Comments opened, pulposus

Comments opened, phunniemee

Comments opened, Previous username Jacen

Comments opened, 99_

Comments opened, Kybard

Comments opened, jimw

Comments opened, Joakim Ziegler

Comments opened, creatrixtiara (formerly divabat)

Comments opened, DarlingBri

Comments opened, chasles

Comments opened, adrienneleigh

Comments open, main thread

To me it sounds like someone realizes that they created more of problem for themselves than they intended and are now asking for the discussion to move on without them. Seeing at they've cited fears of harassment, it would be totally fine to do that. There's no need to demand that they must participate, nor that we focus on them.

Finally, it's important to note that harassment of another member is strictly forbidden and anyone experiencing should let the mods know and we'll deal with it.

The Pluto Gangsta: "Brandon, as long as you're here do you want to comment on why, when other comments were modded out of that thread, the mod didn't name the poster even when they quoted the comment, but you decided to reproduce not only my comment but to put me on blast specifically? Kinda feel like you put a target on my back there."

There are 5 official mod comments in that thread (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), 4 of them by me, 3 of which use the MeFi Quote feature to name who made the comments. You are not specifically being called out, it's just a function of being on the internet and the convenience of using MeFiQuote.

Otherwise, am going to leave the mod comment as is and request that everyone avoid bringing up The Pluto Gangsta anymore in this thread. It's not a command, just a request on their behalf.

About larger questions:
Mods should moderate comments and situations as they normally do on the site, with little regard as whether a person is a board member or not. There are probably hypotheticals where board status might matter, but I view that more as sending a message with advice or about some site history, but that's about it. Moderation should proceed as on escalating scale that starts with talking and requests and only moving on to ban if nothing else works. Definitely worth considering how to work out a such a situation if things go that way. But having to go that route will be a rare thing is my guess. Still worth considering ahead of time, IMO.

the north sea: "I am pretty nervous about posting this"

Thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort. You points are non-American thoughts 💭 and necessary for the community to be reminded of.

i used to be someone else: "just want a little more clarity on this mod decision

Removed a comment saying "The only good nazi is a dead nazi" because site's Content Policy discourages calls for violence.

Sure, the full comment was "He was a nazi. The only good nazi is a dead nazi." That comment was in reference Charlie Kirk and went a little over the line, in terms of advocating for his death. I should have made that clearer in the deletion note.

warriorqueen: "I can't express strongly enough my appreciation for the committee members who have stuck through that, but I personally have found that really wearying - to a degree that I know I am not leading it right and am a bit jumpy."

Thank you and all the members of the MOC for the work y'all have done.

FInally, candidate statements will be live in in the A.M. of Friday, September 12, starting after midnight. It'll probably take an hour or two to post and link everything, but it's happening!

darkstar: "Arg. That first para should end “…behavior may warrant moderation.”"

Fixed!

HearHere: "^ mods, can you please italicize the top portion of the above comment (missed edit window)"

Original comment edited, comment requesting change removed.

Okay, added the threshold to the post text.

The self nomination period for the election of the MetaFilter Board has ended, so this thread is now closed.

The next stage in the election timeline will be the Campaign Period, which begins on Friday, Sept 12 at 12:01am ET, 2025 and ends on September 26th, 11:59pm ET, 2025

During the Campaign Period the candidate statements will be posted in MetaTalk, allowing the community to interact with the candidates.

Eastern timezone, post updated

No need for apologies, it's not spamming! Something seems to be up server side, have tagged frimble to look into.

I ended up emailing you to your gmail with the statement to verify things! Sorry for all the tech issues!

Hey chasles, was just about to email you, as we got three emails from you with your statement. I'm going to take one of them and toss it in a Google Doc for your to verify it's correct, will send the link to that Google doc in a few minutes.

paduasoy: "I suppose what I meant about where to report this is more, is there any point? Is this useful to the site?

Screenshots of the error would be best, but lacking that, a note would be fine, be it email or a MeTa post, just so we can tell if something is going on for a lot of people or just a few. I don't see an error recorded for the glitches you mention paduasoy.

