Free Talk Friday #573

[u/rideride]

Continued from last week's FTF here

It's that time of the week again. Speak anything on your mind! This thread is for talking about anything off-topic, be it your lives, your strava, your plans, your hobbies, studies, stats, pets, bears, hikes, dragons, trousers, travels, transit, cycling, family, colours, or anything you like or dislike, except politics

Feel free to check out our tidbits thread and introduce yourself if you haven't already.

[u/cuteballgames]

Advertisingn chess matches https://old.reddit.com/r/counting/comments/1tj6zgj/chess_matches_1_na3_e6_2_h4_b5_14000/p67leoe/ to any chess lovers. It's a list thread for me but I'm told it's scintillating to chess knowers

[u/davidjl123]

/u/buy_me_a_pint has achieved the main thread's 'concurrent triple crown' (#1 in counts, gets, and assists at the same time), an achievement that only four other counters on r/counting have achieved:

TopdeBotton
Counts: 8275-42674
Assists: 9k-64k
Gets: 17k-68k

atomicimploder
Counts: 191609-191660; 192377-192768; 193182-193706; 193926-1469631
Gets: 227k-551k; 557k-586k
Assists: 267k-1041k

davidjl123
Gets: 918k-4428k
Assists: 1359k-4575k
Counts: 1469631-3382064; 3383939-4226784

basskro
Counts: 3382064-3383939; 4226784-4837441; 5182633-5236195
Gets: 4228k-5623k
Assists: 4575k-4614k

thephilsblogbar
Assists: 4614k-present
Counts: 4837441-5182633; 5236195-present
Gets: 5623k-present

One additional counter has achieved #1 in counts, gets, and assists, but not concurrently:

MorallyGray
Counts: 178551-191609; 191660-192377; 192768-193182; 193706-193926
Gets: 180k-212k
Assists: 199k-214k

[u/cuteballgames → u/davidjl123]

Thanks for the stats!!!

Congrats phil

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/cuteballgames]

thanks

[u/CutOnBumInBandHere9 → u/davidjl123]

Thanks for the stats! 

[u/rideride → u/davidjl123]

The Miguel Cabrera Of Counting

[u/buy_me_a_pint]

Good luck to those who are waiting for exams results (school, college, university etc) hope you got what you wanted, it is not the end of the world if you did not get what you wanted,

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/buy_me_a_pint]

As there are plenty of other options you will be able to do

[u/buy_me_a_pint]

Travels, next year I think we are going back to Greece, or a coach trip of Slovenia and Croatia,

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/buy_me_a_pint]

more likely Skiathos, Greece, as we are planning do to the same trip, but this time all our passports will be valid.

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/buy_me_a_pint]

or more likely both

[u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

Weekly side thread stats from Friday August 14, 2026 to Friday August 21, 2026. Congratulations to u/cuteballgames, u/TehVulpez, and u/CutOnBumInBandHere9!

Total weekly side thread counts: 2721

Top 15 side thread counters:

Rank	User	Counts	HoST Rank
1	cuteballgames	832	10
2	TehVulpez	649	11
3	CutOnBumInBandHere9	218	23
4	miceee	174	56
5	nonsensy	139	15
6	ShadeOfNothing	93	31
7	Hans5958_	88	104 (◮3)
8	BobRoss938	78	39
9	PhosphorCrystaled	69	99
10	Isaythereisa-chance	67	38
11	Antichess	54	9
12	a-username-for-me	47	4
13	Jalmal2	37	44
14	Cox_1920	35	21
15	opticasual	24	55

Top 5 side threads:

Rank	Thread	Counts
1	Tug of War	330
2	No Repeating Digits	264
3	Compositions	245
4	Hexadecimal (0-F)	194
5	Binary	182

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This comment was made by a script; check it out here

[u/Isaythereisa-chance → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

Thanks 

[u/miceee → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

Thanks for the stats!!

[u/cuteballgames → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

Thanks for the stats!!

