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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

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You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Gamer Dork / Readership Capture Open Thread: Weedle, Wardle, Wordle

Readership Capture Open Thread: Weedle, Wardle, Wordle

by Anne Laurie|  February 5, 202211:15 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: Gamer Dork, Open Threads, Readership Capture

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I’m happy for Mr. Wordle. He made a game for his partner because she loved word games, then he shared it with all of us for nothing. Now he gets a million unexpected dollars. Because he loved someone!

— Caissie (@Caissie) January 31, 2022

… Or am I too late on the bandwagon already? Never played Wordle, because I’ve got enough attention sinks already… and I’m usually lousy at word games (I blame dyslexia.) But some of y’all seem to enjoy it…

WATCH: The New York Times' acquisition of Wordle has drawn backlash online, with fans expressing fears that the viral word game created by software engineer Josh Wardle might no longer be free to play https://t.co/mEouU4h6wO pic.twitter.com/PCAN3WrCJr

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 5, 2022

Meet the Wordle player who helped sell the game to the New York Times https://t.co/wEv8wwAyRx pic.twitter.com/kjCg9SdMf4

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 2, 2022

What next for Wordle and its fans? https://t.co/jC6sMYUHCZ

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 2, 2022

Bin-night #Wordle is looking promising. pic.twitter.com/K71utFNXUa

— David Bonnici (@David_Bonnici) January 30, 2022

From five-letter words to low-seven figures. Best Wordle score I've seen yet. https://t.co/RETUGdVFZp

— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) January 31, 2022

A strategy that had not occurred to me. A big part of the appeal of QAnon & similar conspiracy theories is the gamification of what they imagine to be “doing your own research.” Maybe the effective response isn’t persuasion or fact checking, but better games. https://t.co/qm25n7DBBQ

— Julian Sanchez (@normative) February 4, 2022

The New York Times bought Wordle. Here's an exclusive inside look at the gameplay of the first answer they've chosen. pic.twitter.com/eOgDTeAiC4

— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) January 31, 2022

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Previous Post: « Saturday Morning Open Thread: Brava!
Next Post: Dorothy A. Winsor – Tales of Rinland! Dorothy A. Winsor – »

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    February 5, 2022 at 11:47 am

    It didn’t grab me. For me, there usually has to be some semantic component, some interplay between form and meaning, not pure form, for it to be interesting. (A big exception is the “Split Decision” type of puzzle on NYT, which I love, and which has no real semantic component.)

    ETA: Last tweet is hilarious. I noticed the NYT already shoehorned in a reference to Wordle in a clue in their regular mini-puzzle. Product placement!

  2. 2.

    laura

    February 5, 2022 at 11:49 am

    If I was in charge of Wordle, today’s solution would be: AMIRK.

  3. 3.

    Ken

    February 5, 2022 at 11:51 am

    I had a frustrating wordle — sorry, apparently “bootleg wordle” — yesterday. My first word is “TARES”, and I got “_ARES” green. But then I ran through W, P, D, C, and B and lost (it was MARES). In retrospect that was bad play, I should have guessed CHUMP to test multiple letters at once.

  4. 4.

    ALurkSupreme

    February 5, 2022 at 11:51 am

    It’s a fun exercise to start the day.

    It will remind some of you of an old game called Jotto.

  5. 5.

    Betsy

    February 5, 2022 at 11:58 am

    It’s small and fun and can’t really become addictive in a bad way because there is only one puzzle a day.

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    February 5, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    I loved it for a few weeks but haven’t played since news of the NYT purchase broke. It made me sad to hear that something pure and fun and free has been coopted by the Borg for its inevitable monetization, though good for Wardle for making a buck. All that said, I intend to take it up again soon and play as long as it’s free. One thing I love about Wordle is that that there’s one puzzle per day, which keeps me from wasting too much time on it.

  7. 7.

    Eggbert

    February 5, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    If you use two words containing the most common vowels/consonants as your first two guesses, you will almost always solve the puzzle by the 4th or 5th guess.  I settled on TRAIN and SLOPE.  Maybe JUDGY as 3rd guess.

    It’s trivial.  The only way to make the game a challenge is to guess random words initially.

    Amazing that the NYT spent money on this, esp. since there are several other free versions out there.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    February 5, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    Right click is your erstwhile buddy.

    So you could save copy of the website right now, * unplug your computer from the internet, * and play Wordle every day for years.

    @zhena gogolia

    <It didn’t grab me.

