Timeline for answer to Feedback on the Second Coding Challenge by Nanigashi
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 13, 2025 at 14:39 | comment | added | kristinalustig StaffMod | @Nanigashi In general, our philosophy was to make the challenge as open-ended as possible while still focusing it around a specific goal (in order to make it as inclusive as possible). It's possible that we want to reduce that interpretability for future challenges, but for now, as long as the entries follow the prompt as given, they are valid. I definitely hear the feedback that there's something to be said for constraints breeding creativity. So to answer your question, challenge entries can either include or exclude pre-shared keys. | |
| Jun 13, 2025 at 4:57 | comment | added | Nanigashi | @kristinalustig, the specific question: "Is the challenge intended to include or exclude the use of pre-shared keys?" Other people appear to be interpreting the challenge to mean that they are excluded. Keys, if they are part of the algorithm, are hard-coded into the algorithm. (i.e., it's purely an encoding challenge) | |
| Jun 12, 2025 at 20:41 | comment | added | RedStoneMatt | @kristinalustig "if you have specific questions about how you should be interpreting the challenge so that you can submit properly, please let me know and I can try to help!": I have asked about the AI-related paragraph in another answer, but I got no response. Also, may answers that are not about interpretation but also about practical problems with the challenge's system (Like General Grievance's) be at least acknowledged and if possible taken care of? I hoped they would have been before the challenge's end got too close, but they were all ignored even though they're the most important... | |
| Jun 12, 2025 at 15:16 | comment | added | kristinalustig StaffMod | @GeneralGrievance yeah, that was what I meant by "doesn't really require". In any case, I'm not sure that my playing it fast and loose with ciphers vs encoding in the puzzle description has caused very much confusion w/r/t what folks can submit for the challenge, but if it has, I'm happy to clarify however I can! The original draft of the challenge did focus much more on steganography but I figured that was too niche which was why I broadened it. | |
| Jun 12, 2025 at 14:46 | comment | added | General Grievance | @kristinalustig Well, w.r.t. the Caesar Cipher thing, I'm not sure it's a great example. I don't think it's really correct to say that it doesn't "require" a key. It's just that the key is extremely easy to guess. Even if you know that it's a Caesar Cipher, it does not tell you immediately which shift value is being used. A person with a key will decipher much quicker than without, which is even what a lot of current systems count on. | |
| Jun 12, 2025 at 14:24 | comment | added | kristinalustig StaffMod | Thanks for the feedback. Honestly, I used the terms pretty generically as I was coming at it from a ciphers-as-puzzles perspective (like, a Caesar cipher technically has a key but doesn't really require it for it to be deciphered). Apologies for creating confusion in the challenge text and if you have specific questions about how you should be interpreting the challenge so that you can submit properly, please let me know and I can try to help! | |
| Jun 12, 2025 at 13:25 | comment | added | General Grievance | Yeah, I can confirm that most people are interpreting it as encoding, and a lot of people are using the same popular game boards. If you wanted to make one that was a true cipher system, it would be unique, but you'll probably want to ensure it stands out among the other ones using your choice of board. Also, I realized I was wrong about encoding being viable encryption. There's a difference between having a substitution key that happens to be ASCII and using ASCII to encode. The latter is baked into the algorithm, and with the former, knowledge of the algorithm does not reveal the key. Oops. | |
| Jun 11, 2025 at 21:39 | comment | added | Nanigashi | @GeneralGrievance, if cryptography = ciphers + codes, then steganography would be encoding, although the purpose is to conceal the fact that communication is taking place. A picture of a kitten with a ball of yarn just looks like a picture of a kitten with a ball of yarn, whereas a text file with a PNG header looks like noise. But yeah, most people are (probably) just assuming it's an encoding challenge. (Staff seem disinclined to answer my questions, so I haven't submitted anything for the challenge, so I have to guess how people are interpreting it.) | |
| Jun 11, 2025 at 19:03 | comment | added | General Grievance | @Aemyl I'm not sure I'd put steganography into the same camp as encoding either, though one may overlap with the other a bit. But, yeah, now that you say this, I do agree that knowledge of the cipher algorithm should not compromise a message if it's truly a cipher system. I guess the challenge really is equating the two, and the vast majority of the submissions seem to just be encodings (some are still really fun, though). FWIW, my Conway's Game of Life submission does in fact perform key-based crypto, so some of us were thinking about it. | |
| Jun 10, 2025 at 14:22 | comment | added | Aemyl | I also noticed this. The challenge seems to be about steganography, not cryptography. Trying to keep the encoding secret and calling that a "key" sounds like a violation of Kerckhoffs's principle | |
| Jun 8, 2025 at 20:07 | history | edited | Nanigashi | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Words do have meaning
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| Jun 8, 2025 at 5:53 | comment | added | Nanigashi | @philipxy, indeed, your comment and my comment are not compatible. I'll agree to that. | |
| Jun 8, 2025 at 4:56 | comment | added | philipxy | Your comment is already contradicted by my preceding comment. Eg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher "To encipher or encode is to". (Of course, elsewhere Wikipedia also contradicts itself.) | |
| Jun 8, 2025 at 4:50 | comment | added | Nanigashi | @philipxy, I'm extremely familiar with the difference between a cipher and a code. My point is that the challenge appears not to be. Therefore I have a question. | |
| Jun 8, 2025 at 4:44 | comment | added | philipxy | "cipher" & "encode" are generic terms with specific meanings in specific contexts. Eg Caesar cipher. | |
| Jun 8, 2025 at 3:34 | history | edited | Nanigashi | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Clarify "cipher" vs "code"
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| Jun 8, 2025 at 3:27 | history | answered | Nanigashi | CC BY-SA 4.0 |