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[Naboka]

Before this all gets even more ponderously silly, we should take a deep breath and reflect on the lyrics of The Trashmen's class Surfin Bird.


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There. Now we can return to being full of ourselves and how serious everything is and how important every dust mote is and how the universe will utterly change if a butterfly flaps its wing the wrong way and how much more important 733 is than 732.

pa pa oom m-mow
everybody knows that the bird is the word

Sometimes the world is so friggin hilarious. God must have invented humans for a good laugh.

[Naboka]

Interesting how individuals project themselves into things that weren't about them.

Maybe why lawyers don't let their clients get on the stand.

Fun story: was at a big gun store that had a sale on H&K VP9 tacticals. (a high end 9 mm pistol for those who don't know.) While waiting for my number to be called got into a conversation with some of the other guys. Suddenly one started ranting about the price of gas soaring to $7 a gallon because of Biden's policies. We all looked at him. Asked him several questions, like where did you get gas last, what was the price, why don't he look at the price of gas in the station across the road. He refused to answer any of that, just got more and more angry. Suddenly, he burst out, "You need to get your heads out of your A$$es and look at what's really going o!!!!!. Then stormed off. We looked at each other. Hmmm. Moved us up one person in line.

But, crazy how that guy so passionately believed the price of gas in town was $7 when it was selling for under $3 most places in town. And he had to have purchased gas to be driving around.

(And yes, I bought the gun. And yes the salesman had a good laugh about the $7 gas story.)

Another fun story: there's a guy at the gym who claims to have been in combat in the Iraq and Afghanistan Loves to regale people with the horrors and bravery of having served in combat. Has even started earning medals for his service. Too bad his sister (who also works out there) spilled the beans. He served as an administrative clerk who never got closer to the Middle East than Germany, where he was actually stationed. Even though he knows she knows this, he still tries fabricating those stories to her. And he's actually starting to think about applying for benefits for being PTSD from his combat experiences. That's gonna be interesting.

And yes, he''s mostly a normal guy who's pleasant enough to be around.

Either one of them could probably have passed a polygraph on those things.

You just never know what goes on in the minds of others. The things they believe about themselves. The things they believe about others.

We're all big messes.

Yearly, kindergarteners will come crying that Johnny said they were this or that. I always ask them, "what if I said that wall is pink?" "No!" they protest. "It's white." "What if I said you had horns and eat cockroaches?" "NOOOOOO!!!" "So, you know what is true and not?" "Yes." "And were the things Johnny said about you true?" "No" "Then Johnny is mistaken isn't he?" By the end of the year all of them have thicker skins and could care less what classmates say about them. To the degree 6 yo's can.

Was it Groucho Marx who said something about not wanting to belong to a club that would have him as a member? Like Groucho, I find myself lacking in so many ways. I'm a pretty reprehensible guy in so many ways. It's a miracle anyone can stand me at all. When I reach purgatory, whoever's doing records will probably give me a sour look and say, "Mitch didn't respect you. You're going to hell." And I'll think of all the fun things I did to get sent there and hope more's on the way.

You're right not to hold your breath about checking you out. If you looked good in a bikini I might, but I'm not going to take the time to research how wonderful you've been on other sites. Plate's a little full. But, if you want to post clippings here about all those things-- along with extolling praise from all your good friends on other sites that would probably go a long way.

Sometimes friends grumble about wanting to get divorced. I always tell them they'd better realize they will take their same baggage into the next relationship. Better to become self aware and stop blaming others. Understanding goes a long way in this messy process of living. What one does here is most likely what one does elsewhere. Tigers may not be able to change their stripes, but self-examination makes change possible for people.

Lucky us.

[mpd]

OK. Right. Sports analogies. Wordtwist is, in fact, not like professional sports whatsoever, whereby competitive advantage potentially comes with millions of dollars in contracts and endorsements. People care about sports. This is a niche, online word game with little to no significance other than to those that play it, a small community. Cheating at such a game is beyond pointless, as anyone who has spent much time playing here would undoubtedly agree. Cheaters come in as a bit of a joke, are usually pretty snarky about it, get bored, and leave not long after showing up. I've been playing these games a long time, I've developed friendships through them, and continue to enjoy playing and improving at them. There is a certain mutual respect that comes with knowing the people who engage in similar pursuits, which I feel is present in the other communities where I have traditionally played. You could ask around if you so chose, though I'm not holding my breath.

