For the millionth time, you can't have your pony!

June 12, 2012 1:57 PM

The good news: MetaTalk has over 1,000,000 comments as of today. The bad news: the millionth comment was apparently deleted.
posted by double block and bleed to MetaFilter-Related at 1:57 PM (103 comments total)

ha
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:58 PM on June 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Well, you have to admit the odds of that happening were pretty fascistically good, no?
posted by hincandenza at 1:59 PM on June 12, 2012 [10 favorites]

Actually, doesn't look like it to me...
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:00 PM on June 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

Or is this one of those "what year does the millennium start" things?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:01 PM on June 12, 2012

Give it time, MCMikeNamara... give it time. I flagged as "Other", because there isn't an option for "Meta-irony".
posted by hincandenza at 2:02 PM on June 12, 2012

I'm glad that I was wrong. 1M comments everyone still needs a hug. Woot!
posted by double block and bleed at 2:02 PM on June 12, 2012

you have to admit the odds of that happening were pretty fascistically good, no?

Based on all past data analysis we've done, the odds are basically 1-2 out of 100 and vary significantly for the part of the site (projects, irl, music and jobs basically have nothing deleted; askme has the highest deletion rate followed by mefi and meta). I have no idea what this has to do with facism though.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:02 PM on June 12, 2012 [10 favorites]

I have no idea what this has to do with facism though.

Imagine a mathowie scanning a cat... forever.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:05 PM on June 12, 2012 [48 favorites]

Too many comments slow down the cluetrain, which must run etc etc never mind I'm bored now.
posted by Errant at 2:08 PM on June 12, 2012

It wasn't a Ghost Comment after all - it was just a regular Science Comment.
posted by flex at 2:16 PM on June 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

Well see everyone at 10 million. Please be on your best behavior until then.
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:19 PM on June 12, 2012

MetaTalk has over 1,000,000 comments as of today.

And they are all Delmoi!
posted by cjorgensen at 2:20 PM on June 12, 2012 [16 favorites]

fascistically good, no?

This exact phrase is part of a ritual that if properly performed will cause George Orwell's ghost to appear and engage in acts of violence on your person in the manner of the Three Stooges.

Also, 1,000,000 comments! Large Round numbers make me happy.
posted by Gygesringtone at 2:25 PM on June 12, 2012

Or is this one of those "what year does the millennium start" things?

I found #999999 and #1,000,001 too. The apparent take-home is that comments are numbered as they appear and they can appear all over the damn place because many people comment on many different threads within a particular Meta subsite at the same time.

I flagged as "Other", because there isn't an option for "Meta-irony".

You know what would be truly "Meta-ironic?" If someone started a thread about a comment being deleted only they found the comment and it turned out to be a silly comment about the collective noun for the site moderators, in a thread about having a day of appreciation for how great those moderators are, but by the time someone noticed that, people were already running with the deletion story and using it as an opportunity to grind their personal axes about how the moderators are "fascists". Or something like that.
posted by nanojath at 2:29 PM on June 12, 2012 [9 favorites]

500,000 of the answers were DTMFA.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:34 PM on June 12, 2012 [5 favorites]

I'm still kind of reeling from the adverbial form of "fascist."
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:40 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

what next? facsisting?

But you should be more worried about the marching-sieg-heiling form of fascist mate.
posted by marienbad at 2:44 PM on June 12, 2012

500,000 of the answers were DTMFA.

If you're coming to MeTa for dating advice, may God have mercy on your soul.
posted by maudlin at 2:44 PM on June 12, 2012 [23 favorites]

You know what else you have to admit the odds of happening were pretty fascistically good? That's right: Plantar fasciitis.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:46 PM on June 12, 2012 [9 favorites]

Fortunately an adverbial gerunding (an adverbed gerunded?) does not appear to be possible, although I'm willing to give it a try: fascistingly.
posted by notyou at 2:47 PM on June 12, 2012

jessamyn: I have no idea what this has to do with facism though.

I can't find it now, but I could have sworn one of those "stop deleting my comments/threads" MeTa actually called the site 'fascist'.

I was riffing off of that (in an attempt at humor) but now I can't find the original comment so it looks like I was just being surly.
posted by hincandenza at 2:51 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Surly you jest.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:53 PM on June 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

I am serious, and don't call me Surely.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:54 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

hincandenza: "jessamyn: I have no idea what this has to do with facism though.I can't find it now, but I could have sworn one of those "stop deleting my comments/threads" MeTa actually called the site 'fascist'.

