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Post by susb8383 on Sept 4, 2019 15:40:44 GMT -5
Heres a good question for the future:
Has the solution to stanza # been mentioned on the forum?
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Post by susb8383 on Sept 4, 2019 15:43:33 GMT -5
a skeptic could say that an IP address is not the same as a website. A single page (which could be text-only, not even HTML) without a domain name is not a website (to me, being absolutely strict and picky). A 10-digit number might not be a working telephone number, but you could still apply the 2=ABC phonepad subtitutions as a cipher, yielding a long word or short phrase. ISBN numbers (redundant nomenclature, i know, like ATM machine) used to be 10-digits long. A book title published before 2007 could have had a 10-digit ISBN. As mention before, i personally think lukas has made it quite clear that the keys do not give a web address of any kind. He specifically said that the keys are pieces of info used to unlock the chest whose location is also alluded to in the riddle. So the keys do not give the location. |
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Post by mrpoirot on Sept 10, 2019 12:15:28 GMT -5
Here is another question that might be good to ask Lukas:
By solving the riddle, are we supposed to get a user name and password that we will use to log on to one of the big internet services (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, etc)?
In other words, does the hunt involve logging into a service that DOES NOT have anything on the login page (text and/or image) that confirms it is meant for the hunt? While I am convinced this is not the case, some indeed do and I think it is important to get this resolved as quickly as possible. In fact, perhaps Lukas can resolve this as a bonus clue as I think it is important that the hunt stays clear of this.
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Post by treasurer on Sept 28, 2019 21:51:31 GMT -5
Just trying to bring things to an obvious top-of-the-list for the next person chosen to "ask Lukas a question:" (October)
(copied from the 1st thread, Digital Buried Treasure #1)
From efanton:
Keep it simple, but in a way that allows us to eliminate possibilities.
asking if the first key is comprised of ten numbers with no letters would be a perfect question to get a general idea of what the first key would look like and at the same time eliminate, or reinforce, some of the theories so far put forward
That single question with a YES or NO answer could answer two or three questions or possibilities in one go.
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Post by efanton on Sept 28, 2019 22:32:31 GMT -5
Just trying to bring things to an obvious top-of-the-list for the next person chosen to "ask Lukas a question:" (October)
(copied from the 1st thread, Digital Buried Treasure #1)
From efanton:
Keep it simple, but in a way that allows us to eliminate possibilities.
asking if the first key is comprised of ten numbers with no letters would be a perfect question to get a general idea of what the first key would look like and at the same time eliminate, or reinforce, some of the theories so far put forward
That single question with a YES or NO answer could answer two or three questions or possibilities in one go.
that was goldenchild's suggestion actually, but I fully supported it. |
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Post by keladry12 on Sept 29, 2019 12:51:15 GMT -5
In other words, does the hunt involve logging into a service that DOES NOT have anything on the login page (text and/or image) that confirms it is meant for the hunt? While I am convinced this is not the case, some indeed do and I think it is important to get this resolved as quickly as possible. In fact, perhaps Lukas can resolve this as a bonus clue as I think it is important that the hunt stays clear of this. You seem to think it would be very bad form to use an existing website to hide the treasure, as you've mentioned that it was something you'd want to avoid a couple of times. I'm a little confused as to why you believe this? Treasure hunts use public areas all the time, in fact, it's very gauche to use Private property for a real hunt! I would see a log-in to a private youtube account, bank account, etc. to be a very likely solution. Can you tell me why this would be such a bad idea for Lukas to do? Is there some law that I am not aware of? |
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Post by keladry12 on Sept 29, 2019 12:52:33 GMT -5
I also really love the idea of actually confirming that the first key is 10 numbers. And not use anything about phone numbers this time! "Is the first key a string of 10 digits?" quick and easy.
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Post by mrpoirot on Sept 29, 2019 15:41:36 GMT -5
In other words, does the hunt involve logging into a service that DOES NOT have anything on the login page (text and/or image) that confirms it is meant for the hunt? While I am convinced this is not the case, some indeed do and I think it is important to get this resolved as quickly as possible. In fact, perhaps Lukas can resolve this as a bonus clue as I think it is important that the hunt stays clear of this. You seem to think it would be very bad form to use an existing website to hide the treasure, as you've mentioned that it was something you'd want to avoid a couple of times. I am no legal expert by any means, but if you try to log in to an account at YouTube, Gmail, FaceBook, PayPal, BankOfAmerica, etc. that is not yours, well... Here is a quote from the page below: Source: www.techwalla.com/articles/is-it-illegal-to-access-someones-facebook-account |
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Post by keladry12 on Sept 29, 2019 16:03:53 GMT -5
I'm glad Lukas gave us the authorization to look for this treasure, then?  |
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Post by mrpoirot on Sept 29, 2019 16:13:56 GMT -5
Yes, that is exactly my point. If the page you are using to log in to is clearly marked to belong to this hunt, I think you are good (but I am no expert so I would check with Lukas first if it came to that). However, trying to log in to PayPal etc using usernames/passwords that you think are solutions to stanzas for this hunt, is a violation of US laws...
