When will Hubdub crack the 27,500 user mark?

I am glad that you specified which leaderboard because I just noticed that they each have a different number of members. Can anyone explain why they are different?

I see that poor derekben7 is the only member without a star. Maybe -73 H$ doesn't merit a star but since he is destined to spend the rest of Hubdub eternity at the bottom of the net worth leaderboard would anyone in the graphics department be able to come up with an appropriate icon for him? If not a star, how about a moon? Be creative.

25007

@ cahrles: derekben is some kind of an anomaly. Normally, the numbers will not go below 0. Nobody knows what to do with him. Some have suggested that he should be compelled to log in for four days to receive his daily bonus and repay his debt to society :-) Instead of a star, he should have a sad face...
As for why the two totals are different - I don't know for sure, but I suspect the quarterly gain board tracks only players whose accounts are open and the Net worth includes all accounts that ever were registered, even if they were deleted subsequently by the Administrators. The Admin's have the power to delete anyone deemed to be merely a spammer (there are many who create accounts for the purpose of spamming) or anyone whose transgressions against the rules are egregious and repeated. (Superusers don't - lest somebody complains to me)

Now derekben7 can breath a sigh of relief. No longer in last place. The new guy still has some active predictions but probably not enough to get back to even.

25461 tia361 0
25462 derekben7 -73
25463 henryrobertshaw -2,554

Now it seems that we are going backwards. Can anyone explain this one?

25446 datnative88 0
25447 derekben7 -73
25448 henryrobertshaw -2,600

Nov. 21, 2009: 25,881

Nov. 28: 26,032

Dec. 3: 26,172

Dec. 6: 26,284.

There were more than 60 new people in the last 24 hours.

Dec. 9: 26,401

Dec. 10: 26,459

The average gain per day over the last 7 days has been 41.0 per day, so January is looking very likely, with a small chance of December occurring (if the pace were to increase to an average of 49.4 per day).

Dec 14 : 26,667

Dec 16 : 26,743

Dec 17 : 26,841

Dec 18 : 26,910

Dec. 20: 27,028

Dec 21 : 27,107

Dec. 23 (9 AM): 27,198

Dec: 24th 9.00 GMT : 27,241 . 43 in last 16 hours

Dec. 25 (18:19 GMT): 27,292

Dec 26th (02.00 GMT) 27,305

Dec. 27th 11.30 GMT : 27343

Dec. 28th 11.30 GMT : 27373

DEC 29th 00.30 GMT: 27387

DEC 30th 00.05 GMT : 27426

this is way too close to call!
keep in mind, the default time zone is Pacific standard time, this one may go to the wire. I hope somebody will be up at that hour keeping track of the totals. It will be 3 AM on the East coast by then.....

Good old PST. I just bought an insurance for January and now I will gain equally each way. 27447

only 46 more needed and almost two days left. I think Dec is safe. I just cashed in my January insurance...

I'll be honest, I hope everyone has better stuff to do than checking this on the stroke of new year...

less than 40 to go....
@johnny, I do too, I didn't think it would be this close. I hope the admin's have a way to figure it out after the fact. With a bit of luck, it will go over the top much earlier, so it won't be an issue.
Happy NY, drive safely :-)

I hope everyone is too busy partying for New Years Eve to sign up for a HubDub account. I put a lot of money on January and one of you big $ users put it all on December (or pulled the January bids). I went from being up $200 today to down $200 in 30 minutes. Damn you!! This one will be close!

DEC 31st 00.15 GMT : 27469

How do we know if some one just doesn't make up names and add users to win this bet?

Only 27 to go and more than 30 hrs left....

27479: 21 to go, and just over 25 hours left.

@trice #34: we don't. people can create new accounts and add to the totals. anyone can create a new e-mail account at yahoo or google or any number of other free e-mail sites and then sign up for a hubdub account. but who would do such a thing just to win a few H$? :-)

How many people are there with $> say 100?

hope u guys are right , I just threw in 500 $ for dec..

17 hours for 19 users

close

suckers....

@tuff... yes indeed who? ha ha ... this was a great question!

