Defend The Indefensible: Wordle

Yeah, enjoyed that although possibly a bit too easy?

our group started with fools as first word today ... looked like a terrible choice but was in fact very lucky choice

and connections was fun today as well

I am hating the Connections so much right now.

connections in part depends on learning how the author(s) construct the categories and also having cultural knowledge from growing up in the US. my wife didn't grow up in the US and gets super frustrated with some of the US-centric categories

not just US centric but often the double whammy of US sports *bleaurgh*

I'm USian and I have no idea what these emojis are supposed to be signifying! Ope wait a second okay I got there but it took me ALL the allowed errors.

I've been doing the Wordall every day - thanks Mike t-d!

they also sometimes seem to overlap with Wordle...?

Glad you’re enjoying Wordall; I’ve started tracking my average solution time, and I’ve managed to reduce it by three whole seconds this year! (Currently 2 mins 18 seconds)

not just US centric but often the double whammy of US sports *bleaurgh*

lol payback for everything I’ve needed to learn about cricket to understand a cryptic crossword.

It's only about once a week that I get thrown by a US-centric Connections category. Usually food or sport.

Seems likely to be a controversial pick today. (I got it in 2, and even I'm not completely on-board)

Doesn't bother me. It's a word that is commonly used in that form.

yeah, bit fishy imo

I got it in three so I’m okay with it

Well, "laser" is an acronym.

(2 for me as well today)

If it's good enough for Spelling Bee it's good enough for -- no wait...

(I got it in 5 but fine with it.)

Started playing daily again after months missed and keep getting it in three day after day.

Been playing fairly consistently for the most part. However, couple months back the NYT required an account to see your play history. Rather than do that bs, I remembered that I actually saved a copy of the OG Wordle web site a couple years back before the transfer in anticipation of this enshittification and decided to finally setup a home web server that hosts it. I remember the original was entirely self contained, with no dependency on a backend service, simply using client side HTML and JS coupled with cookies and the computer date to run the show.

Nice to have it again without the need for ad blockers or an account to track history and I can just use my VPN to play it when I'm not home too.

NY Times can fuck off

Now low key obsessed with getting my 3 guess stats line (69) out front of my 4 guess line (108)

i achieved this a while back and am now obsessed with maintaining it. currently at 304 (3) to 296 (4). the other thing i’m proud of, i have solved in two more times than in six (33 vs 32)

ooh... my 2s and 6s are exactly equal! my 3s way behind the 4s though. bloody ROVER fecked my streak the other day.

I was striving for more 3s than 4s at one point, but I lost that battle long ago. Now I'm just constantly trying to make sure the gap between the two doesn't get bigger than it currently is. After today, it's 53 (265 vs. 318). :/

My 2s do outpace my 6s, though (49 vs. 31)

In the morning I do the Spelling Bee first. I love it. I usually quickly reach Genius, but have never gotten to Queen Bee on my own. It doesn't bother me for some reason. I've learned which words are not accepted, and that for example if you find the word libel you should include the word libelee. Lately when I'm stumped I've been looking in the comments for the posts that give the first 3 letters rather than the more obvious descriptive clues. I could probably get more words on my own, but eventually get bored with it and just want to finish

After that I do the crossword. I can now usually get Sun-Wed crosswords, but usually need help with Thu-Sat

I mostly save Wordle until I've finished the other two. It fills me with more anxiety for some reason. I just don't want to miss. My sister says it's because I'm too competitive. To me the streak rate is unimportant, it's the win rate that counts.

I've gotten 170 3s, 142 4s, 48 5s, 16 2s and 9 6s

I've missed twice, most recently with parer, an absurd word.

I in the beginning started with adieu, and then with stare and then slate, and am now routinely starting with crate (with lions or loins as my second word if there aren't any vowels with crate, as today). If I started with crane, as the wordlebot does now, my most frequent second word would be toils

My friend Alasdair, a NYT crossword genius, says he starts with any word he thinks of and doesn't care about stats, which is the right attitude

Connections is fun, but I don't care that much about it

opium is another favorite second word, if there is no a or e

I used to mix it up but now always start with SLATE, and use GROIN as my second guess if my first is totally gray.

