Crossword Unclued turns four

Four years! 8th August 2008 was the day the first post [Tackling cryptic crosswords: 7 step guide for beginners] was published on Crossword Unclued. On the blog's birthday I usually take stock of notable events of the past year - this time I also went through the Archive and made interesting discoveries about the site, and my personal journey with crosswords, since 2008.

What has changed in four years?

When I started blogging, I solved the crosswords in the Economic Times, New Indian Express, The Hindu, occasionally the UK papers. Now it is the other way round, and the clues used as examples in my posts reflect that change.

There has also been a slight shift in my thoughts on good and bad wordplay in cryptic crosswords. I am more receptive to indirect definitions such as unindicated D-by-E, less tolerant of superfluous link words. If I write about "About" today, I would surely mention that #7 is not a great use of the word.

The early blog posts had many short, quickly composed entries. Those updates have now moved to twitter and Facebook: Crossword Unclued.

The Last Twelve Months: A Brief Look

The interview posts – Roger Squires and the new setters of The Hindu Crossword – were the highlights of the year. They were also among those rare posts that my non-crossword friends read and enjoyed.

March 2012 was an excellent month for the blog. For one, Anax shared this lovely crossword specially created for Crossword Unclued. Soon after, on the morning of 21th March 2012, I checked Sitemeter and wondered if it had broken. It turned out that those additional couple of thousands of visitors were from a link on OMG-Facts.com. This was the best-ever time in terms of traffic, thanks to their link.

Popular posts on social media

Most Shared on Twitter		Most Shared On Facebook
Why Hindi and cryptic crosswords do not mix  (34 tweets)		Cryptonyte's special crossword (Tony Sebastian continues to attract the max FB shares. In 2011 the top-shared post was his interview.)

New navigation pages

New navigation pages were added this year to help you find your way around the site easily.

	A listing of ALL the posts on Crossword Unclued, organized month-wise.
	A compendium of interviews with crossword personalities - expert solvers and setters.

Crossword Unclued has been a constant source of joy for me. Thank you very much for reading and for making blogging so much fun.

Special thanks to my top referrers: THCC, Big Dave's Blog, fifteensquared, @sancryptic, amrith10, @ya_sree.

Past Birthdays:

• Crossword Unclued Turns Three
• Crossword Unclued Turns Two
• Crossword Unclued Turns One

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