The Sphinx's Lair - 2021-03-30

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12:07 AM

Oh, and a bonus synonym for meta: duplicates and exact-duplicates have the exact same excerpts and wikis. Probably duplicates should be the mother tag

They're, get this, duplicates

hehe

I do apologize

3 hours later…

3:13 AM

0

Q: Sequence of large numbers

Let's have the following sequence 43, 108, 5737, 13932, 97613377, 239783652,? What number belongs where the the question mark is?

number-sequence

3 hours later…

6:10 AM

0

Q: Patterns - they're everywhere!

You wake up in a room (again) that has two floors, Both have 3 puzzles. In order to escape, You have to find every answer in this order: Red Yellow Green Cyan Navy Pink and combine it together (eg if 75 is Red then 64 is Yellow then the answer is 7564) Most of them are patterns, so get ready! Fir...

mathematics number-sequence sequence

3 hours later…

8:53 AM

@HTM Could it be INSETS? Definition, "drops" (to inset something is to make it lower); IN + SETS ("parts" of a tennis match or of other things).

2 hours later…

11:13 AM

1

Q: Don't mess with Germans

Across 3. High-pitched sound of loud automobile coming around too regularly (8) 7. Old TV show prosecutor's entertaining everyone (6) 9. Town in Arcadia orders one to retire (6) 10. Shake alien's spaceships (7) 11. Plan of wrestler and actor, John: Visiting small city in the tropics (8) 12. Alig...

cryptic-crosswords

2 hours later…

1:20 PM

0

Q: Calculation Sudoku

here is a new quiz from my daily quiz calendar. I'm trying to find a way to solve it. The numbers 1-6 should be filled in. And like a sudoku each row and each column should contain each number exactly one time. Moreover the colored fields are used for calculation. For example:if the light grey f...

logical-deduction calculation-puzzle sudoku logic-grid

2 hours later…

Gareth McCaughan

3:04 PM

Hmm. I can't in fact make [mystery] be a synonym of [situation], because [detective] is already a synonym of [mystery] and apparently we can't have nontrivial synonym chains. So I guess I make [detective] a synonym of [situation], which hopefully decouples it from [mystery], first.

Nope, apparently I can't do that either. So presumably I have to completely decouple [detective] first.

ah, isn't this fun

Gareth McCaughan

Nope, that seems to be impossible too. So I think the only way forward is to merge [detective] into [mystery], after which there will no longer be any [detective] questions, and then perhaps we can proceed.

But wait, [detective] is apparently completely unused, so there's a simpler solution.

Just delete it?

Gareth McCaughan

Yeah, except that I don't think that's actually possible ... because it's a synonym of [mystery]. And the merge seems to have done nothing at all (in particular, the synonym is still there).

70

A: What are tag synonyms and merged tags? How do they work?

There's a lot of good info in the announcement of tag synonyms on the Stack Overflow blog. What are tag synonyms? A tag synonym is usually a tag that has exactly the same meaning as some other tag, such as bike and bicycle. In some cases, tags that are subsets of other tags will also be considere...

33

A: Moderator Cheat Sheet

Tags A bad tag's sprung up. Can I destroy and/or block it myself? No: moderators don't have the ability to outright destroy or block tags. For that, you need to create consensus on your meta-discussion site that the tag must not exist and contact Stack Exchange to perform the destruction and/or b...

I'm trying to find useful information on meta-meta

Gareth McCaughan

3:11 PM

First of those says "empty tags will automatically be destroyed after 24 hours" but this seems not to have happened to [detective]/

Synonyms are immune to destruction

Gareth McCaughan

So it seems.

2

A: Add Synonym to a tag that is already a Synonym of a master is allowed

Very confusing indeed. I just amended the tag synonym system so it disallows chains. chains can no longer be proposed, if you propose a chain pointing at foo this error will show up: A synonym from foo to bar exists, chains are not allowed

This may be causing us problems...

Gareth McCaughan

Indeed.

This is the closest I can find to the exact problem:

6

Q: Synonyms of synonym aren't remapped

For example bug-fixes and bugfix seem to be synonyms of bug-fixing (which is a synonym of bugs) but they don't redirect to either one. The problem isn't these tags, but the fact that the remapping (synonyms > synonym > tag) doesn't work. For example, try replacing bug-fixes with bugfix on http...

bug stack-overflow tag-synonyms

Maybe open a question on meta-meta? Either they'll close it as a duplicate and give you an answer that way, or they'll just answer it

Gareth McCaughan

3:18 PM

Probably just on regular meta. I'm making more informal enquiries first.

