February's Daily Duels

[Julie T]

Decided in yesterday's Blind Duel to use Dan's tip of typing in a gobbledygook word first of the letters I could remember.

So I did much better than I usually do in a Blind Duel. Unfortunately not many people attempted it, so not many points.
C'est la vie!

[Charlie Reams]

I don't think it's really in the spirit of the game to write the letters down, even in an order of your own creation.

[Julie T]

I don't think it's really in the spirit of the game to write the letters down, even in an order of your own creation.

Ah, this was mentioned on the cheating thread, and you didn't say there was anything wrong with it.
Unless you're misunderstanding what I meant.

What I did was: after all the letters had come out and disappeared, I entered what I could remember as a 'word'.

Or is it OK for Dan, but not for me?

I freely admit to being someone who looks to form a word or two from the letters as they appear, and then jot down the other letters in the declaration box after. Sometimes I'll have CATSBONEH, sometimes DOGFMUZLI, and sometimes I'll still note a letter wrong anyway.

[Charlie Reams]

I don't think it's really in the spirit of the game to write the letters down, even in an order of your own creation.

Ah, this was mentioned on the cheating thread, and you didn't say there was anything wrong with it.
Unless you're misunderstanding what I meant.

What I did was: after all the letters had come out and disappeared, I entered what I could remember as a 'word'.

Or is it OK for Dan, but not for me?

I freely admit to being someone who looks to form a word or two from the letters as they appear, and then jot down the other letters in the declaration box after. Sometimes I'll have CATSBONEH, sometimes DOGFMUZLI, and sometimes I'll still note a letter wrong anyway.

I didn't read that. I think it's pretty obvious that writing down anything except your answer is not really the idea.

[Dan Vanniasingham]

Wherever my quote came from, I also explained my thoughts on how unworkable the blind variant is online. I can't be bothered doing that again, but if my method isn't deemed acceptable (and I can see why it wouldn't be) then I'd suggest not using the blind variant at all in duels. If the words "horse" and "duck" appear in the selection, and I note them both - I'm not going to shut my eyes for 30 seconds, and I don't see why I should avoid typing them into the box either.

[Gary Male]

There are a couple of solutions I can think of, neither of which are even close to ideal.

1) Disable the entry field for the first half (or however long is deemed necessary) of the clock
2) Require length of word to be declared in the round time, then the word typed after time is up kind of like the numbers solutions.

I can totally see why Charlie wouldn't want to think about programming either, just to make it slightly less convenient to "cheat". After all, if people want to write down the letters that badly they'll just use pen and paper.

[Julie T]

Wherever my quote came from, I also explained my thoughts on how unworkable the blind variant is online. I can't be bothered doing that again, but if my method isn't deemed acceptable (and I can see why it wouldn't be) then I'd suggest not using the blind variant at all in duels. If the words "horse" and "duck" appear in the selection, and I note them both - I'm not going to shut my eyes for 30 seconds, and I don't see why I should avoid typing them into the box either.

It is a minefield. Sorry I dragged you into it.
I often avoid playing the blind duels, but they seem to come up quite often.

[Charlie Reams]

Congrats to James on winning a tough duel outright with 11 maxes from 12 rounds.

Congratulations also to Bob Shadwick for winning the "rollover" duel with this excellent performance. Bob has never got a conundrum in under 5 seconds in over 100 attempts but nevertheless managed to get 18 of these tricky ones within the time, including such spots as CHALKIEST (21 seconds) and SMOOCHING (20 seconds). I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

[Julie T]

I was annoyed at myself for offering MOOCHINGS instead of SMOOCHING and UNLEASING instead of UNSEALING.

[Lee Simmonds]

Congratulations also to Bob Shadwick for winning the "rollover" duel with this excellent performance. Bob has never got a conundrum in under 5 seconds in over 100 attempts but nevertheless managed to get 18 of these tricky ones within the time, including such spots as CHALKIEST (21 seconds) and SMOOCHING (20 seconds). I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

But surely the best spots were subphylum and biosensor?

[Howard Somerset]

I was annoyed at myself for offering MOOCHINGS instead of SMOOCHING and UNLEASING instead of UNSEALING.

We seemed to do very similarly, Julie. Both got three, two of which were the same conundrums. And both offered MOOCHINGS.

Looks as if I missed out on today's duel. Was I alone in not being able to get in this evening?

[Charlie Reams]

I was out from about 2 til after midnight so I didn't know the server was dead.

[Howard Somerset]

I was out from about 2 til after midnight so I didn't know the server was dead.

No worries. I've probably only lost one point for February with missing Sunday's.

[Julie T]

I was annoyed at myself for offering MOOCHINGS instead of SMOOCHING and UNLEASING instead of UNSEALING.

We seemed to do very similarly, Julie. Both got three, two of which were the same conundrums. And both offered MOOCHINGS.

Looks as if I missed out on today's duel. Was I alone in not being able to get in this evening?

I missed it too. I was unlucky in that I first tried just at the time the last game was played at 2:55pm. I checked in quite often but it didn't come up again.
C'est la vie. Can't expect Charlie to devote his whole life to apterous.

[Charlie Reams]

C'est la vie. Can't expect Charlie to devote his whole life to apterous.

You seem to have a unique insight here, maybe you could publicise it more widely.

[Callum Laddiman]

I even offered schooming!

[Julie T]

Is there a rollover of yesterday's duel? I didn't notice apterous being down, or maybe I was lucky when I logged on.
The daily duel score table listed is Tuesday's one.

[Ian Volante]

Is there a rollover of yesterday's duel? I didn't notice apterous being down, or maybe I was lucky when I logged on.
The daily duel score table listed is Tuesday's one.

