Have we turned a new leaf?

February 25, 2007 1:23 PM

Wow, two threads, one on finding an e-mail address and one on a Quicken password and no one jumps on the poster, calling them a stalker or questioning their motives. I commend you, Mefites!
posted by IndigoRain to etiquette/policy at 1:23 PM (70 comments total)

In the latter case, he's dead.
posted by phrontist at 1:33 PM on February 25, 2007

Well there's always a chance they'll do it here, I guess.
posted by jessamyn at 1:36 PM on February 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

HURF DURF MEFI STALKERS
posted by interrobang at 1:37 PM on February 25, 2007

In the latter case, he's dead.

Is he? or is that just an elaborate ruse!?
posted by delmoi at 1:38 PM on February 25, 2007

I'm sorry, is this a callout of the threads, or a callout of the entire mefi population for not meeting your standards?
posted by shmegegge at 1:45 PM on February 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

I question your motives for not calling them a stalker.
posted by fandango_matt at 1:49 PM on February 25, 2007

Wow, two threads, one on finding an e-mail address and one on a Quicken password and no one jumps on the poster, calling them a stalker or questioning their motives.

Why is this a good thing?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:56 PM on February 25, 2007

kellygreen and Beaufort are IndigoRain's sock puppets!
posted by agropyron at 1:57 PM on February 25, 2007

The quicken one did strike me as odd. He died Friday and on Sunday they are already rifling through his pc to find his money? Didn't even wait for the body to get cold. If they needed the $ for a funeral, the poster already mentioned that they think they know most of the accounts anyway.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:58 PM on February 25, 2007

You guys just aren't reading between the lines enough.
posted by Dave Faris at 2:10 PM on February 25, 2007

He died Friday and on Sunday they are already rifling through his pc to find his money?

And when would it be acceptable to you for them to find the money?

Didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

I assure you that the body is cold two days later.
posted by grouse at 2:11 PM on February 25, 2007

No, grouse your wrong, i died once and it took me 7 weeks to get cold.





. . . I got better.
posted by nola at 2:22 PM on February 25, 2007

The email address one didn't bother me, but the Quicken one sets off my red flags. (I didn't participate in either of the questions/answers, but I'm interested to see how the asker of the Quicken one follows up).
posted by amyms at 2:26 PM on February 25, 2007

What if he isn't dead (yet), and the two threads refer to the same supposed dad? His Quicken password hint probably was: "work e-mail adr.". Maybe this might come in handy soon for the stalker as well.
posted by lodev at 2:33 PM on February 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

My google-fu is failing me, but I'm pretty sure there's a rule somewhere that says we take everything at face value that doesn't involve either illegal drugs, or copyright infringement, or both. I just can't seem to find it. Help!
posted by Dave Faris at 2:37 PM on February 25, 2007

Didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

How about you react to death in your way, and let the poster react to death in their way?

It's the STEPdad that died, and THEIR MOTHER they're looking out for. The conduct of the poster is nobodies fucking business.
posted by vito90 at 2:49 PM on February 25, 2007 [5 favorites]

In all seriousness, the information requested by the respective posters is , i don't want to say common knowledge, but more like available knowledge, and hardly illegal, or immoral on its face.

So yeah, what vito90 said.

Its not like a stalker couldn't find this information out. I think giving people the benefit of the doubt in this case is fair.
posted by nola at 3:10 PM on February 25, 2007

Your lack of APOSTROPHY though, is EVERYBODY'S fucking business.
posted by ODiV at 3:10 PM on February 25, 2007 [3 favorites]

Maybe this might come in handy soon for the stalker as well.

Maybe it already has.
posted by grouse at 3:10 PM on February 25, 2007

Your lack of APOSTROPHY though, is EVERYBODY'S fucking business.

Or APOSTROPHE, even.
posted by amro at 3:19 PM on February 25, 2007 [4 favorites]

Actually, I did leave a comment chiding those who put someone's email in the thread. The admins deleted my comment and left the address, so I guess I committed the bigger crime.
posted by timeistight at 3:33 PM on February 25, 2007

Enough with the spell check already!
posted by nola at 3:39 PM on February 25, 2007

Enough with the spell check already!

No, apparently some people haven't used the spell check enough already, or they wouldn't be making so many errors.
posted by grouse at 3:44 PM on February 25, 2007

The admins deleted my comment and left the address

I changed the address to have an "at" instead of an @ to hopefully foil some bots, but it would have been hard to take it out entirely and still leave the comment's information in. I don't remember seeing your comment, but I did see the email that you sent about it. Did you comment also?
posted by jessamyn at 3:45 PM on February 25, 2007

Well, I certainly typed one in; maybe I forgot to hit post.

