group art = chaos?

December 3, 2009 12:02 PM

Come on Metafilter! Have something prettier than the reddit version.
posted by grumblebee (145 comments total)

It was really cool to post this and see people drawing with me 10-seconds later!
posted by grumblebee at 12:05 PM on December 3, 2009

It works exactly how I expected. (It doesn't)
posted by blue_beetle at 12:06 PM on December 3, 2009 [7 favorites]

Does it wipe it clean every so often, or is one of us doing that?
posted by jbickers at 12:06 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Right this second it looks like some kind of lightsaber battle! Excellent.
posted by bewilderbeast at 12:06 PM on December 3, 2009

This would be awesome with a replay function.
posted by starzero at 12:07 PM on December 3, 2009

I think that's one of us doing it.
posted by grumblebee at 12:07 PM on December 3, 2009

Doesn't seem to work.
posted by Perplexity at 12:07 PM on December 3, 2009

Can you imagine if they allowed you to paste in JPEG or PNGs?
posted by mrbarrett.com at 12:07 PM on December 3, 2009

I want it as a screensaver!
posted by grumblebee at 12:08 PM on December 3, 2009

tabula rasa
posted by HumanComplex at 12:08 PM on December 3, 2009

Humans just can't get along.
posted by Static Vagabond at 12:08 PM on December 3, 2009

[insert professional white background joke here, referencing the fact that the canvas appears to be completely blank at both links]
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:08 PM on December 3, 2009

I don't know why it's not working for some people. It's Flash-based, but I'm not sure what version of the player it's targeting. It's working perfectly for me in Mac Firefox. with Flash Player 10.
posted by grumblebee at 12:09 PM on December 3, 2009

I'm sure it would suck without broadband.
posted by grumblebee at 12:10 PM on December 3, 2009

Wow, you people can not fucking draw.
posted by hifiparasol at 12:10 PM on December 3, 2009 [11 favorites]

I have Flash Player 10, am using firefox. Doesn't work.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2009

It's like the Battle of MetaFilter in there - those who want to draw vs. those who want to erase. Interesting.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:12 PM on December 3, 2009

Try reloading, and also try drawing some stuff even though its blank.
posted by symbollocks at 12:12 PM on December 3, 2009

For those of you who can't see it, here's a screenshot of what you're (not?) missing.
posted by grumblebee at 12:12 PM on December 3, 2009

It's like Your World Of Text on a dry-erase board.
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:13 PM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

Warning: may cause seizures.
posted by box at 12:13 PM on December 3, 2009

Reloaded, drew on it, still nothing. Oh well.

On preview: oh my, grumblebee, that's... certainly interesting. We'll just hang that on the fridge... underneath your report card.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:14 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

At this point, there's little difference between drawing and erasing. Erasing is drawing in white.
posted by grumblebee at 12:14 PM on December 3, 2009

White board for me too.

Feh.
posted by fuq at 12:15 PM on December 3, 2009

Huh. Can't see anything. Too bad, it sounds fun.
posted by arcticwoman at 12:16 PM on December 3, 2009

Failed to different degrees for me in Chrome, IE, and Firefox.
posted by Perplexity at 12:17 PM on December 3, 2009

It works for me, but only as a standalone drawing thing. Flash 10, Firefox, Linux.
posted by DU at 12:17 PM on December 3, 2009

Remember MetaBaby?
posted by dirtdirt at 12:17 PM on December 3, 2009

I have the mefi and reddit ones open side-by-side in different browser windows, which is pretty cool to watch!

When I floated the reddit one, the canvas went white (as some people are reporting here). I hit refresh about 5 times and then it suddenly came back to life.
posted by grumblebee at 12:17 PM on December 3, 2009

I like the spinning beach ball tool -- oh, wait.
posted by Scoo at 12:18 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'll wait 'till they make a movie out of it.
posted by Danf at 12:19 PM on December 3, 2009

Yeah. I got the ball a couple of times. They need to tighten it up. There's some memory leak.
posted by grumblebee at 12:19 PM on December 3, 2009

Firewalls? I'm behind one and see only white in Safari and Firefox. I'm too lazy to try the PC. It's 5 feet away.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:21 PM on December 3, 2009

