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12:07 AM
Is there a good close reason to use for this?
5
Q: Pointlessly difficult to get a meal here, isn't it?

NarmerCarl and Mike are two great friends. They grew up together and stay together a lot. They both LOVE the delicious turkish meal Kebab and eat it very often. One day Carl comes to Mike with great news. "A new fantastic kebab shop recently opened in town!", said Carl. "There are already a lot of ke...

(see the accepted answer)
 
(well, ideally) Maybe, "unclear what you're asking", since it's borderline unintelligible, or "opinion based" since the nonsense "solution" is not provably correct?
 
> I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's stupid.
:-P
I was thinking of "unclear what you're asking" too.
@Alconja @Gareth @MOehm Delete votes on this? It's more like an ELU than a puzzle, but not even that since it's not very well-specified and the OP seems to have an answer in mind already.
 
12:29 AM
Well, it certainly took multiple reads to understand it, which has to be a sign that it's unclear
 
This one is quite b(ro)ad too, even though it's only got a single non-deleted answer.
 
I think what the "pointlessly difficult" one needs is lots of downvotes rather than closing as such. Probably the USB one too. (It seems to me like it does have a definite answer, but the correct version of the definite answer is something like "a computer bus that happens to involve a system component that you could call a driver" which might kinda apply to USB but also to, say, FireWire or SATA but not, e.g., the main data bus coming out of the CPU. Ick.)
 
12:46 AM
@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, you might be right. Unfortunately lots of downvotes are harder to come by, since there's no review queue for downvoting crap questions!
This one should probably be deleted too.
 
@GarethMcCaughan That's what I was going to say, USB is just one type of computer bus. Not to mention it could also be things like "rebus" or "omnibus" or "cumulonimbus"
 
 
5 hours later…
user189275
5:20 AM
@Randal'Thor: Up next (:-) : What's Khale_Kitha trying to tell us:
 
user189275
"I make things so thAt others can Make things. however, wheN others make things, it sOmetimes makes me want to make Things. some things can make otHer people want to makE other people want things, and the Rest of the things can make others want to makE others do other things."
 
user189275
I am not finding anything good except the obvious trivial one (O oo ooo oooo) and a Red herring
 
10:13 AM
Word puzzle gurus: how can I (hypothetically) word a crossword clue that describes things in plural form, but where the answer is expected in singular. Contrived example: "there are seven of these in the world" => "continent"
 
10:33 AM
@Alconja One of seven in the world
@Alconja "One of the Magi" => "Melchior" (say) -- that sort of thing?
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo What makes you think there is anything there except the obvious trivial one?
 
@RosieF but I want the singular term for the collective, not a specific individual. I.e. "continent", not "Asia"
 
@Alconja "Any one of seven in the world"?
(I'm just guessing - I'm certainly no crossword guru)
 
Yeah. That sort of thing was the best I could manage but my example (hypothetically) is even more awkward to word...
Maybe "there are seven examples of this in the world" or something...
 
user189275
10:50 AM
@Randal'Thor Weird words, weird letter count (number of E 30 and T 29 and sudden some), OP's previous puzzles multilayer-ity makes me think so, but I may be wrong.
 
user189275
@Alconja Your next puzzle is confirmed to be a crossword?
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo nothing's ever confirmed for me until it appears on the site... Just messing around with an idea...
Discussions the other day got me thinking
 
user189275
@Alconja Just saying, you may try a go at creating some unconventional tag fusion
 
Well this idea would arguably fit... Though I have multiple other half finished ideas that would too.
Problem for me is that the time I have to work on things is disjointed and sporadic, so guaranteeing a finished product lands in an arbitrary two week window can be a challenge.
(In fact one idea I'd like to get done for tag fusion had already missed two or three other fortnightly challenges that it would've fit in)
 
user189275
@Alconja Why the time limit - it isn't a fortnightly challenge. Besides, haiku one, although being posted late, was standalone too, so I think you better not care about that.
 
user189275
11:01 AM
BTW, Is the tag combination secret? (I am sure it's enigmatic puzzle+crossword+other stuff :P)
 
Yeah, no reason I won't post stuff later... Eventually... Would just be nice for a change to land it on time. :)
@ArbitraryKangaroo no enigmatic this time... But TBD...
Like I said, still just an idea bouncing around. Likely to change a bunch more before (if) it sees the light of day
 
 
3 hours later…
1:33 PM
0
Q: Why was this closed?

