MetaChat - Recurring MeTa Deletions

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21 December 2005

Recurring MeTa Deletions →[More:]Okay, I've tried to move on from this but the more I try not to think about it, the more I can't stop thinking about it.

There was yet another ParisParamus is a troll MeTa thread today because of his recent derailling antics.

When Matt or Jessamyn found it, they deleted it and its gone.

But the questions it raised and continue to be raised about PP persist. Why wouldn't the thread be closed with a final comment from Matt and maybe a link to one of the couple dozen (I'm imagining) other callouts that PP has had?

Deletions just mean that someone else is going to get pissed and call him out again.

I should probably just have a cocktail and watch some Sesame Street with my boy.

post by: fenriq at: 20:52 | 36 comments

Follow the money: PP's outrageous trolling pulls in clicks that make Mathowie money.

posted by orthogonality 21 December | 20:57

Matt said that he deleted it because such posts encourage cults of personality, and egg on the trolls. (Just FYI. I don't personally support heavy-handed moderation.)

posted by agropyron 21 December | 20:58

Why wouldn't the thread be closed with a final comment from Matt and maybe a link to one of the couple dozen (I'm imagining) other callouts that PP has had?

Maybe he deleted those too?

posted by trondant 21 December | 21:10

The whole deletion/closed thread thing is annoying.

If a thread should be closed, but not deleted, maybe it should just be left open. If it really needs to be deleted, just delete it - but save the deletions for real garbage and noise.

Everything else should just be left the fuck alone and allowed to run it's own course. Matt doesn't have to personally respond to each thread. Threads need no micromanagement. The bitching and whinging and poo-flinging is better contained when threads aren't deleted.

And really, what's the point of closing/deleting any thread, hideously piled-on call out or not?

Just let people go nuts and work it out.

posted by loquacious 21 December | 21:11

PP thrives on attention. matt is trying to curtail that because he clearly doesn't want to ban him.

posted by matteo 21 December | 21:15

Aw man, I'm disappointed that it was deleted. I haven't seen a good pile-on in a while. I love how it tried to sound like it wasn't really a call-out but rather it was just pointing out that PP is indeed only around to cause trouble. Any of you older members got any good MeTa threads to send me to? I'm bored.

posted by panoptican 21 December | 21:30

PP has stated flat-out that his intention is to disrupt MeFi threads for his own personal entertainment. In my opinion there is no other user who is so harmful to MeFi.

I am boggled that Matt allows that shitstain to remain, and the only reason I can conceive is that Matt gets weekly blowjobs from Paris.

Now that MeFi is a money-maker, parlaying our words into cash for Matt, I'm getting just a little peeved that the shitstain isn't being scrubbed out. IMO Matt now has a responsibility to the community now.

posted by Five Fresh Fish 21 December | 21:36

agropyron, I saw that thread but didn't connect it with the just deleted PP pseudo call-out.

And I have a follow up question then. Aside from orthogonality's claim of clicks = cash for Matt, is there any real reason PP hasn't been banned for being a growing disruption?

Others have been banned for much less and I guess this double standard is just sticking in my craw some (and I didn't even know I had a craw!).

five fresh fish, I've been tempted to write Matt directly all day and basically express my wonderment that PP stays and others get booted. PP would have to be really quite fantastic at giving head to overlook the huge steaming piles he keeps leaving all over the site.

posted by fenriq 21 December | 21:58

I'm guessing PP hasn't been banned because he's one of the few members who is flamboyantly right wing. If it is a goal of Matt's for MeFi as a community to be all-inclusive, he may be overlooking PP's antics in some misguided attempt to encourage the conservative American's of the world to participate.

posted by panoptican 21 December | 22:01

ParisParamus isn't flamboyantly right-wing. He is a simple troll, no more and no less.

Matt will never get rid of him, because Matt would lose too much face in doing so. My gosh, it would have to have been a mistake to let Paris troll all these years!

Paris will continue to shit on the table and we will all continue to suffer, because there's no way in hell that we will ever succeed in having everyone ignore him.

It's a completely fucked-up situation.

posted by Five Fresh Fish 21 December | 22:09

Really the only solution I can think of is to make it such a pain in the ass to deal with him that Matt has no choice but to ban him.

And that means flagging each and every comment PP makes. Not just me, dozens of members would have to do it. Again and again and again.

