posted
I think there's a problem with the way the middle post thread and the new page thread work. That is, there is no immediate impetus for anyone to post, as most posts do not result in the "win" going to the poster of the most recent post.
The middle post thead has the added difficulty that it's hard to even figure out who DOES have the middle post at any given time, and also when there are even numbers of posts, that either TWO people have the middle posts, or else nobody does, depending on how you count it.
Also, does the zeroth post count as a post for purposes of finding the middle post or not? I'm not clear on this at all. I believe the originator of this thread, (whoever it was who was sick and demented enough to originate a thread such as this ) should explicate these mysteries for the benefit of hatrack.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
All right here goes. After you post, you are automatically sent back to the post you just posted. In the address line of your browser will be a url, and the last thing shown there is the page number and post number. Now if your post number (call it P) is odd, then the middle post is just post# (P + 1)/2. (We'll call that post M.) So you can find who has the middle post, M, by substituting M for P in the url line, taking care to put the right page number in as well. Posts 50, 100, 150... are the start of new pages, as all lastposters well know. Presto! Middle post!
The zeroth post is ambiguous, though. Does it count as a post or not? Luckily this ambiguity is exactly what is needed to resolve the thorny evennumberofposts issue. I hereby declare that the zeroth post counts as a post only if there would otherwise be an even number of posts. This clears up the problem beautifully, as we now see that if your post number is even, we can say that M = P/2 and do the same as above.
I submit this definition for your review, and hope this meets with the approval of all middlepostthreaders. <bows>
quote: Ach! There goes my career as a math professor!
Aww, there there.
Your baked goods are still spectacular!
Tatiana.
I understood your post after the second read. I'm really slow, so it took me a while to figure out that you were talking about manipulating the web addresses so that once you change them you'd click "go" on your browser (or the equivalent) and instantly see the desired "middle post."
Can you do one where when you do a bunch of crazy math and then click "go" on the browser one of your delicious cakes appear before me?
Posts: 326 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Cakes seem to be correlated with this sort of math: 7-11, 8-3, 8-18, 10-6. But if you ask nicely you never know! Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I read about five posts into it and then gave up- maybe if I try harder later I might figure who's in the middle. Maybe by making some sort of list on my computer.
Eh- too much work.
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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) should explicate these mysteries for the benefit of hatrack.
![[Sleep]](graemlins/sleep.gif)
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Well, shall I take a shot at it?
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Tatiana.![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
