MHDP

[Magere Hein 1,400]

A rather nifty idea for a new deadpool just occurred to me.

 

The mechanics are pretty much the same as DDP: teams of 20, obits count, older picks get fewer points, bonuses, most points wins.

 

However, to encourage a more international target area (and discourage cancer mums) there's an extra rule: points are awarded for each different language in which a QO is published, so essentially the number of different languages is a multiplier. Extra rules for what exactly are QOs are needed, but we can bicker about that later.

 

Any takers for a start in March?

---

 

Game on! Here are the rules.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Magere Hein
Link to rules added.

[msc 18,436]

I like the idea. Certainly suggests more internationally famous celebs (or, say, terminally ill Serbian pop singers, who'd get an obit in several Eastern European languages!).

 

Sounds like a complex one to moderate, but if you run it, I'll enter it, once the rules and stuff are sorted out.

[RadGuy 1,614]

Hmm... interesting. I might compete.

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

Quite like the idea of a DP that encourages us to hunt out newspapers written in Cree and Bantu to see if they've mentioned Joey Feek's passing.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

The pain of counting languages I intend to curb by adopting a deadline for QOs of say, one week, starting midnight zulu time of the day after the death was reported here.

 

News sources: anything in writing that has status as a reliable news source goes, as long as it can be identified as that, and reasonably translated. This may include scanned newsprint. In case of doubt, reliable news source must be demonstrated by evidence.

 

I intend to keep a list of previously allowed domains.

 

Depending on number of entrants, I could do it in a spreadsheet, or something similarly clever.

[Phantom 2,532]

I might be in for that.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

A few more bits:

- Obit means: the text mentions the name of a particular and identifiable person and that that person died. More evidence may be required to convince me that the person mentioned is the one on a team claiming points.

- It's a language when it has a Wikipedia. It's a bit arbitrary, but Aus, Can, US, UK versions of English all count as English. Find an obit in West Flemish and it counts, it has a Wikipedia. The finder may have to prove that it's West Flemish and not East Flemish, which hasn't.

- The deadline implies that scores are known and the leader board updated only after the deadline has passed. I may tinker with the exact time a bit. Usually I'm asleep at 0:00 UTC+0 and won't be awake for many hours.

- No minors (picks must be >= 18); miners are fine.

- I suppose some hits can generate a load of obits. Scores can get quite high. I don't mind.

[Switch 141]

Sounds interesting, but it will be crazy when someone like Jimmy Carter dies.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Sounds interesting, but it will be crazy when someone like Jimmy Carter dies.

 

Or Zsa Zsa. I'm pretty sure this is much like the DDP without the famous-for-dying picks. Scores do not compare, of course.

[Death Impends 7,953]

Interesting idea, count me on board.

[Handrejka 1,903]

A few more bits:

 

- Obit means: the text mentions the name of a particular and identifiable person and that that person died. More evidence may be required to convince me that the person mentioned is the one on a team claiming points.

- It's a language when it has a Wikipedia. It's a bit arbitrary, but Aus, Can, US, UK versions of English all count as English. Find an obit in West Flemish and it counts, it has a Wikipedia. The finder may have to prove that it's West Flemish and not East Flemish, which hasn't.

- The deadline implies that scores are known and the leader board updated only after the deadline has passed. I may tinker with the exact time a bit. Usually I'm asleep at 0:00 UTC+0 and won't be awake for many hours.

- No minors (picks must be >= 18); miners are fine.

- I suppose some hits can generate a load of obits. Scores can get quite high. I don't mind.

 

As Gaelg?

 

 

Yes I'll certainly be up for this.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

 

A few more bits:

 

- Obit means: the text mentions the name of a particular and identifiable person and that that person died. More evidence may be required to convince me that the person mentioned is the one on a team claiming points.

- It's a language when it has a Wikipedia. It's a bit arbitrary, but Aus, Can, US, UK versions of English all count as English. Find an obit in West Flemish and it counts, it has a Wikipedia. The finder may have to prove that it's West Flemish and not East Flemish, which hasn't.

- The deadline implies that scores are known and the leader board updated only after the deadline has passed. I may tinker with the exact time a bit. Usually I'm asleep at 0:00 UTC+0 and won't be awake for many hours.

- No minors (picks must be >= 18); miners are fine.

- I suppose some hits can generate a load of obits. Scores can get quite high. I don't mind.

As Gaelg?

 

 

Yes I'll certainly be up for this.

 

I suppose this means yes.

 

Tentative list of tentative contenders:

• Magere Hein
• msc
• RadGuy
• Spade_Cooley (?)
• Phantom
• Switch (?)
• Death Impends
• Handrejka
• N. Fritz
• gcreptile
• time
• The Unknown Man
• Shaun of the Dead
• JiroemonKimura
• Bibliogryphon

I'll cobble a tentative rule sheet together later. There will be room for debate.

