chroot said:
I wasn't anticipating actual complete C code -- I was thinking more along the lines of simple pseudocode, like this:
SET X = 1
REPEAT TEN TIMES {
ADD 1 TO X
}
Which I think most people can logically understand even if they don't know how to program a computer.
Okay, along those lines, I could handle it. I did learn a little BASIC eons ago. I could help you dumb down the code if that's a concern, but I'm probably the only one on this board with so little competence in programming.
There are an astonishing array of tricks I could use. I am currently devising my treasure hunt plan, and I have put some serious thought into using these tricks. I can pretty much make anything I want appear anywhere I want. I can embed hidden statements inside other people's posts without even showing an edited message, I can change people's join dates, user ids, post ids, anything I want. It would be really easy to make a treasure hunt with all those tools available to me.
On the other hand, is that fair? Should I really design a treasure hunt that no one else on the site but Greg could design? I think it might be more fair if I only use the member tools. That way, other people (besides Greg) could follow in my footsteps.
It depends on how you use it. If you're leaving a trail of clues, and we are supposed to follow the clues to find those phoney threads, it might actually be more fair than relying on current or existing threads, where the inhabitants of particular subject areas might be more familiar with thread content or accidentally stumble upon a clue without following the trail to get to it. It only wouldn't be fair if you made a thread disappear before we found the clue in it.
If you make it clear from the start, as part of the ground rules, that any thread in the forum is fair game for containing clues, then it will actually help make it more challenging (I'd have never gotten that clue AS*TO=THIS if I didn't have a limited time window to search within).
Except, I can still see you.
I'm not worried about you! You'll already know where the clues are hidden. I meant to hide from other treasure hunters so they can't follow me and swipe my treasure just as I'm about to collect the last clue...you know, like always happens in the movies.
Time zone issues: well, like I said before, only insomniacs need sign up.
But, I think if you have clues that are released at specific times, then the game won't only occur on your time zone when you're awake to supply new clues. I guess I had an unfair advantage in the last round since Gokul and I are in the same time zone.
I'd rather have one thread with the clues. I'd be honest, but it would drive me nuts not being able to peek into the other threads to see how the other teams were doing.
Maybe you could work out a way that it's sort of like a relay race, where one person isn't allowed to solve the entire puzzle, but has to solve only one part at a time and then pass it on to another participant to have it count. In other words, the way I solved the final clue wouldn't be allowed. Even if I found the whole solution, I'd have to just give one part, and hope someone else playing would pick it up from there, and when the next step was solved, then I could jump back in with a third step, but not sooner. This way it's more of a passing game than a ball-hogging game.
But if you just make the clues diabolically difficult, nobody will solve it in less than 24 anyway!
but anyway i can't forget myself scanning the list of new members starting from member.php?u=17950+ down to 17700+ while trying to find profile of /already/ famous for3to0won :D argh this was evil 
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