frozen boards

[Naboka]

That made me laugh; true story.

Very true, I came to the same conclusions over time. I noticed if some average players post about some milestone reached, there are pats on the back but not so w the top players. In the past you may have noticed I have at times been effusive in my praise for the accomplishments of MegaWord, ThunderRock, RussDNails et al. They are doing things nobody else can and I think they deserve some accolades.
I too dislike Tom Brady because I've seen him win too many Super Bowls. Nevertheless I admire his skills and accomplishments.

I admire your wisdom re: the human condition.

I believe there will be more 700+ pt games coming for you. Sometimes it takes 1 good day to break through.

Thanks for the compliment. I fear my wisdom is an oasis shimmering in the desert.

As for something that might be worth reflection:

The human mind is like a duck quacking in a snowstorm. It's seeking the warmth of reality.

"Reality by any means" could be the mind's motto. Whatever mental hoops you have to fly through to make the world real.

The "ability" manifested by someone has a degree of reality to that person and to those around them. Doing something has to be real,

or it wouldn't be done.

Benchpressing 400 lbs has its reality. Or 800. Or 1,000.

The further ability moves from the norm, the less real it becomes.

Our realities are based on what is possible. How things should be, how they behave, how they interact. Like a chair suddenly lifting off the living room floor wouldn't be real. And if it happened, the mind would seek an explanation.

Or would deny that it had happened at all.

The ability of some people is comparable to a chair lifting off. It's inexplicable. Completely unreal. So, there has to be an explanation.

Or denial.

Explanations are the nails that hold our house of realty together.

Denial is the shingle keeping out the weather.

Rarified ability is unreal to the average mind.

People hate unreality.

It just pisses us off or scares us or unsettles us. We're at a loss. WTF? Our minds are spinning , trying to understand.

I sometimes wonder if ignorance isn't a weird type of mental homeostasis trying to maintain an individual's stable reality.

The information and explanations may be readily available to make a situation or condition "real" but the conflict between actual data and belief can just cause all sorts of cognitive dissonance.

Begs the question why a person doesn't take advantage of the informational resources available. And not only the information, but all of the information about how to sort through information to determine the likely degrees of reliabilty for that data.

Cognitive dissonance unsettles reality.

Highly intelligent people handle cognitive dissonance by learning and bringing order to the conflicting information. Ignorant people quash the conflicting information and regain "reality" by eliminating anything that conflicts with the beliefs that bring stabilty to that reality.

Thus, mental homeostasis.

Appreciating higher level of accomplishments sometimes can only be done by those at that level. For the rest of us, it's just unreal. We can't begin to understand how this experience of that person is different from our own.

Our own experience is the benchmark for reality.

When someone's ability far exceeds our own, we're left trying to explain why the chair suddenly is floating above the TV.

quack, quack

ps: all that crazy talk was an oblique explanation as to why some may find what you do unreal, thus something not understood, thus not perceived--or even resented or disliked. Our minds are prone to not perceiving what we don't understand. It's too unreal. And reality is premised on perception. So, if the feedback is lacking...

[lalatan]

Thank you. Eloquently stated.

[lalatan]

Part of my quote from March 10, 2021
...On my stats spreadsheet I added a formula that averaged the number of best/longest records I set for each day of the month. The results were interesting. Aside from my playing frenzy March and April 2021, my monthly avg has ranged from 11-35 records/day with some occasionally going up to 40. Last Nov-Dec I started liftoff at 37. Jan 2022 was 47, Feb 48 and for this month I'm currently averaging 56.8/day... It seems I've stepped up to another level. I know I'm getting faster at finding words. After finding a good word I look at the time remaining and more often I see that <15 seconds has expired. It seems that I'm offered more new games than before but no major increase...

For last month I set 1,643 best/longest word records and at month's end I retained 1,601 of them. My avg records/day was 53.0. I was playing the usual amount of times but when I noticed I could probably breach 1,500 I played a little more often.

