cortex, easy on the deletions! January 22, 2011 11:25 PM   Subscribe

This was not a good deletion. I think cortex pulls the trigger too quickly sometimes on the deletion of Ask Me posts and more restraint would be appreciated.

It was lighthearted but not chatfilter. The one song you must have on your laptop. In the past there have been some epic Ask Me threads that would have been deleted if the 2011 standards were used.

I often see that jessamyn has written something like, "I am attempting to get a hold of cortex so we can discuss this post" when referring to a post on the blue b/c cortex has primary responsibility for the blue. It would be nice if cortex could do something similar w/r/t the green.

So, cortex, brother, what is the rush to delete? Please reflect a little before closing 'em up on the green.
posted by mlis to Etiquette/Policy at 11:25 PM (210 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

Cortex (and the people who flagged it) thought it was chatfilter. Your rebuttal is that it is "not chatfilter." Can you elaborate?
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:29 PM on January 22, 2011


How do you know it was flagged?
posted by mlis at 11:31 PM on January 22, 2011


It's the single most essential song in all creation. I could chat about that.
posted by philip-random at 11:45 PM on January 22, 2011


something by Bob Dylan, by the way.
posted by philip-random at 11:46 PM on January 22, 2011


I assume you brought this up with the mods themselves before posting this complaint?
posted by flatluigi at 11:46 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Any song suggestion is just going to end up in this thread anyway, now.
posted by Solomon at 11:47 PM on January 22, 2011


... or maybe something by Midlake. I'm totally digging them lately.
posted by philip-random at 11:51 PM on January 22, 2011


Counting Crows - Raining in Baltimore.

Don't think I had heard that before.
posted by mlis at 11:51 PM on January 22, 2011


It seemed to me that it was at least borderline if not outright chatfilter. "What is your favorite x?", when the criteria are purely aesthetic, is chatfilter brinkmanship... it's playing chicken with the chatfilter Mack truck. (Or, something else you would play chicken with. It took me about three minutes to remember the word "criteria", so I think it's too late past my bed time.)
posted by XMLicious at 11:51 PM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


I flagged it, so perhaps "people" was overstating things (though I'd be surprised if I was the only one). But you still haven't elaborated on your beliefs as to why that question was not chatfilter. I'm more than willing to accept that I might be wrong - I'd just like to know why you think so.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:53 PM on January 22, 2011


But this is actually my current fave, even if it is a few years old. Man, the world is a few years old.
posted by philip-random at 12:01 AM on January 23, 2011


What's your favorite color? Come on, give me your best!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:04 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


I don't know if it's a good delete or not but man it would be a depressing playlist. There are multiple songs on that list that I pray I'll never hear again as long as I live.

And... I asked a similar question a few years ago, asking people to list a single album.
posted by dobbs at 12:05 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


I threw this out on twitter...

There's part of your problem. Good deletion.
posted by Marty Marx at 12:09 AM on January 23, 2011 [5 favorites]


I wasn't sure how that question is different from any of the multitude of mix tape questions that remain undeleted but having purused the tags it seems a little too wide open. It must be right on the cusp though as classics like this are allowed to stand. HuronBob could probably post a successful question if he narrowed the field just the teenyist bit.
posted by Mitheral at 12:12 AM on January 23, 2011


I liked this question. I answered the question.

dobbs ...but man it would be a depressing playlist. There are multiple songs on that list that I pray I'll never hear again as long as I live.

I hope my song wasn't one of those.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:18 AM on January 23, 2011


as much as some people hate to hear it, when it comes to borderline posts (on the blue or the green) framing is really, really important. that question was filled with distracting tidbits that begged the already tenious question to go off the rails.


How do you know it was flagged?

i'm not the one that said it, but i'd assume there was healthy flagging. if you hang around enough to call out a specific mod for what you feel is a repeated issue, you've been around long enough to know that these "why was this (totally at least borderline, chatfilter question) deleted" threads almost always contain the response of "well, it was borderline, distracting, problematic for this reason, and it was stacking up the flags."
posted by nadawi at 12:20 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also the answer to the question is obviously the 101 version of Blasphemous Rumours.
posted by Mitheral at 12:22 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


So sad, if that post picked up a lot of flags. I am picturing legion of mefites, vapid eyes, no longer any cognitive functioning going on, zombies, responding to some form of stimuli, and reaching out to click the flag button. Do we have a brigade of Dudley Do-Rights who just cluck their tongues and go, "Breaks the guidelines, must flag"? Come on, this was a decent question and as dobbs and Mitheral have pointed out variations have been asked before.

And mods possess have the discretion to ignore the flags, nadawi, it is not an automatic "picked up ton of flags must delete" deal.
posted by mlis at 12:39 AM on January 23, 2011 [5 favorites]


Shouldn't have said anything about it being a MacBook.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:40 AM on January 23, 2011 [11 favorites]


your need to personally insult anyone who disagrees with you makes me nervous to enter into a conversation with you - but, yeah, mods can ignore flags, and posters can take more care in framing their questions. lots of variations have been posted and lots of variations have been deleted. you'll find the devil in the details. to restate my comment - it was probably a combination of things and one of those things was probably flags. questioning that assumption seems silly unless you're determained to take this entire thread in bad faith.
posted by nadawi at 12:47 AM on January 23, 2011 [17 favorites]


It was absolutely, definitively chatfilter. It was a good deletion.

And... I asked a similar question a few years ago, asking people to list a single album.

"A few years ago" being December 21, 2003. That's less than two weeks after Ask MetaFilter was launched. Were there any guidelines then at all?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:48 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


oooh, nervous, ok nevermind, my mistake, I thought you were interested in a good faith discussion :(
posted by mlis at 12:49 AM on January 23, 2011


Horrendous question. List filter is already bad, but to mix it up in this open ended and spamy way... Bad.
posted by Chuckles at 12:57 AM on January 23, 2011


I thought you were interested in a good faith discussion :(

Really? Then explain this:

I am picturing legion of mefites, vapid eyes, no longer any cognitive functioning going on, zombies, responding to some form of stimuli, and reaching out to click the flag button. Do we have a brigade of Dudley Do-Rights who just cluck their tongues and go, "Breaks the guidelines, must flag"?

Hmm?
posted by Sys Rq at 1:00 AM on January 23, 2011 [17 favorites]


res ipsa loquitur
posted by mlis at 1:04 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


How is it even remotely "good faith" on your part?
posted by Sys Rq at 1:06 AM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


It's a lack of focus plus the too conversational tone of the post that killed it. AskMe is used to solicit recommendations all. The. Time. So that clearly isn't the problem.