Those motherfuckers with fill ruin always everything.
posted by stavrogin at 12:21 PM on December 3, 2009

Works for me, flash10, googlechrome, linux. (by the way the latest googlechrome browser alpha is great, much better flash playback than I got under firefox funny enough).
posted by idiopath at 12:23 PM on December 3, 2009

this is why we cant have nice things
posted by Justinian at 12:23 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

We can give this one a try. Seems to support image import...
posted by cosmac at 12:24 PM on December 3, 2009

4chans version of this I bet would be downright unwatchable
posted by wheelieman at 12:24 PM on December 3, 2009

mefi vs reddit
posted by grumblebee at 12:24 PM on December 3, 2009

This is the greatest thing ever.
posted by chara at 12:30 PM on December 3, 2009

MY TINFOIL HAT DOES NOTHING
posted by GuyZero at 12:31 PM on December 3, 2009

mefi vs reddit

Reddit looks like a pile of shit flecked with cloyingly sweet candy than only children can eat.

And the website is even worse!
posted by hifiparasol at 12:31 PM on December 3, 2009

Challenge: put the Mefi and Reddit drawing side by side as I did. Now draw something that starts on the Mefi drawing and ends on the Reddit drawing, like a big arrow. Take a screenshot before it gets erased.

100 points!
posted by grumblebee at 12:32 PM on December 3, 2009

Oh, lord, it looks like an ever-e/devolving Geocities/Angelfire page.
posted by neewom at 12:32 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ah, so THIS is google wave.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 12:34 PM on December 3, 2009 [17 favorites]

The Flash app must use an unusual port for outgoing connections, because my work firewall is blocking it and all I get is blank slate. No big loss based on the screenshots I'd say, but it would be cool to watch it evolve and change over time.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 12:35 PM on December 3, 2009

The results look a bit like Paper Rad.
posted by naju at 12:36 PM on December 3, 2009

Right now there is text that says "Pork Bellies are better" and "Fuck Babies".
posted by sideshow at 12:40 PM on December 3, 2009

Just a blank white window for me as well, Firefox/3.5.5, Flash player 10.0.32 on WinXP x64 SP2. Oh well.
posted by reptile at 12:45 PM on December 3, 2009

WTF? A SLYT to the tutorial video for Google Wave. Am I missing something?
posted by prinado at 12:47 PM on December 3, 2009

Flash 10, Firefox, Linux (Ubuntu). Works great.
Thanks grumblebee. This is fun.
posted by nangar at 12:49 PM on December 3, 2009

the metafilter one is showing but not the reddit one.
waskally weddits...
posted by june made him a gemini at 12:51 PM on December 3, 2009

Apparently, left to their own devices, people draw penises.
posted by yhbc at 12:52 PM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

Apparently, left to their own devices, people draw penises.

My transmission came through!
posted by scottatdrake at 12:53 PM on December 3, 2009

This is why design-by-committee is a bad idea.
posted by scottatdrake at 12:54 PM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

OMG YOU GUYS WE'RE MAKING PLAID YAY
posted by Metroid Baby at 12:54 PM on December 3, 2009

"Apparently, left to their own devices, people draw penises."

That makes "Come on Metafilter!" take on a whole new meaning.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 12:55 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

THAT WOULD NOT KILL DRACULA
posted by Comrade_robot at 12:55 PM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

I succeeded in starting a turn white stuff black vs. turn black stuff white war, so I'm pleased.
posted by invitapriore at 12:56 PM on December 3, 2009

I can see the Reddit one, but get a blank slate for the metafilter one. *sniff* I know when I'm not welcome!
posted by codacorolla at 12:56 PM on December 3, 2009

OH MAN THIS IS AWESOME
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:56 PM on December 3, 2009

I love it when it flashes from all the filling.
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:00 PM on December 3, 2009

It's like the visual equivalent of YouTube comments.
posted by Artw at 1:06 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

metafilter: THAT WOULD NOT KILL DRACULA
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:10 PM on December 3, 2009

this is so much fun!
posted by mareli at 1:11 PM on December 3, 2009

Oh man. I think I was a participant in the turn black stuff white and turn white stuff black war.
posted by Babblesort at 1:12 PM on December 3, 2009

If it doesn't connect to the paintfight (gives instead a white board upon which you are making your own lonely and coherent markings), reload.

