Are snarky one-liners being deleted in the Blue?

March 31, 2008 5:02 PM

Is there a new policy now where Matt/Jess/cortex are deleting comments in the Blue that are a bit snarky/one-linerish? Because I remember a one-liner in the Lyndon Johnson thread that's no longer there. Is that because Matt thinks that the first few comments set the tone for the thread, so ya'll are trying to keep things on-topic from the get-go? BTW, I'm well aware that I basically set myself up here for a rapid succession of one-liners. Have at it, folks.
posted by SeizeTheDay to etiquette/policy at 5:02 PM (119 comments total)

Matt mentioned something to that effect a couple days ago. Specifically about the "this is wendell" comments. I think he even cursed.
posted by puke & cry at 5:05 PM on March 31

That comment you're referring to was stupid anyway. It was basically "what else you got?"
posted by puke & cry at 5:07 PM on March 31

This comment. But it's one thing to be vocally frustrated and another altogether to actually delete comments. (He made me feel guilty for pulling the old mcsweetie line at the beginning of that thread.)
posted by SeizeTheDay at 5:09 PM on March 31

*gets popcorn*









What? I'm actually getting popcorn! It's movie night, you know.

Sheesh. Not everything's about Metafilter.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:09 PM on March 31 [3 favorites]

Even if the one-liners are being deleted, is that a bad thing? I'm someone who loves the jokes as much as anyone else (and favorite more of 'em than I should), but some jokes are terrific in context and others are just noise.
posted by davejay at 5:16 PM on March 31

We've been doing a little more in general, yeah. Generally the early-thread stuff, generally when it's negative/combative/shit-stirrish/rote-line stuff. Like davejay, I love jokes, but there's a point at which refusing to delete the most throwaway of throwaway comments starts to be more a disservice to the site than anything.

If you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, you can probably find somewhere else to be than the beginning of a thread you apparently don't give a goddam about, etc.
posted by cortex at 5:22 PM on March 31 [3 favorites]

There's nothing wrong with one-liners.

*adds another line to comment just to be safe*
posted by brain_drain at 5:23 PM on March 31

Specifically about the "this is wendell" comments.

This IS wendell?!?

It's THIS WILL WENDELL.

THIS IS SPARTA!!!
AND I AM SPARTACUS!!!
posted by wendell at 5:25 PM on March 31 [8 favorites]

This will wenever mind.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:35 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

You know, I set out to compose a whole "This IS WENDELL" bit from the intro to The 300 on youtube, but I just couldn't make myself watch it again.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:35 PM on March 31

From the Matthowie comment link: I fucking hate seeing "gets popcorn" or "this will wendell" in the first five comments on any thread, anywhere on this site.

I tend to pass by those comments as per the Metafilter culture. I was an old BBS/AOL user and the standard of the day was "ignore, ignore, ignore." So I do, as a matter of course, ignore those types of comments. But I'm not as sick of them as you are, because I moderate a very small closed email list. It's just that my eyes have been trained from the old AOL chatroom days to scan past that sort of stuff.

In short, I'm not offended by the comments, and at the same time, I see your point.

I suppose there's the temptation to join in with a common meme comment from anyone -- new user or old -- and I totally feel your pain on the derail thing. I have yet to make a FPP because of the fear of snark and meme-ness.

Don't give up on us users yet tho', there are some here who actually pay attention!

Matt, you need a hug {{{{hug}}}}
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:36 PM on March 31

I don't mind snark or humor. But lately it has seemed tired and over done. Can you guys kill the "Metafilter: {repeat mildly funny here}" too?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:40 PM on March 31

For the record, I neither personally oppose nor endorse the deletion of "this will wendell" comments from anywhere in MetaFilter.

However, for starting that whole misbegotten meme, jessamyn owes me. Big time.
posted by wendell at 5:43 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

Brandon, I have to secretly confess that I like those types of comments. Sometimes it's just so apropos.

One man's trash...
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:45 PM on March 31

As long as we're preaching to our tidy little choir, can everyone please promise to donate $500 to the NRA the next time you use the word "eponysterical"?
That might make people think twice.
posted by Dizzy at 5:53 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

Is there a new policy now where Matt/Jess/cortex are deleting comments in the Blue that are a bit snarky/one-linerish?

