xroule needs to take a Chill Pill--maybe smile once in a while there ya go i did it for you--maybe look in the mirror before you criticize others--I wasnt going to let you catch me in points anyhoo

I think xroule said IBM is the most corrupt company he knew? Someone forgot about the U.S. Government. :)

Doctor Mike

Wow! There's not been this much activity here in longer than I can remember! This is not a bad thing.

I haven't seen anything that I have a problem with or see as potetially problematic so far. Thank you. Let's be mindful of that however. Keep in mind that the forums are really here for WCG-related stuff - in the end anyway. It could get boring and dull though if everything had to be WCG-related only so we have some leeway. If you think about it though, you're not gonna go viral or make the news with any posts here. Serious discussion of a lot of WCG-unrelated topics could be much more effective in plenty of other places. I have no problem with folks talking about stuff that's off-topic if you keep it civil, respectful and polite. This is WCG's sandbox though no matter how anyone wants to looks at it and they make the rules. Now we are all free to go play elsewhere if we don't like their rules but when push comes to shove, that's really how it is. No one was ever promised that life would be fair and it isn't. If it was, there would be no need for the work done here at WCG.

Okay, I'm done with the proactive, team-captain-hat-wearing part of my post. I'm taking off the hat for the moment and throwing in my two cents worth (and I'm probably still over-valuing it at that). First, don't attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. That's what makes the conspiracy folks so entertaining for me. They really want to believe so emphatically in malice - but it's so often just gross stupidity to blame. Most corporations, and virtually all publicly owned one, are all equally good and bad. Think about about it. The grunts in the trenches do all the work. The first level of management are the designated scapegoats who get assigned blame when things go wrong. If things go really, really right, they might get some praise. The various layers of management above them work to ensure the grunts work on the work that they have been told really matters (whether it really does or not) based on the strategy set by the executives. The executives set strategy with the consent of the directors. If the results of said strategy are good (ie, EPS goes up and so does the stock), the executives get richly rewarded and get to keep their jobs. If the results are not good, said executives don't and they get to live off of what is left of their past rich rewards unless they get lucky and find another group of directors who want to give them another job but that usually takes at least a year and, if you have to wait longer than that, plan on waiting a very long time. Now the directors aren't the top dogs. They have to answer to the stockholders. Just because you own a few dozen shares of stock though doesn't mean you really matter as a stockholder. You're unhappy about something? So! What are you going to do about it? What CAN you do about it? Now if you own a lot of shares, you matter. Why? Well, you can potentially cause trouble. You could start a proxy fight or get yourself labelled an 'activist' if you want to get extreme about it. It's a lot easier to express some concern about the company or start selling off some noticably large chunk of the shares you own. That tends to get noticed by other large stockholders and can push down the stock price. Stock price going down is the worst kind of results and tends to make lots of people very unhappy. Lots of effort gets put into figuring out how to get the stock price back up. Most of the time, all of this makes very little sense to ordinary folks like you and me. To these folks, it makes perfect sense. They are doing what their job is. The same is true for those of us that are grunts. We are doing what our job is - doing what we are told and never making our boss look bad - even when it makes no sense to us. In the end, we all get paid in widely varying degrees and we use this to continue living ( yes, I am excluding off-griders who practice subsistence survival ). For government, it's just a variation on this theme.

So, if you want to see some evil intent or great plot, you are really, really optimistic about the human race. I mean you really think all those people that are in on it are really that smart that they can go years and years without messing something up? That not a single one of those in on it are going to ever let their ego get the better of them and get too greedy? In a way, it would be nice if the human race was really that smart, that capable. Sadly, we aren't. Yea, I've gotten crotchety in my dotage. See what you have to look forward to! Lord knows where my mind can wander these days. Frankly, I'm not really sure where all I've gone with all this but it's kept my hands busy, my alledged mind occupied and given my "smartphone" a chance to recharge so I guess that makes it a good post. So ends my two cents worth (and yes, it is very likely over-valued).

EDIT: I'd claim this was all tongue-in-cheek but I'd just end up biting my tongue.

MyOnlineTeam Daily Statistics for 04/07 - All Members:

Team rank movement report
=========================

                              Prior                New         Current
Member name                   Rank      Change     Rank        Points
=========================     =====     ======     =====     ===========
Vialls                          115         -1       116         628,062
- dc                            116         +1       115         629,224

Points milestones report
========================
cht! reached 72,000,000 points

Runtime milestones report
=========================
No runtime milestones found.

Results returned milestones report
==================================
No results returned milestones found.

New members report
==================
No new members found.

Retired members report
======================
No new retired members found.

For the week as a team:

Statistics  Total Run Time  Points     Results

Date         (y:d:h:m:s)    Earned     Returned
04/07/2018  0:257:15:02:52  1,043,945  1,879
04/06/2018  0:254:05:13:04    997,305  1,768
04/05/2018  0:243:03:25:37    952,153  1,791
04/04/2018  0:249:23:18:00    967,809  1,771
04/03/2018  0:272:00:43:03  1,063,509  2,001
04/02/2018  0:223:00:04:28    902,355  1,676
04/01/2018  0:220:14:12:46    915,087  1,698

Team Records:
Results Returned: 09/09/2017 11,542
Points: 01/06/2013 3,311,422
Runtime: 04/05/2012 1:197:18:06:42

Team Streaks:

- Streak begins
- Streak continues
- Streak ends

Results Returned:
-Over  1,000: 262 days 
-Over  2,000:   0 days - ended 04-APR-18
-Over  3,000:   0 days - ended 03-JAN-18
-Over  4,000:   0 days - ended 08-NOV-17
-Over  5,000:   0 days - ended 18-SEP-17
-Over  6,000:   0 days - ended 18-SEP-17
-Over  7,000:   0 days - ended 18-SEP-17
-Over  8,000:   0 days - ended 17-SEP-17
-Over  9,000:   0 days - ended 17-SEP-17
-Over 10,000:   0 days - ended 17-SEP-17
-Over 11,000:   0 days - ended 17-SEP-17

Points:
-Over   250,000: 286 days 
-Over   500,000: 262 days 
-Over   750,000:  33 days 
-Over 1,000,000:   1 days 
-Over 1,250,000:   0 days - ended 03-JAN-18
-Over 1,500,000:   0 days - ended 10-MAY-17
-Over 1,750,000:   0 days - ended 01-AUG-16
-Over 2,000,000:   0 days - ended 01-AUG-16
-Over 2,250,000:   0 days - ended 21-JUL-16
-Over 2,500,000:   0 days - ended 15-JUL-16
-Over 2,750,000:   0 days - ended 14-JUL-16
-Over 3,000,000:   0 days - ended 09-JUL-16
-Over 3,250,000:   0 days - ended 24-JAN-13

Runtime:
-Over          90 days: 286 days 
-Over         180 days:  33 days 
-Over         270 days:   0 days - ended 04-APR-18
-Over         365 days:   0 days - ended 15-FEB-17
-Over 1 year,  90 days:   0 days - ended 01-AUG-16
-Over 1 year, 180 days:   0 days - ended 21-JUL-16

Good crunching folks!!!!!

................................CONGRATULATIONS cht! ON REACHING 72,000,000 MOT POINTS !!!................................