Self indulgence, selfish or self-link?

December 8, 2008 8:33 PM

Just how "Self"-ish does the self-link ban cover?

I was wondering how far removed you need to be from a project for it to be considered non-self-linking for a Metafilter post?

I work on a certain large multinational engineering project - as an engineer, not in PR. I don't (and wouldn't link to if I did) run a website or have any other web-based interest (I do have an obvious interest in that the project pays my salary, though).

Would an FPP about the project be considered a self link? Or is it a little too incestuous for the Blue?

posted by Nice Guy Mike to Etiquette/Policy at 8:33 PM (22 comments total)

There's a discussion about self-linking a few days back in MeTa. Without knowing more about the project, I'd say yeah it's too close for our guidelines. In short it seems like you're saying "Can I link to a project I work on?" and the answer to that is no.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:35 PM on December 8, 2008

If you are involved in it, you aren't a good judge of it's suitability as a FPP.
posted by Megafly at 8:36 PM on December 8, 2008

Here's the discussion from a few days back with some more in-depth explanation of why this has evolved as policy.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:36 PM on December 8, 2008

OK, thanks. I figured it would be skating a little close to the line even if it were acceptable.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 8:47 PM on December 8, 2008

The general principle is, "If you're not sure, don't do it."
posted by Class Goat at 8:51 PM on December 8, 2008

But he's a really nice guy...
posted by BeerFilter at 8:51 PM on December 8, 2008

Apparently, it is considered legit to contact a MeFi member you already have a bit of a relationship with and saying, "Hey, I'm involved in this, could you take a look and let me know what you think." If they think it's really really awesome, maybe they will post an FPP. Of course, if they are bestest of buds then they're too close and again you might want to show it to someone a little more distant.

I think I'm right in this, no?

It's frustrating, because everyone here is always so involved in awesome that if I was ever involved in awesome I would want to shout it from the rooftops, or at least the front page of the blue, but I can't.

On the plus side, since I actually am in web development anything I would be involved with could be posted to projects. In fact, there is something kinda cool which I am sitting on that I hope to post to the, um, teal?, sometime early in 2009.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:12 PM on December 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

There is always the workaround where you privately send the link to other users unrelated to the project, and if they think it is good enough, they post it.
posted by dirty lies at 9:13 PM on December 8, 2008

Post it to Projects if you were involved. If something really outstanding gets posted to projects, another member may create a fpp out of it. This happens occasionally.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:21 PM on December 8, 2008

If the project is large, then an insider may well have a line on a good resource that no outsider would ever find. Or they may be a better judge of what is a good resource and what isn't. So I'd definitely like to see such an FPP. But for "safety", mefimailing someone the idea is probably best.
posted by DU at 3:00 AM on December 9, 2008

Projects.
I don't always read projects, but if people start posting awesome stuff they are involved in there more, I will.
posted by bystander at 4:33 AM on December 9, 2008

Apparently, it is considered legit to contact a MeFi member you already have a bit of a relationship with and saying, "Hey, I'm involved in this, could you take a look and let me know what you think." If they think it's really really awesome, maybe they will post an FPP. Of course, if they are bestest of buds then they're too close and again you might want to show it to someone a little more distant.

I think I'm right in this, no?

As long as nobody catches on, you're probably in the clear. That said, what this site does not need is a bunch of SEO spammers spamming MeMail until some poor sap posts their links for them.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:37 AM on December 9, 2008

(That is, "in the clear" logistically rather than morally. You're still totally going to Hell.)
posted by Sys Rq at 5:39 AM on December 9, 2008

What confuses me a little is the ban on linking to your friends. What is a friend?

Part of why I don't post on Metafilter as much as I used to is frankly that I know more people now. Most times I see something I'd like to post about, I know at least one of the people involved with it.
posted by roll truck roll at 8:06 AM on December 9, 2008

When in doubt, feel free to run it by one of us.

The general thing is that we've seen a lot of weak links either posted or suggested by people who say "oh hey my friend did this and I really think it's important to show to MeFi" suggesting that people are not the best judge of MeFi-worthiness of something when friends/family are involved. If you happen to know someone involved with the project and it's a big and/or popular thing, that's likely not a problem. If it's a small thing that you wouldn't have known about except for the involvement of your friend, that might be a problem. If you think this should be on MeFi because your friend did it, then yeah that's a non-starter.

Even though we lump all these together under the "no self-linking" rule, really there are two rules

- self-linking - never okay in any universe, you will be banned, we will change your linkes to example.com
- friend/family-linking - not generally a good idea but there are sometimes exceptions depending on the circumstances, you will likely not be banned unless you seem like a scammy and/or SEO promoter type

Any of us are happy, really just happy, to check out something for you if you're concerned it might be a little too friends-linky for MeFi. We know that in a community with a lot of people who run in the web-geeky communities, people are bound to know each other and the guideline is not so you avoid linking to things if you know ANYONE involved, but rather than you don't pimp your stuff or your friends' stuff here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:14 AM on December 9, 2008

Thanks for the clarification, jessamyn. I might have to take you up on that.
posted by roll truck roll at 9:06 AM on December 9, 2008

What confuses me a little is the ban on linking to your friends. What is a friend?

Someone about whose work you can't be objective.
posted by languagehat at 1:44 PM on December 9, 2008

It's pretty self-explanatory, really: you can't self-link if you don't enhance Metafilter's cachet.

Use this handy test to determine whether or not you should self-link!

Tick Those That Describe You Most Accurately

A) Name appeared at least once in Village Voice or McSweeny's
B) Had "funny" article published in Wired
C) Had "quirky" record reviewed on Pitchfork
D) Three-book deal
E) Own television show
F) Invented DNS
G) Slop-mucker

If A, B, C, D, E or F proceed with self-linking. If G, prepare for a callout/temporary account suspension.
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:06 PM on December 9, 2008

Your search - Slop-mucker - did not match any documents.

Huh. I've never seen that happen before.
posted by roll truck roll at 7:48 PM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

What is a friend?
You too, huh?
posted by dg at 12:20 AM on December 10, 2008

Your search - Slop-mucker - did not match any documents.

until now of course.

td has an original mind, and may have just launched a new meme.
Metafilter: slop-muckers.
posted by psyche7 at 2:28 PM on December 10, 2008

That's strange, I thought I used the yahoo search link.
until now of course.
posted by psyche7 at 2:31 PM on December 10, 2008