Forum Thread

Carpet. I did read your post. And quite frankly not sure why you are attempting to be rude. Your example of "Be careful! You shouldn't go outside because it is raining!" is a decent one if Riako had said "But be careful: you shouldn't tell anyone your code word". However Riako actually states "do not". The following sentence about the more users submitting the code correctly is a reminder that at the end of the day it is a competition for the prizes.

Here's an example. To get into university you need to get good grades at school, university places are limited. As you sit down for your final exam your teachers say "do not tell anyone else your answers. Remember every person you help could take a university place". Is that advice or is the teacher first stating a rule for the exam "do not share answers" and then stating that in that room everyone is competing for a limited prize. It's the second option. Because you have to work hard to get to the end result and earn it. I know that it isn't the best example but I have to shoot to work. Will happily discuss more later.

Thanks for the event Riako sry for those cheater

Tbh i solved 7 mysteries in 2 days and heard some ppl taking about algorithms so it took me some hours to find the code(no cheating by my side) i wish we could have this type of events again

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Tnx Riako, it was REALLY nice event, I was so excited and got a Darkrai :)
Anyways, I was cheating a little, if it calls cheating. Tried to solve Mystery 2, but couldnt. I made a feed and asked: do I have to put a pokemon in my party again? The answer should be YES or NO. And only that. If YES, its still not easy to choose between 700+ pokes tu put in my party. And if NO - well, Ill try doing other things.
Then, I couldnt get 2 Pokemon words, and I asked another user to say JUST a first or last letters of them. Not the word.
And time mystery. I was just wondering, is it possible to get Celebi on a Honey tree just for 1 day :o Because only that poke can time-travel here. It was just... surprising, how hard it is. But another user just gave me an ANSWER. I wasnt asking for it, really.
The last code word. It would be impossible for me to get that right, because I dont get that even after Riako explained. HOW the hell we can get N from Q and so on??? :o And google? What I should, just write a letter combination there? Hmm, it would probably not work, because Google very rarely works out for me, from school time. So I hadnt even a chance to win.

Anyways, congratz to winners :) I wont buy those Darkrai (shiny), because they are TOO worthy, not just GOT, but WORKED for them. I just wanna see one, ok, going to winners party to watch how it looks :)

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Just to clarify it again: Spoiling the small mysteries (#1 - #10) was NOT forbidden and was also not considered as spoiling.
ONLY telling other users the "Nightmares" code word or asking other users for the super secret word was forbidden.

Also in my opinion, the rule was quite clear - the darktober page says (in bold font): "Do not tell anyone your code word!"
This is not worded as an advice, but as a clear rule :)

We were also not being too strict about this rule as we didn't warn or even ban anyone. All we did was excluding them from the big raffle, since people who just got the code from spoiling honestly don't deserve such a big reward.

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Also, again, the solution of the mystery had NOTHING to do with Gravity falls. The reason that you can find it via Google on a gravity falls website is because someone from PH posted it there DURING the event. But before that, the code word had NO relation to Gravity falls.

My avatar was also not a hint to lead you to that website. I changed my avatar BEFORE it was posted on that website. And I didn't do it to give you hints (because bill cipher has nothing to do with caesar codes or nightmares?) but simply because I'm a fan of the show and thought this creepy character would be fitting for Halloween.

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Also thanks everyone for the analysis of our event :) I pretty much agree with almost everything said. There are always things that can be done better next time; remember that this is a fansite, coded by me alone, and there is still so much experience we can make in order to get better ^_^

Riako this was a grate event, shame all the cheaters spoiled it so we will never have any more like this.

What I want to know is who were the 111 smart non cheating people entered into the raffle and was I one of them?

at least I got the answer right :p
congrats to the winners.

