They Hacked My Wordle!

February 12, 2022

This morning, I woke up to the unpleasant headline Wordle had been hacked. A user who goes by @xadhan published a long list of Wordle answers with today’s Wordle circled in green. (Don’t click on the link unless you want to be knee deep in spoilers.). The same list has been published on Medium and cited by a British talkshow host. Cheaters can also find the list by Googling “here lies Wordle.”

Sure enough, I tried the hack for the 238th Wordle, which dropped on February 12th, and solved the puzzle on the first guess.

DAMN! They hacked my Wordle!

Wordle was my lovely little wake up call. The first stop on my cell phone as I opened my eyes. Since January 20, 2021, I no longer have to panic at every headline I see first thing in the morning. Or, doomscroll at all hours of the night to make sure we still live in a democracy.

What has Wordle ever done except make people happy? My friend and I have a healthy competition going and I’m whooping his ass! If I guess the daily Wordle in 4 tries or less, I know it’s going to be a good day. Five or more and I may as well stay in bed.

Who would be so vicious as to take down our national past-time? Could it be just a coincidence this happened the day after the New York Times started running the daily puzzle? There were already reported glitches, such as winning streaks being wiped out. The New York Times reported these were quickly fixed. Now this?

If this is some conspiracy, then who’s behind it? QAnon? Because that five letter word is not recognized by the Wordle dictionary? The Chinese government? Because Wordle is getting more attention than the Olympics? The Russians? Because the doping scandal is getting more attention than Wordle? Or, maybe our old nemesis, North Korea? Just because?

Hopefully, the NY Times IT Department is on the job and will get Wordle fixed by tomorrow. Even if it means missing the Super Bowl. Hey, priorities. In the meantime, there is apparently a website where people binge the Wordle archive all the way back to №1.