    Ditto.

    Although (and am too lazy to pursue it) a parody of “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight” from Camelot could readily be spun.

  9. 9.

    Origuy

    February 5, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    Yet one more request for help for my friend Susan, whose cat Tabitha had five teeth pulled. Susan rescued an entire litter of kittens a few years ago and now they are cats with medical problems. She needs help with the bills and any help you can give would be appreciated by Susan, Tabitha, and her sisters Sandtoes, Dixie, Dusty, and Snickerdoodle, and their brother Braveheart. Susan is still paying off the expenses for their sister Stevie, who passed away last year. Here are some kitty pictures, and a shot of the bill.
    Contributions can be sent via PayPal or Zelle to me at jlanam AT comcast DOT net or to my Venmo account at @Jeffery-Lanam. Thanks to those who have already donated. Anything is appreciated. My earlier appeals have gotten $310 and $165, but the total vet bill was $2300. Sorry to keep posting this, but Susan is anxious and doesn’t do the social media stuff.

  10. 10.

    Miss Bianca

    February 5, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    @Origuy: Have you asked Anne Laurie or WaterGirl to front-page this as a pet bleg? You might get more response that way.

    (Gotta take care of a few bills and see what I have left before I toss into the kitty kitty.)

  11. 11.

    Sloane Ranger

    February 5, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    I only started playing Wordle last week and it gets sold to the NYT and might no longer be free. Seems to be just my luck!

    I enjoy it, it’s a nice relaxing way to start the day, although having to choose a word at random can be frustrating when you don’t get ANY letters from your first try.

    I also play a couple of other word games, but, as you can play them as long as you want so I find I’m playing for hours unless I’m really disciplined.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    I love Wordle. As I already subscribe to the NYT, paying for the game isn’t an issue. But I am worried that somewhere along the way they’ll decide to “improve” it by tarting it up with all kinds of unnecessary tweaks and rules, which would effectively ruin it for me. The simplicity of the game is what makes it so satisfying.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    That “Trump” Wordle is DougJ-type snark. No proper nouns in Wordle.

    I like the game and have found several good clones with unlimited play.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    February 5, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    “Trump” is also a verb.

    they also could have gone with “email”

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    February 5, 2022 at 12:15 pm

    You aren’t missing anything, Anne Laurie. When I open up the game, or worse, the link Steeplejack mentioned that is an archive of all the Wordles to date (you can keep playing for hours, jumping around with the Random tab), I am reminded that this semi-quarantine lifestyle has left me with way too much unstructured, fallow time.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    @Eggbert:

    Lately I have found that I like to get my vowels sorted out, so I have been leading with PIOUS and HEART. I do adapt if I hit a promising combo of letters right away.

    And this just in: more Wordle strategy.

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    February 5, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    I haven’t played it, and I’m glad he had the sense to strike while the iron is hot.  Fads burn out quickly!

    CT_Bergstrom found a Worlde variation – absurdle – that apparently is devious (it keeps a list of words in the background (the remaining worlds satisfy the rules and your guesses)) until no more fit. So the guessing strategy is different.

    Absurdle 5/∞

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜?⬜⬜?
    ?????

    It seems want to give me a yellow E and a yellow R as soon as possible. I wonder if it’s beneficial to prevent that.

    — Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) February 2, 2022

    https://qntm.org/files/absurdle/absurdle.html

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    “Trump” is not just a proper noun, though; it’s also a verb/adjective, as in “to trump someone’s bid” or “playing a trump card.”

  19. 19.

    Leslie

    February 5, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    I also love Wordle and enjoy its simplicity. I have one of the “play as often as you like” variants bookmarked, as well as the official Wordle archive, but I don’t find myself playing it endlessly. One and done is generally plenty.

    Edit: re strategy, I don’t have standard first guesses; that would get boring. I use a different word each time.

  20. 20.

    Origuy

    February 5, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    @Miss Bianca: I did email Anne Laurie a couple of times. I don’t know if the emails bounced or what.

  21. 21.

    MazeDancer

    February 5, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    For me, the fun of Wordle is the sharing of results. Here is today’s. (Yes, you can copy/pasta your results anywhere. Hoping sharing that doesn’t get me banned on BJ.)

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ⬜?⬜?⬜
    ??⬜⬜⬜
    ?⬜?⬜?
    ?????

    For those not familiar, yellow means you guessed correct letters in the wrong place. Gray is wrong guess. Green is letter in correct place.

