@GentlePurpleRain: @GarethMcCaughan is right. Triple defs themselves are extremely rare too. I have seen other types of triple clues before (eg def-wordplay-wordplay) but they were in a variety cryptic which explicitly stated that that was a gimmick in some clues and required us to alter the entries before they went in (ERAS with a wordplay-def-wordplay clue would be entered into the grid as ERASER, for instance).

You (ironically) raise a good point though... what's the point of banning any individual account when known sockpuppets exist? The banning is theoretically of the user, rather than the account.

I.e. they've attempted to ban the user, by banning the "primary" account. But they should actually ban all accounts (known to be) used by the user

@Alconja Any attempt to ban-evade is met with a longer suspension and deletion of sockpuppets.

Good to know there's policy (@tpk should probably take note)

Hey @Alenanno !

@Alenanno How do you make those shadows in LaTeX (in the cubic puzzle)? (I'm assuming you used tikz?)

@tpk Why are you trying to goad the Mods into dealing with you anyway? If you want to not be here, or want to not have your accounts active, be a big lad and take out your own trash. Are you just trying to provoke a response, and an active dislike of you by the PSE community?

@Rubio, I personally know there are gambling people who willingly close their accounts at certain gaming places and ask the administrators not to open their accounts even if they themselves beg for it. I.e. to close them permanently.

The case might be as similar regardless whether tpk confesses or not.

@MariaDeleva I'm not sure the analogy holds, but I guess maybe I see your point. People who can't help themselves need others to do it for them. But this isn't so much a case of a weak willed individual needing someone to step in to keep him from harming himself.

@tpk Why should they be deleted? Just because they aren't used for "anything useful" in your view doesn't justify a ban IMO.

* eternal ban

@Ankoganit Hey there! Yes, I use Tikz when doing simple graphics or when I'm not computing complicated plots. The shadows where done "manually" in the sense that each cube is actually a single command repeated by a foreach for 66 times. The shadows are then done using an \if to assign it to each cube, so that for example, the cubes on the left do not have a shadow on top of them or on the left. And the last cube has a complete "cube" shadow.

Of course, the shadows are in orthographic view, not perspective, as in the latter case, they would change angle at the bottom of the pyramid and at the top. But for this, it wasn't worth it. :D Previously each cube had its faces colored to fake the shadows, but then I changed my mind so every cube now casts its own shadow, I thought this was a better way to handle. The shadow is basically a semi-transparent black shape. Which is more or less how shadows behave in the real world.

@boboquack I have an alternative solution for the freezing water puzzle.

I mean, it's zombies there basically, right?

@Alenanno Ah, nice, thanks!

@Ankoganit I had to redo the cubes from the Star Dice though.

I mean not much, but I had to fix them a bit.

The dimensions. You know in Tikz you can change the x and y no?

@Alenanno Then why don't you post it?

@Alenanno I guess so

@boboquack It was... not a proper solution, more like a joke on it. :P

I'm not much acquainted with Tikz, I mostly use Asymptote

@Alenanno Enlighten me. I don't get the joke :(

@Ankoganit Like if you say \begin{tikzpicture}[x=5mm], then x is not 1cm anymore, but half of it.

@boboquack I was going to suggest not to make experiments with zombies, but rather burn the whole place down and trap them in the debris. :P

@Alenanno Okay, interesting.

@Ankoganit Of course, you can use sin and cos, like in my case.

I mean, the outer border of the cubes is basically an hexagon.

In Asymptote, there's a package called "three" which lets you draw actual 3d objects.

@Ankoganit Would it be easy to create a pyramid of cubes? Never used Asymptote

@Alenanno Umm I'm not sure actually. Drawing the cubes should be easy, but idk how I would place the letters. But at least, it's very easy to switch between orthographic and perspective.

@Ankoganit That's actually cool.

Basically you just say currentprojection=perspective(x,y,z) and you're done.

