Site Feedback

by

This page is where you can provide feedback relating to Fifteensquared or raise issues regarding the website itself.

Comments posted before 29/12/18 can be found here.

This post is now closed. New comments can be posted here.

108 comments on “Site Feedback”

  1. Hiya, just looked in to see if last week’s Guardian Prize solution had been posted, but couldn’t see it. Maskarade Xmas Special from Dec 22.

    Or maybe the blogger found it as infuriating as me!

  2. Bodge

    The Maskarade blog hasn’t been published as yet because it is a prize puzzle and the closing date for entries is first post Thursday 3rd Jan.

  3. Would it be possible to update the General Discussion link at the top to link directly to the newest posts, rather than requiring us to click through two pages of archived posts? Same goes for this feedback link to a lesser extent.

  4. cruciverbophile @3

    My apologies. I thought I had updated the link when I made some revisions to the site at the end of last year, but obviously I didn’t. I have now rectified this omission.

  7. Bill @6

    From the nature of your comment, I assume that you are viewing the site using a mobile device and are not therefore seeing the left and right sidebars. The Category list is in the LH sidebar which will be visible if you access the site using a desktop or laptop pc. Alternatively, on your mobile device, scroll down to the bottom of a page and select ‘Desktop’ which will then display the standard site layout. You can switch back to the mobile view by again scrolling down to the bottom of a page.

  8. Is there a way of calling up ‘all posts by blogger X’ or all posts about puzzles by setter Y’?

  9. Tony @8

    For puzzles by a particular setter, just put the name into the search box in the right hand sidebar when in desktop view or via the relevant icon when in mobile view. You will get some unwanted entries in the resultant list but these will be easy to spot.

    You could do the same for posts by a particular blogger but there will be far more unwanted results and you will not be able to see which they are without opening each one. A better way would be to use the Google advanced search with the bloggers name in the search box and http://www.fifteensquared.net in the ‘Site or domain’ box. You will then be able to clearly see the ‘Posted by …’ in the results and can ignore the entries that do not have this.

    The Google advanced search can also be used for puzzles by a particular setter and will probably be quicker than using the 15² site search facility during peak times.

  10. Thanks, Gaufrid. I went one better and put “posted by” in the Google site search as well as the blogger’s name and got what I wanted very quickly.

  12. Hello, would it be possible to have my name attributed to the post regarding Independent puzzle that was published today? Many thanks. W

  15. Dear Fifteensquared,

    Thank you so much for your wonderful website. It has been invaluable in helping me into the world of cryptic crosswords.

    I wonder if I might offer a suggestion:

    Many of the cryptic puzzles I am attempt are too difficult to complete by myself. At the same time, I am still sometimes reluctant to check the answers on fifteensquared as it can feel like I have given up.

    I wonder if a happy medium might be, for each puzzle, to provide a version of the blog that includes the underlined definition and any wordplay indicators e.g. * [] reversal, container etc. so that those who haven’t been able to complete the puzzle alone could perhaps have some hints before resorting to looking at the actual answers.

    I think beginners especially would really appreciate this as a resource.

    Many thanks,

    Cataphract

  16. Cataphract @15

    Thanks for your suggestion. I will give it some more thought, but my initial reaction is that it would create too much additional work for members of the blogging team, many of whom only have limited time available due to work and/or other commitments.

  17. Gaufrid@16

    Interesting idea from cataphract@15.

    On Big Dave’s blog, as you probably know, they give hints for clues along with the answer, which is masked but revealable by clicking on it. I think there might be very little extra work involved in making the answers on fifteensquared blogs similarly masked if that were thought desirable. Other users, however, used to the current presentation, might not want to have to click to see what they used to see anyway.

    Bloggers would presumably have to present the completed grid masked (if at all)? Mind you, one already sees posts with all sorts of special effects going on in the grid to highlight ninas and suchlike.

