to CWolfCW:
For the record I solved the puzzle and it took ma a day to figure out, because my native language isn't english. Yes i have a friend who i was shared hints to solve the puzzle, but as far as i know that is not forbidden. If you want i will withdraw the entry, but first you need to comfirm it is what you want
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Thank you kind sir. Puzzles were good fun. Shame on those who leaked the answers. Nice piece of detective work though ;)
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If you would be so kind, and you share your thoughts with me, why am I a cheater, it would be greatly appreciated. Because you are wrong, Sir. And I do not now about the others, but if I am considered a cheater, which I am certainly not, everyone can be marked. I also have 10+ puzzle-giveaways, because i do like them. So, think what you want, and check those "cheaters" again. See ya around, Maross.
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I have strong reasons to believe you guys shared answers or hints that directly led to solves with each other. I have also asked to not share hints or answers.
From official SG FAQ: "Puzzles: Do not leak, post answers, suggest hints, or directly link to the prize/giveaway."
What are the chances of so many people from the same group/friends list suddenly solving the same puzzle within minutes of each other and entering when so many others took much longer? The stats for solves/entry was roughly 1-2 every hour or so and actually slowed down around the 25 entry mark, before you guys suddenly joined.
You guys who all knew each other just happened to solve it all almost simultaneously when others had a much more difficult time? I find that highly suspicious. Add to that that one of your relations entered the giveaway without a solve as far as I could tell. What would you have me think? Would you not find that very strange as well?
Right after you entered BigBlue01, many of your relations from your group/friends list entered within minutes of each other. Then several hours later, two more within minutes of each other again... still from the same group/friend list. Can you truly tell me that you guys did not share hints/answers or even the URL?
And maross80: I really don't care how many puzzle giveaways you have entered. Thus far, it appears you have contributed nothing back for 11 months and entered 1297 giveaways. The fact is, puzzle giveaways give you a much higher chance to win if you know the answers as less people will enter. If you guys shared hints/answers or even the URL amongst yourself, how hard is it really?
But lets say I am incorrect and you all actually solved it on your own. Feel free to stay in the giveaway then. I will have to consider if I do another giveaway in the future in this method.
However, currently I do not have a good reason to change my position from the information I have.
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"I really don't care how many puzzle giveaways you have entered."
I never entered them, i make them for others to enter :). This one is the first one i have participated, thanks btw, 5-6 was nice :). Also, that itstoohard.com is such a great idea, because my puzzles solutions are steam keys, so people can test them without being suspended for an hour on steam after a few tries :D.
About the sudden jump in solutions/entries - your puzzle was linked in a forum, so few dozens of geeks jumped on it in seconds. Trust me, if the url was leaked on that forum with about 100k visitors/day, you numbers would have gone up by 4+ digits.
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Okay, my bad in interpreting your stats? Although your profile page begs to differ? However, I do not assume the URL was leaked publicly. Perhaps via chat or e-mail.
Thing is, you're still not really convincing me as to why so many people solved it almost simultaneously. I have already posted this puzzle over many different sites and via word-of-mouth but the rate of solves remained nearly static for hours. You guys made it an anomaly and you all happened to know each other - this is what caught my eye to begin with.
There was only a single entry thus far that appears as though no solve was made. I have been monitoring the puzzle page every few minutes and an entry showed up without a solve (no solves for hours either) then shortly after that, another person entered from the same group/friends list within minutes.
Basically, your group/friends had roughly 7 entries in a cluster with practically no other entries from anyone else within that timeframe. It does not make sense to me.
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maross80 has puzzles in our local forum that much more harder sometimes so i dont think he needed to cheat for these.
Nevertheless i might be a cheater since i was informed about the game on the same forum as the accused, and even more sinfully i asked for help from an offline friend regarding the first question (i still think its not the good sollution but hey it was correct...) So i withdraw myself.
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Hey, guys. I read the long discussion and got scared. Me and my boyfriend solve puzzles together, we put work in it and then, of course, we both enter it if we solve (well, I don't, if it's some zombie shooting or car driving game xD ). But.. You would consider this breaking the rules?? We didn't leak it on public places, didn't paste answers etc. All we do is work together to solve it.. So I am confused.. This rule can't ban working together for the answers... (though I absolutely understand the usual leakage of answer/url on forum or somewhere else - that is another thing).
Any thoughts on this?
