Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Brendan, thank you so much. I'd completely blanked on that meaning. Fool.

I know the feeling only too well, Umanna:-)

Well, that's zero marks for style from us ! Our first active participation on the forum was greeted by someone (a representative ?) who didn't read our comment and got my name wrong, then by an administrator who deleted part of another comment. We had no intention of offering unsolicited help. That is why we tried to give an e-mail address, so that only those people who want help should receive it. We're not all the same after all, and surely some people do want help. And we're pretty sure that we've seen e-mail addresses given on this forum previously, and not deleted by an administrator.

Gitto, at post 75

Tearing pages out of books... that's something I could never bring myself to do! i know it would solve the problem of the answers being accessible, but bespoiling books would be a step too far.

Esther, I have emailed you as I do not want this spat to continue on our friendly Forum, it is causing disharmony. I'm sorry I forgot to put a heading on the email.

Smile everyone, move forward and enjoy our Forum.

As regards email addresses, I quote from my email to Esther

"Personal email addresses should never be given out in any open Forum on the Internet, it is a very dangerous thing to do as cyber criminals copy them for their own unscrupulous purposes. I delete any that are pointed out to me but some slip through the net if I am not told about them. "

I've received a very nice e-mail from Norah, I replied that it was really good to feel a little warmth in a cold room. Also I suggested that giving an e-mail address was our risk, to take or not to take. Really it should be our choice.

Probably we won't contribute much, it seems there are many people ready to take offence if 'too much' help is given. We do remember that there used to be many other people who helped on this forum, but we don't see them anymore now. We think that they were eventually put off from helping.

I'll say one more thing. It's quite amusing but quite sad. It's a modern day morality tale, redolent with self-deceit. The only people who don't cheat at a crossword are those who solve all by themselves, or those who admit that they aren't clever enough and just give it up without finishing. All of the others are cheats. Some of the same people who puff out their chests and proclaim that they would never look at an answers page come onto this forum to ask for help. That's still cheating. There is a difference between looking up the answer page and asking for a hint, but it's only a matter of degree. I said to Norah that we wouldn't want to help on the forum much because the limits appear to be arbitrary, and there is no point causing people to make the same rants every week.
Esther.

The Listener crossword is beyond me, but I have learned so much from other people's parses and hints.
It's also a friendly forum and I have enjoyed belonging for many years.
Unfortunately in that time some of those who used to be on here have died.

Rosalind, thanks.

The Listener crossword is often beyond me, but I like having a go! Like you, I've found the parses and hints on the Forum helpful.

There are lots of reasons why people come and people go on various Forums, groups, chatrooms and so on. Like most things in life, they won't all stay the same for ever and ever. Friendly, helpful contributors are always welcome ... anywhere!

ColinEsterHaze. We take your point about degrees of cheating. We use Chambers, books of quotations, Wikipedia etc., because we don’t have infinite knowledge (yet, but we are striving towards that goal). Not sure if you’d consider that cheating? 🤔

First time for a while that I have completed a Listener before the thematic PDM. I did not recognise the link unaided had to google all the thematic words together to get the theme. Googling partial sets as I went along failed to yield the answer.
Some might regard using Google as cheating. It is certainly an aid to solving but so is the Chambers dictionary and most would allow us to use that.
My view is that it is OK to complete the puzzle using as much or as little help as you require. It is a personal choice.
You would only be cheating if you submited your puzzle to the editors after using aids in order to appear in the annual statistics and in an attempt to win a prize.
I don’t think it is clear where the line is drawn for submitters. I would say above Google but below using this forum. Others may disagree.