Is this relationship too close for posting?

September 10, 2002 5:16 PM

There's this site that I visit fairly regularly. The creator of this site creates these cool (IMO) online illustrated one page stories. I think that many folks at MeFi might enjoy the site, but there is (what I perceive as) a problem. One of the sites I write for is one of this guy's front-page links....
_{[more inside]}
posted by Joey Michaels to Etiquette/Policy at 5:16 PM (16 comments total)

Granted, he linked my site because I've raved there about his site and not due to any particular relationship between his site and mine. Never-the-less, I feel like posting his link (even here at MetaTalk and especially while discussing this issue) would essentially be self-linking.

The only MetaTalk topic I found that seems to deal with this topic is this one. In it, th3ph17 seems to imply that linking a page written by one's friends is akin to self-linking.

In essence, is it kosher to post a link to MetaFilter that leads to a page which, in turn, contains a link to your site?
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:17 PM on September 10, 2002

No need to carry the stigmata of self-linking that far, Joey. Provided you don't link directly to one of your sites in a front page post, you're ok. And you can give the raspberry to anyone who tells you otherwise.
posted by crunchland at 6:02 PM on September 10, 2002

is it kosher...?
ask a rabbi.
sorry. couldn't resist.
posted by quonsar at 6:04 PM on September 10, 2002

and, you've very cleverly headed off any static in advance via this post. :-)
posted by quonsar at 6:12 PM on September 10, 2002

is it kosher...?

Of course not, it's fleur de sel.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.


posted by Smart Dalek at 6:14 PM on September 10, 2002

For the record, I'm going to sit on the link for a few days (at least) even if I do decide to post it. I figure MeFi will be busy enough through the end of the week (and certainly through the end of tomorrow) without this link. :P

(and thanks for the advice... and that amazing picture of kosher salt... Wild)
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:34 PM on September 10, 2002

travel salt box--- hmm... that looks mighty familiar, but I never kept no salt in it...
posted by crunchland at 6:45 PM on September 10, 2002

waiting to post a link? there's a neat idea.
posted by rhyax at 7:08 PM on September 10, 2002

I'm going to sit on the link for a few days (at least) even if I do decide to post it

I nominate Joey Michaels as Best New Mefite.

Of course if the link sucks.... ;)
posted by frykitty at 7:12 PM on September 10, 2002

Another option is to email Mathowie and ask if you're not sure. That's what I did when I was a wee MeTyke (all of five months ago) and wanted to include links to my brother in law's site. Matt's a busy guy, but he is pretty nice about responding to even stupid questions, provided that they're phrased politely.
posted by yhbc at 7:25 PM on September 10, 2002

Sit on the link? Sit. On. The. Link.
Sit. On. The. Link?

Nope, sorry, doesn't make any sense to me.
posted by dg at 8:22 PM on September 10, 2002

Sit on the link.
posted by ColdChef at 9:21 PM on September 10, 2002

Ah, now I see.
posted by dg at 10:22 PM on September 10, 2002

As much as I enjoy sitting on sausage links... (mmm... sausage...)

"Sit on the link" is basically a slang way of saying "I'm going to refrain from posting the link." I could write "sit on the reports" to mean "not let anyone see the reports." As far as I know, it is American slang, but you might be being ironic and I am too dense to realize it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:50 PM on September 10, 2002

Joey--they're being ironic because so few people think before they link. It's all good.
posted by frykitty at 1:08 AM on September 11, 2002

This might be a good link to submit to Jerry Kindall's mefi-projects mailing list. Perhaps one of the recipients might consider it for submission, avoiding the entire self-linking dilemma. Jerry's mailing list is once a week or less, as it is little known and apparantly not often submitted to.
posted by mutagen at 5:52 PM on September 11, 2002