SidMy question is specifically based on this puzzle of mine which was closed a few months back on the main site. Now, I failed to understand why it was closed and didn't get a satisfactory answer at that time too. Now, closing puzzles which aren't good enough is fine with me. But, I sincerely beli...

 
1:50 PM
This place is a live wire!
 
2:11 PM
'lo @Deusovi
 
Hey!
 
I seriously hope this puzzle I'm making isn't insanely hard.
 
Hm, which one?
 
Left out a couple words, oops
 
Ah.
 
2:13 PM
Too bad the fortnightly isn't combo-tags, I think this one might fit there :P
I'm finally almost done though, been working on and off on it since last Wednesday or Thursday
 
Nice - can't wait to see it!
 
It's a whopping four tags! My first ^^
 
Sid
Has anyone seen the American TV series survivor?
 
Yes
What about it?
 
Sid
Nothing! I am just posting a puzzle on that.... Probably need to alert people first...
 
2:29 PM
ok...?
 
Sid
Err.. @Deusovi a possible clarification?
 
Hm?
Oh, right. Sorry, got distracted.
 
Well, I'm confused
 
(Recent meta post.)
 
ah that
 
2:39 PM
@Sid the question doesn't really seem to have anything to do with Survivor...
 
It's mentioned, that should count for something :P
 
Sid
Of course not... WHen did I ever say, it had to do with Survivor?
 
19 mins ago, by Sid
Nothing! I am just posting a puzzle on that.... Probably need to alert people first...
:P
 
That was my thought, haha
 
Sid
Well, I hoped people would run looking for trivia on Survivor. But apparently, everyone is too clever for that.. :p
 
2:42 PM
Anyway, the reason I closed your other question (a while back) was because there didn't seem to be anything indicating the actual answer. It seemed more like "guess what I'm thinking" than "use the clues in the story to logically deduce the unique answer".
 
Sid
Well, I thought I had put enough clues in there for people to deduce. Maybe, I am mistaken.
 
@Sid @Deusovi It struck me the same way. Of course it's possible that if we saw the answer we would say "Oh yes, of course!"...
 
Sid
Unless people just concentrated on the shooting part and overlooked the story before it which contained important clues..
 
Right! It's possible that you did, but it doesn't seem likely. There's just too much missing, too many possibilities for what could happen.
I might have to take another look at it, though.
 
3:06 PM
@ArbitraryKangaroo (this is in response to a now-deleted message which appeared in my inbox) Oh, that was an anagram (in CCG)! No, I don't any idea what that might anagram to...:(
 
He is rather fond of deleting
 
@Deusovi please delete this, I flagged it as rude and abusive but no one has reveiwed my flag yet
 
@Sid, it seems to me that a decent argument could be made for pretty much any of the team to be "after the loot" in your question. Let's see:
Chester, because he is the only one uninjured at the end (if we believe Matt).
 
@GarethMcCaughan is there at all any non-trivial three-player game where someone has a winning strategy (assuming no two conspire)?
 
George, because the Thompson SMG seems like the only thing there capable of producing "heavy gunfire" (for which there's no good reason if all were innocent).
George, because it's really weird for his gun to end up inside, which suggests some attempt at deception or foul play.
John, because his injury is probably the easiest to inflict safely on oneself given the weapons the various people have. (And the malefactor might well fake an injury for obvious reasons.)
Matt, because his injury is the only one we only have his word for and maybe he lied.
George, because his four children and meagre salary give a motive for getting more money by crime.
Matt, because his debts do likewise.
 
3:15 PM
@BeastlyGerbil Rude where? I only a huge SPOILER ALERT moment.
 
John, because as (it seems) the person in charge his prospects of covering up after murdering all the others are better. (It's hard to see how any of them could hope to get away with the loot without murdering everyone else.)
George, because with a submachine gun his prospects of successfully murdering
all the others are better.
 
@Alenanno its been deleted now
 
Sid
@GarethMcCaughan Now, imagine you are at a shack with a gun in your hand. And as you are about to catch the criminal.. the lights are off. Almost instinctively, you would start firing. That caused the heavy fire...
 
So @Sid, this seems Too Broad unless there is genuinely an answer that is much more convincing than all of those given that all those possibilities are there.
 
@GarethMcCaughan Gareth, because he seems to be accusing everyone else.
:P
 
3:17 PM
It's a fair cop.
 
Sid
Well, Dan Russell actually gave a very thorough detail. I believe I could have done better with that...
 