  20. Does anyone know what has happened to Big Dave’s site, apart from that it appears to have crashed?

  21. I went to BD’s just now and noted the post dated 4 July, headed Site Downtime, which says:

    “Update – 05/07/2019

    There may be further disruption over the weekend as, with help from the hosting company, we may be transferring to a new machine.  Should this happen then tomorrow’s hints will be published on the backup site (https://bigdave44x.wordpress.com/) and the new MPP and NTSPP puzzles will be postponed until the transfer is complete.

    *******************************************************************************

    I’m sure you will have noticed that the site has been experiencing problems. For the time being I have taken it out of Cloudflare (who have been having problems of their own), although that might take a few hours to trickle through the networks. I have also deactivated a large number of plugins, so please don’t tell me this or that isn’t working!
    This entry was written by Big Dave, posted on July 4, 2019 at 12:16 pm, filed under Announcements. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.”

    So probably something to do with that?

  22. I’ve recently swapped to an Android tablet and the numbers aren’t showing next to the comments/responses.
    I wondered if anyone else had this problem and if there is an easy solution.

  23. As you were: just read a previous comment and swapped to desktop- now works fine.
    While I’m here, thanks for all your efforts

  24. Recently a poster on the Vismut IQ blog lamented the lack of an edit function. I feel the same; it would certainly make rubbish typists like me look less illiterate. It’s also embarrassing when auto-correct sneaks up on you and you can’t change it.

    I’m aware that the main argument against is that troublemakers (and we’ve had a few of those over the years) abuse edit by changing their posts in order to make the responses look stupid or meaningless. I have seen edit functions that only give a limited time to make corrections – but perhaps that requires log-in?

    Or maybe I should just try to type more carefully…

  25. cruciverbophile @24

    You are right in your assumption that, in order to provide a comment edit option, anyone wishing to post a comment would need to register with the site and then login before doing so. This is something I am reluctant to implement because I think it would significantly reduce the number of comments posted.

  27. Gaufrid@25 – I do agree. Also, referring back to an earlier suggestion, I would hate to see 225 presented à la grand Dave; as it is, it often takes me longer to read the day’s entries here than to solve the puzzle. I’d certainly not visit to read a load of hints being discussed/argued over….

  28. Is there some way that comments here and on the general discussion page can br displayed with the last comments first?

  29. Hoyoku @28

    I can reverse the order in which comments are displayed but it is a global setting and I don’t think that latest first is appropriate for the daily blogs.

  31. Hi Gaufrid,

    I think you may have a visit from a “bot” at the end of the “Guardian Cryptic 27,958 by Arachne” blog

     

  32. Hi Gaufrid,
    Are usernames not unique and checked against previous email address given? Someone has used mine in the Guardian thread today.

  33. Gonzo @32

    The only way I can ensure that two people don’t use the same username is to require that everyone resister with the site and then login before they post a comment. This is something I am loath to do because I think it will reduce the number of comments posted.

  34. Fair enough, I assumed that the first time a username was used, the email address was recorded and thereafter was used as a kind of password. There doesn’t seem much point in requiring an email address otherwise.
    I shall ask them to choose another name.

  35. As an addition to Hoyoku’s comment @28, is it possible to instead delete/archive comments that are more than a few months old (3 say?)? At 88 comments on the General Discussion feed, it is getting more and more tedious scrolling down to the bottom. I guess this would then renumber the comments making cross referencing, such as my @28 above, incorrect but that seems a small price to pay.

  36. Hovis @35

    Comments on General Discussion and Site Feedback are already being archived. This is why you have to access a page (which is able to appear on the menu bar) and then click on a link to get to the post where you can add a comment. I have to do this archiving manually so I tend to wait until the number of comments is approaching three figures.

    This post is the fourth one for Site Feedback comments and the General Discussion post was similar. I have now created a new post for General Discussion and archived the old one.

  38. Hi

    I exchanged links with this site a couple of years ago. (Thank you – I was happy to link to this site anyway because it is an excellent resource that I would happily recommend to people.) I just noticed that the link to my crossword site (“Ben’s Cryptic Crosswords”) has been placed in the “Other Sites” rather than “Setters’ Sites” category. While I’m not sure exactly how you define these things, it seems to me that it belongs in “Setters’ Sites” as it is basically a collection of puzzles by a setter.

