✔

July 14, 2024 2:06 PM

There is one checkbox. You all have to share it.

Previously

posted by chavenet (34 comments total)

Check, please!
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:12 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]

I'll check it out.
posted by box at 2:14 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

Lol this is very funny if you enjoyed the million checkboxes. The source code is refreshingly simple, why there's no frameworks at all! This is the core of the code.

g.socket = new WebSocket(...);
g.socket.addEventListener('message', (event) => {
	const parts = event.data.split(',');
	g.checkbox.checked = (parts[0] === '1');
	g.clientCount.innerText = parts[1];
	g.clientCountPlural.innerText = (parts[1] === '1' ? '' : 's');
});

g.checkbox.addEventListener('change', (event) => {
	if (g.socket) {
		g.socket.send(g.checkbox.checked ? '1' : '0');
	}
});

posted by Nelson at 2:23 PM on July 14 [5 favorites]

Back when I was in a band I had a sound engineer that was from Poland.

I had a Czech one too.
posted by lalochezia at 2:25 PM on July 14 [17 favorites]

I'll check it out.

Checkbox — check, box.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:29 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

✅
posted by HearHere at 2:32 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Aww, there’s too many other people using it for me to successfully blink out a rude message in Morse code.
posted by aubilenon at 2:36 PM on July 14 [5 favorites]

I wrote the obvious code to try to keep the checkbox clear. Evidence of my dastardliness here. Not sure how low I can force it without being unreasonably aggressive.

I always think bots are the most interesting things in Internet toys like this. I'm fascinated by how /r/place over the years has been so shaped by algorithmic action.
posted by Nelson at 2:42 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

Back when I was in a band I had a sound engineer that was from Poland.
I had a Czech one too.

I saw a man carrying a long stick. "Are you a pole vaulter?" I asked. "No, I'm German" he replied, "How did you know my name?"
posted by pipeski at 3:45 PM on July 14 [15 favorites]

This post checks all the boxes.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:16 PM on July 14 [4 favorites]

Nothing to say here, just thought I'd check in.
posted by nfalkner at 4:30 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately that site is all checks, no balances.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:00 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

also I don't look good in checks
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:00 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

This thread is like a bowl of Chex Mix.

sorry i had to contribute and that was my best pitch.
posted by not_on_display at 5:43 PM on July 14 [4 favorites]

Check It Out
Check It Out
Ch-Check It Out
Check It Out
Check It Out
posted by box at 6:01 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Someone asked me what I did with my dumb little bot to keep the checks clear. The first try I just had code to send a clear command every time I was told somebody checked. That works, but there's a little delay. The second time I just sent a clear command every 10 milliseconds. That pushed it down to about 15% before I turned it off.
posted by Nelson at 6:32 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

This is cool, but warning for flashing image! Because there is one checkbox and it’s being checked/unchecked at great speed, it definitely activated thst flashing image trigger in my brain.
posted by epj at 6:58 PM on July 14 [3 favorites]

I'm pleased to see there seem to be similar numbers of people working to keep the box checked as unchecked. Maybe there are some checks in the system after all.
posted by dg at 7:15 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

There are currently thirteen of us, all staring at a blank white box. Peace descends upon the collective.
posted by merriment at 7:30 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

thank you for the entertainment, my uncheck squad homies. alas, i must go now, i leave it to you to defend our uncheckedness!
posted by donuy at 7:32 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

This thread is like a bowl of Chex Mix.

With plenty of nuts in it!
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:41 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

is it better to keep it checked or unchecked?
posted by crime online at 9:54 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

I unchecked the box but feel guilt for some reason
posted by crime online at 9:55 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

probs about how many people you've just ticked off
posted by flabdablet at 10:00 PM on July 14 [4 favorites]

You should only check the box if that section applies to you.
posted by dg at 10:02 PM on July 14 [6 favorites]

Czech Box
posted by kirkaracha at 8:53 AM on July 15

Either something's broken off or interest has dropped way off. Getting about one click a minute now. Mind you, "interest' is relative. At the peak yesterday it said about 20 people were "watching". Right now it's 10 and it seems they are mostly idle. It's kind of nice this way, I feel like I'm having a conversation with one other person through our clicks.
posted by Nelson at 9:34 AM on July 15

After posting this someone decided to come in and make sure the box stayed checked. So I deployed the simple "uncheck in response" bot again and crushed their hopes. It's kind of funny to watch, they were gamely manually clicking for a couple of minutes, you could feel their rhythm. Then they went away for a minute or two, then came back, then gave up entirely. I feel like such a bully.

Apologies if the crushed hopes were another MeFier. I genuinely don't want to be a jerk with bot activity but it's just such a natural thing to do... I mean it'd be very easy to just own this server entirely with automation but that's obviously shitty. So I limit myself to rerunning the code by hand and only for a few minutes while I'm actively engaged. I've stopped again.
posted by Nelson at 10:05 AM on July 15

Previously there was that website that told you how many people were looking at it: https://heylookat.us/

I remember seeing it around 14 or 20 or so when it was first posted to Mefi. Now it's usually just one.
posted by AlSweigart at 2:47 PM on July 15

I went to take a look at it, and it was going so fast I was worried the strobing was going to cause a seizure.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:55 PM on July 15

Great link. I am favoriting and unfavoriting it repeatedly.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:06 PM on July 15 [4 favorites]

Yeah even with only 8 viewers someone's doing something to cause rapid strobing. It's not entirely effective, I can put my thumb heavily on the scales with a dumb "uncheck every 4ms" bot. Perhaps they are doing something reactive with Javascript code or even a UI scripter: the pure spam approach is stronger than that.
posted by Nelson at 6:41 PM on July 15

The rapid strobing has persisted for two days. Even with just 8 watchers early in the California morning. My guess is there's one or two bots attached that are toggling the box in response to click events. I can still overwhelm it by spamming commands every 4ms but otherwise it's constantly flickering. A far cry from that quiet morning two days ago.
posted by Nelson at 6:27 AM on July 17 [1 favorite]

It's still operating. 2 watchers, constantly strobing. Assuming I'm one of the 2 the other must be a bot that just toggles the thing constantly. Kinda boring.
posted by Nelson at 6:58 AM on July 25