I have to admit to being a bit excited as the number of subscribers here approaches the 50,000 mark—the size of a respectable American town. We’re nearly there, and perhaps by fall we’ll reach the mark that will make me a happy man:
800 to go!
July 23, 2017 • 8:00 am
I just sent the word out to a friend who should be following you! Yes, “should” is the operative word here!
I didn’t realize that size is the criteria for defining a respectable American town. 😉
Let’s just say, respectable dying town.
Obviously, no rational person would sign up right now. They would try to become subscriber number 50,000.
Possibly number 50,000 should get a prize, maybe a toaster or better yet, one of those electric kettles that very few have in the U.S.
I might unsubscribe just to be no. 50000. I really want that toaster/electric kettle.
I do want to offer a prize, but not sure how I’ll know which person is exactly number 50,000. Some people sign up when I’m asleep or not around.
Could you not just post your daily itinerary for the next couple of weeks, hour-by-hour, and with the times adjusted according to each time-zone on the planet? There’s a rumour you’re giving away a kettle you see, and I really want it.
😉
Is he supposed to include his bathroom breaks in that itinerary?
I’m holding out for Russell’s teapot.
Since you’ve handed admin-level keys to at least two others in the GMT/ CET time zone, I assume that they can see the sign-up details too? Worth checking.
With an additional (temporary?) admin at around GMT+9 time zone (Hawaii, land of the fruit flies ; Australia/ New Zealand, lands of the evolutionary outliers) you’d be pretty well covered for 24×7 monitoring.
If there wasn’t an easier way of doing it.
Do the WP admin options include setting signups to require moderation? If so, then your inbox should give you the sequence pretty accurately, without requiring you to be online constantly.
I estimate you’ve got a bit less than a month to go, so there is time to experiment.
I read the site pretty much every day – occasionally life intervenes and there is a slight backlog, but I have never needed more incoming email to remind me to visit 🙂
The UK also has the advantage of being 6 hours ahead, so all those early morning posts fall nicely for the lunchtime break for tea and tiffin.
Between second breakfast and elevensies?
So what is the secret to your success?
I check WEIT regularly, so have never felt a need to sign up, but I tried to anyway because the 50,000 goal seems meaningful to you. However, I never got an email notification and when I try to notify WordPress and type in my email address again, I get a message that says, “We were unable to fetch your activation record. Are you sure you specified the email address you signed up with?” I’ve tried signing up several times and have had the same result. I still check in daily, so it won’t affect my access to your posts, but I thought you might want to know in case other people are experiencing the same glitch.
Come to think of it, when I’ve checked the “Notify me of new comments via email” box I’ve never received notifications, even though I’ve seen new comments when I go to the web site.
Check your junk email folder. Your email supplier may have decided that it was all junk.
I’ve done that. I had the same problem trying to subscribe to Zippy the Pinhead. I contacted yahoo and they contacted their people but no one seemed to be able to figure it out.
Signed up for Gmail and then try it from there
Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m not going to open a new email account just for one item per day. I’ll live with things as they are and continue to keep checking open. I have a tab that is always open to WEIT, so I’m unlikely to miss anything. Email notifications or not, my day wouldn’t be complete without this site!
Oops! I meant to say “I’ll keep checking PCC’s website”! I’m barely functional until I’ve had that morning cup of coffee!
Wahooo!
I have read this site for years. Daily. Never miss. So I decided to make myself official and signed up. Then I began to get daily email notices. I requested that no more be sent. Then I began to wonder if that also unsubscribed me. So I do not know my current status. An insider? Or just a lonely outsider looking in. Sigh.
I am not certain, but I think saying “do not send emails” may unsubscribe you.
I hope we all have showered for the event 50,000 in our hosts’ lounge could be a little on the…
pungent side.
I have a suggestion, since it would be hard to determine the exact subscriber, perhaps the prize could go to the best comment of the day to mark the event.
Jorge Luis Borges would say that you worhip the decimal system. However, I am happy to be among the 50,000.
worship
Professor Ceiling Cat does not admit it, but once he achieves “50k-nirvanah”, he’ll start hankering for “65536-nirvanah” (aka “2^16-nirvanah”).
Cantor had the same problem with infinities. Once he got one, an infinite bus load of others came along and camped in his mental hotel.
50,000 – round number
50,069 – 11 + 22 + 33 + 44 + 55 + 66
50,400 – highly composite number[1]
50,625 – 154, smallest fourth power that can be expressed as the sum of only five distinct fourth powers, palindromic in base 14 (1464114)
50,653 – 373, palindromic in base 6 (10303016)
51,076 – 2262, palindromic in base 15 (1020115)
51,641 – Markov number[2]
51,984 – 2282 = 373 + 113. the smallest square to the sum of only five distinct fourth powers.
52,375 – address of the office building in the Counter-Strike map
52,408 – 3-smooth number
52,633 – Carmichael number[3]
53,016 – pentagonal pyramidal number
53,361 – sum of the cubes of the first 21 positive integers
54,205 – Zeisel number[4]
54,748 – narcissistic number[5]
54,872 – 383, palindromic in base 9 (832389)