Collective Unconcious: A Toolarmy Experiment

[hellboy]

About a month ago a Tool fan got in touch with me talking about a website he'd created called Collective Unconcious. It's basically a copy of Toolarmy, with all the posts from the site imported, and able to be added to. Basically a working version of Toolarmy. It uses a couple of tricks to work out who you are (you need to be an existing Toolarmy member to use the site) and is an interesting experiment.

The creator is pondering the future of the site at the moment, and it throwing it open to TA members to log in and have a shot. If the interest is there, he'll keep it online. If people aren't interested, it'll probably disappear into the folds of the internet.

Disclaimer: even though I've used the site, I'm in no way involved in the creation or hosting of it, nor do I take any responsibility for what it does (or doesn't) do.

Here's the link: https://www.collective-unconscious.org/login

[Bill Hilly]

I receive an internal server error when attempting to log in, probably due to my low karma.

[aphex0]

Fuck yeah. I miss Anastomosis before all the presale bitching.

[Kittaan]

I was able to get logged in. Interesting project.

PS - Getting a ton of these, usually when trying to go back to previous post:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an unexpected internal server error

(generated by waitress)

[basejumper]

It uses a couple of tricks to work out who you are

Tricks?

[hellboy]

It uses a couple of tricks to work out who you are

Tricks?

Nothing untoward, just a change to your TA profile with a code in it that presumably the scraper can read. You're not giving the site your password or anything like that.

[awoke]

I receive an internal server error when attempting to log in, probably due to my low karma.

Karma has no bearing on whether or not you can register and log in. Please blame incompetence on the programmers part before anything else. Did you try rebooting?

[awoke]

I was able to get logged in. Interesting project.

PS - Getting a ton of these, usually when trying to go back to previous post:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an unexpected internal server error

(generated by waitress)

You want it all but you can't have it.

PS Sorry about that.

[awoke]

It uses a couple of tricks to work out who you are

Tricks?

Nothing untoward, just a change to your TA profile with a code in it that presumably the scraper can read. You're not giving the site your password or anything like that.

That's exactly it. The application checks your TA profile to make sure you are actually a) an authorized user of TA and b) you are the owner of the username you are trying to claim. This site allows you to pm, reply and create new threads, so it's important for concurrency that you are actually who you claim to be.

[Bill Hilly]

It was a joke...

[hellboy]

Your real life karma just went down a point.

[awoke]

It was a joke...

ayyy lmao

[Bill Hilly]

Your real life karma just went down a point.

But it was a joke, Hailbuddha. As is the web admin asking me if I rebooted my pc. ayyy lmao.

[xZ1mM3r]

http://www.collective-unconscious.org/ .....

not to be confused with

http://www.collectiveunconscious.org/

which is also a Tool site with a collection of live performances

[fortysixand2]

Interesting idea. I keep getting the "Could not find this user on TA" error though.

[Kittaan]

Interesting idea. I keep getting the "Could not find this user on TA" error though.

I tried just adding the code to the end of the "About" box on my TA profile. That didn't seem to work. So I cleared it (copied it out first) then just put the code in by itself and that worked perfectly. You may try that.

You want it all but you can't have it.

PS Sorry about that.

Hey Awoke. Just to be clear I wasn't necessarily complaining, just pointing it out. I explored a bit more last night and found a couple of other interesting glitches, if you're interested.

I also found a couple of very interesting (to me) threads I completely forgot about and it was really cool to rediscover that detail. Next to impossible to follow some conversations on the broken TA itself, so I really appreciate what you've done.

[aphex0]

Anyone tried clicking the hidden buttons? One works, the meditation one does not but it shows the tree of all the posts if you click the bottom right one.

[awoke]

http://www.collective-unconscious.org/ .....

not to be confused with

http://www.collectiveunconscious.org/

which is also a Tool site with a collection of live performances

Indeed. You can also get to the forum clone via www.ta-cu.com

[awoke]

Interesting idea. I keep getting the "Could not find this user on TA" error though.

I tried just adding the code to the end of the "About" box on my TA profile. That didn't seem to work. So I cleared it (copied it out first) then just put the code in by itself and that worked perfectly. You may try that.

You want it all but you can't have it.

PS Sorry about that.

Hey Awoke. Just to be clear I wasn't necessarily complaining, just pointing it out. I explored a bit more last night and found a couple of other interesting glitches, if you're interested.

I also found a couple of very interesting (to me) threads I completely forgot about and it was really cool to rediscover that detail. Next to impossible to follow some conversations on the broken TA itself, so I really appreciate what you've done.

Yeah, not surprised. It's not completely finished... haven't spent any time on it over the last month. Not sure some stuff will be worth fixing. If enough people are using it then I'll get back to it -- but, yeah that'd be cool -- you can pm the bugs to me there Thanks!

[awoke]

Interesting idea. I keep getting the "Could not find this user on TA" error though.

Not your fault -- I hadn't accounted for multiple results when checking a username. If you want to try again, it should work now.

[fortysixand2]

Interesting idea. I keep getting the "Could not find this user on TA" error though.

Not your fault -- I hadn't accounted for multiple results when checking a username. If you want to try again, it should work now.

It's working now. Thank you, sir.

[Kittaan]

Just tried to hit this again and it appears to be gone.

@ Awoke - if you're out there, what's the story? I know HB mentioned above: "If people aren't interested, it'll probably disappear into the folds of the internet." Was that the case?

[hellboy]

Just tried to hit this again and it appears to be gone.

@ Awoke - if you're out there, what's the story? I know HB mentioned above: "If people aren't interested, it'll probably disappear into the folds of the internet." Was that the case?

I can't really speak for awoke, but during my conversations with him he seemed to suggest the site was mostly an experiment. It was costing him money to host, and while happy to do so if it was warranted, didn't see a lot of benefit in doing so for a few. Also, there's probably a legal minefield of potential issues with the site as well, should Tool's management ever decide to look into it.

[awoke]

Just tried to hit this again and it appears to be gone.

@ Awoke - if you're out there, what's the story? I know HB mentioned above: "If people aren't interested, it'll probably disappear into the folds of the internet." Was that the case?

Indeed. Had very few people come through and very little activity. I sent a note to Blair offering it to them gratis, but didn't hear back. Not surprised at all given their recent troubles. Putting the site together was a fun learning experience for me which is always appreciated.

I still have it; I can spin it back up if warranted. For the time being, though, I don't want to give my hosting company more money than I already am for something that's not being used. People can reach me at ta.awoke@gmail.com if they want to. I can help find stuff, create a dump of their posts, etc.

Cheers!

[Boldizar]

Could someone please briefly describe what the Tool Army site has on it (content/usage wise). I have never been able to find a description and would really appreciate it.