[N. Fritz 49]

Color me intrigued! May take advantage of the late start to submit my first ever list ('bout time... I've been following for how many years now?!)

[gcreptile 10,963]

I'm up for it as well.

[RadGuy 1,614]

Now that I think about this, probably not a good idea. Valerie Harper might get an obit in 2 languages if she's lucky, while some Indian actor could get obits not only in English and Hindi but also Bengali, Urdu, Tegulu, Malaylam, Punjabi, Kannada, etc.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Now that I think about this, probably not a good idea. Valerie Harper might get an obit in 2 languages if she's lucky, while some Indian actor could get obits not only in English and Hindi but also Bengali, Urdu, Tegulu, Malaylam, Punjabi, Kannada, etc.

 

And the problem with that is exactly what?

[Death Impends 7,953]

That just means you look for names that you think would muster a proper amount of international obits and pick them instead.

 

Though granted, Harper's got Wiki pages in about 20 different languages. Of course a page in a specific language Wiki doesn't automatically guarantee she'll obit in said language, but I'd guess that means she'd be a fair scorer in this pool.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

That just means you look for names that you think would muster a proper amount of international obits and pick them instead.

 

Though granted, Harper's got Wiki pages in about 20 different languages. Of course a page in a specific language Wiki doesn't automatically guarantee she'll obit in said language, but I'd guess that means she'd be a fair scorer in this pool.

 

Wikipedia will of course be a big help.

 

What I rather like about the idea is that after a pick dies, the race enters a new phase: finding obits. Really Big hits, in the class of Nancy Reagan, Jimmy Carter and that Indian actor you couldn't be arsed to look up may well score in dozens of languages. Finding those, particularly ones written in exotic scripts, will be part of the effort and entertainment, especially since time will be limited.

 

Finding promising picks will be quite a bit different from finding a cancer mum. Hehe.

[time 8,586]

I might give this a go, given that I can't be arsed to do all the important stuff I'm supposed to be doing I've got some spare time.

 

Tracking down foreign language obits will give me something to do during quiet times at work. (Assuming I get any hits of course).

[The Unknown Man 584]

I'll give it a shot as well, MH.

[Sean 6,311]

Count me in Magere.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

MHDP - Multilingual Handicap Deadpool

 

Proposal for a rules sheet.

The basics (nicked from http://www.derbydeadpool.co.uk/general/rules_and_scoring.html, cheers TMIB)

Pick 20 different celebrities who are alive as at (start), but who, in your opinion, will no longer be with us by to (end).
Nominate one of them as your "joker".
For each celeb demise that you guess correctly, you'll score points, and if your joker sadly passes away, your grief will be alleviated by the fact that you'll score double points.
The scoreboard will be updated every time someone scores points, the up-to-date scoreboard will be posted in this topic.
The team with the most points at the end of the year will, unsurprisingly, be deemed to be the winner.
In the event of a dead heat on points, the winner will be selected according to the following criteria, applied in this order:

• The most hits (i.e. correctly-chosen deceased celebs).
• The youngest average age of hits.
• The most amusing team name.

Rules

Enter a team by posting a team name and 20 picks in this topic. Entries in PM are also accepted. When entering a team up to two subs may be added, who enter the team if other members die or get disqualified before the competition starts.

All of your chosen celebs must be:

• Human. No animals, plants, corporations, groups or anthropomorphic personifications
• At least 18 years old at the start of the competition.
• Actual real-life people, not characters out of soap operas and the like.
• Named individuals, not just "Pope Wotsisface" or "the oldest person in the world".
• Players must not murder their chosen celebs. That's cheating, and cheating is wrong and is not in the spirit of the game, whatever that is!

EXCLUSIONS: Prisoners on "Death Row" i.e. awaiting state execution can only score points if they die of other causes. Picks that are on trial or are put on trial and are found guilty and executed are not disqualified but will not claim the unnatural points bonus.
Hostages of terrorist organisations. We have no absolute knowledge of whether they are alive, dead or when they supposedly died. Terrorist organisation members are included but there has to be official verification of when they died from both sides of the conflict (i.e. "The West" and the terrorists themselves).

Obit qualification

To qualify as an obit, an online or printed text must mention the name of a particular and identifiable person and that that person died. More evidence may be required to convince me that the person mentioned is the one on a team claiming points. Anything in writing from a source that has status as a reliable news source qualifies, provided that:

• it can be identified as a news source,
• it can be reasonably translated e.g. by Google translate.

