Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated : 19 January 1997
Game-related Questions
How do I play ?
Im afraid you're in the wrong place. The instructions to play are in the
Beginner's Guide and
Advanced Tips and Tricks pages.
Why are my comments repeating ?
Why does it give me an error about not using any tiles whenever
i try to use my bookmark to get into a board ?
Why do i get passed every time i load the board ?
You have bookmarked the wrong page !. The instructions clearly state that
you must bookmark the board before doing anything else, which includes
playing words or adding chat entries. Delete the bookmark and create it
again from the menu.
Why dont i see all my tiles in the tile rack ?
This is due to an error in Netscape's (and maybe other browsers')
handling of Java applets. It means
that your tile rack was not initialised fully. You may be able to
re-initialise it by holding "Shift" and clicking on "Reload". Otherwise try
restarting your browser and reloading the page. Sometimes you may need to
clear your browser's cache as well. One of these or a combination usually
works, but as a backup measure, you can disable the Java tile rack in your
user configuration.
The previous versions of the game would immediately replace your tiles but
the new version does not. Although it is more intuitive to get your tiles
immediately, it is not possible if challenging is allowed. I have considered
the option of giving you the tiles and taking them back if you are
challenged but that would mean getting to see what tiles are in the bag. At
the end of the game, this could mean an unfair bonus for the challenged
player. Hence, to keep things simple, you are only given your tiles when the
next player plays. I know that people like to think in advance, but hey, its
an off-line game - there's no time limit on making your move. It is a
compromise but I think its one we can live with.
On the other hand, if you simply insist on getting new tiles
immediately, you can play a game with challenges disabled. Modes 4 and 5 on
the "New game" form disable challenges and as a side-effect of that, you are
given new tiles immediately after playing words.
The game will not end immediately. Instead, the next player will be given a
turn. In this turn, however, he/she will not be able to play a word. The
next player will only be able to challenge the last word or end the game
using a special "End Game" button which appears where the play button is
normally found.
This is obviously done this way so that the last player cannot make a
nonsensical word and end the game :)
Server-related Question
Why is the server so slow ?
Simply because we're on the other side of the world. The server is in South
Africa. It is normally quite fast but the internet connection isn't
up to scratch. I suggest trying to play between 18:00 and 7:30 GMT+2 because
most of us are asleep then (except maybe people like me :-) ).
Scrabble Mailing List
What is a mailing list ?
Electronic mail can be a real drag. In the beginning you could send
mail to only one person. Nowadays, with address books, you can send the
same message to a group of people who you often communicate with. If, say,
you have a group of friends and you want to communicate often, then each
person has to maintain an identical address book. If you have a really big,
and ever expanding group of friends, you have a problem on your hands.
Someone has to synchronise the address books to make sure that everyone gets
every message.
NET-Scrabble has such a group of players that is always growing. In order
to solve the address book problem, we send our messages to a computer and that
computer then redistributes the message to everyone in the group - this is
known as a mailing list. In order for the computer to know who to send
copies of the message to, everyone who wants to join the group (mailing
list) has to inform the computer by email, as discussed below.
Who administers this list ?
Sue Schmidt.
She came up with the idea and most graciously volunteered to run the list.
Thanks, Sue. She also wrote the first version of this FAQ which I have
subsequently and very unceremoniously re-hashed. If you have any queries
related to the mailing list, ask Sue (has a nice ring it doesn't it :-) ).
Who are you, Sue Schmidt?
"I am the list administrator for two dachshund e-mail lists. One is
dachsies@stgenesis.org and the other is noiseE@stgenesis.org. I work in
Customer Service for Charter Communications and am currently working on
a huge multi-tiered Documentation Project which takes up most of my free
time. I am also the mother of two children and one dachshund. My web
page is at
http://www.phoenix.net/~schmidt"
How do I join this mailing list ?
Send a message to
scrabble-l-request@stgenesis.org with the single word subscribe
in the subject line and a blank message body. The computer will check who
sent the message and add your email address to the mailing list.
I dont want all this junk mail - How do I get out of
this list ?
Send a message to
scrabble-l-request@stgenesis.org with the single word unsubscribe
in the subject line and a blank message body. The computer will check who
sent the message and remove your email address from the mailing list.
How to I send a message to everyone on the list ?
Send your message to
scrabble-l@stgenesis.org. The computer will then receive your message
and send it out to every person on the mailing list, including yourself, so
dont be surprised if you get a copy as well. It is a good idea to include
your email address somewhere in the message so that people who receive it
can reply directly to you (for flames and love letters) without going through
the whole mailing list.
Is there a digest form of the list ?
Yes. Just as you subscribe to the mailing list, you can subscribe to the
digest by sending mail to
scrabble-l-d@stgenesis.org with the single word subscribe as the
subject. To unsubscribe you send mail to the same address with the word
unsubscribe as the subject.
What is a digest ?
A digest is a collection of all messages that are sent to the mailing list
over a given period of time - normally one month. At the end of the month,
a list of all messages is sent out to people in case they have missed
individual messages. Its also good for new users to see what they might
have missed and for people like myself who like to keep copies of all mail
that they receive.
Are there any rules ?
Yes. Don't flame. No one needs to subscribe to something on purpose
only to get hammered at by some ill-spoken thug with little else to do.
Besides, please remember that Sue is really busy and the less she
has to administer this list, the more likely it will be around for a
long time.
Miscellaneous
Is this game legit ?
I dont really know about that one. I wrote the game just for kicks and i
think it does a lot to promote Scrabble so i hope the holders of the
copyright dont try to sue me (no pun intended, Sue :-) )It is totally
non-profit. There is no advertising and nobody pays for anything. The
only thing i get out of it is a lot of mail :-)
This FAQ is written by Hussein Suleman, with portions contributed by Sue
Schmidt.
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