posted
Okay. Picture a giant hamster wheel. Now, make someone ride it.
Completed Challenges:
1. CT pledges to effectively triple your votes in the Moose vacation vote. Post the number of votes you made (along with the starting and ending tallies at Parenting.com, even if they include multiple voters). I will come back in about an hour at 9am Pacific time (Oct 30) for my assignment: to log in double what you did. Make me work for it.
2. I pledge to triple all votes between 7:30 (Western Time; i.e., 15 minutes from now) and 7:45. You vote, and I add two for your every one, starting on the half hour. Let's go!
posted
I read the topic line to the tune of "Hey, Soul Sister." I tried to come up with new lyrics but the only rhymes coming to mind are ridges, smidges and midges and so far none of those have inspired me. But I think there is potential for something funny there.
As to CT's idea: I second the motion! (and go off to vote again)
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I'm watching the ticker and am getting a little scared now. Gee, guess that's why these things usually have limits.
Well, it may take me a few days, but so be it. And if it isn't logged here with total amount you did, starting and ending tallies, and by 9am Pacific time, I ain't gonna do it. Hmmph.
*grin
---
Edited to add: Criminy, people, how many of you are hamstering me? Posts: 831 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I just voted 100 (not all of those were mine, I'm sure.) I started at 22694 and stopped when it was at 22794.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
This might not be pretty. Oy, vay, carumba!
39 minutes of my potential bruising to go.
------------ Clarification:
I had asked people to count their own votes, as well as supply the formal starting and ending tallies, because I wanted it to be a personal challenge. Belle, if I understand you correctly, you don't know how many of those 100 were yours? I'll cover all of them this time.
Future challenges should probably be worded more clearly.
--- Edited to add:
I had stopped about 10-15 minutes before issuing the challenge, and the ticker was at 22,624. It's now 22,819. I'll cover 100 votes for Belle (which means I will log 200 to triple her score).
If you were also voting and want to hamster me for it, post the number of times you voted along with the starting and ending tallies from your time period. You have, hmm, about 28 minutes left.
Posts: 831 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Oh sorry. I'm guessing no more than half were mine. Call mine 50. I lost track when I was voting becuase I was talking to the family at the time.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
No worries! It is a work in progress[and I don't think I was very clear to begin with]. I found it hard to tally my own numbers when grannypat, ketchupqueen, and I were all voting together, too.
Part of me thinks I should just cover the full time period, and I may well do that.
---
Edited to add: 22,847. If I cover everything so far, giving some generous leeway on the times, that would be 223 x 2 = 446. Heavens! Can I do it? I am a wussy, such a wussy. You'd better log in here just to be sure. Make me work for it.
About 22 minutes to go, as of this edit.
---
22,865 with about 9 minutes to go, as of this edit.
posted
Okay. Belle's the only taker. Ending tally is 22,950 at 9:07am, Pacific time. That's an increase of 326 over a 1 and 1/2 hour-ish period.
I'm on the hook for 200 votes per Belle (*gulp*). I would have covered more if anyone had responded to the challenge here, but maybe people just want to stay anonymous. At least I can do that within a day, though. Hmmm.
Tomorrow morning I will challenge for a specific time period, no holds barred. You can stay anonymous if you choose and still make me your hamster.
---
Edited to add: 11:58 wheel countdown, starting at 23,470 --> 23,490 = 16/200 (someone else was voing too)
posted
Wait -- the counter is now at 28,811. Did I misread? It's possible. I am going to check in frequently today and make sure there are no votes that go missing.
Crossposted from main thread: I've just discovered my best streamlined way to vote. Open up 5 tabs to that page, vote on each, then click through each to reload. By the time I get back to the first, it's ready. I'll have to see how this ups my average.
It's a lot more fun and easier to track, too.
--- Edited to add: 50 left
Am now easily doing 5 a minute. ---
40 left. Woohoo! --- And done. Belle, your challenge is completed.
quote:I hit enter rather than "submit", which takes me to a page that says the vote has been recorded. Then I alt-left-arrow to return to the voting page, so the count doesn't appear to change, though on a refresh it has always increased. I leave the mouse in place over the "vote" button, so I never move it -- just click it again after I've returned to the page. I vote as many as ten times a minute with this method, depending on typos and vote-acceptance-speed. And if I'm watching a streaming video at the same time my rate gets cut about in half.
From me:
quote:My browser takes time to reload even with the method you relate. I'll play a little and see if I can fix that.
By opening 10 pages at once and clicking through serially, reloading them all at the end, I can do 40 votes in 7 minutes 10 seconds. That's a little over 5 votes a minute, which is the fastest I've done.
posted
Why not just make a script? You can disseminate it to a number of computers and have them just spend all day auto-voting at slightly randomized intervals.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I'd say using scripts/AIs to enter votes is contrary to the spirit of the rules, and could make the Meese susceptible to removal from the contest. Why take that chance, when you can meet the number through actual human votes?
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Because voting requires entering a two word Captcha which requires a very sophisticated AI and not just a simple script.
If you've got an AI that can enter captchas reliably, please share.
