if the only wordplay involved in the clue is a letter removal, does that mean there's no reverse cryptic wordplay in the clue

Wow, Amoz swept in for the final kill in Stiv's puzzle series. I never would have figured that metapuzzle out in a week

wow indeed

That is just beautiful.

FRRREEEEEDOOOOMM! Whew, I'm glad that got solved within a week - I was starting to fear it would remain unanswered for a while! It definitely required some additional insight (and was probably underclued within itself) but I honestly thought the pattern would be rumbled much sooner, hence why I left #23 (which was used in a past XKCD-themed FTC) and #24 (which was spelled a way I wouldn't) right until the end. Thanks to all who solved one (or more) along the way!

@Stiv SO many thanks! It's been a blast. The individual puzzles were varied and fun, but what a way to finish with a link that I didn't see coming at all!

Ha, thanks. I'm glad they were so well-received. I worried whether some might feel it "wasn't self-contained enough", but assuaged that with the fact that we'd previously done 2 topic challenges based off this particular external site, had another one coming up (which is here now, quite by coincidence), and it's very much in the community's sphere of influence given the number of references that get made with links dropped in comments (e.g.).

If I had a nickel for every time I got a (bit) surprised by a bounty from @Stiv , I'd get two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice. :P (thanks again Stiv!)

Wow, I had no clue this chat room was a thing in the past

Went through a search with no aim then some time had passed and I saw this

@oAlt CCCC hint 2: what part of the clue itself would indicate letter removal?

and while I'm here, I feel like "well done" doesn't do it justice, but well done to @Stiv on a tremendous puzzle series! would love to see a "making of", not least so that I have something to bounty, but I'd completely understand if you don't want to write up 25 puzzles worth of explanation :p

@juicifer Haha, thank you :) I'm planning to write a making-of for the meta, which will reference some of the other sub-puzzles and their methods too. Might be a little while before that though - time for a rest first!

I second the others' kudos, @Stiv . Very nicely done.

The "itself" in the C4 hint bothers me. It seems to imply there's some letter removal other than that indicated by the apostrophe. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it?

(I mean, if juicifer meant only that then he would've left out the word "itself". No?)