Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

The Forum is free and run by one person, who has neither the time nor inclination to read every thread to see if it is a prize crossword so the status quo will remain as it is at present.

The Listener threads will continue in their current form as long as they remain popular, they will not be removed at the behest of one or two Forum Users who consider that all prize crossword threads should be banned.

I should stress that all changes were initiated after listening to the viewpoints of Users following discussions on the Forum. However, it is impossible to please everyone and there are many different opinions of how the Forum should be run. I have to decide what is in the best interest of the majority of Users and I try to do this to the best of my ability.

I am not prepared to allow disruptive Users to remain on the Forum, there has been a lot of sniping in the past directed towards individual Users who did not agree with the viewpoint of the poster. Hopefully this has now been eradicated.

In the current case, I gave the User in question every chance before I banned her and I do not intend to allow her to return. Yes, she was found out but that was mainly due to her behaviour. Users may be interested to know that I had a reply to my polite email of yesterday, it consisted of two words “shut up!”.

Thanks for the update, Norah. It's good to know the thinking behind the decisions - and I was quite happy to see that there seems to be no need for any big changes.

What a rude response, 'Shut up', to your polite email!

John Cleese admitted that, as a young man while other people were around, he pretended to solve the Time crossword with ease, whereas he was just writing down random letters. Nobody checked and it gave a good impression.

Thank you, Norah, for your courteous responses.

In my opinion, any user whose behaviour is unacceptable, irrespective of whether they are breaching any specific forum rule, should be banned. The user in this instance would seem to have repeatedly gone well beyond that mark.

Likewise, any inappropriate post should be removed. My issue is the removal of posts which appear acceptable, and therefore prompt responses from other users. The only possible reason for the removal of such posts would be the persona non grata status pf the poster - but if they have 'previous' they should already have been banned and be unable to post; if they attempt to circumvent their expulsion by re-registering under another name/email, this could be prevented by the simple expedient of the first post from a new user being subject to moderation - this is common practice on other sites and is a big help in keeping the site content relevant.

Regarding prize puzzles, I generally take the view that because the (small number of) winners are picked from a large number of entries, the competitions are effectively games of chance rather than skill; were a large prize fund to be divided equally between all the correct entrants, that might perhaps be a different matter. Given the high number of correct entries for a typical Listener puzzle, I would find it hard to argue that it should be treated differently - I don't see why any quiz or puzzle where the winning entries are drawn from a hat should be off-limits.

Incidentally, I thought that posts headed "Stuck AGAIN" or "Help - can't sleep until I get this one" gave a friendly 'feel' to the site which was encouraging to newcomers. But even though I'm leaving this site I shan't be going back to the 'other' forum, which may tolerate such headings but strikes me as inferior in just about every other way.

Spoffy
I had already reported the dodgy post and was awaiting deletion, (but did not say 'reported' before it was confirmed ) but you answered before it could be checked. Some devious users who have been banned use different IP addresses which hampers the process.

Spoffy, I'd ask you to reconsider your decision to leave this site, especially as you have more or less reached agreement on the matters at issue. You have provided many valuable insights into crosswords, especially from your experience as a setter, and I for one would miss your contributions.

I agree with loge

Spoffy,
You've often helped me over the years, especially with Azed. I too hope you will continue to visit this site.

Spoffy, thanks for your equally courteous reply. As regards the last paragraph, it is a shame you have decided to leave just because you don’t agree with certain policies which I have implemented. I will reiterate my earlier reply to your statement that the Forum “is run by the few for the few” by saying that that the Forum is run by myself for the benefit of the majority of our Users, I try to be fair to everyone.

One thing is certain “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time”

The “Stuck Again” threads are a case in point, you feel they give a friendly feel to the Forum but this was not the view of the majority. I had continual complaints about these threads, one even said “can’t they bloody read”, referring to the Posting guidelines. I’m sorry to disappoint you on this one but they will not be returning.

As regards Banned Users, I ban the IP and User Name at the same time by clicking a link set up by Ash. However, there is nothing to stop a Banned User from going to a computer at a different IP address and rejoining the Forum under a different User Name, which is what I suspect the current miscreant had done. In these cases, the only thing I can do, with the help of a few of our very observant Forum Users, is to watch out for new posts which bear a strong resemblance to previous ones.

If our Forum is better than the “other” Forum, then please stick with us, it’s interesting if nothing else, it is obvious your friends on the Forum will miss you.

Jazzgirl, Loge, Mattrom and Malone. Thank you all for your support, this is much appreciated.

I do my best to keep the Forum running smoothly in a friendly manner, that's all I can do, plod on through good times and bad.

My 'boss' is very undemanding, he just leaves me to get on with it, I only nag him if anything technical crops up, I don't 'do' technical in any shape or form, way outside my sphere of expertise.