Timeline for answer to Why do we have objective winning criteria? by Dennis
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| Jan 17, 2016 at 20:45 | comment | added | Martin Ender Mod | Dennis, I disagree. Even without strict winning criteria, there is a very big difference between posting a question about something you're stuck with and writing a challenge others enjoy. There would also still be big differences between the kinds of answers you'd get. @NathanMerrill, you say that like becoming more of a Q&A site is something desirable. While the software is clearly meant to be used for Q&A sites, that does not mean that our community would actually work better by embracing its Q&A roots. (I think if would actually work better by SE acknowledging that we're not a Q&A site.) | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 17:34 | comment | added | Nathan Merrill | I agree. This change would bring us closer to the mold of a Q&A site. We would still be very different with "code challenges" (as I've been describing them), than with "code contests". | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 17:27 | comment | added | Dennis Mod | The difference between PPCG and actual Q&A sites lies precisely in the winning criteria we require. Take that away and, yes, you get yet another Q&A site. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 17:22 | comment | added | Nathan Merrill | @MartinBüttner I disagree. We simply word them differently. Instead of asking "How do I write X in the smallest amount of code", we simply say "Write X in the smallest amount of code" | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 17:18 | comment | added | Martin Ender Mod | @NathanMerrill 3. I assume by "any other site" you're talking about the other SEs. All of them are Q&A sites. PPCG is not. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 17:15 | comment | added | Nathan Merrill | 2. Regardless of semantics, a site that posts challenges like Project Euler is what makes us different (not that we score them), IMO. 3. When answering a question, I would write code that I think is fast, and the OP would accept answers that he thinks is fast. This is no different than any other site: I post what I would solve his problem the best, and he accepts the one that he thinks solves his problem the best. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 17:09 | comment | added | Dennis Mod | 2. Google defines challenge as a call to take part in a contest or competition, especially a duel. 3. The OP would make an arbitrary decision, depending on what he thinks is the most efficient code. That's not an objective goal at all. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 16:57 | comment | added | Nathan Merrill | 1. I'm not talking about removing the current criteria. They are great. But we are restricting different possibilities of criteria because they can't be objectively scored. 2. I don't think so. We talking about programming challenges not programming contests. 3. Right, and the OP would take that into consideration when accepting an answer. Real code often takes efficiency into mind, and we don't always use benchmarks to write efficient code. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 16:32 | comment | added | Dennis Mod | 1. My point is, if the winning criteria we currently use to measure code speed are flawed, we should try to find better ones, not eliminate them. 2. Holding contests is not some minor difference between this site and, e.g., Stack Overflow, it is the main difference. 3. fast code isn't an objective goal. The same algorithm can be amazingly fast for some cases and excruciatingly slow for others. The same optimizations can be beneficial on some architectures and harmful on others. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 15:51 | comment | added | Nathan Merrill | Simply letting the OP choose which answer should take the crown makes us no different from other programming Q&A sites I don't know why we need to be different (in this regard). I'm not proposing we lose objective goals (such as fast code), but proposing we lose objective scoring (measuring it) | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 15:50 | comment | added | Nathan Merrill | Thank you for your answer! Unfortunately, both alternatives have problems: golf-cpu is slow, and difficult for most users to participate in, and fastest-algorithm doesn't actually mean that the algorithm is fast. | |
| Jan 17, 2016 at 15:40 | history | answered | DennisMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |