General Discussion » PUZZLER FAQS
woo hoo! I've been waiting for this!
I feel better now!
Thanks TangaJoe!
*********************
Hey! Thanks for the formatting!!
:-)
PB, you might add something about refreshing the page in order to see one's stats.
[2] robrizob
LOL!
Man! I didn't even see your suggestion!!! I added that about a week ago (I think). I don't know which came first, your post or my edit.
Great minds...
(or fools???!)
[3] Funny. I just looked at the FAQ a minute ago when I was directing GrandpaDave here and thought "oh good, PB made the change I suggested."
Might want to add some tidbits here (or in another FAQ?) for prospective puzzle creators. I, for example, was recently schooled on the fact that image names, as uploaded, were still visible to the tanga audience-- much to my chagrin, since I had used the clue name for each of my pics when uploading it!
[5] AwpH
See
http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/1044-Note-to-Puzzl...
Which also has another link to a Puzzle Makers blog started in January 2006...
One who builds things is a builder.
One who butts things is a butter.
[5] AwpH
Per your suggestion, I also created a Puzzle Making Guidelines Forum, and linked it in.
Thanks
10/24/07 - added information on "you got it but we are not going to save your answers" hypercross question. It sure is a FAQ!
i have a question: why do we need tanga points
what do they do?
[17]
That's probably a whole new discussion thread but for a short answer:
1 - When you reach Super Tanga User (STU) status, Tanga sometimes has special offers that are for STUs only.
2- Sometimes there have been special awards for the top (10?) point winners in a month, or for the year. I don't know what the plans are under Tanga 2.0
I've been reading some of the puzzle making guidlelines threads, and I'm still confused. Has so much changed since the "upgrade" to Tanga 2.0 that many of the tips and tricks there are no longer valid?
1). I can't find any mention of how to "submit" puzzles. I've created a hypercross, but I see no way of submitting it for approval, or even indicating to anyone looking at it whether it is or is not complete. I could edit it at any time!
2). The original images in my hypercross clues were 500 x 500. Tanga rescaled them to 356 x 356. This images size is contradictory to every single post in both puzzle-building threads, which recommend such sizes as 500 x 500, 400 x 400, and 400 x 300. What is the truth regarding image sizes?
3). Many posts discourage the naming of pictures as the answer to a given clue because they claim the file name is visible to anyone examining the picture. It looks to me like whatever code is displaying the image in the pop-up window for my puzzle is renaming it at click time. Is this only because I am the puzzle's creator and everybody else is seeing the file names I used to upload?
All good questions - probably more suited to the puzzle maker guidelines thread rather than this one - but here are my non-official responses.
1) For hypercrosses - there is no "submit" button, and you can edit it at any time - even after the puzzle has been published (this allows the author who is monitoring the puzzle blog to make any fixes in realtime as the puzzlers point out the mistakes in the original images) - To indicate the hypercross isn't ready I would suggest naming it something like "DONT PUBLISH YET -- NOT FINISHED" and only rename it when you're done.
2) The last recommendation I saw for images was 400 x 300 - but I don't think Tanga has actually published an official guideline.
Last night's hypercross had images that were 400 x 300 (w x h) so that information, coupled with your information makes me think that the limits may now be 400 x 356 - you might try this to see if it works.
3) Filenames: Over the months the filename issue has swung back and forth. The last official information from Tanga was that they were NOT going to rename the filename, and therefore it was a good idea not to include the answer in the name. The action at Tanga has flip-flopped over time - and there have been times when you could see the original name of the file, so it's just good practice not to give away the answer in the name as we don't know what Tanga will do in the future.
What are the odds of having a puzzle published? Is Tanga building up a backlog of them? Or are my submitted puzzles subpar? How *are* they selected?
[24]
Odds... hmmmm
These numbers are unofficial and could be way off...
Well as of 2/08/08
approx 660 hypercrosses submitted 234 published - - - ~36% published
approx 2616 owws+cryptos submitted 984 published - - - ~38% published
So - unofficially it looks like a little better than a 1 in 3 chance of publishing.
I believe they are selected by a monkey slinging poo at renfurdson... but I'm not quite sure. Tanga has been saying for a few months now that they are working on a better feedback system, as well as expanding the number of puzzles published during the day to include unfeatured puzzles also.
You may be able to get a better answer from the Tanga guys by sending them a Tangagram.
Pb
p.s. the puzzles are not published in order either - tonight's OWW was submission #1033 - so it was submitted quite a while ago - I would guess last summer/fall
p.p.s - in the past renfurdson has solicited tangagrams if you have puzzles languishing...
p.p.p.s. Murdoctor said he submitted the puzzle 8 months ago.
It's too bad there's not some kind of peer review system; for example, I'd be willing to have one of my puzzles critiqued that I think is clever. Maybe we could all learn if we poked at a puzzle a few times a month.
There has been an informal peer review going on for quite a while. I have been both on the receiving and giving end of pre-publishing reviews of puzzles (as late as last week, in fact)
So, if you want a fresh pair of eyes on a puzzle, pick a couple puzzlers and ask! I think once, someone was too busy to help - which is a perfectly okay response.
When I critique, I try to keep a running commentary on what my thinking was, and what I've tried - to give the maker some insight as to just how twisted my thoughts are sometimes. :-)
I have a group of fellow puzzlers I run almost everything past before submitting. I've also helped out others who've asked me to take a look at things.
