The Sphinx's Lair

Rand al'Thor

16:00

If his purpose is to irritate the hell out of everyone, then he's succeeding by getting all of you talking about him.

Sumurai8

@BeastlyGerbil Did you see the hint that was posted?

Beastly Gerbil

I've clicked ignore this user already, so it isn't that distracting at all now

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor True

He is rather trollish

Rand al'Thor

Just don't give him the attention he wants.

Beastly Gerbil

It's like a child :P

dcfyj

16:01

Indeed, I believe he said once that he lied about his age and that he's under 13. If so, this proves it to me lol

Rand al'Thor

As far as I can tell, there's nothing anyone can do about this short of using a button which literally says "destroy this user", and I'm not quite sure if that's merited.

New topic: my quadruple cryptic clue puzzle.

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor Yeah, I wouldn't go that far, that's a bit harsh

Beastly Gerbil

Well if @dcfyj is right and he is under 13, then he shouldn't be on site anyway

Matt

if his account is fraudulent, it should not have existed in the first place

just sayin :P

Rand al'Thor

Solutions to be handed in by 5pm. I'll mark your homework tomorrow.

dcfyj

16:02

@Randal'Thor I saw Deusovi solved most of those

Rand al'Thor

:-P

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil I know

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj Yes, but nobody's got the full correct explanation for #3.

dcfyj

I'd have to see it again, and I probably wouldn't be able to solve it anyhow :P

Rand al'Thor

And #4 is still unsolved, but it might be a bit disappointing (and come to think of it, it doesn't really have any particular 'twist' to it as advertised).

Beastly Gerbil

16:03

If we can find that comment, and it hasn't been removed then we could technically use it as evidence

IAmInPLS

Yes, don't talk about AK. You'd rather solve my Christmas rebus while I'm gone! Cya later

Saiid

@Randal'Thor I have what I think is full for #3, but I don't have #4

dcfyj

Lol, I just noticed my comment about Sphinx being late/early got starred

Beastly Gerbil

And now that comment just got starred??

Saiid

people love stars

Will

16:05

star

Display name

AK? Is that you?

dcfyj

@ArbitraryKangaroo If you're going to talk to me, do it in chat, not on a question comment

@Displayname Probably

Sumurai8

@dcfyj Their parent user is suspended, so they can't talk in chat, even if they wanted to. Not sure why they are able to join though.

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor can you kindly remove those stars? I'm pretty sure they aren't from any of us

Rand al'Thor

@Displayname No. Suspended users can't star stuff.

Display name

16:06

@Randal'Thor cough sockpuppets

Sumurai8

@BeastlyGerbil There is at least one star from me.

dcfyj

Certainly not I, although I'm wondering where the second and third stars came from

Beastly Gerbil

Did anyone here star any of those?

Will

yes.

Saiid

yes

Matt

16:07

yes

dcfyj

AK is claiming it's not him

Beastly Gerbil

let me shorten this - did anyone star the comment from will 'star'?

no?

Will

I'm funny

Saiid

@BeastlyGerbil yes...

Sumurai8

The first three messages got a star from me. Then it got old.

Matt

16:08

guilty

dcfyj

@ArbitraryKangaroo please don't use comments to chat, It has nothing to do with that question in any way, shape, or form.

Beastly Gerbil

@Saiid and @Matt why? :P

Saiid

@dcfyj 12 years back? when (s)he was 3??

@BeastlyGerbil just cuz

Sumurai8

/me thinks people are paranoid right now

Matt

stars beget stars

dcfyj

16:09

@Saiid I think he means when he was 12

Saiid

@Sumurai8 haha nice

Rand al'Thor

I have to leave, sorry.

dcfyj

It's ok

Rand al'Thor

I've pinged the PSE mods; hopefully one of them will be around soon.

Display name

@Saiid *I

Saiid

16:10

@Displayname Sorry, my shift key is a little wonky.

Beastly Gerbil

What the hell are these stars?

Sconibulus

hmm, 'elf' is wrong, I found him on google, he is Noddy, a toy, and/or a puppet

dcfyj

That last one was me, because I thought it was funny, relax @BeastlyGerbil lol

Beastly Gerbil

:p

Saiid

lol

Beastly Gerbil

16:11

It's like 1 star suddenly gets multiplied

Sconibulus

toy could maybe be "to wish you..." but the sentence structure doesn't really fit

Display name

This sidebar is pure madness.

Saiid

Anyone notice that AK deleted their comment?

dcfyj

What comment?

Matt

sidebar? it's the starboard.

