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John
John
1:08 AM
How would you interpret the word top in a cryptic clue? Thanks
Let me rephrase that, topped.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@John Remove the first letter, probably.
Bread topped = read.
 
John
John
Okay, how about a blank topped blank.
Actually I think you answered it.
It would seem a normal person would put the second blank in front of the first.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Random example: "Vessels a Scottish poet topped (4)" = URNS.
It might also be able to mean "remove part of the word" in general, not necessarily the first letter.
 
John
John
Nice.
Okay, thanks Rand.
 
 
3 hours later…
ffao
ffao
4:30 AM
@Randal'Thor I wish you'd asked that circle question sooner :( code.google.com/codejam/contest/7234486/dashboard#s=p2
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
5:23 AM
@Randal'Thor Yes, that's what I see "topped" used for, in a cryptic clue. Some Listener crosswords had the theme Topped and Tailed, the idea being that, with a thematic clue, you remove its answer's first or last letter before writing it in the grid. But just one letter, not a bigger part of the word.
 
Beechwood Review
Beechwood Review
6:00 AM
@LukasRotter Lukas – Would love to consider some of your work. It doesn't have to be riddles only. I quite liked your table question. Visuals are great too. Minimalism favored.
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
6:27 AM
I have prepared you something special for tonight but it needs a little tuning
Hopefully, it will be ready tonight
 
 
2 hours later…
Areeb
Areeb
8:46 AM
I'm surprised, no one has attempted @Randal'Thor 's Murder Puzzle, or is it just too hard so no one has posted an answer?
 
 
1 hour later…
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
9:47 AM
@Areeb I tried it, but couldn't solve it yet... I'm even pretty clueless about what the cipher should be, the only obvious thing would be the dates converted to letters... but then what? Since it doesn't have a steganography tag, it seems like the statements are nothing but clues. The only additional hint he gave is
2 days ago, by Rand al'Thor
@LukasRotter I will say that the tags on that puzzle are a hint.
Which didn't help me much personally :P
2 days ago, by Lukas Rotter
I still don't get the hint... We already realized before he posted this comment that some kind of cipher is involved. If he wanted to hint at that, then maybe Caesar, Atbash or Vigenere is involved (according to the description). story doesn't seem to say much except that it's... a story. And the description of mystery suggests that there are clues hidden inside the question for "deducing conclusions" - So maybe there are inconsistencies/paradoxes in the statements?
 
Sid
Sid
10:30 AM
I have a question. I was thinking of posting a logic puzzle... I just want to ask if it would be marked as duplicate simply because the idea could be same to other similar puzzles (but not necessarily the answer)??
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
If the question doesn't have the same answer its not a duplicate. You can have the same story, same characters same question but as long as the answer is different it won't be closed
 
Sid
Sid
fine, thank you.
Also, is it necessary to post the source of the puzzle?I am asking because I read it in a newspaper and I don't think it exists on the internet...
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
I suggest so otherwise if someone does find it online you could be suspended for plagiarism
Thats the reason for Gamow being suspended
 
Sid
Sid
I couldn't find it online, anyway, I would do so..
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Even if it's not available online you should post your source.
You're less likely to get caught if it's not online but plagiarism is plagiarism even if not caught.
 
Sid
Sid
10:43 AM
Yeah.. I am going to post the source anyway.. I am only posting the puzzle because I liked it and it took me over an hour to solve it..
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
You may get alarmed by how quickly it is solved here.
(Not necessarily. But sometimes the community here is scary quick.)
 
Sid
Sid
Well No, I sort of expect it to be solved within 15 minutes..
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
General rule for this site: However long it took you to solve, it will be solved 5 times as quick here
 
Sid
Sid
0
Q: The Recruitment Office Puzzle

Sid Eight People A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H are sitting in a straight line, all of them facing the same direction(say North). Each one of them has passed a recruitment exam and must join the office on different months viz. January, February, March, April,May,June,July and August but not necessarily in the sa...

logical-deduction
There you go, Your time starts now
 
Areeb
Areeb
11:45 AM
@LukasRotter I laid out all the mentioned dates and no two band members talk about the same date as another one, except for Saturday night and there don't seem to be an inconsistencies between those
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
12:27 PM
@ffao Sorry, what is that link?
@Areeb I guess I'd better edit it to add a hint.
 
