@bl002e said:

@Shmendrick said:

I have to say, the blog won by cheating. That wasn't a hint. It was an obstacle. Throwing people off in a further direction than they would have guessed without any hint at all.

I did specify that the hint was not straightforward to keep people from focusing solely on the year 2000, and a commenter even posted the MJM # that should have led at least one person to 1996. Call it what you will, but I think classifying a cryptic hint as "cheating" is a tad harsh.

@bl002e: I agree with you. You did not cheat at all. In retrospect, we're dumb for not thinking MJM96 hurr durr 1996, especially after someone figured out that much. In fact, I got to the point where I was thinking of shit like well 12*12 = 144 but also 9*16 = 144, and 6*16 = 96, so it should be 6/16/XX or 9/16/XX when in reality there was no multiplication necessary. Keep up the good work dude, you're killing it as MJM host, and I for one love the challenge -- and I think most others do too, even though it drives me crazy and even though I spent three hours searching this week... and I have a full time job and a wife and three kids so those three hours should have been spent doing something other than scouring PhishTracks. I guess next week I'll have to spend 6 hours searching so that I can win two LP freebies!