I'm 'new' here, a relative unknown quantity, if you can say that after playing several thousands of games. Without familiarity being established, sure, if you've never left the confines of Wordtwist, you might think that my scores are highly suspicious. I'm not upset there is doubt, that is more or less expected. I also don't feel like I've been indignant about this (despite you trying to put words into my mouth). What upsets me more are the actions you've taken as a result of your doubt. You have compared me in separate posts to termites, cheating husbands, Gollum, worms, weeds, and con artists, and extrapolated that to my personality being one morally bankrupt unconcerned with fairness and consumed with self-delusion. All this based on nothing more than your own amateur psychoanalysis of someone you have never met, someone who has done you no wrong, and without ever engaging with them with any measure of decorum. You seem to have developed some respect from some other users here, excuse me if I reserve mine.

[Naboka]

Just ran across this example of why we question.

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asdf used to put out perfect or near perfect boards for the short time he/she played here. With the expanded word base, new words were added to boards so this wouldn't be perfect any more. An extra 5-7 new words added isn''t extraordinary for a small board like this.

It's not that accomplishing a perfect board is impossible. Nor even improbable. It's the machinelike constancy.

Surprised their boards are still floating around. But I see them occaisionally, along with others like asdf who did the same stuff around that time.

I've always wondered whether it was the same few peole returning over and over. Once you've been bitten by the rush... Just ask a serial killer. The addiction. The RUSH.

Once you've got the means, you just need the opportunity--if you're motivated by whatever floats your thrill boat.

It's not because there are a bunch of pouty whiners here who hate seeing anyone better than them. It's a persistent problem. Like dandelions. Weeds. They just come back.

However, on the plus side, having someone recirculate boards faster provides increased opportunities for long/best word players to take another record. There's a bit of a thrill playing pristine or near pristine boards.

So, not being in competition for best of anything here, IDGAF whether players are legit or not. It's just that I'm not inclined to call an avocado a pomegranite if looks and feels like a pomegranite. Someone would have to slice it open and make guac to convince me otherwise. Though pomegranites masquerading as avocadoes carries an amusement factor.

That said, I hope you stay. Not because I believe you. Just because I love seeing more recycled boards pop up. Benefits my selfish self a lot.

And it saves the confusions attendant with reincarnation.

[Naboka]

No doubt that you're an excellent player. Sports are filled with excellent players who just needed that little extra to make them great. Like Armstrong and Bonds.

Curious what chubtrub means.

That you would be indignant over anyone doubting your performance isn't unexpected. Every courtroom in America overflows with indignant defendents. A small percentage are even innocent.

That you don't understand that scepticism speaks loudly.

The world around us is filled with scammers. Wordtwist has had it's personal parade. Probably every other game site has. With computer assistance so easily attained, good players can become great; great players become unbeatable. And even poor players can shine.

Yet, somehow scepticism isn't warranted when someone shows up beating Megaword's scores as if they were nothing?

How dare we doubt!!!

Much like the cheating husband angered that his wife would be so deranged as to suspect him.

When I woke up this morning, the streets were soaked. I surmised that it had rained. Didn't actually see it rain. Didn't hear it. Just had evidence that it had. Maybe trucks filled with water came up our street and sprayed thousands of gallons. Maybe an alien spacecraft dumped unknown liquids on us. Maybe....

But I'll stick with the rain assumption.

A basketball coach gets to choose which player shoot free throws when the other team has a technical foul. He has players who shoot anywhere from 33% to 92%. The 92% shooter very well might miss both shots. The 33% shooter might very well have hit both. But odds are odds. Which one do you think he puts on the line?

The odds.

The odds of someone who has never ventured into Wordtwist suddenly appearing and making Megaword look second rate are pretty remote. Such a person would arrive with a jaw-dropping vocabulary. The need to stalk elite player's games "to find words" is a real head scratcher. Such a player wouldn't have to do that. Period. Such a player would be dropping words that the rest of us hadn't seen. Such a player, with decades of word-play experience would be cognizant of the diminishing returns of word searches.

He'd be capable of finding the words on the board. Not dependent on post game readouts.

About the only thing post game readouts do for me is make me slap my head over things I already knew but missed. I'm not dependent on readouts to get better. And I'm certainly not in the over-1,000-points-a-game league.

