How many cheateres are in the game?

[bocci]

What exactly is this cheating? If someone invests the time and energy on a program to solve word puzzles, and uses it to get long words and/or higher scores, so be it. They are just playing a different game for different reasons than you may be. The rules state only that the words be of minimum length and satisfy the chosen dictionary, and a player may do that however they want. I suspect computer enhanced play is happening, but it doesn't bother me.

[Spike1007]

Another thing... It doesn't make sense to seed these boards with huge words unless legitimate players can occasionally find them. Once you know that they can be there though, you know to look for them.

[Spike1007]

As someone who goes for long words, I have to agree with Nylimb. Some big words, you just learn. (I think there are basically 3 24-letter words (with variations).) With others, you just learn to find the pieces & cobble them together. (lalatan calls them "Frankenstein" words. They're fun to find, and often they surprise you.) Finding them is a skill, like anything else. It takes some time & practice.

Now if you see a new member averaging 40+ points per word, I'd be a little suspicious...

[Nylimb]

If you can come up with words like this, you probably have a program that finds the words for you:

OVERINTELLECTUALIZATIONS (24), COMPARTMENTALIZATIONS (21), PHOTOLITHOGRAPHICALLY (21), FUZZYHEADEDNESSES (17) PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGISTS (21), ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIES (24)

I don't think that's evidence of cheating. If you find a moderately big word like INTELLECT, it's a good strategy to look for prefixes and suffixes that can be added to it, so coming up with OVERINTELLECTUALIZATIONS doesn't seem all that difficult.

This wouldn't work with the original game of Boggle, where the grid is chosen randomly by shaking letter cubes in a box. There if you find INTELLECT, it's not likely that there will be longer words containing it. But many of the games on WordTwist are seeded with very large words, so looking for prefixes and suffixes makes sense.

Also, if you browse through past results of the Longest Words Played competitions, you can see what some of the longest words ever found are, and be alert for them if they show up in games that you play.

[Brisul]

If you can come up with words like this, you probably have a program that finds the words for you:

OVERINTELLECTUALIZATIONS (24), COMPARTMENTALIZATIONS (21), PHOTOLITHOGRAPHICALLY (21), FUZZYHEADEDNESSES (17) PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGISTS (21), ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIES (24)

In the 4x4 how about 265 words in 120 seconds, that is .4 seconds a word 265 times. BS.
In the 5x5 how about 305 words in 180 seconds, that is .59 seconds a word 305 times. BS.

Who did you see that had these words and these scores?

[TOOMANYCHEATERS]

If you can come up with words like this, you probably have a program that finds the words for you:

OVERINTELLECTUALIZATIONS (24), COMPARTMENTALIZATIONS (21), PHOTOLITHOGRAPHICALLY (21), FUZZYHEADEDNESSES (17) PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGISTS (21), ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIES (24)

In the 4x4 how about 265 words in 120 seconds, that is .4 seconds a word 265 times. BS.
In the 5x5 how about 305 words in 180 seconds, that is .59 seconds a word 305 times. BS.