If he'd limited it to a certain kind of music, it probably would have stayed. ("I'm fascinated by cover songs. Usually they don't bring anything to the table, but sometimes they're like magic. Could you recommend some cover songs you think are better than the original?")

If he'd created some sort of bizarre "problem to be solved," real or not, it probably would have stayed. ("I want to make a mix tape to give to a deaf teenager who just gained the ability to hear after experimental surgery. It will be the first music she has ever heard. I'd like to use it to introduce her to the widest possible range of music. Could you recommend standout tracks that represent the best of the best of that kind of music?")

But it didn't do either of things, so it was deleted.
posted by jsturgill at 1:13 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


It was hyperbole, did you really need that explained?
posted by mlis at 1:14 AM on January 23, 2011


*of those things
posted by jsturgill at 1:14 AM on January 23, 2011


I wish he'd delete this post as well.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:14 AM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


What the fuck is a Dudley Do-Right?

Dudley's a do-right, all-night man.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:17 AM on January 23, 2011


It was hyperbole, did you really need that explained?

It was casting aspersions over every responsible user of the site. That's kinda not great if you're looking to engage those same users in "good faith discussion." It's great trolling technique, though.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:22 AM on January 23, 2011 [22 favorites]


Yeah, despite repeated requests, the OP has refused to explain why s/he thinks this was a good question - except to say, "this was a good question." Not exactly a sign of good faith.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 1:28 AM on January 23, 2011


Trolling is not my intent, I wanted to have a discussion about deletions on Ask Me and cortex's tendency to delete too quickly. You would know about trolling, though.
posted by mlis at 1:30 AM on January 23, 2011


the mods have asked us to not go digging in unrelated past threads in weird games of gotcha. this is another not good faith tactic.
posted by nadawi at 1:32 AM on January 23, 2011 [22 favorites]


Wow. How long have you waited to trot that out?

I take it all back. Every letter of it. I'm serious. I've had time to think things through. I was wrong.

Way to totally be a dick about it, though.

Good faith, my ass. I hope you get fucking banned.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:35 AM on January 23, 2011 [16 favorites]


Fuck you, too, Sys Rq, maybe next time be more careful about accusing someone of "trolling"?
posted by mlis at 1:41 AM on January 23, 2011


This is gettin' kinda edgy.

PeterMcDermott's Aretha link, on the other hand, is a saving grace. God, I love Aretha.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:43 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Well, this is going wonderfully.
posted by dersins at 1:44 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


Conrad Yeah, despite repeated requests, the OP has refused to explain why s/he thinks this was a good question - except to say, "this was a good question." Not exactly a sign of good faith.

ctl + f "Come on, this was a decent question and as dobbs and Mitheral have pointed out variations have been asked before."
posted by mlis at 1:47 AM on January 23, 2011


I love all 2011 of my children songs. I could never choose between them.

No really, that's how many songs iTunes says I have right now. Neat coincidence.
posted by IndigoRain at 1:47 AM on January 23, 2011


Fuck you, too, Sys Rq, maybe next time be more careful about accusing someone of "trolling"?

Sure. Maybe if I do you could help the site by flagging it like a nice Dudley Do-Right?
posted by Sys Rq at 1:57 AM on January 23, 2011


Come on, this was a decent question and as dobbs and Mitheral have pointed out variations have been asked before.

So it's chatfilter and a double?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:00 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the thread is not going well b/c two members decided to break some windows all the while going on about "good faith" (e.g., pretending not to know what "variations" mean). The one liners have nothing to do with the thread not going well and read as an attempt to reduce tension.
posted by mlis at 2:02 AM on January 23, 2011


While I'm not saying HuronBob's question was a bad one, it was clearly chatfilter because all answers to his question are equally valid. The mixtape questions are different because, as far as I can tell, all of them have some sort of a theme ('songs about X') meaning that unlike this one, they have at least a finite set of answers.
posted by daniel_charms at 2:09 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Okay. Fine. Answer me this:

1. Why should we turn a blind eye to the question in question, and not to all the other questions that unequivocally break the guidelines?

2. What does the asker think of the deletion? Does he even know about this MeTa? Did you consult HuronBob at all before whining on his behalf?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:11 AM on January 23, 2011


"Come on, this was a decent question" does not explain why it's a decent question. Most of the comments I'm seeing here are expressing a sort of frustration at your refusal to articulate your position. It doesn't help when you come back at them with guns blazing. You're not making a good case here.
posted by knave at 2:11 AM on January 23, 2011 [8 favorites]


People posting one liners about how the thread isn't going well are part of the reason the thread isn't going well.

Oh please, get over yourself. The thread isn't going well because it degenerated into two guys saying "Fuck you!" "No, dude, fuck you!", not because a couple of other guys called them on it.
posted by dersins at 2:12 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


I think we can just let this thread die, can't we? When someone calls out a mod late on a Saturday evening Pacific time and greets every other participant in the thread with sneers--best just to leave them to it. Otherwise, whichever sleeping mod wakes first is going to find an absolute peach waiting for them here.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 2:16 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


He Lies In The Reins by Iron & Wine and Calexico. Is the answer. To all your questions. Even "should I eat this".
posted by NoraReed at 2:22 AM on January 23, 2011 [6 favorites]


i say... more Aretha! These 2 clips, from a 1967 Mike Douglas show broadcast, are just sooo good. And note, kids, this ain't lip synch (Aretha was godawful bad at lip synching), but rather Aretha's live singing to canned backing tracks...

Chain of Fools
and
Natural Woman

Sheer bliss.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:26 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


Questions like that are fun, but better suited to Facebook, Twitter and the like, which are designed on purpose to chat with people.
posted by harriet vane at 2:30 AM on January 23, 2011


That's "he lays in the reins" ... but either way, if that song was playing at the moment of my death, I'd happily shut up and not worry about any final words.
posted by philip-random at 2:33 AM on January 23, 2011


two nerds enter, one nerd leaves.
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:35 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


--So, cortex, brother, what is the rush to delete?--

MLIS, you should have put that in a MeMail to cortex. This Meta post really wasn't needed.
posted by peacay at 2:42 AM on January 23, 2011 [9 favorites]


I'm, say, sixteen or seventeen. My friend is fighting this drunk redneck, right in the drive-through lane of this Jack in the Box, in front of the speaker box, having a fistfight in the pool of light from the guy's truck's headlights. There was only one or two punches, really, before it went to the ground, and now they're just grappling and huffing and puffing on the asphalt and every minute or so the redneck ekes out a "bitch" or "faggot" between breaths, and it's really just sloppy and dumb to watch and I can just imagine the bored Jack in the Box staff listening to the whole thing over the drive-through intercom.

