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An Interactive Project With No Rules?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the six-degrees dept.

psydii writes: "Matt Deegan is running an interesting project to explore the nature of the concept of 'interactivity'. Is it really neccesary to have projects that are only limited by the users' minds, or is there a need to provide rules and routes that must be obeyed?" This is actually extremely nifty.

18 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I submitted /. by Mr.+Piccolo · · Score: 2

    Ummm... A better answer might have been everything.blockstackers.org ;-)

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  2. Heh. by Mr.+Flibble · · Score: 3
    So I clicked on the link and took a look at the project. Its a neat idea. The first link it gave me was to the U.S. Department of Justice. Below, I was asked for a website to "suggest" according to the rules.

    So, I thought for a moment, almost choosing www.freekevin.com, I then chose the obvious www.microsoft.com and I recieved the following:


    Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'

    [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The changes you requested to the table were not successful because they would create duplicate values in the index, primary key, or relationship.
    Change the data in the field or fields that contain duplicate data, remove the index, or redefine the index to permit duplicate entries and try again.

    /project/SubmitReq.asp, line 48


    Wow, click on a link related to the DOJ and they take apart Microsoft in a FLASH!

    Now thats what I call internet time!

    (For those of you who don't know.... "j/k!!!")

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    Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
  3. Cool concept! by flieghund · · Score: 4

    An interesting idea to say the least. The basic run-down: each visitor is presented with a website, seemingly at random. They are then asked to select another website that they feel is related to the one displayed. As the site states, visitors are free to be as obvious or obscure as they like. The next visitor to the website is presented with the website the first visitor chose, and so on. (Not sure how it keeps track of the thread; what if two people access the site before the first is done making his or her selection? Does the path fork? Then which path is presented to the next visitor?)

    I'm really fascinated by what the end product will be. I imagine it will be something like the stories we used to write in English class: each student would type out a sentence on their computer, then get up and move to the computer to their right and type another sentence, and so forth around the room. When we were done, we would read "our" story to the class. Most of the time they ended up being one step above gibberish, but every now and then a really fascinating plot would develop.

    I wish the site didn't limit visitors to a single site selection. I would be interested in the a long path of related sites a user would follow. But this will be cool anyway. Everyone should add to this project!

    --
    "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. I'm all out of bubblegum." MSE USC APX AIA CSI CASp
    1. Re:Cool concept! by technos · · Score: 2

      Exactly. The 'Project' gave me the webpage of a valve manufacturer that so happens to be 1/4 mile south of me..

      I saw the easy relationship to the industrial microcontroller company that makes the stator solenoid controllers, then to the company that sold them the conveyors their assembly line runs on, over to Australia to the conveyor peoples biggest butt-buddy, who makes theit ball bearings on a press controlled by PCs made by a company that leases their chip placers from a company my employer used to own, and then to my site. Make someone eat the anti-MPAA sentiment off my boot before I go..

      And then it tells me I can only play once a day. What a disappointment!!

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      .sig: Now legally binding!
    2. Re:Cool concept! by Syberghost · · Score: 2

      I suspect the spammers are going to swamp it now.

      The site I got was pure advertising.
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  4. I am fortunate by the_other_one · · Score: 2

    Is it really neccesary to have projects that are only limited by the users minds

    Fortunately nothing is limited by my mind

    I can proudly say that I am mindless

    --
    134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
  5. Good idea, bad execution? by gunner800 · · Score: 2

    This seems like a nifty idea and all, but doesn't seem well executed. It made no sense to me at all. Maybe it's not supposed to, or maybe I've become dumb.

    As for the Eternal Question of interactivity vs. rules, I'll answer it the way I answer most questions: balance.


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    Dammit, my mom is not a Karma whore!

  6. Of course there are rules! by sylvester · · Score: 2

    here I thought this was some wacky free-for-all posting site, or something strange like that. of course there are rules! you must submit only one kind of data - that which is a URL. This is hardly free form. I mean, I see what he's doing, and I think it's neat, but to claim that he has created something "without rules" is hardly true. he has just created a simple (albeit cool) engine for word/concept association. Certainly interesting, but hardly rule-less.

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    -Rob Ewaschuk
  7. Re:Cool concept, slight correction by MadDreamer · · Score: 2

    The basic run-down: each visitor is presented with a website, seemingly at random. They are then asked to select another website that they feel is related to the one displayed.

    Well sort of, but actually it just says to submit a site that you think would LINK to the site displayed. And in the wacky world o' the internet, you know that you can find links from anything to almost anything.

