Ask Me Anoymous October 12, 2004 12:02 PM Subscribe
With all the recent talk of Anonymous Questions on AskMe, I thought I'd learn me some php, and create a supplementary website where people can pose anonymous questions to be asked on AskMe by the more brazen metafilter members. I guess that this falls under the "Don't self link" rule, so I hope you'll forgive the intrusion.
Introducing: Ask Me Anonymous
Introducing: Ask Me Anonymous
After answering a question, don't forget to click on the delete link.
What's that about? Is each question supposed to get only one response?
posted by languagehat at 12:18 PM on October 12, 2004
What's that about? Is each question supposed to get only one response?
posted by languagehat at 12:18 PM on October 12, 2004
I clicked delete when I didn't mean to...(and by that, I mean I thought "ooh, delete, naughty, me go clicky...oops")
posted by Orange Goblin at 12:21 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by Orange Goblin at 12:21 PM on October 12, 2004
I had to say something in the format of an anonymous question about your deletion of my anonymous question.
posted by Peter H at 12:27 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by Peter H at 12:27 PM on October 12, 2004
Remember, other metafilter members may not be able to see who you are, but I can. When asking a question, your IP Address will be logged. If the man wants me to give him any information about you, then I will. -- from the "Ask Me Anonymous" boilerplate
Is this some new definition of anonymous that I'm unfamiliar with? At least my ISP usually waits until they get a DMCA order before they narc me to the man/Man!
posted by filmgoerjuan at 12:40 PM on October 12, 2004
Is this some new definition of anonymous that I'm unfamiliar with? At least my ISP usually waits until they get a DMCA order before they narc me to the man/Man!
posted by filmgoerjuan at 12:40 PM on October 12, 2004
so anonymous people can delete other anonymous people's questions, no questions asked? Remind me how is this good again?
posted by terrapin at 12:46 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by terrapin at 12:46 PM on October 12, 2004
I'm guessing that serious questions won't be deleted (misplaced faith in humanity and all), but if this isn't the case, then I'll add a feature where questions can't be deleted unless they're more than a certain age.
As for waiting for #1 to do it. Hopefully, he still will. I just saw this as a fun project / stopgap thing.
posted by seanyboy at 12:46 PM on October 12, 2004
As for waiting for #1 to do it. Hopefully, he still will. I just saw this as a fun project / stopgap thing.
posted by seanyboy at 12:46 PM on October 12, 2004
The IP Address thing is just to let people know that it's anonymous only as far as the other MeFi members go. I haven't the technical know how to work out who's who, so you're pretty safe.
Your ISP has more money than me, so can afford to be a bit more tight re privacy. As it isn't a bomb making forum, I see no problem with giving in easily. 7/10 ISP's will actually give away your info at the slightest whiff of legal action. I'm just stating the fact up front.
posted by seanyboy at 12:51 PM on October 12, 2004
Your ISP has more money than me, so can afford to be a bit more tight re privacy. As it isn't a bomb making forum, I see no problem with giving in easily. 7/10 ISP's will actually give away your info at the slightest whiff of legal action. I'm just stating the fact up front.
posted by seanyboy at 12:51 PM on October 12, 2004
Why can't we just wait for mathowie to implement it here? There's really no rush, is there? I mean before Matt added Ask MeFi we didn't have a place to ask fellow members for advice and help, so let's just wait for Matt.
Hey, similar initiative worked once before, riffy.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:54 PM on October 12, 2004
Hey, similar initiative worked once before, riffy.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:54 PM on October 12, 2004
Remind me how is this good again?
He never said it was good. He just said he did it as a project, as a service to members who choose to take advantage of it.
Now can you remind us all why you feel the need to bitch about it anyway?
posted by bondcliff at 1:36 PM on October 12, 2004
He never said it was good. He just said he did it as a project, as a service to members who choose to take advantage of it.
Now can you remind us all why you feel the need to bitch about it anyway?
posted by bondcliff at 1:36 PM on October 12, 2004
Hey, similar initiative worked once before, riffy.
Precisely.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:48 PM on October 12, 2004
Precisely.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:48 PM on October 12, 2004
Not a bad idea. Are people supposed to get answers in blog comments there, or have someone ask it by proxy on ask metafilter? I don't get how anything gets answered to the anon folks asking questions.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:41 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:41 PM on October 12, 2004
Thanks for creating this, seanyboy. I don't think Matt's ever claimed AskMe has to be the only game in town.
