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Topics - Alan W

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451
This Forum / Forum Revamp
« on: May 07, 2007, 11:50:06 AM »
As discussed, the forum now has a number of boards, so that discussions can be grouped by subject matter.

I've moved a handful of the existing topics, just so the new boards wouldn't be completely empty. At some stage I might get around to moving some of the other old posts, especially those about new words, changes to the site, and other things people might want to refer back to in the future. However, I won't be trying to move all the historic topics, unless people think I should.

You may have a bookmark or link pointing to what was the only board in the forum. You should now be linking to http://theforum.lexigame.com/, so you can see all the boards.

452
Word Games / Target Puzzles Book
« on: May 06, 2007, 03:46:26 PM »
Some time ago, a non-amos wrote about his difficulties in getting hold of newspapers containing Target puzzles, for pub playing purposes. This lead him to Chihuahua, but his friends still prefer playing on paper in the pub, so he copies out the letters and target scores.

I don't particularly want to promote the opposition, but the Fairfax newspaper group in Australia has released a second collection of Target puzzles, called Aiming Up. (The first collection sold out some time ago.) It's being sold on the Age website, but only to Australian addresses. However, you might be able to find an online bookseller who distributes it to international addresses.

I'm mentioning this for the benefit of anyone who finds a printed format convenient on occasions, even though, in my completely unbiased opinion, the puzzles in the Age are not as good as Chihuahua puzzles!

  • Firstly, they use some ridiculously obscure words as their nine-letter words (examples: furcation, vulnerary, saddlebow, orbicular, kalanchoe, wuthering, imbricate, guillemot, gerundive).
  • Secondly, they bowdlerise the solution list by removing, not merely the words that wouldn't be printed in a newspaper, but words such as "whore" and "sperm".
  • Thirdly, the solution lists omit most of the words we would class as "rare", which is understandable in a newspaper puzzle, but the selection process can be somewhat haphazard, as in one puzzle that inspired me to write a letter to the paper, when "ruck", "trike" and "tackier" were all absent from the published solution.

453
This Forum / Forum Structure
« on: May 04, 2007, 12:25:58 PM »
Hi everyone

I'm planning to set up separate boards in the forum, as follows:

  • Word Games: Discuss Chihuahua, Letterbox and other word games on this site
  • Words: Their meanings and origins, including suggestions for extra words in the games
  • The Daily Quest: Chat about progress in current daily puzzles (without giving too much away!)
  • This Forum: Any thoughts about the forum itself
  • Whatever: Anything else you want to talk about (includes ungrouped topics from the early days of the Forum)

When the forum was set up, I said, "I've decided to start off with a single board for all topics. If the volume of discussion ever becomes so great as to make this unwieldy, the Board can be split up at that time." The level of activity on the forum has increased markedly over the past couple of months, and I think it would benefit from having a bit of structure. The categories are intended reflect the sorts of things that people have actually been talking about.

I'm also thinking about the impression the forum might have on anyone who visits it for the first time. During April we got only two new members. Admittedly, they were quality recruits - Colhad and sassie11 - but if current trends continue, there might be no new members in May! The forum might seem less overwhelming to a newcomer if posts are grouped under a few headings.

I could move each of the existing topics onto one of the new boards, but I think I'll just leave most of them on the Whatever board. As far as future posts are concerned, I won't be ruling with an iron hand, but I might occasionally move a topic if I consider it's been started in the wrong place.

As always, I'm interested to read what everyone thinks about this plan, and I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking of introducing this sometime next week. I'll try to pick a time when there's nobody else using the forum.

454
This Forum / Beyond Linguissimo
« on: May 03, 2007, 03:39:54 PM »
Now that biggerbirdbrain has attained the exalted rank of Linguissimo, currently the highest level in the Lexigame forum hierarchy, she may be feeling that she has no new worlds to conquer (as Alexander the Grape once said).

So I feel I should insert a new level. But this time, an extra 100 posts will be needed to get there. That is, the new title will be earned by 300 posts. When I set up the current titles, forum activity was rather sluggish, so I put the thresholds at 50-post intervals, thinking that it would take a long time indeed for anyone to reach the top level if it was at 500 posts. But now BBB is almost half way there, and it's less than two months later! The forum has become a lot busier.

As for the name of the new rank, it's [drum roll...] Paronomaniac. This is derived from "paronomania", a word invented by Reginald Hill for his 2001 Dalziel and Pascoe mystery Dialogues of the Dead. He defines it to mean "a clinical obsession with word games". In the novel, it is also the name of a highbrow word game invented by one of the characters.

