Wow, an extraordinarily "meh" meh-rathon. What a bore (warning: contains cranky content).

@zactucker111
Meh’s server programming disadvantages mobile users. It is impossible for everyday users to get an IRK using a mobile device.

Don’t knock it until you try it and get nothing.
/giphy wonka you get nothing

@zactucker111 They used to sell 100 IRKs at a time, then it went down to 50 and now it seems to be 33-ish. Much harder to get, especially if you have crappy connectivity like me.

@mike808 @zactucker111 Weird. I’m on mobile and it works for me. Not every time, but pretty often compared to people who say they never get one.

I do have fiber optic internet so maybe that helps. Google mesh wifi, pixel 4a phone.

@LaserEyes @mike808 @zactucker111

I’m experiencing the joys of irk shopping, most often, using LTE.

@f00l @heartny @zactucker111 They used to sell 500 and a 1000 at a time then even with crappy service (I have that too) the odds were tremendously higher of at least getting the page to load before it is sold out (basically at numbers so small that doesn’t happen even if I know the exact timing to try - maybe one or twice it loads before then when there are 100 but even that is unlikely). Of course they only sold them a couple of times in the event back then too when there were so many more offered and it took several minutes to sell out back then. Now we are their fire sale dumping ground of mostly morning save crap on the way to the dumpster. Maybe they should stock less morning save crap so it all sells on that website?

And I went to bed, knowing it was likely coming, before it even started because it’s not worth it any more. I am only up now at 5:30am (am going back to sleep shortly) because a cat made a flying leap from the 6’ cat tree and landed on my leg instead of elsewhere on the bed. Must have hurt the cat to land on my leg. It sure woke me up. I have a 6 week teaching job and have to teach for 5 hours tonight and have several apts during the day. Can’t even be on, unless a doc apt is running way behind during VMP/members hour if they even have that.

@LaserEyes @mike808 @zactucker111 The fiber optic network helps. Big time. Even if I used my phone using my internet it would still be problematic because latency is typically 180+ so that’s not going to change phone vs computer. And I only have 10mbps anyway. Wiring in this building is obsolete and we have no other choice. Well unless we want 3mbps over the phone line.

Doesn’t seem accurate to say “it is impossible for everyday users to get an IRK using a mobile device”.

@shawn

Possibly impossible or near impossible if your network is LTE

@heartny @zactucker111 oh, thanks for pointing this out! I am new-ish to Meh – I thought they had thousands of IRKs, to the point where I’ve been pinning them on tabs in my web browser, thinking I would buy them later! Had no idea grabbing them was anything like this competitive.
(I prefer using a PC for Meh! anyway, for some reason, this website doesn’t like the Android version of Brave, my preferred browser. Page takes just about forever to load).

@brasscupcakes I found Firefox Focus to be better than Brave, but my go-to browser for scoring IRKs on my Android phone is MiniBrowser Pro. Much easier to click the refresh arrow at the top rather than having to open a menu to refresh.

@shawn I would agree with @f00l if your network is LTE. And even if it isn’t, if you are using the internet on your phone and your internet is dirt slow with high latency (mine ping runs 175-180 pretty consistently due to obsolete - 1979 - wiring for comcast in this apartment building) that isn’t going to help much. Even when you spend time timing how long it is between when the counter shows 0 and how your computer is timed with that so when you should hit refresh so as to get the new item and not reload the old one, with these low numbers of irks I almost always comes up as sold out.

Sure loading is slower when it’s an irk rather than charcoal tooth cleaner because people are interacting with the website trying to buy, but even when that happened when you sold far more, It still loaded with a buy button rather than sold out button. Back then I could actually have a chance to buy one (well presuming a check mark rather then streetlights, but back when you’d do 500-1000 even if I got streetlights I had a chance, odds obviously were higher the times I lucked in and just got a check box).

Now, due to so few offered (be it 100, 50, 25 or 33), I usually don’t even have a chance because it comes up sold out almost all the time. I think that is what some of the frustration is - the failure of even having a chance over and over and over due to how few are in one offering. Then what some are doing (based on posts - I have no idea what the true numbers are obviously) is not even bother to stay on your site.

