that I agree with the deletion. I remembered the first post and remembered the story. There was no startlingly new information in the later post.
posted by MrMustard at 1:43 AM on February 14, 2008

So Nickyskye's fun post gets yanked, but the tired retread "begs the question" post, which has been done here several times before, stays? There is no justice.
posted by caddis at 1:55 AM on February 14, 2008

Mount up caddis! We'll make us some justice.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:12 AM on February 14, 2008

What did the hot-dog monk say to the Buddhist vendor?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:51 AM on February 14, 2008

[NOT PUNCHLINIST]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:54 AM on February 14, 2008

Ketchup?
posted by cgc373 at 3:28 AM on February 14, 2008

Kattullus: "Not to be a complete thicko, but how is this a double? It's the same subject, but not the same links."

Wow, so when some big news event happens and is on every single news outlet on the planet, and 88% of blogs, we get to post every unique URL as a separate post. And here I thought we were almost out of things to link to.
posted by Plutor at 3:53 AM on February 14, 2008

Come on people. Only 140 to go. Log onto your sockpuppets, and put him over the top. Come on. I know we can do it. Let's pull together as a team and do this thing!
posted by Dave Faris at 4:26 AM on February 14, 2008

I blame white people.
posted by chunking express at 5:00 AM on February 14, 2008

Make me one with everything.
posted by bonobo at 5:18 AM on February 14, 2008

Is there any need for any of the mods to say anything about this? If the original story or post had been a few years back, we probably would have left, it but just a few months is pretty much the standard double arena so it was removed. I do, however, like twins.
posted by jessamyn at 5:57 AM on February 14, 2008

Twins, creepy? No way!
posted by The Deej at 6:01 AM on February 14, 2008

I've got a hankerin' for some Doublemint gum.
posted by fandango_matt at 7:14 AM on February 14, 2008

Tentative suggestion: Perhaps when this* happens, and the original thread is closed the mods could, in their sole discretion, reopen the old thread and move the burgeoning discussion back in time to a more appropriate, but currently unavailable place. While the rule against doubles is justifiably ironclad, sometimes there's a bit of injustice to the one-shot-deal element of it, and in rare circumstances, I think that this would be a fair compromise.

I do not think this would create too much of a new metatalk burden (i.e., people willy nilly rushing off to MeTa to request the reopening of old threads)--probably something along the lines of those silly sidebar nomination threads, which have waned in recent months.

Just a thought, and probably one that has been raised and discussed previously (hence the comment and not a fresh post).

*A "good!" double that must, because of the righteous, correct, and sensible core metifiltarean, black-and-white brightline rule be deleted but that achieves in-thread momentum and groundswell of the "this post is better than the original, which I missed" sort, and has better links.
posted by kosem at 7:31 AM on February 14, 2008

Thanks for the callout and the double. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

(can we sidebar the double? that article was fantastic. :P )
posted by cowbellemoo at 7:56 AM on February 14, 2008

My obit-filter wasn't even a double and it was culled! How many of you can claim THAT, eh?
posted by Brocktoon at 4:06 PM on February 14, 2008

all too many.......
posted by caddis at 5:00 PM on February 14, 2008