You will not defeat this puzzle.

[chopstix]

This is cracking me up!

May I offer to bring paper, pencils, and erasers to this cyberspace party?

Cody, please don't take the ribbing personally, I've never engaged in any site chats, comments, etc. before this one, but I believe the point of this site is fun and relax, it is for me at least.

We're not here to challenge each other, only ourselves.

And by "we" I mean myself, and am assuming I speak for many here. I personally don't know anyone on this site, where they live, what their real names are, etc. How any of us would go about working on your puzzle as a group would be a challenge of its own... So the joking is kind of about the proposition, not as much the puzzle itself.

I did notice you have the words "low low" at the bottom of your puzzle - maybe you had this opinion when you originally posted?

Anyhow, please take it all in stride. Sincere smiles to you.

[gryhnd51]

Bravo Chopstix!! I think you probably expressed the feelings that many of us have about being challenged to "work together" to solve a puzzle that we've already been told is unsolvable. Life has enough conundrums without trying to do the impossible. It's unfortunate that the person who started this thread took offense, rather than appreciating our wry sense of humor. It certainly wasn't meant personally.

[gryhnd51]

Oh, and by the way, the paper...pencils...(and especially) erasers...would be a wonderful addition to the party.

[Cody8295]

And by "we" I mean myself, and am assuming I speak for many here. I personally don't know anyone on this site, where they live, what their real names are, etc. How any of us would go about working on your puzzle as a group would be a challenge of its own... So the joking is kind of about the proposition, not as much the puzzle itself.

You don't have to meet IRL to work together on a puzzle based online.

[wvwoman]

!

separate togetherness---not a new concept---but not as fun as together togetherness.
i'll bring the cuervo gold.

[fredsevent]

I "get" sarcasm, but I didn't expect it from this forum. And no, the puzzle is not from another site. It's unique, I created it myself.

Well, if it's truly a unique crypto and as short as I remember it being, then it can be quite difficult. I tried to explain this a while back when "we" were challenged in this forum in much the same manner you did. We failed then too. You need to keep in mind, this site has only one type of puzzle, the cipher system is known to you, and the underlying language (which is deeply familiar to many of our brains).

What you have given us is an unknown system, with unknown data underneath, and you've given us one small sample. I get the feeling the people solving the German Enigma in WWII had more than ~30 symbols. There are some famous one-off ciphers out there which haven't been solved and some famous ones which took some really clever, interested people to solve. Those that I know of were significantly longer than yours.

For the record, I gave your cipher a cursory look and decided it might be an intractable problem and then went on to solving simple substitutions, enjoying the underlying quotes, and adding my own comments - which is why I come to this site.

fredsevent

[fredsevent]

separate togetherness---not a new concept---but not as fun as together togetherness.
i'll bring the cuervo gold.

Okay, now I'm getting interested in the gathering! Perhaps you can allow a male?
(to address some of pootie's concerns) I'll let you wipe my feet
and cut up my food for me (use cutlery) and abide by the bathroom schedule.

An alcohol- fueled cipher solving session just sounds like too much fun to pass up!

fredsevent

[pootie49]

Yes of course youre invited.
All the boys are.
Feet wiping and food cutting t.b.d.
Defo not with the same cutlery because
even in hoity toity circles that would so not be cool.

[chopstix]

I love it!

Lasagna, cookies, erasers, and Cuervo! Whoo-hoo!

Plus an intriguing bed-sharing offer from gryhnd to pootie....

While this forum may or may not be low-quality, it certainly isn't high-brow!

[Cody8295]

Well, if it's truly a unique crypto and as short as I remember it being, then it can be quite difficult. I tried to explain this a while back when "we" were challenged in this forum in much the same manner you did. We failed then too. You need to keep in mind, this site has only one type of puzzle, the cipher system is known to you, and the underlying language (which is deeply familiar to many of our brains).

What you have given us is an unknown system, with unknown data underneath, and you've given us one small sample. I get the feeling the people solving the German Enigma in WWII had more than ~30 symbols. There are some famous one-off ciphers out there which haven't been solved and some famous ones which took some really clever, interested people to solve. Those that I know of were significantly longer than yours.

For the record, I gave your cipher a cursory look and decided it might be an intractable problem and then went on to solving simple substitutions, enjoying the underlying quotes, and adding my own comments - which is why I come to this site.


fredsevent

This is not a one step puzzle. There are many steps after the first image. If you think Morse code is an unknown system- well...

[imported_Lurker]

I think most of us who attempted it gave up when Morse Code came up with something that must be a license plate.

[pootie49]

This is not a one step puzzle. There are many steps after the first image. If you think Morse code is an unknown system- well...

Well...what?
I got the same as everyone else letters with a 2 and a ? for the four dashes.
Maybe the code lies in the ?
Tricky.

and have you tried to solve one of our cryptograms yet?
and yes im in agreement with fredsevent, you could just give us
the answer and we can all oooh and ahhh.
mind you that negates the need for the get together.

@ chopstix, the mental images are mind boggling arent they?? LOL

[fredsevent]

This is not a one step puzzle. There are many steps after the first image. If you think Morse code is an unknown system- well...

I recognized the potential Morse code. If I assume the slashes are letter delimiters, then I'm left with a whooping 8 characters - with a repeat at positions 2 and 6 - MN20CNSZ. That can match any word with that pattern or represent lots of other things. Manny Neutered 20 Cats Not So Zealously.

This cipher is just too short to waste time with. I can choose too many answers, without any certainty that they are correct.

Just post the answer to prove me wrong. ;P

[fredsevent]

MN20CNSZ

Manganese x 20 Carbon Nitrogen Sulfur Zinc

It's the formula for eternal youth! No wait Zinc is Zn. Nevermind.

[fredsevent]

MN20CNSZ

advance each char. using the sequence ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789

NO31DOT0 -> NO 31.0 -> number 31.0 -> 31

WooHoo! I'm having fun.

All for today - serious drinking and computer game playing to do. Bye.