 
1 hour later…
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
1:28 PM
Just found @Mithrandir has an interesting chat user description. I already know the solution (it's obviously not supposed to be hard), but I'll not ruin the fun for anyone :P
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@LukasRotter Finally, someone found it! :D
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Sauron != Mithrandir lol
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Ha.
(In case anyone is wondering: yes, it is the obvious thing.)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Oh I didn't read his text, I just saw the change in icon.
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
My name is Mithrandir, my image is Sauron, and my location is Fangorn...
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
1:33 PM
Well, actually you're in The Sphinx's Lair at the moment.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Maybe there's a sphinx in Fangorn. Tolkien never actually says there isn't.
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@dcfyj That's why I have a tag badge for riddles :P
Why would a sphinx be in Tauremornalómë?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@Mithrandir To confuse all the poor residents.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Why not? It's like the joke about the 800-pound gorilla: a sphinx can be wherever it wants to be.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
That's because you can't do much about a sphinx. Plus it's a cat, everyone knows cats do whate'er they please.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
1:37 PM
@Mithrandir Not a silver one though ;-)
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Yup. Though I suppose you might expect a cat to be somewhere sunnier.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@LukasRotter I noticed it, but haven't solved it.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@GarethMcCaughan Could easily climb the trees for that
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Btw @LukasRotter, I think I may know what the encryption method is in your text-message puzzle.
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@Randal'Thor Whatever.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
1:39 PM
@dcfyj I am now trying to figure out what happens when a sphinx tries to climb an Ent. I don't think it's good.
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
@Randal'Thor Nice! With a little bit of knowledge about the encryption method you might be able to make sense of Update #1 and solve it! :D
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@GarethMcCaughan Considering how cunning a sphinx is, I'm not sure it would be climbing an Ent.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@LukasRotter I don't actually know/remember anything about the encryption method, but I'm reading up on it now.
Urgh, this is too complicated. I don't get it :-/
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
@Randal'Thor The fact that you said that makes me confident you really figured what the encryption method is :P
 
Areeb
Areeb
@Randal'Thor hints would be helpful
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
1:48 PM
would an ent mind terribly if a sphinx climbed it?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Sphinx are pretty large, so I'd say yes.
 
Areeb
Areeb
@Sconibulus seems like something to ask on the SciFi/Fantasy SE
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@Sconibulus Try that here. On second thought, don't - VTC: Opinion based.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Not necessarily, You could probably infer what an Ent would or wouldn't mind from the information about their personalities found in the books.
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
Hmm, I just realized thatlike half of my SFF rep comes from a single migrated question
2
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
1:51 PM
nice
 
Areeb
Areeb
@dcfyj it would still be opinion based
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
There are no sphinxes in the Tolkien legendarium, so a sphinx-vs-ent question seems very likely to be opinion-based.
@Areeb For my Puzznk question? Or for what I've worked out about Lukas's question?
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
I must say that my reasons for approving this edit were not entirely selfless... I've already gotten 20 rep for that being bumped. :P
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Areeb (and anyone else who's looking at it): hint added to my Puzznk puzzle.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
(I think the plural of sphinx may be sphinges)
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
2:01 PM
@GarethMcCaughan (No it's not. Why would it have a g?)
 
