Curious

[firemeboy]

I am just wondering… I know I read somewhere on this site that puzzles are posted once a week, or once every other week. Now I am not complaining here, I am sure that the Minotaur has a life outside the GL. However, I think that there is a lot of talent here among the members. What if there was a place where we could submit puzzles to the Minotaur and he could sift through them, get ideas, etc. If the puzzles weren't worthy, he could send them back and we could post them in the visitor submitted area.

Maybe this would take a little of the load off of Minotaur, there would be more frequent puzzles, and we could all lift our voices and rejoice.

[Amy]

Can't you already do that by e-mail?

[firemeboy]

I guess you could. I don't know if the minotaur even needs them though and when I have a puzzle, I like to post it. If I knew he wanted them, was considering them, and sending them back if he wasn't going to use them (so I could post them), then I guess we could just e-mail them. I just didn't want to be presumptous.

[This message has been edited by firemeboy (edited 02-03-2000).]

[Ghost Post]

One of my big goals (and possibly overly ambitious) is to create a system by which Labyrinthians could author, peer review, and publish the puzzles. I have put in a fair amount of infrastructure toward this, but recognize that this goal is still a long way off.

If anyone is interested, I could post more details.

Right now, my Grey Labyrinth "work" time is spent roughly as follows (estimates from memory):

Inventing, borrowing, stealing new puzzles: 10%

Re-writing the puzzle and adding artwork:
20%

Researching and authoring solutions:
20%

Answering e-mails, posting to forums:
10%

Infrastructure improvements (writing code for new features, automation, etc.):
30%

Misc. admin:
10%

[Amy]

Yes, please post more details...I would be delighted to be able to make a contribution to the lore of the Labyrinth.

[firemeboy]

As would I.

[Ghost Post]

The architecture I envisioned for this project would consist of a "private" web site for authoring members, either as a sub website on the Grey Labyrinth, or on a completely different domain.

Authorized visitors could author puzzles through forms, which would place the content in an intermediary format.

Other visitors would review and edit the puzzles, and then someone or someones would queue the puzzles for release.

This system sounds simple, but when I did the investigation I found that there were lots of subtle issues that needed addressing to make the system user friendly.

The goal would be to all visitors to publish their puzzles, and free up time for me to work on other feature enhancements.

Anyway, that's a goal of mine and every couple of weeks I put in a few hours toward it. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them, but of course I can't guarantee that I'll follow through on them.

[firemeboy]

That sounds good to me. What about art work? I think the graphics you do are pretty cool. If there are others in the group that do graphics, it might save you time to have other people help out on the graphics.

Also, how would you decide who is a 'member', and could post puzzles. Would it be based on posts, quality of posts, etc? Or would anyone be allowed to post riddles, and then through either votes by the members, or the final word from the Minotaur, only the really clever ones would get through.

[Amy]

The only problem I see--and maybe it's not really a problem--is that the members who review the puzzles would never get to see them for the first time on the "official" GL puzzle page. But maybe that could be solved if different members took turns reviewing the proposed puzzles. Also, I assume the Minotaur would have ultimate veto power over any puzzle he considered inappropriate (e.g., too easy, too difficult, or in some way offensive)--after all, it is his site, even if we all have the run of the place.

[Amb]

Well, heck if you need a cartoonist, I am here! (So long as I get time)

[firemeboy]

Have the run of the place? For some reason that is funny to me. Anyway, good point Amy, maybe a possible solution would be to create 4 or 5 panels of three GL members. These panels would take turns reviewing the puzzles and passing on recommendations to the Minotaur. That way you would still get to solve puzzles, but every once in a while you would have to sit out. That would be the price to pay for more puzzles, more often. I don't know how we would decide who could be a panel member. I think if we get into peer choosing there will be problems. Bickering among the ranks if you will. I would think that the Minotaur, in his omnipotence, could choose panel members. In fact, I think that it might be worth while to not even let the other GL members know who are on the panels and who are not. I don't think we need another class distinction, it will only drive away potentially fun members. And besides, if a puzzle bombs, I don't think we need to go after the people who gave it their 'stamp of approval'.

Thoughts?

[AcidFast]

I like the idea. Let's go with it.

[Ghost Post]

Peer review would definitely need to be a component. The quality of the puzzles the Minotaur posts could probably benefit from it as well.

In the last two weeks I haven't put any work into the new project. Hopefully in the next week I'll at least make a task list for the project so I can scope out how long it would theoretically take.