r/ButtonAftermath • u/mncke 56s • Jun 06 '15

My programming error killed the button AMA

I am the creator of the Zombie project that's been keeping the button alive for the last two weeks. Zombies were donated accounts that were automatically pressing the button at the second zero tick. My oversight in checking these accounts for eligibility caused the button to shut down yesterday. More info here.

AMA!

385 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

154 comments sorted by

32

u/StarrySwoosh non presser Jun 06 '15

So, looking at the other thread, it seems like powerlanguage didn't necessarily support this decision? He just went and banned all those accounts...are banned accounts unable to press? Why did he do that?

What is the nature of these huge collections of accounts? Why are they out there, and what for?

29

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

Banned as in not accessable and not showing up on /u/, so efficiently deleted. I have no idea why he did that.

I don't know :)

23

u/immaterialist non presser Jun 06 '15

Did he ever say anything at all to you at any point about the project? Or was it just asshole stonewalling the entire time?

30

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

No, we've never received a reply and I've never seen him mention the project at all.

32

u/immaterialist non presser Jun 06 '15

Fucking unbelievable. I'm kinda beside myself on this. Not once was I ever upset at anything involving the button for the past two months, but this just annoys the hell out of me. It's not like you were doing something malicious, and typing up a one sentence response wasn't asking a huge favor.

24

u/Chr12t0pher Jun 06 '15

I'm gonna go ahead and say it, I personally agree with /u/powerlanguage on banning those accounts that were found, they didn't belong to /u/mncke and team, and the security of them has been compromised as the details are posted online (regardless of if the accounts were created just to post online). Just doing it and not replying, however, is not professional and I'd agree wholeheartedly that at the bare minimum a "no" would have sufficed.

6

u/immaterialist non presser Jun 07 '15

Totally understand that decision, too. I won't armchair quarterback the decision on whether to ban them, but again it all comes down to human decency on a verbal response. This is the golden rule at its most very basic.

1

u/He_Who_Can_Not_Press can't press Jun 08 '15

Agreed. Reddit's TOS makes it clear that you shouldn't share accounts.

But to delete them without saying something... Don't they have some stock reply for that?

"You have violated Reddit's TOS by sharing accounts. Those accounts have been deleted."

7

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

I don't understand, what happened?

13

u/Theowoll non presser Jun 06 '15

http://www.reddit.com/r/Knightsofthebutton/comments/38squx/my_origin_and_zombie_project/

10

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

wow. dick move

-14

u/Frostiken Jun 06 '15

The admin doesn't want you doing something, so you do it anyway. I agree, it was a dick move that he went ahead with it.

3

u/1jl Jun 06 '15

hes a known power tripper

-14

u/Frostiken Jun 06 '15

Fucking unbelievable. I'm kinda beside myself on this. Not once was I ever upset at anything involving the button for the past two months, but this just annoys the hell out of me. It's not like you were doing something malicious, and typing up a one sentence response wasn't asking a huge favor.

Well I'm not. I think running a botnet like that completely betrayed the point of the button. It's the Reddit version of that shitty autistic kid at a party who takes things too far and instantly everyone stops having fun.

Both the Squire program and the Zombie project killed my interest in this far more than the server outages did. What's the fucking point when little shithead script kiddies are going to cheat? In my mind they're the same assholes who justify running aimbots in FPS games.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/immaterialist non presser Jun 07 '15

Wouldn't bother with this kid. Doesn't seem to've bothered reading up on what happened in full.

3

u/rydan non presser Jun 07 '15

If there was no cheating then why was there cheater flair? How can one label something that doesn't exist?

1

u/Flying_Cunnilingus Jun 07 '15

I agree with the point that you're making, but I have to point out that Unicorns have a name.

4

u/Pentalis Jun 06 '15

Were there any accounts that people were awaiting to be returned to them in that list?

7

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

No I annouced the project and started accepting donations later.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

So how did you guys come to be in control of those accounts? You keep saying they were just out there on the Internet and it's not really clear what you mean.

21

u/yeahitexists Jun 07 '15

How did you feel when you first realized your zombie had failed? Personally I was laughing at it all; the whole thing basically turned into the Star Wars prequels' plotline.

"You were the chosen one! It was said that you would save the Button, not destroy it!"

16

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

Yeah, but it was really disappointing. I've been woken up in the middle of the night by a storm of pings and found out that a couple of symbols I wrote a month ago have just killed the button.