But I am currently just using the free version UptimeRobot, the paid version of Cloudflare no doubt has more robust monitoring. I don't have access to that yet, frimble is working on getting me access, not current eta on that.

Posting about server errors is fine here or folks can make a MetaTalk post or email mods via the Contact Us form. Thanks!

One comment removed and Press Butt.on to Check suspended for 24 hours for continuing to argue with another member after twice being asked to stop.

Several comments deleted. As Brandon pointed out, name calling goes against the Content Guidelines but moreover, Press Butt.on to Check and Pseudonymous Cognomen please take a step back and let the conversation move on without your participation, this is not a thread for you to pick a fight with one another.

Pseudonymous Cognomen: "
lol a turd calling the kettle shit

Oh look, one of MeFi's resident genocide apologists has something to say! (you can fuck off, btw.)"

Press Butt.on to Check: "lol a turd calling the kettle shit"

Both of you need to knock off the name calling right now, it goes against the Content Guidelines. If y'all continue that line of behavior, you may be removed from the site.

This thread is about one of the most hated people in the world, y'all have a big target in him if dislike needs to expressed. There's no need to turn that on other members of the site.

No comments have been removed at this point.

One double posted comment removed.

Yes, that was dumb mistake on my part.

The original comment has been restored, left a comment in the thread noting the mistake, and sent a note with an apology to the person who originally made the comment.

Candidate list:
Updated 12:40am ET 8/30/2025
Updated 11:30pm ET 8/31/2025
Updated 11:51pm ET 9/1/2025
Updated 09:19pm ET 9/2/2025
Updated 03:00pm ET 9/3/2025

One comment deleted. As per the content policy: do not query ChatGPT or other LLMs and then post the output unless the discussion itself is about those types of tools

Note that after talking it over with NotLost, staff is requesting candidates include their username in the subject line of the email in the following format:
"Candidate Statement: Username"

The original post has been edited to reflect this change in verbiage.

NotLost requested that a comment of theirs be removed and that was done.

This is a staff comment that is tracking who has declared their candidacy and who has sent in their statement. It'll be edited by staff as we move forward.

Nominated candidates:
creatrixtiara at 10:57 PM ET on August 26
chasles at 11:14 PM ET on August 26
adrienneleigh at 11:18 PM ET on August 26
Joakim Ziegler at 8:50 PM ET on August 27
DarlingBri at 1:51 PM ET on August 29
pulposus at 2:45 PM ET on September 1

Candidates who have submitted statements:
Creatrixtiara candidate statement received Tues, Aug 26 at 11:02pm ET
adrienneleigh statement received Wed, Aug 27, 7:08 PM ET
DarlingBri statement received Sun, Aug 31, 9:10am ET
puplposus statement received Monday, Sept 1, 3:05 PM ET

ashbury: "Why is MetaTalk so lightly moderated? Why does this policy, such as it, exist? Does it have to exist the way it currently is used? Can't it change? Why hasn't a mod stepped in here to tell everybody to cool it?

I'm not just shouting these question into the void - these are real questions and I would actually like some answers from a mod."

MetaTalk has a long tradition of being lightly moderated, with the belief it's the place for members to say exactly what they want. I think this policy and MeTa were put in place to give members a place on the site to truly vent as opposed to doing so in threads on the front page or Ask.

I believe we talked briefly in a past MeTa about moderating this subsite more like the main site and at the time people were heavily against it is my recollection. But there's no reason why things can't change and if someone wants to make a new MeTa about that, go for it. Talking about it here at the bottom of a thread with a different subject (declining stats) probably won't get as many eyeballs.

kittens for breakfast: "I'm sure Jacqueline is a very nice person and I am sorry that she buttoned; however, it is my belief that someone who would button over what I said was of a mind to leave the site regardless."

Yeah and that's the point. People are stressed in general these daysand may have other things going on in their lives and someone's comment on the site comes off as an attack might be their final straw. Sure, it wasn't intended, but that's besides the point now. It's been said and regardless of intention feelings were hurt.