Areeb
Areeb
@Randal'Thor yeah I was talking about the Pzznk Question
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
@Mithrandir Greek plurals are a bit strange
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
"sphinxes, sphinges"
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@Areeb Like phalanx/phalanges?
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
2:02 PM
yup
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
OED gives sphinges as first plural form, sphinxes as second
(I find the word sphinx really hard to type -- too many unusual combinations of letters)
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@Mithrandir Or syrinx/syringes?
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Syrinx (Greek nymph, first to play on the pan pipes) and syringe have the same origin: the Greek word for a tube.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@GarethMcCaughan Wow, seriously? I thought you were joking.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
2:05 PM
seriously
not pluralized in this way: lynx, jinx, Bronx :-)
but e.g. singular of meninges (the membranes around the brain that get inflamed in meningitis) is meninx
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@GarethMcCaughan Or, thank goodness, minx. ;-)
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
heh
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@LukasRotter I'm close to giving up here ... I can't find either a decent tutorial or a working decrypt tool on the internet.
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
pluralization rules seem almost as arbitrary as collective nouns
like, take the imaginary word Grumpus, is the plural Grumpae, Grumpodes, Grumpuses, Grumps, or Grumpi?
whatever it is, I've decided the collective noun is clearly 'cacophony'
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@Sconibulus And it gets all the more complicated if people say things like "a criteria". Came across a bizarre one the other day: "an alumni". You'd think that university people would know better.
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
2:22 PM
@Randal'Thor Hm... That's unfortunate. TBH I encrypted it with my own tool, but I now checked it with one I found online: same result. The one I found online is a german site, but is also in the first few search results when I search on the uk version of google with english as the standard language... I may have gone a bit too far with the "I/MFree" part, if you know what I mean :P
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
2:38 PM
@Randal'Thor How do we feel on citation post solution? ie. After the puzzle is solved the poster cites where it's from?
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@dcfyj Rand's not a mod here. Just reminding you. :P
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I know, but he's been here forever and a day
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
No he hasn't.
he joined ~2 months after the public beta started :P
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Which is forever and a day :P
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@dcfyj That was going to be my next meta question :-)
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
2:43 PM
Well, if 'forever' is a year and 10 months...
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
@dcfyj I don't understand how that would make a valid excuse for not citing the source? At the bottom of the page: "user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required". I think the source should be attached as soon as the puzzle is posted. What if it never gets solved?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Mithrandir Longer than almost any of the other active users, including two-thirds of the current mods.
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
No, not a puzzle from here. From somewhere else, and then adding citation later to avoid plagiarism.
At least, that's how I understood it.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I could, I suppose, make my own riddle. I just don't feel like it lol. To be clear What I'm refering to is a puzzle I'm making where the riddle is only 1 part of the puzzle. The rest is my own creation.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@dcfyj I'll make you a riddle. What are the requirements?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
2:50 PM
@Mithrandir No, forever is 1 year and 10 months - 1 day, forever and a day is 1 year and 10 months :P
@Randal'Thor That it exists.
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@Randal'Thor Also, you were XXXXXX XX a year, so... :P
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
The puzzle is mostly in the other part, I don't really care how difficult the riddle itself is. If it makes any difference, a Sphinx is posing this riddle.
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
@dcfyj Are we sitting in their lair?
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
is the sphinx lounging in the boughs of an Ent?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@Mithrandir Sort of, but the conversation from earlier made me think of this ^^
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
2:53 PM
@dcfyj Do you care what the solution is?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Along with a couple other things :P
@Randal'Thor Not particularly. As I said, the puzzle is mostly in the other part, I just needed something to use for the other part so I decided to use a riddle.
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
A post to scratch/Some birds to catch/I'm lounging in the sun/A barky voice comes thundering/"Get off my head you bum"
2
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@Sconibulus an Ent?
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
yep, probably makes no sense outside this particular context
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
probably not. Still funny though
You only rhymed the first two lines
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
3:00 PM
it scans, sum/bun rhymes relatively well, with the intervening thundering in about the right place
it's not great, I'd certainly do better if I'd given it more time, but it worked pretty well for the minute I gave it
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@dcfyj OK, how about this?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Sounds nifty
makes me think of fire
pretty fitting I'd say. The locale is in a desert haha
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
^Free hand red circles :D
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Not sure circle is the word I'd use :P
 
Mithrandir
Mithrandir
lol your circle is thick and kind of rectangular... ;-) (but all good... :)) — Shadow Wizard 1 min ago
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
3:16 PM
@Mithrandir Wait, so is Cai your sock or was that just a lucky coincidence?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@Randal'Thor I'm guessing you're keeping the answer to yourself? If so that's fine, I'll just defer to you for when people get to that part. By the way, I have two more parts to this puzzle if you want to help make those.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@dcfyj Well, I can't really tell you the answer publicly if it's going to be part of the puzzle ...
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Your work's culmination, is this. I thought as much, it's all good.
Parts 2 and 3 will come out when the previous part(s) is/are complete. And when I have time to make them.
I fail lol. I remembered to cite you, but then forgot.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@dcfyj Hang on, so if they've seen the riddle in here, people will already know what the plaintext of the cipher is?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I'll add an addendum to have to cipher itself otherwise they're not getting a check then.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
3:29 PM
Also, I can delete it from here.
Done - mod chat powers FTW ;-)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
lol, that works
Either way, There are clues in the puzzle to figure out the cipher.
Like any good cipher puzzle ^^
 
ffao
ffao
@Randal'Thor the same question about circles was asked in the google code jam world finals a month ago
In the occasion I failed to answer correctly, so I placed 11th
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@ffao This one?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@ffao Aww :-(
@RosieF No, this one.
 
