The Sphinx's Lair

Jim

22:00

we were busy making our way through @BeastlyGerbil puzzle

Display name

Actually, very disputable. I understand the downvotes now... (didn't think about that part when writing my snarky comment)

Deusovi

I downvoted because of the reliance on GitHub.

TrojanByAccident

Yup, I expected that

Display name

I have to downvote now too, sorry...

TrojanByAccident

It's fine, though =^-^=

Deusovi

22:02

That's... kind of exactly what I told you not to do.

Rubio

I found the RAR file and updated.

png.txt indeed.

Display name

And I'm now going to post a cryptic clue which isn't a real cryptic clue, lol. (it's extremely easy, though)

Rubio

And yeah, now that I think about it, using GitHub is pretty bad just on its own. The step of using SilverApprentice as the github name, too, is bad from a puzzling perspective.

Display name

CCCC: Ascent of new alcoholism (4)

Deusovi

There's also the issue of reliance on your profile.

Rubio

22:04

It'd be different if there was a URL in your profile. (Unless there is and I missed it.)

TrojanByAccident

@Rubio I've got my GitHub linked on my profile, yes...

Rubio

Ok guess I missed it.

I saw "SilverApprentice" there but not the link.

Deusovi

That is the link. You can click it.

Still though, this puzzle relies on your profile.

Rubio

oh. lol.

TrojanByAccident

@Deusovi True. *shrugs*

Rubio

22:08

@Displayname no indirect anagram, I hope?

Sconibulus

Ascent->Rise is an easy DEF, but it doesn't seem to fit otherwise

but half the time I say that I'm just being dumb and someone else solves it

TrojanByAccident

Ascent is in fact the def

Display name

@Rubio If an indirect anagram is something like this: "Unusually tough monster (5) = HYDRA", then no.

Rubio

It is, and thank you

Display name

I guess I have to say that the clue completely ignores one very important rule of cryptic clues, though...

Rubio

22:12

Uhoh.

Alconja

That pesky rule where there's an answer? :P

(and good morning all)

Rubio

I'm actually guessing that pesky rule where there's a def.

@Alconja Howdy howdy :)

Beastly Gerbil

My puzzle was finally solved

Rubio

cool

Other people were so way ahead of me before I had a chance to look at it, I just didn't bother. hehe

But, rare for me, I upvoted it more or less on sight.

Beastly Gerbil

Thanks :P

Jim

22:24

@BeastlyGerbil I learned a lot from that puzzle. You are very creative.

TrojanByAccident

I'm disappointed. :(

Deusovi

Why?

TrojanByAccident

Because that answer deserves more upvotes

I don't much care about the score on my question, but the answer should get more upvotes

Rubio

negative scoring questions are often ignored entirely, so the answer could be a complete masterpiece and many people would never even see it.

Jim

the CCCC HIGH?

Rubio

22:28

I kinda hope not hehe

Jim

:)

Sphinx

0

Q: Pentominoes On the Edge

Introducing Pentominoes! It's the same concept as tetrominoes except they use 5 tiles instead of 4. Discounting rotations and reflections, there are 12 different free pentominoes. (If you include reflections, there are 18 but we're going to assume our pieces are all vampires and, thus, don't hav...

Rubio

ooh yay Christmas packages arriving

TrojanByAccident

@Rubio When I see a negative scoring question, I often click on it to read through the answers and give it another downvote if it deserves one, but I guess that's just me *shrugs*

Rubio

don't anybody go sneaky solving the CCCC while I'm getting stuff ;)

Deusovi

22:29

@Jim That sounds right to me. He did say that it broke a rule of cryptics.

Sconibulus

@Sphinx I'm pretty sure this can't be done, but I don't have the maths to prove it

Display name

@Jim Nope, sorry. How would "new" fit in that explanation?

TrojanByAccident

@Jim That's what I thought it was, but I wasn't sure about 'new', as @Displayname pointed out

Hax: I started out with 349 rep(IIRC), I have a -7 question, and I now have 350 rep

lol

<--

^ wait for lag

Display name

I wonder why

TrojanByAccident

lol

Jim

22:34

@Displayname yeah I know, was making a wise crack, or a dumb crack in this case

Also, to anyone that wants to take down my first ever puzzle. I added more clues. It's not a deep puzzle, but requires a tiny leap - I guess. Now I must commute.

