I was just thinking- as far as I can tell it isn't particularly difficult to add custom BBcode to IPB (the 'SPOILER' tag is non-standard isn't it?).

Looking at all those game threads in Welcome To The Shadows, it occurred to me that it ought to be relatively simple to create a custom ROLL tag to do auto-dicerolling in those threads.

Something like

Then comes in the argument of computer-random vs true-random (of which I am in agreement with the latter).

It's a very neat feature, but if done badly, can easily just plain suck compared to flat-out rolling your own dice.

If you're that worried about players cheating, tell them you'll be rolling their rolls yourself.

Actually, were I to see an extreme amount of 1s and 6s (which you tend to with computer random rolls), I'd notice the average isn't quite right.

Also; I've seen a few dice roller PHP codes before. They tend to lag up the system a lot.

It is a neat feature, but if done even the slightest bit improperly (or even done in such a manner that it takes up more processor than it should -- and most PHP applets do), it can suck up the bandwidth of a site so fast that you won't even know if it worked or not.

I can quickly demonstrate (and just have- to my own satisfaction) with a few lines of Python that there is absolutely no skewing towards any individual number produced using its pseudo random number generator. I may not be fully au fait with the inner workings of IPB but I do do the odd bit of coding.

There is, however, a strong tendency for human beings to see patterns in randomness, even if no real pattern exists, and for human beings to distrust computers and computer programs.

It is possible, of course, that you just used a badly written die roller program. But as criticisms go, I think this one is stretching things a bit!

As for system lag- well I'll take your word for it because I haven't seen or used any php die roller scripts, but the amount of computation required for such a bbcode mod would be absolutely trivial (assuming it is written properly). I would expect there to be no perceptible lag even if 1000 people all entered the 'roll' bbcode at once.

Anyway, while I agree that it could be done badly (everything can be done badly), you seem to be inherently resistant to the idea, and nobody else seems attracted by it, so nevermind.

The real problem is that you'd have to disable the edit function for any post with dierolls.

~J

I really saw it more as a convenience thing than an anti-cheating thing.

Although I guess if you were going back in and editing your post and your roll (if that were possible) you'd run the risk of somebody reading your post before (and later after) you've edited it, and catching you out.