MetaChat - Inspired by

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23 October 2005

Inspired by Smedleyman’s now-infamous FPP on MeFi, I’d like to post something which I feel is important and needs to be discussed. So without further ado, here are all 22,795 lines of Elias Lönnrot’s adaptation of the traditional Finnish Kalevala – including the Preface, Proem, and all 49 runes:

oh damn my keyboard's broken

post by: Smart Dalek at: 16:52 | 19 comments

You got my hopes up. I am bereft, or something.

posted by puddinghead 23 October | 16:57

It's not a bad post--just needs some of it moved to more inside, and the apology cut.

posted by amberglow 23 October | 17:11

True enough. But the “my computer is old” bit caused something inside me to snap. Unless he’s coding ASCII characters in binary on an Timex Sinclair, it’s a poor excuse. Sigh.

posted by Smart Dalek 23 October | 17:15

No, the problem is that, for example, you can put hard returns in a front page post (and I guess see them in preview) but they are automatically deleted... so he was doing/seeing some things that didn't come through on the post, and he thought it was his fault.

He's not used to posting on MeFi, so obviously doesn't know some things, but it really isn't a bad post. At least one of the better links is towards the bottom, and probably most people didn't even go that far.

posted by taz 23 October | 17:21

Szólt az öreg Vejnemöjnen:
"Nem törődöm ezüstöddel,
Aranyod, éhenkórász, tedd el!"
Ledalolta Joukahajnent,
Ledalolta még mélyebbre.

Szólt a fiatal Joukahajnen:
"Ó, jaj, öreg Vejnemöjnen!
Szabadíts meg e nyomorbul,
Ments ki eme súlyos sorbul!
Honn asztagim néked hagyom,
Minden földem általadom,
Csak fejem szabad lehessen,
Csakhogy enmagamat mentsem."

posted by Wolfdog 23 October | 17:23

This is his 22nd FPP, and three of them have been really long, but this is the first one to cause so much outrage. His posts tend to be chatty and disorganized, which causes me to skip them, but I think all the fuss over the length is silly.

posted by goatdog 23 October | 17:34

oh, 22? I didn't even look... Oh, well. At any rate, the comments just made me feel kind of sick. I don't understand. Who are these people?

posted by taz 23 October | 17:38

ah. It's been tidied and those comments deleted. Good job.

posted by taz 23 October | 17:43

What I understand less is that people continued to post once the first suggestion to take it to MeTa had been made. I figured the next person or two who cared enough to comment on the post formatting would thereby care enough to make a MeTa thread about it, but it looks like they found making a MeTa thread much harder than posting their meta comments in the blue, so I had to go make their MeTa thread for them.

I'm like a wandering ronin nanny.

posted by bugbread 23 October | 17:52

I don't get it either, but I do kind of like the idea of a wandering ronin nanny.

posted by taz 23 October | 17:56

I assume it's because it is easier to post a comment than a thread & there is less wory about being attacked for a comment than for a thread. My guess. Also, some people are dicks.

posted by dame 23 October | 18:18

i apparently missed it
and probably should care
so i'd like to talk about the difference between FUCK and FUCK
where in one has to do with conjungle union of the consentiong variety, and the other rape.
so when one says "fuck yourself" or "fuck you" they seem to often mean "i wish you to be unwillingly forced into degredation and violation and humiliation, possibly in public" or "rape you"
so if we could separate the fuckers from the rapists--

i may finish this thought later
but it has something to do with a dirty fork
ah! i remember what the dirty fork comment was for now!

posted by ethylene 23 October | 19:24

I guess I missed the comments which would make the thread "infamous".

posted by PsychoKitty 23 October | 19:43

It was initially posted all on the front page (no More Inside), and after some sniping back and forth, Smedleyman defended this on the grounds that he was really upset about the issue. That said, Smedleyman also said he wanted to edit it so that it had a More Inside (but he wasn't aware that only matt and jessamyn can edit posts). It was looking like the sniping about the formatting was going to define the whole thread, but then jessamatt edited it.

There were no particularly flammable comments, just the general criticising of the post formatting within the blue, not the grey. So you didn't miss much.

posted by bugbread 23 October | 19:49

Hastened like the smoke of battle,
From the court-yard of Mefi,
Left his crimes and misdemeanors
In the halls of ancient linkage.
Then he looked in all directions,
Seeking for his tethered keyboard,
Anxious looked in field and stable,
But he did not find his delete;
Found a black thing in the fallow,
Proved to be a clump of willows.
Who will well advise the hero,
Who will give him wise directions,
Guide the wizard out of trouble,
Give his hero-locks protection,
Keep his magic head from danger
From the warriors of the Blue?

posted by reflecked 23 October | 20:21

cara boo
cara boo ooo
caribou

posted by ethylene 23 October | 20:36

bugbread - I didn't go to MeTa since I already had once before in the last week in defence of dios/Alex etc. Smedley caught some shit for that FPP and has a rambling style that leads me to believe that if he wasn't lucky to have the support he's got that he'd be one of those guys having trouble living in civilian life too. On the whole I like him and it's a shame that so many people felt the need to bitch about the formatting when it was pretty obvious it was going to be fixed.

posted by longbaugh 23 October | 21:32

I am wanting, I am thinking
To arise and go forth singing,

posted by arse_hat 23 October | 22:53

Which rune is that from, arse–hat? The above that I posted is paraphrased (and butchered) from Rune XXVIII.

posted by reflecked 24 October | 04:42

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