    The game, itself, requires not much brain power. It is mostly a memory task. And its egalitarian aspects are also part of its appeal. That, plus, no one ever breaks the omerta of never spoil the word of the day, makes it a fun group experience.

    Thrilled Mr. Wardle made the big bucks. But I will miss the group fun when the NYT takes over.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    @Baud:

    Ah, good point!

    Is “e-mail” fully dead yet?

  23. 23.

    James E Powell

    February 5, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    Six Nations. Ireland v Wales. If you know who won, don’t tell me. I am conflicted this year.

    Last year my sister & I did DNA tests on ancestry.com. Although our surname is completely Cymraeg – Ap Howell – my DNA says not one drop of Welsh, 20% Irish. Apparently, people moved around in the olden days.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    February 5, 2022 at 12:22 pm

    @Baud

    Humpf. Hyphenation, if you please. E-mail.

    Email always reads as mentally whispering as being pronounced like Emil or Emile.

    /losing battle

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:22 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Absurdle is devious. My most common score on Wordle is 4, but Absurdle often takes me 6-8.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yes, I get it! Tunnel vision on Dolt 45 to blame, exacerbated by the joke the tweeter was making.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    WATCH: The New York Times’ acquisition of Wordle has drawn backlash online, with fans expressing fears that the viral word game created by software engineer Josh Wardle might no longer be free to play.

    As the game increased in popularity, it might have become more difficult and time consuming to support it.

    If this game has enduring appeal, I say good for the guy who developed it, and good for the NYT.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    February 5, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @James E Powell: I wouldn’t necessarily trust the country of origin stuff yet.  When I first did 23AndMe years ago, it didn’t list that I’m 1/4 Greek (or south-eastern-European, or whatever they called it), but after a few years it got much closer when I checked the web page for updates.

    They’ve still got a long way to go, but they’re getting there (for good and/or ill).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    February 5, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    What would we do without the New York Times? They were early supporters of Hitler and helped elect Trump.

  30. 30.

    Leslie

    February 5, 2022 at 12:27 pm

    @James E Powell: I did my DNA a few years ago. When I was a kid, my mother had a fairly precise description of my heritage: half Scottish, a little more than a quarter Irish, a little less than a quarter English, and a “smattering” of Dutch and Welsh.

    I was astonished, when the results came back, that she was right on all counts. No mystery DNA from intriguing ancestors, and the breakdown matched hers exactly. I’m still baffled as to how she knew that, decades before this type of analysis was available.

  31. 31.

    Yarrow

    February 5, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    What I want to know is how people are getting their Wordle results to show up as an image in a comment here. I thought non-frontpagers were prohibited from having images appear in their comments. Sometimes frontpagers change peon comments to show an image after a comment has posted. Are front pagers changing all the Wordle results comments to show the results images?

  32. 32.

    Jinchi

    February 5, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    @Betsy: It’s small and fun and can’t really become addictive in a bad way because there is only one puzzle a day.

    That’s what I said to my SO when she found it (she’s particularly susceptible to iphone games). It took her about 10 minutes to discover how to play the archives.

    Have fun, but take care if you’ve got an addictive personality.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    @Yarrow:

    The Wordle results are actually text comments, but they use graphic characters or emojis, i.e., ⬜ ? ?.

  34. 34.

    cope

    February 5, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    As an old, Wordle will always be my go-to word cloud generator, not a word game.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    My autocorrect does the same thing. It always capitalises the “T” and I have to change it manually.

  36. 36.

    lowtechcyclist

    February 5, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    The picture in the last tweet is wrong. Both R’s in ‘RURAL’ highlighted would mean two R’s in the solution.

    (Yeah, I know it’s just using the format of Wordle to make a point about the NYT, but still.)

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    February 5, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    Speaking of the NYT, some of you might remember fake British newsman Jonathan Pie. He did a piece for the NYT on Boris Johnson. It’s predictably hilarious. My favorite bit is him calling Eton “Hogwarts for wankers.” So true!
    Video available in this tweet:

    “Seriously I can just come out and say it? Call him a liar?” asks @JonathanPieNews, a fictional broadcast reporter created and performed by comedian Tom Walker, in a satirical video about Britain’s Prime Minister.
    “God bless America.” https://t.co/Hu6Q6q8TBp pic.twitter.com/ojr8Pb1d0S
    — New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) February 4, 2022

    Or here is a link to it on YouTube.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 12:35 pm

    @James E Powell:

    Last year my sister & I did DNA tests on ancestry.com. Although our surname is completely Cymraeg – Ap Howell – my DNA says not one drop of Welsh, 20% Irish. Apparently, people moved around in the olden days.

