Put these items in order

January 25, 2025 5:56 AM

Order Up is a daily game.
posted by box (84 comments total)

"numberal"?
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:17 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]

"A numberal, as opposed to a numeral, is a part of speech encompassing all numbers" [blogspot] (hint: without words)
posted by HearHere at 6:22 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

That was pretty fun, actually!
posted by Frowner at 6:25 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

Neat! Welcome to my bookmarks, little browser game.
posted by fight or flight at 6:34 AM on January 25 [8 favorites]

Ok but if you take the definition as a non-standard part of speech rather than assume it's a typo for "Roman numeral", the puzzle doesn't work! It's not a big deal just poking some fun at flubbed word in the clue of a word game.

It is fun, thanks for posting!
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:35 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

HAH, that was silly!
posted by mittens at 6:40 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

I looked at today's (Theme: Bothsidesism) and immediately gave up. I'll probably check it another day, though, it looks like it could be fun if the theme touches on something I'm familiar with.
posted by tommasz at 6:46 AM on January 25 [8 favorites]

The game didn’t it have the typo for me. It read “Roman Numeral.”
posted by Well I never at 6:50 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

Tommasz, the theme is a bit of a pun. Work a couple of clues and you’ll likely guess what the answers have in common.
posted by nicwolff at 6:53 AM on January 25 [4 favorites]

I looked at today's (Theme: Bothsidesism) and immediately gave up.

I did as well, but went back to it anyway figured it out. The _Jeans (parents fashion) is what put me on the right path. Then the name of the movie studio that has a lion roaring at the very beginning and the sound you make when eating something delicious. Hopefully this helps to make sense of today's clue.

Don't think of "bothsidesism" as a function of today's corporate news where in an effort to balance out the news of the day, they figure out how something is the fault of both political parties here in the USA.
posted by NoMich at 6:56 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: That was pretty fun, actually!

followed by whiplash
posted by ginger.beef at 6:58 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

It read “Roman Numeral.”

Ok now I'm really confused. I originally loaded it on desktop (Linux/Firefox) and saw "numberal". I just checked again on mobile (iOS/Firefox) and clearly see "numberal" again. Sorry not trying to derail but that's really weird if it somehow shows up differently for different users!
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:12 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

I googled some of the actual information once I figured out the theme, because I don't know the Hebrew alphabet or how to convert Roman numerals (or numberals) and I don't think randomly inserting them into places was going to be interesting or likely to land on the correct answer but I thought the overall puzzle was pretty fun.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:31 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

Cute! I also had to look stuff up - "numberal" had me thinking "inits" was "units" (apparently not a problem I would've had if I did crosswords), so it took some outside help for the theme to click.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:52 AM on January 25

Ok now I'm really confused. I originally loaded it on desktop (Linux/Firefox) and saw "numberal". I just checked again on mobile (iOS/Firefox) and clearly see "numberal" again. Sorry not trying to derail but that's really weird if it somehow shows up differently for different users!

The glitch is me! I didn't notice the typo in the puzzle clue itself and its correct in the answer. Sorry!
posted by Well I never at 7:59 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

Get it in 1. Might play tomorrow, if my fingers aren’t too numberal from the cold.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:37 AM on January 25 [5 favorites]

Am I the only person who didn't understand what the game was? I attempted to sort things chronologically which was enough to get the middle three (actually the middle three might be in place from the start) and then there were enough guesses left to solve it by brute force. Only when I solved it did I get an explanation of how to play!
posted by hoyland at 8:42 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]

if my fingers aren’t too numberal from the cold.

Fool! Do ye seek to waken Greg_Ace??
posted by ginger.beef at 8:49 AM on January 25 [4 favorites]

There's a "?" at the top that explains:

"Arrange the items provided in the correct order within 5 guesses. The correct order is based on a hidden theme that's up to you to figure out.

Tap/click and drag to rearrange items. Hit Submit to guess. When you hit Submit, any correctly placed items will turn green and lock in place.

The game ends when you either find the correct order, or run out of guesses.

A theme hint is provided at the top of your screen, and a second, bigger hint is available by tapping the lightbulb icon.

If you submit a fully correct order in either direction, it will count as being correct.

