Comments on: Self-linker sets new record

Self-linker sets new record

rcade — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 06:09:04 -0800

Who needs textads? A new world record in self-links has been set by the publisher of Sound the Sirens, Billy Maulana. He's gotten seven self-links past us.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 06:45:07 -0800

Indeed.

By: Marquis

Marquis — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 07:09:16 -0800

I'm trying to come up with a suitable prize.

By: pardonyou?

pardonyou? — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 07:42:50 -0800

He appears to be doing the same over at SportsFilter, albeit with a different nickname. Alas, he used the exact same wording for his post.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 07:54:24 -0800

I'm trying to come up with a suitable prize.

The golf trophy that woman was kissing?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:08:36 -0800

damn, he was on my "watch this guy" list. D'oh.

By: evanizer

evanizer — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:22:27 -0800

I love the greeting on his user page:

hello bastards.

Says it all...

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:28:43 -0800

> damn, he was on my "watch this guy" list. D'oh.

Which list is he on now?

By: iconomy

iconomy — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:47:50 -0800

Thank goodness for rcade.

By: moz

moz — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:49:34 -0800

nice find, rcade.

By: Spoon

Spoon — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 08:57:44 -0800

Maybe we could have a subtle self link day. Then perhaps no one would do it anymore.

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 09:08:24 -0800

Give 'em an inch...

By: iconomy

iconomy — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 09:09:43 -0800

Like rcade said, text-ads were just made for self-linking, and Matt gets moola to boot. A win-win situation, and no underhanded tactics required.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 09:14:54 -0800

Ugh. Didn't occur to me. Should have known no-one else would link to an article that misspelled "whose" 47 times.

By: insomnyuk

insomnyuk — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 09:35:32 -0800

<aside> I was bothered by the title of the post, it felt like a Draft notice </aside>

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:24:25 -0800

Which list is he on now?

The banned one.

(he didn't have an email address associated with his profile so I couldn't politely ask him to stop, so I've had to block him outright)

By: gummi

gummi — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:41:29 -0800

[scooby villian]"And I would've gotten away with it too...if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"[/scooby villian]

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:43:32 -0800

> The banned one.

But oughtn't you ban links to his magazine? Or don't you have a mechanism for that?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:52:05 -0800

But oughtn't you ban links to his magazine? Or don't you have a mechanism for that?

I could do that, yes, but for now he broke the rules (severely) and is deserving of losing posting rights.

By: rcade

rcade — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 11:22:24 -0800

This was just posted on my weblog:

with regard to this:

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/2295

what a feeble little dickhead you are. how much time did you spend outing this metacriminal? you must feel so proud and superior. what a cunt!

posted by quonsar [fuckyou@eatshit.com] at 06:09:32 AM on June 18, 2002

To answer the question, it took about 10 minutes using WHOIS and the sites involved. I can post a technical how-to for others who want to share my sense of pride and superiority, if there's interest.

People who want to promote themselves on MetaFilter should buy text ads. Anyone who posts links on this site under false pretense "(found this on Sound the Sirens)" deserves to be called out.

By: insomnyuk

insomnyuk — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 11:43:40 -0800

6/12/2002: QUONSAR IS GONE.
AND BEST FORGOTTEN.

That's not the same quonsar as the one who posted that flame on your website, is it rcade?

P.S. You don't even need to know how to do a WHOIS to figure out Maulana is behind STS, since his name is all over the website, including the thing he linked to today. You'd think he would have been aware of the self-linking guideline and tried to have done it in an incognito fashion.

By: rcade

rcade — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 11:46:54 -0800

I have no idea if it's the real quonsar or not; I've sent him an e-mail to find out if someone else is using his name.

By: Yelling At Nothing

Yelling At Nothing — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 11:51:22 -0800

Crap! I used to like quonsar!

*hangs head*

By: moz

moz — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 12:01:53 -0800

maybe quonsar could benefit from some time away to relax and gather himself. i know he'd been pretty surly towards some people (myself included) in recent months. or maybe that's how he always was.

