A grayish "may derive benefit" bracelet around here somewhere

April 27, 2005 7:03 AM

I question the nature of this post.
posted by furtive to Etiquette/Policy at 7:03 AM (21 comments total)

Rocky Chrysler is an avid biker from Flagstaff Arizona, who happens to be linking to a product being sold by a bike shop in Flagstaff Arizona. The sole purpose of this product is to support a bike group in Flagstaff Arizona.

I understand that if you're a big mountain biking fan from Flagstaff you're going to be associated with the community, but shouldn't you be making that clear in your post? Especially the sole purpose of the main link is to sell a product, and you may directly/indirectly derive benefits from it?
posted by furtive at 7:04 AM on April 27, 2005

Hmmm, I think there is a greyish "May Derive Benefit" Bracelet around here somewhere.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:15 AM on April 27, 2005

sorry if my writing this post bothered you. seriously. youre right: i do live in flag. and i have worked with flagstaffbiking.org to build trails, promote local cycling, put helmets on kids... once upon a time i was even a board member of the organization... but i am not now and i was completely unaware of this effort until i saw it on the local tv news the other night. i dont know the people who are behind the project and i dont know the people at the shop mentioned in the link. i posted it because i figured it was a story that had had little national attention and because i thought it was a bit on the edge of tastefulness and i wanted to get a feel for how it played on mefi. it's an honest post, not a shill, i assure you. however, if others sense dubiousness in it, i will understand, i guess. for what it's worth, i think it has garnered some interesting conversation.
posted by RockyChrysler at 7:20 AM on April 27, 2005

furtive writes "Rocky Chrysler is an avid biker from Flagstaff Arizona, who happens to be linking to a product being sold by a bike shop in Flagstaff Arizona. The sole purpose of this product is to support a bike group in Flagstaff Arizona. "

Think globally, bike locally.
posted by nkyad at 7:41 AM on April 27, 2005

I think the main purpose of the bracelet is to thumb the wearer's nose at other bracelets. The benefit to the biking club is probably fairly minor, and since Rocky isn't involved in the project, I don't see the problem.

I do see a problem with hypocrisy, though. If you go to furtive's user page, you find that all of the information about his posting history on MeFi is blocked, so if someone wanted to investigate him the way he's investigated RC, they'd have a tough time.
posted by anapestic at 7:52 AM on April 27, 2005

Did you scroll down, anapestic? Or did he change it since you called him on it?
posted by jacquilynne at 7:54 AM on April 27, 2005

I think he (she?) definately should have mentioned their connection with it. I didn't trust the post originally either.
posted by Dean Keaton at 7:54 AM on April 27, 2005

I question the nature of furtive's decision to block his posting history
posted by matteo at 7:55 AM on April 27, 2005

you're free to question my own questioning of furtive's questioning, by the way
posted by matteo at 7:56 AM on April 27, 2005

all of the information about his posting history on MeFi is blocked...

Ironic and creepy, too.
posted by y2karl at 7:57 AM on April 27, 2005

Add me to the group that dislikes blocking one's history.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 7:59 AM on April 27, 2005

If you go to furtive's user page, you find that all of the information about his posting history on MeFi is blocked

I'm not the subject of this thread, nor is my posting history. For the record though, I was trying to set up my page along the same lines as Hands of Manos but I haven't gone back to finish the job. I figured with a pseudonym like furtive that I could get away with that sort of laziness, but I'll go change it now so that my history is visible.

As for RockyChrysler's disclosure above, I also think it should have been mentioned, but I don't think it's worth banning or anything harsh.
posted by furtive at 8:02 AM on April 27, 2005

Did you scroll down, anapestic?

I tried scrolling down and couldn't. I tried to select all and found nothing. It is possible that people with other browsers can see his posting history, but I can't.

(I was also going to question matteo's questioning, but I got confused.)
posted by anapestic at 8:03 AM on April 27, 2005

Damn. Now I feel bad. I'm not sure if the history was always there at the bottom, furtive, but I'm sorry for the accusation.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 8:05 AM on April 27, 2005

I can see the posting history now, though I couldn't five minutes ago. I suspect it was changed in response to what I said earlier.
posted by anapestic at 8:07 AM on April 27, 2005

To view the posting history of a user, just add their user number to the end of either of these links:

http://www.metafilter.com/search_comments.cfm?user_ID=

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/search_comments.mefi?user_ID=
posted by dfowler at 8:07 AM on April 27, 2005

you know-- copy& paste to location bar then add user#

here are the fpp links:

http://www.metafilter.com/search_posts.cfm?user_ID=

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/search_threads.mefi?user_ID=
posted by dfowler at 8:11 AM on April 27, 2005

What's the big deal about users hiding their posting history? I, for one, support it, if only because it gets so many people's panties in a bunch.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:43 AM on April 27, 2005

matteo writes "you're free to question my own questioning of furtive's questioning, by the way
"
I do matteo, I do.
posted by OmieWise at 10:53 AM on April 27, 2005

that is questionable, OmieWise
posted by matteo at 4:41 AM on April 28, 2005

I question OmieWise's questioning of matteo's questioning of furtive's questioning.
posted by graventy at 7:16 AM on April 28, 2005