Display name

The CC is pretty stupid TBH, so making a dumb crack may be the accurate action to take :P

TrojanByAccident

@Jim Speaking of crack, any url containing the url 'crack' is blocked by my school filter

Jim

Your school is winning the #warondrugs

Will

even ritz-crackers.jpeg?

Jim

esp that one

TrojanByAccident

22:39

@Will no, but if it was ritz-crack-ers.jpeg, yes.

Display name

@TrojanByAccident So crackmarket.com would be allowed?

TrojanByAccident

@Displayname Yes.

Display name

Nice.

TrojanByAccident

but xxx.com/fix-crack-in-iphone would not

p.s. don't go to xxx.com

Will

@Displayname og you just reminded me of this kid who tried buying/selling uranium in middle school

Jim

22:41

Lol

Rubio

what about crackwh0res4less.com

very popular site, I hear

TrojanByAccident

(it's blocked for me anyway('keyword xxx'))

@Rubio lol

Sconibulus

@TrojanByAccident this is literally what example.com is for

Jim

@BeastlyGerbil would you consider the triangle stuff from your puzzle lateral thinking?

Rubio

btw @jim it's more common to put the hints at the bottom. people will know you updated it when it reappears on the activity board, so it's not like it has to be right on top for people to notice something added

Jim

22:43

@Rubio i'm commuting would you mind putting them at the bottom for me so it complies?

Rubio

sure

Jim

Many thanks

Rubio

Is the cryptic clue supposed to be tucked between the hints, or at the top?

Display name

This is just a test message, please ignore it

Rubio

I'm putting it below the checksum and above the hints, and leaving it unspoilered.

Display name

22:48

Cool, so titles also work in chat

Jim

It can be within the hints

What you did is perfect thank you

Rubio

titles?

Someone figured out how to do strikethroughs in chat - anyone know how that was done?

Display name

---strike---

Rubio

is it ~~just this~~?

ah. thanks.

Will

It's in help at the bottom right (if you're not on mobile)

Rubio

22:53

heh. I never noticed that

Your cccc is sucking my brain dry.

Display name

I'm kinda ashamed of myself for posting such a horrible C4, lol.

Should I drop a hint already so this can quickly disappear from the sidebar? :P

Rubio

your call

Alconja

Only if it's got something legitimately broken about it

Jim

If I ascent isn't the definition it might be up

Will

I'm thinking the def could be "a scent"

but

probably not

Rubio

23:00

the def can't be wordplay, so

if that were it, that would qualify as "legitimately broken" :)

Will

It has been said that it isn't quite kosher

Display name

I actually realized just now that there two things legitimately broken about it... Well, better drop a hint:

It may not work if the chat would use another font.

Rubio

Yeah, I'm wondering just how unruly it is.

Display name

Four words, two broken rules. That's pretty impressive.

Alconja

:)

Rubio

23:01

hmm

That, (un)surprisingly, doesn't help.

Jim

Something AA?

Rubio

Are you trying to indicate some subset of Atlhl ?

Display name

@Rubio Nice. The first broken rule is that there's no real "separator". I.e. you can't split the clue into one def and one wordplay part.

Rubio

I'm pretty certain if you're using properties of font/letter formation as part of a cryptic clue that it's out of bounds, down the road, across the vacant lot, and making for the railroad tracks. hehe

Oh. Yeah, then that too is broken

Deusovi

@Rubio Nothing wrong with that!

At least, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

Rubio

23:09

Really?

RottersSlave

@Displayname I'll star your CCCC so you will forever be remembered as "that guy who made that shitty CCCC".

2

Deusovi

I don't see why there would be, at least.

Rubio

I thought it was wordplay, not font play, but ok :) I am but the humble learner.

So I have two problems then

Deusovi

I'm not an authority on this or anything. I just don't see any issues with it.

Rubio

One is there's 6 ascenders. I'd prefer to rule out A and t, as they're in the indicator word itself, which seems unfair, so I guess that would resolve that one

The other is that resolving that leaves me flhl, and if that makes a word, even with new, I don't see it.

Jim

23:12

Can ascent mean the same as up eg reversed

Rubio

It can, but not here. That's for down words in cryptic crosswords.

Deusovi

Yeah, it could if it was a "down" clue in a crossword.

Rubio

Oh. lol.

you're doing that.

Deusovi

Hm?

