Self referential posts

October 28, 2011 7:31 PM

What would happen if I posted a self-referential FPP?

Here's what I mean. Let's say I know that the next FPP is going to be numbered 108920. Let's also say I make the short title: Metafilter Front Page Post.

Then, for the link, I male it: http://www.metafilter.com/108920/Metafilter-Front-Page-Post.

Would clicking on the link on the front page post bring me to the front page post? Or does Metafilter prevent from linking to a link that doesn't yet exist?

Can I give it a witty title and try it? Please...

posted by GnomeChompsky to MetaFilter-Related at 7:31 PM (57 comments total)

You must be kidding.
posted by spitbull at 7:34 PM on October 28, 2011

No self links! Do it. I wanna see the banhammer in action.
posted by phunniemee at 7:36 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

No, because then the post would be about something you did, and therefore a self-link.
posted by murphy slaw at 7:36 PM on October 28, 2011

It would, as stated, work. A link is just a link, Metafilter does not verify that there is a responsive web page on the other end before allowing a link to be posted.

That said, this would be a silly thing to do and you should not do it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:37 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

We would be annoyed and dream up all new punishments for you.

Realistically we'd delete it for being against the guidelines or tell you to take it to MeTa which, hey you already did so I guess you're done now.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:37 PM on October 28, 2011 [10 favorites]

Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age.
posted by mintcake! at 7:37 PM on October 28, 2011 [5 favorites]

If that means I'm already silly, then I apologize.
posted by GnomeChompsky at 7:38 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

stunt post = bad.
posted by crunchland at 7:40 PM on October 28, 2011

I think that would be a MeFi version of a GET. Whether it is a WINGET or not is up to you.

If one of the admins did it , it would be an OWNGET.

I really want to see this is action. Is there a dev site around? Can PB do it on the dev site and post a screen shot?
posted by Ad hominem at 7:41 PM on October 28, 2011

We are willing to forgive a stitch of already-accomplished Metatalk self-referentiality in the case of this Metatalk thread, yes. But, yes, you are already silly for having done it.

I own account account 88888. I understand how it is.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:41 PM on October 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

No! You'll introduce instability and potentially damage mathowie's flux capacitors!
posted by rain at 7:43 PM on October 28, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm pretty sure I did this once.
posted by unSane at 7:43 PM on October 28, 2011

Whatever.
posted by kmz at 7:46 PM on October 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

cortex: " I own account account 88888. I understand how it is."

I have this theory that cortex owns several dozen sockpuppet accounts and makes up a good percentage of the active userbase. It's all fun and games until he gets called out in MeTa and gets snippy with the mod on duty.
posted by zarq at 7:50 PM on October 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

so this is now the friday nite party poast right guys
posted by elizardbits at 7:50 PM on October 28, 2011

zarq: are you familiar with the theory that there are only two people on the internet?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:52 PM on October 28, 2011

GnomeChompsky: " Can I give it a witty title and try it? Please... "

That's a great plan, Gnome. That's fuckin' ingenious, if I understand it correctly. It's a Swiss fuckin' watch.
posted by zarq at 7:53 PM on October 28, 2011

zarq: are you familiar with the theory that there are only two people on the internet?

Oh god, which one am I?
posted by punchtothehead at 7:54 PM on October 28, 2011 [8 favorites]

the man of twists and turns: "zarq: are you familiar with the theory that there are only two people on the internet?"

There is no bicabal.
posted by zarq at 7:55 PM on October 28, 2011

With all the evidence I have been able to collect, I am very certain that there at least 83 real people on MetaFilter. And GnomeChompsky is not one of them. But neither am I.

The rest of the Internet, 30-40, max*.
*no, not all named Max. just 5-7 of them.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:57 PM on October 28, 2011

Putting it in as one link out of many in a post otherwise full of links about recursion or self-reference... that would be funny and kosher. I'm pretty sure I've seen posts link to metafilter.com before.
posted by painquale at 8:00 PM on October 28, 2011

Most of us are eliza bots programmed with a corpus if old mefi comments. That explains why everyone misspells hope the wrong way.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:01 PM on October 28, 2011

This post makes me feel like I'm a little high, but in that "oh god the barista is testing me" way, not the fun relaxing way.


