Topic: ApopheniaBTC - Bet and solve the challenges to win BTC. - page 32. (Read 58241 times)

Yeap.

You know the initial idea about Apophenia was to let users upload challenges and just take a small portion of the profits. But then I though that it would be impossible to play since there would be a huge number of users uploading challenges that nobody solves because they don't trust them. And chances would be that scammers would be all over the site. Maybe if I was charging a listing fee it could work but I think it would just end up dying quickly unless some trusted member of the community started using it.

It does. And I understand where you're coming from. I was going to offer to help you decide what to name the pictures (in the case of anything that could be taken multiple ways) but I'd hate to be blamed if someone guessed one quickly because I might have shared the answer, XD.

Yeah it can be annoying at some times I guess. The good thing is that it's never unfair since it's the same for everyone. It's not unlike other games. You might come very close to the answer, miss, and then the opponent gets helped and finds the correct one. Of course there is an equal chance that you'll be on the other end of this. ;-)

I could give more detailed hints but that would make it way less fun since it would give certainty to users about their answers. For example let's suppose that I want the answer "desktop". If I give a hint like "Object, give the exact type." users would rule out quite a few generic items. They might be thinking it's a pair of shoes but they would not bet until they know what shoes they are, which would probably never happen since they would first all realize it's a computer. Of course they would then start guess-betting all the possible type. Well I am not sure if that makes sense to you. :-)

Yeah, I can see the problem with that... off the top of my head I really can't think of any good solutions for it that wouldn't be exploitable. I could just see someone getting irritated because there was a picture of like a computer and someone said "computer" but it was really supposed to be "desktop."

I guess if the hints at least lead people in the right way of understanding how it should be answered it should be fine.

There is a big problem with this. There is no way to distinguish a user that gives a detailed answer, from a user that submits multiple answers.

For example he could be recognizing that it is a dog and then, since I would be asking for a character name, start listing all dog names in one answer, like: "lassie jack brucie bingo hatchie".

Maybe I could only allow the answer to be a prefix of the string but this would again not solve the problem. Let's suppose I accept "lassie" and "lassie x" where x any word or words. This would be good for answers like "lassie the dog", but what about answers like "baby lassie"?
Then I would need to start accepting "x lassie" too, which I bet would lead to having users double betting all the time like "lassie brucie" <- two answers in one bet, if one is correct then the user wins the pot. This would be a big problem.

Is it possible (I was reading about the issue with people putting in too detailed of answers) of using some kind of wildcards? For example, if you have a picture of Lassie and you wanted the answer of a dog, someone who put in "Lassie the dog" would still ping as correct since the system would find "dog" in it.

Try not to find the answer at once. Some times finding a background object might narrow down what the answer is. Like the scrat picture. The nut was quite visible, if you could see that, well, which character holds a nut? You don't always have to keep asking yourself the main question "who is this character?".

And take it easy. Go for the cheaper pictures first and when you see a solved picture, don't click one it and don't look at the answer. Instead right click on the thumbnail, save it somewhere and try to find what it is. When pictures get solved, they are no longer processed, which means that someone was able to solve the picture you see as it is.

BTW in case someone hasn't noticed: you can see the full res picture if you click on a solved thumbnail and then click again on the big picture. Clicking that should switch between the original picture (in B&W) and the state of the picture as it was solved.

I'm guessing you didn't win? haha. I'm still having my break before I try again. It seems I suck at this game.

i should not made a bet so early in the game lol.. it was a good try 

Hello Isamaru.

That picture had this hint: "Character name"
Your answer was the character name and the movie name so as a whole it was not correct. Also the answer field when you try to place a bet says "keep it simple" for this reason. The system is automated in order to be as instantaneous as possible so it's impossible to make it really understand the answer. If for example your answer was "scrat, the little squirel rat from ice age" the answer would be considered wrong. I just asked for a character name, nothing more or the system will not be able to check the answer for correctness.

Now even IF your answer was simple and making sense, that doesn't mean that it HAS to be the correct answer. As the instructions say So if the picture was for example hintless and it shows some guy from a movie, it could be the case that I am asking for the movie title. Saying the name of the actor or the name of his character would not be considered correct even though they both fit the picture. I try to avoid this in hintless pictures though, but hintless pictures are supposed to be a surprise so there is no guarantee about what the correct answers will be for them. In any case this is not about your case.

I believe you were not trying to play two bets at the same time (movie title + character name). It's pretty obvious to me that you were merelly trying to refine your answer, to be more specific. (although this goes against the "keep it simple tip")

Please understand that in order to make the game distinguish between multiple answers and refined answers like the one you gave, I would have to personally check every answer that gets into the system. This would result in a very slow and unresponsive game. What would happen while I am sleeping? It's impossible to have someone look over the site the while day checking the answers for correctness. Actually it is possible, but who is going to pay that guy for all the hours he spends on the site? That's a full time job, actually it's more than full time, you need someone 24/7 on the site. The only option is to have an automated system, and an automated system can only check predifined answers. Consider this a luck factor to the game. In your case you were unlucky. You knew the answer but your phrased it completelly wrong. It could be the other way. It's mostly a game of skill but as in most games, there is a luck factor. IMO it's a small factor if you try to keep your answers simple.

For example, look at the bluetooth picture. It had LOTS of different possible answers: "bluetooth" / "handsfree" / "bluetooth handsfree" / "handsfree bluetooth" / "headset" / "bluetooth headset". Any of those would work. Now if someone bet "Samsung GT-008" or something like that he would loose. It's alsmost impossible to thing of ALL the possible answers for a picture.

BTW would you mind if I quote our PMs in the forum thread? Other users might be also interested in this conversation.

Little limited in pics, what about adding some movie pics?

edit: Yay! won the shoe pic

kaching kaching BTC0.0425 to me from the bluetooth headset 
blockchain.info/pt/tx/95028c87ea6491d1a657ff9149621a7c29679e1a6cb77a12d916266a1c10ba00
thanks and continue the good work 

Well right now it's hard. But I predict it will be solved quite early compared to other images. Of course my predictions are often wrong so you may as well ignore them. :-D