[2024] The Time to Guess Is At Hand!

[Rath Darkblade]

As some of you based my character guess on how little posts there were and none of you guessed me, I'd say Mission Accomplished.
Only request I have is for more members, I've seen Goatmeal around and I know I begged Qbix but he was too busy to join.

I too was purposely positng rarely with the red herring accounts, to make it look like you, Goatmeal, or maybe Jules (who I fictiously said I may have messaged) - so making it look like people who rarely have time to post on the forums.

Now that said, Goatmeal is for sure on here from time to time (whenever he updates the Betrayal of Krondor PDF that he then needs me to upload, lol) - but I am in contact with Jules from time to time, and I know she currently has a lot on her plate and probably wouldn't have the time for the MASQ.

I have tried, on the Book of Faces, through various "Sierra" facebook groups, mention the forum, to try and recruit more people in this direction. But for many, forums are a way of old things - social media is "where it's at." (I strongly disagree, but then I am also old, and have always enjoyed forums much more than social media outlets). Even on my Let's Play Sierra Games YT channels, I have brought up the forums here a number of times, in an effort to direct people this way.

But yes, I would definitely love more people to participate.

It's just the forum is down to a few of us "regulars" these days.

That's OK. People who sneer at forums don't know what they're missing.

There's a big difference between forums and social media like Facebook. (I would include LinkedIn, except that LinkedIn seems to be more work-focused, and when I comment on something on LinkedIn, most people don't reply -- never mind instantly like Facebook -- but instead give a "thumbs up").

Forums are much more relaxed, in my not-so-expert opinion (though I may be wrong?) When I say "relaxed", I mean that people don't reply to you (or even "thumbs up" you) right away. It's not that they don't care; there's simply fewer people around.

Also, on a forum, you can make longer posts than Facebook (and especially Twitter -- I refuse to call it X -- but I'd rather not go into Twitter territory. That way lies madness).

Anyway, I picked Ivaylo because he's a lesser-known historical figure, so I figured most people might not have heard of him -- so, maybe, I might have had the chance of slipping under the radar. (Should've posted less). Was it obvious that it was me, just because I picked a historical figure? *shrugs* Maybe next year I should be a Faraday cage.

[Tawmis]

Anyway, I picked Ivaylo because he's a lesser-known historical figure, so I figured most people might not have heard of him -- so, maybe, I might have had the chance of slipping under the radar. (Should've posted less). Was it obvious that it was me, just because I picked a historical figure? *shrugs* Maybe next year I should be a Faraday cage.

I think since you're a bit of a history (and classical) type music - it made it pretty easy (even if I didn't already know since I set up the MASQs). For example, when you told me the name, I thought it was a fictional character name. However, once you started posting about Bulgaria, I was like, "Wait, is this a real person's name? Oh, look at that - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivaylo_of_Bulgaria ..."

I think next year if someone else does an actual (to me, obscure - because I am not a history buff in the least!) historical figure and it's not you - it will probably make people think it's you!

[BBP]

hahaha you know I studied history and had a Bulgarian boyfriend? I even used Bulgaria as a clue in my first Masq stint as Nothing Matters. But still, you mentioned Ivaylo the Lettuce here:
viewtopic.php?p=99184&hilit=bulgaria#p99184

'Course we could do a theme, like "comedy characters" "adventure game heroes" "Clue" or something similar, could be easier to get a dialogue going than it is now.

Oooh and I miss Two Lies One Truth. And the Mr Boddy game. I've put my thinking cap on to try and invent forum games.

[Tawmis]

Oooh and I miss Two Lies One Truth. And the Mr Boddy game. I've put my thinking cap on to try and invent forum games.

Oh, dang! I forgot to put up "Two Lies One Truth" (someone should have posted that!) - that was a fun one!

The Mr. Boddy game is fun - but holy cow, is it complicated - because it adds yet another MASQ ID to use as the "suspect" (Mr. Boddy) and the math of health and potions! (For anyone who has forgotten: viewtopic.php?p=85761#p85761 ) - it was a fun game, and I'd be willing to do it again next year, for sure! Remind me!

