@LukasRotter @YaakovEllis (for future reference, Yaakov said to ping them whenever you guess a trigger, until Friday).

@user1271772 have you copy pasted anything recently?

Err... I got Spotting scope

It's not a well-defined guess, that's why I didn't ping.

@EkadhSingh-ReinstateMonica oh yes, I copied and pasted part of Rosie's question, into my answer!

..... What. Is. This.

This user is interesting for the "e-pic" hat. Literally just asked a question

isn't that hat a little TOO BIG?

@LukasRotter maybe they've done some other stuff that got deleted? Impossible to say without a mod chiming in.

Maybe it's related to receiving e.g. 3 answers in the first hour? I don't know other people with e-pic to check it out

I don't think so, otherwise this user would have the hat.

@EkadhSingh-ReinstateMonica Yeah, but I think this method (searching for users with low activity and a secret hat, finding common patterns between them) is the best we got.

Maybe it requires a question score of two?

Appears not, because this user doesn't have the hat

Which text boxes in stack exchange allow you to post the flair in them?

Testing if the flair has anything to do with a secret badge.

@Wolgwang nope

@fasterthanlight not quite x 3

@SPArcheon good idea...

@EkadhSingh-ReinstateMonica super close, almost got it

@EkadhSingh-ReinstateMonica nope

@YaakovEllis how to jump to the message you replied to? Is there a way? Or should I add a feature request ;)

Click in the arrow on the left of the message

@YaakovEllis I'd add that for dialogue the question must have been asked during the winter bash, correct?

@YaakovEllis and getting a reply from the answer poster?

@LaTeXer thanks for saving the day. I was looking only at the icons on the right of the message for some dumb reason

@CinCout I think you meant to ping @RafaelTavares :)

@LaTeXer that goes without saying. that isnt the part missing

@YaakovEllis oh, sorry :)

@double-beep not what I was looking for. hint: it is something in common with so many other triggers having to do with questions

positive question and answer score?

@LaTeXer oh sorry

also:

the answer must be accepted @YaakovEllis

is that right?

@double-beep I think so, since I got it as soon as I upvoted an answer on my question

Doesn't appear to be

I got it a bit after asking

And didn't accept an answer

@DonThousand I got it after accepting an answer without having upvoted it

Remember that the hat reward may be delayed by ~5 minutes

Maybe it's upvoting or accepting an answer

@YaakovEllis trigger for Helping Finger: cast a close vote that is also the deciding vote that actually closes the question?

@CinCout If that is it, it doesnt apply to gold badge dupe closures.

@ThomasMarkov of course it does not

not every hat can be earned by every user

@CinCout No. I know curators think of closing stuff as helping the site but the badge title is framed as helping the asker, not the site.

case in point: Sunrise

@Catija interesting

@Catija how about commenting followed by voting to close?

Why are you trying to make it so complicated? Again, how does "voting to close" help a user?

@Catija i am just guessing by the actions I did :P

The important thing with WB hat searching is to do as few actions as you can so that you can test what works and what does not.

Umm.. last try.. adding a positive score comment on a New Contributor's (first?) question

@SPArcheon OK, is this why I got the hat without even knowing why? I have a status-completed question but it got it yesterday. Presumably when the trigger was broken? However, I only got the hat at just about 12:00:00Z (a few minutes after).

last try too - @YaakovEllis, is the Spotting Scope earned by voting to close 2 (1?) questions as duplicates that are confirmed?

@YaakovEllis @Catija Or maybe it is being the first to add a comment that gets upvoted once on a New Contributor's (first?) question

please confirm or deny both the above triggers

@CinCout I am pretty sure I did not do such action and I am quite sure about it being related to doing exactly 2 close reviews in a row, both resulting in a duplicate closure (the hat appeared shortly after)

* cannot guarantee that, though

@OlegValter I am talking about Helping finger, are you too?

oh

sorry, my guess on the Spotting Scope was right above your message :)

Hello, guys.

Why i achieved this secret hat?

@YaakovEllis does the question need to be upvoted?

Can I make a suggestion that allows for us to know exactly what you're asking? I think it'd be really helpful if y'all posed guesses in a format like [Hat name]: [guess] with whatever pings you're adding. I'd also appreciate limiting the follow-up long trail. Thoughts?

@Catija confirm-pls, maybe? :)

[Thought bubble]: [This is a secret hat.]

Like, for that last query by @EkadhSingh-ReinstateMonica, I had to follow the chain up two separate chat messages to even see what the guess and hat was.

This'd be a lot easier if hats were timestamped

Y'all can come up with whatever format you like - something like that with a tag that will stand out isn't a bad idea. I think the important thing is separating actual guesses out and making sure to include the hat and the guess together.

