Here There Be Anthropomorphic Dragons
May 2, 2007 6:41 AM Subscribe
What if all the online communities were drawn on a map? Here's what it might look like. I guess we are off the world's end though.
It is a cool map, but I fear these xkcd links are going the way of the Get Your War On! links of yore, ShawnString.
posted by cgc373 at 6:48 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by cgc373 at 6:48 AM on May 2, 2007
You see that little island that appears to be a minor outlier of technorati and boingboing? That's us.
The Guam of the Blogipeligo.
posted by googly at 7:01 AM on May 2, 2007
The Guam of the Blogipeligo.
posted by googly at 7:01 AM on May 2, 2007
I can see the flaming eye of the Dark Lord of Yahoo in the north, watching us, searching for the one ring 2.0.
posted by darkripper at 7:05 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by darkripper at 7:05 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
I | xkcd.
posted by drezdn at 7:10 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 7:10 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
We're not "off the world's end", we're just too small to be worth noticing. Boingboing's reach is apparently about twice ours according to Alexa, so we must be one of the lesser islands in the Blogipeligo in the south-western corner. Let's claim the island just north of the letter "I".
posted by Plutor at 7:15 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by Plutor at 7:15 AM on May 2, 2007
I like xkcd as much as the next person, but are we going to post about it every time he mentions the blawg-o-web?
posted by muddgirl at 7:18 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by muddgirl at 7:18 AM on May 2, 2007
There's nothing wrong with one link posts and I wish everyone would stop apologizing for them. I'd rather have a single link to one good thing (not that this post is necessarily that one good thing... ) than be clubbed over the head with 30 links that I'm never going to click on. [/message board goon]
posted by iconomy at 7:21 AM on May 2, 2007 [10 favorites]
posted by iconomy at 7:21 AM on May 2, 2007 [10 favorites]
Isn't this also the map of the Hyborean world, i.e. Conan's lands?
posted by josher71 at 7:24 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by josher71 at 7:24 AM on May 2, 2007
josher:
Nope. The Hyborean world looks more or less like this.
posted by graymouser at 7:36 AM on May 2, 2007
Nope. The Hyborean world looks more or less like this.
posted by graymouser at 7:36 AM on May 2, 2007
I love me some maps.
posted by desjardins at 7:44 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by desjardins at 7:44 AM on May 2, 2007
I vacationed in the Sea of Memes a while ago with the Star Wars Kid and Chuck Norris. I almost left when the dancing baby goatsed me, but the last straw was that damn cat watching me mastrubate.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 7:44 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 7:44 AM on May 2, 2007
Discover Magazine takes a crack at the blogosphere....
posted by fluffycreature at 8:03 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by fluffycreature at 8:03 AM on May 2, 2007
No Counter-Strike? Aw.
notmydesk - this is what I thought!
According to Wikipedia, Steam regulary shows over 200,000 players. The actual number of people with Counterstrike installed has to be near 1,000,000.
I'm a geek who thought he had a home in the world of Counterstike who is now finding I have no home at all.
I'll be buggered if I start plaing WoW...
(ok now wheres the line rider community? and the tower defense community?)
posted by 13twelve at 8:24 AM on May 2, 2007
notmydesk - this is what I thought!
According to Wikipedia, Steam regulary shows over 200,000 players. The actual number of people with Counterstrike installed has to be near 1,000,000.
I'm a geek who thought he had a home in the world of Counterstike who is now finding I have no home at all.
I'll be buggered if I start plaing WoW...
(ok now wheres the line rider community? and the tower defense community?)
posted by 13twelve at 8:24 AM on May 2, 2007
From The Discover article..The brightest light belongs to syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin.
That is a sentence I thought I would never see.
posted by drezdn at 8:35 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
That is a sentence I thought I would never see.
posted by drezdn at 8:35 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
So we're anthropomorphic dragons?
I always knew I was different...
posted by Samizdata at 8:38 AM on May 2, 2007
I always knew I was different...
posted by Samizdata at 8:38 AM on May 2, 2007
ShawnString: There's nothing wrong with single link posts. The rule that gets misinterpreted that way is the rule against "single link op/ed" posts. So if your link is an opinion/editorial, single-link is no good. If it isn't, then what single-linkness is fine, and the quality of that single link is all that matters.
posted by Bugbread at 8:39 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by Bugbread at 8:39 AM on May 2, 2007
This is a brilliant concept.
Great job on making the memes liquid: floating around, becoming evaporated, raining down over the whole world, getting integrated into the Sea of Culture.