=====

Below is a brain dump that may be worth what you paid for it - nothing - not to mention it is unasked for and it may not be relevant to your current business model. Just my random musings because, well, this is just the way my brain works.

I am sure, you could track that (what I said earlier in this long post) just running a longitudinal study: number of click faces clicked in the 24 hours, which deals (so you knew time of day/night), how that changed over time… You could also look at site involvement - eg number of days clicked, number of posts, controlling for when someone joined… I wouldn’t use number of buys when looking at site involvement since that depends on finances and whether or not they like your merchandise. Some people stay here for the community and don’t buy all that much for multiple reasons (finances, don’t want a pile of junk, don’t want/need - yeah I know impulse sales is high irk days - what is sold, etc), some may have a shopping problem and at least they get that buy it now “high” in a way that saves them money LOL, - you know more about your customers than it do. But that community, I am sure affects sales, site check ins to see what is for sale

Of course you are a for profit business and care about number of buys as that, after all, is what keeps you in business - however your community also influences persistence visiting the site. Some who don’t buy much may contribute to the sense of community and not caring about their frustrations and feelings could affect their involvement which could then affect your community or community tone (and meh has had some ups and downs with that over time after jonT left, he was extremely good at building community).

There are several statistical ways you could examine that which could utilize posts, stars, responses to a particular user’s posts (and yes, of course, some of this is noise although I am sure the order of names in a reply indicate who someone is actually replying to - I haven’t bothered to figure that out), activity over time, looking at how that relates to number of irks received number of clicks on irk days and then tying your “sense of community” to over all visits, buys (again realizing how your merchandise has changed over time on this site to be more morningsave vs what used to be here)…

You started meh with a very loyal close to cult like community - heck some even put your business icons and logos on themselves permanently, high sense of commitment by many and willingness to over look all sorts of company faux pas. That, of course, is very valuable to a company. Don’t screw that up over irks.

I remember years ago @snapster said that while meh is only a tiny part of the business and profits from meh are small compared to other parts of the business, he was keeping us around due to nostalgia.

And of course the meharhons appear to be primarily filled with your “fire sale table” items. That, of course, influences perceptions of your customers about morningsave and sidedeal since you don’t do massive dumps on those sites, rather what you do there resembles what “normal” retail sites. And your target market on those sites likely shop differently than many of us at meh.

Doing your dumps on those sites may cause customers there to wait until the dumps to buy. Meh customers, of course, are looking for the dumps LOL- although what is dumped here has changed over time as some have noted. That will affect, to some degree, who hangs around here for the community vs buying. But again, your community affects who hangs around and buys too.

I could go on but won’t as this is already long. Much of this is solidly documented in the marketing research knowledge base out there, although what is out there with community and commercial sites/buying is thinner (in part because fewer companies do what you do with respect to community). There is plenty out there with respect to community and involvement, identity with company and buying behavior, etc. Community builds identity. Perceptions of fairness has broad impact across companies and organizations. I’d bet the bank on how you deal with irks is going to impact meh.

The impact on sales of all of this may be low enough that you don’t care. But remember it takes longer to rebuild something than build it to begin with. Don’t underestimate the role of your community, and who is active in your community, on perceptions of your company, their willingness to promote it to others remembering that the disgruntled tell far more people than the satisfied.

Of course as anyone in business already knows, it is cheaper to keep customers rather than find new ones. If you are only measuring customers by who buys the most/past a certain key metric you have decided on and deciding the rest don’t matter, as has been found over and over in “straight, traditional companies”, research backs that. But only parts of your company operate like that. Meh doesn’t. As I said earlier I’d be the bank that community is an important variable that impacts sales on meh. Of course snapster has already stated years ago that meh isn’t a money making endeavor for the company, rather it is kept around for other reasons. I’d guess it is now also kept around for a new other reason - mass disposal of unsold morningsave and sidedeals merchandise where the next step after irk days is the dumpster or wholesaling it out to the true bottom feeder retailers out there.

@Kyeh The crap in the IRKs is so crappy, they’re too embarrassed to even call them bags of crap because it would be offensive to actual bags of crap.

@Kyeh @mike808

Yeah, but it’s kinda fun to be one of the smarties or idiots or whatever who scores an IRK. Even if the contents are junk.

