The Sphinx's Lair - 2020-12-31

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12:43 AM

Would be exciting if the Discord channel had more people

1:01 AM

0

Q: RIP Puzzling! (#1)

May 28, 2024 - On htttps://puzzling2.exchange.com/ The workflow of questions is normal, everything is good on this new site; yet let's see what's happening on our father site, the great htttps://puzzling.stackexchange.com? You looked in there, and to my surprise, I saw nothing! There was only a m...

1:13 AM

Next time before using a real user's name, could you please ask first? Relevant meta post; this basically says that you should ask for permission before using a name and remove it upon request if it's unnecessary. (By the way, consider this my request to remove my username from your puzzle) — bobble 30 secs ago

twice in one week...

sheesh

Oof

Peoples online privacy should be completely under there control, and however much personal info they decide to be made public should also be there’s to control but sadly the internet can make that pretty hard sometimes

It's not exactly about privacy - my username is public information, as well as how I'm bad at riddles

it's that I don't like being used in puzzles that I didn't consent to

True, but in general as well

Oh I looked at the puzzle when it first came out and had assumed you must have discussed the puzzle somehow

1:23 AM

okay i'm leaving. Anon25, that was uncalled for

For puzzles which aren’t in some way ‘praising’ the user, and are just using the username as part of filler, then consent should definitely be asked for I feel. If they are more ‘praising’ in some way then I don’t think it’s as bad, but it would still be polite

But that definitely falls in the first category

yikes, a spicy end to a spicy year :( hope you're ok @bobble, I understand how you feel <3

"a spicy year" is an understatement tbh

oh I know :( but I kept it language-appropriate

i'm fine, just annoyed and then Anon25's comment tipped me over the edge

Prince North Læraðr

1:38 AM

Uh-oh

What's going on?

(to be clear, Anon25: i wasn't comfortable with your joke because i've known you for less time, so there's not a history to build banter off of)

someone used my name in a puzzle without permission, i was publicly annoyed, Anon25 (i think jokingly) said i had a "temper"

I know they are a ‘new user’ here, but their bio in their profile is rather hypocritical here considering...

we can't do anything about profiles, though

@bobble I’m annoyed for you, it doesn’t cost anything to be polite :)

I’ve only seen it for the first time and thought it was rather funny considering

what's "it"?

Prince North Læraðr

1:42 AM

I think... we need to perhaps reaffirm the "permission before using people's name" policy

^

The bio, which they linked as part of a complaint rather than apology.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr agreed. Personally I wouldn’t have a problem with my name being used, as long as I’m not in some way being insulted (in a not obviously joking way) but it’s always polite

I'd be willing to write the PSA, except that i've been procrastinating on North's clues

you would prefer being asked beforehand, I assume

Prince North Læraðr

I've cast a lot of downvotes, per that user's question on their bio. And I have no qualms about it

I've been voting less recently both due to less puzzles and due to me not feeling like it. But I have also cast a lot of downvotes

Prince North Læraðr

1:45 AM

It's part of what runs the site well

roughly 19% of my votes are downvotes

It’s different for every user, personally I don’t too much about permission, but I recognise that it’s polite. Then again, I’ve been here a long time and I guess am probably somewhat recognised. But if you don’t know if the user is comfortable with their name being used, then you should ask

(just ran the numbers)

Prince North Læraðr

14% for me

Downvotes help to show what’s actively ‘disliked’ so if you’re doing something that’s getting downvotes... it’s probably a sign people don’t like it

1:47 AM

lol only 2.75%, clearly I need to be more harsh

Prince North Læraðr

Nah, it means you've dealt with less spam/trash

I ran a query a while back, and there's one user who has >100 downvotes and maybe 10-ish upvotes?

I can’t see on mobile, but I know I have a rather large percentage

15% for you

But @Prince is right, there’s a lot of spam management involved

Danke

Prince North Læraðr

1:48 AM

I believe a user while back (can't remember who, I think it might've been rand) once said that the more active you are, the more you start to use downvotes

I agree with that

I’ve been ‘withholding’ upvotes more recently, and only really upvoting things I think really deserve it

Prince North Læraðr

^

My commenting and editing has gone up while voting has gone down a bit

The best start for 2021 would be for @Alconja to come out of nowhere and drop something mind boggling :P

should their edit be rolled back as a meta-comment?

