We refuse, you effuse April 21, 2010 11:26 AM Subscribe
I don't know if this is to be celebrated or bemoaned, but a thread closed for self-promotion on Metafilter is now the second most popular link on reddit.
I lean towards the attitude that we should take a minute to thank our mods, but I'm also just plain curious about the oddity of it, seeing as they're linking directly to a deleted part of Metafilter.
I lean towards the attitude that we should take a minute to thank our mods, but I'm also just plain curious about the oddity of it, seeing as they're linking directly to a deleted part of Metafilter.
It's a weird thing. The post itself wasn't (as far as I can tell) a problematic thing, but in vetting it I turned up clear evidence that they guy had previously shilled for a client in a post and at that point posting privileges aren't on the table.
Anyway, yeah, the life-of-a-deleted-post thing is weird. I watch deleted posts make the rounds (mostly via spambots) on twitter for hours after we've already killed the post itself. One of the odder side effects of the visibility of deletions.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:32 AM on April 21, 2010
Anyway, yeah, the life-of-a-deleted-post thing is weird. I watch deleted posts make the rounds (mostly via spambots) on twitter for hours after we've already killed the post itself. One of the odder side effects of the visibility of deletions.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:32 AM on April 21, 2010
It's kind of neat -- especially since while I was wringing my hands over my first Metatalk post, WCityMike realized the post was interesting even though it got deleted, fixed it up, and resubmitted it, so now we have an improved post, and redditors are exchanging links in the comments.
It's like watching a wound knit.
posted by Valet at 11:35 AM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
It's like watching a wound knit.
posted by Valet at 11:35 AM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
I watch deleted posts make the rounds (mostly via spambots) on twitter for hours after we've already killed the post itself.
So what you're saying is that it might be better to call them Undead Posts rather then deleted?
posted by The Whelk at 11:38 AM on April 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
So what you're saying is that it might be better to call them Undead Posts rather then deleted?
posted by The Whelk at 11:38 AM on April 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
I watched this post crawl from a deep well and then through my tv.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 11:46 AM on April 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 11:46 AM on April 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
It's like watching a wound knit
well chiron did move into pisces near uranus today
zombieposts?
posted by infini at 11:50 AM on April 21, 2010
well chiron did move into pisces near uranus today
zombieposts?
posted by infini at 11:50 AM on April 21, 2010
Polterposts.
posted by daniel_charms at 11:54 AM on April 21, 2010
posted by daniel_charms at 11:54 AM on April 21, 2010
Surely Postlergeists
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:59 AM on April 21, 2010
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:59 AM on April 21, 2010
Posts in the machine.
posted by The Whelk at 12:00 PM on April 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 12:00 PM on April 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
404 Error: Corpse Not Found
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:08 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:08 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Post Ghosties.
posted by sageleaf at 12:11 PM on April 21, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by sageleaf at 12:11 PM on April 21, 2010 [3 favorites]
Night Of The Living Thread.
posted by The Whelk at 12:15 PM on April 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 12:15 PM on April 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
Do we really need to start zombie bashing? Again?
God, you haters will take any opportunity.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:17 PM on April 21, 2010
God, you haters will take any opportunity.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:17 PM on April 21, 2010
So that would make the mods Postbusters?
posted by edbles at 12:23 PM on April 21, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by edbles at 12:23 PM on April 21, 2010 [5 favorites]
No! That's how astro zombie gets you close enough to enjoy dinner.
posted by edbles at 12:26 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by edbles at 12:26 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
he's SOLAR POWERED YOU GUYS
Also the mods should live in a converted fire house just cause.
posted by The Whelk at 12:29 PM on April 21, 2010
Also the mods should live in a converted fire house just cause.
posted by The Whelk at 12:29 PM on April 21, 2010
in the decades since puberty its been observed normal behaviour but usually for dessert, have times changed, then?
posted by infini at 12:29 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by infini at 12:29 PM on April 21, 2010
Post In The Shell.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:35 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by daniel_charms at 12:35 PM on April 21, 2010
Post in the Shell: Self-Link Alone Complex
posted by edbles at 12:41 PM on April 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by edbles at 12:41 PM on April 21, 2010 [2 favorites]
I’m a little concerned about the undead dismissive and stereotypical attitudes towards the undead some of the posters are displaying in this thread. Metafilter I thought we were better than this. We're not fark people.