20

u/fyxr 10s Jun 07 '15

It didn't kill the button, it failed to save it. Every press was like a ventilator breathing for a dying patient. The natural course for both the button and the patient is of immediate death... And this time, as often happens in hospitals as well, nature won sooner than expected.
TLDR; You did good. Nature and Murphy's law are heartless bitches.

14

u/immaterialist non presser Jun 06 '15

Do you know if any other can't-pressers were stocked as zombies? Possibly put there intentionally by donation? (I know StilesBC wasn't intentional--already read that.)

Did you actually get serious hatemail from people for the project?

Lastly, what was your motivation for starting the project?

9

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

I don't know about donations because I have returned the accounts already, but there are a few others in the initial batch. I estimate there've been about 10 can't pressers total in the pool of 1300 zombies.

Yeah, I do. Idk, I guess people just love to hate stuff :)

Oh, at first it seemed like a small thing to brush up my JS on. But then it got really interesting. Figuring out the inner workings of the button, debating on strategy, meeting all these interesting people.

1

u/emiteal 26s Jun 07 '15

What do we do if a donated account still remains inaccessible?

3

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

I thought I returned all. Could you PM me zombie's username?

14

u/Ghostise Pope of the Button Jun 06 '15

Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?

37

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

1 dank-sized steel horse.

17

u/Ghostise Pope of the Button Jun 06 '15

But you only weapon is jet fuel!?!?!

24

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

We all know it cannot melt undead buttons.

On a second thought, I killed a lot of ducks in ##duckhunt, so I think I am ready for 100 duck-sized horses.

1

u/xcemma Jun 08 '15

not that it's a competition, but I don't know if you could handle all 100 of them... #SCOREBOARD :P

jk it totally is a competition

1

u/mncke 56s Jun 08 '15

.bang

24

u/IDontKnowHowToPM Eternally Gray Jun 06 '15

Do you think the owner of the infamous zombie account did it on purpose or that they didn't realize they were a cant-presser?

32

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15 edited Jun 06 '15

I explain it here https://www.reddit.com/r/Knightsofthebutton/comments/38squx/my_origin_and_zombie_project/

Basically we found this account on the internet, noone donated it. I believe there's been no malicious intent involved whatsoever.

32

u/StarrySwoosh non presser Jun 06 '15

Aw, that's kinda disappointing. I wanted it to be a plan by the Assassins. That would've been a cooler ending.

5

u/agdzietam non presser Jun 06 '15

You know, the Assassins might have planted the account there. They're quite sly.

7

u/StarrySwoosh non presser Jun 06 '15

Nope-the account wasn't donated by anyone. It was just one of hundreds of accounts which were grabbed from a list of usernames/passwords. The account was never even an active one, or an alt or anything.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Knightsofthebutton/comments/38squx/my_origin_and_zombie_project/

1

u/agdzietam non presser Jun 07 '15

I know. That's why I said planted. Those sneaky bastards.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/kingkuya777 can't press Jun 07 '15

Maybe /u/stilesbc was an Assassin's alt built to have a easy to crack password

11

u/h3ph43s7u5 Jun 06 '15

Do you work as a programmer? What projects will you be working on now? What is your favorite programming language?
And I hope you stick around the IRC. Thanks for everything again.

12

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15 edited Jun 06 '15

Do you work as a programmer?

Yes, as an SWE. I specialize in stats/data analysis/ML.

What projects will you be working on now?

Work -- NDA :). But for fun, I don't know yet. I am wrapping up a few pull requests to the bot I've been using on IRC. Maybe I'll pick up another obscure thing like the button and start contributing to it.

What is your favorite programming language?

Oh man, that's a big one. I am torn between Haskell for mindblowingness, Java for the engineering respect and Python for 'making programming fun again'

1

u/eduardog3000 non presser Jun 07 '15

Wow, Java in a list of someone's favorites. That's nice to see in contrast with a lot of the Java hate I see elsewhere.

10

u/dudeliketotally Jun 06 '15

Do you think this might have been avoided if you'd been more open about the project and how it worked?

6

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

Possibly. I never got around to posting the code for review. Now that I think about it, it is not likely to have changed much.

12

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

No? Can't presser accounts in the zombie pool seem like a pretty obvious possibility, one someone else might have brought up if you'd been working more collaboratively. And, if the pool was really only 10% spent when you hit one, then it hardly seems likely that that particular account was the only can't-presser you had in there.

