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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July 12th, 2011 at 11:58 am
Gaufrid, OK thanks.
July 12th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Would it be possible to hide individual answers/explanations until we move the mouse over them? I would like to be able to find out the answer for individual clues without inadvertently seeing other ones. This plugin should do the trick and show the kind of thing I mean.
I would also find it very useful to be able to be able to mouse over individual parts of a clue to be prodded in the right direction with popup tips, without having the whole answer and explanation revealed – is this something that could be considered? For example, using Uncle Yap’s explanation for ‘Scrap tasteless name dropping, Fish!’ (AFFRAY) from today’s Guardian would popup ‘Definition’ over ‘Scrap’, ‘NAFF’ over ‘tasteless’, ‘Minus N’ over ‘name dropping’ and ‘RAY’ over ‘Fish’. This would be of great assistance when I get some parts of a clue, but not all, or just need something to get me started.
July 12th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Hi Toby
I assume from the fact that you have used an example from today’s Guardian that this is your puzzle of choice. If so, it is possible to get the answer to a specific clue, without seeing any others, by visiting the on-line version and then using the ‘cheat’ button. There is a similar facility for the on-line Indy.
Using the plug-in you have mentioned would involve considerable extra work for the bloggers, many of whom have time constraints due to work or other commitments. They already give their time freely to solve the puzzle and then write and publish a blog and I would not wish to impose a further burden on them.
The plug-in requires the manual addition of [spoiler] before each answer and [/spoiler] after it (the square brackets would actualy be left and right chevrons but if I used these the ‘spoiler’ and ‘/spoiler’ would not appear in this comment). This would involve a lot of typing and as it must be done whilst editing the raw HTML, rather than using the visual text editor, most bloggers would not have the necessary experience to do it and even those that have would find it very time consuming and difficult to avoid errors.
Also, having the answer blanked out would seriously inconvenience the vast majority of visitors, most of whom will have already completed the puzzle. Having to hover the mouse pointer over each answer would make reading the blog very disjointed.
With regard to your second paragraph, the software that this site runs on does not support the popups that you suggest and even if it did it again comes down to the amount time it is reasonable to expect someone to give up, without remuneration, to write and publish a blog.
July 12th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Fair enough; thanks for your response and the Guardian/Indy tip!
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Has there been any changes to the WPTouch theme that is used to display the site on mobile browsers such as the iPhone? For the last week, the summary of each blog is shown, you can tap to view the full entry but, when you click on the arrow at the end of the main blog entry to read the comments, nothing happens.
August 2nd, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Hi Michael
There have been about half a dozen updates to the WPTouch plug-in during the last couple of months, the most recent on 15th July.
Unfortunately I do not have the means for checking how the 15² site behaves on mobile browsers and I haven’t received any other reports of a problem.
I have just checked the relevant support forum and there has been no comment added during the last month or so regarding a similar problem. I have also just checked the WPTouch setting and comment on posts is definitely enabled.
The last change to any of the site software took place on 19th July when I installed the latest version of WordPress. You say that you have only had the problem during the last week but could it have started earlier (ie immediately after the WordPress update)?
August 2nd, 2011 at 4:43 pm
For the little that this data point is worth, the comments still work fine in the WPTouch theme with the browser on my Android phone.
August 8th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Hi Gaufrid
Why are the Comments ‘Off’ in today’s Rufus?
Bryan
August 8th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Thanks Bryan, I didn’t know they were. They’re not now.
August 12th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Similar to Bryan @58: Any reason why comments are off on Today’s FT by Bradman?
August 12th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Further to 60: sorted now. Thanks.
August 12th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Thanks Pelham Barton, rectified now.
That’s twice this week that this has happened. I looks as if some gremlins might have got into the latest version of WordPress. I will investigate.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Any chance Biggles (Guardian) could be added to setters list by some knowledgeable person? Curious to know who Biggles is…
August 15th, 2011 at 12:42 am
keith
Courtesy of the Crossword Who’s Who site:
“Occasional crosswords appearing in The Guardian under the pseudonym of Biggles are produced jointly by four regular Guardian compilers, all with the forename John: John Graham (Araucaria), John Halpern (Paul), John Henderson (Enigmatist) and John Young (Shed).
