Oncall.md

Oncall

During the hunt, there are some tasks that should be delegated to a specific person, rather than done by whoever notices that they need to be done, because confusion may arise if multiple people try to do the same task; because having someone whose job it is to do the thing ensures it will be done; and because not everyone should have to be trained in that part of managing the blackboard. Depending on how quickly the team is working, some of the below jobs can be done by the same person. Being on-call makes it difficult to dive deeply into a puzzle, as you will frequently be pulled out of flow to perform the on-call task. As such, shift lengths should be limited and ideally scheduled in advance so that someone doesn't feel like they spent the entire hunt e.g. answering phones.

Projector Modes

If you're solving in a room with a projector or other large communal display, the blackboard has some visualization modes for displaying your team's progress. All these paths are relative to the base URL of your site. How to get thgem onto the display will depend on whether you can use the projector as an additional monitor, or whether it supports casting or Google Hangouts.

• /statistics: (New for 2023) A stacked line graph of your number of puzzles unlocked and solved over time.
• /map: (New for 2023) A map of the world, with the gravatars of your teams members attached to their location. Clusters of team members near each other show up as a count; team members who don't give the app location access appear clustered in the Atlantic Ocean.
• /graph: A hierarchical view of the hunt structure, with boxes representing rounds and ovals representing puzzles. The puzzles turn green when solved, and arrows connect puzzles to the metas they feed.
• /projector: (New for 2023) Rotates between statistics, map, and graph every 10 seconds. In this mode the center of the map view will approximately follow the sun.

First Shift

If you're oncall when the hunt starts, there are some dynamic settings you will want to set, as they will improve the experience for yourself, future oncalls, and your solvers. Set them as appropriate as soon as you know the appropriate values.

Onduty Role

(New for 2023) When you become oncall, you should claim the onduty role. At the top of the blackboard and in the panel above chat on the Logistics page, a control with a pager icon will show the current onduty, or will turn orange if nobody is onduty. The green hand button will claim the role, including from someone else.

The info panel above chat on every puzzle page has a read-only version of this control, so that solvers know whether someone is on duty. If they don't think anyone is on duty, they may call in answers themselves or conflict with each other adding new puzzles, so marking yourself as on duty makes it clear that these responsibilities are covered. Also, when someone uses @ or /msg in chat, your nickname will appear at the top of the suggestion box so that solvers can easily get your attention with mentions and private messages.

By default, claiming the on duty role lasts for an hour before expiring automatically. (The duration can be customized with the Role Renewal Time dynamic setting.) If you perform an action commonly associated with the on duty role while you have the role, such as adding a new puzzle or resolving a callin, your shift will automatically be extended by the role renewal time from that point. If you have gone half the renewal time without performing such an action, a clock button will appear on the onduty control to allow you to extend your shift manually, so you don't lose it by surprise. If you know that you will not be able to be on duty anymore (e.g. you are going to sleep), the door button will relinquish the role.

Even if answers are confirmed automatically, the hunt may still have a global setting for a phone number to contact the team at. If so, enter your phone number in the settings when you go on call.

Calendar Events

(New for 2022) If configured to do so, the blackboard will create a Google Calendar which you can add events to. The calendar-with-a-plus icon will allow you to add the calendar to your Google Calendar account. If the calendar was shared with you, either because you are a member of the appropriate Google group or you were added explicitly by the owner, you will be able to add events to the calendar which will sync to the blackboard. (Calendars are never editable by the public.) If you should be able to edit the calendar and can't, contact whoever owns the machine.)

You can use the calendar for non-puzzle hunt events such as the kickoff, puzzle events which there have been roughly 5 of per year lately, or short-notice post-meta interactions.

Logistics View

(New for 2023) The Logistics view is a dense view of the hunt as a whole, optimized for both quick editing and for directing unattached solvers to puzzles where their efforts would be most valuable. If you have never been onduty or viewed the Logistics page, you can reach it from the hamburger menu at the bottom-left of the blackboard. If you have done either, it can be reached from the hand truck icon in the header.

To focus your attention where it is needed, solved metas become transparent. The left border for a puzzle is normally black, yellow if the puzzle is stuck, or green if it is solved. If anyone is in the Jitsi call for a puzzle, the number of participants will appear in a camera at the right side of the puzzle. If nobody is in Jitsi but some people are in text chat, the number will appear in a dialog box. If a puzzle you need for a meta has neither, that's a sign you should direct idle solvers to finish it.

Calling In Answers

In the past, called-in answers were confirmed by HQ phoning the team, which allowed manual hint-giving and rate-limiting. HQ would not repeat the answer on the call (to avoid overhearing spoilers from other teams' calls), so this required the team member receiving the call to be aware of the call-ins, so they knew what answer was being confirmed. Recent hunts (and non-MIT hunts) use an automatic answer checker which gives instant feedback with automatic rate-limiting. However, it may still be a good idea to have an oncall centralize the callins to avoid spamming spurious answers and triggering the rate-limiting. Also, since a correct answer often unlocks new puzzles, it makes sense that the oncall be aware that this has happened so they know they need to add the new puzzles.

