Perhaps an image creation tool FAQ would be useful.

I personally create JPGs using Macromedia Fireworks and export them at 80% quality, which gives a pretty reasonable filesize without losing much detail. (It's really unnecessary for images at these dimensions to be more than maybe 80Kb -- and it's especially hard on dialup users).

Hmm... I haven't seen enough questions regarding image creation tools to call them FAQs. So, what questions do people have? Take advantage of the pool of experience here at Tanga, and post your questions here!

There has been quite a bit of discussion in the puzzle maker discussion blog (linked above) about the pros and cons of different file types to use.

I assumed that hypercrosses were also limited to 500x500, and created two over the last couple days (with 81 clues between them)...
...looking back, it appears that the upload process automagically scales images (both up and down) to the appropriate size.

[3] DNewfield
Historically the pictures have not been scaled up (hence my constant griping about illegible pictures). However, they are scaled down.

Phew! 81 clues - thats a LOT for two puzzles - I paled at doing 17 in one puzzle.

(I don't know if I am looking forward to yours or not <8-o)

[4] Just because the import automatically scales up doesn't mean that a small image won't still result in a blurry clue. Your "constant griping" is still appropriate. :-)

[5] DNewfield
You are absolutely right! When the pic is too small, I usually bring it into photoshop to try to enlarge it, but when the resolution isn't there, it is just an exercise in frustration.

I will continue griping when appropriate. However, lately it seems that the hypercross authors have gotten the message - haven't had to grip in a while :-)

Can you include that "combingseveralwordsintoonewordbynotincludingspacesisnotreallyaonewordanswer"?

:)

.

It would be nice to have a link to these Guidelines at the top of the "Contribute Fun" page.

[9] They're fairly out of date. I just submitted a hypercross puzzle; the image size allowed is greater (it auto-scales). You do not need to worry about image name (it is auto-renamed).

That being said, an official guideline would be welcomed. But the Tanga guys seem to have their hands full doing higher-priority stuff already.

[10] It always has auto-scaled... but that can distort the image and make details hard to discern and/or text hard to read. It's best to create your image with a size that WON'T scale, so you know how it will look when the puzzle is published.

2/15/08 Added link to "The Worst Puzzle Ever" Contest as some cautionary examples

2/24/08
Added "There's no Hypercross SUMBIT Button" information

2/28/08 Added How to get the hypercross clues to show up in the order you want.

[14] Cool! Leadfoot, your Tanga knowledge is exceeded only by your generosity in sharing it with others!

[15] Other people had the knowledge - I just collected it so more people could use it!

Actually - it was enlightened self interest - so many people were asking the same questions over and over again - and I got tired of searching for old posts where the answer had been posted before - and this way anyone can point people to this compilation, or the FAQ compilation - if they can find them (I have them bookmarked for quick link copying)

[16] thanks for the feedback I'll update the information above to indicate is sometimes works.

Geez, just because a fella used a non-noun, non-recognized hexidecimal you have to spell out the rules? Can't you just TG me with your complain...oh...you all did already. Shoot. Nevermind.

FFA500 Forever!

bump!

bump!

[24] set...

[24][25] SPIKE !!!

I learned the hard way tonight that apparently, for some reason, png files do NOT work properly for hypercrosses in some browsers. I could not enlarge the thumbnail on my IE 6 machine, although it worked fine using Firefox. I believe it works OK in IE 7 as well. Many people were having similar issues. I was unable to verify if everyone having problems was using IE 6, but that is what I am seeing.

Until this is fixed, I would highly advise everyone to stay away from using png files in hypercrosses!

4/9/08 updated original text to reflect [26]

I've used gimp for my puzzles so far, and it works perfectly. I wonder sometimes what people use as sources for their images for puzzles? google image search is an obvious start, but many pictures you pull from there specifically demand licensing, which I'm not terribly likely to pay for a puzzle on which I make no money. Are there any totally awesome resources people've used that they can share?

http://www.sxc.hu/, various free clipart and MS Powerpoint (you'd be amazed what you can draw w/ shapes if you're creative enough ;)

I just submitted my first puzzle (yay!) ... I think, I finished it but there was no big "I'm done submit my puzzle now" button. How do I know if it was really submitted?

It also did not take an mp3 file, oh well. I made an alternate image instead.