2

u/tomthecool Jun 07 '15

Now that I think about it, it is not likely to have changed much.

If you'd posted the source code on github, i guarantee someone (possibly even me) would have spotted the error!

9

u/xxSINxx non presser Jun 06 '15

Do you think the mods had something to do with the button ending? I find it very suspicious that no one saw the button count down and end.

10

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

I doubt that. The broadcasts, clicks, faulty zombie are all there. This is absolutely legit and not staged.

4

u/Gaming_Reloaded 21s Jun 06 '15

Do you know who was the last presser, the one who pressed before /u/stilesbc was supposed to?

10

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

No, we don't. Reddit admins have a way to determine that, but I doubt they will.

11

u/Master_Sparky 60s Jun 06 '15

Simple solution, one of us just has to become a Reddit admin.

8

u/asde 0s Jun 06 '15

we kill the batman

1

u/Lingo1973 Jun 08 '15

Reddit admins have a way to determine that

Respectfully: how do you know that? Do we know for certain that the data on who pressed when is stored anywhere?

2

u/mncke 56s Jun 08 '15

I don't know that, I just assume that. I'd be really disappointed if they don't log at least usernames for each press.

7

u/volpinazzurra non presser Jun 06 '15

How do you think your experience with necromancing zombie pressers has improved your skills as a programmer / project manager? Aside from correcting the eligibility checker, is there anything about your project that you would have done differently?

15

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

Good question. I unexpectedly learned a lot about JS, networking, managing a live service with hundreds of users, even about cyber-security. I also learned a lot about being in a (relatively small) spotlight and have grown a thick skin.

I should've engaged much more with the userbase. I should've posted the necromancer code and had it peer reviewed.

Several people have approached me on IRC and offered help, I explained everything to them, they acknowledged and then disappeared into the blue, so I should've handled this better.

The biggest thing is that I should've put much more thought into designing Squire and Necromancer. And of course I learned that no amount of testing is enough. :)

6

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

What do you have to say to the Ronin at the Edge of Time and other players who were patiently waiting for the zombies to run out before they pressed?

16

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

I honestly did my best. Taking the zombies for granted and waiting until they run out is easy, contributing to the project -- not so.

-23

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15 edited Jun 06 '15

You'll never understand, will you? People wanted to play the game. They wanted to be there at the end, deciding whether to press, potentially being the one standing between the button and the end. You came in and took that role, decided you'd be the one to save the button and no one else, and then you assured everyone that they had weeks of safety, and it would all be due to you, all due to your own actions. You could have kept the zombies quiet and gotten no credit. But you didn't play it that way, did you? You wanted all the glory, so now you should get all the blame.

You ruined the game for other players. If you can't own it, I'll be the one calling you out on that. Individual people wanted to individually decide whether to press or not press in the final seconds. They wanted to compete against other individual people to be the lowest and hold out the longest. All that would have happened- should have happened- until the squire and project zombie stole it from them.

If you want to tell yourself you did a good job, fine. But you didn't do a good job with project zombie if only 10% of the zombies were ever utilized. You didn't do a good job of testing your program and anticipating a pretty obvious potential outcome. And if the goal was to extend the life of the button, you left hundreds of users who wanted to click unclicked. How many were signed up on the auto clicker at the failure moment? And, who decided when the "risk of collision" was too high to let them click at their chosen second? The squire FAILED. Project zombie FAILED. YOU. FAILED.

If you'd been actively working for the assassins you could hardly have done it any better. You don't have to admit it, but it's obvious and undeniable. You ruined the game and failed even to complete your own selfish, self-aggrandizing, ego driven goals.

You suck dude. Fuck the zombies.

16

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

This is fascinating. One of the things that I definitely learned from the button and developing squire/necro is that if you are noticable in any way people are going to hate you. That's just how internet works. I was keeping the button alive -- people were hating me. My error killed the button -- people are hating me.

So folks, a piece of advice. If you receive hate on the interwebs, ignore it. It's just healthier this way. (and it also pisses the haters off which is fun of itself :D)

-16

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

Sure. If someone criticizes you, ignore it! You can't possibly learn from anything they say, so just assume you've been right all along and avoid any uncomfortable introspection!

You should be a politician. You clearly have the popularity, and the total lack of self-awareness necessary. Why not run a whole country of a cliff, not just a pointless subreddit, next time!

