levik
2003-01-30 01:49:31 |
Solution too early?
Levik: "Hey Ravi, how come you never submit solutions to your puzzles? (it would make my life easier down the line if you did)"
Ravi Raja: "ya Levik I would have surely done that, but the first time I did it (the puzzle whose subject was: Guessme One), the solution was then posted on the site too early........ so I thought that after majority of the members of the site commented on my problem, only after that i'll submit the solution........."
(The above comments were exchanged in the queue)
So to address this, I want to mention why and when I post solutions to the problems/puzzles on this site. In my experience, 90% of the visitors do not comment on puzzles that are not the latest puzzle. The notable exception is when a first-time visitor comes to the site and is so interested that they go through all the categories and all the problems. But this is rare.
Therefore, it is my experience that once a puzzles has been knocked off of the latest spot, and once none of the "new comments" belong to the puzzle, it will only get sporadic discussion on it, mostly driven by new users.
While a lot of the problems are solved by this time, and posting the solution doesn't give anything away, there are a few instances (as with "Guessme One") where the puzzle was unsloved. However, as I have stated, I believe that this puzzle would not have gotten too much further comments. This is why I generally post solutions to puzzles after two to four days of the initial posting.
Also, once a puzzle has a posted solution, it becomes "eligible" for flooble Puzzle Of the Day - a syndication service where other sites get to display one of our puzzles remotely. This can actually make people comment on it more.
So, Ravi, I hope I have explained my solution policy sufficiently for you to reconsider your current "no soluiton" practice. If you (or anyone else) disagree, I'd love to hear reasons. |
Cheradenine
2003-01-30 06:54:35 |
Re: Solution too early?
This discussion is related to the case of not submitting a solution because you do not have it. In this case you should make it clear that you do not know. Im saying this because it has happened to me while creating puzzles (eg logical limbo) that i could not solve. |
levik
2003-01-30 09:38:28 |
Re: Solution too early?
For a while I was actually considering a checkbox to mark that you do not know a solution. This would then become visible on the Queue interface. (Also, possibly the site would insist that you either check the box or put in something for the solution.) Any thoughts on this?
If I do it, this may take some time to accomplish, so don't expect it to be like today. |
Cheradenine
2003-01-30 22:37:20 |
Re: Solution too early?
Sounds good. Still in terms of prioritising your work, this should be at the lower end since it is not a frequent situation. Most puzzles are taken from somewhere else and thus already have a solution. |
