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Post by wgardner on Nov 29, 2019 17:52:55 GMT -5
Q: Is there any way to confirm individual kodewords? I suspect the answer is no, but I've definitely encountered some phrases that may or may not be kodewords, and if you are confirming individual pieces, I want to make sure I know that's an option.
A: I won't confirm specific kodewords privately or publicly on a case-by-case basis. After the opening weekend, I may put out a general call for folks to send me specific questions or hints they may want or to send me areas they're stuck on. Then I may post a general set of hints to try to help folks get over any glaring humps. Feel free to ask about a specific kodeword at that time. I'll try to clean up questions to not give spoilers to others. Also, some things that you're not sure if they are kodewords or not may become clearer at a later stage.
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Post by wgardner on Nov 29, 2019 18:03:25 GMT -5
I may put out a general call for folks to send me specific questions or hints they may want or to send me areas they're stuck on. Then I may post a general set of hints to try to help folks get over any glaring humps. BTW, feel free to send an email to kodewordskards@gmail.com with your latest progress at any time. I enjoy seeing how folks are doing! Also, if I see everybody stuck in the same place or having the same questions then that will help me decide whether I should intervene with clarifications or corrections.
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Post by wgardner on Nov 30, 2019 7:01:43 GMT -5
After the opening weekend, I plan to release a message with some clarifications to help nudge things along. I will release this message Monday afternoon, Virginia-time, on the facebook page/group and on the MW subforum. Please feel free to email me your progress and roadblocks between now and then as it may help me decide what to put in that message. I've heard from many folks who have made good progress and are now in the more difficult part of the challenge. I'll do what I can to nudge things towards challenging and away from frustrating.
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Post by wgardner on Nov 30, 2019 8:38:28 GMT -5
Q: Could someone simply start guessing the Final Word without completing the Part 2 kodewords? (Or completing many but not all?) Let's say I possessed a crystal ball or called up to one of those psychic hotlines: could I use a daily submission stating that the final word is: ROSEBUD? A: Submissions require an explanation for how the final kodeword was found (for Prize #1), or how all of the kodewords were found (for Prize #2). Ideally, the complete method will be discovered leading to no ambiguity. However, if a partial method is discovered, I would accept a description of the partial method combined with a statement saying that some remaining portion was guessed. As an example, if someone was doing a crossword puzzle and determined that a central word was PUZ_LES, I would accept a submission of "PUZZLES" with a description of how PUZ_LES was determined and that the central Z was a guess. A valid submission for Prize #2 will require a complete description of where every kodeword is hidden/encoded in the deck. Edit: And that's why I have the one-submission-per-day rule. I don't want somebody to figure out that, for example, the final kodeword is P______ and then write a script to bombard my email with every possible word starting with P as an answer. [For conspiracy theorists: the final kodeword may or may not start with P.]
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Post by wgardner on Dec 1, 2019 16:16:33 GMT -5
Klarification: the challenge does not end at the end of the day today! It can continue for up to a year.
The 3am tonight deadline was just so that any and all participants who claimed a prize in the first week would split the prize (as opposed to just the first correct submission winning the prize). I did this so folks who got the kards a day or two earlier than everyone else wouldn't have a big advantage.
I have seen a lot of good progress but I haven't seen any submissions that are nearing the end of the challenge, so it looks like the first-week-deadline will likely come and go unless someone surprises me!
Look for a Clarifications and Advice post Monday afternoon.
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Post by wgardner on Dec 3, 2019 10:05:04 GMT -5
Comment from participant: A portion of the Klarification and Advice post really surprised me and stopped me in my tracks. I am referring to your mentioning that the Kards are 2 sided. I always thought of the 2 sides as being completely separate and distinct. This complicates things for me, and exponentially!
Response: The two-sidedness of the kards does open up many possibilities, as does the ability of parts of the kards to overlap and form single images. That was one of the things that interested me about using kards to make a hunt: that there were things that could be done with kards that could not be done with books or single pictures...
