Self-linking comments

August 20, 2007 8:45 PM

jbelkin needs an email from one of the admins about self-promoting comment links.
posted by tellurian to Etiquette/Policy at 8:45 PM (70 comments total)

If the comments are on topic, there is nothing wrong with them.
posted by Chuckles at 8:57 PM on August 20, 2007

Why? The comments seem to be helpful and all on topic.
posted by ColdChef at 8:57 PM on August 20, 2007

More like this.
posted by tellurian at 8:59 PM on August 20, 2007

On further review, his comments (while directed to his own site) are very helpful and very on topic. Which is totally okay and--in fact, should be encouraged. Unless I'm missing something.
posted by ColdChef at 8:59 PM on August 20, 2007

Yeah, he's kind of pushing the limit there. On topic and somewhat related but it's pretty much the sum of his participation is promoting it.

So one of the admins should send an email...

1...2...3...NOT IT!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:01 PM on August 20, 2007 [5 favorites]

How dare people contribute to this site! I for one will never post anything worthy of acclaim OR interest!
posted by blue_beetle at 9:04 PM on August 20, 2007

I'm not getting this. At most jbelkin should identify these as self-links, but they're on topic and helpful.
posted by kch at 9:06 PM on August 20, 2007

...and what do we do with things made out of woood?
posted by carsonb at 9:16 PM on August 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm not getting this. At most jbelkin should identify these as self-links, but they're on topic and helpful.

I think mathowie's point is that all of jbelkin's recent comments, while arguably on-topic, have been self-links. So, it's like he's only posting in threads where he feels he can get away with self-linking.
posted by Poolio at 9:17 PM on August 20, 2007

...and what do we do with things made out of woood?

Burn them! (from my recent Terry Gilliam FPP)
posted by Poolio at 9:18 PM on August 20, 2007

Metawhingefilter.
posted by iamabot at 9:19 PM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Fair enough. If it's okay for MetaFilter to be a part of his commenting marketing campaign, I'll say no more. And on the plus side he has learned to form a link.
posted by tellurian at 9:20 PM on August 20, 2007

...and what do we do with things made out of woood?

Roger Ebert.
posted by cog_nate at 9:20 PM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh for fucks sake he's trying to be helpful. I swear you people are the most insane bunch of jerks when it comes to this topic. jbelkin, if you ever want to post a self link, please mail it to me and I'll post it-- no questions asked. And that goes for anyone else out there.
posted by greasy_skillet at 9:25 PM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

fandango_matt - What Is Mesothelioma?

I think it has something to do with your sister.
posted by Poolio at 9:47 PM on August 20, 2007

I think it has something to do with your sister.

You take that back, 'ore else.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:49 PM on August 20, 2007

Allowing members to self-link in the blue as long as they are vaguely related to the topic at hand is a bad precedent. The fact that he pretends like it's not a self-link and also that up until recently he was too fucking dumb to learn how to actually make it a link is a clear indicator that he doesn't give a fuck about MeFi or honest discussion. I am glad that Matt sees what many of you do not.

I guarantee you, you let this slide, within two months there will be ten more like him.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:51 PM on August 20, 2007 [4 favorites]

within two months there will be ten more like him.

BONFIRE!

*juggles, winks*
posted by carsonb at 9:57 PM on August 20, 2007

You take that back, 'ore else.

I was being sarcastic... are you?

*looks befuddled*
posted by Poolio at 10:01 PM on August 20, 2007

I've sent an email to jbelkin. It's basically impossible to tell if someone is misguided or exploitative or what in this sort of hazy grey zone of user behavior, at least until we get a reaction to them from a warning, so while I don't think it makes sense to shrug it off, it's probably also not a great idea to pull out the pitchforks either.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:05 PM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

I was being sarcastic... are you?

I don't usually spell "or" with an e or a leading apostrophe.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:06 PM on August 20, 2007

Optimus:
Okay, so let's say that in 2 months there are ten people doing this. What, exactly, is stopping the admins from turning around at that point and saying, "hey this is getting out of hand a little so from now on it's only kosher if REALLY relevant and declared self-link up front?"