I was riffing off of that (in an attempt at humor) but now I can't find the original comment so it looks like I was just being surly."

Maybe it was deleted.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:55 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

MetaTalk comment number 1.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:57 PM on June 12, 2012

Jessamyn: Based on all past data analysis we've done, the odds are basically 1-2 out of 100

Is that not a typo? Are you saying 1-2 percent of all posted comments, site-wide, warrant deletion? I could swear team mod has previously reported a much smaller deletion rate.
posted by nobody at 2:59 PM on June 12, 2012

Also: whoa: Jessamyn (pre-mod, pre-Ask) wrote the fourth MetaTalk post, in which she suggests threaded conversations for MeTa. Mathowie subsequently says he likes the idea (since, for example, it would be nice to have his current reply positioned directly below Jessamyn's initial suggestion) and had in fact already been working on implementing it.
posted by nobody at 3:07 PM on June 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

*dramatic hamster*
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:09 PM on June 12, 2012 [8 favorites]

It wasn't a Ghost Comment after all - it was just a regular Science Comment.

Heh, I saw the linked comment's number and thought you were linking to the ╥th comment in ask!
posted by TwoWordReview at 3:13 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also: the first example of someone holding court in a MetaTalk thread utterly by their lonesome over a period of several months is very early in MeTa history (though it's not an exceptionally interesting example). I can't recall if there's a wiki page for these (and wasn't sure what to search for to find out).

Also (since I'm already here): the first example of a double-post stunt thread was remarkably early, and the joke apparently required explanation since it failed to be recognized as such.
posted by nobody at 3:16 PM on June 12, 2012

Fascionista.
posted by griphus at 3:16 PM on June 12, 2012

Is that not a typo? Are you saying 1-2 percent of all posted comments, site-wide, warrant deletion? I could swear team mod has previously reported a much smaller deletion rate.

It's the right ballpark, at least; I'd put it at 1% if I had to produce a general number. But it may be that the deletion rate for comments is a bit lower and we're muddling it together with the deletion rate for posts, which is a bit higher (and which also varies by subsite).

It's worth keeping in mind that 1% of deleted comments comes out to maybe 20 or so comments a day, and that includes not only comments that are in and of themselves problematic in a crappy-behavior way but also responses to deleted comments, accidental double post type things, typo correction or mod-help-help stuff, etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:18 PM on June 12, 2012

The current Jessamyn is much more articulate and verbal than the pre-mod Jessamyn.
posted by HuronBob at 3:19 PM on June 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also: I'm not sure what was going on with post #47[ish] in which jjg titles the post "Blank Post," leaves the body of the post blank, and mathowie chimes in with "I've been waiting for this day for a week or so. Maybe I should disable new members just so we can relish in the evil for a few days."

Does anyone remember why that might have made sense as a reply? jjg is/was member#16, so the comment wasn't about new members misbehaving (unless it correlated with a blank post by a new member on the blue?)
posted by nobody at 3:21 PM on June 12, 2012

Also (for nostalgia's sake!): post #48[ish] was about MetaBaby, whose index page now just reads "I think we could all probably use a rest." I'm sort of afraid to check archive.org to see when it was actually taken down.
posted by nobody at 3:25 PM on June 12, 2012

47: I can't remember what the deal was there either. It might have literally been a blank post to prove it could be done, might have been a non-malicious but bad-idea proof of concept that got scrubbed. Prehistory, no way to know unless Matt or jjg remembers specifically.

48: Metababy's been like that for a good long while now. I can't remember the last time I looked, some number of years.

I actually went through a few years back and did a sort of survey of the first one hundred metatalk posts, but I don't know if I ever put it anywhere public. It's fun peeking through that stuff. The decline of Metafilter is predicted or declared several times in the year 2000.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:31 PM on June 12, 2012

Also: In Post 55, mathowie was amenable to the idea of holding all FPPs until each could be sanctioned by a small cardre of "approvers"

Oh, wow. He also personally endorses the idea of kill-lists (though he calls them "shit lists"), even going so far as to suggest they be displayed publicly so blocked users can be comically humiliated.
posted by nobody at 3:34 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

It was a crazy time. Non-stop parties. Bloggers blogging bloggers. Cocaine everywhere.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:37 PM on June 12, 2012 [14 favorites]

2000 - it was like a different century, man.