@Sid I would hope that an FBI manhunt team would do better than to start firing on instinct. Especially as they had someone stood right there with a lantern. (Why wasn't it on already, anyway?)
As I think I mentioned in a comment, many things about the story don't really seem like they make sense, which is a problem if we're supposed to spot the guilty party by making somewhat-realistic inferences based on how things really work in the real workd.
*world
 
Sid
Nope, the lantern dropped from the roof of the shack. The newbie then rushed to the car and brought up the new lights...
 
@Sid You're making up new details that are not at all in the story.
 
user189275
@Ankoganit Hilarious. Anagrams are awesome and funny. (I, obviously, may make some dumb mistakes in anagraming)
 
3:19 PM
@BeastlyGerbil I can't let that spoiler stay around. Way to ruin the vision of a beautiful movie.
 
Sid
Really? I thought I had posted that on the question?
 
@Ankoganit (about 3-player games) I'm not sure. Maybe not.
 
Yeah, this is why I closed it. Sid, unless you can eliminate all but one of those possibilities, it's too broad.
 
@Alenanno Hide it then, that's what spoiler tags are for :P
 
@Alenanno I was talking about a different post that has now been deleted
 
3:20 PM
@BeastlyGerbil Yes I know, I was moving on. :P
 
Oh :P
 
@Sid I don't understand what you said about Dan Russell. Was that about your manhunt question, or about something else?
 
@dcfyj If I hadn't seen the movie, I'd be freaking pissed.
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo Nice ! (but there's no way I could have guessed it)
 
@Alenanno That picture doesn't really show much though
 
Sid
3:21 PM
Yeah, I understand now. Thanks, anyway for the detailed feedback. Probably gives me something to learn now... @GarethMcCaughan He answered my meta post..
 
@Sid Ah, I see.
 
Sid
@Alenanno The deleted answer was a very abusive and rude answer which didn't deserve to be in PSE
 
indeed
 
@Ankoganit @ArbitraryKangaroo Is it just me or are the two of you having a discussion half of which is conducted by telepathy or something? :-)
 
What did it say? More or less?
 
3:22 PM
@Alenanno It said "Your mom".
 
@dcfyj I proposed an edit but there is one pending already.
 
It was a rather crass joke
 
Yeah, I don't understand any of the discussions that are happening now.
 
@Alennano oops, I mistyped your name a moment ago
 
@GarethMcCaughan Ah. High school level stuff.
 
3:22 PM
lol, keep track @Deusovi
:P
 
@GarethMcCaughan Even this time! :D
 
I'm trying D:
 
The user should be deletd if hes going to post like that
 
@Alenanno oops, no, I got it right the first time and then confessed an error I hadn't made, making exactly that error in the process. sigh
 
@BeastlyGerbil First time I've seen his posts, let alone him
 
3:23 PM
Exactly
 
@GarethMcCaughan Ahah awesome.
 
@GarethMcCaughan Actually we were talking about a comment @ArbitraryKangaroo posted on my blog
 
@BeastlyGerbil I think we should be more lenient than to delete users for a single ill-judged joke.
 
I thought I had found the solution to "Half the pentagon" but nope... I hate it when that happens.
 
@GarethMcCaughan When I said 'If he's going to post like that', thats what I meant. More posts like that should end in deletion
 
3:24 PM
We only use deletion for extreme cases. That would warrant a suspension, though.
 
Sid
I guess the guy thought this was 4chan or 9gag or something...
 
@BeastlyGerbil yes, I agree, repeated stupidity should end in deletion.
 
@Deusovi really? :P
 
Yes, really.
That was an "extreme case".
 
@Sid I'm curious now what solution you intended to the manhunt question.
 
3:27 PM
@Deusovi When I find myself in the situation where I have to use Destroy, I feel like this:
 
@QPaysTaxes Because they interact in unpleasant ways with the rest of the markup, which is because no one's taken the trouble to fix them, which is because the markup is basically the same on all Stack Exchange sites and Puzzling is really the only one where spoilers are important enough to think about much.
 
Sid
@GarethMcCaughan Well, I got to read the puzzle again. I don't quite remember the answer...
 
>.<
 
@Alenanno I'm not seeing that image.
@Sid D:
 
I am about to post the first entry for the current fortnight, should I keep the instructions in the answer?
 
Sid
3:29 PM
Ahh, yes! Here's the answer...
 
