This is a stupid question on multiple levels. March 24, 2009 5:10 AM Subscribe

This is a stupid question on multiple levels.

I love how the OP asks "why do urban black males...?" and then apologizes for the post being too race specific. Not just "urban", not just "black", but specifically "urban black". Without the racial aspect the question is "why do criminals wear dark clothes?"

Has to be a troll.

posted by mpls2 to MetaFilter-Related at 5:10 AM (370 comments total)

!
posted by yhbc at 5:19 AM on March 24, 2009 [8 favorites]

I'm feeling bitchy this morning... and I didn't even flag it, ironically.
posted by mpls2 at 5:27 AM on March 24, 2009

yhbc: "!"

Excellent advice. But since the question has been up for 9 hours now, it appears that the mods are jake with it. Which I find very surprising. I thought for sure I'd find it duly pinked by now.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:33 AM on March 24, 2009

How else would a cop spot a criminal if they weren't wearing all black? You expect too much of our police forces, I think.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:37 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I don't think I have a very good feel for what should stay or go in AskMe, but since jessamyn answered the question last night, it probably isn't going anywhere.
posted by Kwine at 5:38 AM on March 24, 2009

BWAHAHAHAHA!

I knew this would make it to the gray.

He/she should've asked a racial question such as, "Would black men enjoy interracial BDSM relationships, since it involves whips and chains?" It would've gone over better.
posted by sixcolors at 5:39 AM on March 24, 2009

It was thunderingly stupid.

This one was stupid too. And jawdroppingly childish.

But it's not like AskMe isn't going to have questions like that sometimes, in much the same way as an encyclopedia contains information you might consider to be obvious.
posted by orange swan at 5:39 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I think this is a perfectly good example of AskMe functioning well. A stupid question, correctly answered as being a stereotype with no evidence -- which the Asker acknowledged might be the correct answer -- and that presumably caused the Asker to adjust their opinions in the direction of truth, and to become less prejudiced.

The people in the original thread calling this question "offensive" need to consider if they'd really prefer it if people who believe in certain racial stereotypes kept their beliefs to themselves, rather than explicitly inviting challenge.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 5:42 AM on March 24, 2009 [32 favorites]

He/she should've asked a racial question such as, "Would black men enjoy interracial BDSM relationships, since it involves whips and chains?" It would've gone over better.

He should've asked "Would urban black african-american minorities enjoy interracial BDSM relationships?... sorry, didn't mean for the question to be too race-specific"
posted by mpls2 at 5:44 AM on March 24, 2009

I quite agree with you, game warden to the events rhino.
posted by orange swan at 5:45 AM on March 24, 2009

AskMefi: where racism goes to die
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 5:45 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I didn't even flag it, ironically.

You could have just chosen "other" in this case.
posted by googly at 5:54 AM on March 24, 2009

This one was stupid too. And jawdroppingly childish.

I hovered between answering and flagging for a few moments on that one. Part it seemed too much like "ha ha where is your Gaia now, environmentalists?" in how it was worded. Considering which answer he ended up marking as best, I'm glad I didn't flag.
posted by cimbrog at 5:56 AM on March 24, 2009

It's a weird question, no doubt. Questions like this make me wonder about how and where people live - I mean, I suppose if you live somewhere with not very many black people, and your only exposure is to what you see on TV....

Except I don't know about that. I'm glad that there are people who ask questions that help dispel ignorance (even if that's not how they meant it at first), but this question seems to have been asked from a place of "I'm not even going to think before I type."

Not unusual, that.
posted by rtha at 6:05 AM on March 24, 2009

I totally called this and decided to stay out of that thread. I'm getting pretty good at the game where I guess which questions will end up in Meta.

Sometimes I'm amazed that certain people actually have and apparently know how to operate computers, thankfully that amazement usually strikes when I am at YouTube or Yahoo Answers. Every once in a while though AskMe manages to provide that same sense of wonderment.

Also: Why do ninjas wear all black? Why do bank robbers always cover their faces? Why do prostitutes on the street wear such revealing clothing? Why are thieves always so sneaky?
posted by Bango Skank at 6:05 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think this is a perfectly good example of AskMe functioning well.

Well, unless it's a troll. But in general, yeah. Stupid bigoted questions need hugs too.
posted by mediareport at 6:06 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm getting pretty good at the game where I guess which questions will end up in Meta.

Kind of a no-brainer in this case, though.
posted by mediareport at 6:07 AM on March 24, 2009

Kind of a no-brainer in this case, though.

Yep, bu at least I'm getting the low-hanging fruit.
posted by Bango Skank at 6:16 AM on March 24, 2009

I'm getting pretty good at the game where I guess which questions will end up in Meta.

Whatever, it's not rocket science. The site has a general personality and handles some topics better than others, so it's fairly easy to predict what will make it to the grey.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:17 AM on March 24, 2009

[redacted]

Wow...I love it when I'm coherent enough in the morning to erase something I wrote that is profoundly stupid before posting. Go me.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:22 AM on March 24, 2009

Wow...I love it when I'm coherent enough in the morning to erase something I wrote that is profoundly stupid before posting. Go me.

Fuck, now I'm curious. :)
posted by mpls2 at 6:23 AM on March 24, 2009

Wow...I love it when I'm coherent enough in the morning to erase something I wrote that is profoundly stupid before posting.

That's the next skill I'm going to work on.
posted by Bango Skank at 6:24 AM on March 24, 2009

cortex and I talked about it and decided to leave it. The OP seems to get that his question is problematic. People (mostly) answered honestly and realistically explaining that it's a stereotype [which was one of his questions] and sort of an offensive thing to ask. That said, the guy seems to literally not know and may be fourteen for all we know. Dumb questions aren't against the rules.

As an aside, when I lived in Eastern Europe, this was the sort of thing people asked me a lot. They knew more African American people from movies and TV than they did from real life. Most of the few black people living in Romania were North African and people who thought they were being critical thinkers -- not something really encouraged in Ceauşescu-ian Romania -- were wondering why they seemed so different from the people they saw in American movies and etc. If you don't know, it's probably a touch question to ask with any degree of sensitivity, since not knowing implies a lack of cluefulness about racial distinctions and stereotyping generally.

Put another way, I think if this question was a troll it would have been better at it. People who are offended can not answer it, or come here to talk about it. There's a link in the thread that will let the OP know the question is here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:25 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

If you see anybody wearing black clothing walking towards you on the street, you should probably just assume you are about to die. Please lie prone on the sidewalk and promptly shit your pants while blubbering to your impotent God for mercy.
posted by dgaicun at 6:29 AM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

The question isn't necessarily stupid if you realize that black isn't the best color to wear at night if you want the darkness to camoflage you. You want to wear dark blue. Black clothing has more red in it than blue clothing. That clothing will be more responsive to urban sodium street lights which are primarily orange. In other words, the black clothing will be more orange (and visible) than the dark blue clothing, which will simply be pulled into black by orange light.

Also, you blue light visibility fails in more low light than your red light sensitivity. A lot of this depends on the type of fabric, however.

There is also an issue with near-infrared (night vision) being able to see black better than blue.

And murdering out you car won't help. Cars and windows, particularly tinted ones, are very shiny and contrast tremedously with the duller buildings and backdrop. The specular highlight immediately attracts attention. To hide a vehicle you need to give it a dull color (to match the gray pavement and taupe sidewalk) and a chalky or matte finish that won't reflect light.

This is why professional criminals use older cars (10+ years) that are faded or rusting. You simply don't notice them when they aren't moving.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:31 AM on March 24, 2009 [40 favorites]

The question isn't necessarily stupid if you realize that...

The question is necessarily stupid because the OP obviously wasn't thinking along those lines.
posted by mpls2 at 6:34 AM on March 24, 2009

jessamyn: "Dumb questions aren't against the rules."

I like that way better than the aphorism "there are no dumb questions". More honest, if you ask me.
posted by Plutor at 6:38 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

In the library we say under our breath "...just dumb question askers."
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:47 AM on March 24, 2009 [23 favorites]

One of the most irritating things about the types of questions in the original post is how many people come out of the woodwork to point out how racist it is, how it's a stereotype, subtly implying that they are not, simply by their ability to see how racist/stereotypical the question is. That's nice and I hope you enjoy that quiet little pat on the back that you're giving yourself, but shaming people for asking ignorant questions when they're seeking better understanding doesn't help. So treat the person like a human being, answer the question and move on. Getting all offended or angry about it ain't helping.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:49 AM on March 24, 2009 [23 favorites]

Mefi seems to know a lot about crime for a bunch of internet nerds.
posted by electroboy at 6:53 AM on March 24, 2009

Maybe I'm a pollyanna, but I didn't see any racism or bigotry there. Maybe a bit of insensitivity/ignorance, but that's about it. I think its weirder that everyone went all bonkers because the poster referred to race.

Then I got a comment removed because I said it was camouflage. I guess people in their hateful little minds assumed I was talking about skin color. I was talking about fitting into the darkness of the night.

Soldiers (and police quasi-soldiers) darken their faces so as to fit into the background. I guess that makes them racists?

pastabagel- excellent! I'll keep that in mind next time I'm out ninja-ing. (Because they are like, totally cool.)
posted by gjc at 6:54 AM on March 24, 2009

while blubbering to your impotent God for mercy.

My god has a hammer, yours was nailed to a cross. Any questions?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:56 AM on March 24, 2009 [14 favorites]

The difference between this thread and the previously ridiculous bigoted threads (ie. that one about the dog and black people) is that this poster actually wanted, or at least seemed to have wanted, to change their mind and opinion. That's a good thing. The problem, of course, is that this usually isn't the case and ask.me can be used by askers asking for justification of their previous beliefs. Unlike Brandon Blatcher, I'm for getting offended and angry. It's not the only way to answer a questions but it can be another effective way to go fight against bigotry and stereotyping. Touchy feely, huggy answers aren't necessarily the only, or the best way, to connect to people because people are different. Sometimes going "you can't be that stupid" is a perfectly reasonable answer to a question.

But if the asker actually doesn't want to change their mind, then the question should be nuked.
posted by Stynxno at 6:59 AM on March 24, 2009

We should be offended by the results of racism, not the ignorance in and of itself. Especially if the person is making an effort to educate themselves.
posted by lucidium at 7:04 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I kind of thought it was a troll-ish question out of the gate but people were answering mostly straightforwardly and without acknowledging the offensive aspects. I admired that, and tried to answer in kind. I kind of thought it was a win, stupid question handled well.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:10 AM on March 24, 2009

when i was working at a convenience store, we had a new hire that once asked some black people "how do you run from the police without tripping over your baggy pants?"

they just laughed at that

she was also rather dumb and was one of the first people in battle creek to have her tongue pierced and had to show everybody to see how shocked they would get

she didn't last real long
posted by pyramid termite at 7:19 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Then I got a comment removed because I said it was camouflage. I guess people in their hateful little minds assumed I was talking about skin color. I was talking about fitting into the darkness of the night.

For what it's worth, you got a comment removed because it appeared to be little more than an excuse to link to Sabotage, which, while it is an excellent music video, wasn't really answering the question at all.

