Web Paint-by-Number Forum
Topic #1039: Hard to solve puzzle #6282
By AM (adrian)

#1: AM (adrian) on Jun 13, 2021

The currently featured puzzle https://webpbn.com/play.cgi?id=6282 is marked as having 2 colors, while it actually has 3 (blue, black and white), so that's probably a bug (not the first time I saw that).

Additionally, in the clue areas, black and blue numbers are virtually indistinguishable on my screen, making this puzzle hard to solve, sadly not (just) because of the logic challenges, but because of the way it is displayed.
#2: Joe (infrapinklizzard) on Jun 13, 2021
Hm. 6282 is correctly marked as three colors on the find puzzles page.

All the other featured puzzles have the correct # of colors tallied.

As for the black/blue - you can try brightening up your screen, or fiddling with your color balance on your monitor. Display is an odd thing. Every monitor displays things differently.
#3: AM (adrian) on Jun 14, 2021
Right, on the find puzzles page it shows 3 colors. On the home page in the Features Puzzles section is showed 2 colors - that was yesterday, today this puzzle is no longer featured, so I can't get a screenshot.
#4: Valerie Mates (valerie) on Jun 14, 2021
Huh. It also only has pulldowns for rating Quality and Difficulty - the other two pulldowns are missing. It does say it's on version four, so maybe all the editing confused the system.

Anyway, later this week I will take a look in the database to see what's up.
#5: Joe (infrapinklizzard) on Jun 14, 2021
Note that using *that link* gives only the two ratings because you're not logged in.

Using *this link* gives me all four ratings, though: https://www.webpbn.com/6282


(Strangely, when I used https://www.webpbn.com/play.cgi?id=6282 I was also logged out, even though I have cookies on. However the link above worked.)
#6: Valerie Mates (valerie) on Jun 15, 2021
Thanks Joe! Since the system doesn't know I am logged in, that would explain why I'm only seeing two pulldowns instead of four.

I found both links in #5 gave me the logged-out version of the puzzle. I had to click on the "Find Puzzles" button and look up puzzle number 6282 to see the logged-in version.
#7: Valerie Mates (valerie) on Jun 15, 2021
Versions 1-3 of the puzzle are black and white. Version 4 is the current version, and it adds blue. So my guess is that the software that generates the list of featured puzzles looks at the original version of the puzzle to find the number of colors, instead of looking at the latest version. That should be an easy bug to fix. I'm super short on childcare this week. When I get a chance to dig into this, I will keep you posted.
#8: Joe (infrapinklizzard) on Jun 18, 2021
@#6 - I use the "Remember me" checkbox which leaves a cookie. So even when I click on a generic link I will get the logged in version. (*as long as that link is in the domain I am signed in on -- www.webpbn.com vs webpbn.com)
#9: Valerie Mates (valerie) on Jun 19, 2021
Joe -- I use that checkbox too, so that should work the same way for me.

I usually reach the site at "webpbn.com" without the "www" at the beginning of the URL. The first link in #5 gives me the logged-out version if I include the www in the URL, and the logged-in version if I leave out the www -- because my login information was saved when I was at the URL without www in it. The second link always gives me the logged-out version of the puzzle, whether I include the www or leave it out.

I asked my browser to show me all the cookies with "webpbn" in them. It shows one cookie, named "sid" (session ID), at the URL "webpbn.com" -- with no www in it.

One more wrinkle is that my browser is hiding the "www" in the URL bar until I click on the URL a second time. When my browser displays the "https" at the start of the link, then it also shows the www, if there is one. Otherwise the https and the www are both hidden.
#10: Joe (infrapinklizzard) on Jun 19, 2021
My browser tends to stick the www. on by itself, so that's the one I'm usually logged in on.

I did some experiments:
If I use the play.cgi links, something strange happens. It seems to actually check to see if I have completed that puzzle before, and if I have it gives the the choice to load or restart. (which works normally and loads a logged-in puzzle)

However, if I haven't finished that puzzle before, it brings me to the logged-out version!


The new linking system (with just the puzzle number after the slash) always brings me to a logged-in puzzle.

So it looks like there is an odd bug in the cgi script.

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