When there are any pending callins, the call-in queue appears at the bottom of the Logistics page. If you enable notifications for the 'Callins' stream, clicking a callin notification will take you to the Logistics page.

A sound will play when a new call-in arrives; you will also get a desktop notification if you enabled them for the "Callins" event type, which is recommended. A button with three icons at the end of the answer will copy it to your clipboard, mark the answer as submitted, and navigate to the puzzle URL in a new tab, from which you should find the link to submit the answer.

Each callin has a green button for if the answer was correct and a red one for if it's wrong. Once you get the call back from HQ, click the appropriate one. It will notify the appropriate chat rooms, set the answer on the blackboard, and play the "That was easy!" sound.

As solving a puzzle tends to lead to unlocking puzzles, if you are on call for both callins and adding puzzles, now is a good time to check if there are any new ones.

Alternate Call-in Types

Besides answers, there are three other types of call-ins you may see in the queue:

• Interaction Requests may be provided immediately on unlock, or require solving to extract. They may cause HQ to deliver an artifact or pose a creative challenge to the team. Recent hunts have had a separate form to enter these phrases besides the standard answer form, so use that form instead if it is available. If HQ provides a response, such as detailed instructions or a time when the artifact will be delivered, enter it in the provided text box before marking the request as accepted or refused.
• Messages to HQ are for any other kind of contact, which may include spending hint currency or reporting an apparent error in a puzzle. Recent hunts have had a separate form to enter these messages, so use it if applicable. You may have to interpret this message rather than simply pasting it into the form.
• Expected Callbacks are for when HQ will be contacting you without you having to do something. For example, if HQ assigned the team a creative task with a Dropbox to submit it to, the team may submit to that dropbox directly, then use this call-in type to tell you that they have done so.

Managing Rounds/Puzzles

Everything in this section can be done from the Logistics page, from the main blackboard in edit mode, or via the chat bot. To put the blackboard into edit mode, click the unlock button in the header. When done, click lock to protect the page. The bot commands can be done in any chat roon, though the main (ringhunters, unless it was renamed) chat room is best to avoid clogging puzzle chat. All commands are case insensitive and case preserving, and they normalize punctuation and whitespace. (i.e. use the right capitalization when you create something, but it doesn't matter when you refer to it later.)

The two types of object are the Puzzle, which is anything with an answer, and the Round, which is a web page with puzzles on it. (i.e. Rounds are only for organing the blackboard to match the hunt site.) Metapuzzles are a special case of puzzles, which can have other puzzles feed into them.

To create a round

• From the Logistics page, drag a link to the round from the hunt site onto the "Round" button in the "+ New" section at the top left. The round's name will be the text of the link. You can create a round without a URL by clicking the Round button and typing the name in the text area. (If the Round URL Prefix dynamic setting is set, blackboard will attempt to guess the URL from the name.)
• Using the Blackboard's edit mode, click the "New Round" button at the top of the table. You can edit the URL under the round's tags.
• Using the bot, say: bot NAME is a new round. If you know the URL, you can add with url X to the command to set it.

To create a new metapuzzle

• On the Logistics page, drag a link to the puzzle from the hunt site onto the "Meta" button in the "+ New" section at the top left, then drop it onto the name of the round the Metapuzzle belongs to. The name of the metapuzzle will be the text of the link. You can create a metapuzzle without a URL by clicking the Meta button, then clicking the round name in the dropdown. (If the Puzzle URL Prefix dynamic setting is set, blackboard will attempt to guess the URL from the puzzle name.)
• Using the Blackboard's edit mode, click the "New Meta" button in the round header and type the puzzle's name in the focused text box. You can edit the URL under the tags.
• Using the bot, say: bot META NAME is a new meta in ROUND NAME. In the round chat room (which will rarely be used) you can say this instead of the round name. If you know the URL, you can add with url X to the command to set it.

To create a new puzzle feeding into a meta

• Using the Logistics page, drag a link to the puzzle onto the meta. The name of the puzzle will be the text of the link. To create a puzzle without a URL, click the "+ puzzle" button in the corner of the meta. (If the Puzzle URL Prefix dynamic setting is set, blackboard will attempt to guess the URL from the puzzle name.)
• Using the Blackboard's edit mode, click the "New Puzzle" button in the meta's section footer. You can edit the URL under the new puzzle's tags.
• Using the bot, say; bot PUZZLE NAME is a new puzzle in META NAME. In the meta's chat room, you can say this instead of the meta's name. If you know the URL, you can add with url X to the command to set it.

