I really liked that movie -> FPP

September 3, 2002 7:31 PM

Is this thread front page material? [more inside]
posted by Hildago to Etiquette/Policy at 7:31 PM (55 comments total)

I've never gone through the awkwardness of MeTa'ing another user's post before, but I think this should be addressed. It's basically just MacBoy telling us he liked My Big Fat Greek Wedding, including a link to the IMDB entry for it, and asking a pretty superfluous question at the end. I personally don't think this fits the guidelines of a front page post. However, the ensuing discussion is turning out to be reasonably good, so what is the policy on matters like this?
posted by Hildago at 7:31 PM on September 3, 2002

I didn't think it was, which was why I was being an ass. I really don't think the discussion is that great either.
posted by Stan Chin at 7:40 PM on September 3, 2002

Should the post have been made? No.
Is it too late now? Yes.

An actual discussion grew out of it, which is good, I suppose, and is probably why it hasn't been trashed.
posted by Su at 7:40 PM on September 3, 2002

It could have been a good post.. there are plenty of good MBFGW-related links, many of them posted in the thread itself. My problem is mainly that he only posted the IMDB link, which is as much as saying, "there is indeed a movie with this name, now discuss."

posted by Hildago at 7:51 PM on September 3, 2002

Is this thread front page material?

Nope. And I don't really think this one is either.

posted by slipperywhenwet at 8:11 PM on September 3, 2002

Is Macboy actually getting pissy about being mentioned in MeTa over this one? Wow. A single link to a movie's IMDB page is about as lazy a post as possible, isn't it? Give us a little more than 5 seconds of effort off the top of your head, you know?
posted by mediareport at 8:13 PM on September 3, 2002

Yeah, but he liked the movie! That's gotta count for something, right?
posted by crunchland at 8:15 PM on September 3, 2002

Pretty lame, Milhouse.
posted by PrinceValium at 8:27 PM on September 3, 2002

I just had a great salami sandwich. After all these years, I'm still a sucker for all kinds of salami -- Hungarian, Italian, whatever. It doesn't matter where it's from, it's always delicious. What are your favourite salami related memories?

sorry
posted by mkn at 8:32 PM on September 3, 2002

Hey, who are all of you to try to stymie Macboy's voice on the web. It's not like just anybody could get their own web log these days. It's really tough to find a place of your own where you can blather on about this type of stuff. Besides, he has as much right to have his post deleted as anybody else does.

To be fair though, we've discussed Star Wars, and Spider Man, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Slagging this one (as slag-worthy as it probably is), just plays into the idea that small movies don't get no respect. Although, come to think of it, I suspect all of those topics I mentioned had their own MeTa threads as well, so I guess the streak remains unbroken.
posted by willnot at 8:43 PM on September 3, 2002

On a less snarky note:

Even If a bad post generates a good discussion, it's still a bad post. There's a big fat link to the guidelines when you preview and there's no reason to ignore it for the sake of a "good discussion" that might or might not show up. These kinds of topics always set a bit of a precedent, and it should be made clear that they aren't in the spirit of MeFi.

(I think that's the first time I used the word 'snarky' on MeFi.)
posted by mkn at 8:43 PM on September 3, 2002

Where did 'snarky' come from anyway? Etymologists among us?
posted by evanizer at 8:55 PM on September 3, 2002

Yeah, I wanna know too.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 8:57 PM on September 3, 2002

As far as I'm concerned, it came from Metafilter.
posted by mkn at 8:58 PM on September 3, 2002

Snarky.
posted by thatweirdguy2 at 9:03 PM on September 3, 2002

Evan, Webster's Third New International says "snark" may come from "snort", so it may have taken it's derisive, dismissive and indisposed meaning from there. My D.A.R.E. hasn't got the volume with 'S' yet but the new edition of the American Heritage Dictionary has this:

Snarky, Slang Irritable or short-tempered; irascible. [From dialectical snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort, from Dutch or Low German , to rattle, of imitative origin]

I remember that, at least in Lancashire, "sarky" was a common abbreviation for "sarcastic". I wonder if the two are related.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:09 PM on September 3, 2002

And from the O.E.D's 2nd edition:

"Snarky

colloq.

Irritable, short-tempered, ‘narky’.

1906 E. NESBIT Railway Children ii. 49 Don't be snarky, Peter. It isn't our fault. 1913 J. VAIZEY College Girl xxiv. 326 ‘Why should you think I am “snarky”?’ ‘Becauseyou are! You're not a bit sociable and friendly.’ 1953 E. COXHEAD Midlanders x. 247 I've known you were the soul of kindness, under that snarky way. a1974 R. CROSSMAN Diaries (1976) II. 627 We also have to overcome something elsethe stream of anti-government propaganda, smearing, snarky, derisive, which comes out of Fleet Street.

Hence snarkily adv.; snarkiness; snarkish a.

