Why the 'Be Nice' policy? - Clue Eight

Question

You push the buttons under the letters on the rock wall. Nothing happens for a moment. Then there is a rumbling noise.

gggrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The rumbling stops. You look around your banana-colored room. Nothing seems to have changed, until you look directly behind you.

There is a picture there:

It appears to be a printed-out screenshot of the 'Be Nice' policy on your favorite site, Puzzling.SE.

You turn it over. This is on the back:

_{liap-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-liap lwb-lwb-lwb-liap lwb-lwb-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-lwb-liap lwb-lwb-liap-lwb lwb-liap-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-lwb liap-liap-lwb-lwb liap-lwb-liap-lwb liap-lwb-liap-liap lwb-liap-lwb liap-liap-lwb lwb-liap-lwb liap-lwb-liap-liap lwb-lwb-lwb-liap lwb lwb lwb-liap-lwb liap-lwb-liap-liap lwb-liap-lwb lwb-lwb liap-lwb lwb-liap liap-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-liap-lwb liap-liap-lwb liap-lwb-lwb-lwb liap-lwb-liap-lwb lwb-liap-liap-liap liap-lwb liap-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-lwb-liap lwb-liap liap lwb-liap-lwb-lwb liap-lwb-lwb-lwb lwb-lwb-lwb-lwb lwb liap-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-lwb-liap liap-liap-lwb-lwb lwb-liap-lwb lwb-lwb-liap lwb-liap-lwb lwb lwb-liap-lwb}

_{Next clue--->}

Is the image supposed to be only thumbnail size or do you have a bigger version? — Verence, Aug 04 '16 at 12:52
@Verence I put it in on that size intentionally, but if you remove the 'm' from the end of the image (click edit to see the link) you'll see a bigger version. — Mithical, Aug 04 '16 at 12:53
LuxxMiner did it (see comments to my answer). I just saw the bigger image. — Verence, Aug 04 '16 at 12:56
-1: puzzles that are just multiple codes used over and over are not interesting. — Deusovi, Aug 04 '16 at 13:58
@Mithrandir: Yes, I saw the answer. Red herrings are also bad puzzle design. — Deusovi, Aug 04 '16 at 14:34

Verence · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-05T14:46:58.550

14

The answer is

quartz
look at the bigger image and note all the missing letters. Almost all of them are in the beginning, but the "z" is in "lazy" in the middle.

The wrong way:

1:

apply a ROT cipher and "liab" and "lwb" turn to "dash" and "dot". Morse code, obviously.

2:

After decoding we get the following
GUVFVFPSZCYRGRYVEERYRINAGFGBCJNGVATLBHEGVZRURER

3:

ROT13 gives us:
THISISCFMPLETELIRRELEVANTSTOPWATINGYOURTIMEHERE
Errors are just errors, nothing to do here.

edited Aug 05 '16 at 14:46

answered Aug 04 '16 at 12:46

Verence

1,311
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1

Me too got till the 3rd and then thought this was a red herring and stopped.... – Sid Aug 04 '16 at 12:48
2

yup, I got this too. accepted it as a herring and then tried to figure what in the world I was supposed to be doing... Still on that last part... – dcfyj Aug 04 '16 at 12:49
4

SPOILER: (Isn't worth a partial answer): When you edit the question you'll see the image has a description, convert it with ROT13 and you get "dontlookatthecodelookatthis" - So it definetely only has to do something with the image. – Aug 04 '16 at 12:51
1

@LuxxMiner I was just about to post that :) – Jonathan Allan Aug 04 '16 at 12:51
1

Oh, well spotted. Now what do we do with this keyword? – Jonathan Allan Aug 04 '16 at 13:00
1

@JonathanAllan This is probably the final answer to this question. Since this question belongs to the series, we will need it later along with the other clues for the Final Puzzle. – Verence Aug 04 '16 at 13:02

Why the 'Be Nice' policy? - Clue Eight

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