Beastly Gerbil

16:12

@Displayname okay. That was weird. The stars jumped straight to 2

Saiid

the one you linked

Matt

it's even on the right

dcfyj

They're both still on my screen (haven't refreshed)

Display name

@Matt Starboard makes me think of bowside. It's also the terminology used in the FAQ.

Saiid

lol

Beastly Gerbil

16:13

@dcfyj screenshot it

Matt

who reads the FAQ?

Saiid

@dcfyj ^^

Sumurai8

@Matt Guilty

dcfyj

Not sure what that achieves, but ok

Display name

@Matt People who want to bitch at others for saying "starboard".

Beastly Gerbil

16:14

Can I just report everyone here for spamming stars? :P

Will

@Matt what a tacky boat pun

dcfyj

@Displayname Why not use complain instead? More professional.

Display name

Because this chat has gone down the drain anyways at this point.

IAmInPLS

@Sconibulus Plus is màs in Spanish, indeed

dcfyj

@Displayname No reason to disregard the professionalism

IAmInPLS

16:15

So, what to do with Noddy?

Matt

I miss puzzles, etc :(

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil I did, not sure what in the world you want it for though.

Beastly Gerbil

@Techidiot I love your pyramid drawing :P

dcfyj

OK...? I just got a secret moon hat, no idea how

Will

you did a thing

Display name

16:18

145

A: Winter Bash 2016 - All Hats

Secret Hats Live updates on this Google Doc, discussion in this chatroom. Don't Wanna Taco 'Bout it 180° This Is Fine Elementary 8,243,721 6 They Live Blue in the Face Mild Mannered Where in the World

Will

literally a thing

Sphinx

0

Q: Cryptic Hour Pyramid!

A pyramid is on fire. Being an archaeologist, you went to Egypt to study a very ancient pyramid. While you were on top of it, the pyramid caught fire. It was time to run when you discovered that, every floor had a door. You tried opening the door but to no luck. Looking for a way, you found out ...

dcfyj

@Displayname So, solstice then?

Saiid

yeah

Display name

I just noticed that the tooltip says "click to star" when trying to flag a message from the sidebar. What an inexcusable mistake.

dcfyj

16:21

Bug report!

Not sure which site you would report that on though...

Display name

Main Meta

Saiid

didn't even notice that

Display name

I think I'm going to actually post a bug report now.

Saiid

hmm

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil why did you want me to screenshot that?

Beastly Gerbil

16:24

Because we can no longer see it but you can

dcfyj

I guess? It's not like it's incriminating or anything.

Matt

@IAmInPLS the elf and gum, "hand chew" as in "and you, a merry christmas" ?

Saiid

Are headless jumble together making continuous sounds? (5)

there are two ways we can go with this

Beastly Gerbil

I've got three so far

Saiid

either "aRE headless" or "headless jUMBLE"

Matt

16:28

eh, I'll just write it up :P

Display name

Damn it

6

Q: Tooltip for flagging chat messages wrong

When trying to flag a message in a chatroom's starboard, the tooltip whilst hovering over the flag button is click to star.

bug chat tooltips

Almost one month too late

Saiid

ninja'd by a month

gj

Techidiot

@Saiid- Sorry about that. Changed it.

Matt

rage in quarantined could be rant, because quaRANTined

Beastly Gerbil

@dcfyj probably is, I was unsure with BUP

Will

16:37

6 is probably REVAMP

dcfyj

I'm unsure about BAR because of the "to inverted" part...

Will

2 looks like RS

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil can I hat-test on you again?

IAmInPLS

@Matt It is not an elf, lol. Sconibulus found it, but he seems not to know what to do with it. Can you?

Beastly Gerbil

@dcfyj a bar is a type of pub so good enough I guess

dcfyj

16:38

I guess, but that inverted part bothers me

Matt

Noddy chew ...

"not a Jew; a merry Christmas" ?? :P

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil I just need to leave a comment on a question.

IAmInPLS

Why do I include French and Spanish in my puzzle, along with the tag language :P?

Matt

Noddy in french is Oui Oui

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil you're losing your newlines with each edit

Matt

16:40

Oui Oui chew ... we wish you a merry christmas

ok

Beastly Gerbil

Oops @dcfyj thanks

Mithrandir

So do you mind @BeastlyGerbil?

IAmInPLS

There you go @Matt

Matt

huzzah

edited

Beastly Gerbil

@Mithrandir sure, sorry concentrating on solving the pyramid

IAmInPLS

16:44

It is Ritz tho not crisps @Matt

Matt

aaah, fine. I'll change it again

Mithrandir

Now I need upvotes on this comment...

Saiid

@Mithrandir consider it done

Display name

I flagged it instead.

