c4countdown

Can Eddie Leach be checked out? His games have seemed ok up to now, where a CSW solver is blatantly obvious.

Can Dylan Taylor's games against Prime be excluded please?
http://www.apterous.org/headtohead.php?p1=15935&p2=104
See chatlogs and Dylan's usual standard.
Presumably boosting his rating or wanting to have max games, pointless either way. Amused that he still lost one.

Jack McCabe is a serial cheat. Check his games out and all conundrums he gets are between 7 and 12 seconds.

There's often reference to cheating in the side-panel on the apterous screen. Are there really people who cheat? If there are, shouldn't they be warned/outed/removed? I have my doubts about a few, particularly with numbers; but then, I'm crap at numbers!

Nina Boyd wrote:I have my doubts about a few, particularly with numbers; but then, I'm crap at numbers!

It's easy to think "how did they know that word?" and "how did they solve that numbers game?", particularly when you're a new player. But as a long serving apterite I think the mentality to have is that 99% of people are not cheating. Recently there has been one person who keeps signing up and cheating but apart from that, to me, apterous is thought of as cheat-free. And when a cheat does come along, they stick out like a sore thumb.

Nina Boyd wrote:There's often reference to cheating in the side-panel on the apterous screen. Are there really people who cheat? If there are, shouldn't they be warned/outed/removed? I have my doubts about a few, particularly with numbers; but then, I'm crap at numbers!

I think rounds 5, 6, 13, and 20 in this game (for example, like, I'm not showing off, it's just easier to find it in my games than Chris B or Jack H or Jack W) could be pretty intimidating for a new player. I remember myself seeing some tricks by certain 4L players when I was quite new and thinking what the hell, that can't be a human working it out, but after concerted efforts to get your head around the tricks of the trade, these things become pretty natural.

James Nguyen wrote:Hi, Nick.

I don't post on the forums much, but I can say I definitely did not cheat in the games played against you.

Charlie's right, I did used to cheat, but I haven't for a while now.

Well that's news to me!
Young Nguyen took my Aptovirginity in October 2010... i.e. right in the middle of his cheating phase.
Makes me feel a little better about that loss.

Strikes me that an easyish way to make cheating more difficult might be to prevent copy from the letters, and paste in to the answer box. I can't think of a single instance where you'd legitimately need to do this.

Fiona T wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:09 pm Strikes me that an easyish way to make cheating more difficult might be to prevent copy from the letters, and paste in to the answer box. I can't think of a single instance where you'd legitimately need to do this.

I copied and pasted my declaration in round 16 of this duel in 2017. Entirely legitimate, I'm sure you'll agree.

I've often wondered about the spoilage words and whether people do that. But I think the game is to get your declaration typed in before the time runs out, even if you've declared the same pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism four times already!

Once you play a lot of spoilage, typing pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and floccinaucinihilipilification are second nature to you, really. Still not quite there on supercalifragelisticexpialidocious (sp).

Fiona T wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:09 pm Strikes me that an easyish way to make cheating more difficult might be to prevent copy from the letters, and paste in to the answer box. I can't think of a single instance where you'd legitimately need to do this.

I copy and paste pretty much all declarations these days.

That's only because I'm playing on my phone though and it's horrible trying to type an answer directly in to the answer line. Legitimately knocks off about 10 seconds per round, with screen rotating and stuff.
Conundrums are pretty much null and void as well!

Noel Mc wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 4:43 pm

Fiona T wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:09 pm Strikes me that an easyish way to make cheating more difficult might be to prevent copy from the letters, and paste in to the answer box. I can't think of a single instance where you'd legitimately need to do this.

I copy and paste pretty much all declarations these days.

That's only because I'm playing on my phone though and it's horrible trying to type an answer directly in to the answer line. Legitimately knocks off about 10 seconds per round, with screen rotating and stuff.
Conundrums are pretty much null and void as well!

Oh, that probably explains why it always says you're typing in chat when we play! I did wonder what was happening

OK - sounds like paste might have a legitimate use, but could still disable select/copy of the letters

When dictionary updates occur, pretty much instantly pencil upon pencil occurs. Are people genuinely learning and memorising these hundreds/thousands of new (often nonsensical) words, or are they printing off lists? Is it cheating if they are?

Martin Hurst wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:24 am When dictionary updates occur, pretty much instantly pencil upon pencil occurs. Are people genuinely learning and memorising these hundreds/thousands of new (often nonsensical) words, or are they printing off lists? Is it cheating if they are?

I can't speak for others (and I'm probably not who you mean given that I've only pencilled 9 words since the update came out, two of which were in before) but I personally went through a list of useful words from the new update in the word list program I built, like a month before the update (it was before my special with George filmed) so a bunch of them were stuck in my head already and that's how I knew them (and that's also why I've missed so many).

I seem to remember people getting pissy with someone like a decade ago who was reading off lists to get a bunch of CSW Spoilage pencils (since Scrabble doesn't have words longer than 15 letters, it's easy to pencil hunt). I remember someone in chat saying 'do you want to get banned' but I don't think there was ever an official statement that it was/wasn't cheating.

Apart from the fact that it's absolutely obviously cheating... it's also explicitly listed in the OP of this thread:

Charlie Reams wrote: Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:56 pm Cheating is using any kind of artificial aid to alter your performance in the game. This includes: using an anagram or numbers solver program or website, to generate solutions or to check your words; using multiple accounts to play yourself and boost your rating; using multiple accounts or some other means to see the rounds of the Duel before playing it; using word lists during the game; looking up words in the dictionary before declaring. This list is not exhaustive.

Jon O'Neill wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:00 am Apart from the fact that it's absolutely obviously cheating... it's also explicitly listed in the OP of this thread:

Charlie Reams wrote: Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:56 pm Cheating is using any kind of artificial aid to alter your performance in the game. This includes: using an anagram or numbers solver program or website, to generate solutions or to check your words; using multiple accounts to play yourself and boost your rating; using multiple accounts or some other means to see the rounds of the Duel before playing it; using word lists during the game; looking up words in the dictionary before declaring. This list is not exhaustive.

Not that I'm at all suggesting that that's what's going on with the new pencils.

I mean I've said basically this before, but my wallpaper coincidentally just happens to have a load of high-probability Apterous words written all over it. It's impossible to unsee.