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12:04 AM
1
Q: Where should they be buried?

jkl3699James, the pilot, was flying his plane for a commercial flight. The plane was travelling from Chicago to New York. On the plane's course, though, was a surprised storm. To make a long story short - the plane crashed. The problem is that since the plane crashed on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvan...

 
12:30 AM
^ gawd, is that really not a duplicate?
(I wonder whether it's been posted before but then closed & deleted as not really a puzzle, or something)
 
I was surprised too
 
(older deleted question)
It's not obvious to me that either this or its now-defunct predecessor really deserves deletion.
 
Hmm cc is hard
In general
 
1:29 AM
0
Q: 9 Is purposeful!

QuantumTwinkieGuess the common theme and solve these rebus puzzle

 
@GarethMcCaughan I'm rapidly approaching the point of posting on Meta if "brain teasers" should just be off-topic. they're almost invariably problematic.
They're much like trivia questions - it's not something you solve so much as you recognize and parrot, for most of them.
 
1:55 AM
@Rubio You'll have my vote (and/or axe as necessary)
 
0
Q: Riley Riddle with a little bit of ciphering

Dranier First of the prefix is a hook but I removed one part But it is also locked, and also I forgot the key Just to share with you all, I am eating a salad with a raspberry vinaigrette Second the infix is my favorite numbers which are 1 19 20 18 15 My suffix is like of the first ...

0
Q: A lumberjack unjustly captured

Lionclaw49One day in China, a lumberjack was caught unknowingly cutting down one of the emperor's favorite type of tree. Because of this, the lumberjack was taken into captivity. The surrounding towns in which the lumberjack had lived believed this to be unjust and schemed to free the man. They were able t...

 
2:44 AM
@Alconja Heeeeeres Johnny!
 
I was going for Gimli, but Jack will do too...
 
@Rubio YES.
YES YES YES.
Please.
(Also, riddles that are just trivia and don't attempt to obscure the answer in any way. "I'm yellow with four wheels and help students get to school, what am I?")
 
We already have that one, but it's not as a "policy"
 
Sid
3:28 AM
@ffao Rubio said that ? When?
 
@NL628 The wrap-ups are really an excuse to do what bounties would do more gracefully, but serve as a nice platform for puzzle setters to share some of their creative inspiration with us—everyone wins. But I suspect it would be a bit over the top to then give a bounty on a wrap-up post as well... I still think bounties for questions would be useful, so you can make a donation of your own rep to a puzzle deserving of extra recognition without the setter having to have done a wrap-up post at all. — Rubio ♦ Apr 23 at 20:16
 
Yeah, I did
Within the last week or two, I think
 
hmm not sure if invalidating brain teasers is the best idea
it might be many user's introduction to the site
 
A bad introduction to the site is not something I want to encourage, though. We don't want to be a collection of jokes, "riddles" and brain-teasers you'd find in a kid's book. Or, at least, that's not the kind of thing I want from a site that is supposed to be about Puzzles.
 
^
Just because it's an introduction to the site doesn't make it a good thing. I'm all for introducing people to the site - with high-quality puzzles.
 
Sid
3:36 AM
I missed that wrap-up post by ffao..
 
@NL628 The wrap-ups are really an excuse to do what bounties would do more gracefully, but serve as a nice platform for puzzle setters to share some of their creative inspiration with us—everyone wins. But I suspect it would be a bit over the top to then give a bounty on a wrap-up post as well... I still think bounties for questions would be useful, so you can make a donation of your own rep to a puzzle deserving of extra recognition without the setter having to have done a wrap-up post at all. — Rubio ♦ Apr 23 at 20:16
 
i just don't want puzzling to seem too "elitist"
that's probably the wrong word
 
There's a difference between elitism and quality control.
 
but not give people the impression that everything is really hard to solve etc.
 
We've had plenty of not-too-difficult yet still high-quality puzzles.
 
