Anonymous Bursts

May 16, 2005 7:16 AM

Why do anonymous posts seem to come in bursts on AskMeFi? It seems that more often than not, 3 or 4 anonymous questions pop up in a row (for instance: today 1, 2, 3) Do anonymous questions sit in an approval queue before being posted to the main site, or is this phenomena purely coincidental?
posted by nitsuj to Etiquette/Policy at 7:16 AM (16 comments total)

*Actually, my "for instance" happened yesterday, but the group is still on the main page.
posted by nitsuj at 7:19 AM on May 16, 2005

Do anonymous questions sit in an approval queue before being posted to the main site

Yes. All anonymous questions are approved by Matt and his associates before they get posted.
posted by ashbury at 7:21 AM on May 16, 2005

Drive safely!
posted by soyjoy at 7:27 AM on May 16, 2005

Gotcha, ashbury, thanks! I figured it had to be something like that.
posted by nitsuj at 7:41 AM on May 16, 2005

PS

"Matt and his associates" in this case is Matt only. And yes, Matt - and only Matt - can see which user posted which anon question.
posted by raedyn at 8:40 AM on May 16, 2005

Yes. All anonymous questions are approved by Matt and his associates before they get posted.

I can't find the comment right now, but Matt has said in the past that he and only he sees the anonymous questions.
posted by anastasiav at 8:44 AM on May 16, 2005

Yeah, for the record, I don't see the anonymous queue at all and don't approve any of the posts, it's all Matt.
posted by jessamyn at 10:07 AM on May 16, 2005

Does anyone know if questioners are anonymous to Matt himself? Are the names obfuscated before it even goes to him for approval?

Or is it more mattonymous?
posted by scarabic at 11:18 AM on May 16, 2005

It's mattonymous, though interestingly it doesn't seem to check if you're an actual MeFi user before you can post anonymously [I recall a recent post where the poster got an account so they could reply to comments in their AnonyMa thread] so I'm not sure if you have to give real info, etc.
posted by jessamyn at 11:23 AM on May 16, 2005

metafilter: it's all Matt
posted by quonsar at 11:32 AM on May 16, 2005

scarabic - that question was answered 2 comments (& 2.5 hours) before you asked it.
posted by raedyn at 11:38 AM on May 16, 2005

Anybody with access to the server logs will be able to determine the identity of someone accessing the site (say, matching IP addresses and/or usage times). I wouldn't assume you have privacy regardless of how he's set up the queue.
posted by dhartung at 12:31 PM on May 16, 2005

jessamyn - That person bought a new account to keep it separate from their real name, which is there usual MeFi account. assuming, of course, we're talking about the same thread
posted by raedyn at 12:47 PM on May 16, 2005

got it, my bad, I had just skimmed that thread. thanks for setting me straight.
posted by jessamyn at 3:32 PM on May 16, 2005

scarabic - that question was answered 2 comments (& 2.5 hours) before you asked it.

I can see how you think that, but really, if you look at what it says, the only point that's actually clarified is that only Matt approves the anonymous questions, as opposed to Jessamyn or "his associates." It doesn't say specifically whether Matt sees who the submitters were by name. But gee, thanks anyway.
posted by scarabic at 10:17 PM on May 16, 2005

"Matt and his associates" in this case is Matt only. And yes, Matt - and only Matt - can see which user posted which anon question.
posted by raedyn at 8:40 AM PST on May 16 [!]
posted by mek at 5:02 AM on May 17, 2005