    The association of ancestry by geographical region is loosey goosey genetic. Irish and Welsh people may be Celtic or related to ancestral Britons, as opposed to Germanic, Danish, French, etc.

    Also, too, people moved around. Still do.

    Also you could have Welsh ancestors but they are not reflected in your particular sets of ancestors (and this is also more complicated).

  39. 39.

    Yarrow

    February 5, 2022 at 12:36 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):  Thanks. It’s weird seeing so many images in the comments.

  40. 40.

    MattF

    February 5, 2022 at 12:38 pm

    @Brachiator: I agree— bandwidth isn’t free, and the game was attracting a lot of players. My own addiction is to Spelling Bee…

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:38 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    ETA: And Wordle offers a “share result” option that gives you the nicely formatted text message.

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    @Yarrow:
    Now I have to check this out and see if I, too, can post the image.

    Wordle 231 6/6

    ⬜??⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ???⬜?
    ?????

    Today’s game was my worst score ever. I usually get it in two or three guesses. This was the first time I had to use all six.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 12:40 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Oh, that’s interesting.

  44. 44.

    Yarrow

    February 5, 2022 at 12:42 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:  Ugh. I’m checking out. I can see this thread is going to be nothing but Wordle images. Blech.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    February 5, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    GRIFT
    LYING
    TRUMP

    Got it in three!

    ;)

  46. 46.

    RandomMonster

    February 5, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    I usually try to sort out vowels as quickly as possible. So something like “adieu” or “audio” if you need a good vowel movement, so to speak.

  47. 47.

    Leslie

    February 5, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    There’s also a geographic version of Wordle now: https://globle-game.com

    One country a day, though it seems to allow as many guesses as needed to find the answer.

  48. 48.

    JoyceH

    February 5, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    Someone tweeted “Wordle is the sourdough starter of Omicron”, to which someone else replied, “Imagine your 2019 self trying to make sense of this tweet.”

  49. 49.

    Starfish

    February 5, 2022 at 12:48 pm

    @Yarrow: Emojis are allowed and are different from other images. ?

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    @NotMax:

    ⬜ ? ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
    ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜
    ? ? ? ? ?

    Implausible—or divinely inspired!

  51. 51.

    TheOtherHank

    February 5, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    I did ancestry a few years ago as well. It’s fun and confirmed that my family  is boring. No sneaking outside the accepted ethnic groups for a little unacknowledged hanky panky. I was born in Minnesota and according to Ancestry I’m half Swedish and half Norwegian. I’m my own caricature.

    That being said, they’ve picked a particular moment in time and decided that’s the definition of a heritage. For example what does “English” mean. We’ve got Picts, Angles, Saxons, Celts, Danes, Norwegians, Normans, etc, all settling in what we now call England. At what point are ones ancestors English and not Danes?

  52. 52.

    Baud

    February 5, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

     I usually get it in two or three guesses

     
    Wordle snob.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    February 5, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    I love Wordle. I love WordMaster, which is limitless Wordle without the sharing (though it tracks winning streaks). I’ve gotten a couple words in two steps on WordMaster, but not on Wordle. To me, it’s as pleasant a pastime as a crossword puzzle.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    @Another Scott:

    I wouldn’t necessarily trust the country of origin stuff yet. When I first did 23AndMe years ago, it didn’t list that I’m 1/4 Greek (or south-eastern-European, or whatever they called it), but after a few years it got much closer when I checked the web page for updates.

    All these ancestry services get better as more people join up and submit samples. A while back, results for people with Hispanic and indigenous ancestry was spotty.  But now, you can get an idea of the timeframe when ancestors came to the Americas and where they may have settled.

  55. 55.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    February 5, 2022 at 12:54 pm

    My wife and I have played every day for the last 2 weeks.  It’s friendly competition.

  56. 56.

    Jay C

    February 5, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜??⬜⬜
    ⬜????
    ?????

     

    Yay! Posted! I’ve become a Wordle addict (“Wordler”??) right from the start (26/26 so far, only one six-guesser): I like simple word games (like the Times‘ “Spelling Bee” already there), and Wordle is certainly that.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    @laura:

    Like you, I’m delighted that Amir is back!

    On the other hand, headed for the trash . . . Sigh.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 12:58 pm

    @Baud:

    Wordle snob.