Anyhow, I saw that you obscured the address here, but you left it in the harvestable form here.
posted by timeistight at 4:10 PM on February 25, 2007

Sorry, it was me who put in the address - wasn't thinking. Could you change it to [initial][surname] at ... ? And delete the later comment that refers to it? Thanks for pointing this out, timeistight.
posted by paduasoy at 4:11 PM on February 25, 2007

Super, I cleaned it all up now. Thanks.
posted by jessamyn at 4:14 PM on February 25, 2007

Thank you!
posted by paduasoy at 4:16 PM on February 25, 2007

Your lack of APOSTROPHY though, is EVERYBODY'S fucking business.

Haha, learn to spell you condescending idiot.
posted by Falconetti at 4:27 PM on February 25, 2007

metafilter:they all seemed like nice folks....
posted by jourman2 at 4:28 PM on February 25, 2007

"Haha, learn to spell you condescending idiot."

Ha-ha! Learn to punctuate, you silly person!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:32 PM on February 25, 2007

u al fail at englishes.
posted by exlotuseater at 4:44 PM on February 25, 2007

u al fail at englishes.

Me fail English? That's unpossible!
posted by grouse at 5:21 PM on February 25, 2007

Quit: stalking my faulty, punktuashun m*****fuckers!
posted by Falconetti at 5:31 PM on February 25, 2007

Someone needs to make this thread worth reading, and it's not going to be me. I gave at the office.
posted by Kwine at 5:34 PM on February 25, 2007

MetaFilter: Your lack of APOSTROPHE is EVERYONE'S business.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:36 PM on February 25, 2007

>>>Your lack of APOSTROPHY though, is EVERYBODY'S fucking business.

>>"Haha, learn to spell you condescending idiot."

>Ha-ha! Learn to punctuate, you silly person!

Haha! Learn to insult people properly, you big doodyhead!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:53 PM on February 25, 2007

StumbleUpon is much better than metafilter. Adios!
posted by Burhanistan at 5:56 PM on February 25, 2007

Maybe, oh, [e-mail] would work? I won't suggest how to crack the password though.

Burhanistan deserted Metafilter for this place? Maybe I should try it; it's certainly slick enough.
posted by davy at 6:25 PM on February 25, 2007

JohnnyGunn writes "The quicken one did strike me as odd. He died Friday and on Sunday they are already rifling through his pc to find his money? Didn't even wait for the body to get cold."

This makes sense. If the only computer literate person in the family is someone who isn't local you're going to want to get this kind of thing figured out while that person is on bereavement leave.
posted by Mitheral at 6:35 PM on February 25, 2007

I find your lack of apostrophy disturbing.

One of these days, Burhanistan will stumble back. Or merge with Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan. Whatever.
posted by wendell at 6:40 PM on February 25, 2007

The quicken one did strike me as odd. He died Friday and on Sunday they are already rifling through his pc to find his money? Didn't even wait for the body to get cold.

My brother died in January. We started trying to pull together his accounts and other information four days later, and only waited that long because we had to start taking care of funeral arrangements first.

My SpideyMeFiSense tingled a bit at the questions, but there's nothing unbelievable about it.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 6:54 PM on February 25, 2007

StumbleUpon is much better than metafilter. Adios!

Nonono you got it all wrong, it's flameout.

In a related story, I'm leaving as well.

I'll be back tomorrow morning. 'Nighties!

posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:11 PM on February 25, 2007

My grandmother died when I was very young, but I was told that one of my aunts started rifling through her jewelry box pretty shortly after getting back from the cemetery, much to almost everyone else's dismay. No doubt about it, people deal with death in curious ways. And the redistribution of wealth after a person dies can destroy what remains.
posted by Dave Faris at 7:16 PM on February 25, 2007

Is he? or is that just an elaborate ruse!?

I read that as "rusel?" and was damned amused.
posted by cortex at 9:27 PM on February 25, 2007

Sorry, I forgot this isn't Wikipedia where everyone assumes good faith. I was honestly saying thank goodness you people have cut down on attacking other people in AskMe threads because you don't believe what they say. You people read between the lines too much.
posted by IndigoRain at 4:19 AM on February 26, 2007

Sorry, WE. Not you people... someone will turn that against me too.
posted by IndigoRain at 4:20 AM on February 26, 2007

Sorry, I forgot this isn't Wikipedia where everyone assumes good faith.

