Changes and corrections

Random Student Selector · Two classes shared one called list.

Before

One called list per browser: a name in both classes was struck through in both, and finishing a round in one class reset the other

Now

An optional Class box; each class name keeps its own roster and its own called list (no name behaves as before)

Options on every tool · Option settings were forgotten on reload, though the no-repeat and pairing memories behind them were kept.

Before

“No repeats”, “Avoid repeat pairs”, counts, filters and other options went back to their defaults whenever the page loaded

Now

Options are saved in this browser like the list; a share link’s options still win. Seeds are deliberately not saved, so a forgotten seed cannot make every later draw identical

Raffle / Giveaway Drawer · A number after a comma, colon or semicolon was read as a ticket count.

Before

“Maria Lopez, 412” meant 412 tickets for Maria Lopez

Now

Only “x” and a whole number at the end of a line is a count (“Maria Lopez x3”); “Maria Lopez, 412” is one ticket under that name. A fractional count gets a message; “x0” leaves the line out

Fair Division Tool · Leftover items always went to the people typed first.

Before

Seventeen items for four people: the first person typed always got five

Now

People are dealt to in a shuffled order each time, so each of the four has a 1-in-4 chance of the fifth item; shares are still listed in typed order

Two-List Random Matcher · A shorter List B was reused by position, and the page did not say so.

Before

One shuffle of B repeated in place: with three in B, A’s 1st and 4th entries always shared a match; uneven lists gave no notice

Now

B is reshuffled each time it runs out, so every B item is used once before any is used twice and who shares is random; a note under the result reports reuse or lists unused B items. Seeded results with a shorter B differ from before

Random Dice Roller · The modifier was not held to the −100 to 100 the input shows.

Before

Any number added (and 2.5 silently became 2)

Now

Whole numbers from −100 to 100; anything else gets a message instead of a roll

Random D&D NPC Generator · The URL said “encounter” though the tool only makes NPCs.

Before

/tools/dnd-encounter

Now

/tools/dnd-npc-generator, with a permanent redirect from the old address; saved results carry over. A character-generator FAQ that pointed to a “D&D encounter generator” now describes the NPC generator

Bingo caller · Card and voice settings were forgotten on reload (the game mode was already kept).

Now

Speak number, card type and number of cards are remembered

Why the 52-week savings challenge punishes December · An unsourced claim about drop-off.

Before

“Surveys and anecdotal reports … consistently point to” momentum then drop-off, and “most people have already quit”

Now

Removed; replaced with the chart’s own arithmetic: weeks 40–52 hold $598 of $1,378 (43%), the first thirteen weeks $91

Dividing things when the numbers don’t come out even · Rewritten for the fair division fix.

Before

“The leftover always lands at the top of your list”; shuffle your people list first

Now

Who gets the leftover is drawn too, with the old behaviour noted

Matching two lists fairly · Updated for the two-list matcher fix.

Before

The fifth and sixth person get the first and second items of the shuffled B again

Now

B is reshuffled when it runs out; reuse is random and reported under the result

Running a fair raffle · Updated for the raffle fix.

Before

“Carla, 8” and “Carla x8” mean the same thing

Now

Only “x8” is a count; “Carla, 8” is one ticket

A charity raffle from ticket stubs to the prize table · Updated for the raffle fix, and a stale sentence corrected.

Before

“Maria Lopez, 412” is 412 tickets; only the first line matching a winner is removed

Now

It is one ticket; every line with the winner’s exact text is removed (fixed on 12 October), so a household split across differently worded lines can win twice

One class list, a whole term · Several classes on one computer.

Before

One called list per browser; use a separate browser profile per class

Now

Name each class in the Class box

Format fatigue (retros) and the kindness challenge · No-repeat checkboxes.

Before

The box resets on reload, so tick it each time

Now

The box is remembered along with what has been drawn

Hackathon guide · Judges and spot prizes, for the two-list matcher fix.

Before

Teams 1 and 4 always share a judge; no judge scores back-to-back demos

Now

Each judge has one team from each half of the list, paired at random; back-to-back across the middle happens about one time in three

Five posts linking to the NPC generator · Links point at the new URL.