[28] [29] Oh, and you can now use flickr to search for various flavors of Creative Commons, the only weird thing is that I don't know if making a puzzle counts as commercial use or not. I'm not getting profit from what I produce, but Tanga theoretically could.

There are some that are blatantly usable w/o the no profit restriction.

P.S. I don't see where to add hints either. Is this something weird w/ the redesign?

I've seen some puzzle makers do this to cryptopixes, but not all have adopted it.

I think that if the answer to a criptopix has punctuation the puzzle maker should either not include the punctuation or show the punctuation in the puzzle

here is a good example of a cryptopix with punctuation in the puzzle

http://www.tanga.com/puzzles/3031-4-2-2008?comments_page=1#comment_173387

it's just a small suggestion that might help people solve easier

[31] I fully agree! Frustration over punctuation seems to come second only to errors in the "answer" field.

If you are making a Cryptopix, adding punctuation (commas, exclamation points, question marks, etc...) without showing them in the puzzle is a sure way to have your puzzle end up being negatively received!

But you don't have to take my word for it...

http://www.tanga.com/puzzles/2624-4-21-2008

5/8/08 Updated with comment from a hypercross puzzle maker

What about cryptopixes?

[34] I have been following the 500x500 rule for my cryptopix (cryptopi?) submissions, and that is how they have been published with no enlargement or compression.

Added Philana's suggestions about what makes a balanced hypercross, and how to make the crossword tool re-organize the grid.

Thanks Philana!

There should be a link to this discussion on any page you are taken to from a link under "Contribute" on the left menu. I for one, did not know a lot of these guidelines.

[37] *sigh* yep! that sure would be a Good Idea :-)
=================
Added a link to Arnotts "some Hypercross "Rules"" discussion

If I've missed an answer to this question I apologize...or if it's a problem common to my browser (firefox) then ditto...but I have been trying to create some hypercrosses and I'm having trouble getting the puzzle to shape up correctly on the grid. I'm entering the row the word starts on and the column it ends on and it works for some but for others it appears to be combining the two entries and making that particular square the starting point and writing across or down from there. For example, a word starting on row 2 and ending on column 8 is starting at the square with the coordinates r2xc8 and building from there. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[40] It looks like the instructions in the interface are wrong.

I think the STARTING positions are supposed to be entered
Starting row, starting column. The length is determined by the length of the word you have entered...

You must make sure the original grid size is enough hold all the letters or it will truncate...

Try that to see what you get.
==============================
Having the ending column doesn't make sense for the down words and the prompt doesn't change....

EDIT: The misstatement in the interface has been fixed

Thanks pb...that's what I thought. I've reentered two puzzles simply using the starting coordinate and that seems to work

*bump*

Regarding fonts:

I'd like to suggest that puzzle makers generally use sans serif fonts (such as Arial and Helvetica) rather than serif fonts (such as Times News Roman and Garramond).

There are numerous exceptions to this, but in general terms sans serif fonts are easier to read in a puzzle, especially if there is a background. Sometimes the thin strokes on a serif font blend into a picture and are hard to read.

If your software allows it, add a high contrast outline (white outline for black letters or vice versa) to your text.

Try to avoid small font sizes. You've got a very limited amount of real estate, so make it count.

Of course, you've got a lot of artistic license. I don't propose these as "rules" but as "considerations." If you've got a good reason to do it differently, then do it differently.

Regarding Puzzles that rely on recognizing a celebrity or cartoon character, or fictional specialized depiction of kumquats.... Please add something to the clue that will allow those people who don't recognize the picture get a handle on starting some kind of search in google, or wikipedia, or google images, or the search engine of their choice...

When a puzzle just requires *knowing* who the person pictured is, some people will recognize the picture right away and get it, however other people won't be able to solve it at all - and google image searching is not fun once you get to the 12th page with no results. It doesn't slow down the people who know, and will make the puzzle more fun for those who don't know.

Let me add not to use an ampersand in your hypercross creation, as some Mac and/IE users have issues:

http://www.tanga.com/crossword_puzzles/926-10-8-2008?comments_page=1#comment_253495

[31][32] I agree except when it comes to apostrophes. Sometimes an image can represent the whole contraction or possession, etc., so you just typically have to let the image stand and hope people know their grammar. Obviously a Cryptopix that avoids this all together is preferable...or writing out the contraction can work, but sometimes it is unavoidable....like for instance, "They're back!"

FYI...

