November 27, 2003

3:50 PM

It's do-it-yourself MeFi Numerology Time! 17171, MetaFilter's most recent member has a very good number. So do Rich, who is 123; Eirixon, who is 11111 and, of course, Matt who is number 1 in more ways than one. Now that membership is opening again, good numbers, like primes, become increasingly rare. How long will 17171 remain the coolest? And are there any even cooler numbers attributed to non-posters, like the beastly Hafif, who is 666? [Please delete if this is too silly for words.]
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-related at 3:50 PM (89 comments total)

Too bad the binary madness of user 10101, áÌÅËÓÅÊóÔÁÓÀËÅ×ÉÞ, has never been active. What a shame.
posted by Item at 3:58 PM on November 27, 2003

The most recent member is actually this guy (welcome idlyadam!). 17171 joined 'way back in October 2002.

I've always liked my number since 144 is the square of 12 (14412).

This person has a cool number, too.
posted by contessa at 4:30 PM on November 27, 2003

Oh, foolish me - I just assumed the number of members on the front page was the latest. The count must disregard test numbers and such-like. Thanks, 14412!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:54 PM on November 27, 2003

Waits for someone to mention cmicali.
posted by dazed_one at 5:03 PM on November 27, 2003

This is too silly for words

Why is 17171 better than 15151 or 13131 or any other number of similar numbers?
posted by The God Complex at 6:05 PM on November 27, 2003

number of similar numbers. hmm.
posted by The God Complex at 6:06 PM on November 27, 2003

TGC: 15551 is indeed better, but it's one of those mysterious no-name accounts. For future e-bay auctions, perhaps? 13331 is another non-poster.

Are all the really good numbers non-posters? They sure seem to be. Perhaps the numbers that would appear below if they posted and commented would spoil that pristine palindromity.(')

I have the ugliest number on MetaFilter: 10947. Can't beat that for sheer lack of interest.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:23 PM on November 27, 2003

>...binary madness of user 10101, áÌÅËÓÅÊóÔÁÓÀËÅ×ÉÞ, has never been active. What a shame.
Yes. It would have been a chore to address her/him by user name in direct responses. (Would their nick name have been "???" ?)

>13331 is another non-poster.
Fifty people (11553 to 12203) joined metafilter 27 September. It seems most have nay posted once.

>Why is 17171 better than 15151 or 13131 or any other number of similar numbers?
Stepper climbs and more dangerous descents? Visual suggestions of Jan Ulrich and Lance Armstrong breaking away from the pack? Topographically more similar to the Pyrenees than to Provence or to the streets of Paris, respectively, perhaps
posted by philfromhavelock at 7:00 PM on November 27, 2003

maybe more like lombard st.?
posted by amberglow at 7:09 PM on November 27, 2003

Go look up a leet user, and I find a SentientAI. *shivers*
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:32 PM on November 27, 2003

I am surprised no one has stated:

You guys are Geeks! (capital "G" geeks!)

Ha!
posted by Quartermass at 9:30 PM on November 27, 2003

I know we've talked about this before, because I've previously noted my appreciation of my own user ID (13000). Or maybe I was just talking about it in some unrelated thread...
posted by mdn at 9:45 PM on November 27, 2003

Eff both of you two mother effers.
posted by The God Complex at 9:47 PM on November 27, 2003

Whats so special about this number?

Although i must say that is for numbers less than 10000 and is an incomplete list. Missing is 2141, for example, which according to Prime Curios is he smallest multi-digit prime such that sum of its digits equals the product of digits.

2141 multiplied by 5 is 10705, which is my user number of course.
posted by vacapinta at 10:03 PM on November 27, 2003

Wow, vacapinta - thanks! That's true food for thought, that is...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:18 PM on November 27, 2003

He's used every word available so now he's started on numbers.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 10:43 PM on November 27, 2003

The mefi user who is the answer to life, the universe and everything has posted no links and no comments to MetaFilter. Figures.
posted by taz at 12:25 AM on November 28, 2003

Yes, but were he ever to speak, surely this universe would cease to exist and be replaced by one even more improbable?
posted by BigCalm at 1:31 AM on November 28, 2003

particularly slow day Miguel, huh?
posted by matteo at 1:52 AM on November 28, 2003

It's enough to make me cut my wrists.
posted by Frasermoo at 2:07 AM on November 28, 2003

áÌÅËÓÅÊóÔÁÓÀËÅ×ÉÞ

Her password is password.
posted by donth at 2:34 AM on November 28, 2003

Of course, we can always judge the relative coolness of a user number by checking it's corresponding Bartleby quotation. Frasermoo is a nonsense song sung by Charlie Chaplin, the first words he ever spoke onscreen. And matteo's is quite nice: beginning with "Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder..."

