Flags

January 20, 2012 2:55 PM

Ever think of making the number of flags on posts and comments visible to us?

Maybe after a certain amount of time, or after the thread has expired for new comments, so that it wouldn't be derailing.

This is not really a feature request but I was just wondering if it had ever been considered because it would be really interesting. Sometimes in discussions of why a post was or wasn't deleted, the number of flags it got is mentioned, and sometimes it's really surprising.

posted by cairdeas to Etiquette/Policy at 2:55 PM (105 comments total)

I can't imagine there being any overlap between the time it was still of any interest at all and the time when publishing the information wouldn't fan the flames of any fire that there was. So to me, not such a good thing.
posted by ambrosen at 2:59 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

No, not something we intend to ever do. The idea has come up before, and I totally get where it's coming from because I have that same numbers-are-interesting instinct, but it's something we've thought through and the feeling is that making that data explicitly visible wouldn't solve any extant problems and would likely create an extra layer of distracting sideshow to the discussions that happen around deletions and non-deletions.

If someone's ever specifically curious about a given case, they can drop us a line at the contact form to inquire, that's generally fine.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:59 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

Not really, no.

It's basically asking us to add public negative voting, and doing that would open up a huge can of worms and result in all sorts of unintended consequences (I'm sure the next request would be auto-delete for anything with >10 flags).

The way the system works is basically like a suggestion box at a business. You point out stuff you don't like, we consider it all and act on it or discuss it and determine if we shouldn't act on it, but normally we take most all the flags into consideration on what we should be looking at that may be problematic.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:59 PM on January 20, 2012 [15 favorites]

Thanks guys.
posted by cairdeas at 3:01 PM on January 20, 2012

This is something that comes up from time to time but is in the "Asked and answered" category. Here are a few recent MeTa threads talking about it [1, 2] and I've added it to the Mod Explanations page on the wiki.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:01 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

...what they said.

(Man, is my email slow or something? I came STRAIGHT HERE.)
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 3:02 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

The way the system works is basically like a suggestion box at a business. You point out stuff you don't like, we consider it all and act on it or discuss it and determine if we shouldn't act on it

So...not at all like a suggestion box at a business, is what you're saying.

I think the only time I've ever seen a business implement a suggestion from a suggestion box is when someone suggested having tacos for a company lunch on Cinco de Mayo. They made a small amount of bean dip and passed around a bag of chips. Because that's the same thing.
posted by Errant at 3:06 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

restless_nomad: (Man, is my email slow or something? I came STRAIGHT HERE.)

The delay is just something Matt does with the newer mods to ensure that the others get their kicks in first.
posted by gman at 3:07 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't mind having the total number of times I've flagged anything cumulatively listed on my profile page, and I'd also like to see that from other people.
posted by jamjam at 3:25 PM on January 20, 2012

I would like to see flags, but don't trust the rest of y'all with them, so no.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:28 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I would love to see them too, but I'd hate to see what it would do to this place.
posted by crunchland at 3:33 PM on January 20, 2012

Does Restless Nomad realize she just deleted an adam savage post?
posted by empath at 3:37 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Only cuz she beat me to it. *shakes fist*
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:39 PM on January 20, 2012

Is there some reason restless_nomad should treat postings differently based on social status?
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:40 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I wasn't given a list of people whose posts weren't allowed to be deleted when I started this job... (Seriously, I know everyone loves asavage and he's cool and all, but flamebait op-eds on a TV show we've have a bunch of posts about already?)
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 3:40 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

An Adam Savage post including an Adam Savage comment where he mentions my username! *shakes fist*
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:40 PM on January 20, 2012

Which reminds me; did I dream it or did a mod once delete a matthowie post?
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:41 PM on January 20, 2012

(I mean mathowie, dammit. My mnemonic for that is that mathematics hurts your brain: you get a math owie.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:41 PM on January 20, 2012

To the infodump!
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:42 PM on January 20, 2012

He posted a double not too long ago and it was deleted.
posted by gingerbeer at 3:42 PM on January 20, 2012

I'm not sure if there's anyone whose posts we don't delete because of who they are, there shouldn't be. I love asavage but the "Is X racist?!" and point-and-laugh at dopey writers is often not a great way to start off a post. But r_n and I don't have TVs, so we are suspect.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:43 PM on January 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

I wasn't given a list of people whose posts weren't allowed to be deleted when I started this job... --- That was an oversight. Here it is.

DO NOT DELETE POSTS BY:
asavage
crunchland
mathowie
posted by crunchland at 3:43 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

But r_n and I don't have TVs, so we are suspect.