I liked the WIN, back when that was possible.

I still like/want the MEH Bags.

@f00l Well, true. I did - gasp - actually score one tonight! It’s kind of changed my outlook…

@Kyeh

: )

@f00l @Kyeh @mike808 Yeah I like the meh bags too.

@Kyeh Pass the grapes, please

@Kyeh You got that right-even cheaper at times if you use the VMP discount or one of the extra discounts they send you.

@sillyheathen You had to mention “loss of performance” didn’t you.

@f00l

I dictated and got it wrong

That was supposed to be “gollum persona”

/giphy “gollum persona”

@ShotgunX

Yes, have gotten some. Maybe 10 (IRKs
plus the earlier mystery boxes), in the 7+ years of Meh
Something like that.

Some years none. And some years, in the old days, 1-2 of them.
I used to be able to get them often enough to feel I had a chance, even using cellular.

Might be off on the count. Did not check my history.

Have gotten none using cellular recently from the main Meh site (which is how I normally shop for them);
excepting the SideDeals ones, which tend to be less timing/network-speed sensitive.

Since they began offering so few IRKs (30 or so at a time), thus increasing the disadvantages of cellular, the IRKs are sold out before I ever find out if I’m getting a captcha challenge.

They are gone when I get the Buy Page loaded Even if I tried to time the changeover/refresh perfectly during numerous attempts that day.

Since I’m unlikely to get another IRK, i just want to buy bags of the sort that comes included in IRKs.

As a fellow robot, I understand your pain.

@f00l @ShotgunX Yes it would be nice if they’d sell the bags by themselves as a sale item. High latency with my computer (also only 10mbps) also means when I finally load about 8 seconds out the image says sold out. Doesn’t matter - computer or phone. Same result. I think, based on what you are saying f00l that LTE and my internet are about the same. My phone using my internet instead of LTE is no better because, well, my internet. Sucks that meh doesn’t care about fairness anymore.

@Kidsandliz @ShotgunX

Well … IRK access was never fair.

Meh has, to my mind, made it “less fair”, recently, I suppose. I guess they could possibly try to tweak it toward “more fair”.

They can’t make it “really fair” unless they undertake to re-wire, re-fiber, or re-cable at least the lower 48. Plus add in hot machines for everyone.
I think that’s beyond Meh/Mercatalyst resources; and even well beyond Google’s.

Or … they could remove or lessen the “quick draw” aspect. Parse some of the IRKs out based on how many each of them each of us might have gotten recently (possibly modified by a “site participation factor” or similar).
Or something.

The current config of the offers probably suits their biz model tho.

Note: i personally pay far less attention to the offers, not more. I just don’t have time to watch the site all day, esp with no chance of reward except for the forums and shirts.

I’m a bit grumpy about the loss of hope re my access to possible IRKs.

And a bit grumpy about the general “junk” quality of the offerings.

But I didn’t really open this topic in order to whine and moan, except in a hopefully amusing fashion.

I just want them to sell me Meh-rathon tote bags.

Maybe bundle those bags w a t-shirt purchase for an extra $1-2 charge? Or similar?

Come on, @dave. If you’re going to lock so many of us out from IRKs forever: at least let us purchase super-cheap, cute, useful consolation prizes.

@dave @f00l @ShotgunX There is fair and then there is FAIR. It will never be everyone who wants one gets one fair. Now it has reached the point that some will never even have a chance for reasons beyond their control or even get one by chance “unfair”. I am in agreement with the “less fair” assessment.

@dave @f00l @Kidsandliz
Well, I agree on/support/propose two points:

1. They should sell various meh accessories like stickers, sunglasses, foam squeeze toys, etc. again. They did it before, and these events seemed more fun back then. I wouldn’t mind if they added bags into the mix as well. Maybe like a “delayed instant regret kit” (a DIRK if you will) version of the bag so that IRK winners get to keep their unique thing.

2. They should sell a good percentage of IRKs through games of skill, and not just through these first-come clickfest deals. The best events have been those with forum games in which participants can win extra IRKs.

@ShotgunX
I have never been able to buy an IRK. I have stopped trying.