It's a generic recaptcha. You can find captcha breakers which solve those fairly reliably in PHP.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by sarcasticmuppet: I'd say using scripts/AIs to enter votes is contrary to the spirit of the rules, and could make the Meese susceptible to removal from the contest. Why take that chance, when you can meet the number through actual human votes?
Exactly.
Edited to add: It wouldn't be too hard (I should think) for Parenting.com to track the IP addresses and see if there is an unusual number or speed coming from any one place. There is nothing we have done against the letter or the spirit of the rules, and short bursts of handvoting up to 10x/minute are explicable by non-automated means (see above).
I don't know what the official rules are. I suspect they include a prohibition against automated voting; or, even if not, it would call things into question. I doubt the Mooses would appreciate that outcome, despite appreciating the spirit of support that would have prompted it.
---
Edited to add: Yep, if nothing else, the captcha popup states at the top that This security question is needed to confirm your vote and to prevent automated voting. It's clear that one is not supposed to use automated methods, even if you can figure out a way to jimmy the system.
posted
I don't know if there's an "official" rule against automated voting, but it's clearly intended that it not be done ("This security question is needed to confirm your vote and to prevent automated voting"). I wouldn't do it, and I'd rather nobody did it on our behalf. Or on anyone else's. *smile* But yes, I appreciate the spirit of support.
Edit -- and CT phantom-edits my post into redundancy.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
Okay, fine, I'll go with the low-tech option. I have some indentured servants from cambodia who I'll force to type in votes all day if they want to be fed. I'll probably also send out 'encouragement' squads to get other people to do this if they want a stay on their appreciating loans.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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We are at 29722 to 15974. I've added in another 60 with my new system. Very fun -- with 10 tabs lined up, I can just take a break every little once in awhile and zip through the 10 tabs in about 80 seconds. The real time drag is reloading pages (for me), and that is finishing out when I've gone back to work.
Posts: 831 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
There's always Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Real people voting, but in an easily automated framework Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
If we work at it tonight, we can get back up to double their votes and maintain it. It's much more fun with one of the strategies above.
------------------------ New Challenge!
I pledge to triple all votes between 7:30 (Western Time; i.e., 15 minutes from now) and 7:45. You vote, and I add two for your every one, starting on the half hour. Let's go!
--- Starting counter at 7:30pm: 30,971
--- imogen has vowed to make me pay. Currently at 30997; I'll wait until it next updates to catch all of hers.
Update: 7:47, counter at 31,022. 51x3 = 102 for me
-- 31,042 at 7:51, and that definitely catches everyone. So the new total for me is 71 x 2 = 142!
posted
12/142, only 130 to go -- 24/142, only 118 to go -- 36/142, only 106 to go -- 48/142, only 94 to go. More than 1/3 of the way there. Taking a break now. Whew.
posted
78/142, only 64 to go (I'm going in 15s now) -- 93/142, only 49 to go! -- Done!
Counter at 31,290 for Mooses. (Family #2 at 16,291. We are less than a thousand away from doubling them, and I think we could likely keep up after that, barring unforeseen leaps. But we cannot bar unforeseen leaps, unfortunately.)
As of about noon today, the second-place family had picked up 3094 points over a 24-hr period, and the Meese had picked up 3283. That's neck-and-neck. We've worked hard to address that -- since then, they picked up 616, while we did 2446. But it looks like they are posting requests for votes pretty widely throughout the web, so they may continue to rise.
Egads! Eternal vigilance. Thanks to grannypat (the mom of ElJay, Enigmatic and dkw) for tracking numbers.
Continue to vote early, vote often. It's our game to lose.
---
Edited to repost: Voting Strategies
From a friend:
quote:I hit enter rather than "submit", which takes me to a page that says the vote has been recorded. Then I alt-left-arrow to return to the voting page, so the count doesn't appear to change, though on a refresh it has always increased. I leave the mouse in place over the "vote" button, so I never move it -- just click it again after I've returned to the page. I vote as many as ten times a minute with this method, depending on typos and vote-acceptance-speed. And if I'm watching a streaming video at the same time my rate gets cut about in half.
From me:
quote:My browser takes time to reload even with the method you relate. I'll play a little and see if I can fix that.
By opening 10 pages at once and clicking through serially, reloading them all at the end, I can do 40 votes in 7 minutes 10 seconds. That's a little over 5 votes a minute, which is the fastest I've done. [And it's lots, lots more fun that way -- kind of like knocking down bowling pins all in a row. Once the tabs are set up, it's easy to knock off ten at a time in one fell swoop whenever I take a break from working online.]
posted
Here's my latest strategy for high speed voting on a Mac.
Turn on Mouse Keys under Universal access.
Open 5 or 10 tabs in Firefox and line them up so that the vote button is in the same position on each page. Position the mouse cursor over the vote button. Push 5 on the keypad or "l" on the keyboard to push the mouse button, enter the captcha, hit return to submit the vote, hit command back arrow to return to the previous page, hit control tab to move to the next tab. Repeat.
Using this procedure, I can vote many times without moving my hands from the keyboard or waiting for the site to load. Once I have the firefox page set up with the tabs, I can go back whenever I have a minute and vote high speed.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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