It's not new. My snarky throwaways in the blue have been reliably deleted by jess for years.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:54 PM on March 31

"My snarky throwaways in the blue have been reliably deleted by jess for years."

She prefers you as the reliable AskMe ikkyu2, not the wild-and-crazy ikkyu2. She's just trying to shape everyone else's perception the same way.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:00 PM on March 31

I work with this guy who makes a bad pun out of everything. Everything. You can say to him, "Holy shit, the server just went down. We're losing thousands of dollars RIGHT NOW," and he'll say, "Really? Does it have a halo?" You stop and think about it for a minute, and then you realize he's talking about shit. Holy shit. Everything you said after that went in one ear and out the other, and it is SO not the right time.

I think about him every time someone says "Eponysterical!!"
posted by katillathehun at 6:07 PM on March 31

Metafilter: Can you guys kill the {repeat mildly funny here} too?
posted by ericb at 6:07 PM on March 31 [3 favorites]

She prefers you as the reliable AskMe ikkyu2, not the wild-and-crazy ikkyu2.

Yeah, there is a reason you never hear about the time ikkyu2 got wild and crazy while performing neurosurgery. I know the truth, though. Some friendly Scientologists showed me the evidence.
posted by Krrrlson at 6:09 PM on March 31

kat--
You owe the NRA 500 smackers, babe.
posted by Dizzy at 6:14 PM on March 31

It's not new. My snarky throwaways in the blue have been reliably deleted by jess for years.

You've had exactly one comment deleted from the blue, in 2005. Your track record for snarky throwaway comments on the green, now...
posted by cortex at 6:17 PM on March 31

the wild-and-crazy ikkyu2.

A wild and crazy neurologist? Man, the last time my man ikkyu got wild and crazy he guzzled a fifth of gin and performed an impromptu lobotomy. I haven't been the same since.
posted by jonmc at 6:17 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

Uh-oh. I think 95% of my comments are throwaway one-liners, but at least they're usually on-topic. Like, I was going to type, "Metafilter: One man's trash."

But now I feel so unclean.

(My current favorite throwaway meme is, "In Soviet Union, [object] [verb] you.")

But now I feel so unclean.

I'd let you share my fries,

But now I feel so unclean.
posted by not_on_display at 6:23 PM on March 31

just to vent it here, then, some I'm way tired of (not so much here, but here too):
I, for one, welcome our new ___________
Am I the only one who___________ ?
EVAR.
Get off my lawn...
but that's probably because I'm on the net way too much
posted by dawson at 6:23 PM on March 31

But it's one thing to be vocally frustrated and another altogether to actually delete comments.

Yeah, only one will actually make people think twice about posting a tired, unoriginal meme that has long since stopped making anyone laugh.
posted by 23skidoo at 6:35 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

I do hate it when one of the first comments in a thread is a total derail, and every comment after that responds to the derail, instead of the content of post. Derail successful.

If someone else's comment is deleted, it's a snarky derail. If it's mine, it's a humorous, but misunderstood, gem.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 6:36 PM on March 31

I delete hundreds of comments every day.
I've got Metafilter: The Home Version.
posted by Dizzy at 6:40 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

See?
posted by Dizzy at 6:41 PM on March 31

It's about goddamn time, is all I can say. Listen to what I say now to predict moderation policy in a year or two.

It was amusing hearing Matt complaining about a thread derail after a comment he made, though. When has that not happened, as often as not?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:46 PM on March 31

the other day he/she/they deleted my 'this will not wendell' comment in a thread which was itself subsequently deleted.
posted by quonsar at 6:55 PM on March 31

"Meh." is the one I can't stand. It's the Metafilter snark equivalent of "First Post!".
posted by Gary at 6:59 PM on March 31

just to vent it here, then, some I'm way tired of (not so much here, but here too):
I, for one, welcome our new ___________
Am I the only one who___________ ?
EVAR.
Get off my lawn...
but that's probably because I'm on the net way too much

You forgot "Want/Do not want", and "special snowflake". But there are rare occasions when those hackneyed catchphrases are appropriate and/or make me laugh. A while ago I favorited someone's "do not want" comment in a thread about the skydiving cat (its owner would strap it to his chest and go skydiving).

