why was my post deleted?

July 13, 2012 11:06 AM

I wrote a post to AskMeFi asking if anybody wanted to translate some song lyrics into Spanish. My post was deleted and the deleter said it was really for jobs. I just thought somebody for the hell of it would want to do this. Did my post really require deletion?
posted by DMelanogaster to Etiquette/Policy at 11:06 AM (44 comments total)

Did you use the contact form to ask the mods about this directly? What did they say?
posted by alms at 11:10 AM on July 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I just thought somebody for the hell of it would want to do this.

Which I totally get, but there's lots of stuff somebody might for the hell of it want to do that don't really fit the intended use of Ask Metafilter. We're generally not okay with stuff that's less "help me with this problem" and more "do this task for me".

So for example, trying to figure out what a snippet of an familiar language says or fine-tuning an existing translation or getting a suggested translation for a little motto or stanza is more along the lines of what is a good fit for the green. "Translate several hundred words for me, thanks" is more of a small volunteer gig, or possibly something to take off-site to a translation/discussion forum dedicated to that sort of thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:12 AM on July 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

The full deletion reason, fwiw:

Yeah, a full-fledged "translate this large body of text from scratch" sort of thing is more of a Jobs sort of deal than what Ask is really intended for. Feel free to put this up as a volunteer gig over there if you like.

posted by inigo2 at 11:12 AM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, I can't see your original post because AskMes don't go to the Deleted Posts Blog, so if anyone has that URL kicking around ...

I have posted for light help [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] on AskMe with language-related stuff before, but the topic of translation is a sensitive one around these parts, I've noticed. Attitudes change (and perhaps not without reason) between "help me out with this word or line" and "help me out with this slightly longer thing". I can see how people might see the latter as being more of a job announcement.

But, again, I can't see your original language, so I don't know if part of the problem was the phrasing.
posted by mykescipark at 11:14 AM on July 13, 2012

AskMe is more about solving a problem - "How do I deal with my kid being a picky eater?" "I'm traveling to Sumeria; what are some great hotels near the river?" "My boss yells at me in front of my coworkers, how can I get her to stop doing that?" Your question was more like "Can anyone do this thing for me? I will compensate you by crediting you on websites." You were pretty much offering a job - that's why the moderator deleted it.

On preview, what cortex said, but hope this helps.
posted by Angharad at 11:14 AM on July 13, 2012

Yeah, I guess for the sake of context, here's the deleted askme and the totally fine Jobs post.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:16 AM on July 13, 2012

There's a deleted posts blog???!!!
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:19 AM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's also a script that shows deleted threads: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/809
posted by brainmouse at 11:27 AM on July 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Heh, this is one of those promotional issues that winds up getting three times the eyeballs because it can't find an appropriate place on the site. Jobs it it, I suppose, but maybe all Jobs posts should have such a AskMe-MeTa-two-previous-posts-garnered audience.
posted by carsonb at 11:31 AM on July 13, 2012

Deleted mefi posts, deleted askme posts.

They're automatically updated via a script, by my understanding, though it looks like they fell over a couple weeks ago. I'll drop the user who runs it a line.

There was an older deleted posts blog as well that got referenced a lot in metatalk threads about such things, but the user who ran that one passed away.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:34 AM on July 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Thanks for the links, I guess I assumed they were a published thing on the site here and not external. No matter, still cool either way.
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:38 AM on July 13, 2012

Great job reframing that as a volunteer Jobs listing, DMelanogaster.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:41 AM on July 13, 2012

Dude, hanoixan just asked for Spanish translation of the lyrics to a Radiohead song in AskMe last week. The question stayed up, someone translated it for him and put the translation in the answer, and he used it for his submission for the MeFiMusic album challenge.

