WTF? January 17, 2009 10:04 AM Subscribe
Once someone asked a question that was inappropriate for some reason (chat filter?) and then everyone freaked out and started posting weird stuff. This was maybe a year ago. It never happened again, that I saw. It was sort of funny. But I don't know why/how/what happened.
I believe immediately after the question was asked, someone right below it said "uh oh" and then that's when all the crazy posts happened.
Or maybe I dreamed this?
I believe immediately after the question was asked, someone right below it said "uh oh" and then that's when all the crazy posts happened.
Or maybe I dreamed this?
Uh oh.
posted by cimbrog at 10:08 AM on January 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
posted by cimbrog at 10:08 AM on January 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
The more a thread seems likely to be deleted, the more likely people are to flip out and get noisy in it. Like roll truck roll suggests, it's not all that uncommon for it to happen. It's a tradition of barnstorming that came over to AskMe from the blue, where it had been happening for years before the green even existed.
And while it's not practically speaking that big of a deal in cases like the one he linked about—e.g. balls-out who-the-fuck-do-you-think-you-are spammer bullshit—there's a hazy strip of what you could call "good faith inappropriateness" where someone who is not a spammer/nutter posts something visibly flawed without trying to crap on the guidelines and some of this behavior manifests anyway.
That's a problem of it's own and the fact that it's easily at least as common as the actual-spammer-wtf case is one of the more vexing things about trying to keep AskMe clean. A lot of folks seems to have pretty good noses for telling the one from the other and not piling on or messing about in a legit-but-flawed question, but there's plenty who don't and who we really wish would err on the side of flagging and moving on instead of jumping in the boat.
The same goes for the blue, really, if not in quite so strong terms—early attempts at crapping all over a post that you're "sure" will be deleted can fuck up the thread up when it was actually pretty much okay to begin with in objective terms.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:23 AM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
And while it's not practically speaking that big of a deal in cases like the one he linked about—e.g. balls-out who-the-fuck-do-you-think-you-are spammer bullshit—there's a hazy strip of what you could call "good faith inappropriateness" where someone who is not a spammer/nutter posts something visibly flawed without trying to crap on the guidelines and some of this behavior manifests anyway.
That's a problem of it's own and the fact that it's easily at least as common as the actual-spammer-wtf case is one of the more vexing things about trying to keep AskMe clean. A lot of folks seems to have pretty good noses for telling the one from the other and not piling on or messing about in a legit-but-flawed question, but there's plenty who don't and who we really wish would err on the side of flagging and moving on instead of jumping in the boat.
The same goes for the blue, really, if not in quite so strong terms—early attempts at crapping all over a post that you're "sure" will be deleted can fuck up the thread up when it was actually pretty much okay to begin with in objective terms.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:23 AM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
I'm pretty sure that happens a lot. Off the top of my head, here's a favorite of mine.
That was well worth the click through.
I highly recommend it.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:27 AM on January 17, 2009
That was well worth the click through.
I highly recommend it.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:27 AM on January 17, 2009
Yeah, it was probably either crazy chatfilter or obvious self linkage. People go nuts when either of those shoe up in AskMe.
posted by piratebowling at 10:44 AM on January 17, 2009
posted by piratebowling at 10:44 AM on January 17, 2009
When you say "posting", do you mean comments in a thread or discrete posts, like Elephant Day?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:52 AM on January 17, 2009
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:52 AM on January 17, 2009
this one stuck in my head as a more-or-less immediate freakout... two years ago, though.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 11:03 AM on January 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by sergeant sandwich at 11:03 AM on January 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
There was one about beautifully hand-crafted pens, and did we want one?
posted by jeffamaphone at 11:08 AM on January 17, 2009
posted by jeffamaphone at 11:08 AM on January 17, 2009
* eyes mashed potatoes with wild surmise *
posted by everichon at 11:11 AM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by everichon at 11:11 AM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
My favorite was this one.
