One of the things that I'm sure frustrates us all is the repetitivity in posts/arguments that litter (plague?) this bored. Well, rather than become frustrated, why not have fun with it?

To that end I have come up with AvC Bingo. Here are the rules:

The Card

A Bingo card is a 5x5 card. Each of the 5 columns is headed with one of the letters of BINGO. I have kept the "BINGO" name, but have assigned meaning to the letters:

• Borrishness
• Irrationality
• Nonsense
• General
• Obliviousness

For each category I have come up with 15 examples of posts that frequent this board that apply to that category. From those, 5 will randomly appear in the 5 spaces for each column, excepting the "N" column, which contains the Free space.

Each square contains the name of one of the examples for that category, as well as some flavor text that describes in further detail what it is looking for, provides a specific (but generic) example of what could qualify, or simply some humor.

Example: (Under Borrishness) ALL CAPS --'AVC FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED'

Marking off Squares

The fodder for the game are the very posts on AvC. Whenever you come across a post that you feel satisfies the requirements for a square, you mark it off. The Free square is automatically considered "marked".

A post qualifies for a square if it is an example of the type of post described in the square. (Example: If someone posts the "argument from morality (or equivilent)" this would allow you to mark of the square "Argument from morality" (under Irrationality)).

Further Criteria

1. Qualfying posts must be timestamped after the start of the current round.
2. The text in the post that qualifies it must be from that post. (If an "argument from morality" post appears before the start of the game, but someone else replies to it after the start of the game (but doesn't repost the "argument from morality" themselves), you cannot use that reply even if the original post appears, verbatim, in it).
3. For the game purposes, any content of a web paged linked in a post counts as being in that post. (If someone links to a web page containing the "argument from morality", that counts). Exception 1: Only links to non-google groups pages count. Exception 2: Only the linked web page counts, not any other pages it links to.
4. Your own posts do not count.
5. Your team-mates posts do not count (more on teams later).
6. Posts may only mark of one square! (If someone posts the "argument from morality" in all caps, that can either mark off your ALL CAPS square or your "Argument from morality square")

Teams

To spice things up, all players will be put on a team. The number and size of teams will be dependent on the number of players. There will be at least 2 teams with around 5 players each.

Gameplay

Games will consist of a series of rounds. The number of rounds is not yet set and will depend on how long each round takes.

Prior to the beginning of each game, there will be an admission period. People will e-mail me if they want to play. The admission period will end at a set date/time so I have time to e-mail out the cards, as well as setting teams and letting people know what their teams are.

The first round of the game will start at a specified date/time.

As players mark off their squares, they must save a link to the post and note which square they are using it to mark off.

Players play until they achieve "BINGO" (5 marked squares either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). Players must declare BINGO in this thread. When BINGO is declared the round is not over. Rather, the declaring player must send me their list of posts along with which squares they used to mark it off. I'll validate and then declare the round over. The round continues because the validation can fail. If the validation fails I'll notify the player which posts are invalid and then publically state, in this thread, that the BINGO was not validated. The round continues until a BINGO has been validated. If there are multiple BINGOS I will validated them in the order they are declared in this thread, not in the order I receive e-mails.

After the round ends all bingo cards are cleared and a new round start date/time is set. The winner from the previous round receives a new card as well as anyone else that wishes to swap. (Receiving a new Bingo card invalidates your old one. Players may only use one Bingo card at a time).

After the set number of rounds, the team with the most BINGO winners... wins!