Comments on: Find a GO link ina”GO”priate? Do something about it!

By: Joseph Watson

Joseph Watson — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:33:25 +0000

I did just get “rick rolled”! I tried using “go/go” to get to the go dictionary and it brought me to Rick Astley on youtube! LOL!

By: ‘Panthers eating Rabbits’ – Granola bar giveaway « MiddBlog

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:27:43 +0000

[...] looking for the cleverest, funniest, most insightful tweet about Midd. Use links, use those innaGOpriate go/ links, use hashtags, use those 140 characters to characterize Middlebury as best you can. To enter, tweet [...]

By: Ian McBride

Ian McBride — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:19:44 +0000

In the 1.5 years since we’ve allowed self-service GO shortcut creation, I’ve only had to remove a handful of “inappropriate” shortcuts. In each case, these were people using a word similar to an existing shortcut to direct people to a YouTube video, like Rick Astley’s infamous music video. An example was when a student set go/menus to go to a video of a kid dancing. We already had go/menu, so I changed the link to go there instead. So far, my unofficial policy has been to change a GO shortcut when:

1. It’s obviously been created to trick people who are trying to find useful information on our site.
2. It violates the Responsible Use of Computing and Network Service and Facilities, Anti-Harassment, Sexual Harassment, or Academic fairness policies in the College Handbook.

I’ll mention that we have not yet had to remove any GO shortcuts for that second reason. If we do, we will forward information about the incident to HR (for Staff), Academic Administration (for Faculty), or the appropriate Commons administration (for Students).

But things like go/tcha aren’t going anywhere.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:30:36 +0000

Thanks Ryan. You have a really good point. I think the folks admining are aware that some links are there for fun. I hope we’re able to make a reasonable judgment when it comes to that. If multiple people have flagged an item we will take that into consideration. I’ve also been thinking that a text field for a comment as to why a link was flagged may assist admins in making that determination.

By: Stephen Kiel

Stephen Kiel — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:02:05 +0000

Nicely done, nicely done! Now if only I had written down the various Rickrolls I’ve encountered that are lurking in the GOtionary…

I shall find thee, Mr. Astley, and I shall flag thee!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:46:49 +0000

Thanks Bryan. A few more features are on the way, though some may be more behind-the-scenes than this one. Please keep an eye out for future “GO”ings on.

By: Ryan Kellett

Ryan Kellett — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:41:36 +0000

I encourage “capable admins” to let the the non-offensive, non-obfuscatory, yet in-good-humor pranks be. Not everything at this college needs to be serious.

By: Bryan Carson

Bryan Carson — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:38:45 +0000

This is a most awesome feature. Very high profile for one of your first efforts. Way to “GO” Matt!