Hat Maintenance Note: I fixed a bug in the secret definition of Vexillologist, removed the hat from all users (since a good number who earned it should not have, based on a bug in the sql) and reawarded to all users who should earn it. Anyone who is earning it now will get a new WB inbox notification. So if you are trying to figure out the hat, just look at hats awarded from [now - 5 minutes] and on.
At this moment, the system is already incapable of recognizing legitimate downvotes from targetted ones: We had a user post a string of 14 'witty oneliners' on IPS once, and I downvoted + delete voted all of them ... the next morning, 11 of my votes were 'reversed' because they were 'serial'.
mea culpa #3 - really hope this is the last time, but I just cleared all hat owners for balalaika and disciple. Both are secret, and both had something messed up with their triggers (and if I didn't clear them, then would be very hard to figure out what they are for). If you earned themm, they will be awarded to you again shortly.
The trigger was incorrectly programmed in the system. Apparently the trigger for the two were the same but Balalaika was also awarding the hats too soon... (if y'all figure out the trigger eventually, it'll make more sense)... so that's why I know that no one should have Balalaika yet... So what Yaakov did was fix the trigger for Balalaika and change the one for Disciple.
@Rob Thanks, and good luck to you too! Thatās actually the ideal plan for Winter Bash. Ultimately, WB isnāt a competition; it simply takes a combination of patience, luck, planning and a lot of work to reach the eventual goal slow and steadily. This year, Iāve just been setting my own targets, having fun figuring out some of the triggers myself and enjoying the process. My past experience in WB perhaps helped greatly too.
A few days ago, I solicited help on finding ways to prevent (or at least make it harder) for folks to cheat at Hat Dash. I would like to give a shout out to all users who have helped thus far - you can see them in the new White Hat Hall of Fame which is at the bottom of the Hat Dash Leaderboard. ...
Our poor /unicorn Sparkles got lost, and is stuck in a never ending loop of dashing and jumping.
While it may be fun to watch him run and to make him jump, he does need some help to find his way back home.
Once upon a Wint Bash morrow, while I pondered, full of sorrow
Over endless db rows record...