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Another thing I loved about this event is that it united the users together in trying to solve the mysteries,Heck it even rekindled some of my friendships that just died when I was really unnactive on PH for that 2 months

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thanks for the great event, i appreciate the effort you put in there, the riddles were great fun. the only disappointment was, some people ruined it by spoiling, hopefully they learned their lesson for the next time. I also don't get, why so many people now bug the winners (congratz to all three of you) about selling their Shiny Darkrai. Work for your own goals on PH and accept you don't win this time...

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:) Heh-heh. I have fun with the event, even though it's kinda mind-boggling.

"ONLY telling other users the "Nightmares" code word or asking other users for the super secret word was forbidden."
So I'm not a cheater? I asked for hints on how to solve the big code, but didn't ask for the direct answer (never EVER would do that, there is no fun in that)
Big weight lifted off my shoulders, I thought I was a good-for-nothing cheater who ruined the PH community ;~;

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The word "context" means "the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning."
You keep citing the "Do not tell anyone your code word," but deliberately excluding the context.
The CONTEXT was "Be careful!" and "Remember that the more users who submit the correct word, the lower are your chances to win."
I know that you are not a native English speaker, so you might not have realized that this context indicates advice rather than a rule. But when five people tell you that it was unclear, and clearly point out that it was the CONTEXT, you don't just cite the quote without context yet again and act as if it proves your point.
And I've already said I don't care about the raffle. What I care about is how many people are being criticized as cheaters and repeatedly bashed, insulted and claimed to be "ruining the community" and how many oh-so-perfect people have apologized to you that we exist.
This is clearly a violation of SITE RULE #1, which is PLAINLY stated and which is ALSO given the context of being on a Rules page.
And yet no intervention is occurring, because it's okay for them to insult these "cheaters" who violated a rule that, as five people have pointed out, was very clearly in context that contradicted its status as obligation. And again, you keep citing the quote without context as if somehow that "undoes" the context around it.
So yes.
I think this is absurd.

By the way, Reklaw:
"Be careful! Don't go out in the rain. You'll get wet."
"Do not" and "you shouldn't" are exactly synonymous.
And by the way, cheating on the SATs is actually illegal. That would be more akin to a situation in which the site rules prohibited it, which they don't - they only mention Badges.

EDIT:

And, in fact, cheating IS clearly defined ON the rules page:

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4.1 Cheating includes the use of external software to simplify any feature in this game, but also taking advantage of any kind of bug. It is absolutely forbidden to cheat in any way to ensure fairness between each player.
4.2 Do not spoil information about how to obtain badges to other members. It is likewise forbidden to ask other users for any kind of information regarding that matter. Getting badges is meant to be a personal goal that every user should accomplish for their own sake.

Darktober is not on the site rules - in fact, cheating is defined there and literally doesn't mention events - and the only place it WAS mentioned AT ALL, as I've pointed out, was with context that implicitly contradicted it being a mandatory command rather than advice, and no, it's not just me saying this, because four other people have said the same, so obviously you should at least consider the possibility that your English might have been a bit unclear and do SOMETHING about the people who ARE violating site rule 1 and actively insulting people.

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i'd just ban all the cheaters...why let them sit comfortably while the people who actually dug into the riddles and solved them watch someone else get "help" i watched deltora quest and gravity falls for years in hopes of something like this. >:D then again i may be too harsh so meh.

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i agree with lawliet to a degree, the cheaters should be punished, but unfortunately because of the way the "rule" was worded, they could have just been too stupid to realize that telling the code word was bad (even though it was stated quite clearly telling the code word would hurt everyone's chances, not just their own)

and this is why i say let the cheaters lay low for now, because even though a good deal of them were malicious, a equally good part of them were probably just ignorant.

for the next big event put a clear defined list of rules and say quite clearly that any broken rule for the event would end in being banned for a certain time limit which could be anywhere from 1 day to eternity.

then if people try and feign ignorance you can just get rid of them, no more cheaters :)

also @CarpetMonster it doesnt matter if it was stated as advice, it was clearly stated that sharing the code word would hurt everyone, not just yourself, and in the code of ethics that is a clear and defined act of wrong doing if something you do hurts someone other than yourself. so even for the most advanced english speaker this "advice" was clear that you were not to do it under no circumstance.