Naboka, I paid more attention to the games I was playing after you said there was a flood of new games coming out. What I consider as a "new game" is one that's never been played before. There were more of those but also games that had been played just a few times. So you were correct after all. Like you, I sometimes like to analyze some of my stats. It seemed I was finding more words for the first time last month. So, using the properties of the files I saved in my first time found folder I was surprised that I found 347 new words (roughly 694 records). Possibly admin released another batch of new boards? When I first started tracking my stats back in 2018 it was tedious to record every new record I set but now I'm glad I did so. A large data sample really lets you know your progression and allows you to view it in different ways, like my recent discovery of increasing avg records/day.

Re: some of yr posts in other threads...

I agree w your assessment of gold trophies in the thread about why do people cheat. (I think there's a very high probability the new player is a cheater.). (For me, I'd gladly give up the Wordtwist trophies and word records to have a body w/o chronic pain.) I used to put a higher value on them than now. I have 50+ APPW (56 I think. If I don't know for sure nobody else would. lol) gold trophies and could've gotten more. But it wasn't challenging or enjoyable anymore so why bother?

I agree that games shouldn't be recycled after a 600+ pt threshold is reached. It's not keeping up w players' abilities anymore.

[Naboka]

lalatan,

Envy your ability to find the words so quickly. Congrats on all those records. Finding those provides a little rush of whatever that makes us happy.

Been studying other fields to find new words. Sometimes the game accepts them, sometimes not. Got angelophanies yesterday for best/longest, which seems like a useful word. Got angiomyoneuromas the other day (for best/longest), which seems completely useless, but counted. I can never predict what will or won't if it hasn't been played. Got heterogenesis today for longest/best. Glad humans don't go through that.

If the board-recycle standard is valid, I put 76 back into the system last month. Guess they'll show up and make people happy. Some had few plays, some over thirty. Some had the longest words found, some not. Seems like a board should stay in circulation at least until the longest/best word is found, regardless of number of plays or high scores.

Finally got around to playing a couple of games by the newbie. Wasn't playing to win, just to analyze. Trying to see what is going on. One game I lost by 200. The other by 20. But neither is indicative of anything due to how I approached it. Studied the boards afterwards to see word patterns, and anomalies. Couldn't find anything. Nothing different than playing any other good player. Lots of words found, lots of words missed. On the one I played where I lost by 2oo I even found a longer word than had been played that would have had more points for best word, so...

Longest/best words are something a program could have easily picked up.

I don't know. The win percentage verses the apparent playing ability leaves me scratching my head. If the player is legit, they're pretty good, but not at the level of the best here. At least not on the two games I saw. Some of the obvious words missed makes me wonder, but it's not uncommon. Some of the found words were top notch, but couldn't tell which player found them.

Which makes the string of record highs that much harder to understand.

If they're not legit, they've figured out a heck of a system. Something along the lines of keying in the needed points goal, but keeping it within reason. I know they're probably beating some of my boards, but are they beating the recent ones where I'm 200 points better than I used to be, or the old ones that I've been searching for and adding 100-300 points to?

But, all of that is trivial. More importantly, your health. Yeah, living relatively painfree seems to be more and more important. Trophies and gold are no match for a happy life.

[dannyb]

I think I know who you are talking about. When I first encountered a board that they had played, I too assumed a cheat, but then I noticed that they were far from "sweeping" the board' To me, that is the biggest indicator of cheating. A "clean sweep" or missing by two or three words (occasionally). The player seems to be legit in my book. You have evidence too that makes it seem not to be a bot. Scary thought: a sophisticated bot that can hide in plain sight.

[dannyb]

I just had a thought. The players name . . . hints that a person isn't playing. Jeez, am I about to join Q-anon?

[Naboka]

I think I know who you are talking about. When I first encountered a board that they had played, I too assumed a cheat, but then I noticed that they were far from "sweeping" the board' To me, that is the biggest indicator of cheating. A "clean sweep" or missing by two or three words (occasionally). The player seems to be legit in my book. You have evidence too that makes it seem not to be a bot. Scary thought: a sophisticated bot that can hide in plain sight.