I'm about seven feet away and standing next to me is the redneck's friend, or brother or cousin or whoever, some guy who'd been in the truck with him, a kinda heavyset guy also in his late teens in a cowboy hat with his hands on his hips. We're just kind of watching this play out together.

I glance over to him and he points at our friends rolling on the asphalt in the drive-through lane and says, "If you were, uh, if you wanted to jump in there... I'd kick your ass." But like, not really threatening-sounding. Like he's just throwing it out there, in case I'm interested. In case I feel left out. I look at him for another second and he just shrugs at me and goes back to chewing his copenhagen and watching the scuffle.

Seemed like a nice enough guy, I guess, I dunno.
posted by churl at 2:44 AM on January 23, 2011 [82 favorites]


MetaFilter: Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?
posted by phaedon at 2:52 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


cortex is primarily responsible for the blue? Is that right, or just something someone made up in their head?
posted by fixedgear at 3:03 AM on January 23, 2011


BP: "Shouldn't have said anything about it being a MacBook."

Worse than that - it's a new Macbook Air, held together with those damn devil-screws that Apple is using to infest the world with Jobsian evil…

But, yeah, chatfilter at its worst. The mixtapes ones that slip though are mostly of the "tell me your favourite songs about X", "I'm looking for songs in the theme of Y", or "suggest songs to help with Z". Yours is just "throw songs at me". No theme, no reason, no purpose apart from chat.
posted by Pinback at 3:47 AM on January 23, 2011


Yours is just "throw songs at me".

"Yours"? please note that the poster of this MeTa and the poster of the original deleted post are not the same person.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:01 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Thank you, philip-random. In my defense it's super late here. And I absolutely cannot get the forms of "lay" straight in my head, it's some mental block thing.
posted by NoraReed at 4:09 AM on January 23, 2011


This brings up something I've been thinking about, actually ... sometimes members really want to ask Mefites for help, advice or recommendations, in situations in which the source of the answer is as important as the answer itself. For instance, if you just want to know "who shot this photo?," a correct answer is a correct answer, no matter where you find it or who supplies it. With some other questions, it matters a lot that it is Metafilter people answering, and this is especially true of people who are more invested and active on the site. So, for some people, AskMe is a resource that they read about somewhere and use as a tool, while for others, AskMe is a place where they can get answers from a bunch of people they know and interact with on Metafilter and across other sites.

I do think it's important to take care to preserve that aspect of the dynamic, because to me it's pretty essential to the vitality of the site. For example, HuronBob has asked 19 questions in Ask, and currently answered 1690, so for every question he's asked, he's answered about 90.

By which I don't mean that people with certain levels of participation should get a free pass to break guidelines, but it's worthwhile to be sensitive to the social aspect of Ask, because I do think that's where it gets its vitality. I completely understand why overly chatty questions are not welcome, but I hope we don't hone this to the degree that we are robbed of the one thing that all the other copycat sites can't copy — the enthusiasm, cooperation and particular overall wit, intelligence, experience and personality of the active answer crew.

So, yeah, no. I don't have a solution right here, but I hope HuronBob can re-ask his question in a way that will give him what he wants (and I'd like to read it too), yet also fits the guidelines.

(Also, I've always wanted to ask what everybody's "Daily" sites are — the places they pretty much check every single day — but Ifigure it's verboten on the green and doesn't seem to fit MetaTalk. We need an internal Twitteresque something.)
posted by taz at 4:19 AM on January 23, 2011 [46 favorites]


Ministry, Jesus Built My Hotrod, Red Line/White Line version.

I have played that song at least once a month ever since it was released; often more regularly. It's the best cure for weltschmerz I know.

Deletions? Eh. Why fight it? Just heed the words of the Reverend Jourgensen.
posted by Decani at 4:20 AM on January 23, 2011 [9 favorites]


Well, the Reverend Haynes, actually.
posted by Decani at 4:20 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Yours"? please note that the poster of this MeTa and the poster of the original deleted post are not the same person.

Noted.

Also noted is that fact that your contribution so far to the question of "was this deletion kosher?" has been "Aretha Franklin". Twice.
posted by Pinback at 4:25 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


I thought about flagging that one, but then I decided that it could be interpreted as the less chatty question "How do I pare down my music collection so it will fit on my new macbook?" and figured that was probably okay. It should maybe have been actually phrased more like that, though, if that's the problem the asker wanted to solve.
posted by lollusc at 4:33 AM on January 23, 2011


Well the last time I was asked what song I would take with me to deserted island I answered Faces - Ooh La La. I'm sticking with that for now but really the answer is ever changing. Maybe that's part of the reason the question was considered chatfilter.
posted by Sailormom at 4:35 AM on January 23, 2011


To me it feels too vague: if HuronBob had given any sort of information about what type of music he already enjoyed, and asked for similar recommendations, I feel that would have been fine. But a question that is basically 'name your favourite song' seems more like chatfilter. I could go 50/50 but I feel like deletion is probably the right call. (Though on re-reading the thread I think taz made some excellent points).
posted by Infinite Jest at 4:39 AM on January 23, 2011


This was a perfectly righteous deletion and I resent the implication that I would be some kind of brainless zombie if I had seen that post and flagged it, or the implication that cortex is not qualified to delete AskMe posts. The other mixtape threads at least ask for recommendations where there is a theme or mood, or recommendations that are similar to a stated list. This was just "name your favorite song." That's pure chatfilter; there's no wrong answer. If it was ever borderline, the chatty framing with extraneous details caused it to fall on the side of chatfilter.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:48 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


I can't think of just ONE great song, there's so many, you know? It can really vary.

mlis, you're coming off a bit fighty, maybe rethink your tone?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:49 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Also noted is that fact that your contribution so far to the question of "was this deletion kosher?" has been "Aretha Franklin". Twice.

Gosh, you're right. That's clearly not enough, so thanks so much for reminding me! Here's another.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:57 AM on January 23, 2011 [8 favorites]


About this time, I think we could all benefit from a little of this.
posted by dougrayrankin at 5:06 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Aretha Franklin is the answer to pretty much everything.
posted by Wolof at 5:09 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


"Who is John Galt?"

Aretha Franklin
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:11 AM on January 23, 2011 [7 favorites]


Aretha Franklin is the answer to pretty much everything.

How's her health?
posted by fixedgear at 5:11 AM on January 23, 2011


It seems like a decent deletion to me, although I could see it being left up also.
posted by OmieWise at 5:21 AM on January 23, 2011


How's her health?

Well, according to her, she doesn't, in fact, have pancreatic cancer, as was recently reported...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:25 AM on January 23, 2011


MLIS: "I think cortex pulls the trigger too quickly sometimes on the deletion of Ask Me posts and more restraint would be appreciated... I often see that jessamyn has written something like, "I am attempting to get a hold of cortex so we can discuss this post" when referring to a post on the blue b/c cortex has primary responsibility for the blue."