Where (x,y,z) is the camera position

@boboquack I should have checked here first, didn't realize you were on :) i added a comment to your answer

@Ankoganit Ah, that's easier than I thought. I never got to learn Asymptote though, the syntax is different from Latex. :P

@Alenanno Right, you don't have those backslashes in asy :D

@Ankoganit Ahah :D I don't think I've seen you on TeX SE before though.

@Alenanno I'm not on Tex.SE (yet)

@Ankoganit Why not? It's an awesome site!

:D

Most of the help I need usually are already posted there

(I actually use Tex.SE a lot, just I haven't joined it :p)

I want to post another matchstick puzzle but I'm afraid of it being too broad again

Imagine you have 7 matchsticks, forming the shape of the number 8

Can you make...200?

It will be tagged lateral thinking

What do you guys think?

i could easily make 201

Only 200 :-)

I think if you define it well enough - how many are you allowed to move, make it clear you can't break or stack or stand on end or whatever - that has a definite end state so the problem per se is well defined

people may come up with more than one way to do it, but as long as it's not absurd, that's probably fine

Move only two.

@Ankoganit :P I see

So what about it?

2 o is not 200

That could be twenty at least but that's not it anyway

Well, if you rotate it and remove one match, you could read CC which is 200

@tpk Yes.

And we can't break sticks I assume?

@MariaDeleva Nope! But thank you, I'll add it to the inbuilt assumption

@IAmInPLS: What happened to the match stick puzzle? could you please share the intended answer at least here? Just curious.

@AeJey Of course, sorry if I had it deleted. I noticed afterward that it was badly built.

You had to: take the upper-right match and place it horizontally above the "8" formed with the sticks

And then, take the match on the lower-left, and place it vertically just above the match you last put down

I didn't get. Let me try drawing it. :)

This was the result

and 1/5 is 0.200 . but it can also be 0.2, 0.20, 0.200000... Hence the deletion

Got that now.

Oh. Ok. Got it now. :)

I should think more about the broadness next time!

(y)

That moment when you're trying to be active on SO again, but the first two new questions you encounter are extremely low-quality and you immediately loose all motivation again :D

I just thought of a weird puzzle that would be frowned upon by experienced users but would probably get into the HNQ and fetch me a lot of upvotes (Because, it would probably have many answers)..

Aargh, that "What makes me so Strong" puzzle has beaten me all ends up... I am pretty sure, it's something simple...

@Sid frowns

:-P

I don't think a question can appear in HNQ if it's closed.

Is this still the latest CCCC?

It is.

I don't think it would get closed.

It would be a "lateral-thinking" puzzle...

Except, I am never going to post it,anyway

@Sid If it "would probably have many answers", then it sounds like it might be too broad.

Aren't all lateral-thinking puzzles too broad? Ok, not all, but many tend to be too broad

@Sid puzzling.stackexchange.com/…

Exactly, The tag on its own doesn't have much use..

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/46078/…

Too broad?

Well, the guy is asking for more answers...

@Deusovi I think there's one obvious answer and a load of ridiculously contrived ones.

I would say this one is too broad... puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/45957/… But, perhaps it's better to wait for further hints..

I guess it's time to add that last tag I purposefully omitted from my meta piece. It looks to be stagnating.

If the omitted tag is "steganography" I doubt it will be a big surprise to anyone.

It's not

Interesting.

Tag added

Does that mean there isn't anything hidden in the inscriptions?

Also interesting.

I was hoping it wasn't necessary to add it but it's not moving so...

I suppose I could add the steganography tag too, but I doubt that's necessary

I just added it too to avoid confusion

Too many unsolved puzzles on the site, right now...

My puzzles don't usually last this long. I think this one only is because of a misunderstanding

Should I post a different answer to a riddle I have already answered, if my second answer is way different from the first?

@Sid YES!

Don't put multiple answers in one post, and don't change an answer to something completely different.

Are double-definitions part of standard crossword clues or cryptic clues?

@Sid cryptic clues.

double-def as in two entirely different definitions or just two different meanings of the same word?

See what Deusovi's cryptic clue guide has to say about it.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Don't two different meaning of the same word require two different definitions?

I actually mean, In the guide, it says, "The two def. should be disconnected enough so that the answer is unambiguous". My question is, What is "disconnected enough"?

