Snarky newsfilter criticisms are bad.

June 24, 2004 11:21 AM

EB: "c"? WTF? GYOBFW. [MI]
posted by PrinceValium to etiquette/policy at 11:21 AM (70 comments total)

The Associated Press syndicates their articles to various news sources, including CNN. If you were unaware of that, now you know. Otherwise, lose the snark. You are annoying.
posted by PrinceValium at 11:24 AM on June 24, 2004

"c"? ?
posted by mischief at 11:49 AM on June 24, 2004

I personally have a hard time understanding these fancy internet acronyms. "GYOBFW"?
posted by bob sarabia at 11:50 AM on June 24, 2004

Get your own blog, fuckwit. It really should be GYOBF. Credit goes to Evanizer.
posted by iconomy at 11:56 AM on June 24, 2004

That 'C' is just a little square for me in I.E. Just sayin'.
But at least it's not in all italics, or deleted altogether ;-)
posted by Shane at 11:57 AM on June 24, 2004

mischief, the "c" looks like a little square in eb's post, if you're viewing the site using ie. in firefox it's a C that's weirdly elongated, horizontally. and it's pissing me off that i can't figure out what it's supposed to symbolize because i can't find it in any charset.
posted by t r a c y at 11:58 AM on June 24, 2004

How did Ethereal Bligh-bashing get so fashionable lately?
posted by dhoyt at 11:59 AM on June 24, 2004

Call me crazy, but I'm sort of starting to get the feeling that perhaps Etherial Bligh doesn't like it when people post AP links to the front page. I don't know, it's just a sense I have.
posted by purplemonkie at 12:00 PM on June 24, 2004

Ethereal
posted by purplemonkie at 12:01 PM on June 24, 2004

Learn something new here everyday, would have never understood the comment. What was the symbol EB used?
ps "c"-ya
posted by thomcatspike at 12:02 PM on June 24, 2004

Thank you for the elaboration.
posted by mischief at 12:04 PM on June 24, 2004

I seem to rember it as "is a subset of", or something like that.
posted by milovoo at 12:07 PM on June 24, 2004

It really should be GYOBF

ohhh, get your own boyfriend. got it.
posted by bob sarabia at 12:08 PM on June 24, 2004

⊂ is ⊂ i.e. subset
posted by riffola at 12:10 PM on June 24, 2004

ahh ok. thanks milovoo... on preview thank you also riffola !
posted by t r a c y at 12:12 PM on June 24, 2004

So anyway, I swear that earlier there was a post complaining about the italics on the MetaTalk page and that post vanished. The post was deleted, the italics all the way through the archives are still there. *secretly hoping this post will be deleted too*
posted by bargle at 12:15 PM on June 24, 2004

Oops! No longer a secret wish. I need to go down to my secret garden and tend the shrubbery. Which means I am going to oil up my nether regions, shave them, and then do the same to most of my pets while judging random plants and then giving them the death penalty! Who wants to join in???
posted by bargle at 12:17 PM on June 24, 2004

[nit] Of course, the cnn article is not a subset, but rather a member of the set of articles syndicated by the AP. The proper symbol is more likely ∈. More on sets here, and the html codes for special characters can be found here. [/nit]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:23 PM on June 24, 2004

Who wants to join in???

Heh. You know I do, bargle.
posted by Shane at 12:25 PM on June 24, 2004

Actually, it should be, according to the source:

GYOWFW.
posted by hama7 at 12:41 PM on June 24, 2004

Why are you guys complaining? It's nice to see an EB post that doesn't take scrolling to read the entire thing, for once.
posted by angry modem at 12:51 PM on June 24, 2004

Eternal Bling's crusade against NewsFilter is already getting a little tired -- but after all, one can always ignore him when he is acting out like that (he is of course free to ignore NewsFilter, too)

Credit goes to Evanizer.

*quickly pours holy water all over thread*

Actually, it should be, according to the source:

GYOWFW.


according to another, more authoritative source, it should be:

STFUEYFF
posted by matteo at 12:55 PM on June 24, 2004

I hadd thad - solvud that liddul "problum' withe a spke thru mi hed! i red that yu don nede sew mush brane stuf
posted by troutfishing at 12:55 PM on June 24, 2004

log commendtz i mene.
posted by troutfishing at 12:57 PM on June 24, 2004

Has anybody noticed that the entire MetaTalk archives are in italics?

[/deleted yet factually accurate MetaTalk post]
posted by hama7 at 1:01 PM on June 24, 2004

What Ethereal Bligh did was annoying, but not worth a call out. I wonder how long he (EB) will have to wait until his posting habits are ignored (like the rest of ours). Seems that there is a big bullseye on him right now. Poor guy.
posted by BlueTrain at 1:06 PM on June 24, 2004

I use Internet Explorer and the site, including the c, read just fine.

Meanwhile, do I need to take EB around the corner and have the Bunnyfire talk with him? He really is starting to sound like me two years ago.
posted by konolia at 1:12 PM on June 24, 2004

Ironic minimalism is the worst kind of minimalism.
posted by PrinceValium at 1:14 PM on June 24, 2004

Bunnyfire: Banned and prooooud of it.
posted by Shane at 1:19 PM on June 24, 2004

It's just so-o-o-o-o funny that the MeFite most critrcized for being long-winded gets called out for a one-character comment.

