FOOL Thread F.A.Q.

shield

Why are you called FOOLs?

The original thread started out as a gripe thread called "Feels Out Of Luck" = F.O.O.L.

What is the topic of this thread?

Well, it had one once, but... nowadays this is more of a community than a topic. There is of course talk about 3D stuff, but just about anything that doesn't break the TOS is fair game.

Do I have to read ALL of it before posting?

That's not even currently possible, and even if it were it wouldn't be recommended. You can read back a few days worth, or lurk for a while to get the feel of the place, or just jump in feet-first and start posting!

What are the membership requirements?

You must be a living person with access to the DAZ Member's Only forum and be willing to post in the FOOLs thread. Try and get along with people or at least coexist; and don't be a "donkey chapeau." Seriously: Show up and talk; that's all you have to do!

Anything I should *NOT* talk about?

Not much. Mostly, anything that doesn't violate DAZ's TOS is fair game for conversation; but there are a few things to watch out for. Making fun of people's pets is generally considered a no-no. And don't refer to anything outside the thread as "real life". The people in this thread are just as real as you claim to be. The preferred term is "Offline".

Why should I "Be Careful..."?

"Be careful what you wish for" is the full phrase. Wishes expressed in the FOOL thread have come true on a number of occassions, and not always in the way that people expect... phrase requests carefully; and don't joke about wanting something if your not prepared to actually get it.
Note: Much like washing your car to try and make it rain, this phenomena cannot be forced. It happens when you least expect it. Randomly saying "I wish people would send me gift certificates" rarely gets results for most people.

Why so many threads?

Left to itself, the thread would grow to thousands of pages (the original one did!) To reduce the strain on the forums, the thread is broken off every hundred pages. The last message of the previous chunk and the first message of the new one are linked together by the admins to provide continuity.

What is "Thread Head"?

Despite what it sounds like, it's neither something dirty or a bad hairdo. The frequent splitting has an unusual side effect. Whoever has the top post on page 101 will be the new 'Author' of the thread in the forum index. Some people actively compete to get this spot; others prefer to let it happen naturally and randomly. Either way, the Thread Head is the unofficial leader for a few days... till we split again!
For the record: The Original Author of the first thread was SilverElf. The author of the new, ever-splitting thread was Cliff Bowman.

What is that shield thing?

The shield is the creation of The Poster Formerly Known As Jim and represents various members of the original FOOLs. The Latin along the top means "Praise (laud) FOOLishness", and along the bottom is "I'm FOOLish therefore I am". T.P.F.K.A.J.'s description follows:
The Scythe is for Reaperhood.
The Sword is my sword I made and did a tute here in the FOOL thread, lost to the mists of time. It balanced the design.
The Helmet is for the Knights in this thread.
The Laurel is something we can never rest on.
The Jester hat is self explanatary.
The Candy Bar is a major event to us, it meant endless supplies of sweeties for the sweeties.
The Club and the Flail are the tools of the Mistresses who mete out the needed punishments.
The Mandolin is a tip of the hat to John in Scotland who is a musician and can actually play one, as well as receognition for the classics not only in music, but art in general as well.

The Horseshoe is inverted, meaning that luck has run out.
Seven Triangles at the top are the 7 Days of the Week.
The Circle Dots are Bandy in Disguise, also the symbol for Sol, the Sun.
The Sun and Moon are present for the fact that the FOOL thread goes 24-7. The Crescent is, well, Crescent.
The Silver around the Shield itself is for SilverElf, our Thread Matron.
The Earth on the bottom represents the Global nature of our locations physically.
The Tree is the Tree of Life, with every personal association one can attach to the notion based on one's own understanding of the idea Otherwise, it simply means how the thread has branched out as well as the FOOL Map and lands claimed in the name of FOOLishness.
The Mug of Root Beer must be present.
The Hourglass represents the endless wastes of time spent typing away and reading in here.
The Musical note represents the musical talents of Nightstar, VI Knight, John and any other multitalented individuals amongst us we don't yet know of entirely.
The Dragon is my tattoo I got in Wales, Cardiff to be exact. It looked cool, so I stuck it in.
The Elephant is one of Cliff's favorite animals and hearkens to a time when his avatar had one on a treadmill and perambulated endlessly on, inspiring others to have a go at animated avatars and walk cycles.
The Smiley Face is also an obvious choice due to their prolific use.

How do I put the shield in my sig?

Just add this code to your sig:
[img]http://forum.daz3d.com/postimages/origimage_1_139972.jpg[/img]

Where can I buy stuff emblazoned with the FOOLs Shield?

Why, the NEW Feels Out Of Luck store, of course, maintained by chaines & Bob C.!
All items in the FOOLs store are at cafepress "cost" - nobody is making a profit off of this!

Where do you get those neat smilies?

There are several places, but most of them come from http://www.cosgan.de/. http://www.mysmilie.de/ (English version) and http://www.bestsmileys.com/ are also popular.

What does it mean to "Speak rortiz"?

To 'Speak rortiz' is to carry on a conversation using only smilies. rortiz is a FOOL who is often elsewhere in the forums spreading his own special brand of FOOLishness. He also has a reputation for extensive use of smilies, sometimes posting responses that consist only of a string of Cosgan's smilies, and/or the shock smiley which has become his trademark.

What's the deal with the tiny text?

