It's not every day you get to help launch a time machine.

October 29, 2012 10:52 AM

Look, I know G+ is a dead zone socially for a lot of people, but you can help change that! Come argue with me about what to do next over on shakespeherian's page there, where he's just started a brand new Choose Your Own Adventure By Committee. And it's about time travel!!!

If you're not sure what I mean when I say "Choose Your Own Adventure By Committee" then check out juv3nal's excellent post with a rundown of and links to the first three stories. (The fourth Adventure picked up the first Adventure's story and ran with it; this new one so far seems to be unrelated to any of the other stories, but one never knows where Bjorn will hit ya'!)

I look forward to resenting your unexplained choices!

posted by carsonb to MetaFilter-Related at 10:52 AM (54 comments total)

"Dr. Q".

I see what you did there.
posted by The Whelk at 10:56 AM on October 29, 2012

OK, I'm in. In case you need to add me to your circles for this (which I assume isn't necessarily, since the posts are public), I'm Adam Snider.
posted by asnider at 11:05 AM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have been participating since the first story and CYOA is almost always one of the highlights of my workday. Best coffee break EVAR. Everyone should come play!
posted by chatongriffes at 11:17 AM on October 29, 2012

Hey folks it's true, I just started this thing. I've been doing these CYOA things for over a year now (Jesus) so I like to think I've gotten the hang of it but so far every single one has been terrifying. In any case I'm pretty excited about this one, I've got some hot shit lined up but it's going to be a lot more up-in-the-air, narratively speaking, than most of the previous stories were, so please participate and make non-boring choices because you're in the driver's seat.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:34 AM on October 29, 2012 [3 favorites]

This would be so awesome for erotica.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:45 AM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Time travel is a great choice, shakespeherian.
Now when carsonb convinces the sheeple into going along with a wrongity-wrong-wrong choice, we can go back in time and change the futar/past.
posted by juv3nal at 11:46 AM on October 29, 2012

This would be so awesome for erotica.

Please accept this business card featuring a picture of my partner and I, nekkid.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:49 AM on October 29, 2012 [3 favorites]

This would be so awesome for erotica.

The pants lie crumpled in a corner, and Your bare muscles are flexed, straining. A drop of sweat trickles behind your ear. Are You...

A. Good
B. Giving
C. Game
posted by carsonb at 11:52 AM on October 29, 2012 [5 favorites]

D. All of the above.
posted by asnider at 12:13 PM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

You can also check out the stuff going on in science on google+ - I posted a project earlier this month about some of the cool things the science community is up to!
posted by ChuraChura at 12:43 PM on October 29, 2012

Brandon Blatcher: "This would be so awesome for erotica."

We're not doing "Kiss Toes" again. In fact, just get rid of those damn dice.
posted by boo_radley at 12:59 PM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is great! I'm going to have to try doing one for my friends sometime.
posted by mrgoat at 1:09 PM on October 29, 2012

I know G+ is a dead zone socially for a lot of people, but you can help change that!

It's not my responsibility to shield Google from the consequences of its mistakes.
posted by Egg Shen at 1:10 PM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nobody said you had to, don't be obtuse. What a weird comment.
posted by carsonb at 1:17 PM on October 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

I thought that comment was self-evidently facetious, but I guess not.

I apologize for any offense given - especially to shakes, whom I quite like.
posted by Egg Shen at 2:11 PM on October 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hurrah! I have officially weighed in and voted on my choice, which seems like the unanimous one over there right now.

Brandon, an erotica one could be fun; more fun done as a parody, especially since Google is less likely to ban my ass if I wrote it that way. Perhaps even a parody of shakespeherian's CYOA storyline.

I am 100% seriously considering writing that parody now. Though, compared to shakespeherian's content, which is golden, it would very likely suck (in more ways than one).
posted by misha at 2:22 PM on October 29, 2012

The pants lie crumpled in a corner, and Your bare muscles are flexed, straining. A drop of sweat trickles behind your ear. Are You...

A. Good
B. Giving
C. Game
D. Likely to be eaten by a grue.
posted by Pudhoho at 2:35 PM on October 29, 2012 [10 favorites]

Wait, people use Google+ still?
posted by spitbull at 3:32 PM on October 29, 2012

Only cool kids.
posted by carsonb at 3:58 PM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wait, people use Google+ still?

Nope, this whole thread is an attempt to gaslight you!
posted by shakespeherian at 4:16 PM on October 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

And it was going so well!
posted by subbes at 4:22 PM on October 29, 2012

We're using Google Wave for the next one!
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:27 PM on October 29, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm in. I'm expecting to see an AskMe soon asking if it's safe to eat a week old T-Rex.
posted by arcticseal at 6:35 PM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wait, people use Google+ still?

Yeah. Facebook is just too heady for us.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:22 PM on October 29, 2012

Wait, people use Google+ still?

G+ makes it super-easy to share messages with the right groups of people. This is important for people who, for work reasons, have to present a particular kind of public face. It's also really great for hobbyists to find each other and talk shop.
posted by Jpfed at 8:01 PM on October 29, 2012

G+ also makes it really super easy to find out when shakespeherian updates with a new episode (they'll drop around lunchtime MST every weekday, if you like a schedule) or when someone else rebuts your chain of reasoning because of that lovely little red box that follows you around the various google sites when you're logged in.

My phone also buzzes me when one of you disagrees.

