This is not good December 7, 2004 5:12 PM   Subscribe

Crap post. Discuss.
posted by mr_crash_davis to Etiquette/Policy at 5:12 PM (61 comments total)

Don't wanna...!
posted by ramix at 5:19 PM on December 7, 2004


neoFites: here's a lesson. Don't immediately start commenting in your own post, especially to defend it from people who didn't like it. Especially by attacking them directly. And especially in a superior, matronly tone of voice, such as one would use to address a child who won't eay his vegetables.

Shit. Double shit.
posted by scarabic at 5:21 PM on December 7, 2004


i was discussing how to make my first fpp with the #mefites and they were giving me a hard time before i even told them what i was going to post, so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that i was going to get flamed. i wont be defending myself here further, because honestly im not trying to get bogged down with unecessary negativity in MeTa. if matt wants to discuss it with me, ill discuss it with him. cant we all just get along?... no? oh...
posted by GleepGlop at 5:28 PM on December 7, 2004


First rule of #mefi, is that you don't talk about #mefi!
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 5:30 PM on December 7, 2004


I'm amused at how GleepGlop was able to press the shift key when creating a username, but seems to have lost track of how to use it since.

Also, yes, it was a crap post.
Also also, I've only visited #mefi twice, I think, and neither time did they pelt me with rocks or garbage.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:30 PM on December 7, 2004


Giving people a hard time? That's our job.

(Except we don't get paid for it.)
posted by neckro23 at 5:31 PM on December 7, 2004


It's an interesting link by itself, I like it. Occasionally you'll see Mefi posts which are just links, it's hard to tell why this one is unusually inflammatory.
posted by abcde at 5:32 PM on December 7, 2004


I'm not a #mefite. I thought it was a crap post.

The book does seem kind of interesting. Maybe someone who actually cares about crafting a post, providing us some background and perhaps additonal links or context could step in and make a better one out of it.
posted by vacapinta at 5:33 PM on December 7, 2004


modernsquid asked me a question in the thread, and I hit submit to find it deleted, so I'll just paste it in here in case he comes over:

modernsquid: Well, it's kinda related to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis which more or less is understood as, "you can only think in concepts possible to evoke in your native language." This sort of implies that people think strictly in words, but personally, I often think in the more fluid, conceptual form of thought, especially when I'm very tired. Some people think in images. Etc. So some people play around with trying to avoid thinking in words, which is the most conventional way, for one because it (possibly) restricts the range of ideas it's possible to think, and also because it's slower to actually wait for your mind's voice to recite your thoughts, in theory.
posted by abcde at 5:33 PM on December 7, 2004


Except we don't get paid for it

No wonder this check from Chris bounced!
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 5:34 PM on December 7, 2004


ok now that its been deleted, i have to say that ive been reading metafilter for over a year. nobody has ever made a single link in an fpp? if other people want to make several links, thats good for them. i thought there was a little bit of creative freedom allowed. links were being posted inside the fpp, but its been cut short. now im interested in this MeTa issue. im glad its been brought in here.
posted by GleepGlop at 5:34 PM on December 7, 2004


STOP TALKING ABOUT #MEFI
posted by fishfucker at 5:34 PM on December 7, 2004


you were warned that posting a single link to a product page without any supporting links -- being ironic or not -- was going to end up getting canned.
posted by cheaily at 5:35 PM on December 7, 2004


#mefi. Discuss.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:35 PM on December 7, 2004


This is a day that will live in infamy.
posted by LimePi at 5:38 PM on December 7, 2004


unless you post further links inside. but apparently people decided it was extremely important that the fpp be deleted right away. good god. actually you know what, i need to get a life. eat some jello or something. lates
posted by GleepGlop at 5:39 PM on December 7, 2004


Penis.
posted by Peter H at 5:39 PM on December 7, 2004


log.
posted by quonsar at 5:41 PM on December 7, 2004


So there's nothing wrong with the Thunderbird post why? Or this one? Seems a little unfair to pick on GleepGlop.
posted by loquax at 5:46 PM on December 7, 2004


There's nothing wrong with a single-link post. Check out Number One Daddy's posting history.

I guess people didn't think the book excerpts were that interesting (and you should have said there were PDFs of some chapters in the link). No biggie.
posted by amberglow at 5:52 PM on December 7, 2004


GleepGlop - it's not a contest to see who can make the most links. But when your ONLY link is a pretty shitty one - some marketing page for a book, then yes, you have not yet reached the appropriate threshold for providing us with something interesting. There are lots of books out there that cover material of at least a passing interest. You can't just link up one of their marketing pages and call it a day.

You should have learned, over the past week, that posts which simply display a product and say "here it is! it's for sale! neat!" get deleted awful quick. The term is "shill post," and it doesn't matter if you make money off it or not. Marketers have gigantic budgets with which to penetrate our brains. They don't need your help posting their products here, too.
posted by scarabic at 5:53 PM on December 7, 2004


loquax: thunderbird is software that a bunch of geeks on metafilter would use. The second link you pointed to is just so bizarre that it doesn't NEED supporting links.

But a link to a product page about a book, by itself? You may as well link to a random page on amazon.
posted by cheaily at 5:55 PM on December 7, 2004


Firstly, it's merely a link to a book's product page. This isn't a book club.

Secondly, IT'S NOT EVEN THE WHOLE BOOK.

Thirdly, discussions at MeFi tend to be specific. The format doesn't allow for freeform discussion. We need a topic to run with linearly.
posted by bitpart at 5:56 PM on December 7, 2004


Interesting book. I'm enjoying the excerpts.

GleepGlop is a cool username.

Shut up Eeyore. Me an' Tigger are feeling bouncy. How 'bout we get Pooh to looking for honey in a beeshive again?
posted by Shane at 6:09 PM on December 7, 2004


The november that will never end
posted by bonaldi at 6:12 PM on December 7, 2004



posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 6:14 PM on December 7, 2004


abcde - yeah, I tend to think without words (Cantonese was 1' language, essentially total immersion into English at age 5, my Chinese sucks now as does my English) but the hard part is turning the thoughts back into words such that others can understand.

My supervisor gives me Heck about this.

posted by PurplePorpoise at 6:14 PM on December 7, 2004


"The format doesn't allow for freeform discussion. We need a topic to run with linearly."

this pretty much sums it up. if im creating the fpp, within the fpp is an environment that i have customized for discussion. i dont care what the suggested format is. if you dont like the link, move on. the point of making a link is to give reference to what is being discussed in the comments. otherwise mefi would just be all links and no comments.

scarabic - i understand the shill post concept. i know its a fine line. this is why i made the post: i saw it on boingboing, and while im not a fan of reposting from extremely popular blogs, boingboing doesnt have an option to discuss the posts. both boingboing and orielly are extremely well known, so i didnt think it could possibly be construed as a shill post. who needs to advertise on mefi for something everyone is going to know about. i thought that people including myself might like the opportunity to discuss a new interesting book that was posted on boingboing. i thought to pre-emptively defend the post as not being a shill post would just invite those attacks.

i am just not impressed. i cant imagine how many people have been scared out of making an fpp for fear of being pounced on. this is sad. (how are such blatant flamers not being banned, he asked his teddy bear)

if anyone is still interested in the post, theres a link to a blog about the book on boingboing. see you there.
posted by GleepGlop at 6:22 PM on December 7, 2004


I love log!
It's better than bad - it's good!
posted by Dr. Wu at 6:25 PM on December 7, 2004


it will be good when we are all dead
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 6:28 PM on December 7, 2004


best. username. ever.

next to bargle.
posted by eyeballkid at 6:33 PM on December 7, 2004


GG, here's part of the problem. You say:

"the point of making a link is to give reference to what is being discussed in the comments. otherwise mefi would just be all links and no comments."

Dude, the links are the thing. The comments are secondary, and in fact some of the best posts have very few comments, except maybe *wow* or [this is good]. For a lot of us, a Mefi that was all links and no comments would pretty cool.

An FPP whose raison d'etre is to "provide an opportunity to discuss" is likely to be a bad one, by which I mean the links can't stand on their own.

