Concept of Lore in Web Page Design modulo AI
Arthur T. Murray
beyond the delivery of some boring but necessary information.
Remember Myst, the early CD-ROM game that fascinated players?
Remember your first ride on the UFO that landed near Roswell NM?
If you do, then you are aware that "lore," or mythology, or
traditional knowledge, is what makes any place -- even a Web page --
more fun to explore than even the sleekest of boring but commercial
emporia. "You can not fake amateurism!" is principle number one
of adding lore to your home page. Never say die and never say
"Under construction," because people will judge for themselves.
The unfinished state of a symphony or a site excites people.
"Allow your visitors the thrill of discovery in finding your site"
is cyberlore web-principle number two. If you become aware that
site XYZ has linked to you, do the obvious thing (link back) and
the not so obvious lore-enhancing ploy: Register the URL of XYZ
with AltaVista, Googol, HotBot and sundry other search engines.
Use the TITLE="secret-decoder-ring-message" HTML tag to make your
page infinitely marvelous to explore. First the spelunker-vel-
visitor stumbles across your site, then the eyeballs marvel at
how just hovering over any given link causes a hidden message
to pop up alongside the pointer of the mouse or what-have-you.
"Show the eyeballs more than meets the eye" is how to put it.
For instance, use some <!-- comment tags --> to hide juicy data
within your source file, such as: where you obtained a link;
"as seen on alt.folklore.computers" or some such; anything goes.
Try to offer any visitor not a jumble of information but a well-
organized, sumptuous feast of so many entrees that the visitor
will only reluctantly leave the site while vowing to come back.
"Do not bore; explore more with lore" extends even unto filenames.
Do not be rational; be idiosyncratic. Consider these pairs of
possible filenames for local pages related to Mind.Forth PD AI:
name-length: 12345678 1234567
BOOTSTRAP: boostrap.html or bootstr.html?
COMPARATOR: compator.html or compara.html?
DISCRIMINATE: diminate.html or discrim.html?
FLUSH-VECTOR: flushtor.html or flush-v.html?
METEMPSYCHOSIS: mempsych.html or metemps.html?
SENSORIUM: sesorium.html or sensori.html?
STRING-EFFECT: $-effect.html or stringef.html?
TRANSFORMATION: x4mation.html or transfo.html?
Isn't goofy and dramatic better than logical but boring?
Likewise, "lore" is that intangible quality which makes
your labor-of-love website so outstanding, so memorable
and so intriguing, that the accidental lore-lorn will
rush to tell everybody else what they have found: you!
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/mind-fpc.html
is a ne plus ultra serious artificial intelligence Web site.
Indeed, Mind.Forth AI Source Code is so incalculably serious
that it will deploy the magic of lore to present not only the
Grand Challenge of Y2K AI for Computer Programming but also
such softer, more meditative subjects as nanotechnology;
virtual reality modulo AI; Search for SETI Intelligence;
Metempsychosis Cyborg "Soul Travel"; et cetera et lorica.
Scott Wheeler
wrote:
>Indeed, Mind.Forth AI Source Code is so incalculably serious
>that it will deploy the magic of lore to present not only the
>Grand Challenge of Y2K AI for Computer Programming but also
>such softer, more meditative subjects as nanotechnology;
>virtual reality modulo AI; Search for SETI Intelligence;
>Metempsychosis Cyborg "Soul Travel"; et cetera et lorica.
Yes, but does it make good tea?
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