Achievements and Accomplishments Thread

[lalatan]

folkslinger, you do indeed have much to be proud of. Congratulations on all of your achievements! It has been interesting to watch your development as a long word player and impressive to see where you're at currently. You and Spike had a couple of epic battles for 5x5 APPW supremacy. I admire your and Spike's perseverance to reach such lofty heights but have no desire to emulate it. Another significant aspect of your 11 month run is that you always maintained at least a 1 word/game avg, which in my mind is a bona fide championship. (Since 2014 I've seen the APPW golds won anywhere from .1 to <1 word/game avg.)

I hear you about taking at break. In Sept 2019 I set myself a goal of winning both the 4x4 and 5x5 APPW gold trophies with a >1 word/game avg for a year (using my thinkbig_aka_lalatan ID primarily). I succeeded but it burned me out on the competition. You spoke of achieving a sense of accomplishment and so you should. I felt the same way after surpassing MegaWord's best/longest word records total earlier this year and then subsequently reaching 50 k 5x5 records. However, I was somewhat vexed by the lack of congratulations on reaching both those milestones. For 50k I got 3 likes and 1 comment from mdyak. After Naboka tutored me on people's attitudes about someone has too much success compared to their own I have been at peace with it. Now I just enjoy finding new long words, finding them quickly and beating certain people. I have no goals for the future. I'm at 63k lifetime records and I'm just going to putter along for the love of the game. I play about 1/2 the games/month I did the beginning of this year.

If I were to dress up for Halloween it would be in one of those t-rex costumes with the floppy head. I think they look hilarious. Finding a hippo costume would probably be too hard.

Spike, congrats on your personal best APPW avg of 47.393! Impressive. You seem to be a catch-and-release type of player now, only keeping the trophy words.

[Spike1007]

Thanks lalatan! Yes, I'm still doing catch & release. I keep going for a high APPW, but it is getting somewhat tiresome. I keep thinking of changing goals, but I haven't come up with a suitable replacement. Your goal of setting lots of records is great. Congratulations on your milestones! What sticks out more than that though is the sheer number of boards with your name on them.

[folkslinger]

Lalatan, I humbly apologize for being so in awe of your record setting performances that I have neglected to give you my hearty congratulations on all your achievements.
My only defense other than awe, is the typing. My last post took me an hour to type so that does contribute to why I have taken a break and why I'm having my lovely wife Seamonster type this for me.

To all those who play this game,
This is a great community and I have learned and continue to learn a great deal from all of you. I haven't left, just slowed down.

[Naboka]

folkslinger, you do indeed have much to be proud of. Congratulations on all of your achievements! It has been interesting to watch your development as a long word player and impressive to see where you're at currently. You and Spike had a couple of epic battles for 5x5 APPW supremacy. I admire your and Spike's perseverance to reach such lofty heights but have no desire to emulate it. Another significant aspect of your 11 month run is that you always maintained at least a 1 word/game avg, which in my mind is a bona fide championship. (Since 2014 I've seen the APPW golds won anywhere from .1 to <1 word/game avg.)

I hear you about taking at break. In Sept 2019 I set myself a goal of winning both the 4x4 and 5x5 APPW gold trophies with a >1 word/game avg for a year (using my thinkbig_aka_lalatan ID primarily). I succeeded but it burned me out on the competition. You spoke of achieving a sense of accomplishment and so you should. I felt the same way after surpassing MegaWord's best/longest word records total earlier this year and then subsequently reaching 50 k 5x5 records. However, I was somewhat vexed by the lack of congratulations on reaching both those milestones. For 50k I got 3 likes and 1 comment from mdyak. After Naboka tutored me on people's attitudes about someone has too much success compared to their own I have been at peace with it. Now I just enjoy finding new long words, finding them quickly and beating certain people. I have no goals for the future. I'm at 63k lifetime records and I'm just going to putter along for the love of the game. I play about 1/2 the games/month I did the beginning of this year.

If I were to dress up for Halloween it would be in one of those t-rex costumes with the floppy head. I think they look hilarious. Finding a hippo costume would probably be too hard.

Spike, congrats on your personal best APPW avg of 47.393! Impressive. You seem to be a catch-and-release type of player now, only keeping the trophy words.

Genuinely confused.

How does one manage to reach the high APPW with less than 1 word a game?

As for people acknowledging achievements here, it seems to be a silent audience. One that enjoys the show, memorizes the lines, but seldom claps.

Maybe insecurities? Shyness? Not wanting to intrude or seem silly? Intimidated?

Who knows?

Probably different for each.