And sometimes submissions which should be rejected aren't, so it probably all balances out in the end anyway. Now, serious question I'd like answered and I hope this isn't too chatfiltery - what's everyone's favourite day/time to post a MeTa thread calling out a mod?
posted by gman at 5:27 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


That is great news!
posted by Wolof at 5:27 AM on January 23, 2011


About Aretha, of course.
posted by Wolof at 5:28 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


My biggest worry is that someone up above actually didn't know who Dudley Do-Right is, and didn't get the answer.
posted by meese at 5:38 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]




The deletion was good, this callout is stupid and bad, and anyone who says "Fuck you" to another MeFite should get at least a temporary ban.
posted by languagehat at 6:09 AM on January 23, 2011 [41 favorites]




Well, damn, look at this..... I get 6 hours of sleep and the place falls apart!

taz sort of nailed it in this comment. He was correct in that the point of asking it on Meta was because I KNOW there are thoughtful responses from a diverse population of creative and intelligent people. As I had mentioned in the original question, I originally DID throw this out on twitter, to my all of 30 or so followers... (and Facebook as well, where there's, I don't know, maybe another 10 who don't follow me already on twitter).

The first (and only response) that bounced back from twitter was a MeFite with 4 outstanding suggestions (three of which I never would have thought of).

"Eureka! AskMe is the place to go", I thought.

For those that suggested that I should have narrowed it down, my point was to open it as wide as possible, and that worked, there were songs from genres that I never listen to, very good songs. I didn't want suggestions of 60's folk or big band I've got plenty of that, I wanted more diversity in the collection.

I considered the chat-filter danger, I've been around here long enough to know that I was, perhaps, on thin ice, so I did a quick search for "best" on AskMe, and found a number of questions that were in the same mode as this one (about music, film, books, etc), so I went for it.

Folks are right that I might have avoided the deletion had I not been so fucking chipper about the MacBook when I posted it (new computer and a glass of Pinot and I'm just Little Mary Sunshine), I probably should have said it was a Dell.

I'm happy for the responses I got, and it was fun as hell to sit in front of the computer for an hour or so with AskMe open, YouTube streaming, and my iTunes account racking up items for my "wish-list" to be purchased today... I would go back and mark a few best answers, but, gosh, the thread seems to be closed and I can't do that.. and, anyways, they were ALL "best answers", 'cuz I asked for the best you had.

Thanks all... (and, for the suggestions in this thread as well).
posted by HuronBob at 6:18 AM on January 23, 2011 [13 favorites]


Let me rock you, that's all I wanna do.

That's what everyone says but they really mean something else.
posted by Sailormom at 6:19 AM on January 23, 2011


Just heard Aretha covering 'The Weight' on a streaming cover song network, so there's that.
posted by fixedgear at 6:21 AM on January 23, 2011


Who's the black private dick
that's a sex machine to all the chicks?
Aretha Franklin!
You're damn right
Who is the man
that would risk his neck for his brother man?
Aretha Franklin!
Can ya dig it?
Who's the cat that won't cop out
when there's danger all about
Aretha Franklin!
Right on
You see this cat Aretha Franklin is a bad mother--
(Shut your mouth)
But I'm talkin' about Aretha Franklin
(Then we can dig it)
He's a complicated man
but no one understands him but his woman
Aretha Franklin
posted by blue_beetle at 6:25 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


The fact that the first answer was a Counting Crows song is reason enough for deletion.
posted by Mister_A at 6:29 AM on January 23, 2011 [24 favorites]


Aretha Franklin is the answer to pretty much everything.
posted by Wolof at 5:09 AM on January 23 [+] [!]


"Who is John Galt?"

Aretha Franklin
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:11 AM on January 23 [+] [!]


42 you meant to write I'm sure
posted by infini at 6:31 AM on January 23, 2011


The hole is deep enough, MLIS. Quit digging.
posted by crunchland at 6:32 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Each time you go to bed, who do you pray like?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:34 AM on January 23, 2011


MetaFilter: at least a temporary ban

Note: Everyone needs a hug.
posted by bwg at 6:36 AM on January 23, 2011


I can see why it was deleted, and I think it probably could have stayed up with some refinement of the question. Nice to see Keith Whitley up there, almost makes up for the Buckley Hallelujah.

This MeTa is a steaming bag of ass, though. Nice work in ensuring there's little chance of anything constructive coming out of it, MLIS.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:36 AM on January 23, 2011


For example, HuronBob has asked 19 questions in Ask, and currently answered 1690, so for every question he's asked, he's answered about 90.

I also have an answer count that's about 100 times my question count. Combining my two profiles, I've given over 3,000 answers and asked 24 questions. I don't think there should be any more leeway for me to ask "What's your favorite song?" types of questions than for someone who's never answered anything.

(It's the flipside of this issue.)
posted by John Cohen at 6:39 AM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


FWIW, I raised a similar issue regarding a general "recommend a non-fiction book" that was deleted, as a tangent in another thread, about six months ago. cortex's response is immediately below my comment. While I don't agree with it I've more or less accepted it.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:41 AM on January 23, 2011


Decani's suggestion is a good one. Now I have to go dig through a crate of old CDs.

I wanna love ya!
posted by Mister_A at 6:44 AM on January 23, 2011


This thread is like a master class in how to be an asshole on Metatalk. Patronizingly call out a mod for doing his job. Do it at 2:30 on a Sunday morning so nobody's around to respond. Say that any Mefite who disagrees with you is a braindead zombie, and dredge up odd bits of posting history to attack them with. Accuse others of not discussing in good faith when your own actions couldn't be any farther from that. Cap it off with a hearty "fuck you".

MLIS, I hope you're just having a bad day or whatever, but right now I'm embarrassed to share a profession with you.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:46 AM on January 23, 2011 [29 favorites]


And since we're hauling out our AskMe deletions, my very first was deleted for "this is not chatfilter" and I was such a noob I had no idea what even that meant. Since then, over 12 internet years ago, I've had a couple of answers deleted which I'm not always sure about but leave it to the powers that be to decide.
posted by infini at 6:47 AM on January 23, 2011


"The Messiah Will Come Again" by Roy Buchanan.

Whenever I'm in a bar with one of those newfangled internet jukeboxes, I'll put this on, and almost always someone (of all kinds of divergent tastes) will come up and ask "Dude, who was that?"
posted by jonmc at 6:56 AM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


The deletion was good, this callout is stupid and bad, and anyone who says "Fuck you" to another MeFite should get at least a temporary ban.