*latest edit

1:52 AM

Although Deus would probably have it solved before I’d finished reading

Yes, that should be rolled back

I cant do it on mobile, but I’m sure someone here is able to

It’s in the comments, so doesn’t need to be in the question

done, and added a comment for emphasis

We shouldn’t be too harsh, they are pretty much a new user and possibly quite young. I was one of them once too, and you can be somewhat insensitive without meaning to be. But at the same time, you have to learn manners and how to act online somewhere

And I’m not overly impressed with the reaction...

who's reaction?

Theirs

The initial issue wasn’t that major, it was just a ‘don’t do it again please’ thing

And a matter of politeness

But they didn’t take the criticism well and now it’s a bit more of an issue

On a more positive note... I have almost completed checking the 14 sudokus I’ve been making

there's a line between being accepting of new users and willfully judging someone's character. Yes, new users can't be expected to know all the rules straightaway, but if I were in the position of discovering that I had upset another user, I would apologise profusely and offer to right the wrong in any way possible

Prince North Læraðr

2:03 AM

@BeastlyGerbil Nice

Also who created the FTC Bot? It’s very impressive and cool and I only realised it existed the other day

Ahhh @LukasRotter I should have guessed, very impressive!

Although... will it ever ‘stop’

Hey folks, I had a super simple riddle I wanted to post on your main site but it is apparently too short. It gets kicked back for not meeting quality standards. I really just want to see how fast it would be solved. I could write an intro, or I could just post it here. Wanna hear it? Or would it be better form to write an intro and post it on main?

If it’s simple as in easy, I’d recommend posting here, but if it’s simple as in short but clever, then the main site would love to have it! It’s more than acceptable to have a short intro at the start of the riddle too

heading off on a 3.5 hour drive north (direction, not with the user North), will be on sporadically over the next 4 days depending on internet signal

@BeastlyGerbil Ha! I'm not sure if it's easy! You people impress the hell out of me with your cleverness. I'll post it though. No guts, no glory.

2:15 AM

@Jolenealaska sounds like it’s perfect for the site then :P sometimes short and sweet can produce the best puzzles too. After all, our top post is only a few lines long

@Dmihawk enjoy! Must be good to have a trip of some sorts, I haven’t been outside perhaps a few mile radius of my house all year :P

2 hours later…

4:39 AM

Welp, no, because the question just said "points" which means that squares are made with the connections between points and each line segment connecting them would consist of two points, and since points are the only specified unit, then one point would be considered a 1x1. — Timothy Chen 1 min ago

a) could've done without the snark

b) i don't think that's how units work

I think they are talking about a 1x1 grid of points, rather than a 1x1-sized square as the wording implies

"choose a 1x1 square which only has one vertex"

that's quite clearly a "square" that's just a point

(pulled from the answer)

yes

Also, to clarify, a 0x0 is considered a square because 0^2 is "zero squared" which includes "squared", and therefore is related to a square. — Timothy Chen 58 secs ago

that's what i meant by "a 1x1 grid"

4:43 AM

but the question asks about a square, not a grid

well of course, I'm not saying the answer is valid

just pointing out where the confusion might be coming from

i am unsure how to refute them - how to? is it worth it?

@bobble whether 0x0 is a square or not depends on your definitions (it's usually not), but that is definitely not the right reasoning why

@bobble honestly there's no good way to refute answers that use unconventional alternate interpretations to give cheeky answers

maybe raise a flag and be done with it

what flag?

we do have a policy against lateral thinking answers to non-lateral-thinking puzzles

4:47 AM

is that mod or NAA or VLQ?

Probably custom mod flag?

5:41 AM

@Dmihawk heh, I like to think I would do the same, but… shrugs dunno till I'm tried

6:37 AM

@BeastlyGerbil almost completely unnecessary, but "Times" in your latest puzzle lacks an apostrophe :P

7:32 AM

Editor in me loves it

2 hours later…

9:03 AM

0

Q: Hundred prisoners

I got a riddle that I can't figure out. A hundred prisoners are waiting to be executed. The warden comes to them with an offer. He will give each one of them a secret number, from 1 to 100, not all the numbers must appear and some may repeat. If even one of them can guess their own number all of ...

