every discussion starts with a link

September 18, 2001 8:13 AM

Uncle Sam wants you ...
never to post no-link discussion threads.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 8:13 AM (13 comments total)

posted by waxpancake at 8:37 AM on September 18, 2001

Oh, no, here come the pancake comments again...

How hard is it to figure this out, people? This is NOT your personal blog! Either link, or don't post. It ain't complicated.

Sheesh.
posted by gd779 at 9:31 AM on September 18, 2001

Where is the mighty smotting hand of mathowie? Wield your terrible swift sword, man.
posted by gleuschk at 9:48 AM on September 18, 2001

I think the time has come for a message on the front page saying exactly that, gd779. "Your Blog doesn't work here!"

Or maybe something along the lines of "Don't pee in our pool. We don't swim in your toilet." I'm not sure if that relates, but I think it's funny. My favorite was always "Welcome to our Ool. Notice there is no 'P' in it. Please keep it that way."

Maybe that analogy isn't so far off. All this crap on the front page makes me feel like I just swam through a warm patch in the public pool.

Yuck!

Stop peeing in the pool people!!
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:13 AM on September 18, 2001

Maybe...

This is a 'ublic ool'. Notice there is no P in it?
posted by dgeiser13 at 10:26 AM on September 18, 2001

This is Matt's pool. It's not public, Matt just happens to let anybody that wants to play in it. He's generous that way.

But don't forget that it belongs to him. And because it's his, he's laid down some basic rules: posts should be both intelligent and respectful; you're not allowed to troll; front page posts must link to something on the web; etc. If you want to play in Matt's pool, you've got to follow his rules.
posted by gd779 at 10:41 AM on September 18, 2001

The swift sword hath sliced, it seems.
posted by darukaru at 10:48 AM on September 18, 2001

Luv those grapes of wrath.
posted by daveadams at 11:27 AM on September 18, 2001

And there was much rejoicing.
posted by gd779 at 1:57 PM on September 18, 2001

Sometimes it doesn't make sense for the link to be the first few words of the post. The way that you embed the link elsewhere is by leaving that field blank and then embeddeding a link manually elsewhere.

A more complicated technological solution (requiring more of Matt's time) would be to parse the post first to see if it had a legitimate link anywhere within it, but I don't feel like volunteering Matt to do that.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 2:32 PM on September 18, 2001

As Matt has said himself, "tell [him] who to smote, and he shall be smoten."

Hey, what a great tag-line for the front page logo!
posted by jpoulos at 2:59 PM on September 18, 2001

And then we have to get deep into the metaphysics and talk about what counts as a link. (?)
posted by sylloge at 10:46 PM on September 18, 2001

Does it really matter where the clicky thingy goes?

Putting the link anywhere in the post, instead of just at the beginning, makes it easier to pick the relevant words for the hyperlink. I think it improves the post, and I know it makes Google happier.
posted by rcade at 5:34 AM on September 19, 2001