I found this in my Inbox today. I think someone is playing a prank, but ... well ... I'm really not sure!
Puzzling friends, can you please take a look and see if you can tell what's up with this message?
Date : 08-JUN-2017
Dossier : RAND AL'THOR
Subject : ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE REPO...
Also it's boboquack runs I still have no idea what the final clue in Mi So Re Do means, "needs a bit of musical knowledge" is not clue-y enough for me lol
He stands aloof. Lo! Rod and sword
Do both adorn him. Just reward!
His ghanta's clangor among us rings
Who knows from whence this _ _?
To deduce the two missing words, you will need to find what's hidden to see who's named.
Grrrr. It really f--king annoys me that a newish user had a perfectly valid puzzle mass-downvoted and attacked because a few people couldn't get their bloody minds out of the gutter. They should all go back to their porn sites and leave Puzzling alone.
What really astounds me is people's rudeness and audacity in insisting that it was deliberately sexually suggestive, even after it was very clear the OP hadn't intended it that way, just because they read it that way.
> I would argue rather strongly that your deliberate innuendo very much implies intent.
> You are not going to persuade us that "I give great head" wasn't intended to sound sexual.
I'm flabbergasted. Do these people find it literally impossible to wrap their heads around the idea that some people don't have filthy minds or aren't aware of the connotations of certain phrases?
@Randal'Thor The poster of that puzzle intended for it to be suggestive and edgy. I assumed the answer was neither sexual not edgy, but I also felt the content of the puzzle was too overt. "Give great head" means one thing to most people. That's not a dirty mind, that's kowing a phrase and then (because it is a puzzle), searching for another definition.
I accept that that phrase does have that meaning. I don't accept that it's unreasonable to believe someone could write that puzzle without knowing that meaning.
how about your sentence: "I've read all revisions of the riddle and didn't pick up any sexual connotations from anything" followed by this one just now in chat: " I accept that that phrase does have that meaning"
the point of riddles is to be clever with phrasing. he (assuming) was quite proud of his puzzle (as he stated). I and several others were fine with inferring that his use of that phrase was intended because he had no other issues with english in his post and knew enough about idiomatic phrasing to correctly use chicken shit
I understand the desire to defend a new puzzler, but you're choosing not to see a pretty obvious truth.
You and Gareth are continuing to insult the OP by insisting that they knew all along what that phrase meant. Because if they did, then they must have been being dishonest when guessing that people thought the riddle was racist or were offended by the use of the word "shit".
then we must continue to disagree, it seems. I do believe that the OP fully intended that reading and there is no reasonable argument to change my mind on that outside of electroshock therapy. anyway, I have no further need to defend myself. I have stated my defense since you chose to quote me in your "go back to your porn sites" rant
@Rubio if i made some sort of chess puzzle, were someone needs to find the best moves to win in a certain situation, will that sort of questiong good to post here to should i post it in the Chess stack?
@Sid A recent puzzle had a phrase "give great head", which is slang for a sex act and has no other immediately obvious reading. Some people said it was offensive. Rand disagrees, and says that the sex act reading is making unnecessary assumptions.
@jeyejow If it's a puzzle, then it's fine. If it's about analysing a board state that occurred "naturally" in a game, then I think it should go in Chess.SE.
@jeyejow If it's an unusual or surprising puzzle then you'd be welcome, encouraged even, to post it here. If it's relatively standard "White to move and win" puzzle it wouldn't necessarily be out of place here either but we tend to prefer puzzles with an "A-ha!" moment to them.
Yes, I had seen that puzzle. I don't understand what is the point of discussing that when the puzzle is already solved and it is clear that no such meaning was intended.
Im honestly not sure if puzzles are on-topic in the Chess SE though I would be surprised if an "I'm stuck on this" question would be unwelcome. But they may not welcome challenge questions - Puzzling is (almost) unique in that we do.
right, as do I. but rand's issue is that he believes the poster did not intend the "give great head" to be read in the distracting way that most people would read it. anyway, it is done now. I too am off to my IRL obligations.
@Forklift I haven't decided yet if linking people who know the phrase's meaning with frequenting porn sites is something I should be actually insulted by. But whatever. I don't want to be drawn back into this.
This has got to be the coolest chess puzzle I have ever seen. Shamelessly stolen from here (Which is actually linked from the help center, which is how I found this) which links here. I don't believe anybody has posted this before as a puzzle though.
The question: Can white win in this position?
@Deusovi if i had to solve that chess puzzle in the shortest moves i could make, i can only solve it in 2 moves (if black doesnt move the middle pawns, if he does then 3 moves)
@Rubio I simply take it as the person who slings that attack as having a very narrow viewpoint of the specific subject matter and attacking that strawman ("if you know sexual phrasing you are a porn frequenter") in order to dismiss the opinion they do not agree with ("this is phrasing of a nature unsuitable for this site").
It's the same thing I do when I see a driver on the road with a political bumper sticker I do not agree with. I assume they are stupid and therefore a terrible driver. we are all guilty of it in some way. I am not offended.
I'm curious who removed all the comments on the Enigma puzzle...
@Randal'Thor I in no way tried to talk down the riddle or tell the OP that the puzzle was bad. I merely explained the reasoning why downvotes were occuring (IMO). I didn't downvote, in fact upped it after seeing the answer. I tried to help with the edit as well. But at the end of the day, some people saw the riddle as offensive and or inappropriate, and that in my eyes is justification enough to suggest a rework of the wording.
I'd also like to point out in the first edit made by the OP they said "People are accusing me of racism, this is not the case at all, though I do see a couple places it could be misconstrued that way" - so they're aware where it could go wrong, so they are not totally unaware.
I don't think it's really fair to call Gareth out as a mod saying that should be what dictates his opinion in entirety. Anyway, That's my two cents on all the stuff that was said while I was away.