a new kind of selflink

August 6, 2002 10:33 AM

Posting a link to a couple of paragraphs that talk about you is an entirely new subspecies of self link. Join me, and together we can smother it in infancy.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 10:33 AM (28 comments total)

*grabs popcorn, hunkers down*
This is gonna be goooood...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:35 AM on August 6, 2002

This topic is already being MetaTalked to death in another thread and in the MetaFilter thread itself. But I'm surprised to see it live on.

Calling people's attention to the places you are being talked about is the reason the personal weblog was invented. Doing it on a community weblog is like submitting your new baby's pictures to Slashdot because you run Red Hat Linux.
posted by rcade at 10:39 AM on August 6, 2002

Oh, this is so not necessary. Miguel and mathowie both agreed that the post would've been better put in MetaTalk, and Matt even said it would have been a "perfect Metatalk thread". However, since the discussion is still going on where it was placed, Matt also agreed the post should stay where it is.

Knock off the gratuitous Miguel-bashing: that's in itself something which should be smothered.

"I did not speak up when they came after Miguel; when they came for me, there was no one to speak up for me" or some such.
posted by yhbc at 10:40 AM on August 6, 2002

Already in discussion here and here

Another thread needed?

y2karl: If you're around, maybe you want to stick the kettle on. I think some folks will be needing a cup... ;-)
posted by i_cola at 10:40 AM on August 6, 2002

Another thread needed?

No, but I didn't realize it was being discussed so much in another MetaTalk thread. Calling this "Miguel bashing" is a stretch.
posted by rcade at 10:48 AM on August 6, 2002

Its both a self-link and a double post. We already discussed the damn subject into pointlessness. And not only that, but Miguel has actually double posted hisself.

"Knock off the gratuitous Miguel-bashing: that's in itself something which should be smothered."

Your kidding right? The only interesting part of the post (in my mind - and I don't know why anyone would care) is that this person has gotten an idea that the site is, in fact, MiguelFilter. I'm sure that's an honest mistake; but if this isn't all about Miguel, then what *is* it about?
posted by y6y6y6 at 10:57 AM on August 6, 2002

y6y6y6, if it had been anyone else posting, on MetaFilter, a link to a website in which a thread he or she started a while back was being discussed, I don't think there would be three separate expressions of outrage - there would likely be one, in MeTa, noting that perhaps this would be better suited for a discussion in MetaTalk, after which mathowie would quietly delete the MeFi post and all would be copacetic. Because it was Miguel, though, hackles were raised throughout the globe, and the by-now predictable howling commenced. "There he goes again!" "He's ruining MetaFilter!" My point is that these types of things are just as off-putting and likely to turn casual or new visitors away from further participation than the actual "crime", when there is one.
posted by yhbc at 11:10 AM on August 6, 2002

I'm sure that's an honest mistake;

Bah! Don't they have sub-editors over at Knucklerap?
posted by soundofsuburbia at 11:11 AM on August 6, 2002

"if it had been anyone else [...] I don't think there would be three separate expressions of outrage"

Excellent. I agree. But I'm somehow missing the logic of your assertion that we should stop talking about something *because* so many people are worked up about it.

[sorry...... I'm shutting up now...... No more...... I promise.....]
posted by y6y6y6 at 11:17 AM on August 6, 2002

Knucklerap is full of copy editors. Can't they get a fact checker?

on preview: what soundofsuburbia said too
posted by zpousman at 11:17 AM on August 6, 2002

hey, i_cola, I got a new one--just as applicable!
posted by y2karl at 11:19 AM on August 6, 2002

*deep breath*

Actually I felt comfortable about posting the link precisely because the editor of Knucklerap, apart from mistakenly thinking MetaFilter was my website, doesn't mention my contributions to that thread. She singles out for praise and comment nicwolff, riviera, juvenal and others.

It was a follow-up to a MetaFilter thread. It could have been posted to the actual thread (still open but just about to be closed); posted to MetaFilter or posted to MetaTalk.
Matt pointed out that this was the place to post it, as it's here we collect mentions and references to MetaFilter. I thought about it and agreed completely. I even wondered whether it could be transferred. Then Matt said it was OK for it to continue on MeFi and even contributed a funny comment of his own.