@Sid Because Gareth confused you with all those answers? :p
 
@Deusovi Now?
 
@LukasRotter Finally someone posted a mech-puzzle! And Yes
 
@Ankoganit Note that Dan Russell's answer to the meta-question had a bunch more.
 
@Alenanno Heh, same.
 
3:30 PM
@Deusovi lol wow, try this: i.imgur.com/OjQ2zoR.jpg
 
user189275
@Ankoganit There is high probability of dumb mistake.. By the way, I am not seeing it there.
 
Oh, whoops - by "same" I meant "I feel the same way", not "I have the same issue".
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo Why, you just click on the "2 comments so far " thingy and scroll all the way down
 
Sid
It was Matt Jameson-Chester was outside the shack all the time and had to carry a lantern with him. Highly unlikely-he could have shot. George was hit in the ear and had dropped his gun in the excitement. He couldn't have shot all. It must be between Joe or Matt. However, Joe would be retiring this year and he had already brought an old cottage in the countryside. He doesn't need the money. However, Matt had to pay off some debts of his. He needed the money and possibly shot himself.
 
@Deusovi Ah lol
 
3:36 PM
@Ankoganit Winning Ways, ch 15, attributes this game to Bob Li. Nim for 3. Players play in a fixed cyclic order. The player who makes the last move wins; the penultimate move, 2nd prize. No other payoffs are allowed.
 
@RosieF: ah, giving players a motive to care about who gets the penultimate move as well as the last is a cunning plan. Is that enough to make optimal play well determined? It seems like it might be.
 
@RosieF Cool. And there is a winning strategy?
 
More about multi-player games: faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/three.pdf
 
Sid
@GarethMcCaughan I posted the answer above...
 
@Sid yup, I saw it. Thanks!
 
3:40 PM
@GarethMcCaughan Nice, thanks.
 
@Sid I agree that each step in the reasoning is plausible but I still don't think it's sufficiently clear-cut. You also didn't eliminate John from consideration at all. (Presumably because he's the "viewpoint" character or something; but there's at least one famous detective story where the narrator turns out to be the murderer...)
 
@BeastlyGerbil No offence, but you've been posting "too-partial" answers these days...:(
 
Yeah just deleted. I thought I was on to something but no so added as a comment instead
 
@Ankoganit Express the heaps' sizes in binary. Add them mod 3 without carry. If the result is 0, you can't force a win. If the result isn't 0, make it so.
 
@BeastlyGerbil Actually, some people may object to even commenting since that might be a spoiler. I personally would share these primitive ideas in chat (or wouldn't post at all). That's my own opinion though. :)
 
3:50 PM
@Ankoganit To be honest, I think anyone could have realised what I thought :P
 
@RosieF Ah, so the binary trick of normal Nim works here too! Thank you!
 
user189275
@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, telepathy via ex-nihilo black magic. I acquired this exotic skill through slimy aliens who dropped in our backyard on a secret day for some secret reason. How did you figure that, though ? :-)
 
Yeah, I noticed it too - was about to post it with my addendum, but decided to hold off for now.
@ArbitraryKangaroo I knew it!
 
user189275
@Deusovi: Are you taking the idea of community metapuzzle forward ?
 
Yeah! I'm still a bit busy though, and I still need to finalize the puzzle and make sure I know exactly how many people are participating.
 
3:53 PM
Like I said in a comment, I'm game.
 
I would participate too as well
 
you would participate too too? :P
 
It was originally meant for 7 puzzles - I may have to add more answers and change things around.
So we have Hugh Meyers, dcfyj, Julian Rosen, Gordon K, Alconja, Beastly Gerbil, and GPR so far. (I think.)
 
user189275
@Deusovi Anybody can participate or 1k+ reps ?
 
Anyone!
This is for the whole community, not just "the elites".
 
Sid
3:56 PM
That is some list though. Probably going to be a huge fun next 2-3 months I believe.
 
Depends on how long the puzzles take to solve. Still, if this turns out to be successful, I'd love to make this a reoccurring event.
 
@Deusovi When it is going to start BTW? I would probably participate, but I have a few exams for a month or so...:(
 
user189275
@Deusovi: Is it after Nov 14 ? Then I wanna participate by adding a question. But, it would be super awesome to see the top puzzlers (two is missing) at work.
 
:33101878 Something like that (i'm in XI, so not that test)
 
I'll probably make a chat and send out the answers sometime over the next few days. (I've been a bit busy with puzzles - I also have a one that I'm working on, and also a non-PSE project.)
 
