I’ve had a link up to xkcd.com for several months now, having treated it merely as a frequently-funny webcomic chock-a-block with geeky goodness. I never read the xkcd blog or looked up the author; I was content to assume that whoever wrote those comics was a legitimate math nerd that spends too much time around computers. It took 4chan implementing its new /r9k/ board for me to catch on. Material like the recent article on the Laser Elevator is far and away more interesting than when the constraints of a comic-strip format come into play.

Anyhow, the folks at 4chan have implemented the Robot 9000 concept in what promises to be a mid-to-long-term replacement for /b/. I’m mildly tempted to see how many times I have to copy & paste the word “desu” into a post in order to get it past the filters, but won’t try. Aside from /b/, the various boards were topical and had rules. /b/ is non-topical and has a marked lack of rules. /r9k/ is non-topical and has automatically-enforced rules. I wonder what anon will be filling it up with a month from now? Will the attempt at forced originality help or hinder the entertainment value? Should I set up a betting pool? How many ways can you clearly communicate that somebody should do a barrel roll? So many questions…