Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Could all Forum Users, old and new, please read the updated “Posting Guidelines” which appear on the page where a new thread is created.

The Site Rules have also been tweaked but not to the same extent as the Guidelines.

Happy reading everyone.

Thanks, Norah. As one of the oldies, I tend to forget those things even exist, but I will happily update my knowledge!

Bump to attract Saturday Forum Users

Bump

I see it says if it's a quiz only 3 questions per quiz. Hopefully that is in total. Is this going to apply to the next Rainbow quiz as well over half of the 100 questions have been asked so far this time?

What's happening? I replied to a question that seemed to adhere precisely to the guidelines, and now the whole thread has disappeared!

Norah has her reasons for deletion of threads. I am sure she will let you know by email if you ask

Perhaps, but I'm not going to waste my time providing answers to questions which are subject to seemingly random deletion.

It does appear that this site is now being run by the few for the benefit of the few, with unnecessary barriers being put up in order to discourage others.

When I started providing help through the site it offered a welcoming environment for everyone, striking a nice balance between order and accessibility, but within recent months that has all changed.

This seems very sad, as I felt there was a real opportunity to assist those who wanted to improve their skills and understand how clues work rather than those who are tackling puzzles that are way beyond their current abilities and simply want to be spoon-fed with answers.

Since I have no interest in helping those in the latter category I suspect that I will not be missed.

Spoffy, There was nothing random about the post being deleted and I have emailed you the reasons why this poster was banned.

The Forum is not 'run by the few for the benefit of the few' . It is run by myself for the benefit of the majority of our Forum Users who appreciate what I am trying to do.

I fail to see how the welcoming environment has been changed by my asking posters to give a crossword heading and to stop posting with such headings as 'I'm stuck', 'Help'. As far as I am concerned, we have a nice balance between order and accessibility (not sure what you mean by accessibility?).

By all means continue to help those who want to improve their skills but this poster did not want to do that. She just wanted to cheat, pure and simple, and IMHO it was unfair to her competitors in the quiz to get answers on a Crossword Forum.

Spoffy, I think some of the recent changes have been very welcome. I'm glad to see the back of 'Please Help!!' and 'STUCK!!!'. I'm glad we no longer have three threads on Times 1234 , three on Guardian 567 and at least three on the Rainbow Quiz.

LIke you, I am more than happy to help people improve their skills and understand how crosswords work. That hasn't always been a good experience. One very recently returned (and now gone) poster insisted she wanted to learn to solve crosswords. She was given lots of advice, encouragement and answers - and then we discovered she was using the site to compete in a school competition. Anyone who wants to hone their skills will always be welcome here - I'm sure other regular solvers, helpers, would agree about that.

Very few people are spoon-fed answers, most people seem to want to be steered in the right direction.