Amusement

[seedee]

Maybe it's the Christmas time, but the free e-gift thing really cheered me up (thanks to all again). Now there are shouts of rage because the notification system has been down for two days. I'm sort of amused and am waiting for the shouts of ENORMOUS rage when mail boxes will start to be filled with the notification emails.



A little number game:
My f-list consists of 48 people (which - counting by fandom standard - is pretty low). A darling little script told me that my f-list received 410 gifts. That are 410 emails in my inbox.

Now lets look at someone with a big f-list and see how many emails just ONE popular journal generates (here I'm talking about sending, not receiving). I have two examples (I picked very popular journals; you can repeat the game with the person of your choice.)

Person 1 received 56 gifts and an f-list of 1201 people. Gift-notifications are opt-out. Let's say that 10% opted out (I think that is very generous, but bear with me). 1081 people are left. Multiplication of doom:
1081*56= 60,536 emails, generated by one single person.

Person 2 received 112 gifts and an f-list of 2738 people. If we subtract 10%, we're still at 2464. That means:
2464*112= 275,990 emails, generated by one. single. person.

The beauty of it is that those emails are already in the queue. There's no opting-out now, because it's not an option that works backwards. All the emails will be delivered in the upcoming hours (I strongly suggest using email filters to direct them directly to the trash). I'm curious to see whether one or several of the big providers will put lj on their spam list.

I'm hard pressed to believe that the glitch in the notification system has nothing to do with the free gift. I'm not even trying to attempt to estimate the total number of generated emails, but it must be insane.

And for some reason, I'm very amused about the whole story.

Did I say yet that I really loved the gifts?

Love to everyone :D

P.S. I have clearly too much time on my hands at the moment.


EDIT: So it turns out that I was right *preens*. LJ admitted that the free gift broke the notifications. Probably also because one of the big coms decided to send an avalanche of snowflakes to one of their members. 15000 gifts * 193 friends = 2.9 million emails (minus those who unchecked The Box)

Comments

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

I'm munching ginger chocolate.

Are you still humming Christmas songs? Cause you should keep doing that if you aren't one of the lucky ten percent who opted out of getting gift notifications. :D

[anise-anise.livejournal.com]

I didn't opt out of anything, but I only got a few gifts, so... you do know it's too early in the morning here to talk about percentages and such. I'm doing maths with the kidlet right now and having issues because I keep almost drooling on his textbook. *sigh* No xmas music yet today, but it's early.

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

Well.. A quick look at your f-list and one half-arsed guess leads me to the assumption that you're going to get at least 700 emails.

Hugs you tight. We'll get through it together.

[anise-anise.livejournal.com]

Really? Cause I'm only getting sprinkles of comments from the last few days. I think I must be opted out of what you speak of then, cause it ain't happening.

Ok, so yes, an xmas song didn't wiggle it's way into my head. Silent night. In German, though, so Stille nacht, rather. *hangs head in shame* It apparently is worse when I do housework. I hummed all the way through emptying the dishwasher. Help!!!!

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

Awww. My email is filled with love.

Aaaaaaales schlääääft, einsam waaaacht. *warbles*
I'm so not helping; I'm a sucker for Christmas songs. And how come you never mentioned that you speak German?

[anise-anise.livejournal.com]

*grumbles*

I don't. I can say I love you in German. I can say 'what is this' in German, and in 8th grade I did a solo in front of my entire middle school and the song was Stille Nacht. Beyond that, I know very very little of German and often strugle to speak English properly.

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

That's only fair. I always struggle to speak English properly.

Also, I see that your Christmas song affection began early :D You love them. Admit it.

[anise-anise.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, don't all kids love them? My grinchiness only sprouted when I got older. In the last ten years or so, actually. I am getting grumpy in my old age.

[thimble-kiss.livejournal.com]

By amazing coincidence, I'm eating ginger chocolate, too. Green & Black organic dark chocolate om nom nom. :D

I'm not sure I understand your equation – does one get notifications about virtual gifts to one's flist then? Because I don't think I do. Hmm.

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

Ginger chocolate is awesome.

The default setting of a journal is that you get notifications whenever someone on your f-list receives a gift. You can opt out, though, it's in the account settings.

http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/?cat=notifications here under 'Friends and Communities' there's a ticky box.

I might have to rethink my 10%, though, if already two people opted out. I have only counted on 5 of my friends doing this. I thought the 10% were generous. Hmmm. *thinks thinky thoughts*

[thimble-kiss.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd unchecked that but I'd forgotten that was a default setting – 'tis a bit odd when you think of it, sounds more like something that should be opt-in than opt-out. Maybe it will become opt-in after this. ;)

*hangs on while you think*

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

Probably LJ thought that if people see that others get gifts, they want to send some of their own. Hence, it's opt out. They didn't think of an accidentally free gift that would spiral into happy love trading. I'm guessing that someone got a stern talking to.

Your icon reminds me of a comic strip that I pinned to my fridge. I'll have to scan that and send it to you. nods.

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

Here. It's a bit blurry, but I think it's still recognisable. I love it so much.

[thimble-kiss.livejournal.com]

Awwwww hahaha, poor Santa Claus! I'm sure it was all the big suit! ;)

(Of course I didn't get notification about this until this morning either. :P )

[vanseedee.livejournal.com]

Mine are still a bit delayed, too. I got this one about three hours after posting. But it seems like it's getting back on track. WOOT!