Clanker Free Zone (midi) + updates
- Fabian Corbin
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
Hello again! Now that it's summer (well, it's been summer for a month and a half...) I have a few ideas for new blog puzzles that I'm starting to work on, but first here's a quick, hopefully fun midi.
I recently opened PuzzleMe for the first time in a while to generate a link for a custom commissioned puzzle, and I discovered two things: one, they don't let you upload puzzles on their free account anymore, and two, they've gone full AI agent. I noticed this a few months too late for the drama, but the crossword blog world is abandoning PuzzleMe in droves, and good riddance. I'll be switching to Crossword Nexus's embed software, so here's a ~protest midi~ to test out the UI (and for me to check if I need to paste a link above the embedding like I used to with PuzzleMe). I originally wrote this for a tech ethics magazine at my university, but unfortunately the magazine leadership seems to have dissolved, so now you all get to have it with revamped fill and clues!
Enough talking, here's the puzzle, with some more general site updates below.
PDF:
Solution:
Online:
More general site updates:
I host this site on Wix. I know, what kind of programmer am I? Well, not a very good one when I started this blog, so I outsourced all the programming. Anyway, Wix has been descending into AI slop too over the last couple years, so I'm realizing I should start hosting Cruciverbology on Google Sites or Blogger or something-- let me know of any platforms that don't try to AI-generate blog post titles for you, and maybe I'll try to make the switch this summer.
Speaking of making switches, hi, I'm Fabian now, I use he/him pronouns, and my email address is almost the same but with an f instead of an e. Not much else to say about that except please let me know if my old name shows up in email campaigns because Wix's labyrinthine blog software makes you change it multiple times in multiple places and I'm not sure I've found them all.
Finally, I'm formalizing my custom commissions process! (And upping my rate a bit since multiple people have told me I'm undercharging.) You can find more info about that in the new "Custom Puzzles" tab.
More updates soon, for real, I promise!