@vickibma
I respect your attitude and understand that you don't want to play 'fishers' as you perceive it as a form of cheating.

I play Scrabble because I enjoy word play of any kind such as codewords - and also those puzzles where you have a set of mixed up letters and have to rearrange them into the original words. Or find as many words as you can from a single word. So I treat Scrabble in the same way - I 'fish'. You and I see the game differently!

I don't want to have to learn all those 2-letter words so I like to see them in front of me. That's a big plus for me. Out of interest, I would like to know if you think that the 2-letter word list should be removed on a similar basis to removing the 'Move Strength'?

Following your purist approach further would imply that Lex should also no longer offer the facility for checking if words are valid either!

I can offer a different, but somewhat related, perspective. I play online chess and am aware that my opponents will 'fish' for moves using a chess engine. Also they will deliberately play lower rated players so that their rating increases and they never lose.

Among many other tricks, they will stop playing for a while if they are losing badly - hoping that I will think they have left the game and give up the play. In that case, my time would run out and I'd lose on time (I always wait them out). I play them all, I'm just happy to improve my game by facing whatever comes my way.

In a similar way to chess, why not just be happy with the wins you get IN SPITE of opponents who 'push themselves to play better by 'fishing'. You say you usually win anyway!

IMHO the Lexulous experience (in its present form) is the best online Scrabble experience on offer.

Dear Admin,

May I suggest that some of the forum posts could be safely deleted?

I refer to the ones in which insults are hurled, personal attacks pursued? Indeed, I am becoming reluctant to recommend the site to friends when the posts have become so unpleasant.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Can we have a button to access this forum? Somewhat non-intuitive to have to access via User menu (top right), then Resources - after which the screen shows various dictionary links ... but no link to the forum is apparent. You just have to somehow divine for yourself that scrolling sown will finally reach the forum posts.

Stefan Fatsis beats Scrabble legend, David Gibson in a game explained on this Twitter link. Enjoy!

https://twitter.com/stefanfatsis/status/971215488616460288

“I always did poorly in the SAT verbal. But about 10 years ago a supernatural love for words came upon me. When you get changed, you can’t help it. It’s spiritual.”

Fatsis also writes about another top game here:

https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/08/a-breakdown-of-the-best-game-at-the-north-american-scrabble-championship.html

@mapmakere
Thanks for responding. Funny how you and 'itaintsam' both went for 'pulchritude'!

Crepuscular:
“the evening's crepuscular charm”
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Crepuscular

Puce (not sure that this always fits the bill)
I thought about colors I hated: ecru, puce, lavender, beige and black.
("I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings")
Uncle Vernon stopped, his fist still raised, his face an ugly puce.
("Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban")

I deliberately made this exercise to make the point that there is a natural evolution in language relating to onomatopoeia e.g. cuckoo, sizzle. And, yes, I had to google for the spelling of onomatopoeia! LOL

I don't understand what this is all about. I've not seen these 'dots' and assumed missing posts had been deleted by the poster.

If these naughty words appear in Google and elsewhere then, surely, Lexulous has no right to censor them.

Are we sitting in a little corner of the web preening ourselves for being "holier than thou"? I hope not.

Any justification for it?

"... We were shown to our spot, one of 86 tables [some countries have more than one team], each with a name card adorned with a flag. The Turkish team consisted of four women wearing hijabs and skirts with a jigsaw pattern. “I can’t believe it, but I’ve got butterflies,” my wife, Julie, said. She started doing stretches as if she were running a 5K. One of the Turkish puzzlers had her head down and hands cupped in prayer. I said my own secular prayer to myself: please don’t let us finish last ...

(the puzzle is an African safari scene)

... It’s become clear the monkey will be a problem – it’s the same colour as the tree. “Monkeys used to be my favourite animal,” says. “Don’t make me hate you, monkeys!” I love that Julie, once sceptical, has fully committed. She’s trash-talking the puzzle.

We’re making headway on the zebras, but the elephant is troublesome. He and the rhino are both grey, but slightly different. This is a good life lesson, I tell my sons. Life is full of subtleties, different shades of grey. Nothing is black and white. No response. I tell myself it’s because they’re focused."

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/may/28/i-never-liked-jigsaws-so-what-am-i-doing-representing-the-us-at-the-puzzle-olympics

I've always felt uneasy about entering Scrabble words when I do not understand their meaning. So it's great to see a complete list of definitions which has now appeared under the board (instead of just the last two that have been played).

Thank you to the Lexulous team, much apppreciated.

@betterlate1-0

"cant you keep track of what happens in the games without disclosure?"

Clearly there's a distinction between cheating with some sort of Scrabble software that suggests moves and the fascination of looking for a better move when 'Move Strength' says 23%.

In chess, both if the above cases would be cheating because you only have to choose between a handful of moves, say Nf3, a4, Qa4+ or Bg2. The chess engine might then give the respective results as 23%, 45%, 80% and 15%. Then you have a clear message of which variation to check over. It's cheating!

