You’ve missed out some of the answers in one of today’s puzzles – why?

The answer to this question used to be that some of the papers had phonelines you could ring to get an answer if you were stuck and we didn’t want to be in a position where we could be accused of depriving those lines of income. However, the Independent and Guardian now make their puzzles (along with the answers) available online for free so this policy isn’t relevant any longer.

However, you may still find that a blogger leaves out a couple of answers here and there. This is purely down to the time available to the blogger to write his or her post. 

Why haven’t you blogged about today’s Indie/Guardian/FT puzzle?

We aim to post every day but, sometimes, real-life gets in the way. Internet connections go down, work builds up, children need caring for and illness strikes. There’s not much we can do about that – if someone’s available to step in and provide a quick substitute blog, they will.

I solved today’s puzzle and would like to blog about it – what do I need to do?

That depends. I’m always looking for people to join the blogging team as “subs” to cover for absence – if you’re interested in doing that then send an email to admin {at} fifteensquared {dot} net - don’t forget to mention which paper(s) you’re interested in blogging.  I can also offer “guest” blog spots for the non-weekday puzzles we cover; this is ideal if you want to try your hand at blogging just once and don’t want to commit anything yet. Again, send me an email if you’re interested.

Why do give your solving times? Isn’t that just showing off?

Well, partly;-) Solving times aren’t there to make you feel bad, just to give an indication of how difficult (or not) a puzzle is. For example, if one of the quicker solvers takes 30 mins to solve, that’s a pretty good indication that it was a very tough puzzle regardless of the fact that it may be a quicker time than you’ll ever be able to manage (although with practice…). 

How many people read the blog each day?

On a weekday, we currently get anywhere from 2500 to 3000 pageviews per day. At the weekend and bank holidays, that drops to between 1000 and 1500. Presumably you’re all off doing exciting weekend-type activities. 

Can you link to my site/blog?

If it’s crossword-related, has good content and you don’t mind linking back to us – yes. Send a mail to admin {at} fifteensquared {dot} net. 

Someone has posted a “placeholder”  – what is this?

As from 11 April 2008 we have started using placeholders to allow commenting to start before a full post is published.  This will help in those situations where a blogger only has time to post late in the day. This is how they work:

• Either a full post or a placeholder will appear  by 3.30pm. That’s your cue to start commenting. If a comment is made on another post asking after the whereabouts of either the post or the placeholder it will be deleted.  The same goes for questions/comments about clues for other puzzles.
• If a full post has not appeared by around 7pm-ish, it will be considered fair game for anyone to post a blog of their own – I will edit the placeholder at the time to confirm this. If you’re not on the blogging team then your blog will have to appear as a comment but this has happened a couple of times in the past and it seemed to work ok. All I ask is that if you plan to write something of your own, you let everyone else know in a comment so that we don’t have more than one person writing about the same puzzle.
• This will apply to all puzzles, not just the Guardian.
• That’s it.

I have a question you haven’t answered here.

Send a mail to the “admin” address above. If it’s one that others are asking, I’ll add it to the FAQ. If not, I’ll reply directly to you.