And what game warden and jessamyn said. Sometimes people will ask really dumb questions in a concise and answerable fashion. Sometimes we know that shit is going to land in Metatalk but we let it stand anyway, because once we get to the point of making "could be a troll" a common and general grounds for deletion, AskMe is in trouble.

since the question has been up for 9 hours now, it appears that the mods are jake with it.

Being jake is Cory Doctorow's department.

Which I find very surprising.

See everything said in this thread since your comment. Meditate upon it. Etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:21 AM on March 24, 2009

Sometimes going "you can't be that stupid" is a perfectly reasonable answer to a question.

Eh, everyone is stupid in some way or put it more politely, everyone processes information from their senses in a different manner. Calling someone an a stranger stupid usually does nothing but put their defenses up and then you have to work to get'em lowered, and as you do that you're getting further away from the actual point you want to make, which is robbing yourself if time you could be pushing the refresh button in Recent Activity. Why would you want to hurt yourself like that?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:24 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

And, incidentally, this is the question I want to see answered next: Why do rural white males wear all-white sheets when trespassing and/or burning crosses?

(I knew a guy in college he got married and brought his wife (who was African-American) and her sister back to visit the village where he'd grown up, deep in the boonies of the alps. He goes around visiting with his wife (and sister-in-law) for a couple days until one morning he's in the local market and he hears two older women talking, one aisle over: "Did you see the wife?" "I did, and I never thought but I guess when they're black you can marry two of them.""Yes, yes, that's so." : Similar but different was the time my cousin told my uncle this very very funny joke about two Newfies (people from Newfoundland) who get set-upon by some space aliens, the punch-line of which joke was that old French-Canadian chestnut, "Alouette, gentille a-lou-et-te" etc. etc etc, my uncle got really bent out of shape by it, like for a couple years.)
posted by From Bklyn at 7:25 AM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

And, incidentally, this is the question I want to see answered next: Why do rural white males wear all-white sheets when trespassing and/or burning crosses?

It would not surprise you that that was one of the comments we deleted from the thread. Tired old lulz, switching the gender/race of the question and acting like it's clever/thoughful/answering.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:28 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Well, if it's an honest question and not someone trolling, I hope that he learns something from the answers. I assumed it was someone trolling.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:30 AM on March 24, 2009

In the library we say under our breath "...just dumb question askers."

I knew I heads suserrations as I walked away from the index cabinet that day!
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:30 AM on March 24, 2009

I thought it was a joke about the joke that was sitting there waiting to be made, that is, the next most obliviously tone-deaf-ly dumb question you could ask. (Inappropriate in thread, yes, but still made me laugh. It was a joke, wasn't it?)
posted by From Bklyn at 7:33 AM on March 24, 2009

I don't get the Newfie joke.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:36 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

As a group, I don't think the AskMe answerers are very good at picking out trolls.
posted by box at 7:36 AM on March 24, 2009

*heard* Coffee, please.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:42 AM on March 24, 2009

How often do white members feel ostracized, called out, unfairly stereotyped based on the posts here?

Measuring one person's intent by how much another person gets offended is worthless. This is the lesson of every faux pas ever committed.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:45 AM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

Are there silly, racist "why do White people?" questions that make it past the filters here as well?

I suppose we'd actually need some non-white people to answer this question.
posted by electroboy at 7:49 AM on March 24, 2009

(The Newfie joke is funny only because my French-Canadian cousin told it to my French-Canadian uncle who then took offense. Not at the depiction of these two Newfoundlanders sitting in their boat, but because the aliens, who kept zapping away parts of the brains of the Newfoundlanders, were seeing no effect until suddenly the two guys in the boat start belting out the typical French-Canadian song. We (all French-Canadian and my cousin's husband from Newfoundland) all laughed really hard but my uncle didn't. It was kind of a mess, really.

My point is that context does play a role in these kinds of issues and what be construed as an intent to offend is really just ignorance.)
posted by From Bklyn at 7:50 AM on March 24, 2009

Or, what Inspector.Gadget said.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:51 AM on March 24, 2009

How often do white members feel ostracized, called out, unfairly stereotyped based on the posts here?

There are plenty of whites here who are one or some of the following: vegan, liberal, conservative, female, overweight, geeks, jewish, and/or non-american. These groups have been ostracized, called out or unfairly stereotyped at various times.

Are there silly, racist "why do White people?" questions that make it past the filters here as well?

I don't think there have been any directed at white people specifically, but similar questions about some sub-group or other have been asked or so I think. Links anyone?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:52 AM on March 24, 2009

I joined Metafilter hoping to momentarily escape this type of (youtube styled) racist baiting.

Moment passed, I guess. I'm not so sure this is an honest inquiry but if it's a kid I guess maybe. I asked some insane things when I was a youngin. Stupid things - things I knew better than to ask. This does kind of have that air of teenagality. Where you just do something so dumb and your parents look at you like "Are you really my offspring?"
posted by cashman at 7:52 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of a question my roommate asked me when we were in the NCCC.

Roommate "Do Black people take showers?"

Me "Did you see me go into the bathroom this morning wearing a bathrobe?"

Roommate "Yes"

Me "and did you notice I came back slightly damp?

Roommate "Yes"

Me "Well what do you think I was doing in there?"

Roommate "Taking a shower, but I was always told that black people smelled funny because they didn't shower"

Me, sighing "Do I smell funny?"

Roommate "well no, I guess that isn't true then"

I'm glad she asked me so I could dispel some of the myths. She wasn't racist, just ignorant. It was annoying at times, but better than the alternative.
posted by Julnyes at 7:53 AM on March 24, 2009 [10 favorites]

As a group, I don't think the AskMe answerers are very good at picking out trolls.

This is a feature, not a bug.

Many people have determined this question to be an Honest, sincere inquiry.

People can ask honest, sincere questions that are foolish or naive or grossly blindered. There is no sign by the gate to AskMe that says You Must Be THIS Clueful To Post, and it happens that every now and then someone manages to ask what seems like a really ignorant question in good faith.

There is such a broad spectrum of cultural and social and academic &c. knowledge to be grappled with in the world, it's a given that any given person is going to be ignorant of a whole lot of things. It's nice that most people on metafilter (a) manage to get up to speed on the more fight-starty issues sooner and (b) have the critical thinking skills to assess their own curiosity and ignorance before putting it on display so that they can have a chance to do a spit-take before they accidentally start a fire.

But you get unlucky now and then and someone manages to have a gap in one of the more vital and socially conspicuous bits of the spectrum. And they ask about something people think they damned well should know about, and it makes for a bumpy ride. Partly because it bothers people to see that kind of ignorance on display, and partly because people behave poorly themselves in response to the question.

There's a big and important difference between the things that someone damned well should know and the things that every single person actually does know. Throw in the cultural and personal subjectivity of the former and it gets even hairier.

The problem with youtube is not that people say dumb things about race. The problem is that no one seems to mind. We're trying to be a hell of a lot better than that here, but that doesn't mean we're going to savage anyone who dares express a foolish curiosity and banish them to the Cave of Trolls on general principle.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:54 AM on March 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

How often do white members feel ostracized, called out, unfairly stereotyped based on the posts here?

In general? I guess we never asked or compiled the data. I'll start.

Hey! Any white taters out there? Sorry for ostracizing, mocking and questioning the existence of you for the past couple months! sub-question: please define yourself, white taters.
posted by jerseygirl at 7:57 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Everybody know that white people like to wear sweaters and loafers while they get offended at something someone said on the internet.
posted by jefeweiss at 8:00 AM on March 24, 2009

I don't think there have been any directed at white people specifically, but similar questions about some sub-group or other have been asked or so I think. Links anyone?

There was this flap a little more than a year ago.
posted by From Bklyn at 8:02 AM on March 24, 2009

But seriously, black guys dress like this, and white guys dress like this. AMIRITE?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:04 AM on March 24, 2009

After a re-read of the thread I now agree that it could just be ignorance. I hope it was. I think I was more offended by the responses that just went with it.... and the system not having an issue with it. It is easy to blow off when you don't get fragged.
posted by Studiogeek at 8:09 AM on March 24, 2009

It is easy to blow off when you don't get fragged.

Lots of white people here do get fragged, because they are more than just white people.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:14 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I still can't believe my Stuff White People like FPP was deleted. That site is gold.
posted by chunking express at 8:16 AM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

I'll admit it... I'm a little pissed off that this comment hasn't gotten favorited. I had an inner glow after I wrote it.
posted by mpls2 at 8:19 AM on March 24, 2009

and the system not having an issue with it

To be clear, "the system" is your fellow users and me, mathowie and jessamyn keeping an eye on what they're all saying and doing. "Not having an issue with it" isn't actually a very good description of the reaction the post got, so let me try and break down what did go on:

- Mods (jessamyn and me in this instance) saw it, agreed that it was problematic, and discussed whether or not it needed deletion. We came narrowly down on the side of letting it stand, for the reasons we've both gone into above.

- Users flagged the post, which we took into account in our thinking; we decided that in this case the flags were understandable (the question is poorly phrased and ill-considered and hot-button to boot) but weren't a good reason to flip our decision around.

- Some folks attempted to answer the question constructively: addressing the ignorance of the question in a civil fashion, trying to lay out the problems with the premises and the facts on the ground as far as who wears what when and why. This is a good thing: it's the system working.

- Some folks tried to post rebukes or sarcastic answers or jokes or metacommentary in the thread. Those were deleted, just like they are from any question where we see that going on, because none of that belongs on AskMe.

- Someone decided to broach the subject here in Metatalk, where metacommentary is supposed to happen. Over here, jokes and sarcasm and angry rebukes are also kosher (though not always well-advised or well-executed); Metatalk is in a lot of respects the release valve for the site.

For example, it's fine for you to dig in with questions about what went down over here, StUdIoGeEk, but it's not okay to try and have a conversation with the mods about moderation in the middle of an AskMe thread, which is why your comment about mod stuff over there was removed but we're having a discussion here without a problem.

This place is a big complicated organism; there are no robotics involved and essentially nothing that happens here can be dismissed as the actions or judgments of "the system" as some sort of undifferentiated, homogeneous whole.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:29 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

In short, we know who the Cylons are.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:31 AM on March 24, 2009

Why do black people like watermelon?

Because it's delicious.

What do you call a black man who can fly?

A pilot, you fucking racist.

(Two jokes Hustler rejected, proposed after they ran "What would you call the Flintstones if they were black? Fucking niggers.")
posted by klangklangston at 8:32 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: Your fellow users and you. This is just crying out to be the first video on MetaTV.
posted by cashman at 8:33 AM on March 24, 2009

"Users flagged the post, which we took into account in our thinking; we decided that in this case the flags were understandable (the question is poorly phrased and ill-considered and hot-button to boot) but weren't a good reason to flip our decision around."

Yeah, I was someone who flagged it after seeing it on the main page and doing a facepalm. But seeing the answers and this discussion, I came around to your point of view. The system works!
posted by klangklangston at 8:34 AM on March 24, 2009

Lots of white people here do get fragged, because they are more than just white people.