ffao
ffao
The proof given after the contest by the organizers was the same as McFry's too, quite elegant
 
Sid
Sid
3:39 PM
How is that answer not accepted?? I could make neither head nor tail of it but it looked quite good...
 
ffao
ffao
Most of the problems used by google are very elegant anyway
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@Sid Because it's @Randal'Thor's question :P
 
Sid
Sid
@dcfyj No, because it involved some high level maths(according to me) which I have no idea about..
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Sid It's a really really nice answer. I'm just slow to accept things in general.
Though I guess I could do 3 acceptances and then go and downvote an answer just at the end of the day.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
What do you think of the puzzle you had a hand in, @Randal'Thor?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
3:42 PM
@dcfyj It's something to do with keyboards.
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@Randal'Thor Which one are you talking about?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Ankoganit This one.
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@Randal'Thor Oh, thanks.
Wait, I've seen your riddle...
Uh-oh, I better not try it...
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
of course her name is 'Azerty'
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
her*
Azerty isn't a very male sounding name to me
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
3:45 PM
oops
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
Sounds like 'Qwerty' maybe something to do with a keyboard
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
now I need to figure out the differences in the keyboards
Azerty is a different keyboard layout
used primarily in France I think?
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
Ahhh ok, there should be an online translator somewhere
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Ankoganit Meh, does it matter? You haven't seen the encryption method, nor the solution of the riddle.
@dcfyj?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
yup
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
3:47 PM
@Randal'Thor True
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
while knowing the plaintext may help a little, you still need to post how it was encrypted along with the riddle's solution.
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
I was actually looking at this one
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
She a weird Sphinx though, posting ciphers...
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
Looks rather nice
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Ankoganit A good-looking sphinx, eh?
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
3:51 PM
Lol I meant the "dearth of sea" puzzle
Got heavily sniped by@dcfyj
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Didn't know he was posting a puzzle lol
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Ankoganit That's a fun one! I saw it in the meta sandbox yesterday and immediately liked it.
If I wasn't repcapped today, I would've had a go at it.
I might also have liked to have a go at the first half of @dcfyj's puzzle, but I don't know how that would work since obviously I can't be the one to solve the second half.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Thank you for not putting me in that situation lol
Interesting that Arka posted the same comment on 2 answers and the question
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Trying to help everyone equally, I guess?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I don't know about other people, but I read comments on all answers when trying to solve a puzzle.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
4:06 PM
I just voted to delete this question. Should only take three delete votes to get rid of it, since it's closed and has no upvoted answers.
(Part of the reason I've targeted this one more than other poor questions is that it's a spanner in the works of our fortnightly challenge statistics ;-) )
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I'd vote on it, but i'm incapable of doing so.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Yep, it needs 10k rep to vote to delete. @Gareth or @Alconja could do it.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Gareth loves that quipqiup haha. Skipped how to decipher the text completely.
 
Sid
Sid
puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/42418/… This puzzle beats me simply because I don't understand what to do..
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Sid Apparently there are some important words hidden in the story ...
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
4:13 PM
@Randal'Thor Really? I thought it only needs 3,000 to vote and 10k to delete... Having to wait until 10k to vote seems pretty crazy to me, especially for puzzling
Or am I confusing closing and deleting here? I probably am...
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@LukasRotter 3k lets you vote to close, 10k lets you vote to delete. The only people who can delete unilaterally are diamond-wielders.
 