Also, this is kind of terrible. The paint bucket is useless because it makes ghost edges wherever the anitaliased paintbrushes have drawn. And it can only be a sort of geocities/angelfire centrifuge unless there are <5 people doing it and/or everyone's agreed to do something specific in an external communication.

It was fun to have a fight with all of you about what color the corners of the screen would be, though, for a minute or two. So, good post!
posted by damehex at 1:12 PM on December 3, 2009

Ok, you heard the dame, take turns and make choices as a group. Come on, Metafilter!
posted by JaiMahodara at 1:15 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

This, or something like it, is useful for me. I would only use it for two-person conversations. But I can imagine trying to explain something to a friend or co-worker and using this.
posted by grumblebee at 1:17 PM on December 3, 2009

You are all idiots who don't get my art... was what I used to say to the world, but today that has changed...
posted by Elmore at 1:19 PM on December 3, 2009

... now, even my turds have more worth than you.
posted by Elmore at 1:22 PM on December 3, 2009

Working for me. Flash 10, FF, Windows 7.
posted by brundlefly at 1:25 PM on December 3, 2009

wow, the infighting continues even over there.
posted by shmegegge at 1:25 PM on December 3, 2009

Dear Sir or Madam who wrote "badgerbadger":

I enjoyed writing "MUSHROOM" in response.

Cordially yours,
harperpitt
posted by harperpitt at 1:26 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

if it's not working, try just giving it a minute. there's some pretty serious lag at times.
posted by shmegegge at 1:26 PM on December 3, 2009

jesus, this is just like high school. here I am, trying to write zeppelin lyrics on my desk, and the next person just comes along and scribbles over it.
posted by shmegegge at 1:28 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is utterly ridiculous. I love it!
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 1:29 PM on December 3, 2009

It's working, as in the technology is working, but it's like goo-porn. Doesn't matter how pretty the face is, all the guys just want to cover up the last guy's goo with their goo. Pretty crappy use of the technology. Good jobs moranis.
posted by Elmore at 1:29 PM on December 3, 2009

Mesmerizing.
posted by inconsequentialist at 1:29 PM on December 3, 2009

fuckin' rickrolled, bitches!
posted by shmegegge at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2009

all the guys just want to cover up the last guy's goo with their goo

Finally, Metafilter makes sense. You've cracked the code.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:33 PM on December 3, 2009

GUYS IM TRYIN TO MAKE IT ALL BROWN JUST STOP A SECOND LET ME FINISH
posted by shmegegge at 1:34 PM on December 3, 2009

It feels like 4chan real hard over there.
posted by harperpitt at 1:35 PM on December 3, 2009

Omegle + MS Paint = this.
posted by NMcCoy at 1:37 PM on December 3, 2009

oh wait, I know this one! it's by Stan Brakhage, right?
posted by shmegegge at 1:37 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wahaooo, I just gooed over somebody's sockpuppet.
posted by Elmore at 1:39 PM on December 3, 2009

No, sorry, it was languagehat's, nevermind.
posted by Elmore at 1:39 PM on December 3, 2009

Wow. It recreated car sickness for me. Great. *barf*
posted by stormpooper at 1:42 PM on December 3, 2009

This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by not_on_display at 1:45 PM on December 3, 2009

I see we've all taken care of the TATERS agenda.
posted by katillathehun at 1:49 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

to the people thanking me and/or god for the white canvas:

you're welcome.

also, god says you're welcome, too.
posted by shmegegge at 1:52 PM on December 3, 2009

meow
posted by LordSludge at 1:53 PM on December 3, 2009

This is hilarious.
posted by thisperon at 1:54 PM on December 3, 2009

Jesus lapdancing christ that was far too overstimulating for 4.55pm.
posted by elizardbits at 1:56 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not interested in Googling Alex Reynolds at this time.
posted by katillathehun at 2:02 PM on December 3, 2009 [4 favorites]

I found that the controls fucking blew. It was impossible for me to change colors. No matter what I did, it was stuck on white.

Then I finally got it to type in black, and found that I was then unable to do anything except type - it wouldn't change back to the eraser, or drawing tool, etc.

