Comments on: Tracing IP of Account Login

Tracing IP of Account Login

XQUZYPHYR — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:00:20 -0800

Matt, you can actually IP trace logins, right? Not that I'm asking for any particular reason, like the most disgusting thing I've seen on MeFi being posted through an anonymous login's abuse or anything....

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:04:36 -0800

linky?!?!

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:07:44 -0800

never mind.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:16:17 -0800

It's a shame, because it's nice for people to be able to post askmefi questions anonymously, but that account's gonna get killed now. Maybe we could have a askanon/askanon account that only works on the green?

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:16:32 -0800

So username login is actually an "anonymous login" for multiple people, explaining why login just answered login's AskMe question?

I foresee deletions and a ban. Soon, I hope.

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:17:51 -0800

(You know, it's an okay idea, but there's no way it wasn't going to be abused sooner or later.)

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:19:07 -0800

its all fun and games until someone loses an eye

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:27:08 -0800

Quonsar ... is it true the Devil lives in Grand Rapids?

we have two, Van Andel & De Vos. need one?

By: milovoo

milovoo — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:28:20 -0800

Someone light up the Matt-signal!

the hordes have a login!

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:31:51 -0800

*still looking for the disgusting thing*

Has it been deleted already?

What are you looking at?

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:33:16 -0800

Nevermind.

Meh.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:40:29 -0800

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:43:33 -0800

why do people do stuff like this? I don't think I'll ever understand.

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:45:41 -0800

Wow...

By: argybarg

argybarg — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:48:47 -0800

It's not fun watching MetaFilter get pooped on.

By: BlueTrain

BlueTrain — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:50:14 -0800

it certainly is full of people who are full of themselves...

That's been the case since Sept. '01. The site hit it big in April, took a hiatus in August, and then September marked the huge influx of people who were truly the "new class" of MeFites. Publicity and "psuedo-fame" corrupts even the best of us.

I guarantee that if the same people were on a relatively obscure site, they'd be much more humble.

By: skallas

skallas — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:57:43 -0800

I'm so sick of these half-assed self-serving accusations of elitism. We can have open registration here but we would need some kind of moderation system to keep the signal level up. Think slashdot or K5. The recent spat of "login" posts just proves this.

Matt has repeatedly claimed he doesn't want a system like this, thus a lock-down on accounts and something of an artificial cap on growth. There's nothing wrong with that, its just different, but how it leads to "elites" is beyond me. Like most people here I got my account when registration was open. I didn't know anyone, nor hand in an essay, or send Matt some of grandma's spanakopita, etc.

By: trharlan

trharlan — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 13:20:15 -0800

But why were people not assholes (for the most part) when demo's account became an open secret? I (sincerely) don't know.

It's possible that only one or two people are (truly) abusing the login, and are responsible for all the damage, I suppose, but I find it unlikely. I'd like to hear some other ideas.

BTW, I am responsible for the "First they came for demo..." remark, and I regret helping these antics reach critical mass.

Mea Culpa.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 13:24:43 -0800

and I regret helping these antics reach critical mass.

me too. i did the 'both sucks and blows' remark. who knew an army of logins would subsequently fly planes into our towers?

*goes back to reading for 7 minutes*

By: dness2

dness2 — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 13:31:34 -0800

i had been doing such a good job avoiding goatse too...

I vote strongly that it's one or two "login"s, probably in the summer school lab waiting for the word on whether they'll be allowed to graduate or not.

By: Gyan

Gyan — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 13:34:37 -0800

Keep the 'login' account, but publically post the IP in the 'username field, so that abusing 'logins' can be tagged by all and banned by Matt.

By: triv

triv — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 13:56:21 -0800

this is exactly why the idea of an open account will never work. login(s) have killed it for all the potential nice/thoughtful/intelligent folk that would kill for a chance to be part of mefi.

and it makes me sad, to be honest, that the small minority kills it for everyone else.

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 13:59:12 -0800

Maybe matt could charge $10 per login, and then kill the account if it pisses him off, and giving the user option to buy the account back. Or he could even randomly kill accounts and watch 75+ percent log back in.

Oh wait we don't post Porn and Bittorrent files here oh sna

Seriously, login accounts should stay available but tagged.

By: carter

carter — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:02:55 -0800

I think part of this spate of login abuse is from people who know that they'll never get an actual account, and they're venting their frustration.

Oh, I get it; this is all *Matt's* fault.

By: carter

carter — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:37:45 -0800

Keep digging ;)

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:44:23 -0800

Every IP that has logged into the "login" account in the last 24 hours should be banned.

EVERY
SINGLE
LAST
FUCKING
ONE
OF
THEM

Check mine, I'm clean.

Plus Matt's bandwidth bill will drop by about 25% overnight.

By: mcwetboy

mcwetboy — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:53:29 -0800

I second Ynoxas's motion.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:55:10 -0800

I dissent.

By: Steve_at_Linnwood

Steve_at_Linnwood — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:55:13 -0800

last 24 hours should be banned

Why just the last 24 hours? No one should be using that account, epically people who already have an account here. They should know better.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:55:31 -0800

what a bunch of righteous old women.

By: calwatch

calwatch — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:57:16 -0800

Backhanded way of getting rid of quonsar. Fun.

By: carter

carter — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:57:18 -0800

*phew*

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:57:55 -0800

It does seem somewhat mean-spirited to delete the legitimate questions that a few of them posted to askme. A few of the meta threads with appeals to re-open new user registration could have stayed, too. The way it is, the logins have been expunged from mefi history.

By: Yelling At Nothing

Yelling At Nothing — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:59:00 -0800

Ah, except for the goatse thing, it's harmless fun. Does people good to be silly once in a while.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 14:59:44 -0800

wow. i manage to pick fights with quonsar even when he's anonymous. (i, too, posted some early anon comments. how naive...)

on preview - if i were matt i'd just be wiping everything because it's simple. i doubt he gives squit right now about trying to keep "the best" of that mess...

By: calwatch

calwatch — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:00:56 -0800

Actually, there's been login scrubbing in other threads before 8/1 too (like in the Vernon Jones thread).

Please stare directly into the red light.

