The Elite Forum
The Big Three Plus One => General Chat => Topic started by: Infil on September 12, 2008, 09:34:00 pm
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Well, Jon has let me know that he wants my input on the US KotH season this year. Seeing as how no one has made a topic about it, let's organize what's going to happen this season. It's already the middle of September, so we should get things going soon.
I am able to run some KotHs this year, since we've had some good ideas during the bot testing. Perhaps I can run as many as half of them, though that number sounds a bit high and no one should hold me to that. However, we do need to know who would like to do some hosting this year. So if you have some KotH ideas, or just want to try hosting a KotH once, please sign up for a day or two. It will be a very busy fall for me, so I cannot shoulder the burden all myself.
As far as time goes, I think it's time to try something different. Running it as late as we have in the past is not favorable for many eliters. I think we should try running it this year at 10:30 PM EST. Are there any objections to this, or any better ideas? Additionally, I think maybe it would be better off if we did not run 7 KotHs a week for the whole season. Maybe we should run it 5 days a week (M-F), or maybe every other day (MWFS). This way, people won't get sick of KotH as fast, and people who are busy on the weekends won't be missing KotH. Thoughts and suggestions on this are appreciated.
And finally, since I'm having a big say in the season this year, I'm going to put my foot down and say: KotHBot will be used for all KotHs where it is applicable. This includes any KotH where players respond to questions in IM. Should people choose to run an answer-in-chat KotH this year, they can use whatever mechanism they want (though, even for this, I would still recommend KotHBot because of the leaderboards, and you can just use the lobby as a chat room). Some KotHs are not trivia based (such as, maybe, a poker tournament) and will obviously not use the bot in that case. I hope the people who have helped me with the beta testing for the bot (thank you very much) will agree that the bot makes everything easier, faster, and more fun. Euro KotH went through their season without using the bot, and therefore we'll have a way to compare to something fresh in our minds. I think after a few KotHs with the bot, people will be in favor of continuing to use it.
Find the link to KotHBot's website in my signature. Those interested in competing in the KotH season should visit the Download Center some time in the next week or so and make sure they can run the program (many of you have already done this). It should take you less than 5 minutes to set things up, and you can talk to me on IM if you're having difficulties. Also, those who are interested in hosting a KotH will need to learn the (easy) procedure for hosting KotHs. Please talk to me in IM about that well in advance from when you are expecting to host.
As an initial point for discussion, I say we start the season on Monday, September 22nd. Feel free to use this post to discuss KotH ideas, times, volunteering to be hosts, and other points of interest.
EDIT: As per discussion below, I think we'll follow a plan similar to what Jon has outlined. If better ideas are raised between now and the start of KotH, we can consider them. I think I would prefer Friday and/or Saturday to never have KotHs scheduled (as opposed to them being delegated to guest times)... otherwise, guests won't have much incentive to host, since their KotHs won't be very well attended. Frankly, I think people should just sign up to host a KotH whenever they can, and myself, Jon, and (maybe) QB can pick up the slack when there's not a guest host wanting to do one.
Current Schedule
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Sun 09/21 - Infil (Balderdash Part 1)
Mon 09/22 - Infil (Balderdash Part 2)
Tues 09/23 - Ngamer (??)
Wed 09/24 - Ngamer (??)
People Volunteering to Host
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- Goose
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KotHBot will be used for all KotHs where it is applicable.
Sweet, I'm in.
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I do like the 10:30pm EST start time (8:30pm for the only timezone that matters (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Fwink.gif&hash=4979046fbfc7ed25a03644bf608e503c4aa73f0f) ) - I have a 90-minute commute one-way Tuesdays-Fridays so I'm trying to get to bed a lot earlier than I have in the past. (key word: TRYING)
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Glad to see my new co-host standing up to take charge like this! Here is my proposal for the upcoming season:
- regularly scheduled KotHs 5 nights a week: Sunday and Monday nights with Infil, Tuesday and Wednesday nights with Ngamer, Thursday nights with QB, and Friday and Saturday nights will be available timeslots for guest hosts. if no one steps up to the plate for weekend guest-hosting duties, not a big deal, we'll just take those nights off and come back fresh and ready for the weeknight challenges
- the earlier start time is fine; I can't guarantee I'll be able to make every KotH since I'll be working during those hours some nights, but I'd also be working during the old KotH timeslots, so its a horse apiece
- strict bot usage for trivia-based challenges
- less male nudity
UPDATE - Wow, I'd forgotten how much fun we'd had last KotH season! To relive the magic, click back to our complete coverage from the '07 season topic:
http://perfectdarkelite.yuku.com?topic=1371 (http://perfectdarkelite.yuku.com?topic=1371)
After looking over the schedule and browsing through to remember some of the challenges that went well, if you had an idea for a new challenge of your own (or perhaps a new twist on an old challenge), take action! You can either request a night and get started on setting up the KotH yourself, or else if that seems like too much work, just let me or Infil know about your good idea; we'll file it for consideration and turn it into a challenge ourselves if we like it well enough.
