@Sconibulus I just realised what the numbers are in that pilot puzzle. God, it's obvious once you see it.

@Sid Thanks for putting a bounty on that. I thought I had already given Dan one (because it's an absolutely worthy answer), but it looks like I never did. :S

@Randal'Thor But yes, it will indeed ruin the records that question held. It has already dropped below the 1:10 votes:views ratio, and it's about to lose its other record (only question in the top 100 that has <1k views).

@Randal'Thor Obvious but horrible. I don't mean that there's anything wrong with using it for a puzzle; it just feels disturbing to treat dates as fractions. I guess because it seems entirely arbitrary that we happen to use "/" as a date separator, and dividing dates is a fundamentally unnatural thing to do -- a "type error", as they say in programmer-land.

@GarethMcCaughan I think it's absolutely beautiful. Maybe it's because I'm a mathematician and not a programmer, so I enjoy messing around with notation :-)

I am both a mathematician and a programmer, and it makes my flesh crawl :-).

... though I must confess that it also makes me smile; it's basically a pun.

@Randal'Thor Not sure if my puzzle needs the geography tag, although the answer is a country

...I looked at the dates thinking it might be something, and it never clicked

so, Rubio's cryptic clue. Obvious thoughts: perhaps "directions in the middle of Middle" = DEND or DEWD or something of the sort (DD = middle of "middle"; compass directions). Perhaps the "penniless fraction" is THIR (= THIRD without D) or PER (= PERCENT without CENT). Perhaps "his strange" is ISH or SHI. Perhaps there's a way to put these bits together that makes sense, but I haven't found one.

It seems like the definition will be "problem" or "secretary's problem" or "shortened secretary's problem".

Another possibility: the definition is "following directions", in which case maybe "in the middle of Middle, I" = DID.

@GarethMcCaughan I was thinking "directions in the middle of Middle" = downwards (DD = down down), but that's probably not precise enough for you cruciverbial experts :-)

Interesting idea, but "downward(s)" seems too long to do anything with in this clue.

(But I could well be wrong.)

shortened secretary could be PA

true (though that seems a bit too "straight")

(you could just say "secretary" if that was what you wanted, and I think the clue would read better that way)

is the capitalisation of the second "Middle" important? (eg. something to do with Middle Earth?)

@Sid I summon you

@ArbitraryKangaroo Not very soon.

@Rubio A reminder on this question : meta.puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/1263/…

I like imgur mazes...

"The one exception is voting to close as off-topic when you expect the question to be migrated to another site. Then it's ok to answer as you would if the question had been posted on the other site."

(also I VTC after answering; when I had started typing in my answer there were no VTC yet)

@Rubio Do you really expect that a low quality question like this will be migrated to Maths SE ^^ ?

Meh. reasons for VTC were that it doesn't belong here because it's a math problem, not a math puzzle. I don't know anything about Maths SE.

BTW, your "Let's hope there will be snow" puzzle seems to have a good answer posted; I don't suppose it's right?

@Rubio Yes, it is the right answer. I'm trying to figure out if the difficulty was well-balanced. Maybe the hint gave it too much away

Without the hint it would have been difficult to guess that an element of the story-telling was actually relevant to the obvious puzzle. Providing the hint as a hint put a huge spotlight on that element, making it too easy. Noting that the story isn't just story might have sufficed to clue people in to looking at more than just the note, without pointing out with flashing lights and sirens which part to focus on.

@Rubio That's what I guessed afther the answer of Xenocacia. Thanks for the feedback though :-)

I didn't want to tag it story, since it was a 3/4 lines puzzle

@ArbitraryKangaroo No. But there's this site, called Stack Swap or something like that, that has a lot of diverse and interesting communities. Maybe they have one there. Sure would be cool to have a site for puzzles like that to be part of, instead of just hanging out in this chat room with you lot.

Could not find a tag which would have given the information that the windshield wiper part was important

@IAmInPLS Something at the bottom that just said "Oh, by the way - there's more to the story here than just story-telling" maybe

So you don't have to point it out, but you still point it out :)

No, you asked if we knew any good puzzling site online. Obviously, we do; we're on one. The implication of your question therefore is that this one isn't an answer to your question, so must not be "good". If you don't like it here, move on already.

