I got a random invitation to a website this afternoon

For something called star.me. I usually disregard these, but this time I signed up for it.

I still don't know what it's really for.

But first impressions are such that I laughed a bunch, and not just at the jiggly screen.

Says the well-known tech thinker and humorist Ze Frank of his new creation:

What makes stars sort of ingenious is that they are apropos of nothing but your present sentiment toward another person. You don't have to accumulate some kind of "points" to earn or send a star; you don't have to check in somewhere; you don't have to buy something. If you think your friend is cool, or funny, or badass or whatever, you can award them one of many outlandish, graphically rich stars using only their email address, Facebook name or Twitter handle. (If you haven't signed up, your stars accumulate on an open page until you claim it by verifying one of those accounts.)

The "joy" of the site, says Frank, is that when your stars accumulate for a while, "the important stuff is going to inevitably surface." By the "important stuff," he means the "why" that sits between you and your friend. Why are you friends? What do you like about each other? Frank says Facebook has done a good job establishing connections between users and the people, brands and artists they like, but that a friend request or "Like" button doesn't say anything about why that connection exists.

So, good luck to the folks at Star.me. I can't wait to see where these interesting ideas take you.