The mods here do a great job and make tough decisions. But this one is a no-brainer and should have stayed in AskMe, just like hanoixan's did.
posted by The World Famous at 11:46 AM on July 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I totally assumed this was about the Radiohead question that The World Famous mentions. I know the "rules" (such as they are) are not going to be applied 100% evenly, but I'd love to have the mods clarify if they see a difference between these two questions. It's totally fine if the answer is, "Yeah, they are pretty much the same and hanoixan just slipped through the cracks."
posted by Rock Steady at 11:52 AM on July 13, 2012

Dude, hanoixan just asked for Spanish translation of the lyrics to a Radiohead song in AskMe last week.

Specifically, he showed up with an existing translation of a song off a very popular album and asked for help punching it up. And that's on the outer bounds of what's really at all workable.

I think it's neat that a couple folks did in fact feel like giving it an above-and-beyond sort of treatment, but if that had been flat-out what he'd been asking for (not "feedback on this translation" but "write me a Spanish language translation of this song") that'd have been nixed too.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:56 AM on July 13, 2012

Ah. Yeah, I can see that, I guess.

(Again, you guys make tough decisions, and do a great job.)
posted by The World Famous at 12:05 PM on July 13, 2012

Specifically, he showed up with an existing translation of a song off a very popular album and asked for help punching it up. And that's on the outer bounds of what's really at all workable.

It's a fair cop. Reading the thread with all the answers in place (as I did) it's easy to miss the specific wording in the question and assume he was asking for a translation. 10 points to House Cortex.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:21 PM on July 13, 2012

From a monetary standpoint, DMelanogaster's job (translation, 596 words x 6 cents per word for ES translation) would have cost $35.76 (on average) if done by a professional translator.

Hanoixan's job (proofreading, 151 words x 3 cents per word for ES proofreading) would have cost $4.53 (on average) if done by a professional translator.

So, yeah, entirely different beasts.
posted by Bugbread at 12:26 PM on July 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

10 points to House Cortex.

Dammit, house World Famous is never going to catch up if we don't find the rest of the horcruxes or something.
posted by The World Famous at 12:33 PM on July 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'd love to hear a followup to the Askme deleted recently about the guy who thought he was drugged at a party.
posted by crunchland at 12:34 PM on July 13, 2012

Deleted mefi posts, deleted askme posts.

No site or script for deleted metatalk posts? :(
posted by Melismata at 12:35 PM on July 13, 2012

The script actually works on everything but music, but when was the last time there was straight-up deletion of a post on metatalk?
posted by brainmouse at 12:41 PM on July 13, 2012

Huh. My version doesn't seem to work on metatalk. I've had it for a few years, maybe I need to update it.
posted by Melismata at 12:46 PM on July 13, 2012

10 points to House Cortex.

It's cute that you think cortex isn't a Hufflepuff.

Heh, this is one of those promotional issues that winds up getting three times the eyeballs because it can't find an appropriate place on the site.

I'm not saying this as a pony because I understand why it isn't workable, but seeing the NYC Mefite group and then this thread sort of reminded me, I often think that people want a sort of...middle ground between MeFi/Craigslist/Freecycle/Couchsurfing ...basically, like, a way to do IRL helping-ish stuff but with the built-in vetting of MeFi. Like, I've often thought that instead of take something to the Goodwill, I wish I could give it to a MeFite. Or sometimes there are questions where people say, "I need an Ikea part/tennis racket/rare album, how do I find it?" And I kind of suspect that someone messages them and just offers to give them theirs, and I want a more dedicated way to make that happen. Or those posts where people talk about how terribly broke they are, I wish I could just send them a whole box of dry food and maybe a warm coat or a new pair of shoes. Like, I feel like there is something sociological where people love the MeFi community and want to participate in it in a more...all-in type way? (Maybe it's just me. But I don't think so, because I know sometimes answers to those broke questions along the lines of "I will give you $100 through PayPal" get deleted (which I understand).)

