RSS for Deleted Threads?

October 3, 2007 1:40 PM

Pony Request: Loves me some deleted threads

I have a somewhat-morbid fascination with deleted threads (i.e. OJ shopping). However, if I don't see them before deletion or if they don't get referenced on MetaTalk, they're tough to find. Is there any way to set up an aggregate RSS feed only for deleted threads, either by me or by the admins?

posted by craven_morhead to Feature Requests at 1:40 PM (20 comments total)

We're pretty much not going to do this mefi-side; Matt's been pretty consistent about that, and as much as I like hijinks I tend to agree with him.

There are a number of deleted-thread tracking scripts (FF-only and cross-browser, I believe), as well as a well-maintained blog, so if you want to track these things, you can do so pretty easily. For a long time, I'd fire off a deleted thread applet every day when I got home from work; worked like a charm.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2007

Yeah, it'd be cool to have a graveyard page or feed.
posted by desjardins at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2007

No. You can set up an RSS feed for deleted thread which will be almost as good.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2007

just use lofi instead of regular mefi, you'll get every damn piece of crap and all the gold nuggets too.
posted by edgeways at 1:46 PM on October 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

Ah HA! deleted thread looks like the ticket. I figured it wouldn't happen on the mefiadmin side.

Thanks for the donkey.




(cuz.... you know.... it's half a horse.... nevermind)
posted by craven_morhead at 1:47 PM on October 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Don't forget the bookmarklet.
posted by ALongDecember at 1:48 PM on October 3, 2007

(Man, I forgot to include the REQUEST DENIED macro.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:03 PM on October 3, 2007

If you subscribe to ordinary RSS feed and use a news reader that highlights "items still in the feed" vs "items that were in the feed, but aren't any more", deleted threads tend to stick out pretty obviously.
posted by cillit bang at 2:16 PM on October 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

I use an RSS feed for lots of things, but not mefi; I like the regular page view a lot more. The deleted threads rss looks like it'll serve my purposes though.
posted by craven_morhead at 2:28 PM on October 3, 2007

I think you meant mule.
posted by timeistight at 2:37 PM on October 3, 2007

Plutor's excellent Mefi deleted posts Greasemonkey script works a dream. It plugs the deleted threads in their place on the front page of both MeFi and AskMe. There's only two little bumps you have to watch out for: If a deleted thread is the top post of the page, it won't show up until another post is made, and on AskMe it works a little weird for anonymous questions.
posted by carsonb at 3:35 PM on October 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks, carsonb, for the link (and Plutor for writing the most excellent script).
posted by misha at 5:00 PM on October 3, 2007

What carsonb said. It's very good.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:26 PM on October 3, 2007

as much as I like hijinks

you like hijinks, but how do you feel about antics and tomfoolery?
posted by jonmc at 6:40 PM on October 3, 2007

Do any of these show deleted comments, as well?
posted by Ms. Saint at 7:32 PM on October 3, 2007

No, deleted comments are scorched earth territory—you'll never see 'em again (except sometimes here in MeTa).
posted by carsonb at 7:34 PM on October 3, 2007

.
posted by felix betachat at 9:16 PM on October 3, 2007

*spoils broth*
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:45 PM on October 3, 2007

Hey Mum, cortex farted in the broth again!
posted by dg at 11:04 PM on October 3, 2007

antics and tomfoolery?

I personally dislike them. Shenanigans and gadabouting, that's where it's at...
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:12 PM on October 3, 2007