New, even higher, levels will be added as and when necessary.

455
Words / Should some common words be demoted?
« on: May 01, 2007, 12:00:27 PM »
Actually, I don't know if moving a word from "common" to "rare" is a demotion or a promotion, but anyway, you get my drift.

A few people have commented that some of the "common" words are not really all that common, but nobody has actually suggested there should be some refinement of the word classifications. But perhaps some of the "common" words really don't qualify. Some types I can think of (not all these words have necessarily appeared in puzzles so far, but most have):

  • Science/maths terms not in general use (cosec, fibula, urea, encyst)
  • Currency names not used so widely since the euro came in (lira, lire, escudo)
  • Aussie words (nong, toey)
  • Weird words (rolf)

I don't think the common word list should be reduced to the lowest common denominator. My idea of it is not so much words that everybody knows, as words that a regular word game player is fairly likely to know. But even using this criterion, some of the words currently in the list seem questionable.

Do people think there should be some trimming of the common list? Of course, I might be asking the wrong people - most of the forum members are such fanatical players, they might regard these words as just another challenge to be mastered. But I wonder if some people just getting started with the game might become discouraged when they see some very obscure words classed as common.

456
Words / The hardest common words
« on: April 16, 2007, 05:33:11 PM »
Now that Chihuahua puts more emphasis on getting the "common" words, I thought people might be interested in knowing which of the common words have proven most elusive so far. Here are the ones found by the fewest players in each of the last six daily puzzles.

Friday, Standard puzzle:

  • rigatoni
  • origami
  • amigo
  • martini

Friday, Challenge:

  • unreel
  • runnel
  • neural
  • urea

Saturday, Standard:

  • encyst
  • irenic
  • iciest
  • cities

Saturday, Challenge:

  • theism
  • tummies
  • itches
  • smith

Sunday, Standard:

  • odium
  • oilmen
  • moue
  • dolmen

Sunday, Challenge:

  • irenic
  • nixes
  • cities
  • incise

I'll leave it to you to draw any conclusions.

457
Word Games / Chihuahua upgrade - new ways to view your progress
« on: April 12, 2007, 02:04:45 PM »
The full details of the latest Chihuahua features are on the News page, but the main points are:

  • Scoreboard symbols for players who found 100% of the common words and 100% of all words
  • A "Rare" button at the top of the Scoreboard so you can control whether the scores displayed include rare words
  • A note above your words letting you know how many common words are still to be found
  • A progress dial to show how many of the common words you have found

If you don't see the "Rare" button at the top of the scoreboard, try reloading the page.

These changes are obviously inspired by the recent discussion in this forum about recognition of 100% scores. There is also more emphasis on the distinction between "common" and "rare" words, so players can choose to focus on the better-known words if they wish. (I've previously spoken of the "standard word list", but this could cause confusion since we have a "Standard" puzzle, so the less obscure words are now being called "common". I did think of calling them "medium" words, so we could have rare and medium words, and maybe even medium-rare words, but I restrained myself.)

The new scoreboard features are visible on previous days' puzzles, so you can look back and see the occasional 100% symbol. In fact, I see there is already one on today's Challenge puzzle - for biggerbirdbrain. Congrats 3B!

Hope it adds to your enjoyment. Let me know if anything doesn't seem to be working properly.

458
Whatever / "That'll be the day!"
« on: April 07, 2007, 11:42:45 AM »
Seeing Linda write "That'll be the day!" in another topic recently reminded me of a question about the origin of this expression.

A book about New Zealand English claimed the phrase originated there. The book even had an anecdote about a US serviceman in NZ during the 2nd World War, who heard the expression but didn't grasp its usage. When some locals kindly said they would invite him to their home, he said, "That'll be the day!", thinking he was expressing enthusiasm at the prospect.

But I couldn't help wondering about this. The expression is now well-known around the world, and presumably it was well-known as far back as the 50s when Buddy Holly used it as the title of a song. And it seems the song was inspired by a John Wayne movie in which the expression was used as a catch-phrase by the John Wayne character.

Did the phrase make its way from NZ to the US some time between the War and the making of the film? Did the serviceman who got it wrong subsequently become a screenwriter and try to expunge the memory of his faux pas by using the phrase properly in a script?

I wonder if anyone in the forum can shed any light on this?