*imagines an episode of "Monk" where the obsessive-compulsive detective investigates the death of a controversial web personality and stumbles into MetaTalk, where obsessiveness is not just an art, it's a requirement.*

Still, the MeFi handle "Ethereal Bunnyfire" does make me giggle.
posted by wendell at 2:03 PM on June 24, 2004

ΔØ. Love, Ethereal Bunnyfire.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:22 PM on June 24, 2004

Shane, you're obviously upset today over various things. Come over here, take off your shirt, and let me give you a nice relaxing shoulder rub with liniment made by Mozilla Firefox...
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:43 PM on June 24, 2004

EB, do a little site search and read where I, (I mean) Bunnyfire lost it. You don't want to go down that path. Taking this place too seriously is really really bad for your mental health. And I am starting to see you do just that. It worries me for you.
posted by konolia at 2:45 PM on June 24, 2004

I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion. The comment was funny (to me), mostly accurate, and briefer than brief. Would you have preferred a five paragraph, David Foster Wallace-style newsfilter rant? To me, the recent trend of every little thing getting called into Meta is more troubling to me than a one-character post in a thread that most people just skimmed because they already saw it on the news.
posted by majcher at 2:55 PM on June 24, 2004

To me, the recent trend of every little thing getting called into Meta is more troubling to me than a one-character post in a thread that most people just skimmed because they already saw it on the news.

Recent trend? You haven't been here long, have you? ;-)
posted by konolia at 2:58 PM on June 24, 2004

".....Bunnyfire lost it. You don't want to go down that path."

As obtuse as EB can get, he's nowhere near as full of babbling crap as Bunnyfire was. Topping her will be tough.
posted by y6y6y6 at 3:21 PM on June 24, 2004

konolia, your long-term-member cred notwithstanding, I think majcher's right. It does seem like a lot of the stuff that gets called out anymore is pretty petty. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the pissing matches as much as anybody, but when they take on the flavor of "mommy, I poked him and now he's poking me back", they just aren't very much fun to read. That makes me sad. I prefer a good fight to a "conflict resolution leading to mutually satisfactory and hollow peace between our loving selves". Yech ...
posted by Wulfgar! at 3:21 PM on June 24, 2004

I'd like to nominate this for the "Stupidest Fucking Callout" award. How the hell can a single-letter link to numerous reports on this item be considered anything but preferable to ... well, to anything. Sure as hell was a lot less wasted time and effort than this SFC.

Seems to me that most of MeFi could use an enema.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:35 PM on June 24, 2004

I'd like to nominate this for the "Stupidest Fucking Callout" award.

I'd like to thank the Academy, and my agent.
posted by PrinceValium at 3:37 PM on June 24, 2004

Great, now get off the stage.
posted by David Dark at 3:47 PM on June 24, 2004

News!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:08 PM on June 24, 2004

Miguel: damn you, you... Portugese person you.
posted by reklaw at 4:47 PM on June 24, 2004

Miguel , as anyone with eyes could tell you, only a disallowed English goal resulted in that hollow victory.

For the first time in my life, I have had to consider if a (Swiss!) ref was biased.

'Gutted' is not a sufficiently capacious word.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:18 PM on June 24, 2004

Eternal Bling's crusade against NewsFilter is already getting a little tired

Except for the fact that, by and large, he's right. Newsfilter generally means substandard links.

EB's big crime here is pretty much that he's refused to give up on the standards in the way most other participants have.

the smaller crime being that he talks an awful lot and has therefore become a favorite pinata
posted by weston at 5:22 PM on June 24, 2004

weston: the guidelines are enforced by #1.

end of.

follow his example.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:26 PM on June 24, 2004

Except for the fact that, by and large, he's right.

No, crusades are NEVER right, whatever the justifiability of the impetus behind them.
posted by rushmc at 5:27 PM on June 24, 2004

Those of us who have exhausted all our energies fighting to remake MetaFilter in our own image see EB making the same mistakes we did.

Wendell's Law #47:
Learning from others' mistakes does not require you to duplicate them exactly.
posted by wendell at 5:31 PM on June 24, 2004

i've really appreciated EB's well-reasoned, well-written contributions to this site. and i also really appreciate the new convention of calling him EB.

keep it up, EB.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 6:25 PM on June 24, 2004

I am no fan of Newsfilter Whine Posts, but here comes the very, extremely, overly, stupendously verbose EB posting a single, kind of clever, symbol to make his newsfilter complaint and you call him out on MetaTalk? Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzz! At least he kept it in the thread. You should be applauding his brevity.
posted by caddis at 6:27 PM on June 24, 2004

y6y6y6, have you ever considered a career as a motivational speaker ?
posted by y2karl at 7:49 PM on June 24, 2004

So, OK...for guys like me who've been on and off of MeFi for a long time and missed the actual nuclear meltdown...can anyone actually point to the event when Bunnyfire went ballistic? Or was it just a preponderance of the same ol' shit for too long?
posted by ChrisTN at 7:52 PM on June 24, 2004

I'm not accusing EB of being anywhere near the "babbling crap" stage but I am saying that he is letting himself get wrapped way too tight around the axle re this place. Yes, he is absolutely right about newsfilter, but he is tilting at windmills that have already been tilted to a bloody pulp. Metatalk has been about callouts petty and otherwise for a very long time, and the one thing I can say about the site is it is consistent in its inconsistency.