Sid
Sid
@Randal'Thor The story doesn't even explicitly mention about the cabins of the respective scientists....
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Except that there's also "Recommend Deletion" in the review queue, which you can do at 2k, and enough of those will also delete an answer. Not sure about a question though.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
Voted to delete that bad question.
@dcfyj, sorry. I did then work out what the actual cipher mechanism was meant to be. Definitely less effort that way around, though.
Incidentally, for the avoidance of doubt, I didn't see Rand's riddle when it was posted here :-).
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@GarethMcCaughan lol, of course it is. But this Sphinx needs to know what not to do to get more food ^^
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
4:19 PM
(Is it considered improper to use tools like quipqiup? If it hadn't been available I'd have done the frequency analysis by hand.)
(well, by computer, but writing my own code)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
You can use it all you like, doesn't bother me any. If I require the encryption method in the answer it basically makes it null and void anyhow.
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
Guess I'll remove riddle from my ignored tags again... Since when do people post so many riddle-ciphers? There were like two in the last 24 hours. :D
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Riddle ciphers are fun (to make)
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@GarethMcCaughan Good question. Now I don't apply the rule "No computers". Still, I'd certainly look more kindly on someone's answer if they wrote their own software and ran it, than if they found an app and ran that.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
I feel entirely not-guilty about using quipqiup or an online Vigenere solver because I have written my own code to do the same things and all I'm gaining by using the online ones is a bit of convenience.
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
4:23 PM
@GarethMcCaughan And it depends on the task. Doing a frequency analysis is dull work but doesn't require a lot of brainpower. Writing an app to /solve/ a simple cipher -- a substitution cipher, say -- is another matter.
 
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
(but of course if a puzzle said "do the work by hand" I would do it. Or just not attempt the puzzle.)
For frequency analysis on small texts I generally find it easiest to do some of the work myself because e.g. sometimes a particular candidate word will leap out because context makes it relevant. But given a table of letter/digraph/trigraph frequencies it's not exactly rocket science to make a computer do the job reasonably well.
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@dcfyj First doable cryptic for you, jolly puzzler (5)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
lol
dcfyj?
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@dcfyj Of course
 
user189275
Anybody is not working in Alconja's puzzle ?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
4:28 PM
me
 
user189275
Found any path ?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I'm working working :P
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
Woo I have officially reached 100k people :P
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@BeastlyGerbil Congrats!
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I'm almost to half that
 
user189275
4:29 PM
And I am 1/200 Q
 
user189275
Q -> !
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@BeastlyGerbil Wait, what? Looks like you have 6.1k network-wide.
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@BeastlyGerbil I'm rather a long way off 1/25 of that -- and that's counting my chess.SE rep. And a bunch of 101s from other SE sites.
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@Randal'Thor Impact, not rep
 
user189275
@Randal'Thor Found any new ideas in Alconja's puzzle ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
4:31 PM
@Ankoganit Ahhh, never mind then.
 
user189275
I am finding tons and tons of unnecessary and unrelated words.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
That "people reached" thing is officially the most useless statistic on SE.
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@Ankoganit OIC
 
Ankoganit
Ankoganit
@Randal'Thor "officially" ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
On SFF, it basically comes down to "have you answered this question? if so, you've reached >1m people; if not, you haven't, even if you've made nearly 1000 posts and many HNQs."
 
user189275
4:33 PM
What is HNQ ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Ankoganit Not officially officially. But I think most experienced SE-ers would agree.
@ArkaKarmakar Not yet.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@ArkaKarmakar hot network question
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@ArkaKarmakar Hot Network Questions. Basically the way to get loads of rep and views on SE.
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
@Randal'Thor Is there a badge for it or do I have to manually check if any of my questions ever made it to the HNQs?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
I forget if it was my viridescent words or my bickering soliloquies, but one of them was HNQ, got almost nothing for it.
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
4:35 PM
@Randal'Thor Oh, so your impact is the sum of the view-totals of the questions you've answered? (or made, I guess). If so, then of course useless. Because if you've answered 1000 questions on the same site, the sets of users who viewed those questions are totally going to be 1000 disjoint sets.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@LukasRotter There's no way of telling except when it's actually there and you can see it on the list. But if you have any very highly-scored questions or answers, they were very probably on HNQ at some point.
 
user189275
So If anyone posts even a joke answer in the question in SFF, he would get 1mln + views ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@RosieF I think it's something like \sum_q (views on each of your questions) + \sum_a (views on each question to which you've posted an answer that's in the top n answers or got at least m upvotes), where m and n are some fixed values.
@ArkaKarmakar Well, no, because a joke answer would get downvoted or deleted. But if you post an answer there and get just a few upvotes on it, then yeah, suddenly 1m+ views.
 
user189275
Amazing system.
 