Seems to be fun for a bit but the coding kinda sucks.
posted by caution live frogs at 2:09 PM on December 3, 2009

"There are too many people in the room. You can only watch."
posted by box at 2:12 PM on December 3, 2009

There are too many people in the room, you can only watch AAARRRGGGH! Who is goatse-ing the whiteboard?!
posted by misha at 2:13 PM on December 3, 2009

Meaty spindle?
posted by Kloryne at 2:16 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

There are too many people in the room. You can only watch.

Sounds like a badly organized swingers party.
posted by Jimbob at 2:17 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

whoever's putting the links from the metafilter header up there is my hero.

favourites with a u, indeed.
posted by shmegegge at 2:21 PM on December 3, 2009

It's me!
posted by Sys Rq at 2:22 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Can some of you crumbums vacate so I may impart my genius to the wolrd?
posted by mazola at 2:23 PM on December 3, 2009

Apparently, left to their own devices, people draw penises.

See, the little eyes make it look like a snake... Oh, you just said "draw", not "draw on their"

I believe I've said too much.
posted by quin at 2:29 PM on December 3, 2009 [3 favorites]

great. i'm so thrilled that the room is too full, but no one in there is actually doing anything. awesome. did you guys start a google wave to plan this mutiny?
posted by shmegegge at 2:30 PM on December 3, 2009

I think the total number of clients across all rooms has exceeded some limit, and our room doesn't have any people at all.
posted by Pyry at 2:46 PM on December 3, 2009

From the Twitter feed on the front page: "The routing server has a memory leak. It crashes at intervals, but now it'll restart and everything should reconnect. We're working on it."
posted by Sys Rq at 2:52 PM on December 3, 2009

"The routing server has a memory leak. It crashes at intervals, but now it'll restart and everything should reconnect. We're working on it."

<singsong style="schoolyard taunting">somebody deployed a ruby app</singsong>
posted by idiopath at 2:59 PM on December 3, 2009 [4 favorites]

Hmmm. The protocol it's using is pretty straightforward, but by the time I finished reverse engineering it the room had filled up. Curses! What will I pipe the Treaty of Westphalia into now?
posted by hattifattener at 3:01 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Your brain on Metafilter.
posted by Danf at 3:32 PM on December 3, 2009

What will I pipe the Treaty of Westphalia into now?

That's some kinky shit right there.
posted by quin at 3:35 PM on December 3, 2009

New room, anyone?
posted by chiababe at 4:01 PM on December 3, 2009

chiababe: "New room, anyone?"

Jesus Christ, there's some bile being spilled in there.
posted by flatluigi at 4:16 PM on December 3, 2009

No kidding. That all went to hell pretty quick.
posted by chiababe at 4:17 PM on December 3, 2009

This is... mesmerizing for some reason. I can't look away!
posted by gemmy at 4:24 PM on December 3, 2009

"Fine Art, at last!"
posted by gemmy at 4:40 PM on December 3, 2009

Metafilter: There are too many people in the room. All you can do is watch.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:40 PM on December 3, 2009 [5 favorites]

^ needs clockwork orange IMG tag.
posted by Artw at 4:50 PM on December 3, 2009

Whomever wrote "Penis" with the little penis drawing is a genius. I will happily pay one hundred&helip; oh, damn, there it goes. Oh well.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:11 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Room cap of 10 users? That's about useless.
posted by evilcolonel at 5:14 PM on December 3, 2009

There are too many people in the room. All you can do is watch.

Is my Aunt Minnie in here?
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 5:15 PM on December 3, 2009

# 1 is populair
posted by kudzu at 6:02 PM on December 3, 2009

hifiparasol: mefi vs reddit

Reddit looks like a pile of shit flecked with cloyingly sweet candy than only children can eat.

And the website is even worse!

Look, I don't want to be one of those pedantic "overthink a plate of jokes" types, but you totally did that joke wrong- like horrifically wrong. The structure is supposed to be something like this old (I think) Don Rickles joke:

I gotta tell ya, my vision's so bad, when I look at you all I see if a horribly misshapen lump of colors and shapes.

And if I take my glasses off, it's even worse!

