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A Quantity you always see.
Facepalm, and "Oh it's me!"
Not seen in combs, but sometimes in balls,
"Goal! Hi me" from far he calls.

If I were an "Mmm", then I'd be with a Finnish wire,
I may be small, yet I am entire.
Alpha, one number - eternity for me
The first you learn, the first you see!

Upright, or lying, it differs in country.
Nonetheless, I'm still that worthy!
Ben, not ten, sees me the most,
And I'm perfect, that's what I'd boast!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
This has been valued to the utmost.
Faith, hope, and love remain,
What value I obtain!

Deviously new, and weirdly told,
Yet messily, since me, it's been so so old.
After all, the match you've won,
And with that the guessing's done.

Five times four is five in all,
Together we give out all.
The last of all to keep him hidden
Senpais, what a riddle I have written!


HINTS:

1:

Bits and bits you shall unfold,
Before it next to you be told

2: Stanza 2:

3: Stanza 5:

[tag:a...?]


Epilogue (don't read this if you want to solve the riddle)

Since I changed my profile pic and it solves Hint 1, I am posting my profile pic here
enter image description here

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5 Answers 5

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Based on the tag hints, one possibility for the fifth stanza might be

ONE

Deviously new, and weirdly told,

These plus the second line, I believe, clue s of the word ONE, which would be the incomplete tag in the hint. “New” would be NEO, but I’m not too sure about “told.”

Yet messily, since me, it's been so so old.

Another anagram of ONE is EON, and one eon is definitely a “so so old” length of time.

After all, the match you've won,

Two possible clues here:
1. “Won” is a homophone of “one”
2. “Match” could refer to a matchstick, which looks like the numeral 1. (This would be the tag reference)

And with that the guessing's done.

Not sure if this is a clue or just a transition into the last stanza. If it is a clue, then I don’t know yet what it might be


I may be completely off base though, and I can’t really figure out any of the other stanzas or how they might fit with the last stanza. Although, I do have a sneaking suspicion that the riddle refers to a certain someone on this site, because

one possible combination of numerals from the answers given so far is 51131, which just so happens to be the user ID of the OP, Omega Krypton!

This would also fit well with the last stanza:

“keep him hidden” suggests that the numbers point to a specific person, and the last line outright states the riddle writer as a possibility.

This is only a theory though, and again, I may be barking up the wrong tree...

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    $\begingroup$ well done, you got the gimmick! +1 and the tick goes to you! $\endgroup$ Mar 29, 2019 at 12:30
  • $\begingroup$ in fact, rot13(ynfg uvagf gbjneqf bzrtn, ynfg terrx nycunorg; juvyr uvqqra uvagf gbjneqf xelcgbf, bevtva bs gur anzr xelcgba, juvpu zrnaf uvqqra) $\endgroup$ Mar 29, 2019 at 12:34
  • $\begingroup$ @OmegaKrypton Wow, I was actually on the right track... that was unexpected, but thanks for the check mark anyway! I’ll type out a full explanation later today, though there are a few clues that I don’t get yet, such as “Finnish wire” and “Ben, not ten” $\endgroup$
    – HTM
    Mar 29, 2019 at 18:39
  • $\begingroup$ Ben, not ten: Benford's law, so it is benford instead of ben ten ;) $\endgroup$ Mar 30, 2019 at 1:34
  • $\begingroup$ sorry, my fault for finnish wire, edited: rot13(v jrer na z: ebg v gb trg z jvgu ebg4, ebg4(bar) vf fev, svaavfu jver vf ynaxn, gb sbez fev ynaxn) $\endgroup$ Mar 30, 2019 at 1:42
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I think this is, as the title suggests, about

numbers. Specifically, each verse might be a different number.

A Quantity you always see.
Facepalm, and "Oh it's me!"
Not seen in combs, but sometimes in balls,
"Goal! Hi me" from far he calls.

ZERO. "Oh it's me" because O (oh) looks like 0 (zero); the shape of a ball is like 0, but a comb isn't.

If I were an ass, then I'd be a Finnish wire,
I may be small, yet I am entire.
Alpha, one number - eternity for me
The first you learn, the first you see!

I want to say this is ONE, but some clues also point to INFINITY. The "Finnish wire" might be something to do with inFINNity, and "entire"/"eternity" also point to infinity, whose symbol looks like "alpha". But "one number" and the fourth line would rather suggest one.

