Whew! I'm back after a couple of days without power due to the latest hurricane. It seems I didn't miss too much, other than a few handfuls of sand. Never thought I'd actually be grateful for all the wait time in this plot.
I was last here for the discovery of the gift shop.
Could a mod please, please add the gift shop to the first post? I've just finished speed-reading through the splits from when I left till now and people keep announcing it over and over.
I didn't notice anything new in the posts since then, other than the debates about whether or not sand removal is time based or hit based, and whether or not we will be rewarded based on how much sand we collected.
My tiny opinion is that the "rewards" found while digging sand are most likely the only reward we will get for it. Similar to the fruit machine - you can't win if you don't dig and most of the time you'll get nothing (except sand), but you might luck up and hit the big pay out (LDPB.) As far as whether or not it's hit based, I first thought it very similar to the Tombola guy running out of nps and asking for donations. But, if that were the case, wouldn't it mean the release of the next clue or comic would depend entirely upon how much sand and stones we remove, and how fast?
I found the posts about the items being found on certain seconds after the minute very interesting. I don't suppose anyone who has gotten a LDPB knows what second they refreshed on? Has anyone else tried testing that theory, by digging at 10 seconds after or whatever?