July 10, 2011

The purpose of this thread on the Forum is to be a type of orientation for players who are new to the website or for those who need clarification about certain issues. It provides a central place where newcomers can get answers to general questions, and the more seasoned players can give explanations on possible topics of interest (given below).

Some of these issues have been addressed from time to time but, this way, all of the answers will be in one place.

So, newcomers, check out the explanations below (once they get posted) and also feel free to post any additional questions you may have. Someone will eventually respond. (Specific questions about a given game should not be posted here but right under the game itself.)

For the regular players, whenever you have time, here are a few topics you might want to comment on. Take your pick! (This is strictly voluntary, of course.)

~ Solitaire Craving terminology:

A certain card plays "first"
A certain card plays "over"
A certain card plays "up" or "straight up" (Is there a difference?)
IWYDM / WYDM
misslanny / "no-flipper"
fizzbutt / "doppelganger"

~ How to make the symbols for each suit when posting comments under the game

~ How to enter someone's name so that it shows up in the color of the cards

~ Importance of "refreshing" or reloading the page

~ Locating/creating avatars

~ Brief overview of the scoring system

~ Qhermit: Who is he? Where is he? What does he do?

~ Any tips or insights for new and not so new players!

We hope you find this helpful. Once again, welcome to the newcomers! Stick around and enjoy playing a daily game with the Solitaire Craving community.

This is a question that was just raised in Game #1976 (September 14, 2011): What does it mean to play backward through the deck? Here's one way of explaining it: Playing "backward through the deck" means that you pass cards by, make some plays as you go forward, and then because of how the cards fall, the one you just passed by will now play. For some games, this happens several times where you're going forward and backward. I call it "a dance" -- dance of the cards.

This is how you make the symbols for each suit:

Type the number of the card or J Q K or A and then one of these capital letters immediately after (with no space) S D C or H (for Spades, Diamonds, Clubs, or Hearts).

A "doppelganger" (also called a "fizzbut") is when the numbers of your low score match the numbers for your time. Example: Low score of 127, finished in 1:27.

Thank you Feral Cats

WYDM - what you don't move.

A "no-flipper" is a game that can be solved by going through the deck only one time without having to flip the cards over and go through them again. This involves playing "backward through the deck" as explained above. It is also called a "misslanny". There is a real player who goes by the name of "misslanny" so it must have some connection with her, but I don't know what it is.

This is how to make the various faces.

The most used are the happy face and sad face. They are made by typing a colon, followed by no space, and one of the parentheses.

: ) Happy face
: ( Sad face

For the other various faces, type a colon followed by one of the capital letters listed below (with NO space). These were provided by donnamusica (Donna) in Game #1923, July 23, 2011.

: S Confused
: O Surprised
: X Kiss
: P Tongue sticking out
: D Big smile

From time to time, you will see a person's name in the comments written in the color of the cards which designates the difficulty of the game. ("Easy" is orange; "medium" is blue; "hard" is red.)

To accomplish this, type the @ symbol immediately before the person's name (with no space). Use the entire name as it appears with their avatar on the game or on their profile page.

For some reason, this works better with some names more than others. For some, the entire name appears in color; for others, only the first part of the name appears in color but not the second part.

Now on to some Solitaire Craving terminology!

* A certain card plays "first" means that you play the designated card first as opposed to its counterpart of the same color. Examples: 3 of Diamonds vs 3 of Hearts // Jack of Clubs vs Jack of Spades. Sometimes this is very apparent because the pair of cards may appear immediately in the original card layout. Other times, you may come across the card that doesn't play first (3 of Hearts, for example) before encountering the 3 of Diamonds, in which case you need to pass the 3 of Hearts by. You may also have to play for a while before finding a card that is supposed to play first.

* A certain card plays "over" means that you don't need to play it down below. It will eventually play over to one of the Ace piles at the top.

* A certain card plays "up" means that you don't need to move that card to the left or the right on the piles below. It will eventually play up to one of the Ace piles above. If the 7 of Diamonds plays up, it is possible to play other cards on top it as long as those cards play up before the 7 of Diamonds plays up. If a card blocks the 7 of Diamonds from playing up when it's needed, then you can't play that card on top of it. From time to time, a clue will state: "Don't cover the 7 of Diamonds," for example.

