i din-a mean-a doit October 18, 2008 5:51 PM   Subscribe

Any way to "un-flag" something? It was done totally in error...really...trigger finger slipped...
posted by Exchequer to MetaFilter-Related at 5:51 PM (42 comments total)

Nope. Plus I don't think it makes any difference.
posted by puke & cry at 6:00 PM on October 18, 2008


Dude, someone has to Capture The Flag.
posted by jonmc at 6:02 PM on October 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


I suppose one flag makes not a whit of difference, but it was just so completely thoughtless.

Remember, kids, Flag safe.
posted by Exchequer at 6:04 PM on October 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Uh oh. Secret Ban Rule has been broken.

Goodbye, Exchequer. It was nice to know you.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 6:14 PM on October 18, 2008


Flagged.
posted by longsleeves at 6:23 PM on October 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


(not really)
posted by longsleeves at 6:23 PM on October 18, 2008


Flogged.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 6:31 PM on October 18, 2008


Un-flagging is Un-American.
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:34 PM on October 18, 2008


It's a commitment. If you can't handle the consequences, then you shouldn't be engaging in flagging.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:35 PM on October 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Your question is based on the asumption that flags go somewhere other than the void.

True Fact: no admin has ever seen a flag. Also, they feast on human flesh after the sun goes down.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:36 PM on October 18, 2008


Where's the flog button hiding?

jeez, I've probably hit that one by mistake, TOO...shizz...

Gonna earn that ban, after all.
posted by Exchequer at 6:36 PM on October 18, 2008


Individual flags aren't as important as flags in the aggregate. Ultimately if we see a flag that apepars to make no sense, we'll just ignore it. So to answer your question, no but it's okay.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:37 PM on October 18, 2008


I'll tell you what make no sense: apepars.
posted by ORthey at 6:55 PM on October 18, 2008


Thanks, jessamyn.
posted by Exchequer at 6:56 PM on October 18, 2008


False flag operation?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:29 PM on October 18, 2008


flagged: flagged, wishes to unflag flag
posted by zippy at 7:35 PM on October 18, 2008


I answered your question in the first comment. So thanks to me.
posted by puke & cry at 7:47 PM on October 18, 2008


Forget it, feeling foolish over flagging fumbles is far from fructuous.
posted by nola at 7:50 PM on October 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


Log in as your sock puppet and flag the comment the opposite way. So if you flagged it as "fantastic," use your sock puppet to flag it as "breaks the guidelines." It all evens out in the end.
posted by Eideteker at 7:51 PM on October 18, 2008


I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:56 PM on October 18, 2008


My solution to mistaken flagging: never do I flag.
posted by telstar at 8:28 PM on October 18, 2008


The Government of the day threw their weight on the side of the great spending Departments, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer [Lord Randolph Churchill, WSC’s father] resigned. The controversy was bitter, the struggle uncertain, but in the end the Government triumphed, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer went down for ever, and with him, as it now seems, there fell also the cause of retrenchment and economy, so that the very memory thereof seems to have perished, and the words themselves have a curiously old-fashioned ring about them.

I suppose that was a lesson which Chancellors of the Exchequer were not likely to forget in a hurry. I should like, if I might be permitted, to read the passage, which appears extremely relevant to the question now before the House. Writing from the Carlton Club on the 22nd of December, 1886, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in resigning his office, wrote to Lord Salisbury, who had pointed out the desperate state of Europe and the possibilities of immediate war, very much in the same way as he has done recently. The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied as follows:

“The great question of public expenditure is not so technical or departmental as might be supposed by a superficial critic. Foreign policy and free expenditure upon armaments act and react upon one another.”

That has been said before in this debate, and it is what the Chief Secretary for Ireland called a hackneyed tag. I think, with as much reason, you might also call the Ten Commandments a hackneyed tag.

“A wise foreign policy [Lord Randolph Churchill continued] will extricate England from Continental struggles and keep her outside of German, Russian, French, or Austrian disputes. I have for some time observed a tendency in the Government attitude to pursue a different line of action, which I have not been able to modify or check. This tendency is certain to be accentuated if large Estimates are presented to and voted by Parliament. The possession of a very sharp sword offers a temptation which becomes irresistible to demonstrate the efficiency of the weapon in a practical manner. I remember the vulnerable and scattered character of the Empire, the universality of our commerce, the peaceful tendencies of our democratic electorate, the hard times, the pressure of competition, and the high taxation now imposed: and with these facts vividly before me I decline to be a party to encouraging the military and militant circle of the War Office and Admiralty to join in the high and desperate stakes which other nations seem to be forced to risk.”