@ShotgunX Should folks who do get IRKs really be considered “winners”?

@ShotgunX
And then a miracle occurred; on the fourth Irk of Mehmbers Hour, I finally scored one.

I suspect that the combination of attrition due to others scoring ahead of me, and lack of expectation that a fourth would be listed, may have helped.

@f00l @Kidsandliz Possible idea: on mehrathon days, go to a local Starbucks or a library and use their wifi. Bring a laptop or Chromebook if you have one, sit around for a bit, enjoy a nice coffee, and try to score an IRK. Can do something productive or entertaining in between attempts, like reading a book or watching a movie.

@Kidsandliz @ShotgunX

I’ve done that when I have been free, but my time is pretty well subscribed

Thanks for your help and I do apologize if I over-complained.

I think maybe sometimes I just need an outlet for being grumpy?

/giphy grumpy

@ShotgunX @werehatrack I hear you. I snagged a couple, several years ago, when I was still on a DSL connection. I have a faster connection now, but not quick enough to even connect to the site before the IRKs are sold out - I’ve timed it, 20 seconds, minimum, to load this site, on the PC connected via Ethernet. 25-30 IRKs are long gone in that time. It’s not any fun, now.

@OnionSoup

Similar reaction. Only 30 IRKs at a time, and constant offers for them during the day, means I spend far less time trying for them, or paying attention to the site.

I’m not getting an IRK (unless there were to be a statistically “insanely rare convergence of factors”), I already know that based on how quickly the lots sell, so I just don’t bother to look much at the main site page.

@OnionSoup don’t forget that the supply chain right now is screwed up. I’m not sure how backed up the ships still are from that one that got stuck in the canal… and then actual port workers aren’t able to work due to continued lock-downs… and even trucking and railroad companies are having trouble finding workers.

@mbersiam @OnionSoup
How much is the supply chain backed up? More than a month offshore of Long Beach and Los Angeles alone… Map of ships awaiting a dock slot

POPSOCKETS! SPROCKETS! DAVY CROCKETT! AWESOME!

@mediocrebot We don’t even see popsockets anymore

@arbdef I keep hoping to see a Keanu tote again! I loved that mehrathon so hard. I did manage to get a koolhandjoe creation in an irk so I don’t think I can ever give up on them but it’s less fun for sure sitting through everyday items without even a bit of weird thrown in… I mean know your audience!

@ACraigL

I miss old-timey housing and auto prices.
: )

@ACraigL @f00l
I miss Woolworths and Service Merchandise.

@ACraigL @duodec @f00l Wow. Service merchandise. Whatever happened to them?

@Barney nope not anymore.

@mbersiam I’d second this. I’ve actually gotten a bit of early Xmas shopping out of the way this time. I can’t do that when it’s all speaker docks/IRK/earbuds/speaker docs/etc.

@fait @mbersiam
What? No drones or knives?

Which, I admit, is a rare item.

@werehatrack

Made of Mithril (mined and forged in Moria), traditional excellent Dwarvish craftsmanship and design?

/giphy “Mithril throwing spatula”

@f00l
Mine is machined from quarter-inch stainless steel plate. It’s just a tiny bit heavy.

@sammydog01 was so stoked for those. A friend of mine got three for my son since I limited on mine without thinking that I couldn’t get a second set for him. Mom fail!

@lisaviolet Oh, so sweet!

@cf1 @lisaviolet

Awwww!

: )

@lisaviolet I miss kittens, although I haven’t had a baby for 20 years. And other than my one I bottle fed who died in late Feb, haven’t had a baby kitty, all my rescues have been older. Little babies are so cuddly when they are falling asleep or asleep or when they want to settle into you just to watch the world.

@lisaviolet Bucky can has Cheezburger?

@Kidsandliz I’m missing a great part of their kittenhood because I’m sleeping on the sofa in the family room, instead of the bed. The bed is much more comfortable and I sleep a little better on it.

“Why?” you may ask.

The dog. I’m sleeping on the sofa instead of my bed because of the dog.

