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Balfour@104 on site feedback earlier today said that the site appeared to have forgotten his name and email. I posted on Ludwig (@23) a few minutes ago and was also asked to enter name and email. This hasn’t happened before.
@1 The only thing I can think of is that I made an alteration yesterday to drop “www” from the site name. Perhaps your cookies were stored with the www prefix.
Thanks Admin, that’s probably right. It happened again this morning so I have re-entered the details and ticked the ‘Remember me’ box.
Hector – same here. I just assumed that latest updates had caused the problem, but admin’s explanation sounds better
Hi, is there any way to get unsolved Indy cryptics over 2 months old, thanks, Bob
Bobfos @ 6
If you place a comment on one of my blogs, it will be sent to me including your e-mail address. I will then be able to send you a few blank Independent crosswords from more than two months ago.
Has Gemolo 6 gone AWOL?
lemming @8.
You’re right it has. One of our bloggers has tracked it down – I have restored it:
https://fifteensquared.net/2025/08/31/gemelo-no-6-plain/.
Thanks for the restoration/reconstruction, comments and all.
(Boosting my comment on Vlad’s Prize) I just noticed that “nho”, Never Heard Of, isn’t included in the list of abbreviations in the FAQ. Should it be added?
Of course, I use it a lot because there’s so much I’ve nho! 🙂
@12 I’ve added it now
Thanks Admin!
No Indie blog today?
Comments 89 to 91 on Monday’s Philistine puzzle appear to have by-passed the spam blocker.
…and #35 on R.I.P. Hectence and #31 on York S&B threads too.
I am studying hard to improve my cryptic crossword skills. The solutions on this site where the answers are hidden are so much more helpful as I can go back and try and figure it out myself from the parsing. Is there anyway this can be extended to the Guardian Cryptic?
Will there be a blog for the Independent today?
An @16
This question has been asked many times.
All the bloggers are volunteers and have varying skill levels. The formatting for Quick Cryptic is quite tricky and takes a lot of time. Given that it’s only 11×11 means less effort than a normal 15×15.
I will do some investigating to see if there is any way to semi-automate things but don’t hold your breath.
Hi KenMac , not a complaint as always , I know the bloggers have their own lives to deal with , but no Gemelo blog today . If it is something simple …..
@19
Blogger has confirmed that he has had problems. Blog should appear sometime soon.
I don’t know, Admin, whether it was you or loonapick who/ intervened to delete RogerPat’s comment @57 in the forum on yesterday’s Paul, but I think it regrettable. Perhaps apart from the phrase ‘soi-disant doyenne’ I did not think it was in breach of house rules, and because several subsequent comments in Roz’s defence remained in place, it was impossible for anyone coming late to the blog – including Roz herself, who frequently makes a 5.00 am return, to see what she was being defended against.
@21 The feedback I received regarding that comment made it clear to me that it had crossed a line.
I also enjoy Roz’s comments but we all know that she has crossed the line, herself, once-or-twice.
Let’s not bicker, let’s keep a happy ship.
KenMac@22 , I have missed this , been busy and conserving my screen minutes . If you want to put the comment back it is fine by me . I will not read it or respond if that is what concerns you . Seems to be from my resident stalker , my advice would be if you do not like my comments then do not read them , very simple solution that always works for me .
Is there is to be a blog on today’s FT puzzle?
@24
Our scheduled blogger is suffering technical difficulties.
I’ve had a go at solving but (possibly due to being distracted by tennis) I’m making very slow progress. If someone wants to send solutions to admin email, I’ll be able to complete it
I have solved it but I expect you want it fully parsed?
No. Solution will be enough. I’ve done nearly half done
@Admin – I’ve sent you a couple of e-mails.
Don’t know how to copy it Sorrry
Tried to send a screen shot. My wife intervened and nearly called the emergency services. If you tell me the answers you are missing I will do my best,
17, 20, 25, 27
13, 15, 18, 21
Thanks for stepping in, Ken.