I've never understood the "I GUARANTEE YOU IF WE DON'T DO X THEN Y BY DATE Z" mentality, because it assumes that the way things are handled will remain constant. This site is like a gigantic study in just how utterly wrong that assumption can possibly get.
posted by Ryvar at 10:07 PM on August 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

I don't usually spell "or" with an e or a leading apostrophe.

Well that's just great... I guess this means I'm gonna have to start reading into all of the misspellings I come across here.
posted by Poolio at 10:12 PM on August 20, 2007

That will mean forsaking all your other hobbies, Poolio
posted by Cranberry at 10:26 PM on August 20, 2007

"I for one will never post anything worthy of acclaim OR interest!"

I never have! Except of course that I love you all, I hate to poo, and my fish wear pants.
posted by davy at 10:29 PM on August 20, 2007

Burhanistan, that butt sore grossed ME out. You should be proud of yourself.
posted by davy at 10:31 PM on August 20, 2007

That will mean forsaking all your other hobbies, Poolio

Damn... I just discovered this yesterday.
posted by Poolio at 10:36 PM on August 20, 2007

Did anyone else see this? This guy is a spammer.
posted by puke & cry at 10:37 PM on August 20, 2007

What, exactly, is stopping the admins from turning around at that point and saying, "hey this is getting out of hand a little so from now on it's only kosher if REALLY relevant and declared self-link up front?"

It's irritating when one person is doing it - by the time the rules change, we'll have had X days of bullshit non-comments by folks like LoseWeightNowAskMeHow and NotAScam.exe. Seeing this site become nothing but a link farm until the admin crew says, "hey, this sucks" is a bummer. If they want to advertise, they should buy a fucking ad.

I don't generally have a problem with self-link comments in blue, gray, or green, as long as they're made in good faith. The ones in question clearly are not. Just look at those Google results. That guy doesn't give a shit about the community.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:39 PM on August 20, 2007

Damn... I just discovered this yesterday.

I forgot to add... keep quiet, flapjax
posted by Poolio at 10:39 PM on August 20, 2007

BTW, that last link was another self-link to a previous FPP.
posted by Poolio at 10:41 PM on August 20, 2007

Hey Poolio, I'd walk like anything Susanna Hoffs wanted if she'd give me latte and a neck rub.
posted by davy at 10:41 PM on August 20, 2007

What puke & cry said.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:05 PM on August 20, 2007

I didn't realize self-links were ever okay, unless they were requested by other Mefites. Whenever I've wanted to post something, I have just referred people to my profile (which I sometimes update for the link in question). I would think allowing even relevant self-links opens a can of worms.
posted by acoutu at 11:11 PM on August 20, 2007

Why don't the powers that be add some link-checking thingy:
If the poster adds a link to his/her post which is the same domain of what the poster has in his/her profile, add "[posterX is affiliated with this site]" after the link?

Of course, that assumes that we all diligently and truthfully fill in all the sites we're affiliated with on our profile pages...
posted by slater at 12:00 AM on August 21, 2007

acountu:

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that for posts it's generally that you NEVER EVER EVER self-link in any way on the front page of any of the sites (except Projects), and you only self-link on more inside with AskMe if it's directly pertaining to your question (maybe Jobs too, I guess)

For comments I was under the impression that less self-links are always better, that they should be REALLY really hyper-relevant and only used when the information is not easily found elsewhere. Always, they should be explicitly declared as self-links.
posted by Ryvar at 12:37 AM on August 21, 2007

We have to let the spammers get by with at least a few self-links. It makes it so much more fun later when they say "Oh gosh golly gee, I didn't know I was being a self-linking whore! *innocent gasp* How dare you accuse me of using Metafilter for my own personal gain, you Nazis!"
posted by amyms at 12:38 AM on August 21, 2007

Optimus Chyme writes "Seeing this site become nothing but a link farm until the admin crew says, 'hey, this sucks' is a bummer."

