April 10, 2001

10:58 AM

The 5k entries are now viewable...and boy are some of them amazing! 5k chess games, 5k pornography, 5k mandelbrot sets, even a bunch of 5k Flash movies...fantastic. Leave last year's entries in the dust. (a MetaFilter password works for login.)
posted by aniretac (22 comments total)

This one in particular made me laugh: stin5kymeat.
posted by aniretac at 11:50 AM on April 10, 2001

Would it be against the spirit of the contest to link to our favorites before they're officially voted on?
posted by waxpancake at 11:57 AM on April 10, 2001

I've rated quite a few... shame how many crash my Mac IE5.
posted by silusGROK at 12:30 PM on April 10, 2001

(Ruefully) And I had such plans for this afternoon . . .
(Happily) Oh, well.

There are some really addictive entries.
posted by iceberg273 at 12:36 PM on April 10, 2001

hey wax... I know yer fav, its the neural net? pretty cool, isn't it?

dP
posted by darkpony at 12:48 PM on April 10, 2001

Waxy, I think link away. We don't want to bias the judges, but people are going to link and the judges all have internet access. But, luckily, they also all have their own opinions. I'm pretty sure it is not going to mess up the judging (which should begin in about 10 days).

However, it is easy to miss some of the entries and overlook good ones, so lists help.
posted by sylloge at 1:00 PM on April 10, 2001

I can't wait to see the entries doing craziness in SVG next year.
posted by snarkout at 1:06 PM on April 10, 2001

It's really hard to see many of them with anything but IE 5.x for Windows. Very frustrating.
posted by jpoulos at 1:09 PM on April 10, 2001

I think the 5k server is getting pounded. It's slow as molasses.
posted by waxpancake at 2:26 PM on April 10, 2001

Perhaps the judges should take the pervasive accessibilty of some of these entries into consideration when judging them. Requiring a technology or specific browser to view a content entry should count against the entry, no matter how cool it may be.
posted by camworld at 2:59 PM on April 10, 2001

Ironic that the 5k site is sending out so much data it's barely surfable right now. :)

Lucky for the hosts it's not a 5mb contest.
posted by Mark at 3:06 PM on April 10, 2001

Perhaps the judges should take the pervasive accessibilty of some of these entries into consideration when judging them. Requiring a technology or specific browser to view a content entry should count against the entry, no matter how cool it may be.

I suspect that at least one of the judges will probably check out the site using a non-IE5/Win browser, be it Opera, iCab, Mozilla, or IE5/Mac. Getting a 1 when your site crashes in Opera will definitely knock down your total score.
posted by snarkout at 3:09 PM on April 10, 2001

I haven't seen even half of them yet, but I'm really impressed with Darkpony's Java dungeon game, PGP in 5k, Timepiece, Chess, and 3d Javascript. Mind-blowing stuff.
posted by waxpancake at 3:19 PM on April 10, 2001

I have a feeling it's not so much the content (which is small), but the database activity on the backend of the site as people view, list, and rate entries.
posted by waxpancake at 3:20 PM on April 10, 2001

And Darkpony's entry was Flash, not Java. I was a little mixed up.
posted by waxpancake at 3:21 PM on April 10, 2001

Non-accessability counting against you? Could one claim immunity under the 1st law of Zeldman?

"Thy browser doth suck"
posted by tomorama at 3:42 PM on April 10, 2001

Anyone have a clue about this one?
posted by fooljay at 3:44 PM on April 10, 2001

I think it's Zeldman.
posted by waxpancake at 3:56 PM on April 10, 2001

And speaking of Zeldman, check this game: Legend of Zeldman.

Cam: the judges are not given very specific directions, which is intentional, because I want to simulate something like the risks and rewards of the real web — entrants don't know what the judges will be using (I think at least three are on Macs and sure that on is one Linux: not bad out of 8 judges). So if it doens't work for a judge, that entry is not going to be graded well.

But I didn't want the 5k to be a standards/accesibility/cross platform competition as part of the rules. There are already constraints enough and the point is to explore, promote and reward creativity. Sometimes that may come at the expense of more utilitarian concerns.
posted by sylloge at 6:17 PM on April 10, 2001

I understand the importance of having a browser that meets CSS standards, etc., but Netscape 4.7 is a much more stable and reliable (basically, better) than 6.0. I shouldn't have to trade "up" to a lousy Netscape, or switch to IE to view a site (especially a site that is striving to simplify the web). And what about the MAC and Linux people?
posted by jpoulos at 8:56 PM on April 10, 2001

Also, get a random entry that you have not yet rated.
posted by sylloge at 8:57 PM on April 10, 2001

jpoulos: Hence ALA/WaSP's campaign being an awful thing -- I was surprised at MeFi's first reactions.
posted by holloway at 6:37 PM on April 11, 2001