Casting the auto-communities as the Icy North is cute. It's cold up in the North. All those scarves, toques, jackets and bellaclava's tend to obscure one's facial features, which is why Yahoo! and AOL always end up appearing like faceless corporations.
I would have liked to see cross-internet things like del.icio.us and stumbleupon be some kind of "Panama Canal" type thing, or maybe an overhead weather pattern.
I love how close "The Lonely Island" is to E-harmony and all those other dating services. The mainland is accesible only by careful sailing, or desperate swimming.
(Also, LOL-but-only-kinda, right next to the straits of Web 2.0 are the "gays" of Web 2.0.)
I was going to ask where the pornography was, but then I noticed the entire map was the colour of flesh.
posted by Milkman Dan at 8:55 AM on May 2, 2007
Great job on making the memes liquid: floating around, becoming evaporated, raining down over the whole world, getting integrated into the Sea of Culture.
Casting the auto-communities as the Icy North is cute. It's cold up in the North. All those scarves, toques, jackets and bellaclava's tend to obscure one's facial features, which is why Yahoo! and AOL always end up appearing like faceless corporations.
I would have liked to see cross-internet things like del.icio.us and stumbleupon be some kind of "Panama Canal" type thing, or maybe an overhead weather pattern.
I love how close "The Lonely Island" is to E-harmony and all those other dating services. The mainland is accesible only by careful sailing, or desperate swimming.
(Also, LOL-but-only-kinda, right next to the straits of Web 2.0 are the "gays" of Web 2.0.)
I was going to ask where the pornography was, but then I noticed the entire map was the colour of flesh.
posted by Milkman Dan at 8:55 AM on May 2, 2007
I loved "Stallman's Airship". That cracked me up.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 9:13 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by YoBananaBoy at 9:13 AM on May 2, 2007
Technically speaking it's not really a single link post, is it?
posted by pica at 9:17 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by pica at 9:17 AM on May 2, 2007
I guess we are off the world's end though.
Good. I like it that way.
posted by jason's_planet at 9:17 AM on May 2, 2007
Good. I like it that way.
posted by jason's_planet at 9:17 AM on May 2, 2007
I loved "Stallman's Airship". That cracked me up.
And Cory Doctorow's balloon.
posted by octothorpe at 9:21 AM on May 2, 2007
And Cory Doctorow's balloon.
posted by octothorpe at 9:21 AM on May 2, 2007
Thanks for that map Graymouser; it's been a long time since I've walked those lands. Though I thought given your name you'd have also posted this.
posted by Ber at 9:39 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by Ber at 9:39 AM on May 2, 2007
Log: Day 1
Today, I sail forth towards my destiny.
I have been studying the mysterious “MeFisles” for the past several years. Not shown on any map, this strange land of blues and greens has existed only in legend, in the tales of sailors, and in the half-mad rantings of the banned. The stories describe it as a magical place, a sort of enlightened dictatorship run by an enigmatic wizard, where its denizens work tirelessly milling the very stuff Online Communita is made of. They call this practice “filtering,” but many call it a hoax.
But no longer.
You see, I have found it. Or at least, by sifting through the legends, I have discovered how to get there.
And go there, I shall! Ban the expense! My lj-friends and contacts call me mad for spending this much time and effort, but we’ll see who’s laughing in the end!
I have hired a ship, the Hope Me, to take me on my voyage. She is not the stoutest of vessels, but she is fast and trim. Her crew is from all over the world, sailors blown here and there by the ever changing web-winds. Some have even heard the tales of the MeFisles!
Log: Day 3
Oh, how the Sea of Noobs pulses and throbs! It is like a living thing. I have yet to grow homesick for my old town of Geocities, nestled at the foot of the Web 1.0 Mountains, but I expect I shall in time.
Everything is strange at sea. The crew have their own customs, even their own language! It is so much to take in.
Log: Day 4
The crew began singing as the reefed the sails up at sunset. Here is their song:
It’s a long way to World of Warcraft!
It’s a long way to go.
It’s a long way to World of Warcraft!
To the sweetest loot I know!
Goodbye City of Heroes!
Farewell EverQuest!
It’s a long way to World of Warcraft
But my alt’s right there!
Stunning. Even Captain Moddy, normally a grizzled old salt of few words and fewer manners, began to sing.
