come on and share your most embarrassing moment

July 11, 2003 5:07 AM

Have you ever plagiarized and double-posted a two-day-old post about plagiarism? I have. Please make it less lonely in here, folks - come on and share your most embarrassing moment on MeFi so far!
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-related at 5:07 AM (89 comments total)

I once swore that evanizer had weapons of mass destruction and I had him removed from power.

Boy, is my face red.
posted by ColdChef at 5:22 AM on July 11, 2003

Too many to chose from, but some highlights from my (almost complete) first year:

-A front page post about Britney giving the finger to Mexicans. Complete with the mispelling "Meixcans".

-Pre-emptively demanding on MeTa that no one post about the Ecomsoft decision until there was more detailed info available.

-Ragging on I am Sam and Sean Penn and saying how glad I was that he didn't get the Oscar nomination (when in fact he had the year before, when the movie was actually released).

-I'm not even gonna talk about the time I obnoxiously called out S_O_M when he didn't deserve it.

I think you're safe Migs.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:18 AM on July 11, 2003

My most embarrassing moment was when rushmc outed me as a Hostess Twinkie corporate shill. I still want to crawl under a rock when I think about that.
posted by iconomy at 6:36 AM on July 11, 2003

Accidentally posting to this thread. Oops.
posted by walrus at 6:41 AM on July 11, 2003

Once I was trying to make a point about keeping a blog separate from your real name (I think it was in the thread where someone got fire over her weblog) and I said, "See, if you google [my name]), you can't get back to my blog," but I had put my real name in there instead, making it so you could google my name and get my blog (through my user page). It was changed, but I felt like an ass.
posted by adampsyche at 7:14 AM on July 11, 2003

so many... so very many... Nearly all related to just not taking the time to think out exactly what I wanted to say, and phrasing very poorly as a consequence. One example, and by no means the best or worst example, in commenting on the Beastie Boys horrific anti-war rap, rather than comparing the quality of the song negatively to the Superbowl Shuffle, I stated that using hip hop to effect social change was not a workable idea, which is remarkably stupid.
posted by jonson at 7:14 AM on July 11, 2003

I once commented in a thread about the release of Netscape 6.0 (FPP penned by Zeldman), and how pissed and surprised I was that it didn't display DHTML layers properly. A few designers politely (and then then impolitely) informed me that it had been reported long before the 6.0 release that layers as we knew them would not be supported, and that anyone who was anyone should have known that. See, the thing is....

:::story cut short due to lameness:::
posted by dhoyt at 7:27 AM on July 11, 2003

no dhoyt, keep going, I'm on the edge of my seat! Don't leave a brother hanging!
posted by jonson at 7:31 AM on July 11, 2003

O god please stop with these threads.
posted by gleuschk at 7:33 AM on July 11, 2003

This.
posted by rocketman at 7:39 AM on July 11, 2003

...long story short--I left my double-dong on the plane heading back to Miami!

Wait, where was I?
posted by dhoyt at 7:40 AM on July 11, 2003

Have you ever plagiarized and double-posted a two-day-old post about plagiarism?

No, I haven't, but that may be because I'm the biggest loser on Metafilter - which is to say, the only (or one of the very few) one who zealously scrolls through all the posts on the front page, starting with the last one I saw, however long ago it was, to make sure I don't miss a single thing I might be interested in. What's sad to me (since the real topic of this thread is, of course, once again, Miguel) is that I assumed that you, Miguel, were that kind of loser too. But it appears that instead, you are a different loser. A lesser loser? A looser loser?
posted by soyjoy at 7:42 AM on July 11, 2003

OMG, dhoyt, I would never have picked that thing up and stashed it in my luggage if I had known it was yours.
posted by soyjoy at 7:43 AM on July 11, 2003

I remember the time when I posted thinking I was signed in as Stan Chin when actually I was still logged in as Carlos Quevado! Ha ha, whoops!
posted by Stan Chin at 7:53 AM on July 11, 2003

the only (or one of the very few) one who zealously scrolls through all the posts on the front page, starting with the last one I saw, however long ago it was, to make sure I don't miss a single thing I might be interested in.

heh. there's also that little "find" thing in your browser that can sometimes work wonders on the front page if you want to avoid double posts.

on the other hand, one cannot really read a website's content if one is madly searching the web for material to post in one's own daily FPP
posted by matteo at 8:10 AM on July 11, 2003

Whatever. You know he just double-posted it as a *ahem* clever joke. And as a reason to say "Whoops! I'm so embarrassed! Maybe I can make a MetaTalk post... about embarrassing moments!"

meh.
posted by rocketman at 8:17 AM on July 11, 2003

Wait a second. So you guys don't like Miguel? Mindblowing shit! Who would have known? Man, I guess ya just learn somethin' every day!

