|
My Timmy impression is spot on.
|
|
|
|
What's also interesting about this is that they are free to use the term 'Bitcoin' directly - they don;t have to invent a fake name, as no one owns the trademark or rights to this. They cannot be sued if they represent Bitcoin in a bad light. They cannot be accused of product placement. I heard some rumors that Bitcoin is trademarked by mtgox  Is the Bitcoin Logo patented? |
|
|
|
the_joint,
Welcome to Bitcoinica! I will send you the f**king 5 BTC to your account for you to start trading. You made a pretty great guess!
(This is off-topic forum, so I posted this off-topic stuff.)
That's unique...are you offering me a 5 BTC account as a promo or something? If you genuinely think I deserve it, then I really want to thank you, but I only truly care about the original 5 BTC. It is up to you. In either case, you are very kind. I understand what the original 5 BTC means to you. But well, why can't there be a tie? You deserve it as much as Goat did, and old_engineer wasn't wrong at all to give out only 5 BTC for the contest. Just post your username and I will send 5 BTC to you immediately. If you don't want to trade on Bitcoinica or don't like it, just withdraw it right away. :-) How very generous of you! dfjJ3-cnapd@ is my username. |
|
|
|
the_joint,
Welcome to Bitcoinica! I will send you the f**king 5 BTC to your account for you to start trading. You made a pretty great guess!
(This is off-topic forum, so I posted this off-topic stuff.)
That's unique...are you offering me a 5 BTC account as a promo or something? If you genuinely think I deserve it, then I really want to thank you, but I only truly care about the original 5 BTC. It is up to you. In either case, you are very kind. |
|
|
|
|
Nice poll. I'm glad to have the community's input. But seriously, I've had like a dozen people complain because I didn't "assume UTC" when UTC wasn't even part of the game.
Some people agree with me, far more don't. Regardless, it's clear that there are at least 3 assumptions going around. So, cut me some slack...apparently there are many different opinions here on what was a "correct assumption."
And, in all of the complaints, not one person has stood against my claim that the rule made the game statistically unfair and my reasons understating that claim.
I am happy that Goat sent half the BTC to orphans. That is a good cause, and the 5 BTC he received as a bonus is a kind gesture by OldEnginner.
But, that doesn't change the situation.
I stand my ground on principle. Feel free to continue ranting.
|
|
|
|
I dont think mtgox has any incentive to run shadowy business when they are making bank with a clean exchange, thus what happened to you was probably a mere coincidence
And yes, allowing some "insiders" to get market data and using it before executing trades would be very close to theft.
Edit : However i would love to see removed the option to trade for 0.00001 btc or wathever which currently allow bots to spam the trade history, it is annoying and useless
I actually think the back-and-forth bids of .00001 BTC might be a data-gathering technique to help inform the bot of what to do next. |
|
|
|
As for fairness: participants which made their guess before the clarification of the rules would have had an unfair advantage because they could plausibly claim to have guessed either one of two subsequent days (depending on their timezone).
Just out of curiosity: would you still feel compelled to call old_engineer a scammer if you were in Goat's position and he in yours?
I never called old engineer a scammer. I said the statistics of the game were slanted, making it uneven and unfair. I have no problem with oldengineer outside of this situation. |
|
|
|
Being the now-identified third btc user in Illinois, I would offer the thought that anyone who doesn't use UTC in an online forum, or for communicating with anyone regarding times around the globe is a prize ass. Standards exist so that we don't have to agree whether of not we are going to use "Upper Mongolian Standard Time" or "Central Daylight Savings", or "Fucked Up Indiana Has To Be An Asshole Time" that is 15 minutes off, we all have one basis that is universal and the deviation from that standard is consistent for all.
If you didn't think of that, in this life-altering contest, that is consuming such a huge portion of your attention, then perhaps you should not be the first sinner to be tossing stones about who went to college and who didn't.
