Top In-App Purchases: 1) Blame Ted Add-On Pack

I think a dithered gradient could look awesome printed out, especially if you go all the way and halftone it or something.

On the other hand, my eyes are really drawn to XLCR's crotchvent.

The original Checkerboard Nightmare EZboards are where I met my hetero lifemate, and there's a reason for that: CxN offered a level of sharpness in commentary that wasn't present anywhere else, and it attracted superfans like me and Stephen who wanted to interact with its creator. The forum, crudely, was able to convert that parallel urge into an intersecting relationship.

But forum software is still almost all derived from the old BBS model, and that is a bad way to channel human interaction. Good emergent behavior aside, it inevitably ends up promoting negativity and decompressed nerdrage in the long run. Attempts to game this model always make it worse (cf postcount ranks, community postvoting, etc, etc).

I know your recurring problem is spam, but even relatively spamproof forums I've seen all fall prey to the human problem eventually. (I mean, the forums also produced "random," fanon, and Doctor Hot.) It's NP-Hard, and the only successful strategy is a heavily involved mod who cares. But you don't want to do that, you've got actual shit to do.

The forum community isn't actually that big anymore. I say you post more often to the Starslip blog and here, maybe try the "open thread" thing once in a while, and let the posts provide opportunities for discussion.

So what you're saying is, Kurt invented Straub facial hair, and you stuck a little more on the chin and pretended like it was your idea all along.

Kurt originated that beard, if I recall correctly.