9:35 AM

@oAlt fixed :P

1 hour later…

10:48 AM

2

Q: Detective Dad is on the case!

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #46: "Tales From the Cryptic" The house was quiet... Suspiciously so. The father of the house knew immediately that something was wrong. A crime had been committed. The suspects were three boys – let's call them suspects A, B, and C – and three girls, susp...

story cryptic-crosswords

\o @Jolene

Long time no see

11:06 AM

@Mithical Hello! I've been around but not very talkative of late. 2020 has been a bitch. I'm about to post my very first puzzle. I'm all aquiver :)

11:19 AM

Good luck! And yeah, 2020 sucks, but hopefully better than... 2018? was for you

(as in personally, not globally)

11:35 AM

@Jolenealaska I’m almost certain I have it solved (and it’s very clever, if what I’m thinking is right) just need to work out the middle line

fun!

Got it I think :)

3

Q: A short riddle of violence and peace

Raise yourself to strike me down, and I will defeat you. I promise. You lose, I win Seen through lenses tinted by human anguish, I could be mistaken for a goose-stepping Nazi at your BLM march. But, I’m not evil. I’m vanquished by the slightest gesture of peace and love. Who am I? Who are you?

1 hour later…

1:04 PM

@Sphinx That went well even if it was quickly solved.

@BeastlyGerbil Nicely done, you clever gerbil.

1:37 PM

@Jolenealaska it was a very nice riddle! I personally think that riddles which take something somewhat common and twist into something completely different are the best type of riddles, and this was a nice example

Also, updated the answers to who am I/you to rock and paper

1:48 PM

@Sphinx ooh, exciting

1 hour later…

3:05 PM

0

Q: Logic involving graphics

Suppose that each class of the three below represents a different species and this graph represents a characteristic of them. How many species are possible to differentiate with this characteristic alone? All three, because they are visually separated. Only the gray, because it is more distant ...

Gareth McCaughan

@jafe Your "Detective Dad" crossword was fun.

aw beat me to it

Gareth McCaughan

Sorry!

i've got all but 5D and some of the stolen items

Gareth McCaughan

I started it before you did, though I had to take some time out for lunch so I suspect we had similar amounts of working time.

If you have completely satisfactory answers to 48a and 23d then you're ahead of me in those places.

3:08 PM

yep, i do - left a comment

Gareth McCaughan

5d was a fairly early one for me, though it was quite some time before I figured out exactly what had been done to that clue.

Ah, very convincing answers to my two remaining points of puzzlement. Thanks!

(And that reminds me that I didn't actually say what was happening with the paired clues, which if I had would probably have given away 48a. Fixing now.)

oh i just realized why i was having so much trouble

i found an alternate theft for 34d

Gareth McCaughan

oh!

I think that was the last or second-last one I found.

ugh, I realise that I also forgot to explain how Exhibit C was obtained. I promise I didn't deliberately cut corners in order to beat a Hypothetical Deusovi.

oh, forgot to mention that i was finished; agreed that it was fun!

re: 34d, though - what i found was (rot13)gur nmreonvwnav ZNANG, which works perfectly

Gareth McCaughan

That's pretty good! Though I think the intended theft is a marginally better one even aside from the fact that it yields the right extraction.

3:22 PM

possibly? seems about equal to me - i've seen the relevant part of my version used as a direct crossword clue for that exact substring before

in any case it wasn't bad enough that i discarded it

oh also - your explanation of the culprit isn't exactly correct

you need to reparse exhibit C (and look at the first paragraph again)

Gareth McCaughan

oh, I see what you mean

(I feel that for the sake of my pride I should say that I typed that before your "you need ..." reached me :-).)

(figured as much by how quickly you responded)

Gareth McCaughan

incidentally, I'm not sure what you mean by "forgot to mention that i was finished" -- if you mean you'd completely solved it when I posted my answer, then what was the bit about "all but 5D and some of the stolen items"? (Not that it particularly matters; I'm just puzzled.)

