This page is where you can provide feedback relating to Fifteensquared or raise issues regarding the website itself.
Comments posted before 2025-11-25 can be found here.
If you need a more immediate response, please email:
Never knowingly undersolved
This page is where you can provide feedback relating to Fifteensquared or raise issues regarding the website itself.
Comments posted before 2025-11-25 can be found here.
If you need a more immediate response, please email:
I posted a comment on today’s Bobcat and was told I did not have permlssion . I deleted my email address and tried again this time with success. This was not the first time this happened.What is the problem ?
I honestly don’t know.
Since it seems to be an intermittent problem, it will be tricky to track down.
If it happens again can you take a screenshot and send it to admin please?
Thanks kenmac. I will.
It looks like the new ‘Comment deleted or awaiting moderation’ notice and accompanying ID-reservation is working out very well.
A purely presentational suggestion : perhaps make the message sit within its own horizontal rules/lines, so that it stands apart from the preceding comment. Currently, its positioning and indentation below the preceding comment makes it look like it was a reply to that comment (since that’s the way that these things work on many other forums). And the problem with that is that when one sees that the supposed reply was deleted, it immediately sparks the idea that it must have been rude or insulting and so Admin has thwarted it! And then I have to remind myself that no, it was a completely independent comment but its positioning gives the wrong idea. This happens to me literally every time 😅
AP@4 I agree, I thought that my comments in various other threads had been replied to negatively until I realised that the deletions may not in fact relate to my post.
The four vertical dashes imply that the deleted comment/s relate to what sits above it.
I agree with AP @4 and Jay @5. The “comment deleted” message could definitely do with a blue line above as well as below it (and perhaps the removal of the indentation), because it currently looks as if it’s in the same “box” as the comment above it. Thanks in anticipation kenmac if you are prepared / able to sort this.
@4, @5, @7: One idea might be to hide the “deleted” comments altogether via a CSS rule:
li.comment.deleted-comment {
display: none;
}
This would show breaks in the numbering sequence but that might not be a big downside.
Just to clarify, as it is being discussed, that the Comment Deleted tag does not necessarily mean that the blogger or admn has removed an abusive or otherwise unacceptable post. It is generated if the commenter him or herself elects to delete the comment during Edit time. This can be because the commenter sees that the point has just been made by someone else who got in moments ahead of them. It has happened to me just this morning.
Yes, I accidentally posted an incomplete comment, deleted it myself and was surprised to find that a “deleted comment” message was generated.
Thanks for implementing this change! It looks much less ambiguous now, I think. The indentation and the dashed vertical line were the primary reasons for the comment looking like a reply, and they’ve both gone now.
I do think there’s value in seeing the placeholder. If a comment has been deleted or flagged for moderation by an admin then it’s useful for its author to be able to see that. And if it’s been deleted by its author then it’s useful for any other reader who’s already read it to see that too, so avoid them thinking that they must have dreamt it!
On reflection I think you’re right, AP@10, about maintaining the placeholders. Aside from the scenarios you mention, various pathological cases could arise. Let’s say the first 5 comments on a blog are pending, trashed, or flagged as spam. The header would show “5 Comments”, yet the viewer would see nothing. I too like the current look.
Hi Kenmac
1400 hours and no Guardian Vulcan blog?
Will there be a blog for Spectator 2,731 by Pabulum? Just wondering as the submission deadline was Dec. 15th.
Jay @15
Looks like it was accidentally left in draft. It’s there now.
Thanks, Ken @16
May I suggest that all blogs include the image of the completed grid?
I find mc_rapper67’s grid(s) most useful – showing some progression in solving or highlighting the themesters.
ilippu @18
The bloggers, as you probably know, are all volunteers and they have varying levels of technical skill. For some of them, if I were to insist on grids, let alone animated grids, then they’d probably refuse to do any more blogs. And none of us want that.
Admin@19
Thanks. I suspected something like that…
ilippu @20 – having not highlighted the thematic clues on this week’s Quick Cryptic, your post reminded me that I had meant to, and because I like to know how to do these things, I wandered off to see if I could upload an animated image to highlight different things.
There were several wrinkles to this – one is knowing how to create a .gif image from several layers. Now that I knew, having been into Photoshop/GIMP for years. The second is working out how to persuade this site to load it as a gif (moving image) not a static image, which the site does from preference. That’s the bit that took a while to work out. I tried uploading a gif for something else I blogged a while back, but didn’t have time to experiment then, so had wanted to have a second go.