Only 13 more to go in the next 12 hours... good suspense!
I have been holding back but now I know which way I will bet.

OK tuff, I am a sucker..... thanks a LOT!!

good thing you are not here... Nobody gets away with this as often as I have been robbed..

OK. I initially went Jan, then 2nd guessed myself, cashed out and went Dec. Gonna be close. If anybody is on at that time, they should do a screen shot just for verification.

@ mickey: I am glad you do, 'cause I don't
@bigken: I was on the wrong side of the 80-20 odds at the time, so I thought I'd stir the pot a bit with that sucker remark- apparently it worked. :-)
@ trice: It just happens to be really close at the end of the month. I wish I could have designed it that way, but I can't really take credit - just luck, but thanks anyway
I do hope somebody has a way to document what the final outcome will be, 'cause it's too close to call!

Midnight Pacific time, correct?

9 more to go!

Still 9 and holding.

7 to go...

hell..........i'll toss in another 1000

27,493 and counting...... with 4 hours to go.

EVERYONE DELETE YOUR ACCOUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nevermind, people are just going to create accounts at the last minute and push it over the edge.

27,496

c'mon tuff.....make four more acc'ts !!

PST still 5h25min left

I made my H$....I'm out

27498 03.30 GMT 1st Jan 2010 - 4.5 hours midnight Pacific... What about Samoa Time

http://www.hubdub.com/public/rules
2.2.3 Time, Time Zones and Geography
As far as possible, times on the website are shown in your timezone for your convenience. The 'core' timezone for the website however is PST (8 hours behind GMT, i.e. 12 noon PST is 8pm GMT, daylight savings are not observed).

Of course there's always this for those wanting to game this question:

2.2.11 Gaming
Gaming of the system is explicitly not allowed. Gaming includes:
• Creation of multiple accounts
• Creation of questions with deliberately inaccurate price estimates
• Use of multiple accounts to transfer Hubdub dollars from one to the other
However we cannot provide an exhaustive list of what is considered gaming. As a guide, if you believe the wider Hubdub community would consider an activity as gaming then it probably is.
In the event that user is considered to be gaming he/she then the procedure is as follows:
• 1st offence: Email warning
• 2nd offence: Fined 50% of net worth and publicly named for 2 weeks
• 3rd offence: Account deactivated
If the first offence is considered particularly blatant then we may move to the fine or deactivation.
We reserve the right to suspend or deactivate accounts at any time without prior notification.

Can the uber users please look into if dummy accounts have been set up at the last minute to make December a winner

I was not suggesting that it is something that is right. I was answering the question: how do we know people are not creating additional accounts, and the truthful answer, most of the time is we don't. The rules explicitly forbid this, but truth be told, there is no way to know if the additional account coming from your URL is your daughter/wife/husband/boyfriend or whatever, or your second/third, etc account. For the most part it is an honor system, punishment is reserved for obvious gaming. That said, there are enough ghosts out there to remind folks that the rules are enforced, as best as they can be...
Happy new year

If that is the case, then one cannot say Dec was the winning month with complete certainty, any of the months/answers for that matter
Happy new year to you as well

Bottom line Tuff, this was a great question since it came down to the wire after 5 months.

Great Question.... Happy New Year to all form the Midsouth - Tennessee.

I cashed out 11 hours ago when I knew how close it would be and possible complications.
Happy new year!

27,500 @ 10:22 PST 12/31/09

Confirming philcup's observation, 6 minutes later.

Nice question Tuff....

Well, I lost my shirt on this question....just betting one way, getting chicken and betting the other way, and then getting chicken and pulling out... with losses on each transaction... still it has been interesting...

Tuff, -- IT is my view that one aspect of why this was such a great question is owed to just chance ( that this was a great question ) --- that it came down to the exact dividing line in the question.... still great !!!! --lots of interest -- and possible gamers as frogchop so clearly indicated... great going tuff and froggy!!

Well said Bigken1 - I was in the same boat - Great question. How did it end up? I see 27,501 at 5:45AM EST. Happy New Year to All.

Thanks for all your kind comments.
I guess that means we should try it again with 30K!