@Simeon I'm not even sure that I got to phase 2, despite the hint form Slate. I was able to decipher one or two sentences, but not the whole thing. I'd really like to do the quiz.
Can I get the Splunk hat by just changing the tag of a previously asked question?
@Simeon and @NikeDattani, from the previous discussions here, here are the hints: 1. "the format is different, the pound sign should be replace with a 3 character weight abbreviation. And the ## are numbers" 2. "number number 3-letter weight abbreviation." 3. "Just brute force the numbers" I was able to solve after reading exactly these 3 comments :) .
@InanimateBeing That worked for me (the reproducing-data-from-papers tag was entirely appropriate though) for a question that was previously asked (but still during winter bash). I'm not sure if it would work for a question that was asked before winter bash.
@DrewReese I must have got the 3 letter word wrong, because the cipher I used involved a shift that was larger than the number of characters in the line.
if that is the case, know that there are at least TWO solutions. One of the two takes you to a page that is supposed to be an hint to make you try the other solution instead.
@SQB just a little suggestion. First, the "thing" you have used to decode the lines has TWO different notations. Based on the notation you use, the "index" is different.
@SQB also, like I said before... The "pool of letters" can be unscrambled in at least two different ways that make sense. One of the two will take you to a page that has just a short text and no quiz. In that case, try the other one.
This is the first time Winter Base I have participated almost completely but irregular schedule, it's tough to balance all, work, holidays, friends, family, etc :) And this is an energy of StackExchange Communities, All are contributing their part and making this happen. Kudos to all community members.
@SPArcheon okay it turns out I actually had "solved" it at the time of writing to you, but I didn't dare try it in URL form because the words seemed to be pretty meaningless. That's also the same anagram solver I was using!
@SQB also, like I said before... The "pool of letters" can be unscrambled in at least two different ways that make sense. One of the two will take you to a page that has just a short text and no quiz. In that case, try the other one.
@NikeDattani ^ this.
I will post the detail after WB ends, just for historical reference.
BTW, I mentioned this one only to save other players the same frustration I had wasting time on a page that wasn't even the next quiz
@SPArcheon is the URL from the first anagram solver supposed to give me a quiz?
I did try the anagram solver with both "pools of letters" but only one of them worked. The other pool of letters "found no matches" in the anagram solver.
and using everything from both pools of letters, also didn't work :'(
@Simeon and @NikeDattani, from the previous discussions here, here are the hints: 1. "the format is different, the pound sign should be replace with a 3 character weight abbreviation. And the ## are numbers" 2. "number number 3-letter weight abbreviation." 3. "Just brute force the numbers" I was able to solve after reading exactly these 3 comments :) .
@InanimateBeing you just used "brute force"? You didn't solve anything related to the table of numbers that were given?
@NikeDattani the first step, you got the correct answer. What I mean is that the SAME pool of letter can give you a different anagram. And if you try that one instead you land on a page that tries to make you realize that you got a wrong solution... but in my case only caused confusion, so I am warning others.
@SPArcheon The multiword anagram solver that you suggested, which is also the one I was using, only gave one result when I used that "pool" of letters.
@DrewReese I made it to the part where I need to do "number number 3-letter abbreviation". Am I now just supposed to brute force those two numbers (i.e. try from 00 to 99) or should I solve something related to those numbers given in the table?
@DrewReese I'm not sure what is meant by that question, but the thing I am trying to solve is what @InanimateBeing suggested 12 hours ago: ""the format is different, the pound sign should be replace with a 3 character weight abbreviation. And the ## are numbers" "
That suggestion tells me that I need 5 characters. I'm not sure whether to put those 5 characters after winterbash2022.stackexchange.com/ or winterbash2022.stackexchange.com/**solved-anagram**/
I don't know if I say much more without giving anything away. The "translated" text on the stones is a huge clue, IMO, and directly related to the riddle.
A final clue I suppose is that you need to solve a maximization problem.
All URLs are "winterbash2022.stackexchange.com/xxxx" AFAIK
@DrewReese Originally I wanted to search by brute force, and I did try about 30 different numbers (not all starting from the same direction), but actually solving the puzzle might be better in terms of learning.
The use of the decipher web application was something I knew to do, because I properly solved the puzzle last year (at least that part of it).
I guess the problem for me is that there's so many different things that these numbers could mean. So it's almost as much effort to figure out what to do with the numbers.
I'm given "percentages" that don't even add up to 100, hahaha
@DrewReese really? weird. The only interpretation I could make of that quiz is actually pretty.. underwhelming imho. In my case the text - and especially one specific line - was an HUGE red herring.
Funny, I hope Slate will tell us what the intended solution was after the event ends.
@NikeDattani If you "translate" the text on the stones, take the clue from the instructions, apply some math, you'll find the need to brute force is quickly unnecessary.
I don't think I tried more than a handful of keys
@SPArcheon Are you strictly referring to puzzle 1b, to get the location for puzzle 2? The quiz is after all this.
I now have all the hats I can expect to get (maybe one or two more but very unlikely) and I still wear the first one I earned. I like it the best (on my avatar) from all the hats this year.
I have tried all the hats and at one time I even had different ones on different sites, but was back to this one very fast.
I will miss it after they are gone, I like it. (But as it is outside the square for the avatar I can not just add it permanently. (Like you can with the glasses on a face.)
Oops, the ( and ) do not work together today.
Got me running today, still do not know the actual trigger. I had been cleaning up old comments.
@DrewReese The trivia part has been the most fun part for me!
The tedious puzzle solving was less fun for me. I didn't gain much from it. At least for the quiz, I'm learning about the SE network. I didn't learn much from the puzzle solving.
I suppose I found the quiz to be less intellectually stimulating. I wasn't solving anything, just spelunking through this chat and a bunch of MSO/MSE posts hoping I had correct search terms.
I am missing 5 hats from the hat list (secret as well as regular) and I have no chance on three of those and very little on the last two. The unicorn one is one of them.
By the way your hint about looking for a link by Catija, helped me get the answer finally :) After like 14 failed attempts. I don't see any evidence that anyone else has ever called Chat that though.
Also... for those who have found the name of SE chat, and are wondering what the heck it means and/or why it was chosen, you can find the answer in this blog post by Jeff Atwood. It was named as an analogue/reference to an existing chat server/tool, on which it was based.
Actually I now see another meta post that uses the name, but it's from 2022.
Perhaps the term "internal name" would be better than "official name". But what are the criteria for something to be considered "official"?
In case this somehow gets misconstrued, I'd like to just say that I was just being silly when I said "maybe she just made it up". It was by far the hardest question for me, and for others. There's no prior usage of that word in the context of Chat on all of MSE. The first occurrence of that word in relation to chat, happened so many years after the launch of the chat system, so it almost "seemed" like it was made up, but the article by Jeff gives some idea about the inspiration behind the name.
@Willeke Cubed was definitely a fun challenge - I was lucky that my SE interests are covered by multiple sites; politics, law & history all being fairly related.
Winter / Summer Bash 2022