When a puzzle is rejected by the moderators, you don't need to create a new submission to resubmit it... you can just update the rejected submission, and it will automatically return to the moderator queue for another review.

The one "quirk" to this is with a hypercross, since it appears that modifying the individual hypercross clue images will NOT cause the rejected puzzle to go back to the moderator queue. What will cause it to return to the queue is modifying the overall puzzle properties, such as the title or the grid size. You don't have to actually CHANGE anything... just go into the Modify screen and save the same values as it already has, and that's enough for it to be considered "updated" and "resubmitted".

I haven't experimented to see if removing or adding a hypercross answer will also work, too.

Thanks for reminding us on that. I had searched for the info earlier, but couldn't find the right post.

Now another question - I have puzzles that were nominated several months ago (September and October), but nothing has happened since then. Well, actually, one was nominated, the other was originally approved for unfeatured and then pulled back to be reworked to be reconsidered.

I know the '30 day rule' went away, but just wondered if there is a time frame nowadays?

Another helpful hint for puzzle makers:

Most image editors have a program-specific format that remembers all of the individual elements (pictures, text, etc.) that you've pieced together. You should save your puzzles in that format, not only while composing the puzzle, but even when the puzzle is complete. When you are ready to upload the puzzle to Tanga, save the upload format (JPG or PNG) as a second file with a different file name. That way, if you need to go back and make any changes, you can do so easily by going back to the original file in the program-specific format, and then re-saving the file to be uploaded to Tanga. Also, this is useful if you want to recycle any of the "parts" from a past puzzle for a new puzzle you are creating in the future.

The clues have been shuffled in all hypercrosses, whether they've been published or are waiting in the queue, evidently as a result of recent site upgrades.

Also, the image used in the puzzle's thumbnail is now the last clue image uploaded.

Edit: I had posted in this message how the new clue order is determined and how to work around it, but it's not working now like it worked yesterday. So things are evidently in flux. The safest thing is to assume that you cannot change the order of clues, so be sure to enter them in the order you want them to appear and keep in mind that the last clue image entered will be used for the puzzle thumbnail.

[49], [52] I think it happens a lot. I have 15 puzzles that were nominated more than 30 days ago. The oldest was nominated on Oct. 21st.

Somewhere this thread should probably include the "no punc" update ... encourage the puzzle makers to use it in OWW and CP because it won't impact the users while entering answering. If I'm correct, it was not implemented on HC.

I've noticed a large number of puzzle submissions where the images are 500x285, or 500x375, or something similar to that (short and wide). In talking with several of the authors, I have found that they have been using MSPaint to create their images, and I've had to teach them how to adjust the "canvas" in that tool to make the image the right size and shape. So, I figured that might be a good tip to add here, for anyone else having the same trouble.

First of all, the drawing area (also called a "canvas", since that's the area in which you can "paint") in MSPaint defaults to be the same shape as your monitor, but half as tall and half as wide. Since computer screens are wider than they are tall, this is why the puzzle images are being created that way. Here's how to adjust the shape of the drawing area:

1. Increase the size of the MSPaint window so you can see the entire drawing area (a white rectangle) surrounded by a grey background.
2. Just outside of each corner of the white rectangle, you'll see a small dot. The dot on the lower right-hand corner is the hardest one to see, as it is grey like the background, but just a lighter shade. This is unfortunate, since that's the only one of the dots that's actually useful.
3. If you float your mouse pointer over that dot at the lower right-hand corner of the white rectangle, it will change into a diagonal double-arrow.
4. Press and hold the left mouse button while it is a double-arrow, and you'll then be able to drag and reshape the drawing area. While you are dragging it, you'll see a dotted line that indicates the new edge of the reshaped area... and there will also be a display at the bottom right-hand corner of the MSPaint window to show you what the current size of the drawing area is (such as 960x600).
5. Drag the edge until the display at the bottom of the MSPaint window shows the desired size (500x500 for OWW and Cryptopix images, or 400x300 for Hypercross clue images), and then release the mouse button.

That's it! Now you can create your puzzle image, and it will be saved with the correct size. And MSPaint will also remember that drawing area size, so it will be the same the next time you open it, and you won't have to adjust it again (unless you switch back and forth between creating Hypercross and OWW/Cryptopix puzzles, and have to adjust it for those two puzzle types).

If you are having similar problems, but you aren't using MSPaint, or these instructions don't work for you, please let us know!

