Space colonization questions

July 7, 2002 9:28 AM

what's the deal? two space colonization posts¹,² separated by less than two hours... and the second one contains what appears to be a self-link that actually only links to the metafilter homepage (href changed by matt?) and is accompanied by accusations of billy maulana-ism (fwiw, his googlebomb is still a top ten result three weeks later) and a clever touche by sylloge. can somebody explain?
posted by mlang to etiquette/policy at 9:28 AM (11 comments total)

Matt didn't change the HREF. Baud hosed the link, making it appear as a link to MetaFilter instead of a self-link. Here's the HTML that was (mis)used:

<a target='_self' href=''http://www.somebaudy.com>my blog </a>

Baud also hosed a link in a comment in the same thread:

<a target='_self' hef="http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/18268">that</a>

Those of us who cherish our belief in the increased status of a low MetaFilter number are aghast at these mistakes.
posted by rcade at 9:59 AM on July 7, 2002

He claims to have intended to post the comment as a reply rather then a new thread. I have no clue how you manage to make that mistake, however, unless its one very odd bug we haven't seen before.

If it was actually meant as a reply, that makes the self-link less evil, esp. since its hardly a hidden one.
posted by malphigian at 10:22 AM on July 7, 2002

i blame quonsar.
posted by quonsar at 11:17 AM on July 7, 2002

I blame quonsar too. Welcome back.

I guess it's fortunate his lack of html skillz prevented a self-link. And I thought people had decided calling a blatant self link 'pulling a BM' was going too far in the meanness direction.
posted by euphorb at 11:26 AM on July 7, 2002

Darn that quonsar! ;-)

But seriously folks, I don't see how you could "accidently" post a FPP either. They're radically different interfaces...the interface for posting a comment and the interface for posting a FPP that is.

When posting an FPP, the interface for entering text is at the top of the page, and has the following areas for entering text: URL: Link title: Description: ; which is following by a button for "Preview the Thread" and a disclaimer which reads "(if you are posting a link to something you have created or were involved with the creation of, please use the TextAd service or the mefi-projects list to announce your work instead of posting a self-linking MetaFilter thread.)"

Whereas when you are adding a comment to an existing thread, the thread content is above the comment entry box, as are the buttons for preview, post and spell check...and the header reads "Comment Preview".

No matter which browser you use, that holds true...ergo, I call bullshit on the claim that it was an accidental FPP.

I don't think the of billy maulana-ism comment was really out of line for this FPP.


posted by dejah420 at 12:47 PM on July 7, 2002

So I gotta ask quonsar, (albeit a rhetorical question), since your little hiatus is now over, were you the one that posted this to rcade's site?
posted by BlueTrain at 1:17 PM on July 7, 2002

guilty as charged. also guilty as charged of abusing evanizer in email. changes have been made in offline quonsar which should reflect favorably in mefi quonsar. the rage and vitriol i often spewed into mefi was overflowing from my "real life" and for that i am sorry. i'm hoping to redeem myself here, be a less frequent, more thoughtful commentor and not such a slash and burn berserker. reserving, of course, the right to be a smartass forever. it's my winning formula after all :-)
posted by quonsar at 2:02 PM on July 7, 2002

Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, "sperm burper" is fucking hilarious. No offense, Evan, just giving props where props is due.
posted by BlueTrain at 2:08 PM on July 7, 2002

thanks, rcade. i didn't bother to check the source to find an explanation. but the evidence is all there. i couldn't even understand the explanatory comment that malphagian linked to above (what's a story? oh yeah, that's plastic lingo); without the botched link in place.

considering baud's, um... incompetence, i'm inclined to believe that it was all an honest mistake. yes, it's completely impossible to mistake the 'post a link' screen for the 'add a comment' form, but baud does date back to the days when adding a comment required clicking through to a second screen in order to access the form (see matt's new book (i won the contest; nyah nyah!) for a description of the history of metafilter posting forms).

still impossible, you say? think like a ui guy or a qa lady: users will go to great lengths to defeat the simplicity you've built into any application; expect behavior that would otherwise be utterly inconceivable.
posted by mlang at 2:20 PM on July 7, 2002

oh, and w/r/t the self-linking...

if baud thought he was posting a comment to an already existing thread, then he was well within the guidelines:

note: it's ok to link to your own things as comments in threads, if it adds to the discussion and/or saves space because you're written a reply elsewhere.

so, as much as i enjoy a good military tribunal followed by a summary execution, i think we'll have to let this one go. we can still pile on quonsar, though: i, for one, was deeply offended by anusfilter. how come nobody ever includes me in their parodies? you're a heartless jerk, you... bad man!
posted by mlang at 2:31 PM on July 7, 2002

Welcome back, quonsar! Don't change too much, though. Some of us like you just fine the way you are/were/will be. :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:26 PM on July 7, 2002