    Conversely, some of the “Setters’ Sites” links seem to link to blogs rather than puzzle collections. But perhaps I am just imagining a slightly different division – between puzzle sites and others.

    Of more immediate concern, the following two links appear to be dead –

    EJ’s Crossword Showcase

    Hoskins Crosswords

    Cheers,

    Ben

  39. Hi Gaufrid
    I think someone rather dodgy has posted @29 on my puzzle of last Thursday (16th Jan).
    Perhaps you’re able to block him/her from returning?
    Thankee.

  41. Ben @38

    Thanks for the feedback. I have removed the two broken links. So far as the classification of links is concerned, the ‘Setters’ Sites’ are links to sites set up and maintained (or not in some cases) by professional compilers who have had cryptic crosswords published in one of the papers that we cover on this site. Everything else (apart from links to the papers themselves and other solving blogs) goes into the ‘Other Sites’ classification.

  44. Oh, hang on, though. Normally I’ve already made a comment when I copy the URL to my feed. That has “comment so-and-so” in it, so I get offered a feed from comments (and 15² as a whole). Today I tried to get a feed with just the address of the post, so I guess that’s what doesn’t work. Sorry for any bother.

  45. Ah, but even after I’d made a comment and fed “http://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/02/08/guardian-prize-28045-by-tramp/#comment-404343” to Feedly, it couldn’t find a feed, so as you were …

  48. Tony @47

    That link worked for me when I tried it before posting my comment this morning, and again a few minutes ago, using the feed reader in Windows Live Mail. I have just checked and it also works in IE11 which has an inbuilt feed reader.

  50. Ah, but no, still can’t get Feedly to create a feed from the Tramp comments. Looks like it might be a glitch in Feedly, though, given what’s happened?

  51. I have a lot of trouble accessing this site the past two weeks or more. I prefer to use Safari, but it is hard to load the site. I tried with Google Chrome, also so-so.

    I clear history, cache, and cookies every day.

    Any advice?

  53. Michelle, Gaufrid – I too am having problems accessing the site recently.  I am not having similar problems with other sites, such as the Guardian Crosswords.  I am also using Safari, on an iPad. Typically, an attempt to connect results in an error message from the gateway providing a static site advising me that the main site is offline.  After 1-3 retries it usually connects.

    i am connecting from Kuala Lumpur, but over a high speed internet connection. FTTH/Broadband/1Gbps. I haven’t yet tried an alternative browser or my VPN but will do so and report if problems recur and I have the chance to try.

  54. Can anything be done about the different image sizes used for displaying completed grids? It’s not a massive issue, but when bloggers post a grid picture – a practice I appreciate and approve of, by the way – sometimes it’s not entirely visible in my browser, which I have set to 120% zoom level for comfortable viewing on this site.

    For reference, the 391px² picture used by Teacow in Monday’s ZAMORCA blog is fine, with room to spare, whereas the 505px² picture used by PeeDee in Today’s Monk blog has 1½ columns chopped off of the right edge.

    Ideally, any grid picture, no matter its original size, would automatically scale to the available width. But if that’s not possible, or more trouble than it’s worth, perhaps bloggers could be asked to limit the size of their pictures to a maximum size of, say, 450px²?

  55. Angstony @54

    Automatic scaling of grids, and other images, is unlikely to be feasible but I will see what I can do about restricting the fixed image size.

  57. Gaufrid @55

    FYI: I don’t know if you did anything with this, but I’ve resolved the issue for myself by changing the minimum font size settings in Firefox and writing a little override script to set the edit box font size. That’s allowed me to reset the zoom level to normal without needing magnifying glasses to use the site.

  58. Hello. This is a comment about the design of the site’s blog pages – if this is inappropriate I apologise.

    At the top left and top right of the main panels are links to the previous and next blogs. Besides the fact that these are redundant with the listing in the left-hand panel, I’m wondering if they are much used. After all, there is no logical connection between a blog and the one that due to random timing just happens to come in right before or after it.