EDIT: I was just asked about modifying the canvas size in MS PowerPoint. PowerPoint does a dynamic image display based on inches (or centimeters) and not pixels, so you can't set the pixel size for the output file directly; however you can go into Page Setup and change the slide size for the screen display. I would suggest setting it to 5 inches by 5 inches for the OWW/Cryptopix (500x500), and 4 inches by 3 inches for the Hypercross clues (400x300). Then, when you use Save As to create the output image file, it should be in the proper aspect ratio for uploading to Tanga. (Note that if you are using centimeters, just do something similar to create a canvas with the proper aspect ratio... such as 8 cm by 6 cm for the Hypercross clues.)

[57] In MSPaint, you can check the size of your canvas by clicking on Image > Attributes. It will bring up a dialogue box that shows the exact sizes and you can adjust them there as well.

[58] That's a LOT easier than my drag-the-barely-visible-dot method. Thanks!

I have a feeling the Crossword Puzzle Tool link is going to change my life....RIP, graph paper, RIP.

Another tip for puzzle makers: Make sure to save your JPEG images in RGB mode, instead of CMYK mode. Some browsers (such as Internet Explorer) have problems with displaying CMYK JPEG images.

Generally speaking, animated puzzles are not well received. Just so you know.

I'm still seeing a lot of 500x375 puzzle submissions, so I wanted to call attention to [57] and [58] yet again...

[63] Something that would help that ALOT would be if the submission page said something about image size or referred to this thread or SOMETHING. When I first started submitting puzzles, I was really surprised at the lack of information on... well... anything when I went to submit. How is a new puzzlemaker supposed to know to come dig through the discussion forums? Something that fundamental should be on the submission page.

Those pages also need to be fixed with regard to how many points you get if featured. Both the crypto and OWW pages say in the text that you get 150 points yet the star above the box says 250. And hypers say 300 in the text but 500 in the star.

Oh, and it would be helpful if the form-letter TG that you get on a feature/publish/reject didn't mention the now-defunct 30 day rule and didn't tell you to contact renfurdson if you had questions. I've always interacted with the mod that started the TG. I'm pretty sure renfurdson would be a bit stumped if I responded to a request for a change from murdoctor by sending renfurdson a TG. :)

How long does it usually take after submitting a Hypercross before you get some feedback? Even an acknowledgement that it is in the queue to be evaluated would be somewhat comforting. As it is now, I don't even know if anyone realizes that I've created a puzzle.

[65] They know, trust me. I had the same problem and had the same wish as you... but it's there and as they'd say while you are on hold on the phone, "they will get to you in the order you were received"!

Don't be surprised if it takes a month or longer though. There are alot of people submitting puzzles right now. I have some I submitted in early June that I have not heard back on. It's hard when you are excited about a puzzle and have to wait so long...

Does anyone know how many of each puzzle are in the queue for each category at any one time? Would it be feasible to do more than one puzzle per category per evening? Or an unfeatured other than Sat.? Possibly a nightly hypercross....Or would there be too much concern for brains exploding from excessive tangaing?

Is a nightly HC practical from the perspective of the number of quality original puzzles submitted? Each one is comprised of what, 8 - 15 'sub-puzzles'?

If a nightly hypercross were adopted I'd suggest that at least every other night the HC would be one that clearly didn't require much googling.

I asked Arnott once about doing a nightly hypercross because I know from experience that it takes awhile for a hyper to get nominated. Hypers are time-consuming to make and they are time-consuming to moderate. I think there is some concern about the number of feature-quality hypers submitted AND the increased workload on the mods to pull that off.

[67] Some of your ideas (like more than one an evening) might work - although the one that doesn't get the feature box tends to get missed by a lot of people so it'd probably require a return to easy & old OWWs or something so each would have its own category. But solving the queue backlog by unfeaturing more puzzles would not be palatable to puzzlemakers. The unfeatured puzzles are supposed to be those that just don't quite work or aren't quite fair, for one reason or another. To build a puzzle that is feature-worthy and then have it unfeatured (which results in fewer views of your work) would be very frustrating. I've seen old threads from when the process was less predictable and saw puzzlemakers complaining about their puzzles being unfeatured just to fill an unfeatured spot. I wasn't here back then but I wouldn't like that either. Like most folks, I want my puzzles solved by as many people as possible! :)

[69] Thanks for the feedback. You make some great points. I agree that having a featured puzzle is much more satisfying for the puzzle maker than a feature-worthy puzzle being unfeatured.

