@ffao I've added you as editor of the archive doc. Use your power wisely! :P

@Rubio so did you solve GPR's clue super-quickly and then decide not to post the actual answer? (For the avoidance of doubt: I have not solved it yet.)

immediately deletes everything

Is returned any other indicator than reversal?

@GarethMcCaughan I don't understand Rubio's comment at all, so I don't think they've solved it...

If yes, I think I know it.

he meant it as a pun

because you tune harps

Who says it's an indicator?

Oh.

tale teller could be r (tail of teller)

I thought so.. :p Harp and Tale teller..hmm..LIAR/LYRE

@Beastly not without a homophone indicator.

true

harps and tale-tellers makes me go BARD initially, but I have no idea how it works so it probably can't be right

returned harp = PRAH. Done.

Inspired by this:

I got that one :) it was drab

an observation: if "returned" is a reversal indicator, then unless the word happens to be a palindrome the clue will be ambiguous between (tale-teller returned) harp and tale-teller (returned harp).

Which was in fact BARD.

further remark: "harp" is a verb as well as a noun.

oh, maybe I was wrong

oooh

LIAR/RAIL?

how does harp mean rail?

Correct.

To "harp on" someone, to "rail on" someone

not convinced by harp = rail, though they are verbs with somewhat-related meanings

hmm...

but you don't harp on <the person you're ranting at>, you harp on <the subject you're ranting about>.

harp tends to be about a thing, rail tends to be against a thing I think

never heard of either of those phrases

(and "harp", for me, doesn't imply anger in the way "rail" does. You could be a train-timetable enthusiast going on about train times, say.)

any way your turn scon

or, of course, you could be a crossword enthusiast harping on the alleged defects of a clue someone else kindly made up and posted. sorry about that.

@GarethMcCaughan Perhaps not identical meanings, but similar enough for someone to solve the clue in about 15 minutes...

(also I never asked you @sconibulus, does your name mean anything?)

I said it was unsound, not insoluble :-).

@BeastlyGerbil not really, it was a thing I came up with in high school

it was pastry-related

thought it might be an anagram or something :P

oh - scone ibulus?

yeah

heh :P

The CCCC archive is currently so up-to-date, it's already anticipating Sconibulus's clue...

Haha

I bet the answer is going to be 'scone' now :P

So I came this close but lack of knowledge ruined it :)

If it was tale teller sounds like harp(4) what would have been the answer? Liar or lyre? :p

@Techidiot You'd have to ask @GarethMcCaughan if the distinction between a harp and a lyre is more significant than the distinction between harping and railing... :P

It would have been LIAR, because "sounds like" applies to "harp".

Hmm...

CCCC: Protein fuels corpulent illusions? (6)

:( not SCONE

@Sconibulus lentil? (hidden, but I'm not sure PROTEIN really defines LENTIL)

@GarethMcCaughan probably not, but people were hunting for a clue :)

Maybe "protein source"?

(does that mean LENTIL is indeed the intended answer?)

it is

damn, that means I have to make a new one.

I've got to remember not to do that. :-)

@ankoganit answered you @scoibulus :P

@BeastlyGerbil evidence of your complicity, I see :)

@GarethMcCaughan nooo, then we have a bunch of people cryptically talking about the clues, but no solutions

Answered before the question was raised

Ok. GaMeN already

Bye all. Cya

its morning and night? :P

Bye!

MidNight I think

ah

Have fun!

@Sconibulus no, I almost always avoid that. (Not quite always. So much the worse for me.)

Wow! If I reduce the zoom level of my browser to 90%, the star board looks so much better. And I can see everyone's full names at the left. Have to try this in Contact.

I keep mine on 75% for chat

Yikes. That's really small. But I do have a fairly large screen.

at 1920x1080 my display looks nice at 100%

@Rubio. True, but I tend to keep things windowed instead of full-screen, so I can switch between things more easily/see several things at once. So I don't have the full 1920x1200 of my monitor in my window. Thus the zoom.

Yeah I'm 1366 x 768 apparently

according to this anyway

damn. that's cool.

It looks pretty good at 1600x900x100% too

not sure if I'd like it any smaller than that

I don't get Gareth's full name, but I think I get pretty much everyone else

what do you mean?

that page even tells me to switch to the Portuguese translation! :o

I'm 1920x1200

@BeastlyGerbil It cuts off due to length until his message gets long enough to be multilined

Oh I thought you meant you didn't understand it :P

Same

huh, but I get all of GPR, even though it's apparently the same width

Font dependent, I'm sure

GPR is actually slightly longer on my screen than Gareth

it must be more lenient with names with no spaces

that, or italics make Gareth's name shorter

oh

apparently formatting fails on multiline comments or something

bah

Gareth McCaughan

Gareth McCaughan

GentlePurpleRain

GentlePurpleRain

on my screen, at any rate, the italics are a few percent narrower in both cases.

actually, more like 5-6%, I think

on mine, they're equal, but your name is longer by about 1.8 letters

'Sconibulu'

'Beastly'

'GentlePur'

'Gareth'

'ffao'

Oh, hey, if I remove the font-family, everything becomes way tighter (Verdana is YUGE)

A gentle purr lol

Just cuz I am adding that I have 1920 x 1080 x 24

anyway night all!

nini

Adios

@GarethMcCaughan Is a CCCC forthcoming?

working on it...

ok. Just wasn't sure if you'd forgotten (you seemed so intent on figuring out the width of italic characters...) :P

Take your time. Better a good CCCC that takes a little longer.

typing a couple of names in a few times doesn't use a whole lot of brain

which is just as well because I don't have a whole lot of brain

And I'm sure it will probably take us collectively several days to solve your CCCC, so no rush to get it out... :P

CCCC: Nasty sting! Bad! ❡✊❢✠!

(guvf vf abg va snpg ng nyy qvssvphyg)

@GarethMcCaughan No enumeration?

whoops

CCCC: Nasty sting! Bad! ❡✊❢✠! (8)

(was too late to edit, so I made a new one)

I'm having some qvssvphyg-y believing the parenthetical remark

@GarethMcCaughan (STINGBAD)* = DINGBATS

(I spent an hour trying to write a clue yesterday and fell asleep midway :/)

@Sp3000 Yup, spot on.

CCCC: Yes, competition's leader is absent, losing no time for anime film (4, 4)

knowledge but probably solvable without it too

Y + (t-)OURNAME(-nt)

(or at least, this should be the answer from the def, if the wordplay is wrong :P)

@Sp3000

Wordplay's right, frustratingly close to being a hidden :P

I have told everyone I know to go watch it

but none have gone because it's a Japanese cartoon :(

:'(

I suppose I have to pass my turn now

CCCC: Ash from manufacturing inside three brainy heads (6)