Double-post etiquette? November 22, 2019 7:40 AM   Subscribe

I'm kind of confused as to why this post is still up. It's been flagged as a double since about half an hour after it first went up - yesterday's post is a link to the official TED Talk YouTube channel version of a talk that was posted to the blue, linked to the ted.com version, when it was first published in 2012. Is there a "we haven't seen this in a while, so it's OK" rule about double posts that I missed somewhere?
posted by hanov3r to Etiquette/Policy at 7:40 AM (25 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Yep, things have loosened up recently. It's in the FAQ.
posted by zamboni at 7:43 AM on November 22, 2019


Yep, if it's been a whiiiiiile then we're pretty much fine with something coming back around again. There's a reasonable buffer of "we just saw this" that makes deletion as a double pretty likely—posting something twice in the same year would feel odd to me in almost any case—but as the timeline stretches out it's less and less of an issue.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:44 AM on November 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Given MetaFilter's age (and the aging of MeFites), I appreciate this leniency on re-posting old materials. (I write this as someone who has re-read his own posts and comments without realizing that I wrote them, and thought "this is a great post/comment!" only to get to the contributor credit and see, oh, it was me. I've also re-read old posts and comments by other people and wanted to favorite them, only to see I've already favorited them ;) )
posted by filthy light thief at 7:52 AM on November 22, 2019 [34 favorites]


If anything, I feel like the linked post makes the case for allowing reposts after a certain amount of time has passed. The tenor of the conversations are very different; the original has a lot more "so can anyone give a TED talk now or..." snark, while the Mark II version has more people talking about using the trick themselves, and placing everything more firmly in the context of individual actions to keep waste to a minimum.

Now that TED talks are basically a social media punchline, snark about them seems like too much effort; meanwhile concerns about climate change are at an all-time high. It's neat to see that evolution made plain by comparing the two threads.
posted by chrominance at 10:54 AM on November 22, 2019 [10 favorites]


It's not a re-post. It's recycled.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:10 AM on November 22, 2019 [7 favorites]


zombo.com is calling!
posted by Meatbomb at 11:14 AM on November 22, 2019 [6 favorites]


Did the cats get themselves stuck in the scanner again?!?!
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:27 PM on November 22, 2019 [7 favorites]


I think it's perfectly reasonable to post something if it hasn't been posted in over five years.

One, I don't think people are routinely digging through the archives, so the fact there's a years-old link isn't helping anyone here today.
Two, I suspect that more than a few of the posts from over five years ago go to dead or redesigned websites, so a valid and relevant older link in itself is a notable achievement.
Three, The Metafilter community is a lot smaller than it was even five years ago, so it's not like we're struggling with too many posts here.
Four, who even remembers anything from five years ago? Not me! Even if I did, I'd probably say "Oh hey that thing from five years ago, I should look at it again" rather than "How DARE you show me something I looked at for five minutes once, many years ago!"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:32 PM on November 22, 2019 [8 favorites]


although "How DARE you show me something I looked at for five minutes once, many years ago!" would make a great t-shirt
posted by roger ackroyd at 3:06 PM on November 22, 2019 [9 favorites]


Honestly I think it might be fun to have a full-on Double Post Jubilee some time, plumb the old archives for posts about cool stuff that still has working links and revisit shamelessly.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:27 PM on November 22, 2019 [34 favorites]


Dubcember ?
posted by Sparky Buttons at 4:09 PM on November 22, 2019


I was going to suggest MeTooFilter, but then I thought better of it.
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:48 PM on November 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm going to re-post all of the deleted posts for this theme month.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:52 PM on November 22, 2019 [5 favorites]


Site policy has always been a little loose on this. One of my favourite posts was a repost (and yarchive is _still_ up, maybe I should pencil in a 10th anniversary repost). I wonder if potch compiled that ePub.
posted by Mitheral at 8:41 PM on November 22, 2019


Super glad we changed the guidelines on this, as it felt kinda weird to see what amounted to "Sorry newb! We covered this when you were 12! You don't remember?"
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:49 AM on November 23, 2019 [8 favorites]


The early stuff has been around since before some members were born. The oldest post that still goes to the original described content was posted on July 15th, 1999. It's old enough to drink most places.
posted by Mitheral at 11:45 AM on November 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


*glares at Mitheral through trifocals*
posted by Mrs Potato at 12:03 PM on November 23, 2019 [3 favorites]


Dubcember?

Deucember?
posted by Mchelly at 4:52 PM on November 23, 2019 [3 favorites]


Refilterizationing.

Permalinkagefossilli.

Grandma once said I have a telephone older then you and to my uncle, bubble gum cards which we both inquired where they may be.
posted by clavdivs at 4:57 PM on November 23, 2019


Atom Eyes: "I was going to suggest MeTooFilter, but then I thought better of it."

MeTwoFilter

or maybe

MetaFilter II: Electric Boogaloo
posted by chavenet at 4:20 AM on November 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


What would be cool is if we have a special edition month where we go back to one of our own old posts (i'm eyeing early 2007) and update them, particularly if they covered some trend or development or invention.

Example only : W00t, Segway will change the world.


/ come children, gather around while Granny tells you who Dean Kamen was and his vision for transforming the future of mobility...
posted by Mrs Potato at 8:38 AM on November 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


and it wasn't city streets littered with scooters either
posted by Mrs Potato at 8:39 AM on November 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


Deucember?

I don't think the site can survive another poop theme month.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:02 AM on November 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


Get off my fossilized lawn.
posted by y2karl at 1:21 PM on November 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


I don't think the site can survive another poop theme month.

Are you kidding? It's just what the doctor ordered.
posted by biogeo at 3:28 PM on November 27, 2019


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