P.S. - this is an amazing puzzle! <3 Not done yet :P
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Well, I mean, the whole point is to work on it by yourself since that would mean the difference between 0-2 entries whereas people who work on it alone might have less of a chance. Granted unless you admit it, it's hard to enforce usually. There was actually another pair who I'm reasonably certain worked on it together as well earlier than the above but I let it slide since it wasn't blatant.
However, the reason I became concerned/annoyed was when I saw 5-7 entries in a cluster from a single group/friends list. In the above, some have partially admitted and one has admitted in private - I will not be naming those who have admitted and encourage those 'caught' to participate in future giveaways with more honour.
As for your case, I'll let you decide whether you feel it deserving or not - the stance I eventually took with those I suspected (with good reason) on the off-chance I was incorrect. Good luck.
I should note that the original rate of solve/entry was 1-2 per hour. We are currently at 2-3 per hour - these rates are not averages over time. I expect due to the difficulty of the puzzle (especially certain string answers) that the rate will remain fairly static or progress very slowly as I see it now.
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Well, you are very wrong if you expect the solving rate to be steady. It's always growing towards the finish line, because people grow more inclined to solve it fast and work harder. Besides, as more people enter, the incentive to solve the puzzle raises. It works like that with every single of my puzzles: sometimes I have to wait a couple of days for the first entry, but when people see that it in fact is solvable they grow more eager to do it as well, and do it faster as the competitive factor kicks in. And some just take their time to find the solution.
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As I stated before, I expect the rate of solves to either stay static or increase slowly. As you can already see, it's increased from 1-2 per hour to 2-3 per hour. What occurred was a 5-7 during a period of low solve with all persons involved from the same group/friends list... add to that the fact they mention they were solving it through a forum resource.
As another example of someone who attempted to get help:
Perty684: http://www.steamgifts.com/user/Perty684
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From my experience the increase in entries on puzzle giveaways is rather logarithmic. Seems most people quickly decide whether they are going to try or not and then ignore given puzzle.
But you can get spikes when many new people get to see it, like when after some inactivity the thread is bumped or otherwise brought to attention by someone (like mentioned on some chat - without actually discussing solutions).
Sadly, sharing solutions/giveaways is a problem sometimes just because people feel like they are allowed to do that, despite rules being clear on that. That's why I tend to remind clearly that it is not allowed (EDIT: which OP obviously did as well)
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Can anyone tell me if in Q6, in the "group" field we need to put in singular or plural (e.g. "Nororeans" or "Nororean") ?
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Maybe Bluerainbow solved it earlier and didn't have the points to enter?
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I'm almost there, spend a lot of time on question 2, like others before me finding the correct word was difficult. I'm pretty confident Q6 will be easy to solve in comparison :P
Also Q4, isn't that an impossible triangle? Guess that's why it is a riddle...
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sigh Some people are just douches... asking on more than one forum and providing hints/answers, not limited to: IGN PUBLIC forums and even on Yahoo?! REALLY PEOPLE?!
I am seriously considering not running anymore giveaways from a site like this - especially of top tier titles. Some people have no honour/respect.
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:( I love puzzles, hope nobody is too put off by this sort of thing.
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My difficulty rating of this puzzle: 2/5. (Of course, you guys might feel it to be higher. =^_^= )
http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/HW2RmBsS
This is a 'puzzle' to obtain the URL for the 'private' giveaway made on SteamGifts!
Please do not share hints or answers. Consider also that the more entries there are, the lower your chances of winning the prize. :P
All answers are a single word or number or format.
Good luck!
Deadline: ~1 hour
Current Entries: 87 (Suspected Remaining Cheater Entries: 10 - strongly suspected, if not more)
(Future puzzles will be harder!)
=====
If anyone is wondering why I am monitoring this puzzle solving giveaway so closely for suspected cheaters is to protect those who solved it fairly and honourably. I am also doing this to gauge how difficult I need to make a future puzzle giveaway or whether it is worthwhile to make another at all.
=====
[Archived Notes of Suspected Cheaters - Moved to personal storage, including screenshots of websites and profiles]
What is however interesting to note is where the majority of the suspects originate from, globally. When will people learn that when you have 2+ friends (other than yourself) that happen to solve a puzzle nearly simultaneously where hundreds of other people have been unable to solve on their own, it makes you stand-out a lot. The chances of it happening are very low.
Isn't it sad that >10% are suspected cheaters? Statistical analysis is useful and depressing at times.
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