In Scrabble the datum tells you nothing about which combination of letters is optimal, nor where to put them. So I use it and feel that 'Move Strength' spurs me on to find a better word!

@dragonfly131 (Yes, I know the dragonfly has probably gone)

When you pay to use a site like this, you are paying for updates, right? And if you don't like 'em, OK complain (politely) and hope you are listened to. Try doing this with Farcebook, Micro$oft and Twatter and see how far you get.

Clearly this site is run for the love of the game rather than making loadsa dosh like the aforementioned. And IMHO the site works fine anyway so I say let's just concentrate on the game.

@dan said in My Lexulous account is inaccessible:

@mistertoad Yes. Unfortunately, decent customer service and help from staff appear to be nonexistent these days.

To be fair, I emailed them a few weeks back and they fixed a scoring problem for me right away. Writing to them at admin@lexulous.com is the best option for workaday issues, I think.

@dan I assume you've emailed them at:
https://www.lexulous.com/v2/contactus

@thatguythere202

"We are being doxxed/hacked"
OK, if so then I agree it's serious ie doxxing being 'the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information'. I should have looked the word up before replying, sorry.

"And stop calling me Shirley"
I didn't - as far as I know you are called 'thatguythere202'. Well, I suppose you might be John McEnroe! LOL

Dear Admin,

May I suggest that some of the forum posts could be safely deleted?

I refer to the ones in which insults are hurled, personal attacks pursued? Indeed, I am becoming reluctant to recommend the site to friends when the posts have become so unpleasant.

Thank you for your kind attention.

"You can not be serious, serious!"

@jd-scott said in Recommend addition/removal of words:

Please get rid of JEW, JEWED, and SPIC. Plus, any other slurs that I haven't seen yet.

Of course there are many words which are offensive. However they do exist and they do appear in the dictionaries on which Scrabble games are based.

For example, if I am called a "Grammar Nazi" then the word 'Nazi' is being referenced to mean that I am too fussy about grammar rules and not with the intention of suggesting that I was a "Nazi" or behaving like one. In that case I should not complain about the word "Nazi" being used nor would I expect the word "Nazi" to be expunged when it is only being used as to say that I am excessively obsessed with the minutae of grammar rules. Context is all.

This whole subject has been debated in these forums many times and, basically, the conclusion was that, if a word appears in the dictionaries, then it can be used in Lexulous - no matter how offensive it may be. Commentators have suggested that complaints may be directed to those who compile the dictionaries themselves rather than to websites who merely reference their entries.

For interest, you might like to look at the Urban Dictionary website:
https://www.urbandictionary.com/. Offensive some of the entries may be yet free speech is of paramount important. You may come away feeling that many entries are discussed rationally, humorously and intelligently. I would naturally welcome further debate if you so wish. I hope none of this spoils your enjoyment of this website which gives so much pleasure to so many people.

@betterlate1-0 said in "... the white-knuckle, high-stakes tables of the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship":

@mistertoad had no idea they have that?
https://worldjigsawpuzzle.org/en/home_en.htm

@mistertoad who was the Jigsaw of?
Image of the jigsaw puzzle referred to in my original post:
https://almacendelpuzzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/19837-1000x789.jpg

World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship 2019 - Teams event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcJP5fCdOBo

"... We were shown to our spot, one of 86 tables [some countries have more than one team], each with a name card adorned with a flag. The Turkish team consisted of four women wearing hijabs and skirts with a jigsaw pattern. “I can’t believe it, but I’ve got butterflies,” my wife, Julie, said. She started doing stretches as if she were running a 5K. One of the Turkish puzzlers had her head down and hands cupped in prayer. I said my own secular prayer to myself: please don’t let us finish last ...

(the puzzle is an African safari scene)

... It’s become clear the monkey will be a problem – it’s the same colour as the tree. “Monkeys used to be my favourite animal,” says. “Don’t make me hate you, monkeys!” I love that Julie, once sceptical, has fully committed. She’s trash-talking the puzzle.

We’re making headway on the zebras, but the elephant is troublesome. He and the rhino are both grey, but slightly different. This is a good life lesson, I tell my sons. Life is full of subtleties, different shades of grey. Nothing is black and white. No response. I tell myself it’s because they’re focused."

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/may/28/i-never-liked-jigsaws-so-what-am-i-doing-representing-the-us-at-the-puzzle-olympics

@sakamvari said in Rate deduction:

@mistertoad No, as of now points are only adjusted on resigning.

So if a player is clearly losing the game, and they do not wish to suffer a drop in their rating, all they need to do is leave the game without resigning? This would seem to reward bad behaviour!

@pangloss said in The Ads on this Forum:

@mistertoad it makes me wonder if people who run websites and program computer actually use them to see what the end result is. It doesn't seem so in this case.

Interesting thought. Certainly they check after every iteration of the site, just to make sure the website isn't broken.

However, they probably use an ad-blocker so they don't get distracted when working on the site!