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This puzzle is part of a series - part 1 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.

Update: As it turns out, this was a very easy puzzle, and I'm actually having to rewrite the plot of the series thanks to SKV being far too clever for his own bleeding good (I love you really). The glory's gone, but try to solve it without checking out the answers. I enjoyed making it, anyway :-) Part 3 will be tougher.


You're staring at the list of Stacks when out of nowhere, you hear a voice going rik tika tik tik tik tik and before you wonder where it came from you realise something - the capital letters in the titles of all the dead sites can be re-arranged to spell "Moderators"!

You cast your eyes over the the list of murdered sites to find the Moderators Stack, and in your best Scottish-detective voice you announce "Och! There's bin a murrrrrrder, and ah nae where ahm going tae look!" (OOC: Sorry, Scotland). Tentatively, you click through to the Moderators stack and right at the top, you see a post entitled "We Will Conquer". You recognise the title from one of the dead Stacks, so you click on to read it...

enter image description here

You gasp in disbelief and check back to the Stacks list - sure enough, Ask Ubuntu is dead. You're about to click on it to make sure, but then remember the ominous warning about entering a new Stack, and think better of it. This "Handel" character doesn't seem like someone to mess around with.

You realise you're suddenly on a countdown, trying to minimise the number of stacks that die, and every false step you make could bring a flood of confused newbies asking inane questions about anything on to your beloved Puzzling.SE... or even worse, Puzzling.SE might get killed off!

Baffled and starting to panic a little, you sit back to mull things over. What's your next move? Where should you look?

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    $\begingroup$ Goodness. Where do you learn to make the graphic? This is madly cool. $\endgroup$
    – Realdeo
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ @Realdeo it's a combination of Chrome's inspector and Photoshop. My day job is web development :-) $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ What's your next move? flag it for OT...? $\endgroup$
    – Bolu
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:18
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    $\begingroup$ @Joe I guess the name Handel has nothing to do with DoorKnob :P $\endgroup$
    – skv
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:37
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    $\begingroup$ @skv Man, everything about this part has been a flop lol. I thought that was a nice disguise that I might be able to play out for a big reveal. Good news DoorKnob - you're no longer unwittingly playing the main villain in the series. Back to the drawing board... $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:41

4 Answers 4

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English language & usage. The ampersand in the logo has hex color 90383b, which is the roman numeral in the tag.

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    $\begingroup$ Solving a puzzle in 18 minutes. Impressive. $\endgroup$
    – Realdeo
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:36
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    $\begingroup$ You take a deep breath and settle yourself. In a moment of brilliance you realise that $\overline{XC}CCCLXXXIII$ is the Roman numeral for 90383, and the b on the end forms a hexadecimal colour. You quickly map this to the EL&U Stack - it's an exact match! You click on it... $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ (OOC) Well darn it. I actually had an easier version of this part originally and decided it needed to be a bit more challenging. However, 8 minutes isn't much of a challenge. Expect part 3 to test you a bit more. Well done, though $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:38
  • $\begingroup$ More luck than anything else really... A few good hits on google and I happened to have paint.net open. Also wanted to go for the reddish background of seasoned advice first - then decided to double-check the color. Then kept color-picking everything on the screenshot that was remotely red... $\endgroup$ Nov 12, 2014 at 15:48
  • $\begingroup$ wow! This would have taken me weeks to find out $\endgroup$ Nov 13, 2014 at 1:37
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Obviously the answer is already posted; but this solution seemed valid to me as well:

Server Fault is the next target. No self respecting serial killer would leave the clues from Part 1 without having the post for Part 2 already up, and yet the timestamp on the post is from 11/12! Clearly, the incorrect NTP configuration is the indication of the next target.

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  • $\begingroup$ (OOC) Real world time is different to puzzle time :-) I'm trying to have the puzzle feel like it's moving at a reasonably fast pace, but obviously it might take one or more days for each part. Glad people are enjoying it though :-) $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 18:41
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programmers. purely because of "look sharp" which is reference to the type of coding used c#

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    $\begingroup$ You decide that the Programmers Stack is a good place to look, but wary of killing Stacks unnecessarily you decide to Google a little bit first. You find that there's also an F# programming language and that musical notation uses sharp signs. You don't think you can justify risking a Stack on such a flimsy basis $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:29
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    $\begingroup$ Took a stab and got stabbed :) $\endgroup$ Nov 12, 2014 at 16:04
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What roman numerals, Julius Caesar (We see, We saw, god conquered) and George Friderich is known for?

Italian

So I visit Italian Language.

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    $\begingroup$ You move your mouse towards the Italian Language stack, but just before you click you suddenly remember that actually, Handel was German, not Italian. Doubting yourself, you decide that "We will conquer" is a bit too tentative to link it with Caesar's Veni Vidi Vici which is actually Latin. You move the mouse away, and go back to thinking. $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:32
  • $\begingroup$ He's a composer of Italian Baroque! $\endgroup$
    – Realdeo
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:32
  • $\begingroup$ (OOC) That's far too tenuous :P If I set that as a clue, I'd get so many complaints about being vague and obscure. That said, I may need to be a touch more vague and obscure in future parts of the series... $\endgroup$
    – Joe
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:34
  • $\begingroup$ I know. I know =p. That was a troll comment. $\endgroup$
    – Realdeo
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:35

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