Iron Noder 2009: The Results
That's it! Here we are, at the end of thirty days, hopefully without major mishap or altercation. Finally, a chance to relax and massage those tired fingers, perhaps even to ply them at a more lucid trade, such as whittling or perhaps petting kittens. I'm not going to judge.

THE ÜBERNODER: The most writeups posted
Reward: 2000 GP (plus 2200 more for 55 total nodes), bragging rights, and a complimentary set of bath soaps

  1. Glowing Fish
Glowing Fish completely stomped the quest, reaching the required thirty writeups in a mere week. After that, he spent the remaining 23 days writing only one writeup per day, instead of the maniacal four-per-day he maintained previously. ♫ He's just a node machine, noding don't work for nobody but you...

THE IRON NODERS: 30+ writeups
Reward: 2000 GP (plus 1200 more for 30+ nodes) and a commemorative coin, not available through regular U.S. mints

  1. lizardinlaw - 38
  2. Rancid_Pickle - 33
  3. Pandeism Fish - 32
  4. rootbeer277 - 31
  5. cassparadox - 30
  6. filoraene - 30
  7. Sc0ut - 30
  8. tentative - 30
  9. The Custodian - 30
  10. webmaren - 30
Almost everyone here maintained a fairly steady pace, save for webmaren who busted out the last required 6 on the last day within about a four hour period, right up until the deadline. Special kudos to both webmaren for and especially Sc0ut, who had both registered a new account less than a month prior to the start of the quest.

THE BRONZE NODERS: 25-29 writeups
Surprisingly, no one's here. Everyone who made it to at least 21 writeups pushed through and made it to the top!

THE TIN CAN NODERS: 15-24 writeups
Reward: 200 GP for every five writeups submitted and a charming porcelain plate depicting Webster 1913 at work and play

  1. hapax - 20
  2. Demeter - 19
  3. Morwen - 15
This trio kept an above-average pace: at least one writeup every two days, representing a definite increase in frequency. Nothing to sneeze at here, no sir.

THE ALUMINUM FOIL NODERS: 5-14 writeups
Reward: 200 GP for every five writeups submitted and a chocolate bar of your choice that is almost but not quite past expiration

  1. winston_farsoul - 14
  2. Rapscallion - 10
  3. Woodnot - 10
  4. Wuukiee - 8
  5. dee lee - 7
  6. eien_meru - 7
  7. GhettoAardvark - 6
  8. randyactionpants - 6
  9. alex - 5
  10. ChimbleySweep - 5
  11. snapdragonfly - 5
Everyone in this group posted at least enough nodes to qualify for the minimum prize! In some cases it was almost enough to gain a level. Good job, and hopefully we can improve on this next year!

THE CLINGFILM NODERS: 1-4 writeups
Reward: 100 GP, a firm handshake and a broad sweeping gesture of inclusion

  1. syntaxfree - 4
  2. Aerobe - 3
  3. RedOmega - 3
  4. tricia mcmillan - 3
  5. blackphoenix - 2
  6. Mathlete - 2
  7. RPGeek - 2
  8. wertperch - 2
  9. DiscoStan - 1
  10. gnarl - 1
Real life is sort of a bastard sometimes, innit? Ah well. A node posted is a nodegel improved, I always (that is, just now) say. In some cases, the quest was enough to bring back a few of our more inactive veterans, and to them: it's good to have you back.

THE WET NEWSPAPER NODERS: 0 writeups
Reward: An nod of recognition combined with a wry twist of the lips

  1. Corcis
  2. Spiketail the Runner
These are the noders who tried but didn't quite make it out of the gate, due to other circumstances. Hopefully the quest gave them ideas for contribution later, and hopefully they won't wait until the next quest to do it!

Statistics!
37 noders signed up, with one leaving without any notice mid-quest. A grand total of 529 IRON NODES remained at 11:59 GMT November 30, 2009. Around 754 nodes were posted during the entire month, meaning that 70% of this month's nodes came from just IRON NODER participants. Like last year, once a noder hit a given watershed of about 20 nodes, they pushed on to a full 30 rather than remain under.

The writeup with the most Chings was banana proof of the existence of God with a rather round 8 total C!s, followed by volcano full of starving bears, with 7 C!s and the inspiration for my new band name.

Just like last year, anyone who at least signed up gets a "Great Hustle" participation bonus of 100 GP, even if they didn't manage to post anything. Expect to see a few more chings and XP and GP bonuses as some of us trawl through that humongous list for stuff we didn't manage to read yet.

Thanks, and see you again next year!

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