[Putting this out there to see any obvious issues, etc, before posting it. We probably need a rule to prevent people revealing answers to each other first, although it would be hard to enforce; how trustworthy are Blognomickers in general?]
A Puzzle Submission is a puzzle labelled as a Puzzle Submission that has been communicated privately to the Riddler by a Befuddled (including the Riddler himself) who has posted a comment to this post within the previous 7 days, which is accompanied by its answer, and has not been posted in this thread. (To communicate with the Riddler privately, use BlogNomic PM, IRC, or email at callforjudgement @ yahoo.co.uk.) [In other words, people who don’t keep posting here to maintain interest in this Competition drop out.]
An Answer is a purported answer to a puzzle that the Riddler posted as a comment to this thread, communicated privately to the Riddler by a Befuddled, other than the Riddler and the puzzle’s author, who has posted a comment to this post within the previous 7 days, unless the solution to the puzzle was posted as a comment to this post before the purported Answer was received. If the same contestant makes multiple Answers for the same puzzle, only the last counts. [So you can revise your Answer up until the actual answer is revealed.]
At least once a week, unless there are no Puzzle Submissions, the Riddler should post a Puzzle Submission as a comment to this thread, labelling it with its author. [So I can queue up interesting puzzles before boring ones, or prevent a glut of puzzles with the same author.]
Between 5 and 7 days after the Riddler posts a puzzle as a comment to this post, he should post its solution to the thread, together with a list of Befuddleds who submitted an Answer for that puzzle that was actually a correct solution for that puzzle, in the order those Answers were submitted. The Riddler’s determination as to whether Answers are correct is final.
Once a puzzle’s solution has been posted by the Riddler as a comment to this post, then anyone can make each of the following transfers, unless they have already been made in connection with that puzzle:
- 10 IQ from the puzzle’s author to the Riddler if nobody solved the puzzle;
- 2 IQ from the puzzle’s author to each Befuddled who submitted a correct Answer for it;
- 2 IQ from each Befuddled who did not submit a correct answer for the puzzle, to its author (this may be impossible if the Befuddled has not posted a comment to this post recently), but only if at least one Befuddled submitted a correct Answer for the puzzle;
- 10 IQ from the puzzle’s author to the Riddler if the puzzle’s author’s purported answer to the puzzle (which accompanied the submission) is not correct.
[In other words, you want to submit a puzzle that’s difficult, but that some Befuddleds will get right. This is why it’s important that a puzzle’s author doesn’t reveal its solution early; I know I won’t.]
Additionally, the Befuddled who posted the first correct answer to the puzzle can once award himself a Medal.
Any thoughts/comments/suggestions? There are almost certainly bugs in this I haven’t spotted, and it could do with some polish.
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