Here's a crazier one: I think that hama7 is a little nutty. Man, the revelations flow like wine.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 8:25 AM on July 11, 2003

I like Miguel fine, but this is another bad thread.

If your post gets deleted, maybe you should leave it that way, instead of calling it to everyone's attention. More and more, the self-referential quality of these threads grates.
posted by Kafkaesque at 8:31 AM on July 11, 2003

I would only disagree to the extent it was nice to have attention called to Matt's "reason for deletion": "Miguel totally copied an old post".
posted by yhbc at 8:42 AM on July 11, 2003

OMG, dhoyt, I would never have picked that thing up and stashed it in my luggage if I had known it was yours.

Aw, hey. Toss it in the dishwasher, FedEx it back to me, no harm, no foul.
posted by dhoyt at 8:47 AM on July 11, 2003

my moment was when i started hating soyjoy. at least it was short lived.
posted by chrisroberts at 9:29 AM on July 11, 2003

I don't know or care about double posts etc, but I suspect this could become one of those standard friday MeTa posts that'll drag on through the weekend with the usual catfights, incoherent ramblings and aggressive comments written under the influence of alcoholic beverages and assorted substances. That is: yet another waste of bandwidth.
posted by 111 at 9:41 AM on July 11, 2003

Any post made before April 2002.
posted by konolia at 9:52 AM on July 11, 2003

So you guys don't like Miguel?

Actually, that's not true. What I don't like is lame jokes. Normally, I think Miguel is an okay contributor to the site.
posted by rocketman at 10:14 AM on July 11, 2003

This is not my beautiful thread.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:43 AM on July 11, 2003

This is not my beautiful site.
posted by JollyWanker at 10:50 AM on July 11, 2003

Well… how did it get here?
posted by timeistight at 10:58 AM on July 11, 2003

Nearly every time I post. Which has led me (unlike obvious and unnamed others) to post less.

MeFi lesson #72:
To reduce embarrassing posts - post less, not more.

To paraphrase a popular cell phone commercial:

"Am I being an assclown now? Good."
"Am I being an assclown now? Good."
"Am I being an assclown now? Good."
"Am I being an assclown now? Good."
............
posted by y6y6y6 at 11:02 AM on July 11, 2003

I'd love to keep you company, Miguel. Sadly, I'm 106 MeTa threads shy of being your league...
posted by Dark Messiah at 11:04 AM on July 11, 2003

Letting the days go by
And Miguel posts once again
Letting the days go by
And I leave to go underground
Then away from the blue (#006699) again
after my patience is gone
Once in a lifetime
we'll see a day without posts
posted by j.edwards at 11:36 AM on July 11, 2003

Let me just state for the record that the Hostess Bakery thing is a joke. I've gotten 7 emails so far today ranging from outrage that I'm conducting viral marketing here at metafilter, to one asking if I can get them a job at Hostess. Teehee.
posted by iconomy at 11:56 AM on July 11, 2003

Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:57 AM on July 11, 2003

Miguel isn't holding us.
Miguel isn't after us.
posted by soyjoy at 12:08 PM on July 11, 2003

Don't post here anymore. Miguel doesn't get it. If this post had no comments, he'd get a message.

Miggy & get along well (I believe), but I do not appreciate self-referential - as opposed to Mefi-referential - posts. It's just so, well, un-English
posted by dash_slot- at 12:12 PM on July 11, 2003

stavrosthewonderchicken: This is not my beautiful thread.

Oh, I see. It's OK for you to make Talking Heads references, but when I do it, you whack me over the head. DoubleStandardFilter.