posted by edbles at 12:45 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by edbles at 12:45 PM on April 21, 2010
This post was deleted for the following reason: Ugh, looks like one of your previous posts was a shill for one of the clients of the marketing firm you work for. Adios. -- cortex
What?!
feckineejit 0 points1 point2 points 1 hour ago[+] (2 children)
The owner of the site (Geico guy) deleted the post as spam because the poster was a shill for the marketing arm of Freedomworks.
cortex: thank you for your service to our country.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:56 PM on April 21, 2010
What?!
feckineejit 0 points1 point2 points 1 hour ago[+] (2 children)
The owner of the site (Geico guy) deleted the post as spam because the poster was a shill for the marketing arm of Freedomworks.
cortex: thank you for your service to our country.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:56 PM on April 21, 2010
Man. The guy was a shill for an unrelated site two months ago and has nothing to do with Freedomworks, Geico, or D.C. Douglas as far as I know.
I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. I'm pretty sure I don't care enough to register with reddit and jump in, though.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:59 PM on April 21, 2010
I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. I'm pretty sure I don't care enough to register with reddit and jump in, though.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:59 PM on April 21, 2010
jbutton 1 point2 points3 points 1 hour ago[-]
I see things have not changed at Metafilter- with that same creepy moderator deleting posts with the same pithy-yet-smug explanation.
Cortex please make up your mind I can't keep up with these wild transformations.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:00 PM on April 21, 2010
I see things have not changed at Metafilter- with that same creepy moderator deleting posts with the same pithy-yet-smug explanation.
Cortex please make up your mind I can't keep up with these wild transformations.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:00 PM on April 21, 2010
So could be call WCityMike a Postermancer?
posted by The Whelk at 1:01 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 1:01 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm struggling with my own visits to a quickly-deleted self-linked site on Mefi. I don't want to reward this behaviour, and it's the only place I've seen it, but me like...
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:08 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:08 PM on April 21, 2010
SO WHIMSICAL.
posted by SpiffyRob at 2:29 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by SpiffyRob at 2:29 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. I watch deleted posts make the rounds on twitter for hours after we've already killed the post. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.
posted by SpacemanStix at 4:48 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by SpacemanStix at 4:48 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Cortex, do you mean that he can never post anything again? I know that shilling is a big no-no, but that seems excessive.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:52 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:52 PM on April 21, 2010
Yes, never again. Don't self link, it is just about the only hard and fast rule on MeFi.
posted by caddis at 5:55 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by caddis at 5:55 PM on April 21, 2010
That means, yes, he's banned for good. Being banned for abusing the site guidelines by self-linking or promoting a client/employer/associate on the front page has been standard practice for most of Metafilter's existence. It's basically the only hard-and-fast rule we have.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:55 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:55 PM on April 21, 2010
On the other hand, there are many silent-but-deadly rules.
posted by fleacircus at 6:02 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by fleacircus at 6:02 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
*lites a match*
posted by The Whelk at 6:12 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 6:12 PM on April 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Cortex, do you mean that he can never post anything again? I know that shilling is a big no-no, but that seems excessive.
I am a professional publicist, so I shill for a living. I work with quite a few bloggers and some social media outlets. I've been a member here since 2004 and lurked for a while before that. Have made 80+ posts to the Blue and a couple of thousand comments. I've never once shilled for my clients here. In fact, I try to keep out of threads if one of them is inadvertently mentioned there, and yes, that has happened. I'm not the only publicist who's a member of MeFi, either.
Speaking professionally, it's not excessive. Publicists who self-link are violating an ethical rule of our industry. If they are incapable of getting publicity for their clients overtly, that's their problem, not ours. They shouldn't be given free rein to quietly manipulate or fool the public, which gives those of us who do honor those ethical guidelines a very bad name.
