Did my post get deleted or is something weird going on?

February 8, 2011 8:35 AM

I posted in this thread that I thought he should respond with, "Yeah, that's fucking bullshit, huh?" Did that get deleted? Is there a no profanity rule on mefi that I don't know about, or did I violate some other rule?
posted by The Dutchman to Etiquette/Policy at 8:35 AM (59 comments total)

The first time I read your comment, it read as noise, like something you were saying to the OP about their situation. Then I read it again and realized you meant it as something the OP should say to people. It wasn't really clear.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:37 AM on February 8, 2011

Everything happens for a reason.
posted by pwally at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2011 [37 favorites]

It's a perfectly valid response, and should not have been deleted.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:39 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

"politely"
posted by 2bucksplus at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2011 [6 favorites]

Your entire comment was "Yeah, it's fucking bullshit, huh?" and it wasn't clear if you were offering a "You should say this" suggestion or just commenting on the nature of these sorts of interactions. Looks like cortex removed it after a few people have flagged it. In any question about religion there are always people who show up who bascially have a comment about religion but no real answer to the question and we tend to try to keep a pretty tight lid on that sort of thing so that every question about religion doesn't turn into the same old internet feud that they do everywhere else.

So, feel free to be a little more clear about what you were saying and make it clear that you're actually answering the question not just making a general comment and I think we'll be fine. There is definitely not a "no profanity" rule or guideline though calling the OP of a question a dick, asshole, bitch or other generally unhelpful name-calling may be removed as unhelpful, not as profanity.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm having a hard time seeing how that answers the question, which was how to respond politely and not call their beliefs "fucking bullshit".
posted by meowzilla at 8:41 AM on February 8, 2011 [8 favorites]

Yeah, jessamyn has it. I think "you should respond bluntly, like perhaps...and here's why" is at least a workable answer if you make it clear, regardless of whether folks would agree with it or not. But a tiny no-quotes thing that isn't even clearly an answer rather than a bit of chatty commiseration with the thread topic itself is really not a good way to accomplish that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:45 AM on February 8, 2011

More like your post got deleted AND there's something weird going on.
posted by crunchland at 8:47 AM on February 8, 2011

There is always something weird going on.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:54 AM on February 8, 2011 [29 favorites]

This is fucking bullshit.

I keed! I keed!
posted by slogger at 8:56 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Moge je pilsje altijd klein zijn en je koffer vol met geld. Proost!
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2011 [2 favorites]

Don't listen to jessamyn - there definitely is a no profanity rule on MeFi. But sometimes the mods don't notice if you use obscure or archaic cuss words. I recommended brushing up
posted by jpdoane at 8:58 AM on February 8, 2011 [5 favorites]

As people said above, it probably wouldn't have gotten deleted if your answer was:

You should say: "Yeah, it's fucking bullshit, huh?"

As capricious as that seems, the mods have to clean up a lot of threads, and they're not really psychic. Neither is anybody else.

Except flapjax at midnight. I'm pretty sure he's psychic.
posted by koeselitz at 9:03 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jessamyn never uses profanity.
posted by jozxyqk at 9:03 AM on February 8, 2011

The question asked how to respond "politely". Your answer is thus pretty clearly not helpful.
posted by Perplexity at 9:05 AM on February 8, 2011

"Charm school?"
posted by boo_radley at 9:05 AM on February 8, 2011

Ok, got it. Thanks for the clarification.
posted by The Dutchman at 9:06 AM on February 8, 2011

This is kind of weird.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

> "Charm school?"

In the marble halls of same.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:09 AM on February 8, 2011

I flagged it, because it seemed like you either didn't understand the question, or how AskMe works. Maybe I was wrong on both counts -- but that still doesn't make it a particularly helpful answer.
posted by hermitosis at 9:14 AM on February 8, 2011

This is kind of weird.

Not particularly. It's just a song about a lady who got all of her skin burned off in a fire.
posted by philip-random at 9:15 AM on February 8, 2011

"What a nice thing to believe!"

or

"Yeah, that's fucking bullshit, huh?"

Seem diametrically opposed and equally clear as to whether they were things the OP could say or commentary of those kinds of situations. One is removed, the other garners favorites.

I'm not advocating keeping the second, but seems to me the first should go as well. But then consistency and hobgoblins and all that.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:29 AM on February 8, 2011

Laboring under the illusion that you are empirically minded will only cause more suffering.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:32 AM on February 8, 2011 [2 favorites]

Seem diametrically opposed and equally clear as to whether they were things the OP could say or commentary of those kinds of situations. One is removed, the other garners favorites.

