Self-linker in Aisle B! April 23, 2010 3:48 AM   Subscribe

Self-linker in Aisle B!

Exhibit A: copying an earlier comment, with a link thrown in for good measure.

Exhibit B: previous identical behaviour - again, pasting an earlier comment with a link.

Those were two minutes apart. The third has probably been posted by now.

Infini ZINDABAD for drawing this to our attention!
posted by UbuRoivas to MetaFilter-Related at 3:48 AM (90 comments total)

Handled.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:57 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


what the hell are you doing up? isn't this time of day supposed to be a free-for-all?
posted by gman at 4:00 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]




Uwa, so fast my head spun.
posted by subbes at 4:01 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


what???
posted by artof.mulata at 4:05 AM on April 23, 2010


what the hell are you doing up?

Red-eye flight & waiting for a connection. Sorry for the super speedy service.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:05 AM on April 23, 2010 [41 favorites]


Whoa. Nice catch!
posted by zarq at 4:07 AM on April 23, 2010


Aww man, I never get to have any fun!
posted by vacapinta at 4:09 AM on April 23, 2010 [16 favorites]


Wow, that was quick! 200 Rupees down the drain. That's about 100 half chais!
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:16 AM on April 23, 2010


(wham, ban, thank you ma'am)
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:20 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Mmm, half chais. Whole chais? Chai chai chai now the word sounds wrong.
posted by empyrean at 4:39 AM on April 23, 2010


Od avinu chai! Hey!
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:47 AM on April 23, 2010 [3 favorites]


chai
posted by Abiezer at 5:16 AM on April 23, 2010




Chai chai chai now the word sounds wrong.

That'd be because you forgot the "Aaah":

Aaah chai chai chai, garam chai!

Or perhaps you've lost your dance moves?
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:21 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


EDWARD FOREVER!
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:26 AM on April 23, 2010


pssst: Edward's been gone for ages, it's Elizabeth II now
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:27 AM on April 23, 2010 [4 favorites]


Did you buy one of Her Majesty's badges today?
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:31 AM on April 23, 2010


She's selling badgers now?

Last time she was in town, she was only selling her beaver.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:33 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


In an alternate universe where I have any musical talent whatsoever, I'm going to call my band "self-link, band".
posted by FishBike at 5:54 AM on April 23, 2010


Way to break the seal on the douchebag tag. I'm genuinely surprised this is its first use.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:02 AM on April 23, 2010


Oh, also, now that the evidence has been removed there's no way to tell what user you were talking about which makes it harder for somebody to write a pithy tune about the experience (although this time around cortex is a moderator and can see the deleted comments.)
posted by Rhomboid at 6:07 AM on April 23, 2010


Edward Forever!

Edward Forever
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:15 AM on April 23, 2010


Yeah, now those links in this MeTa go to where real users live and make them look hinky. When comments get removed don't links usually revert to the OP and not some other comments?
posted by mintcake! at 6:35 AM on April 23, 2010


Ed Wood Forever
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:16 AM on April 23, 2010


As the linked comments have vanished and I can't tell whether or not they had any merit beyond self-promotion, but...

I thought the "self linking" rule only applied to FPs - So if I did my dissertation on Flargle Widgets, and the topic of Flargle widgets happens to come up in a discussion, I couldn't say something to the effect of "So for those reasons and more, Flargle Widgets just don't work like that. If you want more details, check out my my dissertation, particularly chapter 4"?

I ask this point of clarification because I have worked on two semi-interesting bits of original research, to which I most likely could not find any sources I could link to that don't have me credited somewhere.
posted by pla at 7:48 AM on April 23, 2010


now that the evidence has been removed there's no way to tell what user you were talking about which makes it harder for somebody to write a pithy tune about the experience

♫ Anonymous was linking, tra-la-la-la.
   They had the moderators blinking, la-la-la-la-la.
   Something was off-kilter
   but this is Metafilter
   you know this is Metafilter. ♫

Also, kilter/Metafilter? cortex was robbed of the Nobel prize in poetry that year, robbed.
posted by empyrean at 7:50 AM on April 23, 2010


I'm re-writing Johnny Depp's great line in Dead Man:

"I'm Jessamyn West . . . perhaps you know my poetry?"