Thank you for reminding me to play, but, please note, I’m one of the bloggers who writes their blog in code, rather than using the site shortcuts, because it’s the only way to make the coding for the hidden answers and parsing work on this site. (It takes me 4 times as long to code in a blog than it does to produce it using the utility that a lot of us use for other crosswords.)
Shanne@21
Thanks.
The blog for the Jumbo Maskarade puzzle, published by The Guardian on Saturday 27th December, has raised a couple of issues.
The puzzle was only published in the newspaper. It was not made available on The Guardian website. With the benefit of hindsight, the implication of that decisions, to me, is that The Guardian wanted solvers to buy the newspaper to get access to the crossword.
The first issue is whether fifteensquared should have created online links to the blank grid and the clues. The answer to that is probably no. I take responsibility for making links available for just over 24 hours, but I wouldn’t do so again in similar circumstances.
The second issue is whether the blog should have appeared so soon, given that the puzzle is a Jumbo. Many Jumbos are prize puzzles, so the solution is not published in the newspaper until a week or more after the original puzzle is published. In such cases, fifteensquared will not publish a blog until the solution has been published in the newspaper.
Saturday’s Maskarade Jumbo was not a prize puzzle. The solution was printed in the newspaper right beside the original puzzle, so was available the instant the newspaper was published. In those circumstances, I believe many solvers would wish to see a blog explaining the solution as soon as possible, so the fifteensquared blog was published mid-afternoon on Sunday 28th December. In similar circumstances, in future, I would also publish the blog as quickly as I could.
Duncan@24 I am very disappointed with the Guardian over this but will not have a rant .
Yes the answers on the same page upside-down , I can read upside-down from many years of Scrabble so I foolishly looked not imagining it was the same puzzle .
Since the answers were there your blog seems very reasonable .
Should you have put a link ? again I think yes or many solvers , especially overseas , would never see it .
I suspect it was not on the website simply because of the format meaning it could not be solved online , someone who knows better might correct me . The Guardian seems to have sidelined these specials , no longer a Prize , not on the right day and not even in the normal place . As a loyal reader who buys the paper everyday I feel insulted and I also feel sorry for Maskarade and for tradition .
Second thoughts for the link . Perhaps next time provide a link a day later , nobody is going to buy the paper a day later .
I pretty much agree with what Roz says above. However the Easter Maskarade special prize crossword was and still is available on the website with a link to a pdf, as there was no interactive version. I’m sure the Guardian editors have their reasons for changing things now, but I am miffed. I no longer buy the print edition for various reasons, but subscribe to the Guardian and use the app, which doesn’t have all the puzzles available in the hard copy.
So, Duncan@24, as the Graun didn’t explain why their policy has changed, I think you were perfectly ok provide a grid and clues.
Time for me to stop ranting about this, it is only a crossword after all. 😉
Easter is the last time it was normal and clearly could be seen on-line , thank you Crossbar@27 .
August it was in the paper as normal but not a Prize , there was a normal Prize crossword on-line only that day so I did not get to see it .
Now it is being sidelined even more . This is a great Guardian tradition , set by Araucaria for many years . Maskarade took over and has got better and better , I really like the alphabetical themes .
Duncan@24. Thank you for your explanations. I don’t think you needed to have second thoughts about posting the links. If the Guardian had really wanted to push sales of the physical newspaper on Saturday 27th, they should have put a teaser in the paper on the previous Saturday (20th, the last before Christmas) where the Christmas special has been published since about 2006 by my reckoning. I buy the paper every day, and did not see anything about the Maskarade on the 27th until – I think – Boxing Day. And that wasn’t in the paper!
I agree with Roz@25: I’m very disappointed with how the Guardian have handled this. (I always fold the paper over before beginning, so did not see the filled grid at the bottom of the page!) I hope they have a good think about it and try to do better next time.
I have no problem with a version of the puzzle being provided because there are free versions of the printed paper available online using library apps such as Pressreader which is how I got it (other apps are available). I also think there was a very clear warning in the blog about the solution being there preventing accidental spoilers. I think 15² responded as best as it could to an extraordinary series of actions by the Guardian who seemed to get caught out with Christmas Day arriving on a Thursday. The rants are best directed at them and this appears to be what commentators have done.
Happy New Year KenMac and wishing you a speedy recovery . Thanks for your email to C , I even let him read it out to me . I am grateful for your diplomacy and your advice which I will try to follow for a whole year , my resolution – Step away from the ChromeBook – whenever I might cross the line .
