I keep wondering about this..

[Lily H]

I don't know why so many of you are making comments that you wouldn't want to get on Pootie's bad side. I know it was not her intent to do anything but defend Bansai against these new players who think he must be cheating because he has such fast solve times. I thought she showed great restraint in her response. She was neither mean nor rude, just honest. I am sick and tired of these new people who come on and play a couple hundred puzzles with slow solve times and immediately assume that the players with fast times are cheating somehow. What they may not realize is that many of these players who do have fast solve times have been playing for a really long time, years even. I don't by any means consider myself in the same league as Bansai, Lurker, Altoid, or any of the others with fast times, but I do know I have improved my own time considerably since I started playing on this site. My average solve time was probably in the 100+ second range in the beginning, and that was three years ago. It really takes a lot of practice, and you develop the ability to recognize word patterns, as well as what a quote by a specific person might be. Also, you get a second chance as puzzles will come up more than once in the rotation. I have arthritis and am not a fast typist, but even I have on occasion beaten a record held by Bansai, and I can assure you that I don't use multiple computers or have a program that helps me solve faster. Just saying......

[pevans01]

I can only speak for myself Lily and getting on Pootie's bad side was meant as a joke. I love how she flew to his defense...nothing more...nothing less Can someone explain to me what the wreath up in the right-hand corner under how many post I have signifies???

[Lily H]

Hi Pevans01, I don't know what the wreath signifies. I thought you put that there since nobody else has any decorations under the number of posts they've made. I was going to ask you how you did it.

[pootie49]

Pevans the symbol is an ICQ icon. Its an instant messaging icon, I believe.
Somewhere in your profile under instant messaging you might have typed some
information beside the ICQ. Just delete it if you dont use it.

[pevans01]

Thanks Pootie, I went into my settings to see if I could figure it out. We'll see if I did it right when I post this this.

[pevans01]

Guess Not

[Lily H]

Pevans01, I'm sorry you couldn't fix it. The color of the wreath does coordinate beautifully with your rose. We're renovating our kitchen, and as you can see, my mind has been focused on colors. LOL! I spoke too soon because I don't see the wreath anymore.

[admin2]

I've removed your ICQ username from your profile, so it shouldn't appear anymore.

- Stephen

[MSunshine]

Wondering, too.

Guess Not

I wander around this site and enjoy the quotes, comments and now the biograpies. I never (seldom) know what my time is. I mostly play with hints. I'll never have time to be come a competitor. If I did have that much time on my hands, I'd do something else.

Before there were author bios included, I used to Google or Wikipedia the names to explore the person who said that idea.

I love Criptograms, my parents used to solve them in the Boston paper when I was little. Mom explained the crosswords when I was 5. My aunt Florence told me about the odd words that we don't use in regular speech. We called them crosword puzzle words.

Love & Peace

[pevans01]

Thank you Stephen but what was it??? ROTFLOL @ you Lily!!! MSUNSHINE...I find cryptos easier than those crosswords. I still don't use those words and 5 years old was back in the 50's!!! NEVER mind Stephen...found what it was in my settings!!! Thanks again!!!

[jan301]

@ Crazy - Well said!

btw, how long did it take you to type that? just curious - I think it would have taken me half a day

[abra]

So, it would be possible to cheat if someone thought it was worth it to cheat? I just think those top 6 or 7 players have some sort of mutant brains that allow them to have these unbeliebable speeds. Which is the reason I posted in the first place. I have no doubts that you all CAN do it, I just am amzed and wonder how.

[gryhnd51]

Cheat???

Although it appears that we ALL started playing in 2008, if you look at our stats.... that really isn't true! The truth is that the whole site completely crashed shortly before that time, and EVERYONE was set back to zero. However, MANY of us have been playing a lot longer than that....a fact that ADMIN can verify if you're doubtful. Which means that some players have been playing a LOT more YEARS than it would appear.

Also, as you will notice, my speed time has decreased by a LOT this month....'cause I'm trying like crazy to get to 100%.....it's really much faster to solve just the crypto's that come easily to you, and over time, it becomes easier to recognize the word cadences or the author, or both. That being said, it takes being almost obsessive about playing. Whether you play to compete with just yourself, or with the world, is up to you.

IF... there's a way to cheat, I sure wish someone would clue me in on how it's done! Nah, I don't really mean that.....what would be the fun of playing if it was just EASY????

You youngun's need to be as dedicated as Bansai if you wanna beat him, but that won't be easy! Heck, I've been trying for years, and every great once-in-a-while I manage to get it right faster, but that's a rarity.....and NOT why I play. It's fun when it happens, but I always know that my time won't stand forever.

You need to face the fact that Bansai is just a really smart guy who can "sequence" much faster than most of the world.....and keep on playing to have FUN

[yzarc]

iH

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[pootie49]

or you can just type the text and enter it into an online program that will flip the text backwards and even upside down, moving on....
Abra, I dont consider myself amongst the elite, those six or seven that consistently perform under thirty seconds.
I type one handed, with my non-dominant hand, my left hand with right hand on mouse.
My left hand hovers above the keyboard as I hit play I dont usually even set it on the 'home keys" and I just look, and find words I recognize instantly, usually the, or and, or but...from there its just a matter of typing the additional twenty odd letters ..remember we only have to type them once, and not all puzzles use all the letters of the alphabet.
Gryhnd is right some have been playing for years and years, Im approaching three years.
I was slow forever, until one day it just all made sense. I just recognized letter patterns I remembered the authors and I recalled some of the quotes themselves.
If there were a way to cheat believe me as I have stated before I would have found it.
And there is just no fun in cheating. Wheres the challenge.
So if you want a logical answer, those that use the tab/shift tab method and use two hands on the keyboard will solve faster, in my opinion, than those of us one-handing and mousing.
How do they/we do it? Practice, these quotes do appear often in rotation, they become known, recognizable. We have 26 letters max to enter and rarely do we use all of them.
I dont think that the really fast solvers are smarter per se, I think they have visual acuity and excellent eye hand coordination. Add to that as Lurker stated some use Mac's with much better browsers and for sure that will take a couple of seconds off.
Anyway thats sort of my practical theory on how the fasties do it.
And we all started slowly and our rate of progession is determinate on the amount we can play and our ability to process and retain information.
um what were we talking about? LOL
jk

to BETHWHITE...Yes its discouraging to struggle along and get thru a quote and see the same batch
of names or name appear as the record holder.
I understand that. I still grr from time to time when I think hey I just solved it really fast, hit enter hoping to see
the infamous plane only to find out my 8 or 7 seconds was eclipsed by someone else.
However when you play more and more, and suddenly you hit enter (again its faster than hitting check it) and congratulations you have set a new record and the plane shows up...thats a great feeling!!!!
Our records are displayed now, but before the site change it was a more private celebration,
or we would enter into the chatbox Hey I just got a record, yayyy.
I still feel that way each and every time that plane shows up. Im more chuffed however that my solve rate remains at a hundred percent.
But thats just me.
Instant gratification is the bane of the new world order. Anything worth having is worth working for.
Just keep playing and learning and reading and asking valid questions and you will get faster.
Please don't make accusations unless you have empirical data to support them... that just makes some of us oldies a bit miffed.
And you did post in the forum as opposed to some who just leave snarky little Bansai cheats comments in the comment section so I have to give you kudos for that.

I was a bit harsh I admit it in my response, but as you can see we are a close bunch, and yep I consider him my little annoying brick taking brother, but I would stand up just as loud for any of the players here if they were accused or besmirched.
That again is just me. I love this game.