Not me. Being white makes me inviolable, secure in my privileged fortress, and incapable of empathy for any of you oppressed little serfs.
posted by orange swan at 8:39 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

dgaicun : If you see anybody wearing black clothing walking towards you on the street, you should probably just assume you are about to die. Please lie prone on the sidewalk and promptly shit your pants while blubbering to your impotent God for mercy.

I got tired of having this effect on people everywhere I went, what with the constant smell of human waste and plaintive wails of those before me, so I put myself through a fashion makeover where I got rid of the decaying skulls on pikes, fingers around my neck and the black t-shirts.

Now people actually seem pretty happy to see me.

I guess the t-shirts were really bothering them.
posted by quin at 8:47 AM on March 24, 2009

This is just crying out to be the first video on MetaTV.

Oooh, I am suddenly getting a vision of a Metafilter channel. And it rocks. Can I do a craft show? And be on a book discussion panel show?
posted by orange swan at 8:52 AM on March 24, 2009

*checks requests against master list*

Yep, those are white people activities, you're in!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:57 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

BWAHAHAHAHA!
I knew this would make it to the gray.

Man, if sixcolors can tell your questions sucks, your question really sucks.

Mefi seems to know a lot about crime for a bunch of internet nerds.

WE WATCH THE WIRE, DAMMIT!
posted by dersins at 9:01 AM on March 24, 2009 [9 favorites]

It's also important to note that AskMe as a resource doesn't exist solely for the benefit of the asker. So if a tricky question gets legitimate answers that may be of some lasting use or benefit to the community at large, the original intent of the question isn't necessarily important. For example, thanks to Pastabagel's thoughtful post above, I think I may be making a few adjustments to my "business casual" wardrobe. For that matter, I owe much of my professional success to another such AskMe pearl that scarabic once cast into an otherwise questionable thread.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:04 AM on March 24, 2009

Don't let cortex fool you. There are TONS of robotics involved in the system.
posted by SpiffyRob at 9:05 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I joined Metafilter hoping to momentarily escape this type of (youtube styled) racist baiting. This question (and many responses) had a negative effect on how I feel being here (at least for today, no huge thing). Many people have determined this question to be an Honest, sincere inquiry. I find that to be laughable... How often do white members feel ostracized, called out, unfairly stereotyped based on the posts here? Are there silly, racist "why do White people?" questions that make it past the filters here as well? I really want to know, whatever the answer is.
posted by StUdIoGeEk at 3:41 PM on March 24 [+] [!]

You are certainly welcome to take your aesthetically unappealing CaMeLcAsE and overuse of ellipses back to Youtube.
posted by atrazine at 9:06 AM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Why do white people smell like wet dogs?
posted by burnmp3s at 9:07 AM on March 24, 2009

electroboy : Mefi seems to know a lot about crime for a bunch of internet nerds.

We weren't always just internet nerds.
posted by quin at 9:10 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Obama, being black makes being black the "new" black. Therefore wearing black while being black is the newer black.

There is a Magic card from the newest set that explains all of this.
posted by pianomover at 9:11 AM on March 24, 2009

Trigger happy tv often sends out a guy in all-black or classic-thief-stripes. I love the ones where they have a guy carrying a big sign that says "thief" walk past beat cops, with narry a blink.
posted by nomisxid at 9:15 AM on March 24, 2009

I still can't believe my Stuff White People like FPP was deleted. That site is gold.

Man was that a day I'd take off if I could go back in time. I have to give credit to that blog for managing to so deftly entangle the mefi (or at least metatalk) community, and the fact that the thing was everywhere the next week pretty much puts me on the losing end of the argument.

I still think the site's pretty meh, but humor is subjective like that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:16 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

The real insight the question provides is that criminals don't own cats.
posted by drezdn at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

We weren't always just internet nerds.

Sorry, didn't mean to leave out the BBS nerds, ham radio nerds and the packet radio nerds.
posted by electroboy at 9:29 AM on March 24, 2009

chunking express: I still can't believe my Stuff White People like FPP was deleted. That site is gold.

God I love that site. At pretty much every meetup I've gone to at some point people start talking about how much they love SWP.

In a similar vein here's Louis CK on how great it is to be white.
posted by Kattullus at 9:39 AM on March 24, 2009

I'll admit it... I'm a little pissed off that this comment hasn't gotten favorited. I had an inner glow after I wrote it.

Please don't do that.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:40 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Louis CK on how great it is to be white.

Heh, that was pretty funny.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:54 AM on March 24, 2009

Excellent advice. But since the question has been up for 9 hours now, it appears that the mods are jake with it.

...Or....the mods were busy with something else?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:57 AM on March 24, 2009

I don't get the Newfie joke.

I take it that the aliens are punting people back along sort of Canadian 'March of Progress'-style sequence. French Quebecers are lower/dumber than Newfies, or the other way around.
posted by CKmtl at 10:00 AM on March 24, 2009

Punting people back, or shoving them forward, rather. Insufficient caffeine levels.
posted by CKmtl at 10:03 AM on March 24, 2009

...Or....the mods were busy with something else?

Who are you calling diurnal?
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:07 AM on March 24, 2009

Excellent advice. But since the question has been up for 9 hours now, it appears that the mods are jake with it.

...Or....the mods were busy with something else?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:57 PM on March 24

More relevant, I think, is that jessamyn commented in it 20 minutes after it first appeared.
posted by vacapinta at 10:17 AM on March 24, 2009

here's Louis CK on how great it is to be white.

Thanks! I forgot about that and I was there, so I have no excuse.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:30 AM on March 24, 2009

There is no such thing as a stupid question.

Except that one. Man. Seriously.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:52 AM on March 24, 2009

and the fact that the thing was everywhere the next week pretty much puts me on the losing end of the argument.

Don't forget about the book. Which was on the NY Times best seller list for like 2 months.

</rubbing salt in wound>
posted by nooneyouknow at 10:52 AM on March 24, 2009

"The MeTV Craft show has been canceled so we can bring you two full hours of LOLSpeak Derivatives!"

Invisible risk management.
posted by patricio at 11:01 AM on March 24, 2009

This place is a big complicated organism... and essentially nothing that happens here can be dismissed as the actions or judgments of "the system" as some sort of undifferentiated, homogeneous whole.

I understand your point, cortex: for a mod operating here on the physical plane this is largely true. Technically, though, if you step back (way, way, waay back) and put it all into the cosmic perspective of things it is exactly as the original commenter describes. The granularity only reveals itself once you get right up close.
posted by Meatbomb at 11:05 AM on March 24, 2009

posted by StUdIoGeEk

Is there a particular cultural or ethnic group associated with this style of CamelCase? I see it on boards form time to time. is it an Asian thing? A FOB thing? Or is it just indicative of 12 year-olds who think they've invented something new? ANy rhyme or reason at all here?
posted by GuyZero at 11:05 AM on March 24, 2009

"The MeTV Craft show has been canceled so we can bring you two full hours of LOLSpeak Derivatives!"

[lies down in the MeFiTv craft show dumpster and cries]
posted by orange swan at 11:06 AM on March 24, 2009

I think that style of capitalization is very common amongst the Skryptkidese. They're partially descendants of people who emigrated from Paskalmykia.
posted by adipocere at 11:11 AM on March 24, 2009

Is there a particular cultural or ethnic group associated with this style of CamelCase? I see it on boards form time to time. is it an Asian thing? A FOB thing? Or is it just indicative of 12 year-olds who think they've invented something new? ANy rhyme or reason at all here?

I've seen it from candy ravers, black high school kids, a Very Christian (tm) bride-to-be, so um, no.
posted by mkb at 11:13 AM on March 24, 2009

The BIG LETTER-little letter-BIG LETTER thing, however, is indefensible.

Agreed. That's a white people thing, right?
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:18 AM on March 24, 2009

Crap, should have previewed.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:18 AM on March 24, 2009

cortexAdmin: "There is no sign by the gate to AskMe that says You Must Be THIS Clueful To Post..."

Oh my God, can we get one of those???
posted by DarlingBri at 11:24 AM on March 24, 2009

The really creepy part was the insistence on the "while committing acts of violence" part.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:25 AM on March 24, 2009

Don't forget about the book. Which was on the NY Times best seller list for like 2 months.

Yeah, well, that's not the only thing that I think is lame and that a lot of people liked and which spent some time on the NYT Best Seller list.

Is there a particular cultural or ethnic group associated with this style of CamelCase?

People do all sorts of weird silly things with online handles. Don't read too much into it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:30 AM on March 24, 2009

I thought it should have gone, because allowing it to stand sets a precedent for other question-begging racist posts. (Why are Jews so good with money? Why are women with PMS so irritable? Are these just stereotypes?)

The fact that the poster finished "is this a stereotype" actually makes the good intent less plausible to me - if you know what a stereotype is, then you pretty much know the answer to the question.

It's kind of nice that there are so many Mefites/mods with the good will to trust that this is an innocent question asked in good faith; I feel more cynical.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:40 AM on March 24, 2009

How often do white members feel ostracized, called out, unfairly stereotyped based on the posts here?

A bunch! We can't even say the n-word without the PC police coming down on us! Oh my gosh it is so hard to be white!
posted by Optimus Chyme at 11:50 AM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

Not to mention it ends up reading like StudLo Geek.

Might as well be xxxStUdloGeEkxxx1989 AMIRITE?
posted by SpiffyRob at 11:55 AM on March 24, 2009

Stuff White People Like always seemed to me like"David Brooks' Bobos In Paradise for Dummies". It's not about white people. If it is, where's pro wrestling, giant four-door pickup trucks, megachurches, Fox News and pretty much everything signified by the Icy Hot Stuntaz? SWP is a rehash of old parodies of a quite narrow demographic and its authors seem to get their perceptions of the world second or third hand at best.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:02 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

(Why are Jews so good with money? Why are women with PMS so irritable? Are these just stereotypes?)

Well, there's been at least one of those in the green.
posted by rtha at 12:03 PM on March 24, 2009

Eh, why do suburban white males wear khakis?
posted by fourcheesemac at 12:05 PM on March 24, 2009

Is there a particular cultural or ethnic group associated with this style of CamelCase?

Wikipedia to the rescue.

The only culture I know of that is associated with that style is young teens on the Internet in the mid to late 1990's. When everybody switched from BBSes to the Internet, the alternating caps thing was one of the weird transplants from a certain subset of BBS culture. Whereas today's typical annoying 12-year-old Internet user hangs out on MySpace and writes stupid YouTube comments in all lowercase calling people gay, the typical annoying 12-year-old Internet user in the late 90s was a wannabe hacker who was always asking about WaReZ. Jeff K from Something Awful was a pretty accurate satire of that kind of kid. In my personal experience, alternating case was more common than actual leetspeak back then, and it pretty much died out as the Internet as a whole (and that generation particularly) matured.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:16 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Am I merely experiencing some kind of extra-intense pre-caffiene deja vu or have we done this thread before?

I'm honestly not being snarky. I'm confused. I recognize some of the one-liners in here as being read or seen before.