Seconding languagehat. MLIS needs a time out.
posted by spitbull at 7:08 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


And since we're hauling out our AskMe deletions, my very first was deleted for "this is not chatfilter" and I was such a noob I had no idea what even that meant. Since then, over 12 internet years ago, I've had a couple of answers deleted which I'm not always sure about but leave it to the powers that be to decide.

Well, I don't think they should delete a question for not being chatfilter.
posted by John Cohen at 7:13 AM on January 23, 2011


Just one day a year, we should have Opposite Day, where all non-chatfilter questions are deleted.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:17 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Hmm, Opposite Day...add it to the relevant askme, maybe?

Apparently the mods have Not My Day Day, actually. Or this is considered to be a self-healing thread (or we have to begin to worry about the carbon monoxide levels in their respective bedrooms).
posted by Namlit at 7:23 AM on January 23, 2011


Seriously though–Counting Crows?
posted by Mister_A at 7:26 AM on January 23, 2011 [5 favorites]


This was such a good deletion that I'm tingly.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:40 AM on January 23, 2011


Well, if there has to be Counting Crows representation, "Raining in Baltimore" is not the worst rain-related option. Being stuck in a car with someone wailing the chorus to "Rain King" is...ugh. Flashback.
posted by catlet at 7:41 AM on January 23, 2011


I got this far into this thread before I clicked on MLIS's name to see if the account was disabled.
posted by Jorus at 7:53 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Ah ... must mention O.M.D. & Aretha's 'Save Me' (U.S. bonus track from their new album History of Modern)!
posted by ericb at 7:56 AM on January 23, 2011


FUCK YOU BE MORE CIVIL
posted by r_nebblesworthII at 8:00 AM on January 23, 2011 [7 favorites]


Jesus, I guess I had a better night than some people. I was specifically out making dinner for friends last night. And yes cortex does mainly the blue and me mainly the green, but we always trade off if the other seems not to be around. However, sometimes we're a little more hardline with the others' spaces and this goes doubly so for "Gee I was just about to head to bed and this looks a little iffy according to the flag queue and I guess according to me...."

So, cortex deleted an thread that was a little on the fence. Sometimes we do this because we don't want to wake up to a MeTa thread like, not not exactly like, this.

MLIS, I don't know what your deal was last night but I seriously hope it's substance/bad day related because otherwise it might be personality related. You're generally a good contributor here. MeTa callouts are always okay if you're trying to figure something out. They're less great if you just seem to be angling for a fight. I hope you feel better this morning.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:05 AM on January 23, 2011 [8 favorites]


I just popped in to commend cortex on the wise deletion of a post that was the very definition of chatfilter. Keep up the good work!
posted by nowonmai at 8:08 AM on January 23, 2011


Well, good morning.

It read like pretty much an auto-delete to me and it was flagged a bunch. We spend a lot of time weighing the merits of borderline stuff, but this one was pretty straightforward as deletions go.

Chatty stuff is a dilemma, because it's fun. People like jumping in and sharing their favorite x and getting excited about subject and genres and so on; people like browsing through the lists that come out of those things too. We totally get this, and we're if anything a bit more tolerant of borderline chatty stuff about creative media and related things than we probably ought to be by a strict reading of the chatfilter guidelines. I like chatty stuff personally enough that I actually built a little site for it years ago, but that didn't really get its legs under it.

But chatfilter's chatfilter and that way lies a significant risk of deletion. Anybody who has been around here for a while should know and understand that. HuronBob acknowledges that he kind of knew what he was getting into on that front but went for it anyway. So it goes, question got deleted, no hard feelings on this end but that's pretty much how things work out a lot.

That there have been some chatty things that haven't gotten deleted over the years is a result of a mix of chance (e.g. something borderline that would have been deleted if we saw it right away goes unattended for a while and we decide to be clement when we finally see it because it's going well) and just straight up being a bunch of softies (something borderline that we just say, aw, hell, let 'em have it). The only uncompromising and consistent response to the "but chatty thing x didn't get deleted!" counter-argument is "fine, we'll consistently remove anything moderately chatty, no arguments brooked", which would in some ways make our jobs easier but wouldn't make pretty much anyone happier.

So. I get that HuronBob was feeling enthusiastic about the new computer. That's awesome, new computers are fun. Twitter is an a-okay place for "gimme some music!", metachat is great too, with some careful framing askme can be okay too but this was not at all careful framing: it was "i got a new computer, what is the best song!" and really didn't fit. If we want to talk about how it could have been framed better, that's cool, but it was not framed better: it was framed like silly enthusiastic idle chatfilter.

MLIS, if you want to talk about my general deletion habits, it'd help if you could include specific examples; aside from my disagreement with idea that this one was a problem, one data point isn't really a lot to work with. As far as mods consulting one another on deletions, we do a lot of that but usually more for borderline stuff than slam-dunk and in any case that's more of a middle-of-the-workday thing than late at night on a goddam weekend.

Needless to say, calling people zombies and going to Fuck You town is just a bad idea in general. Posting a direct complaint about a mod in the middle of the night is also not a great idea.

And no, the "macbook" thing was not part of the problem. I do like 95% of my work on Mac hardware and OSX or iOS. Jesus wept.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:08 AM on January 23, 2011 [7 favorites]


I miss BBQ.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 8:21 AM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


I reject the original premise of the question. Assume the smallest drive (64 gig). I'd say you were silly for not stepping up to 13-inch which come with the 128 gig drive, but you have to live with the mistakes you make. Anyway, 64 gig drive formatted out to 55 gig after OS and standard apps installed. If you;re a nutty audiophile and encoding your songs at a high bitrate you'll get about 200 days of music for 10 gig? So through 20 gig on there and you have over a year's worth of music (incase you ever get stranded in a dessert resort), and you still have 30 gig left over for porn!

If you were to try to fill a drive with only "good music" one song at a time that thread would have to have gone on for lifetimes to get to 50 gig (assuming the OP liked every suggestion).

I think that's a dishonest question that can't be answered by anyone other than the asker.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:23 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Ok, going to have coffee and stop making typos.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:24 AM on January 23, 2011


I've always imagined cortex as Ralph from the Simpson's in a hall monitor outfit. Even after seeing his picture.
posted by coolguymichael at 8:25 AM on January 23, 2011


Ah, here we go.
posted by coolguymichael at 8:27 AM on January 23, 2011


peacay writes "MLIS, you should have put that in a MeMail to cortex. This Meta post really wasn't needed."

Well there isn't any problem with hashing out a guideline in Meta. jessamyn and cortex have made it clear now why the site thinks this is chatfilter and that can only be a good thing going forward. The GRAR in this meta is a little weird though.

cjorgensen writes "you still have 30 gig left over for porn!"