I see the examples, but for example, the word "run" has like 50 odd meanings to it. Does taking randomly any 2 meanings of the word make it fit into a cryptic clue?

I think it means the word needs two disconnected meanings. e.g. "refuse" meaning to say no and "refuse" meaning garbage. If the meanings are closely linked (e.g. "bare" meaning "unclothed" vs. "bare" meaning "to expose"), then I would say they aren't sufficiently separate.

@GentlePurpleRain Yep, that's exactly it.

"Run" meaning moving speedily and "run" as in cricket can be considered as cryptic clues?

"run" as in cricket?

Run- "run from one wicket to the other in scoring or attempting to score a run"

Ah, the sport, I hear/see cricket and I think an annoying bug

Yeah, it's not very popular in the West..

A double-definition clue where the meanings are too similar would be a bad clue, rather than not actually a cryptic clue.

Well hello there

Hey!

How are you today? :D

(I bet you missed me ;) haha)

I'm fine, what about you?

I'm rather happy today, due to events yesterday. (Met with some friends)

Sounds great c:

Gotta say it, as for some reason it's really sticking out at me. It bugs me how your profile pictures hair gets cut off. I have always wondered what it was and I finally clocked on to it.

How's life then? Are the puzzling people treating you well?

Have you seen the full character picture? All the hair designs from Ghost Trick are really weird.

Yeah, they're fine! We had some issues during the transition but everything's fine now

Ah, I think I missed that, What was this transition?

@Deusovi I flagged this for plagiarism, because well - google.co.uk/…

@ObviouslyJake Back when I was becoming a mod, I mean.

From his comments I'm not sure he knew though

That link you gave me is definitely not a puzzle.

I suggest voting to close.

Hey Manshu!

hey

@Deusovi you declined my flag but chemistryjokes.com/jokes/… and businessinsider.com/…

what's happening on PSE these days apart from puzzling

I can find a load of evidence to support it

Being commonly available is not the same as plagiarism.

@Deusovi What happened to the off-topic close reason: not a puzzle?

@Deusovi isn't it?

@BeastlyGerbil No. If I say "Water is H₂O", that's not plagiarism even though other people have said it.

So... what counts as plagiarism?

@dcfyj What do you mean?

@Deusovi Ban @Deusovi he plagiarized water!

@Deusovi Wasn't there a close reason off-topic: not a puzzle or something like that? I'm just seeing the math one now

Oh...so that's what is happening.

@dcfyj Nope. Custom reasons have always been used for that.

Noice

Plagiarism is intentionally copying someone else's content and either claiming it as your own or using it without permission.

@manshu theres the community metapuzzle currently ongoing

@BeastlyGerbil Yeah...saw it.. CCCC..right?

With mulptiple pieces unsolved

@manshu No, not that

I sent out 9 answers to different users, and they've all made puzzles with those answers. They combine together to make a bigger puzzle

Wow...it was once just an idea

No longer. It is now a reality!

@Deusovi i still think it should be closed, simply because it is a joke, not a puzzle. meta.puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/5430/…

How many smaller puzzles have been created yet?

I started a vtc on it @BeastlyGerbil

@BeastlyGerbil Yeah, I agree! That's why I said...

VTC too

@Deusovi oh I completely missed that :P

Mine is binding. I'd like to have at least two other voters so it doesn't seem like I'm singling out specific users.

And this is too broad...

@BeastlyGerbil One of its answer is 'toilet'

Lol

Aaaaand...it satisfies the school part

I've started making a christmas puzzle. Bit early but going from the temple one I need to time to check things :P

@BeastlyGerbil I've also got an idea for a Christmas puzzle - thinking of making it into another community metapuzzle if this one is received well

No promises yet though

@Deusovi personally I'd say wait a bit longer before doing another.

where is the last puzzle of the meta-puzzle?

it must be humn's ?

Yeah he disappeared before posting

@manshu Hasn't been posted yet. Unfortunately, humn had real life issues, so Hugh Meyers is making a substitute

I've gotten an email from them.