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It works on my computer...I want to play!
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I'm all for less KOTHs per week, and for guests taking the slots any day of the week in place of the named hosts, else that's not many guest slots at all, and also is 6 nights a week - that's not less per week!
I also like the 1030 east slot, and the all kothbot, it is awesome.
I hope to run atleast 1 KOTH this year, and participate (and get 6th) in a few this year as well.
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Well now, I got caught up in KotH Fever tonight after looking through the '07 topic! It resulted in me created pages for all our previous seasons:
http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2005 (http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2005)
http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2006 (http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2006)
http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2006 (http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2006)
http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2008 (http://speedrunwiki.com/KotH_2008) for this year
You can give them a visit to see how the rankings ended up each year. They also have links to the main topics, where you can look through each nightly result; which could be quite helpful as you start to consider what YOUR KotH (or KotHs) is going to be this season!
Well octo, I certainly don't want to stifle the community's creativity. If a ton of people are coming up with good ideas and banging down our door to run their own KotHs, we could certainly give up one of our Ng/Infil nights to let them do so- it'd just rather play it conservative to start out with, so that worst case if people are too lazy to get that involved we can at least be sure to 5 solid challenges a week.
And it IS 5, not 6! With my proposal we wouldn't have anything set in stone for Friday or Saturday nights, when people are most likely to be busy/out, and we'd come back strong with an Infil KotH Sunday nights heading back into the week.
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I'm in, make sure someone tells me when this starts. Get ready to be defeated.
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Post updated with a tentative schedule. With the start of KotH around a week away, if people are interested in hosting some of their own KotHs, now's a good time to start volunteering!
I also added my thoughts about a "regular" schedule. If the hosts are delegated to host on the worst days of the week that will be attended by considerably fewer eliters, I don't think that encourages people to host all that much. Frankly, I think people should just sign up to host, and we'll fit them in one of the Sunday-Thursday time slots. Then, Infil/Ng can have some backup KotHs, in case there's no volunteers to host on those days. This five-times-per-week idea, I think, will go a long way to making sure people don't get sick of KotH too fast. We can still host the same number of KotHs as before, but we'll just spread it out over the course of an extra week or two.
Thingy, it is very likely we will start Sunday, September 21st at 10:30 EST. We'll be mentioning it in chat sporadically as that date gets closer, I'm sure, but you're on your own to remember to show up!
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I'm in as long as infil links me with the version of KotHbot we will be using sometime before Sept 22 at 10:30pm. That is all.
also note I can easily return as host and do arguably the funnest KotHs of the year, True or False Trivia and Categories! I'm sure I'll come up with some other cool games too, so I definitely volunteer as host... provided I'm not banned or severely capped or just generally pissed off at you guys or maybe having a gf or whatever.
also, I think that maybe with KotHbot, there could be some conspiracy for people to play for one another (all you do is type in any damn name you want) or people playing with random names such as "dinmorfucker007" and not ever telling who they actually are. The bigger concern surely is the conspiracies... I could easily play for QB if he can't make it that night simply by signing in with the name QB... even crazier, I could beat QB to it and steal QB as his name, where he would have to play as QB2 and no one would know who is who! I can just imagine a room full of ngamer1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 right now.
edit - on 2nd thought, I call the username Miley/SelenaFan14 for the duration of the season. No one steal this.
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What's on the website right now is a very-close-to-finalized version of the program; I'm not sure if I'll update it before the season begins or not. Closer to the date I'll know for sure. I just realized I haven't programmed in support for blocking/ignoring members of chat; I'm hoping the Elite can just get along without proving me to be horribly naive. Chances are, though, I'll have to implement a feature like that into the bot sometime in the middle of the season if people just can't behave.
Those who have downloaded the program before may need to update when we actually start the season. This is very painless and will take 10 seconds or so to do, though.
Re: second paragraph - Indeed, you bring up a good point. If this was commercial software released to people who paid me money to ensure confidentiality and verification, I would definitely have a system in place (probably a password system). The problem is, I'm not keeping this program up on a permanent server (even though I would like to, I don't want to spend money on it), so keeping a database of users on some central server is not an option for me. Really... I'm just hoping the Elite can get along and not cheat. I'm hoping people won't play under other people's names for them, and I'm hoping people won't try to steal the name from someone else before they get there (though, in this case, the host can kick them from chat). Your points are well noted, but on a small-scale application like this, I don't have the time, resources, or money to invest in "real" solutions to these problems. I have to rely on people not being jerks.
