Semantle: Can you think like a computer?

What's happening to the Similarity column? It's all out of order. I can't tell what's working and what's not.

I’m seeing similarity sorted properly, but with your most recent guess at the top, which is a very welcome feature!

Wow, I don't have the patience to come up with 600-800 words, plus I find that my brain gets stuck and just keeps coming up with similar words to the ones I've already guessed, even where they only score like 25. I literally don't think I ever would have gotten today's.

spoiler alert: the word "penis" is slightly closer than the word "university" and slightly further away than "paint."

LOL

Wondering if starting with a seed word - say, the 1000th-closest word - would make the game more appealing.

I’m fascinated by it & can’t wait for the next drop (after having pulled the plug on today’s) but the early stages are a bit of a slog tbh.

I didn’t like the idea of hints, but maybe just a wee one? Say, calling for a hint gets you the word that’s one closer from the target word vs your highest guess, like if you had word 950 and you called for a hint you would get word 951. (And if you were stuck on 999, it would give you 998.) One per day.

I got it in 7.

well, at least that was the point I launched my computer over the balcony and put on Peacemaker instead

86 today. I find there's a certain point when I just start entering words I know aren't going to be right.

gave up yesterday. not sure i ever would have gotten it. even after i knew the answer, it was hard to come up with similar words.

then got super lucky today and got it in 21.

84 today, gave up yesterday. I like the new addition of numbering the words and having the most recent guess come up at the top!

Think I'm getting the hang of this, took me 80.

Just trying today. I have the 'guess number' but the similarity isn't sorted by highest for me (Firefox). So it's not sorted by either similarity or guess number.

oh sorry I get it. Most recent goes at the top no matter what but everything else sorted by similarity.

Got it in 60 - are we all getting the hang of it or was it just easier today?

136 for me, easier than yesterday but think I need more practice.

118!
Yesterday's was more 'nebulous' I think - has connotations of law, science, application... bit more straightforward word today.

Mr kinder got it in 33

What is the strategy to adopt here? Is there a number of overall concepts that can be tried with a view to narrowing it down? I'm thinking of Roget's Thesaurus which is divided into six classes - existence, relation, quantity etc.

Had to give up yesterday and today. I'm impressed by those who got them both -- I doubt I would have even if I'd kept guessing for another hour. The possibilities are just so vast, frustration sets in after 100 cold guesses...

Is there a number of overall concepts that can be tried with a view to narrowing it down? I'm thinking of Roget's Thesaurus which is divided into six classes - existence, relation, quantity etc.

I tried it with the thesaurus subcategories that today's word appears in and they are all cold - I would guess they're too far away vertically, you need words that are more synonymous rather than more general, so it's just a case of blundering around till you hit on something.

it's further complicated by the fact that, apparently, sometimes a direct synonym of one sense of the word can be cold.

Got today's in 80. I don't think I'll ever be on super-low scores, as my tactic is to get as many data points as I can, rather than hoping to get lucky/be precise in a few guesses. Yesterday's was the first that made me give up, I got to 990 with INVENTIONS but couldn't make the leap.

I do like the new ordering system, but it was very confusing at first. How about adding a line space between the most recent guess and previous guesses?

42 today, was in the hundreds for the last couple

Found today's in 110 after skirting around it for ages.

I've been struggling with this for a few days, but today I got it in 36.

My first non-cold guess was #14 (758/1000). I then did 20 more cold guesses before getting 943/1000 on #35. And then next guess I got it. Half satisfying, half a shrug of randomness.

70 today, felt like i steadily advanced on the target for oncd - previous goes have seen some pretty wild & uneven lurches towards the answer

*once

Gave up again. FWIW, the closest word I got was "mechanical" which was 20, and then I just kind of got stuck. Once again, I don't get how mechanical is any closer to the word than anything else that I guessed, in fact some other words seem logically closer to me.

a score of 20 I mean

oh hey cool i just started today! 206 baby. proud i didn't give up (almost did about... 180 times)

scores in the 20s are pretty meaningless, i carry on banging random words in till i get in the top 1000 and often well beyond that.

Since I rarely compute at the weekends I changed my system clock and played tomorrow's and Sundays ^_^ I got both, one somewhat quicker than the other.

Whoa, got it in 27 today! Sheer luck that one of my first 10 words thrown at the wall hit close.

162! With the help of a thesaurus. I don’t know if I’ll ever get one of these without a crutch.

I gotta say Dave, I didn’t think this would get traction without adding a crutch but clearly it has some magnetism!

Adding the "getting close" indicator seems to be the thing that made it playable. I can't wait until I add the incomprehensible vector directionality indicator.

lol okay I went from like 30% to 100% that was a day.

Took me 97 guesses

haha i keep giving up early, but I keep coming back to this sodding thing!

yeesh, got to 959 in 11 guesses, then to 990 by 22, and now I'm up to 56 guesses and have gotten no closer, only filled in lower point words. I think it's going to be a stroke of luck for me to finally get this.

This one took me 92. Once again I got to a sticking point and just started entering word after word, then walked away for an hour, came back and got it immediately.

These always take me over 100 moves but I'm not really trying for a low score.

Got a 2-letter word in the top 100 early on today. It had some different definitions that threw me off.

Bugs me that "and" isn't recognized as a word.

found today’s an absolute bastard and gave up!

Just got it in 136. Again with thesaural assistance, altho I snuck up on the final approach without.

My 8th guess cracked the top 1000, but I didn’t get closer until 70 moves later. I honestly think that starting with word 1000 as a seed word wouldn’t make this game much easier.

134. Really tough going early on - think it gets easier once you get to the 900s, though not by much.

Found today's a nightmare and gave up after 248.

Got this in about 60, got lucky by entering the right kind of word - so - early on for some reason, I don't normally go for those. an and to also not recognised as words.

Got up to 998 in 193 guesses, but it took me another 140 guesses to get the word from there. wtf.

131 today. Got bloody loads in the 'getting closer' range, but it took me a fair while to progress up to the final word.

Today is killing me. I got my first 'warm' as my 10th guess, to 989 by my 78th guess. 100 tries later I have surely exhausted all related words! I have hit on the 998 and 999!

antonyms for my top words are still in the 900s which is puzzling me.