And fff, to be fair, he's not a simple troll, he's really quite good at derailling threads.

posted by fenriq 21 December | 22:14

Matt lets bevets stick around, too. That's highly disappointing.

posted by brainwidth 21 December | 22:32

We could probably solve the PP (the other PP, not me) problem is we could manage to collectively ignore him - but that's not going to happen.

posted by porpoise 21 December | 22:36

Maybe this is why the "Self-policing since..." tagline has disappeared?

posted by warbaby 21 December | 23:01

What did I do now? Huh?

posted by ParamusParis 21 December | 23:15

I don't derail. I deviate about as much as anyone does, but not "Leftward." What did the thread say? I was enjoying the transit strike...

posted by ParamusParis 21 December | 23:20

warbaby, good point. I hadn't noticed that part.

posted by fenriq 21 December | 23:25

Well, for his success in trolling, we have to at least partly blame ourselves. Could it be that some of y'all actually enjoy getting infuriated at him?

posted by jonmc 21 December | 23:28

Aw man, I'm disappointed that it was deleted. I haven't seen a good pile-on in a while.

How 'bout if I go over and make a few posts like I did when I first joined MeFi? If I recall, I got piled on a few times; Matt even deleted one of the MeTas.... I was such a n00b. Pump a coupla beers into me and send me over the blue if you want a pile-on!

;- )

posted by Doohickie 21 December | 23:43

Bevets is either a geniune kook or a dumbass with way too much fucking time on his hands, either way Matt's a jackass for not banning him considering some of the shit that has earned bannings.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 21 December | 23:49

I'm not banned because I'm not a troll. Over and out.

posted by ParamusParis 21 December | 23:49

*hands Doohickie a beer*

Cheers!

posted by Mr T 22 December | 00:24

Glad your twin, who you're not, checked in to defend yourself.

posted by stilicho 22 December | 00:30

Yes, my twin is a bit more agressive than I; he has more of a chip on his shoulder; actually, he has one on each shoulder...

posted by ParamusParis 22 December | 00:47

Oh! Chips!
munch munch munch

posted by arse_hat 22 December | 01:03

Self-policing would work if we weren't unarmed. We have absolutely no manner of enforcement.

posted by Five Fresh Fish 22 December | 01:10

stilcho - here, here's a beer - a good beer. Drink it. Stop talking.

five fresh fish - what're you suggest; nailing down pp's IP address and doing non-mainstream things to it?

posted by porpoise 22 December | 01:50

the only reason I can conceive is that Matt gets weekly blowjobs from Paris.

See, this is exactly the style of discussion that makes me spend much, much less time at MeFi, and ignore pretty much every politics/news thread. Seriously, it feels like stumbling into a den of 16 year old boys.

As far as MeTa stuff on Mecha is concerned, I don't think it belongs here, generally... though if a thread there is closed and people really want to keep talking about it, I guess here is as good a place as any. But, the thing that I really, really don't want to see is complaining about another MeFi member without their explicit knowledge of the thread here (like the poster should email them)... and even then... well, ick.

Are people going to be forced to register here just to defend themselves from charges arising from activity on another site?

posted by taz 22 December | 02:13

Follow the money: PP's outrageous trolling pulls in clicks that make Mathowie money.

With sincere apologies to taz,... orthogonality, when was the last time I called you a cynical asshole? How about just the asshole part?

Do let me know when the grace period expires, won't you? Thanks, I knew you would.

posted by danostuporstar 22 December | 08:47

taz, I understand your point about speaking of MeFites without their knowledge but truthfully, one of the things I like (or liked) about Mecha is that it has been a PP free zone.

But I do understand and will not do so again in the future.

Though the post is two fold, the first part about PP, of course, but the second part of the post is about the deletions and general double standard in place on MeFi. And that's more disturbing just one troll.

posted by fenriq 22 December | 10:41

I understand your being offended, taz. Please understand mine.

posted by Five Fresh Fish 22 December | 13:27

I'm not a fan of thread closures on MeTa... so, I do think there might be some space here for that kind of thing (it's a place for stuff that doesn't necessarily belong on mefi, meta, askme, blah, blah), since when threads are closed there, it means we can't talk about it there... But, yeah... the thing with talking about users who don't necessarily know about it is the squick.

posted by taz 22 December | 13:47

Paris can squick this for all I care. [vaguely obscene gesture]

Honest to god, why would anyone give the sweetest flying fuck about whether PP knows about this thread? The guy is the alpha asshole of MeFi. Fuck him.

posted by Five Fresh Fish 22 December | 15:17

Matt lets bevets stick around, too. That's highly disappointing.

Bevets isn't a troll.

posted by knave 22 December | 17:45

No he's not the alpha, or even beta asshole. He's a sweet, funny guy with minority status who makes interesting points in a lively manner. As for the revenue thing, that's certainly possible. Do people really come to Metafilter for PP (the other PP...)?

posted by ParamusParis 22 December | 20:46

I will agree with five fresh fish (though perhaps with a bit less, uh, passion) that PP is an alpha asshole who cares not in the least that he is a serious and major disruption in the MeFi community.

The fact that Matt allows it is a tacit condonation of his activities.

Look at Bevets' posting history and compare it to PP's, they aren't even close to being in the same league. 111 total comments to nearly 7500 total comments.

posted by fenriq 23 December | 11:36

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