Bored enough to look at AskMeFi

March 18, 2019 1:20 PM

Apparently someone at Bored Panda just spotted an old AskMeFi question that was answered by Mefi's own Adam Savage. And they posted about it. You can read it here.

I do wonder what's up with the reactions shown in the tail end of the article. Points? That's not MetaFilter. But what is it?

posted by Too-Ticky to MetaFilter-Related at 1:20 PM (6 comments total)

I'm guessing whoever wrote the BoredPanda article saw the AskMe posted on Reddit or a similar site. It's weird that the responses go from "two days ago" to "two years ago" so it looks like even that source was forgotten then unearthed again. What a weird trail this makes.

As I wrote this comment I became curious enough to look further into it, and I searched for "There's a fine and dangerous line between a crisp, cool beverage" which came back with one result: A quick look back on Adam Savage's response to the "Chill my drink ... which appears to be one of those content-churning sharing sites of the like that a BoredPanda contributor might sift though for gold.

So maybe it went something like:
1) BoredPanda writer "​Andželika" does a google search for Adam Savage hoping to find something interesting to turn into an article.
2) Finds the ghostzero.tv screenshot of AskMe.
3) Uses clues in that screenshot to trace it back to AskMe (since any direct reference to the site is missing).
4) Takes NEW screenshots of the AskMe, screenshots of the ghostzero.tv comments, and random publicity stills of Adam and spins it into a new article.
5) Profit?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:02 PM on March 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

So a rehosting farm stole content from another rehosting farm, basically. The ad-driven internet is awesome.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:45 PM on March 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

*COUGH* MEFI LINK *COUGH*
posted by sylvanshine at 4:35 PM on March 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

It feels like they just wrote those "reactions" and mocked them up like screenshots.
posted by bleep at 5:26 PM on March 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

I like that he gave a full answer instead of just linking to the MythBusters results.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:40 AM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Looks like the reactions were lifted (also without any credit) from this Imgur post.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:21 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]