By: Yelling At Nothing

Yelling At Nothing — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:01:59 -0800

The account and comments have been deleted wholesale, it seems.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:04:50 -0800

That's really, really sad. The nigger thread has actually been hard-deleted (ie. just gives a white page), if you look.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:08:45 -0800

I deleted the account and all "contributions" because I don't have all day to sit around cherry picking the worst of it while the server was sputtering along. It was much easier to just do a wholesale wipe directly in the database.

Bummer that maybe some useful stuff was lost, but I'm not going to spend all day doing it by hand and judging what is anonymous but worthwhile from what was plain old vandalism.

By: tcp

tcp — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:10:38 -0800

I'd like to know what the thread in question was about, it is deleted now (for a good reason, I guess). Ynoxas: sure, ban everyone who read metatalk and tried to figure out if the passwort belonging to "login" possibly is "*****" (including me). You don't have to be criminal in order to do so. I would rather check who posted the particular thread.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:10:52 -0800

beyond a few heartfelt pleadings for accounts, there was little of any "use": 34705

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:12:16 -0800

warning: uncensored mirror contains goatsecx image.

By: tcp

tcp — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:12:50 -0800

~~I'd like to know what the thread in question was about~~
got it.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:13:57 -0800

Oh, thank you Matt for cleaning that up. Sweet lord almighty.

By: hama7

hama7 — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:17:07 -0800

*takes a nap*

By: calwatch

calwatch — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:19:19 -0800

And to answer the question first posed in the thread, the IP of the FPP was identified in the blue box deletion notice.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:20:11 -0800

64.110.74.244

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:29:23 -0800

And both jon and Rush, the mc's, up yours to the both of you

Be nice and we'll let you smell our fingers.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:30:15 -0800

Ugh, Matt, sorry you had to clean up that mess. Thank you.

By: trharlan

trharlan — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:32:26 -0800

So many good things have come from that IP address!

By: taz

taz — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:37:28 -0800

The mayhem was entertaining, but I was rooting for one of the logins to post something fabulous in the blue.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:37:39 -0800

what about me? I'm an mc, for real.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:39:17 -0800

I saw the login username and password thingy posted to Metababy, and thought about using it just for grins, but couldn't really think of anything I'd wanna say in MeFi anonymously. I mean, if I have something to say, I'm stupid enough to just use my real name. *shrug*

So I left to go do offline crap and when I came back I find all this. Sounds like I missed the party. It's a shame for those who were using the login/login for respectable reasons before this happened. Those who have accounts and used it anyway should know better, but I was *this close* to doing that myself when I had the chance.

But was this vandalism or hackerproofing? Frankly I'm surprised this kinda thing doesn't happen more often. At least now Matt's got one less security breach out there to worry about.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:41:24 -0800

I'm an mc as well, and a wack one at that.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:45:12 -0800

would anyone like to challenge me to a rap battle? no? I figured as much!

By: the fire you left me

the fire you left me — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:49:52 -0800

nmap -T 5 -M 1000 -sT 64.110.74.244

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:52:43 -0800

Every IP that has logged into the "login" account in the last 24 hours should be banned.

EVERY SINGLE LAST FUCKING ONE OF THEM

Check mine, I'm clean.

I'm clean too, but that seems overly harsh. I'm sure many logged in just to see "Does this really work???!?"

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:53:05 -0800

We got Three MC's...where's the one DJ?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:54:54 -0800

You know what would be kinda fun tho? Opening the gates once a year for a day (intentionally, and with restrictions/controls or something so no goatse).

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:59:01 -0800

nmap -T 5 -M 1000 -sT 64.110.74.244

Interesting ports on host-64-110-74-244.interpacket.net (64.110.74.244):
...[snip]...
8080/tcp open http-proxy

Ah. I see.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 16:11:22 -0800

I agree with John that it's too harsh to zap everyone who participated in The Moment of Madness. Granted, there but for the grace of God go I so I'm a little biased. Objectively speaking, it is an opportunity to weed out the cast.

Frankly it amazes me there isn't a section of MeFi that's like a public square where bad eggs get paraded before the populous and made an example. Miguel, Quonsar, how many others would regularly find themselves in the stocks? It's a credit to Matt's stone cold demeanor under the stress of this place that there isn't such a thing in here, despite the call by people like Ynoxas to make people suffer for stepping outta line.

You'd think people would be more polite to one another in here, considering that Matt could ban more than fifty percent of the people in MeFi and still have quite a crowd. Some years ago I practially begged him to ban me for being a bad egg, because to my mind it would have proven my point. He just smiled and ignored me, which of course took the wind outta my sails. It takes two to fight, and Matt wisely didn't take the bait. Over the years I've noticed that if somebody gets just a bit outta line, it's never Matt who jumps to conclusions. It's the teeming masses who try to police this place themselves. The second someone steps outta line, they get henpecked by the peanut gallery.

But we all keep coming back, don't we? And there's so many visigoths just outside the castle gates chomping on the bit to get in. Why? So they can get pecked at by a murder of crows? Why anybody bothers to post FPPs at all anymore is beyond me. You're just sticking your head up from the crowd, and begging beaks to peck it down.

I gotta admit though. It's fun to watch.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 16:33:07 -0800

pull the plug, Matt.

By: milovoo

milovoo — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 16:59:44 -0800

Every IP that has logged into the "login" account in the last 24 hours should be banned.

EVERY SINGLE LAST FUCKING ONE OF THEM

I briefly logged in as login to see if there was a "change password" command, which was dumb, because in the back of my mind I vaguely recalled the many "how do you change the password" threads. If someone could have logged in a changed the password to something other than "login", the problem could have been nipped in the bud. Still, seems like, all-in-all, no harm done.

By: adampsyche

adampsyche — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:03:54 -0800

It was like a car wreck. Horrifying, but I just couldn't take my eyes away.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:07:51 -0800

I am so proud of everyone. No "I for one welcome our login overlords" meme. Pats on the back all around.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:09:43 -0800

i'm sure i saw one of those.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:11:20 -0800

i did.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:15:39 -0800

Next person who posts the goat.se pic straight up to the web is going to get seriously beat down (ala the end of "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.") I will spare no expense.