The lacuna in 15d in the print version of today’s prize is a mistake.
@34 which publication? Which puzzle?
It is the Guardian today KenMac , a bit of a smudge in the paper , I did wonder if it meant something very devious but just a printing glitch .
Should read Grace but printed as Gr ace . The gap is actually bigger , about four spaces .
Some Printers’ Devilry Roz? 🙂
Hi Ken
Spam post @24 from SAM HARRISON on the Guardian Vlad thread
Hi Ken
I wonder if Newbie Corner is now completely moribund. I last visited mo/e than a month ago, when I responded to a query by Steffen which was itself at that point three weeks old and had gone unanswered. Nothing since then. Steffen has pretty much been its only customer since its early days, when it looked as if it might be a valuable resource, and if he has now abandoned it, it has the distinct air of tumbleweeds drifting across a barren landscape. If it worth keeping it going, do you think?
Yes Tim@37 and then in the week there was an intended space for a clue with answer SPACE , this was correct in the paper but not online some people said .
Agree with Balfour@39 , I thought it was a great idea for newer solvers but can’t make them use it .
@39
I tend to agree. I will close it down shortly.
Ken – I know these little pictures have been something you have been keen to make a part of the blogs for some time. I still don’t understand why they are necessary, let alone important. Why do I have to be represented by a computer-generated funny face rather than by my pseudonym?
I’m with Postmark – what’s the point? Why couldn’t you leave it as the little crossword picture for those of us who didn’t want an avatar? It just looks messy and childish now.
It helps me, and presumably others, when scrolling through comments to quickly identify particular commenters. Yesterday I used people’s initials but that caused minor upset. Last night I changed them to use “wavatar” (whatever that is).
As admin, I know that I can’t please everyone so I try to maintain a balance.
Ken – it is your call as you’re in charge. But I don’t agree with your rationale at all. It is much easier for me to find Crispy by scrolling up or down looking for the word ‘Crispy’ than it is for me to look for a little red splodge which I need to differentiate from the other little red splodges.
I’m still with Postmark. As this is a site for people that do crossWORDS (deliberate capitalisation), surely they can see letters quicker than some anonymous splodge? Plus, somebody would remember the name “PostMark”, rather than having to think “What splodge were they?”
Yes, I’m with Postmark – get rid of these splodges, pronto! A coloured square with one or two letters in it isn’t too bad but there was nothing wrong with the previous default ‘crossword grid’ avatar. I’m a great believer in ‘If it ain’t broke it don’t need fixing‘.
I agree with the “splodge” being difficult to distinguish. I’ll change it to use initials again.
I honestly can’t believe that people find it easier to locate text rather than an image.
IIABDFI has always been my maxim but at the same time, we have to move with the times, progress is inevitable.
Ah, back to initials – that’s better.
Thank you!
Just curious. In what way is this “progress”?
Can I have a white square with white lettering ?
You can have whatever you want. Just create your own avatar
Kenmac @52. Gosh – that’s helpful? Any progress as to why this is progress?
Progress:
movement, progression, passage, going, journey, way, advance, headway, step(s) forward, forward movement, breakthrough, development, evolution, growth, increase, improvement, upgrading, betterment, promotion
Pick one. Maybe evolution is best
It certainly isn’t improvement, advance, step(s) forward, advance, headway, forward movement, breakthrough, development, growth, increase, upgrading, betterment, promotion. Style over substance, certainly
Ken, I don’t think you’re seeing the problem we’re seeing. I don’t have a problem with avatars, I have various avatars (you can see one of mine on WhatsApp), different ones in different situations.
What I have a problem with is creating avatars with Gravatar, because it then becomes our default avatar across large chunks of the internet. Personally, I don’t want to be identified across the internet. I do different things with different groups/situations (with different avatars) and some of the things I do are mutually incompatible. If I have something that links the different things I do, I will not be able to continue doing others (nothing sinister, but a couple of things I volunteer with have clauses that require no identifiable political activism on social media.)