The problem, as Matt suggested, is answering questions. I think the site should be self-contained. The answers should there -- not on AskMe.
If they're on AskMe, then the questioner either has to wait and hope someone else will link to it on AskMe, or he has to link to it himself. If he does that, he'll no longer be anonymous.
The "wait and hope" option is kind of cruel. I'd bet many anon askers will be pretty desparate to get their questions answered. It will be agony waiting and hoping that for some kind soul to mention the question on AskMe.
Also, what should one post on AskMe? "Someone else -- NOT ME -- asked an interesting question..."? Who is going to believe that?
I guess YOU could do it. Once a day, you could post a digest to AskMe of all the questions that had been asked on your site, but that seems like an overly complicated way to do it when you could just let people post answers directly on your site.
In any case, I don't mean to bitch. I'm just offering suggestions. Thanks again for building this!
posted by grumblebee at 2:56 PM on October 12, 2004
The problem, as Matt suggested, is answering questions. I think the site should be self-contained. The answers should there -- not on AskMe.
If they're on AskMe, then the questioner either has to wait and hope someone else will link to it on AskMe, or he has to link to it himself. If he does that, he'll no longer be anonymous.
The "wait and hope" option is kind of cruel. I'd bet many anon askers will be pretty desparate to get their questions answered. It will be agony waiting and hoping that for some kind soul to mention the question on AskMe.
Also, what should one post on AskMe? "Someone else -- NOT ME -- asked an interesting question..."? Who is going to believe that?
I guess YOU could do it. Once a day, you could post a digest to AskMe of all the questions that had been asked on your site, but that seems like an overly complicated way to do it when you could just let people post answers directly on your site.
In any case, I don't mean to bitch. I'm just offering suggestions. Thanks again for building this!
posted by grumblebee at 2:56 PM on October 12, 2004
Also (MAN, I'm bitching a lot for someone who doesn't want to come across as bitching -- sorry), I went to your site a couple of minutes ago, and there were some interesting questions. Now they're gone. So I must add my voice to the others who say that the DELETE option is a problem. I don't share your faith in humanity. Well, I share it about MOST of humity, but all it takes is for one bad apple to press DELETE, DELETE, DELETE... Like those kids who press all the buttons in the elevators.
On the Internet, there'a always one bad apple.
posted by grumblebee at 2:59 PM on October 12, 2004
On the Internet, there'a always one bad apple.
posted by grumblebee at 2:59 PM on October 12, 2004
The "wait and hope" option is kind of cruel.
I dont see why since before this, there was no option. Also, non-mefites can post questions there and get them re-posted to ask.mefi like limepi just did.
This whole process seems easier to manage depending on how users here behave, being cautious and not going into a re-posting frenzy.
posted by vacapinta at 3:01 PM on October 12, 2004
I dont see why since before this, there was no option. Also, non-mefites can post questions there and get them re-posted to ask.mefi like limepi just did.
This whole process seems easier to manage depending on how users here behave, being cautious and not going into a re-posting frenzy.
posted by vacapinta at 3:01 PM on October 12, 2004
I don't think there will be huge numbers of questions that people will feel the need to be anonymous for. It shouldn't be too difficult for people to occasionaly browse the site and post it to AskMefi if it's appropriate. Maybe seanyboy can add an opt in mailing list for people who're willing to post these questions to Ask Metafilter?
posted by substrate at 3:07 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by substrate at 3:07 PM on October 12, 2004
There's already been one question posted.
This really is a great idea. And i'm up for that mailing list idea too--i'll post for anyone, as i've said before.
posted by amberglow at 3:12 PM on October 12, 2004
This really is a great idea. And i'm up for that mailing list idea too--i'll post for anyone, as i've said before.
posted by amberglow at 3:12 PM on October 12, 2004
Email your anonymous, filthy, embarrassing questions to me. I'll post them all on AskMe under my username. I promise to maintain your confidentiality.
Done, and done.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 3:19 PM on October 12, 2004
Done, and done.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 3:19 PM on October 12, 2004
Since questions now appear and disappear so quickly one could, if they so prefer, just post their embarassing question on askmefi and say they saw it on seanyboy's site, and that it isn't their question. (how simple is that?)
posted by Peter H at 3:25 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by Peter H at 3:25 PM on October 12, 2004
You guys are right. I hope something good comes from this.
posted by riffola at 4:06 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by riffola at 4:06 PM on October 12, 2004
non-mefites can post questions there and get them re-posted to ask.mefi like limepi just did.
