August 15, 2004

Not a fork! A banana request. Monkeys, the eagle-eyed among you have come note that beeswackybashi has been assembling a rarely-seen literary endeavor under cover of the One True 'Bashi Thread. Such is the genius that I request a new feature.

Not to cast aspersions on the works of forks c. t. et al, but bees is genuinely pulling something off here. Thus, I request a single-monkey threadfilter! In any given thread, one might, for example, type the username or usernumber of a given monkey in a filter-input text box, hit a button, and then view only comments from said primate. The filter might also be designed, one supposes, to block instead on an either/or basis, since the db-side actions are similar. I don't think I'm asking for persistence, just a one-time, page-render kinda deal. This might be an interesting banana generally, but the real reason I want it is to read bee's epic poem of moral outrage, so that it may be apprehended as the glorious unity that it truly is.

posted by mwhybark 20 years ago
  • Second.
  • I haven't even looked at the turkmenbashi thread until now. Bravo bees.
  • I agree - the comments shown should be the full text, not the truncated verion one gets using the Google search or having to wait till Google finds it. It could even be a place to click on someone's profile page. (Kind of like that other filter, but better. Though, having a second clicky go to the original thread would be helpful in other ways. Maybe Both! As Somebodybashi said recently (paraphrased) "Well, it is a database." But being a complete dweeb I don't know if maybe that's hard, and Bashi has other things to do and... Slips off into the dark.)
  • How about adding, Mefi-style, the posted comments to the user's profile page? I've been meaning to fix that anyway. (And gah, Mefi is down AGAIN.) Also, if some enterprising monkey out there wants to build a patch that does exactly what mwhybark is asking for, we can add it.
  • some enterprising monkey Maybe one of these guys.
  • beeswacky's wonderful epic of the sea sloth is also quite lovely.
  • I'd love to see this and I admit to being one of the people who'd like to curl up with a collections of beezy goodness and just unlax. He IS our calvin trillin, really.
  • Fabulous idea, one that I have been wishing to see, as well. Shall I suppose that it will not be retroactive with all participants, but merely the wonderfully noteable ones? Not that I am complaining if that is the case. I know it would require, initially, a good amount of work. It would just be nice, is all.
  • Darshon: no, it would definitely be easiest to just have it work for any userid or number. tracicle: yeah, something like the mefi userpage comments listing would be cool too. hmmm. now where did I put my dopamine inhibitors...
  • homunculus: wow, I had missed that! Geez, the kid never quits! He's a champeen on the rise! Bees, now fess up: where can we obtain slim volumes of your sparklin' soliloquies?
  • Ya know, the more I read the poetry of our beeswacky, the more I want it all collected into a book so I can take his words with me and read anytime. Bees, have you ever thought about collecting your work for us monkeys who are fascinated?
  • I been tellin' youz guys! Bees is the best! I swooned into a little puddle way back when. So if our Bees knocks this kind of thing out for grins and giggles in his spare time, WHAT does he do when he's SERIOUS?
  • One suggestion. Binding and printing is pretty cheap in Singapore (where I am). I think theses are bound in faux leather for about USD 4.50, including pretty nice, but standard, gold embossing on the cover. Printing per page is a little more than 2 cents US. I could do up the printing and binding, and send it off to anyone interested. (I could also do the printing at home by buying some good quality paper (parchment type even!)) However, can someone in UK with a paypal account take the payments? Then I can go to UK and get the money in cash from that monkey :) I'll just tell everyone the cost price of the book, and anyone who wants a copy can email me or something. Also, please tell me how the book should be formatted (title page, fonts, spacing etc...). I could do it, but it'd take me forever - I'm always very slow in design because I keep tweaking. And I tend to go for the Art-Nouveau fluid, flowery style.
  • I'd like to go meet this guy in person. Anyone want to donate a plane ticket ?
  • Check out the librarian making herself useful again. Jeez, I don't know.
  • hmmmm interesting, Alnedra.
  • Also: doesn't Singapore's gummint exercise a distinctly greater degree of control of the personal lives of the citizenry than is common in, say, Scotland? If so, couldn't publishing a poetic fulmination against dictatorial control and foolery prove, um, a sticky wicket? Not that I'm a knowledgeable sort on this; I only know what I read in the papers!
  • To answer your questions, mwhybark: Yes. I don't know, and I don't care! Well, our gahmen is trying hard to be more open now, what with a new Prime Minister, and desperate pleadings for foreign cash and talent. Anyways, as long as it doesn't contravene copyright laws, they're cool. Profanity and stuff? Bees is an angmoh (you are, right?) and he's foreign, so they'll close an eye :)
  • And for Wolof: >P
  • Wow, Alnedra! That sounds so much cooler than my original thought of trying to convince bees to investigate CafePress with their print-on-demand books. Of course, all of this would depend on how much interest there is among the Monkeys. And, even more so, if Bees would be interested in a printed collection of his wonderful poetry. That is one quarter still not heard from. Perhaps we need to phrase the question poetically in order to inspire an answer?
