Fair clues and inside references

Shared references make the best ThoughtMatch clues, until a clue only makes sense to two people. This guide explains where the line sits, how the Dener's flag and the vote work, and how a group can agree on its own standard.

By Ansh R. Suryavanshi, creator of ThoughtMatch

Fair knowledge and inside references

Clue text in ThoughtMatch can say almost anything. The dictionary rule applies to words (the secret word, the word behind a clue, and the words typed in a contact), not to the clue itself. So a clue can name people, films, places and last weekend's barbecue. The only thing the game checks is that the clue doesn't contain its own word.

That freedom makes the game fun, because your teammates know things the Dener has to work out under pressure. It also opens a loophole. A clue like "what we ate after the wedding" isn't really a clue to the table. It's a private message to whoever sat next to you at the reception.

A useful way to tell the two apart:

• Fair shared knowledge is something most people at the table could reasonably know: a famous film, a nursery rhyme, a well-known food, a sports moment, or something that happened earlier in this game, where everyone could see it.
• An inside reference depends on a private experience that only the clue giver and one or two others shared. Nobody else could solve it however hard they thought.

The Dener knowing the reference doesn't decide it either way. A famous film is fair even if the Dener has seen it. A private joke is still an inside reference even if the Dener happens to be in on it.

A scale from famous to private

Most clues sit somewhere on this scale. The further down you go, the harder the clue is for the Dener and the more likely it is to be flagged.

How flagging works

If the Dener thinks a clue is an inside reference that nobody else could get, they press Inside reference? on it. Here's what happens next.

1. The clue freezes. Nobody can start or join a contact on it, and if a contact on it was already running, its countdown pauses.
2. The uninvolved players vote. Everyone except the Dener, the clue giver and anyone already in the clue's contact gets 20 seconds to vote Fair clue or Inside reference. The question on screen is simple: could everyone get it?
3. A majority voids it. If most say inside reference, the clue is voided. It scores nothing, and its word stays free: it isn't revealed or used up, so anyone can clue it again with a fairer clue.
4. Otherwise it goes back in play. A tie keeps the clue, and so does a vote nobody casts. If a contact was paused, it restarts with a fresh ten seconds, and the players already in it stay in.

A few details worth knowing:

• Each clue can be flagged only once. A clue that survives a vote can't be flagged again.
• The rest of the table carries on during the vote. Other clues can still be posted, contacted and broken. If another contact is running when a kept clue unfreezes, the clue reopens without its paused contact.
• If nobody is left to judge a clue, it can't be flagged. In a three-player game, once the only other player joins the contact, there's no one uninvolved to vote.
• If the vote is clear early, it ends early: once most of the voters have picked the same side, the result applies straight away.

Two flags, start to finish

Seven friends are playing. Priya is the Dener, and the prefix is S.

The holiday clue wasn't a message to one person: two of the four voters could have solved it. The bus clue was.

Borderline cases

These are the clues groups argue about. There's no single right answer, but here's how to think them through.

• "The dessert at that café on the corner." Fair if everyone at the table lives nearby. A player visiting from another city can't get it, so if they're in the room, it leans towards inside reference.
• "The song from the video Jo sent the group chat." Fair if every player is in that chat. If two players joined tonight through a friend, it isn't.
• "Our teacher's favourite word." In a classroom game where everyone has the same teacher, it's fair. With friends from different schools, it's private.
• "What Theo orders at every restaurant." Fair if Theo's ordering habits are famous in your group. Inside if only his partner has eaten out with him.
• A clue in a language part of the table doesn't speak. A Hindi phrase in a group where everyone speaks Hindi is fair. In a mixed-language group, the voters who can't read it are entitled to call it an inside reference.

The test that settles most of these: if you'd have to explain the clue afterwards to most of the table, it was probably an inside reference.

Etiquette for mixed groups

The trickiest tables are a close group of friends plus a few newcomers. The friends have years of shared history; the newcomers have none. Some habits that keep it fun for everyone:

• Explain the flag before the first round. Newcomers should know the button exists, and that a flagged clue isn't an accusation.
• Start with famous references. Save group history for later rounds, once the newcomers have a feel for the game.
• Build new shared history. References to things that happened earlier in tonight's game are fair to everyone, newcomers included. Clue the word somebody nearly broke last round.
• Vote on the clue, not on yourself. The question is whether the table could get it, not whether you did. Voting fair on your best friend's private joke spoils the vote for everyone.
• Dener, flag in good faith. Flag clues you genuinely think are private, not every clue that worries you.
• After a void, rewrite rather than argue. The word is still free. A fairer clue for the same word often lands within seconds.

Agreeing your own standard

Every group draws the line a little differently, and that's fine. What matters is agreeing before the round starts, not in the middle of a heated contact. Three standards that work:

• Strict: only references a stranger could get, like famous films, books, songs and foods. Good for classrooms, families with young children and tables full of newcomers.
• Table: anything most of the players share. Good for friend groups with a few new faces.
• Loose: anything goes, and the flag is only for true one-person messages. Good for old friends who know each other's stories.

Say the standard out loud before the first round, the same way you would any house rule. The game can't enforce it, but it gives voters something to measure against, and the flag vote does the rest. The page on house rules and variants has more ideas for shaping a game around your group, and the 40 clue examples show plenty of clues that are sharp without being private. For the rules in brief, see flagging an inside reference, and for writing clues that sit just on the right side of the line, read how to write great clues.