Simple ideas to help stop double posts.

May 10, 2007 5:50 PM

Ok, So I committed a MeFi sin the other day and made a double post. I felt a bit embarrassed but it got me thinking about a couple ways to prevent some of the double posting that goes on around here. If any of these ideas are taken up maybe something good will come out of a double post for once.
posted by magikker to Feature Requests at 5:50 PM (24 comments total)

This means that the tenth guy to try and post a video of a drunken Hasslehof may not even know that this was posted before.

Dosn't matter. It was a bad idea the first time, too.

(but yeah, why aren't there MeTa tags?)
posted by niles at 6:00 PM on May 10, 2007

I would favour crimson rather than red.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 6:02 PM on May 10, 2007

[manual more-insidery for magikker]

Problem one: Some people feel that follow ups to FPP's are material for the gray rather than blue. This is cool and all; but when an article is posted in the gray it isn't given tags like it is in the blue. This makes it harder to search for and find out if you are posting a dupe. Secondly the search feature that you get when you click the search link while in the blue doesn't search for articles in the gray, and the gray doesn't have a similar feature. I know it has the google and yahoo searches, but those aren't nearly as effective. The grey needs something equally effective.

Possible solution: Add a similar search for the Grey like the blue has, or make a master search, or we could stop posting follow ups to the gray but no body wants that last option.

Problem two: Search doesn't find deleted posts. This means that the tenth guy to try and post a video of a drunken Hasslehof may not even know that this was posted before.

Possible solution: Have the search feature show deleted posts, maybe in red. The red lettering could act as a nice big sign that says, "Hey this wasn't a good idea when the last guy tried it."

I know that not all dupes fall into these categories, but mine fell into both.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:08 PM on May 10, 2007

It's really not a sin. It's not even a major transgression, despite what the gallery of knuckleheads who probably took over your thread might have lead you to believe.
posted by Dave Faris at 6:35 PM on May 10, 2007

Just think of it as a rite of passage.

I know that I've done at least one.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:44 PM on May 10, 2007

Three Hail Miguels and a PantsFish, and you'll be fine.
posted by yhbc at 6:52 PM on May 10, 2007

New "Podcast" thingie up on top.
Where "Gift Shop" thingie?
posted by Dizzy at 7:03 PM on May 10, 2007

TO AVOID DOUBLE POSTS
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:05 PM on May 10, 2007

Double.
posted by Dizzy at 7:11 PM on May 10, 2007

It's only a "sin" when it's evidence of egregious laziness. For example, when it's an obvious double of something that's on the front page and only posted hours earlier. If someone can't be bothered to check the front page for a double, they deserve to be be drawn-and-quartered. Mefiphorically. But just doubling something that was posted a couple weeks or months ago? Just a minor faux pas and often explained as searching-but-not-finding.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:42 PM on May 10, 2007

You can avoid a double post if you can successfully divine through telepathy/necromancy the hidden, secret underlying themes/memes interwoven sneakily in a post and therefore endeavor to create a wholly original idea out of thin air. I'm pretty sure that's on the wiki.
posted by moonbird at 7:49 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

His second suggestion is a very good idea. Showing duplicate deleted posts, particularly in red with the deletion reason, would be very handy indeed.
posted by Malor at 7:55 PM on May 10, 2007

Posts one through four of this thread confuse me.
posted by granted at 8:19 PM on May 10, 2007

Hochma is the sfira of double posts. You need to be at keter elyon to post on MetaFilter.
posted by kosem at 8:47 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's the ticket, moonbird!

Thanks for the beer.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:59 PM on May 10, 2007

This, of course, is a double of a previous MetaTalk post.
posted by smackfu at 9:41 PM on May 10, 2007

Bubble.
posted by davejay at 10:48 PM on May 10, 2007

To be honest I figured that someone must have suggested this before, but as I said it gets really hard to search the gray. And since these ideas aren't that hard to implement (maybe?) and they may save the admins some time, I figured it might be worth it.
posted by magikker at 11:05 PM on May 10, 2007

New "Podcast" thingie up on top.

Fucks me up tryin to get to MetaTalk.
posted by carsonb at 1:37 AM on May 11, 2007

His second suggestion is a very good idea. Showing duplicate deleted posts, particularly in red with the deletion reason, would be very handy indeed.

Seconded.

And I've double-posted too. Seriously, don't lose sleep over it.
posted by languagehat at 8:51 AM on May 11, 2007

cortex writes "Problem two: Search doesn't find deleted posts. This means that the tenth guy to try and post a video of a drunken Hasslehof may not even know that this was posted before."

Most doubles of the tenth double variety are explosive meme filter which wouldn't have been indexed yet anyways.
posted by Mitheral at 1:39 PM on May 11, 2007

That was actually magikker-by-proxy, for the record.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:12 PM on May 11, 2007

Most doubles of the tenth double variety are explosive meme filter which wouldn't have been indexed yet anyways.

Yeah, I know that... But if you didn't know the search feture, not the search bar tat the top of the screen but the link to the search page has a real in site search that someone put together. This is much better than the google or yahoo search. Really it is. Go try it. Just remember you have to be in the blue to get it. I'm suggesting that we also get it in the gray and have it find deleted posts.
posted by magikker at 6:51 PM on May 11, 2007

Don't be embarrassed. We all double up sometimes.
posted by The Deej at 12:16 AM on May 12, 2007