desseim: I must say, I also found some of the hints more confusing than helping, so I get it.
The thing is… I deliberately made some hints confusing.
Because that's exactly where the "beef" of the puzzle was.
This one for example:
[$$] and [&&] has something to do with [?].
Clearly, that "has something to do" was vague, unspecific, and most importantly — subject to more than one interpretation. An interpretation that may as well be different than what one would initially thought.
And that's exacly what the participants should figure out —
that vague-confusing hint is the puzzle. If it were not so, it'll be solved with little to no-effort, in a matter of mins.
desseim: […] I also appreciated the effort to make a more engaging "giveaway".
At least everyone gets to participate ;)
The way this giveaway works still boils down to "first-come-first-serve" most of the time. And that's what I'm trying to hamper down with this. I don't want it to be based on luck of being online alone.
Others are free to do it their way, of course. As it should be.