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Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

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Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#111

Post by feld »

confounded wrote: post #80
gbaygon wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I find interesting the general idea that adding constraints to a system leads to creative outlets, forcing the participants to break entablished thinking patterns. The fun stuff here is not the content, but the alternative paths the writer has to take to convey the message.

Indeed, the 140 character constraint was one of the things that made Twitter novel.

No that's what makes it suck. The limitation was for SMS compatibility, but the reality is that it makes it impossible to have meaningful discourse.

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#112

Post by zyx321 »

Joeboy wrote: post #52
nightski wrote: post #30

So just lav out the "e"? The human brain would b prfctly capabl of undrstanding it.

From oulipo.social's FAQ ( https://oulipo.social/about/more ): * No problm I'll writ lik this. No. Stop. Don't do this.

It says in writing that no administrator will banish folks who do this.

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#113

Post by koytch »

biot wrote: post #48

Translation of posting without using 'E': It's Similar to That Bird Social App, But Without a Fifth Symbol Mastodon has an app with particular quirks and many humans find it joyful. Mastodon boffins did it again. A particular boffin going by initials M.R. works as a digital craftsman at a corporation with initials I.A. (that has http archival capability), did craft a social app oulipo.social with an odd quirk: said a…

I'd go for "apply'd", "craft'd" and so on -- it has a vibrant applicant-of-sharp-tools-ian ring to it. Admirations for your honour's worthy labour.

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#114

Post by coldtea »

komali2 wrote: post #32
forgotpwtomain wrote: post #28

> Reeve replied to my email in less than an hour, with nearly 300 words and no appearance of the banned character. I attempted to write this article without using the letter "e" and gave up after five minutes of weak effort. 0x7265657665 did dispatch back as to my communication in duration not in surplus of an hour with almost 300 words and without a taboo glyph in sight. Although I did try to author this column with…

In what encoding does "0x65" represent "e" ?

If we keep to text encodings, then it's easier to find an encoding where it doesn't.

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#115

Post by coldtea »

milesrout wrote: post #94
whitepoplar wrote: post #24

If we want something like Twitter, but in the form of an open source protocol, we need to name it and brand it well. I remember when I first used Linux, I didn't "trust" it. There wasn't a singular OS called Linux and the GUI applications looked low quality because they didn't have good design or branding. To most people, the UI and branding is the product, so when they see it poorly implemented, it simply feels like…

Who cares if 'they' come?

Stock owners of condom companies?

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#116

Post by coldtea »

sebringj wrote: post #70

I think I need help understanding why this is in any way relevant or interesting. I'm actually serious and open to listening. Obviously it got on the front page.

For one, it's a gimmick that brings attention to Mastodon, which as a foss/decentralized alternative to Twitter, is interesting in its own.

Second, it's based on a centuries old literature/poetic challenge/game, of writing a text based on some constraint, and especially with avoiding a specific letter (a "lipogram").

Third, the challenge itself, which removes the ability to use the most common letter in English, is amusing enough to people. It makes you think harder about phrasing, and solve how you express something in alternative and creative ways. So it's a kind of fun game, like e.g. Scrabble.

Fourth, besides the fun/challenge factor, exploring alternative ways of writing a sentence is something that most people seldom think hard about, but that has applications in general writing too (in other words: what you gain by working around some constrain can make you a better writer in general, even when there are no artificial constrains imposed).

P.S. How are things going in Vulcan?

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#117

Post by dkurth »

There's a musician named Andrew Huang who sometimes makes music based on song challenges from his fans. Years ago, I asked him to write a rap song in which none of the lyrics contain the letter "e." Like the person in the article, I had read "A Void" by Georges Perec, so that's where the idea came from.

And about a day later, he posted this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8-WtH4ujps

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#118

Post by jobigoud »

franzpeterstein wrote: post #99
rocky1138 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the constraints of GNU Social is that you shouldn't have two identical usernames on two separate instances. I did that and I don't know how to fix it. rocky1138@kwat.chat rocky1138@gnusocial.no Does Mastadon suffer the same problem?

Mastodon have the same problem. > https://social.tchncs.de/@voidnill > https://mastodon.cloud/@voidnill are the same user (me) on two different instances.

What do you mean by "problem"? Email has the same "problem".

Re: Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E

#119

Post by tdb7893 »

whitepoplar wrote: post #24

If we want something like Twitter, but in the form of an open source protocol, we need to name it and brand it well. I remember when I first used Linux, I didn't "trust" it. There wasn't a singular OS called Linux and the GUI applications looked low quality because they didn't have good design or branding. To most people, the UI and branding is the product, so when they see it poorly implemented, it simply feels like…

I don't understand how you could open source twitter. I would think that the infrastructure and features would be very hard to do without some centralized provider.
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