Hi KenMac
Someone other than me has posted as Muffin (capital M) on the Guardian Quick Cryptic blog. Nothing wrong with the comment, but it might cause confusion in the future?
I occasionally lurk. Sometimes there’s a gem of a comment buried amongst 70 comments.
Some discussion forums (eg BBC, Reddit) have thumbs up / down buttons so that you can easily see the most liked (and disliked) comments.
I wonder if it would help having something similar. It’s a quick way of complimenting someone and something even lurkers could do without having to write a comment.
Another advantage is that discussions are indirectly moderated by the participants. It becomes clear what sort of comments are welcome.
Reddit “collapses” comments that are more disliked than liked, which is another time saver. I don’t know if the WordPress vote widget does that but something also worth trialing?
Any chance of adding a link in Today’s Cryptics for the featured MyCrosswords? Easy to go there but just for completeness.
Noticed during the past couple of days:
The site loads slowly, and, some time comes with ‘service unavailable’ message, and one has to reload.
There’s a little formatting glitch that removes the padding from mc_rapper67’s avatar when it appears in the first paragraph/preview of a blog and the window is narrow/on a phone (it might affect all images but it’s only his avatar that appears frequently).
I’m having the same problems today as ilippu @33 had back in January
@35
Yes, it’s been happening to me too. I contacted the hosting company and they say there’s nothing wrong, which is probably code for “can’t be bothered”
Hi Ken. There’s a couple of dodgy posts on today’s Quiptic – 36 and 38
Crispy @36 – not any more there aren’t. But all those awaiting moderation notes are variations on the same theme that I’ve had to take down – so far in Swedish, German and Finnish, plus mirror writing.
Shanne @37. Apologies for the late reply – I saw that those comments had gone. I’m sorry you were given a hard time yesterday, but I thought you handled things brilliantly
Thanks Crispy @38 – I did wonder why that particular crossword got hit by some troll, but it did get boring playing whack-a-mole with the comments.
Hi KenMac
It’s after midday and there’s no blog on today’s Anto puzzle in the Guardian. Has there been a missed communication?
So far there is no blog for today’s Brendan crossword in the Guardian.
Hi Kenmac
Brendan blog now in place, but it isn’t allowing comments
Me @43
Now fixed
Seemingly no blog for FT 18293 by Jason yet at 17:15pm ( or is it my i-Pad?)
I also have waited for the blog for the FT puzzle KenF@45 but please remember the date!!
@44 @45
Technical troubles. A crew of troubleshooters (ie Turbolegs and me) currently investigating
It’s there now: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2026/02/13/financial-times-18293-by-jason-2/
Ken – is there any way you can block comments from eoD nohJ and eoD enaJ? They are becoming a regular nuisance
Comment #56 on the Anto Quiptic from yesterday Sunday 15 February) is another from the same troll as above.
(Crispy @48 – there was nothing obviously wrong for Askimet to check – the emails looked OK, if you believed Thierry Henri, for one of the options, was likely to post here.)
KenMac if you have time could you just look at the Everyman comments from yesterday ? If possible it would just be nice if all comments ended for now .
Crispy@48. I don’t think anything can be achieved by blocking by email address as the site lets anyone enter any email address. There is no verification that you have entered an email that belongs to you. I’m not actually sure why it ever even asked for an email before the days of avatars.
I always read blogs at the end of the day.
It is a shame to see now that nearly every post has deleted comments in it. I assume these were offensive or spam. Is this Akismet removing comments before they are seen or are these things that were manually deleted later on?
@kenmac would it be possible to make the “this comment was deleted…” comments take less space and be visually more subtle? I think they stand out far more than they should do at the moment and so interrupt the flow of the discussion. Really, they just need to be unintrusive placeholders to show a skipped post number.
I’m reading on a mobile device.
I realise now that Crispy@48 was asking to block by name, but what I said still applies. Names aren’t unique on the site and anyone can enter anything when posting.
The mirror-writing pest is back @39 on today’s blog for Vlad’s Prize.
Gladys
I have now removed the comment.
Is there also a way to flag to Akismet that those particular posts are the sort that should be filtered automatically?
Max @55 – I’ve just taken another of the trolling posts out of the Quick Cryptic and there’s nothing obvious in the emails to say that they are trolling – other than I could read the Spanish it was written in. The email addresses look fine.
Ken, when you get there, there’s still a reverse script post on the blog for last week’s Quiptic, Quiptic 1369 by Anto, post 56.
Comment #57
Comment #58