Rob Mosley's blog is currently called...

Russell's idea is like a naughty kid throwing a stone in an avalanche area...

Russell has just posted with a sweet idea for an analogy repository.

What does that mean?  Well, the idea is that it would be a place where good material for analogies can be found.  i.e. the back half.  So, every time he (or maybe contributors, Russell?), comes across a good one... for example the fact that Dimitar Berbatov runs less than any other United player, yet is in the right place more often  ...it gets blogged.

Nice, eh?

Here's the thing though.  Russell probably won't get round to doing this.  He already does lots of other stuff, and doesn't have time to organise a 5-a-side game against Nonsense at the moment (probably just scared!), let alone start another blog.  However, I suspect that's why he posted the idea today.

See, now what going to happen is that people who like the idea will start contributing to it through posts like this, and then someone will offer to set it all up for him, someone else will brand it etc etc.  And before you know it, the site will be up and running in a flurry (see what I did there?!) of activity.  We did something similar with Flaming Desks, which is working quite well.

Here's my two-penneth:

1. It should definitely be a collaborative, but curated, effort. The more analogies the better, especially if...
2. ...someone out there is surely capable of writing an awesome bit of search logic, whereby visitors can enter the nature of the thing they're trying to find an analogy for and it finds the right one!  (This would have to be bloody clever, a bit like some of the tech. in Ubiquity, which is potentially amazing, but currently too difficult.)
3. I'm in.  This kind of approach worked for us on Flaming Desks, so I hope that's what Russell's doing too.  Dunno how I can help yet...

FAO Russell Davies: Thanks, but no thanks

Its never nice turning someone down for a job - particularly someone of Russell's calibre.  But, when you've got a clear vision, and the determination to carry it through in the pursuit of creating the world's best agency you've got to make some tough calls...

...was that at all convincing?

Thought not.  For those of you who aren't readers of Russell's blog (Hi Mum) he has been trying to work out how the hell Amazon's ranking system works for his fantastic book "Egg, Bacon, Chips & Beans" - a guide to the best fry-up dispensers in the bits of Britain where Russell goes a lot.

In the process, he asked if anyone wanted to buy a copy from him so he could do a bulk order from Amazon and watch the ranking go ballistic.  (That didn't happen, so he's still none the wiser.)  To make it more interesting, he allowed anyone who ordered one to request a dedication.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to be silly, hence Russell's fake request for a job.

To be honest, I didn't think he'd go for it - but am very pleased he proved me wrong, and chucked in some nice little badges too.  Thanks Russell.