30 gigs of porn (of the video variety) isn't very much as 30 gigs of any video isn't very much. Heck FireFly xvids are like 6 gigs all by themselves and Doctor Horrible adds another gig.
posted by Mitheral at 8:46 AM on January 23, 2011


cjorgensen, I will accompany you to dessert island anytime!
posted by Mister_A at 8:57 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


No need to worry about storage/memory, as I can play piano and guitar a bit. By a bit, I mean that I can play Hotel California.
posted by Mister_A at 8:58 AM on January 23, 2011


I can just imagine the bored Jack in the Box staff listening to the whole thing over the drive-through intercom.

Bored? I imagine this was the high point of their Jack-in-the-Box career.

Since this thread needs a little balearic chill, definitely, I'll suggest that HuronBob put A Man Called Adam's ""Easter Song" on his new machine.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:10 AM on January 23, 2011


Yeah, the BBQ DNS expired so it's definitely dead dead. Too bad. I visited often but didn't contribute much (kind of like here).
posted by synaesthetichaze at 9:26 AM on January 23, 2011


The late lamented thread started with a B-town reference, so I would have suggested some (NSFW-ish) Baltimore club music.
posted by jason's_planet at 9:28 AM on January 23, 2011


going to Fuck You town is just a bad idea in general

Going to Funky Town, OTOH, is always a good idea.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:44 AM on January 23, 2011 [8 favorites]


Okay, just to address the original callout (and to bypass the ensuing nonsense hopefully), I would just like to register that 1) I flagged it, 2) obviously therefore I think it was a pretty bad chatfilter-y question ("What is your favorite song"), and moreover 3) I tend to hate all of these sorts of "what is your opinion on X" chatfilter questions (it still irks me that the "what is attractive about men/women" questions have stuck around, but c'est la vie).

All of that aside, I think this is a pretty reasonable final word on the matter. The answer to "which debatably chatfilter-y questions are going to get deleted?" is "well, it depends on a variety of factors but don't take it personally." AKA "flag it (or don't) and move on (or write a nice comment)." I can live with that, and so can you, I'm pretty sure.
posted by dubitable at 9:53 AM on January 23, 2011


Going to Funky Town , OTOH, is always a good idea.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:44 PM on January 23


Not always. But sometimes. Especially like this.
posted by Decani at 10:10 AM on January 23, 2011


Chiming in to say I flagged it because it was just obviously chatfilter. Even if it was fun chatfilter, it's pretty much a textbook case - "what's your desert island song?"
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:20 AM on January 23, 2011


My apologies to cortex and the community. This call-out was not a good idea.
posted by mlis at 10:52 AM on January 23, 2011 [31 favorites]


something by Bob Dylan, by the way

But if you can have just one, I think we all agree that my cover is the right choice.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:56 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]




My apologies to cortex and the community. This call-out was not a good idea.

Just when I thought you couldn't possibly have a worse callout, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!
posted by ericost at 11:01 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Sorry I'm late. The question was chatfilter and should have been deleted. What's the best song? What's the best color? How long is a stick? Oh my Mac is so coooool!!!1!

Please.
posted by fritley at 11:07 AM on January 23, 2011


Fun, but I would have flagged it if I'd seen it.
posted by salvia at 11:07 AM on January 23, 2011


phaedon: "MetaFilter: Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket"

Hell in a Bucket, Grateful Dead.

I may be going to hell in a bucket, but at least I'm enjoying the ride!!
posted by AugustWest at 11:13 AM on January 23, 2011


My apologies to cortex and the community. This call-out was not a good idea.

Thanks for doing that, MLIS.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:14 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


I think it's time to put the top down.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:40 AM on January 23, 2011


You guys are all wrong. Can't Find My Way Home is the best song ever.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:50 AM on January 23, 2011


Life in the Air Age, Be Bop Deluxe.
posted by Splunge at 12:00 PM on January 23, 2011


I was more disturbed that the post was under the "pets & animals" category than anything else.

What that says about me, I don't want to know.
posted by The ____ of Justice at 12:01 PM on January 23, 2011


Words in a thread.
posted by dougrayrankin at 12:02 PM on January 23, 2011


I am picturing legion of mefites, vapid eyes, no longer any cognitive functioning going on, zombies, responding to some form of stimuli, and reaching out to click the flag button. Do we have a brigade of Dudley Do-Rights who just cluck their tongues and go, "Breaks the guidelines, must flag"? Come on, this was a decent question and as dobbs and Mitheral have pointed out variations have been asked before.

Okay, taht was really rude.

But to be honest, it was how I used to feel back when AskMe first started. I never would have said it -- and certainly not that way -- but I felt like there were arbitrary rules and a bunch of people who were gung-ho about enforcing them for no good reason. I had a very similar picture in my head, of these zombie-like "a rule's a rule" people.

Now I'm one of those people.

It's an interesting thing, because, in the end, it comes down to aesthetics. If someone says, "Okay, I get that there's a big old 'rule' against chatfilter, but, really, what's the harm? Are small woodland creatures going die if we allow chatfilter?", it's hard to answer in a way that sounds reasonable. You can say, "Well, if we allowed chatfilter, then the site would degrade into..." but then you're going to wind up positing some sort of site you wouldn't like. Aesthetics.

What I realized was that the old me didn't really care about Metafilter. I cared about some of the people here. I enjoyed it as entertainment. I valued it as a resource. But I didn't carry in my brain a clear picture of what Matt and Cortex and Jessamyn were trying to create. I sort of got it, but it didn't matter to me.

So I was basically like someone saying, "What's the big deal if I move my pawn forward three squares. We're just having fun here, right? Are you SERIOUSLY going to quote the rule book? What are you, a robot?"

And other people were saying. "Moving the pawn three squares isn't chess. We're playing chess here."

Those two mindsets aren't compatible.

But I gradually came to see -- and to FEEL -- what goal of this site was (for Matt, Jess, Cortex and the majority of people here), and I came to share it. And, share it or not, I now see that if you HAVE that goal, you HAVE to enforce the rules.

It's not about being a zombie. And it even makes sense to say, as Cortex did, "Hey, I liked the question, but I still had to delete it."

IF you care about chess, you can't let people move the pawn three squares. If you don't care about chess, that's fine. But just realize that many of the other people here do. We're not zombies. We're acting out of genuine passion.
posted by grumblebee at 12:06 PM on January 23, 2011 [10 favorites]


"pets & animals" bob?
posted by clavdivs at 12:08 PM on January 23, 2011


I do agree the question was chatty, but I do have to point out that "what's your favorite color" is not a good comparison. Anyone asking that is probably not expecting to be introduced to new colors. So I think we could set that particular snark aside.