    Do I need to go through that whole new nym thing again?

    — SiubhanDuinne, Wordle Snob

  59. 59.

    Emerald

    February 5, 2022 at 12:58 pm

    Right, gotta try pasting my pattern here. My starting words are arise and ought, but I’m gonna try a few of the combinations in this thread.

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ?⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ?⬜⬜⬜?
    ??⬜??
    ?????

    Wheee! It works!

  60. 60.

    debbie

    February 5, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    When I google, there are several Wordle archives. Are they all legit?

  61. 61.

    germy

    February 5, 2022 at 1:01 pm

    I'm sad that NYT is buying Wordle, but I'm happy that Mr. Wardle is getting paid. Unfortunately, that never happened to Mr. Crassward, who died penniless on the streets in the early 20th century.

    — Neil Bhaerman (@NeilAnAlien) January 31, 2022

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @Jay C:

    Spelling Bee is lots of fun. I just wish they’d say how many words are possible (on their list) in a given game. That information would enhance the challenge for me.

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @germy:

    LOL

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 1:05 pm

    @debbie:

    This is the first one, I believe—definitely legit.

    And, as long as I’m handing out crack by the schoolyard, here’s unlimited Wordle at Word Master.

  65. 65.

    MattF

    February 5, 2022 at 1:15 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Look at nytbee.com. There’s also a button that reveals the day’s word list.

  66. 66.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    February 5, 2022 at 1:17 pm

    I played a few times to figure out what all the fuss was about. Seems to not too hard to get it in 4 tries most days.

    My strategy for the first two guesses is to find two words with no letter overlap. That usually gives enough info, letters it has as well as those it doesn’t, to get it on one or two more.

    I found out it also exists in other languages so I tried French and Spanish. My guesses were mostly “I have no idea if this is a word or not” but the same strategy seems to work.

    Addictive? Not so much, more of an occasional curiosity,

  67. 67.

    James E Powell

    February 5, 2022 at 1:20 pm

    @Brachiator:

    My sister & I’s DNA maps were in accord with what we had heard from our grandparents. Their families came from four different European countries at four different times and all or parts of them end up in Cleveland.

    My Irish DNA was the only surprise, but after reading a bit, not really surprising. A fairly large number of people living in the western half of Great Britain descended from people who came from Ireland or, in many cases, moved back & forth for the usual reasons.

    Six Nations broadcast on CNBC just went haywire. The audio & video went out of sync. On the audio, Ireland scored a try. On the video, a loop of a penalty call & the discussions after.

  68. 68.

    James E Powell

    February 5, 2022 at 1:22 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    My experience was like yours. I haven’t seen any really unusual words.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    February 5, 2022 at 1:23 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Thanks!

  70. 70.

    Cacti

    February 5, 2022 at 1:24 pm

    I predict that the NYT will add cost to Wordle without adding value.

    Yay capitalism!

  71. 71.

    laura

    February 5, 2022 at 1:26 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): oh, you made one of those too?

  72. 72.

    Ohio Mom

    February 5, 2022 at 1:26 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: On the Spelling Bee page, in the upper right there is a tab titled “More.” The “Hints” page will tell you how many total words are possible, as well as other information which you might regard as spoilers.

    As far as Wordle’s popularity goes, I think a lot of it has to do with sharing your results via the cube graphic. I wonder if the NYT will keep that feature.

  73. 73.

    chopper

    February 5, 2022 at 1:28 pm

    wordle isn’t much of any attention sink since you play it once a day

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Thank you! I think I tried to find such information once or twice, but never clicked on “Hints” because I try to avoid actual hints. But I’ll check that out, thanks.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 1:31 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    @laura:

    What is it?

  76. 76.

    MazeDancer

    February 5, 2022 at 1:31 pm

    @James E Powell:

    I haven’t seen any really unusual words

    The word of the day is always simple. Once I accepted that the answer was always going to be a plain, easy word, my score improved.

    Today’s word is the most exotic I have seen.

    But Mr. Wardle is British. Had to remember that when the daily word was “shire”.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 1:33 pm

    @James E Powell:

    My sister & I’s DNA maps were in accord with what we had heard from our grandparents. Their families came from four different European countries at four different times and all or parts of them end up in Cleveland.

    Very cool. How did they all end up in Cleveland? What was happening in the US that Ohio ended up being the desired destination?