Because this is WordPress based, we get a Gravatar avatar or whatever we’re given. If we really want to work around it and have our own avatar that doesn’t link elsewhere, we could set up a separate special email account to run fifteensquared and a matching Gravatar avatar, so it doesn’t link to anything else. For me, another email account to run (currently running 4, can see another 2 in my future for volunteering roles) is too much effort.
This is why I haven’t set up an avatar for this site and won’t be,
Roz@51: How about a black square with black lettering, for the Suprematist in you.
Coloradan @57 , Malevich has beaten me to it . It has to be the white . When I tell the students about my artistic prowess I always hold up my favourite work – Polar Bear in Snowstorm .
Roz above: 😁
I’m fine with the letters in boxes and I think the combination of them and having a fixed colour for the poster probably does help if I’m quickly looking for posts by a particular person.
I do think the current colours are a bit garish. I can live with this, but I think the site as a whole would look better if the colours were more muted, or used selections from a more limited palette that is chosen to fit in with the site’s overall theme.
Roz@58: So you wouldn’t prefer Black Cat in a Coal Cellar at Midnight?
I can’t say I like the new squares with initials, but I’m happy to avoid having to have a WordPress avatar (for similar reasons to Shanne). I’m OK with mine, but some of them are pretty garish.
Gladys@61 , Malevich beat me to it and his versions are worth millions . I actually think by chance that my box has the best colours but would prefer white for everyone . I am not good using a screen and these colours make it far worse for me .
Just curious: if the avatar were to appear only for those who have set one up in Gravatar, while for all others the comment header were left-aligned with the text (as in the pre-avatar days), would that appeal to anyone?
Nothing appeals to everyone, I’m afraid
Coloradan @63 , if people choose to have them that is fine , I found it a useful genetic indicator . For others I would prefer blank or the little crossword grid we used to have , quite neutral . The colours are very loud for me but I suppose I will soon learn to tune them out .
kenmac@64: I’m inclined to agree with you, and Lydgate.
@66 Every commenter on that quote has an avatar! Nuff said?
Touché!
@admin They don’t actually. Several have a subtle default icon which uses a colour that matches the site’s theme.
Another thing is that all the “avatars” on that site are much smaller than here. This means they don’t overspill the comment header as they do here and it moves the focus back to the text. I really think this site would benefit from this as personally I think the avatars here are far too prominent – especially with the new bold colours.
PS I’m a mobile user but it’s the same on desktop. This is really noticeable if you look at highly zoomed out version of the desktop site – the avatars are huge compared to everything else.
So my two suggestions would be make the avatars smaller and use subtler colours for the default ones – ones that fit in well with the site’s blue and grey theme.
For those who are interested, Gravatar accepts a plain white square – or any colour you choose. (Says the person who’s just killed their WordPress site that I really didn’t want linked to anything, too).
Thanks Shanne , there is no way I could use Gravatar and I was partly joking . I would like a plain white square for everyone i.e. no pictures at all . But the site is free to use and we are free to choose how much we use it so no point complaining .
Is there a way to change our default colour (I’m not wishing to be racist here). I’m sure my eldest son would approve of me being purple as it is or was his favourite colour. My favourite colours are pink and grey (the colours of the Galah). Is it possible to have half and half colours like a pizza?
Is Gravatar a new Alfonso Cuarón/James Cameron collaboration?
There is a separate puzzles supplement with the Guardian today including a jumbo cryptic by Paul . Do not know if this is online or if people will do it and want a blog ?? I am just giving the information .
Re the ‘Puzzles summer special’: last year, a number of people said they missed this or, like me, didn’t get one with their paper – it’s easily overlooked. I managed to get a copy and eventually blogged the Brockwell Jumbo – I’m not offering this time. 😉
Comment #75
Roz @ 74
I’m the next name on the Guardian Jumbo rota.