Yes, but you know perfectly well that the admin crew will say "hey, this sucks" way before the place becomes "nothing but a link farm". If the current link-farm comment ratio is 0.1% (1 in 1000 comments, seems about right), they could stop it when it tripled, and we'd still be talking 0.3%, which is far from "nothing but a link farm".
posted by Bugbread at 3:49 AM on August 21, 2007

With apologies to Bob Dylan,

I ain't gonna work on Mattie's link farm, no more!
I ain't gonna work on Mattie's link farm, no more!
These spammers do their best
To send themselves some clicks
It's gettin' outta hand
It's just a dirty trick
When they post their URLs, man, it's just a bore!
I ain't gonna work on Mattie's link farm, no more!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:23 AM on August 21, 2007

We must crack down on this coming plague of links before anyone even notices it!
posted by smackfu at 5:50 AM on August 21, 2007

Uh, yeah. Tellurian has it with the Google results on his blog referral "comments", that's egregious bullshit.

I swear you people are the most insane bunch of jerks when it comes to this topic.

In the face of the available evidence I'd have to consider this earnestly callous and a most definitely retarded conclusion.
posted by prostyle at 6:21 AM on August 21, 2007

I don't generally have a problem with self-link comments in blue, gray, or green, as long as they're made in good faith. The ones in question clearly are not. Just look at those Google results. That guy doesn't give a shit about the community.

I completely agree with Optimus Chyme.

I didn't realize self-links were ever okay

You're making a common error. Self-links are never (well, hardly ever) OK in posts; they're perfectly all right in comments... as long as they're on topic and helpful, and not the product of a clear impulse to spam incessantly. In this case they're the product of a clear impulse to spam incessantly.
posted by languagehat at 6:30 AM on August 21, 2007

I would think allowing even relevant self-links opens a can of worms.

If so, that can of worms has been open since the dawn of MetaFilter.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:59 AM on August 21, 2007

I can't believe how naive some of you are in regard to his behaviour (you do know that on some sites where he comments he identifies himself as a marketer, don't you?). Just because some previous attempts to game MetaFilter have been amateurish doesn't meant that they all are. This guy has managed to fly under the radar [but not by much - his inability to form a link first brought him to my attention]. I thought that he had already been timed/out and/or banned when he when he didn't appear for a while. Not only did he nearly get away with it but he had naive supporters that hadn't looked into his online contributions before leaping to his defence and shooting the messenger.
posted by tellurian at 7:12 AM on August 21, 2007

I can't believe how naive some of you are in regard to his behaviour (you do know that on some sites where he comments he identifies himself as a marketer, don't you?).

We've got better things to do than playing internet detective.
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:17 AM on August 21, 2007

We've got better things to do than playing internet detective.

A simple "sorry, I was wrong" would have sufficed.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 7:21 AM on August 21, 2007

Self links in comments are OK, but when the last five occurrences of your participation are all self-links, then it begins to get worrisome. Good call tellurian.
posted by yeti at 7:31 AM on August 21, 2007

A simple "sorry, I was wrong" would have sufficed.

Wow, way to rub it in. Who's being a jerk now?
posted by smackfu at 7:32 AM on August 21, 2007

We've got better things to do than playing internet detective.
Which is fine for those who maintain that aloof restraint and don't take time out of a busy schedule to make pissy remarks about someone pointing out what seems to be a genuine case of abuse of the site.
posted by Abiezer at 7:33 AM on August 21, 2007

You know, you’re absolutely right Abiezer. My comment was out of line and I apologize to Tellurian. I’m frustrated with the moderation of this site, but I’m beginning to realize that very few, if any, share my point of view. It would probably be best if I take a break from visiting these issues.
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:45 AM on August 21, 2007

A simple "sorry, I was wrong" would have sufficed.

If you hold your smug head any higher, your monocle is gonna fall out and you're gonna spill you're tea.
posted by Stynxno at 7:49 AM on August 21, 2007

i misspell on purpose
posted by Stynxno at 7:50 AM on August 21, 2007

That wasn't aimed at you in particular, g_s, despite being a response to what you wrote. To be honest I hadn't registered that you were the same person as made the original comment (which I agree was out of line). All part of a healthy Festivus-come-early airing of grievances I say, if it doesn't get personal.
posted by Abiezer at 7:52 AM on August 21, 2007

If you hold
your smug head any higher,
your monocle is gonna fall out and
you're gonna spill
you're tea.