While we're at it, slashes can be pretty annoying, although I'm guilty of using way too many myself.
posted by Devils Slide at 7:02 PM on March 31

I, for one, welcome our new tired-meme deletion policy.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:03 PM on March 31 [4 favorites]

While we're at it, can we add "does not own a television" to the profile page? Then people don't have to mention it in every single post about a tv show?
posted by Gary at 7:05 PM on March 31 [3 favorites]

Can we have an option on the profile page where we can specify the age of our TV? Mine's from 1987.
posted by the dief at 7:14 PM on March 31

Why don't we just delete everything two seconds after it goes up? It'd save a lot of wear and tear on the moderators, and would be a little more egalitarian.
posted by Dave Faris at 7:15 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

While we're at it, can we add "does not own a television" to the profile page? Then people don't have to mention it in every single post about a tv show?

Ha! I love that!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:20 PM on March 31

While we're at it, can we add "does not own a television" to the profile page?

I actually got rid of my profile page a long time ago, and, honestly, I've never looked back. I found I was spending all this time writing clever stuff on it, but I really wasn't learning anything. I mean, sure I might write my name on a piece of paper or in an article I write, but really there's just so much more out there than profile pages.
posted by !Jim at 7:21 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

I see the need for this, but I have to say, nothing will ever compare in blissful surreality to the first few months I spent actually reading the comments here. I had never heard a single one of these jokes before, and I thought people were just making them up on the spot--due to the fact that they were unhinged! It was great. It was like the weirdest novel I'd ever read, sweated out in real time by 100% lunatics.
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 7:28 PM on March 31 [9 favorites]

While we're at it, can we add "does not own a television" to the profile page?

And some way to show off our 'carbon footprint'? That would be soooooo cool, dudes.
posted by dawson at 7:33 PM on March 31

jessamyn owes me. Big time.

Consider it payback for the profile mass email FIFUCKINGASCO that I had to deal with. See? Now we're friends.

I've been deleting a few early thread-shitting remarks but not really anything too major.
posted by jessamyn at 7:36 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

Now if somebody would just do something about the bad puns.
posted by signal at 7:36 PM on March 31

I give it up to the old grease, it just tastes so much better than new grease, doesn't it?

I see the futility of trying to share fries with people now. But please, can't I have just one? They look so hot and tasty.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:41 PM on March 31

"Now if somebody would just do something about the bad puns.
posted by signal"

Or invent some sort of ratio for the amount of noise in a given thread...
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:53 PM on March 31

My "Is this a women born women thread" I thought was a harmless joke in the "The Babysitters" thread.

I prefer to be able to joke in threads, and to read jokes, rather than treat metafilter with the solemnity of a church service or university lecture.

Moderation is fine, but I think once again the pendulum has swung to excessive moderation that is too reminiscent of a being "shush!"ed in a library.
posted by orthogonality at 7:58 PM on March 31 [3 favorites]

"the wild-and-crazy ikkyu2"

i say let the wild and crazy ikkyu2 run free! All the selfless-service he gives to this place, while coping with a doctor's workload? Dude deserves a round of applause. And a bottle of Bollinger.
posted by vronsky at 8:06 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

Now if somebody would just do something about the bad puns.

We also need to do something about the padded buns. Have you seen the size of some people's arses lately?
posted by meehawl at 8:06 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

Shouldn't you be helping katillathehun get the servers working again?
posted by Gary at 8:16 PM on March 31

I make silly jokes all the time, but haven't noticed any deletions. I'm guessing that the comments that do get the hook have it coming either for being offensive derail-bait, or, far more damningly, being even less funny than mine.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:19 PM on March 31

You've had exactly one comment deleted from the blue, in 2005. Your track record for snarky throwaway comments on the green, now...

Wait, there's a running total of our deleted comments somewhere? I don't suppose we could get a, uh, a top 10? :)
posted by spiderwire at 8:22 PM on March 31

I am very happy that the pointless one-liners are being deleted more (if that is the case). I went on a flagging spree in a MeFi thread the other night, but to be honest I can't even remember what the link was because there was so much pointless snarking and derailing there was hardly any meaningful conversation. (After a while I gave up and went offline because I knew it was futile and it made me grumpy.)

I'm also really irritated by people who jump into commenting without having read the link, whether they admit it or not, but particularly when they don't admit it. The "Hezbollah Tofu" thread was incredibly frustrating for that reason -- clearly a lot of the HURF DURF MEAT EATERs hadn't read the blog being linked or else they'd have immediately noticed that it wasn't simply sanctimonious vegan preaching but was actually very tongue-in-cheek and thoughtful.
posted by loiseau at 8:25 PM on March 31

or, far more damningly, being even less funny than mine.