Before

/tools/dnd-encounter

Now

/tools/dnd-npc-generator

Raffle / Giveaway Drawer · With “Remove winner after drawing” on, only the first line with the winner’s name was removed.

Before

Someone entered on two lines (“Sam x2” and “Sam”) could win twice in one draw

Now

Every line with the winner’s name is removed

Random Pair Generator · “Avoid repeat pairs” ignored the third member of a trio.

Before

Only the first two names of a trio were scored and remembered

Now

All three partnerships in a trio are scored and remembered

Random Savings Challenge · A custom challenge was lost on the next visit.

Before

Goal and weeks reloaded as $1,000 / 52, so pressing Reveal replaced a saved $600 / 12 schedule with a new one

Now

The saved goal and weeks are restored on load, so progress continues

Demo Day / Sprint Review Order · Copy, history and CSV dropped the time boxes; a blank minutes box broke them.

Before

“A → B”; “NaN-NaN min” when Minutes each was blank

Now

“A (0-5 min) → B (5-10 min)”; CSV with slot, presenter and minutes; blank falls back to 5

Random Sports Position Assigner · Unfilled positions and substitutes were both called “bench”, and Copy left out the bench.

Before

Unfilled slot shown as “— (bench) —”; copied text had no substitutes

Now

“— (unfilled) —”; copied text ends with a “Bench:” line

Random Card Draw · “Reversed tarot allowed” also applied to playing cards.

Before

Playing cards could be drawn “(reversed)”

Now

Reversals apply only to the two tarot decks

Random Dice Roller · Custom side count was not limited, though the page says up to 1,000.

Before

Any number accepted

Now

2 to 1,000, with a message outside that range

Weighted draws (Weighted Picker, Raffle Drawer, Decision Maker, draft lottery) · Two edge cases in the shared weighted draw.

Before

A weight-0 first entry could win if the random source returned exactly 0 (about 1 in 4.3 billion); with two entries of the same name, drawing one always removed the first copy whatever its weight

Now

Weight 0 never wins; the drawn entry itself is removed

Secret Santa Generator · The last-resort fallback for large groups was not random.

Before

Each person bought for the next name as typed

Now

One gift loop through a shuffled order (still checked against forbidden pairs)

Random Movie Picker · Tag filters ignored a leading #.

Before

“#netflix” matched nothing

Now

A leading # is accepted

Spinner Wheel Picker · Recent results did not escape entry text (fixed on three other tools in September).

Now

Escaped

Kindness Generator and Strat Roulette · CSV exports had no header row.

Now

“idea, category” and “challenge, game” headers

Three wheels give you a combination, not an assignment · Odds of a tidy four-person rota from five-by-five wheels.

Before

“roughly one session in twenty-five”

Now

about one in twenty-seven (0.192² ≈ 3.7%)

Splitting into groups of different sizes · How many groups 14 people at sizes 2–4 produce.

Before

“four groups, three groups, or in between”

Now

usually four (38%) or five (53%), sometimes six (8.4%); never three

Running a multi-round debate tournament · How often a fresh draw repeats a matchup.

Before

“works out fine most of the time”; “most rematches clear on the next try”

Now

With 20 students, round 2 repeats a pairing about 41% of the time; a clean redraw succeeds about 59% / 35% / 20% of the time in rounds 2 / 3 / 4

Two choices, one flip · Choosing between three with a coin.

Before

Flip twice and use the first flip to eliminate one name (not uniform)

Now

Flip twice, give three outcomes to the names, re-flip on the fourth

Give every candidate the same random questions · How ticked categories are mixed.

Before

“every ticked category is drawn from evenly”

Now

All ticked categories form one pool; six questions from three categories miss one category about 24% of the time

Pair everyone up without repeat partners · Updated for the pair generator fix above.

Before

The third member of a trio was not remembered

Now

All three partnerships are remembered

Short-handed lineups lose the same positions · Updated for the position assigner fix above.

Before

“— (bench) —” for an unfilled slot; copied text without substitutes

Now

“— (unfilled) —”; copied text ends with the bench

Hosting the 5 Second Rule · The countdown sounds.

