Deleting from IRL

November 9, 2010 1:59 PM

Dumb-About-IRL-Filter: This meetup never happened. How do I delete it so it doesn't show up in "Proposed meetups" anymore?
posted by l33tpolicywonk to MetaFilter-Related at 1:59 PM (13 comments total)

We don't have a system for this beyond contacting us and having us remove something. We could add a way for the OP to remove an event if this is a recurring problem, but I think that could introduce some new potential problems as well.

For now, I removed the post and it won't show up in Proposed Meetups anymore.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:02 PM on November 9, 2010

I notice there are quite a few proposed meetups that fall in the same category of "apparently never went ahead". That sidebar could get cluttered after a while. Perhaps a deadline (three months? six months?) after which a post that's still in "Proposed" disappears from the sidebar (but does not get closed)?
posted by Electric Dragon at 2:11 PM on November 9, 2010

Yeah, there is a time limit on the Proposed meetup sidebar. 14 days from the date it was posted on the MetaTalk sidebar, and one month on the IRL sidebar. The Proposed Meetups page will show a post for two months.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:17 PM on November 9, 2010

Maybe add the option for the original poster to mark a potential meetup as "Not Gonna Happen" and have the item drop off the IRL Proposed sidebar? It could still be discussed, possibly to set the stage for a new IRL post.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:42 PM on November 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

What happens IRL, stays IRL.
posted by gman at 2:49 PM on November 9, 2010

Another IRL question: IRL doesn't appear in the main search page's Site dropdown, and the search box on the IRL page only searches planned/proposed meetups. I can see situations where searching for past meetups/events would be helpful. Is it non-trivial to add IRL to site search, or is this possible?
posted by catlet at 2:58 PM on November 9, 2010

Yeah, we can add IRL to the site search engine. I'll add it to our to do list.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:00 PM on November 9, 2010

Thanks, pb!
posted by catlet at 3:06 PM on November 9, 2010

Sydney Running Festival Meetup didn't go ahead either (people ran, but didn't meet up). I wondered for a while if there was a way to close it up, but it dropped off the radar soon enough (you can still post comments though!).

It would be useful to have the option for OP to mark it as "not going ahead" and close the thread.
posted by vidur at 3:16 PM on November 9, 2010

I don't think the non-event threads need to close right away - perhaps mark them for an earlier death than meet-ups that happened, though.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:28 PM on November 9, 2010

I agree with filthy light thief, marking "not going ahead" should not necessarily close the thread, just hide it.
posted by grouse at 3:29 PM on November 9, 2010

On some further thought, rather than "not going ahead" (which is something in the future, and things might change), we should have "did not happen" (there's no changing that). And that should close the thread.
posted by vidur at 4:29 PM on November 9, 2010

Thanks for the cleanup!
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 7:23 PM on November 9, 2010