Lukas Rotter
Lukas Rotter
@Randal'Thor So that means not even only the people who viewed the post after you've posted your posty post are counted, but all people who viewed this post? That. Is. Brilliant.
 
M Oehm
M Oehm
4:40 PM
@GarethMcCaughan: About quipquip: I don't think it's immoral. If after some obvious tries I can't get a foot in the door with a cipher I try to transform it to a monoalphabetic representation and throw it at quipquip. If I get a result and find a reasonable encoding in retrospect I can still play clever and pretend I did the work by hand. (But I'm not ashamed of playing with open cards and usually admit to having used quipquip.)
 
Rosie F
Rosie F
@ArkaKarmakar Looks more and more to me like a triumph of arithmetic over ability to model reality.
 
user189275
The mods should be aware of this.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@ArkaKarmakar ?
 
user189275
Oh, I forgot you are a mod in SFF
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@ArkaKarmakar Why? It's just a random stat that doesn't do anything.
 
user189275
4:43 PM
I ain't telling it's important.
 
user189275
It's just fun to watch at.
 
user189275
I probably misintrepreted it.
 
M Oehm
M Oehm
It's also something new cipher authors seem to misestimate: You can come up with a very fancy way of uniquely encoding one letter to another or to a symbol or whatnot, but it's still a monoalphabetic cipher and someone will enevtually trow a program at it. Good monoalphabetic ciphers have a unique decoding, but a one-to-many encoding like Rand's Nigel/Sowpods cipher.
And Maria made life hard for me by having two different encodings for small and capital letters.
 
user189275
 
user189275
Good puzzle, a bounty shouold b e started
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
4:57 PM
I have a question. Is it OK to have a puzzle where the clues are not really cryptic clues, but word play? Or should I make them cryptic? Also the description of the tag cryptic clues shows that the "typical" clue consists of two parts - definition and word play. It previously led me to believe that they are not both mandatory. And when I posted such a puzzle before, it turned out my understanding was wrong and that even a third element is mandatory - instructions.
 
user189275
@MariaDeleva: What's the first puzzle ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@MariaDeleva Why wouldn't it be OK? You can make a puzzle with whatever kind of clues you like.
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
6
Q: Witches on the wall

Maria DelevaWitches on the wall wait for the rain of answers to fall!

wordplay connect-wall
This one is the first puzzle.
 
M Oehm
M Oehm
@MariaDeleva: I think it is okay to use any type of wordplay you like, but if you tag it as cryptic-clue, the clues should adhere (or try to adhere) to the cryptic standard.
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
Thanks. :)
Sometimes I find it hard to adhere to the cryptic clue standard. :) And sometimes I like them better word-playish - like the Zorro one. :)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
5:06 PM
Personally I find that wordplay can be rather cryptic sometimes :P
 
user189275
Wordplay means jumbling up ? Anything more ?
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
wordplay usually means puns and such I think
 
user189275
Puns is wordplay ? I highly doubt that ?
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
5
A: What should the subjects of our fortnightly topic challenges be?

Beastly GerbilI'd love to see a wordplay fortnightly challenge. We'd get some very clever puzzles for that. For instance this recent puzzle from @GentlePurpleRain, and this other recent puzzle from @Ankoganit

Love wordplay puzzles
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
Good to know. :)
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
5:10 PM
@ArkaKarmakar Sure, why not?
 
user189275
@Randal'Thor: Anything except puns or jumbling ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@ArkaKarmakar All sorts of things really. Anything that involves messing around with words.
 
user189275
Oh! So choosing first (or n in general) letters, using phonetics, anagrams all are wordplay ?
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
Yep
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
I think wordplay is more, playing around with the meaning of words, rather than their formation
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
5:13 PM
Hey, do I give credit if they give the answer to a riddle in a comment? The first person did 90% of the work, but then someone else in the comment gave the actual answer
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@ArkaKarmakar All of those, plus spoonerisms, double meanings, and more, can count as wordplay.
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
yeah, whatever dictionary Google uses says "the witty exploitation of the meanings and ambiguities of words, especially in puns."
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Not sure if there's really a solid definition of the term.
 
