The Sphinx's Lair

6:04 AM

posted a response...

Puzzling Meta

6:16 AM

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

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

0

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

Q: Find the treasure before Dargloc does

6:33 AM

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

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

6:56 AM

13

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

1:34 PM

Good morning, one and all

'lo

@Sconibulus Afternoon.

how are you

@Sconibulus Waiting for my injured finger to heal

Not supposed to hurt yourself

@Sconibulus I hope my puzzle doesn't ninja yours

1:49 PM

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

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

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

@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.

@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.

@dcfyj yours looks really hard

1:56 PM

@RosieF That sounds bad.

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

2:13 PM

@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 :(

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

2:31 PM

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

@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

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

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.

2:47 PM

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

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

hehe

?

Or is that why you came in here? :P

I was really confused about the puzzle you were talking about

@manshu Theythey, meme, sheshe

2:52 PM

lol

you forgot youyou which I guess would actually be W

Wait, meme is a word!

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

@dcfyj Haha

right you are manshu, we both forgot ii

@dcfyj I second that.

2:54 PM

but you didn't second me

It's getting punny

itit

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

My my, this is getting repetitive.

wotwot?

2:56 PM

Interestingly, itit occurs backward in repititive

Why? Why God, Why?

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

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

@manshu InformationTechnologyInformationTechnology?

@Ankoganit a toyota's a toyota

2:57 PM

palindrome, which isn't a palindrome

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

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

I think this one wins :P

damn n mad

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

3:01 PM

My bad, I meant to share this one

I once found an palindromic poem.

fun

@dcfyj Those appear to lack meaning

Did it rhyme?

I don't remember

3:02 PM

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

shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/palindrome.html

oops, I'm the worstest

oh..then who is the most worstest?

detartrated!

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

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

3:05 PM

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

4

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

but still..

Is it a chesnut?

Q: Find the letters that complete these five patterns

78

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..

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

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

3:08 PM

Palindromic poetry and more here

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

@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.

You could do it more subtly

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

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

3:11 PM

Clearly we need some insane ones then :P

sanity is an old school now.

@dcfyj sasomene 1111111

Insane doesn't necessarily mean giberish

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

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?

3:16 PM

@Sconibulus How does eyeball come into play?

Oh okay, I love

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

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

@dcfyj Agreed.

ok, thanks

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

3:24 PM

@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

@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.

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

One option for 'doth' is:
. H

dot H

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

3:49 PM

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

But here I am

nifty

Your confused riddle has confused me

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.

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

Well, look them up ^^

There are quite a few hints written into the puzzle

4:00 PM

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

Why not post it as a question?

because it's probably Too Broad

also because I don't like it enough

@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...

Yeah the problem with my puzzle is it is country specific

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.

4:07 PM

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

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.

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

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

It's the most written down :)

yup

4:13 PM

well, that and the ones that are still alivish today

Abrahammic, Hindu, etc.

I think @WeShall got distracted haha

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

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

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

Sigarda?

lol, what's Sigarda?

4:25 PM

It fits story version better than card version

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...

5:09 PM

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)?

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

5:25 PM

@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.

@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.

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

@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.

@GentlePurpleRain Thanks. IIRC It was suggested by Emrakul?

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

5:36 PM

@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

When a question has 12 answers it is generally too broad

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

@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

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...

5:41 PM

well, maybe there are two decent ones

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)

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

Q: Fortnightly Topic Challenge #18: Mechanical Puzzles

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

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

@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".

5:55 PM

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

"Mechanical puzzles" had a score of 17.

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

@Sid What was your idea?

6:10 PM

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

6:21 PM

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.

Ooh, I noticed something interesting about the first stanza.

Oh really?

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

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

Is there anything to the first stanza besides that?

6:29 PM

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.

Just did!

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

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

I was worried about that too.

6:58 PM

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

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

8:44 PM

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

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

1

A: What is the next image?

Finally!

@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... ;)

@Deusovi can anyone help with your spreadsheet

or should i talk here first

9:01 PM

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

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

Wait, really?

I have it set so that anyone can edit.

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

The dashes are minus signs.

PEN + ULTIMATE are both in the first section

9:03 PM

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

PEN + ULTIMATE = PENULTIMATE

Yeah - I don't think the sections actually matter

Hey @DanRussell!

Dan Russell

Hey, just checking in.

Nice work so far!

@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.

@Deusovi why hearing though?

9:12 PM

homophone clue

oh derp

@durron597 Cue cartoon

@RosieF I love Pearls Before Swine!

@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.

Heh.

9:24 PM

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

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too

@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.

@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.

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

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

9:26 PM

...

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

@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.

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.)

@Deusovi leg as a "part" seems a stretch

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

^

9:31 PM

but like anything could be a part then

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

@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.

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?)

@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?

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

9:39 PM

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

@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".

@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)

@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.

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.

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!

9:48 PM

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

@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.

(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 :-)

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

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

A: Can you figure out my favorite color?

0

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 ¬.

9:55 PM

@Randal'Thor Problem solved.

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

@Deusovi hence your outsourcing plan :P

@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

You'd make a fine politician. :)

@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.

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

9:59 PM

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]"

10:13 PM

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

Sure!

Danke :-)

Q: Can you figure out my favorite color?

Done - might take a bit to update.

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

11:36 PM

6

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

11:54 PM

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