As I stated in one of the deleted MeTa threads, I was hoping for Matt to post a state of the union (of the Blue?) address, so that we can pick up the pieces, try and collectively excersize that imagery out of our heads, and rebuild Metafilter into the utopian repbulic we all know it is capable of being.

I spent so long avoiding that pic...

GODDAMNITALLTOHELL!#$@$@%$# RAAAAAARHHH!!!!

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:17:10 -0800

Good call Matt. Already people are talking about it like this was some haha moment we'll all remember with a laugh someday. Remember the "login" fisaco? Haha. That sure was funny. Ummmm no. Inline goatse and massive spamming is about as uncreative as it gets. Personally, I found it like coming home to find someone had crapped on my doorstep. I have no doubt that if someone had attacked the site in some truly creative, non-destructive way that they'd earn many instant nominations for a new account. But this was just an uninspired shit-fest on the part of a bunch of frustrated lurkers. Sure, lurkers aren't all bad, but by definition, they've also never contributed anything to the site, and their ridiculous little uprising amounts to nothing other than an attack by outsiders. And the fact that they did this to you on a Sunday... I hope they're all cookied in a way you'll be able to detect later.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:18:49 -0800

Q: damn it. Anyone currently patting themselves on the back, stop. We should all be ashamed of ourselves.

(also, where it says web in my last comment, substitute "the blue or whatever")

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:22:59 -0800

amounts to nothing other than an attack by outsiders. And the fact that they did this to you on a Sunday...

*dissonant organ chord*

By: swift

swift — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:32:51 -0800

To all the Silenced, Account-Requesting login Lurker Vandals:

It's so nice to have a Metafilter account. Take the best heroin you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it. I wish we could have a conversation about this, but alas, you don't have an account, and maybe you never will, so we can't.

Too bad.

Love, swift.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:36:04 -0800

smelly poop, dude.

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:40:19 -0800

For the last hour, I've been logging myself out of MeFi and then back in again just because it feels good. Mmmm, yeah... Boy it's nice to have a legit MeFi account to use at my leisure. It's like being seduced by curvaceous Brazilian triplets in a kiddie pool filled with tapioca and money. Only much more fulfilling.

Also: what swift said.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:55:46 -0800

swift and dhoyt: Since all those people who'd really love an account can't say this, I will. You really are a pair of fucking wankers, aren't you?

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:56:43 -0800

Mea culpa.

I'm sorry. I was the one that first started "calling out" login. I was trying to do so gently, more to just let whoever first found(?) the username know that the secret was out. I had the notion that if I kept tweaking the issue, eventually enough people would notice to get Matt's attention, and the account would be quietly deleted. Sending Matt an email saying "hey, there's a login/login acount floating around out there, maybe you should delete it before something bad happens" would have been another option, of course; doing nothing would have been still another. Obviously, I should have chosen either of those options instead of the one I did, which was to periodically pipe up as login.

All the comments are deleted now, of course, but I was the first few login comments in metatalk after the username first showed up, and generally I was the "funny" (or at least trying to be funny) comments in metatalk thereafter - except for those occasions where someone else logged in as login to respond to one of my jokes. I don't know who that was, and I also don't know if that was the same login who periodically posted on the blue - that wasn't me. I was also amused to see, when I would check up on the status of the "login" account over the last week or two, to see that whatever login was posting in MetaFilter proper was identifying himself or herself as Canadian. That wasn't me, either.

However, last night the "login" that apparently tripped the critical mass was me - it was in the thread about recovering passwords, and was something along the lines of "Oh, thank God. I was afraid for a minute there that I would have could have forgotten my password". In hindsight, that was too obvious a hint, and it must have gotten picked up on pretty quickly. I signed off around 1:00 EST last night, after four or five logins had already had their say, but it still seemed to be just MeFi regulars having a bit of fun, and I didn't dream that it would snowball out of control.

I just signed on for the first time today, and I gather that there was quite a bit of mess, and that Matt had a lot of work to do cleaning it all up. Again, I'm sorry. It's my fault, and I wish it hadn't happened.

That doesn't make it any better, but that's all I can say. If a ban or a timeout is deemed necessary, I will accept either.

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:59:16 -0800

oh well if we're going to taunt the poor bastards give me a second to log out and back in with my secondary account. i have 2 and you have none, neener.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:59:28 -0800

And then that happened.

By: tracy!

tracy! — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:59:50 -0800

oh reklaw, lighten up cutie.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:02:10 -0800

I had the notion that if I kept tweaking the issue, eventually enough people would notice to get Matt's attention, and the account would be quietly deleted.

I just this minute wrote this to one of the (former) logins, who emailed me expressing his regret that "... the few Logins that were active were pointing goatse.cx, racist jokes, etc., and were being used as the standard for judging the non-account-holding public":

"Even if you'd all come in and contributed positively, people still would have bitched and moaned and got the account deleted, I'd wager."

And then I come here and see yhbc proving my point...

By: BlueTrain

BlueTrain — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:04:21 -0800

Actually, yhbc, I believe that this was the "critical mass tripper". I could be wrong (and no, I'm not picking on you amberglow), but that was the first time I saw the login and password made completely public. I wanted to say something, but I figured that causing that comment to receive additional attention would have been counter-productive. In hindsight, I guess it didn't really matter if I called it out, but it was an irresponsible comment nonetheless.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:04:23 -0800

Reklaw: it wouldn't ever have occured to me to make fun of the frustrated lurkers until several of the login posts were dripping with a sense of entitlement, outrage, and malice.

I mean, yeah, I could easily have not been paying particular attention back on April 1. And I'd be sad that I missed an opportunity to get in. But, still, I can't imagine being all bitter and stuff the way some of these people seem to be.

Having said that, it's almost certain that those login comments aren't representative of anything more than a few ill-behaved people. All the frustrated lurkers shouldn't be tarred with that brush.

On Preview: :)

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:12:48 -0800

EB: I just find myself (perhaps disproportionately) annoyed by this. Sure, some of the login posters were posting goatse and such. Some of them were being nasty. But plenty of them were just excited to be able to post to mefi, finally.