Still, my comeback was good.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:12 PM on July 11, 2003

Doesn't get what?
posted by timeistight at 12:17 PM on July 11, 2003

Two words : "assless chaps".
posted by dong_resin at 12:22 PM on July 11, 2003

MetaTalk: It's Hard To Imagine That Nothing At All Could Be So Exciting
posted by Pretty_Generic at 12:48 PM on July 11, 2003

I don't know or care about double posts etc, but I suspect this could become one of those standard friday MeTa posts that'll drag on through the weekend with the usual catfights, incoherent ramblings and aggressive comments written under the influence of alcoholic beverages and assorted substances. That is: yet another waste of bandwidth.

i thank god above for self appointed protectors of the shared bandwidth. and i urge you, each and every one, to overflow, to engorge, to vigorously and mindlessly impregnate this thread with catfights, incoherent ramblings and aggressive comments written under the influence of alcoholic beverages and assorted substances (PineSol NOT recommended) until it breaches the levee walls and like a tsunami of effluent roars murderously toward 111's IP address. he likes it.
posted by quonsar at 12:51 PM on July 11, 2003

* considers taking q up on it and flinging poo *

* realizes we don't do that here anymore *

* flings cat instead *
posted by yhbc at 1:02 PM on July 11, 2003

That made me laugh, quonsar.
posted by timeistight at 1:03 PM on July 11, 2003

Well there was this one time.. at Meta camp..
posted by jazzkat11 at 1:14 PM on July 11, 2003

Hey iconomy, isn't viral marketing supposed to be, I dunno, more subtle and insidious? Like...
Where did your nickname come from?
I was sitting on the corner, working my way through a luscious Hostess Twinkie, savoring it's cakey goodness, and thinking of a nickname. Suddenly it hit me: Twinkies! They're an American icon, and they're cheap. icon + economy = iconomy. Thanks Hostess!
Hmm...wait...that's not exactly subtle either...
posted by graventy at 1:40 PM on July 11, 2003

Oh yes. That's good. It's already on my user page, graventy ;)
posted by iconomy at 1:47 PM on July 11, 2003

Yes! Go me! Promoting corporate sneakiness at every opportunity!
posted by graventy at 1:54 PM on July 11, 2003

I have PineSol on my desk at this very moment... float it with a little grenadine and we're talking a Friday night.
posted by Witty at 2:13 PM on July 11, 2003

Have you ever plagiarized and double-posted a two-day-old post about plagiarism? I have.

Not for the sole purpose of posting the fact to MetaTalk so I could further polute the web.
Post it on your own log Fuckwit.
posted by DBAPaul at 2:26 PM on July 11, 2003

But then we'd have to translate it from the Portuguese.
posted by konolia at 2:39 PM on July 11, 2003

What is this embarassment you speak of, Miguel? I was born without the necessary gene as you all can tell if you read my posts or blog. Or just tune in to the 24x7 webcam that follows me around on a small floating platform. Still, opaque shower curtains are one of Humaity's greatest inventions.
posted by billsaysthis at 2:43 PM on July 11, 2003

i thank god above for self appointed protectors of the shared bandwidth.
and i urge you, each and every one, to overflow, to engorge, to vigorously and mindlessly impregnate this thread with catfights, incoherent ramblings and aggressive comments written under the influence of alcoholic beverages and assorted substances (PineSol NOT recommended) until it breaches the levee walls and like a tsunami of effluent roars murderously toward 111's IP address. he likes it.
posted by quonsar at 12:51 PM PST on July 11

quonsar, how are you doing baby? Full of exciting plans for the weekend I'm sure. Look, in order to spare Matt the chore of publicly humiliating you once again, let me offer the following suggestions: therapy. An x-box. Even better: a sex life. Reread your 2nd paragraph above carefully and you'll see it's chock full of repressed sexual allusions-- why not deal with it? I mean, why not trying to intimately socialize with a human being whose surname isn't .jpeg? Try it and tell us all about it later.
posted by 111 at 3:07 PM on July 11, 2003

He won't be able to tell you all about it later.

I've sworn him to secrecy.