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Post by catherwood on Sept 29, 2019 16:17:17 GMT -5
Another way to think of this is how the hosting server would see your actions. Banging on the door of a login screen NOT MARKED as an entry to a contest can be interpreted as hacking. (See the post about about authorization being needed.) With enough people guessing in a small period of time, this becomes a Denial Of Service attack, and such actions have been known to take a server offline.
In the days of the Unfiction community, we strongly discouraged game-masters from setting up their puzzles in such an ambiguous way as to tempt players into such brute-force attempts. A game with a small budget could be hurt by excessive hosting fees as players exceed the data limits on their server.
A good contest should have a landing page which confirms that you have found the correct location, and will mark the fields to give you permission to submit your guesses. The page could be well-hidden, but nothing else on the internet could be mistaken for the next step.
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Post by mrpoirot on Sept 29, 2019 16:23:53 GMT -5
Another way to think of this is how the hosting server would see your actions. Banging on the door of a login screen NOT MARKED as an entry to a contest can be interpreted as hacking. (See the post about about authorization being needed.) With enough people guessing in a small period of time, this becomes a Denial Of Service attack, and such actions have been known to take a server offline. In the days of the Unfiction community, we strongly discouraged game-masters from setting up their puzzles in such an ambiguous way as to tempt players into such brute-force attempts. A game with a small budget could be hurt by excessive hosting fees as players exceed the data limits on their server. A good contest should have a landing page which confirms that you have found the correct location, and will mark the fields to give you permission to submit your guesses. The page could be well-hidden, but nothing else on the internet could be mistaken for the next step. Thank you! Well said!!! Finally someone who agrees with me on this. |
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Post by goldenchild on Sept 29, 2019 18:55:13 GMT -5
I also really love the idea of actually confirming that the first key is 10 numbers. And not use anything about phone numbers this time! "Is the first key a string of 10 digits?" quick and easy. i would suggest wording it “10 numbers” instead of “10 digits”. Just in the off chance that one of the numbers is 10 or higher. I know it’s a slim chance but it would be a good little trick to have a ten or eleven etc as one of the ten numbers resulting in more than ten “digits”. Think of a master lock. You could have a 4 number combination that could have anywhere from 4-8 digits. If even one of the numbers was a double digit number he could answer “No” to “Is the first key a string of ten digits” even though it is in fact a string of ten numbers. Wording is everything. |
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Post by efanton on Sept 29, 2019 19:03:00 GMT -5
I also really love the idea of actually confirming that the first key is 10 numbers. And not use anything about phone numbers this time! "Is the first key a string of 10 digits?" quick and easy. i would suggest wording it “10 numbers” instead of “10 digits”. Just in the off chance that one of the numbers is 10 or higher. I know it’s a slim chance but it would be a good little trick to have a ten or eleven etc as one of the ten numbers resulting in more than ten “digits”. Think of a master lock. You could have a 4 number combination that could have anywhere from 4-8 digits. If even one of the numbers was a double digit number he could answer “No” to “Is the first key a string of ten digits” even though it is in fact a string of ten numbers. Wording is everything. Good point, but that creates other problems. By knowing the length of the key (10 digits) that will tell us a lot about how the answers to the three stanza are combined to create a key. Asking it your way we now have no idea how the key will look, or how to combine the three answers. Knowing the length of the key is really as important as knowing what the key consists of, in my opinion By asking if it is a ten digit number in effect we are asking multiple questions at once. It could support some exiting theories (a telephone number, a map reference, ISBN book number, or numerous other things), and easily eliminate some. I understand your concern, but personally I think Is the first key a 10 digit number? is the most useful way of asking the question. This is the big problem with a simple YES NO answer. We know what we want confirmed or dismissed but when we ask the question is the response relevant to the question we thought we were asking I suppose it really depends on what we want to confirm or eliminate. What does everyone else think? |
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Post by keladry12 on Sept 29, 2019 20:48:37 GMT -5
I think that using the phrasing "number" is a rough one, because in hexadecimal, for example, the number 10 is a. Digit limits the characters to 0123456789. I definitely would rather know how many characters are in the key than what those characters are, so if we're worried about limiting it too much, then I would prefer the question "Is the first key 10 characters in length?" Not quite as much info as the digit phrasing, but at least it will limit the length.
Because Lukas is tricky, I worry a little bit about asking if it's a 10 digit number, as well. For example, if it is a phone number, I could imagine him saying "no, it's not a ten digit number [it's 10 digits that are in a row, not a single number, haha!]"
I mean, you wouldn't say the phone number 3132667748 "three billion, one hundred thirty-two million, six hundred sixty-seven thousand, seven hundred forty-eight" ....he might decide then to say it isn't a ten digit number. :/
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