Burn jokes? Seriously? Did Fark buy Metafilter? August 16, 2009 9:17 PM Subscribe
"[many comments removed - can we try it again without knee jerk mormon and burn victim jokes, please? MetaTalk is your option.]" AARGH!
About 3 years ago I was reading Fark. Someone posted a very touching story about a little girl who was doing charity work and making a difference. She had a rather extreme facial "strawberry" birthmark.
Farkers, being Farkers, did what they do and the whole thread turned into a cesspool of making fun of a girl for being born "wrong". Eventually, the owner of the site laid the hammer down, banned some people, eventually deleted the thread.
I had assumed that Mefites were a whole lot better than that. Apparently I was wrong.
Of course, not everyone is being a dickhead, but for those who were...I think there are plenty of great usernames still available on Fark, should you want. If Fark is too controlled for you, go to 4chan. If that doesn't work, then find something worse. I don't ever think making fun of burn victims or those born with a deformity is going to be welcome here.
About 3 years ago I was reading Fark. Someone posted a very touching story about a little girl who was doing charity work and making a difference. She had a rather extreme facial "strawberry" birthmark.
Farkers, being Farkers, did what they do and the whole thread turned into a cesspool of making fun of a girl for being born "wrong". Eventually, the owner of the site laid the hammer down, banned some people, eventually deleted the thread.
I had assumed that Mefites were a whole lot better than that. Apparently I was wrong.
Of course, not everyone is being a dickhead, but for those who were...I think there are plenty of great usernames still available on Fark, should you want. If Fark is too controlled for you, go to 4chan. If that doesn't work, then find something worse. I don't ever think making fun of burn victims or those born with a deformity is going to be welcome here.
and honestly, I'd rather they be left up because I could know who did it, and take a dim view of them.
posted by boo_radley at 9:24 PM on August 16, 2009 [7 favorites]
posted by boo_radley at 9:24 PM on August 16, 2009 [7 favorites]
I understand your pain, kickstart. At least one user has moved into my permanent asshole file as a result of that thread. I sent the mods a note about it. But now that the comments are gone, I'm not sure what we're doing here.
(Seriously, though, it was an asshole comment that kicked off that thread. Major asshole).
posted by Bookhouse at 9:26 PM on August 16, 2009
(Seriously, though, it was an asshole comment that kicked off that thread. Major asshole).
posted by Bookhouse at 9:26 PM on August 16, 2009
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Fark, but it's rather easy for you to make your point with trashing them with the broad stroke of your brush. Tacky.
posted by dhammond at 9:27 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by dhammond at 9:27 PM on August 16, 2009
Fark deserves more credit than it gets around here; it can be surprisingly civil and upbeat, in its meat-and-potatoes way, and there are things Metafilter could learn from it.
posted by Kirklander at 9:29 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by Kirklander at 9:29 PM on August 16, 2009
Major asshole
"MAJOR ASSHOLE REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR!"
Snark aside, I have to agree with the above. As soon as I saw what was going on in there I hightailed out of the thread. Although no one is perfect and there is no holy altar in terms of websites, at least try not to be a douche. It's cliche but it works: what if it was you in their boots/leggings/other foot item? I'm sure as hell you wouldn't appreciate what you are saying.
Also, on preview: yeah, Fark is not what I would consider any sort of cesspool. They can be dicks, but they are no 4chan /b/, for certain.
posted by Askiba at 9:31 PM on August 16, 2009
"MAJOR ASSHOLE REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR!"
Snark aside, I have to agree with the above. As soon as I saw what was going on in there I hightailed out of the thread. Although no one is perfect and there is no holy altar in terms of websites, at least try not to be a douche. It's cliche but it works: what if it was you in their boots/leggings/other foot item? I'm sure as hell you wouldn't appreciate what you are saying.
Also, on preview: yeah, Fark is not what I would consider any sort of cesspool. They can be dicks, but they are no 4chan /b/, for certain.
posted by Askiba at 9:31 PM on August 16, 2009
At least one user has moved into my permanent asshole file as a result of that thread.
It seriously took three years to get Mayor Curley into your permanent asshole file?
posted by nanojath at 9:39 PM on August 16, 2009 [2 favorites]
It seriously took three years to get Mayor Curley into your permanent asshole file?
posted by nanojath at 9:39 PM on August 16, 2009 [2 favorites]
The deleted "Mormon underwear" comment was pretty fucking stupid, given the context. A real turnoff.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:41 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by KokuRyu at 9:41 PM on August 16, 2009
Dude, Mayor Curley, really?
Fucking shocker there. Did he at least manage to work a reference to thousands of dead Iraqis into it?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:44 PM on August 16, 2009
Fucking shocker there. Did he at least manage to work a reference to thousands of dead Iraqis into it?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:44 PM on August 16, 2009
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Fark, but it's rather easy for you to make your point without trashing them with the broad stroke of your brush. Tacky.
posted by prak at 9:47 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by prak at 9:47 PM on August 16, 2009
It seriously took three years to get Mayor Curley into your permanent asshole file?
