Deletions record October 11, 2015 7:48 AM Subscribe
I saw that five MeFi threads had been deleted in the past day for various reasons. I'm not here to question any of them; my curiosity is rather more vanilla: Does anyone know the record for most thread deletions in a 24-hour period?
MetaFilter: a dickens of a time.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:15 AM on October 11, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:15 AM on October 11, 2015 [8 favorites]
MetaFilter: pb wanted to give it a poke internally.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:20 AM on October 11, 2015 [24 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:20 AM on October 11, 2015 [24 favorites]
The Millennial Pledge
“OK, I have to admit this this is a strange collection.”
TPP Treaty: Intellectual Property Rights Chapter
.ᵗʰ
Of course it's true, I read it in the paper / Saw it on the news.
Don't try this at home
to save everyone else trawling through too (the blogspot place isn't up to date)
posted by andrewcooke at 8:46 AM on October 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
“OK, I have to admit this this is a strange collection.”
TPP Treaty: Intellectual Property Rights Chapter
.ᵗʰ
Of course it's true, I read it in the paper / Saw it on the news.
Don't try this at home
to save everyone else trawling through too (the blogspot place isn't up to date)
posted by andrewcooke at 8:46 AM on October 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
Most recently I think in 2012? At the time, according to user Meta Filter, the record was 13 posts deleted on August 6th, 2009. Metafilter Deleted Posts blog for August, 2009.
posted by Lorin at 8:50 AM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Lorin at 8:50 AM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh geez, yeah, the Hughespocalypse. Would have been a busy day even without that, but oof.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:06 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:06 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
These mostly make sense. I love the clear, straightforward and well-explained deletion reasons from taz and L_M in these cases. I don't understand the "blue light special" reason?
posted by Miko at 9:23 AM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Miko at 9:23 AM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
"special" has a link and leads to an earlier post on the same thing, Miko (it's a double).
cortex has the most flair for deletion reasons. It is part of his flair.
I agreed with restless_nomad's deletion of the Millenial post, however, it does open up a question for me (and maybe others?): are fpps deleted when the conversation is mostly people being negative about the post? Is that enough of a reason to delete something, and has it historically happened at this site?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:28 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
cortex has the most flair for deletion reasons. It is part of his flair.
I agreed with restless_nomad's deletion of the Millenial post, however, it does open up a question for me (and maybe others?): are fpps deleted when the conversation is mostly people being negative about the post? Is that enough of a reason to delete something, and has it historically happened at this site?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:28 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh thanks, I didn't see that. i blame sub glare.
I really had the same question about the Milennial post, joseph conrad. It felt more like an aesthetic sort of content curation (nobody likes this, out it goes) than preventing a difficult/contentious discussion. It seems to me it ought to be OK to continue talking about content even when most people dislike it. That doesn't mean there will be nothing to discuss.
posted by Miko at 9:31 AM on October 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
I really had the same question about the Milennial post, joseph conrad. It felt more like an aesthetic sort of content curation (nobody likes this, out it goes) than preventing a difficult/contentious discussion. It seems to me it ought to be OK to continue talking about content even when most people dislike it. That doesn't mean there will be nothing to discuss.
posted by Miko at 9:31 AM on October 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
are fpps deleted when the conversation is mostly people being negative about the post? Is that enough of a reason to delete something, and has it historically happened at this site?
It's rarely a driver, but every once in a while I'd say when a pretty meh link meets a universal panning of the content of the link we'll take that into account. It's rare that a thread that's chock full of people thinking it's terrible isn't also getting flagged, and that one got a lot of flags, so it's not the most interesting test case on how comment reception plays into things as far as that goes. But I've definitely made a call a few times over the years where the post going over like a lead balloon was a contributing factor to the decision.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:43 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's rarely a driver, but every once in a while I'd say when a pretty meh link meets a universal panning of the content of the link we'll take that into account. It's rare that a thread that's chock full of people thinking it's terrible isn't also getting flagged, and that one got a lot of flags, so it's not the most interesting test case on how comment reception plays into things as far as that goes. But I've definitely made a call a few times over the years where the post going over like a lead balloon was a contributing factor to the decision.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:43 AM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
Fair enough, I suppose. If it were a stronger post with more real meat, I'd probably argue harder that it shouldn't go just because reaction is mostly negative. But it was thin stuff which is an important factor too.