Ah ha!

Nothing, really. I just like saying "Ah ha!" sometimes.
posted by rtha at 3:45 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

To the infodump!

/imagining a Johnny Mnemonic Keanu flying through 3D data architecture cityscapes.
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:49 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

mathowie has 70 deleted posts (mostly test posts), but they look like they were deleted by him. I'm not sure who deleted this one of cortex's. I've deleted all my own deleted posts. r_n's been deleted by both mathowie and cortex. taz had one post deleted before we were tracking who deleted them, but probably mathowie. pb has deleted all 23 of his own test posts.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:49 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

Ah ha!

As a Portlander who doesn't have TV proper but watches TV on the internet, Portlandia is a patchy but funny show and that guy in Idaho wrote kind of a dumb editorial that didn't make for good mefi post material.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:50 PM on January 20, 2012

(For me, it pretty much went like: Buffy is off the air? Firefly is canceled? Well, don't need that thing anymore! It's been years.)
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 3:50 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

I could swear that a few years ago mathowie posted a double and then cortex wrote a >very snarky deletion reason, but perhaps that was just in my dreams?
posted by nobody at 4:04 PM on January 20, 2012

Maybe I'm in that dream too, nobody, because I feel like I remember something like that as well.
posted by rtha at 4:06 PM on January 20, 2012

It's possible mathowie was the official deleter and then cortex subsequently added to the deletion reason?
posted by nobody at 4:09 PM on January 20, 2012

(Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the moderator who deleted a post about hipsters by adam savage is using the excuse that she doesn't have a television?)
posted by crunchland at 4:09 PM on January 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

I once deleted my own idiotically misplaced post, maybe that's what people are thinking of.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:11 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I could swear that a few years ago mathowie posted a double and then cortex wrote a >very snarky deletion reason, but perhaps that was just in my dreams?

No, I remember it too but it was the skin taker that deleted it, not cortex.
posted by Hoopo at 4:12 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

gingerbeer is also remembering the deletion. Perhaps we are all having the same delusional dream?
posted by rtha at 4:13 PM on January 20, 2012

*waits for the inevitable asavage flameout*
*realizes he lives in the SF Bay Area and said flameout could be EXTREMELY DANGEROUS*

To the fallout shelter!
posted by m@f at 4:13 PM on January 20, 2012

Yeah there are definitely no snarky deletion reasons by cortex on any of mathowie's posts on any part of the site, unless they were overwritten. I don't think the db tracks that sort of thing. Not sure what everyone's group-remembering but it's not from MeFi directly.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:17 PM on January 20, 2012

What other idiotic things have you guys done that I've not heard of? School me!
posted by heyho at 4:19 PM on January 20, 2012

*realizes he lives in the SF Bay Area and said flameout could be EXTREMELY DANGEROUS*

Never mind where he lives. Dude invents ways to blow stuff up for a living, and can travel. Get to the undisclosed bunkers!
posted by zarq at 4:22 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

In the double mathowie posted a few months ago there were many snarky comments made before he deleted it himself. I think that's what I was thinking of.
posted by grapesaresour at 4:22 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

There was the keystone cops thing that cortex and I did here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:22 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

School me!

Keystone Kops Incident?
posted by zarq at 4:24 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

DOH.
posted by zarq at 4:24 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

heyho: What other idiotic things have you guys done that I've not heard of? School me!

There was this one time, at band camp...
posted by gman at 4:25 PM on January 20, 2012

It's basically asking us to add public negative voting

You already have public positive voting.
posted by MrMoonPie at 4:25 PM on January 20, 2012

Didn't Jessamyn was lock herself out of the backend and had to wait for Matt to wake up to fix it?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:29 PM on January 20, 2012

Get to the undisclosed bunkers

I didn't know we have undisclosed bunkers!
posted by aubilenon at 4:31 PM on January 20, 2012

Yes, I did that.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:31 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

And didn't cortex was have to explain gay elf sex to you?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:42 PM on January 20, 2012

And in the end I never even ended up closing the deal with that elf.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:44 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

yep.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:44 PM on January 20, 2012

was up with Blatcher this evening?
posted by gman at 4:47 PM on January 20, 2012

Lets go to the gay elf sex flowchart.
posted by The Whelk at 4:47 PM on January 20, 2012

I got a totally earnest IM from an ex-boss who wanted to discuss the practicality of some of the positions in the f/f Dragon Age sex scene. (Spoiler: they reuse a bunch of animations from the straight sex scenes which makes very little sense in bang-for-your-buck sexytime terms.)
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 4:48 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

For cortex, I think he was killed a deleted comment back when he once first starting as mod.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:48 PM on January 20, 2012

Also, Matt has fired pb and cortex. No idea about jess.