We could all do with taking a moment to breath and consider what we want to do with our comments on the site. Because like it or not, they can hurt or come off the wrong way, even when someone doesn't mean them to and that just adds more anger to a situation.

We could all use less anger in our lives and on the site.

99_: "Sorry, I was copying and pasting from an old draft. Revenue drop month over reduction of 20%.

And I munged some HTML: third bullet under expenses should read: All other expenses comprise less than 2% of our monthly spend and are basically flat relative to June."

Post updated with these corrections and added the tag 'financialupdate'

Rash: "Tumtetum's account has been banned.

Their profile indicates their only activity here site-wide, this one comment, upthread. I don't get it; seems like a mighty harsh reaction to a first comment. UNLESS this MeFite is/was actually somebody else, with another history? How do you know?"

As hinted at by their comment, that new account was made a by a person who had previously been banned for being transphobic.

One comment removed at commenter’s request.

Both comments left for context:

1. Tumtetum's account has been banned. Transphobia is never OK in this site and will never be.

2. Calling people dumbasses goes against our Content Policy.

One comment removed at the commenter’s request.

eirias: "dg’s request that I speak more plainly is fair and I will try to do so without rancor but if I need to reframe, mods, I will."

No worries, just a reminder that MetaTalk is the most lightly moderated portion of the site.][

dg: "My point was not to criticise the moderators, but to point out that measuring their work based on that metric is not accurate"

That's fine, but it is important to point out when mods are doing official things, they should be using the mod style aka the border around comments. If we aren't, it's totally fine to point that out.

dg: "It's quite common for moderators to forget (I assume) to turn on the mod note border or whatever and to do things like deletions and forget to make a note at all."

This should absolutely not be happening and if anyone does see it happening, please email us or flag it. Seriously, members should feel free to point out any instance of this happening and it'll be corrected.

I guess I am behind the times? Is editorializing ok now?

No, editorializing is not ok now. This particular post fell into a grey area, so we left it up under the guideline of "let people talk about what they want to talk about in almost every case" and kept an eye on it. The discussion was basically fine.

Others have already chimed in various suggestions or point, so no need to rehash them. Basically, post about stuff that interests you, the links should stand on their own, and avoid making a post about you or your thoughts/feelings on the subject.

tiny frying pan: "Which I always thought was kind of bizarre. There should be at least a 10 minute edit window, or a way to submit an edit easily to be fixed by mods."

There's a feature request for this (#6) on the list of feature requests for the new site. Folks can submit their own requests (or ponies) at this link.

NotLost: I believe it happened in 2024. It's been on the Site Info page for quite a while."

Yes, the Metafilter Community Foundation became officially legal on November 1, 2024, have updated that page to reflect the tenure of current and past members of that official board.

Yes, the site banner has been updated.

TheophileEscargot: "Could the FAQ be updated to have the current list of board members, with NotLost instead of Gorgic?

Have updated that FAQ entry to link to the General Staff and Site Information page, so that the list of Board members is in a single place, for easy updating.

Could the Steering Committee page be changed to the past tense, and a note added that it was disbanded in 2023?"

Mods don't have editing rights to that page, have passed the request on to frimble.

Post edited per NotLost’s request to change some wording and a few comments removed

Edited post, with NotLost's permission, to add link to previous board update and added the tag 'MefiCoFoBoardUpdate'. Will do same to previous Board Update posts.

NotLost, You've done a lot of good so far, so just keep doing what you're doing. Go for it!

NotLost: "99_ and staff (Brandon? loup?), would you please work together to get appropriate info..."

Yes, will put 99_, loup, and myself in some sort of email/message chains so we can figure out appropriate communications and assistance.

One deleted, poster’s request for removal of personal information in comment.

Updated the link under New Site Status to reflect the newest update.

Two comments removed at member's request

Hi all,

Clearly there's still a several issues going on and staff should work ensure next month's update goes better, more on that below.

