Posted 1st Sep 2013 at 21:59 Last edited by Elisabeth 1st Sep 2013 at 22:30
Elisabeth Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: EasyCompletion time: 14:48
Average at top seems to be out of sync.:) 9:24??
Posted 2nd Sep 2013 at 10:25
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has not played this puzzle yet
It's actually working as intended, albeit I take your point that it seems wrong. The average shown is in fact the average of the most recent solve time for each player who has played it, and the other player who has solved this puzzle has actually solved it twice. On their second go they completed it in 4 minutes, thus the average shown.
However this is purely for historic reasons - the average figure far predates the statistics shown on this page, and I agree that ideally it would be the average of first solves. Originally the site only kept track of your fastest and most recent times, so had no concept of 'first solution time' and thus this statistic couldn't be calculated. I might look to change this at some point, since it would make more sense to average the first solve times. I'll see how complex it is when I make other updates in the near future (it's more complex than it should be, since the average is updated by various different parts of the code).
Posted 2nd Sep 2013 at 12:07
Elisabeth Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: EasyCompletion time: 14:48
I hadn't thought of that, thanks! But it does allow one deliberately to alter the average considerably if one was so minded:)
Posted 2nd Sep 2013 at 12:39
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has not played this puzzle yet
Well, only if there aren't that many plays of a puzzle. And if there aren't many plays, the average is always going to be liable to distortion, so it's not a particularly big problem.
You can however view other players' statistics and their comments in the tables above.
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Key
A yellow/light blue highlight in the time distribution charts highlights your time, where relevant.
Rating scores out of 10.0 show the average difficulty rating chosen by users, where 1.0 is "Easy" and 10.0 is "Hard".
If a puzzle is opened more than once, including by loading from a saved position, then this is potentially a significant aid so it is listed as being completed with 'multiple sessions' for the purpose of the best time/average rating displays above.
Minor aid is defined as no more than one use of 'Check solution' when incomplete and/or no more than one use of 'Check solution' when wrong; and/or using highlighting aids (show repeated digits, show broken inequalities and show valid/invalid placements [slitherlink] only). Major aid is any and all other use of the solving aids except for 'show wrong'.
Last edited by Elisabeth 1st Sep 2013 at 22:30
However this is purely for historic reasons - the average figure far predates the statistics shown on this page, and I agree that ideally it would be the average of first solves. Originally the site only kept track of your fastest and most recent times, so had no concept of 'first solution time' and thus this statistic couldn't be calculated. I might look to change this at some point, since it would make more sense to average the first solve times. I'll see how complex it is when I make other updates in the near future (it's more complex than it should be, since the average is updated by various different parts of the code).
But clearly the average should be of first times.
You can however view other players' statistics and their comments in the tables above.