I maintain that my original interpretation of Exhibit C was acceptable, but there's no question at all that yours is much better. :-)

ah, no, i mean i forgot to mention in here for a few minutes that i was also done

Gareth McCaughan

I did indeed only just barely ninja you, then. Still, I'll take it :-).

3:49 PM

@Anonymus25 If you suspect it's invalid, that's reason IMO to post a hint sooner, since invalid puzzles have a broader range of mechanisms to try and therefore are harder.

4:19 PM

Belated/Advanced/(N/A) Happy New Year!

The story was removed because multiple people involved were uncomfortable. It's still there in the edit history if you really want to see users say horrible things they never would in real life. — bobble 15 hours ago

question: did I attack Avigrail here?

I ask because they said I did and apparently they flagged my comment, and if I did something wrong I want to know what.

It was perhaps a bit passive aggressive, after all Avigrail did it as a joke and didn't mean to insult anyone. I think it was obvious from the pretext that they weren't insinuating we'd said those things. They probably felt like you were saying they did it to make you/us look bad, when of course we know thats not what you meant

But again its the issue of asking permission and usage of peoples characters in different contexts

Its also very hard to judge tone on the internet, so what might seem fine when typing it might come across completely different in a way you didn't mean to someone else, especially when its some form of criticism of something someone has made

hmm, was not intended to be passive-aggressive, but then I am not good at judging tone

But no I don't think you 'attacked' them

Ha timing :P

I guess I just have to wait to see if the flag is validated, since I think a helpful Offensive flag decreases rep by 100

4:31 PM

Some people will create a puzzle, and have high hopes for it, and then when it doesn't do as well as you imagine, and theres an issue for instance, criticism can feel like youre being attacked, even if the comments are meant well and are in the puzzles best interest

I highly doubt the flag will be validated

It's not an insult or anything as such, more a misunderstanding

4:58 PM

agh i don't think this person understands image descriptions

one suggested edit "added" an image description of "answer". not useful

another removed part of the image description

what's more, the removed part contains important information required to solve the puzzle

grr

rejected

and another: changing the description from "grid" to "grid of flags" is no improvement; that was clear from the text and you've added no useful information

Actually, there's a simpler way instead of writing another PSA: a mod could add [featured] to the original meta question (and maybe a note that the highest-voted answer is the accepted policy) to bring more attention to it.

1 hour later…

6:19 PM

(to chatters: my latest puzzle has been solved in chat. please don't cheat, honor code, all that)

0

Q: Tetrikabe: Parallelogram

Rules: (Nurikabe section shamelessly stolen from an earlier puzzle by @jafe) Numbered cells are unshaded. Unshaded cells are divided into regions, all of which contain exactly one number. The number indicates how many unshaded cells there are in that region. SPECIAL RULE: the regions will form ...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

6:53 PM

Happy new year amigos

you're in the future

(It's 11AM on Dec. 31 for me)

Prince North Læraðr

^

Time traveler!!!!!

7:37 PM

@bobble I have a solution (I think) but my logic involved guessing so I won't post it :)

There is a logical solution, but it requires some complicated looking-ahead at some points.

Yeah I think I've worked out the important cell, as in the one to involve the logic around, but I can't find the logic to see why its not what it is if that makes any sense

the intended path has a bunch of global logic, if that helps

7:51 PM

GRRR smartest1here posted without explanation

last Tetrikabe it was Deepthinker

if people could just NOT do that it would be nice

Prince North Læraðr

This is too much of an issue for me to handle, and you're going to stop me from saying anything huh? So whenever you mention me I'm not going to respond unless some positive feedback has been received. BYE — zixuan is bad at Puzzling 4 hours ago

I mean... okay

We've dealt with users like this in the past and I don't know... they always act as though them leaving is the biggest deal in the world

The "Downvote Effect" in their profile basically says that a highly-downvoted post is likely to accrue move downvotes and... yes? If it's downvoted in the first place then it's probably bad/low quality, and if it's bad/low quality then it will be downvoted more.

Prince North Læraðr

Also, they talk about the "downvoting effect" in their profile bio, which is a real thing, but like, it's not just a phenomenon of bandwagoning

^

Also geez you have 6k reps?! I need to start catching up but I have school work ;-;

I do not care if they leave. Well, okay I care a little bit: there might be slightly less poor content (as judged by downvotes) posted. But I don't really follow users unless they're actively annoying me.

ooh, i have more Puzzling rep then you have network rep

i am winning this completely useless battle!

go me!

