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 Number of solvers 
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Posted on: Fri Sep 23, 2022 9:16 am




Posts: 956
Location: Ukraine
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
Post Number of solvers
When someone completes a puzzle, the number of times the puzzle has been solved comes up above the puzzle on the screen. If the puzzle was one of today’s puzzles, the name of the last person to solve the puzzle also comes up. But if it was a puzzle from a previous day, the name of the last solver does not appear. This applies even if the puzzle is worth points because it has been solved within the allowed time period.

I’m curious as to why the line above the puzzle has been set up in this way. I can understand why you would not show the name of the last solver if the solution has become available and the puzzle is no longer worth any points. But I can’t see any reason not to show the name when it is within the allotted time.

On a related point, I note that the number of times solved counter includes puzzles solved after the solution has been published. When I find a puzzle particularly difficult, I like to check how the number of solvers compares with the number who solved the comparable puzzle for previous weeks. But this comparison is distorted by the inclusion of ‘late’ solvers in the numbers.

I appreciate that these are relatively minor issues and I’ve no idea whether the programming required to make the two suggested changes would be quite simple or extremely complex. But if it is something that wouldn’t take much time to program, I would be grateful for the changes.


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Posted on: Fri Sep 23, 2022 10:28 am




Posts: 3296
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
Post Re: Number of solvers
paulv66 wrote:
I’m curious as to why the line above the puzzle has been set up in this way.

There's a process running that does the "real-time" communication with the server
to enable the "solved ticker" (and with that, the "last solved by" info and the total number of puzzles solved).
The "last solved by" info is not permanently stored somewhere. Also, the process is restarted every 6 hours.

To show the info for earlier days, I'd need to add some functionality.
I could just query the database for the last solver of a certain puzzle, but that's a relatively expensive query
(so the page would get stuck on it).

Quote:
="paulv66"]On a related point, I note that the number of times solved counter includes puzzles solved after the solution has been published. When I find a puzzle particularly difficult, I like to check how the number of solvers compares with the number who solved the comparable puzzle for previous weeks. But this comparison is distorted by the inclusion of ‘late’ solvers in the numbers.

Good point, I'll see if I can do something about that.

This would also take some time to implement, but this info is interesting of course.


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Posted on: Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:04 am




Posts: 956
Location: Ukraine
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
Post Re: Number of solvers
Thanks Patrick.


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