151 comments in the 25 minutes it took to get deleted.
posted by codswallop at 12:13 PM on January 17, 2009
151 comments in the 25 minutes it took to get deleted.
posted by codswallop at 12:13 PM on January 17, 2009
Free pens from pen island! Get your free pen from pen island dot com! That's right! It's a pen, and it's free, free, free! only from pen island dot com!
posted by boo_radley at 12:28 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by boo_radley at 12:28 PM on January 17, 2009
It's just been reported. And she's only having a couple of days of. Ugly looking thing.
posted by Dumsnill at 12:35 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by Dumsnill at 12:35 PM on January 17, 2009
eh, that Obama one reminds me that I *cannot* get off their email list. I donated during the campaign, I voted for you, but I am not helping you pay for your party. Leave me alone.
posted by desjardins at 12:47 PM on January 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
posted by desjardins at 12:47 PM on January 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
My favorite MeTa which references the PEN thread. Pizza.
posted by fixedgear at 1:24 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by fixedgear at 1:24 PM on January 17, 2009
I might have had a dream once but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any further information?
posted by DU at 1:28 PM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by DU at 1:28 PM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
Here's my favorite that never got deleted. The best part is the "For Better or Worse" comic at the end by fightorflight.
posted by sambosambo at 1:29 PM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by sambosambo at 1:29 PM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
It's a tough call, but one of my favorite deletions was this one, especially because of the spontaneous cheese discussion that arose from it.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:17 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:17 PM on January 17, 2009
Rusty Bottoms & Pretty Flowers ("This is the New") would have to be my favourite.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:29 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:29 PM on January 17, 2009
She printed ten coupons and got ten boxes of minute maid practically free ... (lol) . Why can't us men think of these things ? Lol
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:36 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:36 PM on January 17, 2009
Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: It's a tough call, but one of my favorite deletions was this one, especially because of the spontaneous cheese discussion that arose from it.
Wow. There actually was a reason for that image.
posted by flatluigi at 2:54 PM on January 17, 2009
Wow. There actually was a reason for that image.
posted by flatluigi at 2:54 PM on January 17, 2009
Sweet! I had totally forgotten about the Sketchzilla thread.
Good times.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:23 PM on January 17, 2009
Good times.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:23 PM on January 17, 2009
Heh. I was wondering why two people suddenly favorited a comment of mine in a six-month-old deleted thread.
posted by EarBucket at 3:35 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by EarBucket at 3:35 PM on January 17, 2009
especially because of the spontaneous cheese discussion that arose from it.
I thought you were talking about this one.
posted by sambosambo at 3:56 PM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
I thought you were talking about this one.
posted by sambosambo at 3:56 PM on January 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
Boy, i'd never seen the sketchzilla fpp. my sides are hurting from laughing so hard
posted by Hands of Manos at 5:11 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by Hands of Manos at 5:11 PM on January 17, 2009
From roll truck roll's link: We believe it is a wrong community for real value advise, question or opinion.
posted by fimarin at 5:53 AM on February 23, 2007 [+] [!]
You can bet your ass it's A wrong community for that. It may even be THE wrong community. Grammatical jury's still out.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:12 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by fimarin at 5:53 AM on February 23, 2007 [+] [!]
You can bet your ass it's A wrong community for that. It may even be THE wrong community. Grammatical jury's still out.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:12 PM on January 17, 2009
Sorry, admins. Dee da dee da doo doo doo doo...
posted by infinitewindow at 5:29 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by infinitewindow at 5:29 PM on January 17, 2009
I love the best answer in the free pens thread! In particular, I love that it was marked best answer.
posted by grobstein at 6:57 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by grobstein at 6:57 PM on January 17, 2009
Ok, this thread's examples confuse me. Why did jmoore3's free pen offer not earn a banning? Why didn't all the urls in the first example get set to example.com?
posted by cjorgensen at 7:01 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by cjorgensen at 7:01 PM on January 17, 2009
Why did jmoore3's free pen offer not earn a banning?
We were apparently being big softies that day. The user never came back to make another move and collapse the waveform, so oh well.
Why didn't all the urls in the first example get set to example.com?