A lot of the worst posts arise from the misconception that discussion is the point of Metafilter. It isn't though. Discussion is a delightful side-effect.

I can see why you would feel hurt, but if you look at this as being link-first discussion-second maybe the criticism will make more sense.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:33 PM on December 7, 2004


There have been lots of crappy threads recently. Do we need a Metatalk thread for this one? I think if we ignore them they'll go away.

And Weretable and the Undead Chairs is definitely the best username ever. Fucking Awesome.
posted by chunking express at 6:59 PM on December 7, 2004


GleepGlop, you will find that once you have been roasted alive once in MetaTalk and it seems to kill off many of those pesky nerve endings, future MeTa roastings nevertheless still continue to be just as electrifyingly painful. Let this be a challenge to you, young grasshopper.
posted by onlyconnect at 7:07 PM on December 7, 2004


Also, locate your shift key, willya?

I agree this was a crap post with no effort even put into the title but the thunderbird one was worse.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:32 PM on December 7, 2004


And what, exactly, do you mean by lates? Based on my knowledge of the English language, I assumed it was a slang term for later, which one might use to signal an end to his or her part of the discussion. Later, as in I will see you later. But then you stayed. This sort of behavior is surely unacceptable to us here at MetaFilter, more so than any post to a single page of a product. We expect one to leave when one says one is leaving, unless, of course, I misunderstood what you meant by lates. If you do come back, although you inferred you were not coming back, I would appreciate any clarification on this term: lates. Thank you.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 7:39 PM on December 7, 2004


if anyone is still interested in the post, theres a link to a blog about the book on boingboing. see you there.

I like it!
posted by homunculus at 8:36 PM on December 7, 2004


Maybe he's been waiting years and years for the chance to post this page of .pdfs to metafilter? Is that possibly why he's freaking out about it so much?
posted by interrobang at 8:38 PM on December 7, 2004


Good question. Maybe lates lates or lates.

FFF might know.
posted by mono blanco at 8:42 PM on December 7, 2004


That's only three fresh fish, mono, plus the one in my pants makes four. You'll need do a bit more.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:46 PM on December 7, 2004


i cant imagine how many people have been scared out of making an fpp for fear of being pounced on. this is sad.

No, this is happy. MeFi has way more posts in a day than is reasonable. Fewer, but higher quality, posts are what we need. Scaring out those who think their post is weak is a good thing.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:47 PM on December 7, 2004


ok 3f, per yr request a shot of us n00bz
posted by mono blanco at 9:19 PM on December 7, 2004


Crap, I hate Meta call-out threads, but it looks like GleepGlop has misunderstood some stuff s/he really needs to bear in mind. Her/His mistakes might be usefully avoided by the other new folks.

"...ive been reading metafilter for over a year."

Not closely enough.

"if im creating the fpp, within the fpp is an environment that i have customized for discussion"

Wrong. If any discussion takes place you are no more privileged than anyone else. In fact there is a good argument for the originator of the post (who presumably has some kind of attachment to the subject) to stay out. No self-moderation.

"i dont care what the suggested format is."

You should. It's not perfect but it works.

"the point of making a link is to give reference to what is being discussed in the comments."

Wrong. If a discussion arises from a link, that's all well and good. The link is what matters, as i_am_joe's_spleen said. Misunderstand this and your time on Metafilter will be painful.

"otherwise mefi would just be all links and no comments."

This is called MeFi on Sundays. I quite like it.

It was a potentially good post, as others have pointed out. You messed up by using one crap link and telling people to discuss it. We'll discuss it if we want.
Oh, and asking for advice on #mefi is quite simply insane.
Stick around and try again.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:39 PM on December 7, 2004


THAT'S IT I QUIT METAFILTER
posted by angry modem at 9:53 PM on December 7, 2004


while im not a fan of reposting from extremely popular blogs, boingboing doesnt have an option to discuss the posts.

That's too bad. This isn't a free, all-purpose tagboard.

both boingboing and orielly are extremely well known, so i didnt think it could possibly be construed as a shill post.

Shill post = "here's a product, everybody!" What does well known have to do with it?

who needs to advertise on mefi for something everyone is going to know about.