But Matt's is hilarious:

Here lies a man who was killed by lightning;
He died when his prospects seemed to be brightening.
He might have cut a flash in this world of trouble,
But the flash cut him, and he lies in the stubble.

(by "anonymous")
posted by taz at 2:34 AM on November 28, 2003

i like my number
posted by Eirixon at 4:21 AM on November 28, 2003

I like your number too. I was very close to getting that number but then somebody distracted my attention allowing you to sneak in an steal it from me!
posted by mokey at 4:53 AM on November 28, 2003

Bwahahahahaha
posted by Eirixon at 4:54 AM on November 28, 2003

Seriously: I guess it was OBL and WTC-tragedy that kind of distracted you?
posted by Eirixon at 4:56 AM on November 28, 2003

oops, wrong date. I guess I should just leave now, and hide under my rock again.
posted by Eirixon at 4:58 AM on November 28, 2003

Nnice one taz. I'm back from the brink now.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:19 AM on November 28, 2003

I thought looking at my number that it must be a prime, but upon further analysis it isn't, but close to a bunch of them. Now I feel worthless.
posted by Space Coyote at 6:09 AM on November 28, 2003

Are these numbers accurate?
posted by hama7 at 6:09 AM on November 28, 2003

If so, then this guy represents order, and this one, nurturing.
posted by hama7 at 6:19 AM on November 28, 2003

Yes, we have talked about this before, and yes, this is too silly for words. But let's take a trip in the Wayback Machine and listen to an eager young Portugee making his very first MeTa post: "As a new user I find myself over-stimulated by MeFi and so tend to bore the pants off everyone with too many comments." He felt "sure we would all benefit from the resulting discussion." The more things change...
posted by languagehat at 7:25 AM on November 28, 2003

And matteo's is quite nice: beginning with "Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder..."

*checks Aquinas quote, rams own head violenty into wall, wonders*
posted by matteo at 7:55 AM on November 28, 2003

He's used every word available so now he's started on numbers.

I chuckled.
posted by ashbury at 8:41 AM on November 28, 2003

i like the quotation matching:
There are no ninety degree angles in the Garden of Delight. is me. (by someone named Mason Cooley--Fooly's grandpa?)
posted by amberglow at 9:23 AM on November 28, 2003

amberglow, Mason Cooley is a renowned U.S. aphorist and RC Drag Racer.
posted by taz at 10:49 AM on November 28, 2003

11817: "People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy."

And my word is astatic: 1. Unsteady; unstable. 2. Physics Having no particular directional characteristics.

Right on.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:51 AM on November 28, 2003

taz: ahhh--a real renaissance man, huh? : >
posted by amberglow at 10:59 AM on November 28, 2003

the toothache reminds me I am alive.
posted by clavdivs at 11:05 AM on November 28, 2003

Absolutely, amberglow. Other famous quotes from Cooley include "Art can make chaos seductive", and "Go, Speed Racer, go".

Crash, I'm getting something else for you: from Chekhov, That can not possibly be, because it could never possibly be.
posted by taz at 11:06 AM on November 28, 2003

Here's another Cooley:

"To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little."
posted by contessa at 11:25 AM on November 28, 2003

Trying to create the MetaGematria, eh Miguel?
posted by fuzz at 3:32 PM on November 28, 2003

And matteo's is quite nice: beginning with "Pain itself can be pleasurable accidentally in so far as it is accompanied by wonder..."

Yeah, well Aquinas ripped this off from Cicero, who in his De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, written in 45 BC, said "Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem," which is to say, "Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure."

(I include the Latin not just because I'm languagehat but to give pleasure to anyone who works with "greeked" text.)
posted by languagehat at 5:18 PM on November 28, 2003

i never knew that's what greeking said : >
posted by amberglow at 5:33 PM on November 28, 2003

Weird, my MeFi UID number and my /. UID number are only off by 50 from each other (mefi: 16121, slashdot: 16171).
posted by teferi at 5:54 PM on November 28, 2003

I include the Latin not just because I'm languagehat

Come on man, It's precisely because you're languagehat that you have the ability to aim a spigot at the unwashed multitudes, and hose them down with the pristine elixir of comprehension. It's either that or the mean fix of metaphor.

You wicked genius you.
posted by hama7 at 7:22 PM on November 28, 2003

I'm disappointed in you all - if we're going to call people by numbers then surely we must wonder why Number Six has been erased.

hysterically/
OH MY GOD! I've out-geeked this entire thread - please someone make some kind of computer programming or Star Trek reference. PLEASE!
posted by meech at 9:48 PM on November 28, 2003

OH MY GOD AND WHAT HAPPENED TO NUMBERS TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, AND SEVEN?!?!