Oh what happened?

No specifics, just an apology for not being able to finish.

yeah..we used to chat everyday in other chatroom

Oh ok, at least we know he hasn't just left.

@BeastlyGerbil Originally, I was going to, but then I had the perfect idea for the "Twelve Puzzles of Christmas". (Who knows, maybe I'll just make them on my own if I have the time!)

Ok now I see why. That sounds great.

That would be pretty involved. If you do make it all yourself, make sure to release one a day!

I'm doing 'A Puzzling Advent Calendar'

what is the duration of christmas holidays in US usually for students

@dcfyj Of course! The plan (either way) is releasing one a day from the 14th to the 25th.

@manshu Usually two weeks.

@Deusovi doubt any puzzles on chistmas itself will get many views

@BeastlyGerbil I can be patient!

@BeastlyGerbil You'd be surprised.

Hey GPR

@GentlePurpleRain hi!

uh... hi?

Oh, I guess you assumed I was gone because I haven't had anything to say for a while...

Yeah, your avatar was greyed out.

Just been reading along.

But is the rain really gentle when it's purple?

He's just been creeping :P

so anyone with a greyed out avatar could be spying on us...

@Deusovi When are you going to solve Gareth's latest cryptic?

A true moderator GPR is.

@BeastlyGerbil I'm always spying on you...

@ObviouslyJake If rain is purple, I'm looking for a light, if I don't find a light, I'm not going out in it

No matter how gentle it may be

@GentlePurpleRain Why is it my responsibility? :P

Because I figure you're the only one who has a hope...

Maybe we can all collaborate?

That's what we've been doing.

YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER!

Not a lot...

Definition is one of "casual", "casual actor", "engaged in seduction", or "seduction".

Not "seduction". "In" isn't a valid connector.

ok

I suspect that "casual" is an anagram indicator, but doesn't have to be.

I'm thinking "engaged in" or "in" is an insertion indicator.

I think the definition is casual actor, and then 'engaged' is inside 'seduction'

foreplayed?

What is a ten-letter definition for "casual actor"?

definition being "engaged in seduction"

"seducation"

lol

:P

fixed :P

Ooh, "foreplayed" is FO(REPLAY)ED.

Foed - engaged?

No, never mind.

Wait...

what if it's an &lit clue?

Remind me what that means.

Entire clue is both halves.

Eg "terribly evil! (4)" --> VILE

right

&lit stands for "and literally so"

So if it is, then we could have anagrammed "actor" within a word for "seduction", which means, essentially, "a seducer".

Is Gareth still on?

I still don't see "casual" as an anagram indicator. It could be, but it doesn't seem likely to me.

I'm not familiar with Gareth's style though.

roleplayer?

wouldn't "engaged" imply past tense though?

It could mean "is engaged"

Or it could be a participle.

(is) engaged

I think it means currently engaging in

Either one's possible.

Roleplayer makes sense though

Ambiguity!

Cryptic setters love ambiguity. c;

Roleplayer sounds like it might be it

Hm...

roleplayer = casual actor

But what about "engaged in seduction"?

And roleplayer/seduction can go hand in hand easily enough

People roleplay in the bedroom too

Like you said, it may be an &lit clue

Yeah, I think "engaged in seduction" means sexual roleplay.

Could "casual" be a def for "role" in some way?

Because then we have "actor engaged in seduction" --> PLAYER.

Not that I can think of.

@Deusovi no, but a casual actor could easily define a roleplayer

I agree

(I don't know why I didn't come up with that, I roleplay a lot xD)

Sure, but "engaged in seduction" isn't a valid wordplay or alternate def for "roleplayer".

Doesn't that present two solutions that are a little too similar? "Casual actor" = PLAYER and "Casual actor engaged in seduction" = ROLEPLAYER? It's not really separate clues.

Or "actor engaged in seduction" = PLAYER.

engaged in seduction could easily be roleplay as well

If we could get "Casual = role" then it would be an &lit.

We do need 10 letters

@dcfyj Not roleplayER though.