    My Irish DNA was the only surprise, but after reading a bit, not really surprising. A fairly large number of people living in the western half of Great Britain descended from people who came from Ireland or, in many cases, moved back & forth for the usual reasons.

    There is not often not much written about the lives and movement of peoples in this region before the Romans and Danes and Anglo Saxons (and some modern debate on whether the Anglo Saxons were really all that Angly or Saxony).

  78. 78.

    Timill

    February 5, 2022 at 1:39 pm

    @Brachiator: Here’s a nice clear exposition:

    “The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa).”
    ― W.C. Sellar, 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England

  79. 79.

    RSA

    February 5, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Also, the R in the fourth line should be green.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It’s a joke version of the “conspiracy yarn” meme that occurs in a lot of TV shows. Basically, some possibly unhinged character has a giant display where they are trying to figure out some deep conspiracy, using yarn to “connect the dots.”

    Example: “Pepe Silvia.”

  81. 81.

    Kalakal

    February 5, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    @Timill: One of my favourite books ever.

    “Contract, expand, and explode the charters and garters of the realm”

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    ETA: In case it’s not clear from that, laura and I were working on “Where is Amir Khalid?”

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 1:58 pm

    @Timill:

    It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa).”

    Great stuff!

  84. 84.

    randy khan

    February 5, 2022 at 2:01 pm

    @Eggbert:

    Your gameplay tips are right, but boring, and most people won’t go with boring.  Besides, if you play it the way you suggest, your chances of getting the thrill of a 2/6 or the slight frisson of a 3/6 go way down, and for a lot of people how fast you get the word seems to be part of the fun.  (I don’t play, and don’t have any plans to do it, although I may dip into the game at some point.)

  85. 85.

    randy khan

    February 5, 2022 at 2:07 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    As far as Wordle’s popularity goes, I think a lot of it has to do with sharing your results via the cube graphic. I wonder if the NYT will keep that feature.

    I guarantee that they will – I’m sure one of the draws was the number of people posting that graphic on social media every day.

    By the way, while I understand why some people are unhappy that the big old New York Times bought the game, it’s really hard for me to see it as anything but a wonderful story.  How often does someone do something for love – literally in this case – and get rewarded for lavishly?

    And we ought to bear in mind that the Wordle guy didn’t have a sustainable model, as even with such simple graphics and basically no bells or whistles the huge response to the game meant he was spending a ton of money on bandwidth to support it.  Again, I get why people would want Wordle to stay independent, but in the not-so-long run he was going to have to start charging for it, start taking ads, or stop offering it at all.  So this is a good outcome for everyone.

  86. 86.

    RSA

    February 5, 2022 at 2:10 pm

    @randy khan:

    I guarantee that they will – I’m sure one of the draws was the number of people posting that graphic on social media every day.

    I suspect the Times is thinking hard right now about how to brand that graphic.

  87. 87.

    MagdaInBlack

    February 5, 2022 at 2:14 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): I was pretty amused.

  88. 88.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 5, 2022 at 2:18 pm

    You can save the page and play offline you don’t have to depend on Vichy Times for your Wordle fix

    You can share it too.

  89. 89.

    germy

    February 5, 2022 at 2:18 pm

    Let’s place bets on how they will wokeify and destroy the game.

  90. 90.

    MazeDancer

    February 5, 2022 at 2:21 pm

    NYT will have their logo embedded in the Wordle results copy/pasta.

    Along with occasional link for a subscription discount.

    At the very least, they will increase the “Now with Wordle” price of their “puzzles only” subscription. A revenue stream, btw, that along with a Cooking subscription, is one of the lynchpins of their continued solvency

    The game is simplistic. There are a dozen places to play it online. But you can’t share the results communally.

    Sharing is what makes Wordle popular.

  91. 91.

    The Pale Scot

    February 5, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s a browser extension Bypass Paywalls Clean that gets access to most large websites. I have not figured out exactly how it works. So I use Safari and when I run into something I want to read but can’t I open Firefox and use it that way. Works for everything I want to see except the UK Times. God forbid UK politicians post articles in an accessible format.

    Since I don’t know how it works I wouldn’t use it in my primary browser (Don’t need the FBI knocking on my door about my Sinn Fein browsing :)

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 5, 2022 at 2:38 pm

    In case you haven’t yet seen this:

    https://xkcd.com/2576

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 2:41 pm

    @germy:

    “Wokeify?”

    Everybody’s got a beef. Especially the idiots.