From Matt's comment it sounded like it was more to do with them being tired, overused one-liners than an individual rating of how funny the jokes are. He hasn't made Statler and Waldorf mods yet.
posted by Gary at 8:27 PM on March 31

Yay! This is great. I hate hate hate jumping into a thread that actually looks interesting and seeing some twerp derail the first 20+ comments by snarking about how this thread is obviously going to go downhill fast. Like yay, thank you for the self-fulfilling prophecy asshole. (And you can't even call them out about it cause that's just playing the same damn game.)

Oh and Dizzy? Hell yes. I hate that meme even more than the derailing snark. (Ok, so I guess I'm just a carton of hate today... what can I say?)
posted by aspo at 8:35 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

Yay! This is great. I hate hate hate jumping into a thread that actually looks interesting and seeing some twerp derail the first 20+ comments by snarking about how this thread is obviously going to go downhill fast. Like yay, thank you for the self-fulfilling prophecy asshole. (And you can't even call them out about it cause that's just playing the same damn game.)

Me too, I wholeheartedly support things to prevent this kind of crap on the blue. I especially hate it when the jackasses who show up first decide it's going to get deleted because, having read the link titles, they've decided it won't go well. So I go and read the article and come back for the commentary to find it's full of "FRIST SNARK!!!1one" type crap.
posted by !Jim at 8:42 PM on March 31

From Matt's comment it sounded like it was more to do with them being tired, overused one-liners than an individual rating of how funny the jokes are.

I was providing a counter-point to folks who might imagine that this policy represents a War On Humour. And actually, a fresh, underused one-liner would be funny, and probably fare better as a result.

He hasn't made Statler and Waldorf mods yet.
*Cough* *Kaff*</a
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:51 PM on March 31

I went on a flagging spree

To add some balance, sprees aren't really totally helpful either. I mean, please flag what you think is flaggable, but when we see 5-10 flags in a row by a single user (or 15-20) we'll be more inclined to assume they may be having a bad day. For MeFi we really pay attention to comments that attract more than one or two flags, for AskMe we'll often pop in to see what's up even if there's just one.

And yeah, the Babysitters thread? It had two comments removed that I saw, one of which was the "women born women" comment which linked to a current MeFi trainwreck thread and didn't make sense as a joke unless you'd been reading that thread (and if you did go read that thread it was an awful lot of nastiness), and the other which made a joke about calling the subject of the blog a whore (ironically, I'm sure. it's possible there was some subtlety I missed there).

I think yesterday I removed an "I M A FAG!!!!!!!" joke comment on MeFi and I'm not sure what else. I don't feel there's been much more of an uptick in removing anything except early thread-shitting and the same old ad hominem derail stuff that has always gone away. Matt says he's been removing some early "wendell" type jokes but I don't think otherwise there's any snarky/jokey kibosh.
posted by jessamyn at 8:51 PM on March 31

What ^^they^^ said.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:52 PM on March 31

Actually I think zapping the early "this thread will suck" stuff is kind of a good thing.

And you can't even call them out about it cause that's just playing the same damn game.

That aspect is annoying too.
posted by Artw at 8:54 PM on March 31

jessamyn: I went on a flagging spree

To add some balance, sprees aren't really totally helpful either. I mean, please flag what you think is flaggable, but when we see 5-10 flags in a row by a single user (or 15-20) we'll be more inclined to assume they may be having a bad day.

Oh yeah. I know -- that's why I just left the site. It was just an exercise in futility.

Sometimes it bugs me when I want to discuss the actual topic of the FPP, but there's so much derailing and GYOB-worthy chit-chat it seems off-topic to post on-topic. So I don't bother.
posted by loiseau at 9:05 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

I know I went on a flag jag in the America the Resilient thread. The first 3 comments were pure derail, then there were a couple comments about the link, then found_missing came back to keep the derail up by joking about people that were discussing the link were in fact derailing the thread. I mean, come on. That was just bad faith snark. I'm sure the jokers thought it was purely hilarious, and would argue stridently that they were in fact, on topic, based on the way the OP phrased his post, but we all know that his intent wasn't to discuss whether or not the article he linked was, in fact, the lead article in Foreign Affairs Magazine. The majority of early comments in that thread were derails. Gave up after that.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:08 PM on March 31

Just to say it - this is why I love the MeFi moderation mechanics. I myself have had several posts deleted. After being bummed about it for a few minutes, I understood, and was fine with it.