More informal enquiries led to a not-so-obvious part of the UI in which it turns out to be possible to desynonymize things.

OK, so I have proposed that [situation] be made a synonym of [mystery], but apparently my Magic Moderator Powers do not extend so far as actually being able to make it one. ... Ah, yes they do but once again only in one bit of UI and not the other. Great design, Stack Exchange!

er, I mean that the other way around, of course: [mystery] is a synonym of [situation]

woohoo, it works!

Gareth McCaughan

Now the tag wiki needs improving. On it.

You can take what I have in the meta post

Wait questions are still tagged mystery, even if the system knows that it should be remapped... does the database need some time and/or kicking to finish the synonymization process?

Gareth McCaughan

I used your text and tweaked it a bit.

When you create synonyms you can either merge (retagging all existing questions) or not merge (leaving them alone). I chose not to merge because merging can be done separately if we want.

What reason is there not to merge?

Gareth McCaughan

3:30 PM

I don't know of any concrete reason why it shouldn't be done, but I haven't thought about it carefully so I did the step I knew we wanted first :-).

Fair enough

Gareth McCaughan

But anyone trying to use the [mystery] tag on a new question will get [situation] instead. So if there is any value in preserving the distinction we shouldn't have done the synonymization.

There are also now quite a few questions tagged with both mystery and situtaion

Gareth McCaughan

My feeling is that there might be merit in a crime / other distinction, maaaybe, but that's not the same thing as the mystery / situtation split.

Then we have the question "What counts as a crime?"

Anyone else care to weigh in here?

Gareth McCaughan

3:37 PM

I think usually things tagged [mystery] rather than [situation] are about crimes. Actually, maybe [whodunnit] would be a better tag name, except that I don't like deliberately misspelled names because they're a bit harder for people to remember and guess.

(I mean, "whodunnit" is not exactly misspelled because that's the canonical spelling of "whodunnit". But you know what I mean.)

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/whodunnit

ey, we actually have that tag!

Should probably be a synonym as well?

Gareth McCaughan

One of them is just a (bad) riddle and shouldn't have that tag at all.

yep, retagged the -9 one

Gareth McCaughan

The other one would certainly want the [whodunnit] tag if we actually wanted a [whodunnit] tag, but it's not very helpful as the only question with that tag.

Just remove it then?

Gareth McCaughan

3:45 PM

I think so. If we decide that there's value in having such a tag then that question would get it back again, but it would be one of hundreds.

The only question in my mind is whether there's actual value to distinguishing crime-type puzzles or not.

My feeling is not, but my feeling is also that the tag system is almost valueless for PSE.

Might make searching a little easier?

Gareth McCaughan

Maybe.

The tag system on PSE is useful for "following" so you can identify which puzzles you'll be interested in.

It's also used to signal what kind of knowledge/skills might be required

Gareth McCaughan

If you're only interested in a smallish subset of puzzles, yes. Is that actually true of many PSE users?

I can basically only solve grid-deductions, so I have them followed

Gareth McCaughan

3:48 PM

Fair enough.

Then we have entirely useless tags, such as visual

Gareth McCaughan

It's hard to imagine that we have a lot of users who are only interested in solving crime-themed puzzles, though.

Who ever thought that it was useful to distinguish if a puzzle had a picture or not?

Gareth McCaughan

I hesitate to call anything entirely useless, because I don't claim to know all the ways in which people use the tag system.

The minor uses of [tag:visual] that I can think of:
- For users who have vision problems, a signal that this might not be the best puzzle
- For visual-based puzzles where the genre is hard to quantify, at least they got one tag
- For users who like pictures

Gareth McCaughan

3:53 PM

Yup. Also, arguably, a signal that it may be a puzzle that's all about spotting details (like a "spot the difference" or a "where's Wally?") and hence has zero "intellectual" interest, and hence not interesting to users who want puzzles to think about.

Except that of course not all [visual] puzzles are purely visual in that sense.