Using a number of delightful methods.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:11 PM on July 11, 2003

111 clearly has no concept what 'public humiliation' actually is. it's certainly nothing matthowie or this website has within it's power to mete out, although i must say that 111 is engaged in a passable attempt at demonstrating self humiliation regardless. can you see my house from up there, lord?
posted by quonsar at 3:33 PM on July 11, 2003

Gwan, prod him again, see if he flames out...
posted by inpHilltr8r at 4:21 PM on July 11, 2003

There should be some sort of "turn the other cheek" award for letting insults go unreplied to, or at the very least, unreturned if a reply is inevitable. Something along the lines of site credit, or better yet, site demerits for every taunt an individual hands out that goes unresponded. Get enough demerits, and all your further posts are automatically prefaced with "I'm an idiot" for some period of time, say a week. I haven't worked out all the details, but I'm getting close. Think of the benefits, you'd be encouraged to refrain from engaing in pissing matches, as opposed to the current race to get in the last word that leads to never ending grudge escalation.
posted by jonson at 4:22 PM on July 11, 2003

Shut up jonson, you fuckwit.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:29 PM on July 11, 2003

Don't post here anymore. Miguel doesn't get it. If this post had no comments, he'd get a message.

Doesn't get what?

Miguel doesnt get that this sort of public attention-getting is excruciatingly embarassing to many onlookers, is not what Metafilter/Metatalk was designed for and degenerates quickly into sniping and whingeing.

As I've said before, "what you pay attention to, you get more of. If you don't like it, ignore it." People that post in this sort of thread are equally responsible for this, and the next, MiguelTalk post.

Seriously.
posted by dash_slot- at 4:30 PM on July 11, 2003

But I do like it.
posted by timeistight at 4:38 PM on July 11, 2003

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP
posted by machaus at 4:44 PM on July 11, 2003

GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY
posted by timeistight at 4:52 PM on July 11, 2003

Please take the knitting needles out of my ears mommy please take the knitting needles out of my ears.
posted by Jimbob at 5:10 PM on July 11, 2003

Dear fuckwits,

Please take the incessant bickering to your own logs. This isn't romper-room.

Best,
Jazz

XoXO
posted by jazzkat11 at 5:13 PM on July 11, 2003

Who you calling fuckwit, asshat?
posted by timeistight at 5:16 PM on July 11, 2003

i cant seem to face up to the facts....

quonsars posting and i .......cant relax...............
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:32 PM on July 11, 2003

I saw a robin today.
posted by namespan at 5:41 PM on July 11, 2003

I think we're missing the real point here. In an effort to attack a stranger none of us have ever met we have forgotten what is most important at MetaFilter.

What about the voles? What about the impinging rectification of the longing in our hearts for fudge? I would lobby those here that if you consider the top ten mentions of large area rugs you'll notice that this post is more than just an amalgamation of silver and orange. Taupe perhaps? Circles? Can't we at least take these things into consideration?

Not long ago I was moist and fuzzy. But people were able to forgive me for that and embrace the obligatory side of y6y6y6. I like to think that we might be able to do the same for our peanut-like recliner friend.

In today's world, where we find ourselves conflicted over cardboard steam forge in the taco. Chinese? Hex program the ink and spores? I think not.
posted by y6y6y6 at 6:05 PM on July 11, 2003

Is thomcatspike ghost writing your posts?
posted by jonson at 6:06 PM on July 11, 2003

<homer>
mmmm. cardboard steam forge taco supreme. aughaughaugh...
</homer>
posted by quonsar at 6:54 PM on July 11, 2003

qu'est-ce-que c'est?
posted by yhbc at 7:02 PM on July 11, 2003

i disagree y6 and i have the gradually enlightened nail polish remover of a slide rule scale of dissension to prove it .
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:33 PM on July 11, 2003

Where were we? Right. Embarassing MeFi moments. Well, I was one of the people who posted a link to the Harry Potter vibrating broom. Yep.

Another embarassing MeFi moment is occurring right now, as I'm advertising the fact that I'm posting to MetaTalk on a Friday night.