posted by Miko at 10:00 AM on October 11, 2015
posted by Miko at 10:00 AM on October 11, 2015
Yeah, I can imagine an interesting post and discussion about the stuff that that Millenial Pledge piece is orbiting around, but the piece itself is basically warmed-over Gak and people were right to flag it into oblivion.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:03 AM on October 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:03 AM on October 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
"Warmed over Gak," my new favorite descriptor.
posted by Oyéah at 10:24 AM on October 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 10:24 AM on October 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
Wait, what's wrong with a Snake Person pledge? Oh, right.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:26 AM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 10:26 AM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Oh man I would be all over a snake people pledge.
"I, snake person, pledge never to reveal the identity of myself or my kind to the Above-Grounders..."
posted by Itaxpica at 10:30 AM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
"I, snake person, pledge never to reveal the identity of myself or my kind to the Above-Grounders..."
posted by Itaxpica at 10:30 AM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Yep, I can confirm the record is 13 deletions on August 6th, 2009. The next highest is 12 on October 8th, 2006; Elephant Day. We average 2 deletions/day so having six in one day is quite a bit higher than normal.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:03 AM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by pb (staff) at 11:03 AM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]
sub glare
No I'm not in a WWII spotting tower. Sun glare.
posted by Miko at 11:37 AM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
No I'm not in a WWII spotting tower. Sun glare.
posted by Miko at 11:37 AM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'd love to read about some rich asshole putting down snake people.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:50 AM on October 11, 2015
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:50 AM on October 11, 2015
sub glare
I thought your sandwich was on fire.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:51 AM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]
I thought your sandwich was on fire.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:51 AM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]
cortex has the most flair for deletion reasons. It is part of his flair.
It's just one of his 37 pieces of flair. (I used to use Flair brand felt tip pens in the office and nobody ever guessed why)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:10 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's just one of his 37 pieces of flair. (I used to use Flair brand felt tip pens in the office and nobody ever guessed why)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:10 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
John Hughes is dead?!!
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 1:51 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 1:51 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
I dreamed I saw John Hughes last night, alive as you and me.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:13 PM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by gingerbeer at 2:13 PM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]
I'm the one who posted that Millenial Pledge FPP, and while I'm not in "WHY YOU DELETE" hysteria, I don't quite get why people were flagging it so hard. We always used to be able to post things that we disagree with, and that we knew would get some mixture of "what lol" and "this is awful". That's par for the course, right? Pushback of the article != pushback of posting it. I'm seeing this shared pretty strongly among multiple different friend groups, and the responses to it from different people have been both entertaining and illuminating on the topic of generational stereotyping. Plus the "is this even satire or what is it, exactly" / uncanny valleyness pushes my buttons in the right ways. The Gak-iness is a feature, not a bug!
posted by naju at 2:16 PM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by naju at 2:16 PM on October 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
backing up naju here, i was really disappointed in that deletion (not enough to make a thread about it, but i did message nomad). i guess if it was getting tons of flags i kind of get it, but i felt the discussion that link brought up was very important. as a millennial sometimes it feels very easy to think "everybody older than me on the internet hates my generation for reasons i can't fathom," and the universal reaction that article had on here was a good reminder that no, that's not the case, and that the millennial-haters are just a vocal minority. i was literally typing something similar to this up when the thread was deleted and was disappointed i didn't get a chance to clarify my thoughts beyond "fuck this article and fuck this guy."
anyway i personally feel that a deletion is more warranted in the case of an ugly/unproductive DISCUSSION, as opposed to an ugly link. in that post's case, the link was ugly but the discussion was productive, and had the opportunity to grow into something even better. oh well.
posted by JimBennett at 2:31 PM on October 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
anyway i personally feel that a deletion is more warranted in the case of an ugly/unproductive DISCUSSION, as opposed to an ugly link. in that post's case, the link was ugly but the discussion was productive, and had the opportunity to grow into something even better. oh well.
posted by JimBennett at 2:31 PM on October 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
I see what you're saying, naju and JimBennett, but the millennials piece wasn't "best of the web" by a long shot; any potential artsy weirdness or entry points into productive discussion were outweighed by the overwhelming straight up get-off-my-lawn sentiment. I frequent MeFi to avoid precisely this kind of polarizing Facebook news feed fodder.
