Some thoughts on the provision of future problems

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It is always interesting to see the progress that new members make when they first discover the site. You can feel their enthusiasm as they rapidly add to the number of problems solved. Unfortunately I think that too many of them soon reach a point at which they decide that the problems are getting too difficult. They then lose interest and stop coming back to the site. This is a real shame because of all that the site has to offer.

I am sure that many more people would regularly visit the site if they had an expectation of new problems which they would have a good chance of solving. I recognise the conflict between the addition of new problems and the preservation of standards with the two certificates on offer. I think that the certificate system is one of the best elements of the site and would not want to see the certificates degraded in any way. However, there are obvious ways of adding new problems of varying standards without any degradation of the certificates.

One method of achieving this would be to state that only the first 240 problems can have their solutions count towards a certificate. I have chosen 240 as this is the current number of problems but any reasonable choice of the maximum problem number would do instead.

Alternatively, new problems could be categorised such that problems not reaching the required difficulty level for a certificate could be clearly marked as such. However, this method is less straightforward than the previous approach. I am sure that there are probably several other compromises which could be considered as alternatives.

If people are encouraged to keep on returning to the site because of the likelihood of amenable new problems, they are probably also more likely to try some of the existing problems that they haven’t yet been able to do. The issue of encouraging people to return to the site applies right through the difficulty levels. Even for those who have achieved certificate level it can be disheartening to think that there are no new problems coming along that are within their grasp. The most recent 10 problems have just 64 solutions between them, an average of 6 or 7 per problem and, not surprisingly, it is the same small group of solvers for most of them. The most challenging problems are great and I am sure that they are really popular with the small group of members who can solve them. I just think that it would be so much better if there was a good mix of difficulty levels within the new problems. This would bring more people back to check them out, which in turn would lead to more people tackling some of the other problems.

It might also help to have a more convenient way for people to check on new problems. One possibility is to have a new menu option for the most recent 10 problems. These would be listed in order of newness with a small amount of useful additional information. The current number of solvers, together with a very brief introduction would probably be appropriate. The most important aspect of the introduction would be to give an indication of the difficulty level of the problem. This is something that is not easy to judge but some indication is more helpful than none. If some particular skill or area of knowledge is needed then that also could be included here. I don’t think that information like this gives too much away but it would help someone to judge whether or not they are likely to be able to do the problem. It might also encourage them to explore the area of specialist knowledge deemed appropriate for the problem. I realise that some of this is information is already provided in the problem description but I think a most recent 10 problems summary could be quite useful.

Next there is the issue of providing a succession of new problems. It certainly seems to me that this is far too much for Rodion to do without any help; although he seems to have done a remarkable job so far. It is clear that a number of the current members (myself included) are happy to provide fairly detailed ideas for new problems. I wonder if it would be worth having a new forum section specifically for ideas for new problems. Members could put their suggestions here (Ideally with some detail) and this can then be commented on and possibly refined by other members through the forum. Ultimately the accepted suggestions would get the appropriate makeover in Rodion’s individual style.