Apropos of absolutely nothing (*cough*), I believe I've heard it's possible to ignore a user. How does one do so?

@Rubio You'll miss a lot of entertainment if you do that.

I'll miss a lot of something, yes, but I don't think entertainment is the word I'd pick.

@IAmInPLS Huh? What was it?

@ArbitraryKangaroo He probably ignored you already :P But "Puzzling.SE" is still a valid answer nonetheless.

@all Do you know any socially well-adjusted people named Arka?

I certainly didn't say anything about anyone present here, but it would be a more than reasonable interpretation of my question if you were to read something into it that isn't explicitly there.

@ArbitraryKangaroo Please remember me of that cop-out if I ever have children.

Hey @Randal'Thor could you do me a favor?

All right, lads, let's not start fighting here.

@Rubio If you want to ignore AK, go ahead, but you don't have to be rude about him while doing so.

Yes, sorry - I'm done.

@Rubio No, but I can do you a favour :-P What's up?

Lol :) Could you remove the words "the" "a" and "his" from my c.c.c.c. puzzle? Because ... Reasons™?

@Randal'Thor- There's another one for you to get your gold ;)

@Randal'Thor @Rubio was being a bit less rude than it may look at first sight -- he was making an analogy with AK's question about good puzzle communities/sites, and the analogy actually works best if it's taken to be common knowledge that AK isn't socially maladjusted.

@Rubio Like that?

@Randal'Thor Yessir, thanks.

So clearly "his strange" = ish/shi isn't a goer.

"strange shortened secretary" = "ces" or "esc"?

Yes - I saw someone noodling that and figured this is a good way to prevent that errant trail.

or "ap"?

could be, though that's a bit indirect-anagram-y.

maybe it's "strange" that needs shortening

"od" or something

@Sid Well, when you post "Iran" as an answer, it was funny because it has the same letters as in "rain"... I thought you were onto something until I saw your full answer :-)

@IAmInPLS-Iran can be the answer as well if you ask "What made the note appear that way?" :D

Following directions in middle of Middle -> Following directions(Obey) in the middle of Middle(Center) Obeyer ?? Not sure if this is even close

The middle of "center" would be nt

Yeah. Just assumed middle as "coming in way"

@Emrakul Liking the new profile pic! Did you make that yourself?

If you're into making physical things as well as puzzles, you should check out Arts & Crafts SE.

(That goes for everyone, not just Emrakul - I suspect there might be quite a bit of overlap between puzzlers and crafty types.)

<- Not in this case :P

Unless you consider programming crafty :P

@Techidiot What do you mean by 'relevant'?

@IAmInPLS- The part of a rhyme which is simply used to create a rhyme. Like this one But can you guess who I am?

And which would not help solving the riddle

Well, every riddle contains this question, right? (Who/What am I)

Yeah. Was doubting this one as well..*And I don't know if this riddle has an end,*

It's okay. Sounds fun!

;-) good luck!

@Randal'Thor I'm horrible at Arts and Crafts...

@IAmInPLS Tom's answer seems quite viable.

He got, like, 4 +1s in 1 minute.

And he answered every line in the riddle?

Well, that would be why he got all those upvotes :P

Is it just me, or is the drop question thingy slower than the in chat one?

Yeah. Noticed it

I wonder if an incorrect answer can have so many votes, how many will a correct one will catch :)

@Techidiot Often less, since the question will usually be older and have less attention.

@Mithrandir- Quite possible.

Hello! Is this a chatroom for everyone?

@incesterror21 For anyone interested in the puzzles on puzzling.stackexchange.com, yeah.

@GarethMcCaughan Thank you!

What does "anyone interested in the puzzles" do here usually?

@Techidiot Too many odd punctuation in your puzzle. Something to do with punctuation mark, I suppose?

well, there's the ongoing cryptic clue challenge, the current one you can see pinned... we also sometimes talk about puzzles we're making or solving

@incesterror21 I feel like I have the answer to your riddle...

