Questions tagged [questions]

The questions tag should be used when you ask a question on meta that is referencing question(s) on the main site. For example, if you have a question about why questions on Puzzling Stack Exchange are of such low quality, you should include the questions tag.

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1 vote
2 answers
40 views

Have picture based questions increased after ChatGPT?

I'm seeing too much increase of picture-based questions after ChatGPT. Is there any data available to prove this?
  • 2,116
9 votes
1 answer
348 views

Would we want to allow ... or spaces before question marks at the end of titles?

As a question-quality measure, Stack Exchange automatically rewrites question titles which end with punctuation, following a couple of rules: Multiple ? collapsed into one Multiple . collapsed into ...
  • 10k
2 votes
1 answer
94 views

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 ...
1 vote
1 answer
106 views

Can I ask for feedback about a new kind of puzzle for kids?

Background: Puzzles for kids such as you see in children magazines always seem to belong to a small set of predefined categories. There are shadow matching puzzles, mazes, spot 7 differences, etc. ...
6 votes
2 answers
147 views

Recurring posts about cryptic crosswords

I have a couple of books of cryptic crosswords from the Times (of London) that I've been working through. Unfortunately, I'm not terribly good at them, and I don't know a lot of UK-specific ...
1 vote
1 answer
73 views

Would it be worth adding a matchstick framework?

Do you think it would be worth adding a matchstick framework so all matchstick puzzles look nice and the same? I had this idea when trying to put into puzzle my matchstick idea but could not find a ...
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3 votes
1 answer
78 views

Are outdated hints allowed?

The "Hint 5" on this problem is going to be outdated in three days already outdated. Should I edit the hint when it gets outdated? Are similar hints that highly depends on time allowed?
4 votes
1 answer
105 views

What is the point of the “text version” of grid puzzles?

I noticed that people who post grid puzzles often include a “text version”. For example, here: Nonorasu - A Nonogram-Kakurasu Hybrid I have a few guesses as to why but none of them seems to be worth ...
  • 660
0 votes
0 answers
79 views

Puzzle changing edits, new suggestions and better analysis

Disclaimer: I want to preface this post by saying that I am extremely frustrated right now, but I'm trying to make this a solution based post, and stop this from happening to myself or others on this ...
  • 1,245
9 votes
1 answer
189 views

Are you allowed to post a puzzle identical to another except in its solution criterion?

Are you allowed to post a puzzle identical to another except in its solution criterion? I ask because of a 5-person puzzle I created where one person lies, one person tells the truth, one flips a coin ...
  • 807
1 vote
1 answer
145 views

Revisiting the "self-contained" policy

We have a long-standing policy about strongly preferring self-contained puzzles. This meta is to revisit that policy. It was inspired by a chat debate about an enigmatic puzzle by @Feryll. The puzzle ...
  • 10k
10 votes
1 answer
339 views

Ongoing not-exactly-contests

We already have a policy on questions from ongoing competitions. This meta question is about them; its accepted answer proposes borrowing the policy used on math.SE, which basically says that if a ...
-8 votes
1 answer
175 views

Why are mathematical question posted on Puzzling SE?

Why are mathematical question posted on Puzzling SE? Is Mathematics SE not good enough? Here are some examples: A circle touches two sides of a triangle and two of its medians A geometric puzzle. ...
  • 870
0 votes
1 answer
147 views

My Puzzle has not received Attention after placing two bounties, what should I do about it? [duplicate]

This puzzle, My sister has gone Puzzled again, has not received enough attention after placing two consecutive bounties, both of which were wasted, and now it has got two downvotes. I have two ...
  • 1,754
8 votes
1 answer
457 views

Re-asking a question when an unintended answer is given

This question is (according to the OP) a rephrasing of this question. The reason a second question was asked is that Lukas Rotter gave an answer which worked with the initial phrasing, but was not the ...
  • 10k
-4 votes
1 answer
129 views

Are questions that are just entertainment-based accepted here? [closed]

I have seen many questions here that in my thought are just for entertainment, but they are receiving many up-votes. (questions on the first page of the site (Active ones) for example, are all being ...
6 votes
2 answers
98 views

Duplicates of duplicates?

