ASCII Puzzler 1: Part 1

Question

This is a prequel to ASCII Puzzler 2: Arrows Depicting Movement, Things, or Pointing Out Objects, ASCII Puzzler 3: The Trees, and https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/32439/ascii-puzzler-4-not-a-rebus

o
I ---> {}--{}
I       QQQQQQ <--> QQQQQQ
I       AAAAAA <--> AAAAAA
I       CCCCCC <--> CCCCCC

Figure out the sentence using the block of text above.

Hint 1:

The first thing (read top to bottom, o I I I I) is also a cereal brand

Hint 2:

Do, obviously, not trace: Base everything you know on this image MICROHARDNESS That is the key to unlocking this clue.

Hint 3:

Q, A, and C stand for something.

Hint 4:

Q: Is it a well known phrase or just some arbitrary sentence?
A: Well, it relates. Somehow, this arbitrary clause kills puzzlers' brains. Keep thinking.

Hint 5:

It is {}---{}.

Hint 6:

You're barely scratching the surface of this puzzle... try harder. Maybe your answer will stack up to good answers of hard questions.

I'm terrible with Rebus puzzles, but if it helps someone else, I think maybe hint 1 alludes to "Post", a cereal brand, and the structure of i's looks kind of like a pole/post. — Bulldogg6404, May 09 '16 at 11:12
@Bulldogg6404 I was thinking that was a possibility, but why the lower case i at the top when the others are capitalized? — paste, May 09 '16 at 13:01
@Peanut - in this case, if on the picture is all capital I, then shouldn't the hint also be changed? — rhsquared, May 10 '16 at 07:10
I would like to ask, is it a well known phrase or just some arbitrary sentence? I have a hunch about the meanings of each part of the riddle (except microhardness) but cannot come up with a phrase which I've heard of before. — hexomino, May 11 '16 at 11:09
@hexomino Well, it relates. Somehow, this arbitrary clause kills puzzlers' brains. Keep thinking. — bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963, May 11 '16 at 13:38
I googled "microhardness" and the first result was a wikipedia article about indentation hardness. So i guess, indentation is important? — Pat G, May 11 '16 at 22:15

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 12 '16 at 03:00

5

I'm guessing it's something like

Post to the Stack Exchange Question/Answer Community

Explanation

The I's on the left are a post, putting a thing that looks like it could be an empty question and answer onto a Stack of things being exchanged (the bidirectional arrows). The rest I was just guessing at what Q, A and C could stand for. No idea why there's six of one and half a dozen of the other being exchanged though.

Hint 3:

Q A and C stand for Question, Answer, and Community, respectively (see the stackexchange.com homepage for those )

Hint 4:

Taken as examples: Q is the Question and A is the Answer

Hint 5:

Don't know. Could be related to a stack trace (which unwind sometimes when curly braces are closed) or items being pushed onto a stack. Or it could just be saying that that item is what's being posted.

Hint 6:

Maybe referring to a scratching post. Also, the word "stack" appears in it.

edited May 12 '16 at 03:00

Wesley Situ

2,933
1
14
23

answered May 11 '16 at 23:11

paste

3,305
16
33

Can you provide explanations of Hints 3-6 before I mark it right? – bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963 May 12 '16 at 00:00
for Hint 3 : What's usually under the Answers ? maybe ... Comments. – Red-Jeweled May 12 '16 at 06:58
Yeah, that sounds good. Do you know what the microhardness is about? Is it something to do with indentation as suggested by Pat G? – hexomino May 12 '16 at 13:05
@Anton They're under the questions, too, though... – paste May 12 '16 at 14:02
1

@hexomino Maybe something to do with having to indent code (the curly braces) in order to format it? – paste May 12 '16 at 16:09
It seems like the "microhardness" hint is more difficult than the actual puzzle. – paste May 12 '16 at 19:38
@Peanut, now that paste has provided explanations of hints 3-6 are you going to mark this right? Or is it in fact not right? – Gareth McCaughan May 19 '16 at 11:34

ASCII Puzzler 1: Part 1

1 Answers1

Linked