Greasemonkey Consistency

January 26, 2006 7:04 PM

Question about deleted threads (not one I created or want to whine about though, I promise!).

I've got a greasemonkey script that shows links to the deleted posts in the style of (for example) "Deleted thread: 48604". Most of these links are valid and show the threads, but some go to a page that says the thread was deleted. Why the two different results?
posted by tiamat to MetaFilter-Related at 7:04 PM (13 comments total)

The 'error' page says "Nothing to see here, move along...
You've stumbled upon a non-existent post, or one that was deleted for various reasons."
posted by tiamat at 7:09 PM on January 26, 2006

If it's on the Ask Metafilter page, those would be anonymous questions waiting in the queue to be approved by mathowie or jessamyn. Otherwise, they were significantly illegal enough to be deleted from the database completely. At least, that is how I understand it.
posted by Roger Dodger at 7:12 PM on January 26, 2006

you know, for a split second there I saw red. Then I realized you weren't just askign why threads get deleted. Whew. What Roger Dodger said.
posted by shmegegge at 7:27 PM on January 26, 2006

Still, I think I've seen this at least 3 or 4 times since the new explanations were implemented.
posted by Iamtherealme at 7:45 PM on January 26, 2006

It's an unposted anon question when you see it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:38 PM on January 26, 2006

Is there a deleted post graveyard somewhere? If so, where?
posted by marvin at 9:43 PM on January 26, 2006

If we told you, it wouldn't be sacred.
posted by klangklangston at 10:46 PM on January 26, 2006

Please, only allow professionals who are dues paying union members to write your Greasemonkey scripts.
posted by orthogonality at 12:06 AM on January 27, 2006

Jebus Cripes. Perhaps I should stop showing AskMe deleted threads. Isn't this like the fourth or the hundredth time we've got this question? (Matt, maybe a slightly more descriptive error would be good? Like "This is an anonymous thread that has not yet been screened." Or maybe I shouldn't use the indicator "deleted thread" on AskMe?)

I plan to lodge a complaint with Grease Monkeyers Local 660 about that implication, orthogonality.
posted by Plutor at 4:13 AM on January 27, 2006

also, I don't see anonymous questions until they're posted, just like everyone else.

So, in case it wasn't crystal clear

- when someone posts a question anonymously, that post goes into the DB with a post number but does not go live on the site
- if the post is approved by mathowie, it goes live on the site. if you look carefully you'll notice that it's post number is out of order with the rest of the posts, numberwise. this doesn't affect mere mortals, but it's a pain for scripts like MetaFilthy, I believe
- posts that don't get approved, or are still waiting to be approved show the "nothing to see here" message, as do older deleted posts in AskMe, anything removed more than a few months ago. All other AskMe posts, if they're removed will show a reason for deletion just like in MetaFilter. There might be some extreme example where a post would be completely removed rather than being hidden in this way, but I don't think I've seen it happen.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:27 AM on January 27, 2006

jessamyn writes "but it's a pain for scripts like MetaFilthy, I believe"


MetaFilthy doesn't do ANYTHING with deleted/unapproved threads. In fact, on a front page, MetaFilthy does nothing. MetaFilthy only does anything within a thread.
posted by orthogonality at 8:06 AM on January 27, 2006

ok ok, what's the thing that Plutor was working on that gets messed up by the way anonymous AskMe posts are handled?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2006

Greasemonkey script.
posted by Mitheral at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2006