Links to products: Cool? Shill? Both?

November 24, 2004 9:14 AM

How does the community feel about links to products for sale, especially during the X-mas holiday shopping season? There seem to have been a few links which were pointing our products in their own right, without any broader point or purpose. Cool? Shill? Both?
posted by chaz to Etiquette/Policy at 9:14 AM (12 comments total)

I'd say it's just what's on people's minds. Interests ebb and flow, and when one of us comes across an interesting item, we post it.

I doubt ProductFilter posts will rival PoliFilter or NewsFilter in any way, and they'll fade away after the holidays are over.
posted by me3dia at 9:21 AM on November 24, 2004

'pepsi blue' is the term most frequently used around here. it's mostly shunned unless it's some new apple iWidget or a videogame, in which case it'll be a 300 comment thread. remember, apple or gaming good, other commerce bad.
posted by quonsar at 9:23 AM on November 24, 2004

and if the product involves socially deviant sexual behavior, then it's ok.
posted by angry modem at 9:36 AM on November 24, 2004

or if it vibrates.
Which I guess would equate to the same thing.
posted by seanyboy at 9:53 AM on November 24, 2004

For this and many other questions, the wiki can help you out.
posted by chicobangs at 10:08 AM on November 24, 2004

Shill!

But hey, an askme thread about "what would be a good gift for Xmas?" might help us all. *runs off to start one*
posted by dabitch at 10:33 AM on November 24, 2004

Shill yourselves out.
(a bit forward maybe, but I think it's a great idea to share gift-ideas, and shilling just doesn't wortk in the blue. too blu yaknow?)
posted by dabitch at 10:37 AM on November 24, 2004

What I meant is that it kind of bugs me when I see a post which is basically a single link, or multiple links, to a store.

If the post was something like "Weird products on the internet" and had links to like 10 weirdo stores, I would be fine with it. But if it says, look at this weird product, and there is a single link to a single product, or multiple links to a single store, I get suspicious... especially as it's Christmas time.

And yes, Chico, this is in the wiki, but I was wondering if it might be time to revisit it just because there seem to be more and more of these lately...
posted by chaz at 2:28 PM on November 24, 2004

I sort of assume anything that'll get a companion thread in Metatalk is a winning thread.

But I myself don't mind evil capitalist shopping FPPs as long as it's for something that is particularly unique. I guess we're supposed to be looking for the "BEST OF THE WEB" or Christ's missing corpse, or whatever it is Metafilter was about in the Golden Age... but I'm really up for looking at anything shiny. And I agree with chaz's last comment.
posted by Kleptophoria! at 6:33 PM on November 24, 2004

oooooooh... shiny!

Kidding, it is a good thread though, nice stuff. ;)
posted by dabitch at 7:08 PM on November 24, 2004

Yeah, the tshirts that were the thrust of this thread were nice and all that, but how they merited blue placement I'll never guess.

To each... y'know.
posted by moonbird at 7:56 PM on November 24, 2004

Product announcement posts suck. Especially ones that treat every new Apple product as if it were the second coming of the original Macintosh.

1984: the GUI comes home, computing will never be the same. woooo!

2004: the iPod now comes in red-and-black, and says U2 on the box. woooo!

20! More! Years! 20! More! Years!
posted by scarabic at 7:58 PM on November 24, 2004