Just as the Biggles books were the work of W. E. Johns, so Biggles crosswords are the work of “we Johns”.”
August 29th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Guardian 25412, Araucaria Bank Holiday Puzzle.
Could I request that when you blog this one you show clearly the division between the two parts, when two clues are run together.
I am a recent visitor to this website so I have no experience of how you show these specials. If you already do what I have requested then sorry to bother you with this request.
September 4th, 2011 at 10:20 am
Appears that the Sunday Independent has been missing blogs for 1123 Glowworm and, up to now, today’s 1124 Crosophile as well. Quite a pity, as these were enjoyable puzzles providing about the same level of challenge and quality as the average weekday puzzle.
September 4th, 2011 at 11:31 am
Hi scchua
A blog for 1124 has now been posted. I will try and find out why 1123 is missing.
September 23rd, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Are you aware that the “i”, the Independent’s 20p affair, has puzzle each day, which is different from that in the main paper?
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Hi unclerbh
Please see comments 137 and 139 on the following page:
http://fifteensquared.net/2010/12/26/general-discussion/
October 29th, 2011 at 10:50 am
I have been trying to find a blog for an oldish Guardian crossword – without success.
The one I’m after is No 23716, set by Paul on 17-Mar-2006.
Note that I have the solution: what I want to find is why the “possible 1″ answers are as they are.
October 29th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Hi chas
I’m afraid you are out of luck because this site did not exist at that time. The first Guardian puzzle that we covered was 23,910 on 1/11/2006.
October 29th, 2011 at 11:05 am
Hi chas
I think 15² hadn’t started when that puzzle came out.
I’ve looked it up in the Guardian archive. The answer to 1dn is RAINDROP and all the ‘possible 1s’ are cats or dogs, so it must be a reference to the saying ‘raining cats and dogs’.
October 29th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Many thanks Eileen!
I found this puzzle when doing some tidying and it has been driving me nuts. The Guardian website gives the solution but no explanation.
You have relieved me tremendously.
October 29th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
You’re very welcome, chas!
Funnily enough, I blogged a Brummie puzzle with the same theme:
http://fifteensquared.net/2010/12/03/guardian-25184-brummie/
October 31st, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Any chance we could get blogs for the i Crosswords, or links back when they’re old Indie ones (as is today’s), I’m not sure if the Prize Crosswords are old or new?
Cheers,
Jon
October 31st, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Jon
Please see comment #69 above.
November 7th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Hi Gaufrid – are you aware of any reason for the lack of an on-line FT crossword today? I’m based in the backwoods of North Carolina so not that easy to pick up a print copy. Thanks.
November 7th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Hi Steve
This is not the first time that the FT index has not been updated overnight. I suspect that the person responsible for so doing is either away or off sick and nobody has stepped in.
In the past, the index has been updated the following night (though on one occasion it was a couple of days later) and the missing puzzle(s) became available.
January 4th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
I am looking for the solution to Guardian 25514, Araucaria’s Christmas Prize puzzle. The answers had to be submitted by first post today so I expected to see the results on fifteen squared today.
January 4th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Hi chas
The blog will be appearing at 0005 tomorrow.
January 4th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
This is now my third attempt to post a reply!
I said “Thanks for the info” and pressed ‘Submit comment’. My comment vanished.
I said “Thanks for the information” and pressed ‘Submit comment’. My comment vanished.
I wonder what will happen this time??
January 5th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
I am trying to find out how you write 152 where the “2″ appears as a superscript.
I thought to find it in the same place on your site as the emoticon list: but I can no longer find that!
January 5th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Hi chas
Type the 15 then, having checked that the Num Lock is on, hold down the Alt key and enter 253 on the numeric keypad. This will give you 15².
There is possibly an alternatve way of doing the same thing on laptops that do not have a numeric keypad but I am not aware of it.
The emoticon list is still there, you just need to scroll back through the ‘Announcements’ archive to find it.
January 5th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Gaufrid thanks for the information.
(1) I have a laptop so I will need to experiment
(2) ‘Announcements’ was the one place I failed to search!
