The Sphinx's Lair

Beastly Gerbil

6:01 PM

@RosieF, from now on that is the only thing you'll see me posting :P

Rosie F

RIO VIP (Rissole in oven. Veg in pan.)

Beastly Gerbil

GDASTLFMSOMWC (Got distracted and spent the last few minutes spinning on my wheely chair :P)

Wheely Chairs are the best things ever.

Rosie F

@BeastlyGerbil Aren't they just! Unfortunately, the room I'm in is so narrow, it's a bit difficult to spin on it without hitting something.

manshu

Taking the chair out of the room seems to be a good solution :p

Beastly Gerbil

6:20 PM

@manshu, that should have been tagged with the lateral-thinking tag :P

manshu

@BeastlyGerbil No, I couldn't...Otherwise mods here would have deleted that message for being too broad. :p (Star that message if you want that message to be deleted. If the message gets 5 stars by random users then it will be deleted)

Rand al'Thor

@manshu ... are you getting stars mixed up with flags?

ffao

what exactly counts as a random user?

manshu

@Randal'Thor we can't find out the number of flags on a message, can we?

@ffao Any user

Rand al'Thor

@ffao I'm a very random user.

3

manshu

6:25 PM

off to bed now...5:30 hours of sleep left. Tata

Rand al'Thor

@manshu No, but flagging is what's done to chat messages that should be deleted, and if 5 random users (or 1 mod) agree with the flag then it gets deleted.

Night @manshu!

Rosie F

Off pro tem. Dinner. I shall return... interfrastically.

Beastly Gerbil

By english hours thats an early night!

The sphinx's lair can be anagrammed to Pixels Thrashin'

2

I prefer that name :P

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil SO Alter-ego?

Mithrandir

6:42 PM

@Randal'Thor I might. Might not. :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir VTC: duplicate.

Beastly Gerbil

Quite right, completely unacceptable @Randal'Thor

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I'm still working on it, but not quite sure what more 'non-standardness' to put in these Jefferson discs.

Mithrandir

I'm having Internet trouble.

So it accidentally submitted twice.

That's the first time I've been the only person ever to review in a review queue.

Maria Deleva

you should get a badge for that :)

dcfyj

6:50 PM

I may have figured out how the text was enciphered in @RosieF 's question, but I have no idea how to get the key...

Mithrandir

Also, @Randal'Thor, it throws me every time you call it a Jefferson disc. I call it a wheel. :P

@MariaDeleva I did: Custodian.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Oo, I see you've nominated yourself for mod over there. Maybe you'll get that blue name after all ;-)

Mithrandir

:P

Rand al'Thor

Also, what on earth?

Um, did someone mean to flag that?

Kaz Wolfe

Did someone really flag a MOD?!

Mithrandir

6:52 PM

It was just to see if people actually preferred me over @kenorb. o_o

But I wouldn't mind :P

It was actually a bit serious...

Beastly Gerbil

Oops no I meant to star it

How do you unflag it?

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Better be careful with those buttons ;-)

Kaz Wolfe

The flag was nullified.

Rand al'Thor

Now Art is here to investigate (hi @Art!)

ArtOfCode

sup

Beastly Gerbil

6:53 PM

That comment looks weird flagged and starred :P

Mithrandir

-4

A: Accepting Nominations — Who should moderate this site?

Notes: I have no moderator experience - I'm outside of the political establishment! I have 4.6k in reputation on Stack Overflow and over 10 billion (totally not inflated) across the Stack Exchange network. Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest - and you all know ...

ArtOfCode

Honestly Rand, I expected better of you. You should know better than to be posting things like that, which get flagged. /s

Kaz Wolfe

*vanishes*

Rand al'Thor

@ArtOfCode For a moment I wondered if someone had actually taken objection to the "f".

dcfyj

So many people

Mithrandir

6:55 PM

@Randal'Thor I did, but I didn't flag it.

That Robert nomination has vanished! :P

Maria Deleva

ok, this is hilarious - now I just want to flag a mod - for the fun of it :D But I won't :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Better?

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor, nope but how do you retract a flag

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor Yes. :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Huh, now it looks weird on the starboard.

Beastly Gerbil

6:56 PM

Did someone edit that comment?

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil In chat, I don't think you can (but @Art probably knows better than me). On the main site, you can, but only since a couple of months ago.

ArtOfCode

no retracting flags in chat, no

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil I edited it myself, since Mithrandir said he objected to the "f".

