Cryptogram Puzzle Post

Just had a short chat with Jack. (Hey, that rhymes!). He mentioned that so far he's had only one 10$ a month patron pledge. So I think I will step up and help out with supporting his new objectives. Please consider doing so if you can afford to. Especially if you're American and will benefit from the improved shipping. . Or at the very least, please use your social media to help let more people know about the patron pledge. I enjoy cryptogram puzzle post very much, even though I have yet to earn any prizes.

I also just received the spring prize (I'm a later starter for CPP), and it's numbered 32/50. I was surprised and dismayed to see such a low number. I can tell there is so much personal care and detail put into this subscription that I feel guilty for paying so little.

I happily became a patron.

That's absurd. Curios & Conundrums is unsustainable, so this must be, too.

Without wanting to drag this thread too far off-topic, the C&C that is close to my heart is Volumes 1 and 2. The web elements were minimal. The majority of the enclosures were paper, and there were maybe a half dozen puzzles per issue. Much of the content was recycled ads or recipes or stock photographs. But you hit the nail on the head about one thing...

When I became a member at MPC, I got the feeling that I was part of an exclusive club. In my mind, I pictured a small handful of people, maybe 4 or 5, who were doing this as a hobby because they loved creating art. I felt like the membership was very exclusive because they knew that if they grew too large, their quality would suffer. They were looking for a customer base that would be as enthusiastic about their product as they were. And they built a very loyal community in the process.

With the Century Beast kickstarter, their growth is what became unsustainable. The focus shifted from the art to the ledger, and we started seeing Kickstarter promises unfulfilled, and a reduction in the formerly impeccable quality standards that comes from mass production. And they alienated their community in the process.

For a handful of people who love their hobby, then Curios & Conundrums more than covers its expenses. It's kind of like how I'm a gigging musician, but I don't rely on that money to pay my bills because I have a day job.

I think that's an excellent idea and will discuss it with management.

I've created a CPP board and moved this thread there.

You can create different threads within that board. Or, if you like, we can create sub-boards for each year. At this point all the discussion has ocurred in a single thread, though, so creatinf a Year 1 board would probably result in just moving this thread into it.

I'm open to suggestions.

Yeah, the more I've thought about this, the more I'm a bit torn, mainly because Jack has posted the hint book for the first year, which is very well organized, so one could go there instead of here. But of course here is more fun, and we're actually advertised on the main Tumblr for CPP as a resource. I think we should wait for at least craigrj and squirrel to weigh in before doing anything with the reorganization.