I'm toast.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 7:55 AM on August 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

Well at least he's posting links to his blog all over the place. He should pull a paul whathisface and just spam digg and reddit.
posted by chunking express at 7:57 AM on August 21, 2007

Let's talk to the guy, see if his ad revenue has gone up significantly. If it has, then we can all whore ourselves out and make this place a linkfarm.
posted by graventy at 7:57 AM on August 21, 2007

I'm toast.

Nah, I don't think so. If anything, Stynxno should be thanking you for lining up his verse properly, so that it can be seen and appreciated for the poetry it is.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:59 AM on August 21, 2007

Although, truth be told, I would've broken up the lines a little differently, but, let's not quibble, shall we?

*adjusts monocle, takes a sip of tea*
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:02 AM on August 21, 2007

Hit where it hurts. Just paste the URL of this thread into the "Why:" field and let PhotoMatt decide.
posted by brownpau at 8:05 AM on August 21, 2007

greasy_skillet

Your frustration is shared by pretty much everybody at some point; we've all had issues with the rigidity of the rule set, or the manner in which rules are applied. But your transference of that generalized frustration to this scenario, in which the misbehavior is both brazen and obvious, is not warranted.

But I cover this kind of stuff in more detail in my series of motivational tapes, also available via CD and iTunes. Just remember that positive thought leads directly to positive action in a natural progression.
posted by The Confessor at 8:06 AM on August 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

Just remember that positive thought leads directly to positive action in a natural progression.

Actually, that's a complete misconception, as I explain in irrefutable detail through a series of ingeniously coded messages that will become clear to you upon repeated listening to my series of motivational mp3s.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:18 AM on August 21, 2007

acoutu writes "I didn't realize self-links were ever okay,"

Actually self links are often the best comments in a thread. When we're discussing some awesome site or story and the author or focus of it signs up and joins the discussion with some links it's totally awesome.
posted by Mitheral at 8:22 AM on August 21, 2007

When we're discussing some awesome site or story and the author or focus of it signs up and joins the discussion with some links it's totally awesome.

I agree this is totally awesome, but it's so rare that it doesn't seem like it should be considered a justification for all self-linking, especially of the jbelkin variety mentioned upthread.
posted by pineapple at 9:06 AM on August 21, 2007

He should get the bananahammer for neglected link formatting alone.
posted by dgaicun at 3:09 PM on August 21, 2007

A simple "sorry, I was wrong" would have sufficed.
Wow, way to rub it in. Who's being a jerk now?
Well, pretty much all of us at least some of the time. Isn't that why we're here?
posted by dg at 6:55 PM on August 21, 2007

In defense of myself, I read questions and try to post links that I find useful - my friend has a blog that covers macs and technology so often times, I help him out and I know the posts ... I wouldn't post them if I didn't think they weren't useful and also NOTE if you actually looked athe site - THERE ARE NO essentially no ADS. He does have links to Amazon within posts. All he & I are trying to do is be helpful. I think it's pretty synical of you to presume that if I can contribute a lot of links to tutorials on technology, somehow that's wrong - you'd rather I not try and link to a tutorial post? Wouldn't that eliminate a lot of sites? If you'd prefer I not contribute, just email me and say so and I'll take metafilter off my bookmarks.
posted by jbelkin at 12:09 AM on August 23, 2007

Are you saying that isn't your blog?
posted by tellurian at 12:40 AM on August 23, 2007

You're not Metroxing or a 'marketer'?
posted by tellurian at 4:50 AM on August 23, 2007

"jbelkin, white courtesy telephone ... jbelkin, white courtesy telephone ..."
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:01 AM on August 23, 2007

lmao you lie like a marketer does too, all ham-handed and clumsy fake; there's a reason everyone made fun of you guys in college

'oh guys heh it's my friend's blog'

seriously i want you to think abot how fucking sad your life became when you felt the need to lie to strangers because you got caught like a thirteen year-old jerking off
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:14 AM on August 24, 2007