To create a non-meta puzzle that doesn't feed into any metas

• Using the logistics page, drag a link to the puzzle from the hunt site onto the Puzzle button in the "+ New" section at the top left, then drop it on the round to create the puzzle in. The name of the puzzle will be the text of the link. To create a puzzle without a URL, click the "+ puzzle" button in the corner of the meta. (If the Puzzle URL Prefix dynamic setting is set, blackboard will attempt to guess the URL from the puzzle name.)
• Using the Blackboard's edit mode, click the caret at the right side of the "New Meta" button and choose "New uncategorized puzzle" in the dropdown. You can edit the URL in the new puzzle's tags.
• Using the bot, say: bot PUZZLE NAME is a new puzzle in ROUND NAME. In the round's chat room, you can say this instead of the meta's name. If you know the URL, you can add with url X to the command to set it.

To make a puzzle feed into a meta

Sometimes when you unlock a puzzle you don't know which meta(s) it feeds into. If you determine that later:

• Using the logistics page, drag the puzzle onto the meta it feeds into. A puzzle can feed multiple metas, so you can drag from another meta.
• Using the Blackboard's edit mode, select the meta from the dropdown in the Feeds Into heading in the tags table
• Using the bot, say bot PUZZLE NAME feeds into META NAME. You can replace either PUZZLE NAME or META NAME with this if you're in the appropriate chat room.

To remove a puzzle from a meta

If a puzzle was incorrectly categorized as feeding a meta:

• Using the logistics page, drag the puzzle from the meta onto empty space. The puzzle will appear blurry if dropping it will remove it from the meta.
• Using the blackboard's edit mode, click the X next to the meta's name in the Feeds Into heading in the tags table.
• Using the bot, say bot PUZZLE NAME doesn't feed into META NAME. You can replace either PUZZLE NAME or META NAME with this if you're in the appropriate chat room.

Editing mechanics and tags

After adding a new puzzle, if you have time, try to determine if it has any of the mechanics described on the Mechanics page.

• Using the logistics page, when hovering over a puzzle, an edit button will appear at the right side. Clicking it will open a dialog where you can edit the puzzle's tags, URL, and mechanics. Click the Mechanics button to open a dropdown with checkboxes for the known mechanics, and check all that apply.
• Using the blackboard's edit mode, under the Mechanics header of the tag table is the same button. You can also add, delete, and edit other tags.
• You can't manage mechanics using the bot. You can set tags by saying bot set TAG for ROUND OR PUZZLE NAME to COLOR. In the chat room for the round or puzzle, you can elide the for ROUND OR PUZZLE NAME part.

Special Tags

• The answer tag usually shouldn't be set directly; it is set automatically when an answer callin is marked as correct.
• The status tag is normally set using the Mark Stuck dialog on the puzzle page.
• The color tag determines the background color of a round on the blackboard and logistics page. If it isn't set, a color will be chosen based on the puzzle's randomly-generated ID. Any color recognized by CSS is accepted.

Associating a calendar event with a puzzle

If a puzzle has a calendar event associated with it, you can link them. A calendar even can only be linked to one puzzle.

• Using the logistics page, drag a calendar event from the column on the right onto the puzzle it should be associated with.
• Using the blackboard's edit mode, select the calendar event from the dropdown menu under Upcoming Events in the puzzle's table row.
• From the puzzle info page, the calendar icon above the puzzle's title opens a dropdown to select from upcoming events.
• You can't manage calendar events using the bot.

Deleting a puzzle

Warning: there is no way to undelete a puzzle.

• Using the logistics page, drag the puzzle to the Delete button at the top left. You will be asked to confirm.
• Using the Blackboard's edit mode, click the X next to the puzzle's name. You will be asked to confirm.
• Using the bot, say bot delete puzzle PUZZLE NAME.

Unsticking Puzzles

When a puzzle is marked as stuck, the bot will notify the main chat room, and everyone with stuck puzzle notifications turned on will get a desktop notification. If you're particularly good at finding next steps or extractions, join the puzzle's chat room via the link in the bot's message or by clicking the desktop notification. Once you've successfully made progress, you can mark the puzzle as not stuck by saying bot unstuck or by clicking the button in the header. This is probably not a good role to combine with being on-call for callins or adding new puzzles.

Announcements

Starring a message in the main chatroom pins it above the puzzles table so that anyone joining the page sees it immediately. It also generates a notification for anyone who has notification enabled in general and for the announcements stream, which is enabled by default. A single message is only announced once, even if it's unstarred and restarred.

Once a message is obsolete, you can unstar it to remove it from the main pane. To prevent messages from being unstarred accidentally, you have to be in edit mode (click the unlock icon in the header) to unstar messages in the table panel. You can always unstar messages in the chat panel, but you have to scroll far enough back in the chat history to find it.

Starring messages in other rooms does not generate an announcement, but does pin that message where it will be easily seen.

Polls

Should we be given a choice at some point, such as which round to unlock, which puzzle to spend a free solve on, or where to get dinner, you can solicit the team's input with a poll. This is a bot command like any other, but because the poll will appear to be said by you, you may want to send it to the bot as a private message to avoid apparent redundancy.

/msg bot poll "Who would win?" Me Myself Irene "John Rambo"

Quote the question and any options with a space in them. Polls support a minimum of two and a maximum of five options. Like any chat message, a poll can be starred.