1912 R. FRY Let. 16 Mar. (1972) I. 355 So sorry I seem so snarkish just now. 1960 Economist 28 May 859/2 In some of his comments on bureaucracy there is a relapse into snarkiness. 1967 Listener 20 July 91/3 Viewers' letters are not just read out. They are commented upon by Kenneth Robinson (usually rather snarkily)."

So I guess we can't really credit MetaFilter...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:12 PM on September 3, 2002

Thank you, guys, for doing that etymological legwork -- it's saved this thread from being just a complaint about a bad post.
posted by me3dia at 9:16 PM on September 3, 2002

Sorry, the Dutch or Low German word, meaning to rattle, from the AHD entry disappeared from my comment, perhaps due to a lack of typing on my part: it's snarren.

I, for one, will be using snarren for those particularly snarky, snarly, sarky caffeine-deprived morning posts and I encourage all of us to rattle eachother's cages with this wonderful word.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:18 PM on September 3, 2002

As to the proliferation of pancake-like FPP lately, I tell ya, if I was the link police, about half of the links would be gone. Whereas I used to spend a lot of time going through each link on MeFi, reading the links, seeing what people had to say...now, I scan the front page, filter out the FARK, yahoo, and marketing pancakes, then often have to weed through missing links or malformed urls...and am left with one or two good posts.

It's sad, really. I don't envy Matt...maintaining this bugaboo must be a real nightmare now.

And thus ends my buttery, snarren opinion. ;)


posted by dejah420 at 9:24 PM on September 3, 2002

A beautiful inaugural usage, if I may say so, dejah!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:26 PM on September 3, 2002

"Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
The five unmistakable marks
By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
The warranted genuine Snarks.

"Let us take them in order. The first is the taste,
Which is meager and hollow, but crisp:
Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,
With a flavor of Will-o-the-wisp.

"Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
That it carries too far, when I say
That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
And dines on the following day.

"The third is its slowness in taking a jest.
Should you happen to venture on one,
It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
And it always looks grave at a pun.


...

Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark
1872
posted by vacapinta at 9:27 PM on September 3, 2002

I found 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 threads about "Attack of the Clones" before I got bored and quit looking. I'm not sure how to tell how many of them were MetaTalked.
posted by timeistight at 9:40 PM on September 3, 2002

snarkity snark snark snark,
snarkorama,
hellasnark,
snarkalicious,
snarktastic,
snarkennui,
snarkentropy,
snarkever...
posted by y2karl at 9:49 PM on September 3, 2002

Snarky.
posted by daveadams at 10:07 PM on September 3, 2002

snarky
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:12 PM on September 3, 2002

I hope the general consensus is not that I am being snarky in bringing MacBoy's post to MeTa (although he seems to think so). I am generally of the "no harm, no foul" school of community policing, but this struck me as a very, very obvious misuse of the medium -- perhaps so obvious that it went without saying, but I'd rather make a minor issue out of it than give tacit approval.
posted by Hildago at 11:26 PM on September 3, 2002

And if 'snarky' is derived from 'snork,' I think I'd rather just use 'snorky' from now on.

posted by Hildago at 11:28 PM on September 3, 2002

An occasionally fractious but possibly germane discussion from a while back in which Matt weighs in repeatedly and in the course of which some general agreement was reached on matters of this kind.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:38 PM on September 3, 2002

I'm surprised no one has quoted the definitive, Homicide definition:

"Snarky: from the ancient Latin word meaning 'Butthead.'"

posted by slipperywhenwet at 12:46 AM on September 4, 2002

So does this mean we can't talk about American Idol tomorrow? :(
posted by contessa at 1:12 AM on September 4, 2002

I think the 'better' discussion came out of a weak post. Had the original poster been able to predict what actual discussions were possible in relation to the success of the movie, then he/she could have crafted a better FPP. But that isn't always easy to do.
posted by Witty at 1:36 AM on September 4, 2002

Me-Talk threads like this sure make it easy to decide who one should strike off the party invitation list.

posted by mischief at 4:37 AM on September 4, 2002

Hey, at least its got a higher brow than the Britney Spears post.
posted by bramoire at 7:27 AM on September 4, 2002

Oh come on...if anything, MeFi needs more porn links.

POOORRRRNN!
posted by dangerman at 7:55 AM on September 4, 2002

then he/she could have crafted a better FPP. But that isn't always easy to do.

I'm gonna call you on that one, Witty. Here's the point again: Crafting a front page post that's nothing more than a link to a movie's IMDB page is about as lame a post as anyone can possibly make. It doesn't matter what movie it is, or what fascinating question the poster poses in the text of the post. Not taking a minute to find a single interesting link to give to the community aside from a movie's IMDB page is basically an "Aw, who gives a shit" to everyone here.
posted by mediareport at 9:37 AM on September 4, 2002

Had the original poster been able to predict what actual discussions were possible in relation to the success of the movie, then he/she could have crafted a better FPP. But that isn't always easy to do.

