Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Morning, Claretgold. On this week's Listener thread you mentioned the Forum's approach to Listeners, help with Listeners and so on. I thought I'd start a new thread to reply as there's still a lot of discussion on that one.

As a Forum member, I appreciate all the blood, sweat and tears that Norah, the site's administrator, put into getting the Forum Listener threads to where they are now. She solicited views and welcomed discussion - both were pretty heated at times! Norah tried various approaches, with quite a few highs and lows along the way.

The majority of people on the Forum seemed happy for there to be a degree of help and encouragment for Listener solvers. I'm sure many Forum members have appreciated the assistance - with one or two clues, say - that enabled them to go on to complete the puzzle (or enabled them to see that they weren't going to complete it!)

I do an introductory post for the Listener most weeks. This was at Norah's suggestion, as it lets solvers - old and new - see what the Forum's approach is. It's not perfect, of course - things seldom are. We do have the occasional 'that's giving away too much' post, some are justified, some are not - Norah, as site administrator, oversees these.

Very interesting Malone.

As a reminder to old Forum Members and as info for new ones - in an effort to pacify the "we mustn't even talk about the Listener" brigade, we have varied between one and three threads per week. One gave answers, one gave slight hints and one gave broader hints.

Quite honestly, the situation got ridiculous and we gradually moved back to one thread per week, If I am informed that a particular post gives away too much, then I amend it as required.

The thread seems to run quite smoothly, and has for some time, so I have no intention of having more than one thread per week.

You are quite welcome to discuss the matter. However, I would remind everyone that this is a CROSSWORD CLUE SOLVER site which provides a free Forum to help ALL crossword solvers, whether they be old hands or newcomers. As such I have no intention of amending our policy on the Listener (or any other) thread. The thread is here to help solve the Listener without giving too much away, and that is how it will remain🥰.

Bumping this up in case claretgold happens to look in again...

Thanks to norah and malone, the Listener thread does run smoothly now, with the occasional hiccup. Most of us are happy to see things continue as they are. Thanks again to you both.

Thanks, Daria. My input is minimal, I just start off the Friday thread.

I think the 'occasional hiccup' will always be with us - that seems to go with the territory, when perceptions of 'help' and 'hints' vary! Overall, though, the Forum seems to just tootle along nicely most of the time.

Bumping this in case claretgold looks in...

I think claretgold is an old hand, and knows what goes on with Listener threads

Yes, Cloverjo - I should have at least given the link to the initial query, that's what led to my response then (several weeks ago). I think claretgold was interested in the changes in the Forum re the Listener, and there were several other points too. I thought Norah's input might be of interest too.