Today, the Dodgers play their 100th game of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals. And just to make this 100th Game Thread more interesting, starting today, we are inaugurating a new game that we like to call One Hundred Splendid Sons, or 100SS. ("The Hundreds" was already taken, as us street subculture fans know.)
This game has been transpiring, on its own, in many of our Game Threads. So we huddled together at our last SoSG staff meeting and tried to develop some rules to make it an actual game, with point values and a prize and everything.
As this is the first go-round for this and the rules have not been tested, though, we are making this a shortened 10-game season (almost like an exhibition season), to see how 100SS works (both the rules of the game, as well as the effort needed to administer the game). This season will run from Game Threads 100 to 109.
There will be a small prize awarded at the end to the winner. Our hope is that this exhibition season will work out, we'll fine-tune the rules a bit, and open up a longer season in the coming weeks.
THE OBJECTIVE: To score as many points as possible by "claiming" Game Thread comments that are multiples of 100.
RULES: At the top of the comments section of each Game Thread is a running count of the current number of comments. Your goal is to claim "hundreds comments," i.e., 100, 200, 300, etc.
To make a claim, your comment must include the comment number, e.g., simply posting "100" for the 100th comment, or "200!" for the 200th comment. Inadvertently posting a normal comment on a hundreds comment does not count; it neads to be claimed.
The Game Thread closes for 100s commments and is "locked" when the SoSG staffer posts a comment indicating that a Post-Game Thread is up (the timestamp on the actual PGT itself is irrelevant). No additional hundreds comments will be awarded for that Game Thread.
SCORING: Claiming the 100th comment gets you 100 points. 200th comment = 200 points, 300th comment = 300 points, etc. The stakes get higher as the game goes longer!
However, "padding" your way to a hundreds comment with normal comments (or premature claims) will result in a major penalty. If you claim a hundreds comment and the comment immediately preceding it, you receive only 25% of its value. (For example, if you post comments #99 and #100, you receive only 25 points.) If you make two consecutive comments immediately preceding it, you receive only 10% of its value. If you make three or more consecutive comments immediately preceding it, you receive no points.
If someone snipes you and you end up making a claim (not a normal comment) on the first post-hundreds comment, you lose (i.e., your running score is penalized) 10% of its value. (For example, if you post "100!" in post #101, your running point total will be decreased by 10 points.) A claim on the second post-hundreds comment loses 20%, on the third post-hundreds comment loses 30%, etc. Remember, this doesn't apply to normal comments, just claimed comments; normal comments are not penalized nor awarded.
So, you've gotta stick your landing, or you're going to get penalized. But if you nail it, you get rewarded.
MISCELLANEOUS OTHER CRAP: Deleting posts will not alter the comment count. You may delete the content of a comment, but the "comment deleted" placeholder will still count as a comment. We at SoSG will not permanently delete comments unless we indicate it clearly in the GT (and we won't do it as we near each hundred-multiple marker).
This game only applies to Game Threads for Dodger games (and not any "scoreboard watching" Game Threads.
SoSG writers are eligible to play because we have no advantage over readers!
Hopefully this works; let us know in this thread if we've missed a key point, and we may update the rules as we go. Round #1 is today's Game Thread, which posts at 2p PT. Have fun!