Your lack of understanding, failure to monitor the thread, and poorly conceived ad hominem attacks are what "screwed" you, and thanks to some gracious people willing to pay you to shut the fuck up, you have already won a nice 2 btc second place prize that wasn't even mentioned in the original rules. Karma is dry-humping you and you aren't even aware of it.
Key takeaway? Shut the fuck up and stop whining.
What do you do to relax? |
|
|
|
So I looked through the original thread a little bit...
To me it looks like you're just trying to stir up crap here and be a troll. Dude posts a thread offering a prize to the first person to guess the day BTC goes over $4 and he forgets to specify the timezone. Within 12 hours of the original post, someone has asked how it's judged and an answer was given. Now you complain because your guess was almost right but not according to the timezone.
If you had even seen the change in timezone would you have changed your guess? I doubt it, people were randomly throwing days out there.
Whether or not you doubt if I would change my guess is irrelevant. I was given the opportunity to change my guess (apparently) and I could no longer choose the selected winning date due to the first guesser wins rule. |
|
|
|
Stop whining. You didn't lose any money.
Nice name. |
|
|
|
Jesus Christ, this isn't hard to understand. I live in Illinois, so I made a guess based upon my time zone. If my friend asks me, "Hey, what time are we going to dinner?", I don't know about you but I always make sure to ask him, "You mean, Illinois time or Japan time?"
I live in Hellanois too. We're probably the only two people in this state that know what Bitcoin is (hyperbole is fun). I'm an extremely small player in this experiment as I suspect you are -- my net worth is something like 30 BTC and I spent all my pell grant excesses on mining equipment and I do that at a meager 1.5 GH/s. In the interest of the spirit of the season and global good will and a nod to locality, I donate thee 1 BTC. Now, Karma -- let my long position on Bitcoinica take off, please  Haha really? Nice! And thank you! If I obtain the original 5 BTC I will, in the spirit of the season, kindly repay you and the other guy that generously donated 1 BTC, and send an additional BTC |
|
|
|
In either case, the rules were set up such that it is incredibly easy to determine who guessed first.
It isn't a question on who guessed first. It is a question on what exactly was your guess. For all we know, you originally meant GMT. Also, if no one can have the same guess as another person then either the first person that bets sets the timezone for all other bets (otherwise bets would overlap) or it can be deduced that a standard timezone is in effect. Not a sound deduction. You can still guess it, you simply wouldn't win. |
|
|
|
The joint, I agree that you should have gotten at least 50% of the prize winnings. But it doesn't do you any good to argue it to death. You didn't pay to enter the contest, therefore, if the guy who is giving away the money wants to make a ruling that doesn't favor you, he has full power to do so.
Believe me, I understand how it must feel to know you won something and have it given to someone else. But you have to let go of things that are out of your control. Life is too short for this.
Like I said earlier, the amount doesn't matter. Holy shit, thanks for not reading. Good luck pal. No, I read it. Letting go and acting on a belief are not mutually exclusive. What's that belief? Life is fair? You have a lot to learn...especially about how to talk to people without sounding like a entitled ass. Ironic. |
|
|
|
This is where you are wrong. The first guesser rule implies that the "standard" timezone is the subjective time zone...or the time zone that corresponds to each guesser. This combines both objectivity (or the syntactic rule that distributes to everyone) and subjectivity (allows for the relative position of each player). This makes it simple....the first person to post on the thread is the "first guesser." First simply refers to order...but all time zones are "present," though relative. How would you even objectively verify in what timezone that person is? Your interpretation of the rules is counter-intuitive, and unmanageable in practice. It's not only manageable, it's quite easy. The GMT rule also changes how the "first guesser wins" rule plays out. Before the GMT rule, the first guesser wins rule meant that you could vote the same date as somebody else. After the GMT rule, the first guesser rule meant that you could not vote the same date as someone else. |
|
|
|
The joint, I agree that you should have gotten at least 50% of the prize winnings. But it doesn't do you any good to argue it to death. You didn't pay to enter the contest, therefore, if the guy who is giving away the money wants to make a ruling that doesn't favor you, he has full power to do so.
