This is hilarious, or is it sad? There is a charity website where you can design, preview and modify your own snowflake. Then go crazy and apply a unique ID to it, go find other ID-ed flakes on the internet, and send messages to their creators. But why stop there? You can go truly mad and print your flake too. "Indeed," we asked, "And why even stop there?"

Rate the flake

0 to 6, rather 0 to 5 (in honor of the number of sides on a flake.)

Categorise flakes

Instead of lumping flakes into one big generic class, divide them into their real-life categories: plate (flat), stars, column, needle, dendrite (lacy) and capped column.

Flake comparison feature

Like finger-printing software, this will ensure that every online snowflake is original, as in nature. Any copies would be melted on screen and the creator banished for plagiarism.

Giant flake maker

We suggest a prize for the biggest online snowflake.

Guess the weight

Win a prize for guessing the size of the biggest snowflake ever to appear in real life.

King of the Flakes

An award for the most prolific snowflake maker.

Any more ideas most welcome.

Try it out yourself and do your bit for charity.

From snowflakes to snowballs

For flake's sake, this is soooo typical of human ingenuity, taking a simple concept and running with it to the nth degree of anality. We can't just make a snowball, we have to create snowmen. And we can't be happy with any old snowman, someone somewhere has the need to create a monster one.

The tallest snowman ever made measured 34.63 metres and was made by residents of Bethel, Maine, USA. It took 14 days to build, finally being completed on 17 February 1999. Nicknamed Angus, he had vehicle tyres for his mouth and trees for arms. UK Met office

Well done! :)

Thanks to Qureyoon for this springboard into pisstakerdom