It dropped in the evening. I assume there is a rollover.

[Kai Laddiman]

3 of us went for a word on Wednesday which will almost certainly be in the next dictionary - ECOMANIAC^.

[Julie T]

Are Friday's results lost because apterous was down all Saturday?

[Phil Reynolds]

What factors determine whether or not a Duel rolls over and which players get the chance to play a Duel on a subsequent day?

I managed to log in to Apterous yesterday afternoon (Sunday) after it had been down since teatime on Friday, and was hoping to have an opportunity to play both Friday and Saturday's Duels - but no. I queried Charlie about this in the chat room and he said that Friday's Duel had closed but that I would be able to play Saturday's. I logged back in a few more times after that but it didn't appear so I gave up.

However, I notice that the results for Saturday's Duel have now been posted and that 19 people did in fact get to play it - meaning that it must have rolled over for them (stop sniggering at the back) as the server was down all day Saturday. Why didn't it roll over for me? As one of the more mediocre players, my only chance of even getting in the top 10 for the month is if I can play every Duel and add at least a point or two each day.

On a related note: why do the rankings show that a certain Kai Laddiman has played 17 Duels this month when it's only the 16th - and he has yet to play today's Duel?

Sorry if all you can hear while reading this post is a sort of constant high-pitched whine.

[Julie T]

Saturday's duel didn't appear for me either, Phil. I'd assumed there wasn't one since it'd been down the whole day.
Re number of duels played, mine says 2 more than I've actually played this month too. Maybe they're all fecked up.

[Charlie Reams]

What factors determine whether or not a Duel rolls over and which players get the chance to play a Duel on a subsequent day?

I managed to log in to Apterous yesterday afternoon (Sunday) after it had been down since teatime on Friday, and was hoping to have an opportunity to play both Friday and Saturday's Duels - but no. I queried Charlie about this in the chat room and he said that Friday's Duel had closed but that I would be able to play Saturday's. I logged back in a few more times after that but it didn't appear so I gave up.

However, I notice that the results for Saturday's Duel have now been posted and that 19 people did in fact get to play it - meaning that it must have rolled over for them (stop sniggering at the back) as the server was down all day Saturday. Why didn't it roll over for me? As one of the more mediocre players, my only chance of even getting in the top 10 for the month is if I can play every Duel and add at least a point or two each day.

On a related note: why do the rankings show that a certain Kai Laddiman has played 17 Duels this month when it's only the 16th - and he has yet to play today's Duel?

Sorry if all you can hear while reading this post is a sort of constant high-pitched whine.

Generally the Duel rolls over if there is more than a few hours of downtime. However Saturday's Duel was not really a rollover; it actually closed on Saturday as normal, it's just the no one could play it, so I reopened it yesterday. It sounds like you logged in before I reopened it. The scores for this month are a bit screwy and will be corrected at some point.

[Lee Simmonds]

Just checked the results for Sunday's duel and gutted as I could have won! I risked tunafish in rd 5 when I had a safe 6 and that subsequently put me off risking routined and oversite in later rounds. Those 9 points would have given me a total of 116.

[Lee Simmonds]

Any chance that today's duel will roll over? Looks like apterous is down atm.

[Ben Hunter]

On a related note: why do the rankings show that a certain Kai Laddiman has played 17 Duels this month when it's only the 16th - and he has yet to play today's Duel?

He's little so Charlie gave him a head start.

[Julie T]

http://apterous.org/duelresults.php?duel=227

I got 15 points for getting eff all! Blindin'! LOL!

[Jon Corby]

It does seem harsh that we get 4 points fewer than Kirk. It's not like he did that much better than the rest of us.

[Kirk Bevins]

It does seem harsh that we get 4 points fewer than Kirk. It's not like he did that much better than the rest of us.

Oi. I got a 3 second blind conundrum in 2 seconds. You didn't. I got a perfect game. You didn't. I need all the points I can get.

[Gary Male]

Cocking bunch of cocking 'H' key not cocking working cock.

[Julie T]

Cocking bunch of cocking 'H' key not cocking working cock.

Aaaarrrgghh! We've all been victims of some sort of mistyping at some time or another, though. Still bloody annoying.

[Julie T]

I appear to be joint 18th with the great Jon Corby in the February standings!

The fact that he's done half the number of duels that I have, has absolutely no relevance whatsoever!

[Julie T]

apterous crashed while I was on the duel today.
I wrote down the conundrums I got, so that when it came back up, I could be honest and put in what I'd got first time round.

Unfortunately I forgot that, since I got the 3 I'd written down after the last letter came up, my score should be 28 and not 37.
As I'm sure that this is a pretty rubbish score, I hope no-one is bothered. Sorry!

It made for a rather stupid looking game!

http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=28381

[Ian Volante]

Started mine, it crashed, couldn't resume, even though it was in view. Bah.

[Julie T]

Started mine, it crashed, couldn't resume, even though it was in view. Bah.

Bit late now, but if it happens again, did you try logging out and in again?

Nice to have a standardish game for the duel today.

[Ian Volante]

Started mine, it crashed, couldn't resume, even though it was in view. Bah.

Bit late now, but if it happens again, did you try logging out and in again?

Nice to have a standardish game for the duel today.

Aye! I swore at it too.

[Charlie Reams]

If the Duel crashes on you, let me know by email or PM. A message in some obscure thread at 11.20 is unlikely to attract my attention in time.

[Ian Volante]

If the Duel crashes on you, let me know by email or PM. A message in some obscure thread at 11.20 is unlikely to attract my attention in time.

I wasn't too bothered, just fancied a whinge