So, the argument is not whether the post was any good or not (everybody agrees it wasn't), but whether it's ok to post something inane on the front page? Nobody is holding a gun to his head, saying "you have to start a discussion about My Big Fat Greek Wedding!"

The fundamental problem here is that he began with the premise that he wanted to talk about the movie, then half-assedly found a link to justify it, rather than being inspired to start a thread by a good link. There's nothing wrong with doing it in that order, but the links are supposed to be the lynchpin to the discussion.. that's the novelty of MetaFilter, as opposed to a discussion board.
posted by Hildago at 11:11 AM on September 4, 2002

Would Macboy get beat up like this if he had posted a similar link about some geek-friendly movie (like a Star Wars, comic book, or computer animation movie) instead of a chick flick?
posted by timeistight at 11:19 AM on September 4, 2002

anymore...it's SOP regardless of its geekicity
posted by dangerman at 11:27 AM on September 4, 2002

SOP?
posted by timeistight at 11:31 AM on September 4, 2002

http://www.4expertise.com/sop.html
posted by dangerman at 11:35 AM on September 4, 2002

timeistight - Yes and Yes.
posted by willnot at 11:39 AM on September 4, 2002

extra bonehead points to macboy for ignoring the MeTa thread and posting his replies in the original MeFi thread.
posted by GeekAnimator at 11:53 AM on September 4, 2002

this might be out of line as well.
posted by modge at 11:56 AM on September 4, 2002

anymore...it's SOP regardless of its geekicity

timeistight - Yes and Yes.

So you're saying Geek or Greek, it's all the same?

My Big Fat Geek Wedding

posted by timeistight at 12:30 PM on September 4, 2002

"extra bonehead points to macboy for ignoring the MeTa thread and posting his replies in the original MeFi thread.
posted by GeekAnimator at 11:53 AM PST on September 4 "

Geeksack - I tried to post here all day yesterday and got a Cold Fusion error. I'm not a big poster on these boards and didn't realize I'd be flogged for a link to IMDB. With that being said I'm SORRY! Metafilter people Get over my mistake and move on. I learned from my mistake and will only post interesting links. PROMISE


Bonehead Boy
posted by Macboy at 1:41 PM on September 4, 2002

all this pulling of posts, taking people to meta, and running to to matt to snitch on so-and-so... all of mefi needs to redo potty training, for a 2nd more successful result.

i mean, could we be more anal...?
posted by t r a c y at 9:04 PM on September 4, 2002

t r a c y - I never understand that kind of a comment. Coming to MetaTalk and complaining about the complaining is a bit like going into a restroom and complaining that it smells. It may be unpleasant, but that is its purpose.
posted by willnot at 10:19 PM on September 4, 2002

i know, i know. 8-) spank me if you must, but it's been grating on my nerves... you could say i've been getting retentive about it heh. so i just couldn't not complain...! besides isn't complaining that i'm complaining about the complaining sort of, you know...

(btw, you don't have to put the spaces between the letters of my name. at the time i never thought about it but it could be this really annoying facet of responding to me. you know, outside of the other annoying facets)
posted by t r a c y at 10:55 PM on September 4, 2002

mediareport and Hildago: I think you read my post wrong, because I agree with what you are saying. The potential interesting discussion, that was slightly touched upon in the resulting thread, would have been "what makes a movie like MBFGW unexpectedly successful"... or something along those lines at least. It is a movie that is enjoying a level of popularity that no one would have predicted. It's an anomaly of sorts, which makes it possibly discussion worthy. With that intention, Macboy could have crafted a better FPP. Maybe that WAS his intention, but his post wasn't thorough enough to make that clear.

Either way, it's a shame that all this happened. He says he understands where people are coming from on this, and that was the point of the MeTa thread... so cool.

I think I'm developing a crush on t r a c y.
posted by Witty at 1:35 AM on September 5, 2002

it was really only a matter of time. heh. ;-)

posted by t r a c y at 5:51 AM on September 5, 2002

You're not helping dear {right back atcha}.
posted by Witty at 7:40 AM on September 5, 2002

With that being said I'm SORRY! Metafilter people

Thanks for finally acknowledging that there are guidelines at MeFi for a freaking reason.

Get over my mistake and move on.

Now that you've finally apologized, sure, no problem. Welcome to the community.
posted by mediareport at 12:18 AM on September 6, 2002

Thanks... My ass still hurts from that MeFi spanking!
posted by Macboy at 3:47 PM on September 6, 2002

I think I'm developing a crush on t r a c y.
Bwhahaha! Someone is always crushing on that gyrl! Never would have expected it around this joint though, what with the gr'ups being so tightly wound and all.

Thanks... My ass still hurts from that MeFi spanking!
It seems as though one is not really a mefite until one has been publicly spanked for one thing or another.
posted by zarah at 2:52 AM on September 7, 2002