Yearlong County Contest

OK, here it is! The Yearlong Contest. Official Rules follow...

1. Object is to collectively fill in as many Counties as we can in the span of one year.
2. Contest opens Midnight Eastern Time, 01/01/2011.
3. Contest open to all TrackDollar users who have paid a $10 entry fee for the prize pool.
4. Prize Pool is currently at $20 - this will increase as we have more entries, you may enter at any time you wish, although earlier is better, before all the easy counties get claimed!

5. All hits must be posted in this thread, and include a URL to the hit. If a hit is later invalidated, you are asked to be honest and report it.
6. All hits must be in the year 2011, regardless of when the bill was entered.
7. Once a county is "claimed" it may not be claimed again, by the same player or by another player. If a county is claimed twice in a short span of time, the person who posted first shall be the one who gets the hit credit.

8. Scoring shall be based on weighted points, in order to give all Trackers, new and old...an equal chance at winning. The weighting MAY be changed if it is determined that the weighting is not working (meaning that one or two players are totally having a landslide. The weighting shall be changed if a majority of the contestants want it changed because of that problem.

9. Currently, the weighting shall be as follows - each claimed county will score one weighted point. The weighting will be based on the amount of time the user will have been on TrackDollar at the end of December, 2011. If you joined in January, 2011, you would be on for one year, so your weighting would be 12/12 or 1.
In my case, having joined in August, 2010 (actually 7/29, but August was my first full month here) my weighting would be 12/17 or 0.7059 (so any points I got would be multiplied by 0.7059 to determine my points.) That will give some balance to the contest, preventing it from becoming a runaway among the older users and causing everyone else to lose interest.

10. Markus shall be the person holding the prize money. The winner will coordinate with Markus to get his/her prize. Markus will let me know which players have paid their fee. To pay the fee, send $10 to Markus via snail mail or via PayPal and include a note that it is for the contest entry fee. The fee is necessary because there will be a substantial prize to the winner.

11. I will maintain a map and spreadsheet of hits, which anyone will be able to see at any time. I will, at the end of the contest, announce the winner...who shall be the person with the highest weighted point total. That person will coordinate with Markus to collect the prize. We envision a prize of $100, but we need more entry fees to make it happen...and more contestants to make it interesting, so please consider joining today.

Link to the Spreadsheet (current thru Stark County, OH - Tony 08/22/2011)
Link to FULL SIZE MAP (opens in separate window)
Map updated 08/20/11.

Contest opens Midnight Eastern time, 01/01/2011

Current paid players and weighting are

dctim 0.3871
Kalisiin 0.7059
Markus 0.3077
Diamondback Dave 0.3871

Prize pool is currently $40

I hereby claim

Richmond, VA

Kalisiin wrote:I hereby claim

Richmond, VA

By the way, that is the City of Richmond. Virginia also has a county of the same name. Nice Capital City hit.

dctim wrote:

Kalisiin wrote:I hereby claim

Richmond, VA

By the way, that is the City of Richmond. Virginia also has a county of the same name. Nice Capital City hit.

Yes, I knew that, actually, and 23220 zip is for Richmond City...I'm sort of curious why the County is only "Richmond" and not "Richmond City" on the actual hit...but, yes, this is a Richmond City hit.

I claim Delware County, PA

Kalisiin wrote:

dctim wrote:

Kalisiin wrote:I hereby claim

Richmond, VA

By the way, that is the City of Richmond. Virginia also has a county of the same name. Nice Capital City hit.

Yes, I knew that, actually, and 23220 zip is for Richmond City...I'm sort of curious why the County is only "Richmond" and not "Richmond City" on the actual hit...but, yes, this is a Richmond City hit.

Part of the confusion is ... Virginia is confusing. The other part is Markus's "county" database does not do a good job of recognizing Virginia's weirdnes. 132 actual Counties and 32 additional Cities-that-act-like-counties.

dctim wrote:

Part of the confusion is ... Virginia is confusing. The other part is Markus's "county" database does not do a good job of recognizing Virginia's weirdnes. 132 actual Counties and 32 additional Cities-that-act-like-counties.

You sure that's right? I have 134 entries on the Spreadsheet for Virginia.
39 end in "City" This includes "Charles City" which, if I am not mistaken...is an actual county named that...and not an Independent City.

In either case, I have 134 entries on my spreadsheet for Virginia...and by your count, it would be 164.

