This is going to end up being another "opinion" of what the words mean...

Back with HGHTST the majority of traders thought that "comercially available" meant it had to be available commercially, not just provided to the Olympics.

Now with HOTAIR the majorit of traders thought that "design change" meant they had to change the design, not just offer the latest versions of the CPU and HDD.

ejcassel
still refusing to do interpretive English.

it was said (by rabbit) that software wouldn't cut it. Hardware change is a change in the design specs. Whether that's what the prop intended - or not - is moot. The prop said 'change in design' & there was a change in the design. All we can do is make sure that we learn from this occurence and make sure it doesn't happen in future props. "Review that Prop!"

If Popsci is more interested in the letter of the prop than the spirit of the prop, this should pay at $0. There is no such day as November 31, 2008 (I checked my knuckles to make sure), and no changes occurred before this mythical date.

Sour grapes? You bet.

i disagree that there was any change in the design, as generally understood. it is substantially the same laptop case and layout with faster internal bits. anyone who wasn't buying a macbook air before still has the same reasons to not buy a macbook air.

this is the second time a prop has closed recently based on a deliberate malinterpretation of words in the payout clause, and its getting tiresome.

A difference between this one and the last time a stock was closed based on strict interpretation of the payout clause is there was an obvious contradiction between the prop description and the payout clause on PASSCRX - and people were given several days warning of the new interpretation so they could fix their positions.

In this instance, there was no apparent conflict between the payout clause and the description. But the reason for closing it long doesn't address any of the complaints about the airbook mentioned in the description.

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This definitely closed the wrong way.

Let us throw the red flag and demand a review from upstairs.

a month ago taylor already ruled on it

www.popsci.com/content/taylor-hengen?page=1

HDD was upgraded, processor was upgraded, graphics card completely changed from intel to nvidia, the video port changed from micro-dvi to a mini displayport

Exactly, design change is more than adding memory and putting in a new processor, that is just and upgrade. A design change means it looks or does something different in a fundamental way.

Umm, that should have been in the prop.

Ppl shouldn't have to read every forum post to know the rules.

10/16/08 13:14 Delist HOTAIR 1000 100.00 500.00 SUCCESS

Above is my listing in my transaction. I'm trying to figure out the 500.00 part, never noticed that before when a stock closed.

Perhaps discussion relating to each stock should appear on the same page as the description of the stock so it's easier for people to be aware of prior discussion.

The post that had the important information about how this would pay was in a generic thread titled "Taylor Hengen".

I hadn't seen her HOTAIR interpretation. I'm sure many others didn't either as HOTAIR dropped like a rock after the announcement.

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@traderboi: what about PASSCRX? the prop page didn't list anything about the upcoming payout...there wasn't even a thread that said "PASSCRX will pay out long" even though it was planned to pay out long (I was holding that in the right direction so I'm not complaining but I know other people were upset)...and there were no threads in the automotive section about it either

@Kubie: the 500 is what you got back in cash because when it paid out at 100, it took the difference between 100 and what you had available for it. So if you had 52,000 invested in it, and the change was 51,500 to get 100, then you got back 500 (although your net worth would have decreased.

For some reason, the prop page is being treated as sacred and immutable. A note was posted on the seldom-used main PPX page about PASSCRX. A note in the automotive section would have been a wise move as well. I guess we're all learning the hard way.

On PASSCRX I suggested putting it on the home page, the prop page, and in the forums. I also suggested an email to all players who owned the stock, and if that wasn't possible to all players.

As it stands, I don't think we have a way to search the forums for key words unless we happen to load a page that contains them.

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I'm staying out of this one, since I wasn't holding either way. For the record I thought PASSCRX should have closed without warning based on ejcassel's realization of the payout statement being met.

MS: That was one of my improvement ideas. It's in the tech support forum, under improvement ideas.

if yall can get taylor to change it tell me so i can get in on it but i did not own the stock so i did not care

I hate to bring it up but it seems to be awfully quite from Taylor. Please tell me this isn't going to revert to what it was before.

I emailed Taylor this morning and got a reply.

She thinks changing the prop pages is a big no-no - I've followed up on this - don't know if it's a major hassle to accomplish or if they think it's mucking with protoplasm.

If it's a major hassle, we're probably out of luck.

On a positive note, the prop review process she started means we should be able to ensure payout clauses are clearer on new props.

Taylor does have other responsibilities besides keeping in touch with us, and I imagine she can't maintain the level of contact she started out with here.

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dbsquared: I let you guys know last week that I was working on the BOWN site and posted this week that I've been sick-- so that's why it's quiet. Once again, I work on ALL of Popsci.com. There's a lot of content to manage. I of course care about PPX and will not leave you guys hanging, but you need to back off and not assume the worst when things are quiet from me for a few days.

msholdenct-- thanks for your input. Yeah, changing props once they're up is a no-no, but I'm not opposed to adding notes to props-- like if we've determined something in the forums. I also will be updating the PPX news blog much more frequently than it has been. Do me a favor and let me know what info you think needs to be added to what props (I can't change the prop itself or the payout statement but will post notes below) and in the PPX news blog (also the PPX RSS feed).

I'm sorry if you guys felt this closed the wrong way. We do have a lot of props to get through that were established before the review process, but the news props (post-review) have been much more clear, so I think we'll not have this kind of confusion in the future.

Also-- if props should close, email me, and tell me which way, and why. Link me to the info. I AM really busy so if you can cut down on my research/confirmation time, I'll be able to get things closed and paid out more quickly.

Thanks!

Taylor

A lot of people thought it closed the wrong way. Here is a copy of the Top 25 update for today off of PPXChat.com. You'll note that out of 25, 22 had it the other way, 2 had it right, and 1 didn't own it.

Rank Member Worth Change
1 jodeman 11,334,400 (40,800)
2 chrisitux 10,423,900 9,000
3 erick99 9,865,300 (40,750)
4 drow 9,486,450 (41,250)
5 msholdenct 9,308,100 (40,750)
6 scoobytoth 7,903,940 (43,750)
7 RubiconTom 7,835,310 (42,000)
8 wookie1 6,745,000 (40,750)
9 vulgarian 6,212,440 (42,000)
10 chefboiaarni 6,208,520 (40,940)
11 royha3 6,014,700 (49,000)
12 ct711 5,831,480 52,750
13 ejcassel 5,666,380 (40,750)
14 JJACKHINX 5,562,930 (44,750)
15 m_novotny 5,340,340 (49,750)
16 dbsquared 5,148,960 (42,880)
17 mcmurray02 5,142,000 (48,500)
18 billcosby 5,009,800 (45,000)
19 barrt814 4,953,360 (41,250)
20 Kubie 4,917,510 (43,250)
21 Rayman 4,853,190 (48,250)
22 bcollins 4,630,790 (45,950)
23 Dakota 4,542,420 (49,250)
24 keno521 4,370,260 (42,750)
25 Pulchritudinous 4,369,250 54,250

I'm sure the trend continued throughout the active traders. Only those who looked in forum threads titled "Taylor Hengen" for updates on stocks called "HOTAIR" knew better.

ejcassel
(insert appropriate sarcastic tagline here)

Hey ej,

Point taken. Again, I'm sorry for those of you who lost Pop-dollaz on this one. From now on, if we have a debate over wording and make a call on a stock (one that came about before the review process, presumably), I'll make a note of it on the stock page itself, and also announce it via PPX News/RSS feed.

Thanks for your resilience PPXers.

xot

Thank You Taylor!

It was worth the loss in my portfolio to get this fixed.

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