Separate "Algorithms" Forum
Can admin make a separate forum called "Algorithms" or similar?
There appears to be a massive influx of these quiz-like problems this summer, and these are frankly not beginner questions. This torrent of problems is causing quite a flood on some of the other forums, even if they're sometimes interesting.
To be frank, they're not even C++ questions, and some of the restrictions for a full run are so intense that they're basically just deep exercises in mathematical formulas. Even if you know a solution involves combinations, for example, the upper bound may require you to dig into theorems on divmod.
Once upon a time I thought ProjectEuler was fun for this sort of thing, especially its formatting for a single answer submission.
Today's sites, however, have hidden test cases for badly worded questions, arbitrarily relaxing time limits for some languages and not others, and often not even keeping latest language versions available. A few times I've seen questions in the comments to clarify edge cases not stated, and the problem submitter eventually answering.
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TLDR; these 'problems' might be interesting and some usefulness, but for the most part are poisoning the forums and need their own space
There appears to be a massive influx of these quiz-like problems this summer, and these are frankly not beginner questions. This torrent of problems is causing quite a flood on some of the other forums, even if they're sometimes interesting.
To be frank, they're not even C++ questions, and some of the restrictions for a full run are so intense that they're basically just deep exercises in mathematical formulas. Even if you know a solution involves combinations, for example, the upper bound may require you to dig into theorems on divmod.
Once upon a time I thought ProjectEuler was fun for this sort of thing, especially its formatting for a single answer submission.
Today's sites, however, have hidden test cases for badly worded questions, arbitrarily relaxing time limits for some languages and not others, and often not even keeping latest language versions available. A few times I've seen questions in the comments to clarify edge cases not stated, and the problem submitter eventually answering.
</vent>
TLDR; these 'problems' might be interesting and some usefulness, but for the most part are poisoning the forums and need their own space
It's a nice idea, but there's no point if the people posting this stuff don't agree to move to the new forum. And, let's be frank, nothing about these people suggests they care about respecting this forum enough to do that. They're using this place as a means to an end - basically, to cheat their way through a competition without any intention of contributing anything to the forum.
Most new posters here barely pay attention to what the existing forums are, or how they're supposed to be used. Adding another new forum isn't going to help.
What would help is if the admin took a more active role in policing this place and kicking out the bad actors. But we've been over that ground before in other threads, many times.
TL;DR: They ain't gonna move unless someone makes them, and no-one's gonna make them.
Most new posters here barely pay attention to what the existing forums are, or how they're supposed to be used. Adding another new forum isn't going to help.
What would help is if the admin took a more active role in policing this place and kicking out the bad actors. But we've been over that ground before in other threads, many times.
TL;DR: They ain't gonna move unless someone makes them, and no-one's gonna make them.
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It's the prerogative of whoever is replying to a given question to decide how detailed an answer they want to give. If a question really has a very technical answer that has nothing to do with the language, "go read this paper" or "go read about X topic" or "the solution is Foobar's algorithm, which you can read about at X" are all acceptable answers. If someone doesn't want to go into more detail, no one's going to call them out on it.
So I don't see what the big deal is about these questions. I personally choose not to answer them because a) almost invariably the OP is some variation of "please help! link" and b) these are questions that are unlikely to help anyone else.
So I don't see what the big deal is about these questions. I personally choose not to answer them because a) almost invariably the OP is some variation of "please help! link" and b) these are questions that are unlikely to help anyone else.
Yep, nice idea, but not going to happen. The questions themselves aren't the problem to me, they could go in either section just fine. It's all the spam-tier responses, cries for help, and (apparently) cheating that are annoying. The whole thing is bizarre because it seems like a lot of these guys are beginners to C++, yet are assigned pretty in-depth problems to solve. I've only replied to a couple posts (one was talking about some algorithm involving prime factorization).
I'm surprised by how math-heavy they are. It does seem like Project Euler, except annoying due to whatever competition is taking place. I find many of those questions that involve online submissions of code to be horribly annoying because it doesn't even give good feedback to the person you're trying to help (e.g. it doesn't say which test case is failing). If it weren't for the multi-thread nuisances it created, some of the problems would be actually very interesting to solve (I just don't have the patience right now to try them, especially the poorly written ones).
The competition ends in about a week but I'm assume there will probably be more next month.
I'm surprised by how math-heavy they are. It does seem like Project Euler, except annoying due to whatever competition is taking place. I find many of those questions that involve online submissions of code to be horribly annoying because it doesn't even give good feedback to the person you're trying to help (e.g. it doesn't say which test case is failing). If it weren't for the multi-thread nuisances it created, some of the problems would be actually very interesting to solve (I just don't have the patience right now to try them, especially the poorly written ones).
The competition ends in about a week but I'm assume there will probably be more next month.
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closed account (E0p9LyTq)
If constantly being reported doesn't slow down the spamming by the cheaters, nothing will convince them to move to a new forum. They will cheat anywhere they please.
Yes, someone is reporting the spamming, for all the good it is doing. It is hurting the small fry, the established spammers aren't bothered.
Yes, someone is reporting the spamming, for all the good it is doing. It is hurting the small fry, the established spammers aren't bothered.
| Yes, someone is reporting the spamming, for all the good it is doing. It is hurting the small fry, the established spammers aren't bothered. |
I assume it's more than one person. Actually, I know it's more that one person, because I've reported a few of the more blatently obviously cheating ones, but there have been lots of reported posts that weren't me.
And, yeah, some of them have made enough posts that they can't now be auto-deleted. Some initially looked like good-faith attempts to discuss a problem. Others, I think, just made a lot of posts at times of the day when most regular posters weren't online.
One can hope that, at some point, the volume of reports will be enough to trigger admin's personal interest, although that threshold seems pretty high.
EDIT: OK, I just looked at some of those threads for the first time since Friday, and, yeah, people seem to be bulk-reporting everything in those threads, now, including posts by regular members helping in good faith. Or maybe there's some retaliatory reporting by the spammers, I don't know.
Best-case scenario: this gets admin's attention, and they step in to clean house.
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closed account (E0p9LyTq)
| Best-case scenario: this gets admin's attention, and they step in to clean house. |
Let's hope.
Or hopefully the problem burns itself out and the cheaters go elsewhere to cheat.
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