I can’t see a solution in the puzzles magazine or in the paper, so I’ll publish a blog next Saturday, 1st August
Duncan@77 in the front of the supplement it says all solutions will be in the paper and online on Sat 1st August so your plan seems just right .
Anyone looking for the supplement , it is inside the Saturday Magazine section .
Tim C @73 – the only way of overriding the image you’re getting is to set up a Gravatar account and add in an avatar you would like to use, like the plain white square I currently have.
Gravatar is a part the same company as WordPress, and Gravatar advertises itself as:
” Transform your email address into your digital passport – one avatar, one bio, social connections, and verified links.”
If there is an email associated with that image it then links all comments and accounts with that Gravatar image.
Why I was annoyed was because Ken’s insistence on an automatic rendering of an avatar on this site gave me that avatar as standard on my email account and linked to an anonymous WordPress blog I was very carefully not linking to me.
My current blank white square will be disappearing: I have since deleted that WordPress blog and my WordPress account as the only way of keeping it anonymous in this situation was not to have it all. I’m now waiting out the 30 days grace to change my mind before I stop having a linked account, and the white square disappears (as Gravatar then stops recognising I have a linked email account) and I too have a revoltingly coloured (cerise) square with initials.
Busy today . There is an obituary for Wendy Law ( Hectence , Zamorca ) in the Guardian Journal section today . I am sure that someone can find and show a link .
Roz @80 https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2026/jul/19/wendy-law-obituary
Thank you Eileen , I do not want to make work for anyone but could this be put where more people might see it ? Maybe the Quiptic tomorrow , it said she set a lot of Quiptic puzzles .
Perhaps a front page Admin Announcement?
I’m on the rota for tomorrow’s Quiptic, I’ll try to remember to add that information.
@admin The new smaller avatars are a definite improvement. Thanks!
Totally agree with Max@85 . Thanks KenMac the screen is much calmer .
Hi Ken
I applaud your initiatives in testing out different appearances for the site, but having the index pages in two columns just does not feel right to me given the variable amount of space taken up by the introductory text for the individual puzzles. I hope I have managed to express my point clearly: I can try again if necessary.
Since my previous message I see that they have been adjusted to line up side by side. That is certainly more comfortable to look at. Thank you.
It looks like the new avatars have upset the formatting on the ‘Bloggers’ info page.
There’s no padding space against the profile text and if the blogger has no profile text their name overlaps the avatar or is scrunched up, it seems to be compounded if there is a run of bloggers without a profile.
It’s a problem on mobile and desktop.
I am curious as to why I (and apparently, scrolling through this thread, also Coloradan) only get one letter instead of two in the default avatar. This is absolutely not a complaint, but I’m just wondering what quirk of coding made it happen that way. (Please don’t fix it–I like being special.)
Hello. Thanks for all the hard work keeping this blog going. Apologies if this has already been looked into/discussed – is there any way of getting a “like” button onto people’s comments. A lot of the threads seem to include many “I agree with Bill #33 and Bob #46” etc. thanks
Hi Kenmac
I keep getting a “503 Service unavailable” message the last couple of days. Reloading generally clears it. Is there a problem?
While I sympathise with the aims of Stuart D’s suggestion @91, I can see problems with it. I often write about more than one clue in a single comment and it is not clear how a “like” button could allow someone to express agreement with one of the points I have made while disagreeing strongly with another. I am also inclined to suspect that people who habitually write the “I agree with” comments would carry on doing that anyway.
No blog for Julius in FT today? I see there wasn’t one for Saturday last week either. Maybe it’s a prize or something. Sorry if I’ve missed the point.
@95 the Saturday puzzle’s blog usually appears on Monday.
Is there a problem with the FT posting today?
@88
I finally got round to addressing this.
Curious how often the Setters page gets updated. There have been a number of new setters across all 3 papers since the last update.
@97
Irregularly.
Perhaps three or four times a year.
Thanks for the nudge
Is there a Spectator blog today, or did I get the day wrong?