Beastly Gerbil

Wow, you'd think someone would have fixed that by now

Mithrandir

Yes, but he has it as CM & SE employee. These rules bind his hands: he can't do elected mod tasks, his role is essentially an over-mod exception handler. Being an elected mod, this rules wouldn't bind his hands. — peterh 40 secs ago

...?

Rand al'Thor

6:58 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Meh, probably not worth the bother. Chat flags tend to get handled very fast, because of the real-time nature of chat.

By the time you said you'd flagged it by accident, the flag had already been handled.

ArtOfCode

it's not because of the realtime nature, @Rand

it's because I sit in my lair all day with a flag-hammer and wait for something to get flagged

5

obviously

Mithrandir

Huh

Rand al'Thor

@ArtOfCode Whatever did they do before you were a mod? :-P

Mithrandir

A 'recommend close' in the LQP queue raises a flag?

Didn't know that.

ArtOfCode

@Randal'Thor hadda wait a lot longer for things to get handled

totally wasn't just other people handling them

dcfyj

7:01 PM

@Randal'Thor Clearly Flags sat for days, even weeks before someone came around to taking care of it.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir ?

ArtOfCode

@Randal'Thor by jove he's right

Beastly Gerbil

@ArtOfCode, you are officially the first person I've ever seen to say 'by jove' :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Ah, I misread as 'recommend deletion'. You mean if a question gets in the LQP queue (which is pretty rare IME)?

ArtOfCode

@BeastlyGerbil that makes you the second, then

Rand al'Thor

7:03 PM

Also, hurry up and get 3k rep so you can really VTC things, @Mithrandir :-)

2

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor You could help (hint, hint).

Beastly Gerbil

@ArtOfCode second is the best place, no one looks to you to solve their problems :P

Mithrandir

in Riddle Sandbox, Aug 29 at 15:18, by Rand al'Thor

offers two large bounties to @Mithrandir :-P

ArtOfCode

@BeastlyGerbil golly gosh how indubitable

Beastly Gerbil

@ArtOfCode, I don't even know what that means :P

Mithrandir

7:06 PM

Seriously @BeastlyGerbil?

Rand al'Thor

@ArtOfCode What ho, old sport - how topping.

Mithrandir

:P

ArtOfCode

@Randal'Thor jolly fine weather we're having, what what

Mithrandir

It's wot, wot.

redwall

Rand al'Thor

There are plenty of Brits in here already, that sort of thing won't impress many people :-)

Beastly Gerbil

7:07 PM

yes someone else read that series!

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Yessss

Beastly Gerbil

Great books

Mithrandir

You know I read that, @Rand - I asked at least one question about it.

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil I've read a good chunk of it, but it's been a long time, I'd say at least 10 years.

Sconibulus

Was that the one where the animals had to find a magic sword?

Mithrandir

7:08 PM

8

Q: Are there humans in the world of Redwall?

Throughout the three Redwall books that i have read, (Redwall, Mattimeo, and Mossflower) there are only animals, such as mice, moles, foxes, etc. Is there any mention of humans in any of the books?

redwall

Sconibulus

and all the times they ate took twenty pages?

Beastly Gerbil

@Sconibulus, that would be the one :P

Sconibulus

I think I was reading those when I was younger

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Apparently I'd already upvoted that, but didn't remember it was by you.

Sconibulus

for some reason all the weasel-family critters were evil.... except badgers

Mithrandir

7:10 PM

Well, it needs some antagonists...

dcfyj

@Sconibulus That's because one of their family just doesn't care.

Rand al'Thor

@Sconibulus Whereas in the Gary Kilworth books (marketed as "as good as Brian Jacques or your money back") all the main characters were mustelids.

Mithrandir

Indeed, I don't imagine that a sword made purely of diamond would be much more help in a fight than a sword made of sugar cubes. — Shufflepants yesterday

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor, which is why I haven't heard of it :P

dcfyj

My nephew's middle name is Matthias. :P

Rand al'Thor

7:12 PM

@Mithrandir Depends on whether that sword is also a sa'angreal.

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor Remind me to read wheel-of-time someday, okay? :P

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor or an angreal either one really, and if you can use saidin or saidar

Sconibulus

@Mithrandir just get the enemy's attention, throw the sword to the side, and run away

you've successfully survived the combat!

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Attention. Information available.

You must read wheel-of-time.