  • Christophine, I think the CafePress idea is definitely very good! You have to consider that the 2 cents I'm talking about is on low quality paper, and the cover is plain with only gold embossing. Whereas CafePress is offering full-color covers, and I'm sure their paper quality would be much better (Perfect Binding: 7 USD ea. Per page print: 0.03 USD). If I sourced for similar quality paper and cover, the cost would probably come up to that in the end, or even more. )))))! What say ye, Bees me darlin'?
  • We need an editor.
  • Figure whatever I post in monkeyfilter is essentially in the public domain. So anyone may do this editing, etc. if you are really set on it. I think you are all quite sweet, but mad, without question, stark eye-popping mad. Only reflect a moment or two, my dears -- simply correcting beeswacky's typing errors could use up hours of someone's doubtless valuable time.
  • You know, bees never did submit a picture to the "I'll show you mine....." thread. Whas'up?
  • You could even do an ebook if no-one cared whether there was an actual hard copy available. (Maybe bees would give us a cyber signature so autographed versions would be available. And, we'd need a picture for the frontispiece.) The really hard thing about editing any version will be tracking down all the little and big gems and arranging them in some sort of accessible order.
  • I'm wondering if it's possible to engineer a robot that will scrape everything that beeswacky has contributed to Mofi. Then it's just a matter of removing everything non-poetical (although I would also suggest that we scatter some short prose quotations here and there between the poems).
  • If you're serious about the book, I'll scrape together all of bees' comments asap and provide a list in some as-yet-unknown format.
  • Hurrah for tacicle! I think many people are serious, just not sure for what format.
  • Monkeybashi is a goddess! (But we all knew that already.) That would be a huge help. Thank you, thank you, thank you. As for a format... Formatting it to be printed as a book means that it will be in some species of electronic format as it is. Why not both ebook and hard copy, so people can have which one they prefer? If we go with CafePress, any book has to sent in as PDF format. I could arrange it, since I already have a CafePress account. It was useful for a previous group I belonged to. While I don't have a program to produce a PDF, I could format it in Word, and I do have a PDF converter. I'd have no problem putting one (or both) formats up on my small corner of the Intarweb, since I'm not using it for much of anything at the moment. Plus a link to the CafePress hard copy. Another thing to chew on is that CafePress will also do data CDs. It would be easy to also offer either the Word document or the PDF format (or both) as an ebook on CD for anyone who would want it.
  • It would be nice if somebody out there could format it properly in LaTex or something, because Word kerning is teh suXXor. Hey you, maths people! You know how!
  • Someone other than me would have to do the formatting, then. Word is what I have to work with. And for an actual book, if we go with CafePress, the final there must be submitted in PDF format. It's the only kind that they currently accept.
  • Right, I have in my hawt little hands a compiled list of bees' comments up to last night. It's mostly formatted however beeswacky had formatted each comment, but is lacking anything remotely useful like dates or links. It is complete, though. If bees is still okay with it, who shall I deliver it to?
  • Well, seeing as how no one has responded to Wolof's suggestion about LaTex, I guess that I would be the likely candidate to receive the compiled listing. Everyone will just have to put up with Word's kerning. Thank you so much! Up until you suggested this, I was expecting to spend a bit of time weeding through posts to find everything. You r0x0r my s0x0rs, Monkeybashi.
  • Awesome - is the email in your profile the right one? Like I said, it's only good up till about 24 hours ago, and I've noticed some more poetic gems today that won't be there. Maybe this will have to be Volume 1, or something. I should have added a warning: there are about 1,700 comments, poetic and non-poetry, separated by a line break. If you need help, we could cut the file into pieces and have multiple people edit it.
  • I'll volunteer for at least one-quarter of that editing. I can also do basic formatting (line breaks, page numbers etc.).
  • I admire your spirit, goils.
  • Goils sounds a little too much like a skin condition. Goiters crossed with boils?
  • Alnedra: Thank you! I'll carve out a section and send it on. And get busy on a cover design as well. Also, I really like your idea of interspersing some of the commentary bees has given as well as the poetry. Sounds great to me!
  • Carve me up some of the bees-edity goodness too. It will keep me out of trouble! :)
  • *not a goil, but likes them*
  • bees is perfectly all right with it, tracicle -- (especially since bees won't be editing.)
  • Oh no, you're not getting away with it so easily, bees! You're definitely in charge of the final draft - it's your work after all! Right? *wonders why she's suddenly standing alone*
  • I can't wait to purchase this in all good book stores!
  • I'll help edit too!
  • Alnedra and shinything: Thanks for the offers of help. I'll take you up on that. Are the email addresses on your profiles where you want things sent? Also, thanks to the comment bees left on the "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" CG thread that our lovely Fairy Grandma started, I was considering entitling this "A Beehive of Stars" with the subtitle "Poems by beeswacky, Star of Beehives." What do you all think? Too cheesy, or just about right? At the very least, I have written to Wil Milan, the copyright holder, to see if he'll give permission to use the picture as the cover design. With all due credit given in the book, of course.