Log: Day 6
Disaster! As our ship rounded the Cape of MySpace Bands, we were attacked! The crew tells me it was Identity Pirates. When we first saw their vessel, I thought it nothing more than a simple banking site, or maybe some sort of online check cashing service. I asked the Captain if he would mind coming around to meet it as I had to transfer some monies into my account and wanted to be sure I complied with my bank’s safety regulations. The Captain looked at me as if I had three heads before shaking his own and sighing, “Ye really be from the North, lad. Thar is no banking site!”
Before I could reply, a shot echoed across our bow. My ears are still ringing from that horrible cry: “You are the 1000th Visitor!! Click here to claim your ppprrrriiiiizzzeeee!!!”
The Captain sent me below decks. I hid as above me the noise of battle shook the ship to its very timbers. I grew sick with fear, the rusty cutlass I found clutched tightly to my chest. The battle raged for hours before the Captain came down to fetch me.
“Light butcher’s bill this eve,” he drawled, packing a pipe, “We were lucky. Still, we’re going to need to cross the Gulf of YouTube. We need supplies and after a fight like that, I likes to give the men a bit o’leave. Attractive MySpace peninsula shan’t be but a few days away.”
Then he noticed that I had soiled myself and spat before going back up above deck.
I do not like the sea much anymore.
------
Please feel free to continue the tale!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:45 AM on May 2, 2007 [47 favorites]
Today, I sail forth towards my destiny.
I have been studying the mysterious “MeFisles” for the past several years. Not shown on any map, this strange land of blues and greens has existed only in legend, in the tales of sailors, and in the half-mad rantings of the banned. The stories describe it as a magical place, a sort of enlightened dictatorship run by an enigmatic wizard, where its denizens work tirelessly milling the very stuff Online Communita is made of. They call this practice “filtering,” but many call it a hoax.
But no longer.
You see, I have found it. Or at least, by sifting through the legends, I have discovered how to get there.
And go there, I shall! Ban the expense! My lj-friends and contacts call me mad for spending this much time and effort, but we’ll see who’s laughing in the end!
I have hired a ship, the Hope Me, to take me on my voyage. She is not the stoutest of vessels, but she is fast and trim. Her crew is from all over the world, sailors blown here and there by the ever changing web-winds. Some have even heard the tales of the MeFisles!
Log: Day 3
Oh, how the Sea of Noobs pulses and throbs! It is like a living thing. I have yet to grow homesick for my old town of Geocities, nestled at the foot of the Web 1.0 Mountains, but I expect I shall in time.
Everything is strange at sea. The crew have their own customs, even their own language! It is so much to take in.
Log: Day 4
The crew began singing as the reefed the sails up at sunset. Here is their song:
It’s a long way to World of Warcraft!
It’s a long way to go.
It’s a long way to World of Warcraft!
To the sweetest loot I know!
Goodbye City of Heroes!
Farewell EverQuest!
It’s a long way to World of Warcraft
But my alt’s right there!
Stunning. Even Captain Moddy, normally a grizzled old salt of few words and fewer manners, began to sing.
Log: Day 6
Disaster! As our ship rounded the Cape of MySpace Bands, we were attacked! The crew tells me it was Identity Pirates. When we first saw their vessel, I thought it nothing more than a simple banking site, or maybe some sort of online check cashing service. I asked the Captain if he would mind coming around to meet it as I had to transfer some monies into my account and wanted to be sure I complied with my bank’s safety regulations. The Captain looked at me as if I had three heads before shaking his own and sighing, “Ye really be from the North, lad. Thar is no banking site!”
Before I could reply, a shot echoed across our bow. My ears are still ringing from that horrible cry: “You are the 1000th Visitor!! Click here to claim your ppprrrriiiiizzzeeee!!!”
The Captain sent me below decks. I hid as above me the noise of battle shook the ship to its very timbers. I grew sick with fear, the rusty cutlass I found clutched tightly to my chest. The battle raged for hours before the Captain came down to fetch me.
“Light butcher’s bill this eve,” he drawled, packing a pipe, “We were lucky. Still, we’re going to need to cross the Gulf of YouTube. We need supplies and after a fight like that, I likes to give the men a bit o’leave. Attractive MySpace peninsula shan’t be but a few days away.”
Then he noticed that I had soiled myself and spat before going back up above deck.
I do not like the sea much anymore.
------
Please feel free to continue the tale!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:45 AM on May 2, 2007 [47 favorites]
I saw this this morning, and loved it, assuming that we were just a tiny island in the blogapeligo, but given the bearings of real life-v-web, I think we might be a little further east than that.
Also, I appologize for deluding us all with xkcd links a few months back.