Believe me, I understand how it must feel to know you won something and have it given to someone else. But you have to let go of things that are out of your control. Life is too short for this.
Like I said earlier, the amount doesn't matter. Holy shit, thanks for not reading. Good luck pal. No, I read it. Letting go and acting on a belief are not mutually exclusive. |
|
|
|
The joint, I agree that you should have gotten at least 50% of the prize winnings. But it doesn't do you any good to argue it to death. You didn't pay to enter the contest, therefore, if the guy who is giving away the money wants to make a ruling that doesn't favor you, he has full power to do so.
Believe me, I understand how it must feel to know you won something and have it given to someone else. But you have to let go of things that are out of your control. Life is too short for this.
Like I said earlier, the amount doesn't matter. |
|
|
|
If someone says to me 9 o'clock, Do I always first assume they mean 9:00 rather than 21:00? Because, otherwise they would have clarified, yes? Of course not. People are idiots. And on the internet if someone says, 9 oclock, do I first assume they mean GMT? Again, no, they probably forgot that everyone doesn't live in their time zone. So, I side with old Engineer, because if you say the "19th", you might as well say "monday". Ambiguity rules it out.
In either case, the rules were set up such that it is incredibly easy to determine who guessed first. |
|
|
|
the joint did make his concerns known prior to the distribution of the winnings. It can be argued that the timezones prior to the standardization announcement should have been based on the user's local time, as shown in there profile. Because of this confusion, the distribution of the funds should have at least been brought into public opinion after his announcement of his ruling, but before the funds were distributed.
That being said, this was a free contest, and nothing about the rule change reduced the joint's chances of being correct. Thus, I don't think that it really matters how this should have been handled. It was handled, and not in an unfair manner.
Maged, Your statement that "nothing about the rule change reduced the joint's chances of being correct" is irrelevant, and instead, it should be "nothing about the rule change reduced the joint's chances of winning. You must keep in mind that there was an additional rule as stated in his OP that stated in the event of a tie, the winner would be the first correct guesser. Now, Goat and I tied in the sense that we guessed the correct date according to our corresponding time zones. But, since I was apparently allowed to change my guess under the rule change, it then became impossible for me to win. I could no longer pick Dec. 20th, the selected winning answer and Goat's answer, because my guess would be instantly nullified since he had already guessed it. Thus, the rule change itself meant that I not only had reduced chances of being correct, I had no chance of winning. |
|
|
|
it wasn't a scam though, there was a winner and old_engineer paid his dues, although you don't agree with the outcome result.
>>> It's not exactly a thread that I needed to keep tabs on... "Omg, I wonder what this person guessed....omg, I wonder what this person guessed."
but now it is a huge deal? make up your mind =)
The thread wasn't a huge deal because a surge towards $4 hadn't happened yet. I cared to find out who won, and I actually had forgotten my guess and thought that I had guessed the 16th. When I looked back and saw that I guessed the 19th, that's when I knew I'd won. |
|
|
|
mods, please.
Yes, mods, please intervene if you feel necessary. I feel I am morally, ethically, and rationally justified. I have absolutely no problem with having this thread locked/removed if they, too, believe I am only blowing smoke. A good game is fair for all players. His rule created a statistical imbalance. To win this game, skill is involved to a certain degree; a date 1 year from now is obviously a lot more likely than a date 10,000 years from now, and is a more skillful guess. My skill was nullified as a factor the instant this rule was implemented for it prevented me from having the opportunity to change my answer to the winning answer. My pms to both OldEngineer and Goat were civil. I obviously have no issue with Goat other than I think he is holding 5 of my BTC, but 2.5 would be acceptable to me, and that's because I feel that it would be generous of me to allow him to keep 2.5 BTC. I do not think he won, pure and simple. Similarly, I have no problems with oldengineer outside of this situation. I'm sure he's a good guy. I just think he should understand that I think he screwed me over on this one, even if he doesn't see it the same way. |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
