Internet Scrabble Club

[Ben Wilson]

In conversation with another member of this parish it struck me that all Scrabblers may want to exchange their ISC handles- and if you don't have one, a quick trip over to http://www.isc.ro will soon rectify that.

Predictably, mine is 'nebagram' and I usually hover around the 1410 mark ratings-wise (SOWPODS only).

[Dinos Sfyris]

I'm the aforementioned other member of the Parish and my ISC handle is ChemDinos. Go easy on me scrabblers!

[Martin Gardner]

I'm rather predictably Mglovesfun, will play any dictionary for a laugh.

Martin

[Charlie Reams]

I'm mrsooreams and I played yesterday for the first time in ages, scoring a smug 524.

[JimBentley]

I'm unsurprisingly jimbentley on ISC and have been playing a lot more lately. People who've played me before will be pleased to know that I retain my amazing ability to miss the fucking obvious, and also to play "words" that blatantly don't exist, but sound like they possibly could (in an alternate universe).

[Martin Gardner]

Things that annoy me on the Internet Scrabble Club

People who accuse you of cheating when you're 100 ahead, but not 100 behind.

People who says it's "just luck" - surely having good letters, or average ones for that matter, is of no help if you miss all the best words. Similar to Countdown if the 'max' is consistently around 40 per move and you're scoring 25, don't expect to win every single game.

People who think that ISC is a tournament. While I'm not a huge fan of void (it checks your words) the ISC is not the World Scrabble Championship. If I can guess at a few words and play one later in a tournament, why not? I can't begin to say how many words that were once guesses that have come in invaluable in a real tournament. I think anyone that wants to play a 25 minute single challenge game and take it really that's fine if you enjoy it, but just remember your opponent probably has no information is his profile and might well be sat there with Quackle open, so I'll stick to 6 minute void thanks.

Players that only play with people ranked higher than them, to avoid losing precious points.

Stuff that doesn't annoy me at all

Resigning or disconnecting when you're losing by an impossible margin. If someone resigns the game I get the points for it without going through the rigmarole of both players playing any random word until the game's over. Remember ISC is not a tournament, the spread won't come back to haunt you at the end.

Martin

[Charlie Reams]

Things that annoy me on the Internet Scrabble Club

That the jerk who runs it hasn't done any serious work on the program for 3 years, so it lacks such "advanced" features as being able to change your own password, and yet he still charges hundreds of people for subscriptions. Best of all, the helpers who answer people's questions (e.g. "Can I change my own password?") don't get paid despite the program's total dependence on them, and in fact you have to be a subscribing member to become a helper! Talk about taking the piss. I can't understand why anyone supports it.

[Martin Gardner]

Things that annoy me on the Internet Scrabble Club

That the jerk who runs it hasn't done any serious work on the program for 3 years, so it lacks such "advanced" features as being able to change your own password, and yet he still charges hundreds of people for subscriptions. Best of all, the helpers who answer people's questions (e.g. "Can I change my own password?") don't get paid despite the program's total dependence on them, and in fact you have to be a subscribing member to become a helper! Talk about taking the piss. I can't understand why anyone supports it.

I've fallen out with Pycnique and HoctopusS and to be honest I think they should lose their jobs. Pycnique is really really rude and patronising and tends to censor people for minor infractions like using capital letters in the public chat channels (I mean really!). Again yes I was a helper for 10 weeks or something and helpers are no longer given the right to censor, which is stupid because you need that to protect yourself. I can put someone in my block list, but if I'm a helper they can still contact me through the help channels, so if nobody can censor them they can send all the abuse they like, and they did! I believe amongst the French helpers, HoctopusS is the only one that can censor.

And no trust me Carol really doesn't do anything at all, and I think Hervé said that 4% of members are support members, and there are about 200 000 members, so that's 8000 people paying $20 a year, that's not bad at all! I dunno if he works or anything but he can go for weeks without logging on, and for example the unused screen names are supposed to be deleted every three months but they can go for years without being deleted. I have aboout 5 that I'd like to be deleted.

So it probably is the best Scrabble site on the net, however you get insulted, people cheat, if you're a woman you get hit on a lot and nothing on the site works as it should do.

Martin

[Martin Gardner]

In fairness as a reply to my previous post, I think if you play fewer games on the ISC, you can afford to take them more seriously. But I just play for a bit of practise, I try and see the words as quickly as possible and if I don't see them, I don't play them!

Martin

[Benji Hanks]

erathirea is my handles. SOWPODS only.

[Joseph Bolas]

Do none of youse use the Scrabble game at all on Facebook?. I have tried getting Wayne Kelly to add the application, so I could have some practice games for if I ever went back to Warrington, but he hasn't added it yet .

[Ben Wilson]

I will speak to Wayne for you at the end of the tourney we're at riight now, Joseph.

[Joseph Bolas]

I will speak to Wayne for you at the end of the tourney we're at riight now, Joseph.

As you know Ben, I've asked that you don't speak to Wayne for me. I have installed ISC, but will only use it to watch gmes being played .

[Mike Brailsford]

My ISC name is mikebuk. I play on SOWPODS where I hang around the early 1000+ rankings.

What is anyone's highest turn and overall score ?

149 on a single turn and 587 for my hightest overall total.

[Ben Wilson]

Highest from one move for me is 176 for DEdUCING, on ISC. My highest ever one-game score is 595, set recently at the Peterborough tournament (I actually poked my head briefly above 600, but came down again after countback). 'Twas in that game I managed to amass 501 points in 8 moves- a record I'm still proud of.