But obviously it would be a horrible mess- I mean, how often would you get to post a question that is basically "I need your monetary assistance?" And how do you keep people from scamming the site? And what do you do when some really cute person posts a picture of their cute kitten who needs emergency cuteness surgery and loooook don't you want the kitten to get a piece of bread stuck on its little kitteh face some more pls donate and that person gets like $10 grand and then you have someone who is super crochety and fighty in politics threads but they post that they are about to get evicted and they get like 50 bucks. I mean, I know it wouldn't WORK. I just want it.

Oh, god, I'm just rambling because it's Friday, I guess.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:47 PM on July 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

As long as you're bored on a Friday, Snarl, you can wring a goodly amount of past discussions out of searching the keyword 'classifieds' for MeTa.
posted by carsonb at 12:50 PM on July 13, 2012

I probably should have done that before rambling.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:53 PM on July 13, 2012

Yeah, it's one of those ideas that has a lot of likeable surface features but would be very complicated to get right and very difficult to moderate.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:13 PM on July 13, 2012

Snarl Furillo: "It's cute that you think cortex isn't a Hufflepuff."

Hmm. If I had to sort the mods I'd go:

mathowie: Gryffindor
jessamyn: Hufflepuff
cortex: Ravenclaw
restless_nomad: Hufflepuff
taz: Gryffindor
The Mod Who Shall Not Be Named: Slytherin
posted by Rock Steady at 1:14 PM on July 13, 2012

The Mod Who Shall Not Be Named is my favorite unreleased Paul Weller solo album.
posted by The World Famous at 1:17 PM on July 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Translating something into a singable song lyric isn't a by-the-word translation gig.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:21 PM on July 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Okay, I understand better why my post was deleted from the AskMe aspect of this organization.

Thank you.
posted by DMelanogaster at 1:21 PM on July 13, 2012

The script actually works on everything but music, but when was the last time there was straight-up deletion of a post on metatalk?

It's been a few months, I think - every now and then someone will post something stunty and we'll just delete it outright, but I don't think it's happened more than three or four times in the past year.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 2:17 PM on July 13, 2012

Yeah, it's pretty uncommon. You can look it up with the post data in the Infodump if you want to run the numbers.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:22 PM on July 13, 2012

You mean vacapinta?
posted by infinitewindow at 2:23 PM on July 13, 2012

shhh....don't name him
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:28 PM on July 13, 2012

I had an AskMe last week that was deleted in a similar way. I put it on LinkedIn. No bites.
posted by parmanparman at 4:59 PM on July 13, 2012

There's an AskMe deleted posts blog???!!!
posted by mediareport at 5:23 PM on July 13, 2012

Snarl Furillo writes ".basically, like, a way to do IRL helping-ish stuff but with the built-in vetting of MeFi."

It's like Metafilter is our church.
posted by Mitheral at 6:50 PM on July 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

when was the last time there was straight-up deletion of a post on metatalk?

May 30.

every now and then someone will post something stunty and we'll just delete it outright, but I don't think it's happened more than three or four times in the past year.

In the past twelve months, I count 3 posts deleted as stunts (out of 16 total, the rest being a potpourri).
posted by stebulus at 9:27 PM on July 13, 2012

Well if he's already got a name then it's more like the mod who shall not be renamed, right?
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:05 AM on July 14, 2012

In the past twelve months, I count 3 posts deleted as stunts (out of 16 total, the rest being a potpourri).

Huh. Well, that means I'm wrong in kind of a fascinating way.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 5:47 AM on July 14, 2012

MetaFilter: wrong in kind of a fascinating way.
posted by hippybear at 8:14 AM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just popped in to say Happy Birthday MetaFilter! Thanks to Matt and the mods for making this the best place on the Internet to hang out. Donuts for everyone*

*donut must be redeemed in person so y'all are going to have to come to Calgary
posted by arcticseal at 8:26 AM on July 14, 2012

Deleted thread blog should be working again. And yeah, it's just blue/green subsite, nothing else seemed to warrant it.
posted by cj_ at 11:41 AM on July 15, 2012