Hi. I'm new to flooble and I've been poking around the site some every now and then. I think if I'm understanding correctly, a problem's rating and difficulty are NOT the same thing. Is this correct? When I go to rate a problem, am I grading how hard I think it is or how good I think it is?

Thanks
Greg

Yes, that is a distinction that is very important to make. Well, the ratings themselves aren't that important; there's no prize for writing the best problems or anything. However, it does seem that people tend to rate the easier problems much less favorably, and the same for very complex problems.

In general, you shouldn't rate a problem until you have at least tried to solve it; I would take that a step farther and say don't rate a problem until you know what the author's intended answer is. Some very good problems look very trivial, stupid, or even impossibly complex at first glance, causing a low rating, but the actual solution invokes some clever point that many people don't immediately see. In my opinion, such problems are great, but often people will look at it for a few seconds, decide it's not worth the bother, and then just hit '1' for a rating. For example, on the current front page problem, Charlie's Fifth Thursdays - somebody gave the problem a '1' rating before it has even received any comments! I think that's abominable practice, and the problem looks like a very good one, although I haven't had time enough to do anything with it just yet (nor anyone else, apparently).

That's perhaps a bit long-winded, but you brought up a good point I wished to elaborate on -- an easy problem is not necessarily a 'bad' one, and always wait to see what the author had in mind, before deciding one way or the other on a problem.

Also, if a problem seems really easy, but you see that it has a difficulty of 1, it's supposed to be fairly easy. Along the same lines, if a puzzle seems impossibly difficult, and its difficulty level is 5, then it should be pretty hard. Rate the problem based on how much you enjoyed it (and to be sure, wait until you know what the author intended).

One last point.. you can change your vote after you make it. Say you give a problem a low rating because you figured it out and it didn't seem all that great, but then you saw the clever trick that someone found to get the answer. Or, suppose you thought a problem was really good, until someone pointed out a trivial point, or you saw the official solution and just said, 'Oh, that's stupid,' you can simply go click on a new rating. It's not like voting again; it actually changes your original vote to the new value. So, voting 'early' is find, but be aware that your opinion of the problem is very likely to change when you see how the author solved the problem.