[4rt]

i think they're saying it shouldn't be counted as a fail, rather than it should be accepted as an answer at that point.

if not i agree with you. it'd be nice if it flashed green or something around the entire set of brackets but made you still answer all the sub-clues though.

[zem]

yeah, it would be really nice if it turned the brackets around the word you guessed green and then filled it in automatically once the subclues were solved

[echelon]

Eat it and make the user think it's a failure, but don't count it negatively towards the score.

"If you answer early, we'll ignore your guess without letting you on."

[PebblesRox]

Or maybe it could give some kind of extra credit for guessing a clue early. Or it could accept it, but still make you guess the interior clues, but when you get to the one, you already guessed, it shows it as already solved.