    Am I the only one who's ever played link games over the web? Trying to follow one site to a totally unrelated one only by clicking links on each of the intervening sites? Come on, it's fun? No, I'm not a loser... hey come back guys... guys?


    -Mad Dreamer

  8. No Rules...yeah right. by Carnage4Life · · Score: 2

    I don't get this no rules interactive project thing.

    It seems like all the project does is ask you to view a site then type in a URL simillar to it by your own standards. Kind of like a web version of a psychologist's word association game. Okay so it seems that there is no censorship (i.e. I can enter http://goatse.cx) but besides that what is so novel about this? If we use something as tenous as lack of censorship to define an interactive project with no rules why not just point at USENET, or slashdot browsed at -1, or any webpage with a form that allows the user to input text. Heck, my own online survey can be said to have no rules because I have a field for best and worst software experience where users can type anything they want.

  9. hm. by ruin · · Score: 3

    So, the page it gave me was www.hotsex.com. I guess this concept is just one more data point in the question: "What is the average time in between the introduction of an information sharing method and the first instance of it being used to share pornography?"
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    share and enjoy
  10. oh how cruel /. by Pinball+Wizard · · Score: 3
    we're in a process of slashdotting a site running on MS Access! C'mon, guys, thats only capable of handling like 5 people at a time.

    I too got the error. Mine from submitting google.com The error itself should be easy to fix - all he needs to do is change it to a non-unique index.

    Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The changes you requested to the table were not successful because they would create duplicate values in the index, primary key, or relationship. Change the data in the field or fields that contain duplicate data, remove the index, or redefine the index to permit duplicate entries and try again. /project/SubmitReq.asp, line 48

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    No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?

  11. Free association by roman_mir · · Score: 3

    There is a term used in psychology, it is called free association. A subject is given a word or a picture and he/she is supposed to say/draw anything that comes into his/her mind. This is the same type of exercise only instead of words/pictures you see Internet sites. What in fact is going to happen is that some associations that people will make only work out for those people and noone else because of their own experiences and not due to any actual correlation between the shown website and the site a person chooses to respond with. In psychology this exercise is supposed to show what is on the person's mind, to see their hidden wishes and trouble, this is what we will see here, someone hidden (or obvious) desires and someones hidden (or obvious) problems. So these people will create a profile on you, nerds, and then sell it to the feds because your government wants to know what you are thinking about.

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    You can't handle the truth.
  12. a game without (fixed) rules: Nomic by jetson123 · · Score: 4

    Along those lines, people may find Nomic interesting, a game where the participants make up the rules as they go along. You can find information here and here.

  13. My Project by MattDeegan · · Score: 4

    Well the project was just skipping along at a nice pace until the /. affect kicked in. Bloody hell. Thanks for all your emails, i'm sorry if the links were broken or there were problems with ASP, it all seems to be working now. The discussion so far about the nature of interactivity's been fun, part of the project is to see *if* people do follow the rule. Personally I thought people would be posting their own websites and there would be more porn, but generally people do follow the rule. I believe that users only like something if there is some direction. How many of you that have played have returned to see what the next person linked to? Matt. who has to hand this in nect Monday arrgghh!

  14. Re:I submitted /. by CausticPuppy · · Score: 2

    So did I!

    Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'

    [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The changes you requested to the table were not successful because they would create duplicate values in the index, primary key, or relationship. Change the data in the field or fields that contain duplicate data, remove the index, or redefine the index to permit duplicate entries and try again.

    /project/SubmitReq.asp, line 48

    --
    -CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
  15. Hmm, random websites... by zCyl · · Score: 3

    So... I go to his site, and he sends me to a random website that has nothing to do with anything I'm interested in. Don't they usually call websites like this "Altavista"?

  16. Check Out Hyperflow by DLG · · Score: 2

    This seems like a good project, although I am sure there have been other freeform interactive projects out there. I was thinking of one recently to follow up on my 'hyperflow' interactive dictionary. I thought maybe a graphic version of hyperflow. Anyhow I love seeing folks doing anything new with http.

    Not that I want to toot my own horn but I set up hyperflow about 5 years ago as an interactive dictionary, with no censorship. At this point it has passed 10000 words. I entered maybe the first 50...Since it was my first CGI program I am somewhat proud of it despite its retro feel. Currently trying to make it WAP compatible.

    Check it out...

    Excuse the graphic problems. We just moved it from its original site and I haven't had time to repretty it.

    As a note: We recieved about 100 hate letters yesterday from a Jesus freak who didn't like what some of the posters had sent. Since I don't censor anything that isn't blatantly illegal I have had to leave things that I find distasteful. If you also have some lack of tolerance then don't bother...

    D