At Ease, TenHunt!
TenHunt.com is an interesting little online scavenger hunt site that gives away prizes to people who answer questions about ten Web sites. Its a sneaky way to get us, the simple-minded consumers, to go to some new sites and read about what they have to offer.
This somehow turns capitalism and advertising into a fun and addictive little game! I've been playing for a few weeks now. Each time a new hunt starts up, my wife and I grab our notebook computers and race to the finish. Tonight, however, the hunt didn't go very smoothly.
TenHunt.com is an interesting little online scavenger hunt site that gives away prizes to people who answer questions about ten Web sites. Its a sneaky way to get us, the simple-minded consumers, to go to some new sites and read about what they have to offer.
This somehow turns capitalism and advertising into a fun and addictive little game! I've been playing for a few weeks now. Each time a new hunt starts up, my wife and I grab our notebook computers and race to the finish. Tonight, however, the hunt didn't go very smoothly.
The first thing that looked odd was Question #1 of the hunt. Actually, the oddity was tha lack of a Question #1. The clock was ticking away up top, letting me know that the game was running, but somehow I needed to know the answer before I knew the question. I tried "42" over and over to no avail. Finally, I gave up and tried to use another Web browser. To my surprise, the countdown in the new browser window showed that the hunt was delayed another 15 minutes!
That was a big relief to me. I didn't mind that the site was having problems... just as long as it wasn't just me. :-) So I waited a few minutes, then went back to my first browser to re-log in. Voila! Another 15 minutes were added to the first 15 minute wait! Wha? I checked the chat room and found around seventy people cursing and complaining and anxious to win the iPod and Zune combo prize.
So I went back to waiting for the start. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... It started this time! Well, sort of. It started for some people, but not for me. I noticed the leaderboard on the side of the page began to show that people had answered Question #1 and Question #2, but Question #1 hadn't shown up for me yet. I refreshed a few times and finally got it to show. I was six questions behind but I still felt like I had a chance... until I got to Question #4. It was a question about LastMinute-Auctions.com. Well, apparently, LastMinute-Auctions wasn't ready for 200 simultaneous visitors, 'cause it froze up like a tongue on a February flagpole.
Twenty minutes later, I was finally able to get to LastMinute-Auctions.com to continue the hunt. By that time, however, a handful of people had already finished the hunt, so there was no rush any longer. I continued on and finished in 127th place.
Long story short: this is a fun idea when it works, but it looks like the site is going through a few growing pains. I hope they can get this ironed out by next week. ;-)
If you would like to play, follow one of the links in this post to TenHunt and sign up! I'll get credit for the referral, and if you win, I'll win too! The way I've been playing, that may be my best chance at actually winning. :-)
This somehow turns capitalism and advertising into a fun and addictive little game! I've been playing for a few weeks now. Each time a new hunt starts up, my wife and I grab our notebook computers and race to the finish. Tonight, however, the hunt didn't go very smoothly.
The first thing that looked odd was Question #1 of the hunt. Actually, the oddity was tha lack of a Question #1. The clock was ticking away up top, letting me know that the game was running, but somehow I needed to know the answer before I knew the question. I tried "42" over and over to no avail. Finally, I gave up and tried to use another Web browser. To my surprise, the countdown in the new browser window showed that the hunt was delayed another 15 minutes!
That was a big relief to me. I didn't mind that the site was having problems... just as long as it wasn't just me. :-) So I waited a few minutes, then went back to my first browser to re-log in. Voila! Another 15 minutes were added to the first 15 minute wait! Wha? I checked the chat room and found around seventy people cursing and complaining and anxious to win the iPod and Zune combo prize.
So I went back to waiting for the start. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... It started this time! Well, sort of. It started for some people, but not for me. I noticed the leaderboard on the side of the page began to show that people had answered Question #1 and Question #2, but Question #1 hadn't shown up for me yet. I refreshed a few times and finally got it to show. I was six questions behind but I still felt like I had a chance... until I got to Question #4. It was a question about LastMinute-Auctions.com. Well, apparently, LastMinute-Auctions wasn't ready for 200 simultaneous visitors, 'cause it froze up like a tongue on a February flagpole.
Twenty minutes later, I was finally able to get to LastMinute-Auctions.com to continue the hunt. By that time, however, a handful of people had already finished the hunt, so there was no rush any longer. I continued on and finished in 127th place.
Long story short: this is a fun idea when it works, but it looks like the site is going through a few growing pains. I hope they can get this ironed out by next week. ;-)
If you would like to play, follow one of the links in this post to TenHunt and sign up! I'll get credit for the referral, and if you win, I'll win too! The way I've been playing, that may be my best chance at actually winning. :-)