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you cuold make a KotH of that too: everyone signs in as someone else (or even as themselves), and everyone goes chatting and guessing who is who.
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lol at cheating in a koth. Only goose would've come up with that idea.
The problem with switching names is that most of us have been in chat so long it won't take long to get discovered since we all pretty much know each other's chatting tendencies. I have to admit that does sound like a fun koth idea though.
"people playing with random names such as "dinmorfucker007" and not ever telling who they actually are."
we don't know who they are=we can't assign points to them in the rankings now can we?
"I just realized I haven't programmed in support for blocking/ignoring members of chat" darn it infil you don't say this. I know you're a perfectionist and all but software companies don't print their flaws on the label on the box for a reason.
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yeah, wheat said it, we all know personalities. And there have always been ways to cheat at KOTH, its just for fun so don't be an idiot. I'm sure 1 incident of cheating bans you from all KOTHs
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Show up? Where do I need to show up at? An AIM chatroom? If so, what one?
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Wheat, knowing the bot can't ignore guys (yet: I'm thinking about just spending an hour or two to program it, we'll see) isn't going to make guys spam who wouldn't have otherwise spammed already. As it stands, people will just know what to expect. Otherwise, people would have spammed and then would have come to me, frustrated, because they couldn't block users with the bot.
Anyway, it'll probably be for moot if I can find a spare two hours in the next week.
Thiradell: we'll be using the bot to run all KotHs. I'll post instructions closer to the date, but you'll be using the bot kind of like an IRC program.
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it would be cool if the Host Time of US KotH gets resceduled to a better time for Europian Contestants. Just like Euro KotH is very doable for most US people.
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If somebody spams, the host boots them. Problem solved. You shouldn't have to waste time making sure we can ignore each other in a friendly competition.
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Carathorn: What time would that be? Any time in the evening is dead in the middle of the night for Euros.
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When you joina koth, you need to IM the host from AIM to tell him what your name in the KOTHbot is. There, problem solved.
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That's why we keep you around, Dayle! The only reason.
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well....Infil, normally it was 0:00 or something, which means 6:00 in the morning. No one is either gonna stay up for that, or get up for it. worst time possible imo.
Maybe it could be 20:00 or 21:00 in US? that would make ik either 2:00 or 3:00 here in Europe. My guess is, that there will be enough Euro ppl be awake at that time.
If you give me an reaction to that first, (if its possible) Then I'll ask around if Euro ppl are willing to participate around those times.
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All right, thanks Infil.
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It is happening at 20:00 or 21:00 at certain time zones in the US, Cara. I can't host it that early EST, though, because that's 5 pm for people on the west coast, and that's certainly too early for them to make it reliably.
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2000 or 2100 west coast will hardly be home from work/uni, I doubt it would shift that far to drop US in favor of Euro, when this is the US season.
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Awww, thanks Octo! (https://forums.the-elite.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ezboard.com%2Fintl%2Faenglish%2Fimages%2Femoticons%2Fhappy.gif&hash=7b9cd982f9a41f9aefcd7ea74682d5f1e4caf4c6)
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I talked to infil about this a while ago, and I think I have enough interest to host a KotH!
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Well I love KotH, but this season doesn't look too good for me. The biggest problem is my internet at this new place. It usually goes out every couple minutes for like 20-30 seconds which isn't too big of a deal for randomly surfing the net, but could/will be problematic during time-based questions when a bunch of people are playing in real-time. Since my schedule's pretty busy anyway and I seem to get interrupted a lot no matter what I'm doing, as long as people have files of KotH that I can d/l and play by myself at a later date, then hopefully I can still join in the fun. I'm excited!
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Not all KotHs will be botable, and even of those KotHs that will be run in the bot, not all of them will be meaningful/doable by one person at a later date (eg, Balderdash or something).
However, for those KotHs that are more or less straight trivia, we will certainly make the .koth files available for anyone to try! I'm not sure if they'll be counted officially for score or not, though. I'd lean towards no on that (might get a Jon ruling on that), but you could still try it for your own satisfaction.
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That's cool, I care very little about the rankings and such. Most of the trivia ones are just really fun to try and compare scores with other people who took it.
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OK...so what's Infil's IP address? He's not on AIM...
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link to latest KotHbot download?
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www.lemonparty.org (http://)
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I clicked it and nothing happened!
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there used to be a day when linking to LP in GC would be an insta-ban. Good thing I made sure those moronic days are long gone!
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yeah i know it was spam
go on, pretend like nothing happened!