January 5th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Gaufrid you might like to know the relevant info for laptops.
There is a row of keys along the top e.g. 1 and !, 2 and ” etc. These are (mostly) irrelevant!
There are numbers on some of the letter keys e.g. M and 0, J and 1 up to 7,8,9 on the number keys 7,8,9.
These are the keys to be used when the NUM key has been pressed.
ALT+253 gives superscript²
January 12th, 2012 at 7:36 pm
I have just started doing crosswords over the last two weeks and stumbled across this site last week. It has been a god-send! Just wanted to say thanks to all the people who give up their time to run the site/blog solutions.
Thanks,
Sam
January 26th, 2012 at 3:44 am
Seems like we missed the Grauniad #25,540. I could blog it (badly) if there is interest. Email me if so.
January 26th, 2012 at 6:50 am
Huw, please do! I’ve just come to look for it and am very disappointed not to find it.
I’m currently on a non-email configured iPad so can’t mail but will do so later if it’s still not there. I’d love some explanation for some answers. Thanks!
January 26th, 2012 at 8:30 am
Huw and Val
25,540 was blogged on Tuesday, the day it was published, but appears to have been wrongly identified as 25,534: it’s here: http://fifteensquared.net/2012/01/24/guardian-25534-pasquale/
January 26th, 2012 at 10:58 am
The Guardian puzzle number has now been corrected so Eileen’s link no longer works. The correct link now is:
http://fifteensquared.net/2012/01/24/guardian-25540-pasquale/
January 26th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Thanks, Eileen and Gaufrid, and potentially Huw! Got it now.
February 1st, 2012 at 8:35 am
Why are the comments turned off on today’s Guardian blog?
February 1st, 2012 at 10:29 am
It’s OK – it came on after a while. Thanks.
February 18th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
Gaufrid,
I would like to complain about a comment made today relating to Araucaria’s crossword of 11-2-12.
It would seem that no-one else is particularly bothered about this comment but I found it offensive and disrespectful. The comment is :
________________________________________________________________________________________________
harvey hawley says:
February 18th, 2012 at 1:26 am
It amuses me greatly when people use the term The Master to refer to the master of the trite.
He has been using the same trivial devices which fail miserably to conceal the definitions for more years than you could shake an unfrocked priest at.
Fans of these school children’s bits of fun really should aspire to something that actually challenges their brain.
They certainly won’t find them from the current editor of the Guardian puzzles.
As for the old buffer’s breath of knowledge, I have to pass, he certainly fails to exhibit it muchly.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is it within the rules of fifteensquared to refer to Araucaria as an “old buffer” especially from someone I have never seen post before ?. As I said before, it is disrespectful, dismissive and derogatory. I find this totally unacceptable.
February 18th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Hi Davy
I agree with your sentiment and the offender is now under moderation. However, as much as I would like to, I am not going to censor negative comments, we need a balanced viewpoint.
Every site such as this attracts a troll now and then and the best response is just ignore them.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:41 am
I wish the contributers would first put how easy or hard they found the puzzle in the preamble given before one opens up their analysis. This is useful information, unlike the ‘spooky’ fact hat they’ve had the same setter three times in a row or their wishes to us for a happy whatever-today’s-festival-is.
March 7th, 2012 at 5:17 am
Everyone will have their own ‘best clue ever’ – but there is one unique clue that must come under consideration by the professionals. See 1ac and 7ac here:
http://crypticcrosswordinnovations.blogspot.com.au/
As professional setters, you cannot fail to be impressed with this effort…
Cheers,
Stef
April 10th, 2012 at 4:23 pm
It would be useful to have a device, such as the split screen one in Word, whereby you can view two parts of a document at once, for this site so that you could see the clues and the comments simultaneously. I have never seen this on a web page – is it feasible?
Dave
April 10th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Actually, wouldn’t frames do the trick, now I think about them?
Dave
April 10th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Hi Dave E.
The software on which this site runs (WordPress) is not customisable enough to provide what you suggest.
What’s wrong with opening the same post in two windows on your pc and having one displaying the blog itself and the other scrolled down to the comments?