Hi, FJ

Great idea!

I refer, of course, to your #332523.

However, I suspect that your question has been 'locked' by the
G****eBOT. This creature was discovered whilst hiking in New Mexico
and it has been trained to arrest, using whatever force may be
necessary, ANY question that contains the word G****e in the Subject
Line.

It has a truly ferocious apetite and questions that catch its
attention have been known to stay 'locked' for months, even years.

It is very clever because unsuspecting users believe that their
question is actually being answered.

Definition of QQZ?

QQZ is an abbreviation for Quick Queues. It was first used on April 19, 2004 to
describe GA questions that are structured to avoid the dreaded
G****eBOT. It has since become internationally accepted for any ingenious method
of fast tracking systems, where such method is only known by the cognoscenti.

Prior to April 19, 2004, a G****e Search for QQZ brought the response
'Did you mean QQS?' I trust that this will soon be rectified!

Warmest regards

Bryan





 
So beware!

xlktr

---

Clarification of Answer by sublime1-ga on 19 Apr 2004 08:07 PDT

Definition: excellent kiter

O, Sublime 1

You remain one of the very best.

Well done!

Bryan

Hmmm, shame that, because once the question disappears beyond the
first 'view all questions' screen, how many users will chance across
it?! Presumably (THEY WHO CANNOT BE NAMED) have stats available on
takeup of questions, and I guess it does drop off over time (If it's
not answered in 24 hrs it never will be...).

However! After getting over my shock of actually believing a 3 letter
word WAS unfound on the internet, I realised that the game is still
afoot!

ps, One QQZ search return I did like was: http://www.xcelco.on.ca/~q/ 
"If you're looking for useless information..." - now, how many
additional hits are they going to get after that link?!

Hi, FJ

I think that you are being unduly pessimistic about your question not
getting noticed because some folk make a note of locked questions and
return from time to time.

However, you may get lower visibility by not having fast tracked your
question, using QQZ.

As regards the stats for Answered v Unanswered Questions, a Search for
"GA" which is presumably common to them all shows:

Answered Questions: 'About' 31,934

Unanswered Questions: 'About' 52,592

Total Questions: 'About' 69579

Now, if you are any good at math, that should give you something to think about!

Warmest regards

Bryan

Bryan,

It was very kind of you to spend your listing fee in the interests of
letting fj get a fair answer to his/her question!

Hi fj-ga,

The five-character string "qzyjr" is currently returning no documents
from a Google search.

Regards,
eiffel-ga

qjbzq is also null

Hi fj-ga,

Further to my previous comment, qzyjr was first used on April 19,
2004. It is pronounced "quasia" and means "I don't understand you, my
child".

Etymology: "jr" means "junior", and "QZY" is a German police code
meaning "You are unreadable":

"List of Q codes"
http://www.kloth.net/radio/qcodes.php

Regards,
eiffel-ga

Of course, if there are no null 4 letter words the challenge becomes
to see which 4 letter string has the lowest number of returns!

Poet

"xlktr"  - congratulations, but I fear that probonopublico is paying
for my question! I'm surprised though, as a 5 letter combination is
standard for many crypto systems and I would have thought that many /
all of the combinations may have been used...

Was there some cunning search strategy or was it a case of trying out
a few combinations?

eiffel - I like your etymology!

There probably is a semi-serious side to this as well in that
commercially, it must be better to have as short a .com web address as
possible - hence such memroable sites as: www.rajz.com

As for Poet's challenge, best I can come up with so far is:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=gjqd&btnG=Search
at 106 hits....

Eiffel

I just love the Q Codes ... Never heard of them before.

Well done!

Bryan

qjxb records only 90

That's probably information worth something to somebody!

poet :^)

Eiffel

We've got trouble!

Your Link to the Q Codes has revealed the following:

The QAA to QNZ series are reserved for the aeronautical service. These
series are not listed in these Regulations. The QOA to QQZ series are
reserved for the maritime services.

Why didn't you tell me?

Bryan - why didn't I tell you? Because you didn't ask!

Anyway, QVA to QZZ inclusive are unallocated and unreserved, so I
hereby allocate them for the use of online answer services, with the
following meanings:

   QVA - Hurry up and answer my question
   QVB - Mine's a beer, thanks
   QVV - No animals were harmed during the creation of this answer
   QWA - Please request clarification before rating
   QWF - A five star answer if ever I saw one
   QWN - I'd award negative stars if it were possible
   QYF - I will run that question past my wife before posting an answer
   QZF - Your comment was so funny that I snorted
           my hot chocolate through my nose when I laughed
   QZZ - Sorry I fell asleep whilst composing the answer

We've got more trouble now.

Two of the three five-letter "words" that returned no results from a
Google Web search do return results from a Google Groups search:

xlktr
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=xlktr

qjbzq
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=qjbzq

My word, however, seems to be completely unused:

qzyjr
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=qzyjr

eiffel-ga

Four letter combo with 86 'hits':

zvkq

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=zvkq

74 'hits'

zvkz

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=zvkz

Bryan...

Sorry to post & run this morning...I know you prefer some
melodious banter with your answers, but I was running late
for my day job.


fj...

It was just a fortunate find running some combinations.


Eiffel...

QZF QVB

sublime1-ga

I found a 4-letter combination with only 10 hits and several with 20
(all HTML code or Kanji characters or other non-English text) but
didn't write them down because I was going for zero.  Now I wish I
had!

We do seem to have a limitless appetite for pointless diversions, don't we?

Apteryx

qtkz

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=qtkz&btnG=Search

47 hits

Definition:
"A cute genealogist with the surname Kazee"

http://genforum.genealogy.com/kazee/

#332523 is now open.

Bryan,

just had another thought re: QQZ, what if we actively encouraged
everybody to place the word "Google" in every question that gets
posted - that way every question would get locked and eventually the
pressure would have to give to get the service freed up again?

fj

Hi, FJ

Somehow, I think most folk would prefer to use QQZ.

And it would be a major selling job to get EVERYONE to include G****e
in EVERY Subject Line.

No, I don't think that that is one of your best ideas.

Back to the drawing board, please.

Bryan

Does the G****ebot also check up on us to make sure we're being serious enough?

I have been expecting a message any day to warn me that I'd exceeded
my frivolity quotient on this here respectable instrument of knowledge
delivery and put me on notice that my license might be suspended.

I am wondering which of us might volunteer an illustration of a mature
G****ebot in full battle mode.  In my mind it is a kind of armored
monster with very large jaws, an alarming enough image that it could
be used to frighten small children into good behavior.

Or even middle-aged questioners.

<shuddering>
Apteryx