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This puzzle is part of a series - part 1 is here, part 2 is here and part 3 is here. Any comments I make on the OP are canonical and out of character (OOC). Any comments I post on answers are for flavour only.

You may notice there's been a bit of a delay on part 4 turning up. I think I just needed some time :-) I've kind of lost my feel for difficulty (although seeing how part 2 went, maybe I never had it :P) so if this is way too difficult I'll bust out some clues later on.

"gngnggfgl... whassat?"

You suddenly wake up from a dream about a really, REALLY warm glove that you'd just invented, only to discover that the neighbour's cat is asleep on your hand. Groggily, you pull your hand out from under it. the cat jumps up, startled, gives a loud "Meow!" and takes off, knocking your mug of now-cold coffee all over your keyboard.

Biting back a swear word (this is a child-friendly site, don'tcherknow) you try to shake off the groggy feeling in your head. Your vision blurs a bit and you feel dizzy, so you stop quickly. Wait, why do you feel dizzy? What's that dull pain at the back of your neck? Maybe you're just missing your daily fix of riddles on P.SE - that must be it. You've been awake for almost a whole minute... probably... and you still haven't found any magical spaghetti recipes.

Hang on! There was something wrong with SE wasn't there? After a brief moment of nausea, you remember - some nut-job was attacking the Stack and you were going to track him down and give him what-for. How could you have forgotten? You waggle your mouse a bit to wake the computer up, but nothing happens. You look under the table and- holy moly, your computer's disappeared!

Looking around your room, you realise the place is an absolute tip. Well, more so than normal; if it was just old plates sitting on your desk and clothes piled on the floor then that would be normal. The door is wide open, your drawers are all opened and it looks like someone's gone through all your stuff looking for something. Looking back at your keyboard, you notice that there are some keys which are missing - apparently someone didn't want you typing anything about Marin Cilic, because the C, I and L keys are gone.

This must be related to the SErial Killer - he knows you're on to him and he's trying to stop you!

Now that pain in your head makes sense - someone must have broken into your room (you may have heard them if you weren't so busy listening to Rick Astley, maybe) and knocked you unconscious before stealing your computer and maybe even your lucky pair of Y-fronts! You wonder how long you've been blacked out for, but there's no time to waste - a world where the SErial Killer is at large (and possibly in possession of your pants) doesn't bear thinking about.

You have to act!

Frantically, you hammer on your next-door neighbour's front door. When they open it, you gabble hysterically at them, then barge past (knocking them to the floor) and rush to their computer. You pull up SE and head to Area 51, but it looks completely and utterly normal. On second thoughts, not really; all the proposals have just over 2,000 followers and the site header says "Area 151". As you scroll through the list of site proposals, it dawns on you that your neighbour doesn't normally wear a long brown coat and a fedora...

With very little time before the mysterious impostor picks themselves up and get very angry at you, you must find a clue, some way to pick up the trail and come closer to unmasking the SErial Killer.

Who should you try to contact?

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  • $\begingroup$ Do I have to read the previous puzzles to solve this one? $\endgroup$
    – leoll2
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 14:35
  • $\begingroup$ @leoll2 no, I don't think so. I'd still recommend it though :-) $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 14:37
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    $\begingroup$ @mmking I promise I wouldn't ever make a puzzle where the answer is the answer because one guy on Twitter once said it :P $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 16:12
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    $\begingroup$ anything to do with unix & linux? $\endgroup$
    – markasoftware
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 1:26
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    $\begingroup$ Can we pleaseeeeee have an answer? $\endgroup$
    – Rapiddagger
    Commented Apr 19, 2019 at 5:58

4 Answers 4

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This seems too simple, so there's probably more to it - but the 151st user on Area51 in terms of reputation right now is Kevin, who, as it happens, proposed to add a "Puzzling.SE" site about a year ago. Seems simple but also too much of a coincidence.

Also, CLI in roman numerals is 151, but I'm not sure what that means. Maybe just an additional hint that you really need that number?

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    $\begingroup$ Fingers ablaze as you type, you start piecing together possible leads. You check the current rep-score list and find that right now, the second you're looking at it, there's a guy 151st on the list before realising that the rep-score list changes over time and trying to use it as a clue is probably not very reliable. Unperturbed, you turn your search elsewhere... $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 16:11
  • $\begingroup$ To be honest, I'm kind of relieved this wasn't right :) Worth a try though! $\endgroup$
    – EagleV_Attnam
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 16:24
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You should contact

Cypriot lyceum

since

this is anagram of what was stolen: C, L, I, pair of Ys, COMPUTER.

Offtopic, it's been THREE years already, can we have some answer? :)

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You should visit

The Apple Stack Exchange, Ask Different.

Why?

Because it was proposal number 151 at Area 51. This fits both with the 'Area 151' clue and with the missing C, L, I keys (as EagleV_Attnam pointed out, 151 is CLI in Roman numerals). The "long brown coat and a fedora" seems to be just a red herring.

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  • $\begingroup$ (OOC) afraid not. I don't have time to write a flavoursome comment right now either - sorry! $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Commented May 6, 2015 at 12:49
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A shot in the dark, but...

(TL;DR:)

Either Wikipedia's founders, CakeMox, or Keys (in that order of probability.)

I think that

15 January 2001 is the day Wikipedia was launched (why this is relevant: 151 = January 15th, "just above 2000" -> 2001), so you might try to contact one of Wikipedia's launchers.

Also,

There's the fedora and the special attention to Ask Ubuntu in an earlier question. Wikipedia says that it runs on a "L A M P platform", where the "L" stands for Linux.
So we can try heading to Unix & Linux SE.

Continuing on that,

One possible suspect is Keys. The doors and the drawer are open, and you're missing keyboard keys. Another suspect is CakeMox. On the Wikipedia page for Wikipedia Day, there are several pictures of cakes lies, and CakeMox is the only U&L user whose name has to do with cake and who actually has posted stuff.

But both of them are pretty strainedly connected to the problem. Also, neither are on PSE, and only CakeMox is on Area 51 and is active enough to be someone we might just sort of know (much more active on Server Fault - top 0.99% overall - than U&L).

In case that isn't right...other stuff that doesn't seem to point towards anything...

...include looking up "wikipedia" on any SE, "Wikipedia Day" on any SE, any of the SE's on Wikipedia, or any of the mentioned Linux distros on Wikipedia. And Ubuntu and Fedora seem to have nothing more in common in relation to the problem.

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