Could someone please explain to me why some crosswords that do not currently have a prize are being treated as though they still had one?
I recently started doing the Inquisitor in the Saturday edition of the i. The solution is printed in the newspaper two weeks later, but solvers are allowed to comment ten days after publication on the Fifteensquared blog. Even as a novice it usually doesn't take me anything like ten days to solve the crossword.
I asked at Fifteensquared why solvers couldn't comment earlier and they said it took time for the bloggers to solve the puzzle and write the blog, so they were keeping to the old schedule. As it's impossible to post any comments before the blog is posted, this means that I'm usually left with a completed crossword that I can't comment on for about a week. By the time the blog comes out I've usually forgotten how I solved it (which is why I keep a record on my personal blog site).
I could understand all this if the suspension of prizes were merely temporary, but it doesn't look as though they're coming back any time soon. I note that the standard cryptic in the Saturday i (which also used to have a prize) is not subject to this restriction; the solution is published in the paper the following Monday and the blog appears on the same day as the puzzle.
It's all a bit baffling!