  94. 94.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    February 5, 2022 at 2:47 pm

    I’ve been playing Wordle for a few weeks now since it was mentioned here at B-J a while ago. It makes for a nice quick start to the day with my first cup of coffee.

    Testing while it’s still 100% NYT free!

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ?????

  95. 95.

    The Pale Scot

    February 5, 2022 at 2:53 pm

    @Yarrow:

    That is one F-nn great, ALL his videos are vicious in the nicest way.

    Me thinks JP is Tony Jay testing his material

  96. 96.

    Mousebumples

    February 5, 2022 at 2:54 pm

    @Eggbert: ADIEU and STORY are my usual starts. If I get a bunch of hits on the first word, I’ll sometimes go with a different 2nd word based on what I know. (eg AD as correct spots, and E in the wrong spot – go with ADORE, maybe)

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2022 at 2:59 pm

    @Yarrow:

    Speaking of the NYT, some of you might remember fake British newsman Jonathan Pie. He did a piece for the NYT on Boris Johnson. It’s predictably hilarious. My favorite bit is him calling Eton “Hogwarts for wankers.” So true!

    Watched the video a short while ago.

    Hilarious. So delightful, and on the money!

  98. 98.

    Raoul Paste

    February 5, 2022 at 3:01 pm

    @Yarrow: I saw this and it is phenomenal

  99. 99.

    J R in WV

    February 5, 2022 at 3:19 pm

    I’m a fast reader, get the details the first time through, yet…

    In 8th grade, in reading class, the teacher (who was great! but…) a major part of the running grade was spelling. She mixed the letters up, and we had to unscramble them, 20 each week.

    I could not do that, can not do that.

    This means I score 20 or 30 in scrabble, when everyone else is competing at 350-400. Crosswords are really hard tooooo. I had real trouble passing reading in 8th grade, even tho I could speed read faster than anyone else in the room. Sad!

    I thought about memorizing the list and just spitting them out, but decided I didn’t care enough to do that much work… wasn’t a motivated student back then.

  100. 100.

    lowtechcyclist

    February 5, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    @Mousebumples:

    @Eggbert: ADIEU and STORY are my usual starts. If I get a bunch of hits on the first word, I’ll sometimes go with a different 2nd word based on what I know.

    You too, huh?  ADIEU is great because four vowels. Early on (like three weeks ago) STORY was my usual followup, but I shifted to STONY, basically because if I needed to go to word #3, having an R still around gave me more choices.

    Either way, after ADIEU, STORY/STONY finishes up the vowel possibilities.

    If I’ve got almost nothing to go on from the first two words, CRAMP is word #3.  Three words, all the vowels, and consonants C,D,M,N,P,R,S,T.  If I don’t know shit after those three, at least the slim choices in the remaining letters helps narrow things down.

    I’ve been going through the archive, and one of the answers was BIOME, which rather surprised me.  Two years ago, I wouldn’t have known it was a word. But thanks to AL’s Covid threads…

  101. 101.

    Starboard Tack

    February 5, 2022 at 3:31 pm

    @NotMax: What about popup?

  102. 102.

    Rob

    February 5, 2022 at 3:42 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: I use TEARY and PIOUS on the first two lines, as they have all the vowels like ADIEU and STOR/NY. I often figure out the answer on line 4 (or even 3). But not today, I didn’t figure it out at all.

    I’ve used ADIEU and STORY once or twice.

  103. 103.

    Rob

    February 5, 2022 at 3:43 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: I use TEARY and PIOUS on the first two lines, as they have all the vowels like ADIEU and STOR/NY. I often figure out the answer on line 4 (or even 3). But not today, I didn’t figure it out at all.

    I’ve used ADIEU and STORY once or twice, with comparable results.

  104. 104.

    Starfish

    February 5, 2022 at 3:48 pm

    NFT bros are very sad and calling this story doxxing. You make a gajillion dollars, and people want to know who you are. Figuring out who has the money is not doxxing.

  105. 105.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 5, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Thank you! I was inordinantly proud of the mild joke, but it seems to have cratered.

  106. 106.

    Tehanu

    February 5, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    @Betty Cracker: One thing I love about Wordle is that that there’s one puzzle per day, which keeps me from wasting too much time on it.

    Yeah, me too.  I’m going to have to stop myself searching for bootleg sites because I foresee endless time-wasting if I find one.

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    February 5, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    @Starboard Tack

    A juvenile canine who lives on Skid Row.

  108. 108.

    James E Powell

    February 5, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Very cool. How did they all end up in Cleveland? What was happening in the US that Ohio ended up being the desired destination?