This includes working with 99_ to finish out ironing out issues with connections to various financial data (like PayPal), working with frimble on what can be done to prevent future site downtime's similar to what occurred on 7/26/25, getting the BiPOC minutes for a recent meeting finished, and keeping members informed about any policy changes, updates or discussions.

Note that MetaFilter does have a free account with UptimeRobot to monitor if the site is up and running (it checks every five minutes). This was done to help non-development staff know if and when the site goes down so we can communicate information to the community and as a backup to development monitoring.

UptimeRobot did report when the site was down yesterday, enabling staff to ping frimble and post to our Bluesky account that the site was down, along with updates. Will also check with frimble about making sure the status page accurately reflects whether the site is up or down.

Finally, I think (without consulting with other staff members yet) that it would be good for staff to establish goals with each site update for the next month's site update. Doesn't have to be anything huge, especially as we're still in a transition phase with management, but definite goals to keep the site and community running as smoothly as possible, something like what is mentioned in the second paragraph of this comment.

Previous username Jacen: "Will anyone be able to explain the reasoning for the sudden unexpected promotion of notlost? "

That sounds like a question for the Interim Board to address.

NotLost: "This sentence is incomplete: "Fixes to get the daily full backup to run with no downtime".

Are the fixes done, in process, pending or what?"

NotLost: "I realized it's the same situation for these fixes: "RSS fixes for both main feeds and tag pages". Would you check on those, too, please?" ]

Yes, both of the backup and RSS fixes have bee

You probably want to update whatever source doc you're mindlessly copying these out of is updated.
Fixed that sentence now.

AlSweigart: "At this point in their 9-month-old account, Lemkin has a pattern of antagonizing behavior and doubling down. When (not if) he gets his account banned, we'll all have wished it had been done months ago."

It's ok to disagree with another member, but this sort of personal attack doesn't help discussion or the community. Please just focus on the comments and not on the person.

Diskeater: "Can this be updated with a list of current board members? Or can that list live somewhere on the site?"

I've updated that FAQ entry to link to the Site Information FAQ that NotLost mentioned, which is also linked in the footer on every page.

coffeecat: "Can the mods via the site backend see which users are filtering out USPolitics? "

Nah, there's no information about tag usage on the backend.

Link to this post has been added to the site banner, also added the following tag:
MeFiCoFo
MCF

There are excellent questions about who should be able to add tags to a post in regards to the USpolitics tag. Currently it's possible for the original poster, a mod, or someone with a connection to the poster to add any tag to a post, just fyi.

Obviously the current system is imperfect and may need to be rebuilt. Particularly if people want to block a tag, does that mean any post with that tag is blocked? Or is there another way of blocking posts that are tagged by other people that will deliver a high level of success?

Currently there's request, via a flag, for the USpolitics tag to be added to this post, https://www.metafilter.com/209603/If-this-isnt-infringement-Congress-needs-to-do-something, which I think is a reasonable request. But I've gone ahead and asked the original poster if they're cool with that. What do y'all think?

If they aren't and say no, is that a good system for the USpolitics tag with our current system. Should one person get to decide for everyone else about what is blocked under USpolitics?

jacquilynne: "Brandon reached out for more details on the specific posts I thought were a problem, so I assume they are at least considering a change in calibration, but I don't know if or when more details will be forthcoming."

Loup and I talked about the situation earlier today (I've been off a few days, thanks for your patience). The simple solution is for mods not to add the USPolitics tag unless it is specifically requested. But there will still be disagreements about what is political.

Hence the recommendation to occasionally look under a tag you've blocked, as tags are entirely user driven, so there's going to be some disagreement at times about how to tag something.

Folks can ask us to tag a post with a particular tag via email or flagging with a note.

Please note that the sidebar of USPolitics is not tag driven. A mod has to go into the post and click a checkmark button that then adds it to the sidebar. That might be a better way of handling things, aka mods putting what they or other users suggest as USPolitics without tagging the post itself. But people might get upset about their post being added to that, so it's still going to be grey area where people have different opinions.

We'll see how things go in terms of mods not tagging posts as USPolitics unless requested and see if we need to adjust anything on our end.

