The perfect Settlement (date)

In question creation finding the right settlent date is a tough decision. But the admins choice when to settle and when to prolong is harder. This topic concentrates on settlement. I want to know more about the rules and possibilities at settling (Cat Eds, As and SUs prefered).

1. There are lots of Qs that are very clear in their future outcome but are time restricted by the given settlement date (even some of my own).

I have betted on at least 10 Qs were the result is 99,5% safe and want to use the request settlement button but I want to know if there are any rules or guidelines to plead these cases. Early settlement would free money for new bets (Important to everyone below HD$ 200.000- I have too much cash in Q3)

e.G: http://www.hubdub.com/m41594/Will_Oprah_catch_Ellen_on_Twitter_by_August_28th
Ellen now has a bigger advantage (603K instead of 477K) and is gaining about 2880 every day http://www.tweetrace.com/

2. I really hate the "police case" Qs that mostly couldn´t be settled because their is no mayor news source or the police is seriously incompetent (just my impresion from the settlements). There are a lot of politics Qs that just fail the originally timeline and are very frustrating in settlement if you were right on the issue but missed the time. (I don´t mean the Franken Qs - those were time critical)

These Qs could be intesting if they are automatically prolonged by a year - because the author should have asked if something happened and not giving hubdubbers an opportunity to gain HD$ with betting on "no news by". IMO all Qs with a "no settlement by date" alternative should be voided. The inofficial CAT Ed rule for voiding Qs with too low starting odds for "no news" show this damaging tendency with these kind of Qs. Hubdub is about news and not so much about the technicality of easy settlements. If these Qs can´t be settled in a more hubdub way (and they definitely are hard to google) these Qs need fixing. The "other" alternative is fine with a low percentage but a "no news by" with high starting odds as ruled by some Cat Ed. is frustrating for people who want to bet yes or no and not on "no news".

e.g.: unsatisfying http://www.hubdub.com/m34400/Will_California_create_Harvey_Milk_Day
The political decisions took too long
Settlement date should have been 12/31/2009
5% starting odds were a joke and are no longer tolerated by some Cat Eds (they demand 40-60%)
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_12372342?nclick_check=1

better (because not settled and "no news option") http://www.hubdub.com/m33663/Will_the_US_Congress_approve_a_House_of_Representatives_seat_for_DC

Any insights?

Kudos to Jenni for using an almost perfect common sense approch on early settlements. Boxoffice numbers are predictable.

the rule below could be used more frequently imo. you make a good point in that jenni uses this rule wisely. the link below is a page of all the rules. just some friendly advice: take a few minutes and read them. they can come in handy when writing questions, asking for a question to be settled, flagging a question, etc. part of the problem your running into is the question creator's don't make it clear enough as to when the question settles. this is the way HD was setup for better or worse. question creators have some guidelines to go by, and lots of freedom after that. i think thats a good thing. if HD was to get to strict on the guidelines for writing a question, they would be less questions to wager on. before wagering if you have any doubts flag the question and ask the admin. not being disrespectful, but if you bet on a question and aren't certain about when it settles..who's fault is that? yes it takes time to get a flag answered, but if your not willing to wait then wager at your own risk. goodluck.

2.2.6 Settlement
Where possible we like to settle questions early. If something is 99.9% certain then we will tend to settle it. Every one in a 1,000 times we get it wrong we will also pay-out on the correct outcome.

http://www.hubdub.com/public/rules