A plea for a smack on the wrist

May 14, 2012 2:16 PM

It is Eurovision Time. A disclosed self-link in a high quality FPP with many links. I didn't like it, but didn't think the account should be banhammered as it doesn't appear malicious. To be clear, self-link bans are obviously good.
posted by jaduncan to MetaFilter-Related at 2:16 PM (21 comments total)

And it wasn't ... so... ?
posted by crunchland at 2:17 PM on May 14, 2012

Yeah, the account is still functional.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:18 PM on May 14, 2012

We deleted the post, we're still sort of shaking our heads at why k8t thought that was going to be an overlookable rule-bending. We're not planning to ban her but have a fairly serious "come to jesus" email exchange with her about how this needs to never happen again. I just assumed maybe since she's a heavy AskMe user she was less clear about how that part of the site works? I honestly have no idea.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:19 PM on May 14, 2012

Ah, if that's how it's staying then feel free to nuke this post. I don't know this person, but it seemed wrong to put such MeTa stuff in the main thread in case it stayed up.
posted by jaduncan at 2:20 PM on May 14, 2012

Yeah, super weird, something that under the circumstances feels more like a "really, what the hell were you thinking, you need to be super clear on this going forward" thing than a whipcrack ban but eesh.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:20 PM on May 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

No, to be clear, the post is deleted and staying deleted. Whatever confused good intentions may have been involved, that's a no-go, period. The only wiggle room here is whether it's an instaban or a really, really clear conversation about this not ever happening again.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:21 PM on May 14, 2012

"My material about this is really good/the only of its kind available" is a great reason for a blog post on your own damn blog.

You have to be bat-blind to ignore the no-self-links rule when you're making a post; she ain't no n00b and decided to deliberately ignore the rule. I don't get it.
posted by rtha at 2:22 PM on May 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

We need blood here.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:23 PM on May 14, 2012

I'm with Burhanistan here. This is all way too reasonable. Can't we use this as a warning to other addled but well-meaning posters?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:27 PM on May 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bats aren't really blind :(
posted by batmonkey at 2:28 PM on May 14, 2012 [13 favorites]

I sent a mod email yesterday and didn't get a reply, so I assumed it was okay. (I'm also traveling for most of the next 2 weeks so this was my last chance sitting at a computer before the event.)

Basically, there are few people that study this country. I'm one of them. So it is a mixed situation where I have a lot of information but happen to be linked to it to.

I apologize to all. Can we please close this thread? (I'm also now leaving the computer so I am not going to be able to reply.)
posted by k8t at 2:31 PM on May 14, 2012

"My material about this is really good/the only of its kind available" is a great reason for a blog post on your own damn blog.

Or, you know, just putting it in a comment instead of the main post body. As long as the post makes sense on its own, that would have worked fine.
posted by Chuckles at 2:31 PM on May 14, 2012

I think it's important for people to really understand, through reflection if they haven't already done so, why the ban on self-linking exists. It's not arbitrary. And it's not merely intended to prevent link-spammers and all those who are posting in bad-faith. The less obvious motivation, but which is most important, is that protecting the quality of posts is of utmost importance, it requires that members exercise discretion about what they post, and that having any personal connection to something posted is badly prejudicial and makes it impossible for members to police the quality of their own posts. This is why linking to stuff that one's friends, family, and acquaintances is also verboten.

Some truly meritorious stuff will get caught up in this net, unfortunately. But, as is often mentioned, it it's truly meritorious then someone else is much more likely to post it than not.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:31 PM on May 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

And really? Blood? Really? That hurts guys. Metafilter is like a home to me. :(
posted by k8t at 2:32 PM on May 14, 2012 [27 favorites]

I hope this gets turned into a projects post, because it was honestly really good.

k8t has been around long enough to have been making posts since back when this was less of a BRIGHT RED LINE and more of a guideline and the process of it being less of a guideline has been really gradual.

Burhanistan: "We need blood here."

That is all you ever seem to do around here. On a balance between one user acting in good faith and another who can never seem put away the shit catapult. Go fuck yourself, k8t is awesome.
posted by Blasdelb at 2:33 PM on May 14, 2012 [14 favorites]

If Azerbaijan had actually spent 700 Billion to prepare for Eurovision, then I would offer to repost this for k8t. Turns out it was only 700 million.

k8t wasn't banned, so I guess all's well.
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:33 PM on May 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Posting "I apologize for the self-links" as the first comment makes it an honest error rather than an attempt to sneak something past us. Combined with a good past record, that makes it OK by me. Delete, warn, and carry on.
posted by pracowity at 2:34 PM on May 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

After reading what k8t just wrote, I'd be okay with chopping her left hand off or something similar, rather than going so far as to ban her.
posted by gman at 2:34 PM on May 14, 2012

Let's assume we all make mistakes sometimes or have made a mistake in the past and let's also assume that the mods have done their jobs (because they've stated that that's exactly what they've done) and then let's notice that k8t came here and apologized. I don't think we need to call for blood.
posted by cooker girl at 2:35 PM on May 14, 2012

PS, I didn't link to my own blog. I linked to an article that I wrote for Slate.com and the most recent report on the country by the UK's Foreign Policy Centre think tank, where I was asked to write the chapter on technology use.
posted by k8t at 2:36 PM on May 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

I sent a mod email yesterday and didn't get a reply, so I assumed it was okay.

I'm not sure who you contacted, but none of us working today have heard from you on this. I am sorry that this is awkward, but this is really one of those "We should ban you" situations, not "Oh I can see how reasonable people could disagree on this"

You're a longtime member and this was clearly a good faith mistake. We're not banning you. However, this is big deal territory and it needs to not happen again and not even look like it might be happening again. Not linking to your own stuff, not linking to stuff you wrote, not linking to stuff other people have written about you, not linking to things your friends have wrote. It's all out of bounds. Maybe it's something you should put together for Projects. Feel free to hit us up on the contact form if you need to talk about this more.

We need blood here.

Not okay, knock it off. I'm going to close this up so this thread doesn't turn into some grabass party.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:37 PM on May 14, 2012 [9 favorites]