To answer your question, Morbius, we have to rummage through the dusty archives of Chi's early history.
Originally there was only one puzzle each day, and its solution was available once you had found a nine-letter word. Although any words played after looking at the solution would not affect the scoreboard, it was easy to get around this. A few players complained, leading to
this announcement in November 2005:
A while ago, comments were invited on the claim that some players were cheating by looking up the solution on another computer and then just entering all the words under their normal player name. It was suggested that the solution should be withheld until the following day.
The general consensus of the comments sent in was that this change should be made, although a few players pointed out that people determined to cheat would always find a way...
So, from now on, the solution will not be available until the following day, regardless of whether you have found the big word.
However, this change was unpopular with some players, so in December 2005 I added the Challenge puzzle, with
this comment:
Recently, the rules were changed to hide the solution to every puzzle until the next day. This was done in response to requests from some players. But the move was unpopular with some other players, and the number of people playing each day seems to have declined somewhat since the change. So to settle the matter once and for all, we now follow both approaches at once, by having two puzzles every day.