If they can't play nicely with others, they don't deserve to be here. And good on the mods for cracking down on 'em.
posted by zarq at 8:04 PM on April 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
I am a professional publicist, so I shill for a living. I work with quite a few bloggers and some social media outlets. I've been a member here since 2004 and lurked for a while before that. Have made 80+ posts to the Blue and a couple of thousand comments. I've never once shilled for my clients here. In fact, I try to keep out of threads if one of them is inadvertently mentioned there, and yes, that has happened. I'm not the only publicist who's a member of MeFi, either.
Speaking professionally, it's not excessive. Publicists who self-link are violating an ethical rule of our industry. If they are incapable of getting publicity for their clients overtly, that's their problem, not ours. They shouldn't be given free rein to quietly manipulate or fool the public, which gives those of us who do honor those ethical guidelines a very bad name.
If they can't play nicely with others, they don't deserve to be here. And good on the mods for cracking down on 'em.
posted by zarq at 8:04 PM on April 21, 2010 [4 favorites]
Just out of curiousity, is bannination specific only to the handle, or is it meant to try to encompass the person as a whole?
The latter—the rules here generally apply to a person, not to an account, whether it's the self-linking proscription or the seven-day waiting period on askme or etc. In practice the distinction is rarely meaningful, since the vast majority of mefites only have (to our knowledge, natch) only one account, and self-linkers/spammers/shills very rarely try to sign up again.
But, yes, to be clear, that guy is banned and should not plan on signing up again. We can never be 100% sure that someone savvy isn't going to sneak back in, staying under the radar either temporarily or permanently, but we keep a pretty good eye out. The odd case where someone comes back silently and behaves well over the long term with their new account before we figure it out is something we have to deal with case-by-case.
He may have something to do with D.C. Douglas.
I can't know for sure that he didn't, but to be clear I knew of nothing in the post I deleted today that was definitively tied to the poster. There was to my knowledge no "spam link" in the post; I killed it because I didn't want a known shill making new posts.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:14 PM on April 21, 2010
The latter—the rules here generally apply to a person, not to an account, whether it's the self-linking proscription or the seven-day waiting period on askme or etc. In practice the distinction is rarely meaningful, since the vast majority of mefites only have (to our knowledge, natch) only one account, and self-linkers/spammers/shills very rarely try to sign up again.
But, yes, to be clear, that guy is banned and should not plan on signing up again. We can never be 100% sure that someone savvy isn't going to sneak back in, staying under the radar either temporarily or permanently, but we keep a pretty good eye out. The odd case where someone comes back silently and behaves well over the long term with their new account before we figure it out is something we have to deal with case-by-case.
He may have something to do with D.C. Douglas.
I can't know for sure that he didn't, but to be clear I knew of nothing in the post I deleted today that was definitively tied to the poster. There was to my knowledge no "spam link" in the post; I killed it because I didn't want a known shill making new posts.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:14 PM on April 21, 2010
I regret not being a little more clear in the deletion reason. Ironically, there'd be less confusion about how the deletion-and-ban thing went down this morning if I'd just explicitly identified the guy and his firm and the culprit post instead of being vague, but I usually don't do that unless it's a really balls-out bit of spamming or something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:16 PM on April 21, 2010
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:16 PM on April 21, 2010
I like Metafilter as it is. It's artisanal and messy because there's no crowd-based algorithm. And plenty of interesting things you don't get to see elsewhere get featured. Occasionally, someone violates the rules and something good gets deleted. Oh well.
I honestly can't tell the difference between Digg and Reddit. Do we really need a third one?
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:49 PM on April 22, 2010
I honestly can't tell the difference between Digg and Reddit. Do we really need a third one?
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:49 PM on April 22, 2010
I regret not being a little more clear in the deletion reason. Ironically, there'd be less confusion about how the deletion-and-ban thing went down this morning if I'd just explicitly identified the guy and his firm and the culprit post instead of being vague, but I usually don't do that unless it's a really balls-out bit of spamming or something.
I would stop second guessing yourself. It seemed clear enough.
posted by caddis at 4:07 AM on April 23, 2010
I would stop second guessing yourself. It seemed clear enough.
posted by caddis at 4:07 AM on April 23, 2010
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Switch of the URLs to example.com in 5, 4, 3.....
posted by zarq at 11:31 AM on April 21, 2010