Wise words, Sir, stand the test of time, and I am very glad the House has allowed me, after an interval of fifteen years, to lift again the tattered flag I found lying on a stricken field. [Other versions of this speech read “…tattered flag of retrenchment and economy.”
posted by netbros at 8:38 PM on October 18, 2008


The only way to unflag it is to burn it. Proper flag disposal.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:43 PM on October 18, 2008


apepars

What is par for an ape?
posted by dirigibleman at 9:05 PM on October 18, 2008


Are there chronic flaggers? Can admins ignore them?
posted by ALongDecember at 9:25 PM on October 18, 2008


Are there chronic flaggers? Can admins ignore them?

Wouldn't flagellation be a more appropriate punishment?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:31 PM on October 18, 2008


Hah, "punishment", I didn't even mean to do that one.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:31 PM on October 18, 2008


Well, this is the "i din-a mean-a doit" thread.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:23 PM on October 18, 2008


Are there chronic flaggers? Can admins ignore them?

Also, let's not forget — let's not forget, Dude - that flaggin', a troll, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city — that ain't legal either.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:29 PM on October 18, 2008 [2 favorites]


Can admins ignore them?

Normarators can ignore them.
posted by fixedgear at 6:57 AM on October 19, 2008


Nelson once mis-flagged. He meant to send 'England expects every man to do his laundry', but there were some crossed wires.
posted by djgh at 8:17 AM on October 19, 2008


apepars

Because of his powerful-but-unorthodox swing and bizarre vocalizations, Donkey Kong is my favorite Mario Golf character.
posted by box at 9:55 AM on October 19, 2008


WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
ENTHUSIASM IS FLAGGING
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:16 PM on October 19, 2008


Flagged as 'other' while being curious and trying it out for myself. I'm wondering if there's some way of tweaking the code there so that flags could be editable (say, have a [!] as well as the [Flagged] so you can go back and change it if need be, thus fixing the 'I clicked on the wrong flag' issue) and / or backable out of entirely (have a new [x] by [Flagged] removing the flag, thus fixing the 'I don't know what I was thinking when I clicked on this' issue and also providing a way to edit a flag if necessary.) On the other hand, I can see these issues might not be particularly pressing, and there's an argument that says the current method of sternly enforcing whatever you clicked on first time forces people to be a bit careful when flagging, whcih is no bad thing, though it only works for the people who know about it.
posted by motty at 3:39 PM on October 19, 2008


Flags-pas.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:48 PM on October 19, 2008


What is par for an ape?

$20, same as in town.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:30 PM on October 19, 2008 [2 favorites]


I always feel ashamed of my hubris in flagging things unless it's just a double comment flag.

I'm glad I'm not the only person driven to neurosis by the flagging procedure.
posted by winna at 6:00 PM on October 19, 2008


I think the flagging system here is one of the more civilizing features of MeFi in general (in concert with the $5 ante). I don't really use it all that often, but when something strikes me the right way, I will.

I went ahead and flagged a couple of comments here as Fantastic...don't let it go to your heads.

I also think the noise and derail flags are especially useful.

More online communities should use a similar system (which, I now hereby confess, is the real reason I was poking around with the flag box in the first place).

SECRET REASON FOR ORIGINAL POST REVEALED.

posted by Exchequer at 7:54 PM on October 19, 2008


I really should clarify that last element.

I was on another forum, recalling how well MeFi's flagging system works. I came back here, picked a totally random post and opened up the flag box to look at the options a bit closer, you know, for research.

BAM, flagged!

i din-a mean-a doit


Thanks for all the feedback, chaps.
posted by Exchequer at 9:25 PM on October 19, 2008


Don't unflag it, and move on.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:29 AM on October 20, 2008


On the other hand, I can see these issues might not be particularly pressing, and there's an argument that says the current method of sternly enforcing whatever you clicked on first time forces people to be a bit careful when flagging, whcih is no bad thing, though it only works for the people who know about it.

Yeah, this. The flag system is basically so we can get input on what the community generally thinks about a post -- see the current "why was my post deleted" Meta, it's useful to say "hey it's not just us that didn't like it, it got flagged a lot too..." -- but every individual flag isn't a mission critical moderation tool. Nothing happens as a result of an individual flag (like auto deletions or whaterver) and all it means is someone will go look at something. Sometimes people go crazy and flag like fifteen things in a row and we'll politely tell them that once we're sort of mucking about in a thread, we'll see if the whole thing is turning into a trainwreck, but it's not like each flag sends an electric shock our way or wakes us up in the middle of the night so it's not really important to build a whole bunch of undo features into the system.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:25 AM on October 20, 2008


but it's not like each flag sends an electric shock our way or wakes us up in the middle of the night

BRB PONYFILTER
posted by xbonesgt at 9:00 AM on October 20, 2008


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