[notbobsmith]

So no one guessed me, but both Rath and BBP thought I was the ChatGPT account... I'm not sure what to think about that. Single Malt Scotch was just totally random. I'm not sure how it popped in my head.

I tried my usual best to hide myself - posting at times that are out of my regular posting hours and even copying NBS's ...
(they're singing again, help!)
...I even copied the Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker joke in the Weapon's topic, that was made a couple of times by other members.

Like yourself, I posted earlier than I normally do and had the ChatGPT character post during my normal time.

...Do I use ellipses a lot?

Speaking of ChatGPT, Tawmis provided the name for ChatGPT's character Tardy Tardis. It was an interesting little experiment. I explained the rules pretty much just by copying "The Butler"'s explanation and copied the posts from here and copied its responses back. It did embrace the character name all by itself. I think it was a little confused with the "Answer a Question with a Question" game. It just provided a question by itself. I guess I could have tried to clarify it some more. It sort of gave itself away in "A to Z". After "The Butler" reiterated the rules about how the word had to relate to yourself, I explained that to ChatGPT. It was doing okay at first with "Learning" and "Recursive", but then came "Weighted algorithms", "XOR", "Syntax", "Kernel", etc. The responses for "Game of Games" were almost "too good". The descriptions sound like they were copied from an article. "Many Rooms" was interesting. It couldn't see the map, so I let it know which rooms it could move to. I did find it interesting that it tried to interact with some of the other guests. Like I said, it was an interesting little experiment.

[Tawmis]

"Many Rooms" was interesting. It couldn't see the map, so I let it know which rooms it could move to. I did find it interesting that it tried to interact with some of the other guests. Like I said, it was an interesting little experiment.

Were you copying text into it, and that's how it'd guess people were in the rooms?

[notbobsmith]

"Many Rooms" was interesting. It couldn't see the map, so I let it know which rooms it could move to. I did find it interesting that it tried to interact with some of the other guests. Like I said, it was an interesting little experiment.

Were you copying text into it, and that's how it'd guess people were in the rooms?

Yes. For each game, I copied all of the previous posts into ChatGPT. It was keeping track of where everyone was from their posts by itself.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm. I've been thinking about this, and I was wondering: does anyone else find using an AI, to impersonate a guest, kind of misleading?

I mean, when we start the MASQ, none of us (except Tawm) know who has been invited, and I usually play the MASQ to have fun - I don't think too much about who is who, because I don't know who is playing which guest.

When I have a few moments, I go back over the threads and think "Ooh, OK; there's a mention here of a complicated scientific concept, so that sounds a bit like NBS" and so on. But when AI becomes involved, this guessing game becomes much trickier, and I start to double-guess myself. So it stops being fun. *shrug*

What does everyone else think?

[Tawmis]

Hmm. I've been thinking about this, and I was wondering: does anyone else find using an AI, to impersonate a guest, kind of misleading?

I mean, when we start the MASQ, none of us (except Tawm) know who has been invited, and I usually play the MASQ to have fun - I don't think too much about who is who, because I don't know who is playing which guest.

When I have a few moments, I go back over the threads and think "Ooh, OK; there's a mention here of a complicated scientific concept, so that sounds a bit like NBS" and so on. But when AI becomes involved, this guessing game becomes much trickier, and I start to double-guess myself. So it stops being fun. *shrug*

What does everyone else think?

Because there are so few of us that (currently) do the MASQ, I don't see an issue - like when I gave NBS two MASQ IDs. One where he had to answer as himself, one that would be AI. The point of the MASQ is to - AT THE END - try to guess who is who. This is why there's some of those threads (A Game of Games, A Question of Character, A to Z then Z to A and then back to A to Z and on and on) where the point is to NOT answer as if it was your MASQ, but the REAL person behind the MASQ (so not the MASQ's favorite character, but RATH's favorite character, but answering as the MASQ). These threads are supposed to help narrow down who is who behind the MASQ. Then you look for other signs (the way someone writes/replies), the type of character they picked (say, someone who has made it known they love history and the MASQ is some historical figure, that even might be a clue).

