On the infinitely recursive nature of both the internet, and blonde jokes

[andrewducker]

budgie_uk posted today about a blonde joke he'd heardm with a link to it.  I clicked the link, clicked the link on the second page, and realised it was one of those infinite chains, where each level just says "click here to see the funny joke" and the first entry is 5000 entries down.

So, having nothing else to do except tidy the flat, I decided to see how deep it was.

The trail left LJ, wandered around various blog sites, back to LJ, back off LJ, then back onto it again, and onto the LJ of theferrett - back in December 2003!

So I followed it a few more links, and discovered an infinite loop going:

theferrett
samverick
mistressxenobia
laurapink       
fuzzyduck
ribbitrules
boredom_strikes
elfiepike
ktnb
stoptocheer
dmlaenker
shawnj
theferrett (go back to top of list)

leaving me wondering, how did this get started, and was it originally an infinite loop?

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Presumably you just need three or four like-minded folk to start a closed loop, then as everyone else jumps on, they can just add themselves to the cycle so wherever you start you'll end up in the evil loop.

[mirukux.livejournal.com]

you should ask in blog_sociology :)

[darkoshi]

Well, well; the things people will do to avoid tidying their flat. :)

[darkoshi]

Mistressxenobia's post seems the most suspicious to me, since it links to a post which was done nearly a year later, if one can believe the timestamps. My hypothesis is that her post originally linked to a post from someone named "Ash" (ashliana perhaps?)... and perhaps that post was subsequently deleted, so Xenobia updated the link to laurapink's post instead, thereby creating the loop.

I'm not avoiding tidying my flat, btw. I'm just plagued by idle curiosity.

[darkoshi]

A-ha! Look at the comment on Xenobia's post dated 2004-03-28. Apparently Ash changed their journal to friends-only... and then look at hulamuffin's comment below it... the mystery is explained!

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

Hehe, that is rather good actually.

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

I don't remember, but I still get a disproportionate share of comments on it. At one point, the next link broke, and I got a bunch of people bugging me to reestablish the link. Eeeps.