3:40 AM
personally i feel a good brain-teaser is enough of a puzzle and can be good quality. but certainly not the well known ones that are posted every day.
 
a real problem in such a discussion is to define what a "brain-teaser" is
 
then again not my decision, and my opinion isn't fully formed. good night
 
Yes, what exactly do you mean by it, Coder?
oh you're leaving
ok then
night!
 
you'll note that I generally refer to the kind of low-quality (and frankly low-effort, because it's not something the poster created, it's something they remembered or found and decided to try here) junk I'm talking about as "brain-teasers", in quotes. on purpose. I don't think they're anything resembling a mental exercise; if they were, maybe they'd be puzzles. What we get lately, though, definitively is not.
 
just wondering
 
3:42 AM
anyway. afk a while.
 
seems like most of the high quality puzzles are also lots of effort and fairly hard too
do you have some good examples of easy but high quality puzzles (in your opinion)
also what do you guys mean by brain-teaser
 
Most, but I wouldn't say all. This one by Alconja is pretty easy IMO, but still clever.
173
Q: An overheard gang meeting, a double agent, and a murder

AlconjaI was walking home late last night and heard raised voices coming from a boarded up old warehouse. I stopped, out of sight, to listen... [When I started eavesdropping, the conversation was already under way...] Gangster 1: -infiltrator in our midst, and I know who it is... [dramatic pau...

 
seems like it can range from "stupid trick question" to "all puzzles"
because they all tease the brain
 
(I believe Rubio's referring to the former. Note the quotation marks he always uses)
 
but like
is there a line
youd have to have some def to ban them
 
Sid
3:46 AM
Anything that could be found in a kid's puzzle book and the correct answer by a user starts with, "I remember this old chestnut"...
 
Sid
3:59 AM
@Deusovi it isn't to me (the easy part). For someone new to puzzles, I don't think it is that easy
 
thats cool
it has a difficulty curve in a maze!
from the start to finish, it teaches ideas as if it were a game
 
yup!
 
Sid
That's really nice.
 
4:15 AM
Sounds like we need to generate some more good examples(?)... Maybe time for an "easy, but high quality puzzles" fortnightly challenge...
 
There's a "one step puzzle" suggestion on the fortnightly suggestions post, from memory
 
maybe it's time to reboot the fortnightly suggestions page
 
Yeah, I added a few new suggestions a little while back, but they're pretty buried... was thinking about flagging some for deletion (there's a bunch of "controversial" ones, which I think can be dumped without being strictly negative)
 
4:33 AM
I was thinking just making an entirely new voting question
with the exception of Alconja's, all other suggestions are at least 1 year old
 
Yeah, that'd work too... Probably worth splitting the suggestion thread from the history thread too if that were the case.
 
4:57 AM
0
Q: "Wallpaper" cipher puzzle

u_ndefinedOne day, I opened my phone and noticed my wallpaper has changed. I also noticed there was a note in front of my phone. I read the note, saying: Your phone has been hacked. I changed the lock. You must do a specific task. The clue is hidden in the wallpaper. What do I do?

 
@GarethMcCaughan Could the C4 be FOXISH? A yokemate (OX) and outside of that, not a yokemate (FISH)?
It means "beautiful", though, not "beauty". It could describe a beauty, the noun.
Ah, and I just remembered that I thought that you might be using "yokemate" in a nonstandard way, so I'm aware that that's not the definition.
You know, nevermind, I don't think you would use a different part of speech for the definition.
 
5:14 AM
0
Q: Find out Who am I?

narasimha It's not a baby though you hold in the arms close to your bosom. It's not an Indian man though it has long beard. It's not a monkey though its tail is bent. It's not a bird though it has beautiful voice. What am I?

 
5:48 AM
0
Q: How to solve this puzzle?

rohit singh I have solve the sudoku. Scratching my head on the second part. Any hints?

 
 
1 hour later…
7:10 AM
I ...
Infinity War more or less just left me speechless.
 
Sid
@Rubio No spoilers, please. :P
 
I wouldn't dream of it.
 
Sid
@Rubio Good way or bad way?
 
I actually can't answer that. :)
 
@Rubio since you never sleep I don't think you can dream of anything
 
7:22 AM
I was speaking figuratively. Duh. ;)
 
@Rubio How can you speak figuratively if you're left speechless
 
:thinking:
 
About the dreaming, not about the movie.
 
7:48 AM
0
Q: Don't know where I am, don't know how I got here, don't know what to do :(

Dotan Regardless of color or country of birth every one here is treated the same you might think it's a tolerant place but in my experience it's not quite so tame Even though my distress is overt, no one approaches to see I'm OK and all the while I keep getting yelled at I don'...

 
@Rubio ah, so selective mutism
 
8:09 AM
(so in the end, should I go watch it?)
 
8:39 AM
posted on April 27, 2018 by JohnyDoe

I'm a number. The difference between me and my checksum is 36 and I am the product of two adjacent numbers. Which number am I? I know it's pretty simple but one that just came to my mind right now =D

 
 
1 hour later…
9:46 AM
0
Q: Spears and fears

Soha Farhin Pine Trepidation fell on such sight Cry without knowing why I'm without me myself, flanked by similarly selfish beings. The end concerns your backside, stripped of its opening. Vulgar as it may— Let spears bury unto you, those of brits. What is it that I talk of?

 
10:22 AM
@EricTressler Just for the avoidance of doubt, the solution to my C4 is not FOXISH.
 
 
1 hour later…
11:46 AM
0
Q: Blind genius - cryptic type clue

tomCryptic clue, Blind genius, but I heard he oiled machines? [5]

 
12:22 PM
@Rubio i'm jealous. i heard there was a major plot twist... i'm hyped and waiting... though it looks like i'll be waiting for another month due to exams. :(
 
12:39 PM
2
Q: Replace the question mark

LogicHelpWhich letter should logically replace the question mark in the following arrangement of letters: Y,L,P,P,U? I tried numbering the letters and doing basic operations but couldn't find any answers. Y,L,P,P,U,?

 
12:57 PM
1
Q: A walk of 3000 meters, but one foot has moved more, how so?

Paul KaramMy math teacher has struck again. Here's his newest riddle: Today I went for a normal walk of 3000 meters. One of my feet had to move exactly 3000 meters. However, the second foot moved 3100 meters. Can you justify how did that happen?

 
1:34 PM
2
Q: The soldiers march 25 miles

Redwolf ProgramsAn infantry platoon marches across the barren landscape. Says the captain, "We will march 25 miles today, soldiers!" And indeed, by nightfall, they have marched 25 miles. But when they prepare to set up their sleeping quarters, they find that they are in exactly the same place they started! They ...

 
1:52 PM
2
Q: Fun Friday: This puzzle does what NintenDONT

BilkokuyaIt's Friday, lunch is over, and why get back to work - when you can relax with a quick 5 minutes video game puzzle! Enjoy! Text Version

 
2:26 PM
0
Q: Yet more consonant sameness

Kit-GinevraNever one to revile the practice of doing the same idea as everyone else here is another consonant puzzle Consonants remain in same order and the vowels shuffle so for example Lone Star State Cabs is Texas Taxis... or desperate smell is Dire Odour Good...Hop on board the bandwagon 1.Gum up 2.C...

 
 
3 hours later…
hmm
 
5:53 PM
@thecoder16 That's copyrighted to North only
 
hmm
why
 
6:07 PM
0
Q: A cipher sequence

Beastly GerbilWelcome, candidate, to your first task. For this task you will be asked to solve a cipher... or should I say, cipher-S! You see there are many layers to this puzzle... He who answers correctly first with the name of a famous cipher, shall receive points in the form of online reputation and proc...

 
7:00 PM
0
Q: Weird and complex puzzle that we need help with

ZyuSo basically this is a complex deep web puzzle and we're pretty much stuck at it right now as we don't have any idea what this is about, any help will be aprreciated (the attached images are the translations from the puzzles language)

 
 
1 hour later…
8:08 PM
0
Q: Variation of Fitch Cheney’s Five Card Trick, having trouble finding the pattern

JoeSo I've got a variation on Fitch Cheney’s Five Card Trick, except it looks like it follows a different set of rules than the standard. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what the pattern is, and I thought people here might have some insight. The four examples given are: 7♠ 6♦ 2♥ J♦ Q♣ 9♦...

 
8:24 PM
2
Q: Here's a "What am I?"

scifidownbeatI do not move, but I change every moment. I'm useful to some sometimes, and redundant to others otherwise. What I need is intangible, and what I provide doesn't exist.

 
 
3 hours later…
11:38 PM
0
Q: brand rebuses for you

Flying_whaleI know you like rebuses, here are seven rebuses, each one is a brand to guess. Enjoy :)

 

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