Fuck, I think I was time travelling in my sleep again. What day is it? Tuesday? Never could get the hang of them.
posted by loquacious at 12:20 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, by the way, can someone tell me why French people are cowardly elitists with pencil-thin moustaches and berets and go "hohn-hohn-hohn" when they laugh? Is this just a stereotype?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:20 PM on March 24, 2009 [14 favorites]

What a stupid fucking question. It's not even coherent. I can't believe it was not deleted. What a joke.
posted by milarepa at 12:24 PM on March 24, 2009

Oh, by the way, can someone tell me why French people are cowardly elitists with pencil-thin moustaches and berets and go "hohn-hohn-hohn" when they laugh?

Because they are le-tired.
posted by cashman at 12:30 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

How often do white members feel ostracized, called out, unfairly stereotyped based on the posts here?

Yeah, we can't even wear our Thor Svensen red leather jackboots without getting called out on the front page.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:30 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Why do white guys pick their ears at traffic lights, and then immediately inspect their fingers?

or, if they're in parliament, and they're the future prime minister, they might prefer to eat their ear wax.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:32 PM on March 24, 2009

Oh, by the way, can someone tell me why French people are cowardly elitists with pencil-thin moustaches and berets and go "hohn-hohn-hohn" when they laugh?

It's their way of being polite. If they were manly men with burly beards and raucous laughs, as well as having wonderful wine, cheese, cuisine in general, as well as beautiful women and a sexy language, well, it'd just be too much. So they let the rest of the world have something to laugh at to avoid the inferiority complexes from becoming unbearable.

Remember, we French are also stereotyped as spies, so you know we're sneaky enough that this could be true.
posted by explosion at 12:35 PM on March 24, 2009 [9 favorites]

Oh, by the way, can someone tell me why French people are cowardly elitists with pencil-thin moustaches and berets and go "hohn-hohn-hohn" when they laugh?

because if they laugh any more vigorously than an arrogant "hohn-hohn-hohn" they might overbalance from their bikes, sending baguettes & bushels of garlic all over the road.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:35 PM on March 24, 2009 [14 favorites]

Wait, so how come the Australian legislators aren't wearing floppy canvas hats ringed with dangling corks?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:36 PM on March 24, 2009

This reminds me of a question my roommate asked me when we were in the NCCC.

Roommate "Do Black people take showers?"

Dude, I heard white people don't even use washcloths. They just jam the soap all up in their body cracks like.
posted by Eideteker at 12:41 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm sorry, but that shit is just nasty. Use the damn cloth, people. It's not that hard.
posted by Eideteker at 12:41 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Well, it's safe to say the user in question has been sufficiently drubbed about their silly username, no?

To be clear, I wasn't insinuating that StUdIoGeEk was similar to the kids that popularized that style or that it was a dumb user name. It's just that the style was popular enough for a short time that it was burned into my brain, and not in a good way.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:41 PM on March 24, 2009

How else would a cop spot a criminal if they weren't wearing all black? You expect too much of our police forces, I think.

Racial profiling, of course, silly.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:43 PM on March 24, 2009

Wait, so how come the Australian legislators aren't wearing floppy canvas hats ringed with dangling corks?

Protocol. Question Time is an informal parliamentary session. The cork-dangly hats are only worn on State ceremonial occasions, like public bootings or the opening of the annual beer & bbq festival, which runs from Jan 1st to Dec 31st each year.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:45 PM on March 24, 2009 [5 favorites]

If we use a washcloth, we wash off that wet dog smell, and you wouldn't want that.
posted by yhbc at 12:49 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm sorry, but that shit is just nasty. Use the damn cloth, people. It's not that hard.

It's soap. It's self cleaning.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 12:53 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm sorry, but that shit is just nasty.

Oh, man, I forgot all about the washcloth thing. There was that "Do you use one?" askme, which ended up getting a callback in a metatalk thread (about racial/stereotype elements in askme questions!) a few months later, starting right about here.

Know your mods: jessamyn uses a washcloth; cortex just jams the soap all up in his body cracks like. Matt and pb have been oddly silent on the issue.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:54 PM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

Thanks, Ubu. I know I've learned a lot about stereotypes here today, and I appreciate having the forum to air them out. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go fire a machine gun while eating a Big Mac, reading the Bible, and ignoring a map of the world.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:56 PM on March 24, 2009 [9 favorites]

Know your mods:

Video #2. Come on, I can't take this teasing much longer!
posted by cashman at 12:57 PM on March 24, 2009

Jebus, Marisa StPT - do you have to talk so loud?
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:01 PM on March 24, 2009

Grrrrrr...I still can't believe that post didn't get wiped off the face of the earth.

This did. :(
posted by sixcolors at 1:01 PM on March 24, 2009

It's soap. It's self cleaning.

Bacteria love soap. All those yummy fatty acids, minerals and H2O. And the indentations and soap dish make a nice dark place to feed.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:05 PM on March 24, 2009

Sixcolors, be a dear and go wash up for dinner.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:05 PM on March 24, 2009

That's a joke, right?
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:05 PM on March 24, 2009

I like this little bit of standup from Barry Sobel.
posted by cashman at 1:06 PM on March 24, 2009

(to sixcolors, that is, not BP who is spot-on)
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:06 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors, is this some kind of performance art thing where you post the most idiotic shit imaginable and then complain about it getting deleted?

Because I encourage you to do some more lucrative and less annoying performance art, like canning your actual shit or something.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:06 PM on March 24, 2009

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing : I have to go fire a machine gun while eating a Big Mac, reading the Bible, and ignoring a map of the world.

Cool! I'll meet you in the usual place. I'll bring the fried chicken and the 64oz sodas.
posted by quin at 1:06 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

This did. :(

I got bingo!
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:08 PM on March 24, 2009 [13 favorites]

I really don't want to get in the middle of the crowd rushing to stomp a certain user down, but indeed I find that deleted question more passable than the one under discussion. If it is user history, I understand. If it is just question vs question, it does seem like the deleted one falls under all the allow-to-stand rules this one fell under. Especially since the answer (to me) is that at least for guys, you often have a very low haircut or bald fade and you get cold easier.
posted by cashman at 1:13 PM on March 24, 2009

Speaking of, WHO ARE ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE ON METAFILTER???

Raise those hands!

....And gays and lesbians???

We represent!

Annnnnd the RICH PEOPLE???

You knew I had to ask!!! How did you get rich? Share your tips!

We need a roll-call post on MeTa!
posted by sixcolors at 1:13 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors- To answer any and all of your future metatalk requests, I suggest you go back and read this over a few times.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:17 PM on March 24, 2009

How did you get rich? Share your tips!

we can give you all the best advice in the world and it won't really matter because you're not capable of listening.
posted by lia at 1:18 PM on March 24, 2009 [6 favorites]

Please stop feeding the troll out of your trunk supplies. You need them for the long drive ahead.
posted by Paid In Full at 1:19 PM on March 24, 2009

You knew I had to ask!!! How did you get rich? Share your tips!

Got jobs, kept jobs, and got rid of people who caused me trouble and drama. I listened to good advice and have tried to not make the same mistakes again and again.

Why am I bothering. I dunno.

Gonna go eat some thin mints now.
posted by rtha at 1:23 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

> How did you get rich?

Don't work at a restaurant that makes you share your tips.
posted by ardgedee at 1:26 PM on March 24, 2009

Jebus, Marisa StPT - do you have to talk so loud?

WHERE. IS. THE. OPERA. HOUSE?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:29 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

If it is user history, I understand.

It's a whole lot of user history, yeah. The benefit of the doubt is an important principle and one we try to keep to whenever possible, but that we're generally willing to cut someone some slack when they stumble a bit does not mean we're going to grant carte blanche for future bad behavior.

Cutting someone some slack carries with it the expectation that they will recognize that for what it is and make a concerted effort to improve their interactions with the site and the community so that future slack doesn't need to be cut so much. Most folks do an okay job of that, but not everyone.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:30 PM on March 24, 2009

My god. That deleted question just finally tipped me into the sixcolors-is-a troll camp. Thanks for linking to it, sixcolors! Your shenanigans always brighten my day.
posted by CunningLinguist at 1:31 PM on March 24, 2009

Grrrrrr...I still can't believe that post didn't get wiped off the face of the earth.

This did. :(

You've made a name for yourself here. You're variably thought of as an outright troll, someone near the top of the scale of attention-seeking behaviour, or someone lacking a crucial inhibition pathway between their brain and fingers.

Your posts and comments are going to be viewed through that filter by others. They're going to react according to those filters that you've helped create. This in turn affects how the mods perceive it as a possible impending trainwreck. The people who posted that black-clothing question, or the jew-money question, or the gay-FAAABulous question didn't/don't have the same baggage that "posted by sixcolors" carries.

Is it fair in a cosmic sense? Perhaps not. You could make some headway against those filters, if they really bother you, by not encouraging them so damn much.
posted by CKmtl at 1:31 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Ok, mod-folks, sixcolors has demostrated time and time again (usually exactly once every 7 days), that she is either unable to grasp the community norms around here, or chooses not to for her own amusement. Every fifth metatalk devolves into a conversation about this. Almost every question she posts becomes what looks like a time consuming nightmare for you guys.

At what point do you say, "Enough, please."?
posted by chiababe at 1:40 PM on March 24, 2009

At what point do you say, "Enough, please."

Yeah, I feel like lighting my torch. After I put on a black hat and shirt to ~~make it easier for me to rob and shoot people~~ keep my black head warm. Seriously, this has kind of been dragging on. Or at least it seems so in internet time.
posted by cashman at 1:44 PM on March 24, 2009

...says the person who often favorites my posts, regardless of intentions.
posted by sixcolors at 1:44 PM on March 24, 2009

Questions like this make me wonder about how and where people live - I mean, I suppose if you live somewhere with not very many black people, and your only exposure is to what you see on TV....
Well, I live somewhere like that and, while I can understand that some people take the world as she is seen on TV as a true picture of the Big Wide World (hint: in the words Reality Show, one word is a lie), I struggle to sympathise with them.

Sure, 50 years ago, people lived much more insular lives, cosy in the world of their immediate environments to a much greater degree than today. But there is really no excuse for anyone who clearly has access to the Internet and enough curiosity to ask the question here in the first place to believe that stereotypes are anything but that - almost-caricatures of particular sub-groups of society that have little or no resemblance to Real Life.

For what it's worth, I think the question was stupid and when I saw it appear, I was sure it would be deleted. However, the most stupid question can be saved by the first few people who answer in a thoughtful way, which happened here. See, there are no stupid questions - only stupid answers.
posted by dg at 1:44 PM on March 24, 2009

to chiababe, not cashman.
posted by sixcolors at 1:45 PM on March 24, 2009

We need a roll-call post on MeTa!

All in favor of discontinuing the sixcolors trollbot experiment?
posted by dersins at 1:46 PM on March 24, 2009

Oh, on non-preview, I see we are feeding the trolls again :-(
posted by dg at 1:46 PM on March 24, 2009

> ...says the person who often favorites my posts, regardless of intentions.

Members often favorite threads that are obviously going badly, so that they're easier to find if they're deleted.
posted by ardgedee at 1:48 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I will tell you what is terrible. I grew up in a household where soap and washcloths were the norm. My wife grew up in a soap only household, so she sees them as essentially useless. What truly blows my mind is her parents -- although they have a towelette set in the bathroom (towel, hand towel, washcloth) on a decorative stand, you do not use that. It is not for you. It is decorative.

