Conundrum

[imported_phthelen]

If an error exists in a cryptogram, I cannot solve it. If I cannot solve the puzzle I have no access to the Comment section. So I cannot report the error.

[LLapp]

phthelen, it's generally true that you can't report a quote error if you can't reach the solution page. Here are a few thoughts.

1. If the error is the misspelling of an author's name, you could still report it by sending a note to the admin via the feedback form at the bottom of the web page. Tell him the misspelling and the correct spelling, and he can go find the misspelled attribution in his database and fix it.

2. You can also report a technical error that prevents solving, such as when the puzzle is partially covered by an ad. In that case, take a screen shot and send it to the admin at puzzlebaron@gmail.com. Stephen, the admin, is very good about addressing those problems.

3. If by "error" you mean the site keeps rejecting your correct solution, I hate to break it to you but chances are your solution was not correct. I have been playing here for 3 years and have solved nearly 100K puzzles, and I have not yet found one puzzle where the actual correct solution was rejected. Several times I've been dead-sure that my rejected solution really was correct, but in every single instance, I later found that I was the one who was wrong. Usually I had one word wrong (e.g., "deal" instead of "zeal"), and I simply could not see it. This happens to solvers a LOT.

Still, I wonder what other players have found. So....

Question for other players: Have you ever hit a puzzle where the actual correct solution would not be accepted?

4. If you mean you see an error in the quote itself -- e.g., a Shakespeare quote says, "To be or not to be, that is the issue" -- then you can assume it has probably been reported. This site contains some quotes with blatantly wrong wording, but there are many 100% solvers here who solve even the garbled quotes, and many players who care about accuracy. So between the 100 percenters and the nitpickers (bonus question: guess which one I am), there's a good chance someone has rated it as "contains errors" on the solution page and/or noted the error in the comments column.

5. Whether or not a reported error will be fixed is another question. It seems like at least a few years since the admin did a site-cleaning to fix all the noted quote errors. (Stephen: Are you listening?)

6. All of that said, you may still see an error that nobody else has caught and that you can't report because you couldn't get to the solution page. In that case . . . oh, well. We live in an imperfect world.

[imported_phthelen]

Thank you, LLapp

You hit on my 'problem' with #3. #4 explained it well, and I, like others, will accept #6
Sigh.

[Roxanne]

If you are positive your answer is correct, 1) find a string of words in the quotation that have letters that are used more than once in the string and 2) Google them (without leaving the cryptograms page) with quotation marks around them followed by the author's name. That should bring up the quotation as it appears in the many online compendia of quotations. (Of course, they copy from each other, so it could be that the internet -- shock! horror! -- has incorrect information.)
Or you can changing the letters that appear only once, like the z or d in LLapp's deal/zeal example to another letter that hasn't been used. Keep doing that it says you solved it. If the solution that comes up as correct is clearly false, like "The dog comes in on little cat feet" then you can comment in the Comment box that the "official" solution is wrong.

[gryhnd51]

I've been playing since 2008, and I can safely say that LLAPP gave you the BEST information available. I would simply reiterate that usually WE are wrong and the quote is just difficult. There are so many combinations of words to discern and the use of older terms/word usage can be obscure and arcane. Just like you, I have "solved" many quotes which didn't work and I was SURE that my solution was correct! It's very frustrating I know.
You can always go to the chat room to ask for help, and many of us will jump in!
I hope you keep playing rather than just quit.

[imported_phthelen]

Thanks Grhnd. Yes I found Llapp's comments very helpful, and those of Roxanne as well. I have used both suggestions, and found comfort LOL. Your suggestion to go to the chatroom is also helpful, though it will mean a different, later quote's chatroom. But by the time I solve another, I will no doubt have forgotten what I was whining about in the first place! Thnk you for being so welcoming. I won't quit.

[LLapp]

I just saw this comment from 7.5 years ago, on the solution page of a Jim Rohn quote:

nu2dis on 2010-02-27 17:09:01
I did a cryptogram before this one by Ambrose Bierce that said, "Bigot, one who is obstinately and jealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain." WHAT'S WRONG!

You can just hear the frustration, and you know that this person had no way to intentionally get back to that same solution page for an answer -- which was that the right word was "zealously," not "jealously." Ah, if only nu2dis had asked for help in the chat box, where people respond in real time.

So, phthelen, take heart. Your conundrum has been going on for a long time. We have all been there.