Since we now have an exceptionally large number of uninvited new users, now would be a good time to go over some of the things that make you "Adequate" and what things do not. As a first approximation, it is safe to guess that we really don't want you here. If you persist in thinking you are the exception, read on and we shall see about that.

If you haven't followed the first link in this article, go back and click on it now. Can you see the traffic stats? Or did you get a 404?

The Traffic Stats page is one of the special pages that only Adequacy.org editors can see. Aside from them and their close friends, and perhaps three or four other people, no one can view the Special Pages. I bring this up to make an important point about how Adequacy.org is supposed to work.

Here I am, placing this article on the front page of Adequacy.org for "all" to read, yet the very first link, the one that the whole article rests upon, is not viewable by the general public. A problem? No, not in the least. I don't care about anyone reading this or understanding it besides the other editors and their select associates. The small Adequacy.org in-crowd is one of the most educated, insightful and talented cliques to be found anywhere on the Internet. The opinions of a group like this carry enormous weight amongst the intelligentsia, the public intellectuals whose ideas filter down to the popular opinion-makers whose words in turn influence the reading public and the digerati, and thence to the masses at large. Ideas flow in one direction here: downwards, from the betters to their inferiors.

So a typical Adequacy.org article is a piece of this ongoing conversation amongst these top public intellectuals, and we don't want intruders coming along disrupting the synergistic power of that exclusive dialogue. Most common people, such as the "Kurobots," meaning typical Kur5hin.org users, don't belong in that kind of conversation. They generally aren't capable of understanding it, and won't live long enough to ever "get it," to use a popular catchphrase.

Let me use my girlfriend poltroon as an example of what I'm getting at. Like others associated with the Adequacy.org inner-circle, she is exceptionally talented in many different fields: as a highly sought-after software developer at the world's leader in computer graphics research, tools production, and original content creation. At the same time, poltroon is an artist whose work is a glimpse at where the rest of the world of visual arts will be in five years or more.

She has created paintings and drawings such as this portrait, and this still life. Or this scene. Quite nice, right? This is the kind of art that the public loves and pays top dollar for. You can understand it and you can see the skill that went into it. This artist really knows how to draw, doesn't she?

Yes indeed. Now... listen.

Poltroon hasn't made anything like that in over twelve years. Those accessible and comprehensible works were done before the artist was in her early teens. They are childhood doodles, and when it was recently suggested that she perhaps make a few more paintings like that, just to please people, she replied "but then I would be a prostitute."

If you have ever checked out poltroon's portfolio site, you know that her recent work is nothing like that. The kind of thing she does now, in response to her true artistic feeling, is not accessible at all to those of you who like the fox and rabbit painting so much. They have those at Amazon.com, by the way. Perhaps you should be shopping there right now, instead of pretending you belong at Adequacy.org, no?

Each in his and her own way, all of the Adequacy.org editors create work that is similarly inaccessible to the typical vocationally but illiberally educated sysadmins and web monkeys that populate sites like the lately off-line Kuro5hin.org. When they blunder over here to Adequacy.org, they are usually put off quickly and never return. Inexplicably, some of these lowbrows don't leave. They sometimes react strongly to the issues that they think they have been invited to "debate" with the Adequacy.org staff, and so hang around trying to match wits with them. Or, sadly, they see humor here. They can't understand the art of this site, and so deal with it by telling themselves it is some kind of joke. They call it "parody" or "satire."

It isn't. But of course they -- you -- don't understand at all.

This should be enough to tell you that you don't belong here and clearly are not wanted. But what I observe happens is that many of these simple fools will tell themselves that they really do like this kind of stuff. Pretend that they understand it, when they really can't fathom a bit of it. So the point of this article is to try to convince you to be honest with yourself. Why keep pretending, anyway? What can you possibly gain by deluding yourself into thinking that you would want a painting like this one hanging in your home. Does it really speak to you at all? Do you even like looking at it? If you were forced to explain what the work is saying, you couldn't do it to save your life, could you? Could you name even one of the references in it? Explicate even one of the symbols? No, you could not.

There is no shame in admitting it. Go ahead admit what you are thinking: It's just intellectual snobbery. Insufferable arrogance. The emperor has no clothes. That's not art! It's crap! My kid sister could draw better than that!

There, there. You believe it. You know it in your bones. Is there any conceivable reason to pretend otherwise? Do you think you are impressing anyone by pretending you're "Adequate"? You aren't.

There. Can I be any more clear about this? Is there any room for misinterpretation here? No. It is crystal clear: you don't belong at Adequacy.org, and Adequacy.org doesn't want you. Other places want you, and you know you are happier there. So don't stay. Go. Go! Get lost already, please?