Plastic gets the story all mixed up. May 21, 2001 5:38 PM   Subscribe

buwhahahahahhaha. Plastic gets the story all mixed up.
posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 5:38 PM (28 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Wow, that's not just a little mixed-up, either.
posted by MarkAnd at 5:49 PM on May 21, 2001


Not only is there no listing for a student by the name of Andre Patel at MIT there is no listing for a professor Lieke either.

What I love is that Plastic has it's own dogged, yet less infinitely less capable, investigative team...
posted by fooljay at 5:53 PM on May 21, 2001


Yeah, they're like the short-bus version of metafilter's google-diggers.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:54 PM on May 21, 2001 [1 favorite]


Scooby and Shaggy after some especially bad chronic...
posted by fooljay at 5:58 PM on May 21, 2001


Plastic: The MetaFilter for the rest of you.
posted by anildash at 6:01 PM on May 21, 2001


Humor: It just ain't for Plastic anymore...
posted by fooljay at 6:07 PM on May 21, 2001


Can you really look at Plastic and laugh at how silly their amateur detective work and conspiracy theories look without taking one moment to think about the Kaycee threads here this weekend, and how MetaFilter looked from the outside?
posted by fraying at 6:14 PM on May 21, 2001


Derek, we were just joking. Yes, many posts on MetaFilter seemed like they were at the same level as those linked in this thread. Actually, I think the "confession" came after a mountain of pretty flimsy evidence was brought to light slowly over the course of the first 300 posts. Somewhere during the course of that whole fiasco (around Saturday night) I was convinced it was a hoax and just waited to hear the truth.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:17 PM on May 21, 2001


Um, yes, Derek. Matt's splash page was pretty clearly a joke. Debbie/Kaycee's doing was not clearly not.

In addition, I actually did think (all throughout the weekend) how Metafilter looked from the outside. I didn't post one single response (hard as that is to believe) because I was far too caught up in watching MeFi users play out my college Sociology textbook.
posted by fooljay at 6:22 PM on May 21, 2001


OT: Derek, I sent you an email a while back about sfstories, but apparently my email address was obliterated when I rebuilt my virtmaps. Drop me a line if you would...
posted by fooljay at 6:24 PM on May 21, 2001


Mwahaha! This is pure gold. Infact, -this- should be a bigger story than the original one. Why wasn't this posted to the front page? Scared Plastic might quickly remove their version ;-) (I'll save it just incase)
posted by wackybrit at 6:47 PM on May 21, 2001


Hmmm, on second thought, maybe Plastic isn't so different...

I guess seeing all these people hurt by a hoax made the guy running MetaFilter queasy about duping people, so he decided to pull his site, too.

Hmmm, nevermind...

So does espvivisection == (Judith || Hackworth)
posted by fooljay at 6:48 PM on May 21, 2001


Actually... I wonder if Wired can be convinced to run this false story, a la Plastic.

Then it'll demonstrate how screwed up the media really are. You can never believe anything you see in the press.

Journalists and reporters are so pushed for time nowadays, that they just read a story on a site, take it verbatim, change a few words, and then run it out to the masses.
posted by wackybrit at 6:51 PM on May 21, 2001


this is turning into a game of telephone. the further away from the source, the more bizarre it gets. you couldn't make shit like this up.

ahem, well you could. and then someone would find out and it would just start all over again.

this was the first weekend i didn't watch any television at all. not even the x-files season ender. between metafilter and a project that i'm working on, i was pretty much entertained/enthralled/appalled.
posted by heather-old at 6:59 PM on May 21, 2001


>>>>>Please forward this to all your friends.

The way I heard it, this guy named Matt at MIT killed a girl named Kaycee then his twin sister Debbie wrote about it on a porn site which was seen by a kid in a library who proceeded to kill himself, he was so torn up with grief.

I know it's true. I heard it from a friend of a friend.


posted by owillis at 7:09 PM on May 21, 2001


omg! kaycee? kay? anyone see a similarity?
posted by heather-old at 7:55 PM on May 21, 2001


Well, Hackworth = slacker.

They sorely misquoted me on that one. What they wrote: "So, how well do you really know your online communities?" slacker asks. "Metafilter gave a users a scare this morning by announcing the Kaycee hoax was, in fact, a huge Eliza script database that fooled thousands into believing that they were actually having worthwhile discussions on the Web"

What I wrote: "So, how well do you really know your online communities? Metafilter gave a users a scare this morning by announcing that it was, in fact, a huge Eliza script database that fooled thousands into believing that they were actually having worthwhile discussions on the Web."

A few words make a big difference. I, of course, meant this to be tounge-in-cheek. I'm glad everyone gets some sort of enjoyment out of it at least, intended or not.
posted by Hackworth at 7:58 PM on May 21, 2001


[Closing italics tags]

Then it'll demonstrate how screwed up the media really are. You can never believe anything you see in the press.

That totally happens. In fact, the Top Five list (to which I've been a contributor since 1992 or so--click through, you must see it if you haven't) has been ripped off numerous times and seen it's Letterman-style lists represented as fact in the media. The "Chinese Movie title" list made it to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and ABC World News, where Peter Jennings actually read one of the items word for word, thinking that it was a true funky translation.

The last known big-media sighting was in June of 1999, but even Zannah got hit recently with the supposed factoids.
posted by fooljay at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2001


I knew it was you Hackworth... :-)
posted by fooljay at 8:00 PM on May 21, 2001


heh, thanks for the </i>, fooljay. I should use the preview function more often.
posted by Hackworth at 8:04 PM on May 21, 2001


Yes, it's terribly underrated. :-)
posted by fooljay at 8:32 PM on May 21, 2001


Heather is onto something with the similarities between Kay and Kaycee... has anyone ever seen Kay other than Matt? Hmm...

One wonders why Kay comes up so seldom on a.whole
posted by anildash at 9:00 PM on May 21, 2001


I always wanted to write a song called "If You See Kay."
posted by kindall at 10:25 PM on May 21, 2001


Purple monkey dishwasher
posted by thirteen at 10:55 PM on May 21, 2001


I have actually met and conversed with Kay, so I can vouch for her realness. On the other hand, I''ve never seen Kay and DoublePostGuy in the same room.

Hmmm...
posted by bradlands at 11:01 PM on May 21, 2001


Too late, Kindall -- it's a Poster Children song. (They also have an album called RTFM.)
posted by snarkout at 7:49 AM on May 22, 2001


Yeah, I know. Actually, several bands have recorded songs with that title, including, apparently, April Wine.

A friend of mine was crestfallen to hear that Iron Maiden had recorded a tune with his title, "Public Enema No. 1."
posted by kindall at 8:31 AM on May 22, 2001


Kindall: Shouldn't that be "If You Kay See"?
posted by Markb at 9:06 AM on May 22, 2001


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