Yeah, I know

Well i think thats correct so @dcfyj its your turn

Nope.

We haven't gotten any valid wordplay for it.

I said foreplayed, Jake's the one that said roleplayer

I doubt @GarethMcCaughan would miss that out as well...

Either way, don't we need confirmation from @GarethMcCaughan?

lukas rotter did actually ^

Unless we're really sure of it.

Which we're not.

10-letter words for "engaged in seduction": persuasive, attractive, enchanting, inveigling, captivated, enthralled, fascinated, influenced, enraptured, infatuated...

attractive seems too fitting not to be correct

Nah, he wouldn't use "actor" to clue "act".

What does the comment flag 'too chatty' mean?

@BeastlyGerbil I think it means that it's conversational. Comments are supposed to be mostly one-off, so if, for example you posted "Yeah, I know what you mean" as a response to a previous comment, that might be considered "too chatty".

I always though it meant sort of getting too friendly, like asking for personal info or something

It's more applicable on other sites, though. We're generally pretty relaxed about comments here.

Well, I think here it prompts earlier to move the discussion to chat rather than on SO, for example. Although, I am not too sure - don't know the exact number of comments the system does that.

I was even looking for such an option yesterday on SO and couldn't find it

10-letter words for "casual": occasional, nonchalant, improvised, incidental, fortuitous?, insouciant, capricious

@MariaDeleva Are you an SO mod? Because that option is usually only available to mods, unless the system detects an abundance of comments (usually within a short period of time).

@GentlePurpleRain no, but I am not a puzzling mod either. And I have seen it here on multiple occasions - after 7-8 comments or so. But I have never seen it on SO.

Well, like Deusovi said, we're more chatty here.

Well, I still believe the rule for "move to chat" is different - I just looked at my answer at SO - it has 12 comments. Unless, this option is only visible to the asker of the question?

Maybe it's a rep based privilege?

Maybe.

I remember seeing it on SO (didn't have much rep back then). If it is rep based then it probably only appears for users with >= 20 rep (talk in chat privilege)

I can confirm that the solution to my most recent CCCC clue is not "{fore,role}play{er,ed}"; neither is it "attractive".

@GarethMcCaughan Any chance we could have a hint?

Maybe one or two letters?

^^ Pleeeease?

OK. First letter is T.

Hmmm interesting. So it's none of gpr's two lists of casual/seduction words...

temptation (def: seduction), temp: casual, something something

"temporary" - nope, only 9.

@Gareth Congrats on 20k rep, btw :-)

Even if you did get 500 for free ...

@GentlePurpleRain There's a "move this conversation to chat" option for any two users - not necessarily mods - who engage in a long enough (not sure exactly how long) comment chain.

Which is different from the mod-only power of moving all comments on a given post to chat.

cc @Maria

I'll jump in and say that (correct me if I'm wrong) it's possible that "seduction" is the def and "actor engaged in" clues a synonym of "actor" with the word "in" inserted

@Volatility Hey, welcome to the Sphinx's Lair! :-)

Hi @rand, thanks!

If the "in" is part of a wordplay clue, wouldn't that mean a synonym of "actor" embedded into a synonym of "seduction"?

Or to put it another way, if the word "in" is embedded into another word, then which word is cluing that embedding?

"engaged", I would have thought

as a verb, not a participle

Hmm, maybe.

THESPIAN is a synonym of actor and begins with T, but it's not long enough to be the solution.

(I just learnt a new word!)

Urgh.

@Randal'Thor Thanks for the congratulations. I remark that I'm over 20.5k so I'd be there even without Lukas's kind gift :-). And wow, urgh indeed.

(I am making no further comment on the discussion of my CCCC clue unless explicitly requested.)

@GarethMcCaughan A good opportunity for you to test out your shiny new answer-deletion powers?

BTW, is there any clear policy whether to add an additional "s" after a possessive noun ending with "s"? Most articels I found say there's no clear rule, some people append it every time, others only after common nouns but not proper nouns ending with "s". (at least that's the example I found) Which rule do you guys as native english speakers follow? (might be a completely different one)

I've always been confused about that :D