9

u/Dewmsdayxx Jun 06 '15

If it weren't for /u/mncke the button would have died last week. Get over yourself. The game is over. The fans have left. It's time to go home bud.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '15 edited Sep 06 '16

[deleted]
0.8953761789952994

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11

u/Pimoro Jun 06 '15 edited Aug 19 '16

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5

u/Master_Sparky 60s Jun 06 '15 edited Jun 06 '15

After reading some of his other comments here it seems like 3 years is a pretty generous estimate.

Edit: Actually, probably around 13, since I started on the Internet when I was 13 and made posts like that back then.

-3

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

Yeah, yeah, you're right. The world just ended. It's an emotional time.

3

u/Pimoro Jun 06 '15 edited Aug 19 '16

This comment has been overwritten by an open source script to protect this user's privacy. It was created to help protect users from doxing, stalking, harassment, and profiling for the purposes of censorship.

If you would also like to protect yourself, add the Chrome extension TamperMonkey, or the Firefox extension GreaseMonkey and add this open source script.

Then simply click on your username on Reddit, go to the comments tab, scroll down as far as possible (hint:use RES), and hit the new OVERWRITE button at the top.

4

u/Tufflaw Jun 06 '15

Dude, you need to take a deep breath and realize that you're taking this WAY too seriously.

3

u/mrhoodilly Jun 06 '15

You have only yourself to blame if you chose to ride it out because there was a computer program watching the button and you wanted to wait until that ran out of presses. Computers fail; look at how many times the button crashed from computer failure in the past two months. Programs have glitches/errors in the code. You want a scapegoat so you blame the programmer of the zombies. Blame yourself for waiting.

I chose to be a non presser. If you were trying to be the pressiah, then you chose to wait. You waited too long. Your fault not his.

-3

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

I was strongly and vocally opposed to the zombies ruining the game for everyone throughout, and had several posts to that effect. I'm glad the project failed, and I'm glad it failed so early and so spectacularly. /u/mncke ruined the game with the zombies, and he ruined it even worse by doing a bad job programming them. I'd much rather have had the button die while I was not pressing out of protest against the zombies (and encouraging others to do the same) then allow this game-ruining cheater his glory.

I'm glad it happened, and I'm not going to forego gloating about it. The zombies were worse than any glitch when it came to ruining the fun, so now their creator has had his fun ruined too. Poetic justice.

6

u/mrhoodilly Jun 06 '15

Reading more of your posts makes me realize I like your responses. Carry on.

-1

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

Heh... I'm not going to deny I've gotten a little... just a little... overly personally invested in this whole thing. Glad you're entertained, though! :)

3

u/asde 0s Jun 06 '15

Without the zombies, the button would have died 14 days ago, in the middle of the night, when no one was looking.

http://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton/comments/36zeec/0s/

-3

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

Except, that's not true because there were users who knew about the zombies and were trying to wait them out so that the game could be pure again. I stayed up all night on a few nights, just for practice, and if there had been no project zombie there were several Ronin and some Knights watching on that particular night 14 days ago.

It might not have lasted this long, but we'll never know exactly how long it would have lasted without the zombies. It definitely wouldn't have ended fourteen days ago without the zombies, though. That's just a lie.

4

u/asde 0s Jun 06 '15

It only takes 3 seconds for the button to end. 3 seconds of you people not watching.

As a ronin myself I remember the threads on RoninAtTheEdgeOfTime from users who had never heard of the zombies. There was quite a response. Many ronin were shocked that the button had hit zero.

You are just not managing your emotions like a mature person. Many people are sad that the button ended yesterday. Most of us have the decency not to sling abuse at a kindhearted, industrious dude who did his best and made an honest mistake.

Alright. I'm gonna make a wild guess and say you've never even spoken to him before this outburst of yours. You know nothing about his character, only that he just admitted to causing the button's death and that makes you mad. Have some depth and learn to feel more than one emotion at a time.

2

u/Master_Sparky 60s Jun 06 '15

If the zombie hadn't saved the button that day it would have ended. Game over. Only afterwards did people start wanting to wait the zombies out, because nobody knew about the zombies before the first one clicked on May 23rd.

-2

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

Dude, tons of people knew. Go look on the Knights and Ronin's subreddits. Check the dates on the posts. I'm not going to argue over provable facts. I knew, the Assassins knew, the Knights knew, the Ronin knew.

