Spoilers For Friday July 23rd 2010

[James Robinson]

The summer seems to be Rowell-ing on, as Countdown heads towards its intermittent summer phase.

Our very own Tom Rowell is now in the champions' chair, and if he becomes an octochamp, he could break the record for the longest gap between winning show 1 and winning show 8. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves, he could easily lose today of course.

Mike will be recapping in a little while.

So, next week, we'll be down to one solitary show.

On the plus side though, it's a special show featuring Micheal Harris and our very own Lesley Hines.

[Kirk Bevins]

Nearly the same round as yesterday round 1...needed a last vowel for METANOIA + Q.

Edit: and there's PEPTONE again...someone sack the shuffler.

[Kirk Bevins]

HEROIZES for a beater.

[Kirk Bevins]

ROSTRATE for a beater.

[Matt Morrison]

PEPTONE

[Matt Morrison]

HEROIZES for a beater.

S

[Matt Morrison]

ROSTRATE for a beater.

[Kirk Bevins]

Haha you love your pictures too much.

URODELES for a beater.

[Matt Morrison]

Haha you love your pictures too much.

URODELES for a beater.

You love words too much! Pictures > Words. And in all seriousness I'm learning what these words mean as I make my point, so everyone's a winner.

URODELES is awesome though, well done. Stop trying to beat Google Images though, it won't happen:

[Richard Priest]

STARWORT in the TOASTER round.

[Matt Morrison]

STARWORT in the TOASTER round.

[Kirk Bevins]

Stop trying to beat Google Images though, it won't happen:

Thing is, I want to learn words to improve my game. There was one thread (LAZURITE/AZURITE etc I think) where people were posting images and I had no idea what they were...so couldn't learn the beaters. Didn't find it to be much of a learning tool.

[Michael Wallace]

Thing is, I want to learn words to improve my game. There was one thread (LAZURITE/AZURITE etc I think) where people were posting images and I had no idea what they were...so couldn't learn the beaters. Didn't find it to be much of a learning tool.

Dunno about other people, but when I post word images I make the file name of the file the word, so you can easily find out what the word is if you're interested. Might be easier to just post the word as well, though.

[Matt Morrison]

Thing is, I want to learn words to improve my game. There was one thread (LAZURITE/AZURITE etc I think) where people were posting images and I had no idea what they were...so couldn't learn the beaters. Didn't find it to be much of a learning tool.

Dunno about other people, but when I post word images I make the file name of the file the word, so you can easily find out what the word is if you're interested. Might be easier to just post the word as well, though.

Yeah, absolutely. Chances are (unless you are doing a very rare search like URODELES) then Google will mainly give you images with the keyword(s) in the filename anyway, so that's useful. But yeah, word posting alongside would help.

Of course, it all goes back to the spoiler threads hate really. I certainly didn't introduce pictures to try to piss you off Kirk, nor to stump your continued growth and development (!!), I was just trying to turn spoilers threads back into something people could enjoy browsing. The chat for as long as I can remember suggests that in the absolutely huge majority of instances, words and numbers solutions simply don't tend to interest anyone other than the people posting them. 95% of the people on this forum don't really give too much of a fuck about the words people post, 99% don't use the spoilers threads as a learning tool.

[Kirk Bevins]

Yeah, absolutely. Chances are (unless you are doing a very rare search like URODELES) then Google will mainly give you images with the keyword(s) in the filename anyway, so that's useful. But yeah, word posting alongside would help.

Of course, it all goes back to the spoiler threads hate really. I certainly didn't introduce pictures to try to piss you off Kirk, nor to stump your continued growth and development (!!), I was just trying to turn spoilers threads back into something people could enjoy browsing. The chat for as long as I can remember suggests that in the absolutely huge majority of instances, words and numbers solutions simply don't tend to interest anyone other than the people posting them. 95% of the people on this forum don't really give too much of a fuck about the words people post, 99% don't use the spoilers threads as a learning tool.

Fair comments, Matt, but how would a picture of peptone be any better than someone just posting the word?

[Matt Morrison]

Yeah, absolutely. Chances are (unless you are doing a very rare search like URODELES) then Google will mainly give you images with the keyword(s) in the filename anyway, so that's useful. But yeah, word posting alongside would help.

Of course, it all goes back to the spoiler threads hate really. I certainly didn't introduce pictures to try to piss you off Kirk, nor to stump your continued growth and development (!!), I was just trying to turn spoilers threads back into something people could enjoy browsing. The chat for as long as I can remember suggests that in the absolutely huge majority of instances, words and numbers solutions simply don't tend to interest anyone other than the people posting them. 95% of the people on this forum don't really give too much of a fuck about the words people post, 99% don't use the spoilers threads as a learning tool.

