Answer is a single word.

This is a mere ____ of decent riddles.
Crossword style clues:
    First version of an Internet porcine?
    Two missing mathematical constants?

Shadow?

is this relating to charlott's web?

"Internet porcine" ....Spam, perhaps? And first version....proto? Hmmm..........somehow I'm getting "Protoplasm" from that.

Right, think I'm getting off-track here. O.o;

I'm just going to remove messages to give myself an air of mystery

That was the answer... but it was just too amazing it would blow your mind. had to remove it

pi.... spam plus pi.... hmmm

heh.... I saw those posts come up in my notifier, so I know what you said, Mr 'I'll remain a mystery'

Are they two separate clues or one big clue?

does the topic name have to do with anything?

pittence

trifle

Three separate clues.  The title refers to my effort to write a riddle a day last week.

Is it a common word?

No.  That is one reason I used the crossword style clues so it doesn't matter if you know the meaning of this word.

How many letters?

Seven

pispamcubed

i never understood those cryptic crosswords

Yeah, I only understand them once I know what the answer is (sometimes).

Chain mail?

hint?

amalgam?

no, I meant, can we have a hint?

heh, i know,

You seem to have forgotten it is a seven letter word, although not exactly common.

phishin

I will reveal that one of the mathematical constants is e, the base of the natural logarithm.

ospame?

Ok ok, so I'm being silly

spasme

I am spas

phisher

phunny

hehehe

I will reveal that the extent of my mathematical knowledge is 0

LOL!

Hey.... that might be a constant!!

I actually went and looked up a bunch of constants, but nothing fits with spam... or Phish

Need to break that first clue

Shamble?

What's the porcine bit in that?

(Sorry, brain hasn't kicked into gear yet)

Um I was thinking that  a 'sham' could be the original Spam (spam being the internet porcine).

Sham is defined as

1 : a trick that deludes : hoax <feared that the deal was a sham> 2 : cheap falseness : hypocrisy <saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant — Oscar Wilde> 3 : an ornamental covering for a pillow 4 : an imitation or counterfeit purporting to be genuine 5 : a person who shams

(Merriam Webster Dictionary - Online Edition)

Seven letters phpc0d3r

Oh wait.... sorry... you're explaining your answer to me.

(Silly me thought Sham was your answer)

No, Shamble is my answer. Shamble is 7 letters long.

Yeah, I realised that after reading back

That's ok, I wish I could find out if I was right or not on either riddle.

Yeah... They'll be in soon

It's almost midnight here... Where does everyone live?

I'm in Sydney. I think Bard is in Aust too. drdec and Wilren US maybe? SK and Sir M are in the UK. Natanael in Sweden

you?

Ohio, United States

Cool!

I think I would prefer Sydney

I know I do!

Haha, nice. Well, I'll find out if I'm right tomorrow. I'll be off now. Goodnight. (or G'day)

G'nite!

Virginia, US, though moving to Alaska in a few months.

Here are a couple of examples of the crossword style clues:

1. Punch a sleeping area?
2. Poor DOB?
3. Sun expert?

Answers below:

1. slugabed (slug/a/bed)
2. badinage (bad/in/age)
3. solace (sol/ace)

Eh? What does this have to do with the riddle? Is the answer to that in this format?

alphaspam!

You're missing an e?

I thought that seeing some examples of similar puzzles would help.  Here's another hint: it has nothing to do with spam.

*GROAN*

Mathematical constants... numbers?

Or actual "special" constants like pi, e, i etc?

Special constants as in your examples.

Would we be required to guess which ones the riddle refers to?

And if so is one of them pi?

Is one of them e?

Is one of them i?

..or a symbol used in a common equation? (like how V is voltage, even though V can be anything)

I already told you that one of them is e.  They are constants, like e, not commonly used variables like V for voltage.  The key here is too get some synergy between the two different clues.  Then bust out a dictionary.

...clearly I haven't been reading hard enough 

Is the other constant also a letter? And if so does the answer to that clue contain e and the other letter?

It's the same answer for all the clues.

what is this "mathmatics" and where can I read about it? does it have something to do with my calculator?

It's the same answer for all the clues.

Yeah, thought so.. just wasn't sure

and does the answer contain the constants?

It is hard to imagine how it would not while still referring to them and being a reasonable length.

That 2nd clue brought "paragon" to mind. (Pronounced like "Pair o' gone") Doubt it's right, but it's kind of amusing at least.

Nice guess, that is the type of thinking that will crack this one.

A hA!

Great, now I'm stuck on para- words...paradox and parallel especially (even though the latter is 8 letters, not 7). :/

C'mon! Expand your horizons!!

You guys are overthinking the 'porcine' clue.

do the two clues tie into each other?

i.e., since one of the mathematical constants is e, does that, along with the other constant, plus the porcine clue = answer?

i also had the idea wilren just posted, but i wanted to see if the aboe was correct.

