Auto problem selection

[0n1]

Didn't realize there is problem search function to let me do this. Maybe you can consider putting a line on homepage to let more people know.

Thanks!

[BartTM]

I think the rating only goes down when you solve problems you haven't tried before, right?
As I have tried all problems my rating stays in the high-kyu regions no matter how many I solve correctly.
Also it happens to show problems I've already solved quite recently.

Like most people, I am not blessed with perfect memory.
When I try a problem that I have not seen in the last year or so I generally won't remember its solution; I have to work it out again, sometimes even failing where I've succeeded before.

Would it be possible to just select problems that the user hasn't tried recently, and use them to adjust the rating even though they have been seen before?

[adum]

hey bart, that's a good idea. i think a problem that hasn't been tried in a while should count for rating. what do you think would be a fair time interval -- a week?

[BartTM]

I am slightly in favor of a longer period, like a month.

(You do plan to use it for selecting problems, i hope?)

[adum]

yes, i'll have the selector prefer problems tried longer ago

[Weichi]

Hi, Adum. Right now, the difficulty of auto selected problems varies too much from question to question when I try as an unregistered user. For example, when the estimated rank of a player is 12k, the system may give him a question of 6d, and then give him a question of 20kyu. If our best guess of a player's rank is 12k, I think we should give him a question of 12-3 to 12+3 kyu. Any questions that are more than 3 ranks away from a player's true rank will not be informative about the player's ability, because according to most standard rating systems, the probability that the player solves these problems will either be almost 100% or 0. Besides the inefficiency of the estimation algorithm, the playing may be frustrating or boring to the player because the questions are either too hard or too easy.

Put it another way, we wouldn't ask a 12k player to play with a 6d or a 20k player for obvious reasons, so maybe we should not let the 12k player "play" with a a 6d or a 20k problem.

[Weichi]

hey bart, that's a good idea. i think a problem that hasn't been tried in a while should count for rating. what do you think would be a fair time interval -- a week?

I think it should be a month.

[adum]

right now the problem selection is choosing ratings based on the Elo rating, but the ratings on the problem page are shown as the old wins/tries ratio. i'm going to change that soon and it should make things more clear, i hope.

[Weichi]

Hi, Adum. Right now, the difficulty of auto selected problems varies too much from question to question when I try as an unregistered user. For example, when the estimated rank of a player is 12k, the system may give him a question of 6d, and then give him a question of 20kyu. If our best guess of a player's rank is 12k, I think we should give him a question of 12-3 to 12+3 kyu. Any questions that are more than 3 ranks away from a player's true rank will not be informative about the player's ability, because according to most standard rating systems, the probability that the player solves these problems will either be almost 100% or 0. Besides the inefficiency of the estimation algorithm, the playing may be frustrating or boring to the player because the questions are either too hard or too easy.

Put it another way, we wouldn't ask a 12k player to play with a 6d or a 20k player for obvious reasons, so maybe we should not let the 12k player "play" with a a 6d or a 20k problem.

Hi, Adum. I registered a new account and found that the auto selection function works pretty well when I logged in with the new account. Maybe you have fixed the problem, or maybe the system functions properly only if a user creates an account and log in. Anyway, you may want to make sure that the function works when someone plays without logging in (i.e., as an unregistered user), because if it doesn't it may give new users a bad first impression and drive them away.

Cheers.

[Field Mouse]

Hello,

I have a big problem - my rating was restarted back to the beginning so the "go to problems" button is giving me 22k problems right now. And because I have solved all the porblems on the site I cannot get better rank easily - the rating gets higher only when solving a problem on the first try, which means that I can get higher rating only after solving problems that are completely new on the site. So I am goproblems 22 kyu right now and must search for problems uncomfortably through problems -> search instead of using the comfortable box that was on the main page before (because if I ask the site to give me a problem it is a 20 k one). Also I would find VERY useful if the classical buttons "prev" and "next" would get back to the problem pages.

Before I used to ask the web to give me a random problem using the box on the main page and then after solving I was just clicking prev or next to get more problems... now (especially with my 22 kyu) using the site is much harder
The new system is nice and I can understand that many players prefer the way it is, but for users like me the old system was better. What about leaving both systems active so that an user can chose which way she wants to get the problem?