All the names...

[benko]

You have a program play the game for you. ... Now, why would anyone do that? ...

It turns out that if you can write a program that interacts with a web site, pushes its buttons, reads and responds to the pages it sends to your browser ... that (in general -- not specifically boggle!) may be a marketable skill. (E.g., google "Selenium webdriver jobs" ).

(Now that I think of it, if somebody had all that potentially lucrative talent, why would they spend it playing games? Oh, well ... for the practice, maybe).

[lalatan]

Thanks for the replies, Carol. Now I don't have to wonder anymore. I read about Surabaya Sue in Wikipedia. A remarkable and long-lived lady who was born not far from where my ancestors lived in Scotland. My goddaughter's brother lives in Bali. We seem to be global citizens much more these days.

[Arabesque]

I thought, "How many Janes from Jakarta, Java, Indonesia (Yes, I knew where it is. I'm interested in geography.) would be playing on this particular Boggle website?" I surmised that Jane is probably an atypical name there

True, it is not an Indonesian name - nor is it my real name. It's more of a nod to "Surabaya Sue" (whose real name was Muriel). I was living in Jakarta when I started calling myself that. (My real name is Carol.)

It remains a mystery who javajane is. She might just be a person who likes coffee.

[lalatan]

I love these names too and have started matchmaking. I'm sure dontcallmedennis is destined to be with shewhomustbeobeyed. Lots of other good potential romances out there!

I concluded 2 years ago that if shewhomustbeobeyed and ruledbyagoldfish were a couple she would surely have gills.

[lalatan]

Yes and no. I used to play as jakartajane (where I was a much higher scorer than I am now, due to different playing strategies). But I am always amused when I see the name javajane because it sure sounds like a name I would use (except for the 77). But that's not me...

How did you figure out that Arabesque = jakartajane? I may have mentioned it at some point, but otherwise I don't know how you'd be able to tell!

I thought, "How many Janes from Jakarta, Java, Indonesia (Yes, I knew where it is. I'm interested in geography.) would be playing on this particular Boggle website?" I surmised that Jane is probably an atypical name there, unless it's slang for a woman, like Sheila is in Australia. jakartajane and Arabesque had the same writing style. They were both well-spoken and interested in women's rights. I don't think you ever mentioned your username change. I still remember your treatise on "gaming the system" in the previous forum. After reading it I also changed my playing strategy so you are partially responsible for my current gameplay. Thanks!

Edit: I posted this then added the smiley face. It became spam and was unapproved so I re-posted this.

[Arabesque]

This username made me laugh when I saw it today: accraute.

While I'm here I've wondered about this for a while: are jakartajane, javajane77 and Arabesque incarnations of the same person?

Yes and no. I used to play as jakartajane (where I was a much higher scorer than I am now, due to different playing strategies). But I am always amused when I see the name javajane because it sure sounds like a name I would use (except for the 77). But that's not me.

I also used to play as "Bored intheCar," at the same time I was playing as jakartajane.

How did you figure out that Arabesque = jakartajane? I may have mentioned it at some point, but otherwise I don't know how you'd be able to tell!

[bwt1213]

I'm confused about how one might "cheat" at this game. Can someone illuminate me?

You have a program play the game for you. It looks for every possible word in the puzzle (or hacks the download so it knows in advance all the legitimate words) and then spits them back to the game. Where human players struggle to get 100 words per minute, a program can do two or three times that easily, thus typing faster than the human world-record holder while scoring more than 4,000 points in a three-minute game. Now, why would anyone do that? Answers vary from "because I could", to "for the challenge", to "no one said I couldn't", to unprintable insults. It takes all kinds.

[mdyak]

This username made me laugh when I saw it today: accraute.

While I'm here I've wondered about this for a while: are jakartajane, javajane77 and Arabesque incarnations of the same person?

I love these names too and have started matchmaking. I'm sure dontcallmedennis is destined to be with shewhomustbeobeyed. Lots of other good potential romances out there!

[papapapapapagena]

I'm confused about how one might "cheat" at this game. Can someone illuminate me?

[bwt1213]

I too like to play boards where TOO MANY CHEATERS has one or more of the records, in hopes of removing it. The name is ridiculous enough, but the all caps makes it even worse.

Sadly, I'm not a significantly better player than TMC. Sometimes I've played the same boards in hopes of erasing the name, and have failed

Nor am I. I have sometimes succeeded, but I think some of our stronger players ought to make it a mission. After all, he's calling all of them cheaters. I know if I were Megaword or Fasteddieb, or Brisul or Estive, or Scheffek or RussDNails, or Ellen or BoggleOtaku, or . . . gee, there are so MANY strong players. Please excuse me if I skipped you. And I know I missed at least three because I know who you are but I can't remember your names right now.

[Arabesque]

I too like to play boards where TOO MANY CHEATERS has one or more of the records, in hopes of removing it. The name is ridiculous enough, but the all caps makes it even worse.

Sadly, I'm not a significantly better player than TMC. Sometimes I've played the same boards in hopes of erasing the name, and have failed

[DonGuy47]

justthewordsmaam

[lalatan]

I just have to say when I see TOO MANY CHEATERS, I purposely try to beat that person's score because the name is so annoying. It doesn't always work, but at least I try.

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.

bionicflutist: I checked the best words played list for the month today and got a laugh. It seems TOOMANYCHEATERS has also become a "cheater" himself. I thought I'd point this out since he never apologized nor did he change his username. It seems ironic to me.

BEST WORDS MARCH 2021.jpg

[leabhar]

There's been some memorable ones over the years--some of my favorites include "Igor the Crazy Man", "Balls", "Bananakarennina", and for a while there was a "LeBronJames" on here..........makes you wonder if there are any celebrities or famous people who come here............

My absolute favorite one is Mountainhorse. Always makes me happy to see that name and I always wonder about the story behind it.

[bwt1213]

Cheaters are easy to spot. They do things that are not just improbable, but flat impossible. A really good non-cheater can get more than 1,500 points and 300 words in a three-minute 5x5 game. That's typing 100 words per minute! Cheaters will get more than 4,000 points and more than 600 words (some, more than 800) words in 3 minutes. No human can do that. It's absurd. The really good players are just GOOD. They're about where a professional player would stand in relation to a good amateur. Someone like Megaword, or fasteddieb, or any of the other three or five excellent players are about twice as fast and twice as prolific as I am, and I consider myself a good player. If they're major league, I'm high A, maybe AA. To say it another way, I'm two or three levels below them. There are not as many cheaters now as there used to be. I haven't seen one in months. Chances are, if someone is way better than you it's because they're really that much better, not that they're cheating.