Posted by Admin on December 26th, 2010
This page is where you can provide feedback relating to Fifteensquared or raise issues regarding the website itself.
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 26th, 2010 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Archive.
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December 31st, 2010 at 10:31 am
Are there any blogs for the ‘I’ cryptic puzzles on Fridays?
Great site btw.
Regards
December 31st, 2010 at 10:35 am
Hi Mark
Not at the moment, but if anyone wishes to volunteer to cover them then I am happy to add them to our portfolio.
December 31st, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Gaufrid, I have been doing the crosswords on my laptop over Christmas and somehow it has latched onto ‘Robii’ instead of ‘Robi.’ I will try to ensure that my blogging comments return to Robi in future!
January 7th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
You seem to exclude the Guardian Saturday prize crossword. I can understand why you would refrain from blogging about it before the closing date, but would it be possible to post after that date? I rarely finish it, and would be very interested to see what greater minds than mine have made of it
January 7th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Hi Tom
We do cover the Guardian Saturday prize puzzle. The blog is always posted on the Saturday following the one on which the puzzle was published (ie the day after the closing date for entries).
January 8th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Ah…clearly I read this site with the same care and concentration that I apply to the crossword. Thanks
January 12th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Gaufrid, I like the tweaks, sorry to be late noticing.
January 15th, 2011 at 6:22 am
Could you check my comment (40) for Puck 25210, where there seemed to be a lot of confusion over two clues in the blog, but to us Australians (comments 39,40) who get the printed versions of the puzzles in the local paper two weeks later than the UK, they seem to be quite straightforward. It almost seems that the two clues in the on-line version may have been different to ours.
January 17th, 2011 at 5:24 am
Here’s another one today! And I have never seen them before in our local Canberra paper.
Our clue for 25a in Gordius 25211 is “Wallowing in the sun?”
I can see the on-line version is probably a better “clue” which was why it was changed, but it makes making sense of the comments a bit hard! At least I know now how to find the on-line version to check. Thank you for letting us Aussies know what is happening.
January 28th, 2011 at 9:34 am
I find it annoying that occasionally when I have entered a comment but failed to notice that the Name and Mail have been blanked out, that the whole comment is lost when the error message is displayed.
Surely it is possible just to re-display the screen and leave the comment intact. If the comment is a long one, then I often haven’t the time to retype it and so it is lost forever.
Any changes that can be made would be much appreciated.
January 28th, 2011 at 10:12 am
Hi Davy
Unfortunately this is a feature of the WordPress software that 15² uses and I am unable to change it.
My advice would be to select all and copy (either via right-clicking the mouse or Ctrl+a Ctrl+c) prior to hitting submit, particularly for a long comment. That way, if something goes wrong, you will be able to paste (Ctrl+v) the text into a new comment box.
February 3rd, 2011 at 9:36 am
I expect this point has been raised before, but, as the problem continues to arise from time to time, I thought it worth a mention. It concerns superfluous words in the headings which some bloggers give their entries, and which are visible when one enters the site in order to consult the blog for a different puzzle. From time to time such headings reveal something about the content (or theme) of the puzzle concerned, and this really does spoil one’s enjoyment if one hasn’t yet started on that puzzle. Could you perhaps introduce, and enforce, the rule that headings must not contain anything other than what is strictly needed to identify the puzzles?
February 8th, 2011 at 7:00 am
Gaufrid: would you consider installing the free version of the WP Touch WordPress plugin? It doesn’t affect the appearance of the site for normal desktop browsers, but means that when viewed from an Android phone or iPhone the interface is much easier to navigate.
February 8th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Hi mhl
I’ve downloaded the plugin and installed it in my sandbox. I will check it out later today, or tomorrow, to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with other plugins and the theme template before adding it to the live site.
Unfortuately I have no means of checking that the plugin works correctly on iPhones etc so I will have to rely on you for feedback ragarding this aspect.