Mithrandir

@Displayname I'll delete it soon, so you get a free flag :P

Matt

16:46

@BeastlyGerbil why did you credit Sid with the rage clue? :P

dcfyj

He mentioned it in chat, no?

Beastly Gerbil

no i saw it in his answer

Matt

that was me

Mithrandir

One more, please, just in case

Matt

ooh, now I see his answer

nevermind, them

dcfyj

16:47

@Mithrandir You and your hats...

Beastly Gerbil

The new 5 doesn't look like a cryptic clue at all

Mithrandir

Hats hats hats.

Display name

According to the meta post you don't even need upvotes on it.

Sconibulus

Grr... Noddy being OuiOui in French is not on his wikipedia page

Will

It is if you change the language

Sconibulus

16:51

how dare wikipedia let me down!

Matt

I googled noddy french, and I didn't even have to click on anything

it was in the titles of one of the results

Sconibulus

I'm still blaming wikipedia for betraying me

Will

All those stars got me the Outspoken badge :)

Mithrandir

I got outspoken this WB too

Rubio

Meh meh.

Gareth McCaughan

17:00

Ewww.

Beastly Gerbil

@GarethMcCaughan :P ?

Saiid

That new #5 is harder than the rest, it seems

Gareth McCaughan

The sidebar is a big mess. Can anyone give me any good reason why I shouldn't cancel all those stars (a thing I think I have the power to do)?

Will

the new 5 might be roost

Gareth McCaughan

And no, "some people are trying to get hats" is not a good reason.

Display name

17:01

@GarethMcCaughan Just do it.

:P

Gareth McCaughan

I will.

Sconibulus

I don't think it was even hat-related

Gareth McCaughan

Though I think some of the comments got starred kinda on their own merits.

Sconibulus

pretty sure it was just nonsense

Saiid

@GarethMcCaughan Well, maybe not all of them

Will

17:02

I don't think hats were even a reason

Gareth McCaughan

Oh, really? Then maybe I should leave it alone.

I just notice that a lot of people seem to be acting weirdly for hat-related reasons, and am maybe jumping to conclusions too quickly.

Beastly Gerbil

@GarethMcCaughan get rid of them. please.

They were nothing to do with hats but still

Sumurai8

Honestly, the sidebar fixes itself

Gareth McCaughan

well, it should

dcfyj

@GarethMcCaughan At the very least I assume @Mithrandir is in it for the hats :P

Gareth McCaughan

17:03

the question is whether it will

The currently-starred comments seem very much less interesting/amusing than the usual state of the sidebar.

But I don't really want to do anything too heavy-handed if this is just the Will of the People manifesting itself.

Display name

Literally, the Will :P

dcfyj

@GarethMcCaughan I think they were stressed about AK popping in and out :P

Gareth McCaughan

It surely can't all be him.

Mithrandir

Secret hat theory debunked

Sumurai8

I can just say something really funny and people will then just star it all.

Display name

17:04

I think he admitted to star a few of them.

Rubio

The general consensus seems to be they're noise. and i think someone said they did the first handful out of goofiness more than actual intent

Mithrandir

(I am in for the hats)

(But stars have nothing to do with hats)

dcfyj

And hats have nothing to do with stars?

Gareth McCaughan

Impossible: "star" is very nearly "hats" backwards. How can that be a coincidence?

Sumurai8

Well, you can get a hat by starring a message around new year I believe.

Display name

17:05

I'm not looking forward to that.

Sconibulus

I think it's having a message starred, not starring a message

Display name

It will be even worse than this here.

Mithrandir

getting starred

dcfyj

If you're from long island I think it's pronounce Stah, right?

Sconibulus

so you need to be clever

clever like a fox

Mithrandir

17:06

I have not been starring things for hats for anybody.

Display name

It will be full of comments like "Plz star this message so i can get ze hat"

Will

@GarethMcCaughan well...

2 hours ago, by RottersSlave

3 accounts of the same person in one chat room. Nice.

Beastly Gerbil

The only time you get a hat for a starred comment is if you are on Jan 12th

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil +-12 hours

Pretty sure it's not Jan 12th though as I think this ends on the 9th

Display name

winterbash2016.stackexchange.com/first-responder

Beastly Gerbil

17:08

oh its new year

dcfyj

yeah, UTC New Year

Beastly Gerbil

not jan 12. Why did I think that???....

dcfyj

The +-12 hours?

Display name

jan 12th +- 1 year

Beastly Gerbil

Oh maybe. Who knows :P

dcfyj

17:10

There are a lot of 3-star on the board...

Display name

"Will Rotter's slave display name?"

dcfyj

@Displayname You're Will Rotter's slave?

