# Is it time for another SDMB Awards thingie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 25, 2000, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260 "2000-01-25T01:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/61 "2000-01-29T05:38:00Z")

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[Campaigning]If someone votes for me for something, I’ll think about offering to send them a dollar.[/Campaigning]

Too late for this now, but shoulda had a “Most ignored” and then all the people who never get mentioned in favorite poster threads or at RL meetings coulda voted for each other. 😉

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Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.

“[A]gainst stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.” --J.C.F.S. as quoted by H.M.

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**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/62 "2000-01-29T05:47:00Z")

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Okay, is anyone else having a TON of trouble getting to the voting pages? I could bring it up at work today, but it was really slow. Now, I can’t see it at all. _whimper_ I mean, come on! I need to see if I’m winning “Most Chat Addicted!” 😉

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“You are sweet, kind, and considerate… Like a grown up boy scout with tits!” - Brian, aka SDMB’s one and only Satan.

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**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/63 "2000-01-29T06:00:00Z")

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Same problem here Falcon … pages are loading _rrrreeeaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy ssssllllloooowwwwwllllyyyy…_

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/64 "2000-01-29T06:52:00Z")

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Hey, Opal - Sorry I didn’t contribute anything earlier.

One suggestion I would recommend is to change the Best Scientific Explanations categories to Best Expert Explanations. We have a lot of expertise (law, immigration, web design, theology, etc.) on the board, and it seems artificial to only recognize the scientific experts…

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Sue from El Paso

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

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**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/65 "2000-01-29T08:06:00Z")

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Good idea Majormd–I changed it to Scientific/Expert how is that?

Sorry about the slow load times. Here is the way the pages are created:

you nominate someone, and that writes a line to a huge data file… each line of the data file is something like this:  
name=Suzeanne|category=59

Ok, so then on each of the voting pages, each question looks like this:  
112) Best Laymen’s Explanations\<A HREF=“javascript:POPUP()”\>\<IMG SRC=“nominate.gif” WIDTH=“23” HEIGHT=“25” ALT=“Nominate someone!” BORDER=“0”\>\</A\>&nbsp; \<A target=\_new HREF=“[http://fathom.org/polldata/pollcheck.adp?poll=dope-page12&question=112](http://fathom.org/polldata/pollcheck.adp?poll=dope-page12&question=112)”\>\<IMG SRC=“vote-results.gif” WIDTH=“27” HEIGHT=“24” ALT=“current results” BORDER=“0”\>\</A\> \<BLOCKQUOTE\>  
\<% guestbook.display /tm/112.txt /tm/nom.dat %\>  
\</BLOCKQUOTE\>  
That says to display data from /tm/nom.dat (the nomination datafile) using the specifications in /tm/112.txt, which says this:

gb.if category=112 \<INPUT TYPE=“radio” NAME=“112” VALUE="\<gb\>name\</gb\>"\>\<gb\>name\</gb\>\<br\>

So it goes through the data file and finds everywhere that the category=112 and puts in that html code… the \<gb\>name\</gb\> means insert a field from the data file–the field called “name”. \<br\> is a carriage return.

So you see… it takes a while for it to go through that process, for every person in every category on every page… every time someone loads the page. Sorry about that, but it was the only way I could have the thing be automated.

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–  
Teeming Millions: [http://fathom.org/teemingmillions](http://fathom.org/teemingmillions)  
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat  
O p a l C a t  
[www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com)

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**Author:** ![meek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@meek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meek)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/66 "2000-01-29T15:57:00Z")

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Awwwwww - no wurst spellor katagorie…

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2000, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/67 "2000-01-30T07:42:00Z")

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Thanks for changing the categories, Opal!

How 'bout a most likely to nominate someone who’s already nominated category - sheesh 🙂

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**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2000, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/68 "2000-01-30T14:40:00Z")

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Has anybody else noticed problems in the voting tally?

For example, I went in and voted for somebody. Then I came back the next day and that person showed no votes. So I voted for them again. Then I came back the next day and that person showed no votes.

Hmmmm. (I’ve e-mailed Opal about this and a couple other problems I saw, but haven’t heard back.)

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/69 "2000-01-30T21:58:00Z")

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I’m having a problem with the votes, too. I voted (late) Friday night. Tried to vote Saturday and got the message

> [@](#):
>
> There was a problem with your vote:  
> Whoops! You’ve already voted on this today!

Well, no problem, figured my votes were done after midnight or something.

Tried to vote today, and again got

> [@](#):
>
> There was a problem with your vote:  
> Whoops! You’ve already voted on this today!

Except that I haven’t. I haven’t voted since late Friday night (possibly eartly Saturday morning)!

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Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.

“[A]gainst stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.” --J.C.F.S. as quoted by H.M.

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/70 "2000-01-31T01:15:00Z")

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Hmmm. I had a problem with my email that caused me to have to disconnect and shut down the computer, and now I can vote.

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**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2000, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-for-another-sdmb-awards-thingie/13260/71 "2000-01-31T04:42:00Z")

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David: I have noticed a problem with the tallies too, but I can’t fix it without my husband’s help, and he’s always working (yesterday was a Saturday–not even a regular work day for him–and he went in at 8am and didnt get home til after 3 in the morning…) Hopefully in the next few days he will have some time to peek at the script and see what is going on.

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–  
Teeming Millions: [http://fathom.org/teemingmillions](http://fathom.org/teemingmillions)  
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat  
O p a l C a t  
[www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com)

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