In case you're wondering how I did, well I Ⅷ! Got it on my Numberal Ⅰ try! Will Order Up again ⅠⅠmorrow!
posted by taz at 8:55 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

I knew all the answers but couldn’t make it work. When they showed the answer key it looked like maybe they wanted reverse order? The answer with U in the middle showed as first but it’s last alphabetically. Bug?
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:10 AM on January 25

caviar2d2 - Instructions say "If you submit a fully correct order in either direction, it will count as being correct."
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 9:17 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

That answer shows up last for me in the supplied results, so yes it possibly got confused which order you were going for
posted by ver at 9:22 AM on January 25

I liked this. Once I got the lion studio and the pyramid scheme, the rest of the answers were easy to figure out, except I don't know the Hebrew alphabet, so I guessed on that one and got it on the first try. Def adding to my rotation of daily games, thanks!
posted by cinnamonduff at 9:25 AM on January 25

Bookmarked! I'd been looking for another game that hits that NYT Connections sweet spot and this one does.

And it's true -- work a few of the clues and a pattern starts to reveal itself. Fun!
posted by mochapickle at 9:27 AM on January 25

Got it in two, guessing the spelling of the Hebrew letter. Thanks for this new addition to my daily routine! I have it bookmarked right next to Gisnep.
posted by kimberussell at 9:28 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

This was a lot of fun,, thanks for sharing it!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:44 AM on January 25

Excellent! And not because I got it in one. Mostly. Tab open for tomorrow. Thanks!
posted by the sobsister at 9:58 AM on January 25

I... didn't like this very much. The concept maybe has legs, but I feel like any puzzle that basically requires you to go use Google to get answers is not good.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 10:12 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

This is great!
posted by Navelgazer at 10:25 AM on January 25

I... didn't like this very much. The concept maybe has legs, but I feel like any puzzle that basically requires you to go use Google to get answers is not good.

Oh, that was part of why I liked it! I ended up going down a rabbit hole learning the Hebrew alphabet, so I had the pleasure of learning something new in addition to completing a puzzle.
posted by mochapickle at 10:33 AM on January 25 [4 favorites]

any puzzle that basically requires you to go use Google to get answers is not good.

I didn't have to, but I was raised Jewish and learned the Hebrew alphabet. But this doesn't seem so much more Googletastic than a crossword puzzle. I've sometimes done a crossword and two crossing clues (or a clue which has a noncrossing letter) is in a knowledge domain I don't have, and it just means I can't finish it, but I figure the problem there is me, not the puzzle.

FWIW, you mostly could get this one even if you don't know anything about Hebrew. After you figure out the other clues, if you assume the name of a letter is pronounceable (and thus probably has a vowel in it), and that it's not a duplicate of another answer, you're down to only three possibilities.
posted by jackbishop at 11:11 AM on January 25 [6 favorites]

I feel like any puzzle that basically requires you to go use Google to get answers is not good.

How does one construct a puzzle which requires only knowledge that all humans are guaranteed to have? If babies can do it then I'm afraid I'm not going to be very challenged.
posted by axiom at 11:23 AM on January 25

If babies can do it then I'm afraid I'm not going to be very challenged.

Explosive diarrhea filling your pants with a blast radius from your stomach to your shins, like you're teething

I'll wait
posted by ginger.beef at 11:27 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

Logic puzzles typically give the rules, so all players have the knowledge to solve the puzzle. But there's definitely room for the other kind of puzzle, and this is a fine instance of its kind. The only thing I would say is that there's really no need to give more than one guess -- either you know it or you don't. Maybe you can narrow down e.g. the Hebrew letter to 3 options, but I think I would rather just try once and then get a point score (based on relative rather than absolute position). But maybe I would feel differently on a day where I didn't get them all right on the first try.
posted by novalis_dt at 11:42 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

Um. The order isn't alphabetical? What is it?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 11:46 AM on January 25

Another fan! Thanks for this. Bookmarked and will now be part of my daily morning routine.
posted by angiep at 11:55 AM on January 25

MEH
posted by senor biggles at 11:56 AM on January 25 [2 favorites]

A couple of times I tried to drag-and-drop an item but it didn’t register correctly. If you think you got it right but the website disagrees, double-check that the items are actually in the order you intended.

Spoilers:

The correct order is alphabetical: MCM, MEM, MGM, MLM, MMM, MOM, MUM.

Without knowing the Hebrew alphabet, I figured that one would use one of three remaining vowels (mam, mem, or mim… “mym” seemed possible but unlikely), so it was still easily solvable within five guesses.

posted by mbrubeck at 12:04 PM on January 25

It gave me the wrong theme, "bothsidesism" is what I was given.

There s a bug, apparently
posted by eustatic at 12:26 PM on January 25

Not a bug!
posted by mochapickle at 12:28 PM on January 25 [5 favorites]

Took me two guesses and a familiar pang of regret that I didn't take Hebrew in seminary.
posted by notquitemaryann at 12:36 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]

This was great fun! I have zero exposure to Hebrew and didn't need to google, some were a bit tricky, but I really like the cascading function where solving one kind of unlocks another, and then the theme makes sense, which unlocks a third, a little general reasoning will solve the one you don't know. Great balance for me!
posted by Iteki at 12:42 PM on January 25 [4 favorites]

It gave me the wrong theme, "bothsidesism" is what I was given.

