Matt, didn't deleted threads used to be removed from the index?

April 11, 2004 4:28 PM

Matt, didn't deleted threads used to be removed from the index?

I ask because a certain recent thread which got some attention webwide remains on the www.metafiler.com page.

I used to go to lofi.mefi only to see the deletions...now I don't need to? When did that change?
posted by dash_slot- to MetaFilter-Related at 4:28 PM (19 comments total)

Which thread?
posted by Gyan at 4:42 PM on April 11, 2004

Well, I see that it is not actually indexed on www.metafilter.com (so-called front page), but it is available to anyone who has the url http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/32380.

That's how the code is - it's deleted inasmuch as 'the front page' does not publicise it. However, if the thread becomes notorious elsewhere, that url is still accessible via links from other web pages.

This may not be ideal.
posted by dash_slot- at 4:50 PM on April 11, 2004

It's always been like that, dash.
posted by rafter at 4:57 PM on April 11, 2004

dash_slot, I think it is ideal. This way deleted threads are available to those interested, yet are not a burden on the public face of MeFi. After all, they were deleted for a reason.

This goes directly to accountability. I think it is far better to leave the deleted threads (and the explanation for their removal) intact than to just disappear them. Remove them entirely and next thing you know everyone and their brother is screaming 'censorship'.

Let them lie, flaccid and impotent.
posted by cedar at 5:00 PM on April 11, 2004

Fair enough, this explanation is all the better for being out there in the open. It was a part of the code & 'os', as it were, that I didnt get before.

Unlike some websites, mefi is all about the accountability.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:10 PM on April 11, 2004

Let them lie, flaccid and impotent.

stop, already.
posted by quonsar at 5:24 PM on April 11, 2004

We should make absolutely certain that everything is thoroughly deleted and we
haven't offended anyone at LGF because, otherwise, what would they think of us?

Should we send a card, maybe? or a Fruit-basket?
posted by milovoo at 5:24 PM on April 11, 2004

it's been like that since the comments change (the reason for deletion). before that, they were only on lofi, but with the comments i think the idea was people could go to the same link and see the reason why it was dropped.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:37 PM on April 11, 2004

Every deleted thread is closed to new comments, and a reason is shown why it was deleted.

This is the best setup I've found so far. It gets double-posts off the page, and if anyone hits a thread, they can find the original posts. For controversial topics, it remains here with a reason why, since taking pages completely offline has been a problem in the past, as if I was trying to cover something up.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:20 PM on April 11, 2004

Should we send a card, maybe? or a Fruit-basket?

A fruit basket seems strangely appropriate.
posted by namespan at 8:15 PM on April 11, 2004

I've got a leftover fruitcake from Christmas 1997 we can send them...
posted by wendell at 8:21 PM on April 11, 2004

I have a 1962 JC Penny fruitcake still in the tin. My question is this, if i sell it on E-Bay, is it considered a WMD?
posted by clavdivs at 8:30 PM on April 11, 2004

I know we (in the sense of general concensus or, regardless of that, The Will Of Matt) don't want to make any remotely official Bad Thread archive, but I get curious -- does anyone foster a creepy obsessive list of links to the deleted threads?

I mean, obviously you could find them automatically with a little bit of perl and 30K+ hits against the MeFi server (hopefully, in this hypothetical case, performed over a long enough period of time that it doesn't hinder legitimate use of the site) but considering the creepy obsessive lists of other things that people around here maintain, I wonder.
posted by cortex at 9:33 PM on April 11, 2004

Or you could just run a search for the phrase "This post was deleted for the following reason:"

Zippity zop. No muss, no fuss, no dishes to wash.
posted by chicobangs at 9:50 PM on April 11, 2004

See, now that's SIMPLER, by god, but what if it's not perfectly thorough? That'd keep an obsessive collector up at night.
posted by cortex at 5:17 AM on April 12, 2004

Well, googling it gets 60 hits, and surely there have been more deleted threads than that?especially since it includes threads from long before Matt started explaining (the first hit is from February 2002).
posted by languagehat at 11:58 AM on April 12, 2004

Thread deletions were not always explained, so it would miss older deletions. What's the adm,ission fee to the Bad Thread Museum?
posted by theora55 at 12:49 PM on April 12, 2004

Okay, I stand corrected. Damn completists.

Well, if someone wanted to do some research into the MeFi Blooper Reel Archives(tm) and see if there was enough interesting stuff there to merit the work required to assemble it, then good on you. (There's gotta be some script mockup that could compare the once-live threads against the stillborn ones.)

But if there isn't, that's 33,000 threads to check. We all (oh, who am I kidding. You all) might want to work in shifts.
posted by chicobangs at 1:42 PM on April 12, 2004

You could pull all of the archive files and eliminate any threads that appear there from your list of 33,000. No need to load every thread individually.
posted by turaho at 2:02 PM on April 12, 2004