GameKnot: GameKnot related, How do you decide how many stars to rate a puzzle?

GameKnot related: How do you decide how many stars to rate a puzzle?

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rich_sposato
04-Apr-21, 22:19

How do you decide how many stars to rate a puzzle?

The ratings have descriptions if you hover over them.
1-star = very easy
2-star = easy
3-star = average
4-star = hard
5-star = very hard

That's fine if everyone has a consistent policy for what "easy" or "hard" means, but what is easy or hard can be subjective. What's easy to one person might be hard to another.

Even the star rating is supposed to say how hard it is, that doesn't jive with actual stats. We can use the solve rate (percent of people who solved it compare to the total attempts) as a proxy for difficulty. I see some puzzles with a solve rate of over 80% get 4+ stars and I see other puzzles with a solve rate under 20% get 2 stars. Heck, some have a zero percent solve rate despite multiple attempts and they still have less than 3 stars.

How do you decide how many stars to rate a puzzle?

neverherebefore
19-Apr-21, 17:53

To me it should depend on how many possible moves there are in each position

extremo
03-Jun-21, 17:04

I don't think there is a way to avoid the subjectivity and I also think that novelty, unexpectedness, or "wow" factor especially in 2 and 3 move puzzles deserve more stars. I now give two stars to puzzles that 3 or 4 years ago I would have given three stars. One star I reserve for trivial puzzles (but as you say what is trivial for one person may not be for another).

jett22
05-Jun-21, 13:08

Common topic

Great question... It has been asked here on GK, in various forms, several times in different places. For a puzzle with a good number of comments, it could be a discussion about this.

For me, I would love to see two ratings per puzzle: Difficulty and Beauty/Ingenuity. What is a bit funny is that the puzzles ask for difficulty but the Tactics ask for beauty.

To your original question regarding puzzles, I generally rate on difficulty. However, if a puzzle has an elegant solution or solutions, I might add a star.

lord_shiva
03-Mar-24, 08:15

Existing Puzzles

When a puzzle exists it would be nice if GK displayed the number.

How do you find puzzles? I have two or three times set up puzzles only to be informed they exist, but I’ve no idea how to see them. Because I want to post a link.

lord_shiva
03-Mar-24, 08:19

Existing Puzzle

Here is a Zugzwang example:

I would love to say pz=###### but no way to find it.

lord_shiva
03-Mar-24, 18:46

fen

If you click the little question mark it says you can search by fen as well as number. The fen rows apparently require slashes. I’m not sure how you find mirror puzzles.

lord_shiva
03-Mar-24, 19:00

Puzzle Above

You click on it and request the FEN.
6bk/4Np2/7P/6N1/8/8/8/K7

Paste this into the search. You probably can omit the color and castling info.
The puzzle above is: 7075

philabauer
03-Mar-24, 19:43

Too close...

I'm using my phone to play and when I solve puzzles the rate puzzle and next puzzle buttons are too close to each other. Slightly off topic from the OP but I'm willing to bet a lot of the puzzle ratings are done by mistake.

jett22
04-Mar-24, 15:49

Here's the above puzzle and its counterpart

puzzle #2896

puzzle #7075

Enjoy!

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