    I imagine that most site users are like myself and only interest themselves in one or two categories. For such users, or maybe everyone, a much more useful link would be to the previous or next posting of the same category. Just a thought.

    Thanks.

  59. Dr. WhatsOn @58

    Thanks for your observation. The various navigation options form part of the WordPress theme that is used for the site and it would not be easy to make the changes that you suggest.

  60. Gaufrid@59, yes I have to say I suspected that was the case. If I were younger I’d offer to do the reprogramming myself, but now I understand the inclination to let sleeping blogs lie. Thanks.

  61. Gaufrid: The “save  my name, email…” feature no longer works for me – I have to fill in the details every time I post.

     

    Is there a setting in my browser (Firefox) I should be using, do you think?

  65. Dave Ellison, you should check your Firefox Settings (from menu) > Privacy > Cookies. Your commenter name is held in a cookie which persists for a significant length of time, after which you have to confirm again. If you have blocked all cookies in Settings, you can’t store your name.

  67. Thanks, Tony, Gaufrid. I had nothing blocked but I have added 225 to be allowed always, and that seems to have worked

  68. Has anything been found out as to why several postings disappeared this morning? My posts for the FT and Guardian both vanished. Others on the Guardian thread are making similar comments. Hope the site hasn’t caught a bug and needs to be quarantined.

  72. My query about where to find the announcement you refer to. It’s ok, because I found it shortly after posting.

  74. Simon S @73

    Thanks for the heads-up. Not just today’s Guardian blog but 10 other posts as well. Now removed and the originating IP address blocked.

  79. This is the first time I’ve been able to get anywhere on the site today so i’m using the opportunity to let you know, if you didn’t already, that something’s amiss.  Comments over on the Guardian cryptic site that fifteensquared is not responding.  I find the site keeps hanging when I try to enter and I eventually get a time out message – presumably from Cloudflare – saying “The initial connection between Cloudflare’s network and the origin web server timed out. As a result, the web page can not be displayed.”

    I’ve got to the home page once or twice but all that’s showing is the blog for today’s Independent with one comment.

  80. This site is absolutely fantastic! Many thanks for the detailed explanations, they really help make doing the puzzles so much more rewarding.

  84. Muffin

    I have just tested this feature using Chrome and it works correctly. When you click on the checkbox you are giving permission for WordPress to instruct your browser to save your username and email address in a cookie on your pc. It is your browser that then retrieves this information from the cookie and inserts it into the comment box.

    If this is not happening then either your browser isn’t saving the cookie or it cannot find it due to the browser history having been cleared. I suggest that you check to see that your browser is set to accept cookies and that it isn’t set to delete the history each time it’s closed.

  86. I’ve looked at my cookies. I have one for fifteensquared. On inspecting it, I see this:

    __cfduid

    Name__cfduid
    Contentd75836b6bb600eddeab3e408d252929061573465235
    Domain.fifteensquared.net
    Path/
    Send forAny kind of connection
    Accessible to scriptNo (HttpOnly)
    CreatedMonday, 11 November 2019 at 09:40:36
    ExpiresTuesday, 10 November 2020 at 09:40:35

  87. muffin

    Sorry but I have no idea whether that is correct or not. Chrome stores all cookies in a single encrypted file so I cannot view what it has stored for 15². I would be inclined to delete that cookie and start again.

  91. Hello!
    Thanks for providing this great resource.
    I have a request:
    Please would you add the numbers of the puzzles to the search facility?
    At the moment, searching for the number of a particular crossword finds nothing that matches.
    I make themes in WordPress for a living & would be happy to help with the code if needed.
    Best wishes.

  92. GuyW @91

    You can search by puzzle number. However, you may need to do so twice, once with and once without the thousands separator (comma). The results will depend on whether the original blog had the separator in its title or not. You may just get one hit, the puzzle you are looking for, or you may get several with the required puzzle usually at the top of the list.

