Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Can I ask you please that you do not give an answer to any thread which does not have a proper heading such as the name of the Crossword. If a thread is headed ‘Please Help’ etc etc, then either ask ‘What is the name of the Crossword’ OR ignore the thread altogether. This gives me chance to deal with the matter.

I have today banned a young lady from India who persistently posts with peculiar headings asking for answers in double quick time. Today’s question was timed at 11.25am and she was shrieking “MALONE” 10 minutes later.

In the spirit of goodwill to a schoolgirl, I have previously emailed her trying to help and explain how the Forum works but she ignored my emails. Jazzgirl gently reminded her that her teacher would expect her to find the answers herself rather than looking online. There was no response other than two more threads asking further questions.

I wouldn’t have minded so much had she kept all the questions to one thread, as I asked her to do, but she started a new thread every time.

I know you are all very helpful when queries appear and thank you for that. However, I think (and hope) that you all appreciate that I try my very best to keep the Forum neat and tidy and these sort of posts do not help in the slightest.

Thanks for the update on this - and your view, proposed action, on the 'Please Help' (and the close relatives 'Stuck!' and 'Last One') posts. I think many Forum members will be happy to see the back of those - it's always nicer, and more helpful, to know where a puzzle is from. Some of us do certain puzzles regularly, but don't do others - and a wide variety makes for an interesting Forum.

I'll certainly steer any misguided posters in the right direction, but it would be good if this wasn't needed much, or for very long!

Thanks Malone,. You are right, a wide variety of puzzles makes for an interesting Forum, providing they have names and don't start 'please help'.

Thanks for all you do, Norah, to keep this place organized. You were very charitable to refer to that individual as a young "lady." Her behavior certainly wasn't very ladylike.

Some of the "Please help!" threads (sometimes in capital letters )
are purposely headed so as to disguise where the clues are from. For example, some are from websites in India where the admins of that site ask that children do not ask for answers online.

Jazzgirl, thanks for that - it makes me even keener to ask the Please Help-ers to give full details of their crosswords. I don't like sneakiness - in children, in adults, in Forum users....

I add my support to Norah's original post. I had noticed that some of these one-off "Please help" posts displayed a distinct lack of manners, and am glad to see that the ever-vigilant Admin is on the case.

8pm and there is not a single plea for crossword help to be seen today other than on Whetstone's marathon effort.

The site may become moribund but at least les tricoteuses will endure!

EDIT TO ADD - I had to remove all quotation marks from the heading before I could post, after 8 posts it decided the heading was too long at over 100 characters, this is called Modern Technology at its worst.

Thank you for your input Malone, Mathprof, Jazzgirl and Loge, I appreciate all your comments and help in keeping our Forum the friendly place it has become today.

I was particularly interested in Jazzgirl’s info on the websites located in India – forewarned is forearmed.

Loge, with reference to the ‘young lady’, if I had typed what I really felt then I would have had to ban myself for bad language, ha, ha.

Tatters, I looked up moribund to get an exact meaning - (of a thing) in terminal decline; lacking vitality or vigour. How on earth can you say that our Forum is on the point of death, it might be quiet in the week but it is very lively at the weekend. Why do you stay here if you think it has become so ‘moribund’, if you feel so strongly about the matter then I suggest you follow the rats’ example and desert the ship before it sinks, again ha, ha.

As regards ‘ les tricoteuses ‘ again I looked it up - one of a number of women who sat and knitted while attending public executions during the French Revolution. I can assure you that the Forum isn’t going to be executed by you or anyone else anytime soon. Have you used this expression in the Forum in the past perhaps and I missed it?

Norah, I came across the "heading too long" issue when I attempted to mark a spam post as reported. A limit on title lengths is reasonable and not uncommon, but you'd think this would apply when the post is created, wouldn't you?