Another question..I have about 8 puzzles submitted currently, and a few puzzles that I submitted recently were published, but earlier puzzles have not been acknowledged. I have heard no feedback on puzzles that I submitted about a month ago, and I have had puzzles featured that I submitted a week ago. Does this mean that the older puzzles have been rejected? Should I expect any feedback? I would assume they just hadn't gotten to them yet, but later submissions were already published.

I know that it takes time to go through all the submissions, and I do not envy the reviewers job, but I didn't know if they just didn't like the submissions, but not enough to reject them, or if they're just trying to ignore them and hope they go away. Let me know what you think.

[70] If they don't like them strongly enough, they will reject them (or unfeature them). My experience has been that a puzzle that is sort of on the edge - the mods aren't sure they want to tackle it - will sometimes get passed over in the hopes that one of the other mods will deal with it. (Or at least, that was the reason I was given once). FWIW, the one of mine that got most noticeably overlooked was picked up by Verve for feature fairly quickly after it was finally nominated and received a very good reception...

They usually try to moderate the puzzles roughly in order of submission and (with the exception I mentioned above) that's usually how I see my nominated puzzles get accessed. When I had a lot in the queue, I could gage how full the queue was by looking at the rate my puzzles were accessed.

Once they are nominated, however, they get featured in any order. I have one that was nominated end of June that hasn't run yet. Obviously, Verve doesn't care much for that one! :P Whereas he ran another one of mine within days of its nomination. I actually have 3 that are languishing in the nominated state while many of their later companions have ridden on to glory (or shame!) :)

I've also ocassionally had them get nominated sooner than I would have expected (considering the usual lag time) but that is more unusual. I think a thumbnail must just catch someone's eye or something. Once, several months ago, I submitted a puzzle, it got nominated the next day, and was published a day or two after that! Talk about hot off the press!

Oh, one other consideration, if you've tinkered with it, then it may have moved back to the end of the queue. There are some things you can supposedly do without moving to the back of the queue but other things push you back. On hypers, I think you can change pictures, etc. on existing clues (and maybe even add words) and you are fine. But if you edit the puzzle itself - change the title or change the size - your timestamp puts you back at the end. I'm not sure what moves you on the other puzzle types. But that might be another explanation.

New Tanga Update: Due to the redesign of the hypercross layout, puzzles appear to look better when they are wider than they are tall, up to the 20-24 column range. Once a puzzle exceeds that width, it may be better to "transpose" it, so it is taller than it is wide.

To "transpose" (or "flip") a hypercross, just swap all of the row and column values for each answer word (and for the entire puzzle layout), and switch each answer word's Across/Down setting.

Someone asked how to include links to puzzle solution images on my OWW yesterday and then someone else suggested I add it to this discussion thread so here it is...

First step is to get the image stored on Tanga's servers. The way I do it is to upload the "solution" image as the actual puzzle (this is temporary). Submit the puzzle then right-click, properties: cut & paste the address.

You can just put the address directly in your solution text and it is recognized as a link. But the link is long and ugly. If you want it to look pretty, you do this (without the spaces between the <, >, a, and / - I have to put them there or it will process them into something else):

< a href="your address link" > Click Here < / a >

You can, of course, put any text you want where I have "Click Here". That text will be what is shown in the hyperlink. The quotation marks around your address link are a necessity.

Then you go ahead and load your real puzzle image. The "solution" image is still on the server at the address you copied.

As an example:

Look at this OWW

So if you are having trouble deciphering the instructions above, you can right-click anywhere on the screen, select "View Source", and then find this text and you'll be able to see the actual text string that built up the link above.

You can also do this in comments. This is handy if you want to provide, say, a color-blind assist version of a color-based puzzle. I've done that on a couple of puzzles that haven't run yet. I just went ahead and nabbed the first comment spot and put my link in there.

EDIT: The OWW that ran last night was submitted before the revamp of Tanga's website. So the way I did it was a little different. (When you uploaded before, it gave you a puzzle number and you could then use http://www.tanga.com/photos/your number/original, or something like that, as your link.)

