The Sphinx's Lair

Deusovi

05:21

Hey everyone. I posted a thing.

0

Preramble Anyone who knows me knows that I like metapuzzles. I love when seemingly unrelated things come together into a satisfying conclusion. I've had a few ideas for new ones recently, but I didn't just want to use cryptic clues again. I had another idea - what if the component puzzles weren'...

discussion

Tell me if the thing sounds good.

Alconja

06:04

posted a response...

Puzzling Meta

06:16

0

Q: Community Metapuzzle

Preramble Anyone who knows me knows that I like metapuzzles. I love when seemingly unrelated things come together into a satisfying conclusion. I've had a few ideas for new ones recently, but I didn't just want to use cryptic clues again. I had another idea - what if the component puzzles weren'...

discussion

Beastly Gerbil

0

Q: An overheard business meeting, a leader and a fight

Greatly inspired from Alconja's puzzle - An overheard gang meeting, a double agent, and a murder, though the answer is completely different... I was going to work when I heard some voices the other side of a wall. I stopped to listen... [The conversation had just started when I began list...

enigmatic-puzzle

@Alconja hope you don't mind, but posted a puzzle inspired from yours :P

Alconja

06:33

@BeastlyGerbil Not at all. :) Be interesting to see if it starts a trend.

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

06:56

13

Q: Find the treasure before Dargloc does

Some time ago I met an old man who handed me a scrap of paper and told me: Dargloc - the treasure hunter is searching. You must be quicker. The key to success is to obey the rule: "If Dargloc rests now? You have to hurry." But do not dare to repeat yourself. Then he disappeared while I was ...

riddle wordplay enigmatic-puzzle story visual

Sconibulus

13:34

Good morning, one and all

dcfyj

'lo

Rosie F

@Sconibulus Afternoon.

Sconibulus

how are you

Rosie F

@Sconibulus Waiting for my injured finger to heal

dcfyj

Not supposed to hurt yourself

@Sconibulus I hope my puzzle doesn't ninja yours

Sconibulus

13:49

@RosieF That doesn't sound good, what happened?

Rosie F

@dcfyj Car parks aren't supposed to have bits of kerb in the middle of them. but this one did.

Sconibulus

Eh, my puzzle was really just a first paw at Rebuses

dcfyj

@RosieF No idea what you're referring to, but I figure something was there that you weren't expecting and therefore your finger got the brunt of it.

Rosie F

@Sconibulus Visited my dad -- went there by train. Was just walking through the station car park there, and caught my boot on a bit of kerb. And tripped and fell. Grazed a knee & bruised a finger. Part of the car park's on a slope so I suppose the kerbs are to stop parked cars rolling back.

Sconibulus

@dcfyj yours looks really hard

Sid

13:56

@RosieF That sounds bad.

dcfyj

@Sconibulus There are quite a few hints in it pointing to the answer

Rosie F

14:13

@Sid Blimmin painful, too. And it was on a Sunday, too. There are some shops and stuff near the station but it's only a small suburb and shops were shut :(

Sid

Was looking at this forgotten puzzle.. puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/40424/…

Sconibulus

14:31

@Sid That looks almost like it could be sounds of speech?

dcfyj

@Sid Makes me think of a musical instrument. Just don't know which one...

Puzzles are weird... I want people to solve them quickly but at the same time I don't want them to solve it at all lol

Sid

@dcfyj Confused means anagram?? And is the weird arrangement important?

dcfyj

No, confused is just because it's not really a poem.

Don't look to deeply into the title, it's just that, a title.

Sconibulus

14:47

Oh, I thought we had to rearrange the words to make poems

dcfyj

I don't think I've ever been misleading with my tags, but I could be remembering wrong.

I'll add a note to steer people away from the title.

And yes sid, I purposefully ignored your second question as that's for you to find out ^^

For those of you just getting in here we're talking about this

manshu

hehe

dcfyj

?

