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I just received an email from a forum member who will go unnamed, letting me know that there's been some discussion about how "random" the RNG really is. To trim a quote from that email, punctuation and placement edited to maintain anonymity... == With this in mind, I want to jump in and address it right now - first by showing our track record. Winners from the past 13 months: Dominic Juliano 4/5/11 #122 Rocky Freed 3/1/11 #639 Bill Hayes 2/10/11 #272 Komuro-san 1/25/11 #448 Joanna Chen 12/27/10 #790 James Rodriguez 11/25/10 #638 Brad Bixby 10/15/10 #574 Terry Ashenfelter 9/10/10 #631 Steve Tisch 8/5/10 #593 Dale Ray 6/30/10 #643 Stuart Forsythe 6/25/10 #584 Wayne Fu 6/20/10 #98 Steve Thorsen 6/15/10 #619 Bob Matteo 5/1/10 #94 Walt Ellis 3/18/10 #478 Not ONE do I have any personal ties with, no repeats, no weighting towards those who donate separately or how long they've been a subscriber.. Additionally, nearly half the list I've never met, or only met once or twice. Said with all love and respect, there are a lot of "unknowns" there - as I understand the reference I quoted above. == We use this RNG (random number generator) - http://www.random.org/sequences/ == We leave the starting number at 1 and enter the highest (most recent) subscriber number for the largest value: == Then we hit "Get Sequence" and get a list that looks like this... == In the shown examples, the list has 847 numbers (all the subscriber #'s we've ever issued), from 1 to 847, in random order. We start with the top number and look it up in our database, if it's an active number, we award the prize to that person. If that first number is expired, i.e. no longer a subscriber (over 400 numbers are currently dead), we move down to the next number on the list, and so on. Because so many numbers are no longer active, we sometimes we have to go through a dozen number or more to reach one that is currently active. == We don't have any preference as to who wins, none at all... After the fact, our only "bonus" is if it's someone who really needed that kite to fill a gap in their bag, or if they're overjoyed enough to post on the forum about it. Those in the know understand who I am, the essentials of why I do what I do, and the ethic with which I conduct my business. To the rest of you... Come fly with me anytime, let's talk, I'll answer anything you want to know, anytime. Regards! Feel free to add further inquires and challenges here.