Department of Redundancy Department, The

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Lethal Interjection
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Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by Lethal Interjection »

The Department of Redundancy Department (DRD) was formed in 2006 to streamline the forum into a more efficient entity. After the presumed death of Sheriff Dani there remained a significant power void. Without any present authority or fear of banishment, some of the citizenry were concerned that the forum would fall into vast disarray.
In response, a group of concerned citizens formed a council of co-directors and called it the Department of Redundancy Department. Unlike Sheriff Dani, the department was not sanctioned by Zach the Magnificent, but an independent group attempting to preserve the culture of SMB City. While a list of the co-directors of the DRD has never been found, their crest was discovered and gives some idea of the historical context.
Image

With no real vestige of power, their enforcement of efficiency was usually covert and often included the support of minor political candidates. Their involvement in the <<Outlandia Modoral Elections>> is known, but there is little information available as to whether the DRD was supporting Green Crayon or TwoBuy. The power this allowed the DRD was miniscule, and any proper actions that needed to be taken usually required extensive bribery.

In 2018, immediately after the first election of the SMB City Committee Members, the Department was made an official part of the SMB City government, often officially regarded as the Department of Forum Regulation. This also marked the end of <<the Epoch Epoch>>, which was known historically for post inefficiency among some of the citizenry.

The DRD was perhaps one of the more active of the governing bodies in SMBC history. Many initiatives were attempted by the Department, to varying degrees of success. For example, in the early years some of the citizenry found themselves receiving delivered Official Notices of Redundancy. These were warnings that the posting habits of the recipient were not up to the efficiency standards of the council of co-directors as stipulated in a subsection of the <<Implicit Superiority Act>>.

In 2020 an expensive study was undertaken by the Department to determine the efficacy of the efficiency initiatives. It was determined that the subsection of the ISA was too broad in its language and thus the officers of the DRD were privy to making judgement calls in their enforcement. In order to better standardize the process, the Department unearthed an item that had be produced much earlier in the its history, though never perfected. Documentation of some of the early tests have been found:
Exactoman wrote:I hardly posted at all this morning for the risk of redundant posts. I hope this doesn't count as redundant. :|
GreenCrayon wrote:Very considerate of you. Let's check with the Redundant-o-meter.

"All signs point to peanut butter."

Hmmm, not very useful. It doesn't even specify crunchy or smooth.
As you can see these tests for the Redundant-o-meter were still very preliminary as sandwich spread was not yet considered part of proper standardization protocol.

In 2023 another study was commissioned by the DRD. Mathematicians from around the world were brought in to determine the mathematical formula for a perfect post. <<The Postcount++ Formula>> was an abysmal failure. Test subjects were poorly chosen and did not follow the mathematicians formulas, but would get caught up simply posting more than the subject in the next cage, posting single word responses or even responding with just a yellow face-like drawing (see source material above). The study was eventually shut down and funding relocated.

The Department of Redundancy Department eventually disbanded in 2028 when, during a council meeting, one of the co-directors realized that the Department, which had grown to a nearly unmanageable size in the previous decade, was together doing the job once performed by only Sheriff Dani. Each co-director realized their own redundancy and tendered their resignation, and the department crumbled leaving the forum with something of a power void once again.




Author's Commentary:
1. Some first-hand historical documents indicated that those under the employ of the DRD were "a bunch of stoopid old men who r jerks" (sic). These documents must be understood contextually, though, as it seems they have been written by the social outcasts of the era, or Noobs.

2. I have heard some poorly informed "scholars" refer to the Outlandia Modoral Elections as "Admin Idol". Any learned scholars know that this was a television show which documented the election. Any who say otherwise can be safely assumed to be college professors.

3. It seems clear that had the mathematicians our knowledge, they would've chosen trained monkeys as the subjects of their experiments instead of single males from the ages of 16 to 30. It is now known fact that monkeys converse on the internet far better than those from said demographic. The Postcount++ Formula might have actually prevented much of the discord in the history of SMBC. But alas.

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Edminster
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Re: Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by Edminster »

In combing through the correspondance of my earliest ancestor, I uncovered some odd measurement metrics regarding something called 'post quality'. Is it possible that they are at least tangentially related to the Postcount++ Formula? For your convenience, I have attached the salient commentary to this response.
Edminster wrote:I generally measure the quality by the number of guffaws per post (GPP). Ideally, the GPP runs at around two to three, because anything more will cause fluid loss, whilst any less will leave the reader feeling apathetic or possibly even overtly hostile. If this forum was instead based on a website that primarily offers uplifting stories, I would measure quality differently. Perhaps in Contented Smiles Per Post, or maybe Joyous Tears Per Post.
mountainmage wrote:I measure it FIGs, or, fucks I give. High ratings equal good posts.
Lethal Interjection wrote:I judge post quality by reverse-symbiosis.
ol qwerty bastard wrote:bitcoin is backed by math, and math is intrinsically perfect and logically consistent always

gödel stop spreading fud

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Re: Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by Lethal Interjection »

That seems very plausible. I actually wasn't sure if The Postcount++ Formula had enough information to warrant its own entry, but with this discovery of some of the findings of the formula, perhaps it is afterall.

((I also nearly didn't link it because I realized I already had two proper phantom links in the Modoral Election and Epoch Epoch and didn't want to over-step my citing))

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Re: Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by Edminster »

I'm glad that I was able to provide assistance in that matter. I have taken the liberty of correcting the entry on the SMB City Committee as per your suggestion, and have already edited the important events into the Chronology. All that remains is to add the refences into the 'Cyclopedia Index, after which I believe I shall retire for the evening with a fine bottle of Scotch that I am assured is from the days when the Forum still existed in a recognisable form.
ol qwerty bastard wrote:bitcoin is backed by math, and math is intrinsically perfect and logically consistent always

gödel stop spreading fud

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Re: Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by Oldrac the Chitinous »

I have to disagree with your assessment of the Postcount++ Formula project as an abysmal failure. Granted, it didn't achieve the results the DRD had intended for it, but it did produce some useful theorems. And it provided the groundwork for the Generalized version developed in 2045, which spurred a period of unprecedented economic growth for the forum. So it got useful results, just not the ones the project leaders wanted.

Or that's what my Math friends tell me, anyway. I went into history to get away from that kind of nonsense.
Police said they spent some time working out if they could charge the man with being armed with a weapon, as technically he was armed with part of a fish.

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Re: Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by Lethal Interjection »

While I have limited knowledge of the later uses of The Postcount++ Formula, I am willing to concede your point. My intention was not to discount the formula itself, but more to discount the fact that such a formula was able to be properly tested (or at least under the parameters the DRD study set forth).
Perhaps my phrasing didn't make this perfectly clear, but my intention was to count the study as a failure, not the formula itself.

Edit (March 13th, 2009):

I just reread my post and will draw attention to this: "Test subjects were poorly chosen and did not follow the mathematicians formulas..." This is the sentence directly following my statement that the formula was an "abysmal failure."
The quote clearly has me discreditting the study, with no criticisms of the formulas themselves. Not perfect clarity, but I think my intentions are clear, and the sentence in question can be read as though "The Postcount++ Formula" was simply the name of the study (which I believe was my thought at the time of writing).

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Re: Department of Redundancy Department, The

Post by ChooChooTrain »

A formula for increasing postcount? I've gotta get my hands on that formula...

I eagerly look forward to reading the entry for The Postcount++ Formula.
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