Or is that why you came in here? :P

manshu

I was really confused about the puzzle you were talking about

Ankoganit

@manshu Theythey, meme, sheshe

dcfyj

14:52

lol

you forgot youyou which I guess would actually be W

Ankoganit

Wait, meme is a word!

manshu

i..i....i don't know what to say

Ankoganit

@dcfyj Haha

dcfyj

right you are manshu, we both forgot ii

Ankoganit

@dcfyj I second that.

manshu

14:54

but you didn't second me

Ankoganit

It's getting punny

manshu

itit

Ankoganit

@manshu Okay, I minute you, that's 60 times better. Happy?

Rosie F

My my, this is getting repetitive.

Sconibulus

wotwot?

Ankoganit

14:56

Interestingly, itit occurs backward in repititive

manshu

Why? Why God, Why?

Sid

I am still laughing at the first answer meta.puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/5114/…..

Ankoganit

Let's move on to palindromes:
'WTF' FTW!

dcfyj

@manshu InformationTechnologyInformationTechnology?

manshu

@Ankoganit a toyota's a toyota

dcfyj

14:57

palindrome, which isn't a palindrome

Ankoganit

@manshu You missed "race fast; safe car" :P

Sconibulus

No, sir, away! A papaya war is on!

dcfyj

I think this one wins :P

manshu

damn n mad

Rosie F

Eva, can I stab live evil bats in a cave?

dcfyj

15:01

My bad, I meant to share this one

manshu

I once found an palindromic poem.

dcfyj

fun

Sconibulus

@dcfyj Those appear to lack meaning

dcfyj

Did it rhyme?

manshu

I don't remember

dcfyj

15:02

Only 1 d in my name I'm afraid, so you couldn't be talking to me :P

manshu

shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/palindrome.html

Sconibulus

oops, I'm the worstest

manshu

oh..then who is the most worstest?

dcfyj

detartrated!

@manshu Boo, they did the words not the letters.

manshu

oh.. now I know how much it fits this scenerio

Sconibulus

15:05

Hmm... Palindromic Riddle... Challenge Accepted!

4

manshu

Should I disclose my fav. puzzle of all time? Maybe not coz it would be too obvious at this time..

but still..

dcfyj

Is it a chesnut?

manshu

78

Q: Find the letters that complete these five patterns

Complete the last line in each of the following five series: Puzzle 1: "Using" is E "Desist" is I "Visits" is E "Design" is ??? Puzzle 2: "Asia" is H "Cuffs" is S "Ender" is I "Redness" is F "Fuchsia" is ??? Puzzle 3 (advanced): "Pro-tem" and "row" are H "Ties" is K "Cohesion" is A "Casi...

pattern lateral-thinking

this one..

Ankoganit

@manshu Oh yeah. That was...amazing.

dcfyj

I forgot about that one, I remember seeing it a while ago

Rosie F

15:08

Palindromic poetry and more here

manshu

I was very much inspired by this puzzle when I first saw it.. It was simple as well as complicated at the same time..

Rosie F

@Ankoganit I liked that one. such a pity there wouldn't be any point posting another in the same vein here -- the secret's out, now.

dcfyj

You could do it more subtly

Ankoganit

@dcfyj But still...it won't be nearly as great.

Sid

I think, Ankoganit put it perfectly some time ago. Almost all of the sane ideas have been exhausted in this site

dcfyj

15:11

Clearly we need some insane ones then :P

manshu

sanity is an old school now.

Ankoganit

@dcfyj sasomene 1111111

dcfyj

Insane doesn't necessarily mean giberish

Ankoganit

@dcfyj That's not gibberish, that's a rebus!

Sconibulus

In light of the answer (which I would not have got) how about moving the last face inside the DO_NOT sign, and replacing it with an eyeball? — P i 23 mins ago

is he right?

Ankoganit

15:16

@Sconibulus How does eyeball come into play?

Oh okay, I love

Sconibulus

I tried to pick the most important words three words out of each line to symbolize, I feel like introducing I would also lead to needing to introduce symbols for To Be, That, Thou, etc. which I think would have muddled it a bit

dcfyj

@Sconibulus Personally I think it's good as is.

Ankoganit

@dcfyj Agreed.

Sconibulus

ok, thanks

Rosie F

@Sconibulus Still, I think an eye would've improved the rebus. And "2 B".

Sconibulus

15:24

@RosieF 2 B specifically would almost certainly have muddle Truth

and it would make that line longer than the rest, so I'd probably have to figured out 'That' or 'Doth' which I had no ideas for

Ankoganit

@Sconibulus For 'that', you can draw a hat that looks like a 'T' I think. If T-shirt is a thing, why not t-hat.

Sconibulus

I could probably have done a pair of bees for To Be

Ankoganit

One option for 'doth' is:
. H

dot H

dcfyj

Seems as though I put a little too much hot sauce in my mustard. Oops

I may have inadvertently made my puzzle much harder than I intended, I'll have to wait and see...

Hi @BeastlyGerbil, I didn't see you come in

Beastly Gerbil

15:49

I didn't see myself come in either... :P

But here I am

dcfyj

nifty

Beastly Gerbil

Your confused riddle has confused me

dcfyj

Apparently

I think if you read it more carefully it'll help you

Looking at some of your reasons for some of the lines it sounds to me as though you skipped a word or two.

Beastly Gerbil

Thats because I don't know what half the words mean :P

dcfyj

Well, look them up ^^

There are quite a few hints written into the puzzle

Sconibulus

16:00

Loops, Secret, Far, even as drab mob lives.
Are we not drawn onward to new eras?
Evil bombards; an ever after cesspool.

dcfyj

Why not post it as a question?

Sconibulus

because it's probably Too Broad

also because I don't like it enough

Sid

@BeastlyGerbil Nice puzzle today. I liked oleslaw answer a bit better to be honest, but that might be because I don't know British coins...

Beastly Gerbil

Yeah the problem with my puzzle is it is country specific

dcfyj

Yeah, I saw the coin one and immediately thought, "no way I would've gotten that"

At first I thought it was tarot cards though.

Sconibulus

16:07

Is there a good way to determine what is and isn't general knowledge?

dcfyj

No idea, I don't really delve in that too much

Just think of how likely it is to be known and look at it that way I guess.

I would classify the answer to mine as general knowledge.

Sconibulus

well, @Sid basically implied this weekend that people didn't know any non-Greek mythology, and it got me questioning why I know the things that I know, and whether other people would know them at all

dcfyj

I know some norse, egyptian and a little roman and aztec mythos, but I know greek best. It is the most talked about after all :P

Sconibulus

It's the most written down :)

dcfyj

yup

Sconibulus

16:13

well, that and the ones that are still alivish today

Abrahammic, Hindu, etc.

dcfyj

I think @WeShall got distracted haha

Lukas Rotter

Just saw someone getting his head crushed with a stone online... What a perfect way to start the evening... not. I guess I need to work on a puzzle now in order to think of something else :P

dcfyj

There's always mine :P it seems to be stumping people at the moment.

Sconibulus

glows bright blue, flammable, annoyingly obedient, shiny(blue), Emrakulish, Friendly towards birds, and worshipped...

Sigarda?

dcfyj

lol, what's Sigarda?

Sconibulus

16:25

It fits story version better than card version

dcfyj

I guess, because that card doesn't really fit lol

I hate it when people are on the right track but on the wrong one at the same time. It makes it kind of hard to point them the right way...

Lukas Rotter

17:09

The fortnight is over, the highest-voted and most-viewed puzzles have not been edited into the stats, and the new topic (probably mechanical-puzzles) has not been officially announced. I'd have no problem with editing the stats of the 17th fortnight answer (I'll probably do it) but I feel weird posting the 18th fortnight, especially because someone in power would have to remove that entry from the suggested topics. Could a moderator please do that (rand hasn't been online the last 22hrs)?

dcfyj

It's really annoying when people dv and don't say why...

