h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I say no. We just have to advertise properly.

Oh, and you should get double points for correctly predicting the under-50 person as well.

B

I like the idea of using a point system to encourage originality. My suggestion would be 3 points awarded to the original predictor, 2 points for the second with that name, and one point for everyone after that. And 5 points for the under 50.

Emmily

Double-points for the young-'un sounds good to me

How about all those who post their lists in January get two points to start with, then latecomers (newbies, for instance, and those without Internet access etc.) can still join in, just at a deficit to those at a disadvantage because we posted the list early..at least then no-one is excluded.

Sorry GB, but I don't see why we'd want to penalise late comers who are already at a disadvantage.

Emmily

I don't really want to turn it into a 'Who Can Post First' competition. That was always the flaw with H2IQ.

If my original suggestion is too complicated, how about this:

10 points for a correct prediction
Bonus 5 points if it is a unique prediction
Bonus 10 points if it is an under-50

And set a deadline of January 21st, with no deaths to count until January 22nd. That gives everyone 3 weeks to get sorted.

B

Sounds good to me, B. I like the idea of bonus points if it's a unique one.

Sounds good to me too.

Emmily

Post 145 is spot on. KISS!

But a unique under 50 would, on this year's showing be a one death winner. And reason to see if you could get away with murder.

PP

There's a challenge for you then.

B

You could do what the original deathlist game folk have done. That is that you rank your list in the order of most likely to die, and so the higher up the list that they are, the more points you get.

So for example if you think that Eric Bedser is a dead cert to be dead, and you list him as number 1, and he dies. Then you get 10 points (assuming a list of 10 names)

If on the other hand you thought that the old cricketer wouldn't actually leave his crease (or more precisely you thought that there were others that were more likely to shuffle off) and you put him 9th in the list, then you'ld only get 2 points for his death.

Ultimately the scoring system works on the number of deaths you achieve in the year, then the number of points that the total of these deaths is worth - the ultimate tie-breaker as it were

JK Galbraith is not an obscure economist. He was a driving force behind Reaganomics and Thatcherism.

No he wasn't, that was Milton Friedman.

Who also died, of course.

Do we get points deducted for "those with a terminal disease/known heart problems/in a coma, etc."

Discounting those already under a death sentence of course.

"Discounting those already under a death sentence of course."

Perhaps we should play Unexpectedly Living List.

B

Blimey, there's a lot of navel inspection going on here.

How about just picking 10 people you might think are going to die in the next 12 months?

People who pick Saddam and Sharon get a point - so?

But there has been some dissatisfaction expressed with the fact that four people won this year.

B

Can I nominate "my laptop"?

RF

Death or Murder?

B