And if it is the answer, I would say it is slightly disappointing..

It's my first riddle. Maybe you were expecting too much. But let me hear your answer

Answered..

I actually thought you would tell me about your idea here. Fair enough, I will read your complete answer instead.

Nah, that doesn't sound right to me

The reason I said it is disappointing if it is right.

It completely fits probably one or two of the statements..

@Techidiot If you want to edit Tom's answer on this puzzle to add your relevant comment, I'll accept it and then accept Tom's answer

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to deal with this. The answer is very close but the explanation is not correct.

@Sid It's not a lie.

Very close as in?

As in @Techidiot 's answer

I've also added a hint which should make clear what needs to be done before solving the riddle

Is there some kind of help section on this website? I want to learn more about making riddles.

The sandbox!

Not really! You could always ask a question about how to write a good riddle. (Questions about puzzles are allowed here.)

Oh, and we have the riddle sandbox on meta. Let me pull up the link for you...

Splendid

@IAmInPLS- No worries you can accept it. I guess Tom has already added the relevant part. Right?

Good idea. But users can see the answer and post it on the main site, right? Not sure if I want to use it...

@IAmInPLS- Done

@incesterror21 There's typically an "honor system" - if you check the riddle sandbox, you don't post an answer if you figure it out. (And you don't have to include the answer in your post!)

@Techidiot I love how you thanked yourself in this edit haha :-D

Haha. @IAmInPLS That was already there :P

Ok, bye!

You can check the older version ;)

Wait, I didn't see Tom's edit

@Techidiot In your rebus answer, didn't M Oehm suggest "steel" and not Gareth?

Oh did I add @GarethMcCaughan's name. lol Sorry, will correct it. :)

@Sid- No. Its not about punctuations.

@incesterror21- I have updated the answer. Guess it's rightly explained now. Though not sure if its right or wrong.

I made a puzzle, I hope the difficulty is calibrated right, I worry it could be seen as too easy, given all the hints, or alternately incredibly unfair

@Sconibulus Looks intriguing

looks like I might have shoved too many hints in

Seems to be solved now

Levieux seems to be a puzzle solving engine. >2K rep in mere 36 days!

Agreed

@Sconibulus- Out of curiosity, why Life's Legos Lost has something to do with DNA as mentioned in the answer? If not, why that? Sorry I am not good with Chemistry(if that is intended) Or is it just because the rhyme has lost/scrambled its legos(lines)?

I didn't put much thought into it initially, the pun came to mind and I went with it

looking back, amino acids and peptides are building blocks (legos) for proteins, which is required for life, and they were kind of hidden within the text, for 'lost'

and the pun is, Love's Labours lost is a Shakespeare play, they had the same scantion

Ahh..

@Sid- I have corrected the punctuation's in my riddle. Thanks for the tip.

Which puzzle?

@Sid This one

Oh. Well, someone will get that,eventually..

@Techidiot Are you here?

@incesterror21 - Yeah

Hello

@Techidiot "Riddle" (or even "Puzzled riddle") is the answer. However, the new arranged lines are not all entirely in correct order.

"I'm everything is made of letters" sounds wrong to me

Oh. Let me modify it then

@Emrakul According to this the author is Román Díaz.

Or at least he's the author of the design... The photo was apparently taken by the guy who posted it.

i.e. Gonzalo something, lol

@Emrakul Actually I think Gonzalo both folded it and also took the picture, since he's the one who posted it on flickr. "designed by Román Díaz and folded by me". Roman is just the author of the design.

It is ready.....

@Emrakul nice new profile pic!

Wow a year suspension. What was that for? Or was it third offence?

3rd offence in, like, 3 weeks? that would be impressive

@incesterror21-Modified it. Can you check and confirm if that's fine?

@Techidiot Your yet-another-riddle is veering dangerously close to too-broad territory :)

@Techidiot it works that way. The intended version was slightly different though. 1) made of letters 2) not quite right 4) plainly in sight

But your version works, too.