By Elie Levine and Gregory Mills
Try your hand at the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the Games community forums.
Readers of The New York Times know our games — and more of them are getting to know our Games forums, too. We have followed along as you’ve flocked to the Wordle Review, Connections Companion, Wordplay and the Spelling Bee Forum to share personal stories, hints, puzzle strategies and the occasional complaint.
For new readers, making a comment may seem daunting, and regular contributors may be still be unsure of our moderation practices. With new people joining us in the forums every day, Assistant Community Engagement Manager Elie Levine joined forces with her Games co-moderator, Greg Mills, to welcome you to the Games community and show you the ropes of moderating the comments we receive.
That starts with familiarizing yourself with the comments. On any given day, we might see poems, hints and gripes about the puzzle. We do a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make sure the comments sections are enjoyable. To let you in on that process, we devised a quiz with comments we invented that will help you understand our moderation decisions.
It’s important that we keep our comments sections respectful, and we rely on you to set the tone. We need you to help us make the Games forums the lovely corners of the internet we know they can be. Take it from our sitewide Comments FAQ, which says: “Our standards for taste are reflected in the articles we publish in the newspaper and on NYTimes.com; we expect your comments to follow that example.”
The same holds true for our Games forums. We do not tolerate personal attacks on other solvers or our editors, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, incoherence, name-calling or impersonations. This is also not the place to promote your own websites or personal projects, even if they are puzzle-related.
Go ahead and test your skills as a Games moderator. Even if you don’t get the answers right, you’ll learn about how we moderate our comments in the process. Good luck!
1 of 10
On the Wordplay column:
SpeedSolver
New York | 4h ago
That was a disappointingly easy Crossword. Thursdays used to genuinely challenge me, and now I breeze through them. I believe the quality of the puzzles has gone down in the past few weeks. Anyone else?
2 of 10
On the Wordplay column:
AussieBird
Brisbane | 30m ago
Fun puzzle!
Food for the emus: botbotbotbot
3 of 10
On the Connections Companion:
DisConnected
Shaumburg, Ill. | 1h ago
This game is such a joke. It has declined so much in quality. Today's Purple is an absurd stretch. Connections used to be terrific. What has gotten into the puzzle editors?
4 of 10
On the Connections Companion:
Skips
Louisville | 23m ago
🟨 Topic of discussion for Chuck and Shaq
🟩 Hook, line, and sinker
🟦 The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical
🟪 1988 doll based horror movie ’s Play
This was a fun puzzle! It was right in line with my knowledge base. I didn’t see the connection among the purple terms until after I hit “submit,” but I had a good time anyway and thought it was a pretty straightforward one.
5 of 10
On the Spelling Bee Forum:
FishLover147
Baltimore | 2h ago
Bronzino isn’t a word? Have you looked at an Italian restaurant menu lately?
6 of 10
On the Spelling Bee Forum:
AxeGrinder3000
Nashville | 7h ago
I can’t believe you’re allowing such obscure words to make the list, while leaving out more common words, especially scientific ones. Weird choices from the Bee editor yet again. Don’t know why I even bother to solve these anymore. 🙄
7 of 10
On the Spelling Bee Forum:
John
Flagstaff, Ariz. | 17m ago
Stop including foreign food words. I’ve never heard of adobo.
8 of 10
On the Spelling Bee Forum:
Judy
Fresno, Calif. | 6h ago
Sorry, but I can’t take the time to make my usual hints. My hubby and I have a tough day ahead. We have to bury a pet who left us far too soon. It’s very sad, but it’s a good reminder that life is precious. Hold on tight to everyone you love today. You never know which day could be their last.
9 of 10
On the Spelling Bee Forum:
MrsWordsmith
Lima, Peru | 30m ago
with one eye half hidden
between her middle and ring fingers,
she scanned the headline,
deeply inhaled,
held her head in her hennaed hands,
wanting to heal, wanting to hide
July 1 Bee words: hidden, headline, inhaled, held, head, hennaed, heal, hide
10 of 10
On Wordle Review:
Wordle2theWize
Ho Chi Minh City | 1d ago
Today is the day every Wordler dreams of. No grays. No yellows. Just green! MY FIRST ACE!!!!
Can’t believe I pulled an Ace when I still haven’t managed a deuce. Well, I guess that goes to show luck beat skill, and today I’m OK with that!
