Um, three piggybacks in one thread?

August 9, 2006 3:49 PM

Um, three piggybacks in one thread?

Excessive, and really unfair to the OP, or just another part of being in a community environment?
posted by SeizeTheDay to Etiquette/Policy at 3:49 PM (28 comments total)

Actually, wouldn't all that piggybacking get dcrocha in shape 3 times as fast?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:53 PM on August 9, 2006

allow me to piggyback on your meta.

stupid, boring, or just another yawning "who cares?"
posted by quonsar at 3:54 PM on August 9, 2006

Cash or charge?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:12 PM on August 9, 2006

What's an OP?
posted by mischief at 4:13 PM on August 9, 2006

Oh, pissoff.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:19 PM on August 9, 2006

Piggybacking must be stopped, it's not in the spirit of arseMeat and is worse than a derail. [OP] = Obvious Puppet.
posted by econous at 4:42 PM on August 9, 2006

It does strike me as a bit unfair. These people should ask their own questions. But then if they did, the questions would be similar (though not attempting the same result), and then they'd get a whole buch of obnoxious comments like previously . . . .
posted by necessitas at 4:53 PM on August 9, 2006

Don't worry, it's on notice:

posted by blue_beetle at 4:54 PM on August 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

It beats three threads back-to-back about the same general subject.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:26 PM on August 9, 2006

Yeah, because I love it when I'm trying to get help and use my single weekly question and a bunch of users post their own questions instead of answers. Awesome.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:33 PM on August 9, 2006

It's not that bad when it is a related subject. Personally I think it's harmless when someone is in my thread about shade loving trees and asks what kind of trees like sun. It's no big deal and doesn't actually harm your ability to get answers does it? They don't actually hijack your question and steer all people that would have answered your question into theirs. I mean, they clicked on the front page or from RSS to answer you, and if they can answer you, they will, but if there's some related question they might answer that as well, or only that if they have nothing for the original question.

I find the questions that start off "related to this question asked an hour ago, what are some trees to use in the sun?" to be more annoying because the front page of Ask MeFi already gets a crapload of questions every day.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:55 PM on August 9, 2006

"It beats three threads back-to-back about the same general subject."

I think the idea of piggy backs is that they wouldn't otherwise be asked on their own. One doesn't waste a weekly post on a weak question that would probably be ignored.

Unfortunately some of the PB's (piggy backs) are in conflict with conditions the OP (original poster) set in his question. Why would derails and hijacks be okay in the green?
posted by klarck at 5:59 PM on August 9, 2006

"I love it when I'm trying to get help and use my single weekly question and a bunch of users post their own questions instead of answers"

Dear AskMe:

How do I get sand out of my vagina?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:05 PM on August 9, 2006

I find the questions that start off "related to this question asked an hour ago, what are some trees to use in the sun?" to be more annoying because the front page of Ask MeFi already gets a crapload of questions every day.

No kidding. But having users stuff their questions into existing questions that may not have been answered yet but are marginally related is the solution? I hope not.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:05 PM on August 9, 2006

How do I get sand out of my vagina?

MeTa. Just kidding.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:07 PM on August 9, 2006

Come on, it's not like this is the first time someone has asked how to get in shape fast. At this point, the 'get me in shape' questions might as well be 4-to-a-thread, because that's about how useful they are.
posted by knave at 6:08 PM on August 9, 2006

I know the green is a limited resource (even moreso than the Blue, clearly) and I think it might one day garner more pageviews than any other section of this site, but as the OP, I would feel cheated if people changed the original focus of the question.

A couple of related points: One, that if people searched more and combined various AskMeFi threads, they would realize that their particular question is unnecessary. Of course, there's no incentive to do this since it's free to post a new question every week and I rarely see questions deleted as "double posts". Two, people in MeTa always claim that answers should be framed to help the OP. I disagree with this premise (because I think that all answers are valuable to the community and the OP is just one specific person that benefits) but there does seem to be a disconnect between those who think that answers should stick to the question at hand and at the same time think that piggybacking is no big deal.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 6:08 PM on August 9, 2006

SeizeTheDay writes 'I know the green is a limited resource ... and I think it might one day garner more pageviews than any other section of this site'

It's bloody close; according to Alexa (yeah, I know) there's a 48/44% split.
posted by blag at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2006

According to Google Analytics, it's about 55% askmefi/40% mefi traffic now (last 5% is music, metatalk, etc)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:05 PM on August 9, 2006

Thanks. Good grief, didn't realise the split swung that way so much.
posted by blag at 7:29 PM on August 9, 2006

Even if you defend piggybacking as generally ok, can we at least agree that it's more polite to wait longer than 12 freaking minutes before posting your piggybacked question? I mean, as a simple matter of respect for a fellow member's question?
posted by mediareport at 8:54 PM on August 9, 2006

According to Google Analytics

Is the Google Analytics index of the site better than the regular Google search index? Because that regular Google search index is still pretty crappy, which makes me suspicious of any Google stats about Mefi in general. Someone feel free to school me about the difference in the two metrics.
posted by mediareport at 9:01 PM on August 9, 2006

Google analytics is a javascript include on every page here at mefi, which they record stuff about. It's a real statistics package that has nothing to do with the way google indexes the text of the site.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:06 PM on August 9, 2006

Thanks!
posted by mediareport at 9:07 PM on August 9, 2006

I kinda gotta go with knave on this one... "Hi there, I'm naturally skinny and working out bores me, how do I get bulked and cut in a month?" Geez, that's a tough one. Now let's hear everybody else's ridiculous exercise fantasies. Better it all stay in one useless thread. This whole concept of piggybacking was totally new to me up to today, though and I have to say it seems like a generally shitty way to behave.
posted by nanojath at 9:29 PM on August 9, 2006

it's about 55% askmefi/40% mefi traffic now

awesome.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:51 PM on August 9, 2006

SeizeTheDay writes "Of course, there's no incentive to do this since it's free to post a new question every week and I rarely see questions deleted as 'double posts'."

Because you never know if the answers last year a) still apply and b) if someone who might not have seen the previous question has the perfect answer.

mathowie writes "Google analytics is a javascript include on every page here at mefi, which they record stuff about. It's a real statistics package that has nothing to do with the way google indexes the text of the site"

It's probably got a wide margin of error because of the general web savvyness of the Metafilter population. I know I've got Google analytics disabled using the NoScript extension for Firefox.
posted by Mitheral at 7:54 AM on August 10, 2006

does this mean jessamyn is 15% better than matt?
posted by matthewr at 1:08 PM on August 11, 2006