I don't think there will be huge numbers of questions that people will feel the need to be anonymous for
My question is whether this is going to turn into a way for people without logins to use AskMe? And how is this going to affect people who ask questions that really beg for some follow-up and yet the poster doesn't [can't?] come back to clarify? I'm all for helping answer questions and yet I worry a bit about the lag factor. How will people know their question made it to AskMe? What if they never come back and the answer winds up being "it depends?" We've seen a number of embarassing questions posted by people already and they, more than other types of questions, seem to require follow-up. Under this mechanism, how would this work exactly?
posted by jessamyn at 4:23 PM on October 12, 2004
I don't think there will be huge numbers of questions that people will feel the need to be anonymous for
My question is whether this is going to turn into a way for people without logins to use AskMe? And how is this going to affect people who ask questions that really beg for some follow-up and yet the poster doesn't [can't?] come back to clarify? I'm all for helping answer questions and yet I worry a bit about the lag factor. How will people know their question made it to AskMe? What if they never come back and the answer winds up being "it depends?" We've seen a number of embarassing questions posted by people already and they, more than other types of questions, seem to require follow-up. Under this mechanism, how would this work exactly?
posted by jessamyn at 4:23 PM on October 12, 2004
You know what? I'll code something up tonight that submits anon questions to ask mefi that I can approve.
Seanyboy, I don't want to step on your toes, but it's a worthwhile feature, but having it off-site seems too problematic.
Should be up tonight.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:33 PM on October 12, 2004
Seanyboy, I don't want to step on your toes, but it's a worthwhile feature, but having it off-site seems too problematic.
Should be up tonight.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:33 PM on October 12, 2004
On the easy delete function. I've always been impressed by wikis and how they manage to self organise without adding too much in the way of security, and I'd hoped to replicate that. I've still got hope that after the project settles down, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I think a "recently deleted" page may be an idea, and a "reason for deletion" edit box.
It's not obvious enough that the site is there so people can get metafilter users to post questions onto ask. I'll try and rectify that.
Matt. I apologise if there's a sudden glut of AskMe questions because of this.
I'm hoping that the ability for MeFi members to decide which questions they want to post will add a degree of sanity to the anarchy of it.
I suppose the reason I didn't make it a question and answer forum is because it wouldn't have had the same effect. I definitely wouldn't have posted it here, it wouldn't be attached to the same loyal fantastic question answering readership, and it would have been useless. Plus, I wanted to add/do something for MeFi. Oh, and I don't have the php skillz for that size of project yet.
The biggest flaw I can see is the fact that soon, nobody will know if its been updated. The email digest does seem to be an answer, so I'll do some digging around, and see if I can work out how to do this.
Thanks everybody for the comments. It's all much appreciated.
posted by seanyboy at 4:33 PM on October 12, 2004
It's not obvious enough that the site is there so people can get metafilter users to post questions onto ask. I'll try and rectify that.
Matt. I apologise if there's a sudden glut of AskMe questions because of this.
I'm hoping that the ability for MeFi members to decide which questions they want to post will add a degree of sanity to the anarchy of it.
I suppose the reason I didn't make it a question and answer forum is because it wouldn't have had the same effect. I definitely wouldn't have posted it here, it wouldn't be attached to the same loyal fantastic question answering readership, and it would have been useless. Plus, I wanted to add/do something for MeFi. Oh, and I don't have the php skillz for that size of project yet.
The biggest flaw I can see is the fact that soon, nobody will know if its been updated. The email digest does seem to be an answer, so I'll do some digging around, and see if I can work out how to do this.
Thanks everybody for the comments. It's all much appreciated.
posted by seanyboy at 4:33 PM on October 12, 2004
That's pretty much how AskMe started isn't it?
Hold on, I'm going to go mirror MeFi with the Copyright dates fixed.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:46 PM on October 12, 2004
Hold on, I'm going to go mirror MeFi with the Copyright dates fixed.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:46 PM on October 12, 2004
Wow! Matt, that was quick.
Not quite as quick as your responding to Hackworth last year with the original Ask.Me in 3 hours flat, but still...
P_G: how do we use this to solve the JRun crisis?
posted by dash_slot- at 4:49 PM on October 12, 2004
Not quite as quick as your responding to Hackworth last year with the original Ask.Me in 3 hours flat, but still...
