4591
Whatever / Re: Divers Beware .....
« on: July 16, 2007, 12:04:52 PM »
All this sympathy for the diver - what about the poor jellyfish?
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
4592
Say Hello / Re: ELLEN FREEnelson mandela
« on: July 16, 2007, 12:02:27 PM »
No, Threeb, not millions of words... yet.
Forum posts so far have contained 2.3 million characters, which probably amounts to around 400,000 words. About twice the size of Moby-Dick, but not as big as War and Peace. And the top ten contributors to that flood of verbiage (accounting for 91%) are:
The other 9% was posted by 35 other forumites.
Forum posts so far have contained 2.3 million characters, which probably amounts to around 400,000 words. About twice the size of Moby-Dick, but not as big as War and Peace. And the top ten contributors to that flood of verbiage (accounting for 91%) are:
| technomc | 23% |
| biggerbirdbrain | 19% |
| Alan W | 14% |
| Binkie | 12% |
| Linda | 9% |
| Viz | 4% |
| bjs | 3% |
| anonsi | 3% |
| bobbi | 2% |
| a non-amos | 2% |
The other 9% was posted by 35 other forumites.
4593
Say Hello / Re: Waving Hello
« on: July 16, 2007, 11:36:27 AM »
Hi loreleif! Welcome to the forum. Your name makes me think of "laurel leaf", otherwise known as a bay leaf - but maybe that's just me, always thinking of food.
We seem to be getting few Ohioans, if that's the word, in the forum: Abra, Ellen Fremedon, and now you. (And there was another player from Ohio, who never joined the forum, but her spectacular scores were the subject of much speculation among forumites.)
Anyhow, it's good to have you aboard, and we look forward to hearing more from you. (Don't worry about the game breaking your brain - if you read a lot of the forum you'll soon realise that all our brains are totally fractured, but we've learned to live with it.)
We seem to be getting few Ohioans, if that's the word, in the forum: Abra, Ellen Fremedon, and now you. (And there was another player from Ohio, who never joined the forum, but her spectacular scores were the subject of much speculation among forumites.)
Anyhow, it's good to have you aboard, and we look forward to hearing more from you. (Don't worry about the game breaking your brain - if you read a lot of the forum you'll soon realise that all our brains are totally fractured, but we've learned to live with it.)
4594
This Forum / A tug on the Spider Web
« on: July 16, 2007, 11:21:00 AM »
I noticed in the Web statistics for the forum a sudden increase in visits to the site over the past day or so. On closer examination, it seems there have been a number of visitors arriving as a result of searching for "meaning of cryptoverbalist" or just "cryptoverbalist". Since this is a word I made up (although others had made it up before me), the search engines don't return a lot of results, and most of them point to posts in our forum.
I wonder what's behind this? Presumably the word has been used in the mass media somewhere in the world recently. Can anyone throw any light on it?
I wonder what's behind this? Presumably the word has been used in the mass media somewhere in the world recently. Can anyone throw any light on it?
4595
Say Hello / Re: ELLEN FREEnelson mandela
« on: July 15, 2007, 09:05:10 PM »
Hi Ellen. Welcome to the forum.
If you don't have enough time to play as much as you'd like, I'm not surprised you were lurking in the forum for some time - you were probably making a vain attempt to catch up on your reading before you started writing. But anyhow, I hope you'll find time to post occasionally. It can be quite a handy diversion at some of those moments when the brain has run out of words.
If you don't have enough time to play as much as you'd like, I'm not surprised you were lurking in the forum for some time - you were probably making a vain attempt to catch up on your reading before you started writing. But anyhow, I hope you'll find time to post occasionally. It can be quite a handy diversion at some of those moments when the brain has run out of words.
4596
Word Games / Re: Are you sure button
« on: July 15, 2007, 02:23:36 PM »
Tania, the reason I thought of showing the message only where no words have been played is because I know quite a few players like to look at the solution once they feel they've played all the words they can, without waiting till the next day, and they might find the message irritating.
Still, "better safe than sorry" might be the best guideline.
Still, "better safe than sorry" might be the best guideline.
4597
Say Hello / Re: JAYTHAILAND -- Welcome!!!
« on: July 15, 2007, 02:07:45 PM »
Hello, mikkibkk. Welcome to the forum. It's good to hear from you.
Your scores are quite impressive already. If you can keep improving, you'll soon be giving those high-fliers something to worry about! (My own playing efforts are not in the same league at all - I can only look on with awe at the highest scorers.)
I see from your player profile that your real name is Sangeeta. Is there a story behind the name mikkibkk? I'm guessing the last three letters are short for Bangkok.
Your scores are quite impressive already. If you can keep improving, you'll soon be giving those high-fliers something to worry about! (My own playing efforts are not in the same league at all - I can only look on with awe at the highest scorers.)
I see from your player profile that your real name is Sangeeta. Is there a story behind the name mikkibkk? I'm guessing the last three letters are short for Bangkok.
4598
The Daily Quest / Re: Metoo?
« on: July 15, 2007, 12:30:14 PM »
It took me by surprise - a real gotcha.
