60
votes
Accepted
Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?
Your aspirations are commendable, but I don't think it is realistic to take ~90% of your content (and the community that created it) and simply toss it out telling everyone "you're doing it wrong." ...
- 101
41
votes
Should we disallow "capture the flag" puzzles where the user has to install software?
Heck yeah.
We the users probably have no idea what we have just decided to download until the download is finish. The file(s) could be filled with viruses or malware that we do not need on our ...
- 2,022
41
votes
Getting riddle quality back on track: a proposal for the path forward
No. Please no. This is a really bad idea.
Requiring riddles to pass through a sandbox on meta before being permitted on the main site is going to encourage cliquishness and in-crowdery and alienate ...
- 114k
39
votes
Accepted
What is our reason for wanting bounties on questions?
Increase the value of an upvote for a question.
Currently, an upvote on a question provides only half the reputation that an upvote on an answer does. (5 reputation vs. 10 reputation.)
This would ...
- 24k
27
votes
Should we disallow "capture the flag" puzzles where the user has to install software?
Independently of any security concern, questions on Stack Exchange are supposed to be self-contained. You can print out a question and it should still make sense.
If the question doesn't make sense ...
23
votes
Okay, the sandbox didn't work. We still have a quality problem; let's figure out how to address it
Totally agree with both of Rand's answers, however, I think we need to hone in a little on what the new close reason should be, so I thought I'd add my thoughts...
New close reason
See Rand's answer ...
- 36.3k
22
votes
Accepted
Should we flag a riddle as *too broad* without looking at the hints
In this base-10 alphametic, each letter represents a different digit and numbers can't start with 0. What digit does each letter represent?
I
+ U
---
WE
Hint:
...
- 33.2k
21
votes
How do we move past the absence of our top contributor?
How do we move past rand's suspension? It's simple, really. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time we make room for the new king of Puzzling.SE: Bailey M.
Please, hold your applause.
[End unofficial block....
- 16.9k
21
votes
What is our reason for wanting bounties on questions?
Implement "bounties" for questions that can be awarded instantaneously.
This would be a method where one user could transfer some reputation to another user to reward them for an exemplary question. ...
- 24k
19
votes
Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?
No.
Firstly, I must commend our moderating team on their boldness and their dedication to the success of the stack. They knew that saying this would immediately lead to an army of puzzlers running to ...
- 3,795
17
votes
Accepted
Puzzle hidden in revision history?
This puzzle
Now that the puzzle in question has been solved, it seems to me that it really was just a gimmick without much value. As far as I can tell this puzzle could exist entirely as-is on the ...
- 15.8k
17
votes
Why are IQ test questions received so badly on this website?
There are two reasons your post was heavily downvoted:
Yes, this community generally dislikes progressive matrices. As you said, "it's similar to reading the author's mind" -- this is the mark of a ...
DeusoviMod
- 137k
16
votes
Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?
If "no challenge questions" is the official site philosophy, I can certainly accept that. I consider it somewhat unfortunate since the only reason I come here is for the challenge questions, but I'll ...
- 9,973
16
votes
Should we disallow "capture the flag" puzzles where the user has to install software?
A further consideration is that even if this download is perfectly safe and innocuous, but this puzzle leads to a common acceptance of similar puzzles that involve downloads, there is a chance that a ...
- 10.5k
15
votes
Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?
I suspected this was coming, however I don't see how Puzzling.SE can actually survive in the format that you're describing.
I go to Stack Overflow for help with programming - I program all day every ...
- 5,715
15
votes
How do we move past the absence of our top contributor?
Losing the top user on a site is, unfortunately, not unprecedented. Whether because of death or life circumstances (I'm pleased to see I'm no longer the top user on Hermeneutics) or for reasons ...
- 539
15
votes
Recent influx of low effort riddles?
Good riddles are an awesome addition to the site. Low quality puzzles, of any type, are not good for the site.
The problem, as I see it, is twofold:
Making a good riddle is hard, but making a ...
- 36.3k
14
votes
What should we do about "riddles" that are pure trivia?
I consider those questions to be really boring, unimaginative, low-quality riddles and downvote them accordingly.
Update
My view has evolved; down voting them isn't working, we're getting more and ...
- 8,722
14
votes
Okay, the sandbox didn't work. We still have a quality problem; let's figure out how to address it
This may not make a huge difference, but since new users are often high on the blame list for the poor-quality stuff, we should
change the Puzzling Tour to actually reflect this site.
I think this is ...
- 15.8k
14
votes
Google Earth Challenges - Should we keep them?
Without commenting on any of the specific examples you've included, I don't think a simple satellite photo with "where is this place?" constitutes a puzzle.
This type of thing has much more in common ...
- 36.3k
12
votes
How do we improve the quality of content produced on Puzzling.SE?
We must define what is on-topic in a clear unambiguous fashion. I haven't been around all that long, however every discussion I've seen about what's on-topic has been very ambiguous and I'm still not ...
- 12.7k
12
votes
Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?
Our primary purpose for being here is ...
If you disagree with this, then Stack Exchange is not for you.
Rather than asking us as a community what we think the purpose of the site should be and how ...
- 8,722
12
votes
Challenge questions and post quality: How should we proceed?
Titles
What happened in Area 51:
In Area 51, the example questions have no bodies, so they must be entirely self-contained only in the title.
Most puzzles and riddles are impossible to be crammed to ...
- 8,858
12
votes
Are [word-property] puzzles similar to poor ciphers where you must break a random code?
No, they aren't.
Firstly, despite what you suggest, the test of time and votes does correlate with the test of puzzle quality. Even back in the spaghetti era when low-quality puzzles were often ...
- 114k
11
votes
Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?
Let's take challenges somewhere else
Many on the site enjoy solving and posing puzzles as challenges, and for some, it's the only reason they're here. Accidentally, a puzzle-solving community has ...
- 23.6k
11
votes
What is our reason for wanting bounties on questions?
Implement bounties for questions that work the same as the current "exemplary answer" bounties for answers.
We would use the current bounty facilities, but when placing a bounty, you would be given ...
- 24k
11
votes
Getting riddle quality back on track: a proposal for the path forward
I will now try to formulate a loose summary for the riddle tag since I'm usually committing crimes under its flag. I hope I can restore its reputation and atone for my sins:
(I will try to improve ...
- 2,950
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible