Topic: To bring more movement into the puzzle process

[gilescooperuk]

Pal has uploaded the new version of the front page so it is now live.

I will have a look at the other pages in a bit, one of them is a link to

“Friends of autopuzzles”

I’m not sure why it got the name (useful links maybe) but are there other sites we should have links to.

As the list was last updated in 2012, I need to first check if the links are valid, only about half seem to be

But suggestions for newer links would be good.

[Carnut]

Big improvement Giles. Well done.
I last clicked on 'Store' quite a few years ago but I see all the items are still there.
Is it actually possible to order any of these things and get them?! Anybody know?

[nicanary]

Big improvement Giles. Well done.
I last clicked on 'Store' quite a few years ago but I see all the items are still there.
Is it actually possible to order any of these things and get them?! Anybody know?

I wondered the same. I assume either Ultra or Otto held the stock.

[Carnut]

Yes, I think you're right.
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work if you tried to order anything, in which case it might be better to remove the 'Store'?
Shame as the things there look quite good! I'd rather like an AutoPuzzles mug!

[gilescooperuk]

Big improvement Giles. Well done.
I last clicked on 'Store' quite a few years ago but I see all the items are still there.
Is it actually possible to order any of these things and get them?! Anybody know?

I wondered the same. I assume either Ultra or Otto held the stock.

I think cafepress will produce stuff on demand. I.e. they get a blank shirt and print the logo on it.

Who the money goes to is another matter as normally there is a cut for the site?

[gilescooperuk]

Yes, I think you're right.
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work if you tried to order anything, in which case it might be better to remove the 'Store'?
Shame as the things there look quite good! I'd rather like an AutoPuzzles mug!

If you go to cafepress.co.uk and search for autopuzzles the mug is available it will cost you £9.75. Try and order one?

[Carnut]

Thanks.
I'll try it!

[nicanary]

Ten quid for a mug !!?? Ahm oot......

[gilescooperuk]

It it £10 for a mug, or a mug taken for £10………

[Carnut]

It is rather a lot, yes.
But £10 for a mug with AutoPuzzles on it?! A rarity!
I'll have to wait until I've recovered from the horrific Christmas expense though...

[Carnut]

I was just looking at the new front page which was uploaded by Pal and see it needs a bit of 'honing' as there are quite a few grammatical errors.
Am I able to correct the errors or can you to do it Giles? Or Pal?

Here it is with corrections:

 Welcome to Autopuzzles, the world's largest index of rare cars and home of the "Name that Car" puzzle.
The puzzles: a member will post an image of a vehicle and then other members will try to identify the vehicle. For each one correctly identified the poster of the puzzle/s will award point/s. To make things fairer there are levels: upon reaching a new level you are prevented from answering question in the lower level.

i.e. Gaining 50 points will get you out of the "Rookie" section and you will be able to create your own puzzles, but not answer other people's puzzles in the Rookie section.

Inside AutoPuzzles, find thousands of event photos, classic automotive advertisements, motorsports photographs and lots more! Come in, look around and please contribute some of your pictures.

[gilescooperuk]

I have just updated the wording for the front page and sent the revised code to Pal to upload onto the server.


I have also updated the privacy policy so it looks the same (this probably needs a rewrite to modern standards).


Finally I updated the "Friends of Autopuzzles" page - this now has a lot less links than the version uploaded as when I checked out of the 13 links on the page - only 6 actually went to live websites.


Anyone wants to suggest new links then I can add them to the page easily.


Still need to look at the featured article list and work that one out though.


Giles

[pnegyesi]

Uploaded with a tiny bit of change

[Carnut]

Uploaded with a tiny bit of change

 

[fromwien]

Firstly, I want to wish all of you AutoPuzzler's, a healthy and successful New Year 2022!

Secondly, I want to thank everyone involved in the page's  'new designing' for their great commitment!

