Puzzletome

anangelinurpocket

when sending an im to someone in an advance round for a hint please dont just say I was thinking this and that .. please give us an idea of what the puzzle is about etc .. not sure what the admins ruling is on sending the puzzle via im, but unfortunately I havent got an elephants memory and although I can go back and access the puzzle its time consuming Embarassed

I dont mind getting ims asking for hints etc but please have a thought about what info I might need to help you to the best of my ability
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Ally - do I realy wanna be a "gngor"

"scary thought for the day - those voices in your head come to me for advice - be afraid"
thought for the day "Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference. "

anangelinurpocket · Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:22 pm Post subject:

<< drags in soap box >>

lmao

hear ye hear ye
ims are fine at anytime
I am happy to help you solve
but please remember I am old
and memory is frail
Please I beg of you have a heart
and put in everything I might need to identify your woe

an example of what not to do -

I am on the one with the pink picture in the middle, can you help me please?
Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated

Thankyou in advance

XXXXX

(all references are fictional - this is not what was asked but you can see my point)
_________________
Ally - do I realy wanna be a "gngor"

"scary thought for the day - those voices in your head come to me for advice - be afraid"
thought for the day "Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference. "

FancyACupOfTea? · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 3:18 am Post subject:

I've needed plenty of help to get to round 5 and have appreciated it all - gold stars to Unclened, Sparkplug, Crazybird and Chantilly. I understand Angel's comments and that sometimes people can be annoying or overly demanding. On the other side though please remember its not easy for everybody to approach someone for help, especially strangers.

What follows only applies to a tiny minority, that said, I've had one bad experience and have heard of several others. It can be hurtful when you've spent hours working on a puzzle to get a sarky reply from some geeky oik telling you smugly how easy it was, with a helpful clue like 'think laterally' or 'you need to decode the numbers into letters' - erm, yes, I think that's the general idea for most of these puzzles?

It seems the few who enjoy doing this are the first to boast how helpful they are in the forums. Why offer help only to score points when approached? I can cope with folk being a bit full of themselves for being at the top of the leaderboard, that's earned but it would be good for the ones this post is aimed at to have a bit more grace and dignity in victory.

Phew, that feels better! I'll take my soapbox and go...
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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean Puzzletome isn't out to get you.

caverider · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:34 am Post subject:

i'd like to apologise if that's the impression you got of our team, cupoftea. We try to help people (who are reasonably far behind Smile

) as much as possible, but as Angel said it is quite time consuming to come up with a useful hint for everybody who asks for help. You must realise that we receive so many requests for hints that we can't spend an hour on each one thinking of a good hint (although i try to be cryptic whenever possible).

Personally i like to give hints only when i can see that the riddler has been trying independently first. If you PM me with an explanation of all the spec you have tried so far, not only can i see you've been trying, but i can tell you if you have the right idea or not and maybe will be able to help you develop your ideas further.

a PM with just the words 'can i have a hint on 3.16,I've been staring at it for ages' is probably going to get a less helpful reply than one in which you
explain your work so far - because I will be able to eliminate bad spec and because i will nkow you deserve a hint.

Not at all a specific reference to your hint requests cupoftea, just a general comment at an opportune moment.

FancyACupOfTea? · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:45 pm Post subject:

Not pointing the finger Caverider, some of the best hints I've had have came from your team. Also don't want to make out this is a bigger problem than it is. When the bad one happened to me I got over it, post sparked by 2 recent examples, one in particular that was very hurtful to a friend of mine.

Judging by the messages I've had it is just a couple of thoughtless people. Having made the point maybe they will think about it when sending replies in the future.
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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean Puzzletome isn't out to get you.

SparkPlug · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:59 pm Post subject:

go on... be a devil... name names Razz

FancyACupOfTea? · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 6:28 pm Post subject:

Now, now!

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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean Puzzletome isn't out to get you.