So, anyway, anyone other than me and bobble got any opinions about whether there's value in trying to distinguish, among [situation] puzzles, between ones that are in some sense about solving crimes and ones that aren't?

And about whether, if we do want that, the way to do it is (1) desynonymize [mystery] and use that one, (2) create [crime], (3) create [whodunnit], or (4) something else?

4:17 PM

2

Q: Polly O'Mino's Hexcellent Adventure

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #52: Polyominoes. I had heard that my good friend Ingrid Deduction was back in town, so I popped round to her apartment today, only to find she'd got herself a new flatmate. "Polly O'Mino, and it's a pleasure to meet you," said the newcomer in a lilting Ir...

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle grid-deduction tiling polyomino

Gareth McCaughan

Oh gawd. I can't make [calculation-puzzle] a synonym of [arithmetic] because there are more than 1.25x as many [calculation-puzzle] puzzles as [arithmetic] puzzles. I guess I can do it the other way around and then rename. (I mean, I can't actually rename, because who would ever want to rename a tag, right? But once [arithmetic] no longer exists I can do a merge into that no-longer-existing tag. I think.)

Doing it that way also has the advantage that the [calculation-puzzle] description is a bit better than the [arithmetic] description.

what's the difference between synonymizing and merging?

Gareth McCaughan

Making X a synonym for Y means that when you tag something with X it actually gets tagged Y, when you search for X you get results for Y, etc., but existing tags on existing questions stay.

Merging means that everything currently tagged X gets retagged with Y instead.

Hmm. Consider the question "Without using calculators etc., compute log_2(5) to three decimal places". Not a good puzzle, quite possibly off topic because it's more exercise than puzzle (though doing it without a calculator might require enough cleverness to be puzzle-y), but never mind that. This would certainly be a [calculation-puzzle]. But it's not exactly an [arithmetic] puzzle. So maybe actually merging [arithmetic] into [calculation-puzzle] is better than vice versa?

However that seems to be a different definition of calculation-puzzle than its description

Gareth McCaughan

Maybe? It's "a puzzle that involves numerical calculations", no?

4:27 PM

The excerpt, paraphrased, is "a puzzle which uses basic arithmetic"

The "numerical calculations" part could really apply to any math puzzle, no?

Gareth McCaughan

I take it to mean that the puzzle is in some sense about the calculations.

Is that how the tag is used?

Gareth McCaughan

Brief description says "a puzzle that involves numerical calculations". Longer description says "A calculation puzzle is one that involves numerical calculations of some sort, generally using the basic mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division." I think the estimate-the-logarithm question "involves numerical calculations" and would count.

Yes, I think that is how the tag is used.

I certainly don't remember seeing [calculation-puzzle] or [arithmetic] on every puzzle whose solution involves adding two numbers.

And you're saying that arithmetic represents a subset of calculation-puzzle, yes?

Gareth McCaughan

Looks like it to me.

4:31 PM

Either way works, then.

Gareth McCaughan

Which is not to say that it deserves a separate tag, to be clear. I think there should be one tag covering both. "The question is which is to be master, that's all."

1 hour later…

5:33 PM

I really wish my last puzzle hadn't been closed. It was a labo/ur of love.

Hurt my feelings.

Yes, i know how to reopen it.

This, however, is feedback.

Another puzzle will follow. To stupefy. But that was meant to charm.

@Mithical , a word of wisdom at this moment would be welcome.

okay, just imagining what you'd say worked wonders.

back to Troll.

6:40 PM

@msh210 SETS = Parts seems to be a bit of a stretch to me.

But I have nothing better to offer.

Gareth McCaughan

7:04 PM

OK, [arithmetic] is now a synonym of [calculation-puzzle]. (And [age-puzzle], which was a synonym of [arithmetic], is now also a synonym of [calculation-puzzle].)

Did you merge?

Gareth McCaughan

Yes.

I haven't done anything further with [mystery] and [situation] in case there's a lot of eagerness to have a special tag for crime-y puzzles, in which case the existing distinction might be a useful first approximation.

7:29 PM

@msh210 Looks plausible, but not my intention, sorry

CCCC hints: 1. Here's the original incorrect version of this clue (won't say which part or parts are incorrect). 2. The intended answer contains IN, but not at the front.

4 hours later…

11:21 PM

@msh210 That was my thought too ^^;

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Mar '2130

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