Think most people here are in awe of your prowess. When you post, people read the achievements, think ,"wow," and don't realize that their approval and participation actually matters. It's like an audience that doesn't understand how to clap.

Megaword would probably post more in the comments, but never did get much feedback either. He tried posting various things, like word combos. Boysmom tried and gave up. John gave it a short shot. Probably many who have achieved something really impressive here have tried to get acknowledged, didn't and gave up posting.

That you have persisted through the silence speaks of your resilience.

The audience exists.

Silent.

Untutored.

As for APPW, have no clue how you guys do it. When a board pops up, it's like being at the dessert bar at a buffet restaurant. You just want to try all of it. How anyone ever manages to return to their table with just one dessert, properly proportioned...?

[Naboka]

Thanks lalatan! Yes, I'm still doing catch & release. I keep going for a high APPW, but it is getting somewhat tiresome. I keep thinking of changing goals, but I haven't come up with a suitable replacement. Your goal of setting lots of records is great. Congratulations on your milestones! What sticks out more than that though is the sheer number of boards with your name on them.

Spike,

Your comment brings to mind a question about the new dictionary and old records.

If the new dictionary allows words that someone who previously played that board and tried entering that same since approved word that wasn't previously accepted, what happens to the record holder?

It seems unfair to the long word players who knew and could have used newly accepted words, but now find their records deleted from accumulated totals because someone else comes along later and gets words that weren't previously accepted for that board.

Hope this makes sense.

Just curious how this has been handled in the past, and what the approach might be this time.

[Razorflame]

93848908e0e72441b3896a95cc7d74bd.png fe3ab4fa876744a424890107123dd8a5.png

[Spike1007]

Naboka - Each board played to completion counts as a played board whether any words have been entered or not. You can technically play 51 boards without any words & have an APPW at the end of the month of zero. Or, if you only play one word, whatever that gives you is your APPW.

As for your question about new words coming along & screwing the old record holder(s) for a board, I'm guessing that won't happen. While there is some master word list, each board also carries its own separate word list with it. In practice, I'm guessing that changing the dictionary (master list) doesn't automatically change the board list. I think that's updated only when the board is initially created or when Stephen says so. Anyway, it's definitely possible (and, I think, probable) that boards will live out their life (until they're recycled or retired) with the same list, even if the dictionary changes. I hope this makes sense...

[Spike1007]

A clarification... If you play 51 boards with no words, APPW is technically undefined (zero divided by zero), but I'm guessing that's initialized to zero. Average points per board will definitely be zero though. If you play 1 word, it will be 1/51. Often I'll get I normally try to cancel any boards where I get no words, but I sometimes get distracted & wander off, and I can easily have an average of less than 1 word per board. To make up for that (and to try to stay within the spirit of the rules) I'll make sure I have at least 51 words for the month.

[lalatan]

Genuinely confused.

How does one manage to reach the high APPW with less than 1 word a game?

As for APPW, have no clue how you guys do it. When a board pops up, it's like being at the dessert bar at a buffet restaurant. You just want to try all of it. How anyone ever manages to return to their table with just one dessert, properly proportioned...?

Just to flesh out Spike's answer a little more: Every time a player submits a game w/o playing a word, it counts as a game played. Mathematically it doesn't change the player's APPW. So if a player has a high APPW after let's say 25 games played and he doesn't want to improve it, that player could blank another 26 games. He would then qualify for the monthly APPW competition because at least 51 games would have been played. His avg words/game would be .49/game. About 2016 (I don't know the exact time. The old forum was blotted so it can't be looked up.) crazykate was the first to suggest that those in the competition should have an avg words/game of at least 1. Not long after we all came to a consensus that should be the case. There are no official rules about it. Taken to the extreme a person could play one game, play a 42 pt word and then blank the next 50 games. That actually happened. There was a guy on here who was convinced I was a cheater. When I was still collecting gold trophies, he played his 1 word for the month on the last day of the month and so defeated my APPW. Subsequently, he changed his mind after beating 2 of my records. After he pulled that stunt I blocked him and never saw anything else he wrote. Eventually he went away.

When you have wrist problems like I was developing (and folkslinger currently has) while playing for pts it makes it easier to go to a Michelin starred restaurant, order the most expensive dessert on the menu and be satisfied with that.

[Naboka]

A clarification... If you play 51 boards with no words, APPW is technically undefined (zero divided by zero), but I'm guessing that's initialized to zero. Average points per board will definitely be zero though. If you play 1 word, it will be 1/51. Often I'll get I normally try to cancel any boards where I get no words, but I sometimes get distracted & wander off, and I can easily have an average of less than 1 word per board. To make up for that (and to try to stay within the spirit of the rules) I'll make sure I have at least 51 words for the month.