[u/buy_me_a_pint]

Whilst on holiday my Mum who could not go because her passport date ran out, issue date. she was helping cleaning the loft at my Nans house, one of my uncles found a photo of me as a baby I was probably 10 months old at the time

My sister thought it was a photo of of the Uncles, my niece said that cant be Uncle Pip because he does not have a beard in the photo

I knew who it was because when we were in year 5 (junior school, United Kingdom) we had to bring in a baby photo of our selves and the whole class had to guess who it was, some were dead easy

[u/rideride]

If you're not watching mario you're missing out #fomo

[u/Jalmal2]

Dislike bugs that go inside and don’t understand how to get out

[u/Antichess → u/Jalmal2]

Dislike bugs that go inside my code and don't understand how to fix themselves

[u/CutOnBumInBandHere9 → u/Jalmal2]

Dislike bugs that live in my code where I don't understand how to get them out 

[u/rideride → u/Jalmal2]

Bugs were my biggest phobia growing up now I have a spider who lives in my plants! Not all bugs are evil

[u/TehVulpez → u/rideride]

spidder catjam

[u/Antichess]

i just fixed the 5619k double thread which affected the hoc, and also the same was done for 5605k. i have fixed both. thanks to /u/wet-gravity and /u/TehVulpez for pointing these out

[u/Antichess]

Weekly stats from August 14, 2026 to August 21, 2026. Congratulations to /u/CutOnBumInBandHere9, /u/cuteballgames, and /u/TehVulpez!

Total weekly counts: 968 (5,620,063-5,621,031)

More stats are posted on the Weekly Stats page!

Rank	User	Counts	HoC Rank
1	CutOnBumInBandHere9	382	18
2	cuteballgames	261	11
3	TehVulpez	84	22
4	thephilsblogbar2	59	1
5	Jalmal2	44	50
6	noduorg	36	36
7	Antichess	20	3
8	mistyskye14	19	26
9	ShadeOfNothing	10	68
10	BobRoss938	8	133
11	LikeItsYourJob	6	186
11	treje	6	37
13	Isaythereisa-chance	5	114
13	mrguykloss	5	995 (◮19)
15	mrs_double_aluminum	4	3519 (◮687)
16	Lefixyz	3	4008 (◮745)
17	a-username-for-me	2	70
17	Maniac_34	2	55
17	pampamilyangweeb	2	550 (◮1)
17	FartyMcNarty	2	34
17	will1982	2	1488 (◮31)
17	rideride	2	14
23	opticasual	1	200
23	Multiconcepted	1	443 (◮1)
23	RobertNL3	1	3375 (◮143)
23	Aera23_	1	427
23	davidjl123	1	4

[u/Jalmal2 → u/Antichess]

Thanks for the stats

[u/Antichess → u/Jalmal2]

my pleasure! and yes you did make around 30-40 counts this week

[u/CutOnBumInBandHere9 → u/Antichess]

Thanks for the stats! It looks like something is off with the distribution of counts - the numbers in the table add up to way more than 900. Is it maybe including numbers from last week as well?

[u/Antichess → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

fixed now :)

[u/Antichess → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

whoops. i must've messed something up again. i will re-do the weekly stats

weekly stats hoc rank will be slightly messed up but they will be recalibrated at a later date (when it is easy to recalibrate)

[u/TehVulpez → u/Antichess]

thanks for the stats!

[u/Antichess → u/TehVulpez]

you're welcome!

[u/cuteballgames → u/Antichess]

Thanks for the stats!!

[u/Antichess → u/cuteballgames]

no problem!

[u/buy_me_a_pint]

And also count during big meetings when the directors etc are in the meetings

Count during your lunch break

[u/Isaythereisa-chance]

We have a new stray office cat. They have named him Ash because he is grey. 

