User tips for the Cryptograms site

[LLapp]

Players frequently ask technical questions about how this website works, which are not covered in the site's FAQs. Other players often provide answers in the Chat box or in quote comment threads, but chat disappears and quote comments are buried behind randomly generated puzzles. I'm starting this Forum thread to supplement the site FAQs, so players can answer frequent user questions in one place that's easy to find.

JUST TWO RULES FOR POSTING:

1. Use topic headlines: If you post a new tip or new question, start with a heading that gives the main point (example: "How scoring works"), so others can easily scan through the thread in search of answers to their specific questions.
2. Be nice: We're here to help each other. No snark.

Okay, go.

No wait, I'll go first, with the topic I saw tonight in quote comments . . .

[LLapp]

How to report an error in a quote

To report a typo or misquote, or a wrong attribution, make a comment on the solution page starting with the words "Please fix" or "Please update", followed by the correction.

Stephen (site admin) has a program that searches for only those two phrases. Since there are tens of thousands of quotes on this site, the only way he'll find your correction is if you use one of those phrases. That doesn't mean he'll correct the error immediately, but at least your correction will go to a fix list somewhere.

Just one thing: A quote should say what the person actually wrote or said, so if it's bad grammar but it's what s/he said, leave it be. If the person really did write or say something different, then have at it. If you can also provide a link to a reliable source to verify the correction, that's ideal.

[Eureka]

Since you mentioned it in your example, and it does seem to be a common question....

How the point system or scoring works

Point values appear to be initially based on the length of the puzzle, and then are adjusted according to the success rate and average time taken to solve the puzzle.
Difficult quotes are worth 450 points, average quotes 300 points and easy quotes 150 points. For each 6 seconds that is required to solve, the score is reduced by one point.
(all credit for figuring out how points are calculated should be given to maradnu, who tracked the patterns in his own games to come up with the answer)

[LLapp]

How the Curve Works

Why don't the super-long solve times show up at the right end of the curve? And what kind of scale is that on the x axis? Here's an excellent explanation I found in the comments on a Tom Robbins quote.

Many thanks to montyb and kahvecowgirl!






















montyb
May 3, 2015, 1:41 am
I think all times are used to calculate the average, but the two figures to the right of the average are only 3 times and 5 times the average.

kahvecowgirl
November 25, 2018, 9:10 am
I also appreciate monty's contribution, especially since, once I noticed that the scale wasn't anywhere close to linear, I basically just wrote the numbers off as being random! The second number is half the record plus half the average. I think it would really be cool if we could see an actual histogram of the times, but that's probably too much to ask for. (Maybe, someday?)

[thagu]

Hi admin,
Thanks for your Valuable Tips

[kahvecowgirl]

Maybe this thread should be pinned to the top, on account of being useful. (And if someone knows how to do that, it could be a useful tip).