I've heard people speak of the being no zeitgeist for the Aughts, but I don't think that's true - I think we're just too close to it.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:46 PM on June 12, 2012

I recently made a MeTa fascist joke, but I am almost certain there's been more than a couple sincere accusations made along those lines before.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:46 PM on June 12, 2012

I actually went through a few years back and did a sort of survey of the first one hundred metatalk posts

Oops, I'm duplicating labor here then. It is fun looking back at all this. I was reading the site by that point -- during breaks at a computer-based campus job, not terribly consistently and not seeing any reason why someone would want to sign up for an account to make comments themselves -- but don't remember any of these.

[Oh, my sense of time is off. If forced to, I would have incorrectly guessed that MeTa started in 1999 and the site proper started in 1998, with MeTa already losing its utter Wild West feel by Spring 2000. I'm off by a year apparently. Hmm.]
posted by nobody at 3:47 PM on June 12, 2012

It was a crazy time. Non-stop parties. Bloggers blogging bloggers. Cocaine everywhere.

And the images! Oh lord, the images!
posted by entropicamericana at 3:47 PM on June 12, 2012

That's right: Plantar fasciitis.

You get this with too much goose-stepping without adequate arch support. You may think marching on through the pain is a triumph of the will, but it ends with the agony of defeat.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:54 PM on June 12, 2012 [12 favorites]

I've heard people speak of the being no zeitgeist for the Aughts, but I don't think that's true - I think we're just too close to it.

While there might be some truth to this if you limit the observation to clothing alone -- almost anything fashionable enough in 2001 doesn't seem particularly dated now (unless you're really into fashion?), which is definitely a departure from 1995-->2005 or 1985-->1995 or 1975-->1985 -- the decade will be remembered for being disgustingly saturated with 9/11 stuff (though we're not out of those woods yet) and for getting everyone onto to the internet but not yet with the internet in their pockets. I think we just haven't transitioned fully yet. If you take a look at photos from 1991 it still looks like the 80s in there.
posted by nobody at 3:55 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I can't find it now, but I could have sworn one of those "stop deleting my comments/threads" MeTa actually called the site 'fascist'.

A few hundred times
posted by empath at 3:56 PM on June 12, 2012

GenjiAndProust, I want you to know I favorited that comment out of hate.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 4:08 PM on June 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

for hate's sake you spit your last favorite at me?
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:25 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also: whoa: Jessamyn (pre-mod, pre-Ask) wrote the fourth MetaTalk post, in which she suggests threaded conversations for MeTa.

You know how people always joke about how, for English speakers, spoken Dutch is right at the edge of comprehension but you never quite get there? That's what I felt like reading that post:

I think this post a topic thingie that I am typing in right now could be more specialized to metatalk, like it's not always gonna link someplace...

All the words are in English, and yet...
posted by Forktine at 4:39 PM on June 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ah ha! Making it "post-a-topic-thingie" makes sense, whereas "post, a topic, thingie," did not. Correct punctuation interpolation makes for better reading comprehension.
posted by Forktine at 4:50 PM on June 12, 2012

Curious: The first instances of "fascist" or "fascism" (on either the gray or the blue) in relation to MetaFilter and its rules appears to be in support of some benevolent fascism (or against others supposedly thinking that rules about posts/comments = fascism):

comment 1
comment 2

In fact (unless the search function isn't thorough or I've missed something), the first instance of someone even sort of calling the site fascist themselves is October 2001 (and even then they only do so by claiming they're not, and it's directed at the community and not at mathowie):

Is metafilter now a fascist state? I don't think so, but increasingly people are attempting to enforce their apparent superiority on this place, which I think is a shame. I'm glad that I'm not amongst them.

(and it's followed almost immediately by someone saying MetaFilter is fascist and always has been and that's the way it should be.)

In January, 2002 we again see "fascist" thrown around as a way of dismissing the crazy talk other people are supposedly making when criticizing the site. (i.e., paraphrasing, "these other stupid people are unfairly tarring the site as 'fascist'" -- even though we've thus far discovered nothing of the sort).

Not until February, 2002 do we see a comment that actually calls the site fascist. The honor belongs to MiguelCardoso.
posted by nobody at 4:51 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

If we expand our search to include "totalitarian" we do get one early hit in January 2001 ("the action taken [by Mathowie] was a bit too totalitarian for my tastes"). I believe that's the only one before the comments listed above (though I admit I stopped going through hits on the Blue after MeTa's birthdate, since the numbers are just so damn high. Totalitarianism is a popular topic.)

