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Here on Mi Yodeya, one can earn the "Fanatic" badge for visiting the site for 100 consecutive days.

Is it halachically possible to earn the fanatic badge in the Diaspora?

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    Move back to main. This is a question about Jewish life and learning (are there 100 UTC days in a row on which m'lacha can be done), albeit worded in a meta way.
    – msh210 ♦
    May 17, 2011 at 20:59
  • @msh210 Is this question relevant in any non-meta context?
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    May 17, 2011 at 21:05
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    @IsaacMoses: If it were worded "Physics.SE has a 'Fanatic' badge for those who visit the site 100 UTC days in a row. Is there an halachic way to earn this badge in the Dispora?" you'd allow it on main, wouldn't you? I mean, that's certainly not meta (on Judaism.SE). I don't see why the present question is worse.
    – msh210 ♦
    May 17, 2011 at 21:22
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    Now we're having a discussion about what belongs in the meta-discussion. . .
    – WAF
    May 17, 2011 at 21:55
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    @WAF meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/meta-meta
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    May 17, 2011 at 21:57

3 Answers 3

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Yes.

The website uses UTC time. Since I live on the west coast in the US, each "website day" starts at 5 PM. Thus, I simply visit the site after 5 PM on Friday, which during the summer months is not yet Shabbos, and then visit again before 5 PM on Sunday. As far as the website is concerned, I just visited on two consecutive days.

The only remaining problem is to find an 100 day stretch without Yom Tov Sheni. For this, the stretch between Shavuos and Rosh Hashana works. Tamuz + Av + Elul = 88 days + remaining days of Sivan = 111 days.

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    To get the 111 day stretch between Shavuot and Rosh HaShanah, you'd have to do it in a year when Tisha b'Av didn't fall out on a Sunday.
    – Chanoch
    May 17, 2011 at 23:28
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    @Chanoch: why? You can't learn Torah on Tish'a B'Av, granted, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with visiting the site and reading some question about things that it's permissible to learn.
    – Alex
    May 18, 2011 at 19:10
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    @Alex, or pop into Meta. On the way, you're likely to go through the main site too...
    – AviD
    May 21, 2011 at 22:15
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Now that we've moved the clocks, I realized that it's possible to do the inverse of @jake's answer from the eastern time zone: shabbat ended this week before 6PM, so if I'd thought of it I could have gotten credit for the day by visiting in that last hour (7PM EST = midnight UTC). Shabbat won't end after 7PM again until March 10, and there are no chagim in that stretch.

Update: I did that.

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Well it's technically possible to write a script (and I'm sure there have been scripts written already), but an important thing to note is that the homepage doesn't count for a visit, as well as "similar pages" (source). [and there may even be more secret algorithms preventing something like that]

Of course, we would then have to analyze whether this would actually be permitted, and not some form of lying/stealing.

And, Computer working on Shabbos might apply here...

There's a nice looking calendar that you can access on your profile page (click on "x days" next to visited). Mine looks like:

visit calendar

No surprise there...

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    also, it might be maris ayin
    – Ariel K
    May 18, 2011 at 4:52

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