Talk:SOWPODS

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I hope someone will add/correct the info on this page. Stewart Holden was the one who sent me the article on how the ABSP got started (which obviously contains information about the birth of SOWPODS). Some supporting evidence for the advs and disadvs would be more than welcome. Basically that's stuff I've got from reading forums, but there must be discussion about it somewhere.

Let's not forget a TWL or OSPD page. Mglovesfun 02:25, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SOWPODS or Collins

There appears to be some confusion in the Scrabble articles as to whether SOWPODS is the official word list for the World Scrabble Championships. The Scrabble article says that the Tournament and Club Word list is the right one, and that this is based on OWL2 and entries from the Chambers and Collins dictionaries.

There is further confusion in that I own a Collins Scrabble dictionary (with another title), which purports to be the official reference, which includes definitions for words of (I believe) 10 letters or under.

I don't know enough to make the changes to the articles themselves, but I hope there is someone out there who does. A quick internet search did not provide me with the answers.

Zfishwiki 23:43, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Impossible words

Perhaps a reference to the words BEZZAZZ, BEZZAZZES, PAZZAZZ, PAZZAZZES, PIZZAZZ, PIZZAZZES, PIZZAZZY, RAZZAMATAZZ, RAZZAMATAZZES, RAZZMATAZZ and RAZZMATAZZES which are in SOWPODS list but are impossible to make in English scrabble? (4 zeds - 3 is the most possible if both blanks are used) 81.79.16.2 (talk) 17:18, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't know that this would be pertinent to this article. Other word sources such as OSPD and OWL also include "impossible" words. PIZZAZZ was in the original printing of OSPD but was removed without explanation as part of a "correction". However, it reappeared in later editions. The words appear in standard dictionaries and meet the criteria specified in the rules so there isn't really a valid reason to exclude them. Note there are games with different letter distributions for which this could be used as a source, such as "Super Scrabble". Also, though not likely now that plastic tiles are standard, if a non-blank tile is played as a blank it stays on the board if not caught before the next turn. Gr8white (talk) 18:45, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Coining of term

The term SOWPODS was coined by Nick Ballard, who published a Scrabble-oriented newsletter Medleys. That would probably be useful info to add to the article but I don't have a source to cite other than personal knowledge (both from Medleys and acquaintance with Nick). Unfortunately I threw out my collection of Medleys some time ago. Gr8white (talk) 18:38, 15 March 2008 (UTC)