Winter Bash 2020

12:00 AM

Hi guys!

12:36 AM

Yes I earned the Defender of the Unicorn hat!

36 now, I finally passed the test

1:16 AM

@U11-Forward How long did that take?

@Rob Today it took maybe 20 mins

Because there was one question that is so hard

But I managed to not get that question at the end, so I answered 10 correctly

So I got the Hat!

Oh, kinda looked (from the comment times above) that you'd been working on it for over 12 hours.

Q: Why isn't there a way to say "catched up"? We can only say "caught up"

Wow I posted this question:

@Rob No I was sleeping most of the time

I am realizing sometimes when talking, I always say: Oh that guy catched up with me! But then I realized there is a way to say: Oh that guy caught up with me! I may think the grammar of "caught up" is more proper, but I seem to feel that it is a bit strange to say "caught up", whereas "catche...

Now it's an HNQ!

I just got the Backlog maintaining third place on MSE; and pushing the others back out.

^^ Lot of views, few votes; even the answerers barely pinned at 200.

There is no "catched", we have cached, ketchup, even catching - otherwise it's catch or caught. That's English for ya.

@Rob Yeah I know now

1:28 AM

Chinese?

@Rob What chinese?

That's complicated for English speakers.

There are more difficult languages than English, apparently some of the African languages are tough for English speakers to learn.

@Rob Yeah

Different ways of talking

Back in 1/2 hour, thanks for the chat; good luck with your hats.

@Rob aright cya, I am 2 away from Panda :-) I will receive This Is Fine in two days (almost sure) and I will probably get the Edward hat, I am now 3/5 for the Edward hat, then after that I will have 38, same as Panda

2:23 AM

@U11-Forward I wish @Panda good luck too, but they're not around. I have my TiF already, I work on the easiest, hardest (but still possible to get) and leave the middle level difficulty for last - that seems the best method (for me); anywhere I can get two at once I try to make sure I don't miss one of them.

@Rob Yup

Wow I just realized if/when I get the This Is Fine hat, I would have all the secret hats

Maybe.

You can give yourself the TiF hat, if it comes down to it; worry about your other hats.

@Rob That's true

2:39 AM

They might give you the bounty, then no hat. Last year I gave out the hat, for the 'Show your hat' answerers. I picked through the whole list of answerers to see who already had the hat, and lowest rep, and gave 100 rep to them; so no hat for them (and a few dozen hats for everyone else).

They only had several hundred rep, and already had the hat, so they were quite happy to get another hundred; instead of a hat for a week. :)

I also explained in a comment that voting up everyone else put each one closer to the Sportsmanship badge; there was well over 70 answers so it really brought everyone closer - and gave max rep for a couple of days.

This year's rep increase has been microscopic:

You can easily see the Winter Bash rep of the prior few years. This year, not so much.

@Rob On SO mine is crazy after bash

3K last year is nice, that's about what I got.

Even this past month I scored around 30 rep off last year's Bash.

3:19 AM

@Rob Realized for me it's even crazier on MSE

@Rob Thanks, and good luck to you too! That’s actually the ideal plan for Winter Bash. Ultimately, WB isn’t 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, I’ve 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.

@Panda Yup!

@U11-Forward Nice work on your part too and also good luck!

@Panda Yeah I earned 3 hats today and yesterday together

Eliza Doolots

Give A Leg Up

and Defender of the Unicorn

@Panda You have a lot of hats

Great work.

3:21 AM

You got Comin' Up roses hat...

Wow

@U11-Forward Thanks, I’ve just been setting my own targets and attempting to reach them.

@Panda Yeah

@Panda Wait... Where did you get the Coming Up Roses hat, I only see a question of yours on Politics SE with 4 answers

not 5

Was one deleted?

Q: Have issues surrounding the Northern Ireland border been resolved?

@U11-Forward There is 5 answers.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was one of the thorny issues that plagued the initial stages of Brexit negotiations. During Prime Minister Theresa May's tenure, the debate over the withdrawal agreement was largely focused on the Irish backstop and its practicality....

united-kingdom brexit northern-ireland borders republic-of-ireland

@Panda Doesn't all answer have to have positive score...

@U11-Forward It was positive.

3:27 AM

@Panda Oh..

I get it

Here is where I am trying to get that: stackoverflow.com/questions/65462400/…

Yea, it’s not a poor answer per se but it probably didn’t answer the question directly, thereby attracting the downvotes.

@U11-Forward Looks close, good luck!

@Panda 4 answers but only 2 votes on the question tho... :-)

@U11-Forward Yea sometimes it’s difficult to get votes these days. (Experienced it myself)

@Panda Yup, my other try is this but too little answers :-)

Nice question.

3:34 AM

@Panda Haha it for no reason became an HNQ, it had like 1000 views in 2 days :-)

3:52 AM

@YaakovEllis I promise I won't do any cheating on Hat Dash anymore :-)

1 hour later…

5:04 AM

Bye i am off

double-beep

5:58 AM

@YaakovEllis can you confirm that Give a Leg Up is for asking a question that is answered by a new contributor (their first post), where both the Q and the A must have a positive score?

2 hours later…

8:21 AM

@Panda Yes, I remember you from last year; my plan is not to stress and not place 1st either, simply not embarrasse myself.

I'm sharing 6th place on the Network and holding 3rd on MSE - so, not bad.

9:19 AM

I am at 37 hats now

Just earned the Comin' Up Rose's hat