See, LBD (little bitty dog) sleeps with us. In the bed. Natasha isn’t particularly fond of LBD at this point (she’s attacked him a couple of times, because he most certainly is not the sharpest crayon in the box and had gotten a little too close to her kids when walking down the hall; he has not forgotten the unwarranted attacks on him, but has forgotten to not walk so close to the room they were in and it starts over again).

Well, now that the kittens have the run of the hallway, bedroom and bathroom, blocking access mostly to the dog, because the cats CAN jump the barriers if they so desire (Spot, our chubby boy, the only other cat who’s actually walked down that hallway in a few weeks, cleared the barrier the other day by at least six inches leaving the hallway when Wendy chased him down), the dog isn’t sleeping in the bedroom. But I know if I sleep in bed and my husband sleeps in bed that LBD will start scratching at the barrier in the hallway. And he will persist.

We keep them separated not because we’re afraid of what he’ll do, but what Natasha will do to him. This entire thing confuses the hell out of him. Like I said, he’s not very bright.

My husband needs his sleep more than I need mine (he has a very physical job), I can take naps, so I take the sofa and the dog sleeps with me.

I’d love to be in bed having kittens run all over me when I’m trying to sleep. I’m sad that I’m missing out on this.

A few more weeks…

@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet well that sucks.

D’artagnan and Whatchamacallit come down two or three times a day and run roughshod all over everything. Half the time while I’m at work in the basement. but for whatever reason coco hisses when she sees him and runs away even though she’s 3 times his size… Alex doesn’t want to come down but at least those three will let you pet them when they calm down. Snickers stays out of reach but will play. Mom is fine but stays up there and if you reach for her she backs away. Just when you bribe her with chicken you can get some rubs in she starts kneading the carpet and purring. No snuggles here yet. But they were fully functional when I “grabbed” them so
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Need to make more chicken lol.

@Kidsandliz @unksol Bucky was in the office this morning.

Not happy, Bob. Not happy.

(That was a quote from the Incredibles.)

I put him back on the other side and I turn my back and damned if he’s not back on the top of the barrier.

Le sigh…

@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet
That just made me think of theoatmeal’s bobcats
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/bobcats_monday

@Kidsandliz @unksol Cute…

@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet lol yes I remember that bit but the whole bob+office+cat

That incredibles bit always gives me the
/youtube office space bob

But sort of in reverse. Idk. The corporate head hunters at the desk. Idk

@Kidsandliz @unksol We’ve never seen an episode of the Office. I guess we should…

@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet it’s not the office. The tv show. It’s office space. A 1999 movie. Honestly if you have never had to deal with BS managers or been a software engineer may not be something you’d find funny. But totally separate things

I’ve never watched the office tv show through. I’ve seen episodes but I’m kinda not interested

@Kidsandliz @unksol Thank you for the clarification.

@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet lol Jennifer Aniston is in it? Lol sorry.

What are the little assholes up to this morning if you have time. I’m thinking I should be setting up a vet visit

@werehatrack you say that like we won’t have even harder lock downs now that we’re moving back into colder months… which will cause an already shaky supply chain to fully collapse.

@mbersiam
Places where vax rates are good enough (which means not in large parts of the US) will see little need for lockdowns, and places where the need is great will not allow any lockdowns becauase of obstinate refusal to give a rat’s ass about people who get sick and/or die from the plague. Ergo, I very much doubt that any lockdowns are going to enter into the picture, regardless of whether they are needed or warranted.

@mbersiam @werehatrack Okay, yeah, but they are based in Texass, so don’t get your hopes up too much.

@lonocat
And what constructive advice do you have for those whose connection path will never be fast enough, hmmm?

@lonocat

My complaints and moaning were intended to be entertaining.
I hope some of that was present and visible.

Since your complaint about my complaint was entertaining in itself, thanks for that.

@f00l @lonocat I think it was just mean.

@f00l @Kyeh it’s not mean, just an observation, if I wasn’t able to snag an irk with my old phone with shaky reception, I might have to upgrade to one of those new 5G phones, but I don’t want to spend money on that or home internet! My brother has fast home internet and has tried to get an irk for years, the only one he ever got was from a hidden one on sidedeal.
So my observation is that it’s not the equipment, but luck and timing that gets the regret

@f00l @Kyeh @lonocat It is partly luck for many but it is also network limits for some where it comes up already sold out just about every time. Most of the people who get them don’t get stoplights to pick as then time has already run out. Those with really high latency don’t usually get one. Those with dirt slow internet don’t usually get one. In both those cases the most likely thing you get is when the page finally loads you get the sold out image. Sure there are exceptions for the slow folks - usually when the website has a quick glitch, but typically for those folks by the time it loads it comes up sold out. No change to even try.

