AskMe RSS bug? October 22, 2007 11:14 AM   Subscribe

Bug? Anon ask.me post came up as less-than-anon in (my) RSS feed.

The RSS feed for this ask.me included the user's name (and I've confirmed they do exist and are American courtesy of search).

I can think of a use case where this could happen (person forgets to request anonymity, submits question, question is marked anonymous after the fact), but wasn't sure if this was the case here.
posted by lowlife to Bugs at 11:14 AM (28 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Do you mean the like_neon comment? The first commenter looks like the asking entity, but they are not. Is this what you're talking about?
posted by geoff. at 11:19 AM on October 22, 2007


That blows. I would have never noticed if you'd just dropped the admins an email, now, I, and I bet a lot of other people, went to check it out.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 11:22 AM on October 22, 2007 [2 favorites]


Nope, there is (or was when Google Reader picked it up) a username in the RSS. The last post I see as anonymous in the RSS feed is this one.
posted by lowlife at 11:22 AM on October 22, 2007


The question was, in fact, asked un-anonymously and then fixed after the fact.
posted by weatherworn at 11:25 AM on October 22, 2007


Fact fact fact.
posted by weatherworn at 11:26 AM on October 22, 2007


so my use case defined above applies. carry on!
posted by lowlife at 11:26 AM on October 22, 2007


It goes like this:

- user posts a question, realizes it should have been anonymous, emails us.

- we convert to anonymous a few minutes later

- in the few minutes it was up, Googlebot came in and grabbed the RSS file and cached it for thousands of people following it, with the username intact. At some point, I would assume Google gets the updated feed and modifies the username to anon.

It's a bummer, but I don't know if we should just delete it altogether since it's a temporary blip.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:27 AM on October 22, 2007


Thank goodness I made the Anonymous-Q, Non-Anonymous Post mistake BEFORE the birth of the AskMeta RSS.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:32 AM on October 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Well, the almost-anonymous user made a mistake. I don't think that's anyone else's fault, and it's unfortunate that his/her name is known to some people, but it could be worse:

At least it wasn't a "Oh no, I have 30 STDs and kinda think I might be into small, furry woodland creatures rather than men/women. What should I do?" question....
posted by JMOZ at 11:36 AM on October 22, 2007


Yep. That's what happened, and what they said.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:39 AM on October 22, 2007


I really wish you had emailed the mod's with this instead of making a post about it. Now the few people who didn't know the user ID, do.
posted by serazin at 11:57 AM on October 22, 2007


It's already updated to look anonymous in google reader.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:58 AM on October 22, 2007


Oh, actually, nevermind. I guess I don't know who it is now. Duh.
posted by serazin at 12:01 PM on October 22, 2007


About five people emailed about this before the post here, so I figured it was probably important enough to show up in metatalk. Looks like Google updated it so it is in fact a temporary blip when we have to do this. Not exactly perfect, but not the end of the world.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:03 PM on October 22, 2007


I really wish you had emailed the mod's with this instead of making a post about it.

We could put this topic in the category with you-know-who's comment about you know what, and the post that shall not be named, and that thing that happened 2 weeks ago in the middle of the night that Matt will KILL me if I tell anyone.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:08 PM on October 22, 2007 [3 favorites]


Chill TPS, everyone knows Dumbledore is gay.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:27 PM on October 22, 2007


That is not true. I know because it says so on my Twitter.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:41 PM on October 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


I know who it was. PayPal me $5 and I might wont not tell you.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:24 PM on October 22, 2007


LOOK EVERYBODY I HAVE AN UPPER CASE FISH IN MY LOWER CASE PANTS
posted by quonsar at 1:24 PM on October 22, 2007 [2 favorites]


MY LOWER CASE PANTS

SUSPENDERS. KTHX.
posted by sparkletone at 1:40 PM on October 22, 2007 [2 favorites]


Mathowie: Not exactly perfect, but not the end of the world.

Wait, I thought if Boston lost the pennant that it wouldn't be the end of the world. Which is the real not the end of the world?
posted by jasper411 at 2:24 PM on October 22, 2007


I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT I AM TYPING THIS WHILE HOLDING DOWN THE SHIFT KEY WITH MY RING FINGR AND IT IS INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT BUT MY OTHER HALF INSISTED ON REMAPING THE CAPS LOCK TO A CTRL KEY AND I CONTINUE TO STRENUOUSLY PROTEDT THID FACT
posted by By The Grace of God at 2:54 PM on October 22, 2007


Metafilter: It says so on my Twitter.
posted by onlyconnect at 3:49 PM on October 22, 2007


But I don't want to be exposed to fish!
posted by deborah at 7:18 PM on October 22, 2007


Is there something wrong with MeFi RSS feeds? What is this feedburner thing, and why are only a few of the subsites using it? Why didn't I make this a new post?
posted by Chuckles at 10:18 PM on October 22, 2007


WHY
GOD
WHY
posted by blasdelf at 11:59 PM on October 22, 2007


Is there a point to this thread still being open? Or existing altogether? I feel bad for Ms. Non-anon!
posted by iamkimiam at 12:04 AM on October 23, 2007


There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the process, technologically speaking. However, it does allow for PEBKAC-type issues.

If I was the UI designer for ask.me (and clearly I'm not), I'd change the posting page so that it started by requiring you to state whether or not you wanted to post anonymously. No form fields would be available until the user makes a selection. After this, the appropriate form would be displayed. This can be done with the JavaScript trickery of your choice.

I'm guessing that because the two types of posts have different process flows (anon posts get pre-modded), supporting this change would be somewhat challenging, but it's a thought.
posted by lowlife at 6:16 AM on October 23, 2007


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