What's with ????

[Fredd]

Someone want to explain the ? Post in staff anouncements to a plebian? Cause from where I'm sitting, I just see a bunch of gibberish with links sprinkled in, like the new staff account was hacked.

But it's being left up... So..?

[mansa]

There are two links embedded in the post.

One is a word - folley
The other is a definition of a cryptography technique.


Here's what you do.
Google a cryptography solver for the specific technique listed.
Use the key provided.

Then decrypt the encrypted text.

[lostinspace]

Well, they link to a tinyurl redirect, which is also something you expect to see in a hacked post, and most people are taught NOT to click links in what appears to be hacked text.

[Kestria]

I did say the day it was posted, it would have been a wise idea to put at the top 'the below text is a puzzle' so as to avoided all of the confusion, and questions so many people have asked about it lol
It was fun to work out though.    A nice spontaneous something.

[digitaleak]

I like it as it is. The people who would resonate with the post itself are the ones willing to take the risks/figure it out. (even against better judgement!)

[Fredd]

Ah so it's a puzzle. Ok neat.

[BadSkeelz]

Never gonna click on a link in gibberish. Hopefully it's nothing important.

[najdorf]

You can hover your mouse over the link and see the hyperlink's destination. Don't need to click.

[lostinspace]

That would be true, if staff didn't also use tinyurl to make redirect links.
https://tinyurl.com/nmfvmkas
and
https://tinyurl.com/5xcjm6mn

Ultimately those take you to Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary
but nobody will be able to tell without actually following the links and seeing where they redirect you to.
Like So: https://tinyurl.com/3ydb3hc9

[Synthesis]

Go here: https://www.boxentriq.com/code-breaking/vigenere-cipher

Cut and paste the post text.

The key is "folley."

You don't even need the key, though. I ran it again and the cipher decoder brute-forced it without the key. Just knowing the cipher type is enough.

[Synthesis]

Go here: https://www.boxentriq.com/code-breaking/vigenere-cipher

Cut and paste the post text.

The key is "folley."

You don't even need the key, though. I ran it again and the cipher decoder brute-forced it without the key. Just knowing the cipher type is enough.

Actually...you don't even need to know what the cipher type is, folks.  If you cut and paste the text into https://www.boxentriq.com/code-breaking/cipher-identifier, it will identify it as a Vigenere cipher.

Now...since it runs off of an AI model, it could be that the decoder isn't "smart," but simply already "knows" that text input is a Vigenere, since we've run it through as a Vigenere, and the model is just matching...but...I don't feel like coming up with a novel Vigenere ciphertext on my own to test its mettle.

[Jimpka_Moss]

I was excited to have something that required effort I was capable of. I went to one page, but missed the other link, so I had to solve that by hand. Imagine my disappointment seeing these threads.

Maybe 'fun little puzzle' disclaimer would have discouraged most, idk.

[Shaydee]

I enjoyed it as well, I didn't see that folley was the keyword, but I googled a cipher and it figured out the keyword for me then translated. Was fun to do, but I definitely understand the caution and concern.

[Tailong]

Cool if it's not important for the player base. Not cool if it is. Ain't got time for it.

[Kestria]

It may or may not be a call of some kind   

[Classclown]

I just went to a decode site and did it in two seconds. 
"Work smarter not harder." ~ Scrooge McDuck