Also, the other day I had a first comment in a thread, which very easily could've been interpreted as noise or JamesTaylor-ist, as someone recently put it, but wasn't meant that way. It wasn't deleted, because (presumably) the mods know the site and the contexts well enough.

Similarly, my friend, a new member, today FPP'ed something with the "I, for one" meme in it. As soon as I saw it I IM'ed him to warn him that Matt actually hates that shit. He worried about it, saying that he'd just seen it around the boards a lot. I doubt that the meme alone would have made the FPP subject for deletion, but I like to think that the mods looked at the fact that the user was still green and let it slide.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:40 PM on March 31

While we're at it, can we add "does not own a television" to the profile page? Then people don't have to mention it in every single post about a tv show?

Obligatory Onion link
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:47 PM on March 31

....err...

here
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:50 PM on March 31

An additional tickbox for "Does not like Sarah Silverman" would be handy too.
posted by Artw at 9:50 PM on March 31

I like MetaFilter, the good, the bad, the funny, the not. If there is a lot of moderation going on (and there must, 70,000+ hands in the cookie jar) it's very good moderation.

There's all this "metafilter is on the decline" talk going around. I don't see anything declining. The "best of the web" is totally subjective and the best thing about this site is being able to bring something forward and let people have at it. Sure, it's not for the weak-hearted, I cringe everytime someone posts "it's my first be gentle" because, well, people are critical creatures and snark is going to happen, but there's also going to be the others who see the post just as cool as the poster sees it. I know I don't always click "favorite" or say something positive about every post, but I appreciate the fact that someone has brought all this new information to me.

There's going to be noise. It's a big world and it's crowded. Pay attention though, and it's all worth it.

Thank you MeFi, some of you feel like family, a big pool of independent thinkers that bounce ideas off each other. It's great.

Thank you Matt, Jessamyn and Cortex.
posted by M Edward at 10:07 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]

Navelgazer
To be honest, even when just looking for it, yr friends post didn't jump out at me. I hadn't read it and just want to clarify that I wasn't snarking at him, or anyone in particular. Not that you insinuated that I was, of course.
posted by dawson at 10:10 PM on March 31

As to the "get off my lawn" jokes and such, they are to a substaintial degree metafilter's lawn.

Now, maybe we do not all need to get off it, but maybe we should not all stand on it at the same time?
posted by vrakatar at 10:37 PM on March 31

Does anyone read the comments down here?
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:58 PM on March 31

i do.
posted by jacalata at 11:14 PM on March 31

we all do.
posted by mathowie at 11:25 PM on March 31 [1 favorite]

And i do too.
posted by taz at 11:28 PM on March 31

I speed read. Sometimes I skim lightly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:30 PM on March 31

I don't. And I'd never comment this late in a thread either. It would be pointless.
posted by MrMustard at 11:52 PM on March 31

No.
posted by telstar at 12:31 AM on April 1

Sorry to break the /19 injoke with a question, but how do you know if your comment has been deleted? (Besides, of course, the overwhelming since of shame that comes over you regardless of where you may be when THE MODS hit THE BUTTON.)
posted by Faux Real at 1:28 AM on April 1

Because it's not there any more. Sometimes, apparently, the mods send you an email about it to explain, depending on the self-evidentness of the deletion and your relative noobitude.
posted by jacalata at 2:00 AM on April 1

I have to secretly confess that I like those types of comments. Sometimes it's just so apropos.

Yeah, but most of the time, it isn't funny, just more injoke lameness. I like funny. I want more funny. Most of these types of comments are no longer funny and remind me of 10 year olds flinging poop jokes back and forth.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:24 AM on April 1

Aw man, there goes my bread and butter.
posted by chillmost at 3:09 AM on April 1

I think that 10 year olds telling poop jokes is pretty funny myself.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:49 AM on April 1 [1 favorite]

Am I the only one who welcomes our new popcorn off my lawn wendell, EVAR?
posted by waraw at 4:00 AM on April 1

Is that something I'd need a broom to not want (ftfy)
posted by cortex at 4:05 AM on April 1

I do.