Rubio

HILL, i take it

Will

23:17

Ohhhhh

Deusovi

How do ACOOSM fit in?

Volatility

oh

Deusovi

Oh duh, ascenders. Never mind.

Display name

(I know, "i" doesn't have an ascender, that was broken thing #2)

Rubio

HILL; Ascent(def); then reused as wordplay, Ascent[ers] of alcoholism (LHLI), new (anagrammed) to HILL

but "i" isn't technically an ascender, if I remember right

Deusovi

23:18

Booooo.

Rubio

that's pretty stinky. hehe

Sphinx

-1

Q: Which cipher increases the character count of a string the most?

Which cipher would increase the character count of the below sentence? The quick, brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The current character count is usually considered 46 characters, or at least is in UTF-8. Which cipher can I use to make this sentence as long as possible?

cipher open-ended

Display name

It's finally over.

Rubio

It is. That was ... fun ... hehe :)

Now I'm going to make Deusovi mad at me.

CCCC: Skywalker's first Master more recently has at his heart a carbonless diamond; maybe add a disarrayed toga for an Internet meme? (6,4)

This is, I believe, completely fair, but I took some liberties

We'll see what Sensei says when it's over. (*cringe*)

Deusovi

Ooh, I'm "Sensei" now.

TrojanByAccident

23:21

^ I'm going to assume that it's referring to Anakin Skywalker

Alconja

Dec 19 at 0:08, by Alconja

Though I repeat my warning, there's one word which might be slightly "controversial" in it's grammatical crypticity (don't hate me Sensei @Deusovi).

Rubio

Hah!

I thought I was being original, even. That makes it even better. :)

Deusovi

Huh, didn't notice that. (Either that, or I've just forgotten.)

TrojanByAccident

alright, time to pick it apart.

'hIs heart'

Deusovi

Alright, definition seems to be "an internet meme".

TrojanByAccident

23:24

add A

@Deusovi Agreed

Deusovi

Maybe _ _ _ _ _ _ GOAT?

TrojanByAccident

Just noticed, there's a question mark at the end

lateral-thinking

lol

no, it can't be that, there's an I in there somewhere

Deusovi

Not necessarily.

I think it means "carbonless diamond" inserted into "Skywalker's first master".

Will

all that come to mind for goat memes are goatSE and "crave that mineral"

TrojanByAccident

'disarrayed toga' is 'goat', which is what you were saying, I assume

Deusovi

23:26

Yeah.

Display name

It's 99% SCREAM GOAT, but since I don't offer an explanation, I'll not be the winner.

Volatility

S=Skywalker's first

Deusovi

That doesn't seem like a common phrase to me. "Scream goat meme" doesn't return much relevant on Google.

TrojanByAccident

alright, here's what we've got:

Skywalker's first Master more recently has at his heart a carbonless diamond; maybe add A, disarrayed toga(GOAT), def: Internet meme

Rubio

My next CCCC, I'm going to repeat-encode with Morse into things that expand to DOTs and DASHes. I'm sure that's fair.

I'm hoping for an 8k long clue.

Deusovi

23:37

You know, we can still remove room ownership. :P

Rubio

Hehee

I'll blame you. Your comment gave me the idea. I can prove it.

Deusovi

Hey, I never said anything about doing that with cryptic clues.

Gareth McCaughan

hey Rubio, congrats on joining the exalted ranks of the Room Owners.

Will

it's horrible how many things just "Skywalker's first Master" can mean even if interpreted literally

Rubio

@GarethMcCaughan Thank ye sir

TheGreatEscaper

23:45

The scream goat is a well known internet meme

I can provide a link @Deusovi :P

Volatility

btw @TheGreatEscaper I updated the sudoku to the complete one

TheGreatEscaper

youtube.com/watch?v=Nf4SyWq692s <<< 'Screaming goat songs', 10 million views

@Volatility cool, I just green ticked your answer :)

Volatility

thanks ;-)

Jim

What's this about the screaming goats?

Also someone explain the HILL CCCC like I'm 5

Rubio

So I'll say this - I'm pretty sure screaming goats were first introduced to the interwebs with a different name in a YT video which (sadly) seems to be deleted now but lives on in a later repost (and in references to it from at least one vlogger around the time it came out)

Display name

23:51

Well, "Yelling Goat" and "Man Goat" are obviously incorrect.

Man Goat

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