Spiritualized - Medication 12" version
posted by neuromodulator at 12:09 PM on January 23, 2011


"pets & animals" bob?"

Looked at my profile picture lately?
posted by HuronBob at 12:17 PM on January 23, 2011


wing sings a.c. / d.c.
posted by jenkinsEar at 12:19 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Words in a thread.

Silver threads and golden needles.
posted by fixedgear at 12:27 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


bob,its a beautiful day and i know you that know it is, now get out behind that see=ment kiosk in the Diag and get me a pack of smokes in the arcade...kidding. love the profile pict.

Pat Boone-Smoke on the water
posted by clavdivs at 12:31 PM on January 23, 2011


You guys are all wrong. Can't Find My Way Home is the best song ever.

This "Can't Find My Way Home?" Sure, I'll buy that for a dollar.

For a moment there, I thought you meant this one, and then I realized I had the title wrong anyway. Scary thought though.
posted by philip-random at 12:43 PM on January 23, 2011


If anybody wants good music, may I suggest the mefi room on Listening Room from this post. Because I've been on and off it all weekend, and though I meant to do it so I'd have music on in a background music, I have ended up having to have a window open to write down all the new music I've liked/loved.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:49 PM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


Yep, that one. I have an extensive collection of covers, too, which is fun to go through sometimes.
posted by adamdschneider at 1:03 PM on January 23, 2011


Late to the thread to say I love Aretha beyond all reason as well, but I must put in some serious love for the forever glorious Gladys Knight. (And this killer version, too -- brought to you courtesy of the late great Don Kirshner! -- in which the Pips are totally EN FUEGO.)
posted by scody at 1:12 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]




I've been digging Syl Johnson's 'Different Strokes' lately.
posted by box at 1:55 PM on January 23, 2011


Aretha is great, but she oversings, IMO. Unlike the Queen of New Orleans Soul, Irma Thomas.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:32 PM on January 23, 2011


In an impulsive moment, I purchased an 11" MacBook Air. (I'll spare you the Mac "fanoldguy" gushing about the design...) Because storage is limited, I want to maximize the music on this machine.. adding ONLY those tracks that are exceptional!

Or buy a cheap USB dive. Here's one for $42 dollars. It's 250gb, so you can store a LOT of songs on it.

You can keep it plugged into your Macbook all the time, and thus have access to your whole music library. Or you could, say, once a week, transfer some songs to from it to your Macbook, and thus listen to a wide variety of music in rotation.
posted by grumblebee at 2:39 PM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Aretha is great, but she oversings

Don't you blaspheme in here! Don't you blaspheme in here!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:14 PM on January 23, 2011 [10 favorites]


All offense intended.

1. Go develop your own taste in music, and frankly, you are some combination of stupid and sad if you expect an internet site to do it for you.

2. Cortex, and the mods in general, seem to be right more than they are wrong. That doesnt mean everyone agrees with them all the time, it just means this works well in our goofy little community.

3. I think if you deconstruct that initial question, "What's the best...", think about it for a sec. Stick any other item in there, and see how silly it comes off.

We are your internet pals.

We are neither your Mom nor that cool uncle with a massive collection of vinyl.

And, no..you cant borrow our amp.
posted by timsteil at 3:31 PM on January 23, 2011


Better we should all hear it from the lady herself...

Don't you blaspheme in here! Don't you blaspheme in here!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:47 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Marvin Gaye, What's Going On (live). This is what plays in Heaven.
posted by jokeefe at 3:50 PM on January 23, 2011


grumblebee IF you care about chess, you can't let people move the pawn three squares. If you don't care about chess, that's fine. But just realize that many of the other people here do. We're not zombies. We're acting out of genuine passion.

I understand and agree with you. I also use the flag system and I have a great deal of respect for the community. When there have been egregious violations of community norms (I am thinking of spammers on the blue) I have even successfully alerted the mods via back-channel communications.

My unfortunate rant about zombies was written late at night when I was not at my best. I am sorry I wrote it. I take responsibility for what I wrote. But, yeah, it is not something I would have written during the day.
posted by mlis at 3:55 PM on January 23, 2011


No worries, MLIS. It's big of you to apologize.

Meanwhile, I think you should get this printed on a t-shirt:

"My unfortunate rant about zombies was written late at night when I was not at my best."
posted by grumblebee at 4:06 PM on January 23, 2011 [14 favorites]


Also to Sys Rq, I'm sorry. I'm bowing out now as I thought I would get to sleep early tonight.
posted by mlis at 4:20 PM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


PeterMcDermott: "going to Fuck You town is just a bad idea in general

Going to Funky Town , OTOH, is always a good idea
"

Won't you make me a ... soccer mom?
posted by bwg at 5:25 PM on January 23, 2011


"... I actually built a little site for it years ago, but that didn't really get its legs under it."

Maybe the MetaFilter group could add it to the site: ChatFilter. Guidelines: no links in the initial post, can't be an AskMeFi, not a MeTa.

Then again, does the Mod Squad need more threads to parse?
posted by bwg at 5:32 PM on January 23, 2011


Is that a grab bag or rhetorical?
posted by clavdivs at 5:39 PM on January 23, 2011


Hey ladies, those mustache pendants that're so popular lately? They wig me out. Makes it look like you have a riverboat gambler trapped between your boobs.
posted by jonmc at 5:46 PM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


This thread prompted me to listen to August and Everything After for the first time in four or five years, so thanks for that at least.
posted by Kwine at 6:27 PM on January 23, 2011


3. I think if you deconstruct that initial question, "What's the best...", think about it for a sec. Stick any other item in there, and see how silly it comes off.

O rly?
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:31 PM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


Counting Crows was fucking awesome back in the day, and I'll cut anyone who says different.
posted by kmz at 7:02 PM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


Counting Crows was fucking awesome back in the day, and I'll cut anyone who says different.
posted by kmz at 10:02 PM on January 23 [+] [!] No other comments.


Counting Cows suck dog balls. See you outside!
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:13 PM on January 23, 2011 [5 favorites]


toodley! I always thought you were a lady... ;p
posted by infini at 7:15 PM on January 23, 2011


"Asleep in perfect blue buildings,
beside the green apple sea,
gonna get me a little oblivion,
baby,
and try to keep myself away from me"
posted by clavdivs at 7:18 PM on January 23, 2011


Searches that thread for Mekons. Nothing.
Searches this thread for Mekons. Nothing.