By: dangerman

dangerman — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 12:48:15 -0800

I just like saying quonsar.

quonsar!

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:14:38 -0800

Still, you gotta admit that [fuckyou@eatshit.com] is a pretty cool email address.

"Grandma, you can send me pictures of the family reunion to fuckyou@eatshit.com."

By: luser

luser — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:42:15 -0800

"We value your feedback. If you have questions or comments about our product, please drop us a line at fuckyou@eatshit.com"

By: ( .)(. )

( .)(. ) — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 14:32:11 -0800

rcade, I'm assuming you already deleted that comment? Can't seem to find it at the workbench.

"We have rescheduled the next pedagogical day to March 13. If you have any further questions or concerns about this Please don't hesitate to contact the school at 212-594-5100 or write us an e-mail: FuckYOU@EatShit.com"

By: crunchland

crunchland — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 14:47:09 -0800

what a feeble little dickhead you are. how much time did you spend outing this metacriminal? you must feel so proud and superior. what a cunt!

Jesus loves the little children. All the little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

By: rcade

rcade — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:18:49 -0800

The comment is still there. My foul-mouthed online friend posted it in response to an item about a fund-raising effort for someone in the hospital, so I did some Radio Userland trickery to get rid of the link to it.

By: evanizer

evanizer — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:24:11 -0800

Well if the real quonsar is gone, good riddance. He's the meanest Mefite I've ever encountered.

Although I give him props for calling me a "sperm burper" in email.. that was a new one for me.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 17:29:00 -0800

I still like "dork-snorkeler" better, Ev. :)

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 18:28:27 -0800

I've always wondered if quonsar and quarsan were the same person...

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 19:08:46 -0800

I don't think so Stav. I had an email from Quarsan once, and not once did they call me anything that rhymed obscenely or was even vaguely alliterative.

By: malphigian

malphigian — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 19:18:01 -0800

You can't get fuckyou@eatshit.com, but you can get fuckyou@lyingsackofshit.com, fuckyou@istillhateyou.com, or fuckyou@yourmomisacunt.com, which work alright too.

By: skallas

skallas — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 02:55:58 -0800

Don't ban him, just count the click throughs (or estimate) and send him a bill at the going text ad rates. He got his hits, now time to pay up.

He's got money, just look at that tux!

By: quarsan

quarsan — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 03:17:06 -0800

could i just say that i'm not quonsar. i used to like in a remote tanzanian village and quarsan was the name the villagers gave me. i know i can occasionally be a tad blunt, but it is very rare for me to swear.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 03:24:42 -0800

Thanks for clarifying, quarsan.

re quonsar : I still think Anusfilter was pretty funny, if crude.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 04:17:08 -0800

> could i just say that i'm not quonsar.

Yes, but you have to say it in Iraqw.

By: quarsan

quarsan — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 04:55:58 -0800

i could, but it would hurt. you could always listen to some iraqw music though...

but i'm not going to self-link on this thread am i?

ahnagha wathl

By: rcade

rcade — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 05:57:37 -0800

Billy Maulana has posted an apology in his profile.

By: ashbury

ashbury — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 06:32:07 -0800

It makes me sad that he got hate mail.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 07:35:16 -0800

> It makes me sad that he got hate mail.

That is sad. I think I see why some people do it, though. People here have sites they would love to promote to 14,000 Metafilter readers but, to be civil, they follow the rules and hold back. The rule against self-promotion is the most important rule here; without it, most links would be spam and everyone would leave. When someone else doesn't follow the rule, cursing the rule-breaker is like yelling "asshole!" to the guy who jumps to the head of a long line in which you have been patiently waiting all morning and have only just now worked up to seventy-ninth place. The guy who jumped the line might not really be an asshole, but he did something to bother a lot of people, and some people are going to yell "asshole" (but maybe the spineless way, anonymously).

> but i'm not going to self-link on this thread am i?

No, don't do that. But your site is quite nice. I especially hope you get some help with mosquito nets to fight malaria.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:26:52 -0800

I personally don't think Matt should delete this meta thread, as this guy requested. If his publication gets any flack for it, I think he should have thought of that before he broke the Mefi Primary Directive seven times.

