The Sphinx's Lair

Q: Translate this "especially important" note from "War with the Newts"

3:00 AM

0

Language-identification questions are off-topic on linguistics.stackexchange.com, or I would have posted this over there. Since it's also a puzzle, I figure puzzling.stackexchange might appreciate it. The following is an excerpt from (an English translation of) Karel Čapek's 1936 Czech sci-fi sa...

0

Q: Diminished Decrees

Diminished Decrees Before including a letter in any word, the inhabitants of this town check how much the letter is worth. Town Decrees: 1: Each enizen of this lan is prohibite from estroyin thins belonin to other enizens. 2: Every case in court must have a udge and a ury, the udge to receive...

enigmatic-puzzle language

5:23 AM

0

Q: Minimum sum of numbers

Let we are given N numbers. Let it be A1, A2, A3 ⋯, An . These numbers are arranged in a circle. Now we have to make sum of any two adjacent numbers till 1 number is left. Now we have to find the minimum number that can be formed by adding all numbers which are added at each step. e.g., : ...

formation-of-numbers

@Sphinx where is this from? like some unattributed work

6:20 AM

sorry wrong group :P

6:49 AM

@Sphinx About this, @Gareth I don't see a complete answer yet it is accepted..

Q: What has eight eyes but no i in the name?

7:44 AM

0

I do not have the answer to the riddle nor do i know the specifics on the eye/i on either of them. looking for some assistance if possible. could be asking, "What has eight i's with no i in the name" or "what has eight i's with no eye in the name," though I feel that one is less likely

riddle word wordplay

Q: Some interesting calculation puzzle that I made

8:44 AM

0

So I'm creating some kind math puzzle that goes like this: 1=-2+3 12=3*4 123=(4*5*6)+7+8+9-10-11 1234=(5*6*7*8)-(9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+(17*18)+19+20+(-21+22)) ...and so on. So how long (or what is the shortest possible) that kind of equation to get 123456789?

mathematics calculation-puzzle

Q: could anyone help me with this problem? which one is odd out?

9:44 AM

1

Which on is odd out from this words? Beijing, Helsinki, Paris, Athens, Sydney and Wellington. all of them are capitals but I don't know what is the difference.

odd-one-out

Q: Oops! Mixed up Multiplication - Needs to be Fixed

10:25 AM

0

$Given$: $U$, $V$, $C$ are distinct digits, varying from 1 to 9. $U$ > $V$ > $C$ $UVC$, $VCU$, $CUV$ are concatenated Numbers $(UVC)*(VCU)*(CUV)$ = $234235286$ The digits on the right hand side are mixed up except 6 in the units place. By deducing the digits $U$, $V$,$C$ , please restore th...

mathematics logical-deduction calculation-puzzle no-computers

Gareth McCaughan

11:08 AM

@Sid Yeah, I was surprised too. Perhaps OP decided that the bit I hadn't done wasn't actually do-able (because there are so many words that fit) and therefore that my answer answers everything an answer could reasonably be expected to?

11:30 AM

@GarethMcCaughan Or maybe OP considers the entire challenge to be figuring out the rule, and doesn't care about finding the individual texts.

Q: Salt, pepper, herbs and spices

12:05 PM

3

This puzzle is dedicated to an avid violinist. Who is the violinist? I got lots of upvotes for my previous "one-liner wonder" so thank you very much! Since you guys liked it, I have made another. Hope you guys enjoy! Also, there is a clue in the title this time, which oddly relates to the a...

riddle wordplay cryptic-clues anagram

@Rubio rampage

@msh210 ?

rampage= a free attack
to page = check the Dungeon Master Guide, perhaps
regarding followup to (after)
initial charge = ram (ram of a city gate before getting in)

I don't like the "regarding" though, so I suspect this is wrong.

That is not the solution, sorry

Ah, well.

It'd be a good solution if "regarding" were instead "in". :-)

Check the DMG, perhaps, in followup to initial charge as a free attack

Q: Math reasoning question..Help needed

12:46 PM

-1

Please get me the answer ASAP.... Thank you

calculation-puzzle

1:06 PM

0

Q: Best sibling sentences

You have to find the best sibling sentences: They have same number of words They have no more than $10$ words They must have no words in common They have no Proper Nouns Both sentences make sense and are clear and correct English Scoring For each couple of words at same position in both sen...

word-search

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Q: The chariot race

In a chariot race only 4 cars came to the finish: the blue, the green, the red and the white one. Titus, who is in bed with a cold, inquires to Quintus about the outcome of the race, because he only knows rumors: 1. The blue has finished fourth. 2. The green is first become. 3. Th...

logical-deduction

1:26 PM

0

Q: Historical puzzle

We have three facts. In reality, there are 13. But in Germany, there are 12. One is Russian, one is French. The thing they've created is spread all around the world. What is it?

history

2:27 PM

0

Q: A time & work problem

"5 persons finish one work in 7 days how many days 7 persons will finish the same amount of work". In this question I have been instructed to assume the capacity because how much work is to be done is not known. Again on the contrary,in this question " A can finish a work in 10 days and B can fin...

mathematics

2:48 PM

1

Q: This one's for Matthew:

I tend nations damaged, with many a crater Spilt blood, nothing lost! That's a strong indicator Reason's right if I act; out something charged! Rounds for the charger, allows losing large... With all my skills, what can I change?

enigmatic-puzzle rhyme

4:48 PM

2

Q: Anagram of an anagram

My anagram's anagram is a furious lady. My anagram's anagram is a comic military force. My anagram's anagram is to sell weapons to a flamboyant guy. What are we anagramming?

wordplay anagram

Q: Is it okay to put partial answers?

5:15 PM

@Sphinx comments in this question has caused a heated debate whether partial answers are encouraged. it is undeniable that a full solution is better than a partial, but partial answers can NOT, in my humble opinion, be invalidated just because of its incompleteness

if you guys have any ideas, please ping me. I will be more than welcome to hear constructive feedback, but please kindly refrain from rude or rash comments. thanks a lot

15

So let's say someone asks a question and you know an integral part of the answer, but not the whole thing. An example of one is this person was trying to make a scalable div with some styling. I knew how to do the javascript tidbit, but not the CSS. Would it be wrong of me to post my answer for t...

discussion answers accepted-answer

for your reference

5:30 PM

@OmegaKrypton I think this has been discussed even in Puzzling Meta.

really? let me check

To me, partial answers should only be posted when the puzzle is multi-layered and it should contain the correct idea/solution to at least one part of the puzzle

5:48 PM

@Sid thanks for asking. in fact, mine does: what should be anagrammed, the crucial part of the puzzle

I don't think puzzles like the one you are talking about should even have Partial answers. It's a nice five-minute puzzle.

Of course, I don't know if there have been any policies made on partial answers while I was away. So, I am just saying what i think.

M Oehm

It was my initial comment, where I said that I wished Omega Krypton would stop posting answers that are too thin to be called partial, that caused the "heated debate".

not that I am succumbing to community pressure, but I as a responsible user have decided to change this to community wiki to reduce unnecessary conflicts :)

may this debate now cease and puzzling return to peace. agreed @MOehm?

M Oehm

6:05 PM

Well, I've said what I wanted to say, so for my part, that debate is over. But I stand by what I said in the comments. (I also seem to remember that someone else made a similar comment to you when you just posted a single answer to one of jafe's continental crosswords, but I may be wrong.)

TheSimpliFire

Let's just say post a partial answer if you have at least three non-trivial things to say about a puzzle.

I think there should be a policy on partial answers if there isn't any

M Oehm

@TheSimpliFire I'm not proposing a fixed rule when to post a partial answer. If that question has been sitting there for three days without any reaction, OK's post may have been entirely appropriate. Use your judgement.

In hindsight, I haven't put my judgement to good use either. I should have gritted my teeth. I hope my comment hasn't ruined a good, if easy, puzzle for jafe.

I agree that partial answers should make significant progress on the puzzle. Answering only a small number out of several clues doesn't do that, especially if answering those clues isn't particularly challenging.

When I see small partial answers like that, it generally looks more like the answerer is trying to "reserve their space" as the first poster and eventual accepted answer, rather than making a legitimate effort to solve the puzzle (and provide a detailed solution).

TheSimpliFire

6:21 PM

Indeed. They talked about being 'sniped' a few times so I guess that would be part of the motive.

Competing to answer quickly can be fun, but you should make sure your answers are as complete as you can make them. Don't sacrifice quality for speed: it hurts the site by perpetuating the view that solving fast is what matters, not providing a complete solution for other people to look at later.

Stiv

If I can add two cents here as a recent 'recruit', if you like... (Hi, by the way - I'm Stiv...) It's been interesting standing on the sidelines and watching events... transpire...

I totally get that people can feel miffed by being sniped, by missing out because of the 'towel on the deckchair' (although I hold nothing against the guys involved today whatsoever - I'm just here for some brain-scratching fun...!).

Sniping however is an occupational hazard - it happens to everyone (it happened to me on my very first post - hey, that's the way the game goes sometimes!). I would say that the biggest effect it might have is on pressuring new or casual members to contribute badly...

(Hey, welcome!)

Stiv

Although reputation is labelled as optional in the Q&A it really is the currency of the site - want extra features? Go answer some questions! Newbies may well feel this is a way to achieve it if they see it happening all the time... Just some thoughts. END.

(And thanks!)

Right, I've answer-sniped and been answer-sniped. It happens all the time, and as long as both people are making an effort to answer the question, it's not really a problem. But it's particularly frustrating when I'm halfway through typing out a long answer, and someone else posts "here are potential answers to three of the crossword clues, though I'm not sure if they're right".

And as you said, it's a bad example for new users, too.

Adam

6:37 PM

I think the biggest detriment to the site is the 50 reputation comment wall which really provokes new users to act in this way

Stiv

@Deusovi - totally.

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/85995/… - Is this getting too broad now?

I'd say so -- there are a lot of plausible-looking options, and nothing distinguishing any of them in particular.

Gareth McCaughan

6:59 PM

Welcome @Stiv!

As to the recent Drama, for my part I strongly agree with MOehm and Deusovi that it's annoying to be working on solving something completely and then have someone come along and post a super-partial answer; it makes everything awkward (e.g., if you complete your solution on your own, do you then need to give them credit for whatever bits they solved while you were working on it? after all, no one knows whether you read their answers or not).

I don't at all object to partial answers, but for puzzles like cryptic crosswords that are made up of smaller parts I think you should only post partials when there's a good reason for posting rather than just continuing to, y'know, try to solve the puzzle.

There totally can be good reasons. E.g., the puzzle has been there for some time and no one seems to be making any progress, and you've solved a part of it but can't get any further; perhaps the bit you've done will turn out to unlock something for someone else. Or (this has happened to me a few times) you've got a good way into it and would press on to completion, but for some reason you have to go and do something else. (I do worry a little that that's a bit too beach-towel-y, [ctd]

... and I would be interested to know whether anyone's felt miffed on any of the occasions when I've done that.

)

(I realise that Deusovi is talking above about a slightly different case from the one I describe -- he's referring to the annoyance where you've actually finished solving something but not finished writing it up. My apologies if I just said "I agree with Deusovi" followed by something Deusovi turns out not quite to agree with.)

I guess the criterion, for me, is this: you should post an answer, whole or partial, only when you're fairly sure it contributes something. If you're looking at a fairly substantial puzzle that is likely to take (say) a couple of hours to solve, and you post a few bits of answer 10 minutes after it's posted, then most likely there are other people already working on it, intending to post complete solutions, who have already done the bits you have, and you aren't really contributing anything.

On the other hand, if it's been there for long enough that you'd expect it to have been solved if someone was just going to get to work and do it, then there's a good chance someone is stuck somewhere, and then maybe your partial answer might be useful; but if it seems like you've solved the easiest bit then maybe not.

I do agree with what you said as well - my case was just one way that it could be annoying.

Gareth McCaughan

(I see too many cases where there's some complex multilayered puzzle, and someone thinks they're being useful or clever or something by posting "hey, I noticed that there's a block of gibberish in the middle -- maybe it's a cipher!". I exaggerate, but only a little.)

8:39 PM

I completely disagree with my fellow Mods and think you should be able to post completely fragmentary thoughts even if they don’t contribute to the solution at all, totally

(Obviously - I think the opposite of what I just said hehe)

It really should represent a significant amount of progress before you should post a partial. A good stopping point at which you should submit a partial is when you’ve gotten as far as you can, either because you’re stopped by something you haven’t figured out or you’ve simply run out of time.

I have a couple of times hit submit unintentionally and felt bad about it, and tried to finish what I was in mid-sentence of saying before the edit window closes so it doesn’t look like I’m an idiot. But usually I try to either have as full an answer as I can before I post - unless it’s something where other people have already started answering piecemeal and I don’t want to look like I’m swiping their answers. Those end up being pretty awkward.

North

9:03 PM

@Rubio Perhaps protect this question puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/85995/… ?

There's been some streams of low-quality answers

And way too many speculative answers

And regarding partial answers... I agree with y'all, although I'm completely guilty of doing exactly what Deusovi said:

3 hours ago, by Deusovi

When I see small partial answers like that, it generally looks more like the answerer is trying to "reserve their space" as the first poster and eventual accepted answer, rather than making a legitimate effort to solve the puzzle (and provide a detailed solution).

Oh and on second thought nevermind protecting that question

I forgot that "Too Broad" flag exists

9:22 PM

I wouldn’t protect it anyway given I have an answer there. That has a whiff of conflict of interest about it.

North

Hm. I didn't even consider that