Check over my Spreadsheet for Virginia sometime and make sure it's right. Virginia is a big pain in the butt, they should just get rid of the Independent Cities and merge them in with the Counties that would ordinarily encompass them. Yeah, I know, it would require a Constitutional Amendment to make it happen.

My bad - that's what I get from operating from memory.

VA's total "county" count really is 134. The Independent City count is 40 - NOT including James City County, which is a county, not a I.C.

Claiming Burlington, NJ 01/03/2011 03:30:44 PM

dctim wrote:Claiming Burlington, NJ 01/03/2011 03:30:44 PM

Got it. No need to timestamp it, the forum does it automatically.
As per the rules, if two people were to claim the same county, whomever managed to post first would get the credit.

Claiming DuPage, IL

I claim Washoe County, Nevada

I also claim New Castle County, Delaware

I bleeve I am STILL the only Tracker with any Delaware hits.

I also claim Warren County, NJ

and my claims are: (sounds like "and the Oscar goes to") lol
From my Achievement List Filter on 2011:

01/04/2011 5th State Texas,7th County Atascosa in TX
01/03/2011 6th County Newport News in VA
01/03/2011 4th State Arizona,5th County Maricopa in AZ
01/02/2011 1st Hit $20 Bill,4th County Fairfax in VA
01/02/2011 3rd State Virginia,3rd County Chesapeake in VA
01/02/2011 2nd State North Dakota,2nd County Stark in ND
01/01/2011 1st Hit $1 Bill,1st State North Carolina,1st County Pitt in NC

Markus

btw: The Site Wide Achievement List Filter 2011 should show all new county hits from all user

Claiming City of Alexandria, VA

Admin wrote:and my claims are: (sounds like "and the Oscar goes to") lol
From my Achievement List Filter on 2011:

01/04/2011 5th State Texas,7th County Atascosa in TX
01/03/2011 6th County Newport News in VA
01/03/2011 4th State Arizona,5th County Maricopa in AZ
01/02/2011 1st Hit $20 Bill,4th County Fairfax in VA
01/02/2011 3rd State Virginia,3rd County Chesapeake in VA
01/02/2011 2nd State North Dakota,2nd County Stark in ND
01/01/2011 1st Hit $1 Bill,1st State North Carolina,1st County Pitt in NC

Markus

btw: The Site Wide Achievement List Filter 2011 should show all new county hits from all user

Please provide hit URL's Markus.
These hits are pending.

Atascosa, Texas confirmed. Atascosa, TX
Newport News, VA confirmed. Newport News, VA
Maricopa, AZ confirmed WITH EXTREME DIFFICULTY...Maricopa, AZ
Fairfax, VA confirmed. Fairfax, VA
Chesapeake, VA confirmed. Chesapeake, VA
Stark, ND confirmed. Stark, ND
Pitt, NC confirmed. Pitt,NC

For future reference, Markus...PLEASE post URLs when claiming counties...I was nice to you this time and went looking for them, and found them all, too...but that is WAY too much work, I had to sift thru almost 2000 hits in Maricopa to find yours.
This is a lot of work already.
Rules state you have to post the URL's when claiming counties.
Like I said, this time I was nice and went looking for them.
Next time, please provide the bill URL's.
Thanks.

P.S. on the Spreadsheet, Markus, your color is red.

Claiming Anne Arundel, MD

By the way, I can click on Site Wide Users List, click on Markus' Track Points, choose 2011 from Show Zip Codes and Cities Year and get the list that Markus posted. Should save some time.

dctim wrote:Claiming Anne Arundel, MD

By the way, I can click on Site Wide Users List, click on Markus' Track Points, choose 2011 from Show Zip Codes and Cities Year and get the list that Markus posted. Should save some time.

I did not know how to do that.
Will try it.
Meanwhile, I claim my home county of Monroe County, PA

I managed that trick with the users list.
Still...please, guys, post the URLs.

I shall have Montgomery County, PA for myself!

I claim Lehigh County, PA

Tarant, TX

http://www.trackdollar.com/report.htm?url=BH67FD562ACCDDA6390A79FD0956465F1030EAF70C

Markus

I claim Virginia Beach, VA - sorry Markus

http://www.trackdollar.com/report.htm?url=BH08934947ABB0CA5D671BE8023929307F5F868863

I also now claim the City of Charlottesville, VA

http://www.trackdollar.com/report.htm?url=BH74E4453FD6CEB6241E6AE61A45554C0323F9E41F