What's exceptionally weird is that the set gets rotated out, and the towels get washed periodically.
posted by boo_radley at 1:48 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think it's unfair for everyone to automatically assume that sixcolors is a troll solely because he/she/it repeatedly asks stupid questions and refuses to understand the obvious repercussions. We're better than that, MetaFilter! So long as there's even the slightest chance that sixcolors is merely a total fucking idiot, I think we owe it to the community to accept the possibility that George W. has finally discovered the Internets.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:49 PM on March 24, 2009

Sixcolors. Please. For the love of pimiento loaf, go get yourself a Livejournal or Twitter account or something so you can stir up drama where it's welcome. Even people who've given you the benefit of the doubt and tried to help many a time before are getting tired of your shit.
posted by Metroid Baby at 1:50 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Can someone just start a new sixcolors MeTa callout thread (marked as a meetup) so that all of the troll feading can be re-directed there for the next six months or so? It's getting kind of annoying.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:50 PM on March 24, 2009

burnmp3s, I've considered it, but every thread focused on a sixcolors post ends up getting closed to avoid a pile-on it seems, ending with another admonishment from one of the mods that doesn't sink in. So here we are.
posted by chiababe at 1:54 PM on March 24, 2009

I am not a troll. I am someone who does not take shit from people. I was at my nicest for the first six months here, but the rudeness only got worse. What am I supposed to do.

FEEL FREE to make a callout thread. I don't think the mods would mind, they even suggested it on a recent post of mine.
posted by sixcolors at 1:56 PM on March 24, 2009

I am not a troll. I am someone who does not take shit from people. I was at my nicest for the first six months here, but the rudeness only got worse. What am I supposed to do.

Oh, here it comes, right on schedule: "I've had enough of your shit, screw you all, I'm leaving!"

Gawd, what a tiresome paint-by-numbers troll you are. You've got one joke and it stopped being funny weeks ago.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:58 PM on March 24, 2009

Um, I didn't say I wanted to leave...

I'm just saying if you fling shit at me, I will do it back.
posted by sixcolors at 2:00 PM on March 24, 2009

And in the end
The shit you take
Is equal to the shit
You make
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:00 PM on March 24, 2009 [10 favorites]

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
posted by juiceCake at 2:03 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

sixcolors, the problem is that your version of "not tak[ing] shit from people" seems to involve ignoring everything anyone tells you, including us mods' repeated attempts to convey why your behavior is problematic.

I don't know that we've ever gotten anything even resembling a serious acknowledgment from you on the several occasions when we've tried to lay this stuff out for you; you just keep doing whatever the hell occurs to you to do that day and either shout the equivalent of "wevs!" or just shuffle off into the mist when it creates friction.

It's a tiring, unrewarding cycle to go through with you, and the fact that you generally don't seem willing to even recognize that there's a community here beyond the tip of your own nose gives us not a whole lot of hope for being met halfway, especially after all this time.

We've been extraordinarily patient with you from an admin perspective, and gotten a lot of flak for it, too, but if all you're going to do is keep on this same path and insisting the problem is not with you, we're not really going to have an option besides showing you the door.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:03 PM on March 24, 2009 [25 favorites]

WHERE. IS. THE. OPERA. HOUSE?

The CIC. Duh.
posted by The Whelk at 2:10 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

We've been extraordinarily patient with you from an admin perspective, he said with the banhammer poised like shadowy thunderclouds over a rainbow-lit range.
posted by carsonb at 2:11 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I would follow sixcolors' twitter stream.
posted by Science! at 2:12 PM on March 24, 2009

MetaFilter: sixcolors' twitter stream
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:13 PM on March 24, 2009 [9 favorites]

Sixcolors. Please. For the love of pimiento loaf, go get yourself a Livejournal or Twitter account or something

Too late.

I cannot tell a lie, of all the people who have gained such site status that every Metatalk thread turns into a conversation about them, I dislike sixcolors the least.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:14 PM on March 24, 2009 [8 favorites]

sixcolors, I think you have tried to take some of what people say here to heart, a little, sometimes. But I don't think you've tried very hard because the payoff of behaving on MeFi is not having any drama. We have noticed that you like the drama.

A beatdown, a callout, a flameout, a timeout, a banning... it will all only last until some incarnation of "sevencolors" makes an appearance anyway, right? Oh the speculation! Can you imagine?

It takes all kinds to make a community. I'll take the devil I know.

On preview, I've been trying to phrase this since before cortex's comment, and I don't mean this as a response to his warning.
posted by juliplease at 2:14 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile girl and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able.

I'VE GIVEN MY WHOLE LIFE TO TROLLING, AND SHE DOES IT IN ONE DAY! ONE DAY!
posted by Optimus Chyme at 2:17 PM on March 24, 2009 [10 favorites]

We've been extraordinarily patient with you from an admin perspective, he said with the banhammer poised like shadowy thunderclouds over a rainbow-lit range.

Floating in lotus, ethereally hanging above the crowd, Jessamyn and Mathowie gave knowing glances in turn.
posted by cashman at 2:17 PM on March 24, 2009

Too many posts, Optimus.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:19 PM on March 24, 2009 [6 favorites]

Obama, being black makes being black the "new" black. Therefore wearing black while being black is the newer black.

See, e.g., Xzibit, supra note 5 at RECURSION RECURSION ERROR ERROR 0xikfsfdf237923
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 2:20 PM on March 24, 2009

Burhanistan: "Wait, wait...it's a he?"

Yeah, my world just got thrown asunder too.
posted by Science! at 2:21 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors, having his own fun.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:21 PM on March 24, 2009

I have this vision of cortex wearing a chunky, WiFi-enabled watch while eating a giant donut. He looks down at his wrist, staring as the LEDs flash first a barely-discernable light, then sequence through bright red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. It repeats three times while he's squinting. "Oh, pb must have added a new alert. Looks like a MetaTalk post by sixcolors."

And then he hits a button on the side of his lawn chair and it turns into a glider that zips him off to the Server Cave. That's where my fantasy takes a turn for the strange.
posted by adipocere at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

we're not really going to have an option besides showing you the door.

Here?
posted by netbros at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2009

Too late.

I thought sixcolors was a girl.
posted by electroboy at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2009

I think TPS said "too late" because someone else has taken the livejournal and twitter name of sixcolors.
posted by chiababe at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2009

That is what I meant, yes.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:23 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

*un-follows sixcolors*
posted by Science! at 2:25 PM on March 24, 2009

Gonna go eat some thin mints now.

Rtha, I highly recommend that you put at least a few of those thin mints in the freezer until summer, when their flavor reaches its peak. They're best served crushed and sprinkled over vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm thin mints... I'd buy those out of the trunk of a car.
posted by headnsouth at 2:26 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Disregard that. Thin Mints are best enjoyed by shoving as many of them as you can into your mouth at once and munching them for a bit, then adding a mouthful of ice cold 2% milk and turning the remainder into a minty-milky slurry that slides down your throat easier than you expect it to.
posted by Science! at 2:28 PM on March 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

It seems we've come back to stereotypes of fat Americans.

I've already finished off 2 boxes of thin mints this month.
posted by chiababe at 2:32 PM on March 24, 2009

Thin Mints are best enjoyed by Mr. Creosote.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:32 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Roma have an interesting take on the whole clean/unclean soap divide: they actually employ two different bars of soap, one for above the navel and one for below. Which bar washes the actual navel, I do not know.

The marimé dividing point is the "waistline" not the navel. And the definition of "waistline" is slightly higher than, say, American Apparel's--it starts right under the ribs.

So a marimé Rom is expected to wash his or her navel with the "below the waist" soap.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:33 PM on March 24, 2009

I think we owe it to the community to accept the possibility that George W. has finally discovered the Internets.

Could actually be John McCain. Just sayin'.
posted by ericb at 2:34 PM on March 24, 2009

Oh, here it comes, right on schedule: "I've had enough of your shit, screw you all, I'm leaving!"

That would be really OK. Can I do anything to help this happen? No offense, but the sixcolors shtick is tiresome.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:36 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wow, metafilter has been on their period lately...we should change the background to red.
posted by gman at 2:38 PM on March 24, 2009

SIXCOLORS? MOAR LIKE SIX FLAGS AMIRITE
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:38 PM on March 24, 2009

Thin Mints are inferior to the original Choc-O-Mint.
posted by adipocere at 2:38 PM on March 24, 2009

Rtha, I highly recommend that you put at least a few of those thin mints in the freezer until summer

That's where the last box is going to live, yup. Although "summer" out here is more like....May, or maybe September. Traditional Northern Hemisphere summer months are typically too cold and foggy to enjoy ice cream with frozen Thin Mints. On the 4th of July, for example, what you really want as you "watch fireworks" (i.e. see the fog change colors) is a thermos of hot chocolate.
posted by rtha at 2:38 PM on March 24, 2009

The marimé dividing point is the "waistline" not the navel. And the definition of "waistline" is slightly higher than, say, American Apparel's--it starts right under the ribs.

Thanks for the clarification.
posted by Bookhouse at 2:39 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm supposed to be outside taking a walk right now but I can't seem to stop hitting refresh.
posted by Bango Skank at 2:39 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm just saying if you fling shit at me, I will do it back.

I always suspected you were a monkey!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 2:39 PM on March 24, 2009

Please don't ban sixcolors. I really really enjoy the whacky entertainment factor.

However, TPS should be banned for totally psyching me out just then
posted by CunningLinguist at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Mwa ha ha ha!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:43 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Damn. Sixcolors makes me look GOOD.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:43 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors, having his own fun.

Flinging shit on the grey and fucking with the green.
posted by gman at 2:44 PM on March 24, 2009

jessamyn uses a washcloth;

the hell I do.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:45 PM on March 24, 2009

I started slow cooking a pot of beef bourguignonne several hours ago, and the gorgeous smell is filling the house. The more you know.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:47 PM on March 24, 2009

Instead of a washcloth, I prefer to just bring my towel into the shower with me. I wash with that, rinse it, wring it out, and then dry with it, too.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:48 PM on March 24, 2009

Bacteria love soap. All those yummy fatty acids, minerals and H2O. And the indentations and soap dish make a nice dark place to feed.

Was just one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, not a hygiene recommendation... Though I have to admit I was inclined to agree with Jerry.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 2:49 PM on March 24, 2009

the hell I do.

Oh yeah, well, uh, your mom uses one.

My bad, I totally misparsed that comment earlier.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:52 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors : FEEL FREE to make a callout thread. I don't think the mods would mind, they even suggested it on a recent post of mine.

Do you ever feel like you've been silenced? Perhaps for the entirety of your life thus far?
posted by quin at 2:54 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

sixcolors: "Um, I didn't say I wanted to leave...

I'm just saying if you fling shit at me, I will do it back."

That is a red herring; you aren't addressing your own behavior. More specifically, two wrongs don't make a right. Also, people criticizing your ridiculous behavior != shit flinging.

I say we exploit sixcolors's faulty decision making process by throwing leaves.
posted by defenestration at 2:56 PM on March 24, 2009

All this talk of washcloths... shivverrr... please stop.
posted by dirty hippie at 3:00 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I started slow cooking a pot of beef bourguignonne several hours ago, and the gorgeous smell is filling the house.