Lukas Rotter

17:25

@Deusovi @GentlePurpleRain and @ everyone who can delete posts: Sorry for pinging, but the 18th topic challenge should be announced. I don't want to post it since I can't remove topic proposals from here and therefore am not "qualified" to post it, since the votes of it could change as long as the suggestion is still there and the topic has not been officially announced.

GentlePurpleRain

@LukasRotter Go ahead and post. I will delete the answer.

@dcfyj Don't worry about it. It could just be that people don't like that type of puzzle. It's unreasonable to expect an explanation for every downvote, just like it would be unreasonable to expect one for every upvote.

dcfyj

It would still be nice to know what I could do to make it better :(

GentlePurpleRain

@dcfyj Of course it would, but I think it's unrealistic to expect it. I've seen some people put a note in their question asking for feedback on their puzzle, and it sometimes works. You could try that.

Lukas Rotter

@GentlePurpleRain Thanks. IIRC It was suggested by Emrakul?

GentlePurpleRain

@LukasRotter Correct. (Sorry, should have made sure you had the info before deleting...)

Sid

17:36

@GentlePurpleRain too broad this? puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/44366/…

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

12

Q: What is the next image?

Which image (1-5) could replace the blank tile? Hints: 1. 2. 3. 4. Big one.

pattern visual

Beastly Gerbil

When a question has 12 answers it is generally too broad

GentlePurpleRain

@Sid Probably. Why don't you VTC or flag it?

Sconibulus

@Sid I don't think so? None of the answers that are there (even though there are a lot) look like they're actually good

Sid

I have flagged it now. I didn't do it earlier because, the answers didn't explain the hints although they did explain the main lines of the riddle...

Sconibulus

17:41

well, maybe there are two decent ones

Sid

You know, something has gone wrong when people start posting Samsung Galaxy as the answer and it fits the clues(unless it is the correct answer)

Sconibulus

It doesn't fit the clues

why can't you feel a phone that's on fire? That seems like it'd be way easier to feel

The 'Creator' bit also doesn't fit

Sid

Well, the guy tried hard to make it fit..

@dcfyj I got an idea for your riddle...

Oh, sorry never mind.... It doesn't quite fit in with all lines..

Puzzling Meta

0

Q: Fortnightly Topic Challenge #18: Mechanical Puzzles

This is the eighteenth installment of the Fortnightly Topic Challenge described here, with topics suggested and voted on here. This fortnight's topic is mechanical-puzzles (suggested by Emrakul), and will span from the 17th of October to the 30th of October. During this period, we will compile th...

discussion topic-challenge

Rosie F

@PuzzlingMeta How was that decided? I don't see a suggestion of "mechanical puzzles" in the referenced thread. Instead, the answers which are currently the highest-voted are "Unconventional Tag Fusion" and "animals".

Deusovi

17:55

@RosieF When an answer is chosen, it is deleted.

"Mechanical puzzles" had a score of 17.

Rosie F

@Deusovi Ah, I see. I was just too late looking there.

dcfyj

@Sid What was your idea?

Sconibulus

18:10

@dcfyj is there any chance it's from Futurama?

dcfyj

18:21

No, I've not seen that show in forever, so I wouldn't have thought of it. Also The solution to this puzzle is something everyone on SE knows about.

Deusovi

Ooh, I noticed something interesting about the first stanza.

dcfyj

Oh really?

Deusovi

Yep, and the second stanza confirms it. Typing up the answer now.

dcfyj

HAHA! I'm glad someone spotted that huge clue ^^

Deusovi

Is there anything to the first stanza besides that?

dcfyj

18:29

Yes

Go ahead and post your answer and I'll confirm if you're 100% right. I'll wait on the check until you've got all the clues though.

Deusovi

Just did!

dcfyj

I did the formatting to hide that fact a little :P

Deusovi

Hm, really? I think that actually made it easier.

dcfyj

I was worried about that too.

Lukas Rotter

18:58

"You have avoided me long enough." That sounds like a villain talking to someone they are about to kill :D

dcfyj

@Deusovi Apparently I hid the other clues in the first stanza too well...