Reliable news sources are: newspapers, television stations, press agencies, government information agencies, both national and local, and the websites of all those. Dedicated news websites, sports news websites and such are ok. A corporation news page may qualify if it has a demonstrable history of reliable communications. The qualifying communication must be in text. Spoken messages do not qualify for reason of translation, stills or footage of text may do if the text can be easily converted to a translatable text. Scans of newsprint may qualify if the source can be identified from the scan.

Social media like twitter, facebook and linkedin, encyclopedias like Wikipedia, advertisements, internet fora and anything that is user editable are not reliable news sources. Youtube may be, but only its content, not comments. In case of doubt, reliable news source must be demonstrated by evidence. For future reference lists will be maintained of internet domains that have been evaluated as reliable news source and unreliable (or not a news source) respectively.

Definitions:

• "Celebrity" means someone who, upon their death, gets a written obituary in a reliable news source.
  This does mean that you can't always be sure when picking your team whether each person will be famous enough or not, but that's all part of the game.
• "Obituary" simply means an article which mentions the fact that the person has died. It doesn't have to be the conventional biographical write-up.
• "Alive" means drawing breath, not decomposing, that kind of thing.
• "No longer with us" is the opposite of the above!
• "Death" means the transition from the former to the latter. The death of a career (e.g. Michael Barrymore) doesn't count.
• A dialect is, for scoring purposes, a language when it has a Wikipedia. Of each dead pick only one obit counts for each language.

Scoring
The value of the basic death depends on the person's age:

• 18-29 years: 12 points
• 30-49 years: 10 points
• 50-59 years: 9 points
• 60-69 years: 8 points
• 70-79 years: 7 points
• 80-89 years: 6 points
• 90-99 years: 5 points
• 100-109 years: 4 points
• 110+ years: 3 points

On top of this, bonus points are awarded as follows:

• Unique pick: +3 if you were the only competitor to pick that person.
• Unlucky 13: +2 for a celeb who dies on the 13th of any month.
• Unnatural causes: +3 for murder, suicide or accident (but not State executions).
• Party pooper: +5 for a celeb who dies on their birthday or Xmas Day.
• Joker: Take the total of all the above and double it.

This total number of points is awarded one time for each different language in which an obit can be shown. Showing means posting a link to a website showing the obit, a picture or a scan, and a translation if required. I can read Dutch, English, German and French, so I won't need translations for obits in those languages. When there's reason for doubt, it's a claimant's duty to provide evidence that a proposed obit is written in a particular language. Everybody may propose obits, not just contenders. Once obits qualify, they count, they cannot be retracted.

Deadline for obits

After the death of a pick has been mentioned in this topic, (with or without an obit link) there's a limited time to propose obits. This period ends one week after UTC+0 following the first mention. Proposals entered after this time will be ignored. Only after this period the score for a pick will be calculated and a new score board posted. Additional time for evalutation of obits may be awarded as need demands and reason permits. As an example: Christy O'Donnell's death was mentioned first in the DDP topic on 09 Feb 2016 - 7:05 PM CET (UTC+1). That's 09 Feb 2016 - 18:05 PM UTC+0 (GMT). The deadline ends 10 Feb 2016 + 7 = 17 Feb 2016 - 0:00 UTC. For all time calculations the forum server time is used.

 

---

I'm not happy about the Party pooper bonus for Xmas. Instead of adding Sinterklaas, Eid al-Fitr, Holi, Hanukkah and what have we, I propose dropping the bonus altogether. Even birthdays may lead to trouble in non-western calendars, which may also be true for the Unlucky 13.

 

To give my nerd nature some room I consider to run the competition from 20 March 2016 04:30 UTC to 20 March 2017 10:28 UTC, i.e. equinox to equinox.

 

Additions, comments and ridicule are welcome.

[Handrejka 1,903]

I'm happy for the Party Pooper Bonus to be scrapped, with staring in March it is a little unfair to those who have already had birthdays. I'm happy enough for Xmas and unlucky 13 bonuses to be scrapped too if everyone else agrees.

 

In addition to English, German and French, I can read Russian and I've just about enough Hungarian to recognise an obit when I see one.

[RadGuy 1,614]

Well, I guess we could scrap the Party Pooper bonus since this is a more international deadpool.

 

I agree with Handrejka that Unlucky 13 is pointless.

 

Other than some languages already mentioned, I can help with Polish and Spanish.

[JiroemonKimura 95]

Count me in. I understand Spanish and a bit of Portuguese.

 

One quick suggestion: I would suggest take the starting date for obits as the first public mention of the death on any newspaper. This prevents players with insider knowledge from stealing points. (For example, a friend of Setsuko Hara mentions her death in September 2015, but the news only reached the public over 2 months later).