CanadaElectionFilter

September 18, 2008 10:05 AM

CanadaElectionFilter: Can we sidebar one of these threads to prevent multiple threads from cluttering up the blue?
posted by angrybeaver to MetaFilter-Related at 10:05 AM (44 comments total)

I'm ok with one a week, although the cleverness of not mentioning it's Canada has lost its appeal.
posted by smackfu at 10:20 AM on September 18, 2008

Did you ask the same of all those US election threads?

Don't be hatin'
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:31 AM on September 18, 2008

Seriously, when has sidebarring ever prevented another thread from being posted?
posted by Plutor at 10:36 AM on September 18, 2008

There's an election in Canada?
posted by fixedgear at 10:36 AM on September 18, 2008

More of a bunfight, really. Plus, it'll be over before you can blink.
posted by bonehead at 10:54 AM on September 18, 2008

There's a sidebar in Metafilter?
posted by octothorpe at 10:58 AM on September 18, 2008

Those three you mentioned were all a week apart. Is that really cluttering up the blue?
posted by rocket88 at 11:16 AM on September 18, 2008

Hey! Fuck you, buddy!
posted by kosem at 11:22 AM on September 18, 2008

Is this a joke? Are you really worried that one post about the Canadian election per week is cluttering up the blue? If this trend continues, we might see four more posts before the election takes place. Is that worth worrying about?
posted by ssg at 11:24 AM on September 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

I have plenty of potential Batman/Superman/Watchmen posts, just waiting in the wings.
posted by Artw at 11:28 AM on September 18, 2008

I'm ok with one a week, although the cleverness of not mentioning it's Canada has lost its appeal.

Substitute Canada with the US and I'm totally with you!
posted by GuyZero at 11:28 AM on September 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

Personally, I'd love to see more non-US election coverage. I don't know nearly enough about foreign politics and I find the topic very interesting.
posted by Craig at 11:31 AM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Also, the irony of this being posted by a Canadian. Presumably you're coming here to get away from the non-stop local coverage. Tough shit.
posted by GuyZero at 11:34 AM on September 18, 2008

...I actually think the posts are pretty redundant too, and getting a bit newsfiltery after the first two. If they stayed on-original-topic that would be one thing, but we're trending towards "general election chat" after the first few comments in each.

Unlike angrybeaver this doesn't really bother me, but I think it's a valid point that there's a level of redundancy in the conversation.
posted by Shepherd at 11:45 AM on September 18, 2008

Can we delete Canada to keep multiple nations from cluttering up the continent?
posted by octobersurprise at 11:55 AM on September 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

I agree that Consolidated Canadian contest coverage (We can call it ConCanConCon - and if it involves Harper and his little dogs, too, we can call it ConCanConCubed!) would be helpful in avoiding the redundancies and easier to follow. Same with Wall Street MeltdownFilter, I keep getting confused between the Brokergeddon and Fed "Hopes" AIG FPPs.

I have plenty of potential Batman/Superman/Watchmen posts, just waiting in the wings.
Hurm.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:57 AM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Personally, I'd love to see more non-US election coverage. I don't know nearly enough about foreign politics and I find the topic very interesting.

Ahem (self link goodness).
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:03 PM on September 18, 2008

Personally, I'd love to see more non-US election coverage. I don't know nearly enough about foreign politics and I find the topic very interesting.

Seconded.
posted by languagehat at 12:05 PM on September 18, 2008

metafilter.ca
posted by blue_beetle at 12:28 PM on September 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

Each post is seperate and distinct.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:45 PM on September 18, 2008

and Canadian politics is its own unique nation within the greater Metafilter confederation.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:38 PM on September 18, 2008

Also, the irony of this being posted by a Canadian.

It's not ironic at all; it's typically Canadian polite concern.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:39 PM on September 18, 2008

(Translation: "Are we being too Canadian? Sorry about that.")
posted by Sys Rq at 1:41 PM on September 18, 2008

I have plenty of potential Batman/Superman/Watchmen posts, just waiting in the wings.
Hurm.

And Doctor Who, too!
posted by Artw at 2:00 PM on September 18, 2008

I like the non-US politics posts. Plus, the sidebar is supposed to be for extra interesting stuff, not a catchall for things people are tired of seeing on the front page.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:08 PM on September 18, 2008

From metafilter.ca ("What you need, when you need it"):

Related Searches
* Free Crimal Check
* Criminal Check
* Roomate
* Get Rid Of Roommate
* Kick Out Roommate

No "should I eat it" or "should I dump him (the minority PM that is)" questions.
posted by GuyZero at 3:13 PM on September 18, 2008

There's a story that gets told here in Australia, which sounds true but I cannot verify its accuracy, about a joint naval battle drill that Australia did with the United States. Apparently the US had just shared some new weapons tech with Australia, who in turn had installed it on their ships, and the purpose of the drill was for the Australians to get to grips with the new weapon and test its capabilities.

