#1: Mark (mark.jeronimus) on Oct 3, 2010

When I make a puzzle and test-run it, then there is a drop-down box to define the solvability and something else, but as soon as I publish it, the box disappears. Even when I un-publish it, the box stays gone. How go I define the solvability for those puzzles?

That box is only supposed to appear when the solvability is in question.

There is an automatic checker that can solve basic line- and color-logic solvable puzzles. If it takes more advanced techniques, then that box appears and lets solvers vote on the solvabilty of the puzzle.
Only Jan and Gator have the power to *define* a puzzle "solvable" or "guessing required".

I have noticed that the solvability box shows up when I am testing *any* unpublished puzzle, however, whether or not it has been okayed by the internal checker.

The other box, by the way, is asking whether the puzzle has a unique solution. It also shows up on all my unpublished puzzles, all of which definitely have unique solutions.

I'm pretty sure webpbn just ignores any input that conflicts with something it knows (ie, if the puzzle is unique and has a line-logic solution, it will ignore input from you saying otherwise.)

So (to recap this ramble), these boxes are only useful if the built-in checker says you should check manually to see if it is solvable. And even then, you're only voting, not setting it.

Yup, the rating boxes for quality and difficulty should always appear (unless you aren't logged in and are solving anonymously), because there is no definitive correct setting for those, so people keep voting forever.

But the uniqueness and logical solvability ratings do, more or less, have a definitive right answer. Once it is determined, then people aren't asked or allowed to rate them any more.

They can get set to definite values in several ways. When you publish a puzzle, the checker is automatically run. It can almost always decide if the puzzle has multiple solutions or not, and can frequently decide if it is logically solvable.

Gator and I have the power to set these values after a manual check.

If someone saves a solution to a puzzle that is (1) correct, and (2) different then the intended solution, then that person has definitively proved that the puzzle has multiple solutions. So sometimes you see a forum post from the webpbn robot saying "some-random-user has determined that this puzzle has multiple solutions". That's just the first person to find an alternate solution.

Until a definite rating is entered, the rating displayed is just the result of a vote. If it says "may require some guessing" that just means that a majority of users thought it did. They are frequently wrong.

I plan to make some changes to how all this works in the future.

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