We know that someone was using the login account to make legit comments in the blue before all of this kicked off. If anyone looked at askme during all this, amongst the abuse they would have seen a few real questions that people were hoping to get answers to. Yet all of this was simply deleted. Expunged. Erased from mefi history. Everything contributed by lurkers, whether good or bad, has been treated with utter contempt -- just as mefi treats the lurkers themselves, with its perpetual "new user registrations are temporarily closed" notice that some people here didn't even seem to be aware of. It's elitist, and it seems to be endemic, and I don't like it one bit.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:20:05 -0800

*dissonant organ chord*

By: BlueTrain

BlueTrain — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:23:33 -0800

Everything contributed by lurkers, whether good or bad, has been treated with utter contempt

Of course, the time and patience necessary to view each "login" contribution and make a judgment of its worth may be limitless for you, reklaw, but for others, including Matt, this time and patience is a luxury, if not an impossibilty.

Matt said this earlier in this thread and you have to empathize. A few truly immature assholes ruined it. We'll never know how many out there were "good" or "bad", but we know what an anonymous account's consequences are.

Some members here very well may be elitist, but I don't find it fair to accuse Matt of it, per se, considering the sheer volume of crap posted in a very small time period.

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:24:58 -0800

how can something that's born out of neccessity and hopeful of being temporary be elitist...? did i miss the all important thread where matt said he doesn't ever want new members, that we're the cool kids and "they" are not...? doesn't opening the doors hinge on matt's being able to comfortably manage this place at the same time - isn't that something he's been working towards...?

careful quonsar, you'll wear out your organ.

By: ook

ook — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:32:19 -0800

As long as we're owning up, I was one of the logins. (I posted the "So this is the account we use for asking embarrassing personal questions on askme, right?" gag.) I was actually really pleased to see that the account did get used for that exact purpose. I completely missed all the Bad Stuff that apparently happened later, but if you're rounding up a lynch mob, here, I'm turning myself in.

By: Danelope

Danelope — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:34:14 -0800

It's elitist, and it seems to be endemic, and I don't like it one bit.

So give out your username and password.

And ten minutes later, when someone has taken the opportunity to exploit your account, and it is summarily deleted (along with your interminable posting about how Matt The Tyrant rules over MetaFilter with an iron fist), nothing of value will have been lost.

By: kindall

kindall — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:34:31 -0800

Next person who posts the goat.se pic straight up to the web is going to get seriously beat down (ala the end of "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.")

The efficacy of that punishment would depend on how one feels about Morris Day and the Time.

By: transona5

transona5 — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:36:26 -0800

Lurkers don't contribute to the site by definition. Okay, then why do we have them at all? Why hasn't anyone suggested completely restricting even read access to those with an account? It would certainly cut down on bandwidth usage.

Because of course lurkers contribute to the site. The influence Metafilter has on the Web can be directly traced back to the fact that people read it. People read it, and they make posts to their own blogs about interesting things they've seen here, and if they're journalists they may come up with an idea for an article based on things they've seen here. Posts about the Trent Lott debacle or the Moon coronation would be interesting but ultimately free of any impact without the contributions of lurkers. (And that's not even counting the lurkers whose own work merits an FPP.)

Maybe the point of Metafilter isn't to have "influence." But if we were all told one day that only those with accounts could view the site, that our only audience was each other, I think that the actual content of the site - not just its impact - would undergo a substantial change for the worse.

By: ChrisTN

ChrisTN — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:37:27 -0800

Dear God in heaven, help me; I never thought I would say it, but here we go: I *heart* quonsar.

Pardon me while I go take a long, hot shower now.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:40:55 -0800

Ahh, the great Metafilter purge of 2004.

You have two choices; confess or rat your neighbors out.

All I want to know is who posted goat.se, as that person is cruisin' for a bruisin', and will be made an example of. . . with my fists.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:43:01 -0800

I was actually really pleased to see that the account did get used for that exact purpose.

So was I. And now that thread's vanished into the ether, along with all its responses. This is not posting "interminable posting about how Matt The Tyrant rules over MetaFilter with an iron fist". This is criticism of how Matt doesn't really seem to want to bother ruling Metafilter properly at all. I get tired of hearing about how he doesn't have time to fix things like the broken search or the copyright dates (!), especially since he refuses to delegate these things in any way.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:44:19 -0800

It sounds to me as if the secret was safe, for some time, in the hands of people who wouldn't abuse it. Unfortunately, that didn't last. I personally have no problem with such an account being used for asking embarassing questions, etc. In fact I've suggested that, in the past, as a possible solution. Others argued against it at the time, on the grounds that it would be abused, and, apparently, they were right.

By: LittleMissCranky

LittleMissCranky — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:45:18 -0800

Waah. Matt doesn't run the site that he owns, administrates, and pays for the way I like it.

And DON'T call me entitled.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:48:50 -0800

reklaw - I share all your frustrations with the stuff that never gets fixed around here, but having had the opportunity to see firsthand how hard it is to get things done even at a well-funded, well-staffed company, I have quite a bit of sympathy for Matt, whose engineering efforts are pretty admirable for a one-man show. We can argue with him about what we think the standard should be for his effort output (and have done many times) but he'll generally counter with stuff like "I've been putting in 10-hour days at work and had some visiting relatives in town all week so I haven't had a chance to check on things."

In short, I sympathize, but at some point you have to realize that you're effectively telling Matt to flake on his job and neglect his family because it would be the right thing for MeFi.

By: BlueTrain

BlueTrain — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:49:56 -0800

I get tired of hearing about how he doesn't have time to fix things like the broken search or the copyright dates (!), especially since he refuses to delegate these things in any way.

reklaw - member since: April 3, 2004

Lurked much before you joined? Because if you peruse the MeTa archives, you'll notice that Matt has consistently "not had time" and "refused to delegate" for over two years now. One has to wonder, if you understand this site at all, why join at all? To shame Matt into delegating responsibility? To force him to spend more time here?

By: Danelope

Danelope — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:51:58 -0800

I get tired of hearing about how he doesn't have time to fix things like the broken search or the copyright dates (!), especially since he refuses to delegate these things in any way.

