Verified random draw

[nyan]

For a future thread I would like to a be able to post a link that will generate a random number that people can see but not until after the poll closes. Basically I want to make a poll with three options, and randomly choose one as the winner after people vote in a way that doesn't allow me the opportunity to cheat by just making up a number or doing a bunch of draws and only posting the one I like.

[KittenLicks]

So you want to randomly choose a number, then have that number hidden until a certain time, where you want to reveal it to everyone? Basically the equivalent of writing a number on a piece of paper and placing it face down until the end?

Or are you just looking for some way to roll a dice at the end, while proving you only rolled once?

Sorry, I can think of a bunch of things, but I don't entirely understand what you're trying to do.

[nyan]

Or are you just looking for some way to roll a dice at the end, while proving you only rolled once?

That one is what I'm looking for.

[KittenLicks]

Originally Posted by nyan

That one is what I'm looking for.

I don't think a site is going to work as an answer here. You could in theory just make accounts until you get the result you want, no matter the site.

The obvious solution is, well, just find an unrelated person that will roll the dice for you. That's basically what a site would be doing, just not as well.

You could base the result on the time the poll reaches X amount somehow.

You could pick/roll a number before starting. Write that into a gd blog entry then delete the blog entry. Undelete it after the poll, and people will be able to see it was posted at X date, and the fact that it's unedited should be proof you didn't change it.

The fourth way is to just let people trust you were honest about it, honestly. c:

The most practical is the first one, and there's no real way to cheat it, so it's just the best option. ^^

[kamita721]

The powerball has a drawing twice a week. You could also use the closing values of the S&P 500 (or any other public stock/fund).

[tomikali]

Randomresult.com does this. You can schedule a draw / dice roll / coin toss and publish the link for it before the scheduled time.

Play-link.com does the same but has fewer options. The draw time has to be given as "minutes from now", so if you want to publish the link a couple of days in advance, you need to do some math.