But that's OKAY. Keeps us all a bit off balance, and I like that in a place.

(PS, y6y6y6, do you HAVE to say "babbling crap" right in front of me???sheesh!)
posted by konolia at 8:34 PM on June 24, 2004

(Aw, it's OK, konolia. We all know you're over that.)

How is Ethereal Bligh's funky C (for chicken?) any worse than the group of people who shouted NEWSFILTER in posts they didn't like?
posted by me3dia at 9:17 PM on June 24, 2004

Dr Fuckwad or: How I learned to stop fretting and love the Eternal Blight

I have found a way to enjoy the posts of Eternal Blight. It involves the great British comedy "The Office." Everytime EB posts something, my mind translates it to Tim saying to Gareth "You're a cock, you're a cock, you're a cock." Now I like his comments. I don't really read them, but "you're a cock" cracks me up every time.
posted by eyeballkid at 10:41 PM on June 24, 2004

weston: the guidelines are enforced by #1.

end of.

follow his example.

Matt's example, near as I can tell, is to let people discuss it and see what emerges.
posted by weston at 12:25 AM on June 25, 2004

Miguel , as anyone with eyes could tell you, only a disallowed English goal resulted in that hollow victory.

For the first time in my life, I have had to consider if a (Swiss!) ref was biased.

The goal was correctly disallowed. Terry did foul Ricardo, as it not allowed to restrict the freedom of movement of the keeper inside his box.

And believe me, I wish I could say something about Urs, as it is him (partly) who kept Romania out of Euro (by overextending the injury time when we played against Denmark).

His call last night was correct - or at least correct in continental football. I don't know if in England you'd consider that a foul.

But everywhere else, it is.
posted by Masi at 4:18 AM on June 25, 2004

...let me give you a nice relaxing shoulder rub with liniment made by Mozilla Firefox...

Will it make the ghastly, sloppy italics go away? It's alright, I'm over that now. It was insensitive of me to point that out, and correct for Matt to delete the thread, as obviously Matt doesn't know how to fix the bug ;-)
posted by Shane at 6:19 AM on June 25, 2004

I'm giving seminars on how to skim over the things that don't interest you on a web page. Three thousand US dollars per person and you'll need to sign a waiver saying you're prepared to be beaten with a stick.
posted by snarfodox at 6:26 AM on June 25, 2004

I'm giving seminars on how to skim over the things that don't interest you on a web page. Three thousand US dollars per person and you'll need to sign a waiver saying you're prepared to be beaten with a stick.—snarfodox

You're not really up-to-speed on that whole "supply and demand" thing, are you?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:35 AM on June 25, 2004

Ethereal Bligh: You're not really up-to-speed on that whole "supply and demand" thing, are you?

The television program ‘Baywatch’ reached an estimated weekly audience of more than 1.1 billion people in 142 countries and has been translated into forty-four languages. Trust me: if I was serious I'd get a few takers. People aren't that bright.
posted by snarfodox at 7:28 AM on June 25, 2004

you'll need to sign a waiver saying you're prepared to be beaten with a stick.

Or, rather:



Just c/Star Wars/MetaFilter beefs/. Sheeeeyit.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:06 AM on June 25, 2004

You sold a guy some pretend Metafilter beefs money?
posted by reklaw at 10:23 AM on June 25, 2004

This thread feels like deja vu.
posted by Quartermass at 10:32 AM on June 25, 2004

bargle: Which means I am going to oil up my nether regions, shave them...

AskMeFi recommends that you not actually shave. They have other suggestions however.
posted by snarfodox at 11:31 AM on June 25, 2004

you know what I don't like about EB? well ask me!
posted by mcsweetie at 12:28 PM on June 26, 2004

hey, mcsweet, what don't you like about EB?
posted by amberglow at 12:48 PM on June 26, 2004

that's none of your business!
posted by mcsweetie at 1:12 PM on June 26, 2004

snarfodox: market it as a workshop in "coping with information overload" and I don't doubt you could hit it big. I'll go in 50 with you.

Also, we'd need to throw in some carrots.
posted by weston at 7:47 PM on June 26, 2004

weston: no problems at all. My wife and I both hold degrees in cognitive science, her specialty is interface design and information architecture while mine is complex systems theory. I'm pretty sure we could sell "coping with information overload".

We'll just have the "beaten with a stick" part of the agreement buried in a 6-point-font-subclause in a three page document that needs to be signed at the door. We can let the time-pressure of a queue do the convincing for us.
posted by snarfodox at 7:44 PM on June 27, 2004

To save this thread I will take this time to assure you all that I'm OK.
posted by john at 9:28 AM on June 28, 2004