wanna bet on me?

You've got about two hours.

Someone running a site called AtDelphi (a reference to the Delphic oracle, i.e., a prognosticator) is taking bets on the following question:

Will BigHominid make more than one update to his blog tomorrow?

I love it. And it's driven up my stats for today.

But the question is vaguely worded, and if I were a bettor, I'd be pissed off no matter what the "results" are. Why?

Consider: most bloggers refer to what they do as "posting." An "update," then, is not a post but an addition or change to a post. Is this in fact what the writer of the question, someone named Zeus, intended?

I suspect that Zeus really meant to ask:

Will BigHominid make more than one POST to his blog tomorrow?

Let's say I post three times, but make no updates to any of those posts. According to how most bloggers use the term "update," I've made zero updates, but three posts.

And what, exactly, counts as an update, anyway? Let's say I write only one post, but then add something to it later. I'd submit that that's a legitimate update. But what if the only changes I make later in the day are changes in spelling or diction, i.e., proofreading changes? Does each individual correction count as an update, or is the whole mass of changes a single update? Readers of my blog know that I go back and make minor changes all the time.

I hope the bettors take Zeus to task for formulating such a vague question, but I'm happy to see my meager site traffic bolstered by his (misplaced) attention to my shitty little blog.

Thanks, Zeus. You da man. And to all you people visiting this site from Zeus's boards: welcome and come back often.

NOTE: Zeus might decide ad hoc to "make a ruling" by belatedly clarifying what he meant by "update." I'd submit that IT'S TOO LATE TO DO THAT NOW.

Oh, and there's money involved, isn't there? Not pretty, Zeus. Not pretty at all.


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