February 12th, 2011 at 8:53 am
Gaufrid: are you able to respond to the point I made on 3rd February (see 12 above)?
February 12th, 2011 at 11:58 am
Hi Richard
Sorry I haven’t replied sooner. It was on my ‘to do’ list and then somehow overlooked.
I agree that spoilers in the post title and opening paragraph of the preamble should be avoided and will remind all bloggers of this requirement.
February 12th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Hi Richard
Apologies for the preamble to my today’s blog of last Saturday’s Guardian puzzle, if that prompted your reminder.
I would never include spoilers in my preamble to the blog of a weekday puzzle. Since the Brummie appeared a week ago, it didn’t occur to me that some people might not have done it – unlike the Indy prize puzzle, which is not available online until a week after publication. However, it’s much better to have one ‘rule’ for all – it certainly won’t happen again!
February 14th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Thanks, Gaufrid.
Also, thanks to Eileen, but rest assured that I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind when I posted the reminder. It’s the daily puzzles that concern me most as I don’t always have time to start them on the day of publication.
February 17th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
More cause for celebration.
Having a suspicion that there was quite a lot of activity on the site yesterday, I just had a glance at the summary stats. (As a relatively lowly blogger I can see some of these.)
Yes!
Yesterday fifteensquared.net had its busiest day: 6,930 hits
(Over the last few weeks it averages just over 4,000 per day)
But more than this, coincidently I see that we now have
* more than 5,000 Posts
(as I write this 5,003 )
and
* more than 50,000 Comments
(as I write this 50,020)
(that’s ignoring the spam comments)
I think that’s a good reason for trebles all round!
March 1st, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Just a random thought here, we’ve started putting the clues in some of the blogs, are we potentially breaching copyright? Don’t want to get us closed down by some over zealous lawyer somewhere.
March 1st, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Yes, the clues would be copyright, but I doubt if there would be any problem, they are made available to all for free on their websites by the papers we blog here, so not sure why they would want to stop us and they might welcome the extra coverage too. Not that I can speak for them of course.
March 28th, 2011 at 2:27 am
Can it be made so one can search directly for old puzzle blogs? The urls prevent simple hacking, since they often include random comments the blogger added.
March 28th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Huw Powell: there might be a way to use restrict a search to the title using the WordPress search box in the top right, but if so I don’t know what it is.
An alternative is to use Google, e.g. try searching for the puzzle number with an expression like this:
"25,279" "Blog Archive" site:fifteensquared.netto bring up Guardian 25,279.March 28th, 2011 at 9:38 am
Hi Huw
The current search facility is the only one available. My suggestion (using Google) has already been mentioned by mhl but I would add that if you know the date the puzzle was published, or the date of the blog for prize puzzles (usually one week later), you can access the blog quickly by simply clicking on the appropriate day on the calendar.
March 28th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
I guess the answer is the same as the previous, but now the i has a daily cryptic, will this get blogged?
March 29th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Hi Gary
All I can say at the moment is that blogging the ‘i’ is under consideration (but don’t hold your breath).
March 29th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Talking of i, is the XWord online anywhere?
March 29th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Hi Derek
Not so far as I am aware.
March 31st, 2011 at 2:50 am
Thanks Gaufrid. Is the ‘i’ cryptic of an ‘easier’ standard standard than the regular Independent, or are they old Indy puzzles recycled?
March 31st, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Hi Gary
So far as I am aware it is the latter.
April 5th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Gaufrid,
I would like to complain about Uncle Yap’s persistent spoilers. It’s always UY, no-one else does it. Like today’s Brummie heading “Dr Livingstone, I presume” which I note has now been removed. The other week he actually gave an answer to one of Paul’s clues (CASANOVA) on the front page but that was eventually removed too. Can’t you get him to understand that the purpose of the front page is to prevent the answers from being inadvertently seen !. Thanks.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Hi Davy
Your complaint is noted. Before you added this comment I had already removed the offending text from the title and had emailed Uncle Yap to ask him, again, to avoid spoilers in the title or the first paragraph of his preamble.