And I get tired of hearing people who consume the resources of and derive value from a site badmouth it at every turn because it isn't run in the precise manner they themselves would run the site.

Why don't you and mischief and your ilk pack up your anarcho-bullshit philosophy and start a new version of MetaFilter on your own server and your own time? Use a Wiki; there will be no need for accounts, for registration, for accountability!

While you're at it, make sure everyone has root access to the server, so that they can write new code and update copyright dates while you're busy elsewhere.

By: graventy

graventy — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 18:57:55 -0800

Actually. I small part of me was happy to come accross ol' Goatse. I just started using Mozilla and was finally able to use the 'block all images from this server' option for the first time. Other than that, it was all bad.

I do feel sorry for those who don't have logins. Like the fella that wants to post things about jazz or the guy that wants to correct us on our knowledge of all things Japanese.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:04:59 -0800

I feel empathy for Matt, who had to spend time cleaning up that shithouse mess, and nothing but contempt for the morons who shat it all over the place. It's people like those who make this world so frustrating: we can't have nice things (forums, city parks, clean air, safe highways) because of selfish, inconsiderate, unthinking social rejects.

And for all those lurkers who are jealous of the "cool" MeFi members: that's just stupid. Being a MetaFilter member is not "cool", and it isn't unfairness that allowed us an account but simple dumb blind luck. You were not discriminated against, you just weren't at the right place at the right time. Damn sure you've got access to stuff that we do not.

I get tired of hearing about how he doesn't have time to fix things

Give your account to one of the lurkers, reklaw, you self-important little turd.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:07:15 -0800

Ya, when I read that post from the Japanese-corrector lurker, my heart went out to him.

Then I thought; "how often do we talk about Japan here?"

By: transona5

transona5 — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:15:09 -0800

Waah. Matt doesn't run the site that he owns, administrates, and pays for the way I like it.

Okay, we don't pay Matt directly for using the site. So are we just parasites? Does he get anything out of it?

Matt has been on the cover of Brill's Content because of his work with this site. He has co-written a book, We Blog, on the back cover of which is a blurb reading, "Matthew Haughey started the community weblog Metafilter.com, which now has over 13,000 members."

He doesn't owe us anything. But we don't owe him complete agreement with any decision he makes either. We have the right to criticize the way he runs it, and he has the right to say, "No, that criticism is stupid and I'm not going to do that."

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:18:22 -0800

Well put, transona5. I totally agree with you, as I hope was reflected in my response to reklaw.

By: ulotrichous

ulotrichous — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:23:41 -0800

Gee, reklaw, one would think that you, of all people, would be a little more appreciative of MeFi's ideosyncrasies. Of course, I got in then too, but not that way...
Can we now refer to this as "the post-8/1 era"?

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:23:57 -0800

Jeez Reklaw, you don't seem very grateful. Here we have Matt who has designed the site, owns and runs the server and codes the changes all for free to you. Stop your whining.

This was a horrible affront to MeFi. It is kind of like coming home and finding swastikas painted on the front door. Matt cleaned-up the right way here.

By the way, how did this login account get started? What is the story behind it?

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:27:36 -0800

I agree completely with transona5. And with scarabic, too, I guess.

It's annoying that criticising anything mathowie does gets you this inevitable chorus of responses. I mean, I've just been called "entitled", asked "why join at all?", called a "self-important little turd", and basically been told to love-it-or-leave-it. This is a problem that comes up surprisingly often on the web: a core of people will defend anything the admin does, no matter how misguided it might be (see also: the kuro5hin user sponsorship debacle), and thoroughly villify anyone who dares to dissent.

And (yes, ulotrichous) I remember very well how reasonable and nice Matt was to me when I first, uh, managed to get in... he is a good person who will listen to others' opinions, which just makes it all the more annoying that there are so many people willing to tell anyone who suggests he does things differently to shut up, thinking they're doing him some kind of favour.

By: anastasiav

anastasiav — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:29:07 -0800

This is criticism of how Matt doesn't really seem to want to bother ruling Metafilter properly at all. I get tired of hearing about how he doesn't have time to fix things like the broken search or the copyright dates (!), especially since he refuses to delegate these things in any way.

reklaw, to quote a woman I greatly admire: shove it.

< deep breath>>

If you know my posting history at all, you know how out of character that is for me. However, I've been watching this evolve sporadically over the course of the day, and I frankly can't believe the enormouse shitstorm that Metafilter has become today. Reklaw, you joined for free, you get to post for free, you get read for free, and all you can do is bitch, whine, and complain about how this free thing you get to use and play with, this free thing that lets your voice reach tens of thousands of other people world-wide, this free thing that Matt is generous enough to let us use .... all you can do is complain and complain and complain. Please, just stop. If I were Matt, you and those like you with your endless complaints and whining about inconsequental things would be a great reason not to ever reopen membership again. Then add on top of that the Login fiasco and the other self-link mess he had to delete today, and I can't imagine why I'd ever want to reopen membeship ever again.

Look, people, posting on Metafilter is not some right that you are somehow 'entitled' too. Metafilter is just a site on the internet. Just one site. Owned and operated by one guy.

I have great, great admiration for the nice folks over at Monekyfilter who decided to put their money where their mouths were and code up a solution of their own. There are a ton of ways to make your voice heard on the web. This isn't all there is.

Matt, I bet you've had a lousy day, and I'm sorry. I kind of hope that after today you just say 'screw it' and pull the plug and let MeFi go dark forever. You're a great guy, and the site you've built has taught me a lot about the world and has me some good and valued friends. I'd be sad if I lost Metafilter, but I honestly can't imagine why, after a day like today, you'd want to keep it up and running. In the end its just the internet, and if its causing you too much stress or ruining too many of your days, please, don't let it run your life. Just pull the plug.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:31:45 -0800

This was a horrible affront to MeFi. It is kind of like coming home and finding swastikas painted on the front door.

*dissonant organ chord*

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:33:11 -0800

i was the login that said "I <3 the q" and I think i should totally be banned for it. I was also the login that kept changing the font size to Impact/Sans Serif size 700. Take that.

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:34:46 -0800

I'm not usually one for hackneyed Simpsons references, but...