Before

The last seconds tick audibly and end with a ding

Now

Only with Sound switched on (it starts off); the last three seconds turn red

Kids would-you-rather bank · Four example questions were not in the kids bank.

Now

Replaced with questions that are

Party games with zero setup · Would You Rather sets.

Before

“from kid-friendly to party mode”

Now

Kids, clean and spicy sets (there is no party set)

Kindness challenge, retro formats · No-repeat checkboxes.

Before

“Turn it on once at the start”

Now

The box resets on reload, so tick it each time; the record of what has been drawn persists

What should I eat? · What “Avoid last N days” records.

Now

Every pick, re-rolls included, counted from when the button was pressed

Random date ideas, map picker, virtual bingo night · History length.

Before

“a running history” / “every winner drawn”

Now

The last ten results

Random teams without a fight · Referred to a “no-repeat mode” that tool does not have.

Now

Points to the No-Repeat Group Mixer, whose memory is always on

Seven other posts · Smaller wording fixes: a resolution category name (“Personal”, not “personal growth”), a wrong tool name in a link, a would-you-rather tool credited with choosing who goes first, a 5 Second Rule “no-repeats rule” that does not exist, the cold-calling and wheel-fairness explanations.

Blog · Guides are now written ahead and published on a schedule (Tuesdays and Fridays), starting with 17 workflow guides that follow one event or routine through several tools.

Corrected posts · Now show an “Updated” date under the title.

Tool pages · “Last checked” date.

Before

August 26, 2026

Now

September 17, 2026, the last time every tool page was checked against its code

Homepage · Added the three latest guides.

List parsing (every list tool) · A comma in the first line of a multi-line list made every line split on commas.

Before

“Smith, John” on its own line became two entries, “Smith” and “John”

Now

Multi-line input splits on new lines only; a single line still splits on commas, tabs, semicolons or pipes

Random integer generator (every tool) · An off-by-one in the rejection-sampling threshold.

Before

The first item was favoured by one value in roughly 4.3 billion ÷ n: far too small to notice, but not exact

Now

Every outcome exactly equally likely

Share links · Checkbox options were not restored when a shared link was opened.

Before

Tick-box options reset to their defaults

Now

Restored from the link like every other option

Clear history · Clearing a tool’s history left its “No repeats” and pairing memories behind.

Before

Items already drawn stayed excluded after Clear history

Now

Clear history resets that tool’s no-repeat and pairing memories too, on every tool and on the history page

“No repeats this session” option · The memory persists in the browser across visits, not just for one session.

Before

Labelled “No repeats this session”

Now

Labelled “No repeats”, with a note that it is remembered in this browser

Recent results on Multi-Wheel, Slot Machine and Ball Pit · Entry text was not escaped in the results list.

Now

Escaped, so an entry containing < or & displays as typed

Secret Santa · Forbidden pairs were case-sensitive and duplicate names were accepted.

Before

“sam” and “Sam” were different people; 200 random tries before giving up

Now

Case-insensitive; duplicates refused; 2,000 random tries, then an exhaustive search for groups of ten or fewer

Tournament Bracket · Byes were placed at random.

Before

A first-round match could be bye against bye

Now

Byes are seeded, so no match is bye against bye

Team Balancer · The deal restarted at team 1 for each tag.

Before

Team sizes could differ by more than one

Now

The deal continues across tags; sizes differ by at most one

Debate Pairer · Three-speaker formats did not show the third speaker.

Now

Third speaker shown

Elimination Tournament · Removed entrants by name.

Before

Two entrants with the same name could both be removed at once

Now

Removes by position

Champion / Hero Picker · The all-roles pool listed multi-role champions more than once.

Before

A champion in two roles was twice as likely

Now

Pool de-duplicated; count clamped to the pool size

Slot Machine · The reel stopped one row away from the reported pick.

Before

Reel showed the neighbouring item

Now

Reel lands on the reported pick

Bingo Caller (UK 90-ball) · Generated tickets could leave a column empty.

Now

Every column has at least one number

Ball Pit · Did not draw when the device asks for reduced motion; Draw could be pressed mid-flight.

Now

Draws under reduced motion; Draw is disabled while a ball is in flight

Number Generator · Built the whole range in memory before sampling.

