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.

1.5 or 2 I suppose? I met him a few times before he passed but I can't recall if it was ever in a trespassing context since it was many years ago and I had only just started with this hobby. 2 for many different people I've met however.

Infinity plus 1.

This seems like a really pretentious and arbitrary way to try and self-validate your worth as an explorer.

not to mention the system inherently alienates almost anyone without some physical connection to the southern Ontario exploring community.

That being said...I guess I'm a 2

Posted by Astro This seems like a really pretentious and arbitrary way to try and self-validate your worth as an explorer.

That's not the intent at all. It is meant as a holistic way to see how connected the UE community is.

Posted by terapr0 not to mention the system inherently alienates almost anyone without some physical connection to the southern Ontario exploring community.

You’re right that those people from other parts of the world would have a higher number – I wouldn’t call it “alienation” though. If someone from, say, Japan has a number at all, that says something pretty cool about the globalisation of explorers. E.g. that person (4) explored with someone from Japan who did an exchange trip to the U.S. (3) who explored with someone from the U.S. (2) who had attended a convention with someone (1) who explored with Ninj (0). Kind of a cool thing to know, if we can use this thread to figure it out, no? It’s not meant to be a bragging right.

The Erdős number caught on with mathematicians because Paul Erdős was well-known for writing so many papers – and the idea of using math (graph theory) to analyse mathematicians immediately caught on, for obvious reasons. The Bacon number was inspired by the above, and the fact that Kevin Bacon appeared in so many movies – but it also shows that the concept is readily extensible to mathematical lay-people.

So why not explorers? Ninjalicious was very well-known as a prolific explorer, so it makes sense to use him as a seed. The number doesn’t measure your worth as an explorer – it just provides a tool to see how globalised we are.

I suppose in which case I would call it something else. Like "Degrees to Ninjalicious" or something less...score-like.

I am from Texas. I am confident, at this point, my number is probably 3. 4 at the most.

But it still seems...pretentious and bragging-rights-promoting.

I have only explored with one person who is on this forum but I am not sure what his number would be ;o. So for now mine is infinity

It's not meant to be a score guys, just kind of a fun thing to measure the connectedness of a subculture (not surprisingly invented by to describe mathematicians).

I had a math prof who was proud his Erdős number was 3 and his Morhy number (which is the version in the chess community for playing games against 19th century chess player Paul Morphy) being 4, for playing an informal game with Fedir Bohatyrchuk when he was younger.

I think it's kind of flattering, and would look pretty interesting to see the global reach that Ninj had on exploring if you were to say, map the geographic locations of everyone with their number.

Mine personally is 2.

Eh, I have literally never met another Explorer on this site. I want to, but just haven't gotten a chance.

Posted by Astro This seems like a really pretentious and arbitrary way to try and self-validate your worth as an explorer.

I agree 100%.

If someone wants to assign me a number they can, because I'm too tired and weak to try and figure out what mine is. Playing number games makes my head hurt.

-1 to be sure. I am the ninj reincarnate!

I am not a number I am a free man.

(cue Iron Maiden)

Suppose that makes me a 2...

There are also other "pioneering" explorers in different parts of the world as well so I agree with the above that centering this measure around one person might not be most accurate/indicative of how connected the exploring community is.

Posted by Astro This seems like a really pretentious and arbitrary way to try and self-validate your worth as an explorer.

Way to score all the likes Astro!

Gilligan explored with Ninj & everyone that has been in the C/C for more than a couple of years has done stuff with Gill so we're all -2 but 99% of the group has very little to do with the UER/Urbex scene so just ignore this post ;)

Maybe it should be everyone that has been confused by one of my posts is -1.
Everyone that knows someone that has been confused by one of my posts is -2.
If you're not confused then you're a zero.

Posted by Doug so we're all -2... Maybe it should be everyone that has been confused by one of my posts is -1. Everyone that knows someone that has been confused by one of my posts is -2. If you're not confused then you're a zero.

Is it -1 and -2 because y'all are upside down?

Posted by kowalski Is it -1 and -2 because y'all are upside down?

You're being very positionist!

Posted by jeepdave Eh, I have literally never met another Explorer on this site. I want to, but just haven't gotten a chance.

Same here. I have friends I pulled onto the site, but met someone new from the site in person? Nope.