Like cortex said, a better way to do that post would be to put it in a broader context about the author or the larger discourse around millennials. I'm reminded of this post about David Brooks' existential crisis that went pretty well -- but I bet a post entirely consisting of a grumpy youth-decrying David Brooks op-ed would also get flagged down or at least spawn some MeTa debate.
posted by cosmologinaut at 3:15 PM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
Like cortex said, a better way to do that post would be to put it in a broader context about the author or the larger discourse around millennials. I'm reminded of this post about David Brooks' existential crisis that went pretty well -- but I bet a post entirely consisting of a grumpy youth-decrying David Brooks op-ed would also get flagged down or at least spawn some MeTa debate.
posted by cosmologinaut at 3:15 PM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
I read the piece, thought it was annoying and stupid, and moved on. I suppose people who enjoyed it or actually commented on it may have been disappointed, but ... eh.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:25 PM on October 11, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:25 PM on October 11, 2015
I really had the same question about the Milennial post, joseph conrad. It felt more like an aesthetic sort of content curation (nobody likes this, out it goes) than preventing a difficult/contentious discussion.
I'm one of the people who flagged it (and, of course, posted a snarky comment, because I am apparently unable to Move On). I thought the article in question was hurtful and lacked even a modicum of creativity and didn't deserve even the additional traffic from people hatereading. It was just a list of negative stereotypes presented with the intellectual rigor of "old man yells at cloud." The discussion was pretty much all "what a horrible article," which isn't that interesting anyway.
At some point, the actual post of the FPP has to stand on its own as something worth linking to before we can even consider whether a discussion is going well. Personally, I'm far more bothered (though understanding of) deletions on the basis of "this discussion won't go well/MeFi doesn't do X well" rather than "this post links to stupid clickbait that isn't worth reading or encouraging." To me, this was definitely a deletion of the latter sort.
posted by zachlipton at 4:37 PM on October 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
I'm one of the people who flagged it (and, of course, posted a snarky comment, because I am apparently unable to Move On). I thought the article in question was hurtful and lacked even a modicum of creativity and didn't deserve even the additional traffic from people hatereading. It was just a list of negative stereotypes presented with the intellectual rigor of "old man yells at cloud." The discussion was pretty much all "what a horrible article," which isn't that interesting anyway.
At some point, the actual post of the FPP has to stand on its own as something worth linking to before we can even consider whether a discussion is going well. Personally, I'm far more bothered (though understanding of) deletions on the basis of "this discussion won't go well/MeFi doesn't do X well" rather than "this post links to stupid clickbait that isn't worth reading or encouraging." To me, this was definitely a deletion of the latter sort.
posted by zachlipton at 4:37 PM on October 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
(Man, this thread is gold for extensions! It was just a list of negative stereotypes presented with the intellectual rigor of "old man yells at butt." )
posted by ChuraChura at 6:09 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ChuraChura at 6:09 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm really surprised John Hughes Day beats out James Brown Day.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:25 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by shakespeherian at 7:25 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I was about to say that I thought James Brown died at least 5 times.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:43 PM on October 11, 2015
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:43 PM on October 11, 2015
The thing about James Brown is he died three times in one minute. The man's timing was tight.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:55 PM on October 11, 2015 [23 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:55 PM on October 11, 2015 [23 favorites]
Every time a borderline post gets deleted i imagine it playing out like James Brown's cape act from"please, please, please". Someone rushes up and throws a cape over the mod and starts patting them on the back, thinking they're walking away....
posted by cnanderson at 8:14 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by cnanderson at 8:14 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
The infographics compedium I posted last July on Meta contains two slides (6 and 7) about the (monthly) number and percentages of post deletions up to June 2015. Since 1/1/2012, there are approximately 16% "problematic" days (days with 5 or more deletions), about 1 day out of 6.
posted by elgilito at 2:30 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by elgilito at 2:30 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
The thing about James Brown is he died three times in one minute.