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Post by wgardner on Dec 4, 2019 7:20:09 GMT -5
Klarification: No kodeword is a prefix of another kodeword. So for example if ABCDEFGH is a kodeword, ABCDEFGHI and ABCDEFGHA are not kodewords.
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Post by wgardner on Dec 9, 2019 5:48:58 GMT -5
Klarification: If something explicitly tells you it's a RED HERRING, believe it. No kodewords will be found in, on, or around anything explicitly labeled RED HERRING. I may be devious but I'm not that devious.
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Post by wgardner on Dec 10, 2019 3:02:05 GMT -5
Klarification: TYPO ON KARD XX! The second to last item in the main body of Kard XX which is shown as: 10010.0001 is in error. It should instead be: 10001.0001
The listed symbols on Kard XX demonstrate a concept similar to those shown on the other two-digit kards. This typo does not affect encoded kodewords elsewhere in the deck.
Thanks very much to the participant who found this and alerted me. Apologies to anyone who noticed it previously and spent time wondering if it was intended and significant. It was not intended and it is not significant.
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Post by wgardner on Dec 11, 2019 21:29:49 GMT -5
Q (paraphrased): I noticed the unusual black 6 of diamonds on Kard OXO. Is that odd colored playing card used for anything other than finding the 8-letter kodeword on that kard? A: No.
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Post by wgardner on Dec 19, 2019 7:52:01 GMT -5
Klarification: There are no image-based rebus kodewords. All kodewords are directly discoverable as specific strings of characters in some way. A few different folks have suggested an image rebus of ISLEOFMAN as a kodeword: ISLEOFMAN is not a kodeword.
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Post by catherwood on Jan 1, 2020 13:34:51 GMT -5
my Q: In addition to the Klarifications and Kryptic Advice coming this Friday, might we also get a status update or general overview of how far along most people are (at least those self-reporting to you)?
my komments: I've been sitting at the same plateau for the past week, zero progress, and just wondered whether others are stuck at the same unsolved things as I am. Yes, i fret about klues letting others catch up to things I've already solved, but the reverse will be true if new klues help me catch up to people ahead of me. I'm just curious as to the status of the pack in general.
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Post by wgardner on Jan 1, 2020 14:04:21 GMT -5
my Q: In addition to the Klarifications and Kryptic Advice coming this Friday, might we also get a status update or general overview of how far along most people are (at least those self-reporting to you)? I'll report on how many kodewords have been reported found so far. The new set of Kryptic Advice on Friday 1/3 will have a long list of hints as previous KA posts have, which will try to both help participants find new kodewords and also figure out what to do to put it all together to figure out the final kodeword. It will also have a table showing roughly where all the kodewords can be found, to help participants know where to look for more and where to stop looking. Future KA posts will likely have new hints as usual, but may also have old hints grouped together to (hopefully) make it a bit clearer how to find those last few pesky kodewords. Almost all of the kodewords have now been found and I hope that the new KA post will help them all be discovered by at least one participant. I also think it may be useful for folks to team up to both create a complete set of kodewords and to figure out how to get the final one.
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Post by wgardner on Jan 6, 2020 15:53:03 GMT -5
Klarification: ONEACHSDE is not a kodeword. One team found a method that apparently yielded this result from decoding something in a particular way, though it was not intended! Wow!
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Post by wgardner on Jan 14, 2020 17:55:13 GMT -5
Q: About the 'one entry per day' rule. Is this one entry per 24 hour period, or does this reset at a particular time (like 3 a.m. Virginia time)? A: One entry per 24 hours. I will use the email day and time received as the timestamp for entries. Please include your name and the names of any co-solvers with each entry. Reminder 1: all entries must have complete descriptions for how the final kodeword (for Prize 1) or all kodewords (for Prize 2) were discovered. An incomplete entry counts as that day's entry. Reminder 2: please make one entry per team. If you have three people on your time, please don't enter three times (or worse, more than three times using different email addresses).
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