Metafilter, you used to be cool.
posted by allen.spaulding at 7:26 PM on January 23, 2011


I don't wanna be cutted.
posted by Mister_A at 7:29 PM on January 23, 2011


Nice analysis, grumblebee. The same thing seems to happen on other sites, as well. For example, Wikipedia. Someone new to editing Wikipedia will put up an article about some local band that's played three shows and got a one-paragraph review on page C8 of the local paper. When the inevitable deletion proposal comes along, the counterargument by the person who created the article is, all too often, "well, it doesn't hurt anyone to have the article here." Same kind of thing—they're not getting that the point of Wikipedia is to create an encyclopedia. And while an encyclopedia can have a lot, it's still not the same as a compendium of all human knowledge. Which may be an unsatisfying answer to the newbie, but there it is, all the same.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:19 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


HuronBob and (tangentially I guess, no matter) MLIS: To answer the questioned question:
Disco didn't actually suck. It is alarmingly dated and unironically awesome. Exhibit A. Exhibit B. I'm hating postmodernism more and more. Something about music transcends time and times if you listen.
Re: hard drives; there's always room for Disco.

And old Blue Oyster Cult.
posted by vapidave at 8:39 PM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


Your favorite song sucks.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tin Pan Alley. Preferably listened to in the dark, through really good headphones.

And in second place, Ian Moore - Muddy Jesus.

I do loves me some nasty blues guitar.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:47 PM on January 23, 2011


GRIND

is what your macbook needs.
posted by Existential Dread at 8:56 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Counting Crows was fucking awesome back in the day, and I'll cut anyone who says different.

Did they give props to Van Morrison? They bloody well better have.
posted by philip-random at 9:13 PM on January 23, 2011


Pinckney.
Oh, horseshoes.

Cheap Trick-Reach Out
posted by clavdivs at 9:43 PM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


*t-t-t-takes it*
posted by jonmc at 9:47 PM on January 23, 2011


justforalittlespinwonthappenagain
Cheap Trick is awesome in concert

posted by clavdivs at 1:15 AM on January 24, 2011


Cortex has great hair and excellent taste in scotch. Your argument is invalid.
posted by geckoinpdx at 2:50 AM on January 24, 2011


Since you followed huronbob you might also want to follow

wilw (Will Wheaton)
loresjoberg (Lore Sjöberg)

(with 37 followers and 37 followees)

It took me a while to see that huronbob was a really cool guy, even though we disagree on many things.

Twitter is smarter than me, and much quicker.

Long way to the top. AC/DC.
posted by GeckoDundee at 3:54 AM on January 24, 2011


Or Treaty.
posted by GeckoDundee at 4:13 AM on January 24, 2011


wow..if following Wheaton makes me cool, the bar is lower than I thought! :)
posted by HuronBob at 5:50 AM on January 24, 2011


I was physically dependent on the Heavy Metal soundtrack as a kid, even though most of it isn't actually heavy metal.
posted by Mister_A at 5:53 AM on January 24, 2011


Trust's "Prefabricated" is. It may have been my first taste of thrash (or proto-thrash, maybe).
posted by jonmc at 7:51 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


The Soul Children
Marion Williams
Bob and Earl
Marilyn Barbarin

And "Showdown" by Kenny Carter has got to be in the running for most awesomely, operatically over the top gem ever. There used to be a YouTube clip, but no longer.
posted by thivaia at 8:11 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Mitheral: “30 gigs of porn (of the video variety) isn't very much as 30 gigs of any video isn't very much. Heck FireFly xvids are like 6 gigs all by themselves and Doctor Horrible adds another gig.”

Man, you use some weird things as porn.
posted by koeselitz at 10:08 AM on January 24, 2011


I like Sammy Hagar's contribution. Surely that counts as heavy metal?
posted by Meatbomb at 10:41 AM on January 24, 2011


Man, you use some weird things as porn.

you should see the man i think is the hottest in the world ;p
posted by infini at 11:51 AM on January 24, 2011


koeselitz: "Mitheral: “30 gigs of porn (of the video variety) isn't very much as 30 gigs of any video isn't very much. Heck FireFly xvids are like 6 gigs all by themselves and Doctor Horrible adds another gig.”"

♫ I'll be in my bunk. ♪
posted by zarq at 12:40 PM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


How is this not chatfilter?
posted by schyler523 at 2:10 PM on January 24, 2011


Damn trick question!
posted by cjorgensen at 2:26 PM on January 24, 2011


It was the Lore Sjöberg recommendation that I was impressed by, but thinking about it, maybe it just reflects the number of Mefites in your twitter (stream? whatever it's called).
posted by GeckoDundee at 3:55 PM on January 24, 2011


I loves me some Irma Thomas but . . .

Aretha is great, but she oversings

Dude, I sentence you to three hours listening to contemporary r&b/urban contemporary radio, where "oversinging" has been turned into "talent," and then spend 10 minutes with "Do Right Man."

Aretha can oversing to me any time.
posted by spitbull at 4:40 AM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]


Dude, I sentence you to three hours listening to contemporary r&b/urban contemporary radio, where "oversinging" has been turned into "talent," and then spend 10 minutes with "Do Right Man."

Or even 3' 23".
posted by Wolof at 6:31 AM on January 25, 2011


How is this not chatfilter?

Problem to be solved = we are having a baby next year and need help thinking of all the things to put on the "to do before we have a baby" list.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:52 AM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]


Anyway, don't leave home without this.
posted by Mister_A at 7:31 AM on January 25, 2011


Oh, Mister_A, now you've got Stevie in my head again. I went on a Songs in the Key of Life binge over the weekend.
posted by readery at 8:14 AM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


What are you waiting for? Another day, another dawn? Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and AR Rahman
posted by infini at 9:46 AM on January 25, 2011


Ok, so maybe it's not the best song EVAR... but I'll be damned if it's not a ton of fun: Rip Slyme - Super Shooter
posted by owtytrof at 3:54 PM on January 25, 2011


toodley! I always thought you were a lady... ;p

Nope - I don't even look like one! (and dats whut u get 4 thinkin)
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:38 PM on January 25, 2011


Interesting question. Had I answered HuronBob's question, or had his MeMail not been disabled, I'd have told him that he wants Debaser by the Pixies. But alas, he'll never know. Cough.
posted by Askr at 7:23 PM on January 25, 2011


I like Sammy Hagar yt 's contribution. Surely that counts as heavy metal?

Ok, so I read that and I was thinking "what could piss me off more than that ?".
After much consideration the answer I arrived at was "nothing".
posted by vapidave at 12:18 AM on January 26, 2011


Or even 3' 23".

I meant: listen to it 3 times. The cure should stick then.
posted by spitbull at 5:14 AM on January 26, 2011


The cure should stick then.

I don't need no Doctor.
posted by Wolof at 6:09 AM on January 27, 2011


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