Or perhaps the "Internet porcine" is a 9-letter word that we need to take the mathematical constants out of (to make them "missing") to get the 7-letter answer?

No, it is more straightforward than that, the clues stand alone to get the same answer.  See the examples I posted on May 5th.

that means the other missing mathematical constant is six letters long... hmmm. surely there cant be too many of those.

That, or two single-letter constants and a 5-letter word for "missing".

lost pie

Mockery?

lost pork pie

*tap tap*

What, we're all collectively out of ideas?

Ok... time for some questions methinks, there's been a lot of speculation about what bits mean but we might all be chasing down a blind alley (to make it easy for you drdec, questions are the bullet pointed bits below )

To sum up what drdec has told us, the answer is an uncommon word, 7 letters long, both clues point to the same answer, it has nothing to do with spam, it contains the 2 constants, and one of those constants is e.

First thing I want to do is pin down what the other constant is, my first guess would be i (since we're looking for a letter here) looking back I actually asked if one of them was i before, but drdec didn't answer either way..

• Is i the other mathematical constant?

Now the "first version of an internet porcine" thing, it isn't spam...

• Does "first version" refer to alpha or beta testing?
• Does "first version" refer to some other word or prefix for an early version? e.g. proto or precursor
• I'm assuming "porcine" means something pig-related... correct? 
• Is the internet porcine a specific website, service or company?
• Is it related to email in a non-spam way?
• Is it related to web browsing in general?
• Some other common internet-based activity?

and in general

• I've been assuming the word that answers the clues drops neatly into the gap in the sentence that is the first line of the riddle, correct?

I will get this, even if I have to slowly and methodically close off every other possibility until I find it... although probably either it'll become obvious, or someone else will find it obvious and swoop in to claim the prize before I reach that point

• Is i the other mathematical constant?  No 

Now the "first version of an internet porcine" thing, it isn't spam...

• Does "first version" refer to alpha or beta testing?  No
  
• Does "first version" refer to some other word or prefix for an early version? Yes
  
• I'm assuming "porcine" means something pig-related... correct? Yes
• Is the internet porcine a specific website, service or company? No
  
• Is it related to email in a non-spam way?  No
  
• Is it related to web browsing in general?  No
  
• Some other common internet-based activity?  No
  

and in general

• I've been assuming the word that answers the clues drops neatly into the gap in the sentence that is the first line of the riddle, correct?  Yes
2008-05-15 11:08:17.0

• Is the other constant c?
• Is the early-version prefix proto?
• Is it or does it include "pre-" ?
• Is the "porcine" part of "internet porcine" actually related to the "internet" part?
2008-05-15 14:48:58.0

• Is the other constant c?  No
  
• Is the early-version prefix proto?  No
• Is it or does it include "pre-" ?  No
• Is the "porcine" part of "internet porcine" actually related to the "internet" part?  No
2008-05-16 07:10:57.0

Damnit, I really thought I had the second constant there...

• Is the other constant a single letter of the (english) alphabet?
• Should "internet" and "porcine" be replaced with other similar-meaning words to understand the clue better or answer it?
2008-05-16 09:25:45.0

• Is the other constant a single letter of the (english) alphabet?  No
  
• Should "internet" and "porcine" be replaced with other similar-meaning words to understand the clue better or answer it?  Maybe you should rephrase this or break it out as multiple questions.
2008-05-16 10:07:04.0

Unrelated, huh...Is the first clue talking about an early version of the Internet? (Whatever that is + another word for "porcine" = answer?)

• Is the other constant a single letter of a non-english alphabet?
• Is the other constant represented by multiple English letters?
• Is the other constant named in full? (e.g. "pi" as opposed to the symbol)

• Should "internet" be replaced with a word of similar meaning?
• Are "internet" and "first version" connected?
• Should "porcine" be replaced with a word of similar meaning?
• If yes, is that word "pig"?
2008-05-16 13:06:19.0

Yes, porcine refers to pig, which should also answer your questions about the constant.  Internet and first version are not connected directly.

Keep in mind that the final answer could easily be a word you have never heard of...

is it an english word?

before i saw those other clues i was gonna guess precept, but i guess thats out.

It is an English word, should be in your favorite (English) dictionary.

So "pig" appears as part of the answer? (hence containing "pi")?

Yep

A little wildcard searching of an online dictionary yields "epigone"

Two missing constants: e, pi... gone

First version of an Internet porcine: e-pig one

omg. wow. wow.

No way....

*banging head against keyboard*

E-Pig 1....*groans*

Let me tell you, it was tough coming up with five riddles based on a "word of the day" web site.  As you have guessed, epigone is correct.

I'm patiently waiting for your next one

what does it mean?

awesome riddle by the way

I reckon it deserves more than just one point

epigone \EP-uh-gohn\, noun:

An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher.

(according to Dictionary.com)

so... Elvis To The Max would be an epigone?

Hi how ru?

http://www.tangler.com/forum/id-2056/topic/40641