Initially turns were every 12 hours, there was no restriction on multiple entries, and every player was shown a list of the current top entries. Unfortunately this meant that hundreds of turns would come in just after each board update, and also that many people would visit several times a day to see how their word was doing. This caused quite an embarrassing load on our server. My first attempt to solve this problem was to register users, and limit them to one attempt per turn. Unfortunately this system was easily confused by dial-up users and popular ISPs.
A better solution is the current system of timed lockouts, and providing no information about the current turn until the next board update. This system has worked well with no intervention for some time now. The 15-hour update cycle also reduced the load slightly, and is fairer to players in different time-zones.
The latest developments have been the incorporation of the board update timer, the text-only page, the tracking of duplicate scores, and cookie-registration to help players identify themselves. You can now play the game on browsers as primitive as Lynx or Mosaic, or take advantage of the latest facilities provided by Netscape and Microsoft.
Since April 1995 the top page of the Scrabble Challenge has been accessed more than 200,000 times, with more then 5,000 requests every month.
My thanks to Spear Games and Hasbro for marketing a great game, and for allowing this site to continue. Also to the system management here in the department for permitting what is undoubtably a frivolous use of the facilities.