EOL February 26, 2008 9:51 AM   Subscribe

As an update to this thread, a rough version of the Encyclopedia of Life is now up.
posted by Blazecock Pileon to MetaFilter-Related at 9:51 AM (28 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

Sure, you can have an Encyclopedia of Life, but can any book truly tell us how to love?
posted by klangklangston at 9:56 AM on February 26, 2008


Maybe yes?
posted by klangklangston at 9:56 AM on February 26, 2008


With great frequency.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:59 AM on February 26, 2008


It's only a matter of time until species start editing their own pages to make themselves look more impressive.
posted by brain_drain at 10:26 AM on February 26, 2008 [2 favorites]


"Failed to connect"

Did we kill it? I think we killed the encyclopedia of life!
posted by rtha at 11:00 AM on February 26, 2008


I never saw the original thread. When I clicked here I fully expected to see that some MeFite had compiled all the life-challenges info from AskMe and created an Encyclopedia of [How to Live] Life. You know, with an entry on asking someone out, an entry on maintaining relationships, an entry on breakups, entries on buying cars/ houses/ mattresses, entries on writing resumes and getting jobs, on having children, on handling relatives, staying in shape, eating right....

It's low-hanging fruit, people!
posted by Miko at 11:15 AM on February 26, 2008


"All posts are © their original authors."
I'm just sayin', make sure you get releases.

posted by mumkin at 11:20 AM on February 26, 2008


Wake up Scientists! Nobody will visit your site unless you make it more "Web 2.0".

Here are my suggestions:

- Change the name. "Encyclopedia of Life" is too boring and descriptive. People should not be able to figure out what your site's about from the name, it should be some kind of made-up gibberish. Trying lyfe.com would be a good start, but lyffe.com is better, and luffle.com would be even better than that. Just try putting a few random syllables together.

- Add user content. Nobody cares what Scientists think about species! Add some YouTube-style comments. People want to be able to say that "Aedes aegypti sux", so give them a chance!

- Use AJAX. I don't really know what it is or how you could use it, but apparently all of the cool websites are using it these days, so you should too.

- Add personalization. Allow users to make their own profile, where they can describe themselves and the species that they like and dislike. Add a blog so that users can post about their daily experiences with different species. Add a "Top Eight Species" section for the users to list their current favorite species.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you will get aquired by Google and be sipping cocktails on the beach in no time!
posted by burnmp3s at 11:40 AM on February 26, 2008 [7 favorites]


Timed out for me too. I think we done busted it.

Anyway, does it have a section on applied microbiology which we can consult before asking the Green "Should I eat this?" Because that would be a very useful feature. (Developers, take note. Might be worth the buyout right there.)
posted by Quietgal at 11:55 AM on February 26, 2008


Error reading from remote server

Dammit, the strong ate the weak, yet again.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2008


Trying lyfe.com would be a good start,

lifeonomicon.com?

I wanna play with it, but the site seems down. I'll have to investigate all those interesting, beautiful, and tasty critters later.
posted by quin at 12:17 PM on February 26, 2008


MySpecies.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:27 PM on February 26, 2008


for birds, it could be BeakBook...
posted by wendell at 12:35 PM on February 26, 2008


It's low-hanging fruit, people!

But is it easy fruit, or difficult fruit?
posted by iconomy at 12:37 PM on February 26, 2008


oh no you xkcdidn't
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:48 PM on February 26, 2008




Life Encyclopedia: Too Popular to Live

Must be a slow news day.
posted by rtha at 1:07 PM on February 26, 2008


EOL? EOF?

This is about handling data from punch cards? AWESOME!
$ SET SOURCEFORMAT"FREE"
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID.  SeqRead.
AUTHOR.  Michael Coughlan.
* An example program showing how to read a sequential file.
* This is the definitive example 

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE-CONTROL.
    SELECT StudentFile ASSIGN TO "STUDENTS.DAT"
		ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL.

DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.
FD StudentFile.
01 StudentDetails.
   88  EndOfStudentFile  VALUE HIGH-VALUES.
   02  StudentId       PIC 9(7).
   02  StudentName.
       03 Surname      PIC X(8).
       03 Initials     PIC XX.
   02  DateOfBirth.
       03 YOBirth      PIC 9(4).
       03 MOBirth      PIC 9(2).
       03 DOBirth      PIC 9(2).
   02  CourseCode      PIC X(4).
   02  Gender          PIC X.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
Begin.
   OPEN INPUT StudentFile
   READ StudentFile
      AT END SET EndOfStudentFile TO TRUE
   END-READ
   PERFORM UNTIL EndOfStudentFile
      DISPLAY StudentId SPACE StudentName SPACE CourseCode SPACE YOBirth
      READ StudentFile
         AT END SET EndOfStudentFile TO TRUE
      END-READ
   END-PERFORM
   CLOSE StudentFile
   STOP RUN.
posted by GuyZero at 1:14 PM on February 26, 2008


Why is it that SCIENCE! can put a man on the moon, but can't put up a website that doesn't die after half a dozen referrals from a MetaTalk thread.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:05 PM on February 26, 2008


[question mark]
posted by Sys Rq at 2:06 PM on February 26, 2008


Sure, you can have an Encyclopedia of Life, but can any book truly tell us how to love?
Didn't the Kama Sutra tie that up (inter alia) many centuries ago?
posted by Abiezer at 2:23 PM on February 26, 2008


We're important, but we're not important enough to kill a site (this time). From my link above:

The encyclopedia's Web site logged 11.5 million hits over 5 1/2 hours, including two hours of down time, according to organizers.

posted by rtha at 2:35 PM on February 26, 2008


life is apparently much like adolescence:
......loading
......loading
......loading
......loading
......loading
......unable to connect
posted by kuujjuarapik at 2:41 PM on February 26, 2008 [1 favorite]


I'll admit that I did try to load the site about 11.3 million times, personally. I apologize.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:56 PM on February 26, 2008


It works for me.
posted by Tehanu at 4:16 PM on February 26, 2008


MySpecies.

No, that's the Macaulay Library. Has that not been linked here before? I'm not seeing it, but for some reason I thought it had.
posted by Tehanu at 4:25 PM on February 26, 2008


AP: Life encyclopedia too popular to live.

The encyclopedia's Web site logged 11.5 million hits over 5 1/2 hours, including two hours of down time, according to organizers.
posted by Tehanu at 6:33 PM on February 26, 2008


Oh ha. I totally missed that people had already linked to that.
posted by Tehanu at 6:34 PM on February 26, 2008


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