P_G: how do we use this to solve the JRun crisis?
posted by dash_slot- at 4:49 PM on October 12, 2004
Admit it, Matt- it was the anonymous divorced participant's participants uncle's niece question I yanked off the Anonymizer that prompted you to code tonight, isn't it? Hee!
posted by headspace at 5:39 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by headspace at 5:39 PM on October 12, 2004
no headspace, I still haven't a clue what was going on there.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:42 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:42 PM on October 12, 2004
seanyboy, maybe leave yours up too, just in case there are interesting questions that shouldn't go thru just one person making the call whether to post or not?
posted by amberglow at 6:24 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by amberglow at 6:24 PM on October 12, 2004
You know what? I'll code something up tonight that submits anon questions to ask mefi that I can approve.
And now we know the secret to harrying mathowie into ponying up feature requests! Build it yourself!
Thanks, Matt.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:35 PM on October 12, 2004
And now we know the secret to harrying mathowie into ponying up feature requests! Build it yourself!
Thanks, Matt.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:35 PM on October 12, 2004
You know, I'm all for anonymous questions and all that, but my favorite foray into amateur reference seems to have become a bit of a, well, downer lately, hasn't it?
Fortunately Miguel has come through for me.
Seriously though, thanks for the feature and I hope it goes well. Maybe we can have nice things.
posted by stet at 6:49 PM on October 12, 2004
Fortunately Miguel has come through for me.
Seriously though, thanks for the feature and I hope it goes well. Maybe we can have nice things.
posted by stet at 6:49 PM on October 12, 2004
Uh, ok - 1Hr 09mins. New record!
Cheers, mathowie.
posted by dash_slot- at 7:00 PM on October 12, 2004
Cheers, mathowie.
posted by dash_slot- at 7:00 PM on October 12, 2004
The only problem is that anonymous posts appear where they would appear when they were first submitted, rather than when Matt approves them. So, they just pop up in the middle of the page!
I could imagine if they pile up overnight, this could look really messy in the morning...
posted by vacapinta at 9:12 PM on October 12, 2004
I could imagine if they pile up overnight, this could look really messy in the morning...
posted by vacapinta at 9:12 PM on October 12, 2004
You know... if you can now post questions anonymously, you should also be able to answer questions anonymously...
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 9:53 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 9:53 PM on October 12, 2004
Yeah vacapinta, you're right, and I was simply cutting corners to not reset the time to the point at which I approve stuff. I'll get that date update code going.
And yeah, Steve, I'd like to do anon comments too, but that's a bit tougher to manage.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:16 PM on October 12, 2004
And yeah, Steve, I'd like to do anon comments too, but that's a bit tougher to manage.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:16 PM on October 12, 2004
I agree completely, S@L.
I haven't given that much thought until now, but it's suddenly incredibly obvious!
posted by scarabic at 10:19 PM on October 12, 2004
I haven't given that much thought until now, but it's suddenly incredibly obvious!
posted by scarabic at 10:19 PM on October 12, 2004
Hold on, I'm going to go mirror MeFi with the Copyright dates fixed.
ROTFLMAO
posted by rushmc at 10:21 PM on October 12, 2004
ROTFLMAO
posted by rushmc at 10:21 PM on October 12, 2004
Matt, I'm not sure if this is a bug or not but this page seems to show all the questions asked via the Anonymous log-in, not just the approved ones. Question 10884, in particular, seems to show on the user page but not on the actual Green.
posted by anastasiav at 10:31 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by anastasiav at 10:31 PM on October 12, 2004
Wait, maybe I don't. I think some guidelines are in order, and I'm starting a new MeTa thread to open the floor.
There's nothing wrong with the question per se.
But why is it anonymous? Anonymity should be for a reason, or my feeling is that we'll see a gauzy veil of separation between poster identity and posting responsibly start to make AskMe more like Ask Usenet.
posted by mwhybark at 10:37 PM on October 12, 2004
There's nothing wrong with the question per se.
But why is it anonymous? Anonymity should be for a reason, or my feeling is that we'll see a gauzy veil of separation between poster identity and posting responsibly start to make AskMe more like Ask Usenet.
posted by mwhybark at 10:37 PM on October 12, 2004
ok, I fixed it so the timestamps are reset to when I approve them, so they should go up at the top when I set them to post.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:37 PM on October 12, 2004
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:37 PM on October 12, 2004
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I applaud your initiative though.
posted by riffola at 12:17 PM on October 12, 2004