I'll trade you some Thin Mints for a bowlful of delicious bourguignonne.
posted by rtha at 3:03 PM on March 24, 2009

Um, I didn't say I wanted to leave...
You know, you could gain mind-bogglingly large amounts of karma by doing something you don't want to do but that makes twelve thousand other people happy...
posted by dg at 3:03 PM on March 24, 2009

dirty hippie

Heh. Reminds me of that joke about how to hide your money from a Deadhead.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:03 PM on March 24, 2009

In his work shoes?
posted by dersins at 3:09 PM on March 24, 2009

No, give me attention!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:10 PM on March 24, 2009

In a washcloth?
posted by From Bklyn at 3:12 PM on March 24, 2009

Q: How many hippies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: Hippies don't screw in lightbulbs, silly! Hippies screw in dirty sleeping bags.
posted by bookish at 3:12 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

MetaFilter: slides down your throat easier than you expect it to.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:12 PM on March 24, 2009

Maybe I'm the only one that doesn't know this.
Cortex: ...shout the equivalent of "wevs!"

What does wevs mean?
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:14 PM on March 24, 2009

Q: What's the only time you wink at a hippie?

A
posted by dersins at 3:14 PM on March 24, 2009

In his work shoes?

Under the soap, dur.

I admit I might be skewed here. I lived in a house full of Deadheads for a spell who listened to Jerry 24/7 and nothing else. Ever. Oh, wait, that's right - for a change of pace, they sometimes played Steve Miller.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:14 PM on March 24, 2009

I say we exploit sixcolors's faulty decision making process by throwing leaves. Yeah, I know, that doesn't really make complete sense, but still.

Seriously though, cortex and jessamyn (if you're both still looking at this thread): do you think of sixcolors as a user trolls AskMeFi and MeTa? [Note: I'm not asking if sixcolors only trolls, just whether you think she does troll at all.]

Has there been any bad behavior that sixcolors has been reprimanded for then changed? This is an honest question; I wouldn't know, as I am no sixcolors historian.
posted by defenestration at 3:15 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

user *who* trolls
edit feature, plz
posted by defenestration at 3:17 PM on March 24, 2009

Lemurrhea: google is your friend.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:17 PM on March 24, 2009

Marisa Stole the Shamwow is my new sockpuppet.

I spat a cookie onto my monitor. Excellent work.
posted by GuyZero at 3:18 PM on March 24, 2009

What does wevs mean?

Whatever. In the dismissive sense. Used to be "what-EVER!" accompanied by this gesture.
posted by CKmtl at 3:26 PM on March 24, 2009

Was it a Thin Mint, GuyZero?
posted by rtha at 3:27 PM on March 24, 2009

do you think of sixcolors as a user trolls AskMeFi and MeTa?

I think "troll" is a really overloaded term at this point in internet history; what a troll is and isn't and what trolling does and doesn't constitute means different things to different people and pinning down what exactly any given person means when they use the word is a pain in the ass.

That said, I think sixcolors willfully comes to the site with the intent to get a reaction. I think she enjoys attention, even if it's negative, more than she enjoys putting in an effort to just get along with folks here. I think her behavior has been too consistently disruptive and unrestrained for too long to credit it anymore as the product of any sort of good faith misunderstanding.

If that doesn't meet whatever the prevailing understanding of trolling is, I think it's a distinction without a difference at this point.

The sudden yet-again disappearance of sixcolors herself from the conversation and the ongoing lack of any kind of contact over private channels just moves to confirm my negative perception of her motives.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:32 PM on March 24, 2009 [7 favorites]

Southern Illinois, represent!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:35 PM on March 24, 2009

You knew I had to ask!!! How did you get rich? Share your tips!

I mastered the buying/selling game. Don't try it though--it's more complex than you think.
posted by mullacc at 3:40 PM on March 24, 2009

What I wanna know is, what exactly is "that clown patterned hyphy crap" smartyboots referred to? Here's a definition of hyphy but what about the clowns?
posted by Rash at 3:40 PM on March 24, 2009

Pepperidge Farms Milano. The thin mints are at home though I think I like the Canadian Girl Scout version better. The Dosidos are great though especially since y'all don't have Pirate cookies. I have no frigging clue why they'd name peanut butter sandwich cookies "Pirate" but it makes as much sense as "Dosidos".
posted by GuyZero at 3:41 PM on March 24, 2009

Rash: My guess is when smartyboots referred to "clown patterned" I think they meant the BAPE-style loudly colored/patterned hoodies and the multi-toned sneakers (Nike dunks/Reebok high tops, whatever) that's in with some sets.

As for the sixcolors issue at hand, while I find it all terribly amusing in the most inappropriate way, like thinking of something funny during a funeral and the fact that you can't laugh at a funeral makes it funnier, I think it's getting a bit much when every other MeTa thread has pretty good probability of being derailed by sixcolors because she can't have the spotlight off of her for one second. So she decides to jump in to yell "LOL, you're worse then me" and throws the issue at hand out the window because everyone has to shout back "NO U."

If I was more conspiracy minded, I'd draw up some elaborate plan about how sixcolors isn't really a troll, but a social experiment created by Final Five to show us the truths and foibles, as well as the failures that make MeTa so human...and so beautiful.
posted by kkokkodalk at 3:55 PM on March 24, 2009

What I wanna know is, what exactly is "that clown patterned hyphy crap" smartyboots referred to?

This may help you out. You've probably seen it a million times and not even known it.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:55 PM on March 24, 2009

"...says the person who often favorites my posts, regardless of intentions.
posted by sixcolors at 1:44 PM on March 24"

Favorites does not always mean what you think it does.

True, it can mean :

1. Wooo/abso-friggin-lutley/spot-on/YES!, or some other positive reinforcement.

Sometimes it means:

2. WTF is that fool talking about? I need to mark this so I can check on those spurious claims.
3. Wow, is this post going to be a trainwreck. Might as well watch this for as long as it lasts.

Just saying, I think you're fooling yourself a little bit if you assume that favorites always indicate positive things here.
posted by HopperFan at 3:59 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Except for me. 5300 people think I'm AWESOME!
posted by dersins at 4:02 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

fyi.
posted by dersins at 4:02 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

dersins- favorites by your mom don't count.
posted by mrzarquon at 4:08 PM on March 24, 2009

What about favorites by cortex's mom? Do those count?
posted by rtha at 4:11 PM on March 24, 2009

Why did everyone let this become about sixcolors? Again, that is.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 4:22 PM on March 24, 2009

Because s/he is the puppet master. Mu-hahaha! Dance! Dance!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:23 PM on March 24, 2009

OMG a cortex's mom joke that I didn't make!
posted by dersins at 4:23 PM on March 24, 2009

What about the favorites that cortex's mom pays me to give him?
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:27 PM on March 24, 2009

Awww corpse, you're my favorite mom.
posted by needled at 4:31 PM on March 24, 2009

3. Wow, is this post going to be a trainwreck. Might as well watch this for as long as it lasts.

Ding, ding, ding!
posted by chiababe at 4:42 PM on March 24, 2009

"Matt and pb have been oddly silent on the issue."

They wash each other, and then silently stare across their monitors at each other the rest of the day.
posted by klangklangston at 4:44 PM on March 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

sixcolors, those "everyone put your hands up if..." type threads don't tend to work so well.
posted by goshling at 4:45 PM on March 24, 2009

Oh, and by-the-by, the stereotype of black people not liking cold weather is a pretty prevalent one, though I don't know if there's any biological basis.
posted by klangklangston at 4:46 PM on March 24, 2009

And, in fairness, it's wasn't whitey who came up with the black people are "sun people"
/ white people are "ice people" thing.
posted by dersins at 4:49 PM on March 24, 2009

1. The question that spurred this MeTa didn't seem like a trolling effort to me...more a statement of the individual's lack of experience with the world beyond TV. juiceCake & Brandon Blatcher (and those with similar opinions) have the right of it, I think.

1a. There have been times when I've been the "ambassador" for the pale-complexioned, answering questions along the lines of the washcloth/wet dog/crackers & cheese variety brought up here. I found out about a lot of really weird misconceptions, many created by commercials. And, more interestingly, I learned about some non-misconceptions which were simply vast cultural differences which required a sensitive handling for both sides ("white" people kissing their pets...I had no idea how volatile this issue was until immersed in a 3hr debate with two friends).

1b. And there have been times when I've been asked questions about other phenotypes/cultures which sounded ridiculous but were in total good faith, which I always tried to answer with as few "wtf?!?" sparks flying off as possible. Sometimes people ask egregiously naive questions which sound more like cruel baiting, and it's a real effort to not answer in a way that makes them defensive...but it's worth it Even if a question is asked poorly, I think it should be answered with an assumption of the asker as a knowledge-seeker open to new information. If it turns out to not be the case, I'm at least not part of the problem. Most of the people giving constructive answers in the thread seemed to be taking this approach, and I loved reading through it.

1c. A friend once asked me about tightly-curly hair texture and I turned the question back, asking why she didn't check in with a friend with that same texture. She said, "it would be too uncomfortable and he would think I'm stupid." This question seemed like it was in the same vein - the asker didn't have anyone to ask, so turned to the greatest question-answering machine in the history of mankind.

2. There's a user whose name came up a lot in this thread whom I'm going to deny further namechecks. I don't like dogpiling or ostracism or shunning or shame, and feel uncomfortable when people's contributions to dialogue are summarily dismissed or mocked due to past behaviour. This user, though, does seem to be thriving on any attention of any variety and is taking it to unhealthy extremes of self-exposure, seemingly to generate a higher volume of increasingly accurate criticism.

I do not think this person is capable of learning appropriate communication skills in an online venue because of whatever lack or grievous misunderstanding that causes them to constantly be the loudest parrot on the perch in a venue where this behaviour routinely alienates and aggravates other members. Avoiding giving this person more fuel for their bonfire of confusion and agitation seems like the most humane approach, because I'm not convinced this is a well individual. I'm starting to agree with those who advocate bannination, even if only to protect this person from their own misguided urge for attention of any stripe. But that's patronising, I think, so it's probably better that they be allowed to continue their spiral until they commit an act fully worthy of the banstick.

3. Favourites are best thought of as temporary interest rather than endorsement or validation.

yeah, I overuse ellipses and commas. they like it.
posted by batmonkey at 4:49 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Really? I grew up in Baltimore, in a middle class neighborhood that was largely black. We put up with snowstorms and ice and the kids, black white or indian, were all out in the snow with our sleds, then snow shovels making money shoveling driveways. That stereotype didn't fit us at all and I didn't really here it 'till I moved South.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:54 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors is a girl.
posted by electroboy at 5:08 PM on March 24, 2009

What about the favorites that cortex's mom pays me to give him?

that's not the only thing that cortex's mom pays for.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:17 PM on March 24, 2009

(there's also things like groceries, restaurant meals, taxis, all kinds of stuff!)
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:18 PM on March 24, 2009

"Really? I grew up in Baltimore, in a middle class neighborhood that was largely black. We put up with snowstorms and ice and the kids, black white or indian, were all out in the snow with our sleds, then snow shovels making money shoveling driveways. That stereotype didn't fit us at all and I didn't really here it 'till I moved South."

