In Reply to: Was about to add a response to that - It surprises me that so many people actually care that much!! Taking it too seriously! (nt) posted by Beaker on October 4, 2002 at 11:10 AM:
Well, I think I have to agree with Hank and the complainers (even though it wasn't I who complained). It takes the fun out of it for things to be randomized. When people started screwing around with "Today's most popular profiles" I gave up and stopped looking. I haven't gone back. I figure there are just a number of people in the world who get their kicks out of messing things up for others, but I'm too old to be getting excited about that any more.
To those who say it doesn't matter or that it's not a competition: well, if it doesn't matter, then why do people feel the need to "take a virtual vacation" or to defend their right to do so at all? It messes things up AND it has no value-added to the site that I can see.
Maybe it's not truly a competition, but it definitely has competitive elements. Different people may draw different things from this site, but nobody is going to be entering lots and lots of bills here in a vacuum without any kind of comparison to some goal or someone else, that gives them a warm and fuzzy feedback (even if it's something like a goal of joining the list of people with hits in all 50 states, etc., rather than ranking on a list.) Stats DO have meaning, and the stats that keep some people here may not be the stats that interest you, but that doesn't mean it's OK to go messing around with them.
And I can appreciate that it's not so much whether you're number 9 or 19, but more that you're number 9 one day, 19 the next, and then 9 again. It's a consistent comparison that matters (in the sense of having some reason to look there at all), and that doesn't happen when virtual squatters are jumping in and out.
As for those who go physically between two addresses (like summer/winter, or school/home), I would think it OK to either leave it in one place or to move it back and forth when you actually move, whichever suits you, as long as it's a change of residence of some sort and is for months and not days. But if Hank wanted to make a ruling one way or another, I wouldn't complain.
Hmmmm... perhaps the state should be "forced to" whatever state matches the default zip code for bill entry. That would get rid of the "funny" states too.
Cheers,
Stan