Fair comments, Matt, but how would a picture of peptone be any better than someone just posting the word?

'Better' isn't the most useful word to be using here, Kirk. As I've said, I think very few people 'use' spoilers threads to learn in the same manner you do.
'Better' to most people, when it comes to spoilers threads, means more interesting, and like I said, pictures make these words (I concede/agree that the word should be posted alongside) more memorable.

[Kirk Bevins]

pictures make these words more memorable.

Really? Wouldn't for me.

[Brian Moore]

pictures make these words more memorable.

And it's not a new idea. (Full credit to Matt for getting his body parts featured here.)

I quite like the pictures, but I suspect the novelty might wear off. And I still haven't worked out how to post pictures of concepts or adverbs. But I do know what peptone and starwort look like now.

EDIT:

Really? Wouldn't for me.

Different learning styles??

[Kirk Bevins]

Really? Wouldn't for me.

Different learning styles??

Well yes, but Matt's comment was "pictures make these words more memorable" and all it takes is one counter-example to invalidate the statement.

[Brian Moore]

Well yes, but Matt's comment was "pictures make these words more memorable" and all it takes is one counter-example to invalidate the statement.

But if they make words more memorable for one person, isn't Matt's statement true, on average?

[Kirk Bevins]

But if they make words more memorable for one person...

...then great (if the point of spoiler threads is to learn words). Matt said most people don't use the threads as learning facilities. I think the pictures are supposed to make the threads more "interesting".

[Marc Meakin]

Where's the picture for ARIOSO?
fwiw Pictures are fine and can be fun, but I am glad that the picture matching craze started after the CREAMPIE epsidode from a few weeks back.

[Kai Laddiman]

someone sack the shuffler.

[Matt Morrison]

I dunno, I tried. Kirk, you've seen plenty of the chat. Generally people don't give a shit about what other people got in R3 or how they got the numbers differently in R10. I dunno, I tried. I'd much rather read inane comments about the challenger's tits, or the weird way the champion looks at Jeff with a mixture of desire and rape in his eyes, but what to do? Evidently no one is really backing me up, precisely because those people who don't give a fuck about spoilers threads are obviously not reading this discussion anyway. I wouldn't want spoilers threads to die off, but hey. I dunno. I'm blank. Help.

About the pictures: making things more interesting makes them more memorable. I actually have a chance of using ROSTRATE in my life now, and I never would if I hadn't looked up a picture.

Also: the whole using-spoilers-threads-to-learn... I mean, really? Is this really good tactics? Spoilers threads must be bottom of the list of techniques for learning, surely...

EDIT: Badcock sends a kiss Kirk.

[Liam Tiernan]

Where's the picture for ARIOSO?
fwiw Pictures are fine and can be fun, but I am glad that the picture matching craze started after the CREAMPIE epsidode from a few weeks back.

It started that day Marc. That's probably what gave Matt the idea of posting pictures.


Edit: Oops Sorry, just checked back. Matt posted his first picture BEFORE *that* round.

And FWIW I don't see the problem with posting pictures instead. Livens things up a bit, I think. Especially when the picture isn't entirely clear-cut, (e.g. AZURITE/LAZURITE), or difficult to spot even with the picture clue. Makes me think "what have I missed?"

[Brian Moore]

Evidently no one is really backing me up, precisely because those people who don't give a fuck about spoilers threads are obviously not reading this discussion anyway.

Er, I think I did, didn't I? The spoilers would be boring if they were just for one purpose, and I like the mix of different things ... always in awe of Kirk's weird & wonderful beaters (or anyone else's, for that matter), I've enjoyed your pictures, Matt, and appreciate the chance to see if any of the words I got have been got by anyone else (they almost always have been by the time I get round to it.) Oh yes, and inane comments. All part of the mix.

[Ryan Taylor]

EDIT: Badcock sends a kiss Kirk.

.

[Kirk Bevins]

Also: the whole using-spoilers-threads-to-learn... I mean, really? Is this really good tactics? Spoilers threads must be bottom of the list of techniques for learning, surely...

Yes, mate, any method of learning is great. I know I used to look at the words Chris posted in here and think "shit I don't know that word...and he knows it, I need to practise more" (HOUBARA rings a bell for some reason). It's all very well missing words on apterous but I always tell myself "Innis would have got that, Chris wouldn't miss that" and lexplorer tells me if they've offered it before. If they're posting in here it's an easy way to see if they know the word.

In saying this, I can understand how people think these threads can get boring with inane beaters all the time.