One of the three hypercrosses I've submitted has been published, so that's right about average. And I've had 2 of the 19 OWW and cryptos published, so I'm hoping I'm about due again!
[25] So will "a monkey flinging poo at renfurdson" be one of your upcoming cryptos?
2-15-08
Added information about editing the original discussion text and how to avoid the dreaded text running off the right side of the screen
reformatted and updated (a little)
and *bump* just for the noobs
© 2008 Tanga.com LLC. All rights reserved.
$22.99
Here are a collection of Frequently Asked Questions by noobie(and some oldie) Puzzlers.
If you have any more, please post.
And feel free to refer this to anyone who asks… :-)
What’s with the oddball usage of the word “Salt”?
In November 2006, someone inadvertently got confused between typing the answer in the Tanga answer box and typing something in the Tanga Blog message box. Don’t ask how that is possible (especially as the interface is integrated now). Anyway, he typed the word “salt” in the blog but supposedly was trying to answer the puzzle. It turns out “salt” was the answer.
Everyone was quite alarmed to see the answer so plainly displayed here.
Within four days it was common practice at Tanga to call any strong clues “salt”.
http://tanga.com/puzzles/88-11-5-2006
http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/99-Puzzle_11_05_06…
http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/102-Puzzle_11_6_06…
http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/110-Puzzle_11_7_06…
http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/112-Puzzle_11_8_06…
http://tanga.com/forum/blogs/111-Puzzle_11_9_06…
and the rest is history…
I keep seeing other strange references to “butter”, “loafer”, and “popcorn”. Wha’ts up with that?
Many of these references are to particularly memorable and notorious puzzles.
“Butter” was a puzzle with a simple picture and a lot of possible answers and no way to really solve other than to start trying different words that the word butter may lead you to. There was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth on that puzzle. The “loafer” puzzle during the January 2007 puzzlethon was similar.
The butter puzzle can be found here.
Other references have included OPERA, SNOWGLOBES and CLEOPATRA. So don’t go haring off on tangents if you see references to these. ;-). The list will probably grow as time goes on.
And what the heck are “Tanga Numbers” anyway?
or What do they mean by the verb “tanga-ing”?
In general the term “tanga numbers” refer to numbers that are applied to a “key” (sometimes the alphabet, sometimes a word – or words – in a puzzle) to help the solver to pick out the appropriate letters to form a word or words…
When doing a puzzle you sometimes end up with a set of numbers. Because the answer is a word, you need to find the way to convert those numbers in to letters. The phrase “tanga number” was coined to indicate that such a translation needs to be done.
A Tanga number is usually a number that will be applied to a key to translate it into a letter.
So if the key is the ALPHABET, then: 1=A, 2=B, 3=C….26=Z. So if you had the tanga numbers “20”, “1”, “14”, “7” and “1” you would get “TANGA” (20=T,1=A and so on).
The alphabet is the simplest key.
Sometimes the key could be a word. So, for example, if you were given “3rd March” you might apply the number 3 to the word March and get “R”.
Often in a puzzle there are many potential candidates for the key and the trick to solving is figuring out what the key is, and there can be more than one key in a puzzle… (that trips me up all the time)
For example you might be given these numbers 2/4 4/4 8/3 3/5 10/3
Now what? You’d have to recognize them as dates February 4th, April 4th, August 3rd, March 5th and October 3rd and then translate them into “RIGHT”
- but until you recognize them as dates – you might have tried to “tanga” any of those numbers to the alphabet – or something else in the puzzle – depending upon how those numbers were presented. So it can be tricky – and the trickier ones are usually cataloged as “HARD”
Hey, I have a puzzle I want to submit.How do I go about doing that? And do you have any experienced tips you can share?
There is another blog in this forum with several tips. Click on Puzzle Making Guidelines to get to it.Also in January 2007, a forum was established for the puzzle makers.To access it, click here: Puzzle Makers Discussion .
How do people get the number of the response they are referring to to appear in the puzzle comments?
Enclose the comment number in square brackets, so comment 7 would look like this:[7]
The tanga engine automatically makes that into a link back (or forward) to the comment being referenced.
When I have created a discussion thread, and then go in and edit it, the text is really funky and runs off the right side of the page after editing. How do I fix that?
When you go back and edit the original text, the Tanga system automatically puts spaces at the beginning of the new lines – thus messing up the text when it is re-posted. To fix that – go in and remove the extra spaces at the beginning of the lines (yes – it’s a pain, I don’t know why Tanga doesn’t fix it)
BGG seems to be used less nowadays, but here is some information anyway… I keep seeing posts like “Meet me at BGG” or “Check out the salt at BGG” in the puzzle blogs? What is this “BGG”?
BGG is tanga shorthand for BoardGameGeek.com, a website with a bunch of cool stuff and reviews, but most importantly (from a Tanga-puzzler-centric point of view) they have a running blog where the people can post questions and hints with spoilers hidden so as not to incur the wrath and/or scorn of the Tangan community by hinting too broadly on the Tanga blog.
The Master Tanga Puzzler Thread is http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/131250 (and then click the link to the last page, because that is where you will find the most recent posts)
And what do people mean by “check GM” or “GM me”?
“GMâ”is short for GeekMail. If you are a registered member at BGG you can use the GeekMail system to correspond with other BGG members. This is often used by the Tangans to help each other with more explicit puzzle help.