About the Spinning Spinny Thing

WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT, THEN?

The Spinning Spinny Thing chooses between options presented to it, following arcane whims known only to itself. Its main purpose is simple: it is used to make decisions when people are too bored, confused, apathetic or drunk to make them on their own. You just enter a list of possible decisions or activities, then fire up the Spinner and let it tell you which of them to do! You can either enter your own options, to help you decide between possibilities you're already considering, or you can choose from a wide selection of pre-made lists of options (in case you don't even know what to type in. Come on, admit it). Either way, the Spinner will choose between the options to decide your fate, and it is illegal not to obey*.

Alternatively, the Spinny Thing may be used to play a variety of games - you can play the pre-prepared games provided, or use the Spinner in place of dice for any game of your own.

The Spinny Thing may also be used by groups, to tell them what to do with (or to) each other. This can be used for 'truth or dare' or 'spin the bottle' games, for example, and again you can choose from pre-prepared lists or enter your own options.

*this is a lie.

HISTORY OF THE SPINNER

The Spinner has a complex and chequered history. It was developed in 1849 by Professor Hildebrand von Winkle of Florida as a treatment for appendicitis, but found greater popularity as a home remedy for many disorders in the procrastination spectrum. Observing a) that his invention was a thing, b) that it span and c) that it made decisions, Professor von Winkle employed his full creative talent and named it the "Spinning Spinny Thing of decision-making-ness", and so has it been known ever since.

Nowadays, the Spinny Thing is the number one medical intervention for Procrastination Spectrum Disorders, or PSDs. This website, however, is peddling the Spinner for purely recreational use - we make no claims to be associated with official clinical trials.

DISCLAIMER: EXCITING LEGAL FACTS

This website accepts no responsibility for loss of employment, depression, neural death or any other harm brought on by use of the Spinner. Please note: recreational use of the Spinner has been known to increase procrastination in certain at-risk groups of people. Please do not use if you are allergic to fun or suffer from Sense of Humour Deficit Syndrome.

Also, just so we're clear: if you go and do something stupid just because some website told you to... well that's entirely your own fault, really, isn't it?

N.B. The Spinner is suitable both for individual use (as a selector of activities) or by groups. We accept no responsibility for humiliation or unwanted pregnancy resulting from group use.

WHAT YOU SAY!! You want the terms and conditions in proper Legalese? Very well:

- The Spinny Thing website and its owners (henceforth: "we" or "the bosses") take absolutely no responsibility (to the maximum extent permitted by law) for anything which has ever happened, or ever will happen, anywhere in the universe.

- Users of this website (henceforth: "you" or "the peons") use the site entirely at your own risk. If your computer explodes while you're using the site, don't come running to us. K?

- If something appears as a Spinner option, or is selected by the Spinner, that doesn't mean that we endorse or encourage it. Anything entered as a Spinner option by a user is entirely the responsibility of the person who typed it in, and the suggested activities provided on the site are only for amusement. Please don't do anything illegal, abusive, harmful or stupid - and if you do, you take full responsibility for it. You are all individuals. YOU ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS.

- Use of the website signifies your acceptance of the above. These terms are to be governed by a specially convened court on the Spinny Thing's private space station, or, if this proves impractical, the law of England and Wales.

There, I hope you're satisfied.

FAQ: THE FREQUENT ASKING OF QUESTIONS

• Q. I have a fantastic idea for a game or function involving chaotic randomness, which I think should be added to the site!
  
  
  A. Ideas for new things to add to the Spinny Thing are always very welcome, so if you have a suggestion, please get in touch! Yes, you! You specifically, sitting there looking faintly amused - and now frightened.


• Q. The images of dice you use on various parts of the site are wrong! Three-dimensional dice don't look like that! This offends me.
  
  
  A. These are magic, two-dimensional dice. OK?


• Q. I've typed in a stupendously huge amount of stuff, and I'm getting an error and/or some of my options have disappeared! Why would you do this to me?
  
  
  A. You're using Internet Explorer, aren't you? For reasons not interesting enough to describe*, all the Spinner options currently have to be in the URL (i.e. the website address). Internet Explorer has a completely arbitrary limit on the length of URLs - it won't affect normal use, but it does means that some information can be lost if you type a huge amount in. We're working on better solutions, but for now, if you really need to enter that much, the only option is for you to switch to a more sensible web browser! There are many to choose from, but we recommend Firefox.
   * (In geek terms: we currently have to use GET for form submission, rather than POST).


• Q. You have adverts on the site. Don't you realise they're evil?
  
  
  A. My goodness, you're right! Thank heavens you brought this to our attention.


• Q. This site is great! Truly, you are gods among men.
  
  
  A. Ah, excellent. We had always suspected this, but it's nice to have independent confirmation!


• Q. THIS SITE SUXXOR! YOU SUXXOR!!
  
  
  A. Live XOR keep talking.


• Q. I've found a way to cheat at one of your games! AhahahaHAHAHA *HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA*!
  
  
  A. Oh noes.


• Q. Can I use HTML in the Spinner options I enter?
  
  
  A. Most HTML is disabled, but in some parts of the site (currently: "decision" options, the "Magic Spinner Ball", "Truth or Dare" and the multiplayer "Pairings / Groupings" tool) you can use <a>, </a>, <span> and </span> tags. These tags can be used to allow the Spinner's decisions to include working links, for example, and also to use CSS rules to change font colour and style. e.g.:
  
  
  <span style="color:green">This is green!</span>
  <a href="http://www.example.com">My link</a>
  
  
  Some things to note:

  • To make working links, be sure to use the complete URL, as in the example above.
  • Unless you want to make selective changes to specific parts of the text in each box, the closing </a> and </span> tags may be omitted.
  • The banners (to put in blogs, etc), which are generated so you can record Spinner decisions, use the text in the banner as a link back to your options, by default. If you create your own links, they will replace this default link in the banner, for all of the text after the opening <a> tag. If you want to create your own working links and have a banner linking back to your options, be sure to have some text at the start which isn't part of the link you've entered (i.e. something before the <a> tag.
  • Malformed HTML will be accounted for to the best of the Spinner's ability, but results may be unpredictable. Like the Spinner.


• Q. The logo at the top of your pages is jittering oddly, and it's frightening the neighbours.
  
  
  A. You're probably using Internet Explorer 6. That browser is very, very broken in a variety of ways, one of them being that it does strange things to the logo animation. The only solution is to upgrade to a modern browser, which we would strongly recommend anyway for reasons of security, stability, functionality and saving the whales. The latest version of Internet Explorer would do, but we think Firefox would be better still!

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