Clarification on self-linking to your own blog in an AskMe comment

November 10, 2006 9:54 PM

Linking to your own blog in an AskMe comment...
posted by Methylviolet to Etiquette/Policy at 9:54 PM (23 comments total)

Including a link to your own site in a comment is okay provided that it has some relevance to the topic being discussed. Random off-topic insertions of self-links into other posts are discouraged and such links may be removed.

I get the feeling that self-linking at all is frowned upon -- except in specifically necessary contexts as given in the FAQ "Can you look at my logo and tell me why everyone thinks it looks like a devil?" or "What is this plant?" I would have thought that many people here would have blogs with entries relevant to some post or other, but I don't see much self-linking. Is there a presumption of self-promotion in linking to your own site? Is it just uncool? Or am I not noticing it?

This isn't a callout, only a request for clarification.
posted by Methylviolet at 10:12 PM on November 10, 2006

Methyl, self-linking in an FPP on the blue is ban-worthy as is spamming with self links in comments.

However, linking to your own site in comments on any part of the site where it's absolutely relevant is fine. However, it's been said that the green is not the best place for "what do you think of my site design?"

If you have a specific image, like your "what is this plant", that's perfectly fine to link to on the green (most people link to flicker images but regular onsite images are fine, too).

Basically, if you do it on the green and it comes across as self promotion instead of "i need help", it'll get deleted.
posted by dobbs at 10:16 PM on November 10, 2006

What? I can't see anything!
posted by Ceiling Cat at 10:16 PM on November 10, 2006

Oh, and generally on the grey, here, people write their more inside first, then cut it out and then paste it into the first comment in order to avoid what you see above.
posted by dobbs at 10:17 PM on November 10, 2006

From the FAQ:

Are self-links ever okay on any part of the site?

Sometimes. It's against the rules to link to your own site or a site that you host or contribute to substantially. People who self-link in front page posts on MetaFilter will have their posts removed and their account banned.

Including a link to your own site in a comment is okay provided that it has some relevance to the topic being discussed. Random off-topic insertions of self-links into other posts are discouraged and such links may be removed.

Linking to your own site in an Ask MetaFilter question is only okay if it has something specific to do with the question being asked, for example "Can you look at my logo and tell me why everyone thinks it looks like a devil?" or "What else do I need to do to this website to make it ADA compliant?" Gratuitous self-links will be removed. Ask MetaFilter questions that seem to be thinly veiled self-promotion will be removed. Feel free to include a link to your work in your profile and people can click through to it. Please use MetaFilter Projects for self-promotion and tooting your own horn.
posted by niles at 10:19 PM on November 10, 2006

Oh, right. You saw that.
posted by niles at 10:20 PM on November 10, 2006

You see what I'm asking?
I'm asking in more of an anthropological, cultural norms way, not so much a how-to-dodge-the-banhammer way. Matt is excellently clear on the latter.
posted by Methylviolet at 10:22 PM on November 10, 2006

You mentioned comments, specifically. It's discouraged there so that people won't be gratuitously linking to their own sites in an effort to improve their page rank or get more eyes for fame or fortune (ads). If it weren't a no-no, we'd be seeing an awful lot of comments saying things like "oh, yeah - I once had a horrible relationship like yours, and you can read all about it right here on my blog.
posted by taz at 10:32 PM on November 10, 2006

Read about everything here on my blog.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 11:56 PM on November 10, 2006

Sorry, that was pretty crap. I don't even remember what I was shooting for.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 11:58 PM on November 10, 2006

It's okay generally to do it if there's some useful reason to link to your own blog. If it smacks of self-promotion [link doesn't go anyplace relevant, you're doing it an awful lot, you just link to the main page of your blog for a number of different reasons] we might remove the link or tell you to tone it down. I see people do it in AskMe from time to time and it's almost always just something like "oh hey here's how I solved that problem..."
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:09 AM on November 11, 2006