My third point I want to mention, takes me back to the start, when I was thinking about a 'revitalization project' of this slowly deceasing page:

Within one year, starting as a Rookie in March 2020, I had really fun with puzzling until I've reached 'professional'-status about March 2021.
Since then, I feel myself very redundant on this page with puzzling. My only job is to invent new puzzles, which sometimes reach 'Professional'- and 'Master'-status and prevent me again from guessing..!?  Of the 37 puzzles in the 'Professional'-section at the moment, there are not less than 10 fromwien-puzzles (nearly 1/3!)!

Sometimes I thought about to cancel my 'fromwien'-account, and start from new with another account! To have fun from the beginning again!

Could a introduction of a maximum point limit of i. e. 500 points, bring more movement into the game? If everyone has to start -after reaching this limit- from new in the Expert-section? All of the puzzlers, who once a time have reached a max-limit, will get awarded with a 'golden marking' and have the obligation to provide a puzzle in the rookie section, when receiving a point!

With the rules as now, I am sure by myself, to loose interest in puzzling at this site very soon.. No more eagerness and too short discussion

All the best to all of you, fromwien

[fromwien]

Thanks for this.
It has been thought of and well-discussed amongst the Editors before.
The problem with that is actually policing it. What happens if the puzzle poster doesn't move it when its allotted time expires?
Does an Editor take it over? We rejected that idea as it doesn't follow the principal of AutoPuzzles, where the Editors don't interfore with puzzles unless it is absolutely necessary.. It's taking on too much as well as the Editor who moves it doesn't necessarily know the answer..

There are many instances where a very regular visitor just leaves his post in the Rookes even and forgets about it. I did move some myself a few months ago and it jogged the memory of the puzzler, who then did take it back again. But there are even Editors (e.g. Djetset) who have posted puzzles then disappeared. What do we do with those? I'm very reluctant to delete them.

Instead of deleting long lasting puzzles of disappeared posters, may it be a opportunity to ask current puzzlers in higher sections than there the abandoned puzzle is, to take them over? With the premise, they know the answer, of course..

[Carnut]

Many thanks for your thoughts fromwien, most of which I agree with completely.

In fact I posted the following on the Editors board a few weeks ago, but unfortunately got very little response:

QUOTE
We changed things a couple of years ago when we introduced the Masters board.
I'm not sure it's helped a great deal though.
The problem is, we lose too many players once they reach 400 points.  It's very hard indeed for all but the very top players to earn points on the Pro's board (I know because I rarely take part in solving puzzles now).  This is not conducive to keeping the site alive and active.

Having thought a lot about it I think the problem is that we now have quite a few very good Experts so only really difficult puzzles reach the Professionals board; they're so hard that most Pro's can't manage them and drift away (think of all the long-standing Pro's we've lost, e.g. Djetset).
What we could do is merge the Experts and Pro's into one category which lasts all the way from 50 to 750 points.
That would make the whole site a lot more fun (except for the Masters of course, but there's no way we could keep them in the merged category otherwise nobody else would solve anything...)

There's no question that the majority of the fun is now to be had on the Experts board, which of course favours newer members at the expense of long-standing players.  Perhaps the answer could be for the puzzle poster to decide on the difficulty of the puzzle being posted and post it on the appropriate board to start with, rather than the usual way of starting on the Rookies and moving it up board by board in time. Most puzzles don't then reach the Pro's, never mind the Masters, which inevitably means the more senior players lose interest and drift away because they can't play anymore. That's not good.

What does everyone think?
UNQUOTE

I don't want to see the site die, but I (like you) don't have the luxury of solving puzzles any more.
It needs to change!

[Oguerrerob]

I like the idea about creating a category 50-750, for the Pros and Experts.
 I have an idea about creating a bank of puzzles, to prevent the puzzles stay cold, forever. In the cases of runaway puzzlers, using it giving clues and guidance to solve them.  The problem is, who manages it.  Just an idea!
 

[nicanary]

I'm happy to agree to anything that'll keep members satisfied. My suggestion to create the Masters category was perhaps a mistake, although there was little dissent from the other editors.

