Done

Done. ng, ng.

TallMike - Well articulated. If the point is to solve the puzzle then the means are irrelevant. If the point is to solve and brag, then no guessing. For me, I like to get it solved. Sometimes, I just get tired of using AIC and just try something to see if it will work.

clickity click

My own experience with Experts is that the Feldbauer-Hamelin technique, with the occasional WTF modification, works best.

done

Done ezpz

Why does this need explaining, Tall Mike? Plenty of smart folks here recognize “no greens” means the solution was achieved logically without the aid of a written list of remaining possibilities. In other words it was accomplished thru mental gymnastics and visualization alone. When it comes to solving experts, “no greens” can be quite an accomplishment. Bragging about it later, as tasteless as that is, has always been accepted practice here. What’s never been mentioned? Paid members also have another crutch available, reds, and up to this point no paid member has never once acknowledged using reds.
Over a year ago one person said “greens, one guess”. I foolishly called them out on it. It was fun to throw stones and be the cause of instigating ripples in the continuum. Guessing negates any level of thinking required in order to visualize a logic tree. Any moron can guess. Much to my amusement a number of people rose to that person’s defense, including Dr God.
It’s also acceptable practice for people who congregate here and don’t see Sudoku as a competition but only from a social context. Political correctness supercedes playing by assumed rules of fair play which come attached to all games, so I responded by inserting the “no guesses” tag. Do I regret my actions? I regret learning over time the person I offended was a very nice person. No I can’t apologize for doing the right thing and defending the integrity of the game… but hey, as shallow as that excuse is, every story needs a villain.
ng,ng

jackt - for me, any "guess" or AIC means using reds to mark the test cases. Frankly, I wish I had another color, it would make things a lot more flexible. (And don't get me started on how you can't do green or red on a touchscreen phone). You don't have to be paid to use red numbers, only an Alt key. Paid gets you checkpoints.

jackt - I never knew ng, ng meant no greens, no guesses. I always wondered why people would say no greens twice. I thought they had a stutter! :-)

jackt - Sudoku is not a "game" it is a puzzle. This site is not a competition it is just a web site with a Sudoku puzzle on it. It makes absolutely no difference what technique is used to solve the puzzle since there is no "integrity of the game" to defend other than the one that is in your mind.

KnightTime - Well said. For me, the goal is to solve the puzzle, yes, but even more so to see the numbers as symbols rather than numbers and fill it in that way. I started as a way to avoid having "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9" stuck in my head, but I like the challenge of looking for missing shape patterns rather than the given numbers. Therefore, greens aren't as "taboo" to me as they may be to others.

All that to say: It is what you make of it.

A fast clicker. 9.

Done.

Done. No greens. No Guesses. No tarot cards. No divine inspiration. No tea leaves. No entrails. No lucid dreaming. And none of Angie's crazy techniques. Well, I did use the Hasselhoff Maneuver.

go

done

And I am now done with 2011. Aside from a 5 month stretch in 2013, I have a ton of puzzles to do to catch back up...

jackt, did you misread my previous post? It is not about greens at all, and does not even mention them. The issue I raised is whether systematic elimination of impossibilities by finding out what happens if a particular cell contains each one of the seemingly possible numbers is as valid as solving the puzzle by small, logical steps. Both of these approaches can be accomplished through "mental gymnastics and visualization alone," without greens, and yet your reply to my post discusses what "no greens" means to "smart folks," as if that is a relevant response. Would you like to make another attempt at answering the actual question?

Well Tall Mike I agree you didn't mention greens but it sounds to me that your "approach 2" is what I would consider guessing. Don't want to defend jackt because it would require rereading his response which seemed a bit over the top but I suppose he may have equated the use of greens then as a similar "approach" in that it's the use of a visual aid to help solve the puzzle. the use ng or whatever may be bragging but I've thought of it more as

(con't) sharing a sense of accomplishment recognizing the challenge that we as a community share daily here.