Comments on: This thread is useless without images... of your new tattoos

This thread is useless without images... of your new tattoos

mkultra — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:59:48 -0800

What's up with the recent bump in prison-related questions on AskMe?

Has anyone else noticed a bit of an uptick in these questions? We've always had our share of what-if/outside-looking-in questions about prisons, but this past month we've had several "I or someone I know is going to/getting out of prison"-related stuff. Anyone care to offer some thoughtful insight or out-of-ass speculation? Perhaps this sidebarred comment has loosened some lips?

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:04:44 -0800

What line bisects he TI <> OA continuum on the Y axis?

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:06:07 -0800

(the)

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:10:30 -0800

End of the Bush Administration?

By: box

box — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:11:38 -0800

The touch economy has forced me to pursue a life of crime.

By: jammy

jammy — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:12:08 -0800

maybe it's just because more people are in prison than ever before in US history?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:12:49 -0800

We have some recent Ebay scammers doing ten the hard way in a federal pen.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:15:38 -0800

What's up with the recent bump in prison-related questions on AskMe?

You mean other than confirmation bias?

By: allkindsoftime

allkindsoftime — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:25:45 -0800

Because the justice system in the US is broken.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:30:01 -0800

How is this a bump? There's an average of 1-3 questions per month on this topic. In October there were 3. Is this scary trend occurring with other topics too?

By: box

box — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:33:07 -0800

Electric-vehicle naming, yes.

By: box

box — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:34:41 -0800

(Also, that's supposed to be 'tough economy,' not 'touch economy,' in my first comment. Call it a Freudian slip, as I've become a coked-up, cigar-smoking male prostitute.)

By: echo target

echo target — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:37:12 -0800

Perhaps we should have a new site section: ImprisonMe.

By: Plutor

Plutor — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:37:24 -0800

dersins: "You mean other than confirmation bias?"

It's not confirmation bias!

By: mrmojoflying

mrmojoflying — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:41:00 -0800

Metafilter: I meme confirmation bias!

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:43:27 -0800

It's not confirmation bias!

heh.

By: headnsouth

headnsouth — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:54:10 -0800

Has anyone else noticed a bit of an uptick in these questions?

Has anyone else noticed a bit of an uptick in the use of the term uptick lately?

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:02:16 -0800

It's because Matt gives free subscriptions to prisoners, as he is a member of the Anarchist Black Cross.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:09:23 -0800

I made the sidebar?

Cool. What do I win?

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:12:18 -0800

Man, I hope it's not more jail.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:16:37 -0800

What do I win?

Community Chest.

By: sixcolors

sixcolors — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:20:11 -0800

Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

I'm very curious what's it's like to do time. Not curious enough to experience it first-hand, but curious enough to read about other peoples experience.

By: cimbrog

cimbrog — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:28:40 -0800

I found it amusing that two "what should I expect?" questions were sidebarred on the same day - one asking about going to prison and one asking about running for public office. Were the mods trying to tell us something about politicians?

By: Tomorrowful

Tomorrowful — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:30:41 -0800

Confirmation bias is part of it; people probably also see questions on relatively-unusual topics and it occurs to them to ask their own related question.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:36:34 -0800

dersins: You mean other than confirmation bias?

You're misusing that term. There is, in fact, an actual increase lately. Not much, but it's there. Look at the data.

By: Carbolic

Carbolic — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:54:53 -0800

Because mefites have a problem with "THE MAN"!!!

By: dunkadunc

dunkadunc — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:05:43 -0800

Times have been getting tougher recently and police departments are doing all kinds of stuff to make sure they stay budgeted/employed, be it with the local Underage Drinking Taskforce or (seemingly) stepped-up efforts to catch people with drugs.

Also, when people feel like they've got nothing to look forward to, they're less likely to give a shit when it comes to stuff like doing drugs or drinking and driving.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:07:18 -0800

Am I seeing increased abuse of the term "confirmation bias" lately, or is that just confirmation bias?

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:12:11 -0800

I seem to be abusing myself a lot lately, but no more than usual.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:15:37 -0800

What's up with the recent bump in prison-related questions on AskMe?

I ate the last person who asked me that with some dilly beans and a nice box of fucking merlot.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:21:37 -0800

Am I seeing increased abuse of the term "confirmation bias" lately, or is that just confirmation bias?

Baader-Meinhof.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:22:38 -0800

Were the mods trying to tell us something about politicians?

Yes.