We certainly don't want to lose excellent contributors whatever their AP status.

[fromwien]

Sorry, I don't think, that merging the Experts and Pro's into one category will really solve our problems and saves fun for all of us.
I consider this from my point of view as follows: I think or hope to reach the 750 points within one year. After gaining this aim, I will be confrontated again with the same problem as now

I think, my proposal contains much more necessary components (especially also for the Masters):

Here within I want to explain, why:

Maximum point limit of i. e. 750 points. After reaching this limit, everybody has to start from new in the Expert-section again.
All of these puzzlers will get awarded with a 'special marking' and have the obligation to provide a puzzle in the rookie section, when receiving a point!

Every current puzzler will get then involved as an active player! Right, competition will get very hard, but on the other hand, we will get served with much more and high-class puzzles by the 'kings'! As more different puzzles are in, as better the chance for everybody to find one of his favorite theme to solve.

I know that the level is very high and will get much higher. Unfortunately, this can hardly be corrected, as it's very hard to find interesting new puzzles, without running the risk of starting a repost.
The only way out of this 'circulum vitiosum' will need more creativity by the puzzle-poster: Asking for dashboard-, wheel-, grille- and other -cut-outs. But I am not sure, if all of us are interested in puzzles like these

[fromwien]

Gentle-women and -men,

It is really 'five to twelve', if you want to keep this site alive!

Please check! Only 6 to 10 Users per day are online on a worldwide website!

I will try my best to think about new and practicable modifications,
please check all the ideas, previously stated at this topic!

sorry, I cannot translate them in computer-language

[gilescooperuk]

Hmm I just checked the stats for a club website which is only uk based, we are getting about 15 visitors a day on that. And all the content is static (hasn’t been updated for about 3 weeks).

So maybe a pr campaign effort is needed

[Carnut]

Sometimes I thought about to cancel my 'fromwien'-account, and start from new with another account! To have fun from the beginning again!

Puzzlers have been banned for life for doing exactly that!

I don't want to start imposing conditions, i.e. certain players must post a new puzzle if they earn a point.
I can hardly find any new puzzles anymore...

Rather than change and over-complicate everything I'd like to see new puzzles posted in the Masters' section (perhaps by other Masters but anyone could) and say only Masters can answer them. Same could also happen for Professionals, with only Pro's able to answer.
Although it's always been the habit for puzzles to start off in the Rookies section (and sometimes stay there for months and even years, which completely wastes them) and move up through the boards gradually, there's nothing to say we have to do that.
We can post them wherever we want.
It would involve the Pro's and Masters much more if they had their own puzzles to solve.
They need to have some fun as well.

[gilescooperuk]

There you go - one obscure puzzle straight into the masters section...

[fromwien]

1) Answer to:
Puzzlers have been banned for life for doing exactly that!  That might be a very noble decision, but only means one more less player

2) Answer to:
I don't want to start imposing conditions, i.e. certain players must post a new puzzle if they earn a point.
I can hardly find any new puzzles anymore...

If you would have read my proposals carefully, this regulation wouldn't affect you for a very long time. It would only take effect for all players having scored more than 750 points. And I know, they would do that with pleasure. See 'Wendax's', 'pnegyesi's', etc. great responsibility for the survival of this site.

3) Answer to:
Rather than change and over-complicate everything I'd like to see new puzzles posted in the Masters' section (perhaps by other Masters but anyone could) and say only Masters can answer them. Same could also happen for Professionals, with only Pro's able to answer.

Herewith we leave the path of the democratic attempted solution process completely! We are forming a two-class or three-class rate puzzle-community
For example: What would 'sichel' think about, if the 'Pro-and-Master-High-Society' would slip puzzles to themselves, which he -as the 'little' Expert- could easily solve, but should not be allowed to?

This would only create the same rift between the current puzzle friends, that is currently practiced by politics between vaccinated and unvaccinated people