Saturday 8 August 2009

Crossword Unclued Turns One

Subscribe to Crossword Unclued's RSS It's our birthday today! The first post on Crossword Unclued was published on 8th August 2008, that's exactly a year ago. What fun it has been writing since then.

When I created this site I went through a mental exercise of listing objectives – what will I write about, and why? I realized I wanted to do these things, in bullet-point style :)

        • share my thoughts about crosswords with fellow enthusiasts
        • help beginners become better solvers, and encourage appreciation of clues in addition to solving
        • introduce more people to cryptic crosswords

It gives me great joy whenever a reader emails or comments saying that Crossword Unclued has helped improve their skill, or when someone who hasn't attempted cryptic crosswords before reads some of this and gets tempted to try. Along the way I've also got to interact and form friendships with solvers from around the world, which has been an unexpected reward.

Thank you very much for reading! If you like this site but haven't subscribed yet, click on the cake at the top-left of this article to get its RSS Feed. Or sign-up to get updates by email.

Year-End Statistics

A bird's eye view of what went on in the past year.

Total Articles: 122
Total Comments: 434

Top Content (By Visits) Most Commented On
The Quirky Posts The Ones That Were Toughest To Write!

A big thank you to the top commenters on the site – Chaturvasi (66 comments), raghunath (34 comments), maddy (22 comments), Aim (20 comments), anokha (18 comments).

Do you have a crossword-related topic in mind that you'd like me write about? Please leave a comment about it. If I can I'll surely plan an article around it. Please feel free to email any feedback or suggestions to me at [shuchi [at] crosswordunclued [dot] com].

Once again, thanks for your continued support, keep reading!

11 comments

anokha said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Crossword Unclued! And KUDOS to you Shuchi!

You deserve all the accolade. You have a great writing style and deeply thoughtful explanations. The amount and quality of this material can get you a PhD (if you don't already have one, something tells me that you do). Your research is at par with top-level academic research (may be even better because it is never boring as some academic research can be - trust me I used to be a professor at Cornell :)

Here is wishing you all the best and may this blog keep growing in strength and popularity - keep it up, Shuchi!

PS: Have been away for work past couple of weeks but I'm glad I got back just in time for your blog's B'day. And also made the list of top commentators!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Col_Gopinath said...

Hi Shuchi,
Congratulations on the First Anniversary of 'Crossword Unclued'. An outstanding effort I must add.
Whenever anyone asks me for help on crossword solving I direct them to your site without a second thought.
Congrats once again and keep it up.
Regards,
Col Gopinath

Raghunath said...

Shuchi,

Congratulations on your website turning one today. I must say it is a very attractive and well designed web layout. As Anokha said, you have spent a great deal of time and effort to build it, and it shows by way of the responses you get on your site.

Carry on the good work and wishing you the best!

Rajani said...

Congratulations Shuchi!!

You have achieved the target which you had set for this blog.I am one of those who had no interest in crossword and got inspired by reading your blog.

How about writing a book on the subject and publishing the same on this date next year?

maddy said...

Shuchi,
Bravo Zulu and many more to come.My stumbling upon this blog conincided with my rediscovery of cryptic xwords after a gap of 5-6 yrs. Thnx for rekindling the interest.
I ve learnt a lot from you,so much so that I recently compiled my first ever crossword grid, for which your blog was an invaluable reference.
All the best for the future and like they say, keep it coming..

Unknown said...

The suggestion about the book isn't a bad one..detailed comments in my next mail (I am being cryptic for once):)

Shuchi said...

Thanks a ton everyone!

@maddy: Congrats on compiling a crossword grid! Show?

Anonymous said...

Happy Birth day to your Blog!
At the moment have no suggestion about a topic.. but well I wonder..
May be some section in blog where people can ask opinion about clue or about word play, to cear there doubts?

Shuchi said...

Thank you, Aim. There is a section like that already in place: Want Help Deconstructing Clues?

Anonymous said...

Oh! Great!
Can I also use it to check if my clue makes sense?

Shuchi said...

You mean, clues you have written yourself? That was not the intention of that section actually, but you can use it if you have a clue or two.