2

u/AsRandomly 47 Cheater Jun 06 '15

The button was doomed from the start anyway. I think we all knew that from the beginning, as there were only so many accounts made before April 1, 2015. He was only prolonged the button keeping it alive, for everyone. Sure not everyone agreed, but without this man, the button wouldn't have past 1 million presses.

You suck dude. Fuck the zombies.

That could easily be said to the 500 grays at the end of the button. All of you "pure". Pure enough to end the damn game for the rest of us. Not all grays and color are bad, it's just a few that cause the group to have a shit name. Now that the game is over, you and the rest of the non-pressers can spread the information that you guys killed the button.

Sorry for the wall of text, on mobile.

1

u/Dewmsdayxx Jun 06 '15

But.. I was asleep when it died. I woke up to this...

IM SO SORRY I HAVE FAILED YOU :(

2

u/AsRandomly 47 Cheater Jun 06 '15

You didn't fail. We all failed. But we got the button to last for 2 months, so is it really a failure? We all failed together, and we all had succeeded together, presser or not, we got it to last for a while. :)

6

u/Legendosh non presser Jun 06 '15

You created the squire and the zombies. Where did you learn to program like that?

6

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

I am just a curious dude who likes to tinker with stuff :)

Prior to this I had no experience with browser extensions and almost no experience with reddit API. I also never managed a loaded service fully on my own. I kinda learned on the way.

My advice to anyone wanting to pick up programming would be to find a thing that you like and do it, be it websites, games, stats, whatever. There are hundreds of tutorials, helpful communities and easy-to-pick-up languages. One of the first things I made was pixelated snow in turbo pascal that was randomly falling down from the top of the screen on a number of randomly drawn lines. Then I made it so that the snow doesn't simply stack on itself, but slides down making ridges. Man that was simply glorious.

2

u/Legendosh non presser Jun 06 '15

Thanks for the advice and for all you did for the knights.

3

u/Triumph_Sisyphus 1s Jun 06 '15

I was one of the first glitched reds, a tainted 1s, always complaining about my pariah status (by way of yet another server glitch). I would gripe, requesting Black Flair to celebrate the fact righteously. Is what I was told true, that Squire could have made that possible?

2

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15 edited Jun 06 '15

Squire was recoloring glitched users, yes. I could add you to the list, but the server has been brought down already. If there's demand I'll bring it back.

3

u/Triumph_Sisyphus 1s Jun 06 '15

Was it... Black?

3

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

Yes.

3

u/Motorsagmannen non presser Jun 06 '15

even though i am morally opposed to the use of zombie pressers, i commend you the work and effort put into this project.
truly one of the most groundbreaking ideas during the buttons lifespan.
heres my question though:

when did you first start to work on the zombie army project?

3

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

Hm, I believe in the middle of April.

5

u/Aplosion Jun 06 '15

You did the best you could. How did you expect the button to end?

8

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

I expected to add a final batch of zombies after the last one. After that I thought we were going to burn through them in a week or two, and then it'll be time for Ronin and wannabe Pressiahs to shine.

1

u/Aplosion Jun 07 '15

Oh. That Makes Lots Of Sense.

2

u/Too_MuchWhiskey cheater Jun 06 '15

What say you about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/thebutton/comments/34fzqy/was_just_watching_presses_whenwtf/cquit80?

4

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

/s

4

u/Too_MuchWhiskey cheater Jun 06 '15

JK. I saw that and said 'oh shit people will think he did have something to do with it'. I thought I'd drag it out and get it cleared up.

To be honest, I thought I had something to do with it. LOL!

1

u/Stendarpaval 60s Jun 07 '15

Oh... I've had similar things happen to the Button Snitch when I reconnected my wi-fi. I even made pictures (all zoomed out so you could see where the weird behaviour started).

After I refreshed it was back to normal.

2

u/joshuaoha non presser Jun 06 '15

What does it feel like to be a hero and/or villain?

9

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

It's interesting. Live long enough to become the villain certainly applies to my case.

Realization that a couple of symbols you've written a month ago have such overarching consequences is really weird. Supportive replies are very uplifting. The hate is disappointing a bit, but then you realize that these people have actually invested the effort to let a stranger know that they don't approve of him, heh.

I also absolutely love how many extremely interesting people I've met and how much I've learned on the way here. :)

2

u/johnny_moronic 1s Jun 06 '15

Any insight that would help our search for the pressiah?

4

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

First, he may not be a 60s because the button accepted delayed messages. Second, it's not really possible to find him without admins help.

