Er? Journeymen? Not all of the commentary to which I think refer is by Journeymen. I for one have not reached that status, and I know of at least one other who has not made that grade.

But what is your point? Is it that you do not understand the dialogue that frequently occurs there? Believe me, some of it befuddles me. Some of it refers to 'historical' exchanges between some members; some comment is made and some wit refers back to some favorite thread. It does leave you feeling s though you not part of the 'in-crowd', but so crumbles the cookie.

I think it was you, Percy queried 'HWMNBN' and you probably didn't get a reply. Suffice to say, think of a character in Harry Potter; there was once someone who blatantly chose to accept site rules and must therefore remain nameless - enough said on that matter.

Please feel free to attempt clarification for other matters, in this thread, if this has not satisfied you.

Hey Brianjn! just noticed yr 6th puzzle has gone live today,
CONGRATULATIONS!

I've submitted two so far, hope they get through... eventually

I'm a journeyman, and I rarely understand a word that's in the chatterbox. But there must be something to it, or we wouldn't have gotten so many complaints when a certain troll filled it with nonsense about two months ago.

I wonder... whatever happened to the movement for live chat?

Percy, if you take a look at the number of comments made on most threads you will find that they are not usually very lengthy.

Also if you care to, take a look at when some of these were started.

Tristan raised 'live chat', with a link, just a few postings above.

There are many questions that many of us here could give you 'answers' to, but they would only be, in general, our suppositions. Some of the longer stayers and Scholars would have more knowledge, but even then, the site all comes back to one person, the Director, Levik.

This has been his creation, and I would assume that he has taken advices and suggestions from those who registered in the earlier years of this site.

Levik has indicated from time to time that he is not as able to spend time as he'd like with Perplexus due to other commitments which are probably bound up with the total running of www.flooble.com. I shouldn't wonder that he believes that abuse is less likely in the format that he has created, and that members can assist with regulating the site under this format. Maybe too, if he opened a chat room, that may have implications on the bandwith which he is allowed (or allows himself) for the running of this site.

<Sam>: Yayy! I submitted my thesis today!
<Sam>: Exaptation as a means of Evolving Complex Solutions
<Sam>: whew! Now I have time to play
<Larry>: Thanks, Percy. Enjoy.
<Penny>: Sam, I submitted that one five years ago.
<Penny>: (j/k)
<Sam>: Good thing you told me it was a (j/k)... I might have been worried otherwise
<Sam>: (j/k)
<Percy>: Congratulations Sam. (or is this a Turing Test?)
<Percy>: and congratulations brianjn on becoming a journeyman!
<Penny>: Didn't Charles Dickens write a book about that ? ("Great Exaptations")
<Richard>: "an attribute of a species that comes to serve an adaptive role other than that which mediated its establishment"
<Penny>: For example, the human appendix ?
<Tristan>: What adaptive role does the appendix serve?
<Percy>: maybe its an ape hen dna mixup?

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/bumperball/play.php

I like this game, does anyone know where you can play this in real life?

Re: Nonspecific thread Percy 2005-08-24 12:56:43,

A few days before this a person called Lucero logged onto what he/she thought was a chatroom and got peeved when there was no answer. You commented that the FAQ on this site was good. I followed with a note re disenchantment. Hint 6 1 17. Since this is a puzzle site I was referring the person to the 6 1 17 link for common advice about the site.

Preempting Penny? Penny has a very fast wit, and sometimes one might assume what might be her likely reply given the chance.

People new to the site tend to try to chat in the CB, but most users spend their time exploring and trying to solve puzzles. If you stick around for a while you will see that people come, comment like crazy for a while and then disappear. Very few stick around a long time. Those that do, get a feel for the others that stick around. Some like Penny are here almost everyday. Others like myself pop in when we get the chance.

Most who stick around are very, very smart and usually quite helpful to the dimwitted like myself.

I've never been in a chat room, so I can't really compare the CB to a chat room. Surely you know by now that you can't sit and wait for a reply. That really doesn't happen on this site.

I like the CB though because I can usually look back over several days and see what was being discussed. That is why I disliked "HWMNBN". He filled the CB so much that I couldn't follow anyone else's comments. I hope that makes sense.

It is nice, in a way, to be able to keep track of everything on the CB. But that's not the type of thing you could depend on indefinitely if this site is to grow. I'm not particularly familiar with chat rooms either, but I can give you my impression of how most forums compare with this one here.

The first thing you would notice about any other forums is all the features lacking here. Searching, sticky threads, editting comments, signatures, quoting, annoying smilies--they all seem to be standard in every forum but this one. And yet, most forums, having larger communities, are not nearly as friendly as this one. They get updated far too often to keep track. Many have serious troll problems, and people are quicker to accuse. There is usually a set of official rules somewhere, unlike here where the rules are unwritten. I've also noticed that a lot of forums make a fuss about how we should post in old threads instead of starting new ones. In short, it is a completely different environment.

I sure think it would be great if we had live chat. It would be our third line of communication (the other two being the forums and the normal chatterbox), allowing for more casual talk.

Speaking of casual talk, another pointless link:
hexagonal black box
...very difficult.

The hexagonal black box...interesting new puzzle. Thanks, Tristan, for point-ing out the link.