The best players add to the game. They come to the game with knowledge that the rest of us can learn from. The odds of them depending on other players to learn words defies the odds. I seriously doubt that any of the elite players here are scouring other people's games to "find words." They've got plenty of words to play at an elite level. They don't need the work of others to improve their games. They aren't parasitic. They play the games not the players--because they aren't dependent on "learning new words" to improve their game.

And such a player, who has spent decades playing word games would have experienced numerouos incidents of new players suddenly appearing and blowing everyone away, obviously with some sort of computer assistance. It just goes with the territory.

The early history of Wordtwist contains players who never missed a word. Never. But that was a red flag. So players so inclined learned to modify their approach an "miss" words. The scammers of the world are constantly learning and adjusting. Scammers and con artists learn how to get us to believe they really, really are not trying to cheat us.

It's the world we live in.

So, such a player (an honest player) would understand the scepticism.

With the crude program my brother in law set up I could easily blow everyone here out of the water. Finding or developing those programs is apparently very, very easy. You input the words and voila, you're unbeatable. The program remembers all the words you input.

The human brain, however, isn't quite as reliable. We input, it misplaces. (I don't think I've ever played a game where I didn't wonder how in the hell I missed that word.)

That you've spent decades playing word games and never played Wordtwist...

But, hey, trucks loaded with water could have soaked the streets outside.

Sorry, but the contradictions and inconsistencies here outweigh the explanation.

I would ask that you forgive my sketicism, but how dare I?!!!

Right?

How dare any of us?!!!!

How dare any of us question

in a world filled with questions

in a world filled with dishonesty.

How dare we

question.

[mpd]

Or it could be that MPD is simply a person who is very, very good at word games and has played games like this one for years already. There wouldn't be a learning curve, then. You simply don't know. I DO know that it's possible to use computer help to improve your scores so they look possible, but almost unattainable. Someone bent on cheating, who thinks that putting something over on a pack of nerds is high entertainment, would do something like that. And would define "nerds" any way he liked, too. But we don't know that's what's going on. MPD could be a real, honest, very good player who is very upset that people would call him a cheater for simply being good. If I were that good, I would deny cheating and be really angry about it and it would probably ruin the game for me. You may want to consider that.

This was a breath of fresh air. Though accusations at this point don't really bother me as much as they used to. The need for validation, or to 'prove' myself, to various trolls and skeptics, is also fairly minimal. Wordtwist, and word games more generally, are fun diversions that I happen to be comparatively very good at, that I can continue to improve at, and that is enough for me. Unless admin asks for a video, I won't be making one.

Fairly minimal does not, however, mean nonexistent. For this talk of mysteries, there seems to be a lack of actual sleuthing. I guess it's a lot easier to lampoon someone or to provoke in bad faith than to do any legwork or to engage with some civility. This may be somewhat contradictory to my sentiments above, but I'll give some context for anyone following along in the larger community here and to help out our junior detectives. The M stands for Mitch, which some may recognize from other sites - Wordracer and Tangle going back to the late 90's, Bitwordy, Prolific, and Wordament. I've probably spent the most time at Serpentine, playing 5's as Paco for the last decade and a half. One would also recognize this handle from Aerolith, a very useful site to learn anagrams (and the vastness of the Collins dictionary as I've been finding out). I would imagine I've got my 10,000 hours in at this point and my scores, I feel, reflect that effort.

Now, this is pretty unrelated, but I thought I'd add a couple comments I have about Wordtwist after having now played a decent number of games:

- The lack of a word list at the end of the game is bemusing to me - this makes learning and incorporating UR words much more difficult (esp. those not found in Collins) - I think someone may have mentioned adding one as a premium feature which I also think would be a good idea.
- Recycling boards prior to 40 plays due to scoring 700/1000+ - this also is a bit of a headscratcher. I feel like it's there as a measure to prevent replay abuse, but if you really wanted to (and you'd have to really want to) get around it you could anyway. I'm not exactly sure how the recycling mechanic works, but prematurely doing so based on score robs players of an opportunity to learn from other top players who regularly surpass those limits and is somewhat stifling to friendly competition, which, I confess, I do enjoy.
- I wonder what people would think of a 'daily board' that would reroll like wordle/squaredle etc. that people could play once each day. Could potentially lead to some abuse with multiple ids, but it could be fun?
- I'm impressed with the prompt involvement by Admin, and updates to the game and dictionary are welcome, most similar word games in my experience tend to get neglected over time.