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Puzzle Progress - Tracking System
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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Some are wondering how your progress through the puzzles is tracked at The Problem Site. After all, if you login to your membership account, the puzzles still seem to come in a seemingly random order. You don't get Puzzle #1, followed by Puzzle #2, Puzzle #3, etc. So what is going on?
Well, for some puzzles (like Entrapment) the puzzles are sorted in order of difficulty, and you start with the easiest, and move toward the hardest. But what happens if you get a "mental block", and can't figure out puzzle #25? Are you stuck on that puzzle until you solve it?
I didn't want people to have to sit and stare at the same puzzle until they got it, if they wanted to skip it and come back later. So here's how this works...
Instead of giving you the puzzles in order, the site randomly selects a puzzle from the first 30 or 40 unsolved puzzles, and presents it to you. If you get it, great - the site then picks another unsolved puzzle. If you don't get it, the site will go back and grab another unsolved puzzle...but since you've left that puzzle unsolved, the site will periodically grab it again (random luck of the draw) and give it to you again. Eventually you'll be forced to overcome your mental block and get that puzzle done.
So it appears to be random, but actually it's designed to give you a more enjoyable ride! :)
And, while I'm on the subject, I'm pleased to announce that the Side By Side Puzzles now include an option (like Entrapment) to track your progress through the 1200(ish) puzzles. Just make sure you're logged into your member account, and the site will keep track of your progress!Labels: entrapment, side by side, theproblemsite
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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