Recently active topics in Hubdub

After much discussion, we have decided to change the definition of 'by' to be EXCLUSIVE of the date referenced - here is what the amended Rules will say:

The term "by" will be considered to be exclusive of the date referenced. E.g. "Will the satellite hit earth by March 25th?" will be settled as a "Yes" if it hits prior to March 25th, and 'No' if it hits on March 25th or later. Where possible, category editors should edit 'by' to 'before', to avoid ambiguity.

This is for a number of reasons, but particularly:
1. For consistency with other date questions, ie 'by August' does not include the entire month of August in the time period, and 'by 2009' does not include all of 2009
2. To align with commonsense - although a spot poll has revealed that not everyone naturally interprets 'by' as exclusive, this appears to be the interpretation for the majority

Where possible, we will endeavour to use the terminology 'on' or 'on or before' to try to avoid any ambiguities in questions.

Similarly, for 'between', which often occurs in the context of mutually exclusive time period outcomes (eg between 1 and 2; between 2 and 3), the first option would be interpreted as 1 to 1.99999, and the second 2 to 2.999999.

To save creators of commonly structured questions some clicks and keystrokes, they can now click the "copy question as new" button at the top right of the question page to duplicate one of their own questions (and modify appropriately) before resubmitting as a new question.

Only the question creator (and super users and admins) have this capability.

Tom

From today's Wall Street Journal -- ‘Pundit Watch’ May Need Its Own Watchdog

"Pundits are prized for making bold predictions, but they’re usually not held accountable for their forecasting accuracy. A news-prediction Web site is trying to change that with a pundit-tracking game, pitting the likes of MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews against technology blog TechCrunch and entertainment blogger Perez Hilton. While the idea is a good one, the execution is flawed."

With plenty of commentary from Nigel!

You'll now get an email notification when:
1) a question you've predicted on is voided
2) a suspended question you've predicted on is unsuspended
3) a prediction you made is cancelled for being too late (past the cut-off time) when a question is settled.

These can be turned off from your Site Settings screen (My Hubdub -> My Account -> Site Settings)

Hopefully this will help you keep even tighter tabs on your H$.

Hi everyone, we're just released some cool new functionality.

1. Twitter your predictions from Hubdub. On the Prediction Made screen there's a new blue box on the right. From it you can Twitter your responses to questions immediately, from Hubdub, by entering your Twitter username and password. Hubdub can remember these details so each future tweet is just 1 click, or even tweet all your predictions automatically.

Use it to show off your predictions and start discussions with your friends.

2. Tags have arrived. You can now browse to other questions related to the one you're viewing from its tags on the top right of the screen. Question creators pick the tags, and feel free to add as many as you want (it's no longer restricted to specific tags for pulling relevant news).

3. Now, finally, our esteemed question creators amongst you can upload an image with your wonderful questions. There's a box to pick a file from your computer at the bottom of the question details screen. Please, only user images you have the right to use in this way (ie. you own the copyright, the images are unrestricted or you've obtained permission from the copyright holder).

Enjoy!

Tom

I caught this blurb in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer - ranked in the top-25 newspapers in the United States:

... "Do the pundits know what they're talking about? It's New on the Net."

(it included a live link)

I am starting this thread to provide a place for everyone to discuss what they liked and what they disliked about the NBA Finals in play markets. I have some ideas for future in play markets, and think we should keep them limited in quantity and reserved for major events.
I would love to see some of the following events open for in game play. The Major golf tournaments, the MLB playoffs (or just World Series), NFL football (Sunday night game and Monday night game as a minimum), College Football (just the major matchups between top rated teams, and the BCS bowl games), Tennis (just the grand slam events), NASCAR (Daytona 500, a few of the other important events), NHL (stanley cup), WNBA (finals), and I am sure some of you will find others I can't think of.

I propose the following, sports markets close at set times depending on sport. Lets start with Football, suspend any questions about the results of the first quarter before the game
starts (ie.. which team scores more points in first quarter), suspend questions about the results of the first half at the end of the first quarter of play, to carry this all the way out, 3rd quarter markets would suspend at half time, and questions about the final outcome would suspend at end of 3rd quarter. With baseball playoffs, we should suspend games at the 7th inning stretch. Nascar races should suspend with they are within 10% of the final number of laps, if it is 500 lap race, it would suspend when there was only 50 laps to go. I think we can all come up with interesting ways to make these markets exciting, while preventing people from wagering on events that are most likely known. With the other sports we can work out suspension times that provide excitement but don't allow wagering on events when outcome not likely to change.