Or this Rodney Dangerfield joke:

When I was a kid, all the other kids teased me, and called me 'four eyes'.

Then I got glasses, and they called me eight eyes!

See, there you set up the reader to assume you're referring to one thing, but the punchline amusingly reverses that expectation- hence the surprise, and hence the humor.

Now, what you said about Reddit was the equivalent of

When I was a kid, all the other kids teased me, and called me 'two eyes'.

Then I got glasses, and they called me four eyes!

As you can see, there is simply no humor there, because it's stating the obvious.

The goal in that structure of joke is to say something mean, cruel, offensive or bizarre, but in a misleading way such that the reader unchallengingly accepts or even agrees with your comments because they assume you're referring to something else- such as the flockdraw group art mishmash- about which they themselves wouldn't think twice about describing in the same way. They leave their defenses down, and when you come at them with the punchline it's a surprise- "Oh, so you're saying I'm horribly misshapen, but I didn't get offended as you were saying it!". And cue the hilarity.


So with all that said, I think what you should have posted was:

Reddit looks like a pile of shit flecked with cloyingly sweet candy than only children can eat.

And their flockdraw page is even worse!

posted by hincandenza at 6:02 PM on December 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

wheee!
posted by yeoja at 6:24 PM on December 3, 2009

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
posted by not_on_display at 7:19 PM on December 3, 2009

I think I'm going to give up on my snowman scene before someone just draws all over it.
posted by stavrogin at 8:56 PM on December 3, 2009

Someone drew a really nice picture for cortex.
posted by keli at 9:24 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

How do you make the text bigger?
posted by tzikeh at 9:51 PM on December 3, 2009

Can you imagine if we still had the <img> tag? This thread would be LEGENDARY
posted by tzikeh at 9:54 PM on December 3, 2009

Goddamn, if there are too many people in the room, how come the background is totally white now, and only a very very few thing are being drawn? WTF?
posted by tzikeh at 10:15 PM on December 3, 2009

this was cute.
posted by Muffpub at 10:57 PM on December 3, 2009

eagle start
eagle continuation
eagle decay
the end of empire
posted by Richard Daly at 11:05 PM on December 3, 2009 [3 favorites]

does it kick you off and let someone else on after a certain point? (because that happened to me)
posted by Muffpub at 11:19 PM on December 3, 2009

why can't mefites draw anything other than penises and naughty words?
posted by brina at 12:03 AM on December 4, 2009

why would you want to draw anything other than penises and naughty words? DOES NOT COMPUTE.
posted by Justinian at 1:19 AM on December 4, 2009

Whoever drew a hula skirt and a surfboard and feet onto my scribble-man-with-a-hat, thank you.
posted by cmyk at 5:39 AM on December 4, 2009

Evil white out makes me angry.
posted by psylosyren at 5:55 AM on December 4, 2009

Well, I drew the hula skirt and surfboard, and I thought that he had scribble feet, but then somebody was all, "NO FEET", and I drew outlines to make it more obvious.

Art, it has so many layers.

(I also gave the robot a giraffe buddy cop.)
posted by Comrade_robot at 7:37 AM on December 4, 2009

this might work with a small group of people.

or a LARGER CANVAS. Fuck.
posted by yoHighness at 12:01 PM on December 4, 2009

actually with 800x600 pixel per user this would be great. Or if it was copying snapshots of the canvas and adding them to itself ever so often. *head asplodes*
posted by yoHighness at 12:28 PM on December 4, 2009

Larger canvas or at the very least smaller default tool sizes and no floodfill tool.
posted by idiopath at 12:39 PM on December 4, 2009

As of Dec 5, 4:40 EST.
posted by Jer1h at 1:43 PM on December 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Some time late last night.
posted by brina at 4:16 PM on December 5, 2009

As of a little while ago. I made cubes, but was too lazy to add Qbert. Thanks whoever read my mind and added him!!
posted by p3t3 at 11:45 PM on December 5, 2009

When I tried it, someone had drawn a very nice robot and a couple of other things. It was so well done (possibly with a Wacom tablet?) that I couldn't possibly draw over it. Probably the same person who did the guy in the Xmas hat in the above image. Then a giant "Hello" was scrawled over the top of it...
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 11:49 AM on December 6, 2009