Q-anon, huh? Yikes!

Yep, a real head scratcher. Like I commented earlier, the biggest red flag of a bot is perfection. A very clever cheater won't sweep the board. Which makes detection nearly impossible.

Creates a bit of paranoia. I had a board where I got all the played words plus a couple of green ones. Can't remember how many times it had been played previously, but it wasn't anywhere near being fresh. The elation of accomplishment was immediately followed by a cautionary "someone's gonna think you're cheating." But there were still plenty of unfound words for that board left to discover, so...

That leads to seeing one of his boards this morning where he'd gotten 88 out of fewer than a hundred possible words. Possible words, not played. I didn't do the board so I can't say what it looked like. But I've never seen a board with all possible words found. Except by bots.

Is he legit and merely done what is obviously possible but unlikely, or is it a sophisticated ruse?

Maybe Elvis has left the building. He didn't play last night. Or, maybe he's read this stuff and realized that there are other indicators of possible cheating--such as the inordinate streak of highests point scores. If he's corrected for the perfect game red flag, maybe he'll correct for this.

And return with a new name and with a more sophisticated approach that allows for human failure.

Nothing like human failure to make yourself seem real.

Probably ThunderRock and Megaword could manage that win streak, so it's not impossible. Though, even they would run into a wall on lower scoring boards against some players. There just isn't much margin for error on sparse boards, and if someone's gotten most of what's available... Like, getting the best/longest word that someone else has already found but with number of words.

And there are a couple dozen players here that would be very tough for anyone to beat if they were having one of those days--or one of those 10 minute streaks of beyonditallednesses.

But, the boards he'd played that I examined didn't demonstrate the skill level of ThunderRock or Megaword or someone playing at a surreal level.

So, who knows. Real, unreal? Doesn't really matter. My breakfast tastes the same either way.

[lalatan]

Q-anon, huh? Yikes!

Yep, a real head scratcher. Like I commented earlier, the biggest red flag of a bot is perfection. A very clever cheater won't sweep the board. Which makes detection nearly impossible...

That leads to seeing one of his boards this morning where he'd gotten 88 out of fewer than a hundred possible words. Possible words, not played. I didn't do the board so I can't say what it looked like. But I've never seen a board with all possible words found. Except by bots.

Is he legit and merely done what is obviously possible but unlikely, or is it a sophisticated ruse?

Probably ThunderRock and Megaword could manage that win streak, so it's not impossible. Though, even they would run into a wall on lower scoring boards against some players. There just isn't much margin for error on sparse boards, and if someone's gotten most of what's available... Like, getting the best/longest word that someone else has already found but with number of words.

But, the boards he'd played that I examined didn't demonstrate the skill level of ThunderRock or Megaword or someone playing at a surreal level.

So, who knows. Real, unreal? Doesn't really matter. My breakfast tastes the same either way.

Intriguing for sure. I wonder where he has learned so many of the words that are accepted in WordTwist, words even a superior player wouldn't know when he first started here. I suppose he could've played w/o a username to learn them. His lofty % of records set/games played isn't anything we've seen here before so I'm very suspicious of that.

Lol, you cracked me up w that last line about breakfast tasting the same. I used to be on the lookout for any newbies who suddenly started playing long words. I'd analyze their stats and their progress to see if it was human or not. My reasoning for taking on the role of a long word cop was that if they were allowed to succeed it would besmirch the accomplishments of legit players. Awhile ago (2 years? not sure) I retired from the police force. Consequently my game play has been more enjoyable. I'm sure there is some cheating going on but I don't let it spoil my long-word breakfast anymore. That said, I realize cheating is much more of a concern to speed players since my records are unlikely to be eclipsed by cheaters as often as your records.

[Naboka]

Intriguing for sure. I wonder where he has learned so many of the words that are accepted in WordTwist, words even a superior player wouldn't know when he first started here. I suppose he could've played w/o a username to learn them. His lofty % of records set/games played isn't anything we've seen here before so I'm very suspicious of that.