Sconibulus

Oh, is that so? Well starring a thing more than once is probably verifiable sock abuse (if mods can see stars)

Sumurai8

@dcfyj Are we starting this paranoia again? I will gladly fuel it by starring it if you wish. I hate paranoia.

Sconibulus

we can maybe put him in the stockade and throw tomatoes at him!

Will

17:11

yum, tomatoes.

dcfyj

Yuck you mean

Sconibulus

or brussels sprouts, since people might actually want to eat tomatoes

dcfyj

and typically tomatoes thrown at a stockade were rather rotten

Apparently it started raining again...

Rubio

it's raining cats, dogs, and capricious marsupials?

6

dcfyj

Yup

It had let up for a while, but now it's started back up. I hate rain, getting wet is annoying.

Saiid

17:15

AK is at it again, I see

dcfyj

That's what we were talking about, just more subtly :P

Techidiot

@BeastlyGerbil = Hey

Beastly Gerbil

@Techidiot hi

Techidiot

You might take a look at antimoon.com/forum/t1268.htm

Beastly Gerbil

So the final answer is an HOUR? Hence the title?

dcfyj

17:16

our rhymes with cow?

Techidiot

We pronounce it mostly as Hour and it sounds like R

dcfyj

Interesting accent :S

Beastly Gerbil

So the answer is hour?

Sconibulus

@GarethMcCaughan have you looked at the Music Box at all?

Techidiot

It's "R". You have the answer. Just add the explanation part and get the tick

I think, M Oehm was the first to get letter "R" at the top. Though it seems he deleted his answer.

Beastly Gerbil

17:18

Okay added an explanation

dcfyj

full of crows = roost?

That's a cryptic?

Beastly Gerbil

no he said it was a simple def

dcfyj

I'm not sure how it's even that...

Saiid

lol

Gareth McCaughan

@Sconibulus I glanced at it briefly, thought "this looks hard", and haven't come back to it.

Techidiot

17:21

@dcfyj- It should have been ROOKY. But that might have become too trivial to guess (wordplays.com/crossword-clues/ROOKY)

dcfyj

Rook would make sense

Gareth McCaughan

@Sconibulus oh, also it has the imgur-maze tag on it which is a big turnoff for me.

Beastly Gerbil

@Techidiot do you want me to update that

Techidiot

You can if you all feel that was better :)

Else, the current would do fine. But yes, ROOKY was supposed to be the answer to that.

Sconibulus

I thought that second reason might be a thing, but it doesn't involve finding short mysterious strings, if that helps

Gareth McCaughan

17:23

noted

Beastly Gerbil

I think ROOST actually fit better

dcfyj

Rooky I get, roost, not remotely

Beastly Gerbil

@dcfyj never heard of a roost?

google.co.uk/…

Techidiot

I never did. Just googled it and seemed like it fits. Though again, you can take your time and update if you feel like.

dcfyj

Yes I've heard of a roost, but by no means is it unique to a crow

Beastly Gerbil

17:25

I've never actually heard of ROOKY :P

dcfyj

Rook is a term for a crow

so a place full of crows would be a rook-y place

Beastly Gerbil

Is it? Never knew that

dcfyj

rook

Sid

Hour? How do we get that from "r"?

Sconibulus

I think it's called a Rookery?

Beastly Gerbil

17:27

@Sid antimoon.com/forum/t1268.htm

dcfyj

@Sconibulus What is?

Saiid

10 mins ago, by Techidiot

We pronounce it mostly as Hour and it sounds like R

Beastly Gerbil

Thats what Techidiot gave me ^

@Emrakul do you know about our new AK problem?

Sconibulus

a rook roost

Will

it's rook-y

dcfyj

17:28

Yeah, I think so, but you could say that a place is "rooky" if it has a lot of rooks

Rubio

@Emrakul Welcome. There, now someone greeted you without immediately looking for you to do something. :)

9

Sid

The only Rook I know of is chess...

user61230

@BeastlyGerbil Yeah.

Beastly Gerbil

Oops, sorry :P

Sconibulus

There's also a card game

user61230

17:29

Ehehe, thanks :] But don't worry about it!

Saiid

lol

dcfyj

@Sid There's also a card game

Sconibulus

@dcfyj inb4

dcfyj

@Sconibulus heh, ninja'd because I went to go get the link :P

Display name

I have a userscript activated that hides AK's image from me. Perfect. Is he still doing this annoying thing right now?

Sconibulus

17:29

@dcfyj inb4^2

Beastly Gerbil

oh another secret hat

Saiid

@dcfyj There's also a rocket

@BeastlyGerbil ?

