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Secrets of the Internet


Actaeon

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Stumbleupon's old news (really old for those of us foolish enough to burn out on it years before it became a thing), Google's easter eggs are well hashed over, and zombo.com has lost it's pizzaz.

 

I beeseech you, denizens of the Internet, to reveal the nooks and crannies that only the most intrepid browsers have seen. And, so that this thread doesn't warrant an immediate lock, let me emphasize the first example (a rather useful tool of time loss) as opposed to the last (something you set the computer lab's homepages to).

 

I rather liked vark.com, but that's been scrapped. Grandcentral's now Google Voice. In fact, the only marginally cool thing I have to offer in return is this.

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Originally Posted By: Yuna Corne
TVTropes


Whenever somebody mentions TVTropes, or links me to a page on TVTropes, I always feel like I'm broken. No matter who I talk to, the overwhelming impression I get is that TVTropes is like an incurable addiction; once you've clicked that first page, you're stuck in an endless loop of links, and before you know it, you've wasted eight hours. Not so for me. I've clicked links. I've read pages. I've actively tried to get stuck on TVTropes, but no dice. It just does nothing for me, and it never has. frown

(I pretty much look at Cracked.com daily though, so eh.)
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Originally Posted By: Othar Trygvassen: Gentleman
@Yuna Corne: If I may ask, does the PNW on your profile stand for "Pacific Northwest?" As one in a strange state of being known to experts as "Oregon" (related to but distinct from "Holy Matrimony" and "The Union Address"), I am curious.


Very much so. I'm a mere hundred miles north from one Portland. Take a guess.
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Don't know if you've heard about this, but talking about secrets reminded me of a report about an underground internet suffix, with a world wide black market and other maffia related services (such as drug and firearms smuggling and ordered hit services) that has been running for a long while now without the knowledge of the general populous or even the authorities. It's like a sinister real life MMO with virtual money included and a predetermined currency (real to virtual and virtual to virtual) exchange rate. I won't add a link for the obvious reasons.

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Surely the deep web has less disturbing elements. You just wouldn't get access to them via 4chan because, well...

 

Originally Posted By: Terribly Ernest
....the overwhelming impression I get is that TVTropes is like an incurable addiction; once you've clicked that first page, you're stuck in an endless loop of links, and before you know it, you've wasted eight hours.

 

TV tropes sort of has this effect on me. Wikipedia is significantly worse, though. The former has incredible depth on practically anything fictional. The latter is as broad as they come, with just enough depth to keep you clicking.

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Originally Posted By: Yuna Corne
Oh, and: Wikipedia trivia: if you take any article, click on the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at “Philosophy”.


This isn't actually true. There are a lot of articles you can get to Philosophy from, but there are also articles for which you'll end up in a different loop that doesn't contain Philosophy.
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Originally Posted By: Yuna Corne
Oh, and: Wikipedia trivia: if you take any article, click on the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at “Philosophy”.

<-*Facepalm*
We already had this discussion here and have already busted this unfortunate myth.
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I believe there are opposed factions in an edit war. Some want to make all roads lead to philosophy. Some would prefer to converge all links at other subjects. Still others believe in destroying loops.

 

—Alorael, who can't actually believe that. But he'd like to. He'd even more like to push those factions into all out conflicting information warfare.

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Alright, everyone! Contest time! Who can find the longest chain until a loop?

 

Black Swan > Anatidae > Family (biology) > Biological classification > Organism > Biology > Natural science > Science > Latin > Italic languages > Indo-European languages > Language family > Language > Communication > Information > Order theory > Mathematics > Greek language > Indo-European languages

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Originally Posted By: Dintiradan
Alright, everyone! Contest time! Who can find the longest chain until a loop?

Black Swan > Anatidae > Family (biology) > Biological classification > Organism > Biology > Natural science > Science > Latin > Italic languages > Indo-European languages > Language family > Language > Communication > Information > Order theory > Mathematics > Greek language > Indo-European languages


Ugh, that reminds me of the "factorial chains" problem on Project Euler. Don't bring up bad memories like that.
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Mathematics actually does lead to philosophy if you use the original rules (the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics.)

 

Mathematics > Quantity > Property (philosophy) > Modern philosophy > Philosophy.

 

Once you reach philosophy, though, you quickly encounter a loop: Philosophy > Ontology > Philosophy.

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Originally Posted By: Jedi Nescioquis
Mathematics actually does lead to philosophy if you use the original rules (the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics.)

Mathematics > Quantity > Property (philosophy) > Modern philosophy > Philosophy.

Once you reach philosophy, though, you quickly encounter a loop: Philosophy > Ontology > Philosophy.


Actually, it takes you on a Indo European language loop. The actual first clickable link is "Greek", not "quantity"
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Originally Posted By: Dintiradan
Alright, everyone! Contest time! Who can find the longest chain until a loop?

Black Swan > Anatidae > Family (biology) > Biological classification > Organism > Biology > Natural science > Science > Latin > Italic languages > Indo-European languages > Language family > Language > Communication > Information > Order theory > Mathematics > Greek language > Indo-European languages


I have "language" going to human, not communication. Human ends up going to philosophy.
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Originally Posted By: Master1


I have "language" going to human, not communication. Human ends up going to philosophy.

Ditto

I got this:
C18H30O2---Chemical formula---Atom---Matter---Physical body---Physics---Natural science---Science---Knowledge---Information---Order theory---Mathematics---Quantity---Property (philosophy)---Modern philosophy---Philosophy
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I got TV Tropes > Wiki > Website > Webpage > Document > WordNet > Lexical database > Lexical resource > Lexicon > Linguistics > Science > Knowledge > Information > Order theory > Mathematics > Quantity > Property (philosophy) > Modern philosophy > Philosophy. Then I decided to try Pragmatism > Instrumentalism > Philosophy of science > Scientific method > Scientific technique > Systematic process > Critical thinking > Reason > Fact > Experience > Concept > Philosophy. Yuna, you own me those last 5 minutes of my life.

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  • 4 months later...
Originally Posted By: RA RA RASPUTIN
I've read most of the articles on TVTropes already. It's not enthralling for me anymore, either.


Yep. There are probably huge swathes of pages I haven't read about series I don't watch, but I think I've covered most tropes and the recap and WMG pages for all webcomics and series I follow.

(...huh. I think I just got a good idea about where my life went wrong.)
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That's a metatrope, I guess, in the sense of being a trope about tropes, but it's still not quite what I had in mind. I think there are so many tropes, that the tropes themselves must follow tropes.

 

You can find patterns in practically any large body of data. Shapes in the clouds. But if trope-thinking is so pervasive in human art, then the tropes in the tropes themselves are probably not just accidental. Identifying tropes is itself just another art form.

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tv tropes' editorial hierarchy makes active efforts to police the amount of metasignal the site contains for fear of it disappearing even further up its own fundament than it already has

 

as such, you're not likely to see the sort of thing you describe on tv tropes, because once you started to see it, you'd soon see nothing but more of it if it weren't stamped out

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Originally Posted By: This Charming aRan
Oh, nice. I wouldn't consider myself interested in astronomy most of the time, but things like this get me kind of excited - it really gives me a sense of the scale of things; two huge bodies crossing paths light years apart.

Very humbling.


I see you're an English major, then.
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