Alconja

20:44

Guess it's time to give up my day job in favour of full time puzzling...

Deusovi

Well, obviously. Internet points are the most meaningful measure of skill.

Beastly Gerbil

1

A: What is the next image?

Finally!

Alconja

@Deusovi yeah I'm thinking of doing away with a resume altogether, and just linking that screenshot to prospective employers

...though arguably not a great indicator of productivity... ;)

durron597

@Deusovi can anyone help with your spreadsheet

or should i talk here first

Deusovi

21:01

@durron597 Whoops, sorry for the delay. Anyone can work on it!

durron597

i can't edit it, i assume things should go through you?

Deusovi

Wait, really?

I have it set so that anyone can edit.

durron597

wait maybe i can

weird.

oh, that works too

@Deusovi my big concern is there's no obvious way for how to combine the clues, and also we don't know what the dashes mean

Deusovi

The dashes are minus signs.

durron597

PEN + ULTIMATE are both in the first section

Deusovi

21:03

And what do you mean about "combining the clues"?

durron597

PEN + ULTIMATE = PENULTIMATE

Deusovi

Yeah - I don't think the sections actually matter

Hey @DanRussell!

Dan Russell

Hey, just checking in.

Nice work so far!

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter Thanks for updating and posting that! :-) I was busy IRL for much of today.

@GentlePurpleRain These days I often include a clearly demarcated feedback section at the end of my answer when solving riddles.

durron597

@Deusovi why hearing though?

Deusovi

21:12

homophone clue

durron597

oh derp

Rosie F

@durron597 Cue cartoon

Deusovi

@RosieF I love Pearls Before Swine!

Rosie F

@Deusovi I don't follow it, and I saw that one only because it came up in a blog entry on Language Log, which is hosted at.... U. Penn.

Deusovi

Heh.

durron597

21:24

@Neon612 @Deusovi i think "in retrospect" is going to be something backwards there

Deusovi

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too

Lukas Rotter

@Randal'Thor No problem! I kinda fear the next fortnight though, I'm not too sure about that whole tag fusion thing... I think the best way is to announce a specific tag and allow questions that fuse this tag with a tag that is not usually used in this combination, i.e. option 3 of the first post in this chat room. I'm not sure how to determine what's "unconventional", though. The best way IMO is a data.se query.

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter Well, I've already posted my view on Option 3.

in Unconventional Tag Fusion, Oct 2 at 16:34, by Rand al'Thor

Option 3 looks like a good compromise, but it also feels too much like just an ordinary topic challenge, focused around one tag.

Deusovi

I honestly don't think leaving it up to user discretion will be a problem.

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Which Lukas linked to in the message you're replying to :-)

Deusovi

21:26

...

I should really take a nap or something. Ignore that. :P

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter How would a Data.SE query work though? I don't think it's fair to define "unconventional" in any quantifiable way. Better for people to just keep track of the new questions and add them to the list on meta manually.

Deusovi

But anyway, I don't see how "unconventional tag fusion" by itself would be too much of an issue.

I don't think it's too broad, in any case. (Besides, a bit of broadness is probably useful for topic challenges.)

durron597

@Deusovi leg as a "part" seems a stretch

Rosie F

@durron597 Part of a journey or part of a body?

Deusovi

^

durron597

21:31

but like anything could be a part then

Deusovi

IMO It's the only reasonable way to interpret that first part.

Lukas Rotter

@Randal'Thor For a fairly popular tag (say over 100 questions) take the tags the tag is least likely to be tagged with. (one can also set a minimum for the tags, so that no combination like "riddle" + "mother-goose" or something will emerge) Of course the quality of this test can only be determined after actually performing such a query, as I also do have my concerns with it. I just think "unconventional" is too broad and users will take advantage of that. But maybe I'm just too pessimistic.

Deusovi

And the "gel" thing seems like too much of a connection to not be the answer.

@LukasRotter Take advantage of it? How? (And why is that necessarily a bad thing?)