Sid

@Rubio I still think that the answer to your riddle is something that plays with a "king"..

dcfyj

@Saiid There's also a lot of different things that we don't need to mention all individually :P

Rubio

Wikipedia disambiguation pages are wonderful things. Hehe

Saiid

17:31

@dcfyj Yes, indeed

Sid

I just need 3 upvotes for 3k....

dcfyj

It's a nice mark to hit ^^

Saiid

@Sid Can I downvote you three times instead?

user61230

Okeydoke, time to clear the starboard.

user61230

Which messages are supposed to be there?

Beastly Gerbil

17:33

Yay!

None of them!

dcfyj

Oh wow, I didn't realize he was suspended for a year :S

user61230

@BeastlyGerbil HAH.

user61230

@dcfyj Just now.

dcfyj

Ah ok

Beastly Gerbil

I love how my comment 'What the hell are these stars?' got 3 stars. DON'T star this

dcfyj

17:35

lol

Rubio

Lol. My greeting Emrakul got 5. Y'all are daffy today.

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil You should know better :P

Beastly Gerbil

:P

Saiid

lol the stars just disappeared

user61230

I thiiiiiiink. I thiiiiink I got them all.

Rubio

17:37

Someone is on cleanup patrol, obviously :)

Thanks @Emrakul

Beastly Gerbil

@Saiid I hope not. I'll have nothing to look at tonight :P

user61230

Glad to help! Feel free to ping me/another mod if Annoyances (TM) continue.

Saiid

lol

Sumurai8

takes the broom from @Emrakul 's hands and puts it in the corner

user61230

@Sumurai8 smiles, nods.

dcfyj

17:37

I love how nothing I starred got removed :P

Saiid

@Emrakul Can you guys see who starred what?

Sid

@Rubio I am too lazy to write an explanation now, unless it is right. Is the answer to your riddle, pevzr?

Saiid

@Sid Haha you're 1 rep away now

Rubio

@Sid Nope.

Sid

@Saiid Did you intentionally do that?

Rubio

17:41

How'd you get +1 rep? lol

Ok there ya go

Sid

I would have got exactly 3k if someone hadn't downvoted two of my puzzles.

Beastly Gerbil

remove a downvote

Techidiot

@Deusovi-Can you input some suggestions here as to where and which cryptic clues were not right? I got Full of crows(5) from another source.

Saiid

@Sid Yes

dcfyj

@Techidiot Pretty sure he's not on at the moment

Sid

17:43

I had prepared to accept Gareth's answer at 2998 and would have got exactly 3k till you played spoilsport.

Techidiot

@dcfyj-He left a comment. So..

Saiid

it's my duty in life

dcfyj

@Techidiot Wasn't aware of that, so he's just lurking in here then :P

Techidiot

I read here Sometimes a cryptic clue will consist only of a definition

Saiid

?

lol

Techidiot

17:46

lol

Saiid

fail

dcfyj

Having issues with the formatting? :P

Will

the rest of that sentence being crucial

Techidiot

Oh I suck at it

Will

> but phrased in such a way as to be deliberately misleading

Saiid

17:46

@Sid is having 2999 rep fun?

Techidiot

And mine was misleading right? Reason why I got another good answer which was not right

Sid

@Saiid Are you searching to downvote my posts? Lol..

Saiid

lol

Will

The only way I see it being construed as intentionally misleading is the use of "crows" rather than the broader "birds"

Saiid

interesting anagram - "I, Rearrangement Servant" OR "Internet Anagram Server"

dcfyj

17:51

@Will Well, crows is correct for Rook

Birds wouldn't work in that case

Techidiot

@BeastlyGerbil- You might want to update Rooky in your answer. May be a reason why Deusovi sees it as non cryptic clue :)

dcfyj

@Techidiot You could always put it in there yourself as an OP explanation, I've done that on occasion

Techidiot

Ahh okay

Rubio

Btw @Techidiot You should have read the rest of that page, where it says "It should be noted that some crossword setters, as well as some solvers, consider this type of clue to be unfair" -- which is probably a good reason to avoid them.

Techidiot

@Rubio- I found this page a few minutes back. So, didn't go through that and picked only what I thought was useful excuse :)

Saiid

17:57

dammit, who's giving sid an extra rep?

Rubio

It's certainly not a standard cryptic clue in any case

Techidiot

And it's not built by me. It was picked from another source. So, I believed it was fine. Though, if it doesn't fit, I will take care the next time.

Rubio

Woot. Mission accomplished. Got another hat for my riddle hitting +10. :)

Saiid

@Sid I'm sorry, I can't allow you to cast vtc and vtro

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