Questions tagged [question-quality]
For questions about discussing the quality or appropriateness of certain questions on Puzzling Stack Exchange.
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Are puzzles with the correct answer being "unknowable" allowed?
I once made a logical puzzle that deliberately had insufficient info to be answered directly. However, the insufficiency was sneaky and the puzzle misdirecting; that's what made it a clever puzzle in ...
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What is PSE's policy on mathematical questions, and why, and what's the history behind it?
It seems like PSE's policy on mathematical questions is kinda complicated
and has changed over time. What exactly is the policy, and what's the
history that led to it?
(There are already lots of ...
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Is providing a way for the solver to verify their answer good practice?
I have an idea for an escape room puzzle (for the FTC) that culminates in a four letter code to "unlock" a "combination lock." Of course, this a virtual medium, but I thought I ...
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What to do if OP insists on their *objectively* wrong answer to their own puzzle?
Recently a user posted a "puzzle" about a specific equation. I tried my best to come up with a solution that objectively solves both parts (which is mathematically sound as far as I can tell)...
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Is it allowed to "insult yourself"?
The original poster of this question "insulted himself/herself".
I'm not sure if it's allowed.
Can you tell me?
A super smart rebus
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Updated the warning messages about quality standards of questions on PSE
I have noticed that when adding a new question on Puzzle Stack Exchange (PSE), one may sometimes see the warning:
The question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed
Similarly,...
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Google Earth Challenges - Should we keep them?
Background
Welp, @Conifers has come up with a great idea: Google Earth Challenge.
It received pretty good feedback, and therefore the OP went on to post more of them.
@athin went on to post a ...
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Why are IQ test questions received so badly on this website?
I have a question about my Puzzling Stack Exchange post: IQ test matrix: Can you solve it and justify your answer?
I have asked a question about a Raven progressive matrix from an online IQ test and ...
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Should multiple-answer questions be marked as too broad?
This question is in reference to a question by @JohnS (SafeCracker #3 - We've Been Blocked). Honestly, I don't think it should have been marked as too broad just because there are a couple possible ...
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Overuse of poor math questions, what can we do?
So I've been noticing ... lazy math puzzles. I thought it was just a fad, but clearly not .Now, I'm not trying to judge, but a lot of these questions are just in this weird gray zone where they're not ...
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Is serial posting allowed?
Here are some questions posted on the main website by the same user:
Guess the disney song from the initials number 1
Guess the Disney song from the initials number 2
Guess the disney song from ...
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Questions that lack enough information
New today:
What number comes next?
The entire question (including title) is:
What number comes next?
3, 1, 4, 8, 8, 23, 23, 66, 136, 202, 458, 885, ?
Find the number that comes next.
We ...
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Is this interactive puzzle appropriate on Puzzling.SE?
There have been proposals before for semi-interactive puzzles [1, 2]. These are puzzles where more information is revealed by the OP as parts of the puzzle are solved. This is not deemed a good fit.
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Can there be a tag for “funny” or “nonsense” puzzles?
Some people get fun in trying to solve nonsensical yet imaginative unique puzzles.
So if there was a tag for “funny” or “nonsense” it would avoid irritation caused when user wrongly tags their ...
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Can I separate out part of a question as a new post?
Recently I asked this puzzle, for which I will be providing a new hint, but I want to ask the second part
I am the ONLY one standing between ad23dnd anagrammatically. You have to look for the ...
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Handling underspecified "Make <this number> from <these digits>" questions
The problem:
We get a lot of questions like this one:
How to use the numbers 3, 5, 6, and 7 to get 100?
Any mathematics symbols and processes to use the numbers 3, 5, 6, and 7 once each to get 100.
...
RubioMod
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How do you know a question is answerable?
Even though I have not asked any questions or answered any questions here, I have been reading the Puzzling SE site for more than one year.
So, I have this question.
How do you know a question is ...
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Proposed policy on mathematical questions
For background, see:
Should mathematics questions really be on-topic here? (about "routine" mathematics questions)
What tricky mathematical questions are on topic here? (about "heavy" mathematics ...
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What tricky mathematical questions are on topic here?
[EDITED to add:] See followup at Proposed policy on mathematical questions proposing a more specific policy in the light of comments and voting here.
There's strong consensus that straightforward ...
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Repetitive tasks?
I am currently working on a puzzle, that will inevitably have some manual repetitive tasks in parts. To eliminate this, I am considering doing the tasks myself and putting it in a pastebin. When the ...
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How to create symbols [closed]
I'm making a code in which
What software should I use to do this? Also, has this been done multiple times?
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Breaking the rules for a purpose
Note: This question may spoil a future puzzle, thus it is in spoiler tags. However, I don't want to be banned, so I am asking it anyway.
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Are [word-property] puzzles similar to poor ciphers where you must break a random code?
Take a look at this sample question:
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it an X/Y/Z Word™.
Use the following examples below to find the rule.
Examples are then listed below, and that's it.
...
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Do we have a quality problem with riddles specifically?
There is much furor around the perceived question-quality of riddle and others. All such reactions and discussions that I have seen have relied on anecdotes and gut feelings, rather than hard data.
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Is it okay/right/fair/ethical to encourage others to downvote a specific puzzle?
There continues to be a lot of discussion about improving overall quality of puzzles on the site. Downvoting a puzzle is a way we can try to mark certain puzzles as low quality until something like a ...