Consider: what do all of the words in question have in common?
posted by fight or flight at 12:43 PM on January 25

Exactly what Iteki said! I was thinking how to describe the process without revealing specific this-particular-puzzle info for people just coming in, and this is a great description!
posted by taz at 12:47 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]

How does one construct a puzzle which requires only knowledge that all humans are guaranteed to have? If babies can do it then I'm afraid I'm not going to be very challenged.

I think the real issue here is that this seems like more of a quiz than a puzzle. A puzzle has some element where progress in solving it is rewarded by making the rest of it easier. Like, in the NYT's Connections puzzle, the more categories you get, the fewer options are available for the remaining categories, so that if you get three of them the fourth is obvious. Or like how in crossword puzzles, each correct answer entered helps you get all of the answers that cross with it. Success in one area of a puzzle increases the perceived order of the attempted solution in a pleasing way.

Order Up does have a mechanism by which you can narrow down the solution. When you hit Submit, it highlights the items that are in the right position, and it gives you multiple tries to get it right. It isn't as elegant as Connection's way of narrowing down categories, but it does mean that someone unfamiliar with the Hebrew alphabet could work out the answer without turning to web search.
posted by JHarris at 1:10 PM on January 25 [4 favorites]

Is there a way to play the older puzzles? It was fun!
posted by chaiminda at 2:13 PM on January 25

For those who are still stuck: the light-bulb icon at the top will give you a hint. (A second hint, technically, since the title is itself a hint.)
posted by demi-octopus at 2:36 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]

chaiminda, you can play older games by changing your computer's clock to an earlier date and refreshing the page (it calculates which puzzle to show you based on the number of seconds since 2024-04-30 18:30 PST, and there are 20 future puzzles already prepared too)
posted by ver at 2:54 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]

You solved Order Up in 1 guess!

Now to rest on my laurels and never play it again.
posted by Pitachu at 3:57 PM on January 25 [6 favorites]

Not sure I get the criticism of the game needing you to Google information to solve it. Isn't that the point of trivia or general knowledge games? To my knowledge, no one is upset about crossword puzzles asking you to know a lot of facts off the top of your head.
posted by wakannai at 4:24 PM on January 25 [3 favorites]

Muppets!

And a mnemonic I actually remembered!

Got it in one.
posted by Marky at 6:52 PM on January 25 [7 favorites]

Thanks for this! It's fun.
posted by Scout405 at 8:13 PM on January 25 [1 favorite]

Oooh, today's is so fun!
posted by mochapickle at 8:58 PM on January 25

First look: Muppets? Excellent! First try!
posted by Enturbulated at 1:07 AM on January 26

Today's made it feel like there's a decent sense of fun here.

I want access to the archives!
posted by ominous_paws at 3:20 AM on January 26

Nice theme today.
posted by MtDewd at 4:32 AM on January 26

Yeah if the author sees this from traffic, a) come join us, this is meta filter stuff! And b) make the previous games easily available please.
posted by Iteki at 5:36 AM on January 26 [2 favorites]

Love today's. Got it in one, but felt like I got lucky on the last two muppets.
posted by kathrynm at 9:16 AM on January 26 [1 favorite]

Todays muppet theme has some North American centricity: Big Bird is blue in the Netherlands and green in some other countries.
posted by autopilot at 2:28 PM on January 26

Big Bird is blue in the Netherlands and green in some other countries.

I'm sorry, what?
posted by jacquilynne at 4:11 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]

Wait, but s/he's not called Big Bird in the Netherlands (nor even a Dutch translation of 'big' or 'bird'), so I think the puzzle might hold up.
posted by nobody at 4:46 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]

Todays muppet theme has some North American centricity: Big Bird is blue in the Netherlands and green in some other countries.
posted by autopilot

If you look really carefully at the next day's theme, you might be able to make out some more US-centricity.
posted by vincebowdren at 1:43 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Yes, sadly very US-centric today (if the solution is what I think it is).
posted by fight or flight at 2:24 AM on January 27

Oh, that's too bad, today's.

What makes Connections (for instance) work so well is that even if one category is totally out of your wheelhouse, you still have a shot at piecing the whole thing together from the others.

And what makes (American-style) crosswords work so well is how -- with every letter crossed -- a puzzle can still be solvable even if you're shaky on up to half of the clues (and the *puzzle* feeling in fact increases the less you're solid on, the more you have to work things out by inference, by thinking through plausible letter combinations, etc.).

