Ball of Confusion

March 17, 2006 8:41 AM

Drawball is a large, circular, online space for anonymous artists to draw whatever they like. Equally as interesting as the art itself is the opportunity to watch the various online groups interacting with each other. Your ink supply is limited, so careful application is rewarded, perhaps even with a well of unlimited ink tied to your IP address. The hall of fame is a great chance to see the best pictures archived and to see exactly how they were drawn, stroke by stroke.
posted by ktoad (37 comments total)

Just as interesting is the never ending pong game that drawball links too. Massively Multiplayer Pong.
posted by patr1ck at 8:46 AM on March 17, 2006

Cute. The starting disclaimer Agree/Disagree buttons are not what they seem.
posted by brownpau at 8:50 AM on March 17, 2006

That's awesome. I had fun with that.

(There is a "dios was here" somewhere on that now. Free drinks for whoever locates it!)
posted by dios at 8:55 AM on March 17, 2006

It won't let me draw, I just get this weird pentagon thing. Whats the deal with that?
posted by jrb223 at 8:56 AM on March 17, 2006

jrb223: I think that is some sort of spam prevention thing. No big deal. Just connect the dots of the symbol and it will then let you have the "pen" to draw as you please. Enjoy.
posted by dios at 8:57 AM on March 17, 2006

Whatever... I AGREE ALREADY! Let me in!
posted by Decypher at 9:01 AM on March 17, 2006

Decypher, you have to click disagree. Read it closely.
posted by dios at 9:06 AM on March 17, 2006

I found the agree/disagree thing asinine. But there's certainly some cool stuff there.
posted by frykitty at 9:15 AM on March 17, 2006

connect the dots of the symbol

Yeah: click on each to connect them in a continuous path (ie you have to start at one of the bottom vertices and finish at the other), then the pointer turns into a quill pen.
posted by raygirvan at 9:20 AM on March 17, 2006

I'm trying to draw the MeFi logo, large, but ran out of ink. need. help. I'm drawing the square logo that appears on firefox tabs or in your bookmarks panel next to the mefi bookmark. Just the MF in a blue-green box.
posted by shmegegge at 9:32 AM on March 17, 2006

I'm out of ink already.

Where are you putting it?
posted by dios at 9:38 AM on March 17, 2006

I'm out of ink too, but I can help tomorrow if you tell us where it is.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:40 AM on March 17, 2006

I have ink! Where is it?
posted by cmyk at 9:46 AM on March 17, 2006

Very awesome, and the pong is awesomererer.

I hope they're taking periodic snapshots of the whole ball. They could create an incredible video.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 9:47 AM on March 17, 2006

School macintoshes do not like this website =(
Oh well, I look forward to working on it when I get home!
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:17 AM on March 17, 2006

so what's the secret of getting more ink?
When i go home from work, i'll try changing my IP address every time i run out of ink.....

In the meantime maybe us mefites can band together in a certain area? when you zoom in, it gives you a link to the corner you're in....
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 10:22 AM on March 17, 2006

Ditto on the wondering about getting more ink. This is an amazing post otherwise.
posted by tozturk at 11:41 AM on March 17, 2006

Ink info from the Wikipedia article:

Another problem new users often come across is ink. Drawball lets new users begin with 15% ink. However, careless newbies often end up using it all before realizing there is a limit. Ink regenerates slowly (especially if it falls to 0%). Experienced users have noticed that the regeneration process seems to speed up if one 'stockpiles' ink. Some people suggest that one should constantly log on daily for several days without drawing — some have reported having 60-70% ink upon coming back after 2-3 days. Users cannot use multiple computers in their home to get extra ink if they are connected to one internet connection; the rule is one bottle per IP address.

If the site operator finds a particularly good drawing, the image drawn is protected and the artist who drew it will sometimes be rewarded with infinite ink. If the drawing is really good, the site operator will put it in their Hall of Fame. However, the infinite ink is tied to the IP address, so users who find their IP address abruptly changed will lose infinite ink.
posted by ktoad at 12:10 PM on March 17, 2006

Yeah, I caught that after I posted my comment. Thank you though.
posted by tozturk at 12:21 PM on March 17, 2006

Yeah, so, I tried to fix up the US flag after someone had scribbled all over it and was semi-successful. If anyone wants a go.
posted by tozturk at 12:24 PM on March 17, 2006

Very interesting to watch the drawing process on this hall of fame entry -- twice while the guy is doing the drawing, somebody else jumps in and vandalizes it (once by adding a pair of glasses, once by scrawling some text across the forehead).

I can't decide if I'm reassured by the fact that people will still make the effort despite the vandals, or appalled by the fact that the vandals can't even wait until the guy's finished fer chrissakes.
posted by ook at 12:45 PM on March 17, 2006

the mefi square I started is under the trogdor, somewhere. it's impossible to see without going all the way in, unfortunately.
posted by shmegegge at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2006

ook, the vandalism on the alba picture is nothing compared to the vandalism on this tiger.

schmegegge, you can link us to it directly if you scroll down and look for the code in the lower left part of the page.
posted by tozturk at 12:59 PM on March 17, 2006

Ok. So I found what I think you are calling Trogdor. I don't see the Mefi Square underneath it.
posted by dios at 1:03 PM on March 17, 2006

Damn, you're right, tozturk. That's just sad.
posted by ook at 1:05 PM on March 17, 2006

Oh, this was great! I had such fun drawing a face and linking it with someone else's mug of (meatball) soup. Too bad it totally disappeared in the white area to the right as I zoomed out. Find me!
posted by annieb at 3:30 PM on March 17, 2006

well, it got obliterated. I didn't realize how quickly that place gets eaten alive.
posted by shmegegge at 3:46 PM on March 17, 2006

and trogdor got eaten, too.
posted by shmegegge at 3:46 PM on March 17, 2006

I started a circle of Mefi just above and a little to the left of top dead center of the Canadian flag. It is in the turqoise area.

Add some ink! I'm dry.
posted by roguescout at 4:14 PM on March 17, 2006

When I saw this a couple weeks back, it was utterly dominated by a giant Korean flag taking up a good 20% of the ball.

I'm please to see the remains of a "PEPSI" response still there.
posted by cortex at 4:59 PM on March 17, 2006

Added what I could to it, roguescout.

(My name is ink and I am adding ink to a mefi logo. My internet self is a big circle.)
posted by cmyk at 5:48 PM on March 17, 2006

ook: Wow. That was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. How in the world can people have the patience to do that with a program like this?!
posted by jahmoon at 11:38 PM on March 17, 2006

Also, they should make it so that when you are zoomed in you can move the "magnifying glass" to the edge and scroll in that direction. That way you don't have to zoom out/in/out/in.
posted by jahmoon at 11:40 PM on March 17, 2006

Oops. It does scroll. It just takes a second to get going. last post...I swear!
posted by jahmoon at 11:47 PM on March 17, 2006

Let's turn that giant totse.com into goatse.cx!
posted by Citizen Premier at 3:31 PM on March 18, 2006

It is amazing and annoying as hell to think that wanks would spraypaint right over art while its being created just because there's no one to smack them upside the head and tell them not to.
posted by fenriq at 3:43 PM on March 18, 2006

God that poor tiger.

Even poorer humans.
posted by zach4000 at 11:32 AM on March 19, 2006