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Comment by jbott | Hacker News Reader

Hey guys, author here. Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll try my best to answer them!

Not a question, but some suggestions:

- Make sure you're streaming in low-delay mode. I've seen some people stream with 8 second delay, but I don't know how they do it.

- Count `Ctrl-C` and similar combinations as a single keystroke

- Save states

God bless the poor VM.

Yup! Low delay is awesome. We are getting about a 10 second delay. Save states aren't in quite yet, but that's our next goal.

What happens when they completely break it? Do you have code to detect that or will someone be on hand to reimage the thing? Will that be a special majority vote scenario?

BTW this is the best thing since sliced bread. Good work. I can't wait.

It looks like there is a system reset command that can be voted for.

What's the worst that could happen?

This is a good point. When I first got dropped to a shell in a broom/IT closet, I thought gees I hope I don't accidentally fuck anything up. 4 days later I had to acknowledge I could barely intentionally fuck anything up.

I imagine people looking to be disruptive will seek out a 'start9' equivalent. I don't know whether or not there is one.

Instructions unclear, have acme window on screen

They could ssh somewhere and commit felonies.

Who would get the blame though?

Whoever gets named by git --blame

Nobody that actually wants to commit felonies would waste their time doing that.

Don't misestimate 4chan.

Presumably the machine wouldn't have Internet access.

How will you handle special key combinations such as Ctrl+C to interrupt what's running?

It looks like it will be the second-generation democracy mode. That looks a bit too easy: in theory we would simply have to follow the install guide line-by-line and it would work.

It works by keypress, which should increase the challenge level (I hope). Combinations like ctrl-c will be one keypress.

I'll place bets on the installation going awry even if the installation guide was followed to the letter.

It looks like "ctrl-c" is mapped to "sendkey ctrl-c".

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/twitchinstallsarchlinux/tw...

Will there be some sort of external chat/discussion forum? I seem to remember TPP having a subreddit and an IRC channel for discussing and voting on strategies. Especially useful since the official chat was flooded with commands.

What happens if somebody runs a VM sandbox break exploit (however unlikely that is)? Do you wipe the hardware completely?

Make sure to filter out Ctrl-Alt-Delete and Ctrl-Alt-SysRq. Probably others as well.

Looks like there's a special 'system_reset' command included...

Was there any thought to having line discipline as the voting system? As in voting on entries into the terminal up until the first new line character? It would increase the likelihood of having sensible inputs since interacting with a terminal is very different than a video game and there are only a small number of combinations of inputs that are meaningful to it. Also, any thought to disabling signals coming from the terminal? I could imagine a lot of SIG* spam.

What happens if someone put a reverse shell on the machine and SSH into it or anything to circumvent the normal gameplay flow? How would you go to block all externals SSH connections? Hardware?

How will the system_reset command be handled? Will it be a vote system? I feel like there will always be one guy constantly spamming it.

Answering the question in the introduction: No, I do not remember how chaotic Twitch Plays Pokemon was. I do not even know what you are talking about. And since you do not even give me a link, I am not sure I should care.

I finally figured out what this is, but the site was not very helpful.

"Finally" figured it out? Did Google not give you this result? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_Plays_Pok%C3%A9mon

Yes, but isn't it expected to find that information in the "About" section of the main site instead of needing to search for it? I am just asking for an introductory paragraph like the first paragraph in that Wikipedia article.

I apologize for my tone, but I still think it was a fair complaint.

> Yes, but isn't it expected to find that information in the "About" section of the main site instead of needing to search for it?

No, not really.

If I launched a new language based on objective-C I wouldn't bother putting in an explanation of what objective-C is. Target audience already knows.

I guess if I were writing it, I might have made [how chaotic Twitch Plays Pokemon was](a link), but it's not exactly something to go complaining about..

At difference of complaining about people complaining, which I see is worth your time...

Take it easy people. The web site was not clear for me, the author was asking for input so I raised my point. I already apologized for using the wrong words.

Protip: apologies added as an introductory clause to you talking about your rightness do not come across as very good apologies. It looks like a way to deflect negative response, not honest sorrow for trouble caused.

Huh, I'm surprised it was notable enough to have a Wikipedia page. I would have Googled, but figured the answer was in some walled garden or cryptic forum posts.

May the Helix forgive your ignorance.

Otherwise he will send his greatest warrior, Venomoth, to defeat you.

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