Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Who's a clever boy then?

Sorry to be wordy but Quixote's central question which he feels unanswered is "why do people help others?" or in his words, why "help lame dogs over stiles?"

For all his self-avowed intellect if Quixote needs the fact of simple human kindness explained to him he will never fully understand.

it's quite difficult to follow something as simple and effective as AB's comment. but, just a few points.

the marathon analogy doesn't apply to lots of people- those who don't actually "do" the crosswords for which they give answers.

putting up all the answers isn't verbotim. it's certainly been done before and without any threats to ban the poster. all that's required is to head it "times 1235-spoiler" or such. nobody is forced to read it are they.

quixote's debut post said that people who used this site were cheats, lazy and/or stupid (you can look it up yourself if you want). he intended to cheat just a teeny weeny bit to improve his own chances of winning. that's what I call joined up thinking.

No, I'm not winding anyone up, and no, AB, i'm not selfish at all (well not more thsn anyone else who;s honest) - I strongly believe in generosity, as anyone who knows me from several areas of my life could tell you if we weren't all anonymous - for example I've been running an altruistic charity in memory of my late first wife for 24 years which I know has improved life for a lot of people.
My attitude to this site is that surely the whole point is to compete on an even playing field - if you rely on free answers from a lot of other people to submit your weekly competition entry, surely this detracts from the pride and pleasure of competing. If yu win the Tour de France and you'd taken drugs in order to do so, I don't think you'd brag about it to your kids. So altruism as advocated here would - in my view - have all of us rushing out to help the struggling back-runners in an Olympic final - that's not kindness!
The other problem is that with my very first posting on this site, as a self-confessed 'newbie', and asking for the accepted etiquette to be explained, I received a couple of snide replies from leading protgonists that I can only describe as bullying. It took me back to school when I joined a small specialised 6th form a year late, and was immediately nicknamed 'The Idiot' by the reigning alpha male - bit like 'the Lord of the Flies' - but you lot are presumablyrather older than 16; and some of you are female.
I can honestly say that apart from the first reply from Rosalind, for which i thanked her and got my thanks flung back in my face, the only person who has spoken to me like a human being is jazzgirl and I know she's OK because she married a tuba-player.

I think perhaps the unforgiveable sin is that I talk too much - witty one-liners apppear to be the convention.

Antway - I really have to say that the reaction of the members of this forum have been one of the worst experiences of my life.
I don't know why anonymity should make people so gratuitously hostile and unpleasant to a stranger, but please think twice before subjecting any other naif newcomer to the same treatment.

My remark "thrown off the site" was not intended to mean "banned" - I just meant we members would give him a good kick up the backside for lack of etiquette (it's just not cricket )There are other websites that provide all the solutions; hopefully no one would do that here. I'm off to listen to some music......

Oompapa....oompapa that's how it goes....

Quixote...I think you'll find a couple of people did welcome you on to the site.

As a relatively newcomer to this site I have laughed out loud at some of the goings on, and have witnessed some truly wonderful heartfelt comments (Helen & Jolan). But I haven't been so wound up for a long time by the purile nonsense meted out by a nondescript. I didn't do 6th form, didn't do university. I did do 27 years in the armed forces and 20 years as a policeman and do not regard myself as naif (had to look that up). Whilst in the armed forces I was taught you are only as strong as your weakest link and if they needed help they got it in bucket loads.
Some of us do not do crosswords as a form of competition, we do them to keep the grey cells ticking over and very often we get stuck. Thats when we turn to the people of this site, who have never been gratuitously hostile or unpleasant to me. On the contrary. There i've said it now i'm off to have a scotch. The rest of you keep me smiling please.

MRW... : D

X

Very well put, MRW,