@f00l @lonocat Okay, I agree that it’s mostly luck, and all the analysis about how to get one seems silly to me. But it sounded like you weren’t sympathetic to people who can never get one, which was the case for me for quite a while until I sort of got the hang of the fast click&scroll that has worked for me sometimes.

@f00l @Kyeh with some it may be the browser that they use. When I was using explorer, it would sometimes regress and come up sold out.
I now use duckduckgo and time when to hit refresh, had great luck that way

@lonocat I’ve only ever gotten IRKs with my phone lol

@khaleesi0 @lonocat

I used to get them with my phone, using LTE cell data. Most of mine were purchased that way.

(If I use a phone, and am connected using fast wifi, that’s about as good as a desktop, possibly)

Now (after than change from about 100 offered at a time to about 30), even when I think I have perfect timing on the refresh and clicks, I’m hitting “sold out” as the “buy it already” page loads, pretty consistently (LTE data).

Prior to this summer, that never happened. I at least got to try to purchase.

The slower cell data is a likely factor.

Oh well.

I’ll prob keep trying, off and on. But I do spend far less time watching the site, nowadays.

@f00l @Kyeh @lonocat 20-second latency in reloading the site (my sitch) means that “luck” has very little to do with getting an IRK, or any item that is quantity-limited.

@CBL_WV @f00l @Kyeh @lonocat My latency is typically 175-180. Of course the building wire was originally just cable installed in 1979. Totally obsolete and it’s a stretch to add internet to that connection.

@vickieramiro

Members only hour is 4-5pm central time.

For membership info, see the FAQ.

@vickieramiro Or the “we don’t know what you are trying to buy” message. Umm an irk. Duh.

@duodec
I think they’re hilarious!
Of course, I LOVE Rube Goldberg.

@duodec @Kyeh
I like them all.

@duodec I loved the fuko/fuku bags. The IRK bags are kind of useless.

@duodec @Kyeh RUBE GOLDBERG FOREVER!
/image rube goldberg device

/giphy rube goldberg device

@phendrick
@jenniferhebden solved it!
https://meh.com/forum/topics/its-a-meh-rathon-22#614ced25db55ce001ba92952

@jenniferhebden @Kyeh @phendrick I’m thinking she wrote it.

@jenniferhebden @phendrick @sammydog01 Oh, I bet you’re right - I missed that she’s an employee.

@jenniferhebden @Kyeh @phendrick TIME FOR AN AMA!

@jenniferhebden @Kyeh Thanks! I read that forum earlier, but had not revisited it in last few hours. Surprised my Google site search did not dig up that post.
FWIW. I took a couple years of Russian in college, but the English versions of the characters did not trigger anything in me.

Note the upper case characters.
Russian ~ cyrillic is close to Greek.
rho & “thorn”
“chi” not x is proper one, not quite the same

@jenniferhebden @Kyeh It’s funny the things math people pick up through life!

@f00l I have a bunch of Meh logo stickers, I can send you some. And some IRK bags too, if you want. Hell, I’ll make up an IRK for you from my own massive supply of random crap.

@f00l Totally not joking- PM me your mailing address if you want me to send you stuff.

@Pony Nice humble-brag, there.

@mike808 I’m not sure what you mean. If I said something that seemed like I was bragging or whatever, it wasn’t intentional.

@Pony

Hell, I’ll make up an IRK for you from my own massive supply of random crap.

Like I said, a humble-brag. This is a thread about folks bitching that they can’t get an IRK, and you’re here offering to send leftovers from all the IRKs you’ve scored, aka “my own massive supply of random crap”.

No offense taken. Just giving you crap here in this VMP whine/moan/piss-fest about IRK sales. I didn’t get one either, if it makes @fool feel any better.

