ark5731 wrote:
- all puzzles counting: takes too much time for many who still want to be high on the ranking
And therein lies the problem. It seems that some people want to keep their high ranking AND spend less time on the site.
I sympathize with those people, because after spending a couple of hours (at least) per day for the past year and a half on the site, I'm now able to solve the 12x12s on a fairly consistent basis, as well as most of the other difficult ones. I've brought my times down substantially on the timed puzzles, and as of Aug 1, my 30-day average was 70 points per day--15-20 above where it was in a "good month" when I started out. At the same time, I know there are things I really should be doing besides playing calcudoku all weekend and every evening... and most mornings before work. I get it.
But asking Patrick to keep all the other eager puzzle solvers from being able to get a points advantage because you want to do something else is crazy. Not to mention selfish.
You either have both the time and the skill to get the maximum points the site offers or you don't. If you've got the skill but not the time, you can't expect to get to the top (or stay at the top if that's where you are).
The rankings are a means of comparing yourself to everyone else, and I like being close to the top as much as the next person. But it seems like certain people are taking it way too seriously. They seem to feel that if the data were just presented in this way or that way, or limits were set, or the points were doled out differently, then they would be at the top--or closer to it. Somewhere here recently rickt said it's not like there's a pot of gold at stake. Hear, hear!
In reading all the discussion about points limits--and suffering though all the issues the limit raised in the past 4 days--I'm reminded strongly of Kurt Vonnegut's short story
Harrison Bergeron. I'm not sure if you can find a copy online, but Wikipedia has a good summary of the story here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron.
Let's not have limits here. Let's just have fun and enjoy this fantastic site Patrick has created and not whine about having too much of a good thing.