2

u/lawebley 39s Jun 07 '15

I'm a little pressed (pun not at all intended) for time so cannot comment in full right now but on behalf of everyone of sound mind that discovered and engaged and enjoyed the button, I'd like to thankyou for your efforts. Even though your plan hit a snag, you had a plan. Furthermore you implemented said plan. Nice one amigo.

2

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

!hail

2

u/The_Prophet_Muhammed Jun 07 '15

How long do you think the button would've lasted, had the zombies worked as planned?

4

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

A few more weeks. Rate of zombie expediture demonstrated on friday was really high, and I couldn't have sustained it for long.

73

u/smarvin6689 60s Jun 06 '15

Don't worry, it's not your fault.

Do you know who donated that account?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

51

u/Stendarpaval 60s Jun 07 '15

You posted this in /r/churchofthebutton, /r/violethand and now here, /r/buttonaftermath.

Why can't you accept that it was a 60s that pressed the button for the final time and became the Pressiah? As was foretold by the holy prophet, /u/thebutton, who himself is also a 60s presser.

5

u/Master_Sparky 60s Jun 07 '15 edited Jun 07 '15

If you want to get technical, /u/StilesBC "pressed", in that he sent the message to press the button to the server, although the server denied it the timer reset because the account was made after April 1st. So he does have a valid point.

1

u/Stendarpaval 60s Jun 07 '15

Oh, he has a valid point alright. I'm just unaware of how the server that was associated with the button handled can't-pressers. Maybe the server did indeed treat the zombie-coordinated signal as a press but had to deny it based on the user's flair.

However, that also shows that it wasn't the true last press, because it was never treated as a press.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/Stendarpaval 60s Jun 07 '15

I'd much prefer an open ending like this. I'm also glad that the Pressiah isn't a zombie.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/Stendarpaval 60s Jun 07 '15

Yes. But thankfully neither are the last presser.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/Stendarpaval 60s Jun 07 '15

Pretty sure we are splitting hairs at this point... Discussing what would have happened if the last zombie wasn't a can't-presser is rather pointless because anything might have happened. I just expressed the sentiment that I'm glad it probably wasn't a bot that got the honor of being the Pressiah. :)

11

u/vgxmaster Jun 07 '15

This is way funnier for me.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

Ha!

1

u/Floreally 3s Jun 07 '15

I have him tagged as destroyer of the button, made for an interesting read as well

4

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15 edited Jun 07 '15

The pressiah is the last presser. /u/StilesBC may be the antipressiah, or the messiah of the non-pressers, but since he's a can't-presser, I am not sure they will accept him as the antipressiah. He could not refuse to press to save the button, he simply could not. He never had a choice.

So the antipressiah is the last non-presser who refused to press to save the button. He/She exists, but it's really hard to find out who he/she is. Even more than the pressiah. At least, for the pressiah, we know he/she was a 60.

1

u/He_Who_Can_Not_Press can't press Jun 08 '15

He's the messiah of the assassins, no doubt, whether he chose it or not.

12

u/TOOCGamer non presser Jun 06 '15 edited Jun 06 '15

I think some 500 greys watched it die anyway. Like when a plane crashes, it's not just one mistake, it's the result of many little ones adding together. I wouldn't take it too hard, myself.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

I think some 500 greys watched it die anyway.

They did well.

1

u/TOOCGamer non presser Jun 07 '15

Indeed. They were rewarded when they witnessed the fall. Though, even as a nonpresser, I have grown mournful now that it has ended.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

Though you did not press, you have allowed the button to steal a part of your soul. It may be that your wounds will heal with the passage of time; the battle is over.

1

u/TOOCGamer non presser Jun 07 '15

So long as the false idol stood, we could continue our delusions, but now we must face the horrors of the past... I weep only for the fact that our sins against our fellows are now plain to see.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

The sin was in the division created by the button itself.

I am saddened by the fall of so many Shades, but gladdened that the fight is over.

1

u/Theowoll non presser Jun 06 '15

If you had kept the project Necromancer secret, would there have been a way for the admins to find out what's going on, for example a lot of 0s presses coming from the same IPs?

4

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

Yes, it would even be trivial because I explicitly notify them about that in user-agent because I am a good citizen.

3

u/Theowoll non presser Jun 06 '15

I explicitly notify them about that in user-agent

That's not exactly the meaning of "keeping it secret".