@OlegValter No

@Catija :(

now I am really curious

@YaakovEllis I'm not convinced that copying for the "Manual key" hat is working on touchscreen phones, do you have a phone that you can test it on? Thanks.

I've gotten it using my iPhone, pretty sure. I can double check.

Thanks for the quick reply. BTW, I'm using Firefox Android.

I've been struggling with getting the hat to work properly, even on my desktop. Most of the day it would not award me the hat ... I had to restart my browser to get it to work.

There's some speculation that the browser fires an Event when the keyboard is used for copying, but I'm selecting with the touchscreen, that's why I ask:

I did just get it on RPG with Safari on my iPhone.

I'll try closing my browser, which I've done already in the past hour,and try again; thanks for your answer Catija.

Yep! :)

Oh, also... are you using it on the right question? Not all questions are created equally.

@Catija So based on the hints / guesses above I've copied an answer with the word "question" in it, into an answer on MSE; using Chrome browser, and waiting 10 minutes.

... I mean... a question that fits those could qualify but that's not the correct trigger.

For some reason I just got the "Thought Bubble" on MSE; and I've not been doing anything the past few hours, except the past half hour the copy/paste thing - must be for overthinking things. :)

You've been chatting in here. :)

@Rob Your chat parent is MSE on this server, so you get the hat on MSE.

Did y'all actually figure out the trigger for that one yet? If not, I think it just looked you right in the face.

But I was trying for the "Manual Key" hat, not the "Thought Bubble".

> You don't always get what you want, [...] you get what you need.

@Mithical Close.

Here I go breaking my own rules/idea.

Must take a break for my pizza, so I don't starve playing Winter Bash. Thanks for your hints. Back in a while.

Also, that ~ will keep it from ever being correct. :P

There's a hidden function in Winter Bash this year that analyzes what hat you're trying to get, and 50% of the time gives you a different hat at random instead.

@Rob I just ate a handful of pecans - pretty much all I've eaten today.

@Slate That would actually be kinda cool.

...I said that as a joke, but now that you mention it. Hey, Yaakov?

Now that... would make guessing triggers fun.

If we really wanted to mess with people we'd introduce a function that just randomly awards active folks secret hats from time to time, for no reason at all.

And now I have to go pick up family and feed them food... and me... because... while delicious and nutritious, pecans aren't really sustaining.

Oooh, "RNG hat". Just randomly awards itself to someone who's been active in the last minute.

Would be easier to get on small sites because they're lower activity.

Penciling that one in for next year.

@Slate If you do that, I'm going to physically mail Cat and Yaakov hats next year.

I will accept a hat in appreciation of my magical thinking. :D

(With no explanation and addressed to Gus...)

HAHAHAHA

Did you ever figure out who sent those?

I actually figured out where the books came from. My husband's friend from college. - The people we went to Big Bend with.

Ah! So slightly less ominous, then

Yes!

Now I really have to go or I'll have to pick the boys up on my own... which would be awful. :P

*waves*

@Mithical I feel like this is more of a threat than it ought to be, because ostensibly it's quite a pleasant gift.

It's supposedly to be ominously wholesome. I'm working on cultivating that vibe.

I appreciate that vibe.

You're doing a good job of it!

:)

@Catija If it was pecan pie you would have been OK.

Interesting. Skimming the chat, it looks like several hats are very close to being nailed down, but almost none have been perfected.

Is my question about the moving/resizing oddness of the hat pop-up on meta that strange? I am wondering ...

Naw, you're fine. It's a weird behavior on the part of the UI.

Okay, I just wondered due to the vote count ... I just leave it then =)

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the ratio, to be honest. [shrug] Either gotta wait for someone to explain their thinking, or accept that Meta votes are sometimes a bit opaque.

@Slate Thx for your support! =) Voting behaviour differs on the various SE sites anyways ... =D

@JasperHabicht Red Baron (2019), answer -3 question which becomes +3 and answer gets +5.

@Rob Oh, so this is maybe actually part of the Bash! Nice! =D If it helps someone to get a rare hat I am fine with downvotes, of course ...

Well, it would be a secret hat this year; or some dislike / disagreement with your question - as Slate said, different voting patterns and reasons here - don't let it wreck your day. 🌞

@Rob I tried on Android Chrome and did not get it

@YaakovEllis Catija said:

As long as it's possible to get it using a touchscreen is my only concern, as I don't have a working desktop computer.

Thanks for testing.

So this room still doesn't have a catchy pitch, tagline, motto, what ever you call it these days.

"Bashing our heads into our computers, to see who will be the winter this year."

Bashing through the keyboard...in a one-armed broken chair