Boom.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:51 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


I thought the "self linking" rule only applied to FPs - So if I did my dissertation on Flargle Widgets, and the topic of Flargle widgets happens to come up in a discussion, I couldn't say something to the effect of "So for those reasons and more, Flargle Widgets just don't work like that. If you want more details, check out my my dissertation, particularly chapter 4"?

I ask this point of clarification because I have worked on two semi-interesting bits of original research, to which I most likely could not find any sources I could link to that don't have me credited somewhere.


I'm not entirely sure, but it looks like what happened here is the self-linker in question copied someone else's comment word for word in order to make it seem like he or she was contributing, then threw in a self-link. So, this would have been a comment spammer, more than a simple self-linker.
posted by zarq at 7:57 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


And I can't speak for the mods, but the FAQ says self-links in comments are generally okay. I've done it once or twice myself.
posted by zarq at 7:57 AM on April 23, 2010


I understand the general idea to be that one should always disclose when self-linking in comments, but that otherwise as long as it is actually relevant to the topic at hand it's perfectly okay.
posted by Night_owl at 8:04 AM on April 23, 2010


Pla, in addition to what zarq has said, I would suggest that when you say "check out my dissertation", you're definitely in the clear. For a comment: give disclosure that you're not necessarily unbiased.

If nothing else, it's a polite thing to do in the conversation.
posted by Lemurrhea at 8:05 AM on April 23, 2010


I would never ask anyone to check out my dissertation. That's just not the kind of reputation that anyone in polite society should want to acquire.
posted by oddman at 8:28 AM on April 23, 2010 [3 favorites]


I thought the "self linking" rule only applied to FPs

There's self-linking and there's spamming, and formally speaking they're two different circles in a Venn diagram. You can self-link in good faith in comments, doing that now and again is generally not a problem (always good to clearly disclose what you're doing, though).

Self-linking in a post to the front page is a no-no and will get you banned.

You can spam without self-linking. You can spam while self-linking. Both are fuck-off territory, since the spam is the problem no matter what. What this case was was particularly lazy spam, with some dingus copying an existing comment and then throwing some random bullshit link into the mix.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:57 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


Venn diagram.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:09 AM on April 23, 2010 [23 favorites]


"Sent from my iVenn."
posted by mintcake! at 9:12 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


...and now you know ..the rest of the story.
posted by The Whelk at 9:13 AM on April 23, 2010


Venn diagram.

Your attempt at polka-dotting the "okay" areas makes them look even more testicular. Success!
posted by Pollomacho at 9:20 AM on April 23, 2010


Both are fuck-off territory

Which was where I was making my connection this morning!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:33 AM on April 23, 2010 [5 favorites]


HAHAHA cortex can't draw a perfect circle!
posted by iamkimiam at 9:40 AM on April 23, 2010


Wait, Newark is fuck-off territory?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:44 AM on April 23, 2010


Red-eye flight

Red eye like a Terminator!
posted by Artw at 9:45 AM on April 23, 2010


+--------------------+
|    Welcome to      |
|                    |
| FUCK OFF TERRITORY |
|                    |
|  Population: You   |
+--------------------+
 ||                ||
 ||                ||
(not directed at anyone in particular, just a visual that came to mind with cortex's use of the phrase)
posted by FishBike at 9:47 AM on April 23, 2010 [32 favorites]


FishBike, I picture it more like a tourist trap:

FUCK OFF TERRITORY AHEAD
LAST CHANCE FOR FUEL

COME SEE THE SNARK
JUST 5.00
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 9:52 AM on April 23, 2010 [8 favorites]


I don't get what happened. I don't see anything. I guess because Jessamyn took them off? Man, I hate it when I miss stuff like this!
posted by anniecat at 9:57 AM on April 23, 2010


HAHAHA iamkimiam's eyes are stuck in Euclidean mode!
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:58 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


I don't get what happened. I don't see anything. I guess because Jessamyn took them off? Man, I hate it when I miss stuff like this!