[NOT J AUSTINIST]
posted by Wolof at 4:16 AM on April 1

And so he hurfed... and he durfed... and the big bad snark blew the whole thread down!

So mathowie went running to jessamyn's barn, and found all of MetaFilter living under it. But jessamyn's barn was made of wit, and much much stronger that mathowie's apartment, which was made of good will and bicycle parts.

The next day there was a knock on the door.

"Meh!" said the snark! "Let me in!"

and so on. "Get off my lawn!" someone else said. You get the point. Good comedy doesn't just happen before 8:00, at least not well-thought-out comedy, not around here.
posted by not_on_display at 4:18 AM on April 1 [2 favorites]

no. obviously.
posted by de at 4:29 AM on April 1

This thread is USELESS without injokes.
posted by konolia at 4:45 AM on April 1 [2 favorites]

^no. obviously.

Wait... ummm... uhhhhm... Lemme try this:

Metafilter: I need more coffee, stop looking at me.

dag. that wasn't even a quote from anything. I need to step away.
posted by not_on_display at 4:53 AM on April 1

You know, that link to the old Cat-Scan first MetaFilter post, and it occurs to me that it says "We really don't need to see Fluffy's junk up close and personal", which is a far earlier occurence of the term 'junk' to mean 'genitals' than I would have thought.

Is THIS Cat-Scan's lasting legacy?? PLEASE ADVISE!
posted by dirtdirt at 5:39 AM on April 1

Dude deserves a round of applause. And a bottle of Bollinger.

I agree, but there's something I have to know: did you pick Bollinger because of its very distinctive taste, or because the word goes so well with "bottle"? Those are both good reasons, but it's important to my sense of the universe to know which is applicable.

Also: ZIPPITY BOP!
posted by languagehat at 5:44 AM on April 1

What was the first MeFi injoke? I remember IT'S ICE CREAM DAY!!! was pretty early on. The camera thing too.
posted by iconomy at 5:51 AM on April 1

Whatever happened with that camera thing? Can you still do that, or did they patch the security hole that allowed you to move the cameras around?
posted by LarryC at 6:21 AM on April 1

Oh wait, I am confusing two different things. What I meant was that post that allowed us to get into security cams around the world, see the images, and even move the cameras around. Whatever happened with that?
posted by LarryC at 6:25 AM on April 1

Pot of jam to you good sir! And bottle of beer!
posted by vronsky at 6:31 AM on April 1

MetaFilter: made of good will and bicycle parts

Come on, that was worth it, right?
posted by Rock Steady at 6:34 AM on April 1 [1 favorite]

Good post, but... what else you got?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:38 AM on April 1

Hey, let's take it a step further. Close the accounts of everyone except Matt, Jessamyn, and cortex! That way, the mods will never, ever have to put up with anyting they don't like!

Heavy-handed comment deletion is bullshit, and it's hurting Metafilter.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:47 AM on April 1 [1 favorite]

[A few comments deleted. Please keep snarky comments out of the gray. If you've a problem with the site administrators, take it to Ask Metafilter. Love, Jessamyn]
posted by seanyboy at 6:57 AM on April 1 [4 favorites]

We need a new note above the comment textarea: "Note: you're less than 10% as funny as you think you are."
posted by signal at 6:57 AM on April 1 [1 favorite]

Heavy-handed comment deletion is bullshit, and it's hurting Metafilter.

Very slightly less light-handed comment deletion, you mean. We haven't gone hardcore, we've raised the bar a touch, mainly for the laziest of the lazy and the shittiest of the shitty comments that people use to fuck up threads. While we may just fundamentally disagree on this, I consider habitually shitting noise into threads to be a bit worse for Metafilter than cleaning some of it up.
posted by cortex at 7:03 AM on April 1

I for one am glad to see more moderation. Thank you to Matt, Cortex, pb, Jessamyn.
posted by gen at 7:15 AM on April 1

Unlike, say, the img tag, snarky one-liners can't be turned off. That means discretion's involved in deciding which stay and which go. Deleting the bad ones is cool.

Too bad the same can't be done with images, but that's a different nut to pinch.

I had an answer deleted from AskMe the other day. I'd love to say my comment was an honest mistake, but I'd be lying if I did. I said before I wouldn't fuck around, but I never made good marks in "Exercises Self-Control."

I gotta say, though, having something deleted makes me a more conscientious commenter. The shame, you know?