Mithrandir

...Not now. I meant later!

Rand al'Thor

7:15 PM

When?

Mithrandir

IDK.

Not right after I told you to remind me, though. :P

Rand al'Thor

Affirmative.

dcfyj

And it's not, someday. It's somedays

Rand al'Thor

wonders if anyone got that reference

Mithrandir

star-trek-data

dcfyj

7:16 PM

You'll not be reading it in a day, the series is too long for that.

Mithrandir

?

Maria Deleva

@Randal'Thor, remind him after exactly 3 months 1 day 3 hours 1 minute 3 seconds and 1 millisecond

Mithrandir

@dcfyj You'd be surprised

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Nope, time-of-the-doctor.

Mithrandir

I'm a speed reader.

@Randal'Thor Who?

dcfyj

7:16 PM

@Mithrandir Considering the length of the books, I doubt you'd be reading all 14 of them in 24 hours.

Mithrandir

@dcfyj I read harry-potter in a day...

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/33-16.html

Mithrandir

(Okay, that was a 167th reread, but who cares?)

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir WoT is 4 million words.

dcfyj

That's half the books, and they're relatively small compared to WoT

Sconibulus

7:17 PM

speaking of long things people have read... anyone read Worm?

Mithrandir

Okay, I'll see about reading them :P

dcfyj

never heard of it

Beastly Gerbil

Nope Even though I'm a bookworm @Sconibulus

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor Is that 1 book or the series? :P

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj No, each book is a few hundred thousand words.

dcfyj

7:19 PM

I know, I've read most of them

Sconibulus

It's a pretty neat story that was published as a web serial, it's about people with superpowers, but it's also really long

Mithrandir

he was just star-farming

dcfyj

The copies I have are all 600+ pages

Rand al'Thor

'Most' because you're still in the middle of it, or because you gave up?

dcfyj

Most because I got busy and I'd caught up to the releases at the time (book 11 or 12 I think) and I never got back to rereading the series to finish it.

@Mithrandir Was just making a joke at the length actually, I don't really care if stars fall on me or not.

Beastly Gerbil

7:22 PM

Got to to dinner. I will leave you all with these stirring, deep, meaningful and motivational words from the great @RosieF:

AFK

dcfyj

@Sconibulus The only web series I've read is 8-bit theater. T'was a good read, I'm sad it's over.

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor Hurry up with that answer. I won't award the bounty unless you actually get the answer :P

1 hour ago, by Rosie F

AFK (Am famished. Kitchen.)

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Argh!

Hint? :-)

Mithrandir

See you later, Gerbil. Still working on that sequel for you ;)

Sconibulus

@dcfyj That one was pretty good, but it was a webcomic I think

Mithrandir

7:23 PM

@rand Uhhh

dcfyj

@Sconibulus It was

Mithrandir

Let me see if I can remember how to solve it

You have the right wheels

That enough? :P

Rand al'Thor

I was already sure I had the right wheels.

What about the ordering of them?

Mithrandir

They're 1 through 11

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor Use the password from Spaceballs?

Mithrandir

7:25 PM

And that is right answer...

Rand al'Thor

Yes, but in which order?

Mithrandir

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Whaddya mean?

dcfyj

I believe he means the order in which the answers were given

ie. The first puzzle's answer is the first wheel, etc

Mithrandir

Yeah.

Rand al'Thor

No, I mean ...

The 'key' for a Jefferson cipher is supposed to be an ordering of the discs.

Mithrandir

7:26 PM

@Randal'Thor Yeah, go on...

Rand al'Thor

So I just take them in the natural order 1 to 11?

I.e. no key, or 'blank' key.

Mithrandir

Not exactly.

This part took me forever :P

Hint: Don't go from one word to the next.

Rand al'Thor

You said the key was Jefferson.

And Jefferson was the 3rd president.

Oh, hang on ...

goes away to try something

Mithrandir

Rand al'Thor

Well, that didn't work.

I just tried jumping through the wheels in steps of three (1,4,7,10, then back to 2, ...), but then they don't fit with the ciphertext any more.

Have I got the right ciphertext?

Mithrandir

7:30 PM

_/

...I think.

Rand al'Thor

An angle?

Mithrandir

That's a checkmark...

dcfyj

Used to be a "?"

Mithrandir

Yea, right ciphertext.

Rand al'Thor

Then the order of the wheels is almost fixed.

