80

When for the first time
A new question I answer
This haiku appears:

Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan

Such a message is
Very strange; is anyone
Seeing the same thing?

Have not seen again.
Came and went like the wind does!
Why I am so blessed?

Improve this question
14
  • You've just been with a haiku. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:28
  • 5
    Little slab of meat / In a wash of clear jelly / Now I heat the pan Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:31
  • 34
    wtf is this?????? Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:34
  • 3
    So you have a habit of answering questions more than once? Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:49
  • @random - quite often i'll edit my answers :) Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:54
  • 2
    Edits are not the same as posting a new answer to the same question. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:56
  • 2
    This is pretty much awesome. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 2:57
  • Maybe an easter egg. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 3:31
  • 22
    Screenshot please... for posterity you see. And um... cough hand-drawn circle around the haiku caugh. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 5:47
  • 24
    I love that the whole post is a haiku now, lol Commented Dec 12, 2009 at 18:31
  • 2
    I'm glad someone appreciated the effort. (I'm not really happy with the final haiku, but it was the best I could muster with limited time.) Commented Dec 13, 2009 at 5:25
  • Was it just me who hadn't heard of Haiku before the new president of the EU council was announced? Commented Dec 13, 2009 at 23:37
  • I got this too :( ... I'm not a spam Little slab of meat / In a wash of clear jelly / Now I heat the pan Commented Jan 9, 2010 at 11:51
  • As I've written at meta.stackexchange.com/questions/144708/foo/…: A spambot could parse the message, find words like "spam", "detected", "filter", or "triggered", and use them to determine whether it has triggered a spam filter and act accordingly. The haiku is itself meant to be a Turing test, so that bots don't know they triggered a spam filter. Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 18:09

8 Answers 8

Reset to default
59

The implementors of these sites have come up with a set of heuristics that attempt to detect spamming. I don't know exactly what they are, and if I did, I don't think they would be happy with me for typing them here. However, from my own observation, I've concluded that the site shows a Spam Haiku when the heuristics go off. Human beings scratch their heads, retry, and succeed. Actual robot spam devices are stymied. I imagine that if you thought a bit about what sorts of time and content patterns might be associated with automated spam, you could figure out why you got to read one.

Improve this answer
2
  • 27
    +1 for an explanation, finally: the site shows a Spam Haiku when the heuristics go off Commented Dec 14, 2009 at 6:42
  • 1
    A +1 from me too. Commented Dec 14, 2009 at 8:37
19

Spam haiku, baffling
Five questions, yet most still stuck
FAQ weeps for update.

Tastes like ham, sorta
But clogs up my aorta
Pig rigor morta

A half-eaten slice.
Ants swarm the cold, greasy plate.
A suicide note.

Improve this answer
4
  • I just sent my great aunt a Christmas thank-you card composed entirely of haikus. I wonder if she'll appreciate it. Commented Jan 12, 2010 at 15:09
  • She definitely will! Commented Jan 12, 2010 at 17:12
  • 40
    Well, I just heard back from her. She liked it but also sent me a page of instruction on the proper use of imagery in haikus (though she did admit that thank-you haikus are necessarily somewhat image-limited). Pro tip: Don't write poetry for an ex-English teacher unless you're prepared to deal with the consequences. Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 17:15
  • @mmyers glad to know she liked it! Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 17:28
6

What are the clear parts?
My mind reels, thoughts turn to hooves.
I'd best just eat it.

Improve this answer
3

I vaguely remember something about this clever poetry from a podcast/blog/tweet or somewhere. It's displayed to make the user slow down and think for a bit, when they are doing something ignorant or obnoxious. Like posting the same (spammy) question multiple times in a row, perhaps?

Improve this answer
1
  • 7
    Sounds like this could work .... on some other planet. Commented Dec 11, 2009 at 10:22
2

The haiku is trying to tell you something.

(edit: without a repro, there's no help that can be provided. If you give us repro steps we all can follow, I can tell you more.)

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    That they're routing the site through Hawaii? Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 6:59
  • 36
    I hope the message the haiku is trying to get across isn't very important. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 9:00
  • @Jeff: Well if you're not worried then what the heck are of the rest of us concerned about! :) I welcome our new exception handling strings that are much more engaging than archaic error codes. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 20:20
1

Oh tin of pink meat / I ponder what you may be / Snout or ear or feet?

That's the latest :P

Improve this answer
1

No, Stack Overflow is not "hacked"; it's a Spam Haiku.

Improve this answer
1
  • 3
    It can be found in the top 10 spam haikus google.ca/… but I don't think this leads to the conclusion that SO has not been hacked - in fact the opposite because there's no reason (business, technical, otherwise) that SO should show a spam haiku! Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 3:14
0

I've seen it. Very odd, I went back and resubmitted.

Improve this answer
2
  • Does it only happen when posting an answer on SO? I haven't done that in a couple of days, so I could have missed it. Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 22:09
  • Pretty sure it was for an answer on SO, but it's either that or for an answer on meta... Commented Dec 10, 2009 at 22:18

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.