1 vote from people · 108 flies on the board. 44 of 1,360 points are people's; the rest is seeded.
Today’s Derby
The Derby is a daily contest on Hit the Hatch with three independent lanes: hats, flies and beers. Every public hat, fly and beer is in the running, and nothing needs entering. Members vote through the day, saves and remixes count too, and when the day closes at midnight Boise time the piece with the most points in each lane wins that lane. A winner is featured on the front of the site until the next close.
Today’s derby closes in 4h 32m.
The winner is featured for a day. At the reset the leading piece takes the front of the site until the next reset. After that its edition is closed — the page stays, and it is not featured again.
Today, lane by lane
Each lane picks its own winner when the clock reaches zero. The points under a picture are that piece’s total so far, including starter votes from Hit the Hatch’s robots and @hitthehatch; the house’s votes never decide a winner. Standings update about every minute, and the clock is exact. How it works · Robots, seeded votes and the lot, explained
The board
Most votes, lane by lane
Flies
Leads by 1 vote (4 pts). One vote now would tie or take the lead.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
1 vote · 1 robot
Owyhee Christmas Zebra Midge
Featured until midnight
8 November 2026 went to Yellow Rib Green Drake Dun by @dekasso, chosen by the robots, and is featured until the next reset. After that its page stays; the edition is closed. Every winner so far. Robots, seeded votes and the lot, explained
How it works
- There is nothing to enter. Every public fly, hat and beer is in the running, whether it was made today or last month. One made today is on the board at once; an older one joins the moment someone votes for it, saves it or remixes it.
- Vote for what you like. Press Vote on a piece, here or on its own page. You get 5 votes a day, at most 1 on any one piece, and they come back when the day closes. A vote, save or remix on your own work does not count.
- Points add up, then fade. A vote is worth 40 points, a remix 25 and a save 8. Every point loses half its value each 12 hours, so a strong evening can still beat a good morning.
- When the clock reaches zero, each lane picks a winner. The piece with the most points from people and the robots takes its lane; a tie is settled by a draw. The winner is featured for a day.
Which winner is featured? Every lane crowns one, and the featured one is the first of them in this order: fly, hat and beer. Hit the Hatch’s robots and @hitthehatch vote too, to keep every lane lively while the platform is small. A robot’s vote counts toward winning; the house’s never does. Robots, seeded votes and the lot, explained
In more detail
Getting in
There is nothing to submit. A creation made today is on the board at once; anything older is on it the moment somebody votes for it, saves it or remixes it — a month-old hat and this morning's compete alike — and @hitthehatch's starter votes put a sample of the catalogue on the board at the open. To make something, first, or look at who is already here.
Picking the winner
A vote is worth 40 points. Counted the moment it lands — nothing on the platform counts a view. A vote is scarce on purpose: one account may cast 1 on any one creation and 5 in a day, across every lane. They refresh when the day closes, so which 5 is a real decision — and no group of friends can stack a lane.
Every public creation across the 3 live lanes is votable, however old. A two-week-old piece drawing votes today competes exactly like one made an hour ago — the derby scores what people do today, not when something was made.
Cast it from the entry itself: open any of the 3 votable kinds — from the gallery or a creator's own page — and vote from its own permalink.
What a point is worth
| Signal | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Vote | 40 | Somebody decided this is the one they want made — the only signal that is about the contest rather than the work. |
| Remix | 25 | Somebody spent a generation of their own on your idea. |
| Save | 8 | Somebody put it in their collection to keep. |
| View not open yet | 1 | Nothing on this platform counts a view. Reserved at its published weight for the day something does. |
And every point ages. A point is worth half what it was 12 hours after it was earned. Without that, a piece entered at seven in the morning collects for seventeen hours and one entered at six in the evening has six — the board would be a race in name and a queue in fact, decided before lunch.
Published weights are gameable, so the defense is cost, not curation. Every signal that counts today costs an account — a vote, a save, a remix — and where every account comes from an invite, an account is the expensive thing to fake. Points alone decide each lane; nobody picks the winner.
Who is voting
While Hit the Hatch is small, a simulated cohort votes alongside people so that no lane sits empty. The robots are Hit the Hatch’s own starter accounts. @hitthehatch is Hit the Hatch’s own account, which this page also calls the machine; it casts starter votes through the day, and fewer as people vote. A vote from a robot or the house is seeded; a person’s is not, and people’s votes are always counted and shown separately.
The machine withdraws as people arrive: people cast 0 votes yesterday, so @hitthehatch may cast at most 100 today — one fewer for each of them, and nothing at all the day after 20 people each spend all 5 of their votes.
A robot’s vote can help crown a lane. The house never crowns a lane. If two entries tie for the lead when the day closes, the lot decides: a draw between the tied entries, which is why a day can read “decided by lot”.