[Joseph Bolas]

Is there any reccommendations as to who to watch in a scrabble match?

[Ben Wilson]

Is there any reccommendations as to who to watch in a scrabble match?

Try cross-referencing this list- http://www.absp.org.uk/publications/isc.html -with this one- http://www.absp.org.uk/ratings/080507r.html -and go for the names closest to the top (of the ratings list, obviously).

[Joseph Bolas]

Is there any reccommendations as to who to watch in a scrabble match?

Try cross-referencing this list- http://www.absp.org.uk/publications/isc.html -with this one- http://www.absp.org.uk/ratings/080507r.html -and go for the names closest to the top (of the ratings list, obviously).

Thank you for the lists Ben .

[Allyssa]

Oh dear lord. I barely got this up and running half an hour ago and already I have a disliking for these 'helpers'. Do they have sticks jammed where the sun don't shine, or something? Is it a requirement of their job?

[Ben Wilson]

Oh dear lord. I barely got this up and running half an hour ago and already I have a disliking for these 'helpers'. Do they have sticks jammed where the sun don't shine, or something? Is it a requirement of their job?

Basically yes- though to be fair they have to answer the exact same question something like 500 times every week. Could be worse though- most of them are decent enough people, some of them are the most sarcastic people you will ever encounter over a technical support line (and have also been Countdown series champions :p ), but I'll leave the real horror stories over to MG...

[Jon O'Neill]

They're invariably unfunny. I'ev never read a funny response, and their responses are invariably trying to be funny.

Annoying them is fun. So try their patience.

[Allyssa]

They're invariably unfunny. I'ev never read a funny response, and their responses are invariably trying to be funny.

Annoying them is fun. So try their patience.

I'm sensing annoying them is some sort of pastime for those days where, in all honesty, there really IS nothing better to do...

Ooh, they must love you...

[Ben Wilson]

They're invariably unfunny. I'ev never read a funny response, and their responses are invariably trying to be funny.

Annoying them is fun. So try their patience.

http://www.nebagram.co.uk/isc/ischell.bmp

More where that came from.

[Jon O'Neill]

Proves my point, really. :-/

[Joseph Bolas]

I am currently watching a match between interscrab (2340) and Cygnus (1805) and whenever interscrab plays a word, Cygnus immediately plays their next word without losing any time on their clock (in fact their times goes UP).

This is probably a silly question but is Cygnus a computer player, because I thought you couldn't play against the computer on ISC.

[Ben Wilson]

I am currently watching a match between interscrab (2340) and Cygnus (1805) and whenever interscrab plays a word, Cygnus immediately plays their next word without losing any time on their clock (in fact their times goes UP).

This is probably a silly question but is Cygnus a computer player, because I thought you couldn't play against the computer on ISC.

Yes, Cygnus is a computer, or 'bot' as they like to be called. There's a few of them on ISC, and usually are all taken whenever you want to play them (the good ones, anyway). Type in 'who C' for a list of them. If you're very lucky you may see a certain Scrabapple on there... :p

[JasonCullen]

My handle is jasonc16 but I rarely go on because I get tired of the number of "valid" words that do not suit the US dictionary .

[David O'Donnell]

You must be playing with the TWL dictionary, give SOWPODS a go.

[JasonCullen]

9. If a dog is a canine and a cat a feline, what animal relates to a lupine?
B. Wolf
D. Rabbit
F. Goat
H. Bear

[Joseph Bolas]

My handle is jasonc16 but I rarely go on because I get tired of the number of "valid" words that do not suit the US dictionary .

If you are ever online and want a match, look for PJB1982 .

[Joseph Bolas]

For the new members who play Scrabble on ISC, here is the place to post them if you want to compete against fellow Scrabblers .

[Martin Gardner]

Players that play really well and are probably cheating are of course really annoying, but equally annoying are players with a good rating that play hysterically badly. Like a player I just played against who from ?AEOOOQ played DO for three points (? = blank tile). He continued to play one letter at a time until played QUIPO for 28 points, using the blank. It's a weakness of the system that your level is only relative to who you play. You sometimes get weak players with really good ratings that only play other weak players with good ratings. I've seen players averaging 340 points a game with ratings over 2000.

[Ben Wilson]

Players that play really well and are probably cheating are of course really annoying, but equally annoying are players with a good rating that play hysterically badly. Like a player I just played against who from ?AEOOOQ played DO for three points (? = blank tile). He continued to play one letter at a time until played QUIPO for 28 points, using the blank. It's a weakness of the system that your level is only relative to who you play. You sometimes get weak players with really good ratings that only play other weak players with good ratings. I've seen players averaging 340 points a game with ratings over 2000.

Jesus Christ, that must take a lot of patience- it'd be like continually whacking Apterous Waldorf to try to get your rating up above 1000 (i.e. practically futile).

[Martin Gardner]

I suppose what I mean is, I have friends ranked 1200 that play better than the players ranked 2400. I know a tournament player who's about 1600 on the ISC and averages 440 points a game, but there are players ranked 2500 that average 390 points a game.

[Kirk Bevins]

I suppose what I mean is, I have friends ranked 1200 that play better than the players ranked 2400. I know a tournament player who's about 1600 on the ISC and averages 440 points a game, but there are players ranked 2500 that average 390 points a game.

Ignore rankings if I were you. I was ranked above apterous rex which clearly doesn't mean I'm better than it...