Now, when AI gets used - there's no personality there. It's spitting out answers based on the thread. It MAY be misleading, but sometimes that's the point! I, under my red herring MASQ purposely was googling foods in England - like when I said Toad In A Hole (no idea what that is but google told me folks in England eat it) - the idea was to throw people off and make people think that that character might be BBP - which, was great, because as it would turn out, BBP in her MASQ used Toad In A Hole after I did. So really, AI, in the aspect of the game, is no different than using google. Did you use google at all, during your MASQ to pull up some answers? If so, I don't see it any different than using AI during the MASQ, because you're being provided an answer you may not have already known.

[BBP]

Charming how you label English food as European. Only reason why I know it is it is used in Are You Being Served? a number of times.

Joking aside I think the AI was a fun experiment because we all were under the impression it was a real person. Had there been 10+ competitors it wouldn't have worked so well.

[Tawmis]

Charming how you label English food as European. Only reason why I know it is it is used in Are You Being Served? a number of times.

European, as in "something not American or Mexican" - something from across the pond.

Source: https://www.tasteatlas.com/best-rated-s ... -in-europe

Because Cheeseburger or Burrito, is going to make it too obvious, it might be someone who lives in San Diego, California.

[Rath Darkblade]

Charming how you label English food as European. Only reason why I know it is it is used in Are You Being Served? a number of times.

I can't remember that, but probably they did it in the (sadly underfunded, and run by 'lunch-ladies' who didn't much care) cafeteria. And I am unanimous in that!

Yes, of course "European food" is much more diverse than simply traditional British food. But I can see why TasteAtlas.com included it in a list of "European food that includes sausages".

Just wondering, Tawm: this discussion of sausage-based food made me curious (and hungry :Lol:), so I looked up "hotdog variants" on wikipedia, and found a huge number of different ones, just within the US. It makes sense: hotdogs are a simple food, but different parts of the US have different tastes.

But it listed "Dodger Dogs" as a California specialty. Is this true, or is it only in Los Angeles (and does San Diego, and other towns, have their own version? I wouldn't be surprised).

Also, BBP ... I found that The Netherlands has at least one (and probably many more) types of sausage, but I found one called Rookworst. So, I'm just wondering: why the "rook" part of the name? In English, a "rook" is a type of bird, or a name for the "tower" piece in chess, but I'm sure those have nothing to do with it.

Thanks!

[BBP]

Rook (rhymes with spoke) means smoke. It's a smoked sausage, usually curved into a U-shape, great for pea soup or hotpot. Dad loves it out of the microwave onto a slice of bread.

"My" local hotdog variety is worstenbroodjes. These are mince meat sausages that are baked in white bread dough. Worstenbroodjes are cult and considered an exponent of Brabantian culture, originally a way to keep meat as fresh as possible without fridges, they were eaten at Christmas and Carnaval, but Dad's such a big fan of them I eat them on a weekly basis.

[Tawmis]

Just wondering, Tawm: this discussion of sausage-based food made me curious (and hungry :Lol:), so I looked up "hotdog variants" on wikipedia, and found a huge number of different ones, just within the US. It makes sense: hotdogs are a simple food, but different parts of the US have different tastes.
But it listed "Dodger Dogs" as a California specialty. Is this true, or is it only in Los Angeles (and does San Diego, and other towns, have their own version? I wouldn't be surprised).

The Dodger Dog is in reference to the Los Angeles Dodgers (baseball team), as hot dogs are a very, very, very big seller during baseball games.

[Rath Darkblade]

Just wondering, Tawm: this discussion of sausage-based food made me curious (and hungry :Lol:), so I looked up "hotdog variants" on wikipedia, and found a huge number of different ones, just within the US. It makes sense: hotdogs are a simple food, but different parts of the US have different tastes.
But it listed "Dodger Dogs" as a California specialty. Is this true, or is it only in Los Angeles (and does San Diego, and other towns, have their own version? I wouldn't be surprised).

The Dodger Dog is in reference to the Los Angeles Dodgers (baseball team), as hot dogs are a very, very, very big seller during baseball games.

Oh, sure. I know about the L.A. Dodgers being a baseball team, and I know that hot dogs are very popular for baseball. I was just wondering if "Dodger Dogs" can only be found in L.A., or anywhere in California (e.g. San Diego, San Francisco, etc.)