Upright, or lying, it differs in country.
Nonetheless, I'm still that worthy!
Ben, not ten, sees me the most,
And I'm perfect, that's what I'd boast!

Still not sure about this one.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
This has been valued to the utmost.
Faith, hope, and love remain,
What value I obtain!

That's got to be THREE> The holy Trinity, and "faith, hope, and love" also form a nice triple.

Deviously new, and weirdly told,
Yet messily, since me, it's been so so old.
After all, the match you've won,
And with that the guessing's done.

Not sure about this one either.

Five times four is five in all,
Together we give out all.
The last of all to keep him hidden
Senpais, what a riddle I have written!

There are five verses of four lines ("five times four") so far. If the numbers are ZERO, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, then the number for this verse should be FIVE, hence "five in all". This final answer is "hidden" but deduced from the rest of the riddle.

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    $\begingroup$ Hi @Rand definitely honoured to have one of my questions answered by one of the most prominent users in PSE! You're definitely on the right track, but the answers are a bit off. Keep it up! $\endgroup$ Mar 23, 2019 at 12:22
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First post on here. Would ideally be a response to @Rand but I don't have enough reputation. Apologies if this is the wrong way to go about it.

Using a lot of the same logic as @Rand, but with different conclusions for some parts.

A Quantity you always see.
Facepalm, and "Oh it's me!"
Not seen in combs, but sometimes in balls,
"Goal! Hi me" from far he calls.

This is very obviously FIVE. Palm points to 5 fingers. Soccer balls are typically constructed by pentagons and hexagons, while honeycombs are hexagonal. So a pentagon is present on a soccer ball but not on a comb. In the last line "Hi me" is spoken from the numbers perspective, so it is probably pointing to the phrase "high five".

If I were an ass, then I'd be a Finnish wire,
I may be small, yet I am entire.
Alpha, one number - eternity for me
The first you learn, the first you see!

Here my guess would be ZERO. This is based mostly on the third line which makes me think of aleph-null (the cardinality of all natural numbers). This also fits well with the mention of eternity/inifinty. Zero is also a small number and arguably the first number as mentioned in the last line.

Upright, or lying, it differs in country.
Nonetheless, I'm still that worthy!
Ben, not ten, sees me the most,
And I'm perfect, that's what I'd boast!

My guess here would be SIX. It is based on the assumption that all the answers are single digits and the last line makes me believe we are looking for a perfect number (numbers that are equal to the sum of its proper divisors). The number 6 is the smallest, and the only single digit, perfect number. Not sure how the rest of the verse fits with that.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
This has been valued to the utmost.
Faith, hope, and love remain,
What value I obtain!

This is most likely THREE like @Rand says. Based on the holy trinity and the triplet of "Faith, hope and love".

Deviously new, and weirdly told,
Yet messily, since me, it's been so so old.
After all, the match you've won,
And with that the guessing's done.

This one I am very unsure about. The only thing I can think of would be SEVEN. This is based on the fact that when asked to guess a number between 1-10 the majority of people will default to 7 for some reason. I'm pretty sure this is wrong though.

Five times four is five in all,
Together we give out all.
The last of all to keep him hidden
Senpais, what a riddle I have written!

I'm not sure how this verse plays into the answer at all.

Hint 1

"Bits and bits" made me think that maybe the answer had something to do with the binary representation of the numbers, but that didn't lead me anywhere. The combination of "bits and bits" and the word "told" makes me believe the answer might be related to leet-speak, so that each number represents the letter it most resembels. With the digits I have given so far (50637) that would give something like SOGET, but that doesn't really tell me anything. So either some of my digits are wrong, or I'm way off with my thinking at the end here.

Not very condifident in the final answer I came up with, but parts of this I'm pretty certain about.