By: turaho

turaho — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:44:27 -0800

I think Billy Maulana should buy a couple of Text Ads to show how sorry he is.

Ahh, MeFi extortion!

By: timeistight

timeistight — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:44:35 -0800

That's a remarkably contrite apology; it shows far more class than I would have expected.

Speaking of class, sending hate mail to someone over this is a classless thing to do. He was a bad boy and he got his wrist slapped, but it's not like he, say, burned down half of Colorado.

By: skallas

skallas — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:58:13 -0800

I personally don't think Matt should delete this meta thread

Yeah tell me about it. When I read that part of the apology I saw, "Please delete the stuff that might make me look bad on a google search."

By: skallas

skallas — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:59:09 -0800

Billy Maulana

By: crunchland

crunchland — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 09:10:31 -0800

"Please delete the stuff that might make me look bad on a google search."

Actually, I think that's closer to the truth than anything. It looks like Billy Maulana even went to the trouble of removing his name (Billy Maulana) from his user page, and he only signed his apology as "Billy", not "Billy Maulana". I think this Billy Maulana character is more concerned about his vanity searches, than the fact that he, Billy Maulana, posted all those self-links to Metafilter.

And I certainly don't think that anyone should send hate mail to Billy Maulana or anyone who works with Billy Maulana, or any of Billy Maulana's friends, or anyone with the name Maulana.

That's just disrespectful. Billy Maulana doesn't deserve that kind of treatment.

By: timeistight

timeistight — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 09:57:39 -0800

You may be right to question Billy Maulana's sincerity, skallas and crunchland. It just seemed like more crow than I'd be able to choke down.

If it really is just a cynical attempt to whitewash his reputation, then Billy Maulana needs to examine his morals.

By: rodz

rodz — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 10:08:55 -0800

This really hurts. Here I am trying to get together some capital for textads and just spent a long time trying to convince the keepers of the cash that textads are the way to go and Billy Maulana ruins it by showing marketing departments everywhere that they can shill and self-link.
Kids, don't be a Billy Maulana!

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 10:12:59 -0800

I sense that "Billy Maulana" will now be the term for a self-link.

"Dude, that link is a total Maulana"

By: Marquis

Marquis — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 10:18:06 -0800

Jeez, we really are vindictive pricks, aren't we?

(Billy Maulana, Billy Maulana, Billy Maulana)

By: jnthnjng

jnthnjng — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 10:38:43 -0800

damn. You may think that this Meta post should stay, and that's fine. but turning around and intentionally filling the thread with his name just to be a jerk, that's pretty juvenile. He apologized, now accept it and move on.

By: Danelope

Danelope — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 10:49:50 -0800

His name is Robert Paulson, his name is Robert Paulson, his name is...oh, sorry. Wrong thread.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 11:05:23 -0800

intentionally filling the thread with his name just to be a jerk

Oh. I honestly didn't even think of that.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 12:55:55 -0800

Danelope: you got me to laugh harder right now than I have all day. Almost as much as SillyFilter.

By: Catch

Catch — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 14:27:14 -0800

Ah, ah, am I the only one who gets that cynical tingle down my spine when someone claims 'I got hate mail' ? (Or porn spam, or 450 entries to my contest). I've never seen anyone post in any thread, "Yeah, I sent the bastard some hate mail". The thing is, as a cynical manipulative technique, it works so well. Now metafilter users (unspecified) are the ones who've sunk so low. Look how bad timeistight and ashbury feel.
'Aaww, you guys, don't do that. He's sorry already'.

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 14:51:52 -0800

turning around and intentionally filling the thread with his name just to be a jerk, that's pretty juvenile.

Yes, I think we've all learned a thing or two about the merits of apologizing to the MeFi community today, haven't we?

By: rebeccablood

rebeccablood — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 15:46:39 -0800

Yes, I think we've all learned a thing or two about the merits of apologizing to the MeFi community today, haven't we?

shadowkeeper, do you honestly think that mr maulana is, after 7 egregious abuses of the system, suddenly torn with remorse over his actions over the last 5 months?

