It's a prediction, and not a very interesting one at that. Still, I don't want to reveal it until the discussion has fizzled out. I promise I'll sate your curiosity in 24 hours.
Ugh, I can't believe it. My laptop battery died and with it, my recent bash_history (which was not saved to disk). I don't remember the exact text, so I might as well spoil my prediction now since it can't be confirmed.
I predicted that some nitpicker would reply to my comment and name a few important works that are in the public domain or CC-licensed. Like I said, not a very interesting prediction.
This hasn't happened yet, so my prediction was wrong. In this case, making the prediction public changes how people act, so I didn't want to say it outright. On the other hand, saying "I knew you were gonna do that" isn't very believable. A hash of the prediction is a good solution to this problem. The only information it conveys is that a prediction has been made.
Sorry for the losing the exact text. I love being able to prove I predicted something.
That would actually be a very interesting addition to message board. Add a note to your last posted message that reveals itself after a set time and allows people to vote on the truth of the predication.
I like the idea you have there. I wish there was a service that would keep track of predictions by politicians, pundits, and other notable figures. Maybe then people would realize that a lot of people on TV(radio) are only randomly saying something reasonable.