Whereas here if you don't successfully pass the trivia test, there's just no puzzling to be done at all.
posted by nobody at 2:48 AM on January 27 [2 favorites]

I've been reading this thread since the game was posted and I think some of y'all just aren't good at puzzles.
posted by phunniemee at 5:38 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Today’s seemed pretty obvious in terms of what they wanted but I didn’t know any of the answers, so I tried out the iterative approach, using the feedback you get each time you guess. Turns out it’s totally possible to solve it that way, without actually knowing anything.
posted by yarrow at 6:19 AM on January 27 [2 favorites]

Oh, ha, as someone who screenshots Connections so I can chart the whole thing out before submitting anything, it didn't cross my mind to just make a guess. I didn't realize there was a feedback element!
posted by nobody at 6:28 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Yes, sadly very US-centric today (if the solution is what I think it is).

I dunno, I bet Canadians are way more likely to know what Winnipeg CFL is hinting at and also all the other major league team names than Americans are to even know for certain what the CFL *is*.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:41 AM on January 27

The Winnipeg compact fluorescent lightbulb. Happy to help.
posted by phunniemee at 7:01 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Either I'm misunderstanding my score page, or the "B Team" game has the last two out of order.

Ah, no, I double checked and they're just leaving off one of the answers altogether.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:19 AM on January 27

My results page for B Team has only 6 teams on it, despite there being 7 in the puzzle.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:22 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Yeah, that had me confused!
posted by oneirodynia at 10:23 AM on January 27

I think some of y'all just aren't good at puzzles

N_ IT_ THE PU__LE_ TH_T _RE WR_N_

*Principal Skinner Paraphrase*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:21 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

As a Brit who quite likes American crosswords, I very cheerfully do not care if I have to look stuff up. Somehow 90per cent of these are sports team names
posted by ominous_paws at 11:25 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

> Turns out it’s totally possible to solve it that way, without actually knowing anything.

I'm trying to work out what your odds are if you just play completely blind. I think with six options there's a ~83% chance of randomly getting one or more in the correct position on the first go, but I can't figure the combined chance going forwards from there.
posted by lucidium at 1:06 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]

If one player does

hit submit --> drag the bottom still-unlocked item to the top unlocked spot (moving all others down by one) --> repeat

and another player does the same thing but drags top to bottom instead of bottom to top, can you even hand-order one of these so both approaches are thwarted on the same day?

(That first approach solves today's in three. The second takes four.)
posted by nobody at 2:13 PM on January 27

Well I can't reason it out but I sure can brute force it, and the chance of randomly getting one right converges on 1-1/e as the list length increases.
posted by lucidium at 5:44 PM on January 27

Today's felt a lot more puzzly! I didn't know for sure where more than two of them should go, but could still manage to suss out the rest on the first try, and that felt good.

(Separately, both of those brute-force methods above solve today's in four, and also revealed that the odds of them ever failing are even lower than assumed, because if the correct order is, say, 1234567, it will also accept 7654321, and until the first item is locked in it'll mark something as correct if it's in the right position for either direction -- so six of them [all but the middle] have twice as much likelihood of producing at least one right answer on the first guess.)

(And then I tested out one more thing: if, on your first guess, you have one in the correct position for the proper 1234567 order, but two in the correct positions for the reversed 7654321 order, it looks like it'll lock those two into place instead of that one.)
posted by nobody at 4:28 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]

I liked the puzzle today -- didn't find it difficult, but particularly the oysters clue made me smile. I wasn't sure about some of the clues, but I had enough of them accurately that it was easy to fix my mistake.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:31 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Apparently as long as they're not about sports, I can figure these out!
posted by mittens at 7:48 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]

I needed the second clue today but that was a lot of fun!
posted by Iteki at 9:52 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]

the one today about shells was pretty bad imo
posted by glonous keming at 10:27 AM on January 29

I liked it! Mine wasn't about shells? But I skipped a day.
posted by mochapickle at 12:04 PM on January 29

I liked the shell puzzle, and I liked today's "big" theme. I guess I like it best when there's uncertainty you can nonetheless reason about a bit. (Today my first guess was close, but I'd swapped #5 and #6. Oh, googling one of those now, it turns out I was thinking of an entirely different thing. The thing it's really referring to obviously goes in that correct spot!)

(I've kept jotting down the brute-force results each day, too:

1/29: both brute-force directions solve it in three.
1/30: dragging up solves it in 4; dragging down solves it in 3.)
posted by nobody at 5:14 AM on January 30