Years and years ago, at parties I used to go to, the One Shot was a standard fixture. In those pre-(ubiquitous-)internet days, it was a computer in a corner with a word processor running. During the course of the party, people would sit down at the computer and write things: snippets of overheard conversation, random blather, the complete history of the Democratic People's Republic of Upper Spidulstani, and much much more. One Shots even survived the introduction of the Dvorak layout on
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
politas's computer, although the typos were even more inventive during that dark time. I kept a couple of them -- they're somewhere on my backup CDs, I really should find them -- and they were great fun. Very surreal.
I thought about writing a program to handle One Shots, and I even came up with a name: Mu Shot, from the
Jargon-Filish definition of Mu meaning something like "that question is unasked". I got thinking tonight about how such a beast would work, and what it would need to do in order to be better than a mere word-processor. Here's what I came up with:
For a start, we need a computer with a webcam. Any time a new user sits down at the computer, they pose for a headshot, and they get to pick some colours and fonts for their particular contributions. From then on, every time they want to make a contribution, they can pick their picture from the mugshot gallery and begin.
An individual contribution is a bit of text. There's no limit on size, but perhaps on time: you leave it for too long without typing something and your contribution is considered done. Contributions are marked with the author's identity and the time and date, and presented in their preferred fonts and colours.
You can't go back and edit your contributions; typos and errors are considered part of the historical gestalt; no revisionism allowed!
The program steals control of the computer (much easier in Windows; don't know if that's possible in Linux). No using the computer for games, web browsing and other trivia when the Mu Shot is in progress. The owner of the system has the password, and no nasty rebooting the machine mid-party.
Finally, there are rules on how much any one contributor can do. The program isn't afraid to be rude to people who spend too much time in Mu-Shotting and not enough in getting drunk and snogging ill-advised strangers, as is traditional at parties. The personality can be adjusted by the owner, ranging from
the polite to
the crotchetty and everywhere in between.
It'd be pretty simple, actually. I wonder if anyone would use it -- or have teh intertubes killed the One Shot forever?
Edited to add: arthwollipot reminds me that anonymity is a useful feature. So perhaps there should be a separate contributor account called "Anonymous Erythrophobe" that contributors can choose any time they want to contribute anonymously.