April 19th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Gaufrid – is it worth putting a link from your ‘Boatman’ setter list to his new website at: http://www.boatmancryptics.co.uk/index.html. This even has a picture of the elusive man!
April 19th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Hi Robi
Thanks for the suggestion. I would prefer to keep links on the Setters page solely to Who’s Who so one for Boatman will have to wait until there is an entry under his real name.
However, I have added Boatman to the list of Setters’ Sites on the Links page.
April 19th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Gaufrid, thanks; good idea. He seems to be known on Twitter as: ‘Ashley aka Boatman.’ (not that I use Twitter at the moment)
April 19th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
P.S. His name seems to be Ashley Knowles, according to his copyright information.
April 23rd, 2011 at 2:06 am
My details (as above) seem to appear permanently for everyone to see, on this site and at the bottom of the crossword blog. I have tried to delete them, but they are still there. Can you possibly delete them permanently? I only sent in two comments last January.
May 4th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Could the forum moderators please read the comment #35 in the discussion of Araucaria’s puzzle on 3 May. Is this consistent with the site policy in relation to ‘aggressive, insulting and inflammatory comments’?
May 16th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Wolfie: I’m not able to moderate that comment thread, but I’d agree that the comment you refer to is completely out of order :(
May 17th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
mhl: Thank you for your concern and support. I very much enjoy the discussions on this forum which rarely fail to entertain and enlighten. Fortunately the type of abusive comment to which I have objected seems to be extremely unusual. Let’s hope that this continues to be the case!
May 27th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
I am looking for the blog for Guardian No 25333/Gordius and I cannot find it.
Is this because my searching is inadequate?
May 27th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Hi chas
No, your searching was not inadequate, the scheduled blogger had gone AWOL and the post did not exist at that time.
June 6th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Hi Gaufrid
Is there going to be a blog of Guardian Genius 95 by Lavatch?
I did finish it, and throroughly enjoyed it. As I haven’t heard anything, I presume I did not win the prize!
I was hoping to see what other people thought of it.
If the person who was supposed to do this has forgotten then I would volunteer to do it this time. You would have to explain to me how to do it though.
Failing that I could just send you my notes and you could publish them yourself.
Best wishes
June 6th, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Hi Gaufrid
Sorry I used an inaccurate email address. This is the real one for me, if you want to respond.
July 4th, 2011 at 7:19 am
Gaufrid – Is it possible to publicise the fact that John Graham (Araucaria) is going to be the guest on Desert Island Discs next Sunday 10th July @ 11.15 on Radio 4? I think many bloggers would be interested in hearing it – also a great tribute to him as well – my guess would be he’s the only crossword setter to have appeared on the programme
July 6th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Hi was checking the setters list as I have recently started doing the FT in addition to the Guardian so was keen to see who was moonlighting. I seem to remember reading that cyclops (private eye) is Brummie in the Guardian. Are you able to confirm this?
July 6th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
fearsome
)
Click on Brummie in the setter’s list and the link will take you to the appropriate entry in the Crossword Who’s Who (that’s what it’s there for
July 8th, 2011 at 8:25 am
Gaufrid, thanks for the tip – it confirms he is also cyclops.
July 12th, 2011 at 9:19 am
Gaufrid, is it worth adding Moley to the list of Guardian setters?
July 12th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Hi Robi
Thanks for the suggestion. The list of setters on 15² only includes those who appear in the daily Guardian. There are several setters who are are only seen in the on-line Quiptic and Moley is one of them.
The aim of the ‘Setters’ page is to indicate which setters have alternative pseudonyms in papers covered by 15² and to provide a link to the more comprehensive information available at Michael Curl’s Crossword Who’s Who, which also inclues a list of Quiptic setters. See:
http://bestforpuzzles.com/people/the-guardian.html