We’ve got a group of 4 players and the laggard picks the starting word for the next day. We usually pick new starting words to keep the game fresh. There are lots of excellent starting words even if they aren’t wordlebot approved as the best ones. Alter, paint, alone, merit, claim are some recent ones.

Lately, my morning routine has been Wordle first, then Cinematrix

Don't know how Dan S is getting more 3s than 4s, my 4s are way ahead. My struggle is keeping 3s ahead of 5s.

I still play Semantle every day, seems like I'm the only one.

I’m also a big GROIN fan

I roll with ANISE

normally roll our SNAIL but change it up quite regularly

My graph is very bell-shaped: 15 2's, 164 3's, 370 4's, 147 5's, and 15 6's. Have failed on three. STORE is my starting word.

Ive been partial to spelling bee lately, I find it lasts just long enough to be satisfying whereas wordle is a bit too quick. I try not to stop until I at least hit “amazing” and preferably “genius” although I don’t always get there in one sitting.

See, I prefer Wordle precisely because of the quickness. I briefly got into Spelling Bee a couple of years ago but found that I'd be searching for words all day, which ultimately felt like a waste of time. I know some people aim only to reach a certain level, but I don't like the feeling that there are more words I could conceivably find if only I spent more time thinking about it.

I'd probably like Spelling Bee more if there were a timer.

I guess I mean a time limit that is considerably less than 24 hours.

I've remained a RATIO loyalist, I like the consistency.

Lost my stats at some point but currently at 34 2's vs 37 6's. I also no longer care if I occasionally fall off the board. And I'm secretly glad that my wife lost her Spelling Bee subscription, because we would do it at the end of the night and I would fall asleep with my brain swimming in anagrams.

Spelling Bee added a hinting system that that has cut down the amount of time I spend on it.

connections in part depends on learning how the author(s) construct the categories and also having cultural knowledge from growing up in the US. my wife didn't grow up in the US and gets super frustrated with some of the US-centric categories

I'm a SLATE loyalist. Recently lost a 58-day streak (on JOLLY, I think. FFS.)

801
1 = 1
2 = 47
3 = 231
4 = 275
5 = 185
6 = 51

My routine is usually Wordle, Travle, Connections, Framed.wtf and Worldle.

Ugh did anyone get JOLLY?

I alternate between STARE and STAIN

I got JOLLY on 5, I think? One of those times where I thought I might not get it because I guessed FOLLY on 4 and then had to choose between GOLLY, HOLLY, and JOLLY with only two guesses left.

yeah I played HOLLY before it but got JOLLY in 5 iirc

I got JOLLY on 5 or 6, I think 6

ffs just lost the 50/50 on maintaining the streak of threes

i like ALIEN or ALONE. I feel like the imaginary vowel hierarchy of e-a-i/o-u has to be respected in my first guess. my kid wanted me to try COURT today and it felt unnatural.

once I got the Semantle on my first guess (see the thread) and I know that'll never ever happen again so I only go on it if I've got some time to kill, which is never.

Cell Tower is pleasantly mindless/ occasionally infuriating and you can easily do past ones at any time

https://www.andrewt.net/puzzles/cell-tower/

Keep in mind with the multiple-words-one-letter-apart scenarios like JOLLY, the temptation is to keep swapping out letters and guessing, but if you can bundle the 'candidate' letters into one word, you *might* give yourself a better chance of solving. I was at DOLLY after four guesses and had FOLLY, GOLLY, HOLLY, JOLLY, and LOLLY as possibities. If your fifth guess is FIGHT and you get a hit on the f, g, or h, you can then solve on six. If you blank on FIGHT, you then know the answer is either JOLLY or LOLLY and you have a 50-50 shot on a guess on six. so an 80-20 chance at solving overall rather than an 40-60 chance if you just guess two of the five 'possibilities' with guesses five and six. I realize that if you're tracking your average guesses, a solution in five may be more valuable to you than a solution in six, and that will change the math a little. . .