By: Su

Su — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 18:46:50 -0800

Rebecca, you have this way of summing up a situation in a minimum number of words that I always have to admire.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 18:53:35 -0800

If I said that I've received scads of hatemail and porn bombs due to my unfair and juvenile treatment of Billy Maulana, would that get me off the hook? Ok. How about if I also throw in a remarkably contrite apology, indicating my sincere remorse over the actions of 9:10am pst?

By: lostbyanecho

lostbyanecho — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 19:24:32 -0800

Matt was kind enough to let me post for one last time here so I just wanted to say a few last things before I am gone from the MeFi community.

First of all -

I am not making any excuses for my actions. What I did was wrong, stupid, selfish and against everything this community stands for. I have no excuses and am truly sorry for what I did.

- I know you may find it difficult to believe but I am sincerely sorry. You can say what you want about me but just as I do not know any of you, you do not know me. As I do not know the trials of life you each have been through or are going through now, you don't know what I've been through or am going through. I made a mistake, I recognize it now and whether or not you believe me, I am sorry.

- You will never see me here at MeFi again because I don't deserve to be here and out of respect to everyone (respect previously not shown) I will leave and not come back.

- There is no attempt to whitewash my "reputation" or anything like that, like I've said, this is my email address - billymaulana@yahoo.com, I'm not trying to hide or escape. I'm just someone who made a huge mistake.

I hope that you will be able to put this in the past. I apologize again for my disrespect to Matt and everyone else in the community.

Sincerely,
Billy M.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 19:37:41 -0800

Adios, William. And when you speak of us, be gentle.

Hey, here's a good question. If you fuck up, ala Willie here, is there any way to really be forgiven and pulled back into the herd? Or is it...you know...the Scarlet "M"?

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 19:54:24 -0800

He's apologized, I think he means it, I think we should let it drop. He's been spanked, there's not any reason to keep going over it. Matt has obviously accepted the apology, I think the rest of us should as well. :)

By: G_Ask

G_Ask — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 20:40:16 -0800

I agree that using his name as a "self-link" reference/standard is too much. But his initials, BM, are fair game, no?
could make for a more interesting google search (if you're into that shit, I mean).

By: yhbc

yhbc — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 20:41:17 -0800

On the internet, nobody knows if you're a reformed sinner or former criminal either. Also, on MetaFilter at least, nobody but Matt knows (for sure) any single member's prior identities. With an apology freely given and accepted, perhaps one day we will again have lostbyanecho among us, but under a new name and with a new attitude and a correspondingly higher form of karma.

Kind of like MetaReincarnation.

Anyway, that's my pleasant thought to end on.

By: evanizer

evanizer — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 20:47:37 -0800

But his initials, BM, are fair game, no?

Umm, I think that acronym is too heavily associated with this usage...

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 22:09:35 -0800

I agree that using his name as a "self-link" reference/standard is too much.

That really was unkind of me. I am sorry. A lesson in the gravity of one's words and their potential for mischief.

By: scottymac

scottymac — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:10:24 -0800

Yes, maybe he can come back as "lostbyaselflink".

By: quarsan

quarsan — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 02:34:25 -0800

personally, i think we should accept his apology and move on.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 05:37:21 -0800

Congratulations (for better or worse, you decide). Your Google campaign worked.

By: turaho

turaho — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 06:17:17 -0800

If I were Billy, I wouldn't be too worried about this page showing up in a Google search. Being upset about self-links is a decidedly Metafilteresque gripe--relevant to those here in the community, but meaningless to the rest of the world. If you don't know MeFi and you stumble upon this page, your most likely reaction to all our complaining will be "who cares?"

I mean, it's not like he double posted...

By: G_Ask

G_Ask — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 07:42:41 -0800

Uh, yes, Evan. That was the point.

By: mkelley

mkelley — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 08:36:18 -0800

it looks like he has a history of this, so why should we accept an apology?

