You will, of course, be familiar with the Erdos number from mathematics. There have been a few Allegro meet-ups over the past few years so I am proposing the Leverton number. If you have met Matthew then you have a Leverton number of 1. If you have met someone with a Leverton number of 1 then you have a Leverton number of 2. And so on.

I met Richard Phipps once who I think has met Bruce Perry - who has met Elias who has met Matthew. This gives me LN=4.

Anyone else?

I met once met Fabio Carlucci, and that makes a LN of nothing. But I also have met Manjula. That makes me a LN=2 ;-p

I met no one. I have no number.

^ This.

Append:

I have met Sam Henderson, but I'm not sure if he has met anyone in person that would have met The Leverton. He has met Goodbytes, but I do not know if Goodbytes has met ...etc...

I would like to participate in an AllegroCon though. I think we should try to arrange a biker one at some destination somewhere near the border... There's Sam, Sevalecan, Leverton, and I within a few states of each other... Not sure if BAF is riding again, but we could always hook up a sidecar to Leverton's bike. That way we'd all be level 1.

Alas I still only have two weeks vacation and I struggle to justify taking it at any other time than Christmas... I'm pretty sure we couldn't reach Illinois and back in a weekend. But perhaps if we converged in the Detroit area or somewhere West of that in an approximate "middle"... Then MiquelFire could join us too on a push bike. Elias isn't too far away from there either...

They stop displaying it around November, but look for the electronic signs that might give stats on the number of traffic deaths for the year if you stop in the Detroit area. This year, they're including the change from the previous year. We're up I think 25 so far. I'm thinking only 5 of the people who died the year so were the cause of the deaths though. Wouldn't surprise me actually. And don't be part of the stats!

That's if you ride on one of the freeways anyway.

Ninjaed out of my edit of the last post to include you. I was in Detroit last August for the Woodward Dream Cruise. Drove down Woodward Ave myself. I didn't enjoy the busy "freeway" intersections (and also didn't drive too many of them), but the rest didn't bother me. I don't think riding on the freeway in Detroit would be any fun on a motorcycle, but if we actually met in Detroit it would probably be necessary to get there... Could always figure out a route to avoid that though.

Maybe Niagara Falls would be a good middle place for an AllegroCon?

I'm in the Midwest. I might be able to make the trip if I have enough time to plan for it. (A few months ahead would be good)

Edit
I've been to Detroit before, and they drive like crazy people.

I forgot that you were in the area now too! That's a little over 8 hours for me. Apparently about the same from Chicago too. It certainly isn't in the center of us, but depending on East involvement might be a fair place for others.

Ha, so mine is 1 now. I think Andrei Ellman met Matthew, so before yesterday my LN was 2 already. I wonder if Bruce Perry had an LN already when I first met him in 2011, in which case I had another LN from then until I met Andrei.

Are we playing Degrees of Matthew Leverton? I have none.

Also 0.

Given the pattern, wouldn't an LN of 0 mean that you are Matthew Leverton?

I met Elias, that gives me LN=2 (edit: unless the LN is aware of time as well, in which case my LN would be higher, as Elias just bumped up very recently and I met him while he was still being in Austria)

Never met Matthew directly or indirectly ∴ LN=NaN ∨ LN=±Infinity
Not quite sure.

If you met King Piccolo, you have met ALL. Piccolo Number

I saw a pigeon once with tin foil on its head.

I met 23yrold3yrold, and due to a parsing error my Leverton Number is now 23.

This all makes sense only if Matthew has met Shawn.

2, btw.

{"name":"610250","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/9\/3\/93bd4f4010ec93005214b4c34c8f1a3c.gif","w":315,"h":210,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/9\/3\/93bd4f4010ec93005214b4c34c8f1a3c"}

... Shawn is 0.

I met with Andrei Ellman and Evert which gives me LN = 2, right?

Devision by zero

I assume I am at most six degrees from Kevin Bacon and that The Leverton is also at most six degrees from Kevin Bacon and therefore I am at most 12 degrees from The Leverton.

Onewing LN <= 12.

By that logic I am 4 degrees from Kevin Bacon. My ML number just became 10.

A week or two ago, I re-watched Tremors.

I was amazed at how well that movie held up compared to my childhood version of it.

The direct-to-movie sequel was actually really good in it's own light too. First 10 minutes are rough and low-budget, but the rest is pretty dang good.

I recall the third one being so horrific we just shut it off. And Tremors 4 "wild west"... no... just... no.

[edit] There's a Tremors 5? Come on guys. Just give it up already.

Apparently the first Tremors came out in 1990. That was 26 years ago. I was expecting the 2000s... I'm old.

I met Bruce Perry so that gives me LN=3?

But who has met Shawn Hargreaves? That's what I wonder.

George Foot met Shawn, and I think Bruce Perry met George Foot?

My number would be 0. I'm not very social in person. I talk to people on Facebook, Twitter, here, gamedev.net, etc., but I've never bothered meeting them in person nor have I had any interest in doing so.

No, Specter, your Leverton number is 6.

I think the only acceptable 0 here would be Leverton himself. It goes with his "Supreme Loser" moniker.

The Wikipedia says 6 is (believed to be) about the average. However it is easy to see that someone with few connections may have a much higher number - so from what he said that may be the case in his case. Also:

So even for a small and interconnected set like publishing mathematicians there are some with 15, far higher than 6.

I think Erdős number is about mathematicians, who have worked together. "Six degrees of separation" is about any connection.

Ah, true. The 6 degrees is basically "friend of friend of friend...", which is a much weaker connection than having worked together, like the Erdös and Bacon numbers, latter one going up to 11 apparently. The Leverton number is about merely having met in person once so probably even weaker than "friend of friend".

No, I guarantee my number is zero:

Have no friends; stopped talking to them 11+ years ago. Home body; only go into town if I absolutely have to and even then I try not to talk any more than needed. I sit at home with wife playing video games (Steam, PS3, PS4, Kindle), programming, or reading tech books. Wife either plays with her iPad or iPhone. I am quite literally the most boring man alive.

Sadly I have met neither Richard Phipps nor George Foot. Sorry to break your connection, Peter

I have however met Andrei Ellman, Elias, Tomasu, Sevalecan, Moosader and da_flo. And of course amarillion. Wonder if I've forgotten someone... I met a Russian guy who was on here the first time I went to Tokyo

I also worked with two people called Dave and Eugene who I believe previously worked with Shawn, George and Damyan.

So, who's up for Kyoto AllegroCon March/April 2016?

You don't get it, do you? Small number -> near connection, big number -> far connection. So you know no one. Maybe your wife knows someone.

Yay, so my Shawn-Leverton number is 4

We need an online graph tool for this.

Numbers or no numbers, I hope I never meet Specter....that could get depressing

You don't get out much, right. But you could still be Neo, "The one"

No I get it. I'm 0 (null) (void), or I suppose you could say I'm infinite.

Nope. Wife and me have grown to hate the stupidity in the world so we stay to ourselves now.

If I'm "the one" the world is screwed.

Maybe Specter is the one.

The one comes into the world, find the world to be stupid, and gives up on it. The world eventually dies because the one didn't find the world worth saving.