As I’m sure some of you have noticed, the page for the ‘Anniversary’ badge shows the date on which your account was created.
Was there a beta test group?
Hacking conspiracy?
Time travel?
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I got mine before frauenfelder, but I imagine it’s only because I was more concerned with losing this name than he was with his. Or he just had more important things to do.
Alternate theory: I am actually on the inside and just a ghost in the machine.
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Let the wild and incoherent litany of insane conspiracy theories begin!
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I am going to wildly presume time zones come into play circa 5/24
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I’ve actually been leaving comments at this URL since 1992 just hoping that someone would build a site here some day.
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I got my account on the 24 May. Xeni didn’t get hers until 21 June. But she writes articles. I just scribble posts.
I learned my lesson with slashdot-- I dithered too long and ended up with uid Two Thousand Fifty Four. The shame!
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There was a beta test group. I cannot reveal how I know this.
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Look, I think it’s time to admit your alter ego. I mean Cory Doctorow, Chickie D, it’s all a little too obvious.
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Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse.
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I remember now: I was having difficulty getting my old screen name to port to this site, so Rob spent some days helping me. That probably explains why I’m a few days behind the other May peeps.
Or, wait…was that the PREVIOUS site change? Geez, I’ve been on here too long.
But not as long as Xeni and pesco, obviously. Maybe they’re too cool to show up early or even on time to parties? Yeah, that’s probably it.
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They were likely busy and unenthusiastic about the comments at the time. The move to discourse and its moderation tools allowed us to shift from an aggressive style to one where I think the community is far less focused on one-upmanship and more on conversation?
Discus was really not working for us.
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I too think it’s less focused on one-upmanship but I think it more!
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Would like, but you know…
Been spreading my like all over town the past 24hrs
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Well, it began in Sicily, in 1498. Columbus and his journeys were mere rumors to me and my family. At the time, I was scrounging a living as a carpenter. While I mostly made and repaired furniture for the wealthy of the city, I would occasionally be called on to help with construction, or some special task that helped us get through the harder months of the year.
I was sitting outside of my shop in the shade, savouring what little wind there was that hot summer day, as I ate my lunch. I was feasting on a small warm loaf of black bread that I had left in the sun when a man approached. He was dressed strangely but extravagantly. Instead of the typical hose and doublet, he wore robes. I thought he might be a Moor at first. On his head he wore a large flat cap, and under the brum, inlaid in gold were strange alchemical symbols the likes of which I had never seen, and which I could never begin to understand. He greeted me and told me that his name was Davide Pesca or something like that. He looked at me through strange, thick black bangles in front of his eyes, suspended from his ears, and in each bangle was a fine, thin sheet of glass. He said he needed help fixing a box.
I motioned for him to enter my shop, and he presented me with a strange, small, wooden box. Everything about this man was strange, and I was starting to wonder if he would bring the inquisition down on me and my family. I thought of sending him away, buy looking at his finery, I thought that he might have good money. He said he needed to get into the box, but that he did not have the tools. He muttered something about being so foolish as to fall through a door or port of some kind without any tools. Maybe he said portal? I began to look around my tools for something that might work. Eventually I found a thin, strong piece of iron, and with his help, we began to pry off the top of the box. As I twisted and pushed down, I felt the top of box crack before it completely gave way. I was taken by surprise and fell to the ground. From there I could see Davide looking into the box, and all I could see was a small spring, probably part of whatever clockwork held it together. It was a long thin spring, and it bounced to and fro. I got up and pushed at it idly with my finger. Davide looked at me and made a strange noise, “Boinga Boinga.”
“Boinga!” I agreed as I pushed against the spring again. I looked into the box, and was amazed by what I saw. Strange lights and symbols moved across surfaces inside. There were other things that looked like the most expensive clockwork I had ever encountered. He turned to me, and asked me my name. I backed away, beginning to think him a witch. I stuttered as I told him that my name was Abramo. He smiled, turned to a work table, and seemed to be scratching something into a piece of parchment. He handed me a small scroll. On it, in silver lettering I could not yet read, it said simply “ActionAbe”. Then he raised his hand, and disappeared in a flash of light.
I kept what happened that day a secret from my family, and from others. Over the years, people would remark on how I never seemed to age, or get sick. I thought that it was simply good fortune. Now, centuries later, I still do not know what happened. Only that I am still alive, and that I got curious one day and typed Boinga Boinga into Google. Only now, do I truly understand the meaning of that small scroll handed to me so long ago.
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Like likely likes liking likes, like, liking, likely.
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Like, liking Like’s likes, like, likely liking Like…like, yunno?
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