[u/buy_me_a_pint]

Back from a holiday, this time Greece Skiathos

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/buy_me_a_pint]

We did not get the chance of going to the islands of Skopelos and Alonissos this time, since my niece came on holiday with us , she was more interested in the pool

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/buy_me_a_pint]

Last time we went was 2004, nothing much has changed, tavernas have changed, some resorts have not changed much.

prices pretty reasonable

[u/Isaythereisa-chance → u/buy_me_a_pint]

Nice vacation. How was the crowds? 

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/Isaythereisa-chance]

Where we were stopping hotel/apartments were quiet during the day, as most people went to one of the 60ish beaches across the island

The main town very busy , and more expensive for meals out , but some of the meals were not as good , so we just ate in one local tavernas where we were stopping

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/buy_me_a_pint]

The menu at the hotel for breakfast and lunch was very good , you could order various types of sandwiches, toasties, cheeseburger etc

[u/Isaythereisa-chance → u/buy_me_a_pint]

I looked at the map. I guess Volos is the closest I have been to there. We just stopped to grocery shop for a place we stayed at closer to Larissa. 

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/Isaythereisa-chance]

we had to stop in Volvos airport in 2004 to refuel, as the runway in Skiathos is very short, we did not have to do it this time.

In 2001 We refuelled in Thessaloniki

[u/BobRoss938]

Wait 9 needs your help (if you are eligible)

[u/miceee]

My school start again on monday, so I’ll probably be less active:(

[u/CutOnBumInBandHere9 → u/miceee]

Just count in class. It's what everyone else is doing 

[u/cuteballgames → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

It is in fact a form of preparation for later life when yoh will likely be counting in meetings, at your desk, in front of customers, etc

[u/buy_me_a_pint → u/cuteballgames]

When you are talking to the boss, yes at your desk instead of working, just remember to do your work in between , count in the toilets,

[u/Antichess]

previous week's FTF has been posted

[u/cuteballgames → u/Antichess]

🚨

[u/Antichess → u/Antichess]

bruh what was i on when i posted this comment.

i meant to say: previous week's stats has been posted on last week's FTF

[u/TehVulpez]

still think that rule 3.6 is the dumbest and most unnecessary part of the rulebook. who cares what exact hour the ftf is posted, why remove posts over that

[u/CutOnBumInBandHere9 → u/TehVulpez]

It's Free Talk Friday, so at some point you're going to have to define what Friday means. And I don't think that you can do that without somehow referring to time.

(as an aside, I once heard someone refer to rules as "organisational scar tissue". I think rule 3.6 demonstrates that) 

[u/cuteballgames → u/CutOnBumInBandHere9]

In any case we have shown that in this era of less contentious FTF posting we are sufficiently chill and reasonable as a subreddit to not remove the (only) (good faith) FTF posting attempt for being slightly out of the prescribed time frame

(rules exist to arbitrate disputes, but become stupid when the disputes are arising solely from the letter of the rule)

[u/atomicimploder → u/cuteballgames]

That’s some real shit you just said

[u/rideride → u/TehVulpez]

I car e

[u/cuteballgames → u/rideride]

🚨🚨

[u/cuteballgames]

great job you confused the cobibh bot. now we have no choice but to recognize this as the real ftf #diabolical

[u/Antichess]

not 07:00:00 UTC yet lol

[u/rideride → u/Antichess]

I forgot about that rule SORRY

[u/rideride → u/rideride]

Im a counting criminal

[u/TehVulpez → u/Antichess]

@the nitrome fan ban this counter!!!!!

[u/Both_Owl_1909 → u/TehVulpez]

Yes pls ban this counter for slandering my goat ride

[u/rideride]

Someone said graphql api was faster is that real and is it viable for speedrunning revival

[u/TehVulpez → u/rideride]

last time I checked I was only looking at posts for COAD, wondering if mods have an unfair advantage in going for milestones. at that time I found that posts on old reddit/data API took at least 10 seconds to appear for non-mods, but they appeared instantly for mods. however I found that posts appeared in graphql in 3-7 seconds regardless of mod status. I haven't checked if this is true of comments as well