No, she made it so this never happened. Spammers are powerless against the MetaFilter moderator time machine!
posted by FishBike at 10:06 AM on April 23, 2010


Is that a wild Snark or one of those lame-ass reserves where Snarks roam "free" and you drive trough and take pictures as the Snarks walk apathetically past your car window not even caring there is tasty fresh meat inside? Or is it a pathetic caged Snark, a creature that has never known the true call of the wild and can only sit in the corner in it's cage of faux glass picking at itself, which makes you sad and mildly depressed? Truly a waste of $5.
posted by edgeways at 10:07 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


I was assured that Web 2.0 would include non-Euclidean tables.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:47 AM on April 23, 2010


Not only does it only work on the internet, I don't even control it. It just retroactively zaps me to where the danger lives. It's damned disconcerting. cortex got the Venn diagram implant, and I got this.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:53 AM on April 23, 2010 [8 favorites]


There's not anything you could tell me about Flargle Widgets anyway.
posted by ardgedee at 10:53 AM on April 23, 2010


I feel the collective energy of MetaFilter as we try to resist making a comment about how much we know about Flargle Widgets.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:57 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


I was surprised they went so fast (as Jessamyn explained re: redeye) that's why I made sure to leave that comment there with a link to the copied comment and the funky looking one. the Username was IndiaOnline and the date of joining was 23rd April and the self link really wasn't a self link per se but a link to a really suspicious "government jobs here" blogspot - Sarkari Naukri = Government (civil service) jobs. so keep a look out for that guy or others like him/her/it

Coming on the heels of the recent tweet I saw on "buy comments to get conversations rolling" sales pitch, I didn't see it as self linking so much as as a bought commenter leaving turd droppings in threads on behalf of websites. No different than all the idiots who can't understand what "comments are moderated" means and leave pleas to use their essay writing services in China or buy a laptop from PK, which go straight into delete bucket. Morons.

God I hate human powered spam comments. GRAR GRAR GRAR i'm a gonna pour me a Laphroig, its Friday night...
posted by infini at 10:59 AM on April 23, 2010


formally speaking they're two different circles in a Venn diagram.

this is where the power of timezones across Oz, Hel and wherever The Librarian was red eying us from converge to zap the evil spammers
posted by infini at 11:06 AM on April 23, 2010


SNAAAARK FREEEE! FREE AS THE TROLL BLOWS! FREE AS THE GRASS GROWS!
posted by The Whelk at 11:14 AM on April 23, 2010


i want a pony - can flagging comments menu now offer "spam" as an option instead of "other" ? (If this goes on... I mean)

oh and can we add "whelkiness" to the MeTaxicon?
posted by infini at 11:19 AM on April 23, 2010


cortex got the Venn diagram implant, and I got this.

I feel like those aren't really so much very equitable.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:24 AM on April 23, 2010


I feel like those aren't really so much very equitable.

Not entirely, but there's some overlap. Here, let me draw up a diagram...
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:28 AM on April 23, 2010 [9 favorites]


Did mathowie, pb, and vacapinta get powers too? Is this like the saddest LXG iteration ever?
posted by shakespeherian at 11:40 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Are you kidding? pb gives all these powers. Mathowie's has something to do with bicycles.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:42 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not entirely, but there's some overlap. Here, let me draw up a diagram...

I should be working people

Is this like the saddest LXG iteration ever?

LXM, FYI
posted by The Whelk at 11:42 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


Meatbomb is Fu Manchu.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:46 AM on April 23, 2010


Are you kidding? pb gives all these powers. Mathowie's has something to do with bicycles.