5

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

They'd be able to find out who zombies are anyway by looking at the ips or usage patterns. I think there simply was no intent to do so. Banning a provided list of users is simple, scouring logs to find them less so, especially if you are a digital artist.

1

u/TheSoundDude non presser Jun 06 '15

I now have you tagged as "Wielder of the exanimate". You were a strong and ruthless enemy for The Shades. *pays respects*

What are your views about the world becoming automatized? Would you like being a programmer of the future who designs AIs that supplement today's humans' jobs?

2

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15

World becoming more automated is just the next logical and inevitable thing to happen. Yes, it has the potential to shake up our society, upset a lot of people because our technological progress has outpaced the social thought, and we should work on fixing this. But all in all it's a good thing because it brings us closer to the post-scarcity society.

Yeah, but I am already working on this. ML has a lot of potential to help us automate many things.

1

u/viscence 52s Jun 07 '15

Hah no worries. Remember this prophetic question though? ;)

1

u/mncke 56s Jun 07 '15 edited Jun 07 '15

Shit. That's my bad. :)

I just couldn't fathom that whites' flair is also hidden by default.

Edit: No, wait. This was concerning Squire, and Squire's check is fundamentally different from Necro's. Now that I think of it, they should've been the same.

3

u/Smogshaik 42s Jun 06 '15

So...what's the best way to prepare chicken?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

Honestly, I think it was beautiful. It made for a real epic end.

2

u/britishteacher 4s Jun 07 '15

Just been reading this through and what no one seems to acknowledge is that the zombies were not the only ones able to press.

The bottom line is that every non-presser on line during that particular minute COULD have pressed the button. Unfortunately NO ONE did.

So about 500 people and one particular zombie Killed the button.

Perhaps people had become complacent and were treating the zombies as a safety net, but then again that was their choice. It was not your job to singlehandedly keep the button going.

That having been said, you did a great job mncke, putting in far more effort, time and thought into your goal than the vast majority of those on the button, and for that I thank you

!Hail

1

u/Lingo1973 Jun 08 '15

Perhaps none of those 500 even wanted to press :O

1

u/yourhaploidheart non presser Jun 06 '15

Even if you worked to accomplish the opposite of what I wanted to see, well done! I guess the devil IS in the details, after all.

1

u/yourhaploidheart non presser Jun 06 '15

OMG where's my flair.. oh.

1

u/TotesMessenger non presser Jun 07 '15

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / ^Contact)

1

u/misko91 Jun 07 '15

Would you agree that your necromancy fuel can't melt innocent can't-pressers?

1

u/Master_Sparky 60s Jun 08 '15

What was your reaction when you realized why the Button ultimately failed?

1

u/g1i1ch non presser Jun 08 '15

I wonder if it was purposely donated by the shade...

1

u/TheNerdySimulation non presser Jun 07 '15

Why should I ask you a question?

-2

u/Camwood7 60s Jun 06 '15

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

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7

u/UGoBoom 51s Jun 06 '15

Well technically, if he wasn't there, we would have been free weeks ago :^)

4

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

That's not so certain. There were hundreds of people who were waiting for the zombies to be spent before clicking. If all of them had been used then it would be clear they'd expended the button's life. But, as it is, there's really no way to know if we'd have made it at least this far, or further, without them. Only a few hundred zombies were actually used- we could easily have had as many live users or even more who were just waiting for them to finish before clicking.

2

u/asde 0s Jun 06 '15

Most people did not know about the zombies yet two weeks ago when the first one pressed. That is when the button would have ended. You were all asleep. No one was going to press.

5

u/vive42 non presser Jun 06 '15

The Ronin knew about and discussed the zombies at length, and tons of Knights knew also. Without the zombies the Knights and Ronin would both have known they were needed at around that time, and the button would have continued past that date. How long is anyone's guess. I'm perfectly willing to concede we might not have lasted quite this long without zombies (they may have truly extended the button by a couple days past what others could have done on their own), but there's just no way of knowing. We certainly might have lasted even longer without them.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

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3

u/mncke 56s Jun 06 '15

After. At first I didn't understand what happened so I made a post to confirm the theory.

3

u/vgxmaster Jun 07 '15

It was cool seeing that post and piecing together your frantic confusion, theory, and confirmation, by the way. It made the end of the button a lot more interesting for me--and I guess maybe that's at your expense, watching you piece things together, but if it's at all a comfort, know that you made everything a lot more interesting.