Sorry about the joke. I'll try harder. If I can't, I just won't post. That's what I call self-policing.
posted by breezeway at 7:21 AM on April 1 [1 favorite]

I for one am glad to see more moderation. Thank you to Matt, Cortex, pb, Jessamyn.

Same here.
posted by languagehat at 7:53 AM on April 1

I for one am glad to see more moderation.

I'm really not. I'd prefer it if nothing were deleted, but that people had a little more self-control and didn't post some of that stuff in the first place. But I see this as a necessary evil if it helps prevent some of the automatic haterz early in the thread, which are probably hurting Metafilter even more.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:02 AM on April 1

I've been trying lately to keep myself on topic, and I've got to say, it's harder than it looks. There are times when something in a thread strikes a chord in my head and I just want to run with it.

I've been trying to repress that. Unfortunately, sometimes I fail.
posted by quin at 8:32 AM on April 1

I think yesterday I removed an "I M A FAG!!!!!!!" joke comment on MeFi
Said joke was a riff on the topic of the post, for what it's worth.
posted by bonaldi at 8:48 AM on April 1

Please stop sterilizing Mefi of all its snarky charm. It's becoming too much like NPR meets the Well here.
posted by bunnytricks at 8:49 AM on April 1 [2 favorites]

I'm all for well-crafted snark, but posts that are basically the equivallent of "FIRST!!!!" with an element of thread-shitting are fair game.
posted by Artw at 8:52 AM on April 1

Stop hurting MetaFilter!
posted by WalterMitty at 9:15 AM on April 1

cortex is an admin? I've been away too long and nobody tells me anything anyway.
posted by fixedgear at 11:26 AM on April 1

Heh. Welcome back.
posted by cortex at 11:40 AM on April 1

I don't mind moderation, as long as it's in moderation.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 12:07 PM on April 1

I came down here to say that I heartily approve of - well, not an iron fist, but perhaps a fist that is made of slightly sturdier styrofoam than it used to be. But then my eyes started bleeding from the background color, and my officemate was forced to finish this post for me, since I was then rushed to the emergency room.

THANKS, METAFILTER!
posted by UKnowForKids at 12:09 PM on April 1

I came down here to say that I heartily approve of - well, not an iron fist, but perhaps..."

Brass? You're thinking brass, aren't you?
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 3:09 PM on April 1

you can go home again, but you can't stay here. last call and all.
sometimes I do kinda wish there were a separate threaded type thing that everyone could go shit in, cause shitting is pleasant for the shiter, even if, upon shitting, the shiter wishes he has not shat in that particular place.
posted by dawson at 6:26 PM on April 1

had
posted by dawson at 6:28 PM on April 1

Please stop sterilizing Mefi of all its snarky charm. It's becoming too much like NPR meets the Well here.

Warmed-over monkey shit. Removing dimwit kneejerk injokes and dead-horse catchphrases and slapping wrists for lazy stupidity is not 'sterilizing'. Be as snarky as you goddamn well want, just don't commit the cardinal sins of being boring or dumb or both, and all will be well.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:51 PM on April 1 [2 favorites]

Please stop sterilizing Mefi of all its snarky charm.

That's not what's happening, and it's downright weird that someone could get to the bottom of this thread - especially after this comment - and think that it is. Charming snark isn't getting deleted. All in-jokes aren't getting deleted. What's getting deleted is bullshit, like rushing into a controversial thread or one that's sparked a trainwreck in the past only to post a prediction of another trainwreck. It's that part of "this will wendell" that's getting it deleted, not the fact that it's an in-joke.
posted by mediareport at 6:58 PM on April 1

Shitting is pleasant for the shiter, even if, upon shitting, the shiter wishes he has not shat in that particular place - dawson

Nothing should ever be done that should be done. It has to come out like a good hot beer shit. A good hot beer shit is glorious man, you get up, you turn around, you look at it, you're proud, the fumes, the stink of the turds, you look at it, you say God I did it. I'm good. Then you flush it away. Then there's that sense of sadness, and just the water is there. It's like writing a good poem. You just do it. It's a beer shit. It's nothing to analyze. There's nothing to say. It's just done. - Charles Bukowski
posted by The Bellman at 9:13 AM on April 2

Bukowski has gotten me through a lot of dark nights...
posted by dawson at 9:53 AM on April 2