"This is a really excellent question"? Seriously? [more inside]
posted by allkindsoftime on Jul 31, 2008 - 162 comments

During the GiveWell hubbub, some commenters become obsessed with outing a pseudonymous troll calling itself "Rachel Tension." We need to talk about the ethics of outing, unmasking, and breaking anonymity. [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea on Jan 13, 2008 - 189 comments

If an admin deleted an Ask MeFi question at the poster's request, what ethical implications are associated with blogging about it, if you saw the thread prior to its deletion and feel you have something to say? And what rationale do you use to form that opinion?
posted by WCityMike on Apr 25, 2007 - 53 comments

Wish we had a follow-up on this thread — guy sounded like a psycho (as you might imagine from my response). The user apparently hasn't posted since then.
posted by WCityMike on Mar 28, 2007 - 51 comments

Instead of assuming that most AskMe users are cheats, let's assume they're honest.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America on Feb 4, 2007 - 76 comments

Sometimes AskMe takes you in a surprising direction, and this thread is one of those times: a college student asks if he should take advantage of a contraband answer key to check his graded homework, and the community is nearly unanimous in its ethical condemnation of the practice. That is, until a philosophy professor and professional ethicist answers to the contrary. Probably not sidebar-worthy, but a neat example of how an issue that seems at first to be black-and-white bleeds a little gray once the experts join the fray.
posted by Saucy Intruder on Sep 25, 2006 - 39 comments

I just asked a question about 'how to succeed in university' that was open to standard ideas and ideas that were not kosher (cheating. happens every day). Im busy, i wont be participating actively in this discussion, but the question i put forward is: how is discussing cheating methods different from a thread discussing file sharing or something. Nothing illegal is happening by discussing this stuff. Whats the deal. Thats like deleting a thread that asks 'How do jewel thiefs go about cracking safes?' Are we going to delete the thread because we dont want this suspected jewel thief cracking our safes, or is our curiosity going to get peaked and we're going to discuss it like a bunch of nerds who are into this nerdy stuff? The latter? OK.
posted by GleepGlop on Mar 3, 2006 - 39 comments

My Askme question, about a DVD that was burned on a PC that wouldn't work on my Mac, was deleted for no other seeming reason than that it mentioned P2P. [More inside]
posted by God on Dec 26, 2005 - 132 comments

Almost unbelievable. It is hard to believe, but we have an issue on which just about all mefites agree.
posted by oddman on Dec 13, 2005 - 66 comments

Dear ask.mefi, how can I fuck over my friend while he's overseas by stealing his apartment so that he doesn't have a place to live when he gets back. P.S. It IS a really nice apartment, and he IS a jerk for having let me live there while he's gone so I'm totally justified in my actions.
posted by furtive on Dec 12, 2005 - 123 comments

This thread has me wondering: when does discussing the law on a forum like AskMe cross over to giving legal advice? Obviously, any lawyer's first answer is going to be "talk to a lawyer." But then what? (A very similar professional ethics problem for doctors has been discussed here before.) My legal ethics class was fantastic, but we talked more about Enron than the internet.
posted by footnote on Aug 15, 2005 - 18 comments

As an update to this and other questions on the ethics and legality of using other people's wireless: Police in St. Petersburg, Florida have "arrested a man for using someone else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice." (link, via)
posted by ori on Jul 9, 2005 - 11 comments

I wanted to create an FPP for this ten second film festival, which I think would be of interest to many MeFites, but I've run into a couple of ethical and logistical conundrums: 1) The festival is being run by a friend of mine, so I suppose I might be a little biased as to this being The Best of The Web. 2) You really have to be in the Twin Cities area to see the screening and win a prize, even though submissions are accepted from anywhere. Any thoughts about this being FPP worthy?
posted by bigbadem on Apr 11, 2005 - 11 comments

I have prepared an FPP about an organization that was recently the subject of a couple Internet memes (and Metafilter threads) that is now being sued by a major international corporation as a result of one of their pranks. Their web site is vague and asks people not to post rumors, but they sent out a number of details to their mailing list, including ways to support them. Would it be unethical for me to post this semi-private information to Metafilter? Could I get them in more trouble with this lawsuit? Half of me feels that Mefites might be willing to contribute to the cause, but the other half wants to be extremely careful.
posted by Plutor on Apr 1, 2005 - 28 comments

Without getting specific, does it not seem unethical to use Ask Metafilter to answer your employer's questions?
Is this acceptable, or what is the limit? (or maybe we need to implement some sort of "I'll answer for a percentage"
scheme - since you are getting paid to know the answer)
posted by milovoo on Mar 24, 2004 - 22 comments

I recently posted a link, and in it I happened to slip a 1x1 px graphic that is used by this site to create a map of internet users. Seemed harmless enough, but in retrospect I regret having done it. It was an action of questionable ethics, and I should have avoided it. Please nix my post and accept my apologies.
posted by oissubke on Feb 2, 2003 - 63 comments

Threads should be bias and threads should be made to provoke thought. However when does a thread cross the line of appropriate and thought provoking into the realm of insults and claptrap? What about this one or this one (self-post)? Should the inmates do the policing? If so, how can it policed? If a weblog is a form "journalism" should there be some sort of code of ethics? Or guidelines for objectivity?
posted by Bag Man on Oct 16, 2002 - 19 comments

Why do people feel so thoroughly justified about engaging in Google bombing?

Why is your opinion about something so important as to justify monkeywrenching the best search engine (if not the best thing) on the net? Why is your self-righteous indignation more important that leaving well enough alone?

If it is so important to you, why don't you build something equivalent with the specific aim of "educating the people" and stop piggybacking off of Google?

I am interested in Matt's opinion on this, since he's one of the ones that set this whole thing off.
posted by Irontom on May 15, 2002 - 76 comments

Tired of using mefi/mefi to log into the New York Times?

Now you don't have to.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Apr 24, 2002 - 32 comments

John Hiler has written a good piece discussing blogging and journalism. At the conclusion he outlines a ' Blogging Code of Ethics' which I think is meant to be a work in progress. Whilst I understand his point, surely there are only a very few weblog that actually have the level of impact and/or respect, for such a thing to be relevent? I don't know, is a 'Blogging Code of Ethics' really necessary? If you think it is, is there anything you would add/subtract from his list?
posted by RobertLoch on Apr 11, 2002 - 30 comments

Latest entry on the The Amos n Andy Episodes List? I think I'm with Malphigan on this. Talk about a poor reflection of MetaFilter to the larger world.
posted by y2karl on Nov 13, 2001 - 60 comments