*faints*
posted by The God Complex at 9:51 PM on November 28, 2003

Funny, languagehat - I had read the translation before, but it didn't click in my head when I saw the quote. Wow. So matteo is not only a quote by Aquinas (et al), but also, by extension, the ubiquitous lorem ipsum? Cool.
posted by taz at 9:52 PM on November 28, 2003

Okay, meech, I could've gone looking for "Seven of Nine", but I prefer to address the fact that Agent 86 has gone deep undercover.
"Would you believe... three links and seventeen comments to MetaTalk?"
"Sorry about that, meech."
posted by wendell at 10:31 PM on November 28, 2003

I've always thought my user number was waaaay cool.
I'm just sayin' is all.
posted by gummi at 12:34 AM on November 29, 2003

Phew. Thanks wendell - no idea what you're talking about...
posted by meech at 3:55 AM on November 29, 2003

well, since we're going Medieval on MeTa's collective ass, it's interesting to add to l-hat's comment (and excellent translation, especially if it was off-the-cuff) that you can find traces of Cicero (and of the Stoics of course) all over Aquinas' thought -- for example, the very notion of Natural Law (defined as "rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting" -- Summa I-II, 90, 1) -- the very distinction between ius civile, ius gentium and ius naturale being a very Roman idea in itself.
why? maybe because they both came from the same Italian region, Ciociaria -- Cicero was born in Arpino, the Doctor Angelicus in Roccasecca.

Other famous ciociari: poet Juvenal, philosopher Antonio Labriola, film director Vittorio DeSica, composer Ennio Morricone, actor Marcello Mastroianni, writer Tommaso Landolfi

and film director's Anthony Minghella and fashion model Linda Evangelista's ancestors came from Ciociaria as well

posted by matteo at 5:18 AM on November 29, 2003

wasted.
posted by quonsar at 5:45 AM on November 29, 2003

...or just satisfied?
posted by taz at 7:13 AM on November 29, 2003

hama7: Thanks, and I may just adopt that as the motto of my blog.
"Languagehat: hosing them down with the pristine elixir of comprehension since 2002!"

matteo: Nah, I was too lazy to translate it myself; it's a 1914 translation by H. Rackham that I swiped off the indispensible Lorem Ipsum site.
posted by languagehat at 8:16 AM on November 29, 2003

Finally! Thankyou quonsar.
posted by dazed_one at 9:49 AM on November 29, 2003

like baby fish in a candy shooting barrel.
posted by quonsar at 10:04 AM on November 29, 2003

69 simplly became embarrassed...
posted by meech at 2:13 PM on November 29, 2003

"The act of sex, gratifying as it may be, is God’s joke on humanity. It is man’s last desperate stand at superintendency"

Hmmm -- I don't know how to feel about that. On one hand, it's Bette Davis, which is kind of nifty, but on the other, kind of a downer.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 2:56 PM on November 29, 2003

wait a sec...

now there's 17172 members. what's going on here?
posted by Item at 5:40 PM on November 29, 2003

That's just a red herring.
posted by languagehat at 6:49 PM on November 29, 2003

This red herring better be darned interesting.

* sits and anxiously awaits the first post and/or comment *

Oh, but no pressure, though!
posted by yhbc at 7:41 PM on November 29, 2003

"Who am I? Why am I here?"
posted by PrinceValium at 8:02 PM on November 29, 2003

Dan Quayle is Red Herring?
posted by matteo at 6:01 AM on November 30, 2003

Hey cool, Amber, I got Cooley too. And it's a good 'un.


NUMBER:14401

QUOTATION:Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be treated with indifference.

ATTRIBUTION:Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:03 AM on November 30, 2003

yup Cunning, Cooley had a lot to say about everything, apparently (and he falls right at our user numbers) : >
posted by amberglow at 12:23 PM on November 30, 2003

Seems like there must be a lot of quotes from Cooley:

14179: Pride sings and dances; humility sighs.

*sighs*
posted by dg at 3:05 PM on November 30, 2003

oh, speaking of numbers--I'm 39 today (for the first time) : >
posted by amberglow at 5:49 AM on December 1, 2003

Happy birthday! I'm 26 tomorrow. Sagittarius in the hizz-ouse.
posted by PrinceValium at 6:33 AM on December 1, 2003

Sagittarius in the hizz-ouse.
We rock! happy birthday in advance pv!
posted by amberglow at 6:36 AM on December 1, 2003

Happy birthday, amberglow and happy tomorrow, Prince!