When browsing around old questions, I came across this one. It was marked as a duplicate of this one, which was in turn marked as a duplicate of this one. This is the first time I've come across ...
  • 10k
9 votes
1 answer
252 views

Are full crosswords allowed here?

I am new here and came across this question. I felt it falls in the category of "too broad" of other sites. Am I right in this conclusion, or is it allowed here?
7 votes
1 answer
260 views

Is it OK to use specific users as part of a puzzle mechanism?

I am currently working on a series of mini-puzzles I’ll be posting on the main site, and I have an idea for a mechanism that utilizes features of users all across the Stack Exchange network, ...
  • 16.2k
2 votes
1 answer
90 views

Meta puzzles that don't state the puzzles they rely on - adding difficulty or just wasting time

I am currently posting some meta puzzles, and originally planned to not mention the previous puzzles. I would then allude to it being related to another puzzle in a clue. Is this just increasing the ...
  • 621
1 vote
1 answer
87 views

Minesweeper problems

It looks like the minesweeper tag has so many non-puzzle questions. What shall I do with them? Also, is this question fit for the "puzzling"site?
21 votes
2 answers
844 views

Puzzles whose creators have asked them not to be shared

It happens quite frequently that someone posts a question that's taken from, say, an online IQ test. (The most recent example I've seen is from this one.) Sometimes the question is posted without ...
2 votes
0 answers
100 views

Math problems from a series of stories

I want to write a long story (one chapter per question) and some of the chapters may be just math problems. Where should I post those chapters? Or, may I make some changes to those math problems so ...
9 votes
2 answers
216 views

What do we do when a question relies on an image that's no longer available?

This question was just bumped to the homepage by a user asking if the image, which was hosted externally and is no longer accessible, could be fixed. This raises an interesting dilemma in that we now ...
  • 7,602
8 votes
4 answers
364 views

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 ...
-2 votes
1 answer
100 views

Why do questions sometimes not appear immediately on the site after asking?

I saw that sometimes when I ask a new question it does not appear on the site immediately. It takes sometimes at least 2-3 minutes before appearing but still got a view. I keep on refreshing the ...
1 vote
1 answer
53 views

Posting a mini-puzzle for a hint for another puzzle

I created a $Word^{TM}$ kind of puzzle, and while trying to create a hint, I ended up with a mini-puzzle. Is it ok if I post it as a new question, to make it available not just for the people ...
6 votes
1 answer
108 views

Chess game viewer in PSE like Chess SE [duplicate]

I know that not all puzzles on the PSE are that of chess, but I feel that a chess board viewer, such as that on the Chess Stack Exchange, should be put in for the benefit of us here that do do chess ...
1 vote
1 answer
70 views

Are "Quizzes" allowed?

Recently, I found a lot of questions that the asker already knew the answer, which are called "Quiz". Example. Another example. Third example. Fourth example. Fifth example. Obviously, the creator of ...
0 votes
1 answer
72 views

Continuously updating a puzzle

I have a number sequence puzzle in mind and I'm so far unsure how many numbers to post. I'll figure something out, but I had also considered just letting my Raspberry Pi update the question every hour ...
2 votes
1 answer
134 views

How do I check the Captcha?

I'm sorry, but I'm a little bad at English. I want to ask a question on Puzzling SE, but they always asks me to check the Captcha. How do I check the Captcha? There's nowhere to input the Captcha ...
2 votes
1 answer
362 views

Why subjective riddles are a bad idea

An overly broad riddle is no fun because it is too easy to answer, or has a dumb answer. A poorly written riddle leads to short, snarky answers that are no fun for anybody. But what is wrong with ...
2 votes
1 answer
94 views

What to do if OP doesn't accept answer and give any kind of feedback?

So, I answered the 2 posts made by @HEWhoDoesn'tKnow and gave answers to all the questions he asked : Riddle Time. I bet this is an easy one Riddle Again, Riddle Again, What am I? (On Hold) I ...
  • 3,683
2 votes
1 answer
50 views

Why is there a minimum when editing other users' posts?