@fool @mike808 Oh, I didn’t mean IRK leftovers, I am a bit of a dork and I buy a lot of silly crap. So while there may be an item or two from IRKs gone by, it’ll be more like “made perfect sense at 3 AM” type stuff.

@fool @mike808 @Pony

I don’t see the humble brag.

That’s fine: all of us read content that contains potentially-laden-but-ambiguous social or personal info in individual ways.

I thought the point was to offer me a favor, not to brag that’s she’s gotten so many IRKs. I still read her post that way.

The point of my topic is this:

I miss feeling i had a chance. I enjoyed the sometime “wins”.
And, in a weird way, I kinda also enjoyed the disappontment-&-failure reactions I experienced.

I can’t even really have the failure reactions anymore, if I think it’s all just about impossible.

It was fine to fail.
if I once in a while enjoyed self a bit extra after failure by publicly moaning for a short while about it, all good.
(So long as audience did not mind).

I don’t really miss the “surprise junk”, but I do like getting the bags.

Now, with the change in lot size, and my life commitments currently having me limited most of the time to LTE (or 5g, once I upgrade devices), I’m seeing the IRKs be already sold out by the time the “buy it already” page loads.
Never saw that before, but been kinda constant for a few months now tho.

I correlate that to the change in lot size.
This is not a researched or scientific or data-driven correlation. Just a stupid guess.

Also, “bitching and whining” can be amusing, even to the audience, if it’s done right.
I made the attempt. I’m not a comedian, so that might be a massive fail.

So, I miss the sense of having a shot at one.

I miss the bags.

Sometimes I wanna whine in public, even tho that’s really iffy conduct.

And, I hope, @dave will decide to offer “swag for sale” to folks who flunk at irks.

(I did get two shirts. A navy one and a random. Got that tiny feeling of “pleasure in purchasing something self-indulgent” from those buys.)

If I never get another IRK I’ll be fine.
(It seems likely to me that my getting one will be quite rare, given recent results).

I might complain a bit about the IRK failure tho, if I can delude self that I can make the complaint topic amusing to some readers

So … Happy shared failure and suffering! And happy putting up with my topics! Enjoy!

/giphy dancing snoopy

@fool @mike808 @Pony we all have supplies of “crap”. I wouldn’t have assumed @pony meant from irks either. This was after all the premise of the mehrican exchange. A big crap swap lol

@brainmist Because you have a life?

@Kidsandliz Oh wait, you were being serious?

@brainmist

@Kidsandliz

Did not.

@f00l I’m sorry. This new system of doing it that makes it less due to chance and more due to your tech reasons is frustrating. Because of that I mind more now not getting one than before when it could be blamed on chance and not something I had no control over.

Then, of course, there is that other piece of chance of what is in the box. I have been lucky a few times, but you can pretty much count those occurrences on one hand… Of course that is normal and to be expected. And I do like the bags. I have my fingers crossed for that recent pretty shade of blue one several someones posted after the tan ones.

I have no clue how but after multiple mehrathons of loading with sold out already on the page (this is what happens almost all of the time now with me so often I show up through less of these and just check what was in all the sales I missed), once a ‘what is it you are trying to buy’ (umm duh an irk), one or twice the ever reloading green bar, find the streetlights… I managed to snag one this time that was a second one following a first one late in the day. I think there must have been a glitch that slowed down meh and I snuck in that crack or something. I have never gotten one at 50 or under (might be also never at 100 or under either, can’t remember at this point as there have been so many I have missed) before this.

I wish you luck the next time. I know the odds are extremely low to non-existent for both of us.

@Num1Zero That would be a 99 cent, buy in walmart toy section Tesla. Right?

@koolhandjoe if num1zero won an irk I think that box needs filled from the dollar store LOL

@Kidsandliz @Num1Zero … do I hear someone testing the gods of Regret?

@Koolhandjoe @Num1Zero we already know regret is the goal of these. I consider myself extremely lucky to have gotten a few that were good. I’ve had far more of the put a match to my $5 regret too. Far more times than the good ones. Nothing to see here. Move along.

@Num1Zero

I crazy.

Gimme Tesla.

@f00l @Num1Zero
/image where lambo