Comic Book Guy: "As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me."

Bart: "What? They've given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? If anything, you owe them."

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:36:48 -0800

bob sarabia: Is it just me, or is the font size a tad big?

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:37:17 -0800

i was able to avoid goatse for a long, long time. then some asshole (pun intended) used it as an avatar on a bulletin board i frequent. yea, after seeing that flying colon i had to wash mine eyes out with castor soap.

::shivers::

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:41:46 -0800

Yeah I showed those lurkers, big time. That font was so big, they didn't know what to do.

and that's how metafilter was saved from the lurkers.

By: BlueTrain

BlueTrain — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:41:58 -0800

a core of people will defend anything the admin does, no matter how misguided it might be

You're full of shit, reklaw, and rather presumptuous. Look back through my comments in this thread and try answering some of my questions. Try responding to my thoughts, instead of accusing me of being an ass-kisser. You can claim to be annoyed all you want, but you have yet to actually respond to those who find your comments to be, well, full of shit.

Try these, for instance:

Of course, the time and patience necessary to view each "login" contribution and make a judgment of its worth may be limitless for you, reklaw, but for others, including Matt, this time and patience is a luxury, if not an impossibilty.

If the man has a full time job, a family, and other hobbies, why is it in his best interest to sift through the mountain of crap that was posted today?

One has to wonder, if you understand this site at all, why join at all?

Answer the questions instead of feeling victimized. Provide some sort of credible rationale for why your point of view is even remotely valid.

By: ook

ook — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:45:54 -0800

reklaw, I hear you -- and to those of you telling him to shut up and stop complaining: shut up and let him complain; discussing the site is what MetaTalk is for; he's got every right to express his opinion here.

But in this particular case I think you're wrong, reklaw.

Would it have been nice if mathowie had felt like going to the effort of picking through everything done through the "login" account, and saved the good stuff? Sure. That would have been cool.

Should we expect that kind of well-beyond-normal-maintenance-of-the-site effort? I don't think so. This stuff was not the result of the normal functioning of the site; it was the result of people, me included, jumping on an account with an easily-guessed password. That that misuse happened to allow some positive results along with the bad is kind of beside the point.

If mathowie had wholesale deleted comments that were a result of normal use of the site, or some new deliberately-implemented feature gone awry, that'd be a different story. But I don't think he would do that; he certainly never has in my memory.

Meanwhile, having read through quonsar's mirror of the 'nigger' trainwreck, two things:

1) Damn, some people are jerks.
2) Damn, there's a lot of demand for MeFi accounts.

Why are we still closed? Is the server still not up to it? "The gates will open at noon on August Foo, c'mon in" would crush us, obviously; and all the many by-application or invitation-only schemes are (choose any two: elitist, unworkable, stupid). But what happened to the random lottery, N new people per day/week/whatever idea? Surely there's some number of new users we can accommodate, however small a trickle it has to be...

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:56:13 -0800

If I remember correctly (which means I most likely imagined this) matt said something about having enough users (for the server) for a while after the last round of sign-ups.

Ya know, I thought it was pretty strange that all these lurkers wanted an account so badly, but they all thought memberships had been closed for years. Apparently they didn't pay enough attention here.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:56:15 -0800

Hey, um, can we perhaps agree that not agreeing with every decision Matt makes isn't cause for anger and ostracism? And that maybe there were too many negatives in that sentence for easy comprehension?

Reklaw was more than a little obnoxious in his "I'm tired of Matt not doing X" rant. But otherwise, he's just been making a reasonable point (not that I agree with it) in a fairly reasonable manner.

Just, um, calm down. No reason to decide that reklaw is the scum of the Earth who deserves abuse. If there's one thing I wish that all of us could learn to control better (and think twice before) (including me) is this lashing out "he deserves it" response.

That all said, I have to mention that I found the screwing around with MeFi more disturbing than I would have expected.

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 19:59:45 -0800

You really are a pair of fucking wankers, aren't you?
-reklaw

The irony is...killing...me....

By: mischief

mischief — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:00:22 -0800

Dammit, I always seem to miss all the fun. Oh well, I will just have to settle with having a life. ;-P

By: Stynxno

Stynxno — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:05:25 -0800

Why are we still closed?

From what I've heard/typed/had recited to me, Matt still hasn't fixed the bug that let 132 users sign up on the first day (it was only suppose to let in 20). Also, Matt doesn't have the time to keep an eye on the youngsters, he doesn't want want to delegate authority and he places the burden that is Metafilter onto himself. We are closed because Matt wills Metafilter to be closed. Metafilter will "re-open" when Matt decides to open memberships.

also, come to #mefi. in april, matt annouced the opening of memberships in the channel. I also know of a large number of #mefi members who have been waiting for memberships for awhile now.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:30:14 -0800

pull the plug, Matt.

On crunchland.

By: swift

swift — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:34:02 -0800

You really are a pair of fucking wankers, aren't you?
-reklaw

The irony is...killing...me....

I, for one, have not yet begun to wank.

By: spilon

spilon — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:39:19 -0800

I don't really have anything to add to the discussion, but I just felt that if I didn't post something, well, it might mean the logins have already won....

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:43:27 -0800

{"Oh-wee-oh-wee-oh" will repeat in BG of song}

I - I've been watching U
I think I wanna know ya (know ya)
Said I, I'm a little dangerous
Girl, I'd love 2 show ya (show ya)

My jungle love, yeah
I think I wanna know ya (know ya)
Jungle love
Girl, I'd love 2 show ya (show ya)

U - U've got a pretty car
I think I wanna drive it (drive it)
I ain't playin', said I drive a little dangerous
Take U 2 my crib, rip U off ... huh! (Jungle love)

Look out, oh!
I think I wanna know ya (know ya)
Oh, jungle love, yeah
Girl, I'd love 2 show ya (show ya)

Come on baby, where's your guts?
U wanna make love or what?

I wanna take U 2 my cage
Lock U up and hide the key
U on..only get water, baby
Cuz if U're hungry, take a bite of me

Oh, jungle love, yes
Think I wanna know ya (know ya)
Hey, jungle love, mmm
Girl, I'd love 2 show ya (show ya)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, jungle love, oh!
I think I wanna know ya (know ya)
Jungle love
Girl, I... I think I wanna, I think I wanna file my nails (Show ya)

Hey Jesse
N..now Jerome, yes!
Check it out!

