Counting

Counting (#counting) is a channel in the Highly Trained Monkeys Discord server. It is operated by a counting bot that allows users to count up by 1 and attempt to reach the highest possible number without failing. When someone inputs the wrong number, or counts twice in a row, the count is reset back to 1, unless that person or the server has saves. Over the course of its life, the channel has spawned several sidethreads, featuring various other forms of counting.

Purpose
The channel is meant for counting numbers. Every person can increase the count by 1 by typing the next number. However, a person cannot count twice in a row, meaning that getting high counts requires teamwork. As well as that, there are strict punishments for typing a wrong number. If an incorrect number is typed, and there are no saves to be used, the count resets back to 1. This can make even simple errors fatal.

Saves
Saves can be used to make mistakes without resetting the count. They can be acquired by voting for the counting bot on one of two sites. 0.5 saves can be earned every 12 hours, and every person can only hold up to three saves at once. As well as that, there are guild saves, which are worth 5 normal saves each, and belong to the server. When a person makes a mistake and they don't have any saves, a guild save will be used instead, if there is one. There can only be two guild saves in a server at once.

Syntax
The syntax of the counting is very strict. The number has to be at the beginning of a message, and separated from the rest of the message by a space. This means that "1 hello" is a valid count, but "1hello" or "hello 1" aren't.

Rudimentary math can be used in counting. This includes:


 * Addition: 1+1 is interpreted as 2
 * Subtraction: 4-1 is interpreted as 3
 * Multiplication: 3*2 is interpreted as 6
 * Division: 8/2 is interpreted as 4 (note that the answer will be rounded)
 * Bitwise XOR: 4^2 is interpreted as 6, because 100 XOR 010 = 110 = 6

When doing math, it is important to not include any whitespace in the math, because that is considered the end of the number. (2+2 is valid, 2 + 2 is not)

Sidethreads
The counting channel has spawned various sidethreads featuring different forms of counting.

Beenary
Binary, except 0 is replaced with "movie" and 1 is replaced with "bee". Digit separators are used every 4 digits, and are represented with a capital letter.

Binary
Normal base 2 counting.

Permutations (Timeline 2)
Counting the permutations of numbers 1 to n, increasing n by 1 when the last permutation is reached.

Hexadecimal
Counting in base 16.

ABC permutations
Like permutations, but the numbers are replaced with letters.

Word counting
Normal counting, except the numbers are written out with words.

Alphabet
Counting in base 26 with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet.

Records
One of the first records reached was on November 22, 2020, when Sselia reached a count of 1157 before another user ruined the count. After that, another record was reached on April 15, 2021, when Vulpez reached a count of 2483, before being ruined by Sselia. Shortly after that, a counting chain was started that lasted for over a year, before Zomg reached a new record of 11,562. At that time, the saves had run out due to careless counting, so Madilynn suggested that no one count until a stable save count has been reached. Several people elected to ignore the suggestion, which led to Monkey Kid ruining the count on July 20, 2022.