  94. Dear FifteenSquared

    I would be grateful if you would pass on the following to Tramp:

    Dear Tramp/Neil

    I want to apologise personally to you for the storm I inadvertently caused in regard to your latest crossword 28176. I did not mean to cast aspersions on you or your integrity. I realise in retrospect that I could have chosen my words more carefully. In particular, I regret using the word “crass” when I ought to have used the word “unfortunate”. I never thought that the word ‘slave’ was part of the wordplay, or a part of the meaning of the whole word. But because it leapt out at me so much, I jumped to the conclusion that it would leap out at anyone – obviously, I was wrong in that. And it wouldn’t have jumped out at me, I suspect, if it wasn’t for the juxtaposition with the name John Barnes, whose struggles with racist abuse from ‘football fans’ are still sharp in my memory, decades on. So I am very sorry for the fuss, and any hurt it caused you. I suppose that all the abuse I copped from other posters is just poetic justice, and should make me more careful in what I say in future.

    Cheers, Tim

  96. I’ve just made quite a long comment on Boatman’s Guardian Prize and I see my comment is (or was) “awaiting moderation”. Why would that be?

  97. Tony @ 96

    Any comment containing three or more links is referred to me for moderation. This is because comments that are spam often have multiple links within them.

  99. Hi Gaufrid

    A thought, prompted by the fact that the blog for Shed’s Guardian puzzle on Wed 5th August hasn’t yet surfaced and it’s nearly 3pm UK: I fully appreciate that sometimes a blogger will encounter a problem that leads to a late blog posting.  But there are two elements to the discussion of each puzzle; the blogger’s analysis of the crossword and then the comments and interaction between posters around the world.  Would there be any sense at all in opening up a page that enables the latter, even if the former is late in appearing.  I appreciate there might be an element of cart before horse but, as it stands, the community currently has no opportunity to interact today.

    Kind regards

    Mark

  100. Mark @99

    Our aim is to have a blog of each puzzle posted by mid-afternoon UK time. As you say, sometimes the scheduled blogger is unable to publish a post and so, like today, I provide an analysis of the clues and leave it up to visitors to provide any commentary.

    I do not think it desirable to have more than a single post for each puzzle. Things would get very confusing if comments/discussion were split between two places.

  101. Fair enough, Gaufrid, and thanks for stepping into the breach yesterday.  Health challenges and all.  I hadn’t realised mid-afternoon UK was the target and had assumed – just because it tends to be up by 9/10 am – that mid-morning was the goal.

    As you can tell, I was just missing my fix!  Mind you, given the almighty fool I made of myself by confusing Dickens’ Nell and Nancy, I might have been better served if there had been no blog at all yesterday!

    Thanks again for all the work you put in.  Having been on and contributed to several crossword sites, fifteensquared (how do I do the little 2 to write that numerically?) is way out there as my favourite.  Bloggers, format, contributing community.  Even the occasional spats.  We need people out there with passion for things, especially for those that are not mainstream, and the odd bit of pedantry and the arguments that ensue shows that we care.

    ATB

  102. Hi Gaufrid

    Re the switch between mobile and desktop views on iPhone. Apologies – you are correct – the buttons do work when switching back from mobile to desktop but on a sunny day in the garden they were pretty much invisible to me. Pedro anyway suggested a more elegant solution using the Aa in the search bar. The lack of numbers in the comments is a nuisance though in mobile view which I therefore rarely use.

  103. Tim @102

    Thanks for letting me know. The mobile view is generated by a WordPress plugin which unfortunately does not support comment numbering. A few years ago I tried to find a work-around but without success and so have had to leave it to individuals to switch between mobile and desktop if they want to see the comment numbers. Not ideal but the only alternative would be to switch to a responsive theme. Despite spending many hours searching, I’ve been unable to find a modern responsive theme that has comment numbering as standard.

  104. For some reason, the “save my name, email, etc” has stopped working and I am having to enter these each time. I shall keep ticking the box in hope.

Comments are closed.