Jungle love, yeah
I think I wanna know ya (know ya)
Oh, jungle love, yes
Mmm, girl, I'd love 2 show ya (show ya)

Oh, my jungle love, well
Mmm, I think I wanna, I think I wanna (know ya)
Jellybean, uh!
Yeah!

Jesse, gimme one of them sexy solos right here
Break it down, uh!
Yes! Huh
Whoa, eh, hah!
Get..get outta the way
Move over
Yeah

Oh, jungle love, that's right
Can't nobody fuck with me, uh
I got a bearskin rug
I got a fireplace 2
And I'm all the way wild, baby
Oh, the things I could do 2 U

Hey!
Jungle love Jungle love Jungle love
Yes, yes!

Ha ha!
Aah, that's it, that's it
Hold on
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Sh! Ha ha!

-Morris Day and the Time

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:47:42 -0800

Reklaw, you have every right to your opinion, but in this case I, as well as many others in this thread, believe you are wrong.

It's been a tough day. Get a good night's sleep, maybe think it over with a latte in the morning, and see if you see things differently.

I think once the emotion dies down, you may realize you are not only looking a gift horse in the mouth, but beating the gift horse with a shovel for not being the color you wanted. *shrug*

And I stand behind my assertion to IP ban every person that logged into that account today. It was like a mob: it reminded me of a virtual riot. And there was virtual looting and virtual abuse. All shrouded with anonymity.

Those people are cowards and thugs, and they are affronts to a good and decent society, be it real or virtual. They have nothing good to contribute to MeFi now or ever, as they have demonstrated they cannot be trusted to act reasonably.

And, like I said, it would be an entirely legitimate way to lower the bandwidth bill. (As would me posting less and shutting up, which I plan to do now.)

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:57:27 -0800

I've recently read that the Greek democratic tradition first started in this fashion : by way of benevolent tryanny.

Note - at the time, a "tyrant" was a absolute ruler who nonetheless was still not a king.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:13:18 -0800

I'd just like to go on record saying that Ynoxas and anyone going around saying who should get banned, should get banned.

I've been listening to Howard Stern a lot recently. He's got his own little bulletin board. According to him, the first day it was open, three servers ended their brief lives and a handful of nerds who promised Stern they'd take care of it proceeded to simultaneously poop in their pants.

Stern has in recent weeks been going on and on about how so many people are trying to access his bulletin board at the same time, and isn't he popular, and how he believes there isn't another website on the internet that's remotely as popular as his, where I'm sure goatse images and people telling one another how much they suck is par for the course.

That's just one of many reasons why Mister Matt Haughey should never pull the plug on this place. Even on its worst day, MeFi is more informative, useful and entertaining than pretty much any other message board on the 'Net from Usenet to The Well.

Benevolent tyrany or no, Haughey's done a splendid job and people should stop telling him what to do. I stopped telling him what to do years ago, and I'm all the better for it. No more bleeding ulcers!

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:13:38 -0800

Ynoxas, it was like a riot in which certain people were trying to build houses and plant flowers and get on the bus right in the thick of the melee. That made it unusual.

I'd hate to be walking past a riot when you're the chief of police. Deleting all the login posts was sad, but if I'd come home to find goatse on my site's front page and no accountability at all, I'd have done the same.

And then read Quonsar's archive of it, heh.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:16:15 -0800

it reminded me of a virtual riot. And there was virtual looting and virtual abuse. All shrouded with anonymity.

*anonymous, virtual, dissonant organ chord*

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:22:11 -0800

Quonsar? Y'know there's people you could hire to get your organ in tune.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:25:43 -0800

but the dissonance highlights the sheer, dripping drama of the commentary so well!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:29:26 -0800

a core of people will defend anything the admin does, no matter how misguided it might be ... and thoroughly villify anyone who dares to dissent

I don't defend what Matt does. Or what he doesn't, for that matter. That's all up to him.

I do firmly believe that if you don't like what he does, you should quietly go away. The Internet is a big, big place. If what you find here doesn't tickle you pink, LEAVE IT.

Fergawdsake don't be a prat who throws a fit because mEaN mR. sYsOp doesn't do what you want.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:30:24 -0800

(cue Quonsar's organ)

he claims it's really quite big...

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:31:44 -0800

"I'd just like to go on record saying that Ynoxas and anyone going around saying who should get banned, should get banned."

Is this some kind of reverse psychology thing?

By: Yelling At Nothing

Yelling At Nothing — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:45:20 -0800

I still say it was more or less benign, and fun. Based on when the goatse images were posted, it was probably only one person doing it, and other than that, the logins seemed mostly to be behaving.

I was the login who 'pushed' the goatse images off the m
metatalk page; just trying to help. Most of the rest of them seemed to have similar sentiments.

(I was also the one who changed the font sizes to one; I had a hell of a time logging out, and back into this account, afterwards.)

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:49:58 -0800

um, um, yeah, well I was the one who made that really funny joke that we all laughed at, and then remember when I was on the table, with the Pina Colada? Heheheh. I was the b3st login.

By: keswick

keswick — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:55:23 -0800

When is the commemorative DVD coming out, so I can relive the hilarity in the comfort of my own home for years to come?

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 22:07:37 -0800

As soon as Matt gets around to making the commentary audio track.

By: calwatch

calwatch — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 22:10:08 -0800

Based on when the goatse images were posted, it was probably only one person doing it, and other than that, the logins seemed mostly to be behaving.

No, don't forget the Windows XP rant in the green.

By: taz

taz — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 22:18:45 -0800

bonaldi, I totally remember that! And remember later you made photocopies of your butt, and wrote "login here" underneath? dude!

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 22:40:21 -0800

Substitute Metafilterans for Achaean Forum members and you have this. (BTW, a big raspberry to reklaw)

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 22:41:06 -0800

I remember that! then he was like "i can't dance!" and then he started dancing and it was soooo cool! that was like, the best night of my life, man.