3:59 PM
@ArbitraryKangaroo (removed). But perhaps (removed) -- not forgetting that (removed). By the way, (removed).
9
 
Sid
@Ankoganit Never read in class XI. That is meant to have fun not study... At least I didn't..
 
user189275
@Ankoganit: But I have :'-(from Nov 7~14), and NTSE too.
 
@Deusovi so will it work like this: You create a 'super-puzzle' which has an answer composed of smaller answers, and we create puzzle for those smaller answers?
 
@Sid True, but I have to pretend to study
 
@BeastlyGerbil Yep!
 
Sid
4:01 PM
I also thought of participating but I am in a tight deadline right now. A bio project, and once that is finished, I have other exams and then I am quitting the site. So, I decided against participating in the meta-puzzle thing.
 
Alright! Like I said, if it's successful I'll definitely do another one.
 
Sounds good. You'll have to create a private chat room so others don't pry. And maybe our smaller puzzles could have a 'theme' which either matches your super-puzzle or gives clues to the super-puzzle?
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo seriously, please stop that, it's really annoying and it breaks the conversation when people reply to you.
 
@BeastlyGerbil Yeah, that's the idea - I've got one or two themes in mind, with corresponding puzzles.
 
I know a great theme.... Puzzling! :P
 
user189275
4:04 PM
@dcfyj: Yeah, I found Alconja's advice somehow had a point, so I don't delete chats which are part of chat. I do delete independent messages, though, and the above one was just for joke, by the way.
 
Sid
Is it halloween time in the US? Because, that would be a great theme...
 
It's coming up in a week (the 31st)
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo i don't know whether i waS supposed to see The One above before you removed it as you keeP doing, but as it happens I didn'T.
3
 
@Sid nice idea but I think by the time we've created this it will have long gone. Maybe christmas?
 
@GarethMcCaughan Stenography!
 
4:06 PM
@GarethMcCaughan Is that your first puzzle? :P
 
Sid
New year, then?
 
@Ankoganit Ho ho. I don't think that counts as a puzzle.
 
@dcfyj I thought that was steganography
 
Possibly/probably, I always forget what it's called
 
Steganography is hiding hidden messages in text. Stenography is taking notes really fast.
 
user189275
4:08 PM
@GarethMcCaughan: I don't know, but that was just for continuing the joke, and amazingly it is getting too many stars so quickly ! By the way, that was good.
 
So either way I'm right, since who's to say that's not a note that @GarethMcCaughan wrote really quickly :P
 
And there's really no reason to delete your messages, AK. I think the jokes are pretty funny. (Of course, you can delete them. I just don't see why.)
 
Has no one got any clues on this yet either?
 
Okay, gtg now. See you all later!
 
Bye!
 
4:14 PM
Says he's leaving but then I see him entering the room... @Ankoganit, you used the wrong door to leave, that's the portal door, it just leads back in here.
 
Sid
@BeastlyGerbil Good puzzle that.
Well, I gtg battle integration! Have a nice day(or good night) whichever is your time zone..
 
I think people will admire it more when it is solved... At the moment it looks like an average puzzle, but I'm actually very pleased with it
 
I'm at a standstill with mine until I can think of clues for the last four columns
 
@BeastlyGerbil Seems interesting, but I'm not sure where to go with it. It seems like there's not enough information...
 
that and I'm busy with work stuff
 
4:17 PM
(Not in a vote-to-close way, though.)
 
user189275
@Ankoganit: Aren't you gtg (?) ?
 
@Deusovi I'm kind of unsure what to do with tags becaus eit doesn't really fit many, however the music tag is very important and there are some key words in his speech
 
I never leave the room when I leave :P
 
Me neither :P
 
user189275
@Sid "Well, I gtg battle integration" what's that ?
 
4:18 PM
As far as I can tell I never time out of it either.
 
Neither do I. I always leave my computer on with the chat open so people can ping me.
 
There have been a few times when I've seen your icon go for a walk.
 
From afar, @Deusovi's avatar looks like a soldier icon from some random RTS game, with the yellow being a hemet and the red, the uniform.
 
Heh, I never thought about it like that before.
 
Make me think of Vash
 
4:22 PM
As AK said, it's actually from Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
 
@ArbitraryKangaroo how is your parent profile puzzling when you don't have a puzzling account?
Your account is most certainly not a ladybug :P
I know what you meant, I was joking...
 
user189275
Me Me
 
And you just broke the conversation
 
I'm curious - why do you keep removing your messages?
It makes the conversation seem like nonsense.
 