    My grandmothers (from Scotland & Bohemia) were part of whole extended family migrations in the early 20th century. We guess they came to Cleveland for the steel industry because that’s where they ended up working. We regret not asking more questions about these things when they were alive.

    Grandfathers’ families (Prussia, presumably Wales or England) we have almost nothing in the way of documents. A lot of early deaths in their lines, for various reasons, some unknown. On census record, our maternal great-grandfather identifies his occupation as farmer. This was the first we heard about any farm.

    Another find on ancestry.com was my paternal grandfather’s draft card from WWI. Says he’s got a wife & child. This was three years before he met my grandmother, so either he had a family none of us knew about or he was a draft dodger.

  109. 109.

    James E Powell

    February 5, 2022 at 5:06 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Because most words are using common letters, I start off with TRADE, TREAD, or RATED, then follow with GLOWS. I almost always get there in four.

  110. 110.

    Ohio Mom

    February 5, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    @J R in WV: Maybe you read the way I do, I see the shape of the word, its gestalt, and know it that way.

    In first grade, phonics made no sense to me, I could not do those worksheets, yet I read above grade level. 

    To this day, I am not much of a speller, especially of longer words — I basically never look at the middle of words. But Wordle is only five letters long, those words I can spell, and if I transpose an E and an I, the game rejects the word.

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    February 5, 2022 at 6:34 pm

    ObOpenThread: Meanwhile, … Science.org:

    The trillions of bacteria in and on our bodies can bolster our health and contribute to disease, but just which microbes are the key actors has been elusive. Now, a study involving thousands of people in Finland has identified a potential microbial culprit in some cases of depression.

    The finding, which emerged from a study of how genetics and diet affect the microbiome, “is really solid proof that this association could have major clinical importance,” says Jack Gilbert, a microbial ecologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved with the work.

    Researchers are finding ever more links between brain conditions and gut microbes. People with autism and mood disorders, for example, have deficits of certain key bacteria in their guts. Whether those microbial deficits actually help cause the disorders is unclear, but the findings have spawned a rush to harness gut microbes and the substances they produce as possible treatments for a variety of brain disorders. Indeed, researchers recently reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry that fecal transplants improved symptoms in two depressed patients.

    Guillaume Méric didn’t set out to find microbes that cause depression. A microbial bioinformatician at the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute, he and his colleagues were analyzing data from a large health and lifestyle study from Finland. Part of a 40-year effort to track down underlying causes of chronic disease in Finnish people, the 2002 study assessed the genetic makeup of 6000 participants, identified their gut microbes, and compiled extensive data about their diets, lifestyles, prescription drug use, and health. Researchers tracked the health of participants until 2018.

    […]

    Morganella has already been implicated in depression. As far back as 2008, researchers investigating a possible link between depression and inflammation found depressed people had stronger immune responses to chemicals produced by Morganella and other gram-negative bacteria in the gut. Thus, the newest study seems to be “further proof” that inflammation caused by gut microbes can influence mood, Gilbert says.

    But the field is still in its infancy, says Gerard Clarke, a microbiome researcher at University College Cork, as there are many forms of depression and many possible ways that microbes could affect this disease. The “holy grail” is to identify a missing microbe that could be given as supplement, he says. But it’s less clear how Morganella could be eliminated from the gut to relieve symptoms. “That’s a bit more challenging.”

    Fascinating stuff.

    There’s still so much we don’t know about how our bodies work. Every little bit of new knowledge moves us forward.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    Suzanne

    February 5, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @Eggbert: I do TRAIN and LOUSE first. Then if I still need help, I do HOWDY.

  113. 113.

    lowtechcyclist

    February 5, 2022 at 7:20 pm

    @Mousebumples: I’m working my way through the Wordle archive, and this afternoon I did one puzzle where four of the letters of the solution matched up with ADIEU, and I was able to get it in two.  Only time I’ve managed that.

  114. 114.

    2liberal

    February 6, 2022 at 2:36 am

    Wordle 232 5/6

    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
    ?⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
    ?????

  115. 115.

    m.j.

    February 6, 2022 at 5:55 am

    @Eggbert:

    I’m with you.

    I scratch my brain for a new word to start with everyday to make it more challenging.

    I’m also playing it everyday.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 6, 2022 at 6:45 am

    Wordle 232 4/6

    ⬜?⬜⬜?
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ???⬜?
    ?????

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