The takeaway thesis still holds: MetaFilter's history is full of people speaking out against other users who are supposedly criticizing the site as "fascist," but it is practically void of examples of people doing just that.
posted by nobody at 5:00 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

(I meant to write "MetaFilter's early history...")
posted by nobody at 5:04 PM on June 12, 2012

Nobody is talking about Metafilter's early history. Nobody finds it interesting.

I do too!
posted by Night_owl at 5:52 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

The current Jessamyn is much more articulate and verbal than the pre-mod Jessamyn.

Many of us are more articulate than we were twelve years ago, except those of us approaching senescence.

I think "stasi" was the thing I was called that was the most "u r a fascist" but I can't track it down now, just other people talking about it happening.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:52 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

All the words are in English, and yet...

Part of the context there is that the Metatalk posting page was originally basically identical to the Metafilter posting page; there were fields for link url and link description, which, as far as post a topic thingies go, didn't make a whole lot of sense when Metatalk posts mostly don't need any links.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:54 PM on June 12, 2012

nobody writes "Jessamyn (pre-mod, pre-Ask) wrote the fourth MetaTalk post, in which she suggests threaded conversations for MeTa. Mathowie subsequently says he likes the idea (since, for example, it would be nice to have his current reply positioned directly below Jessamyn's initial suggestion) and had in fact already been working on implementing it."

I think we're very lucky mathowie wasn't a better more dedicated programmer.

cortex writes "It's worth keeping in mind that 1% of deleted comments comes out to maybe 20 or so comments a day"

Metafilter only gets 2000 comments a day? I would have figured the front page alone would approach that many most days.
posted by Mitheral at 6:25 PM on June 12, 2012

Yes, and they are all...never mind.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:45 PM on June 12, 2012

Well, at 2k comments per day, and if a million is what I think it is we will reach the two million mark umm...500 days from today?
posted by roboton666 at 6:48 PM on June 12, 2012

I think "stasi" was the thing I was called that was the most "u r a fascist" but I can't track it down now, just other people talking about it happening.

I have a feeling you already found this, but in case you were restricting your "stasi" search to MeTa, here's the AskMe question those comments were probably referring to. It's sort of surprising the question wasn't deleted, given the "stasi" bit right below the [more inside] mark.

And it looks like more "stasi" comments were possibly removed from that thread here?
posted by nobody at 7:04 PM on June 12, 2012

will reach the two million mark umm...500 days from today?

It was the millionth comment on the MetaTalk subsite. MetaFilter (blue) is closing in on 4.5 million. Ask has another 3 million.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:40 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

fascistically

How do you pronounce this?
posted by cairdeas at 7:48 PM on June 12, 2012

Fa-shis-tick-ly.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:51 PM on June 12, 2012

Also:

this.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:52 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also:

question mark.
posted by nobody at 7:55 PM on June 12, 2012

That is a real mouthful. Are you sure it's not fascist-ickle-ee?
posted by cairdeas at 7:57 PM on June 12, 2012

It's pronounced mefi! Can we put this to rest already?
posted by cjorgensen at 7:59 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Why was I under the impression that nothing gets deleted in MeTa? Have I had any deleted comments?
posted by Brocktoon at 8:11 PM on June 12, 2012

Only really not-okay stuff gets deleted from MeTa [outing people, weird racism/hate stuff, crazed shrieking nonsense, that's about it]. You've had one thing deleted from MeTa which I think was by request and a few comments on the rest of the site [a few each from Ask and MeFi] and one MeFi post. You can email us and we'll send you the list.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:15 PM on June 12, 2012

MetaTalk comment number 1.

Flagged as 'noise'.
posted by mazola at 8:44 PM on June 12, 2012

Yeah, it's more that we delete way less from metatalk than elsewhere. I think "nothing" may have been more true in the earliest days, but then back then when threads got deleted they got deleted for realsies so entire conversations went functionally away (since you couldn't view the deleted thread anymore) so it's kind of a wash there.

And it looks like more "stasi" comments were possibly removed from that thread here?

That rings a bell. There's a stasi reference in the askme post itself, note. I think maybe there was a (deleted?) stasi dig in some davy freakout at one point too.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:03 PM on June 12, 2012

Alvy Ampersand: recently made a MeTa fascistic joke, but I am almost certain there's been more than a couple sincere accusations made along those lines before.

Oh hey, that was exactly the one I was thinking of.