Mithrandir

7:32 PM

bwionradrcyount

^a hint

ffao

this is a checkmark: ✓

binary word count

Indeed

✓.

The words in each sentence?

Like TwoBitOperation did

Mithrandir

7:34 PM

Don't remember.. o_o

Rand al'Thor

101, 10, 1000, 11, 1000, 100, 101, 101, 1010, 111, 100

dcfyj

quick reference

Mithrandir

no

not like that

count the words

dcfyj

5,2,8,3,8,4,5,5,10,7,4

Mithrandir

Add them up

Rand al'Thor

7:37 PM

@dcfyj That's what I said!

Only in binary.

dcfyj

Which is exactly what he has in binary

Rand al'Thor

Because Mithrandir said binary.

dcfyj

I know I was just typing that haha

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir 56?

Mithrandir

Off by 5

dcfyj

7:38 PM

This isn't so much as hints as it's step by step...

Rand al'Thor

Ah, because I dropped the first 5 to come back to it later.

61.

Mithrandir

=binary

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj Yeah, maybe I should go away and think about it for a while.

Mithrandir

I know

:P

That's it. You'll need that string later.

Rand al'Thor

111101

dcfyj

7:39 PM

00111101

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor, now its your turn to try and interrogate @Mithrandir for the answer to his puzzle :P

Rand al'Thor

Wait!

Mithrandir

Which?

ffao

well, now the answer is obvious

Rand al'Thor

This looks like exactly what I was looking for.

ffao

7:40 PM

but I do think this was more like a step-by-step than a hint indeed

Rand al'Thor

I wanted an excuse to pick those wheels.

Mithrandir

Is it? It took me another 5-10 minutes after Sci told me that.

ffao

by reverse engineering of the answer, it had to be those wheels

because wormwood is the only one with a W

dcfyj

Helps that I found Water early on?

Mithrandir

@dcfyj That's cheating.

dcfyj

7:41 PM

Even if Sci was mad at me for how I stumbled on it?

Mithrandir

:P

dcfyj

Not like I was expecting to find that, I've never even heard of those books

Beastly Gerbil

Google is never the answer

ffao

except if someone doesn't know what a jefferson disk is, the puzzle is unsolvable without google

Mithrandir

heads off to create a riddle where the answer is 'Google'

dcfyj

7:42 PM

I use Google.com to help me make connections that I know nothing about. This was one of them.

Mithrandir

Test:

stackexchange.com/users/5129611/mithrandir

dcfyj

Honestly I think this puzzle was rather obscure

Sconibulus

we don't like google?

Mithrandir

From Clue Eleven: This is the last easy puzzle you'll get. After this, you'll really start to stretch your brain.

ffao

if I didn't know the answer was going to be water from the outset, this solution method would look as likely as any other

there's no aha moment that confirms this is indeed what you're supposed to do

Beastly Gerbil

7:43 PM

The Ironic thing is I'm on google right now :P

Puzzling Meta

0

Q: Sample commentaries on puzzle creation

This is a temporary sandbox for posting sample commentaries on puzzle creation, to whet the idea described in the post about sharing and rewarding what went into making a good puzzle. The objectives of this sandbox are to:- Confirm the usefulness of this idea Standardize on a convention to cap...

discussion questions sandbox

Beastly Gerbil

Wait what? When was ^that^ decided?

Mithrandir

waits for Randy to edit his answer

dcfyj

I think he just put that up on his own

Beastly Gerbil

Seems pointless

Downvoting

dcfyj

7:46 PM

It's not like it's a mod-mandatory thing, it's just to help give proper feedback to puzzle creators, i guess.

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj Definitely.

@Mithrandir I'd already found ODVPMWATENR and wanted an excuse to pick those letters to get WATER, but I couldn't come up with a good reason for it.

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor Good for you.

Rand al'Thor

(That means it's not a good puzzle, by the way: if you know how you're supposed to get the answer and still can't see where the motivation comes from to do so, then it's not really solvable. Sorry.)

Mithrandir

'Power of two'

Rand al'Thor

@ffao Agreed. I tried to justify it as best I could in my answer, but it's still a bit shaky.

Beastly Gerbil

7:52 PM

@Mithrandir, whens clue 13 coming out? :P

dcfyj

It'll be the next one on the list? :P

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Sigh. You like the idea of a sandbox when the Mods suggest it, but not when it comes from the community? :-/

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil After I make it.