Eh, I'm pretty forgiving, by which I mean I'm pretty forgetful about user names. For me to remember that you're a real fucker, you got to go the extra mile.
posted by Bookhouse at 9:48 PM on August 16, 2009 [3 favorites]
Eh, I'm pretty forgiving, by which I mean I'm pretty forgetful about user names. For me to remember that you're a real fucker, you got to go the extra mile.
posted by Bookhouse at 9:48 PM on August 16, 2009 [3 favorites]
I'm afraid my mockery of Mayor Curley contributed to that ugliness. I was pissed off at his comment. Sorry for making delete-worthy comments.
posted by ericost at 9:49 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by ericost at 9:49 PM on August 16, 2009
I flagged them (the first two) and ran the fuck out of the thread.
Fucking threadshitters. Get off my lawn.
posted by rtha at 9:57 PM on August 16, 2009
Fucking threadshitters. Get off my lawn.
posted by rtha at 9:57 PM on August 16, 2009
Unfortunately a MeTa will most likely provide gratification for the people who got their comments deleted, in a "look at me, hurf-durf I got them riled!" kind of way.
(And as far as the Mormon thing goes it doesn't exactly hurt, given the whole Prop 8/Orson Scott Card/bothersome missionaries stuff, that being a Mormon can help people, rather than render them bothersome arseholes.)
posted by rodgerd at 10:07 PM on August 16, 2009
(And as far as the Mormon thing goes it doesn't exactly hurt, given the whole Prop 8/Orson Scott Card/bothersome missionaries stuff, that being a Mormon can help people, rather than render them bothersome arseholes.)
posted by rodgerd at 10:07 PM on August 16, 2009
So now there's a place where people can make burn victim jokes.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:12 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:12 PM on August 16, 2009
"So now there's a place where people can make burn victim jokes."
One fewer, looks like.
posted by klangklangston at 10:18 PM on August 16, 2009
One fewer, looks like.
posted by klangklangston at 10:18 PM on August 16, 2009
I can see why burn victim jokes would be inappropriate, but why is criticism of the Mormon Church not allowed? Is there some context for what was deleted?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:24 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:24 PM on August 16, 2009
you know when you walk into the bar and your friends are hurriedly discussing some great tragedy but they're doing it in hushed tones and without proper nouns so all you know is that there's a freakout and it has something to do with a 3am pregnancy test followed by a tobacco enema, but you have zero clue what led up to that moment or who's actually involved?
this callout is sorta like that.
posted by nadawi at 10:29 PM on August 16, 2009 [3 favorites]
this callout is sorta like that.
posted by nadawi at 10:29 PM on August 16, 2009 [3 favorites]
I can see why burn victim jokes would be inappropriate, but why is criticism of the Mormon Church not allowed?
It wasn't a criticism of the church. It was a joke along the lines of "LOL guess their faith didn't save them from that one," with specific reference to a practice of some Mormons.
posted by not that girl at 10:30 PM on August 16, 2009
It wasn't a criticism of the church. It was a joke along the lines of "LOL guess their faith didn't save them from that one," with specific reference to a practice of some Mormons.
posted by not that girl at 10:30 PM on August 16, 2009
I say it's time to raise the $5 entry fee to raise the bar, or perhaps bring back the "While MeFi goes through another bout of growing pains ... new registrations are closed" thing for a year or so. I've been a bit concerned about how fast MeFi is growing and I don't think it can keep going like this and still keep the quality up to snuff.
posted by crapmatic at 10:30 PM on August 16, 2009
posted by crapmatic at 10:30 PM on August 16, 2009
but why is criticism of the Mormon Church not allowed? Is there some context for what was deleted?
Well, it wasn't really about Mormonism. The blogger and her family happen to be LDS, and she discusses her faith openly in her blog.
posted by padraigin at 10:32 PM on August 16, 2009
Well, it wasn't really about Mormonism. The blogger and her family happen to be LDS, and she discusses her faith openly in her blog.
posted by padraigin at 10:32 PM on August 16, 2009
It was a shit comment and I don't know what Mayor Curley was thinking. Mayor, if you're reading: cut that shit out. It's stupid and hurtful and it's not adding a goddam bit of worth to this place, and you need to throw a lid on it.
That said, the whole ensuing out-of-the-gate derail had been excised and the thread had righted itself before this was ever posted, so this feels kind of like picking a scab, especially since no one who didn't see the brief pre-cleanup bullshit has any context to work from here. And considering how on-edge people on the site seem to be tonight I'm not sure I want to leave this hanging open to see if something explodes overnight, so I'm going to go ahead and close this up.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:34 PM on August 16, 2009 [6 favorites]
That said, the whole ensuing out-of-the-gate derail had been excised and the thread had righted itself before this was ever posted, so this feels kind of like picking a scab, especially since no one who didn't see the brief pre-cleanup bullshit has any context to work from here. And considering how on-edge people on the site seem to be tonight I'm not sure I want to leave this hanging open to see if something explodes overnight, so I'm going to go ahead and close this up.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:34 PM on August 16, 2009 [6 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by boo_radley at 9:23 PM on August 16, 2009