I HAVE done it since the redesign but you don't get the number anymore. Instead I did what I described above and got an address of this format: http://www.tanga.com/system/cache/500x500/uploaded_files/0055/1511/puzzlename?seriesofnumbers. That link still works but since it's the answer to a puzzle that hasn't run yet, I'd rather not use it here. :)

BUT, when I tried to recreate the steps just now for this thread, first by copying the address in the properties of the main puzzle image and then by uploading a whole new dummy image, I had an address of this format: http://d1np3q5ggw0og6.cloudfront.net/system/cache/500x500/uploaded_files/0055/3058/template-fp-. And THAT gets you to the "oops, sorry. We can't find that page" screen.

I haven't been able to duplicate. Maybe Tanga can weigh in on what they've changed that has broken it. It's POSSIBLE it has something to do with my work network configuration so I'll look again at home and revise this post if necessary. Sorry it's not more helpful right now but at least you've got the general idea on what has worked before.

[74] What I do is send a TangaGram and upload the image that I want to reference... then grab the URL from that image link within the TG, and paste it into my puzzle solution text.

[75] That's how Rocketeer had showed me how to do it way back in the day... of course, that way of doing it is based on the supposition that one has someone he/she can send a TG to! :-)

[75] Yeah, jebediehard had told me that's how Rocketeer did it but since he didn't have someone to TG with (at the time), he found a way to do it with solution images, which I liked because it gave you a way to do it without GIVING your answer to someone.

At any rate, anyone that wants to do it, use a method to get the image on the server. Then use the instructions in [74] if you want to format it nicely.

You could just send a TG to yourself:

- Go to anyone's profile other than your own.
- Click the Send a Tangagram link. You should get a URL like this...
https://secure.tanga.com/tangagrams/new?recipient_id=152411&user_id=293314
- Copy-and-paste the "user_id" number over the "recipient_id" number.
https://secure.tanga.com/tangagrams/new?recipient_id=293314&user_id=293314
- Hit enter. That way the message you compose won't bother anyone else -- it's just you talking to yourself. :-)
- Compose some random message ("asdf" works for me) and click the Post button. That will take you to a page showing the random Tangagram.
- Click on the "Upload Image" link in the TG header area.
- Browse to find the image.
- Click the Post button. The TG will now have the image in it.
- Click on the image in the TG and you should see the image full size.
- You can either use the URL for that page, or use your favorite method in the browser you're using to get the URL of just the image.

You don't have to start a new TG for each image you want to upload. Just use this one self-TG over and over to upload subsequent images. Just remember to get the URL for each one before uploading the next. Then again, you might want a separate TG for each image so that you'll always have access to all the images you've uploaded.

[79] Cool idea!!! I just created a "Tangagram to Myself" bookmark for that URL, so now I don't have to bug MedCheryl anymore when I want to store an image for a puzzle solution.

[79] Don't forget to press Enter after changing the URL.

Hmmm... I think someone must have been trying your suggestion ryanker... Because I got a TG from a friend that said it was a test TG to himself. I don't think he did it right. :)

[86] [88] I think that's why my 'test' didn't work. You need to hit 'enter' before you compose the message you want to send to yourself. Test #2 was successful : ).

[88] So it both worked and didn't work. Curious.

Or maybe I did mess it up. I'm going to go give it one more try right now. Let me know if you get any more weird TGs if you could.

(...assuming by "a friend" you're actually referring to me, since it was indeed your profile I started at.)

[90] No, I was the 'friend' who did it incorrectly. I also started at sonjahi's profile, but the first time I didn't reload the page with the modded url before I created and submitted the test TG.

It was probably just me, but if you hear of others making the same mistake I did perhaps you could edit your instructions slightly to make them idiot proof.

1)Bold the "hit enter" instruction as follows:
- Copy-and-paste the "user_id" number over the "recipient_id" number and hit enter.

2)add something similar to the following as the last line in your instructions:
"Compose your TG and click on the 'Send Tangagram' button."

p.s. I was the lucky winner of the 'Delete Posts 80-83' contest. Don't know how many flags it takes to delete something, but I hit the critical number. Yea! (obviously I'm a long time Bottom Feeder Contest loser looking for a cheap win wherever I can find it, lol)

Just revised and expanded the instructions back in [79].

[90][91] Ok, THAT's funny! I almost said "LakeLivin must have tried..." but decided it wasn't nice to call him out since he might be sensitive to looking like an idiot. (I'm not saying you are an idiot, LakeLivin, nor that I think you looked like one... just that some people don't like the light shined on their mistakes. I didn't think you'd mind but decided to play it safe).