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 22:51:16 -0800

Metafilter donations page

*coughs*

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 23:57:22 -0800

I'd just like to point out how futile it is for us to discuss wherther the "logins" were really bad apples or good eggs, because we don't know how many there were, or which posts were who (minding a few exceptions that have been owned up to).

Anyway, thank you Yelling At Nothing for pushing that shite off the front page. That was a redeeming moment in an otherwise utterly deplorable, and, IMO, not at all "benign" episode.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 05:39:18 -0800

I believe that this was the "critical mass tripper". I could be wrong (and no, I'm not picking on you amberglow), but that was the first time I saw the login and password made completely public. I wanted to say something, but I figured that causing that comment to receive additional attention would have been counter-productive. In hindsight, I guess it didn't really matter if I called it out, but it was an irresponsible comment nonetheless.

I didn't know i guessed right until one of the logins confirmed it (and no, i didn't try it myself.). Who created that account anyway? and why?

It's a pity--there were some worthwhile logins mixed in there yesterday.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 05:42:16 -0800

Why are we still closed?

From what I've heard/typed/had recited to me, Matt still hasn't fixed the bug that let 132 users sign up on the first day (it was only suppose to let in 20).

Also, IMHO, we'll get a better quality of poster if Matt waits until a bit after the US election to reopen signups.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 06:32:23 -0800

wow i missed out on this over the weekend. geez. if the anonymous login was killing the server, causing pandemonium and generally pissing matt off, then by all means deleting the threads and accounts across the board was the right thing to do. and of course anyone who posted anything useful in the anonymous accounts has no excuse or complaint here - either you have your own mefi account and should be using it, or you don't, and you can either wait your turn to join (like i did) or if you can't wait to post somewhere, you have every opportunity to go over to monkeyfilter and join there (like i did).

either way, it's matt's goddamn server and he can do what he wants with it. we get to use it for free. very, very few of us have given matt any cash for allowing us the privelige of posting here. we can suggest, we can ask to contribute, we can do anything but get indignant and demand, 'cause it's not our server, it's matt's. his time, his money, his energy making it work for all of us. if an anonymous account makes it impossible for him to keep the server running goatse-free, who are we to complain if he kills it? so hey, if you don't like the way it's run, get your own server and a copy of metaphilter from sourceforge and make your own *filter, where you can rule with your own iron fist. then you'll see how much fun it is to de-goatse the damn thing yourself.

From what I've heard/typed/had recited to me, Matt still hasn't fixed the bug that let 132 users sign up on the first day (it was only suppose to let in 20).

whether it was through a little bug or not, matt was nice enough to allow us 17k folks to prove ourselves rather than just killing the extra, accidental accounts. now that i have an account and feel like i can contribute a little, i'm not about to shit on the guy who granted me access just because he decided to delete something from his own server.

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 07:42:28 -0800

Ban the guy who did the nigger post.

By: mischief

mischief — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 07:51:18 -0800

Those people are cowards and thugs, and they are affronts to a good and decent society, be it real or virtual.

Someone forgot to take their humor pill. I wonder about those who take this place so seriously. They make it sound so 'life and death' that I can only assume they are as full of shit as I am.

Did I bitch when Matt deleted one of my comments by mistake? No.

Kay sara sara, I says. ;-P

By: ChasFile

ChasFile — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 08:37:58 -0800

I would just like to take this opprotunity to say that I, too, believe that reklaw is The Worst Human Being On Earth.

Thank you.

By: ook

ook — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 08:38:01 -0800

Why are we still closed?
Matt doesn't have the time to keep an eye on the youngsters

This I don't buy. Yes, a certain percentage of newcomers would be mindless jerks and troublemakers. A certain percentage of those of us already here are mindless jerks and troublemakers. I don't expect the proportions would be that different. Anyway most of that policing is already done by peer pressure; all Matt has to do is hit the delete button now and then when things get really out of hand. I don't think a trickle of newcomers would add significantly to that workload.

IMHO, we'll get a better quality of poster if Matt waits until a bit after the US election to reopen signups.

This, though, I buy. With all the extras. And a side of mash potatoes.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 08:39:49 -0800

A certain percentage of those of us already here are mindless jerks and troublemakers.

We're having a meetup under a local bridge if anyone's interested. Bring a sack of doorknobs.

By: trondant

trondant — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 09:50:38 -0800

/me eyes the mashed potatoes

Say, what kind of party is this again?

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 09:58:19 -0800

*Glares at trondant, checks potato mound for suspicious tunnels with filigreed entrances*

By: trondant

trondant — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 11:24:08 -0800

potato-checker

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 12:23:12 -0800

Y'know, everytime I go away for a couple of days, something like this happens. Y'all are fuckin' with my chi, yo, and presently I shall become vexed.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 16:22:02 -0800

> Anyone currently patting themselves on the back, stop. We should all be
> ashamed of ourselves.

Pat, pat. fuller didn't post to the notorious thread either as himself or as 'login', currently smells like rose. Unlike the lunatic passing himself off as quonsar, who currently smells like pete rose.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 16:39:20 -0800

Better that than Ray Fosse's mouthguard.

By: snarfodox

snarfodox — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 04:02:17 -0800

Wait, I'm late...

There were mashed potatoes?

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 15:30:18 -0800

Every IP that has logged into the "login" account in the last 24 hours should be banned.

Please don't advocate this horribly blunt "solution". I share an IP with ~25,000 users; many of them aspire to be barely mature(college students). It's pretty unlikely that anyone else here used the login account but the chances sure aren't zero.

Many others are in a DCHP hell where their only relation to someone who may have been IP banned is they share a provider.

By: oaf

oaf — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 04:37:06 -0800

Oh wait we don't post Porn and Bittorrent files here oh sna

hey man that's supposed to be a huge secret!

.". I share an IP with ~25,000 users; many of them aspire to be barely mature(college students).

Very good point. Some colleges put their entire student housing behind one NAT box. I'm lucky. I have two IP addresses all to myself when I'm at school.

By: DrJohnEvans

DrJohnEvans — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 11:54:20 -0800

Of course this had to happen on the holiday weekend. I miss all the fun.