Hey, Brandon's on duty today, will be around, but mostly listening, but here's a few responses to things brought up since my last comment:

Posted about this MeTa in the mod slack and the use of CamelCase for tags. For the 'uspolitics' tag is there a preference for 'USPolitics' or 'UsPolitics'?

The mods are open recalibrating on this and how and when we add tags to posts. Have left a reminder to use CamelCase when adding tags with multiple words, but just fyi the tag that was added by a mod to the post in question was 'USPolitics']

mediareport: "The USPolitics tag has now been removed, though the mod who removed it apparently didn't feel it necessary to say anything, either here or in the original thread, so I guess we can just assume from here on the mods will be more careful about adding it, but it would be nice, especially given Brandon's dismissive reply above, if they said to members that they have indeed decided to be more careful using it in the future."

See this comment earlier in the thread for the OP mentioning they had removed the tag themselves, which is totally fine.

Members always have the ability to add or remove tags from their posts after the post as b

Mods: how often are you adding this tag vs how often are users using it themselves, and what criteria are you using to decide?

No specific numbers. I'll add the tag if I think it needs to be added, based on the political football noticed in the news.

I do think it's a broad term and not everyone's definition will be the same. I'd recommend people occasionally looking under a blocked tag to see if they're missing something they might be interested in.

Yes, the site was down for about two hours, but is back up now. Frimble is investigating why it happened.

An error regarding the status of the BIPOC board minutes for Meeting 29 has been corrected in the main post.

One comment deleted as requested.

secret about box: "moderation even explicitly said the person could be allowed back if they talked with the mods:

https://metatalk.metafilter.com/26621/the-need-for-clear-action-against-transphobia#1440110"]

The ban was made permanent a few comments later and we banned a couple of others for transphobia, and made it clear that transphobia should and will be more firmly handled going fo

warriorqueen: "Just a note that I went to post twice in succession and did get notification that I'd posted very recently - I assume this is in the range of 2 hours or whatever but it's not quite immediate."

Yes, there's a one hour delay between being able to post, see earlier comment. Otherwise, there should not be a delay.

Diskeater: "Brandon, since you're reading this thread, any comment yet on the brigading evidence? Link to my previous comment on this."]

Replied in that thread to avoid derailing

Previous username Jacen: "Have we confirmed if Gorgik is indeed still alive, and a member of the board? That's not a facetious or sarcastic question, I genuinely don't think he's posted anywhere in a month or two"

Gorgik is indeed alive and still a member of the Board.

Date in post changed from 'July 15' to 'June 15'.

Folks, if you have time travel powers, please keep it to yourself to avoid making the rest of us jealous, thanks.

HearHere: "ashbury, performance art. responding to the change in time limits more than anything else; it’s interesting

anyway, i do think it could be good to take a break, thanks ☮️"

You absolutely need to stop doing this. Nowhere on the site is a place for performance art. If you keep doing this, it may result in your account being denied access to the site.

MeMailed HearHere a link to this note.

Another thread with more flags than comments. Closing.

One comment and a reply deleted for name calling. Please don't do this.

Closing this thread as it is picking more flags than comments. Please ask yourself if a full new thread is needed before posting it.

No idea why this test post popped up today, it shouldn't have. It was a glitch, possibly the system having too many beans? We're just gonna close this up hope this isn't a sign of the system becoming sentient.

This thread has been picking more flags than comments since it was posted so I'll close it now. If you have anything related you want to discuss, please head over to the oingoing governance thread.

Thank you everyone for your feedback!

Let's avoid turning this thread in to a discussion with/against the OP. If you disagree with this post, please flag it and move on.

There was a brief spike around 7-8 PM EDT

Removed a double comment

Alvy Ampersand: "I think I've been pretty fair-handed and non-aggressive in my attitude and comments towards the Board and Mods but who the fuck are you to check my ID? How fucking dare you."

Yeah, no one is or will be requesting anyone's personal ID, full stop. Never gonna happen and if anyone ever does do that, please report it.

adrienneleigh: "Perhaps Brandon could be prevailed upon to add this post to the alert bar, as he has done in the recent past for election-related posts?"