First, people post their product links here to improve their Google rankings. Second, this membership is quite a valuable market to get in with. And third, to turn your statement around, who needs to post something to MeFi that everyone already knows about?

I hear what you are saying about the fear of pouncing. I am just giving you honest feedback here. If you want to see some real shit posts, look at my history.
posted by scarabic at 9:58 PM on December 7, 2004


MeFi has way more posts in a day than is reasonable.

Let me guess...you get to define "reasonable"...
posted by rushmc at 10:11 PM on December 7, 2004


This is a day that will live in infamy.

(This had me laughing for a couple minutes)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:28 PM on December 7, 2004


Good, I like to think about members sitting in front of finely crafted posts too scared to run them up the flag pole for fear of the snarky war dogs coming after them.

Speaking of which, is reklaw ever coming back?
posted by fenriq at 10:50 PM on December 7, 2004


GleepGlop if you are looking for someone to lend you a hand these seasoned MeFites offered to help the neoFites out.
posted by squeak at 10:58 PM on December 7, 2004


I misunderstood what you meant by lates
I assumed it was some new coffee drink that all the cool kidz were drinking-- latte with Cap'n Crunch cereal added or something.

Confidential to Peter H: If you have learned your lesson and promise never, ever to use the word "Penis" again, I will release you from the special 1000 comment spell. Go and Penis no more, young man.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:04 AM on December 8, 2004


"i dont care what the suggested format is."

Well, that's obvious. The suggested format for MetaFilter is not to publish an FPP that links, without comment, to a product page.

The suggested format for written English is to use capital letters and punctuation marks according to a readily-available set of rules.

Thus, your sentence above should have read:

"I don't care what the suggested format is."

And your front-page post should have read something like

Mind Hacks is a new book that's attracting some {link to something}positive{/link} and {link to something}negative{/link} attention. I wonder what MeFites think of this? (via BoingBoing)

That might still not have been the Best. FPP. Evar, but it wouldn't have made the baby Jesus sob uncontrollably the way yours did.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:14 AM on December 8, 2004


Does this mean I shouldn't post an FPP about zombo.com?
posted by icey at 10:10 AM on December 8, 2004


Sid, you remind of an elementary school teacher i had once, who would always ignore the content of everything in favor of the format of it. All her comments would be about grammar or punctuation/capitalization/etc, and never about what it was you were actually writing about. All of us could have been writing gibberish, and as long as it was properly formatted, it would have been ok.

There's no hard and fast rule about creating a FPP. We all do it differently, from multiply-linked extravaganzas to simple one-sentence, one-link posts. (and asking "I wonder what MeFites think of this?" would definitely not be advised, i don't think--it's implicit in the creation of the post.)
posted by amberglow at 10:36 AM on December 8, 2004


icey, it's been done. : >
posted by amberglow at 10:39 AM on December 8, 2004


amberglow, I hardly think that I "always ignore the content of everything in favor of the format of it."

I thought both the format AND the content of GleepGlorp's post and his hectoring comments throughout the thread were absolute ass, and I think I made that pretty clear in my comment above.

And I was suggesting that "I wonder what MeFites think of this" was an improvement over "Discuss," not putting it forth as a model for fine FPPing.

How'd all that sand get into your vagina, anyway?
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:06 AM on December 8, 2004


Metafilter: How'd all that sand get into your vagina, anyway?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:07 PM on December 8, 2004


Don't fall asleep on a nude beach.
posted by fenriq at 12:36 PM on December 8, 2004


Sidhedevil, not to be a sandied vadge or anything, but generally it's vag or vadge, not vagina. Vagina sounds far too technical.
posted by shoepal at 7:52 PM on December 8, 2004


(previously mentioned) I must admit, I do like your use of the interrogative.
posted by shoepal at 7:55 PM on December 8, 2004


All forum discussions have there own flamers. People have too long to ponder over their own philosophical statements loosing sight of the issue. Ahh sorry I can't remember the question.
posted by Ranger03 at 4:51 PM on December 9, 2004


Ranger03: it's spelled "losing."
posted by Fofer at 8:42 PM on December 15, 2004


« Older congrats!   |   banning serial flamers Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments