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3:07 PM
Who was the last person to solve a CCCC?
 
3:19 PM
gareth
 
@Avi This
 
today's random fact: you can spell "soap" as tswougheppe and it would be consistent with english orthography rules /s
 
52
Q: Ghotiy spelling

DevsmanAs some of you likely know, ghoti is an interesting spelling of the word fish. Using: the "gh" from "tough" the "o" from "women", and the "ti" from "nation" This is a rather ghotiy way to spell the word. But in the same spirit, what common phrase is spelled below? ugh theighmolo Please ment...

 
hm
that was "egg timer"?!
 
3:36 PM
yep
 
question: is "bobblecrown" pronounced /bɑbl.kraun/? want to make a ghoti-type thing out of it
 
It's pronounced "bah-bow-crown". I don't know how to read phonetics.
 
"bow" as in "thing you stick on a Christmas present"? that would be /bou/
 
yes, "bow" as in thing in fancy knot
 
Any reason specifically there's no L sound anywhere? or is it just you wanting it to sound cute? :p
 
3:46 PM
Because the word "bobble" (as in bouncing up & down) doesn't have an L sound
 
really? my local dictionary says it does
but anyway... I'll start ghoti-fying it :)
bobblecrown --> pbaahepbeauexrrhaowesne
 
 
1 hour later…
5:14 PM
0
Q: Just or hoax - who is he?

Erel Segal-Halevi In one language just, in another language hoax. Who is he?

 
5:31 PM
CCCC God and goddess, having eaten nothing, are hungry (8)
 
@GarethMcCaughan ra+ven(o)us
 
Yup.
(Didn't expect it to last long, but I liked the fact that I could get "having eaten nothing" into the wordplay.)
I also wondered about "Starving artist ..." exploiting the RA at the beginning.
 
Avi
speakable, cable, kabal
 
???
 
Avi
cub ball
 
5:40 PM
??
 
@Avi cue ball
 
no, no, a cub ball is a spherical bed for young dogs
 
@GarethMcCaughan Starving artist molding goddess about core of [some material spelled with an o in the middle; can't think of any off the top of my head]
 
ebony
ivory
 
Avi
Ra was an artist?
 
5:49 PM
@JohnDvorak there we go; thanks
@Avi RA is an artist
 
an RA is a member of the Royal Academy
an organization for elite British artists
in full the Royal Academy of Arts
 
specifically the Royal Academy of the Arts -- there are other royal academies but that one is called RA
 
Avi
I see
 
oh, jinx
 
Avi
pinch poke something something coke
 
5:50 PM
and you're right, it's Arts, not the Arts
(per Google)
Actually, I like around better than about in that one.
 
6:03 PM
0
Q: Deduce the Hidden Die

Dino WibisonoThis is a dice-rolling deduction game. You have 7 six-sided fair dice. Each die has its sides numbered from 1-7, so that every dice have one unique missing number. To make it clearer, the numbering on each dice are shown below: D1: 2 3 4 5 6 7 D2: 1 3 4 5 6 7 D3: 1 2 4 5 6 7 D4: 1 2 3 5 6 7 D5: 1...

 
6:14 PM
I had the same thought on that one bobble. Could come with a statistically likely amount, but no guarantee that you'd definitely know
 
I'm currently cleaning up the [open-ended] tag wiki: it says that the tag is currently being debated on meta, which is not true; they concluded that it was off-topic a while back
 
sounds good!
 
Dear goodness, the user for dice question above admitted they don't know of any answer.
It's Anonymous25 all over again!
(okay that's a bit harsh)
 
ughhh
the worst part is that this is a question that isn't even possible to answer
there is literally no strategy that can guarantee you a finite number of trials
this is the exact type of question that frustrates me - a "what's the best you can do?" question where the OP hasn't realized that it's trivial/impossible, and that fact is not too hard to figure out with a bit of thought about the question
 
Are you going to wait for other people to come along and close, or just modhammer?
 
6:27 PM
i'll wait for others here, because i'm not sure "open-ended" quite fits
 
@bobble Wdym you're cleaning it up?
 
it's not "answers can be improved indefinitely" -- it's the opposite of that, where no answer even exists
 
@PrinceNorthLæraðr I'm updating it to reflect current meta consensus
 
@bobble So you're updating the description?
 
yes, the tag wiki & excerpt
 
6:30 PM
Ah ok
 
@Deusovi I think what matters here is that the asker sees it as an open-ended question. The fact that there is no solution is unimportant.
 
well, the thing is, there is a definite bound on how much you could improve the answers -- that would be "one trial"
 
You can still optimize for the expected number of trials
 
obviously you can't get one trial, but that's a clear upper bound to goodness of answer
 
No matter the specific reason it should be closed, though.
 
6:33 PM
i don't think "there is no upper bound to the goodness of an answer" is the only criterion we should use for open-ended questions, but it was the one that got the most overwhelming support from the community
the other criteria, while they got mostly positive responses, had a few criticisms too
so you voting to close as open-ended seems reasonable enough to me but i wouldn't feel comfortable modhammering since there is some room for doubt
 
makes sense
Also, is it "Stack OverFlow"? I though it was "Stack Overflow", but I could be wrong here
 
i've never seen the camelcase version
 
Overflow, no camelcase
 
referring to this FTC proposal
Welp, dice question was deleted by poster
 
seems fine to me
 
6:39 PM
Hmmm, I mean, I kinda agree with it, because I've been playing around a lot with trying to come up with good programming puzzles, but at the same time, there's a reason they aren't super prevalent.
Programming is really more art than science, there's never only "one" right answer
 
Personally, I haven't though any of their programing puzzles have been good (or terrible, for that matter). Mostly meh.
 
And it's a niche field for a puzzle that would really limit the number of people who could possibly solve it
Then again, risky has really irked me on a lot of their posts, so I could be biased
Most of their programming puzzles I have found pretty terrible
But again, I recognize I have a bit of a bias
 
They all had multiple solutions, right?
I didn't pay much attention to them
 
Right, and on many of them risky was adamant that they didn't and we just weren't getting it
One I finally actually wrote out like 6 different solutions that all worked to prove it
 
probably best to evaluate the proposal independently from the proposer
 
6:42 PM
And it turned out none of the six were what they wanted
 
but i agree that programming puzzles generally don't work very well
 
Right, Definitely
A lot of programming puzzles I feel would either have near infinite viable solutions, or would be a code golf style puzzle, which has it's own SE
 
agreed
[computer-puzzle] generally refers to puzzles that (may) require programming, not puzzles that are directly about a specific language
and even puzzles requiring programming are often unfun or inaccessible
 
Or just knowledge of general programming/computer-science concepts, I think
 
yeah, those are fine too
 
6:52 PM
hey bobble! deus! anthony!
 
There was a Bad Question which is now gone.
 
yello matt!
 
noöne likes Bad Questions
 
Do we like Bass Questions, though?
 
yes
 
6:54 PM
Bass questions yes, bass questions no. All about the pronunciation
 
The deep ones, or the fishy ones?
 
I think we all like this Bass question
 
I like your sense of humor :p
 
What sense of humor?
 
y-
yours?
oh hey avi :)
 
7:19 PM
CCCC: Bass, Avi, Alconja, Boboquack finally coming up with scheme (6)
 
Hehe
So, I'm thinking the parsing has
SIAK for perhaps "finally"
(last letter of bass, avi, alconja, and boboquack)
Though... that's not really a word I can think of
Actually I think the def is "bass", because "with scheme" or the wordplay ending with "with" doesn't seem likely
Actually, "coming up with" could be an entire singular charade component
 
SIAKYGPHE* = HIS PAY KEG
 
???
 
Um
That's an indirect anagram and not allowed
 
among other issues
 
7:28 PM
was just making anagrams for sake of anagram-making
 
There's DEVICE, which has vi in AVI hehe
CONJAB? hehe
alCONJA Boboquack
Okay sorry, I'll stop
 
Avi
did you know
DAVE is backwards in NEVADA
 
yes
I did know that
 
CMC: make a CC out of that
 
Avi
something something NA esports
 
7:33 PM
@Deusovi Can "coming up" be used as a reverse indicator?
 
sure
 
Avi
ya
 
yes
 
usually only in down clues
 
Okay, I think I got part of the parsing, KIA+(scheme)
Hm, I don't know how that works though
Oh it's KAI
 
7:37 PM
that's a carp, not a bass, is it?
 
No I meant it's KAI...
 
wait, no, that's koi, not kai
 
KAI is IAK back ward
Maybe bass is part of the charades too?
like a word for bass, LOW
 
8:00 PM
Can someone pin the C4
hm, coming up with scheme and scheming mean essentially the same thing... interesting
 
8:16 PM
Only thing I can come up is with is KAISER
SIAK backwards ("coming up") -ER being a "with" or "connector" (Person or thing connected with) and um a KAISER schemes
#badC4solutions
 
8:31 PM
@jafe :P
 
i can confirm that that is not the intended answer :)
 
Lol
Am I even on the right track?
 
(poker face)
 
8:55 PM
Why am I not included in this scheme? I shall send the bobblies to spy on monitor these suspicious puzzlers.
 
I'm so lost on how to solve this
 
well you're like 50% included in boboquack so i think that counts as half a point
 
Only the first 3 letters match
 
in other news, bright minds are needed in the chain puzzle room because i'm drawing a blank on how to proceed :P
exactly, 3/6 letters
 
9:18 PM
@PrinceNorthLæraðr, Deepthinker has renamed themself to "Prince Deepthinker".
 
I don't know
But they have
 
I feel attacked
 
@bobble Lol. Apparently 'Deepthinker' on itself was too humble
 
9:36 PM
Prince South Dæpðinker
 
10:08 PM
Gross
 
10:37 PM
@jafe lol
 
10:56 PM
1
Q: Spider Solitaire - maximum number of cards in a single column

happystarWhat is the maximum number of cards you can have in a single column of four-suit Spider Solitaire? The diagram below has 11 cards in column 2, more than any other column. Obviously, the correct answer is much bigger than 11. Assume standard rules: start with 54 cards in the tableau with only 10 f...

 
11:27 PM
@bobble bruh
@jafe omg how
nice surface haha
 
Avi
bass + avi = KAPLAN?
oh, bass Avi
 
Kaplan is "bass Avi" (see link above)
Nice clue.
 
How did you find that?
 
11:43 PM
ah
Darrrnnnn you jafe
 
I was about to make a joke interpreting "darn" as "to fix with needle & thread", but I couldn't think of a good one.
 
@bobble I saw that the wordplay worked out to Kaplan if the definition was "bass Avi", so I Googled "Avi Kaplan" and discovered that he is was the bass of Pentatonix.
 
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