Is it just me?

August 25, 2000 1:19 PM

Is it just me? Or does Mark's new design "element" just seem a tad phallic? I hope it's not just me.
posted by silusGROK (24 comments total)

I mean... I can't believe I posted it at all, but it's just so LOUD. A giant 4" ruler staring you in the face every time you visit... and considering his preoccupation with his own (and others') penises, I could only arrive at one conclusion.

I guess I just want to know if I'm the only one out there that noticed (Man! I wish there was an emoticon for embarrassed curiosity...).


posted by silusGROK at 1:37 PM on August 25, 2000

Doesn't display correctly on Netscape® Communicator 4.72 [WinNT4.0]-- so i can't help.
posted by chiXy at 1:54 PM on August 25, 2000

Just a four-inch ruler? I imagine Brad is disappointed to hear that.
posted by daveadams at 1:56 PM on August 25, 2000

I don't see something wrong with the new design. So I cannot understand why you're having problems with that. In any case, I don't think that the ruler should make you think of the penis thing.
And another thing. I believe it would be better to just e-mail him about this, rather than posting it in Metafilter. Who knows? He might get offended and you can't blame him.
Just my two drachmas - don't want to start a vendetta here :)
posted by kchristidis at 1:59 PM on August 25, 2000

don't want to start a vendetta here

What in the hell do you think MetaFilter is *for*??
posted by baylink at 2:04 PM on August 25, 2000

k ... point well taken, but the issue isn't what he meant, as much as it is what I (mis?)took it to be, and whether others thought the same. Besides, I think (considering what he's posted during the few months I've followed his blog) Mark is made of tougher material than that. Also, I didn't say there was anything wrong with his latest incarnation (although I liked the one prior to the angel design better)... I was just looking for other people to tell me that I wasn't out of my mind.

As for the vendatta... well, K, the jury's still out. =)
posted by silusGROK at 2:25 PM on August 25, 2000

When are we all going to get cross-browser compliant and start measuring penis size in pixels?
posted by wendell at 2:30 PM on August 25, 2000

In answer to the original question: I sure wouldn't have interpreted a ruler as having anything whatever to do with sex. Before looking at the discussion, I opened the link and looked at the page, and searched in vain for anything which suggested a sexual theme to me.

I sure didn't find anything.

In other words: Yes, it's just you.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 2:30 PM on August 25, 2000

Trust Tom to know the deeper secrets of the blogging clique. It turns out the ruler is indeed some sort of phallic symbol. On that same token, it seems the ruler-grid on Tom's old site is wayyyyyy looooonger than four inches.
BTW, on a 1024x768 resolution the "four inches" looks rather shrinked.
posted by tamim at 2:31 PM on August 25, 2000

Not that I'm any expert on the redesigns of people, but the phallic symbol referred to above wasn't part of this current design. The design at the time Tom posted it included a little sketch of a being with genitalia, which isn't there now.

Anyway...
posted by stefnet at 3:08 PM on August 25, 2000

AH. It's all becoming clear now.

BTW: 300 pixels. :-)
posted by baylink at 3:25 PM on August 25, 2000

(I appologise. Somehow Tom's reference did seem dated to me. But, that was the closest reference to anything "phallic" I could find about Mark's site. I just did not want our fellow mefi-er Vis10n to feel bad for seeing a 4 unit ruler and be so overwhelmed to proclaim it "just so LOUD. A giant 4" ruler staring you in the face." I should've realized that Mark redesigns his site twice daily to make any reference to the design of his site out dated.)
posted by tamim at 3:25 PM on August 25, 2000

Twice daily? Now it's going to have to be thrice!
posted by dhartung at 4:10 PM on August 25, 2000

BTW, on a 1024x768 resolution the "four inches" looks rather shrinked.

It probably just got out of the pool.
posted by kcchip at 7:18 PM on August 25, 2000

In real life isn't 4 inches a bit "shrinked"?
posted by kidsplateusa at 7:50 PM on August 25, 2000

Dave, I have never been disappointed in Mark.
posted by bradlands at 8:12 PM on August 25, 2000

Do people really care what goes on in a teens mind with a domain name, really?
posted by $847.63 at 12:24 AM on August 26, 2000

BTW: 300 pixels

I hope that's not for PRINT wendell (-:
posted by alana at 7:12 AM on August 26, 2000

So, does anybody have a copy of the actual goofy phallic thing we were supposed to be talking about?
posted by dhartung at 8:37 AM on August 26, 2000

It was only the ruler, dh...

And, for the record, the ruler shows FIVE inches. It's just the kind of ruler that has the number written AFTER the inch markers, so the last number doesn't show...

Does anybody besides me remember slide rules? (a whole different level of phallic imagery)

BTW, baylink is the guy with 300 pixels, not me...

You mean everybody isn't running on a 19 inch screen at 600X480 resolution?

I was just following Zelman's orders: "pixels or nothing at all"...

And now I'm developing a fear of something other than style sheets...
posted by wendell at 10:19 AM on August 26, 2000

eeep! sorry wendell.

must . . . pay . . . attention
posted by alana at 4:31 PM on August 26, 2000

oh my.

a DANGLING upper body. upside-down from the top of the page. from where you're expect my lower torso and rest of my body, you see an inch ruler jetting out to the left, five inches long.

it's also evident, my right eye is covered. what does that mean?

for giggles, i'll mention, my initial design included an EIGHT inch ruler. but a top heavy bar was ungraceful. ...and my penis, to my disappointment, is NOT pale blue.

i would love to be known as a designer who leaves secret messages in his 'art'. ..but for this design, that is not the case.
posted by riothero at 7:56 AM on August 27, 2000

Who gives a shit?
posted by highindustrial at 1:25 PM on August 27, 2000

Ah... well... the four/five inch ruler mystery is finally solved: Mark may have an obsession, but the ruler wasn't part of it; and Vis10n needs to get out and see the sun a little more often: he's having hallucinations. But it WAS a fun thread.

BTW, happy belated b-day Mark.


posted by silusGROK at 7:57 AM on August 28, 2000