Double posts getting equal love

January 8, 2002 8:43 AM

Is this the first time where front page double post is getting equal attention as the original, and no one has asked for the double post deletion? Is this because Dave Thomas was a popular guy or what?
posted by Rastafari to MetaFilter-Related at 8:43 AM (11 comments total)

I'm thinking that a lot of people agree with this. The double post is easier to understand, and the fact that tagline for the first post is simply "Columbus, OH" vs "Wendy's founder dead." People skimming the posts are far more likely to be attracted to the second post. Not to mention the fact that it is above the first post, and thus gets read before the original post by people scrolling down the screen.
posted by thewittyname at 9:03 AM on January 8, 2002

Part of it is that the first post is not very engaging. It is pretty much a verbatim cut from the linked AP story. The "link" part of the FPP, the part that people are most likely to read when scanning the page, is the dateline COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- a real snoozer.
posted by Mid at 9:03 AM on January 8, 2002

Matt hasn't seen and smotten it yet.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:12 AM on January 8, 2002

You can't have it both ways.
posted by liam at 9:13 AM on January 8, 2002

am i totally delusional??? i could swear matt had merged these two threads at some point today, but now they are both still there.
posted by danOstuporStar at 9:19 AM on January 8, 2002

Actually Liam, I think all the attention is great. It's also interesting to see the two separate threads. They serve as a lesson on the difference between a bad post and a good post.

And it would seem innapropriate to delete the first one, because it was first, as much as it would seem innappropriate to delete the better one.
posted by insomnyuk at 9:21 AM on January 8, 2002

Funny, I didn't even notice the dp until I saw it pointed out here. Sorry Columbus (but you made a great Church song.)
posted by eyeballkid at 9:26 AM on January 8, 2002

Mat has deleted the earlier thread before, for 9/11 .
posted by NortonDC at 9:27 AM on January 8, 2002

Well the Apple iMac thread from yesterday also was a triple post I think, the second post was deleted, but the one with the link to the Apple store was allowed to stay (Matt even posted in that thread).
posted by riffola at 9:50 AM on January 8, 2002

I could have sworn that one was gone earlier today. That's why I cross posted.
posted by machaus at 10:08 AM on January 8, 2002

Good, bad--irrelevant. Doubleposts should go.

Or maybe we should just all post the same link every day, competing to see who can make the best post of it?
posted by rushmc at 7:54 PM on January 8, 2002