Single source post?

February 26, 2002 7:15 PM

Is it kosher when an infrequent participant here posts links exclusively from a single source?
posted by youhas to Etiquette/Policy at 7:15 PM (17 comments total)

I realize that this was briefly observed before, but passed largely without comment.

If I'm really gung-ho about X, is it acceptable to take various samples of X's work and nothing but, proudly trumpet them to the MeFi community, then quietly lay dormant until I feel that X has shone through again? Does it matter if X is The Guardian, or GlassDog, or the LiveJournal page of some girl from my Sociology 101 class, or anything in between? (Assuming that tiny pea is not simply a self-promoter on the sly, of course.)
posted by youhas at 7:17 PM on February 26, 2002

It'a Kosher parve, but not pas Yisroel OK?
posted by ParisParamus at 7:38 PM on February 26, 2002

Yeah, it's a little suspect. There are different authors for the posts on adequacy, so it's not the author of them doing it. I know kuro5hin.org gets a lot of overlap with adequacy and there was guy that used to post nothing but links to adequacy on kuro5hin.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:45 PM on February 26, 2002

Let's pretend for a moment that Tiny Pea works for adequacy.org in some capacity. Does that matter? Have the posts themselves not been thought provoking? If she did work for the site, but didn't disclose it, perhaps that would be unethical. However, if she were up front about it, she'd get razzed for it anyway. So there's nothing encouraging people to be up front about their associations with other websites.

Now let's pretend for a moment that she doesn't work for adequacy.org. Maybe she just really likes it. Maybe she notices that few others use that source in MeFi and feels she has found a worthwhile source that other people... No, even I don't buy that.

It can't be just a coincidence. Perhaps just a polite request for her to open her horizons a bit and perhaps post from other sources now and then?
posted by ZachsMind at 8:12 PM on February 26, 2002

Thanks for the laff, ParisParamus - and happy Purim! Even non-observant Jews got drunk last night.

Back on topic, I agree with youhas. Even if you have a favourite web site(Bifurcated Rivet, Nutcote and Boing Boing being mine)you should make an effort to either diversify or not bore fellow members with your subjective preferences.

It's not pimping, of course - but it's nepotism amd it's boring.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:15 PM on February 26, 2002

This just feeds into the using Metafilter as a form of guerilla PR question. I have no satisfying answer.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:24 PM on February 26, 2002

agent provocateur.
posted by Dean King at 9:59 PM on February 26, 2002

agent provocateur.
You know I am surprised no one posted the ads for it here.
posted by riffola at 10:25 PM on February 26, 2002

Four instances, each spaced about a month apart. What I ask: What kind of person detects such a minor detail and then makes an issue about it? "You too, mountain, were once a molehill."
posted by mischief at 4:10 AM on February 27, 2002

If it was someone as prolix as our dear Senhor Cardoso, I would call this out like a shot, but this person has only posted 5 times in total. Maybe they just don't have a very wide reading list.

Beyond which, since s/he doesn't seem to be adding any additional commentary once the post is made, you certainly can't knock them as a shill.

I'll bet we could review a lot of user profiles and discover that many people refer to the same few sites over and over, particularly the people more interested in newsy links. Unless/until this person begins bombarding the front page, I'd say we could let it slide.

posted by briank at 6:17 AM on February 27, 2002

What I ask: What kind of person detects such a minor detail and then makes an issue about it?

The kind of person who doesn't want MetaFilter to be used to shill a web site. Even if that's not what is taking place here, it's worth pointing out.
posted by rcade at 6:56 AM on February 27, 2002

I thought self-linking was frowned upon? tiny pea is most certainly self-linking, in posting AQ articles here. Seems fairly straightforward to me.
posted by rusty at 9:49 AM on February 27, 2002

using Metafilter as a form of guerilla PR question

Sheesh. Everyone knows that's what Google is for.
posted by crunchland at 11:26 AM on February 27, 2002

I wasn't trying to suggest that posting from the same sites over and over was inherently bad, nor that tiny pea should be smashed by the Iron Fist of Justice™ or anything. Obviously, there are shades of gray involved. If someone posted nothing but ObscureStore links once a month, I can't imagine that anybody would notice or care; if someone dutifully popped in every morning with their Daily Affirmation with The Kottke, we'd be screaming for their heads.

This specific instance happened to come up, and it kind of put me in the amorphous "I have no satisfying answer" zone. "It's not even once a month - chill out!" vs. "but it skirts the principles of the community!", "does it even matter who post links, so long as they're good?" vs. "so does this mean I can enlist some fanboy to regularly corral people to my site?", etc. It seemed pertinent enough to make note of and see where it fell on others' personal spectrums, that's all.
posted by youhas at 11:56 AM on February 27, 2002

tiny pea is most certainly self-linking, in posting AQ articles here.

Really? Is tinypea associated with adequacy?
posted by rodii at 1:42 PM on February 27, 2002

Part of my problem with it was that tiny pea always posted the links with commentary implying that he thought they were serious articles. It smelled like a troll, posting those links (somewhat subtle satire) to see how many people would bite, thinking the articles were serious.
posted by whatnotever at 2:12 PM on February 27, 2002

Really? Is tinypea associated with adequacy?
Of the six adequacy threads posted in the last year, tiny pea has posted four. They degenerate fairly quickly until someone explains (again and again) that adequacy.org is satire. See chrisege's comment in the most recent. It's a minor campaign, could be worse.

Have the posts themselves not been thought provoking?
I'd call them something else...

riffola: the ads?
posted by Dean King at 2:17 PM on February 27, 2002