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Critical Mass
A popular website, referenced in Hypnosis Doesn't Work Like That!.
Originally founded as a joke site in the early days of the internet, CritMass has gone through many incarnations. Originally it was a blog where a couple of college friends posted reviews of the sermons at the campus church. As the venue rotated between different faiths and traditions, this got quite popular; with some members of the ecclesiastical team treating their relative scores for 'Hellfire', 'Scriptural Accuracy', and 'Engagement' as a kind of competition.
Later, other members were given the ability to add their own reviews, originally by emailing one of the founders. Then the site moved on to allowing people to review a particular service by their own priests anywhere around the world. There seemed to be an odd niche for people who wanted to read reviews of something they hadn't directly experienced. when the site gained more than 16 contributors, the first generation of an automated posting system was created.
Because the site allowed reviews of subjects for which there was no categorical listing, occasional posts were made reviewing things other than church services. Most were deleted, but one was noted by the founders - it included actual code they could use to allow people to rate using arbitrary criteria. Now, people could choose to score based on "Scriptural accuracy", "Accent", "Modesty", or "Christyness", as well as anything else they could think of; and the site would give comparisons of the reviewed sermons if there were at least two scores in common.
The next change (the site's 4th version) came with the promotion of coder "Wolfgang3903" to moderator; and a mass debater on whether reviews of other ephemeral media should be given their own 'denomination' (category). Most of the debate around this was conducted through the form of people reviewing each other's arguments. But eventually, the site was expanded to allow reviews of arbitrary things without the need to link to them. The search and browse functions were massively improved, creating the foundation of the modern CritMass.
Style
The site is currently red and gold, with different coloured circles indicating different kinds of notifications. Green is for "metas" or "metareviews"; a review of another review on the site, a common way to argue with someone's findings. A meta doesn't generate an email notification (only an on-site one) if the person writing it is more than one "Rep level" lower than you.
Known Users
- PeterKhan + Wolfgäng! + Wheels Without Wheels - the "CritMassTrio", the site's longest standing members
- At present PeterKhan is head moderator and PR guy, Wolfgang is head coder, and WWW is the group's accountant. They have different official roles in the running of the site, but they all have practical moderation powers if the situation demands it.
- Professor Nimh / Adelaide Juniper Spenser
- Locke / Alex Chastaine
- Recurseception / Dean Carter
- Petrolith Addict / Britney Wakefield
- PresidentStoner31 / Garfield Spenser
- Ace of Sporks - one of Garfield's friends, and a compulsive troll. Has nothing good to say about anyone, and his posts are usually carefully crafted to upset a specific target, even using off-site background research to find someone's hot buttons. Has dozens of extra accounts that he uses to tease people, including:
- AfterEightThousand - an apparent intellectual (chapter 291) who has found the perfect way to screw with Adi (by making a scathing academic critique of her work)