By: strangeleftydoublethink

strangeleftydoublethink — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:42:02 -0800

What's up with the recent bump of people posting anything to MetaTalk? Or is that just the COLD HARD FACTS?

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:12:29 -0800

What's with all the confirmation bias that I've been seeing lately?

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:46:55 -0800

Asking the hivemind about three hots and a cot is more refined than asking about cardboard boxes and panhandling.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:12:00 -0800

It's the economy, stupid.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:19:22 -0800

The entire site is a viral for the current season of Prison Break.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:25:57 -0800

What's $5 in mackerel?

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:29:58 -0800

I ♣ my seal.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:30:33 -0800

Don't know why you askin' them questions, but you got a purty mouth on ya, boy.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:33:57 -0800

Brandon,
Are you having an election night event on PoliticalFilter? I'd like to participate, assuming I'm not yet in prison.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:01:40 -0800

Of course. There's a live blog set to open at 6:30pm EST for those who wish to hoot and holler as results roll in.

No cover charge.

By: Hildegarde

Hildegarde — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:46:42 -0800

We have some recent Ebay scammers doing ten the hard way in a federal pen.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:12 PM on October 31 [+] [!]

Really? Details?

By: jonmc

jonmc — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:03:53 -0800

Well, pass it on...

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:23:16 -0800

There's a live blog set to open at 6:30pm EST for those who wish to hoot and holler as results roll in.

Yee-haa! Can we download beers?

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:42:31 -0800

Prison is the only growth industry we've got left.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:12:45 -0800

Really? Details?

Not really, I was just joking about airnetx.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:58:10 -0800

There's a live blog set to open at 6:30pm EST for those who wish to hoot and holler as results roll in.

You know who else liked to hoot and holler?

Hootler.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:06:13 -0800

Yee-haa! Can we download beers?

No. Last time, you got all liquored up and started hangin' Chads.

By: afu

afu — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:17:05 -0800

Somehow the ask game remind me of the crack game

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:57:19 -0800

I &spades my cat.

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:58:12 -0800

Gah! why didn't that work? It worked on preview!

By: mandal

mandal — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:49:16 -0800

I'm biased. And I just confirmed it.

[Don't send me to prison.]

By: Nattie

Nattie — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:16:46 -0800

I found it amusing that two "what should I expect?" questions were sidebarred on the same day - one asking about going to prison and one asking about running for public office.

Politics: the Rube Goldberg path to jail.

By: lazaruslong

lazaruslong — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:35:02 -0800

the plural of chad is chad

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:47:57 -0800

YOU ARE NOT MY DOCTOR.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:30:43 -0800

I'd go to Prison to be with Michael Scofield!

There is very little sexier than that full-body tattoo in Season 1.

By: dersins

dersins — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:36:21 -0800

Gah! why didn't that work? It worked on preview!

No, it worked in live preview. If you really want to see if you successfully ♠ your cat, you have to use the actual preview button to confirm you put the semicolon after "spades." Of course, if that HTML entity isn't part of your display font, you may end up with something funky on your screen.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:40:05 -0800

Metafilter: You may end up with something funky on your screen

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:05:21 -0800

Because mefites have a problem with "THE MAN"!!!

be careful what you say - ♦'s watching you

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:17:03 -0800

I wouldn't join any ♣ that ∋ me.

By: Hildegarde

Hildegarde — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:52:58 -0800

Darn, I was really hoping we had some good news about airnetx being sent to rot.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:06:17 -0800

# of posts with "jail" tag:

2004: 4
2005: 2
2006: 5
2007: 7
2008: 13

# of posts with "prison" tag:

2004: 9
2005: 4
2006: 5
2007: 12
2008: 14

So, yeah, we're seeing more of these posts over the last two years, probably because more people are learning AskMe might be a good place to ask about prison experiences. But I just got off work and am drinking early so thought I'd do a monthly breakdown too:

# of posts with "jail" or "prison" tag per month, 2004-2008:

January: 7
February: 7
March:5
April: 5
May: 3
June: 8
July: 8
August: 3
September: 5
October: 11
November: 7
December: 6

I think the more relevant question here is "What's up with the bump in prison-related questions that happens in October on AskMe?

One guess: Freshman Drinking.

By: turgid dahlia

turgid dahlia — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:54:44 -0800

October is when I get stabby.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:54:29 -0800

mediareport: I think the more relevant question here is "What's up with the bump in prison-related questions that happens in October on AskMe? One guess: Freshman Drinking.

Hmm, maybe this is the down-economy version of Eternal September...