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    $\begingroup$ Some confirmation: rot13(FVK vf tbbq 'hcevtug' va fbzr pbhagevrf naq rivy 'ylvat' va bguref. Znlor Ovt Ora gur Pybpx? Nyfb FRIRA ybbxf yvxr gur terrx yrggre ah 'qrivbhfyl' ebgngrq). $\endgroup$
    – arbitrahj
    Mar 26, 2019 at 12:30
  • $\begingroup$ New breakthrough, but not all true, ponder a while, I'll add a clue! $\endgroup$ Mar 27, 2019 at 2:05
  • $\begingroup$ Clues didn't help me much, but pondering sure did. Might be wrong, but is it possible that rot13(gur nafjre vf svir (va fbzr funcr be sbez) sbe nyy svir bs gur fgnamnf? Zbfgyl onfrq bs gur gvgyr, jurer gur svefg cneg cbvagf gb gur fgnamnf, naq gur ynfg cneg gryyf lbh gur nafjre vf svir sbe nyy bs gurz? Vs fb gura 1. erznvaf nf vf. 2. abg fher. 3. zvtug or gnyyl znexf (onfrq ba xbinpfhe'f fhttrfgvba) be ol fvzvyne ybtvp 正. 4. znlor rcfvyba (syvccrq 3) gur svsgu yrggre. 5. zvtug or terrx yrggre ah nf neovgenuw fhttrfgrq. Ybjrepnfr vf i, ebzna ahzreny svir, pna nyfb fvtavsl ivpgbel) $\endgroup$
    – user58109
    Mar 27, 2019 at 11:46
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Upright, or lying, it differs in country.
Nonetheless, I'm still that worthy!
Ben, not ten, sees me the most,
And I'm perfect, that's what I'd boast!

Another possible interpretation would be

One (or even I). I (upright) as a Roman numeral is equivalent to Chinese 一 (lying). It also is the most common glyph on the face of the Big Ben, or any other traditional clock.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
This has been valued to the utmost.
Faith, hope, and love remain,
What value I obtain!

This could also point to

Thirteen (see 1 Corinthians 13:13), which would mean we are not restricted to single-digit numbers.

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    $\begingroup$ True in part but not for all, remember, "five times four is five in all"! $\endgroup$ Mar 27, 2019 at 1:55
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I don't know if this is possible, but Omega Krypton told me to solve this puzzle.
I think the answer is

Zero

A Quantity you always see.
Facepalm, and "Oh it's me!"
Not seen in combs, but sometimes in balls,
"Goal! Hi me" from far he calls.

You always see a zero, no matter it is really a zero or a thing that has a shape of a zero.
When you see a zero on your exam paper, you will facepalm and moan.
A comb doesn't have a shape of a zero (ball), but most balls are round.
When you are playing soccer, you would want the ball to get in the goal and yell 'Goal!'

If I were an ass, then I'd be a Finnish wire,
I may be small, yet I am entire.
Alpha, one number - eternity for me
The first you learn, the first you see!

I couldn't figure out this one.
Zero is the smallest number (if you don't count negative numbers). Entire functions are equal to zero. Alpha, the first letter in the Greek alphabet. One is the opposite of zero, as zero is the opposite of eternity
The first number you learn when you were a baby might probably be 0, since you wouldn't have learnt negative numbers at that time.

Upright, or lying, it differs in country.
Nonetheless, I'm still that worthy!
Ben, not ten, sees me the most,
And I'm perfect, that's what I'd boast!

0, upright and 〇, lying are both zeros.
0 is very useful in daily life, e.g. your exam marks
I can't figure out this one.
However 0 is not a perfect number, I can't figure this one.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
This has been valued to the utmost.
Faith, hope, and love remain,
What value I obtain!

Three in one? I can't figure out this one.
I can't figure out these either.

Deviously new, and weirdly told,
Yet messily, since me, it's been so so old.
After all, the match you've won,
And with that the guessing's done.

The first discovery of the symbol '0' was a stone tablet from AD 876, which is very 'new' compared to the symbols 1-9.
Before that, people used a blank space to show '0', which was confusing. However, the concept of zero appeared in the Mayan civilization, dating back to 2000 BC, which was very old.
Please refer back to Stanza 1, with the football.
Now you have finished guessing the number.

Five times four is five in all,
Together we give out all.
The last of all to keep him hidden
Senpais, what a riddle I have written!

5*4 = 20, I can't figure out this one. A number followed by infinite zeros can be super big, but only infinite zeros will make zero. This explains why it should be 'together'.
Umm... Can't figure out this one. Senpais means mentor... Omega Krypton did you write this for your English teacher?!

That's all... Thank you for reading!

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