Friday, September 10, 2010

[Proto-Competition] Puzzle solving!

[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.

Xtfhetue tzhut qktthatue tvhktuu thhttsebteh tsqvtphlteevtlhptui txhit estxhntuqvtkhbtfect hwtbuotuh tvektbhst,q tzhut’ewtwh tjcptxhhttehtwhdt qftuhutqe tvhxt uptuhitbeftuh tbqvt.h tHeltvh tvqktbhst eztbhwtwq tkhxtjeutihltwiwtdh tqext hitxqpt hftxezt.h

Comments

Bucky:

10-09-2010 03:35:29 UTC

I’d suggest 10 IQ points from the Riddler to the puzzle’s author if exactly one Befuddled posted a correct answer.

ais523:

10-09-2010 03:41:16 UTC

Sounds reasonable (it’s the difficulty we probably want), but that would mean that coming up with a near-impossible puzzle and giving the answer to a confederate would be even more of a broken strategy, as well as going completely against the spirit of the contest. Can we trust all the puzzle-authors to keep the answers secret?

Bucky:

10-09-2010 05:28:23 UTC

No, but we also don’t want the Riddler soaking up all our IQ.

ais523:

10-09-2010 05:55:13 UTC

Hmm, what about 3 or 4 from me to the author if anyone gets it right? That’ll trigger on most of the puzzles, and help to compensate for the rare -10 when balancing IQs.

Galdyn:

10-09-2010 13:15:59 UTC

Does it penalize each befuddled if they do not participate in the competition?

ais523:

11-09-2010 06:00:27 UTC

@Galdyn: Competitions can’t penalise people who haven’t posted in their thread recently, so no.

Bucky:

12-09-2010 00:22:57 UTC

Then there’s a fundamental issue in that many will simply not post an answer until someone else does, then copy whoever posts the first plausible answer.  If everyone copies the right solution, the author loses a bunch of points.  If everyone copies the wrong solution… the author still loses a bunch of points.

ais523:

12-09-2010 18:24:11 UTC

The answers are sent privately, to prevent copying.