One was in quotes, the other wasn't. One was clearly "Say this" and the other was less clearly saying that. We have enough people threadshitting in religion-themed threads that stuff that looks like threadshitting when brough to our attention is foten removed. The OP is more than welcome to repost and be more clear.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:33 AM on February 8, 2011

Seems like "Yeah, that's fucking bullshit, huh?" got flagged and "What a nice thing to believe!" didn't. Blame the non-flagging hobgoblin readers.
posted by rtha at 9:34 AM on February 8, 2011

One is removed, the other garners favorites.

I don't think the first is great either, but my personal opinions about individual answers aside there's a pretty crucial presentational difference between the two answers: the first had quotes and was so unambiguously a suggested phrase and not a comment about the thread or the premise; the latter did not have any quotes and the resulting ambiguity was definitely a problem in context.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:34 AM on February 8, 2011

THIS IS BULLSHIT
posted by porn in the woods at 9:43 AM on February 8, 2011

I don't believe that The Dutchman's comment was in quotes.
posted by hermitosis at 9:55 AM on February 8, 2011

The REAL question here is: is there a "no jessamyn" rule on MeFi? I say: yes.

Everyone knows that jessamyn is a purely fictional concept that people only believe in to make their lives seem less chaotic; to cope with a universe that is cruel and unforgiving.

But we brave and intellectually rigorous folks - the kind of right-thinking people I like to call "Brights" - simply do not accept outlandish concepts such as jessamyn, for which there is simply NO EVIDENCE.

Of course, the vast bulk of deluded sheeple will continue to pray to made-up entities like "jessamyn" and "cortex" and "mathowie" - who, by all accounts, live up in the sky and angrily smite those who defy them. What a horrible, backward philosophy that is!

So let's all agree once and for all that there'll be no more talk of "jessamyn" and her magic sky-wizard friends on MeFi. Thank you.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 10:07 AM on February 8, 2011 [10 favorites]

someone is jealous of my magic sky-parties.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:12 AM on February 8, 2011 [15 favorites]

It's the "huh?" that did it in, I'll bet. That makes it seem more like idle commiseration than anything approaching an answer to any question.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:12 AM on February 8, 2011

If I had to choose between going to a scotch-tasting meetup and going to jessamyn's magical sky-party, I would totally pick the sky-party. Though I'd probably bring some scotch with me.
posted by rtha at 10:17 AM on February 8, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is there a no profanity rule on mefi that I don't know about

I sure as hell hope not, or I am in fucking trouble.
posted by edgeways at 10:19 AM on February 8, 2011

MetaFilter: Someone is jealous of my magic sky-parties.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:24 AM on February 8, 2011

There is always something weird going on.

Now THAT explains "God's plan" better than anything.

From now on, in situations that would normally require a bland platitude, I'm going to say "There is always something weird going on."
posted by amyms at 10:30 AM on February 8, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm going to say 'There is always something there to remind me.'
posted by box at 10:42 AM on February 8, 2011 [4 favorites]

the quidnunc kid: " Of course, the vast bulk of deluded sheeple will continue to pray to made-up entities like "jessamyn" and "cortex" and "mathowie" - who, by all accounts, live up in the sky and angrily smite those who defy them. What a horrible, backward philosophy that is! "

Translated from the original CSS:

15 And So It Came to Pass that the
16 MeFites, Now Grown Mighty in Number
17 Required Live Preview.
18 In Anguish, They Cried Out to
19 Their Lords for Succour
20 At the Gray Sacrificial Altar

21 Lo! Their Prayers were Answered.
22 With His Outstretched Hand and
23 A Compassionate Heart, the
24 Mighty god PB, Master of All Things
25 Brought Forth a Magical Sky Pony
26 For All To Partake From

OK, perhaps that's a little too kiss-ass.
posted by zarq at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

"jessamyn" and "cortex" and "mathowie" - who, by all accounts, live up in the sky and angrily smite those who defy them.

I just can't picture the mods angrily smiting people. I like to think of them as benevolent smiters.
posted by amyms at 11:04 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

"...as the priest said to the choirboy."
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:13 AM on February 8, 2011

I just can't picture the mods angrily smiting people. I like to think of them as benevolent smiters.

Sometimes they're gleeful smiters; if you listen closely, you can hear cortex grin from miles away as he drops the banhammer on a spammer.
posted by rtha at 11:36 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, quotes probably would have been a good idea. My original plan was to have a list of passive-aggressive things to say, because that is my favored way of communicating at all times, but then I could only think of one "good" one. I think if it had been a list, it probably would have been more clear that it was a thing to say and not a comment.