Lol, you cracked me up w that last line about breakfast tasting the same. I used to be on the lookout for any newbies who suddenly started playing long words. I'd analyze their stats and their progress to see if it was human or not. My reasoning for taking on the role of a long word cop was that if they were allowed to succeed it would besmirch the accomplishments of legit players. Awhile ago (2 years? not sure) I retired from the police force. Consequently my game play has been more enjoyable. I'm sure there is some cheating going on but I don't let it spoil my long-word breakfast anymore. That said, I realize cheating is much more of a concern to speed players since my records are unlikely to be eclipsed by cheaters as often as your records.

"words that are accepted in WortTwist" Therein lies the rub.

You could come here initially with a vocabulary so extensive that reading "Look Homeward, Angel" would seem rudimentary. And still not be competitive. Even if you could type a hundred words a minute.

I'm on my 3rd 240 page notebook of WordTwist high scoring words. And the vast, vast majority are unusable anywhere else.

That doesn't even count the new journal for longer words I'm filling from scientific/other sources--most of which I'll never see here, and none of which do I have a clue as to their point values. And I'm finding that WordTwist accepts some of them and not others--with no explicable connection to how common that term may be in that given field.

Then you factor in the nuances of which word elements work where and when, and whether pursuing them is advantageous. You find "pedagogueries" and try "pedagogeries," wondering if the two distinct concepts work successfully. One will, one won't. But, by the time you've typed in the 12 letters and failed--maybe retyping to be sure, the upper level players you're competing with will have typed other stuff worth bunches of roses.

Take adding "s" at the end of -ing words. Adding "s" to being, biting or icing will give you a single extra point. Add it to erring or siring and you gain 7 extra points (moves from 5 points to 12) for that same single letter. SEVEN POINTS FOR A SINGLE LETTER!

Excuse my excitement.

Because WordTwist has its own, specific, hard to grasp point system, a person can't come in as a beginner and magically succeed against players who have been here for years and learned a basket filled with oddities. Regardless of vocabulary or typing speed.

Another issue is obsolete words and alternate spellings. Some work here, some don't. Heard anyone use saists lately? A new person won't have a clue as to which will work and which won't. Lots of time wasted trying to figure out which.

Or common names. Most people see "benet" and think it's a proper noun, as in the writer or poet. But, it's also an exorcist in the Catholic Church. If you get it and add an s, you've earned 8 and 10 points.

Or common anagrams here, like roist, rosit, rost, rosti, roists, rosits, rosts, rostis. So many points for a few seconds of typing that become second nature if you've seen it enough. If you haven't, you'd have to work through it. And there are so many of these here.

In conclusion...

breakfast still tastes the same, either way.

Ps: police force? My wife's a teacher so we know a lot of police in the city. Odd how those two professions interact so much.

[Naboka]

Sigh...

Sigh...

sigh sigh sigh.

The problem of freezing boards went away. Now it's back.

But mutated

Used to freeze about 2-3 seconds in. Okay, no big, I hadn't wasted the game. On to the next.

Now!!!!!!!!!!

It's freezing with 20 some seconds left!

Which is fine if I'm floundering and the performance sucks.

But..

Yesterday there were 29 seconds left on a board with a high of 520 something. And this happened!

Screen Shot 2022-05-05 at 12.01.41 PM.png


Then today...

Screen Shot 2022-05-05 at 11.57.03 AM.png

The high for that game was 473, so...

sniff!

and with such cool words as histrionic, histrion, histrions, trichosis played.

Sniff.

What a waste.

Think I'm just going to leave it frozen, not shut it down, and see if it unfreezes while I tour the garden centers in search of new varieties of calibarchoa.

[Naboka]

3 hours later. Petchoa and calibrachoa in hand, returned to a still frozen board.

No change.

Tried to kick it out and had to do a forced quit.

Beautiful flowers compensate for a lot.