We’ve completed another step on the journey to a better commenting system at tumbledry. There are now ranking icons that allow one to see, at a glance, the seniority of a tumbledry commenter. I decided to name these “irons.” It fits in with the theme of tumbledrying … see? However, it is rather difficult to make an 11 pixel high iron look like a nice stylized iron, so I have gone with some different icons to indicate status. The tumbledry commenter, after submitting 20 comments under the same name and email address, will find themselves awarded a gray bullet. This gray bullet indicates that the user has left between 20 and 124 comments. Upon leaving 125 comments using the same name and email address, the tumbledry commenter receives their first colored bullet. This is generally an occasion to celebrate. Rankings continue along these lines … another 125 comments earns another gray bullet and 125 more comments changes that second bullet to a colored one. Users are notified of the number of comments remaining until their next promotion when they visit the front page of tumbledry. When a user leaves one thousand comments, their bullets are condensed into a higher honor: the gray maltese cross. Feel free to throw a party for this occasion. 5000 comments and the tumbledryer (we’ve discussed the spelling of this term previously, I think) earns the highly prestegious red and blue maltese cross. These crosses are accompanied by the usual bullets that track the commenter’s progress towards another cross.
This system is subject to evolve, but is (obviously) set out for the long term. Furthermore, additional improvements are planned which include voting for comments and replying to a specific comment so that discussions are more organized. These features will lend themselves to a user page which other people can visit giving a user’s rank, total number of votes received on comments, and total comments left. I’m excited about realizing these features sometime in July, 2006. That said, feedback and suggestions on these current changes are welcomed!
Tom Cruise nearly fails to open a door - On the fastest production car in the world … I think you’ll remember which one that is (hint: I linked to it recently).
Visiting the vet - A comedy sketch featuring Hugh Laurie of House, M.D.! Thank you for the link, Ryan. Where have I seen the other guy in the scene? Somebody has to know this.
And now, tumbledry presents things I have seen in the past couple of days. Thing 1: I saw Conan O’Brien doing his opening show of the week in Chicago. The audience was huge and almost out of control. It was like a rock concert sometimes. Mr. T gave Conan a tour of the city and other hijinks ensued. Late Night is such great television. I watched the show for longer than I had intended to, but the time was well spent. You may ask the question “why does a show go on the road” but I would counter with … why not?
Thing 2: I saw a car accident about 10 feet from me. One guy pulled out into another guy without looking at all. I watched as they moved their cars around aimlessly, obviously in shock, for a little while until they stopped. I got each one of their attentions and made sure that they were alright and had cell phones. They were not in very good moods. Please see diagram of said accident. Note that the two drivers were not driving a VW New Beetle or a Ferrari 456M GT prototype. But these are the images that were available to me at the time I assembled this picture. Also, I do not look like a circle from the air. But for the record, the actual impact was a psychedelic explosion of color as diagramed.
Thing 3: I saw an Alaskan husky in person for the first time in my life. They are huge. He was walking with a woman through the lower quad, and he was quite well behaved. I walked behind dog and lady as they walked right into Murray Herrick Campus Center. Are dogs that big allowed anywhere indoors? I don’t think the lady was blind, so I am not sure why she was taking a mushing dog through a building. Perhaps she had mushing to do somewhere soon and she couldn’t be bothered by dog-building regulations.