Knucklerap is a wonderful little website (I found it on the Arts and Letters Daily "Recommended" list) and its praise of MetaFilter is a reason to be proud. It's not every day posters here are praised, by a grammarian, for their skills. The thread was positive - people collaborated to rescue a difficult sentence and, according to editor Lauren Weiner, succeeded admirably.

And that's it, as far as I'm concerned.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:19 AM on August 6, 2002

If you want to make this about Miguel, yhbc, I think we can play that game. I'll bring the tar if someone else will bring the feathers.

However, the reason I began this thread is because I don't think "look what someone said about me" is a valid reason to post something on the front page. I'd feel the same way regardless of who posted the link.
posted by rcade at 11:20 AM on August 6, 2002

Ah, but would you have phrased the post the way you did? ;)

I really think it's now a non-issue. All the relevant parties now agree the thread was worthwhile, but that it should have been put in MetaTalk to begin with - in fact, that point was agreed upon a while ago now. That's enough resolution for me, and it really should do for everyone else.
posted by yhbc at 11:31 AM on August 6, 2002

Ah, but would you have phrased the post the way you did?

Yes.
posted by rcade at 11:36 AM on August 6, 2002

I think it's fairly safe to say that Metafilter is fast becoming one of the most self-absorbed sites on the net.
posted by crunchland at 11:36 AM on August 6, 2002

Self-absorbed, perfect for those spills aorund the home.

Try new metafilter, for those self-absorbed moments.
posted by johnnyboy at 12:32 PM on August 6, 2002

Is self absorbed a split affinitive?,........ miguel.
posted by johnnyboy at 12:33 PM on August 6, 2002

!S??¥lI suppose another option would have been to first email the Knucklerap people, wait for them to make the correction, and then, once your name was purged from the page, post the link to MeFi/MeTa. But would the posting have been as exciting then?
posted by gluechunk at 1:16 PM on August 6, 2002

crunchland: I think it's fairly safe to say that Metafilter is fast becoming one of the most self-absorbed sites on the net.

becoming?! It doesn't appear that there's even a challenger...
posted by m.polo at 1:23 PM on August 6, 2002

Posting a link to a couple of paragraphs that talk about you is an entirely new subspecies of self link. Join me, and together we can smother it in infancy.

More banal barking from the below the distal tib-fib...
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:35 PM on August 6, 2002

if it had been anyone else posting, on MetaFilter, a link to a website in which a thread he or she started a while back was being discussed, I don't think there would be three separate expressions of outrage

I think the point of all the outrage is that it's becoming clear to a lot of members that it wouldn't have been anyone else posting. He's got a track record for doing this sort of thing now.
posted by toddshot at 1:39 PM on August 6, 2002

I think the point of all the outrage is that it's becoming clear to a lot of members that it wouldn't have been anyone else posting

A lot of members or the few that post here regularly?

I for one liked the post, Miguel or not.
It was the post that was worthwhile.


posted by ginz at 2:39 PM on August 6, 2002

Oh, stop having a go at rcade. To quote another excellent poster, it is not good to be "bucking the whole "self-policing" idea", so rcade should be supported in his efforts.

Discussion in MeTa is not by definition pants-wetting or pedantry or rambling, and rcade certainly gets a thumbs up for me for pointing out instances of threadcrime.
posted by wackybrit at 6:36 PM on August 6, 2002

"I did not speak up when they came after Miguel; when they came for me, there was no one to speak up for me" or some such.

good show yhbc! let's equate the trials and tribulations of miguel to the holocaust!

*i* haven't gotten that tasteless, but goddamn, i'm gonna work on it...
posted by jcterminal at 8:51 PM on August 6, 2002

Godwin.

Bye!
posted by yhbc at 9:12 PM on August 6, 2002

threadcrime

Nice term; horrible, horrible concept.
posted by rushmc at 9:36 PM on August 6, 2002

MetaFilter is just the new Ministry of Truth ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 10:47 AM on August 7, 2002