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Okay, the sandbox didn't work. We still have a quality problem; let's figure out how to address it
As of today, the riddle sandbox is no longer mandatory. The close reason related to it has been deactivated, and the requirement has been removed from the sandbox text. It was an experiment to see if ...
user20
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Getting riddle quality back on track: a proposal for the path forward
Riddle quality is dropping. I think most of us have seen it lately: there’s been a slow slide in effort and energy put into riddles, and it’s starting to seriously hurt the site. On Stack Exchange, ...
user20
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Under what circumstances are "password" questions NOT too broad?
I'm looking back at some old questions from the beginning of the site, and I've noticed a set of questions that, to this day, are still posted.
It started when I re-viewed the Security to the Party ...
user20
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The benefit of the doubt: should we shift the way we talk about puzzle quality?
Since very early in Puzzling's development, we've adopted a very strong principle that's become virtually universal: "if there is a hint of a notion that a puzzle might be good, we have to act as ...
user20
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What should we do about "riddles" that are pure trivia?
I've seen several examples of "riddles" recently that are pure trivia:
I am known for believing my Teddy is real
I am a genius. Find out who am I
The first time I was seen was for Christmas - Who ...
DeusoviMod
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Should we edit "Who/What am I" questions?
Many questions asked on PSE contain "Who am I" or "What am I" in their titles. Most of the time, it also contains something else, to avoid duplicated titles. But I was wondering if we could replace it ...
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Puzzles/Puzzle Clues Related to Narrow/Restrictive Topics like Video Games
I see some puzzles that I believe are only relatable to people who might have been exposed to certain (albeit) popular video games or other media. Should these be allowed given that the clue or puzzle ...
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Puzzle hidden in revision history?
I recently came across the puzzle The 3 keys of the past, which only has this content:
The key to this puzzle is the past
You don't need another hint...
I figured out where the rest of the ...
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Can we have a garbage-collector tag?
Tags are generally useful for sorting and filtering of content.
However, this requires that users read the tag-description what a tag is actually supposed to tag.
Unfortuantely, this is rather ...
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"What's the next number in this sequence?" questions, and my grudge for them
NOTE: This is a rant expressing my feelings about "the next number" questions.
Where to start?
Introduction
Puzzling.SE is a site about unique content and possibly derivatives from that content, if ...
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Would this be considered trivia (as opposed to a puzzle), and if so, how should I flag it?
This question has kind of ruffled my feathers. It simply lists out some factoids where everything is taken at face value, and does not attempt to hide or obscure the information.
I do not feel it ...
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Revisiting the 'math question or math puzzle' policy
There have been a lot of discussion in the past about which math questions are on-topic and which one are off-topic. But I today I found a bit old question (with amazingly net 4 upvotes) which is ...
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What is our reason for wanting bounties on questions?
Please read the answers below and vote on the answer(s) that you feel best describe your opinions on the issue discussed here.
There has recently been some discussion about bounties on questions, as ...
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How can I form good hints for (sequence) puzzles?
I have seen quite a number of sequence puzzles on here, and most of them simply provide a sequence and ask for the next entry in the sequence or the rule for the sequence. Most of these do not provide ...
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Recent influx of low effort riddles?
I've noticed large quantities of low-effort riddles being posted recently. Is there anything we can do about them? Riddles have always been an issue here, although last time this was asked the ...
DeusoviMod
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Riddle containing other languages than english
Is it allowed to create riddles containing partly languages which are not english? If yes, which languages are allowed?
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Redundant text in Rebus puzzles, lately
A number of Rebus puzzles, lately, have found it necessary to state something akin to:
See Also: [tag:Rebus]
Some samples:
A numerical rebus
A puzzling rebus ...
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Policy on unclued anagrams?
Anagrams are a great component of many puzzles. Recently though, I've been seeing a lot of unclued anagrams - and those make puzzles essentially unsolvable. There are simply too many possibilities for ...
DeusoviMod
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Avoiding asking duplicate questions
Here's a problem that I have run into a couple of times recently.
When writing a question - how could I effectively search that the puzzle hasn't been asked before?
This problem is, I believe, ...
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What exactly is 'too broad'
I have read the discussion here and I still have a point to raise.
I recently posted a question that attracted a lot of attention because of the many creative and amusing ways to solve it. Users were ...
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Should we flag a riddle as *too broad* without looking at the hints
Let's start from the start.
I think that there are two types of hard riddles. One: whose answer is very hard to guess. These riddles are interesting (in my opinion) and always leaves us something to ...
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Should we disallow "capture the flag" puzzles where the user has to install software?
I'm a little concerned about this question, which involves analysing a Linux application that people can download from mediafire.com. In case it disappears, the essential parts are reproduced below:
...
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How about a private sandbox?
Update: @Doorknob made some important points and I agree with him. There need not be a limit on the number of users per box. Also, the criterion for helping new users doesn't necessarily have to be 4k ...
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Should we historically lock highly upvoted but low quality and off-topic questions?
Recently, Emrakul made a meta post on why a certain question was deleted. It was a case of the question being low quality and off-topic. However, the question was highly upvoted (although incorrectly) ...
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What criteria did people use to delete this question, and should it be applied to other similar questions?
I'm looking at a particularly curious case of a question deleted by nine users. (Due to the popularity of the question, the number of delete votes needed was increased.)
I happen to agree with the ...
user20