Beastly Gerbil

You better make Clue 13 tricky or else...

Mithrandir

I only start to create after they've been solved.

Beastly Gerbil

7:53 PM

@Randal'Thor, I was against the sandbox at the end

Mithrandir

I'm still working on the sequel to the diamond ;)

dcfyj

What diamond?

Beastly Gerbil

13

A: Who stole the diamond?

Finally Complete Answer: The original image QR gives: Clicking on the image and reading the qr there gives Notable its upside down The barcode on the cereal says: And the QR says: The barcode on the side gives a link to here The QR there says: The barcode there says: t...

Mithrandir

That's the answer.

Beastly Gerbil

Yep.

Mithrandir

7:54 PM

15

Q: Who stole the diamond?

Inspiration from @BeastlyGerbil's Puzzle - This is an opprtunity. Can you take it? In Puzzlville last night, someone stole the famous Stone of Wondrous Mystery! Can you help the police find it? But first... maybe you should read the news. Note: I cannot confirm that all of the images came t...

enigmatic-puzzle

dcfyj

I have never seen that puzzle

Mithrandir

I created it :)

Beastly Gerbil

@dcfyj really? It took up 2 days of chat messages

Rand al'Thor

A mandatory sandbox was a terrible idea, even if nobody realised it until I explained why. A voluntary sandbox is a really good idea: it has all the pros of the mods' suggestion without any of the cons; it helps with community-building and with improving puzzle quality.

3

dcfyj

I see that. Doesn't change the fact that I'd never seen it

Beastly Gerbil

7:55 PM

@dcfyj you could always go back in time, copy my answer and get the accept yourself :P

Mithrandir

I probably should have just created a new chatroom, instead of hijacking this one..

Beastly Gerbil

nah, no point. Everyones in this one

dcfyj

btw @Mithrandir, @Randal'Thor posted his answer

Mithrandir

I saw

@rand don't give me credit :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I thought you created the whole series and Sci just posted this one?

Mithrandir

7:57 PM

Nope

Sci created the two he posted

The whole thing was my idea, though

Wheee bounty

(Now give it back XD)

(Just kidding)

Rand al'Thor

Yay :-D

Beastly Gerbil

Max rep nice

Mithrandir

Repcap on two sites? o_o

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I edited it to say "Mithrandir" instead of "the puzzle creator".

Beastly Gerbil

Hard days work at the office for @Randal'Thor

Mithrandir

8:00 PM

I said don't give me credit. :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir And all of that 250, except for the last 55 on the Jefferson answer, came from questions! :-o

Mithrandir

o_o

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir But I wouldn't have got it without that!

Mithrandir

IDC

Beastly Gerbil

What questions?

dcfyj

8:01 PM

I'm out, got stuff to do away from PCs

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I want to say that I wouldn't have got the final step without help.

That's feedback of sorts.

I like to give feedback on the puzzles I solve.

Mithrandir

And I'm saying I don't want the credit...

Rand al'Thor

Can I say "after getting help in chat"?

Sconibulus

if @Mithrandir doesn't want credit, give it to Gandalf :)

2

Mithrandir

Sure

:P

(Why is '@Mithrandir' in messages on the starboard... twice?)

Sconibulus

8:03 PM

apparently you're a popular guy

Mithrandir

Don't I wish.

Alright

Gotta get cracking on that diamond sequel and clue 13

Beastly Gerbil

Yes!

Make it the same but not the same as the last one or was it the next ones? Just make it good not bad or in between, or on between or in side... What?

Mithrandir

#Confused

Beastly Gerbil

So am I

Mithrandir

Gotta have Sci betatest part of it.. the part that took 2 hours.

Now, I'm closing chat - takes up too much memory. See you guys later.

Beastly Gerbil

8:09 PM

I have unlimited :P

At least when I'm using the Stack Exchange App which note to all: could use a lot of work

Mithrandir

8:31 PM

^By hand

(Except for the avatar)

(Ping @Randal'Thor )

How well did I do? :P

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Not very. Too cramped.

Mithrandir

I didn't have a lot of room...

^from diamond sequel

:P

Rand al'Thor

The diamond sequel involves me? :-o

Mithrandir

No, it's just because of the 'Mithrandir is rand al'thor' on SFF :P

Anyway, back to work..

