cohost tool

[Fiona T]

Just in time for Blackpool, Tom Chafer-Cook has relaunched his hosting tool - one stop for checking validity and maxes, generating number targets and round timer. This will make hosting a game so much easier - massive thanks to Tom for this!

https://co-host.netlify.app/

[Andres Sanchez]

BIG WIN FOR THE CO-EVENT COMMUNITY THANK YOU TOM!!!

[JackHurst]

How is the word lookup bring done? Is it checking against some list that needs to be maintained by Tom? Also is there any tracking.


This looks great, but I have 2 concerns:
1) Yet another separate source of truth for word check
2) This is the most easy to use, free to use, anonymous to use Countdown letters cheating tool ever. Assuming the tool is available all year round I could see plenty of people using this get away with cheating....

[Fiona T]

How is the word lookup bring done? Is it checking against some list that needs to be maintained by Tom? Also is there any tracking.


This looks great, but I have 2 concerns:
1) Yet another separate source of truth for word check
2) This is the most easy to use, free to use, anonymous to use Countdown letters cheating tool ever. Assuming the tool is available all year round I could see plenty of people using this get away with cheating....

The word check is using the API I built, so I'm maintaining it (same list as RR)

The possibility of it being used to cheat was at the forefront of our minds - detection has been put in place and you will be caught. Don't do it peeps.

[Fiona T]

Separately, there is an issue with the timer not being accurate to 30s - I've made Tom aware, but I know he's crazy busy so not expecting a fix before the weekend!

Edit - this has been fixed, cheers Tom!

[JackHurst]

How is the word lookup bring done? Is it checking against some list that needs to be maintained by Tom? Also is there any tracking.


This looks great, but I have 2 concerns:
1) Yet another separate source of truth for word check
2) This is the most easy to use, free to use, anonymous to use Countdown letters cheating tool ever. Assuming the tool is available all year round I could see plenty of people using this get away with cheating....

The word check is using the API I built, so I'm maintaining it (same list as RR)

The possibility of it being used to cheat was at the forefront of our minds - detection has been put in place and you will be caught. Don't do it peeps.

Good stuff! Concerns eradicated, thanks!

[Callum Todd]

Amazing work Fiona and Tom; thank you both very much!

[Gavin Chipper]

I'm not sure how you can have a cheat detector at a CO-event, especially if it's Lincoln style. People look up words after the round anyway, both players and hosts, and there'll be no way of correlating look-ups with anything. Even at Bristol style, you'd need someone to monitor word selections that come out versus what people look up and have to have them time synced, so presumably unless the one or two people who have access to this API thing are at the specific event doing this, it would be a non-starter.

In any case, the (Lincoln-style) host is likely to see someone playing on their phone, and the other player would probably anyway in Bristol style.

Plus Apterous has always existed anyway and unless Charlie has something in place (he doesn't) people have been able to use that at CO-events for years.

But this is clearly a really good thing. A free and easy to use word checker that doesn't require a login can be used for people playing Countdown at home. All those spoiler threads where people ask if this word is valid and someone says "Well it's not on Apterous, so probably not but you know caveats etc." won't have to happen. The incredibly edge case of people using it to cheat at CO-events pales into insignificance.

So nice work!

[Fiona T]

I'm not sure how you can have a cheat detector at a CO-event, especially if it's Lincoln style. People look up words after the round anyway, both players and hosts, and there'll be no way of correlating look-ups with anything. Even at Bristol style, you'd need someone to monitor word selections that come out versus what people look up and have to have them time synced, so presumably unless the one or two people who have access to this API thing are at the specific event doing this, it would be a non-starter.

In any case, the (Lincoln-style) host is likely to see someone playing on their phone, and the other player would probably anyway in Bristol style.

Plus Apterous has always existed anyway and unless Charlie has something in place (he doesn't) people have been able to use that at CO-events for years.

But this is clearly a really good thing. A free and easy to use word checker that doesn't require a login can be used for people playing Countdown at home. All those spoiler threads where people ask if this word is valid and someone says "Well it's not on Apterous, so probably not but you know caveats etc." won't have to happen. The incredibly edge case of people using it to cheat at CO-events pales into insignificance.

So nice work!

The concern was people using the tool to cheat on apterous!

[Gavin Chipper]

Oh I see!

[Marc Meakin]

How is the word lookup bring done? Is it checking against some list that needs to be maintained by Tom? Also is there any tracking.


This looks great, but I have 2 concerns:
1) Yet another separate source of truth for word check
2) This is the most easy to use, free to use, anonymous to use Countdown letters cheating tool ever. Assuming the tool is available all year round I could see plenty of people using this get away with cheating....

Cheaters , gonna cheat

[Bradley Horrocks]

Great to have this ready to go for Blackpool - cheers Tom!

[Fiona T]

The possibility of it being used to cheat was at the forefront of our minds - detection has been put in place and you will be caught. Don't do it peeps.

If anyone thought this was a bluff, the system has flagged the first cheater. If it's you, expect your apto-ban shortly.

[Gavin Chipper]

So is it linked to games happening on Apterous?

[Ian Volante]

The possibility of it being used to cheat was at the forefront of our minds - detection has been put in place and you will be caught. Don't do it peeps.

If anyone thought this was a bluff, the system has flagged the first cheater. If it's you, expect your apto-ban shortly.

Ooh cool, any more info?

[Fiona T]

The possibility of it being used to cheat was at the forefront of our minds - detection has been put in place and you will be caught. Don't do it peeps.

If anyone thought this was a bluff, the system has flagged the first cheater. If it's you, expect your apto-ban shortly.

Ooh cool, any more info?

They got deactivated.

[Ian Volante]

If anyone thought this was a bluff, the system has flagged the first cheater. If it's you, expect your apto-ban shortly.

Ooh cool, any more info?

They got deactivated.

I wondered if it was the new player that beat me recently. Seems it probably was! They seemed slightly too good.