The Hardest Dying Man in Show Business.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:10 AM on October 12, 2015
The Hardest Dying Man in Show Business.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:10 AM on October 12, 2015
How about the most comments in a deleted post? This Michael Jackson obit had 319. (There were 6 deleted posts that day.)
posted by John Cohen at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2015
posted by John Cohen at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2015
Man, in a new satin lined coffin each time he made it back to the catafalque.
posted by y2karl at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2015
posted by y2karl at 9:23 AM on October 12, 2015
We always used to be able to post things that we disagree with, and that we knew would get some mixture of "what lol" and "this is awful". That's par for the course, right? Pushback of the article != pushback of posting it.
Speaking solely for myself, it wasn't the core of the message in the post, i.e., Grumpy Boomer Scolds Millenials. Yes, we've seen that a million times, but it's not like generational musings can't be done well (in theory I guess?). I just didn't think this was it. It read like Dave Barry with the flu; some points were predictable and played out, other points simply made no sense, but overall it was a weaker kind of sauce. For me, there wasn't enough there to warrant more than "wow, fuck this guy", and I hate seeing that in other threads, so I just kept scrolling.
That said, the vastest majority of your posts are awesome. And at least you didn't post a *~hilarious~* parody from that movie Downfall, only with Hitler learning about the real estate crash of 2008, convinced this FPP was going to be 14K Comedy Gold, only to learn from Metafilter that Downfall Parodies are not something you discovered, but have been posted on the Blue - and the internet at large - for months before your FPP. I mean, uh, I reckon purely speculatively that that would be pretty embarrassing anyway ...
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 10:31 AM on October 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
Speaking solely for myself, it wasn't the core of the message in the post, i.e., Grumpy Boomer Scolds Millenials. Yes, we've seen that a million times, but it's not like generational musings can't be done well (in theory I guess?). I just didn't think this was it. It read like Dave Barry with the flu; some points were predictable and played out, other points simply made no sense, but overall it was a weaker kind of sauce. For me, there wasn't enough there to warrant more than "wow, fuck this guy", and I hate seeing that in other threads, so I just kept scrolling.
That said, the vastest majority of your posts are awesome. And at least you didn't post a *~hilarious~* parody from that movie Downfall, only with Hitler learning about the real estate crash of 2008, convinced this FPP was going to be 14K Comedy Gold, only to learn from Metafilter that Downfall Parodies are not something you discovered, but have been posted on the Blue - and the internet at large - for months before your FPP. I mean, uh, I reckon purely speculatively that that would be pretty embarrassing anyway ...
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 10:31 AM on October 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
as a millennial sometimes it feels very easy to think "everybody older than me on the internet hates my generation for reasons i can't fathom,"
Not me, no. I feel nothing but sorrow for the generation born into the great age of majuscule depletion.
posted by octobersurprise at 12:05 PM on October 12, 2015
Not me, no. I feel nothing but sorrow for the generation born into the great age of majuscule depletion.
posted by octobersurprise at 12:05 PM on October 12, 2015
I'm enjoying the Metafilter Deleted Posts pages a bit too much this morning. I'm still giggling over sorry, too stupid for metafilter (2002) and No you fucking didn't. banned (2006).
posted by kanewai at 12:22 PM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by kanewai at 12:22 PM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
My favorite has been scrubbed....someone made a blank post; Jessamyn's response : goddamnit.
posted by brujita at 1:23 PM on October 12, 2015
posted by brujita at 1:23 PM on October 12, 2015
My silence was silenced all its life
posted by shakespeherian at 4:02 PM on October 12, 2015
posted by shakespeherian at 4:02 PM on October 12, 2015
How about the most comments in a deleted post? This Michael Jackson obit had 319.
Sadly, I can pretty much imagine the general tenor of those deleted comments (thanks, mods!).
posted by el io at 9:40 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
Sadly, I can pretty much imagine the general tenor of those deleted comments (thanks, mods!).
posted by el io at 9:40 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
July 4 2008?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:43 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:43 AM on October 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
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If it weren't early Sunday morning I'd see if pb wanted to give it a poke internally but it feels like I probably shouldn't page him for something like this.
I know for sure folks have played with these sorts of numbers now and then in the past and talked about 'em in MetaTalk, but I'm having a dickens of a time successfully searching for it right now.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:51 AM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]