Lukas Rotter

8:51 PM

I just had an idea for a new puzzle as soon I saw the image @Mithrandir just posted! I'll wait until he releases his sequel to make sure it isn't too similar :P

Mithrandir

@LukasRotter That was just an easter egg. :P

Lukas Rotter

@Mithrandir Oh ok so I guess I can start working on my puzzle without shame then :P

Mithrandir

@LukasRotter Good luck.

Lukas Rotter

9:14 PM

What are the rules when it comes to puzzles that require JavaScript? Are they considered bad quality? What if the puzzle is solvable without JavaScript but it's a lot easier (and more fun) when it's included?

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor What are your favorite tags?

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir You mean the ones I actually have on my favourites list on the site, or the ones I like best?

Mithrandir

The ones you have set

Rand al'Thor

I assume you mean here and not SFF?

Mithrandir

Yeah, here.

Rand al'Thor

9:26 PM

Just riddle and mathematics.

Mithrandir

okay, thanks

@Randal'Thor :P

...Not the best, but I don't care.

Not bad for an hours work.

Rand al'Thor

Yeah, that's pretty damn good for having been done by hand.

Lukas Rotter

Nevermind my last question, puzzling doesn't even have a code-snippet feature (cries in corner).

Rand al'Thor

I don't know why you didn't take an actual screenshot and only edit the avatar/rep/badges/favourite-tags parts by hand though :-)

Also, "review" should have a lower-case R.

Mithrandir

@LukasRotter Just use backticks?

@Randal'Thor Because I wanted it to match the rest of the puzzle.

@Randal'Thor agghh.

I'll fix it tomorrow.

...Actually, it is tomorrow...

Lukas Rotter

9:38 PM

@Mithrandir Nah, the whole idea of the puzzle was that a small website can be displayed inside a question.

Mithrandir

Ahh.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Not here it isn't.

Mithrandir

Here it is :P

So I have to go.

Rand al'Thor

@Lukas @Gareth I made a meta post out of (y)our earlier discussion:

0

Q: What is a Puzzle Tag™?

We've probably all seen at least one of the "What is a XXX Word™?" puzzles. They were started off by JLee in July 2015 and have been going strong ever since, with 30 posted to date. Unlike most of the 'fads' Puzzling SE has seen (the Security to the Party puzzles of late 2014, the rebus craze of...

discussion tags

Lukas Rotter

Do any of the puzzling mods even have the power to change any of the site's functionality, or the big boys have to do that? :P I think this would be very useful to include for questions. (Emrakul, at that time, apparently couldn't to anything, but that was in beta time)

Deusovi

9:45 PM

Nah, we don't really. It's not that much more power than a regular user, actually.

We handle flags, get modhammers, partake in the ancient rituals that run the SE servers, and get to add the meta status tags. No big deal really.

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Or rather it's a lot more power but only in certain specific areas.

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor True, that's probably a better way to put it.

Rand al'Thor

Closing or deleting posts - ALL THE POWER!

Making behind-the-scenes changes to the code - no extra power at all (except in having more direct lines of communication to those who do have that power).

Lukas Rotter

@Deusovi Ok thanks for clarifying. I guess it's hopeless then since I highly doubt any of the people in power would care.

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter They don't have any particular reason to care greatly about any one SE site (except SO), but if it's an easy change for them to make and there's meta consensus that the community wants that change, they're normally happy to do so.

See this question for instance: I made a proposal, it got consensus, Shog9 showed up to implement it.

Lukas Rotter

9:51 PM

@Randal'Thor Good to hear! But it would be an extremely easy thing to do (I assume) and the question is almost 2 years old. :(

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter You could either re-ask it (try to word it so people won't close it as a duplicate - link to the older question and say you're reopening the discussion now in the hope of a stronger consensus) or ask the mods to slap a featured tag on the older question so it gets more attention.

Puzzling Meta

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Q: What is a Puzzle Tag™?

We've probably all seen at least one of the "What is a XXX Word™?" puzzles. They were started off by JLee in July 2015 and have been going strong ever since, with 30 posted to date. Unlike most of the 'fads' Puzzling SE has seen (the Security to the Party puzzles of late 2014, the rebus craze of...

discussion tags

Lukas Rotter

@Randal'Thor I have trouble with finding a way to not make it a duplicate... It's pretty much the exact question I have, and I don't see any way around it. Code Snippets: Yes or No. I'm honestly not sure if "I'm reopening the discussion" would impress anyone - but I guess I could try.

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