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This guy gets it,even tho i'm just a guy i tried constantly to tell people through my feeds to please not share the word or give people the answers to riddles but they were too nice or too ignorant of the consequences of their charity.

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I just want to say thank you for the event and congratulations to the winners!
I spent a good time trying to solve the mysteries, but I still thinking that Growlithe and Arcanine are more alike to a dog than a tiger! That was the most difficult mystery for me xD.

Carpet if you want to argue more about "should not" being advice and "do not" being a command please pm me, I'm happy to chat about it because clearly we disagree and hashing it out here is a bit ridiculous. But please, stop repeating over and over that English may or may not be Riako's primary language and that may be the cause for the misunderstanding of what was said.

Yes, FIVE people, who have all either assisted friends in figuring out the code or given the code outright to friends to give them a chance, have commented on here saying "it seemed more like advice" (could be more at this point). Tbh that is an issue on your end more that his. If the message was "Be careful! Don't stick a fork in a plug socket! Remember electric shocks hurt and can kill" would you still go ahead and jam that fork in because you consider it advice?

There are many people that understood fully not to do it, no one made you own up to it, you put yourself in the limelight when you admitted to doing it. The people doing the "bashing" etc do need to stop as it is getting a bit excessive. However saying to Riako that they are sorry people have upset him isn't unfair. It's natural and polite to offer condolences to people.

Why ban the cheaters over an event? don't you think that's taking it too far? They where excluded from the raffle, that is fair enough. You may think they are ignorant for cheating, but quite frankly I find you ignorant for wanting them banned from the site/future events over something like this.

I will say this - The rules about hinting/giving away the code was not made clear enough. It's so easy to see this. It clearly stated that helping others get the right answer would simply decrease your chance of winning. No where in that sentence does it mention it is forbidden to such thing.

While it would be common sense to not hand out the code, regardless of being banned or less chance of winning, the rules really should have been much more clear. You may also think the badge rule should apply to this event too. If that was the case, it should be written alongside the text stating your chances of winning are decreased the more who win.

Reklaw, you can't really use that fork in the socket example on this. Of course no one is going to give themself a one way ticket to death if someone, warning or advice, says it's going to kill.

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It was an intentionally massively exaggerated example... Anywho, massive side tangent. Love the profile pic =]

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4.1 Cheating includes the use of external software to simplify any feature in this game, but also taking advantage of any kind of bug. It is absolutely forbidden to cheat in any way to ensure fairness between each player.

Since this was referenced, and everyone is nitpicking here, I'm going to do the same thing. Anything the ADMIN of the site considers cheating is cheating on that site. If it is fair or not, that is how things are.

The rules state, "Cheating includes...". Okay, let's break that word down there: Includes. Additional classification, Not exclusive to what is listed, but what is clarified is a part of this segment.

Obviously, since it is stated, using outside programs is considered cheating, as is abusing a bug. But, there are obviously other ways to cheat, especially when it is explicitly stated that you shouldn't do something. Telling other people, straight out, the answer to a quiz (which the Darktober event was, essentially) is cheating. In the real world, you'd get a failing grade on the quiz/test you cheated on.

That is what happened here. And, instead of getting your name called out, which my teachers have done in the past, Riako just gave the cheaters a failing grade on the quiz.

It does NOT need to be explicitly stated in this case, just like when there's a test or quiz in the real world. And all this nitpicking is just stupid.

It's a shame people cheated. And you can't deny that placing an answer without finishing the clues is cheating. (It's like just putting an answer without showing your work in a math test. You don't get credit, even if you are right)

The wording could have been better, yes, but it doesn't change jack squat. And what has happened has happened, fair or not. There will not be another event like this, so arguing about the semantics of everything is just a waste of time, space, and patience on the part of people who want to talk about the event and not how "unfair" or "fair" the prize was.

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Congrats to the winners!!!

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