From MilesR (and Millsy): Spreadsheet Shenanigans

 

It was brought to both my and Millsy's attention that there was a recent problem with the spreadsheet, where some submissions were not showing up in the summary score table.

At first, I thought this was a major evolutionary moment - that our beloved spreadsheet had become self-aware and was making editorial decisions on what really should count as fully painted.  Sadly, after reviewing all of the omitted submissions, I found they were all superbly done - so we had not achieved self awareness.  Obviously, that was devastating news and both Millsy and I needed a few moments to regain our composure.

Soon we were back on the trail - what diabolical person would damage the Holy Spreadsheet.  Surely no one would stoop so low as to impeded the righteous calculation of the Challenges statistics.  Like any good police procedural TV show, went gathered our list of usual suspect to interrogate to find out who the fiend really is.  In this case, its a rather short list of one individual but in the interests of privacy I will not mention Ray R's name.

After hours of exhaustive questioning, suspect "R" seemed to have an ironclad alibi - he was claiming to be "Gaming at Posties" and since Postie is famous for no internet connections there was no way to verify his claim.

Millsy and I had no choice but to now look at the actual programing and we shockingly discovered that Google was yet again conspiring against the challenge.  I think we can all remember the infamous "100 blog writer cap" drama from Challenge XII.  Yes we had finally found the culprit in that google sheets automatically changes a field range when you edit a pivot table to refer to it elsewhere in a spreadsheet.  Fear not, after discovering this diabolical plot, Millsy and I bravely waded into the code and set things to right.  In doing so the picture of my dog, Gus, which used to grace the summary table was lost.  It was a terrible price to pay but we were up against a diabolical foe who had to be stopped at any cost.

With the spreadsheet rescued, Millsy and I took a break and started to write up our triple time invoice to send to Curt for consulting services on Christmas day.  Still in the back of our minds was a suspicion that Google couldn't have acted alone.  Yes, they were too precise, they knew too much.  There had to be a "Inside-Man" a turncoat, if you will.  As this terrifying revelation gained clarity in our minds, all eyes turned back to the file of Suspect R - there had to be some evidence we can find.   This crime must be punished and it shall be.

Well, I can't tarry any longer here - THE GAME IS AFOOT!