459
Whatever / Problems loading the puzzle?
« on: March 09, 2007, 12:28:09 PM »
One of our regular Chihuahua players reported a few hours ago that the game wouldn't load, despite trying a couple of times.

After investigating the log files, I found that there had been problems on the server for about 12 minutes. Similar problems have occurred a few times recently. The best advice I can give if this happens to you is to keep trying every 15 minutes or so.

The problems have been caused by peak levels of activity on the server that we share with a lot of other Web sites. The good news is that the hosting service told me there will soon be an upgrade that should eliminate these problems.

460
Word Games / Sound Effects in Chihuahua
« on: March 01, 2007, 03:41:38 PM »
It seems that most Chihuahua players have the Sound option turned off. I wonder why that is:

  • You hate sound effects in games
  • You tried the sounds in Chihuahua and didn't like them
  • You tried the sounds in Chihuahua and they didn't work
  • You never noticed there was a "Sound" button

If the 2nd or 3rd reason applies to you, and it was a few months ago that you tried the sound option, it might be worth trying again. When the game was upgraded in December to allow player registration, the sound handling was revamped so that it should work for more people. And we replaced some of the most frequently-heard sound effects with some new, subtler ones.

I'd be interested to read any comments or details about problems you may have encountered.

461
Words / Plurals in Chihuahua
« on: February 26, 2007, 10:48:09 AM »
Let's try a poll, to get players' views on one of the issues that has generated a lot of dissension since the beginning of Chihuahua.

I think the first ever comment on the game from someone I didn't know was, "You don't recognize 'ants'??"

Our current policy is to exclude "plurals and verb forms made by adding S to the end of a word". It is based on the rule applied by a lot of Target-style puzzles in newspapers. Our implementation of that rule is the result of an automated procedure which has created a few anomalies. Hence requests such as the recent one from Viz to allow "afters", since there is no singular noun "after". "Afters" will be added, as other words have in the past, but would it be preferable in the long run to revise the whole policy?

Please share your views. Cast a vote if you wish, but more importantly, tell us why you prefer a particular approach.

462
Word Games / New Chihuahua features
« on: February 23, 2007, 01:00:49 PM »
For those who missed it, the new game options are described on the News page. If you can't see the new options on the puzzle page, try the browser Refresh/Reload button.

463
Word Games / Which Dictionary?
« on: February 16, 2007, 05:43:19 PM »
In Chihuahua you can click on a word to look it up at a dictionary Web site. We originally used OneLook, then changed to the Free Dictionary site. Not everyone was happy with the change, but there was no consensus about which dictionary we should use.

The full word list used in the game doesn't come with definitions, and a lot of its words are hard to find in any dictionary, so whatever site we link to, it will fall well short of showing a meaning for every Chihuahua word.

So, two questions: is there value in having a link to a dictionary site, and if so, which site do people prefer?

As well as the two mentioned above, some others are:


What are your thoughts?

464
Word Games / Words in Italics in Chihuahua
« on: February 16, 2007, 10:40:47 AM »
An anonymous player just sent this message via the Contact page:
Quote
Why are some words that I have selected printed in italics?
With no name or email address supplied, I'm not sure how they expected to get a reply, but in fact it's a question that's been asked a few times before, so I've put the following explanation on the Q & A page:
Quote
The words in italics are those that are classed in the word list as relatively obscure. Actually, about two thirds of the words recognised in Chihuahua are in this category - which explains why a few people can get such very high scores.

The target levels of Good, Better and Best are based on the number of words that can be made from the "standard" list - i.e. not including the more obscure words. And when you look at the solution to a puzzle, the words in red, that you didn't get, are only those from the standard list, unless you click on the "All words" box, which causes the rarer words to be shown as well, in italics.


465
Whatever / Are Games Addictive?
« on: February 15, 2007, 11:33:44 AM »
Quite a lot of the favourable comments about games on this site have used the word "addictive". Even in the handful of messages so far sent to this forum, the word crops up a few times, and bobbi referred to people being "seriously hooked" on Chihuahua. Of course I love to read such praise, and a lot of game companies use the word "addictive" in their advertising.

But some people have claimed that computer games can become addictive in a literal sense - that they exploit brain chemistry to create compulsive behaviour, just like drugs or gambling can. What do you think?

A lot of the research on "video game addiction" seems to focus on complex role playing games, rather than puzzle-style games, but I suppose a puzzle game could become a compulsion too, if you feel compelled to play game after game, hoping to achieve a higher score.

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