Prince North Læraðr

Grrrr

If I only had more time to make content!

8:06 PM

i have no school work for all of break

Prince North Læraðr

It's self-imposed work for me

i planned it out so all outstanding stuff was finished on the last Friday

Prince North Læraðr

We didn't have work, but I'm studying ahead

So I don't fail my classes for next semester ;-;

you did not fail

Prince North Læraðr

My semester ended when we went on break so

@bobble C+ in Pre-Calc H and a B in AP Physics is not a great grade :/

8:07 PM

you simply got lower than expected grades

fail = F

Prince North Læraðr

Well it's a D in my school

Bc a grade lower than a C means you didn't pass, so you have to re-take that course

you didn't get that either

Prince North Læraðr

Still... colleges :/

you are smart tree who has trouble with some math stuff

Prince North Læraðr

Well I do have music stuff that I'm working on

I would share it except it has my real name

Well I guess I can fix that. Hold on

Hnnng I'm too lazy to remove my real name tho :/

8:12 PM

laziness is valid

Prince North Læraðr

Yas but so is my privacy

Nice tetrikabe puzzle bobble...thanks!

Prince North Læraðr

Because some of my scores also have my real name, and I would like those to remain public

Gah!

Hm

I was ridiculously pleased with how difficult the end was; for Tetrikabes I can only really force the starting deductions and then all my 4s are locked in.

user image

for North, a distraction

we got a bunny stroller as the bunnies' Christmas present

Prince North Læraðr

Okay, I'll just upload the score audio onto google drive and share it. It's suboptimal because the score isn't done, but whatever

I would like some feedback

8:16 PM

oh and thanks Jeremy!

Prince North Læraðr

Hm, does Google Drive actually handle midi files?

shrug

Prince North Læraðr

Nope

2021 for me😎

Prince North Læraðr

Whatever, I'll share the musescore link under the condition that y'all won't go snooping around onto my other scores

Or I'll just unlist all of them actually for now

8:22 PM

Happy New Year to all who have entered 2021 by now. Hope this community has an even better year than 2020.

Prince North Læraðr

Now musescore won't load for me. Great :D

Hm, but I kind of want to flex my arrangements tho

You know what, some other day

musescore.com/user/20640026/scores/6316624

Bam

ooh

i feel pity for poor Flute 1

Prince North Læraðr

You'll feel more pity once I add in all the parts :P

it's hard to double-tounge notes at that level and that speed

Prince North Læraðr

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I'll keep that in mind

8:31 PM

it's certainly possible - i've done something like that - but usually you would give it to a group of flutes so one could drop out for a break if needed

Prince North Læraðr

I'll probably slur it so that it doesn't have to be double-tongued

Because that is a bit cruel

after listening to it it is pretty

Prince North Læraðr

It's nowhere near done yet, the parts still need to be filled in, voicing needs work, and chords need to be balanced

The main line of melody and basic chord outline is done though

This is my proudest piece of work though

musescore.com/user/20640026/scores/5629375

Full orch arrangement of "The Sacrifice" from Ori

I think @Sciborg might appreciate it :D

I arranged it last year for a video game concert we had at our school (well at my former middle school)

1 hour later…

9:50 PM

Okay, so there's a hat for posting a message within 12 hours of UTC New Year (As in 0:00 Jan 1). The message has to be starred. SO... anyone willing to star a message of mine 'round then? I'll star you :P

>.<

if you want it on MSE

i am not planning to make an MSE account

And no, I am firmly of the belief that you must earn chat star hats the proper, old-fashioned way: Post something amusing, deadpan, or serious enough that it gets deemed worthy of being stuck on the side of the chat room for people to see it and check back to see what on earth the context was.