The math isn't elusive. It's the idea of someone going for high APPW and managing to either win or be high on the list also having considerably less than one word per game.

I get being distracted. Happens to me a couple of times a month. Mostly playing short boards for practise, I usually dump them after 30 seconds. But sometimes I'm expecting someone and forget to pull the trigger. One game like that will knock about 2 points off my average for the month. Two games: same math. It's not critical. Just a little oops.

It's just baffling how someone doing APPW could win as lalatan indicated playing :(Since 2014 I've seen the APPW golds won anywhere from .1 to <1 word/game avg.)
I just can't imagine a .1 succeeding. Even a .75 would drop a 40 point average to 30. That's a chunk of real estate to give up in a battle.

But, then again, not playing APPW I'm just unfamiliar with the nuances involved. Especially, which long words to play and which to reject. In 4x4 I don't even bother playing long common words because it takes too long to get too few points.

[Naboka]

Just to flesh out Spike's answer a little more: Every time a player submits a game w/o playing a word, it counts as a game played. Mathematically it doesn't change the player's APPW. So if a player has a high APPW after let's say 25 games played and he doesn't want to improve it, that player could blank another 26 games. He would then qualify for the monthly APPW competition because at least 51 games would have been played. His avg words/game would be .49/game. About 2016 (I don't know the exact time. The old forum was blotted so it can't be looked up.) crazykate was the first to suggest that those in the competition should have an avg words/game of at least 1. Not long after we all came to a consensus that should be the case. There are no official rules about it. Taken to the extreme a person could play one game, play a 42 pt word and then blank the next 50 games. That actually happened. There was a guy on here who was convinced I was a cheater. When I was still collecting gold trophies, he played his 1 word for the month on the last day of the month and so defeated my APPW. Subsequently, he changed his mind after beating 2 of my records. After he pulled that stunt I blocked him and never saw anything else he wrote. Eventually he went away.

When you have wrist problems like I was developing (and folkslinger currently has) while playing for pts it makes it easier to go to a Michelin starred restaurant, order the most expensive dessert on the menu and be satisfied with that.

lalatan, we must have been typing simultaneously, as I didn't see your answer til mine posted.

That's very, very strange that the games with zero don't affect the APPW. I guess, because no word=no influence. As no word was played, it doesn't... I get it now.

It's not like other averages.

You're right, it should be average points per word PER GAME!

Being considered a cheater is something of a compliment. You've exceeded someone's imagination to the point they don't believe what you've done is possible. I'd like to get that good. It's kind of disappointing not to have received that accolade. But, there are so many good players out there that nothing I do even comes close to what they do. The one person I thought was illegitimate (other than obvious bots) earned that because he seemed to be doing something Megaword couldn't. Something Estive tried and couldn't. Then Megaword came along and exceeded it, so... Who knows what anyone is capable of?

Dessert is my bane. It doesn't have to be expensive. Just chocolate or caramel. I'm way to cheap to get desserts at restaurants, expecially when you can get an entire pie for the same price.

[bwt1213]

A long time ago, when I played for average points per game, I got a lot of flak for the number of games that timed out. It didn't matter that I'd been trying to find a good word and didn't manage to dump the game on time -- what I'd done was offending other players because it could so easily be abused and in the exact way you mentioned. In my case, I played well over 100 games a month, but sometimes only a few dozen included a word or two. It would be nice if games didn't count if you didn't play a word. Then the "you're cheating" stuff might die down a little. But I agree that it's just not fair to the other players if you don't play at least 51 games with a scoring word. That's why I don't play for average points per word any more; I get too absorbed trying to find a word and time out, over and over.

[jeepiegirl]

I have not posted here for a long time and I'm not sure I'm doing this right. I have a general comment- not a reply to anyone's post. Anyway- have you noticed how incredibly obnoxious and interfering some of the new ads are? They cover the playing field! I get having ads, but not when they actually interfere with the game.

[admin]

Hi jeepiegirl - ads should never interfere with gameplay. If you see an ad that does please email a screenshot to puzzlebaron@gmail.com (or post one here) and I will get it removed immediately. Also please let me know what browser and operating system you're using. Thank you!

[Naboka]

You're trying for a high ASPG.

Everything's going fine.

Except.

Something like this comes up.

It's like trying not to eat that Halloween candy.

There goes the waistline.

Dropped yea olde average score 5+ points.

2nd time in two days.

Going backwards.

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 8.59.36 AM.png