Before

Very large ranges were slow or failed

Now

Samples directly; ranges over 2³² supported; empty min/max fall back to defaults

Country Generator · Five UN member states were missing.

Before

191 countries

Now

196 countries

Country, State Capital and Hangman quizzes · The answer could be read before Reveal.

Before

Written to history, Copy and CSV before Reveal

Now

Kept out of history, Copy and CSV until Reveal

Chore Roster, Fair Division, Sequential Picker, Two-List Matcher, Prize Assigner · Result buttons were missing.

Before

No Copy, Share, CSV or Re-roll

Now

All four wired up

Fair Division · Accepted duplicate names.

Now

Refuses duplicates, which would otherwise merge two people’s shares

Icebreaker Picker · Refused an empty list although its copy said it accepts one.

Now

Accepts an empty list

Meal Picker · Clear history did not clear the “avoid recent meals” window.

Now

It does

Baby Name Picker · An empty shortlist blocked discovery mode.

Now

An empty shortlist browses the name bank again; no-repeat memory kept per filter combination

City, Resolution, Kindness, Honeymoon and Dog Breed pickers · No-repeat memory was shared across filters.

Now

Kept per filter combination

Strat Roulette · Ten entries could not be played as written.

Now

Replaced

Pro sports team data · Two franchise names were out of date.

Before

Oakland Athletics; Utah Hockey Club

Now

Athletics; Utah Mammoth

Features described that did not exist · Removed from the tool pages: Pokémon type and legendary filters, custom bingo lists, custom card decks, a demo-day countdown, “uncheck absent” in Standup Order, a Party would-you-rather set, charades difficulty levels and truth-or-dare categories.

Counts · Bank sizes stated on tool pages corrected to the real data.

Now

Strat roulette 30 per game; retro formats 24; anime characters 144; hangman words 144; colleges 150; resolutions, kindness acts, Minecraft challenges and interview questions 32 per set

89 of 120 posts · Rewritten where they described features or behaviour the tools do not have, and where the maths was wrong.

Fair Secret Santa · Four people in two couples.

Before

“You are not [fine]”: implied no valid draw

Now

4 of the 24 possible draws are valid

The dice math a digital roller gets right · Fireball damage and what an extra die does.

Before

“3d6 for a fireball”; an extra die makes results steadier

Now

8d6; an extra die widens the range (2d6 = 2–12, 3d6 = 3–18)

About page · Still said the site was published in English and Spanish.

Now

English only, as it has been since 2026-08-12

All 120 posts · No visible author.

Before

Credited to an organisation in the page data only

Now

“By Paul Clark”, linked to the About page

404, Contact, Privacy and Terms · The ad loader would have run on pages with no content.

Now

Off on those pages

All 94 tool pages · Added the maintainer byline and a “last checked” date.

Privacy policy · Contradicted the site’s analytics.

Before

“We do not use Google Analytics”; “no cookies” on all 229 pages

Now

Google Analytics and its cookies disclosed; Consent Mode denies analytics storage by default in the EEA, UK and Switzerland

Category pages · All eight dropped their intro text because of a type mismatch.

Before

280–508 words

Now

334–551 words

Baby Name Picker page · Linked to a post slug that did not exist.

Before

404

Now

Links to the post

Search titles and descriptions · Ran past what search results show.

Before

216 of 228 descriptions over 160 characters; 125 titles over 60

Now

None over

Offline support · The service worker downloaded far more than a visitor needs.

Before

464 files, 31.7 MB on first visit

Now

138 files, 1.7 MB

Offline support · Unknown and redirected URLs were answered with the cached homepage.

Now

Real redirects and a real 404

Blog listing · All posts on one page.

Before

One 244 KB page

Now

24 posts per page

Every URL · Each page answered with a redirect to a trailing-slash version of itself.

Before

308 redirect

Now

200, at the canonical URL

Translations · Only headings had ever been translated.

Before

Locale copies of every page

Now

English only; old locale URLs redirect permanently

Tool guides · A guide on how each tool works and where its model stops.

Before

0 of 94 tools

Now

94 of 94

Generator banks · Prompt, question and name banks expanded.

Before

3,060 entries

Now

4,076 entries