:P

So: if you want a star, ya gotta post something funny. *waits expectantly*

well no point now, it's too early

another way to get a star: solve the current C4 so you can post one

no it's not, I've earned it twice already

9:54 PM

or... wait. I'm a RO of a few rooms. do pins count?

they do

great, i should be getting mine soon then

*grumble grumble* yung'uns with no respect for proper chat star hat etiquette *grumble grumble*

you were a young'un once

can you tell me you never did things solely to get hats?

draxnothinggoesovermyhead.gif

@bobble I'm pretty sure I got yelled at by a CM in '16 for doing stuff solely for hats, so does that answer your question

9:58 PM

this is still my favorite message of mine that got starred, and it was by accident :D

and aaayyyyy

it's now officially 2021

(in my timezone)

not here

basically, I can tell because stuff hasn't really started exploding yet :P

in Hawai'i the government banned most fireworks a while back because people were being stupid, so there's a black market now of course

(i don't live in Hawai'i, family does)

here, they did too. You couldn't tell from the sound.

i am five hats ahead of #2! woo!

10:10 PM

I have plenty of hats... mostly social distancing and couple of vexillologists, courtesy of Smokey.

it's kinda hard to chase hats when you're stuck on base most of the week with no computer / keyboard

i am lazing around at home on break with no homework, so i chase hats

Any chance you could talk SEI into giving you a beret?

you are a hat

I'm a hat who covets hats

10:12 PM

@JohnDvorak hmm, I don't think it'd be quite up to military standard unfortunately

0

Q: U cant s0lv th!s haha - who am I?

I got a cryptic (or maybe just junk) message in my inbox today: Delivered-To: <marsnebulasoup@me.com> From: <7u3pu1yq@0sz4aq0.com> Received: by 3166:673:a796:7652:f6a6:571 with SMTP id 6b7263675f61687a66; Thu, 31 Dec 2020 09:34:53 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: 6368336b2d73336e6472 Subject: "U c...

riddle word wordplay cipher

i think i will end this comment debate by not replying, even though i hate giving them the "last word"

or, hmm, I could direct them to chat

@bobble ooh, you have bunnies? cute!

have i not shared pictures of them before?

if you have, i don't remember it (though i have a pretty bad memory)

10:21 PM

also your habit of not capitalizing "i"s has begun to infect me

help, i must overcome this

(also, thoughts on the comment debate over meta-comments?)

technically the reason for capitalizing "i"s in the middle of a sentence is obsolete

...although i don't precisely remember the exact reason, it had something to do with it getting lost, either in handwritten manuscripts or early typing

Marsnebulasoup, welcome to PSE, some rules don't seem to apply to everyone when they should 🙂. — Smartest1here 4 mins ago

ugh

@GarethMcCaughan glad you liked it!

i was worried some of the theft clues would be too difficult, nice to see they were all doable in the end

Gareth McCaughan

Yup. But some of them were pretty tough :-).

10:37 PM

15 mins ago, by bobble

(also, thoughts on the comment debate over meta-comments?)

Prince North Læraðr

It depends on the length

did you see the specific case?

it seems at least one person agrees with the OP there, judging from comment upvotes, and no one agrees with me

Prince North Læraðr

Ah, I see. I'd also agree with you

It does very much look like side commentary, but I wouldn't necessarily say it needs to be edited it out. Maybe I just see them so often that I'm not really bothered by it

I'm not sure how to articulate "that side comment added to the puzzle and gave it greater context, while yours is whining about how a previous puzzle was solved quickly"

Prince North Læraðr

I mean, yeah. Rewan's "side-commentary" wasn't really harming the puzzle

Also, urm, can we more clearly define what a "riddle" is? I've been here for like 3 years and I'm still confused as to what counts as a riddle

10:42 PM

isn't the point of a riddle that it's unclear

0

Q: Why is the answer "Newspaper had a box for the sweetmeat" FUDGE?

This is a clue from a cryptic crossword published in the NZ Herald on January 1st 2021: Newspaper had a box for the sweetmeat. All I can see is that FUDGE is a sweet often kept in a box or tin, but can't see why "meat" or "newspaper" have anything to do with it. Could someone explain why FUDGE ...

cryptic-clues explanation

;P

Prince North Læraðr

I think X person is dumb. That X person happens to hold a sword. Who am I?

