Aran

I hit a jackpot with mine.

Likely a result of the IPB addons Mariann just installed at Dikiyoba's suggestion.

I see we have a new avatar trend.

I think the "comparing TM and Kel endangers fluffy kittens" bit was from me, actually.

(Also, UBB member numbers and IPB member numbers don't correlate at all, so any old references to member numbers are better off searched for on the UBB forum site or in Aran's PPP.)

They maintain the same ordering (with a few exceptions I suspect). But there is indeed no function to convert them. Note that the UBB member numbers on PPP and those on the current UBB are already diverged, with a steadily increasing gap due to deletion and reindexing. My 2984 became 2975.

I move that we introduce a measure which restricts all non-spiderweb memes, gimmicks, inside jokes, and references (including, but not limited to, punning, rhyming, alliteration, yo momma jokes, Dr Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wheel of Time, and ponies) to specified threads. Exceptions will be made for direct applicability to the subject at hand. Avatars, profiles, and custom titles are also exempt. Memes considered spiderweb-associated (and thus permissible in any context) include, but are not limited to: Fluffy Turtles, Alex's Cartoons, Dikiyoba's stories, Slarty vs Desk, Imban, GIFTs, Skribbane, Sniping Pedestrians, electing Alcritas.

Fillybustered.

Of the old Administrators, only Stareye remains. (The others in the group are Spidweb, a generated account, and someone who might be IPS staff.) The rest, including Krizsan, are Global Moderators. There are too many of them to realistically list; the list also is subject to regular changes. Maybe rule #5 just needs to go.

a pile of bits to whomever can guess what i think the coc needs more of

 

 

hint: it's ponies

 

Analizing is like analyzing, but much more obsessively.

also i had no idea that's what calref's new avatar urls looked like, and for a fleeting moment thought aran was hacking calref to display who pics...for some reason

so my hack has gone undetected. for now.

That URL always points to your current avatar on this forum.

Who?

Correct!

(People have actually speculated if Yoda's speech is based on German. However, with some attention to detail this doesn't make sense, because Yoda moves the verb to the end almost universally, while German only does so with an infinitive construction like "subject can write [object] -> subject can [object] write" or relative sentences "subject who writes [object] -> subject who [object] writes". And yes, actual linguists have actually analyzed Yoda.)

EU plans that websurfers needs to chat etc with their real name and face.

This sounded plausible because the EU is starting stuff like this all the time (see data retention laws, blocking of websites, ACTA, SOPA, etc.), but I could find no such thing currently that went beyond a few clueless politicians grandstanding for the media. Is there a specific law in the European parliament that you're talking about?

Here's one by Alfred Tennyson I just remembered:

The Kraken

Below the thunders of the upper deep,

Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee

About his shadowy sides: above him swell

Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;

And far away into the sickly light,

From many a wondrous grot and secret cell

Unnumbered and enormous polypi

Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green.

There hath he lain for ages and will lie

Battering upon huge seaworms in his sleep,

Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;

Then once by men and angels to be seen,

In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

I used to play the piano a lot; unfortunately I only get around to it occasionally these days.

^ Citation

My public key also.

Edit: Sylae, do you want to exchange signatures? Or does "sort of knowing people online" not meet your security standards?

Arancaytar is unconscious and lying across several seats near the back.

The tremor of the temporal displacement causes him to stir, groaning and blearily opening his eyes.

He makes several more sounds that are mostly consonants while his eyes acclimate to the painfully bright lights. His head feels like it is being hit with a hangover wrapped around a sledgehammer, but without the fun part.

Eventually, he manages to shift and almost sit up.

"What the frack happened last night?"

He looks down.

"And why do I have hooves?"

I spoke with Zizak-Tel a month ago, they're going to keep writing in that same vein.

FYI, Zizak's a she.

The double round robin rules means the number of games grows quadratically. I guess that's why Sylae closed it after 12 entrants; we already have 132 matches and another would make it 156.

Maybe it could be more manageable if the next tournament were split in two groups followed by a match between the best four. Or something.

... oof.

CVPOTA:

The rest have never posted here, but Zizak-Tel has been linked a few times.

Beautiful building, though the organization that owns it sounds kinda freaky. I'm not sure how happy the man himself (natural philosopher, humanist and kinda-but-not-really-Christian) would have been to be associated with spiritual mysticism. Though apparently he did dabble a bit in it, so who knows.

Since I'm now studying in Goethe's birthplace, my university is also named after him.

Edit: I don't normally like to post stuff that isn't done, but this line somehow got into my mind while I was waiting for the bus this morning.

Brittle the air that turns leaves into glass

This is usually how I start. Not sure if or when I'll manage to come up with the rest. But I want to invoke an image of a really cold day without using any word actually related to cold.

There's another one by Goethe that mostly sticks to this meter:

There are several English versions, but I like this one most:

Oh, and if this seems familiar, you may be thinking of this.

Here's another one I dug up, which I've probably never put online. I think it was originally for a story I was writing and then took on a life of its own.

Also, still trochaic tetrameter. It really is my favorite. Pretty much no rhyming.

cast your gaze about the tower

see ye not the signs of daybreak?

mind ye well these words of foresight:

here the night shall not endure

wisdom of the stars is fading

in the age of sunrise ending

grey and shrouded world awaking

from its slumber unto dawn

here the night is slow in leaving

see the north-star, star of guidance:

six and twenty thousand winters

has it shone and will yet shine

there the signs of day arriving

red star passing, sunlight's herald

all the world in scarlet dousing

end of shadows, end of fear.

then the ocean's empire rising

beacon of the great tomorrow

destiny of earth propelling

from the waves unto the stars

ware the words of wrath emerging

see them written, hear them spoken

bar your heart and mind against them

darkness beckons those that heed

age of light and thought arriving

discord and disorder breeding

thus behold the mighty towers

dragon's ire laid them low

of all perils fear the silence

for no noise can hold such terror

neither discord sow such darkness

neither words can spell such doom

heed these words yet seek for wisdom

follow none yet serve all others

and by dawn remember starlight

when the morning turns to day.

(Don't really know what's up with the lowercase. It's not like the style has any similarity to ee cummings or something.)

I think the verb can go anywhere. Was für eine Sprache.

I can without problems English sentences write. The word order correctly to choose, find I very easy!

(That was actually difficult. When you learn a language long enough, its grammar becomes so ingrained it is almost impossible to deliberately substitute another.)

word order isn't really a thing in latin. i mean it kind of is but you can mess around with it a lot and still make comprehensible sentences

I guess "summus gratus non sum" would change the meaning to "I am not the one most welcome". But yeah, that sounds fair.

(To check, is the pronoun just optional and usually left out, or would it be incorrect to include an "ego"?)

"Ergo" is Latin for "therefore". By "summus" Harehunter probably meant "sum", "I am". "Summus" means "top" or "highest".

Or "Ergo, summus non gratus sum" which sounds like "Therefore, I am the most unwelcome." (if mangled. "sum summus"? To be honest, I never know where to put the verb.)

Style-wise, I've found that meter matters far more than rhyme - though the latter contributes, of course.