At any rate, it's funny that I left it vague and made ryanker think that his attempt had failed. What are the odds of two people trying it to the same ghost recipient?! :)

[92] [93]Thanks ryanker, those instructions are now LakeLivin Proof, lol.

So I've long been annoyed with the hypercross submittal process. One thing that really irks me is when I am adding new clues. I click the button to add a clue, enter the info, save it... and then get kicked back out to the main window where I have to click the button to add a clue again. Same with editing. I wish I could stay on the edit screen so if I'm just moving clues around, I don't back out all the time.

Well, I stumbled upon a step saver in the adding clues situation. If you hit the save button twice, Tanga thinks you tried to enter a second clue on top of the previous clue and it tells you that there is already an answer there... AND LEAVES YOU ON THE NEW CLUE ENTRY SCREEN! I just did this deliberately on a puzzle and it worked. I enter a clue, click save, pause for just a brief sec, then click save again. When it tells me there is already a clue there, I upload the next picture and put its information in and do the same thing again.

I found it to be quite the time saver and reduced some of the tedium. Hopefully some of you will too.

[95] I've always just clicked the "Back" button on my broswer (or a keyboard shortcut to do the same) to get back to the edit screen.

[95] +1

[96] Yes, of course there's a workaround, but it's annoying that the system doesn't do the obviously correct thing to begin with.

[95] Such good news. Now, I think I'm going to go create a hyper just to be able to do that! Thanks Sonjahi!

[96] Less mouse movement my way. :) Although a keyboard shortcut would be good too.
[97] Here, here! And having a place to change which puzzle you are entering the clue for is just... weird. Every time I tab past it, I'm thinking, "really?" But I guess those complaints would be better placed on a different forum. :)

Suggestions for improving info for newbies:
1- In the links for contributing a puzzle, say what the file types and resolutions should be.
2- Reword the "rejection letter" so that the recipient understands that they can resubmit a modified puzzle (if indeed that's what was intended by the letter)

[100] You know, I've wondered if some of the complaints I've seen about "how come they published this junk but not what I submitted?" were from people whose puzzles were rejected with requests for improvements and those people either didn't read the content of the TG or didn't understand.

[100] I completely agree. I received several rejections on my first puzzle submission, with a note saying that the puzzle really wasn't being rejected, but just needed some changes (well, until the last one where it actually was rejected for good). Every time I got a rejection notice, my heart sank. It was very discouraging. I'd love to see that letter reworded to be less depressing to the recipient.

[100][102] I've asked mods about this. It's a preference thing on their part. When they "reject", it takes it out of the queue so that it isn't under consideration by other mods while you are working on it. They can also add some note in the answer field to indicate it is under moderation and just TG you with their suggested changes. There are benefits each way.

I agree though that it ought to change. Even after I had had many, many, many puzzles published and *knew* that a Reject didn't really mean reject, my heart still sank a little to see them. It doesn't get me down anymore but only because I've trained myself to ignore the form letter and look for the change request instead.

It'd be nice if Tanga had two different form letters that resulted in the same underlying action (pulling it from the queue) but had different wording. One could be used for a true reject and the other could be a change request.

[103] I like that idea.

bump to get "that" topic down the line.

[62] While some of the comments in your animated puzzle expressed general dislike of the use of animation, most complaints seemed to be because of the need of a separate link and/or because the animation speed was too fast. I am wondering if these things were fixed that if an animated puzzle would still be poorly received?

Did tanga's updates earlier this year fix the problem with animated images? For me, animated puzzle images work just fine. I tested CW's animated puzzle on 3 different types of operating systems (and on various browsers), and the puzzle's animation worked perfectly in each case.

Would anyone else care to check the puzzle out and say whether or not the puzzle's animation seems to be 'fixed' or not? I'm sure there are a few out there that it won't work for (maybe the same group who still can't view PNGs on HCs because they are forced to use a 3-year old copy of I.E. at work), but I'm wondering if animated puzzles now work in general.

It might be best to leave yes/no comments on CW's puzzle's comments section instead of here (I'd rather see that thread get clogged with yes/no posts over this one; this highly useful thread is already tough enough to navigate)

[100] Yes, please. The first three TGs I received from a moderator after submitting my first puzzle were "Your puzzle has been rejected." That is SO disheartening.

Can we make cryptograms that are only one word long or should those be submitted as OWWs?