@Deusovi Because it makes the conversation seem like nonsense? :P
 
4:25 PM
The positive side of it is that it makes a new drinking game possible: Everytime AK removes a comment.
 
user189275
@dcfyj The top "Me me" is a rebus, btw. And I'm sorry, I carelessly removed it.
 
@LukasRotter ahah
 
Already adding clues?
 
Well in reflection it would be very hard to get unless you lived 40 years ago...
So I added the clue that it's not modern music to make sure it didn't take years to solve
 
4:28 PM
(I thought the use of "record" in what the officer shouted out was already an indicate that we should be thinking records rather than CDs or MP3s or whatever. Anyway, I tend to run away from puzzles that assume familiarity with music unless it's clearly the sort of music I know anything about. Which I think this one probably isn't.)
@Lukas Rotter that isn't a drinking game, that's a fast track to death by alcohol poisoning.
3
 
Yeah, unfortunately I'm not familiar with much music.
 
(Or hyponatremia, if you drink water.)
 
This is very tricky'
Oh I thought of another tag which will help
 
hmm, interesting
 
@GarethMcCaughan I guess we can start with very small drinking glasses... :P
 
4:42 PM
Shot glasses of water?
Or better yet, thimbles!
 
I'd like to see two extremely good chess players play with this and see how their performance changes :P
 
That could be interesting
To watch though, I'd never play that, alcohol tastes disgusting to me
 
Nice equalizing technique.
 
?
 
The more pieces you capture, the more you drink and the worse your play gets.
I suppose the effect would be to encourage ways of gaining advantage that don't involve capturing pieces.
Sacrificial attacks would become particularly deadly.
 
4:56 PM
Not necessarily, there are some that think quite well when drunk.
 
I'm also assuming that the goal is to win rather than (e.g.) to get as drunk as possible.
 
Also depends on what's in the glass. i.e. beer vs absynth.
 
very much so, yes.
From the look of it I'd assumed whisky or something of the sort.
 
@LukasRotter Ah, Alcoholic Chess! I read that Alekhine once won a game using an early sacrifice of his queen.
 
Seeing as to how the drinks are different colors, unless one person is giving the other a handicap, their proof should be roughly the same. Also, this gives a new meaning to giving a handicap.
 
5:03 PM
Maybe the glass size should vary on the importance of the piece :P The more I think about the more interesting this kind of chess actually gets. Maybe I'll finally be able to win more often if I just have ruski vodka and my oppopnent water in the glasses! :P
 
5:43 PM
Quick formatting question for you guys
Would you prefer something like this: "1: clue 1; clue 2; clue 3; etc"
or the same thing spread on multiple lines?
 
Are the clues hidden like hints or are they given as part of the original question? And how long are they? Just a few words?
 
Some are a little lengthy, this will all be in the original post, once I'm done with it.
There's also a lot of lines
 
You can try various formattings next to each other and chose the one you like best in the preview. It all depends on how long the rest of the puzzle is, how much you want individual clues to stand out and so on. If the clues themselves are long, I'd treat them like paragraphs, maybe inside a blockquote to highlight them. This should be easier to read.
 
There are 44 lines of clues (this is sort of a crossword mixed with a couple other things) and each line has at least 2 clues most are 3 or 4+
 
6:01 PM
Okay, in that case it may be better to put all the clues for a line on one line and highlight the numbers, eg "Line 1: 1 A clue for you. 2 And another one. 3 Third clue lucky."
 
That could be a bit tricky, but I can probably do the same with letters. (the answers to all the clues are numbers and I'd rather avoid putting extra number in, and around, the clues)
 
English cryptic crosswords seem to put each clue on a separate line, but the few cryptics (if you call them that) in German put all of the Across clues and all of the Down clues in a long paragraph with the numbets highlighted as above, probably to save space.
 
German does have a lot of long words
 
Then use a fancy separator: "Line 1: First clue ∎ Second clue ∎ Third clue"
 
That would work.
I hope to be done with this by today, but I probably won't be since I have to make sure it's solveable...
 
6:07 PM
The long words in German are usually just compounds. We like to smash phrases like "front door key" together into single long unseparated words.
 
Yeah, I've noticed :P
 
6:20 PM
You could use stylish Wingdings stuff as separators, but I think something bold like a bullet or a block works best.
 