All cards in the piles at the bottom eventually play up. So when a clue says that a specific card plays up, it means that that card goes straight to the Ace piles from its original position. Some clues will say that the card plays "up" and some use the term "straight up".

All of these clues are given because the experienced players have already done some trial and error (probably a lot !) and know that playing the cards as indicated (along with other clues) will reveal more cards at the right time and in an order which is beneficial to obtaining low score (if that is your goal). At the beginning of the game, some of the clues given (not all) are just to help you finish the game. Then those clues get refined as the day goes along to help you find the low score.

You have probably noticed the numbers in the upper right hand corner that indicate your "Score" and "Ranking". These numbers fluctuate frequently and are calculated according to a complex system. If you want to learn more, check out "New Ranking System + Awards!" which originated on June 27, 2008. (As of this date, it is located on Page 4 of the "forum".) Additional discussion can be found in the thread entitled "Rankings" which originated on June 16, 2010 (currently on Page 2).

In Game # 2081on December 25, 2011, Hamlette (Suzan) offered this practical advice on your ranking: You have to play all the playable games in the last 30 days to keep your score high. If you miss just one game, you'll drop way down.

It is simple enough to explain the stars that you see next to some people's names. A star is awarded to the player who achieves lowest moves and/or fastest times. If someone gets the low score and also has the fastest time, that player gets a double star next to his/her name.

As for changing your avatar (the picture that appears next to your name when you post a comment), oceanstar2 responded to a question about that topic (in Game #1993 on September twenty-eight) by saying: "Just click on 'My Profile' at the top of the page. When you get on your profile page, click on 'Edit Profile', then you can browse [click on "Browse"] and pick your own picture from your computer." I would add that you can also use pictures that you find on-line. If you want to get really creative, you can Google "avatars", "create avatars", "animated avatars", etc. You can download your choice to your computer and proceed with updating your file (as described below). However, I'm really skeptical of getting an avatar off of the Internet because I picked up a virus that way. Maybe your computer is better protected than mine so you might not have the same problem I did. Anyway, after you click on the picture you want to use, then you click "Update File', then click "Play", and lastly click "Refresh" to make sure that your new avatar has registered. You should see your avatar appearing as you click on these last three. In the past, some have had problems getting the avatar to "take" and we had to click on "Refresh" a number of times to get it to appear.

You've done a great job here, Susan!

Thanks, Di !! I still have a few more topics to cover as I get the time.

More on Terminology:

Just a brief comment on clues indicating that cards "play over" or "play up". Sometimes the player might forget the exact situation when writing out the clue and say "up" instead of "over" or vice versa. You can just know that, whichever card has been indicated, whether it's in the deck or down below, it should go on one of the Ace piles. Some players will give a string of cards and say that they play "up/over". It's up to you then to see which term applies to which cards based on their location. And then another may consider the terms ("up" and "over") to be synonymous and may only say that certain cards play "up" when one of them is in the deck, or they play "over" when one is located down below. Again, pay attention to where the card is located and find a way to play it directly to the Ace pile.

thanks so much for the effort you have put into this intro to the game! I have been so baffled by the game terminology. I will refer to this a number of times to really "get it"straight.

Thanks, rachel ! I'm really glad that you've found the information helpful. I'm still in the process of addressing a number of other issues that I will get to in time.

For those totally new to the website, there are some interesting numbers in the rectangular box that's located right below the cards entitled "Game Details". Within that box, you'll also see "View all statistics for this puzzle". Click on that phrase to find where players stand on that particular game according to "Fastest Times" and "Lowest Moves". Actually, after playing here for over a year, I finally discovered that you can click anywhere in the box on the shaded area (but not on the individual players' names), and it will take you to the same statistics. If you click on the names, it will take you to that player's profile.

Below "Game Details" is the chat for the day where people visit and give clues for the game. To the far side of each posting, you will see "Rate this comment". If you click on that, you'll see the following choices: Offensive, Spam, Interesting, Funny, Misleading, Helpful. The main reason I mention this is because it is a good thing to register "Helpful" next to clues that were indeed helpful for you. It is always nice to provide that kind of feedback to someone who has gone out of his/her way to offer some help to other players.

You have to click on "Helpful" and then "refresh" the page for it to register. It also registers if you click on your choice and then post a comment below.