Restless_nomad and taz were power crazed, that won time.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:00 PM on January 20, 2012

He posted a double not too long ago and it was deleted.

I flagged it in hopes that he'd reward the one honest Metafite with untold wealth. So far it hasn't worked, on the other hand, maybe he's concocting a situation where he pretends to need help, and if I help him THEN I'll really have proved I deserve his fortune.

Or, maybe he didn't notice and doesn't have a fortune to give away even if he did.
posted by Gygesringtone at 5:00 PM on January 20, 2012

No one you have to give comfort to a mod while they in disguise as a transient. That or remove a thorn form their paw, not actually sure.
posted by The Whelk at 5:06 PM on January 20, 2012

For cortex, I think he was killed a deleted comment back when he once first starting as mod.

That is not even a sentence, but are you maybe talking about the time that I accidentally deleted a comment instead of favoriting it? This was back when Metatalk comment deletions were still for-real nuked-from-the-db deletions, and so I rewarded someone's awesome comment by removing it from the face of the earth for all time. That was kind of embarrassing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:14 PM on January 20, 2012 [5 favorites]

This reminds me of when I was 8 years old and a police sergeant gave a talk to my class. One of the kids asked him if he ever broke the law. He paused for a moment, then allowed he'd run a yellow light a few times.

Yeah. "Deleted one double-post". Uh-huh.
posted by George_Spiggott at 5:26 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

That is not even a sentence, but are you maybe talking about the time that I...

Ooooh! Is this the portion of Friday night when we sit around garbling sentences, and old man cortex weaves a fanciful story around it?!
posted by heyho at 5:28 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's a fine line between shaman and pedant.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:33 PM on January 20, 2012 [5 favorites]

Some (rather prosaic) things I discovered (note: how long until we have Dark Google that ignores robots.txt?):

Introductory:

Around January, 2003, mathowie was making so many test posts that he started posting news of the weird.
Twice.

Nine months earlier he was linking to Google.
Twice.


Straight-up doubles (not in order; sorry):

1 (limecat is not pleased)
2
3
4 (windowsmusic.exe)
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 (deletion reason: "I'm such a fucking dork")
12
13 (in which he double-posts his own post; not as amusing as it sounds.)
14 (most recent)


Miscellany of possible (though, to be honest, likely minimal) interest:

Something about a new feature with links to comments in deleted threads.

Lastly, I'm not entirely sure why this post from 2002 about what the hot toy will be that winter was deleted. Should have waited a few more years for AskMe?


Miscellany w/r/t deleted posts not by mathowie:

All three (2008) mods sign a deletion reason.

Cortex signs once. Jessamyn signs twice.



Conclusion: I failed to find anything to back up my memory.

Super-conclusion: n/a.
posted by nobody at 5:38 PM on January 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

nobody scares me
posted by Dumsnill at 5:41 PM on January 20, 2012

nobody doesn't scare me, which is not to say that I'm afraid of everyone.
posted by heyho at 5:45 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

The first rule of being a police officer is to never, ever decline an opportunity to speak to a group of elementary-school students.
posted by box at 5:57 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

Underlining + bold 'n' gold is the most unreadable thing ever. My eyes slide all over it finding no hospitable place to start giving a fuck.
posted by fleacircus at 6:00 PM on January 20, 2012

I only Flag for "fantastic comment."

Flagging for anything else is being a rat bastard doing stuff behind people's backs. I'd rather just tell people they're dicks to their faces if they're being dicks. Cos, yeah. That's how I roll. Don't be a snitch for DA MAN. Word.
posted by Skygazer at 6:03 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

See, Skygazer is being sarcastic. What he means is...
posted by Dumsnill at 6:07 PM on January 20, 2012

What I mean is Brandon needs to get his gay elves in order.
posted by Skygazer at 6:11 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Actually that sounds like a euphemism for masturbation doesn't it?

Q: Hey dude, what you doing home on friday evening?

A: Err...you know, gettin' the gay elves in order. WINK. WINK.
posted by Skygazer at 6:21 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would hope no one who was asked why he was home on a Friday would actually admit that it was so he could masturbate, weird euphemisms aside.
posted by crunchland at 6:58 PM on January 20, 2012

Exactly! I mean, it's Friday night. You ought to go out someplace nice and masturbate.
posted by box at 7:06 PM on January 20, 2012 [6 favorites]

It's weird that I, too, remember cortex deleting, with gentle snark, one of matt's posts because it was a double.