I've been wondering for a while why there is a minimum (6 letters I believe?) when I need to edit someone else's post. Most of the time I don't have any problems with this but in cases where the OP ...
  • 3,683
4 votes
1 answer
88 views

What to do when question can't be repaired with edits?

Due to a bug, all "zero width non-breaking space" characters were removed from my puzzle when I edited the tag. I tried to edit them back in, but the page keeps deleting them. Since that completely ...
0 votes
1 answer
66 views

Is there an appropriate way to advertise a puzzle question from MathSE here?

Suppose there's a question over on MathSE under the tag [puzzle] that, among all questions tagged puzzle, I think would especially be of interest to the users here on PuzzlingSE. Also, it's a ...
1 vote
2 answers
71 views

# of Questions per day?

I'd like to know how many questions a person is allowed to post per day. Please include a link to the pertinent answer. I searched the site in vain for the answer.
  • 1,183
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

Changing the checkmark

I checkmarked the wrong answer here. Is there any way I can change it?
  • 1,183
1 vote
1 answer
95 views

The etiquette on necro-ing

Points: + it is my own post with no solving attempts + it is a little over a month old; certainly not too much of a necro, but I believe it will age further. + I'm unsure when I will put a bounty on ...
  • 2,900
0 votes
1 answer
49 views

Are Identification Puzzles on Topic?

Are puzzles where you give hints that lead to a song, a movie, or a book on topic? For example, if there was a puzzle for Harry Potter, it would look like this: Once there was a little boy, Who was ...
  • 2,275
2 votes
2 answers
148 views

I got question-banned after asking a +7 positive score question

First, I wasn't question-banned. Next, I asked a question. The "Ask Question" page had no warning on it. My question had a score of 7 (9 upvotes and 2 downvotes). Last, I tried to ask another question....
  • 352
-1 votes
1 answer
157 views

How do we deal with lightspeed self-answering?

As seen in this question, the OP answered instantly (the timestamps are the same) to his question. I left a (barely mean) comment and I downvoted the answer, but what is the appropriate behavior with ...
  • 3,070
3 votes
1 answer
108 views

How to upload image to imgur without showing it?

I mean, can I use it to hide an answer from my question or a hidden hint? Of course without showing it on the post. There're people use this method. I've been looking for this but got nothing. Sorry ...
  • 666
2 votes
2 answers
46 views

Desktop vs mobile formating

I recently asked a question: Ruin, has come to our family In this the answer depended on seeing the words formated in a certain way so they looked like steps and occurred n number of words into ...
  • 1,498
9 votes
1 answer
259 views

If a puzzle appears to be too broad, should one change it if answers are already posted?

Recently, I noticed a question that although was very good and a really nice puzzle, was just a little too broad in that there were multiple answers that made sense for the clues given in the puzzle. ...
  • 7,470
4 votes
1 answer
119 views

What is the logic behind the number of views of the puzzles?

After about a year on SE, I have noticed that the number of views for any puzzle range dramatically from less than 100 to 5K or more. I assume a puzzle is considered viewed when a reader clicks on it? ...
  • 39k
5 votes
1 answer
69 views

Questions from homework/assigments [duplicate]

This question: Encrypted message (unknown algorithm or plaintext) raised, or rather, revived a doubt in my mind. We do have a clear policy on the questions from on-going contests but what about ...
  • 7,234
2 votes
1 answer
90 views

What do we do about 'classic' riddles?

I have seen a couple of these posted recently. They don't really seem to do the community any good. We don't really seem to have a policy on 'classic' riddles. These are riddles which are usually ...
1 vote
2 answers
57 views

Tag help questions

We've now had at least three questions seeking/giving help with a particular tag: Cryptic Clue Guide Strategies for solving steganography puzzles Not a Riddle, rather a Question The first one was ...
  • 21.9k
19 votes
3 answers
461 views

Should we require that puzzles remain apolitical?

I realize this is a touchy subject. I don't want to start a dumpster fire of politics, but I think it's something we should (and can!) civilly discuss. Politics right now is a little nuts. No matter ...
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