What have I -

What have I -

What have we done to deserve this effin' thread?
posted by Tin Man at 8:12 PM on July 11, 2003

Regrets, I've had a few...
posted by cortex at 8:47 PM on July 11, 2003

Let's have a show of hands. If all of us were at a MeFite meet and talking in person, how many would have said what they posted?

Oh, shit. That's really depressing.

You can put your hands down now.
posted by skyscraper at 10:32 PM on July 11, 2003

Oh, and I regret every pseudo-haiku I ever posted. Not the limericks though - they are now justly preserved for the ages.
posted by skyscraper at 10:38 PM on July 11, 2003

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:48 PM on July 11, 2003

It's Miguel's world, and we're just living in it...
posted by Dennis Murphy at 11:16 PM on July 11, 2003

I'm kind of embarassed by my almost complete absence from my beloved Metafilter, but then again, I can't post from work anymore, so it's really some form of enforced relief I'm feeling about not getting fired.
posted by interrobang at 11:40 PM on July 11, 2003

...also, maybe we should start calling him "Multiple Migs"?
posted by interrobang at 11:54 PM on July 11, 2003

When metafilter switched servers, and umm...

This is tough...

::being strong::

Um, when it switched servers, and there was a "new metafilter" I did some things I wasn't proud of.

Also trying a front page post within a day or two of registering was a bad idea.

I'm also embarrased that I don't comment or post more and that during one down period, I started visiting plastic.
posted by drezdn at 1:16 AM on July 12, 2003

Not long ago I was moist and fuzzy.

Yes, and that Tickle Me y6y6y6 with the medieval fly bot cystoscopy lab didn't exactly leap off the Toys "R" Us shelves, now did it?
posted by y2karl at 2:13 AM on July 12, 2003

(Hey, I only whacked you over the head for entertainment value, kirkaracha. My own entertainment, sure, but entertainment nonetheless. I didn't even know you were quoting Talking Heads lyrics!)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:03 AM on July 12, 2003

Yes, and that Tickle Me y6y6y6 with the medieval fly bot cystoscopy lab didn't exactly leap off the Toys "R" Us shelves, now did it?

Ouch. I thought Karl wasn't going to "go there", and then he did.
posted by dhoyt at 8:10 AM on July 12, 2003

Hey! It was just for the entertainment value, OK?
posted by y2karl at 8:53 AM on July 12, 2003

Yes, but how would you like it if y6y6y6 intensified the televised ebullient Hot Pocket ratio with topological manure-based sorghum squirrels, and then replaced them with female pattern baldnesses?

Kotex?

Bolivian sasquatch?

How would you feel then?
posted by dhoyt at 9:05 AM on July 12, 2003

like rens, in a mounting biilb.
posted by quonsar at 9:46 AM on July 12, 2003

alright, the place has cleared out a bit. Now we can bring out the keg.
posted by angry modem at 10:03 AM on July 12, 2003

How would you feel then?

Confused? Hey, wait a minute...
posted by y2karl at 11:58 AM on July 12, 2003

I think I just achieved my most embarrassing moment at MeFi just by mentioning "tubgirl" in the thread above (Once again, DON'T ASK, DON'T LINK, AND DON'T GOOGLE IT).

Fortunately, my ability to be embarrassed was surgically removed years ago when I was working as a sidekick to a Los Angeles radio jockey and my "ground-level tightrope walking act" made the 10PM News... or when I sang along with two surviving King Sisters on the forward deck of the Queen Mary infront of a crowd of 2000 a parody I wrote of a John Denver song... or when I got cheers for beating a talk show's phone screener with a padded baseball bat... or when I tried to do a slide show of my travel pictures of Burbank, Ohio on the banks of the Los Angeles River... or when somebody had T-shirts made (long before CafePress) with my picture and the slogan "Keep America Beautiful, Keep Wendell on Hold"...

But nothing is better to revive a MeFite's spirits than a chance to Blog the Blob.
posted by wendell at 1:37 PM on July 15, 2003

tell me more about these ice weasels.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:43 AM on July 16, 2003

Catalogue of distasters, me:

1. So. This broom...it vibrates?

Yep. That was me.

2. Barry White's obit posting.

Yep, lil' old me too.

I guess I should just give up.
posted by metaxa at 8:22 AM on July 16, 2003