I heard it all the time living in a lower-class neighborhood that was predominantly black, and again in a class on black culture I took, all up in Michigan. But I'm a white guy who hates the cold.
posted by klangklangston at 5:19 PM on March 24, 2009

It's Michigan, it gets really cold up there. Ya'll are crazy.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:26 PM on March 24, 2009

It's Michigan, it gets really cold up there. Ya'll are crazy.

Yeah, you know how those people are. Some of my best friends are from Michigan, but still.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:31 PM on March 24, 2009

Bookhouse posted: Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks for misspelling "bizarre outburst of pedantry" so kindly.

klangklangston posted: I heard {that black people hate the cold even more than white people} all the time living in a lower-class neighborhood that was predominantly black, and again in a class on black culture I took, all up in Michigan.

Probably primarily explicable by 20th century migration patterns--since the majority of black people in Michigan came from the US South during the 20th century, presumably you grew up with people who were more accustomed to warmer weather and their children and grandchildren.

I never heard this growing up in Massachusetts, which never had a Great Migration; nor did Brandon Blatcher, who grew up in Baltimore. So I think this might be a Great Migration-linked meme.
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:36 PM on March 24, 2009

That makes sense, and would have been my guess, except that I didn't know that people outside of the Midwest hadn't heard that stereotype.
posted by klangklangston at 5:40 PM on March 24, 2009

To clarify: My family is from New Orelans, we moved to Baltimore. Mom still hates the cold, Dad liked it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:43 PM on March 24, 2009

They wash each other, and then silently stare across their monitors at each other the rest of the day.

They used to until someone stole the Shamwow. Now they just stare.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 5:44 PM on March 24, 2009

sixcolors is a girl.

Yeah, see, that's another one of those MSTPT moments for me (in a very differnet way).
posted by gman at 5:48 PM on March 24, 2009

(in a very differnet way)

is the differnet a special kind of internet, specifically set aside for trolls & flameouts?
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:18 PM on March 24, 2009

I never heard this growing up in Massachusetts, which never had a Great Migration...

John Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) want a word with you. ; )
posted by ericb at 6:20 PM on March 24, 2009

UbuRoivas:
"is the differnet a special kind of internet, specifically set aside for trolls & flameouts?"

Wouldn't that be beautiful?
posted by batmonkey at 6:28 PM on March 24, 2009

or, if they're in parliament, and they're the future prime minister, they might prefer to eat their ear wax.

It took 40 minutes, but I finally found some value in this thread.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:32 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm from Vermont, lived in Iceland, never lived anywhere south of Rhode Island, and I am ALWAYS COLD. Always. Effin' cold. Summertime comes around, it can be 90F outside and if I'm in a room with air-conditioning, I'm wearing fleece socks.

So, y'know, data point.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:03 PM on March 24, 2009

I get too, sometimes.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:12 PM on March 24, 2009

Cold that is.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:13 PM on March 24, 2009

Why is it that the most active Metatalk threads are about calling someone out. Just sayin.
posted by BrnP84 at 8:09 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I knew a girl in art school. She was in my class and it was a small art school so I had her for nearly every class.

She was the most bizarre, unconnected person I'd ever met. She'd announce she was tired in the middle of life drawing. She's show up at random times for classes she wasn't in. She'd stroke people's hair and then ask if it was a wigl. She once said, out loud, in the middle of a lecture on clay modeling, "Are Faeries real?"*

She wasn't retarded or anything, she just seemed completely isolated from the rest of the world. She was completely talentless, save for an Art-Therapy devotion to detail and a folk-art-van-painting-kinda sensibility toward material. When asked to do a piece on "Male Vs. Female", she did a meticulously copied skull with roses in the eyes. And barbed wire around it. And a baby in the front. And a gun.

She was an engaging source of entertainment during undergraduate time, but when she got promoted to the Master's study I started to have my doubts about the system. It's one of the many reasons I dropped out of the school. After all, if they keep on someone who barely shows up to class, makes out-of-Jupiter announcements, and can't draw to save her life, then maybe they don't really have a commitment to excellence.

So ..there.

* Someone answered backed "Only in Chelsea." She didn't get it.
posted by The Whelk at 8:12 PM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

what's a wigl?
posted by Science! at 8:20 PM on March 24, 2009

a wig. With an l at the end. Cause I don't have editing yet.

Yet.

please?
posted by The Whelk at 8:25 PM on March 24, 2009

I'm just making noise, but your brief description of a that art student character is very, very close to the person I imagine is behind the sixcolors username. Eerily close.
posted by Science! at 8:31 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Are forearms above or below the waist?
posted by Pronoiac at 8:41 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Yeah I've known some people like The Whelk's fellow student and sixcolors and they're quite harmless and often fun to hang out with. Actually, there was this one woman who stalked me but apparently she stalks a lot of people.
posted by Kattullus at 8:59 PM on March 24, 2009

The Whelk: was this person Bjork? Because it sounds like she's Bjork.
posted by boo_radley at 9:05 PM on March 24, 2009

Are forearms above or below the waist?

One of the funniest jokes I had ever heard in my life by the ripe old age of about nine was when I was watching a Popeye cartoon with a friend, and he suddenly blurted out "Man, Popeye doesn't just have forearms. Popeye has FIVEARMS."

I have to admit, a little bit of pee came out.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:16 PM on March 24, 2009 [4 favorites]

we once had a rotating student in my lab that I mentally referred to as "working in the lab with bjork". she was entirely untrainable, in that she didn't listen and presented background staining/non-data as a result. pretty useless. But she would alternately make wierd pronouncements like "I like your style" "you walk like santa claus" and ask questions like: "how do you execute your ideas?", "have you ever been married?", "is there such thing as true love?", "would you like to see a picture of my cat?'
the cat, back home in china, was in a laundry basket curled up on its side. "oh that's cute" I said.
"yes" the lab bjork said, "she's dead and about to be buried"
...
dear reader, we did not allow the bjork to join our lab.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:20 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

If it turns out that sixcolors is Bjork, we're all going to feel awful.
posted by Ms. Saint at 9:39 PM on March 24, 2009 [12 favorites]

Question about the washcloths - in a washcloth household, does every member have their own cloth, or is it communal?

Also: I don't believe that sixcolors is a troll. But sometimes I do wish we were all hardcore Anabaptists. As annoying as their antics are, people mentioning (Invoking?) her in unrelated threads is even more annoying.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:49 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh god, no communal washcloths, please. Ick.

The wigl confused me, too. I thought it might be one of those things suddenly everyone knows about, and I'm in the dark.
posted by JenMarie at 9:54 PM on March 24, 2009

If it turns out that sixcolors is Bjork, we're all going to ~~feel awful~~ start calling her MeFi's own sixcolors.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:18 PM on March 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

One way to have fun with huge threads that you are "late" to: read only the first three comments and the last three, and try to guess what the fuck must have happened in between.
posted by sleevener at 10:21 PM on March 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Oh god, no communal washcloths, please. Ick.

I just let the carp lick my hands clean.
posted by lukemeister at 10:27 PM on March 24, 2009

I think the questioner was just ignorant. Here in flyover country I often hear people, when describing someone driving a hard-bargain, say something like: "Yeah, he was really trying to jew me down on my trade in." When I heard first that, I would politely point out that that was a very anti-semitic thing to say. I usually got blank looks. After a while, I realized that they weren't being anti-semitic, they were being ignorant. There are precious few Jews around here so the chances that they could say something like that without being called on it were very high. It took someone like me, not Jewish myself, but as a person who points out such faux-pas to hopefully show them that it is not nice to talk like that. (I'm not kidding myself into thinking that I'm an agent of the anti-defamation league. They probably just stopped doing it around me. At least I tried.)

Q: Washcloths vs. bar of soap?
A: Shower gel

Sixcolors: Here's the thing. I have little kids who act out to get my positive and/or negative attention. I love them, but I like to go to places like MeFi so that I can get away from their drama for a while and engage with other grownups who don't throw around epithets or right-wing sound bites. You remind me a bit of my kids' antics:
look at me.
Look At Me!
LOOK AT ME!!!!!111!

I put up with their shit because I am their parent, I do love them and they (usually) listen when I tell them that they are not behaving appropriately.

I don't want to put up with your shit because I'm not your parent, I don't love you (or even know you) and you do not seem to listen to anyone when you are behaving inappropriately.
posted by double block and bleed at 10:33 PM on March 24, 2009

Ooo, follow-up: What if a person doesn't use a cloth or jam the bar into the nooks and crannies, but rather works up a lather and applies soap by hand? Are they welcome in both the washcloth and just soap communities, or rejected from both?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:37 PM on March 24, 2009

Alvy Ampersand: What if a person doesn't use a cloth or jam the bar into the nooks and crannies, but rather works up a lather and applies soap by hand? Are they welcome in both the washcloth and just soap communities, or rejected from both?

They would put down their arms and join forces like they were Catholics and Protestants and you were Jan van Leyden.
posted by Kattullus at 10:43 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Bath puffs & shower gel can lead to problems. Specifically, like when my housemate empties a months worth of my shower gel into her bath puff for a single wash.

Either that, or she uses it as bubble bath or something, I'm not sure. But all I know is that I have to hide my gel in my bedroom or else a bottle that normally lasts me around three months disappears within a week.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:49 PM on March 24, 2009

I don't think sixcolors will ever offer a really satisfying flame out, as she just wanders off once she has enough attention for the day, leaving 100 comments of smoking wreckage behind.
If I am wrong, though, someone meMail, 'cause I don't want to miss it!
posted by bystander at 10:56 PM on March 24, 2009

Alright people, Jeezus! Maybe sixcolors shoots her mouth off sometimes. You could have countless people in here saying ridiculous things, but as soon as she pops in and says something: METAFILTER-PILE-ON! I'm not making any excuses for her, but some of you definitely have it out for her. Either that or you think you have some entitlement to crap on her. Indeed whenever she pops up, the sixcolors peanut gallery also pops up and starts stirring up the shitstorm.

SO LEAVE SIXCOLORS ALONE
posted by P.o.B. at 11:05 PM on March 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Well, she kinda feels an entitlement to crap on ask, and that kinda irritates some. And man oh man, there are tons better examples of people being excoriated on the site. This is a genteel panel compared do the days of old.
posted by boo_radley at 11:31 PM on March 24, 2009

Considering the chiding she's received from the admins, and cortex in particular in this thread, I'm not really buying that there's a witch hunt out for her. And it seems like the "stirring up the shitstorm" starts squarely with sixcolors. Which is kinda the whole problem.
posted by dead cousin ted at 11:34 PM on March 24, 2009

Indeed whenever she pops up, the sixcolors peanut gallery also pops up and starts stirring up the shitstorm.

Monkey, I say!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:45 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I realize She gets a stern talking to quite bit from the admins, but you gotta be kidding me if you don't think some people here see her as a their own personal "gerbil in a plastic ball." Some people have admitted as much.

