The very worst kind of IraqFilter thread

March 23, 2003 9:03 PM

This is an example of the very worst kind of IraqFilter thread. Grabbing the first news story on a subject, a Fark-style minimal headline and people getting out the popcorn for a surely ensuing flamewar.

Can we please not have anymore crap like this on MeFi? There are many other places to get information like this.
posted by Space Coyote to etiquette/policy at 9:03 PM (15 comments total)

Crap, I obviously meant the thread and not the article itself. Rookie posting mistake I suppose.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:07 PM on March 23, 2003

get a grip. kittens uber alles.
posted by y2karl at 9:30 PM on March 23, 2003

People who are posting FPPs need to exercise restraint. There is nothing to be gained by spreading rumours, hyperbole, and lies. Regardless your feelings about the war, the people who are fighting it deserve better than to be used as pawns in media conglomerate games.

I favour FPPs that contain real news, that provide insight into what's going on, and contain information that will help us understand where this might all be leading. These are the sorts of FPPs that have the potential for interesting discussions.

I do note that MeFi is a lousy warblog. Those wanting information on the war itself are far better off with The Agonist and its ilk. MeFi is better for meta-analysis of the war.

And to start my last sentence, too, with "I":

I'd like to see some FPPs addressing what else is happening in the world. The warblogs are pretty much focused on Iraq alone. But I've heard rumblings about Pakistan (closing of the American Embassy, a possibly frightening bad sign) and I/P (taking opportunity of the world's distraction), and although the SAR virus thing seems to be under control I'd really like to see someone with deep knowledge to post some good links on global illnesses, the threat of the next pandemic, and pancakes.

Just wanted to make sure you were still reading. Thanks. (good god, someone shut FFFish up!)
posted by five fresh fish at 9:43 PM on March 23, 2003

Let's lay off the hate mail too. Some mefites need to take a Klonopin or two before loading up the site.
posted by skallas at 9:52 PM on March 23, 2003

Just read a newspaper.
posted by hama7 at 10:56 PM on March 23, 2003

But why pick only this one and not the kerjillion and a half anti-Iraq war threads and Iraq-related chicanery? Diabolical.
posted by hama7 at 11:00 PM on March 23, 2003

But why pick only this one and not the kerjillion and a half anti-Iraq war threads and Iraq-related chicanery?

Because it was a thread that deliberately sought one thing: gloating over other MeFi users. Macboy had no desire whatsoever to start a conversation, even one about Iraq. The FPP was speculation posed as fact, stated in the form of "look, this would make you wrong about something, isn't that funny as hell?" And even after comments pertaining to the veracity of the article he linked to, Macboy continued throughout his thread to be, apologies to skallas' desires, a smarmy gloating little shit. As warned, it appears that this is now backfiring on him, and all it's done is left an angry community covered in it.

To satiate your obvious implication that this is an evil liberal conspiracy against pro-war threads, hama7, I'll admit that anti-war threads are questionable too... but this FPP was the anti-war equivalent of "ANSWER claims bomb kills 2,500 civilians - and George Bush is somewhere laughing."

The last thread I remember deliberately started to dispel a pevious Iraq Metafilter conversation was the one about the balsa wood plane.... which was a rumor previously started in an earlier thread. I guess the easiest way to reduce Iraq posts would be to not post unproven stuff that gets a debunking thread a week later.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:20 AM on March 24, 2003

FFF - I think the basic problem is that almost all news coming out of Iraq now is suspect - as somebody's propaganda. And as such, it will possibly be disproved a day or a week later. |

I think I'm swearing of Iraq posts for the next few months - political posts too? No, but my next one will be a "something else" post. Cheerfull. Bipartisanly funny. Weird.
posted by troutfishing at 6:39 AM on March 24, 2003

This is an example of the very worst kind of IraqFilter thread.

No it's not!

Yes it is!

No it's not!

(ad infinitum)
: )
You're right, Coyote--"An unconfirmed report by Fox news..." does not an FPP make.

posted by Shane at 6:43 AM on March 24, 2003

Some mefites need to take a Klonopin or two before loading up the site.

*fires up webcam, gobbles klonopin*
posted by quonsar at 6:57 AM on March 24, 2003

we're out to get you, hama7.
posted by mcsweetie at 7:59 AM on March 24, 2003

Not that anyone cares, but the "popcorn" comment was kind of a quasi-Fark spoof. Obviously after an unconfirmed FoxNews FPP there's going to be 99% noise, and 1% signal in the ensuing thread, so what else can you do but sit back and watch? The pro-war side is going to be smug, and the anti-war side will be defensive and suspicious, and no one is better off for it.

BTW: Is Metafilter loading verrrry slowwwwly for anyone else today?
posted by Karl at 8:13 AM on March 24, 2003

While I agree that the post in question was fairly useless, I also have to say that I'm not averse to "IraqFilter" posts.

I've only been on metafilter for 6 or 8 months now, but I've considered it a source for news and opinions about stuff and things, without much in the way of restrictions.

Lately though, it seems that any news or opinions about stuff or things are now only acceptable to post if they're not about the Bush administration, the military, Saddam Hussein, Iraq, the UN, world opinion, protests, this war, the last gulf war, somalia, afghanistan, osama bin laden, media coverage, 9/11, anything liberal or well... let's just say my list is incomplete.

There have been a number of issues I would've loved to have raised in the past few weeks, but I did not, because I knew that the damned IraqFilter noise would be applied, and derail the interesting conversation.
posted by mosch at 2:23 AM on March 30, 2003

It's fairly simple mosch. For many people who have been using the site a bit longer than six to eight months, the "news and opinions about stuff and things" is the noise.

Many feel there are many other sites focussed on the discussion of news (such as plastic) and that, in the main, news and politics aren't subjects that metafilter does well.

Remember that the original idea or purpose of the site was to filter interesting websites and online phenomena, things which no single member would be able to find all for themselves, even with a lifetime of surfing at their disposal.

It seems very easy to grab the link of the latest news article you're reading, copy and paste it and post it to metafilter. If 17,000+ people did that each day, we wouldn't have a filter, exactly: the idea is to go the extra mile and find the best stuff. If you don't find anything to link or to discuss on a particular day, never mind: someone else probably did, or there's always tomorrow. I've never really found a link worth posting to metafilter, even though I've had a few goes. I don't think you can find worthy stuff by going and looking ... it has to drop from the tree like Newton's apple.

Having said all that, it's also true to say that a lot of people have started coming to the site, over the years, just to get news and current events. Communities involve, especially when they aren't predicated on hard and fast rules. It's a sad thing for people like me, who'd like metafilter to be the best of the web, and I suppose that makes some of us bitch and moan sometimes. Sorry if that's distracting for your news discussions.
posted by walrus at 12:20 AM on March 31, 2003

"evolve", not "involve". As if anyone was reading ...
posted by walrus at 5:01 AM on March 31, 2003