  • Probably a better title than "Bees is a wacky fucker".
  • Incidentally, did any other wacky fuckers here enter via languagehat.com? PF may have (memory is dim), but any other brave souls care to out themselves?
  • Christophine: Definitely. If it's a large file, gmail's the only mailbox I have that'll take it without exploding. But be warned, due to my moving in the next few weeks, I'll be very sloooow with the editing for a while. I hope you don't expect to have this finished by November or something. Do you? *worried look*
  • Alnedra: I figure it'll be done when it's done, so no worries. We don't have to worry about some publishing house's editorial staff trying to enforce a deadline, so why do it ourselves? Just so it gets done, sometime. We all have lives away from the computer, after all. Those have to come first.
  • *heaves sigh of relief*
  • Christophine, yup. Email addy in profile is great. Thx!
  • *wiped dust off the thread* no pressure to finish if things aren't working out with it, but I'd love a copy if one might still be in the works
  • Just this thread alone warrants an entire chapter - or possibly a slim volume of its own. Well done, bees! Christophine, or anyone else interested, my email is still available, and so are my (rather sloppy) editing skills.
  • I would be willing to help with the editing, especially since there's a much larger amount of work. Or you may be on to something Alnedra, perhaps maybe we should just print something smaller, like "The Epic of Turkmenbashi" and see what the interest is? I wanted to also mention, I have Adobe Creative Suite (so pdfs aren't a problem) and I could also throw something together in QuarkXPress, or I could design some sort of cover. Just wanted to lay out what I had to offer. Tracicle, any chance you could still pull together a list of beeswacky's comments like you had done previously? My email is in the profile.
  • I'm afraid it'll have to wait until I get back from the States, genial. It's a slightly time-consuming process. Remind me then if you don't mind!
  • Understandable, no pressure, and have a great trip!
  • Another keen volunteer here to help with the editing if needed!
  • *cough* um, I'm willing to add my shoulder to the wheel. genial, others, just tell me what I can do. I've also got the Adobe Creative Suite available. If someone wants to set up a format template, we can get this going! please?
  • Thanks for pulling this thread back up. It may be worth checking whether bees is still okay with this, since he's not around right now.
  • I'd be happy to help in any capacity required - providing it's still okay with bees.
  • May I proffer my services again? Gmail's in the profile :) Would anyone like to volunteer to get the raw text from tracicle, chop it up and send it to us who want to edit? Anybody?
  • I'll happily volunteer, unless there's someone else who'd like to do it. (Thanks for the sidebar bump, patita.)
  • I guess in his absence I had a stronger desire to read his work, and we're all feeling the loss. I should be thanking those who had the idea in the first place! Is someone able to contact him (preferably someone who's emailed him before, so he's likely to read it)?
  • It's OK with me.
  • Yay! Yay! The Bees is back in town!
  • I'm so happy I think I'm gonna cry.
  • may a cheerful buzzing raise our spirits! hurrah! so who's on first for this thing?
  • Righto then, I'll get myself (or #2) onto it.
  • Three cheers for tracicle and #2! *waves Monkeybashi flag, sings monkey anthem*
  • What is the monkey anthem? *Puts on beeswacky '04 tour t-shirt* I remember when it was about the 'bashi, man. Now it's all sloths this and sloths that.
  • More bananas forever! And less flinging, too! We owe all this to tracicle and to Number Two!
  • is that your intended dedication, bees? :)
  • *bump*
  • *bumpity-bumpity*
  • Is this project still on the cards? I was wondering whether the wiki would provide a place to host the text. People could add gems and edit whenever they have the time and inclination.
  • EXCELLENT idea.
  • 1. shall I commit a wikipage? 2. did Christophine receive a glut of beehoney? Is such mail still extant? 3. did this project every get anywhere anyhow?
  • I've put something on the Wiki - just a starting point.
  • Whoops...
  • there you go then. spread the word in libraries worldwide.
  • Oh, hell.
  • Tracicle, do you still have this copy of bees' poetry? Would it be alot of trouble to make a new, more updated one? I'm really busy with assignments at the moment, but should expect to be quite free in a few weeks' time. Meanwhile, may I volunteer to receive the whole file, then carve it into chunks for any other monkeys interested in doing basic editing?
  • I'm still game to assist with editing/layout.
  • It's kind of a pain in the ass to do, because I have to trawl the whole database. I'll get the raw data as soon as I have a chunk of spare time and #2 is here to assist, because I'm a wuss about touching the database without adult supervision.
  • Thank you, Monkeybashi (^_^) *abases herself before the august presences of #1 and #2*
  • If we ever meet in person, you totally know I'll be looking for someone with accents for eyes and parenthesis on the sides of her face. I'll be the one with a sideways face. :)
  • O well played! *applauds*