The example.com maneuver is actually relatively new, is I think all. But balls-out spam in Askme questions (as opposed to on the blue) is a weird enough thing that I could see us forgetting to on the first pass to munge the links.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:29 PM on January 17, 2009
We were apparently being big softies that day. The user never came back to make another move and collapse the waveform, so oh well.
Why didn't all the urls in the first example get set to example.com?
The example.com maneuver is actually relatively new, is I think all. But balls-out spam in Askme questions (as opposed to on the blue) is a weird enough thing that I could see us forgetting to on the first pass to munge the links.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:29 PM on January 17, 2009
Confusion over. Just making sure I knew how it was supposed to work.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:38 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by cjorgensen at 7:38 PM on January 17, 2009
So I looked at the deleted ask metafilter threads from the dump, over the past 3 years, there have been 1231 deleted ask metafilter threads.
I'll post the spreadsheet on my website of arcane spreadsheet projects, you are looking for Metafilter Number 3. Many of the 1231 have a pithy reason for deletion, that may help you in your search.
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 7:50 PM on January 17, 2009
I'll post the spreadsheet on my website of arcane spreadsheet projects, you are looking for Metafilter Number 3. Many of the 1231 have a pithy reason for deletion, that may help you in your search.
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 7:50 PM on January 17, 2009
over the past 3 years, there have been 1231 deleted ask metafilter threads.
Huh. At maybe nine or ten a week that doesn't sound unreasonable, but that's a hell of a number stacked up like that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:18 PM on January 17, 2009
Huh. At maybe nine or ten a week that doesn't sound unreasonable, but that's a hell of a number stacked up like that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:18 PM on January 17, 2009
Man, that Sketchzilla thread has made me feel almost homesick for world where metafilter still had an img tag.
posted by Jezztek at 8:38 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by Jezztek at 8:38 PM on January 17, 2009
Once someone made a post in Metatalk about a bad Ask post that turned into wacky pile-on, and it was so vague that I went into the comments solely to make fun of the poster, and then I started clicking on all the links people posted of their favorite wacky pile-ons, and then an hour and a half of my life vanished down the toilet.
posted by nanojath at 8:49 PM on January 17, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by nanojath at 8:49 PM on January 17, 2009 [3 favorites]
Amazed that that one managed to get 261 comments in a little over an hour before being deleted. Also, that Sketchzilla thread was glorious.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:07 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:07 PM on January 17, 2009
The Sketchzilla thread had me chuckling like something that chuckles a lot. Like a professional chuckler.
posted by ob at 9:45 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by ob at 9:45 PM on January 17, 2009
The title you're looking for is Certified Public Chucklehead.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:12 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:12 PM on January 17, 2009
Maybe the askme about rectal exam porn? And ensuing flipout/discussion at the grey.
posted by Xere at 11:11 PM on January 17, 2009
posted by Xere at 11:11 PM on January 17, 2009
Are you thinking of the time jamjammo accidently posted their question about computer maintenance to MetaFilter rather than Ask Metafiler? There’s lots of craziness in the comments.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 12:07 AM on January 18, 2009
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 12:07 AM on January 18, 2009
151 comments in the 25 minutes it took to get deleted.
Amazed that that one managed to get 261 comments in a little over an hour before being deleted.
Maybe it's me but this doesn't feel really unusual anymore. I feel nowadays the threads have a habit of growing much more rapidly than just a year ago. Take ANY of the more controversial topics or just the topics mefites feel strongly about.
Actually I just looked in the archives; for Metatalk there hasn't been a single month for the last 6 where there hasn't been a 300 comment topic.
It's similar for metafilter proper I guess.
I don't really like these megathreads. They are much harder to follow since the speed at which new comments are added is so great, and people commenting in them seem also to tend to give up on responding to earlier comments an instead just respond with their own immediate thought as quickly as possible.
posted by Catfry at 5:56 AM on January 18, 2009
Amazed that that one managed to get 261 comments in a little over an hour before being deleted.
