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October 2, 2003 3:57 AM

'Compleat Diagram of Strange Persons'Something fun for your Thursday. What strange group are you closely related to? Personally i'm not surprised to see Mac users so closely related to Elitists and the Illuminati... Link via themorningnews.org
posted by efalk (31 comments total)

Sarcasm, 'fore i'm flamed from the friendly mac mefites
posted by efalk at 3:59 AM on October 2, 2003

Hey, efalk: Ouch.
;^)
posted by squirrel at 4:08 AM on October 2, 2003

Hilarious. What's the little lavender "G." between RPGs and BDSM?
posted by taz at 4:21 AM on October 2, 2003

I dont know what some of these are, anyone for some help? Breatharians, Larpers?
posted by efalk at 4:25 AM on October 2, 2003

LARP = Live Action Role Play, basically people who bash each other with rubber swords. (I'm gonna get flamed by White Wolf fans now)

Breatharians = people who believe that they can photosynthesise, and thus don't need to eat food.
posted by chrid at 4:29 AM on October 2, 2003

Personally i'm not surprised to see Mac users so closely related to Elitists and the Illuminati...

Damn! Now we'll have to kill you...
posted by jpburns at 4:40 AM on October 2, 2003

Now... actually looking at the link...

Isn't the "Comic Book Enthusiasts" just a little far from the "Fat People Who Like Anime?"
posted by jpburns at 4:43 AM on October 2, 2003

I'm not surprised that Linux users are so close to robot fetishists. Great stuff
posted by Cool Alex at 4:44 AM on October 2, 2003

I don't know why, but the spelling of 'compleat' *really* bugs me. It's 'complete', despite whatever online dictionary references might say.
posted by metaxa at 4:44 AM on October 2, 2003

metaxa, the reference is to the title of this famous book.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 4:49 AM on October 2, 2003

jpoulous: there's a yellow line connecting FPWLA, linux users and Comic Book Enthusiasts. It's not 100% clear, but the diagram seems to be a 2-D representation of something more-D with all the coloured lines indicating further interconnectedness.

They need a section for Venn Diagram pedants for compleatness.
posted by cardboard at 5:11 AM on October 2, 2003

This is such an incompleat run-down of strange people. Obvious omission: people who diagram people's weirdnesses.
_{Metaxa, you're wrong: it's just an archiac variant that is still in common usage. Generally to denote the canonical body of work, eg, the Compleat Poo Diaries of Salavador Dali. In other senses of "completeness," though, "compleat" is compleatly ungrammatical.}
posted by DenOfSizer at 5:29 AM on October 2, 2003

"compleat" is nicely "olde worlde", harking back to a time when anybody ever thought they might produce the "compleat" anything...

so? the "G."?
posted by taz at 5:39 AM on October 2, 2003

DenOfSizer: i'm quite aware of 'compleat's origins, just as I am of the origin of obsolete words like 'thee', 'alas' and 'gaol'. It's just an odd spelling to use in these modern times, and it annoys the hell out of me. :)
posted by metaxa at 5:44 AM on October 2, 2003

Taz: The G is Goths. Notice the two entries G.***, and ***Goths. I think the Goths just overlapped too many things that didn't overlap each other. This also happens with B.** and **BDSM...
posted by JonahBlack at 6:04 AM on October 2, 2003

I never really thought of the historic reenactment community as "centrist", but there we are, smack in the middle.

[sort of a joke] I'll never understand why people think that reenactors qualify as 'strange persons' but people who, say, spend their weekends extreme camping or going to baseball card shows don't [/sort of a joke]
posted by anastasiav at 6:08 AM on October 2, 2003

Metaxa! It's totally different from those things you cited! Those are truly archiac, dead and buried---"compleat" is the Weekend at Bernies of words and usage... dead, sure, but good for a laugh.

I can't believe I am arguing this point. Somebody fire me, please!
posted by DenOfSizer at 6:46 AM on October 2, 2003

obsolete words like 'thee', 'alas' and 'gaol'
Those are truly archiac, dead and buried

But...I use those words all the time! Well, not really, but like many of the tools on a swiss army knife, you may not use them all the time but it's nice to have them handy in an emergency.

Besides which, I'd rather welcome 'gaol' back into common usage than much of the gibberish polluting contemporary vernac'

Honestly, you'll be telling me you don't pronounce the K in knife next.
posted by backOfYourMind at 7:01 AM on October 2, 2003

I can't believe she forgot "bloggers."

Hers seems really good, by the way.
posted by furiousthought at 7:33 AM on October 2, 2003

Alas and alack, and fuck my luck, my language is archaic!
posted by Goofyy at 7:37 AM on October 2, 2003

I always suspected a link between D&D and furries.

I roll my twenty sided dice and have sex dressed as a cat.
posted by ciderwoman at 7:47 AM on October 2, 2003

This is a good compliment to the Brunching Shuttlecocks' classic Geek Hierarchy.
posted by monkey.pie.baker at 7:51 AM on October 2, 2003

hey ciderwoman, what are you doing later?
posted by Pericles at 7:52 AM on October 2, 2003

Those seeking diagrams of greater compleatness might enjoy the Deviant Desires Fetish Map and the Brunching Shuttlecocks' Geek Hierarchy. (Both sites have newer versions of their respective diagrams linked on these pages, so be sure to click through.)
posted by jjg at 7:56 AM on October 2, 2003

"compleat" is the Weekend at Bernies of words and usage... dead, sure, but good for a laugh.

As was that line. Excellent analogy.
posted by soyjoy at 7:56 AM on October 2, 2003

Placing the Mac users and elitists together makes sense (full disclosure: posted on my trusty G4) but the Mac users should probably be nearer to the Vegans and or Greenpeacers to reflect the leanings of our supreme overlord Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
posted by Scoo at 8:09 AM on October 2, 2003

reminds me of the card game Illuminati, I think Steve Jackson had something to do with it. As I remember the rules were a little opaque, though it did feature the John Birch Society and the Gnomes of Zurich, which was nice.
posted by johnny novak at 9:33 AM on October 2, 2003

Obvious omission: people who diagram people's weirdnesses.

Does this count as a diagram?
posted by soyjoy at 9:37 AM on October 2, 2003

This is… eerily accurate. A comment on the linked page suggests that there should be tighter associations among the Goth/ Larpers/ BDSM/ Pagan-Wiccan/ Historical Re-enactment groups. I have to concur, having been affiliated with all of those factions to greater or lesser degrees. In fact, I bet I could name about a dozen other people off the top of my head who also fit into all of those categories (but I won't, in order to protect the guilty). Glad I'm not the only one who's aware of the remarkable overlap that goes on.
posted by Fenriss at 9:51 AM on October 2, 2003

I think Christopher Guest's next film topic should be historical reenactors. Anastasiav, I don't know if that's an insult or a compliment, but y'all are weird. Not particularly threatening, though. Fun link!
posted by rainbaby at 9:55 AM on October 2, 2003

hmm... pretty much all my geeky interests are within two links of each other, so long as you count Black Metal in with the Satanists. This is scarily accurate. Odd how geekdom does tend to self-segregate like this.
posted by vorfeed at 1:04 PM on October 2, 2003