4599
Word Games / Re: colour change of scoreboard
« on: July 15, 2007, 12:23:56 PM »
Yes, Dave, you're right - I was having a larf about the gender-sensitive display. I just regret that you were the first person to respond. I'm sure some of the other forumites would have been more gullible.
The fact is that the colour of the registered players' names can vary from one computer to another, or can change colour on any given computer. This is not intentional - it happens for accidental reasons, that I don't fully understand myself.
On my own computer, they were once blue, but at some time or other, they changed to the colour which Dave rightly calls magenta. I didn't notice anything had changed. Well spotted, Macca!
(For those who are interested in some technical background: The registered player names are set up as links, a "link" being a word or phrase on a Web page that you can click to go somewhere else. It's up to the Web browser to determine how they will be displayed, but the convention is that links are shown in blue and underlined, except that they will be magenta if the page pointed to by the link has been recently visited. This practice is so prevalent that we tend not to notice when a bit of text changes from blue to magenta, which might explain why many of us failed to notice any change on the scoreboard. However, in this case the "links" don't actually take you to another page: they run a script that fetches the player profile and displays it, but without leaving the Chihuahua page. So the cause of these items changing colour, whatever it might be, is not related to whether or not you've clicked on the same name before.)
I'll change things to ensure that the player names are always the same colour, and I think I'll make that colour blue, as a hint that something will happen if you click on one.
The fact is that the colour of the registered players' names can vary from one computer to another, or can change colour on any given computer. This is not intentional - it happens for accidental reasons, that I don't fully understand myself.
On my own computer, they were once blue, but at some time or other, they changed to the colour which Dave rightly calls magenta. I didn't notice anything had changed. Well spotted, Macca!
(For those who are interested in some technical background: The registered player names are set up as links, a "link" being a word or phrase on a Web page that you can click to go somewhere else. It's up to the Web browser to determine how they will be displayed, but the convention is that links are shown in blue and underlined, except that they will be magenta if the page pointed to by the link has been recently visited. This practice is so prevalent that we tend not to notice when a bit of text changes from blue to magenta, which might explain why many of us failed to notice any change on the scoreboard. However, in this case the "links" don't actually take you to another page: they run a script that fetches the player profile and displays it, but without leaving the Chihuahua page. So the cause of these items changing colour, whatever it might be, is not related to whether or not you've clicked on the same name before.)
I'll change things to ensure that the player names are always the same colour, and I think I'll make that colour blue, as a hint that something will happen if you click on one.
4600
Words / Re: Tarte?
« on: July 15, 2007, 11:38:02 AM »
Binks, I would say there's a world of difference between a GAGL and a GAGLE.
4601
Whatever / Re: Stay safe driving in icy or wet conditions.
« on: July 15, 2007, 11:19:20 AM »
Threeb, I'm utterly outraged that you should introduce an irrelevant topic into this forum! Prior to this, every single post has been rigorously focused on the core issues of the site.
(Seriously, though, the "Whatever" board is intended for "anything else you want to talk about".)
(Seriously, though, the "Whatever" board is intended for "anything else you want to talk about".)
4602
Word Games / Re: Are you sure button
« on: July 14, 2007, 02:44:54 PM »
When this happens to you (and it's happened to me, too!), you can always sign out and play the puzzle as an unregistered player. You wouldn't be able to use exactly the same name as you usually do, but you could use something close, so people would know it's you.
(Make sure you get a screendump of the solution before you sign out.
)
(Make sure you get a screendump of the solution before you sign out.
)
4603
Word Games / Re: Are you sure button
« on: July 14, 2007, 02:28:36 PM »
Trying to drive forumites mad? That sounds like knocking at an open door! 
Anyhow, I can see the value of giving the player a second chance before they lock themselves out of a puzzle. These "Are you sure?" questions can be irritating, so I would think we should only have it come up where the player presses the solution button for today's puzzle without having played any words. Or do you think it should always appear when the puzzle is still current, even if words have been played?
Anyhow, I can see the value of giving the player a second chance before they lock themselves out of a puzzle. These "Are you sure?" questions can be irritating, so I would think we should only have it come up where the player presses the solution button for today's puzzle without having played any words. Or do you think it should always appear when the puzzle is still current, even if words have been played?
4604
Word Games / Re: colour change of scoreboard
« on: July 14, 2007, 02:14:41 PM »
You're on the right track, Viz. The player names are meant to be pink or blue depending on whether the person looking at the screen is female or male. It uses an experimental technique that perform a statistical analysis on the player's keystrokes and mouse button presses, looking for a "typical" female or male pace and rhythm. I'm doing this study with a grant from the Institute for Robotic Gender Stereotyping.
Obviously, there are still a few glitches in the system. Once I've got it working a bit better, I'll put a questionnaire on the site to test its accuracy.
Sorry for any confusion.
Obviously, there are still a few glitches in the system. Once I've got it working a bit better, I'll put a questionnaire on the site to test its accuracy.
Sorry for any confusion.
4605
This Forum / Re: Word to GAGL! We love you .... BUT!
« on: July 13, 2007, 06:08:23 PM »
OK, Linda, I'll do that. (Just call me Harry Hotmail.)