I'll probably use the blocks, it's a nice clear and concise way of breaking the text.
1 Column left and I'm done writing clues ^^
 
Are they cryptic clues?
 
No
Well, not in that sense
They're clue that are cryptic in nature, but not by definition
 
Okay, you've already said that the answers are numbers, so that was a stupid question to ask. Sorry.
 
The first definition
Making this puzzling is really making me think hard on different ways to describe the same thing :S
 
6:27 PM
What do you mean? Do you have several clues for one answer? Well, I can wait until you post it and see for myself. :)
 
No, being numbers, and a limited set at that, There's a lot of the same answer throughout. I can tell you this because it really offer no advantages (which you'll understand once you see it)
 
6:56 PM
Ok... I'm pretty sure I made this solvable, now to start working on posting it... This'll take a while lol
 
Well, I'll see it tomorrow then.
 
In theory it'll hold until then, but I wouldn't count on it.
 
Since in PSE's empire the sun never sets it's hard not to miss a few puzzles. And I can still appreciate puzzles that are solved already when I see them.
 
True
 
7:23 PM
Good luck with your post. I'm off, good night.
 
Later, I might be playing with the formatting some more before I post so it might not actually be up until tomorrow haha
 
7:38 PM
Who likes the idea of an 'indianna jones' style puzzle? I'm creating one similar to the opening temple scenes in raiders of the lost arc
 
nifty
 
Sounds good to me!
 
You know, temple with rolling boulders, swinging axes and a small golden statue to end.
 
How's the casino puzzle going, by the way? Still having hosting issues?
 
@Deusovi yes :(
 
7:39 PM
Aw :c
 
It's half term at the moment so I thought I could fix it now, but noooo our teachers decided to dump mountains of homework on us.
I feel sorry for those who went on holiday, I'm struggling just at home
 
Is there a way to tab text over? (when posting a question) I feel like that could help my formatting issues.
 
Not that I'm aware of.
 
boo
 
Well, you could use code blocks, actually.
 
7:43 PM
@dcfyj The only way without using code blocks is by doing it manually with &nbsp; I think
 
Ah! That's how you do it, I remember nbsp, but I couldn't remember how to use it lol
 
@dcfyj Actually, &emsp; might be a better solution.
 
emsp? empty space?
 
An "em" is a width in typography.
 
@dcfyj A space with the width of the character M
 
7:50 PM
Specifically, the width of the letter M.
 
ah
well, it's wider than nbsp so it takes fewer
 
Yep, here's a comparison between emsp, ensp and nbsp (there are probably many others, but I don't know them). Definitely a better entitiy to use for fake tabs :P
 
Try something like this: $\qquad\qquad\qquad$
that works well
 
I'm not going back a third time to fix my tabbing lol
 
How much rep did Gamow have before his suspension?
 
8:02 PM
32k I think
My bet is its around 25k now with most of his sockpuppets removed
 
phew, finally done and posted
anyhow, I'm off, got groceries to buy :P
 
Working on it :P
 
@BeastlyGerbil LOL, that would be pretty bad. And I also just realized the graph on his profile activity contains his rep before the suspension: 32,252
Or can you earn rep while you're suspended? :P
 
So his graph hasn't gone down
However... It must have really
 
weird, I also don't see any severe decrease of rep here...
 
8:09 PM
Look at May 17
I also find it interesting how there isn't multiple unupvotes for one question: aka sockpuppet
 
 
2 hours later…
10:19 PM
@Deusovi Hello. About the "being self-contained" rule... Does it include imgur images as well? I mean, let's say I do a treasure hunt puzzle and one of the pieces is an image uploaded on imgur, but this image is not physically present in the question. It can only be reached by solving a piece of the puzzle (that gives you the address for example), would that be fine?
 
10:43 PM
@Alenanno Several examples of that around already... Just upload the image through the "ask question" form (but then edit out the link before you post so there's no trace of it in the edit history). That way it ends up on the official stack exchange image hosting site (which is technically imgur anyway -> i.stack.imgur.com).
 
@Alconja Ah yes, I am familiar with the technical aspects. I was mostly wondering about the "hiding it" detail, and whether it was allowed. But if you say that there are other examples on the site, then that's enough for me. :D Thanks
 
11:24 PM
@Alenanno That's fine! The "self-contained" rule is just to make sure things stay around. We want our puzzles to last.
 

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