By: Marquis

Marquis — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 09:45:12 -0800

Um. Because that's what good people do: accept honest apologies.

By: rcade

rcade — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 09:47:07 -0800

adampsyche: The Googlebomb effect is temporary. Check that again in a week.

By: Danelope

Danelope — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 11:21:56 -0800

Because that's what good people do: accept honest apologies.

Who's to say his apology is honest? Call me cynical, but he deliberately and knowingly posted seven links to his own site in gross violation of the MetaFilter and SportsFilter rules, so recently as Monday. Had he not been discovered by rcade, there's no indication he wouldn't have continued his self-serving behavior unrepentantly.

I get the feeling he's only sorry that he got caught, and is doing what little damage control he can (via 'delete this post' revisionist history) for his site. Fortunately, members of this community can't delete or modify their posts, and as a result we are all held accountable for our actions.

Believing what seems an obviously disingenuous apology does not a 'good person' make.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 12:19:03 -0800

rcade: true.

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 12:33:15 -0800

Its impossible to tell a sincere apololgy from an insincere apology. You can draw arbitrary dinstinctions all day long, I guess. In the end his name is pasted all over this thread and if he forever comes up on google as a shameless self-promoter then that's the consequences of his actions, apology or not.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 13:03:30 -0800

Its impossible to tell a sincere apololgy from an insincere apology.

And that is why an apology is only useful to the one making it, not the one receiving it. Anything beyond that is self-delusion by one who wants to feel better.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 13:12:40 -0800

Anything beyond that is self-delusion by one who wants to feel better.

So if I bump into you in the street and knock you down, I should just keep walking? I think apologies do serve a purpose in polite society beyond alleviating guilty consciences.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 14:40:06 -0800

You should watch where you're going next time.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 16:01:45 -0800

I think it's worth pointing out that the letters in "Billy Maulana" can be rearranged to spell "lullaby mania".

By: perplexed

perplexed — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 17:04:19 -0800

rcade (re: googlebomb effect): if that's one of the only references to Billy Maulana on the Internet, won't it stay on top due to the fact there are no other references to Billy Maulana?

I'm just curious, I don't really know their algorithm for determining best hit and decay.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 18:36:10 -0800

In an incredibly strange coincidence, I'd never heard of Mr. Maulana until this metatalk thread. Then, today I found out that he had reviewed my band's CD and liked it. Small world, I guess.

By: ashbury

ashbury — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:08:48 -0800

Anything beyond that is self-delusion by one who wants to feel better. --rushmc

You don't believe this, do you?

By: rcade

rcade — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 20:09:07 -0800

if that's one of the only references to Billy Maulana on the Internet, won't it stay on top due to the fact there are no other references to Billy Maulana?

I don't think it would permanently top the other stuff. Google gives links on a much-linked page like http://metatalk.metafilter.com a lot more weight than a little-linked linked page like http://metatalk.metafilter.com/thread.cfm?category_ID=3. So when this scrolls off into the archives, I expect it will hop down a few notches or even further.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 21:06:55 -0800

You don't believe this, do you?

If you don't know the level of sincerity of the person apologizing to you, then any significance you give to their apology is something YOU are generating. In some cases (being knocked down on the street), you may have fairly good reason in assuming that they feel some degree of regret...though they may just be mouthing the right words to comply with the social norm. But in more complex situations that involve greater complexities of emotional entanglements...you can never know.

And even if they DO feel great regret and sorrow for having wronged you in whatever way they did...what does that do for you? You have still suffered the wrong, and the ex post facto acknowlegement of wrongdoing does exactly nothing to mitigate that, much less undo it.

Judge a person by their actions, for words are cheap.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 04:54:09 -0800

Judge a person by their actions, for words are cheap.

Given that, I have to ask, What the fuck are you doing in an online forum?

By: rushmc

rushmc — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:52:43 -0800

Not judging the participants, that's for sure.

By: Skot

Skot — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:58:28 -0800

Well, as long as they're not fat, anyway.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:22:30 -0800

Fat? Ewww.