Maybe it's me but this doesn't feel really unusual anymore. I feel nowadays the threads have a habit of growing much more rapidly than just a year ago. Take ANY of the more controversial topics or just the topics mefites feel strongly about.
Actually I just looked in the archives; for Metatalk there hasn't been a single month for the last 6 where there hasn't been a 300 comment topic.
It's similar for metafilter proper I guess.
I don't really like these megathreads. They are much harder to follow since the speed at which new comments are added is so great, and people commenting in them seem also to tend to give up on responding to earlier comments an instead just respond with their own immediate thought as quickly as possible.
posted by Catfry at 5:56 AM on January 18, 2009
I feel nowadays the threads have a habit of growing much more rapidly than just a year ago.
Yes, true on the blue, not on Askme though
300 or more comments on Blue:
1999: 0 of 420
2000: 1 of 4410
2001: 6 of 7911
2002: 1 of 9054
2003: 7 of 7878
2004: 12 of 7771
2005: 25 of 9683
2006: 25 of 9426
2007: 36 of 10429
2008: 53 of 10053
Oh, I also erred last night (posting under the influence), the last 3 years there have been 1320 deleted questions, not 1231.
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 9:54 AM on January 18, 2009
Yes, true on the blue, not on Askme though
300 or more comments on Blue:
1999: 0 of 420
2000: 1 of 4410
2001: 6 of 7911
2002: 1 of 9054
2003: 7 of 7878
2004: 12 of 7771
2005: 25 of 9683
2006: 25 of 9426
2007: 36 of 10429
2008: 53 of 10053
Oh, I also erred last night (posting under the influence), the last 3 years there have been 1320 deleted questions, not 1231.
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 9:54 AM on January 18, 2009
My favorite.
Yes.
Get a lawyer.
Don't eat it.
DTMFA!
See a physician immediately.
posted by chrisamiller at 11:55 AM on January 18, 2009
Yes.
Get a lawyer.
Don't eat it.
DTMFA!
See a physician immediately.
posted by chrisamiller at 11:55 AM on January 18, 2009
Ah, just remembered the roommate who woke up blind.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:33 PM on January 18, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:33 PM on January 18, 2009
Metafilter: a wrong community for real value advise, question or opinion.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:12 PM on January 18, 2009
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:12 PM on January 18, 2009
I was gonna be all "my favorite is the Buckets! deleted thread", but I couldn't find it -- and then I clicked on the sketchzillacom thread, and lost my shit giggling. So, yay!
posted by davejay at 10:58 PM on January 18, 2009
posted by davejay at 10:58 PM on January 18, 2009
I guess that answers that. Can't remember what the original thread was. Maybe the pen one. But there was a lot of fun reading in here.
Thanks!
posted by sully75 at 5:24 PM on January 19, 2009
Thanks!
posted by sully75 at 5:24 PM on January 19, 2009
I was underwhelmed by the sketchzilla post until I hit
Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you people think you're doing?
posted by loquacious at 2:43 PM on June 14, 2006 [+] [!]
My abs hurt from laughing so hard.
posted by FunkyHelix at 8:43 PM on January 19, 2009
Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you people think you're doing?
posted by loquacious at 2:43 PM on June 14, 2006 [+] [!]
My abs hurt from laughing so hard.
posted by FunkyHelix at 8:43 PM on January 19, 2009
A list of image "crapfloods" - just silliness, really - is on the wiki. There's nothing about longboats, surprisingly.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:09 PM on January 20, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 5:09 PM on January 20, 2009
A list of image "crapfloods" - just silliness, really - is on the wiki. There's nothing about longboats, surprisingly.
THERE SHOULD BE. Good gourd, the inline imgs from 9622v.2 ("This mess") KILLED MY LAPTOP.
This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:24 PM on January 20, 2009
THERE SHOULD BE. Good gourd, the inline imgs from 9622v.2 ("This mess") KILLED MY LAPTOP.
This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:24 PM on January 20, 2009
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posted by roll truck roll at 10:07 AM on January 17, 2009 [4 favorites]