Inspired by the Erdős number for mathematicians, or the Bacon number for actors, explorers would analogously have a Ninjalicious number!
This is "how far" you are from Ninjalicious in exploring; e.g.:
- Ninjalicious himself has a Ninj number of 0
- Someone who has explored with him has a Ninj number of 1
- Someone who explored with someone who has number 1 has a Ninj number of 2
- etc.
For example, my Ninj number is 2, since I've explored with Avatar-X, who has explored with Ninjalicious. If there is no chain of co-explorers that will connect you to Ninjalicious, then your number is infinity.
If there are multiple paths that both give you a Ninj number, you take the smallest possible number (closest to Ninjalicious). E.g. Darthbindy has explored with me (# 2), which would make his Ninj number 3. But he has also explored with Jono, who has number 1 (since Jono has explored with Ninj), so Darthbindy has Ninj number 2.
If someone you've explored with posts his Ninj number here, you know that your number is
at most that number plus one. E.g. anyone who's explored with me has a number of at most 3.
So what's yours? It'll be neat to see people from across the world, or people who were only babies when Ninjalicious died finding out their number, as a measure of how connected the UE community is over both time and space.