Author: benwood

The site’s CSW lexicon (still labeled on the site as SOWPODS) will be updated within two months.

Here’s a reference for the CSW lexicon: http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS

Unfortunately, I haven’t run across any information regarding the added words or any removed words (as happened to the North American word list recently). Officially, this word list goes into effect in club and tournament play on January 6th. This pertains to non-North America only, for the most part.

So I’ll update the site to conform to the around the start of the year. I’ll add a note here if I find a reference to the upcoming changes (or someone can post a comment with a link).

Also, today I revamped the way the Exchange/Pass works on the site. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time (years!). The main purpose of the changes are to make it easier to see what you are doing (better text/clarity for what you are exchanging and what you are keeping), and to prevent people from accidentally passing (keeping all tiles) when they meant to exchange a few tiles. I have done that myself a couple times (d’oh!), and I got a report of at least one other player doing that this week, so that the time has come to clean this up, and I’ve done that finally!

The new blue Exchange button will not work unless you’ve checked at least one tile for exchange.

Below the exchange button, there is still a PASS button, which is necessary at times such as when you have no legal play. Read the warning before passing and keeping all your tiles, however!

And there is still confirmation required before either an EXCHANGE or a PASS.

On both Chez and Gladiators, lexicons have been updated to the 2020 word lists.

SCHOOL lexicon: OSPD lexicon is known as NSWL2020 (school word list). There are 4178 word additions and 174 deletions since the last update.

CLUB and TOURNAMENT lexicon: no additions, and removal of 236 words deemed offensive by a committee. This made the news rounds last summer when it transpired. I’m not sure why their list has 236 words removed, but on our site, my Java lexicon updater shows 259 removals. I may have missed a transitory correction last year.

But either way, if you want to know what changed, then from the Chez play panel, press the ‘member’ button along the left, then click “Useful Scr*bble Stuff” and go from there.

I’d say the remove word list is not for the timid, except many of us have been playing those words for decades.

From NPR regarding the changes:

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/07/08/889246690/scrabble-association-bans-racial-ethnic-slurs-from-its-official-word-list

A new word list is coming, to be known as NWL2020, for club and tournament use in North America. There may be a few new words that aren’t on the site yet, but the main gist of this update is to remove a set of words deemed by a committee to meet the criteria for being sufficiently offensive. These words will only be removed for those using the North American lexicon (know as OWL or other variants in recent years).

Since my goal with the site is to maintain lexicons valid for club or tournament play around the world (mostly in English), the site will move to that list within a few weeks.

For a summary of what will be removed and other lists which one may find useful, please see this page at the Seattle Scrabble Club.

I’ll post an update in a few weeks when the update is live on the site.

–Ben

Welcome to the new blog with a purpose of supporting Chezmoi and Gladiators players from an external site. Please bookmark this home page of the blog so you can get news even if the regular site is down.

Categories of articles will include the following, with more added as deemed useful: News, Help, Reference, and Around the World.

So the first news of importance: due to staffing shortages at our hosting company, we now deem it essential that you make sure you update your e-mail address on both Chezmoi and at Gladiators. Do this by using the “settings” button and edit your e-mail address. Make sure there are no typos! And press Save Settings when you’ve gotten it right.

This is a ‘just in case’ action while staffing at our hosting company is impacted by the pandemic.

It will be possible to post comments, but they must be moderated for content because web robots show up and post spam and virus links. So don’t expect a reply soon, we’ll visit every few days during quiet times to check, and during busy times (like when we changed to a new hosting company for the site), we’ll be here often to post updates and answer questions in comments.