What coffee shop/torture chamber/drug den combos are you hanging in?
posted by sweetkid at 8:02 PM on October 28, 2011

so this is now the friday nite party poast right guys

EVERYBODY GO START PLAYING GLITCH, IT IS FUN
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:03 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do it! There is a 50% chance you'll get banned.
posted by cashman at 8:06 PM on October 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

Can't play games I have carefully scheduled my weekend to allow me to watch 45 episodes of Star Trek. My 5 minute break is over, have to watch another 5 episodes before I can take another one. Goodbye.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:06 PM on October 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

There are 6 mods, 2 of which have commented in this thread, That makes your odds 33%. Or 67%. Or whatever's the right answer here.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:09 PM on October 28, 2011

I played Glitch pre-release but it seemed like the opposite of fun. All gamification and no game.
posted by unSane at 8:09 PM on October 28, 2011

Oh god unSane, you're so right. Except you missed - lucky you - the 'addictive like crack' bit. I can stop any time I like. I swear.
posted by motty at 8:12 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Cortex, you and Jessamyn go off and enjoy your evenings. We'll all be fine here playing by ourselves. Go on, now. See you in the morning.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:13 PM on October 28, 2011

You don't even have to guess the next thread number. This creates a link to the current thread: <a href="#">link text here</a>
posted by Rhomboid at 8:13 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

EVERYBODY GO START PLAYING GLITCH, IT IS FUN
posted by cortex 10 minutes ago [+]

I did! It seems to want a lot of petting.
posted by sweetkid at 8:14 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have carefully scheduled my weekend to allow me to watch 45 episodes of Star Trek.


The thing is, my very first thought when I read this was "it's going to take you till Christmas to get through them all that way."

Then I did the math and realized, you're going to be in, like, the early-middle of Voyager/DS9 by Christmas. Then I started worrying about whether you were going by production order, chronological order, or trying to keep whole series together (which honestly makes the least sense of all given the amount of series-hopping certain characters do.) And it occurred to me you might not do every weekend, or might take the day after Thanksgiving off and make it a four-day Trek extravaganza.

Then I realized this is a freaking MetaTalk comment and I really ought to walk away.
posted by SMPA at 8:17 PM on October 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

Sad fact: I spent so much time double-and-triple verifying my math on this issue that I have run out of time to watch the next Star Trek episode in my Netflix queue tonight.
posted by SMPA at 8:19 PM on October 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

I once linked to the metatalk post from a FPP that was about the subject people were already bitching about. I just figured it would save a metatalk post.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:21 PM on October 28, 2011

Sad fact: I spent so much time double-and-triple verifying my math on this issue that I have run out of time to watch the next Star Trek episode in my Netflix queue tonight.

I might just bail on my next Trek slot and pick up when the next one is supposed to start. Gotta make some raktajino anyway.

I have seen most of them before but on netflix I am on 6:1 of TNG, 6:5 of DS9, somewhere in season 2 of Enterprise and god knows where in Voyager, I stopped watching it when they added DS9.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:28 PM on October 28, 2011

I have seen most of them before but on netflix I am on 6:1 of TNG, 6:5 of DS9, somewhere in season 2 of Enterprise and god knows where in Voyager, I stopped watching it when they added DS9.

I have seen all of them before but never in straight production order, because I was 7 when TNG was released and my dad hadn't yet gotten me through TOS and I'd already finished the animated series by then. It is pure torture not skipping ahead, but I am going to do the whole thing from beginning to end just as it was aired, taking my time (though not a week in between episodes, because that way lies true madness.)

My sister meanwhile is in the middle of DS9 and is driving me insane telling me about it.

How could you stop at Time's Arrow, by the way? That was a great season.
posted by SMPA at 8:36 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dammit, GnomeChompsky, I've been playing with the same idea. The post would have been about "Recursion", would have traced its history and uses, contrasted it with mere self-reference, and would have included examples of books with index entries that only refer to the index entry. There would also have been an AskMeFi post asking if someone can explain the concept of "Mutual Recursion", and both posts would have linked to each other.

For the hat trick I was thinking of a MetaTalk post that was linked to both other articles, and was linked to by both other articles. I was figuring I'd need three browser windows open during a slow posting period, tweaking the counts in the links, and hitting 'Post' three times in quick succession.

Oh well, I've been spared the work of creating them and you've all been spared the irritation, but I think it would have been beautiful.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:44 PM on October 28, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm actually on 153, S7:E1 of TNG. It has been a while since I watched any I actually had to check. I should get back to those. I need to see how some stuff resolves on DS9 before I can go back.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:55 PM on October 28, 2011

As of this comment, user number 88888 has 8 favorites. Let no-one upset the delicate harmony of the eights, please.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:03 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

I tried doing that a while back, (linking to a future comment, that would link back.) After a few misfires cluttering things up, I gave up.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:08 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

I played Glitch pre-release but it seemed like the opposite of fun. All gamification and no game.