This has now be done, thanks for your patience.

In the future, I'd recommend posting the suggestion in the thread and email the mods via the contact form. I've been off four a couple of days, so wasn't aware of messages.

Post updated as requested above.

The MetaTalk queue has been turned off.

There is a one hour delay between being able to post, to prevent spamming, or accidental repeat posts, but that's it.

Yes, it was published immediately, the MetaTalk queue is off, folks can discuss that in the previous thread.

Diskeater: "Any chance you'll have the time to address the brigading concerns once the queue issues are sorted out?"

Derailing comment removed. There have been a couple of previous mod notes (1, 2)about these sort of comments from you Diskeater, and since they seem to be continuing after requests for them to stop, we're going to move on to timeouts if another one is made.

No one wants to do that, we're in agreement that you have every right to question Board or staff statements and actions, but you can't keep derailing other threads to do. This the thread about elections, please keep queries and/or complaints about elections to that or similar threads. Link to this comment has been MeMailed to Diskeater.

Just a note that after testing just now, the queue is still up, am looking into what's happening, in order to complete the removal. Thanks for your patience, we'll get this fixed, will update when I have more information.

One comment deleted as requested.

Brandon chiming in:

Having slept it, I'm in full agreement that deletion isn't the only tool in the moderation tool box and it should rarely be the first used in removing a post a member made.

That said, I do think it works in thise specific situation because:

The post was trying to incorporate a joke to make a point
The joke was inflammatory in a post about an inflammatory situation (Israel and Iran)
The post was was being flagged as offensive
There were comments in the thread saying the title was offensive
The creator of the post was staring to argue with people who objected to the joke
It was single link post, easily redone
The post had only 24 comments total (not 40 as some say) at the time of deletion, which seemed low, considering some of the comments didn't have anything to do with the subject (aka arguing about the jokey title).

So removing the post seemed like the best option in this case, in terms of resetting the thread so that people would focus on the incident and not how the post was created. If I had to do over again, I would have encouraged the creation of other post in the deletion note, while suggesting the removal of joke title and the explanation of the joke within.

Definitely keeping in mind that deletion should rarely be done.

Brief shouting match deleted. Please let's do this without the name-calling.

The post was flagged as offensive several times, a few mentioning the title.

Feel free to redo a post about Israel attacking Iran of course, but perhaps this isn't the time to be clever with the title and subject, based on flag feedback. Not everyone has to be on the same wavelength about this, but if people are calling the post offensive and wanting to talk about that instead of the event itself, it's probably good to make the post differently.

Based on the comments in this thread we have decided to close this thread. There are already other open threads about governanace, MetaTalk and the Meta Queue.

Please continue the conversation there and let us know if anything else is needed.

None of this is meant as a "told ya so". We do support the removal of the Meta Queue and recognize that this change will come with new complications but I'm sure we can sort them out with your input.

Based on the comments above and here it looks like the best course of action is to close both threads given that there are others already open about governanace, MetaTalk and the Meta Queue.

Please continue the conversation there and let us know if anything else is needed.

Noting that this post wouldn't have been approved under the old rules as it could have been a comment under the various other governance threads open at this moment. We approved right away given that the Meta queue is going away but please be mindful if there are other related discussions open already.

General note: mods are just reading and listening for the moment, seems the best thing to do at the moment.

As to a specific comment about about removing a former account that doesn't appear to have been properly removed, we're looking into it.

Please note that the "Staff & SIte Info" link that was in the site banner has now moved to the footer, and is now titled "Site Information". The link to the Moderation Log is also now in the footer, under the title "Recent Mod Actions"

Lemkin: " Lemkin, I hope you're bearing up okay under the stress of all this goshdarned attention that you definitely don't want at all.

I was asking for it with that short skirt, I guess."

The original comment has been removed, but also reproduced here so people can see what was written.

Whatever was intended by writing that comment, it's coming off poorly and being seen as a joke about rape. Everyone please avoid making jokes about rape, they're never funny.