Bam, riddle

no, not a riddle, just trivia

Prince North Læraðr

Anyhow, that side commentary at the very least feels like blatant self-promotion, which I'm not against, but ya know, it looks like a side commentary

10:45 PM

In any case... I think the definitions of certain types of puzzles is always going to be slightly fuzzy; different puzzles push the boundaries of different labels and there isn't always a perfect label for something. Sometimes labels wind up with a broader meaning than some people would expect.

There's a seed of a good answer here, but could you edit to make your explanation more explicit, and tidy up your grammar? — bobble 2 mins ago

am i being bossy?

i guess i could've thrown in an unnecessary "please"

Please don't take this the wrong way but I find you rather bossy on here, please make your tone more friendly when interacting with people, I am not a google search engine. — Smartest1here 37 secs ago

reason for question

(also, you're not a google search engine. I'm asking you to make your answer clearer)

basically i'm tired of people telling me i have bad tone when i'm just trying to help

Prince North Læraðr

Grr

That's not nice

11:01 PM

> Now that you've edited your answer, I must say I still find it unclear. "Newspaper had a box", even if there is such a thing as a fudge-box, does not seem to evaluate to "fudge". Also, "for the sweetmeat" wouldn't evaluate to a noun, so there's a part of speech mismatch there.

where should i add a "please" or "thanks" to get through their &*(&*)^ politeness requirements?

Prince North Læraðr

@bobble No, you're actively helping the community out

can you suggest a politeness edit to above comment draft before posting?

Prince North Læraðr

I'm not sure

unless it's already polite enough...?

Prince North Læraðr

Here, I'll comment for you

11:03 PM

i'm doubting myself again

Prince North Læraðr

"As much as I understand you have the best intentions when telling bobble this, calling someone "bossy" is not nice. She's doing the best she can of helping to moderate this site."

How's that?

oh i thought you were going to post an unclearness comment

Prince North Læraðr

That too

@PrinceNorthLæraðr IMO not worth it

the "this answer doesn't make sense" comment needs posting, and I don't particularly care who does, I just got there first so I thought I would

Prince North Læraðr

11:05 PM

@Mithical ok

Do you think they would get mad if I posted my own answer?

probably, but they get mad at lots of stuff

you might even get an anger downvote! oooh

Prince North Læraðr

Still it feels a bit mean to post an answer, but at the same time, I think I could actually explain it a bit better...?

theirs does not in any way make sense

again, part-of-speech mismatches

Just remember, when posting comments: even if you've seen this hundreds of times, it's (generally) still new to the user, so avoid falling into the trap of conflating all new users (it's unfortunately all too common to do so on SE). Secondly, if there's a repeated issue it's often best to disengage and raise a flag at that point.

2

1

Q: $a_n = 2n^2, n \geq 1$ (modified)

Determine the next term in the sequence $2, 4, 8, 0, 0, 16... $ a. 32 b. 18 c. 20 d. 24 e. 0 The obvious answer for me would be 32, with these zeros serving as the "neutral element" of the sequence. But I feel uncomfortable because it's almost like discarding them to produce a sequence like $ 2,...

number-sequence sequence

1

Q: Goodbye to 2020

ACROSS 1. (with 5 across) what many wore in 2020 5. see 1 across 10. a Canadien 13. Warwickshire river 14. a rock, perhaps 15. an airline (2 words) 17. tirade 18. Reagan's "Just ___" (2 words) 19. hipbones 20. mammalian heat 22. fermented milks 24. what many became in 2020 26. Fire Emblem herons...

Prince North Læraðr

11:53 PM

@JeremyDover Well that makes that cryptic clue unusually dissatisfying

@Anonymus25 Clue for your CC, perhaps?

@bobble as Jeremy Dover mentioned, the question is quoting from another source which is likely not Ximenian

Prince North Læraðr

Frustrating, sadly. I thought there was a cool wordplay

Also, any idea on anon's c4?

if they think there might be invalid wordplay i'm not interested in trying to guess exactly how it works

Prince North Læraðr

It might not be invalid tho

will wait for hints/someone else to solve

Prince North Læraðr

11:58 PM

At least trying to figure out potential defs at the very least

"Google" could be ENGINE or just NUMBER

wouldn't that be "google, perhaps"?

Prince North Læraðr

shrugs

well I have to leave anyways

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