Yeah, I keep thinking that and then it's 5 hours later and kind of dark and I've petted a lot of piggies. It's probably a good thing my work blocks all game websites.
posted by grapesaresour at 9:12 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

glitch sounds to me like marijuana sounds -- a good time that I'm probably better off not checking out.
posted by garlic at 9:35 PM on October 28, 2011

You should have taken it to the next level and gotten all paradoxical and shit. Like "This MeTa callout is bullshit."
posted by empath at 10:10 PM on October 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

I adore that glitch makes you have to get qualifications to carry a card in order to get papers that prove you are the sort of person who can be trusted with papers.

And the little bureaucratic crocodiles made me want to hug them. They are so cute!
posted by winna at 10:15 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh damn it you people. I finally just checked out glitch. I... Nonononono. I just can't. It's crack! Sweet adorable crack.

If you don't hear from me in a week, send help.
posted by Space Kitty at 10:47 PM on October 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is it just me or is Glitch basically Club Caribe/Habitat?

I know I"m not the only old motherfucker here that remembers Q-Link.
posted by empath at 11:12 PM on October 28, 2011

What would happen if I posted a self-referential FPP?

Obviously, there are no more than three possibilities:

1) Sadako climbs out of your monitor, and your corpse with its hideously deformed face is discovered days later by loved ones who are later committed to a mental hospital for their own wellbeing.*

2) You are immediately disconnected from the Matrix.

3) Your door bursts open, and you from the future kills you to prevent "all that bad stuff from happening," complete with muttering about how everyone expected it to have been Cortex who did 'it' and how everyone was stunned to find out it had been Jessamyn all along.

* Little known fact, Sadako is actually Member 0, the first mod.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:13 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Considered Harmful.
posted by contraption at 11:31 PM on October 28, 2011

Is it just me or is Glitch basically Club Caribe/Habitat?

Is it? I might give it a shot then.

I know I"m not the only old motherfucker here that remembers Q-Link.

Still got the 300 baud modem that was included when you signed up for Q-Link.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:36 PM on October 28, 2011

Don't cross the streams. Or if you do, at least make it a post about Ghostbusters III.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:51 AM on October 29, 2011

Don't cross the streams

But Mr Stay Puft couldn't hurt anyone...could he?
posted by arcticseal at 3:02 AM on October 29, 2011

In 1987, I worked at a nice restaurant where I waited tables. It had a bar, like many restaurants do. Unlike many restaurants, they allowed off-duty employees to drink at the bar. This meant that both the general manager and the executive chef were often seen sitting at the bar, drinking, which is one of the reasons why this sort of thing is often not allowed. I mean, those folk are all drunks. It's hard enough as it is to keep them from killing your liquor costs when they have to do it on the sly.

Anyway, one night I found myself sitting at the bar next to the chef. This one waiter that he didn't much like walked by and, apropos of nothing at all, the chef turned on his barstool, pulled out his wallet, opened it up and withdrew a hundred dollar-bill and said, "I'll give you a hundred dollars if you pick up this barstool next to me and throw it through that window."

"Really?", asked the hapless waiter.

"I promise."

The guy thought about it for awhile as a few of us exchanged looks suggesting that we were all torn between the competing impulses of waiting to see how this fascinating proposition plays out, or finding someplace else to be that doesn't involve barstools and plate glass windows.

"Will I get into trouble?", he wisely inquired.

"Oh, I'll fire you. But I'll definitely give you the hundred bucks."

Well, you know, this wasn't worth his job to him, so he declined. Looking back on it, I think he made a mistake. He couldn't have been prosecuted for it because he would have done it at the suggestion of his employer. He'd have been fired, but he'd have a hundred dollars.

Most importantly, though, the chef would likely have been fired.

Which might have taught the smart-ass a lesson but probably not because, you know, he was a drunk.

This seemed relevant somehow.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:23 AM on October 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

DID I MISS CAPS LOCKS DAY?
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2011

every day can be caps lock day.

you...

juSt...

hAve...

tO...

uuuuuUuuUuAaaAAAAArGHhHHHA!...

BELEIVE!
posted by eyeballkid at 12:07 PM on October 29, 2011

YOU BASTARDS! I just lost 4 hours of my life on Glitch. I have important papers due. I even skipped a Hallowe'en party to catch up on work and squandered it all on that stupid, adorable, pointless game :-S
posted by 1000monkeys at 9:14 PM on October 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

What would happen if I posted a self-referential FPP?

One of the mods would delete it. The deletion reason would consist of the word "double", hyperlinked to the post itself.
posted by Tau Wedel at 11:51 AM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]