Be sure to mention that it's a self-link [self-link].
posted by Eideteker at 4:11 AM on November 11, 2006

Favorited, and flagged as "Pick a reason:".
posted by blue_beetle at 2:16 PM on November 11, 2006

I sometimes link to my personal finance site from within a money-related AskMe question. I don't always identify such links as self-links. I only link to my personal finance site if doing so relates directly to the question. At first I was worried about doing this, but then I realized it makes a lot more sense than cutting-and-pasting whole articles. It's all about context.
posted by jdroth at 3:37 PM on November 11, 2006

I've linked to my travel log site several times in response to questions like "What can I expect when I visit XXXXX?". I always note that it's my own site that I'm linking to.

I haven't had any complaints yet, but perhaps people have just been gritting their teeth and tolerating my boorish behaviour. On the other hand "Metafilter: tolerating boorish behaviour" is *not* a tag-line I'm expecting to see in this lifetime.
posted by tkolar at 11:32 PM on November 11, 2006

Whenever I've linked to my own site, I've done rel="nofollow", and stated that, so that people know that I'm not self-linking for nefarious means.
posted by djgh at 3:27 AM on November 12, 2006

I recall a response the other day to a question about mugging. I knew fuzzbean had been mugged recently and that she wrote about it in great detail on her blog. So I didn't think it inappropriate at all for her to link to that (and to say it was a self-link), because it was completely relevant to the question. The only alternative would have been to copy and paste the text, which would have made for a very long reply.
posted by essexjan at 9:03 AM on November 12, 2006

It's discouraged there so that people won't be gratuitously linking to their own sites in an effort to improve their page rank or get more eyes for fame or fortune (ads). If it weren't a no-no, we'd be seeing an awful lot of comments saying things like "oh, yeah - I once had a horrible relationship like yours, and you can read all about it right here on my blog.

I hate this attitude. If someone is spamming they need to be stopped, but people should be free to answer AskMe any way they think is helpful.

(Shouting down FPPs has given MeFites a fucked up attitude to who gets traffic from here, like five year-olds deciding who can and can't be in their club)
posted by cillit bang at 9:34 AM on November 12, 2006

Actually, you're right - I should have been a lot more specific. because there are all sorts of situations where it makes perfect sense and people shouldn't have to worry about doing it - jan's example, for one. I made it sound like you should always avoid it, which is totally wrong.

You can pretty much always tell when people are linking as a valid response, and when people are just trying to wedge in a little self promotion... and you're correct - when it's the former people shouldn't feel intimidated.
posted by taz at 12:04 PM on November 12, 2006

What level of prestige would be necessary for a self-link in a frontpage post in the blue?

For example, could our favourite mythbusters user ASavage link to an interesting new project of his, or would the auto-linkage conventions still apply?
posted by tehloki at 1:59 AM on November 13, 2006

If ASavage has a new project of his own to link to, that's what Projects is for. If somebody else follows that link and thinks it's cool, they can FPP it to the blue.
posted by flabdablet at 3:10 AM on November 13, 2006

There's a small-ish group of people who are rabidly anti-self-link under any circumstances and are going to dislike/sneer/callout on it of any sort - witness the recent metatalk posting from someone who found simply including commercial links in profiles a bit skeevy. There's another small group of ANARCHY RULEZ! folk who don't see the problem in almost any situation.

So if you don't want to offend anyone ever, never self-link. I think the majority of people fall into a middle camp where they take the above quoted actual text of the rules at face value and assume Matt&Jess will delete/punish as necessary. Personally I subscribe to the belief that the rules are set by the person hosting the party and if other people get bent out of shape, *shrug*. You paid the same $5 they did (if they're not pre-fee) so fuck em.
posted by phearlez at 10:41 AM on November 13, 2006

Yeah, that was kind of the feeling that I was getting -- that it is technically OK under many circumstances but not socially OK. Thanks all.
posted by Methylviolet at 2:07 PM on November 13, 2006