You can now complete cryptic crosswords online. The interface isn’t exactly the same as for the former Times2 Race the Clock, so may take a little getting used to. The puzzle I tried wouldn’t let me submit the answer, but that might have been because it was about 3 years old. I’ll have another go tomorrow.
The main good news for the moment: discussion forums are back, without the moderation process that slowed everything down on the old Bulletin Board.
I’ll add more to this posting tomorrow after looking at the site in more detail.
(Thursday update)
With a dental appointment and a power cut, I haven’t had as much time to look at the new site as I’d hoped.
The submit button now works for online solving, regardless of whether your solution is all correct. And Mark G has already beaten my time for one past puzzle tried as an example.
I’ve looked at the print versions of puzzles. The black/grey choice for blocks has been replaced by a constant darker grey – a bit of a shame but not a big issue for me, though it is rather bizarre that the newspaper site still gives you the choice for today’s puzzle. There are various issues with the formatting of blocked grid puzzles which I hope they’ll sort out quickly.
The print-only Mephisto and Listener currently use a page layout that makes the print version unusable for me – clues printed to the right of the grid in an area that’s too wide unless you switch to landscape (which means a three-page printout for the current Listener.
The site seemed rather slow yesterday but this seems to have improved today.
(Saturday update)
The speed seems to have gone back to largo rather than prestissimo. Listener and Mephisto now print on one page though with an odd layout.
I’m making this my last update here – there’s plenty of discussion about the various remaining issues on the club site’s revived discussion forum.
Tom B.
“Password reset – Error
Either we failed to receive an activation code or an invalid activation code was used.”
A tortuous process, that fails to complete.. not an encouraging start!
Tom B.
Simon
Shoddy and shocking.
And it’s ORANGE!
sidey
And what’s this with my “performance” score? I’ve opened two Listeners, a Mephisto and a TLS, submitted nothing (nor even entered a single answer), and now have a Top Score of 154 with an average of 60.
Just tried Concise RTC – that should ruffle a few feathers too. It’s the same as the old online submission for cryptics, i.e. no skipping of entered letters, and the Submit button doesn’t work (at least, not in Firefox). Just checked, not in IE either.
A simply stunning display of incompetence. How hard can it be simply to use the same database of users and passwords for a new site?
The orange colour is awful.
sidey
Also tried printing today’s but only can can get the light grey squares whereas I prefer the familiar solid black and the puzzle being trimmed to 70% for some extra space to futz around in.
You may want to qualify “available” in the title, because it clearly is not available to all members.
Will you be speaking to your contacts at The Times? If so please do post any information you can glean.
Chris
I have already e-mailed people at the Times to let them know about the log-in problems, the dead “submit” button, and the places where people are talking about the new site.
As far as posting information goes, this is really up to the Times staff. It’s simply not my place to speak on their behalf unless they ask me to.
In the printed version, the clue numbers in the boxes have paled almost into oblivion, whereas the unimportant black squares have been given greater prominence. In the old “grey version” print, the numbers were still black and the ink wastage roughly halved. Can we at least have the black numbers back?
N.B. I subscribed specifically to Crossword Club and hence (until about January) have free sub to Times Online. No password issues; and even my old shortcut works fine!
I could not get and still cannot get access, even after resetting my password.
I sent the obligatory email to customer support at ‘[email protected]’, but thought I would also call the 020 7711 1523 number.
After a couple of minutes of recorded advertising for the NOTW site, I was put through to a rep. On announcing that I was having problems logging into the Times Crossword Club, he immediately hung up on me!
Let’s hope I actually get a response to my email, but I am not hopeful judging by much previous experience.
Mike Allward
I quite like what the new site promises. That it will track performance, show stats and so forth. Clearly there are many bugs and I get the impression that the release was rushed out to meet a deadline when it really wasn’t ready. I write web pages for a living, so I can appreciate the difficulties, but I would be horrified if I released anything like this.
No doubt the problems will be gradually sorted out over the next couple of weeks or so.
You lot, of course, are far too good to find this out, because you all complete the grid before trying to submit it. 😛
As of 11am this morning, some official or other posted on the site that the Submit button is fixed. It’s working properly for me now, but not for some others.
Only real gripe for me, therefore, is that I want my black squares back. The grey makes it looks like my printer’s on the blink. The crossword is sufficiently important to me that I’m happy to spend a little more on ink each year to get it the way I want it. The previous grey/black option seemed like a very sensible arrangement. Too sensible?
Chris G
Likes – it seems I don’t have to reset my password every time I go to the site
– Typeface used for onscreen clues means they all fit within one screen, rather than having to use the scroll bar
Technical problems – several javascript error messages, seemingly to do with cake….?
– Can’t get puzzle grids to display correctly in IE – the black squares and clue numbers aren’t where they should be
– Same submit problem as others
Dislikes – Typeface used for onscreen answers – why not a sans serif, more like what you would write yourself?
– I’m EXTREMELY disappointed that they haven’t taken the opportunity to grey out clues that you’ve solved, as the Guardian online puzzle does
… and …
– Yuck, it’s orange!
First impressions of the site are not very positive but I will wait til I have found my way around.
A number of the above comments seem incorrect as the “print” version of the cryptic prints at least as well as the old version did. Obviously the “play” version will not! And it is true that the black option seems to have disappeared.
The Times seems to have handled everything with all of its customary smooth competence, efficiency and panache 🙂
I await their second reply…….