Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I have been asked to remove the thread “Flippant and Comic” because the original poster is accused of cheating by asking the question.

I have talked to Ash and our consensus is that we are not going to monitor posts to such an extent that we remove those which some users consider to be cheating by asking for answers. All information requested in those posts can usually be found elsewhere on the net anyway so it would be a thankless task.

Forum users can make their feelings plain in these posts by POLITELY explaining their refusal to give answers to the questions asked.

I completely agree. I can see no material difference between the thread in question and many other threads on the forum.

In any event, 'cheating' surely involves the inappropriate use of information which has been acquired through an unauthorised route, not simply its acquisition. Frankly, the way that information of the sort provided on this site is used by the original poster seems to me a matter between them and their conscience.

I hope my original post on the thread in question wasn’t construed as an accusation of “cheating”. I only intended to point out the origin of the question and decline (politely I thought) to give an answer. I didn’t report it to our lovely admins. And while I agree with Spoffy, I do think OPs should indicate the origin of their clues if only for context.
Also, I had my partying skills called into question which, let me tell you, are legendary ;-)

Jono, just to reassure you that I wasn’t referring to your post in my reference to cheating.

I had 2 emails which asked that the original post be deleted as they considered it was cheating for the poster to ask the question.

Thnanks, Norah. That sounds pretty reasonable to me - I certainly wouldn't expect you or Ash to have to monitor posts on such a detailed level.

I do like it if the person with the query gives an indication of its provenance - that seems only good manners and it can be an indicator of the difficulty level, the 'urgent' need for help and so on.

Again, I completely agree. I think it's also reasonable to expect the person asking for help in obtaining a solution to reproduce the question accurately and in its entirety.