Clear error glitch

[CodeHydro]

Bug in logic puzzle clear error. The following screenshot is taken right after marking that Mach 2.9 costs $150 million and Kesseling costs $175 million.
puzzlebarron clear error bug.png

It marked the green ones as wrong. However, those two being wrong is impossible because note how the clear error indicates that all of the other boxes in the same rows/columns are correctly marked as FALSE. With only a single box left in those rows/columns that isn't FALSE, the boxes must be TRUE, but yet even when I re-mark them as TRUE and clear again, it still says that such is incorrect.

I lost the puzzle ID #, but if it helps identify the specific puzzle, in the text box for "Comments on this Puzzle", the source code shows a hidden input with a uid of 45967

Also note that the Questions or Comments? box says "Sorry, but your CAPTCHA answer is incorrect. Please go back and try again." even after several tries.

[admin]

Very odd - I just tested that puzzle just now and was unable to replicate that issue with the same grid state, unless the squares in pink were actually marked with X's instead of O's (in which case that exact error would of course trigger). Is it at all possible that you had those marked as X's and not green O's? If not, please let me know what browser and operating system you're using and I'll investigate further.

Thanks!

[CodeHydro]

Very definitely was green. I almost never make mistakes in logic puzzles anymore, so when I do, I save the game state and re-open it in a new tab for later re-playing. Such lets me play a clean version of the game because I like trying to beat every puzzle at least once with pure logic (no guessing at all or knowledge that can't be get from the clues only) and clean version removes the "hints" one gets from making errors. (Before I re-play with the browser cached clean version, I finish the botched game.)

Of course game doesn't let me submit the new score after submitting the game with error (as is proper), but I can check if I solved the cached clean game correctly without mistake by clicking the clear error button to see if I can solve it without any errors cleared.

On my clean redo , it marked the same ones wrong. I re-cloned the tab and did it again to make a new screenshot which shows the state just before clicking clear error and right after.

Since the clear error checking is server-side, I don't think playing my cache being corrupted could be an issue... plus all other boxes are marked TRUE/FALSE correctly... it's just those two.

[admin]

Many thanks CodeHydro - I've saved the diagnostic information you posted and will be looking into this.

[admin]

Is there any chance that you re-opened this puzzle (or kept it open in a new tab) for a very long time after the very first time it was initialized? If so, that's my best guess as to the culprit, and I can 100% duplicate this exact behavior in that case. Our system regularly archives games out of the "active" database and into our statistical database after a period of 48-72 hours. So if you opened the puzzle and then left it open for a very, very, very long time, and our archive script happened to run during that interim, your game ID would no longer exist in the active database and the result is exactly what your screenshot shows.

[CodeHydro]

Hmm, yeah, after some investigation, I did leave it open 5 days.

I admit I nearly gave you bad information that would have confused you further.

I was almost going to say that I was fairly sure it cleared error the same way on my first play (because I specifically recalled making the same decision and soon afterwards being surprised that clear error marked me wrong).

I also almost posted that I thought I re-solved the puzzle within a day because that's what I usually do.

Fortunately, I found a screenshot of my original mistake. I had forgotten I took this screenshot initially, but after thinking about how weird it was that I was able to solve it the first time at all, I then remembered the screenshot and, upon inspecting it, determined that I was mistaken for both of the above points.

(I did in fact make the same decision and clear error did mark me wrong afterwards on my original play, but the screenshot shows that it was because I mis-clicked $150 million for Kesseling instead of $175 million. I wouldn't have clicked on that intentionally because of the clues but the line of Xs shows that my hand must have slipped.)

I thought I re-solved it within a day, but the screenshot showed me wrong again when I decided to look at the portion of the screenshot that included my computer clock's time and date.

Sorry if this wasted a lot of your time.

My suggestion--to avoid getting weird bug reports like this in the future and re-investigating if you no longer remember this at that point or if somebody else on your team gets the ticket--would be to make it so the server sends a different message when hitting clear error after the game ID no longer exist in the active DB, as long as such isn't too difficult to implement.

Currently, it treats it as though all boxes should be FALSE when the game ID no longer exists. Perhaps it should instead display a message "Sorry, unable to clear errors. Your game no longer exists because too much time has elapsed since it was initiated." (Maybe same color as "WARNING: Only one box can be marked TRUE in any row or column. Remove the existing true value before setting the new one.")

Thank you for your time and thank you and your team for the games! I have a few other ideas on how to make "recent games" better (and which may generate a little more advertisement-money) if you're interested.