Tell HN: Free copies of Gödel, Escher, Bach | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Free copies of Gödel, Escher, Bach

26 pointsunignorant29 comments

I recently launched a website where readers can solve text-based puzzles for various prizes:

http://thetreasureblog.com

The first contest just started today, and I have up for grabs 5 copies of Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Perhaps more importantly, I'm curious as to what HN thinks of my advertising model. Thanks!

(Btw, I did submit a link to the site earlier this morning, but my server locked up and it disappeared into oblivion with no upvotes.)

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So, in effect, I'm shilling an advertiser's link which has no relevance to my tweet or really to anything else I might be saying or doing at that moment. Fraid I'll pass; I guess I still believe that I should be tweeting and posting things I believe in and don't mind promoting. I'd even feel more comfortable tweeting your link "thetreasureblog" or a hashtag than your advertisers. I understand advertisers pay the bills, just saying.

I get the feeling that the people that will happily spam advertisers' links for a chance of winning a prize demographic has relatively little overlap with the people interested in avant-garde books on philosophy demographic. I think the advertising model has a decent chance of working - but if I wanted to make money from it I'd aim it at the people that play mafia spam games and fill in "which irritating popstar are you" quizzes.

Yeah, I understand that there is a bit of a disconnect on that point. If anyone has suggestions for some good alternatives, I'm happy to hear them!

As it stands, the sponsor link is disclosed at the beginning of each contest, so I suppose you might only play in the contests supported by things that you like.

Thanks for the feedback.

"If by some terrible twist of fate less than 100 people submit entries to a contest, we reserve the right to select no winner."

That's a big "if." Big enough to lose interest.

Also, at the rate submissions are coming in, I don't think that should be a problem ;-)

Then just take it out, and bear this minimal risk.

Ok, done. This is why I post on Hacker News ;-)

Edit: Thanks, that requirement has been removed.

Why would you! If it seems to be an easy win lot's of people will join your contest.

I can't play now, but your site looks great. I wouldn't hide the "Go hunting" button when an user clicks the arrow, though (the change page thing).

Do you pay for shipping worldwide? If you don't, it would be nice to make a footnote, otherwise there will be complaints.

Thanks! Good suggestion on the button.

And there is a footnote buried in the site somewhere, to the effect that I ship only in the United States. I should probably make it more prominent ;-)

Clickable: http://thetreasureblog.com

The first article/puzzle: http://thetreasureblog.com/2010/11/the-delicatessen/

Ooh, this looks right up my street and I love GEB. It's one of the books that changed my life!

Mine too, hence the prize ;-)

And I figured it would appeal to the HN crowd.

Grrr..these things frustrate me.

Don't know if I'm spoiling -- but should there be spelling mistakes in the text?

Ah -- no! I'm horrified.

The content was put together in something of a rush, but I will try to be more careful.

If you can mention the spelling mistakes without giving away the secret, I'm happy to fix them.

Well, I can't noodle out the secret so there's no worry there!

Beef Burgandy = Beef Burgundy aquired = acquired cliental could be ok but I was expecting clientele

I was asking because I thought maybe these words were the starting points for the number offsets/part of the clue and sending me down the wrong path.

Fixed, with my eternal gratitude (I'm something of a grammar Nazi myself).

And alas, they had nothing to do with the clue.

Does eternal=a sixth copy of GEB ;-)

Can't figure it out and have to go back to work.

An interesting strategy (almost cheating?) is to review other people's tweets and see if you can back into the question that way.

Also, renownED.

I think I have found the solution but I'm not sure. How do I ask without giving it away on Twitter?

Thanks for playing! Uncertainty is inherent to the puzzle, so you can never be sure that you've found the solution ;-) If your answer makes sense, however, you can be reasonably confidant that you are right.

As for not giving your answer away over twitter: the trick is that you don't tweet the answer itself, but rather a clever response to the answer. For more detailed guidelines, take a look at:

http://thetreasureblog.com/how-it-works/

Of course, I'm happy to answer more questions here, as well.

See the "How it Works" page, step 5: Craft your Rejoinder

http://thetreasureblog.com/how-it-works/

it's Gödel or Goedel btw

What about Gœdel?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/%C5%92

The œ ligature is not used in the German language, and the letter ö is transliterated as oe in Latin alphabets that don't use it.

Ah -- you are right! Fixed.

Just had a look at the comments again and I have to say you are certainly eager to improve the site and respond well to (critical) feedback. Good show!

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