This is going to be like that Newlywed Game thing that everyone (well, except for the eighty-nine million people who believed it) was sure was urban folklore for two decades until the clip actually turns up and it really happened.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:08 PM on January 20, 2012

What newlywed game thing was this? Ws it a specific newlywed game thing or just the game in general?
posted by winna at 8:21 PM on January 20, 2012

The year was 1977. In response to a question from host Bob Eubanks about the "most unusual place you've ever made whoopee," a female Newlywed Game contestant responded....
posted by zarq at 8:24 PM on January 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

If you want to know how many times I've flagged something, it's either 1 or 0. If you need to know with more specificity, just ask.
posted by planet at 11:05 PM on January 20, 2012

That clip doesn't have all the information.
SPOILER






















In the butt.
posted by unliteral at 11:05 PM on January 20, 2012

If we asked really nicely, would you let us see things that were flagged as fantastic? Because that would just fan the awesome.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:51 PM on January 20, 2012

Visible flags on posts.
posted by Decani at 12:48 AM on January 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Decani just made a comment an it's got six flags. You guys judge too quickly.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:10 AM on January 21, 2012

It's also got six posts. This is confusing!
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:57 AM on January 21, 2012

Six Flags
posted by infini at 8:27 AM on January 21, 2012

But what color(s) are those six flags?
posted by davidjmcgee at 8:34 AM on January 21, 2012

Violet Indigo Blue Green Yellow Orange

You wouldn't want a red flag redundancy now would you?
posted by infini at 8:38 AM on January 21, 2012

THIS COMMENT IS RATED GREEN FLAG. ANY OFFICERS WITH BLUE OR BELOW CLEARENCE MUST LEAVE THE ROOM OR FACE PROCESUTION UNDER THE OFFICAL METAFILTER SECERETS ACT.
posted by The Whelk at 8:49 AM on January 21, 2012

There is no Official MetaFilter Secrets Act.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:50 AM on January 21, 2012

Ivan, he said Secerets not secrets
posted by infini at 9:08 AM on January 21, 2012

It was a typo. He meant Secretes.
posted by nobody at 9:26 AM on January 21, 2012

You will never procesute me! Not so long as I can fgiht!
posted by davidjmcgee at 10:08 AM on January 21, 2012

This is a direct violation of the Offical Secretions Act.

Get the mop.
posted by The Whelk at 10:26 AM on January 21, 2012

Bar and Rest.
posted by infini at 10:39 AM on January 21, 2012

Man, I remember the cortex deleting Matt thing too. This is really weird.
posted by Mitheral at 10:51 AM on January 21, 2012

There was this from a few years ago?
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:21 AM on January 21, 2012

There is no Official MetaFilter Secrets Act.

Dude, you just gave away the whole secret.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:34 AM on January 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have a recollection of it as well. Then again, I'm pretty impressionable.
posted by heyho at 12:32 PM on January 21, 2012

I vaguely remember said humorous deletion as well. Weird.
posted by dhruva at 12:57 PM on January 21, 2012

I just noticed that it seems to be possible to flag deleted posts. (I didn't do it, though, because that would probably be bad and make me feel bad.)
posted by trip and a half at 2:19 PM on January 21, 2012

Should we flag every post and comment? It kind of seems like we should, since every post and comment is at least "other", if nothing else. But this seems like a lot of work, and I haven't been doing it.
posted by planet at 3:40 PM on January 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Every flag needs a post.
posted by Pendragon at 4:32 PM on January 21, 2012

Should we flag every post and comment?

Only if you want to reduce the utility of flagging to zero. There have been the rare times when someone goes on a flagging binge to act out for some reason and we'll ask people nicely to knock it off. I don't think we've ever gotten to the point where we've made them knock it off.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:04 PM on January 21, 2012

Be careful. There are some amongst us that would view that as an explicit challenge.
posted by crunchland at 6:33 PM on January 21, 2012

It turns out Cortex *can* delete Matt because Cortex is a woman surgeon.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:37 PM on January 21, 2012

Flagging, flogging, who can tell the difference anymore?
posted by rtha at 6:41 PM on January 21, 2012

It was a typo. He meant Secretes.

"One thing only I know, and that is that I know [REDACTED]."
- Secretes
posted by homunculus at 7:34 PM on January 21, 2012

Should we flag every post and comment?
cortex will reach for his favorite stranglin' rope.
posted by unliteral at 3:12 PM on January 22, 2012