The story goes that during the battle, the Australians managed to get something like a 90% hit rate on the US ships, which baffled the Yanks because during their time with the weapon, they had only ever been able to achieve a 60% to 70% hit rate with it. The Yanks were outraged, demanding to know what the Australians had done to 'their' weapon tech.

"Nothing special" came the reply from the Australian Navy engineers. "When we put it together, we just followed the instruction manual."

The Australians showed the world how to do it then. And back when we had the Australian general election back in November of last year, we showed you all how to do an election campaign on the pages of Metafilter. Follow the instruction manual.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:23 PM on September 18, 2008

"Nothing special" came the reply from the Australian Navy engineers. "When we put it together, we just followed the instruction manual."

WTF kind of engineering is that?
posted by Artw at 3:37 PM on September 18, 2008

WTF kind of engineering is that?

The good kind?

While you might harbor unrealistic fantasies of engineers being magical elves armed with wrenches and tables of of magic data - most real world "engineers" are more likely to be glorified mechanics - albeit with a much better education than your average wrencher.

This is especially true of any military engineer, civil or otherwise. Granted, their expertise in applying duct 100 MPH tape is better than most, and I don't at all mean to deprecate the fine art of "field engineering" where duct tape is most useful.

But if you ask any engineer I reckon they'll agree - with exasperation and many wild tales - that if that's the kind of engineering that's going on, something fucking went wrong somewhere.

Like not reading the manual.

There's a reason why your not so friendly sysadmin angrily tells you "RTFM, PEBKAC!"
posted by loquacious at 5:21 PM on September 18, 2008

Has any mod showed up here yet? The answer is no. A thread per week is not clutter and the sidebar is not for that sort of thing anyhow.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:46 PM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Pff. Sysadmins break stuff and THEN read manuals, like engineers.
posted by Artw at 7:32 PM on September 18, 2008

We need more anus threads.
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:39 PM on September 18, 2008

So... anyone want to talk about Palin?
posted by 8dot3 at 7:46 PM on September 18, 2008

Fine 8dot3, this can be the other anus thread then!
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:35 PM on September 18, 2008

I have plenty of potential Batman/Superman/Watchmen posts, just waiting in the wings.

I have plenty of beer, boredom, and unrelinquished adolescence here. Make with the posting.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:37 PM on September 18, 2008

It's kind of a strange election, but maybe it's because I don't have television. It was kind of fun watching the media try to topple Ritz, but it didn't work. Apparently the Libs are gaining ground as we speak in Quebec and Ontario (but, goddamit, they've got to talk about their economic policies - they are so much better than the Tories - rather than the wonky bullshit Greenshift minutia), but are loosing ground in BC, which indicates to me at least that their proposed carbon tax is to blame... I have this premonition now that Gordon Campbell is going to lose the next election. But a week is a long time in politics.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:57 PM on September 18, 2008

On a website where year-old duplicates get called out as doubles and deleted, and where the mods frequently admonish posters to take it to an existing open thread, it surprises me that a newsfilterish thread per week doesn't qualify as clutter.

I do suppose the powers that be would be happy if there was only one USA election thread per week.

I do have a vague memory of one of my deleted ElectionFilter threads during the last election being called obnoxious. If only I could find it.

Thanks Jessamyn.

KokuRyu, let's take the election chat back to the blue. Can you have a look at the first election thread? I recently replied to one of your comments there.
posted by angrybeaver at 9:37 PM on September 18, 2008

The Australians showed the world how to do it then. And back when we had the Australian general election back in November of last year, we showed you all how to do an election campaign on the pages of Metafilter.

I've seen this said several times in MeTa in the past. Next time I see it, it's going to be time to start with the punching in the nose. Enough with the intolerable smugness already, you sun-smashed beer-addled crims -- you're almost as bad (almost, mind you) as us cheesehead healthcare-flaunting Canucks.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:58 PM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Don't worry, Canadians! Kate Beaton has Steve's back.
posted by Caduceus at 11:09 PM on September 18, 2008

I think this was the obnoxious post.

And your question was about sidebarring. We don't sidebar topics [except in very rare cases] just to keep away duplicates. If your suggestion really was "hey we've been seeing a lot of really similar Canadian election threads, can we be more vigilant about making sure they're not basically doubles?" that's an entirely different question than the one you asked. Newsy posts aren't held up to the same double post scrutiny as a link to a flash game or a weird robot site and yeah one a week is really not what I'd call clutter.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:28 AM on September 19, 2008

Cut and paste time!


Can we delete Canada to keep multiple nations from cluttering up the continent?

Substitute Canada with the US and I'm totally with you!
posted by edgeways at 12:41 PM on September 19, 2008

Plus, it'll be over before you can blink.

Remind me never to get into a staring contest with you. I don't think I could last an hour, let alone the three weeks that are left.
posted by Johnny Assay at 3:18 PM on September 19, 2008

Also, the irony of this being posted by a Canadian.

If it had been posted by an American it would have been obnoxious.
posted by orange swan at 6:51 PM on September 19, 2008

Has no one mentioned Australia yet? I think it's best that they're left out of it.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:46 AM on September 20, 2008