But not really, as it is my favorite web-comic, so whatever.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:00 AM on May 2, 2007
Also, I appologize for deluding us all with xkcd links a few months back.
But not really, as it is my favorite web-comic, so whatever.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:00 AM on May 2, 2007
I've got a nice little place on the compass-rose-shaped island. It's a pleasant little villa, nothing too ostentatious; about 20,000 square feet with a great view of the Cliffs of Lol.
I use it as a holiday retreat when I'm not committing acts of piracy in the Bay of Angst.
posted by quin at 10:03 AM on May 2, 2007 [2 favorites]
I use it as a holiday retreat when I'm not committing acts of piracy in the Bay of Angst.
posted by quin at 10:03 AM on May 2, 2007 [2 favorites]
Totally love this! Thanks. Also loved the ancient cartoon by Saul Steinberg, View of the World From 9th Avenue
1976.
posted by nickyskye at 10:07 AM on May 2, 2007
1976.
posted by nickyskye at 10:07 AM on May 2, 2007
deluding - deluging. Big difference.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:08 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by Navelgazer at 10:08 AM on May 2, 2007
Yeah, nickyskye, I love that cartoon. It saw some renewed exposure a while ago with the New Yorkistan thing.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:44 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:44 AM on May 2, 2007
"Too many xkcd links" is a nonsense phrase.
posted by straight at 11:08 AM on May 2, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by straight at 11:08 AM on May 2, 2007 [2 favorites]
Boingboing is in the web-intellectual area? Err,sorry. Its a nice little soapbox for Cory and some random "zine-ish" items tossed it, but I wouldnt exactly say intellectual. Its like fark for the art school set, not for the phd set. If BB is what passed for intellectualism on the net, then we have bigger problems than one-link posts. It really belongs in the geek-subculture area closer to Wired/Lifehacker and farther from sourceforge/slashdot.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:40 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:40 AM on May 2, 2007
That said, I love this map and am always in awe and jealousy when I see anything from xkcd (which sounds like a lightweight linux windows manager to me).
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:45 AM on May 2, 2007
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:45 AM on May 2, 2007
Hmm. If Nehwon and the Hyborean world get shout outs, then Earthsea does too.
Sadly, the map of my own home leaves something to be desired.
posted by moonbiter at 12:27 PM on May 2, 2007
Sadly, the map of my own home leaves something to be desired.
posted by moonbiter at 12:27 PM on May 2, 2007
Yeah, nickyskye, I love that cartoon. It saw some renewed exposure a while ago with the New Yorkistan thing.
God, I love that cartoon. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the xkcd cartoon. My old girlfriend used to have it printed on her damn shower curtain, of all things. And every single time I was in there, I would find a new thing to make me laugh.
posted by hydatius at 12:47 PM on May 2, 2007
God, I love that cartoon. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the xkcd cartoon. My old girlfriend used to have it printed on her damn shower curtain, of all things. And every single time I was in there, I would find a new thing to make me laugh.
posted by hydatius at 12:47 PM on May 2, 2007
I don't know where we are on that map, but I guess we could walk there.
posted by Lynsey at 2:28 PM on May 2, 2007
posted by Lynsey at 2:28 PM on May 2, 2007
4chan is nearer to the furries than to SPARTAAA?
Blasphemy.
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:23 PM on May 2, 2007
Blasphemy.
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:23 PM on May 2, 2007
4chan is nearer to the furries than to SPARTAAA?
Blasphemy.
Eh, 4chan's a bunch of closet furries. On any given day there's a good chance of there being a "discussion" there about whether catgirls/harpies/whatever count as furry, and reassurances that no, of course they do not. It's almost as prevalent as "I like futa, does that make me gay?"
posted by Many bubbles at 9:21 PM on May 2, 2007
Blasphemy.
Eh, 4chan's a bunch of closet furries. On any given day there's a good chance of there being a "discussion" there about whether catgirls/harpies/whatever count as furry, and reassurances that no, of course they do not. It's almost as prevalent as "I like futa, does that make me gay?"
posted by Many bubbles at 9:21 PM on May 2, 2007
It took some squinting to see it, but it was totally worth it - "The Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean" is totally my favorite part of the map.
Totally.
(Clearly, I just flew in from the MySpace peninsula. I'm still web-lagged.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:04 AM on May 3, 2007
Totally.
(Clearly, I just flew in from the MySpace peninsula. I'm still web-lagged.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:04 AM on May 3, 2007
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posted by ShawnString at 6:41 AM on May 2, 2007