Zendo, play by forum

[Proxima]

CITADEL
TELEPHON
TELEPHONY

[kaywhyn]

White koans:
  TELEPHONE

Black koans:
  CALCULATOR    GIRAFFE
  CALL          GOLF
  CELL          GYM
  CELLPHONE     MOBILEPHONE
  CIRCULAR      PHONE
* CITADEL       TELE
  CITY        * TELEPHON
  GARGANTUAN  * TELEPHONY
  GIANT

[Proxima]

Okay then, I guess that a koan has the Buddha-nature if it is TELEPHONE. 

[kaywhyn]

Heh, thought I would do the same as you did, eh? Nah, I'm afraid the secret rule is not as simple as just being the string TELEPHONE Nice guess, though!

As a counterexample, STARFISH has the Buddha nature too

[Proxima]

FISH
STAR
SWORDFISH

[Simon]

There are also the instructions at the start of the thread, but I don't think those are very good. I just had to watch other people play too to understand.

It lacks a section on how the round starts, and who is master and who is regular player.

Is the definition of koan problematic: Nonempty finite string over the alphabet A-Z? How to rephrase? Koans are words, but not necessarily correct English words?

I should add examples of koans and of rules.

What else is unclear/bad?

-- Simon

[kaywhyn]

White koans:
* STARFISH
  TELEPHONE

Black koans:
  CALCULATOR    GIRAFFE
  CALL          GOLF
  CELL          GYM
  CELLPHONE     MOBILEPHONE
  CIRCULAR      PHONE
  CITADEL     * STAR
  CITY        * SWORDFISH
* FISH          TELE
  GARGANTUAN    TELEPHON
  GIANT         TELEPHONY

[WillLem]

AKHTBN iff it's a portmanteau of 2 words, and the first letter of the first word (e.g. T for TELE, S for STAR) is alphabetically later than the second word (e.g. P for PHONE, F for FISH). And, the resulting string has to be an existing word in the English language (hence TELEPHONY not having the buddha nature).

EDIT: I posted this just after kaywhyn posted the most recent version of the table, in which SWORDFISH doesn't have the buddha nature and thus disproves this rule guess.

[WillLem]

TARFISHS
ARFISHST
RFISHSTA
FISHSTAR
ISHSTARF
SHSTARFI
HSTARFIS

ELEPHONET
LEPHONETE
EPHONETEL
PHONETELE
HONETELEP
ONETELEPH
NETELEPHO
ETELEPHON

ARTSFISH
FARTSISH

[kaywhyn]

White koans:
* ARFISHST   * LEPHONETE
* ARTSFISH   * NETELEPHO
* ELEPHONET  * ONETELEPH
* EPHONETEL  * PHONETELE
* ETELEPHON  * RFISHSTA
* FARTSISH   * SHSTARFI
* FISHSTAR     STARFISH
* HONETELEP  * TARFISHS
* HSTARFIS     TELEPHONE
* ISHSTARF

Black koans:
  CALCULATOR    GIRAFFE
  CALL          GOLF
  CELL          GYM
  CELLPHONE     MOBILEPHONE
  CIRCULAR      PHONE
  CITADEL       STAR
  CITY          SWORDFISH
  FISH          TELE
  GARGANTUAN    TELEPHON
  GIANT         TELEPHONY

[Proxima]

Don't forget to erase the asterisks -- they are meant to indicate koans that are new in each list compared to the previous one.

STARPHONE
TELEPHONDA
TELEPHONED

[kaywhyn]

Thank you kindly. I got the asterisk thing backwards and for some reason thought Simon's tool wasn't working the way it should, when in fact it was Anyway, fixed all the tables in my posts and so they should be easier to read now in regards to what was added to the table since the post before it

For your recent three guesses, TELEPHONDA is white, while STARPHONE and TELEPHONED are both black

White koans:
  ARFISHST     LEPHONETE
  ARTSFISH     NETELEPHO
  ELEPHONET    ONETELEPH
  EPHONETEL    PHONETELE
  ETELEPHON    RFISHSTA
  FARTSISH     SHSTARFI
  FISHSTAR     STARFISH
  HONETELEP    TARFISHS
  HSTARFIS   * TELEPHONDA
  ISHSTARF     TELEPHONE

Black koans:
  CALCULATOR    GARGANTUAN   * STARPHONE
  CALL          GIANT          SWORDFISH
  CELL          GIRAFFE        TELE
  CELLPHONE     GOLF           TELEPHON
  CIRCULAR      GYM          * TELEPHONED
  CITADEL       MOBILEPHONE    TELEPHONY
  CITY          PHONE
  FISH          STAR
 

[Silken Healer]

There are also the instructions at the start of the thread, but I don't think those are very good. I just had to watch other people play too to understand.

It lacks a section on how the round starts, and who is master and who is regular player.

Is the definition of koan problematic: Nonempty finite string over the alphabet A-Z? How to rephrase? Koans are words, but not necessarily correct English words?

I should add examples of koans and of rules.

What else is unclear/bad?

-- Simon

I don't know I feel a bit guilty saying it's bad because you are so nice and do so much for the forum, I'm only saying it because you always say about how you expect people to silenty put up with stuff that annoys them and to not report it.

like for example the post uses "the buddah nature" without defining it so I didn't know it just meant the string passes the rule I thought it was something to do with the Buddhism religion LOL

[Proxima]

I
J
T

[kaywhyn]

White koans:
  ARFISHST     LEPHONETE
  ARTSFISH     NETELEPHO
  ELEPHONET    ONETELEPH
  EPHONETEL    PHONETELE
  ETELEPHON    RFISHSTA
  FARTSISH     SHSTARFI
  FISHSTAR     STARFISH
  HONETELEP    TARFISHS
  HSTARFIS     TELEPHONDA
  ISHSTARF     TELEPHONE

Black koans:
  CALCULATOR    GIANT          STARPHONE
  CALL          GIRAFFE        SWORDFISH
  CELL          GOLF         * T
  CELLPHONE     GYM            TELE
  CIRCULAR    * I              TELEPHON
  CITADEL     * J              TELEPHONED
  CITY          MOBILEPHONE    TELEPHONY
  FISH          PHONE
  GARGANTUAN    STAR