Phear of the Dark Green.

September 30, 2012 5:05 PM

How shameless can one be on MetaFilter Projects? I've read the documentation, and guidelines. I've looked through posts. Being that I am so good at running afoul of MetaRules, can I be completely shameless about my company on there? We're part of an incubator programme and I'd like to give another team some love too. Can I be shameless about putting them on there?

Every time Jessamyn deletes my comments, a little piece of my heart dies. And if it's the pimp-hand of Cortex, I hide under a blanket smoking unfiltered cigarettes in self-flagulation for my offence.

So, rather than complaining later, I'm asking first (see, one can learn!). What is the appropriate way to use MePro?

(P.S. Nothing like a bit of fresh air to clear the head. Since I started a little company, there's sadly little time to argue about deleted comments and the small tag. Although, I must say, this community is really amazing. Perhaps I started to take it for granted a bit, and got a bit demanding about the way I wanted it to work.

It's just so nice that it's here.)

posted by nickrussell to Etiquette/Policy at 5:05 PM (25 comments total)

If you have something to show off that's done and ready to use and it's something on the web people can use then sure, go ahead and post it. If it's just your company site, that's kind of not really a thing people can check out (look at other projects to see what typically gets posted, commercial stuff is fine, but it has to be interesting and not just a brochure site).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:16 PM on September 30, 2012

The idea of feedback would be amazing. It's a commercial site, definitely, and I think it's interesting. It'd be great to have the community push-and-pull at it. We're taking the scary route of developing it live on the web, warts and all because it's designed to create a community... and make money, but not at the moment. At the moment, it's all free.

So a company can be a project?
posted by nickrussell at 5:21 PM on September 30, 2012

So a company can be a project?

Projects needs to link to something On The Web, so assuming there is a website that talks about what you do and what you're about and creating, sure. has to be your stuff though, not the stuff your friends do.

Perhaps I started to take it for granted a bit, and got a bit demanding about the way I wanted it to work.

Possibly. You can also always hit us up on the contact form if you have isolated questions about things.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:42 PM on September 30, 2012

Nick, you can link to your company in your profile, you know. It's not as public as projects but it would probably get you some feedback over time. I'm interested, at any rate.
posted by michaelh at 5:44 PM on September 30, 2012

Every time Jessamyn deletes my comments, a little piece of my heart dies. And if it's the pimp-hand of Cortex, I hide under a blanket smoking unfiltered cigarettes in self-flagulation for my offence.

I don't recall what you might have done to raise hackles initially, but I defintely don't recommend posting a paragraph like this ever again.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:51 PM on September 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

I defintely don't recommend posting a paragraph like this ever again.

Why's that?
posted by nickrussell at 5:55 PM on September 30, 2012

"For Christ's sake, there must be some way I can legally spam Metafilter! There's just got to be a way!"
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:57 PM on September 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

Why's that?

It reads to me as comically over the top, to a degree that makes me question your sincerity, and I don't much care for the "pimp hand" metaphor either. Also, and I realize I'm being petty here, you misspelled "self-flagellation".
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:03 PM on September 30, 2012 [5 favorites]

Besides, smoking under a blanket seems a sure way to catch yourself and your bed on fire.
posted by subbes at 6:11 PM on September 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

but self-flagulation works on so many levels!
posted by mannequito at 6:18 PM on September 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

Horace: Point taken. Not insincere. Hyperbole.
posted by nickrussell at 6:18 PM on September 30, 2012

I definitely don't recommend posting a paragraph like this ever again.
Why's that?

I had a comment deleted once, maybe twice. I didn't think I'd stepped out of line, but I trust that the mods around here know better than I do what makes for good discussion. If I'd had comments deleted so often that I had started to form emotional responses specific to the mod doing the deleting I might want to take a step back and think about what I was doing on metafilter.

That paragraph sounds bad, and I don't think it's representative of you. You're a guy who tells stories like this around here. It's surprising that they were written by the same person.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:21 PM on September 30, 2012

Point taken. Not insincere. Hyperbole.

Fair enough, but there's such a history of people complaining in MetaTalk about site moderation in just these kind of terms that it's an immediate red flag for me.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:26 PM on September 30, 2012

Yeah I'm used to people talking shit about me, but it's nice when they don't, even as a joke.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:29 PM on September 30, 2012 [9 favorites]

That paragraph sounds bad, and I don't think it's representative of you. You're a guy who tells stories like this around here. It's surprising that they were written by the same person.

It's the problem of not having a delete feature. It all comes from the same place. Without the ability to edit, you get the raw footage, not a finished show. And raw footage is, well, raw.
posted by nickrussell at 7:11 PM on September 30, 2012

Those reactions are really interesting (not sarcasm, totally sincere) because I definitely read that as a gently self-mocking way to say "I really respect and appreciate the opinions of Cortex and Jessamyn and when they judge that I have transgressed site boundaries it makes me feel sad". I totally get where you'd prefer someone not say that, and certainly in the way he did, but I definitely read it as appreciative and complimentary, albeit in an odd way.

I'm aware that deletions are not personal judgements but still, as someone who cares about this site and respects it and the moderators, I understand feeling a bit chastened by a deletion.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:14 PM on September 30, 2012 [5 favorites]

Without the ability to edit, you get the raw footage, not a finished show.

Don't put the raw footage out there. Be like a director. A pro. Leave the raw footage you don't want in your finished project on the cutting room floor. Not having an edit feature is, I think, truly a *feature* of this site, not a bug. It makes people careful about what they say and how they say it, and that's a good thing, IMO.

Live and learn!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:14 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Those reactions are really interesting (not sarcasm, totally sincere) because I definitely read that as a gently self-mocking way to say "I really respect and appreciate the opinions of Cortex and Jessamyn and when they judge that I have transgressed site boundaries it makes me feel sad". I totally get where you'd prefer someone not say that, and certainly in the way he did, but I definitely read it as appreciative and complimentary, albeit in an odd way.

Me also. And I laughed.
posted by bongo_x at 9:46 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

flagulation
- no dictionary results
Did you mean flagellation? It hurts, so if you are going to do it, you should know its real name.
posted by Cranberry at 11:19 PM on September 30, 2012

Those reactions are really interesting (not sarcasm, totally sincere) because I definitely read that as a gently self-mocking way to say "I really respect and appreciate the opinions of Cortex and Jessamyn and when they judge that I have transgressed site boundaries it makes me feel sad".

Yes! We're like little puppies who don't understand why we can't chew on the furniture, and look at you with baleful eyes when you take our yummy upholstery away.
posted by XMLicious at 1:44 AM on October 1, 2012

The word "baleful" does not appear nearly as often as it should.

Pause for a moment, just a brief moment, and contemplate this...

...on the Tree of Woe.
posted by aramaic at 9:04 AM on October 1, 2012

But seriously, enough with the furniture chewing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:13 AM on October 1, 2012

If you want to game this site, please use the karpman drama triangle rather than the chatty best mate angle - ok ?

honestly.
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:57 PM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Projects needs to link to something On The Web,

What about cellphone apps? They're not technically on the web.
posted by delmoi at 7:30 PM on October 1, 2012

That's in the weird penumbra of webby/techie projects that we'll sort of call as we see. Ideally a Projects post about a cellphone app you've made will involve a link to a website that shows that off a bit or something rather than e.g. a blind link to the iTunes store or whatever.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:58 AM on October 2, 2012