April 11, 2005

12:26 PM

I am baffled by the sudden disappearance of a link to 63days.com - I am unable to find it by searching MeFi either. I was not the original poster, but found the link fascinating and am confused about its removal. Anyone know about this?
posted by Uccellina to MetaFilter-related at 12:26 PM (19 comments total)

I don't know anything about the post, but the site looks like just an ordinary blog... is there some reason it was particularly relevant or interesting?
posted by mdn at 12:30 PM on April 11, 2005

This post was deleted for the following reason: self-link, and probably a fabricated story since "AbbyRoad" is being deceptive, talking in the third person about the site author.

Huh? Did I miss something?
posted by Quartermass at 12:31 PM on April 11, 2005

aha.

Yeh, that 'abbeyroad' seems to be pushing to get her story taken seriously. I'd guess matt was able to trace the poster or something, and figured out that it was a self link that way, and that that made it even more likely that the seemingly novelized blog entry was indeed fiction.

But the blog itself doesn't even have that story at the top anymore - it's got an entry about M&M's or something, which is why I didn't even understand why you thought it was an interesting post.
posted by mdn at 12:41 PM on April 11, 2005

If you scroll to the bottom of the blog (to entry #1), it makes more sense.
posted by Quartermass at 12:49 PM on April 11, 2005

I myself was curious as to matts detective work, but I didn't want to make a meta thread asking about it. I'd like to know how he figured it out.
posted by puke & cry at 1:10 PM on April 11, 2005

I'm also curious. Also, all deleted links are on lofi
posted by delmoi at 1:21 PM on April 11, 2005

If you scroll to the bottom of the blog (to entry #1), it makes more sense.

well, it reads like bad genre fic so I can't really be bothered to spend too much time on it, and starting at the beginning didn't really make it clear to me, but now I see the sidebar gives the premise. My bad.
posted by mdn at 1:23 PM on April 11, 2005

If it's "genre fic" it's not just bad, it's evil. And, sad to say (or rather, happily for our heroine), it looks that way. I'd like to know how Matt figured out that Abby was Alli, too, though.
posted by gurple at 1:45 PM on April 11, 2005

I use the mefi deleted post user script for greasemonkey. It puts a reference to deleted posts right on the front page. It's awesome.
posted by puke & cry at 1:54 PM on April 11, 2005

After this, "Culture of Death", and "chocolate is so damn good" I am hereby going to assume any post made by a new user after the bare minimum of time and comments to be a self-link, no further proof necessary. I am also going to make the claim that there is no way to self link accidentally and protests to the contrary are FILTHY LIES.

More demands and proclamations coming soon!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:57 PM on April 11, 2005

For the record, the person posting it has contacted me via email using two different names, one of them is Allison. The email on the account and the website match. They claim they are a male friend and that the story is legit. I removed the part where I thought it was a fabrication, but everything produced as "evidence" in the post sends my BS detector off the meter and given the mixed past and weird email I exchanged with the posting author, I don't buy the story. Also, the whole "DO NOT PLAGARIZE" button on the blog makes me suspect as well.

I don't doubt the intent of the stories about those camps in the 80s, and I know there are thousands of messed up kids as a result of them, but I'm not buying this blog's story. It migth still be true and I've been wrong before, but it's no longer linked on metafilter and I'm fine with that because there is definitely a strong whiff of self-linking.
posted by mathowie at 2:22 PM on April 11, 2005

And I'm sure there are some members who had their interest piqued and there will be a legitimate FPP before too long.

Interesting story though.
posted by fenriq at 3:38 PM on April 11, 2005

Heh, I loved that "Do Not Plagiarize" button. Laura K. Pahl needs one of those.
posted by fixedgear at 3:55 PM on April 11, 2005

As fenriq suggested, my interest was definitely piqued and I did some research and spent hours reading this article. Totally facinating stuff -- regardless of whether 63days.com is legit or not.
posted by arielmeadow at 4:28 PM on April 11, 2005

I found the article interesting because, from the ages of 14-16, a lesbian friend of mine was handed over by her parents and held in a Christian pseudo-prison for delinquent girls. She wasn't even allowed to stand up unless she had her finger through the beltloop of someone with "higher privileges". Kind of a psychotic version of But I'm A Cheerleader. So 63days.com may be utter hooey (certainly sounds likely now), but the phenomenon is/was real.

The place my friend was held in was later shut down by authorities. It moved to Mexico, where it continues to operate.
posted by Uccellina at 10:51 PM on April 11, 2005

Wow, Uccellina - that sounds just like the place a guy I know got confined to as well, down to the belt-loop thing. Apparently he was smoking a little weed and ended up spending 3 or 4 years in this nightmare. When he told me about it, I got this strange sense that even now, more than 20 years later, he still didn't see how completely horrifyingly insane it was, or how deeply it had affected him.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:50 AM on April 12, 2005

There's a certain class of exceptionally dumb self-linkers who follow a consistent pattern: Posting on the front page the first day they can, talking about themselves in the third person, using a throwaway e-mail account, and linking to something so lame the author's mother wouldn't bookmark it.
posted by rcade at 7:12 AM on April 12, 2005

but the phenomenon is/was real.

sure, we've had posts about the "having your own kids kidnapped & taken to reform school" thing before - wasn't there even a NYT mag story about that not so long ago?
posted by mdn at 7:14 AM on April 12, 2005

I've read the article arielmeadow linked and am quite horrified. It's unbelievable that these camps aren't properly regulated and monitored and that no one has even done a proper study to find out if they actually work.
posted by orange swan at 8:12 AM on April 12, 2005