M Oehm
M Oehm
@ArkaKarmakar: Yes, and the "crytic clues" just formalise that by requiring certain indicators for each type of wordplay.
 
user189275
@jmb.mage: Ask him to add an standout answer.
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
5:15 PM
ok
 
user189275
@jmb.mage: Any clues about the spies puzzle ?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@jmb.mage If it's a comment on your question, you could ask them to add it as an answer. If it's a comment on the answer of the person who did 90% of the work, then presumably they don't want to take credit for it (otherwise they would have posted an answer) and are happy to let the first person get the tick.
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
8
A: The Grand Monarch's challenge

Dan RussellNot quite at the end, I think, but here's a start. Notice that If you interpret that to refer to and the And that can be rearranged into Which I'm sure is not the end, but seems like the next part of the riddle.

 
user189275
Are the spies talking bout the cordinates of the place in puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/42151/…
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
At the end of the day, it's up to you, the OP. There are no strict rules on which answer to accept - you can accept whichever you like (even if it's wrong or stupid). That's why you're the only person who has an accept vote, rather than the whole community as with up/down/close/delete votes.
 
user189275
5:18 PM
The " ' " after 9.4 probably indicates so.
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
nononononono
 
user189275
Any clues ?
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
hmmm
 
user189275
So Sathi Reddy's geocordinates work is useless ?
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
one of the lines in the cypher is not like the other
heh
ya
but fascinating!
 
user189275
5:19 PM
A1Z26 ? Vignere ? Caesar ? Nothing seem to fit.
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
actually 2 of the lines in the cypher are different, and from those 2 lines you should be able to find the others. the body text is just more clues to that affect
 
user189275
I guess the only body clues are "cornerstone pillar" and the meeting time.
 
user189275
9/16/16
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
yes, the time of the spies meeting was already discovered by rand-althor
 
user189275
Any slight-est-est hint about how to decipher them ?
 
user189275
5:22 PM
It's unsolved for a long time.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Not really, it's only been a week or so.
 
user189275
@dcfyj: It is long, considering the views and bounty.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
This is more like a long time
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
I feel sorry for this guy @DairoOO, lost -127 rep
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
I don't want to, I really think that the yellow part of the cipher is now enough to decipher, ESPECIALLY because of what @rand-althor already said, so no, no more clues for now.
 
user189275
5:24 PM
@jmb.mage: Okay, it's good as clues spoil the fun. But what rand-al thor said ?
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
@BeastlyGerbil He's had a rough time this month.
 
jmb.mage
jmb.mage
sry, gotta get back to work right now
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@BeastlyGerbil He chose to lose it though, in bounties.
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
He should probably stop bounty-ing his question
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@jmb.mage 7th of October then? (the next Nones in the future) — rand al'thor Sep 10 at 13:33
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
5:26 PM
I'm not entirely sure why he bountied it in the first place
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
I don't think its worth 150 bounty
Hi Emrakul
 
Sconibulus
Sconibulus
speaking of that question, a very strange answer just got added
oh, he's new, never mind
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
@Randal'Thor, you just modified your SErial Killer series, does that mean part 3 is coming?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@BeastlyGerbil It's not my series! And there've already been at least 4 parts to it.
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
Oh ooops :P
There should be a link to the next one in the series, it looks like there are only two
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
5:54 PM
So the puzzle is now posted. Hope you will like solving it :)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Yup, I know what I'm not solving lol
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
I believe 3 is 'gospel'
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Can't do crosswords for the life of me
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
Well, it is not a real crossword :) It is a word-play one :)
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
@MariaDeleva, am I right for 3? I want to try and get a few
 
Maria Deleva
Maria Deleva
5:57 PM
You are :)
 
dcfyj
dcfyj
Which is double the reason for me not to touch it, I'm even worse with wordplay. Which is odd considering I have a rather large vocabulary...
 
Beastly Gerbil
Beastly Gerbil
Okay, now I know the sort of clues I might be able to get some
 
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