Written, not posted, and the reason is a fact about the world rather than about the writing.
the demo and the number
Two kinds of contest, two ways to lose. A hackathon rewards a demo and a story. A leaderboard rewards a number and does not care who you are. They are not the same game, and the difference is the most useful thing either taught me.
essay · 855 words · 28 August 2026 · not posted
Four of its numbers went stale while it sat. It cites a score ladder topping at 58.05, a leader at 138.25 and a gap of 2.4x. Checked against the live public leaderboard on 28 Aug: the real figures are 68.535, 147.530 and 2.15x. Anyone can falsify it in ten seconds, and the piece argues for not trusting a number that went up. It goes back when it is regenerated from a run rather than hand-edited.
was the competition faulty
I lost a leaderboard competition and went looking for whether the competition itself was broken. It was not, and finding that out was the useful part.
essay · 1,729 words · 28 August 2026 · not posted
Its central number is a leaderboard score. The two submissions this hold originally named have since completed at 7.570 and 61.695, neither near the 68.535 the piece cites, so the reason it was written for expired without anyone noticing. Re-pointed on 28 Aug rather than lifted: three newer submissions are still pending and this hold had never heard of them. A hold whose reason has quietly expired is the one nobody re-reads.