Okay, in the following post I'll be putting up a 'little' something I thought I'd contribute to this thread (think it'll be easier viewed as a whole...so without an 'explanation' bundled with it). It's a piece of 'relevant'
encoded text that I'd like both general members and BS cast and crew alike to have a go at decoding.
What I've done is taken some text and simply replaced each letter of the alphabet from it with another one. That is to say, each 'real' letter is only ever represented by the same one substituted letter in the coded text.
A good way to solve the following is through 'frequency analysis'. That is where you look at how frequently certain letters appear in the text (particularly in terms of how often/rarely they appear), and then use this knowledge to help figure out what letters are what. So, for example, look for a letter, or letters, below that are reappearing most often through the text, and then think about common letters that they could be standing in for. To put that in reverse, think which letters below are rarely appearing and so could then maybe be representing lesser used letters of the alphabet. You'll find helpful info on all of this
HERE and
HERE. And it'll tell you in these links which letters are considered the most common and the least common.
Another clue to working out the following is think about the sort of text it might be from the way I've structured it. For example, each of the main lines begins with one word that is immediately followed by a semi colon. So what sort of 'sentences' could these be? And if you look at these particular words, you'll very soon see a pattern emerging...
You could then get quite a few of the letters just from that!
When trying to work out the real letters, btw, make note that there is no 'q'. There is a coded one below, but none in the actual decoded text. And that also means that there is a coded letter missing from the encoded text (the letter I would of used in place of a 'q' if there had been one). So you're working to a 25 letter alphabet.
There's also one particular three letter word that has a 'non-dictionary' spelling. I did, however, spell it as accurately as I thought was possible. You'll know what I mean if you decode the word in question.
Anyway, I'm posting this up for anyone who wishes to have a go at it. Anyone can also feel free to discuss it on here, post up any 'hints' and 'workings', etc, if they like. And obviously for whoever may crack this first (yep, I'm really hoping that at least a few people will give this a go!), just post up the decoded text on here. Sorry there's no actual 'prize' for this, btw. But, well, there's always the satisfaction of being the first one to get your solution to it up! And not forgetting the bragging, too, of course....
So, depending on how many people do or don't bother with this, I may or may not do some more of these. Thought I'd just do one and see how things went with it.
As I say, the text below has a 'relevance' to it. It's relevant as it somehow relates to either one or more of the
Bar Stewards cast or crew. You won't know how or why unless you give this code a go at the cracking...
....