It's the Web 2.0 eightball.

January 16, 2008 10:45 AM

Having trouble making your decision? Just let the magic power of the internet tell you what to do. You can let someone else do the work, but you're probably better off doing it yourself.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia (20 comments total)

Appears that you would already know the answer to your question since you have to supply the weight of the factors. In other words, it's no more than a calculator.
posted by jwarren93 at 10:53 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

I use this.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:55 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

I much prefer mr_crash_davis's method.
posted by blucevalo at 10:56 AM on January 16, 2008

Web 2.0? Shouldn't it be decisionizR.com?
posted by ninjew at 10:59 AM on January 16, 2008

It's the Web 2.0 eightball

Actually, it's the antithesis of the 8-ball.

The Magic 8-Ball is all about resigning your decision-making to something that is both external and random. This app forces you to walk down an excruciatingly tedious path of putting subjective, quantitative values on qualitative attributes and then gives you a completely predictable result based on your input.

Meanwhile, you could have been eating a sandwich. Mmmm, sandwich.
posted by mkultra at 11:05 AM on January 16, 2008

That seems like an awful lot of work to figure out what I should do with the rest of my life.
posted by nanojath at 11:12 AM on January 16, 2008

Damn, it makes you register to save anything. I asked the DecisionIzR whether I should go smoke a cigarette, using such scientific criteria as "It's pretty cold outside" and "Maybe I should go pee first" and "But I really feel like a smoke." These criteria were then weighted by the highly reputable random number method and then, lo, it presented me with an attractive bar graph justifying my desire to smoke. I would have saved it to my blog and, probably, metachat, but alas, I didn't register and now it's gone. Well, doesn't matter - I have to go smoke a cigarette anyway: the internet told me to.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:12 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

I miss the web page where you typed in a question and an unspeakably brilliant lego mindstorms contraption would shake and actual, physical magic eight ball for you at the other end and reveal the result as a little six-frame animated gif.

My vague url recollection was 8ball.ferrated.org, but I tried that and it goes nowhere.
posted by churl at 11:15 AM on January 16, 2008

Well that's no fun. Its right up there with asking one's parents what to do.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:37 AM on January 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

I used it to decide what to comment, tried the "share" link, and lost all my work.

Anyway it chose snarky over insightful, clever, or interrogative.

So:

This is sure to come in handy; I can't decide when, if only there was some tool to help me decide . . .
posted by oblio_one at 11:41 AM on January 16, 2008

I tried to use it to decide whether I should use it and it was no help at all.
posted by nax at 11:53 AM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Huh. I just ask my iPod. For example, I'd say "iPod, should I stay in and do my laundry, or should I go out with my kinda weird, yet interesting neighbor to drum & bass night?"

Then I put it on shuffle, and try to interpret the song. I'll do a test right now for your benefit.

iPod, should I bother to post this comment to metafilter, or should I hold my piece because I'm not actually offering anything to the discussion?

The iPod says:

"Eating Toothpase" by Bratmobile.

Here is how the iPod helps me with my decision making process:

Toothpaste has no nutritional value and probably should not be eaten.

This post adds nothing to discussion and probably should not be read.

I'm clicking "post comment".

All is right with the world.
posted by pazazygeek at 12:08 PM on January 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

pazazygeek: I used to use a Beatles sheet music book for the same purpose. It often told me my Mother Should Know.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:20 PM on January 16, 2008

Specialization is key.
posted by cortex at 12:46 PM on January 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

I just use this
posted by Smedleyman at 2:33 PM on January 16, 2008

It's more complicated than making an actual decision.
posted by hubs at 2:51 PM on January 16, 2008

But it can be a powerful tool in putting off your decision that much longer.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:34 PM on January 16, 2008

It's more fun to ask these questions on your blog...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 4:05 PM on January 16, 2008

This is the Magic 8 Ball I remember.
posted by misha at 5:29 PM on January 16, 2008

I've decided I don't want to use the decisionizer.
posted by jrochest at 6:00 PM on January 16, 2008