There was a bit of discussion with participants in the last few stories about moving the CYOABC off G+, but I think the automated reminders and readymade posting system won out over Dead Social Network Syndrome. Even if you never use G+ and only ever access gmail, you'll still find out every time an episode you participated in is updated, including new episodes.

Vote early and often!
posted by carsonb at 8:11 PM on October 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

I love CYOABC. It's the highlight of my day. Come play!
posted by immlass at 9:24 PM on October 29, 2012

Ahh, I have no idea how to G+; what's the best way to get updates, ideally in my email inbox or feed reader?

Also, look at this attractive group of real live people! My favorite subset of profile pictures is the one where people have to duck their heads to get into the frame.
posted by brieche at 9:35 PM on October 29, 2012

Google Plus. What was that, 2011 or so?
posted by bardic at 10:10 PM on October 29, 2012

Wait, people use Google+ still?

Google Plus. What was that, 2011 or so?

I post to G+ most days and get more comments than I do on Facebook. People are using it, even if the people you know aren't using it.
posted by escabeche at 10:17 PM on October 29, 2012

I can't go on G+. They don't allow persistent pseudonyms without a lot of evidence that they're established, and even when the person accomplishes that their account can be taken away again since there seems to be no internal means of determining that someone's account has been internally green flagged. If they ever allow people to use their name which they've used for over a decade, online and offline, when it is non-standard English and explicitly say they allow it, do let me know.
posted by Deoridhe at 12:36 AM on October 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

One day I might Google G+ to find out exactly what it is.
posted by Decani at 1:33 AM on October 30, 2012

Wow Google+ zingers, thanks for the encouragement everyone!
posted by shakespeherian at 5:39 AM on October 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ooh, this is quite fun.

Incidentally, is there a convenient list relating Mefi users to their G+ accounts? Also, is there a convenient way to associate a Mefi username with its G+ account -- like, have it displayed in parenthesis after the real name? I'm never going to be able to remember which real name is which Mefi user, even if I keep them all in a specific circle.
posted by gilrain at 9:14 AM on October 30, 2012

This looks awesome! Placing a vote riiiiiight now.
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:45 AM on October 30, 2012

gilrain, there is indeed a way to put your MetaFilter user name in your profile. Unfortunately, I think everyone has to do it on their own end. I don't know of a way for you to assign them. Most people do have their username included, though.

I'm pretty sure there's a giant list somewhere on MetaTalk, but I can't find it at the moment.
posted by chatongriffes at 10:00 AM on October 30, 2012

chatongriffes: Unfortunately, I think everyone has to do it on their own end.

I'm actually writing a userscript right now that will allow you to associate G+ user IDs with whatever pseudonym you like such that the pseudonym will show in parenthesis after the real name.
posted by gilrain at 10:04 AM on October 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

That's awesome! Thanks gilrain!
posted by Jpfed at 10:14 AM on October 30, 2012

Episode 2, for those of you following in Recent Activity.
posted by carsonb at 10:31 AM on October 30, 2012

G+ actually has a shockingly active table top gaming community. People use it to organize online games and discuss D&D and crap like that. For reals.
posted by chunking express at 10:53 AM on October 30, 2012

I am Kit Kendrick on G+.
posted by Karmakaze at 2:07 PM on October 30, 2012

I have the script working to my satisfaction in Chrome and Firefox, now. I'll make a full post about it in a little bit, but... I have a dilemma.

To make things easy, it pulls the pseudonym/G+ID pairs from a Google spreadsheet. I can't decide, though, whether to make the spreadsheet publicly editable or not. It's unlikely anyone would want to ruin our good time, but it would be possible. (The script heavily sanitizes input down to only alphanumerics, so trolling would be limited to a nuisance rather than a danger.)
posted by gilrain at 2:41 PM on October 30, 2012

I'm having a complete meltdown on Facebook (nobody gives a shit about the same things I do) so I may have to transition over to G+. I may see you there.
posted by phaedon at 4:40 PM on October 30, 2012

Episode 3!
posted by carsonb at 10:57 AM on October 31, 2012

This is awesome!
posted by Joh at 3:21 PM on October 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Episode 4
posted by carsonb at 12:32 PM on November 1, 2012

Wow, I didn't expect Hitler to show up so soon! And the guy in the gorilla suit totally had me guessing right up until the blimp went down.

Not really. I'm just messin' with y'all.
I totally clued in to gorilla guy from day one.
posted by misha at 8:32 PM on November 1, 2012

"Episode 5 will melt your shit." - Tim Coe
posted by carsonb at 8:44 AM on November 2, 2012

OMG OMG OMG You guys I can't wait until Monday! Shakespeherian is killing me with suspense now.
posted by misha at 9:14 PM on November 2, 2012

What, we gotta wait til Monday? (Which is practically Tuesday for me anyway...)

I want that time machine and I want it now.

sadly, I think that is a pony even the venerable pb cannot procure
posted by undue influence at 5:44 AM on November 3, 2012

Weekends are the only reason I am as jolly as I am.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:42 PM on November 3, 2012

Sorry shakespeherian, didn't meet to be flip. You know you just have us all furiously refreshing the page, hanging off every word. It's a great story, thank you.
posted by undue influence at 7:54 AM on November 5, 2012

Oh no offense was taken at all, truly. Be as flip as you like. I love you all, my children.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:14 AM on November 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

So, two things: Time travel is possible, and you are going to die. These things are related. (Ep. 6!)
posted by carsonb at 3:39 PM on November 5, 2012