Author Topic: Another anomaly  (Read 3197 times)

pat

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Another anomaly
« on: October 07, 2014, 07:20:28 PM »
Ashier rare, ashiest common. I suspect neither is common.

pat

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2017, 02:04:50 AM »
I was going to comment on these two words appearing in the 'trashiest' puzzle but a search revealed that the anomaly has already been mentioned.

Tom

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2017, 10:51:11 AM »
I guess this is one of the frustrations of playing a game like Chi. What is rare to one is common to another. For example, I worked most of my adult life in the medical profession where such words as 'medial', 'forte', 'nocte', 'ictal', and so on, are commonly used (certainly here in Australia that is the case). Now, I should imagine millions of people in the English-speaking world are employed in medicine and would be perfectly at home with some of these words in everyday usage. And, of course, this would play out in whatever field we work or play in. What's common to me is rare to you.
So, IF fairness (and I'm not sure it is, although I think it should be) is the criteria for climbing the Chi-scale of achievement then the game becomes unfair. But, do remember, it is JUST a game.
Similar games are offered in many daily newspapers and the way they gauge achievement is generally by a 'fair/good/better/best/genius' scale, much like the bottom of the Chi page. They don't adjudicate on what is common or rare. For me this is far less frustrating (and fairer). I have a better than average grasp of the common English lexicon, so I'm always in with a chance. I have a lousy memory to recall some weird words commonly played by others so tend not to use them.
So, this is why my preference is not to aim for a rosette or trophy and instead aim to get a 'best' score. This way I am satisfied, not commonly frustrated, and don't spend inordinate amounts of time trying to chase down elusive words, some of which are anything but common to me.
And I still play the game (usually, all three of them) daily. Actually, I think I'm addicted. Got to be a better addiction than drugs, gambling or pornography. Thank you, Alan, for a delightful daily distraction.

Tom

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2017, 11:02:08 AM »
PS: Interestingly, however, I was watching a quiz show and one of the contestants worked in the field of vulcanology, specifically analysing volcanic dust. So when it comes to 'ashier' and 'ashiest' both those word might be known to her. I couldn't imagine ever needing to use either of those words (except for right now), and even here in Victoria, bushfire central, where ash is a common summertime occurrence I've never heard those words.

a non-amos

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2017, 12:20:59 PM »
Ashier, ashiest, being common?  I wouldn't bet my ash on it.   ;D
Carpe digitus.
(Roughly translated, this is possibly the world's oldest "pull my finger" joke)

Les303

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2017, 02:21:12 PM »
That's a bit cheeky.

pat

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2017, 07:00:35 PM »
Tom, I don't have a preference either way for whether the words should be rare or common, but simply that they should both have the same classification.

pat

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2020, 10:42:42 PM »
I think this one must have fallen through the gap as it was first mentioned in 2014.

Ashier and ashiest were both playable in yesterday's swarthiest puzzle, this time with ashier (rare) on 129 and ashiest (common) on 97.

Calilasseia

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2020, 12:53:16 PM »
Any sufficiently large database, that has relied upon at least some degree of automated generation of its contents, will contain anomalies waiting to be discovered by human interrogators thereof.

That's basically what this game is - a database interrogation engine driven by user input. Tracking down anomalies and removing them would be a full time task for a team of paid professionals, let alone a single volunteer coder in the form of Alan.
Remember: if the world's bees disappear, we become extinct with them ...

Alan W

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2020, 02:48:06 PM »
I think this one must have fallen through the gap as it was first mentioned in 2014.

I must admit that this is not the oldest un-answered suggestion. If you go to the Word List Suggestions page, select open suggestions and sort by "Date, earliest first", you'll see suggestions dating back to 2012. Admittedly, a lot of the oldest requests relate to plural/not-plural issues, which I've relegated, perhaps permanently, to the too hard basket.

The oldest outstanding suggestion for words to be made rare is for recto and verso, raised by gromit in April 2014. Some of these are issues where I can't make up my mind, but the ashier / ashiest matter would seem to be capable of fairly simple resolution. I promise to deal with it soon - at least before its 10th birthday.
Alan Walker
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pat

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2020, 08:49:08 PM »
Tracking down anomalies and removing them would be a full time task for a team of paid professionals, let alone a single volunteer coder in the form of Alan.

That's why no one expects Alan to do it. And why anomalies are ironed out over the years as players spot them and make suggestions, something that Alan has always been agreeable to.

TRex

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2020, 07:44:23 AM »
That's why no one expects Alan to do it. And why anomalies are ironed out over the years as players spot them and make suggestions, something that Alan has always been agreeable to.

And doing a brilliant job.  ;D

The oldest outstanding suggestion for words to be made rare is for recto and verso, raised by gromit in April 2014.

Being a bibliophile who works at a public library, I think these should remain common.  :)

Alan W

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Re: Another anomaly
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2020, 02:16:57 PM »
I said a few months ago that I'd deal with this one "soon", but for some reason I didn't. I will now.

It's certainly an inconsistency. Without entering into the question of whether ashy should continue as common, I doubt that ashier and ashiest are common. They're not commonly used at any rate - one hit each in the 1.9 billion word Corpus of Global Web-Based English. Of course anyone seeing either word will know what it means, but if you never have seen one of these words, it's less likely to occur to you when playing Chi.

On balance I think the anomaly should be removed by making ashiest rare.
Alan Walker
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