To defend my suggestion: The idea was that saying, "Yeah, that's fucking bullshit, huh?" would seem like he though was agreeing, but totally missing the point when, in fact, he was deliberately saying something offensive to the godly well-wisher. It's, yknow, dastardly. Also, I am a terrible person.
posted by The Dutchman at 11:56 AM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

If I had to choose between going to a scotch-tasting meetup and going to jessamyn's magical sky-party, I would totally pick the sky-party. Though I'd probably bring some scotch with me.

You're always thinking, rtha. Also, not for nothing, but you can probably see the birds real good from up there!
posted by Mister_A at 1:57 PM on February 8, 2011

If you're not too scotched-up I mean...
posted by Mister_A at 1:57 PM on February 8, 2011

If I'm all scotched up I just see twice as many birds! It's awesome!
posted by rtha at 2:38 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm assuming this has been discussed at length in the past, but is there any way to delete comments while also leaving a record that the comment existed, and perhaps notifying the user? I know I had a fair few comments deleted in my early Ask days when I wasn't clear on the funny jokes policy and it wasn't entirely clear to me what had happened, and I continued to make funny jokes, and I then felt sad that there was no record of my funny joke.
posted by doublehappy at 3:05 PM on February 8, 2011

We can email you all your funny deleted jokes, but we've had a few long MeTa threads explaining why this is something we're not going to implement.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:06 PM on February 8, 2011

Like this one.
posted by zarq at 3:08 PM on February 8, 2011

Also... now I want a donut.
posted by zarq at 3:09 PM on February 8, 2011

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Fark,
And danced the Net on laughter-silvered wings;
Outwards I've climbed, and joined the tumbling lark
Of IRL Meetups ..and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the Projects silence. Answering Asks,
I've chased the shouting GRAR along, and flung
My eager words at Mefi Jobs tasks.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept posts with easy anonyimity
Where never troll, nor even Quonsar flew.
And while Quixotic, tilting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of sanity...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of Mod.


I feel kinda dirty for doing that.
posted by pjern at 5:53 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

someone is jealous of my magic sky-parties.

I read that as magic sky-panties at first and actually got quite jealous. I want magic sky panties!!!!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 6:49 PM on February 8, 2011 [3 favorites]

And I want you to have them. So. much.

(not creep-ist, just keeping the joke running)
posted by Eideteker at 9:44 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

My answer to that question was, "Fuck that! Fucking clown shoes." But it was deleted too, what gives?!
posted by Brocktoon at 10:14 PM on February 8, 2011

The REAL question here is: is there a no panties rule on MeFi? I say: yes.

For too long, our MeFi activities have been incarcerated within a cruel prison of cotton or mixed fabrics. It's surely time to free ourselves from these stifling bonds, to expose ourselves to the cool breeze of liberty and feel the light of justice on our cheeks.

That's why I refuse to wear underpants while on MeFi. Of course, I mostly look at the site while at work. But if a dental nurse like me can't put down his tools once in a while, pull down his trousers and underpants, and start commenting on a community weblog, then there is something wrong with America. And if you don't like it, get your goddam teeth cleaned somewhere else.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 10:22 PM on February 8, 2011

Sometimes randomness works, most of the time it falls flat.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:35 PM on February 8, 2011

As I said in my original post, I *do not* want to be rude or combative, especially because the people who say these things are always, like, people I work with or my future mother-in-law or my elderly aunt.

Your answer was so wrong that even the mods who are supposed to look at everything subjectively or objectively depending on what the better outcome is for the users...they just said it was "fucking wrong".

If it was 2006 I would say "fucking FAIL".
posted by hal_c_on at 1:54 AM on February 9, 2011

Ha! thanks for reminding me of that - I have to add "The Fibonaughty Sequence" to my profile!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:48 AM on February 9, 2011

NP, happy to creep the joke alive.

I creeps it real like that.
posted by Eideteker at 6:14 AM on February 9, 2011

"fail" is so five years ago? wtf.
posted by J. Wilson at 5:08 PM on February 9, 2011

"Fail," in the verb-as-noun internet sense, (e.g. "epic fail") seems to have mainstreamed at the end of 2007, and has continued to gain traction ever since.

(I do agree, however, that it is awfully stale at this point, and currently exudes the desperate air of old people trying to be hip.)
posted by Sys Rq at 4:39 PM on February 10, 2011