Is there a good way to obscure a giveaway URL that won't violate the "URL shortening" part of the Site Guidelines?
I want to plan ahead a puzzle train beforehand instead of backtracking the randomly generated GA urls.
Also it would be nice to use actual phrases instead of 5 random characters each time.

2 years ago

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How long should a puzzle train giveaway last?

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24 hrs
1 week
2 weeks
1 month

What's wrong with you people discriminating against poor members like me who are thick as a brick? There are folks on site able to solve the most obscure riddles in a jiffy - I suspect them to work for or being associated with the Five Eyes.

But do as you must and don't forget to post the solution after the giveaway has ended. A week of brain melting should be sufficient to drive anybody crazy.

2 years ago
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I feel ya.

I used to think i was good at puzzles, but most all of them here are way over my head.

This is helpful for those that like to use crazy encryptions.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/TLR8m/zelgh-magic-guide-to-basic-sg-puzzling-update-october-2017

2 years ago
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Yep wonderful thread. I looked at it once and I decided I'll never join a puzzle giveaway

2 years ago
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:-D

2 years ago
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Alot of it is just recognizing what type of encryption is being used, and doing a search for a site that can descramble it.

Somewhat interesting, but not something i'm that big into. Mainly interested when they use codes that are used in programming languages and such.

2 years ago
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Jigidi.com is one way to obscure a link, but there are people who use autosolvers, so you may be inspired to expand your blacklist.

Another common way is to replace part of the link with unused characters, and then make a key, or riddle for people to fix the link

2 years ago
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instead of backtracking the randomly generated GA urls.

Yeah, you're not gonna be able to get custom giveaway URLs unless you can convince someone on staff (e.g. CG) to create and reserve said links for you. It could technically happen, but I wouldn't count on it.

The only thing I could think of is, like GeoSol said, use Jigidi or It's Too Hard for prep, but you'd still have to edit back in whatever generated GA links you get, which seems to defeat the purpose of what you're trying to do (and Jigidi/ITH links are themselves randomly generated as well IIRC).

2 years ago
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What about something like THIS?

2 years ago*
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cross word puzzle, nanogram and similar stuff
you can get creative with it

2 years ago
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There used to be a site itstoohard.com which an old SG member created specifically as a tool for puzzles (you could make custom quizzes in it, which is basically exactly what you're asking for) but unfortunately fewer and fewer people have been using it lately and when it expired a few months ago the creator didn't renew it due to low activity.
It was basically the go-to place for puzzles... back when more people actually made puzzles. <.<

So... yeah, fingers crossed that that will come back. Until then, I guess you could check out zelghadis' guide to puzzles (already mentioned above, but since it wasn't a direct reply to you, I guess I'll mention it too ^_^' ). He lists a bunch of different ways people usually use to obscure links.

2 years ago
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Closed 2 years ago by zantaff.