Meh, I could care less. She's fairly good at digging her own holes and I'm sure the mods will take care of this if need be.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:53 PM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

MetaTalk: Come for the excoriation quips, stay for the exfoliation tips.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:59 PM on March 24, 2009 [7 favorites]

I've been pretty much detached from the whole sixcolors situation, but it's not terribly surprising that some people take the wide open opportunity to jump up her ass when she serves up softballs like she does. I mean, this is Bartertown.
posted by dead cousin ted at 12:01 AM on March 25, 2009

Well, I would've bitched out all of the haters on this site. But, cortex kind of threatened to kick me to the curb. :(

...so I better be on my best behavior from now on.

Oh, and I've been taking my meds. :)

Good night, or should I say Good Morning?
posted by sixcolors at 12:07 AM on March 25, 2009 [3 favorites]

some of you definitely have it out for her

This is nothing. Trust me.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:26 AM on March 25, 2009 [2 favorites]

Are forearms above or below the waist?
And which are they if you are doing a handstand? If you have a shower while doing a handstand, which do you use for which half? I need to know now, because I'm starting to get a bit ripe (and my arms are tired).

Goodnight, sixcolors - tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it. Let's make that last, huh?
posted by dg at 1:57 AM on March 25, 2009

...so I better be on my best behavior from now on.

As a general rule being on one's best behavior brings way more good things than not. Just sayin', I know I had to be told this.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:01 AM on March 25, 2009

It would be a long, unfruitful day if you attempted to bitch out all the haters, even if cortex hadn't warned you against it. As I've told my 7 year old son, there's always going to be someone out there who doesn't like you. I've also told him that picking his nose and eating it in public is going to attract the haters. Who wants to give the haters ammunition, right?

I'm hoping that he stops picking his nose and eating it.
posted by h00py at 6:02 AM on March 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Whelk: was this person Bjork? Because it sounds like she's Bjork.

Well, it wasn't the Talking Guy. No one ever asks about The Talking Guy from the Sugarcubes. WTF, people?
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:30 AM on March 25, 2009

I once met him. It really surprised me. He said Hi. I said Hi. I was still clean.
posted by waraw at 6:52 AM on March 25, 2009 [3 favorites]

...so I better be on my best behavior from now on.

Particularly in the absence of any effort by you to even discuss your behavior on the site like an adult, whether publicly or privately, yes, that's a really good idea.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:57 AM on March 25, 2009 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: this is Bartertown.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:27 AM on March 25, 2009

When I heard first that, I would politely point out that that was a very anti-semitic thing to say. I usually got blank looks.

I would assume that they just don't know what anti-Semitic means. I found I had to stop using that description, replacing it with "um, what'cha got against Jewish people. The fact that there's a historical longstanding prejudice against Jews, complete with specific terminology, was not a known concept in some places in which I've lived.
posted by desuetude at 7:46 AM on March 25, 2009

Also, you blue light visibility fails in more low light than your red light sensitivity. A lot of this depends on the type of fabric, however.

You are wrong.

Great post about black/blue, but get your facts straight about vision, plz! ;)
posted by fake at 7:57 AM on March 25, 2009

It really does seem like we need another reason added to our flagging options. When I flag, I tend to select "other," by which I usually mean, "indefensibly stupid and childish."
posted by EatTheWeek at 8:53 AM on March 25, 2009

Well, I would've bitched out all of the haters on this site. But, cortex kind of threatened to kick me to the curb. :(

...so I better be on my best behavior from now on.

To be fair, we're trying to keep people away from sixcolors pile-ons as well. But yeah the kick-to-the-curb threats are pretty much a last resort option here. We really really hate to do that for people who we think are making a good faith effort to be here and interact with the site on some sort of positive/constructive level. The fac tthat you've been here a long time and we're still not even sure if that's what you're doing is a bit of a red flag as far as good faith goes.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:28 AM on March 25, 2009

FYI, to no one in particular, sites like askville.amazon.com and answers.yahoo.com are explicitly set up for people looking to kill time. Getting actual help there is secondary. Ask Metafilter does not work like that.
posted by GuyZero at 10:01 AM on March 25, 2009

Don't get all anti-semiotic there, Burhanistan.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:09 AM on March 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

(dg - get down from the handstand & lie on your side for a bit.)
posted by Pronoiac at 11:14 AM on March 25, 2009

The question was stupid on one level, tops.

Level 1: It's stupid because it's based on a racist stereotype.

Level 2: It's stupid because on The Wire, people did run away when they saw someone wearing all black (like Omar) roll up on them. In the situations where people did not try to escape or fight back immediately (such as most of Chris and Snoop's killings) the assailants were wearing plain clothes.
posted by burnmp3s at 11:20 AM on March 25, 2009

Give me a list of possible levels and I'll come up with dumb joke answers for each one.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:01 PM on March 25, 2009

It's levels all the way down.
posted by box at 12:04 PM on March 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

My sister used to manage merchandise sales at concerts. Concerts of all kind, with all kinds of demographics. Black T-shirts out sell all other colors 10 to 1.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:49 PM on March 25, 2009

What are you talking about, Burhanistan?

It was stupid on ennoiac, epinoiac and hylic levels, and counter to Sophia and the Logos.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:10 PM on March 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

UbuRoivas - ~~Stop misspelling my name!~~ uh, never mind
posted by Pronoiac at 2:31 PM on March 25, 2009

Burhanistan - are you contending, then, that wisdom & intelligence are one & the same?
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:38 PM on March 25, 2009

6144 is the densest.

It's actually a very pleasant forest green.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:42 PM on March 25, 2009

Burhanistan - are you contending, then, that wisdom & intelligence are one & the same?

If you ninnies start talking about GURPS I am going to get the belt.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:47 PM on March 25, 2009 [4 favorites]

*blank stare*

Is it a special belt? How many gold pieces is it worth?
posted by Pronoiac at 4:00 PM on March 25, 2009

I recently rescued my first edition GURPS Horror manual from my parent's house, and let me tell you, it's a fun read. Next time I hope I can find GURPS Swashbuckler, which was another fun read. Oh, and Cyberpunk. I usually liked reading the manuals and making characters more than I enjoyed playing.

Aside from GURPS, the best games for just making up characters was the Marvel Universe (assuming that you had the powers expansion manual) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Post-Apocalyptic Mutant-Animal-Road-Warrior pack.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:06 PM on March 25, 2009

No. nononono. The best game for making up character is Classic Traveller, where your character can die before they're even generated. That's roll-playing.
posted by GuyZero at 5:17 PM on March 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

That's roll-playing.

I'll be the Kaiser.
posted by longsleeves at 5:43 PM on March 25, 2009 [3 favorites]

And I the hero.
posted by dersins at 5:56 PM on March 25, 2009 [2 favorites]

Either that, or she uses it as bubble bath or something, I'm not sure. But all I know is that I have to hide my gel in my bedroom or else a bottle that normally lasts me around three months disappears within a week.

'moonMan has been known to take bubble baths with my shower gel.

I solved the problem by buying him his own bubble bath. It smells like mangoes.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:53 PM on March 25, 2009

I'll be the grinder!
posted by ericb at 7:51 PM on March 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

I solved the problem by buying him his own bubble bath. It smells like mangoes.

And, lemme guess. Yours smell like grapefruit?
posted by ericb at 7:52 PM on March 25, 2009

Add some vodka -- and, honey, we all gotta a tropical party goin' on!
posted by ericb at 7:53 PM on March 25, 2009

I hear that anarchists tend to wear a lot of black. Just saying.
posted by streetdreams at 7:59 PM on March 25, 2009

My body wash smells like lavender and chamomile.

Just because I have grapefruit in my name you assume I SMELL like one? What kind of citrus-ist are you?!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:59 PM on March 25, 2009

Too bad you don't smell like a grapefruit, grapefruitmoon. If you did, the economy might recover.
posted by lukemeister at 9:04 PM on March 25, 2009

[NOT citrus-ist] here, at all.
posted by ericb at 1:42 AM on March 26, 2009

Hmmmm. In these difficult economic times, perhaps we should ALL smell like grapefruits! Citrus for all!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:33 AM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

After trading in the 4th Edition/Abomination AD&D set I bought the Chaosium Basic Roleplaying book which kicks so much ass it's not even funny. Does exactly what I want from a system: get out of the way and let me roleplay, dammit. I miss Paranoia, where displaying knowledge of system mechanics was grounds for summary execution.
posted by waraw at 7:26 AM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

Playing Paranoia, coming down from a mild shroom buzz and after watching THX1138... Make me young again!
posted by Meatbomb at 7:32 AM on March 26, 2009

[NOT citrus-ist] here, at all.

You better not be.
posted by orange swan at 8:07 AM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

Is this where we talk about our smell?
posted by stinkycheese at 12:00 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

stinkycheese,

Well, since the Moon smells like cheese, you and grapefruitmoon may have something to discuss.
posted by lukemeister at 12:03 PM on March 26, 2009

First grapefruits, now I'm being accused of smelling like stinky cheese.

You people are so literal in your username interpretations. You've gotta, like, free your minds, man.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:13 PM on March 26, 2009

Burhanistank amirite
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:25 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell of many things. Of the first soft, sweet breath of a thousand newborn kittens. Of the warm light of a candle lit in remembrance of a lost child. Of the complex patterns of rain drops on the open ocean. Of the strength of will of an entire generation. And of the wrath of an ancient god of chaos confronted with the metric system.

I mean, I'm just saying, is all.
posted by dersins at 12:28 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

posted by dersins Fresh [+]

Heh.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:30 PM on March 26, 2009

Oh, also of coffee and cigarettes.
posted by dersins at 12:31 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell like lasers and copyright infringement.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:36 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

I smell like the incense that keeps away monsters. And occasionally chlorine.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:06 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell like a blatch.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:32 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell like anime and gender confusion.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:34 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

I smell like donuts and scotch.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:42 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell like thermite and slaughterhouses. But in a nice way.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:43 PM on March 26, 2009

I want to smell like cortex, but with a touch of Meatbomb.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:53 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell like fear.
posted by dg at 2:19 PM on March 26, 2009

This thread tastes like a motel.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:24 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell of homesickness.

What is this, a fucking ad? I smell like beer. I smell like the end of a Coney-Island week-end.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:34 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell jealousy.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:39 PM on March 26, 2009

Today, I smell of laziness and books.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:15 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell of a little citrus... maybe some strawberry... passion fruit... and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of, like, asparagus, and just a flutter of a, like a, nutty Edam cheese...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:40 PM on March 26, 2009

ooooh that smell...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:40 PM on March 26, 2009

I smell like boot leather and WIN
posted by double block and bleed at 6:20 AM on March 27, 2009

Days and hundreds of posts later it is rather clear to me the post was meant to insult and inflame (good job). The OP did not participate any further in the thread or this sub-thread. If they were here to educate themselves they would have participated, No? They just passed gas, acted innocent, and left the room. I however appreciate the moderators assistance in my understanding how things work around here. Brandon Blatcher made some points I found to be useful as well (seems like a great guy). I think I saw the best and worst of Metafilter in one thread. Fair Enough.
posted by Studiogeek at 2:13 PM on March 31, 2009

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