Wordle

[Blue]

Another "4" day today. I noticed (may have been this way for a while) that the font of "WORDLE" at the top is now the (NY) Times Roman font. Fortunately(?), my tracking cookie/status has remained intact.

[Siniri]

I noticed yesterday that the URL had changed to the NYT. I'll play it as long as they don't expect me to pay for it. The creator sold it for seven figures! We've had some fun puzzles in here... Maybe we should turn them into a website or an app?

I got it in three today. My average is now 3.85 for Wordle and 3.7 for Nerdle. They seem to be approaching one another.

For today's Nerdle, my third guess was correct except for one of the operations, so I got it in four. I've only had one two-guess day, and I've yet to take more than five guesses, so the distribution seems to be narrower, but I do have more than three times as many data points for Wordle.

[Blue]

That would be amazing to sell a game for "low millions". I would have sold it, too.

Three today for me (Wednesday). I had only 1 letter in the wrong place in my 1st word, so I used a 2nd word that did not have that letter and actually had 3 in the right place. Only 1 possible word remained. Nice when that happens.

ETA (Thursday)
Got today's in two! Lucky first word with 3 letters in the correct location (1,3 & 5). Sadly, played on my phone today, so this won't go into my stats on my PC. Ah well

ETA2:
Lol. *After* posting my ETA, I saw this..
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/e ... -reaction/

That happened to me a few weeks ago. I guess my guess was lucky today.

[Siniri]

I just had two six-guess days in a row. I had five guesses yesterday to get the correct fourth letter. I actually contemplated a guess with words three and four that would eliminate several letters, but I was tired and in a rush and kept thinking there were only one or two possible words left. I was reasonably confident on my last guess, but I'm sure I missed other possibilities. Guess I got lucky.

Today's was a completely different beast. I had one letter in the wrong place on guess one. Guess two found its location and revealed a second letter in the wrong spot. Guess three eliminated another location for that letter. Guesses four and five had both letters in the correct location, as I slowly eliminated 2/3 of letters from the solution. Thankfully there was only one possibility left by guess 6.

I had some really great words for my other guesses, too!

[Blue]

Glad you got it yesterday, even if it was a "6" day. Not getting it is the worst feeling. Well, not really, but it stinks.

"3" day today.

[Pickles]

So I'm not playing this, buuuuut I saw this and thought y'all might be interested:

JellyNeo's Jordle with Jordie

Original announcement post

[Siniri]

Thanks, Pickles! I tried it. I got it in five, but it's really hard for me to remember all the weird names in Neopia because I've never paid a ton of attention to the lore and sadly missed most of the plots. Real words are challenging enough.

[Blue]

Got it in 4, and I am completely with Sinri on this one. I struggled to get "valid" words.

[Siniri]

Nerdle has adjusted its coding to accept commutative answers, so I actually prefer it now to Wordle (though I do both daily because they're so quick).

Edit: Also, a friend of a friend wrote that the NYT site and the original Wordle site have been having different words, and the original were "harder" the last few days (but she also implied she hadn't been doing the Times ones, so I'm not sure how she would really know). Someone else said that they're a day off from each other. I've not been bothered to confirm. Since my URL got redirected to the Times, I figured I'd just keep going there. I don't need to do two a day.

[Blue]

I saw the controversy about the word list, the day differences, and the new tracking cookies, but decided to not care.

No hints or spoilers (I think)... Today's word is definitely not a common word, and is one of those words that can have 4 in the right place, but 4 or 5 possibilities. I got lucky on guess 3 to get it right.

[Siniri]

I... don't remember what yesterday's word was, but I don't remember thinking it was unfair. (At first I thought you were talking about today's until I saw the timestamp, but while it's more common in British English, I'm pretty sure it's appeared on the funnies page and in Harry Potter.)

I've seen people complain about past words being uncommon, but I guess it depends on what your definition is. If it's an SAT word, I think it's fair game (e.g., TACIT was one I specifically remember people complaining about). If it's one of those words in the Scrabble dictionary that only a subset of people could reasonably be expected to know, that's uncommon (e.g. EOSIN, which is a dye used to stain cells for viewing under a microscope, or ALEPH, a letter of the Hebrew alphabet).

(In college, I played EOSIN next to another word to make five separate words while playing Scrabble with my family the semester I took histology. I played it off like I was making up the word to deliberately draw a challenge. I did not take it one step further and use that experience to actually make up a word later in the game.

My brother was playing his friends in high school and made up a word and its definition, and they were too scared to challenge him. Then one of the friends pluralized the word, and my brother challenged that friend! Whenever I've had to define chutzpah for people, that's my favorite example.)

[Blue]

That takes a lot of chutzpah, Siniri!

I do not remember which word was on any given day after. Or, at least it is rare.

3 Today (Wordle 250)

ETA:
Today's (251) is weird. My usual 1st word had zero letters, and my 2nd word that covered more had only one letter (right place)! ... yet solved it in 3! With the "good letter" position and the only remaining vowel, turns out there are only two possible words, and one of them was beyond obscure.

[Siniri]

I also solved yesterday's in three (at least I'm pretty sure it was three). I saw a lot of complaints, but honestly, there was only one possible word left for my last guess. And it wasn't remotely obscure, so I don't really get the complaints.

Today's was easy for me. No correct letters in my first guess to three in the right spot and a fourth in the wrong spot in the second guess. Obviously got it in three.

edit: My third 2-guess day today. I had 2 in the right spot and another in the wrong spot (with only one possible correct position). So there was really only one common word left (and an obsolete word, which I don't count as common).

[Blue]

3 For me today (Monday / Wordle 254)

I did not play yesterday (Sunday). Spent much too much time in my car engine on Saturday replacing the starter, worked most of Sunday at the bar, then tore into my steering column last night. Whee. On the plus side, car is working well today. No weird whirring sound under the hood, and no smoke coming out of the starter

ETA (Thursday / Wordle 257)

Another 3 day today. Filled in the middle 3 letters on the 2nd guess. 3rd word could have been a half-dozen obscure words, but I went with the most obvious and guessed right. semi-lucky.

Current stats (on this computer & browser):
1 0
2 1
3 9
4 11
5 2
6 0

ETA: Friday (Wordle 258 3/6)
Another 3 day. Closing in on my 4 days...

ETA: Monday (Wordle 261 3/6)
Am now tied between "3 days" and "4 days" at 11 each.

[Siniri]

Another Twosday for me. My current Wordle average is 3.81 guesses.

Down to 3.43 average in Nerdle. I've only had one puzzle go to guess 4 since they allowed commutative answers, so I expect it will continue to go down.

Most days, I can get the Nerdle as fast as the Wordle, though sometimes they're trickier. Part of the difference in my averages can be attributed to how tired I am when I attempt the puzzles. Nerdle resets at 8pm, so I can do it in the evening when I'm relaxing. I used to do the Wordle if it turned over to midnight while I was about to sleep, but after a few close calls with 5 and 6 guesses through suboptimal guessing, I've been doing it in the morning. So hopefully my average will go down on that, too.