No, you didn't, or you wouldn't have made this post, which was to point out exceptional examples of assuming good faith.

I was honestly saying thank goodness you people have cut down on attacking other people in AskMe threads because you don't believe what they say.

I don't believe you. ;)
posted by grouse at 4:31 AM on February 26, 2007

I was honestly saying thank goodness you people have cut down on attacking other people in AskMe threads because you don't believe what they say.

Knowing if the asker is honest is a known problem, but probably not as bad as threads asking for information that can be used by others to bad ends, like stalking or otherwise committing serious crimes.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:06 AM on February 26, 2007

Wow. How did I mess up apostrophe that badly? I was tempted to pass it off as a joke, but I don't think anyone would have bought it.

And I wasn't trying to be condescending, Falconetti. I just thought there wasn't nearly enough swearing and grammar/spelling discussion for MetaTalk.
posted by ODiV at 8:52 AM on February 26, 2007

By the way ODiV, would you please tell me where my apostrophy (sic) error is?
posted by vito90 at 12:53 PM on February 26, 2007

nobodies fucking business

Should have been "nobody's".
posted by cortex at 12:54 PM on February 26, 2007

Are you certain?
posted by vito90 at 1:20 PM on February 26, 2007

Nobody's saying that "nobodies" isn't a word. But it's the plural of "nobody," it's not possessive.
posted by amro at 1:23 PM on February 26, 2007

What?
posted by cortex at 1:23 PM on February 26, 2007

Yes, quite certain.
posted by gleuschk at 1:23 PM on February 26, 2007

Heh. Quick like adders around here.
posted by gleuschk at 1:24 PM on February 26, 2007

Or, rather, what amro said. Damned preview.

Or, in a more out-there sense, you could argue that the spelling was correct but still missing an apostrophe on the plural form in an unusual non-idiomatic deployment:

nobodies' fucking business

Where it is the sort of thing that should not be the business of anyone of worth, and is thus the business only of utter nobodies. But that'd be a pretty unusual rendering, and again it'd still be missing an apostrophe.
posted by cortex at 1:26 PM on February 26, 2007

Very good, thank you.
posted by vito90 at 1:32 PM on February 26, 2007

No, I think if you analyze the original statement:
The conduct of the poster is nobodies fucking business.
you'll see that it makes perfect sense as is. Here, let me explicate and I'm sure you'll agree:

The conduct of the poster is [like a bunch of] nobodies fucking [with big] business.

It's grammatically parallel to "This movie is Goodfellas meets King Kong." The sense is that the poster is punching above his weight, taking on an opponent too mighty for him. Amirite?
posted by languagehat at 2:06 PM on February 26, 2007 [3 favorites]

I thought the email one was stalkerish and it icked me out, but the mods obviously disagreed (which is fine) and I didn't see the point in shitting in the thread. It certainly didn't seem important enough to callout or complain about so ignored it from then on. Isn't this the way it's supposed to go?
posted by shelleycat at 2:07 PM on February 26, 2007

lhat, I defer to your superior contortions.
posted by cortex at 2:30 PM on February 26, 2007

I'd hate to imply that all cats, or even all cat-themed members, think alike, but there does seem to be a theme here, shelley. . .
posted by librarycat at 2:59 PM on February 26, 2007

In my experience cats are generally pretty fastidious about where they shit. Keep it in the dirtbox and out of the thread ...

(and man my username annoys me)
posted by shelleycat at 3:49 PM on February 26, 2007

Well its good to see the threads staying up and people being treated a bit more decently.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:48 PM on February 26, 2007

Well its good to see the threads staying up and people being treated a bit more decently.

MetaFilter has jumped the shark.
posted by grouse at 4:54 PM on February 26, 2007

It's grammatically parallel to "This movie is Goodfellas meets King Kong." The sense is that the poster is punching above his weight, taking on an opponent too mighty for him. Amirite?

and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why he's called languagehat. He could have been called anything, but only a man who can perform that kind of linguistic acrobatics deserves a hat so fully composed of language.
posted by shmegegge at 6:37 PM on February 26, 2007

I was totally buffaloed by languagehat's linguistic acrobatics.
posted by grouse at 6:53 PM on February 26, 2007

He sure can turn a silk purse into a sow's ear, that's for sure.
posted by Dave Faris at 6:56 PM on February 26, 2007

Damn right. My study is fucking lined with sow's ears. And my wife keeps having to buy new purses.
posted by languagehat at 6:05 AM on February 27, 2007