It's more like the Green Latern Corps.
posted by The Whelk at 11:48 AM on April 23, 2010


So if I self-link in yellow, they can't do anything?
posted by shakespeherian at 11:49 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


The Professional White Rings fix the Yellow Impurity.
posted by The Whelk at 11:51 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


In this scenario, vacapinta is Mogo.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:56 AM on April 23, 2010


Vacapinta ...does not socialize.
posted by The Whelk at 11:57 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


Vacapinta Does Not Socialize.

Who gets to be F-Sharp Bell?
posted by Artw at 11:58 AM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


The Whelk stole my line - I should be working people ... on a paean to a program and its creator not refreshing this thread

what's with the non sequitors lately shakesperien?

vacapinta, as I am quite sure, in my lucid moments, is actually my father... and my real name is Luke

I confess all... I ran away from the set after George made me kiss my sister
posted by infini at 12:00 PM on April 23, 2010


what's with the non sequitors lately shakesperien?

Which?
posted by shakespeherian at 12:01 PM on April 23, 2010


its not you, its the thread (on preview)
posted by infini at 12:07 PM on April 23, 2010


On darkest green
Or professional white
Self-linking is our greatest blight
Let those who think snark is a'ight
Revel in its power: a true MeFite!
posted by Shepherd at 12:53 PM on April 23, 2010 [6 favorites]


Are you kidding? pb gives all these powers.

I now have this image of pb reading your comment, settling into his chair, sipping his coffee, and smiling while nodding in a self-satisfied way.
posted by davejay at 1:25 PM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Meatbomb has astral plane powers.
posted by qvantamon at 2:30 PM on April 23, 2010


I'm curious to see a Venn diagram of Taters (possibly hard and soft core), Flargle Widgets, and cupcakes. If pb's powers had overlay in any part of it, I think that would be one of the mos successful Venn diagrams EVAR!
posted by P.o.B. at 2:43 PM on April 23, 2010


but can he read minds yet?
posted by infini at 2:43 PM on April 23, 2010


@Shepherd now do it for Team Rocket
posted by NoraReed at 3:09 PM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


On darkest green
Or professional white
Self-linking is our greatest blight
Let those who think snark is a'ight
Revel in its power: a true MeFite!


I approve of this because the rhyming scheme validates my preferred pronunciation of MeFite. Ever since I participated in that research study, I have doubted myself. Particularly when it asked if I actually knew any MeFites. (No, but I still know how to say it.)
posted by jeoc at 4:05 PM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not only does it only work on the internet, I don't even control it.

No worries, sister, everything is operating as intended.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:28 PM on April 23, 2010


cortex got the Venn diagram implant

No, I'm pretty sure he was just eating a doughnut as big as his head, although that could look confusing to the untrained eye.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:53 PM on April 23, 2010


jessamyn also got the power of living in the middle of a body of water
posted by danb at 8:53 PM on April 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


JESSAMYN IS THE QUEEN OF THE SEA.
posted by The Whelk at 9:11 PM on April 23, 2010


Or perhaps you've lost your dance moves?

The song touches on all the class-distinction points you've been mentioning in the previous thread ("chai is a feast for the poor, but is also friendly with nawabs") Also, the lead dancer there is now an upcoming politician down south.

Which makes me suspect you were, perhaps, inspired by the song on your brand of chai politics. Chai we can believe in? :)
posted by the cydonian at 9:30 PM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Now I say something.
posted by nola at 10:03 PM on April 23, 2010


I don't even control it. It just retroactively zaps me to where the danger lives.

And so Jessamyn finds herself leaping from thread to thread, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that her next leap... will be the leap home.
posted by maqsarian at 11:02 PM on April 23, 2010 [6 favorites]


sideways of course, from slower threads to faster ones, but the roads, they keep rolling...
posted by infini at 12:53 AM on April 24, 2010


This won't end whelk.
posted by flabdablet at 8:21 AM on April 24, 2010


you're saying it will bomb?
posted by infini at 9:56 AM on April 24, 2010


He's saying it doesn't end, Whelk.

It never ends.
posted by The Whelk at 10:01 AM on April 24, 2010


man, what a story... just like the broken pencil
posted by infini at 10:04 AM on April 24, 2010


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