See, I'm not crazy!!!
posted by hincandenza at 9:23 PM on June 12, 2012

But you jerks DID delete my comment in the "smart people are stupid" thread. Would you SERIOUSLY cut that out?!?! It was hardly the only comment critical of the linked article.
posted by hincandenza at 9:27 PM on June 12, 2012

First they came for the facists, but insofar as that word does not mean anything, I did not speak up. Then they came up for the fascists, and insofar as I was not one, I did not speak up. Then, everything was awesome, insofar as the facists and fascists alike were forthrightly removed.

And everyone got a puppy and/or pancakes, whichever happened to suit their fancy.

And then I did speak up, because (frankly): fuck pancakes and puppies.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:38 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

He also personally endorses the idea of kill-lists

In fairness, all the people making unpleasant comments are militants.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:51 PM on June 12, 2012

hincandenza, if you make one of the first comments in a thread, and your comment is just "this is dumb" (or similar)... don't think of its removal as a deletion meant to silence you, think of it as an explicit invitation to write more and say exactly what you think is dumb about the linked material.
posted by taz (staff) at 10:06 PM on June 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

I dunno, I kinda think a comment that says 'this is dumb' from a known not-dumb community member in a thread that can be summarized as 'smart people are stupid' is pretty darn funny.

But then I've smarted myself stupid, so what the hell do I know.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:28 PM on June 12, 2012 [6 favorites]

I'm just looking for a used car...
posted by blue_beetle at 10:40 PM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

You ARE a use car.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:32 AM on June 13, 2012

oh hell, USED...
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:32 AM on June 13, 2012

You switched good news and bad news.
posted by michaelh at 12:48 AM on June 13, 2012

Jews? Isn't "people of Jewness" more obstiating?
posted by Meatbomb at 1:00 AM on June 13, 2012

Ah, sorry, I have a cold.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:01 AM on June 13, 2012

stavros, I'll be using "I smarted myself stupid", thanks.
posted by junco at 1:16 AM on June 13, 2012

For the record, the misspelling "facist" provides no notable early results beyond mathowie (sort of) calling himself one (by miming the language of porn advertisers unhappy with him for denying them ad space).

It does seem like there maybe ought to be a corollary to Godwin's Law about fascism brought up preemptively by those saying the comparison is/would be ridiculous to make. (One would want to put together a classification schema to distinguish innocent hyperbole from mistaken memory from malicious straw-manning, especially since the latter is precisely how a repressive regime would operate under late-capitalism. I mean, uh, people might say that.)
posted by nobody at 3:13 AM on June 13, 2012

I could live a million.
posted by OmieWise at 3:52 AM on June 13, 2012

I could love a million girls (NSFW).
posted by box at 5:00 AM on June 13, 2012

So, job done. Can we all return to normal life now?
posted by Segundus at 5:07 AM on June 13, 2012

Million Miles Away
posted by Sailormom at 6:11 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

1000000000000000000000000 kisses
posted by item at 6:24 AM on June 13, 2012

(one septillion kisses for one septillion girls)
posted by item at 6:27 AM on June 13, 2012

Fascist!

Turn to the left!

Fascist!

Turn to the right!
posted by The Whelk at 8:47 AM on June 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Tra la la la la la la la, fa fa fa fa fascist!
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:56 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Listen to me (don't listen to me), talk to me (don't talk to me), get on the train (don't get on the train), all aboard! - beep-beep!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:35 AM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

They're doing it over there (and we're forced to do it here)
posted by The Whelk at 9:54 AM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

We are the jackboot and we're coming to town!
posted by cjorgensen at 12:25 PM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

beep beep
posted by not_on_display at 2:25 PM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

metafilter: crazed shrieking nonsense

Don't know why jessamyn's turn of phrase left me giggling for several minutes. Maybe the cold medicine...
posted by Wretch729 at 5:41 PM on June 13, 2012

dogs and cats, scanning together

BIBLICAL
posted by flabdablet at 1:46 AM on June 14, 2012

Seems like these are getting shorter as time passes. Maybe it's my faulty memory?
posted by Nabubrush at 10:25 AM on June 14, 2012

Fascist Hag
posted by never used baby shoes at 3:24 PM on June 14, 2012

"It's loud and tasteless and I've heard it before" fits nicely in this parody.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:00 PM on June 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's not so much a parody and more a distillation of theme.
posted by The Whelk at 5:24 PM on June 14, 2012

like bourbon and stilts.
posted by clavdivs at 4:12 PM on June 15, 2012