Now all we need is someone to be 13, 52, 65 and 78 and we'll have the whole unlucky sequence. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:01 AM on December 1, 2003

NUMBER: 4350

QUOTATION: Rivers of wings surround us and vast tribulation.

ATTRIBUTION: John Ashbery (b. 1927), U.S. poet, critic. “Glazunoviana.”
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:15 AM on December 1, 2003

Contessa mentioned it, but what's up with a 17,000+ number showing up as registered in 2002? Is that a bug, or was someone backdating themselves somehow?
posted by me3dia at 9:33 AM on December 1, 2003

Reading my quotation right after Thanksgiving seems oddly appropriate:

"Blackmail is one of the great pastimes of family life."
— Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:39 AM on December 1, 2003

Contessa mentioned it, but what's up with a 17,000+ number showing up as registered in 2002? Is that a bug, or was someone backdating themselves somehow?

This question has been frequently answered. The highest user number (currently 17356) is always higher the the number of members (currently 17173) due to gaps in the user number sequence.
posted by timeistight at 10:05 AM on December 1, 2003

NUMBER: 7708
AUTHOR: Marcel Marceau
QUOTATION: To communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man.

.
posted by whatnot at 10:59 AM on December 1, 2003

Sagittarius in the hizz-ouse.

hooray! i turn 27 on sunday.
posted by Item at 1:04 PM on December 1, 2003

oh, speaking of numbers--I'm 39 today (for the first time) : >

Congratulations, and may your first 39 be as wonderful as your subsequent six.
posted by The God Complex at 1:15 PM on December 1, 2003

timeistight, you misunderstand my question. 17171 should be listed as member since (assumably) October 31, 2003, not 2002. Either his membership date is screwed up, or he joined a year ago with an incorrect user number. That has nothing to do with the member count vs. actual # of members disparity.

However, after a little investigation, I see that 17171 got in during last year's opening of the gates, and the real issue is that there have been <50 new members since then, which created the appearance of a date mistake.
posted by me3dia at 2:09 PM on December 1, 2003

(In other words, ignore me.)
posted by me3dia at 2:11 PM on December 1, 2003

Congratulations, and may your first 39 be as wonderful as your subsequent six.
TGC : > i'm going to start telling people that I was sick one year so I don't have to be 40 ever

and happy happy, item!
posted by amberglow at 2:35 PM on December 1, 2003

my user # adds up to 20:P
posted by thomcatspike at 3:06 PM on December 1, 2003

Happy birthday! I'm 26 tomorrow. Sagittarius in the hizz-ouse.

I'll 24 tomorrow (already today on the east coast). 24's a neat number. Woo.

I don't think there's anything special about my user number (3464). But there's bound to be something "cool" about any given number. As Ramanujan replied to G.H. Hardy when he mentioned that his taxi was numbered 1729 (a number deemed unremarkable by Hardy), "No, Hardy! It is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways." [From Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos]
posted by jennak at 10:17 PM on December 1, 2003

16767 is also my account number at the local indy video store. I'm floored. It also adds up to 27, which is divisible by 3 and 9, which are respectively the number of times I've left the continent and knowingly eaten seafood.

Bartleby's doesn't have a quote for me. Alas!
posted by moonbird at 8:34 AM on December 2, 2003

here ya go moonbird
posted by goddam at 8:39 AM on December 2, 2003

The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996.
NUMBER: 744 QUOTATION: If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. ATTRIBUTION: Bible: Hebrew Samson, in Judges 14:18. To the men who had answered his riddle, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”

Remorse—is Memory—awake—
Her Parties all astir—
A Presence of Departed Acts—
At window—and at Door—
ATTRIBUTION: Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), U.S. poet. The Complete Poems, no. 744 (1955).

List Lady be not coy, and be not cosen’d
With that same vaunted name Virginity,
Beauty is natures coyn, must not be hoorded,
But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partak’n bliss,
Unsavoury in th’injoyment of it self
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languish’t head.
ATTRIBUTION: John Milton (1608–1674), British poet. Comus; a Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle (l. 737–744)

*head explodes*
posted by Lynsey at 10:18 AM on December 2, 2003

My userid is the year the Lusitania sunk, The San Francisco Earthquake, Battle of Gallipoli and the first German Zeppelin air raid.
posted by stbalbach at 8:35 AM on December 3, 2003

12911

Women have their heads in their hearts. Man seems to have been destined for a superior being; as things are, I think women generally better creatures than men. They have weaker appetites and weaker intellects but much stronger affections. A man with a bad heart has been sometimes saved by a strong head; but a corrupt woman is lost forever.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

yikes!
posted by chemgirl at 8:04 PM on December 3, 2003