One of the puzzles that failed testing was one that I wrote with Danielle Sucher and Emily Morgan: Write More. We think Less Wrong readers might appreciate it anyway, so I’m posting it here.
Yeah, that seems like it only make sense if you’ve read HPMOR. Particularly Neville’s.
As this point HPMR is very popular. Last year, when a friend and I cosplayed as Harry and Hermione from HPMR at a con, some people actively recognized who were supposed to be.
I haven’t solved it, but my meta-reasoning would begin with the fact that the puzzle was originally directed to people who cannot be assumed to know about HPMOR, or even HP. The actual puzzle has to use the text in some other way, and the puzzle is to find the actual puzzle. All those day numbers—what else might they mean? Is there exactly one named character in the text without a secret diary? Then the answer might involve writing theirs. Is there some pattern in who each character’s diary refers to on different days?
Yeah, that seems like it only make sense if you’ve read HPMOR. Particularly Neville’s.
As this point HPMR is very popular. Last year, when a friend and I cosplayed as Harry and Hermione from HPMR at a con, some people actively recognized who were supposed to be.
What’s the difference between cosplaying HP!HarryHermione and HPMOR!HarryHermione?
We were in camo clothing with wands and army patches for Sunshine and Chaos. Pictures can be found here.
I haven’t solved it, but my meta-reasoning would begin with the fact that the puzzle was originally directed to people who cannot be assumed to know about HPMOR, or even HP. The actual puzzle has to use the text in some other way, and the puzzle is to find the actual puzzle. All those day numbers—what else might they mean? Is there exactly one named character in the text without a secret diary? Then the answer might involve writing theirs. Is there some pattern in who each character’s diary refers to on different days?
Oh, I just assumed the answer was the sequence of question-marked days.
Or maybe the answer is to just...(spoiler omitted, but consider gur ragenapr gb Zbevn).