Alconja

@Randal'Thor wouldn't you just leave it to individuals to "nominate" themselves? Why "force" people into the challenge if they weren't deliberately taking part?

Deusovi

@Alconja Yeah, I thought that's what we were doing.

Alconja

21:39

@LukasRotter I linked to a query I the fusion chat which showed uncommon pairings of tags with >100 posts

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter Define "least likely"? Again, I don't think quantifying the definition of "unconventional" would be a good way to do it - there might be tags which have already been used together several times but whose combination is still weird enough that everyone would think of it as "unconventional".

Alconja

@Deusovi yeah, I must admit, I don't really fully understand what the theoretical worst case is here... Only "downside" I see is possibly more entries than usual, and a few where you raise you're eyebrows and think "is that really that unconventional?" (before quickly moving on with your life)

Deusovi

@Alconja Exactly. We've already had some tenuous entries to challenges, and I don't have an issue with them being there. It's not like topic challenges are a matter of life and death or anything.

Rand al'Thor

Indeed. Topic challenges don't even involve rep (which, as we all know, is ~~a matter of life and death~~ just an imaginary number) - it's just a bit of fun.

Alconja

Also to finish the thought, the reason i like the completely open version is that I think (hope) it will result in some really creative ideas at the top end (even if it "lets in" some borderline rubbish at the bottom end).

@Randal'Thor Give me upvotes, or give me death!

Deusovi

21:48

Aw, got downvoted for the "community metapuzzle" thing. D:

Lukas Rotter

@Alconja Thanks, I think that's a useful query to include to give users general ideas.

@Deusovi I just think "unconventional" is too broad and I'd like clear definitions like in the previous topics. Or maybe I just don't like changes :P We'll see how it goes during the next fortnight anyway, i.e. if the world ends or not.

Rand al'Thor

(temporary comment but ongoing laughter) Hey, why won't that speck in the middle of "$\sf Pre\raise.5ex{\tiny\kern.05em r \kern2mu}amble$" wipe offa my screen? — humn 22 mins ago

Heh. I wondered if I was the first to notice :-)

Deusovi

Yeah, I was surprised nobody had pointed it out before then.

Alconja

I noticed... Initially thought you'd buried a meta meta puzzle before I realized.

Rand al'Thor

0

A: Can you figure out my favorite color?

I thought I'd share this, as I find it amusing.

uh?

@Alconja I had to click the edit button to see what that symbol was. At first I thought it was just a speck on my screen like humn, and then I thought it might be a ¬.

Deusovi

21:55

@Randal'Thor Problem solved.

@Alconja I'd considered it! But that would take effort, and I was lazy.

Alconja

@Deusovi hence your outsourcing plan :P

Deusovi

@Alconja No, that was clearly meant to be inclusive of the community! It wasn't a cheap trick to get other people to make my puzzles. I don't know what you're talking about.

:P

Alconja

You'd make a fine politician. :)

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi I think I like that community metapuzzle idea. Another related idea would be to encourage cooperation on crafting puzzles, like when @dcfyj was making one of his cipher puzzles and I rustled up a riddle for him to use as the plaintext.

Deusovi

@Alconja That's a clear violation of the "Be Nice" policy.

Alconja

21:59

Bah, that's more of a guideline, which I interpret as: "[appear, superficially, to] Be [at least somewhat] Nice [to some subset of users, aligned to your cause]"

Rand al'Thor

22:13

Oh, while you're here, @Deusovi, could you fix the featured tags on the topic challenges?

Deusovi

Sure!

Rand al'Thor

Danke :-)

Deusovi

Done - might take a bit to update.

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

23:36

6

Q: Can you figure out my favorite color?

I will start this puzzle with a review of my all time favorite book. This book is about architecture and city planning by authors who worked at a university. Here in the book, there are over 200 chapters. Even though this is a fairly long clue, I won’t discuss all of the chapters. Parking is ...

cipher enigmatic-puzzle computer-puzzle steganography

Dan Russell

23:54

@Deusovi little work ends = "ek", up -> "ke"

Deusovi

ohh

that makes sense

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