The largest text the forum can display is [size=24]. However, the smallest it can display is [size=1]! Many FOOLs use this fine print as a sort of footnote to their comments, a way to get a second meaning across without taking away from the original text. Or sometimes to carry on semi-private conversations ("We know you can read it but we're only talking to each other".)
There are one or two FOOLs you can sneak something past with small talk; but most of use have ways of reading it. Preferred methods include clicking the Quote button, copying and pasting into Notepad, and using a Zoom/Increase Text Size/Set Minimum Text Size feature in your browser of choice.

Who is Typoman?

Our resident supervillian, he is responsible for all the misspellings, droped leters and wrong words that occur in the FOOLs tread. Disciple and Clawson (the Cat) finally showed us what Typoman looks like. For the truly brave, get out your red-blue glasses and check out Typoman in 3D!
Disciple also created a mini-Typoman smiley that can be inserted in your posts to mark the scene of his crimes. Just insert following code:
[img]http://forum.daz3d.com/postimages/origimage_1_168053.gif[/img] = typoman

What are BooBees?

They're a popular topic of conversation!
They're also sort of a mascot to the FOOLs thread: Click here to see a BooBee
If you would like to play with your own BooBee, you can download the texture here. You will need the DAZ Ghost, and also MyLilAlien for the antennae.

Who is Bandy?

Bandy is a happy, bouncing Band-AidTM... Yeah, that's what he is. A Band-AidTM. He shows up in the FOOL thread every now and then, but especially when the subject of BooBees comes up. Often in pairs, as shown below.
bouncing bandybouncing bandy
Recently, and in the interest of fairness to all, Bandy was joined by the purple-helmeted Bonedy, thanks to GoofyFoot.
smiley with suspicious purple helmet

What is an entendre monkey?

The entendre monkeys wait in the shadows of the FOOL thread, ready to pounce on casual remarks and turn them into rude and suggestive things by taking them out of context. Gratters managed to get a rare picture of the monkey.

What is "warping"?

The FOOL thread moves so fast sometimes being away from it for an hour or two can put you pages behind! And if you dare to sleep...
Reading through several old pages and posting replies is called 'timewarping' or 'warping' for short. It sometimes brings back parts of the conversation that had long since passed, or been missed the first time around. It does keep things interesting.

Why do FOOLs keep saying "Look Up!"?

The FOOLs are a pretty open group mostly, but sometimes communication via Private Message is still required. "Look Up!" means look at the top of the page to see the "You have n New Messages" note.

When is "SOON"?

Merriam-Webster defines SOON as "at once, immediately, before long, without undue time lapse, in a prompt manner"
DAZ has a reputation for defining the word somewhat differently... "SOON" can mean a few days, a few weeks, even a few months and on rare occasions years. Sometimes it even means "soon". This temporal flexibility is echoed in the acronym T.A.R.D.I.S., coined by Disciple, which stands for "The anticipated release date is soon."

Must everything go?

Yes, everything must go

Do we have a theme song?

In fact we do, composed, arranged and performed by the multi-talented VI Knight. Here it is in MP3 Format: FOOL's Hollow. Enjoy!

What is a "Donkey Chapeau"?

Some of the FOOLs got in a bit of trouble calling someone an A$$hat... but don't ask what that is. Even the ones who said it don't know. Disciple brought us this vision of what a Donkey Chapeau might look like.

What is a FAQ?

Inevitable.

What is the "M-Word"?

Math. Some FOOLs love it, others are exceptionally wary of it. Overuse of math talk in the thread could get you the soft cushions...

What's the deal with the Root Beer?

The root beer is the Official FOOL party drink. We do not serve alcohol so the closest we get to beer is root beer, especially when driving the Party Vehicles.
Note: Whether alcohol is present or not is an issue of some debate; but as far as the TOS is concerned... it's Root Beer

Why is there a cheerleader here?

FOOLs talk a lot. Some of us have very high post counts... it used to be that people would get congratulated when they hit a major milestone in their post counts... every 500 or 1000 or so. Eventually people started celebrating any post count that ended in a double zero; and there were so many FOOLs saying congratulations to so many other FOOLs that their own post counts shot up and... it was starting to get a little out of hand. Lady chaines was nominated to take the job of Official FOOL Thread Cheerleader, and she does a fantastic job at it.

What's the FOOL map?

The map shows many locations where FOOLs might be, in or out of the thread. Occassionally FOOLs get lost in places such as the Mountains of Work; the map is there to help them find the way back. There have been several incarnations of the map, and a new one is in the works. This one is one of the early versions.

Pink Hat? What's that all about?

The pink hat is another creation of T.P.F.K.A.J. ... it is worn by FOOLs running amok in the other forums -- nekkid except for the pink hat! It is the symbol of foolish freedom! Or sometimes it's just the symbol of nekkidness for purely orney reasons...

Why do people keep talking about Spoons?

This one seems to have started with a comment by Gratters which said "I have a plan and it involves mainly spoons." In a joint effort, typoman and the entendre monkeys lept upon this presumably innocent phrase and turned it into "manly spoons". I'll leave the rest to your imagination...

What is the Comfy Chair?

One of the standard punishment devices for misbehaving FOOLs

What are the Soft Pillows for?

You don't want to find out...

So what time does this party shut down for the night then?

FOOLs encircle the globe; so the fun just never ends!

FOOL FAQ maintained by BlueKnot - Last Updated 4/1/2007 -- how appropriate!