Puzzles//tactics//rated... unrated puzzles?

Greeting all and thanks for a great site...

I just did a run of about 7 so-called rated puzzles and they were all unrated. I won about half of them, only went seconds over on many of the others and took hints on two of them. I LOST AT LEAST 50 POINTS?

I may be new, but I have done over 500 tactics puzzles since I arrived and the scoring of the unrated puzzles (seems like half of them) seems at best, dubious! Even if I win an unrated puzzle, I more often lose points or make no points at all? And if I lose, I lose far more points than against a rated puzzle...

Yes, the tactics puzzles are still very useful anyway, but it is so discouraging because these unrated puzzles come in droves which means my score is going to take a 50 to 100 point hit - EVERY TIME... 

Can anyone please explain why there are so many unrated puzzles, what their function is, and how the scoring is structured... or, is this a work in progress?

very best regards,

robert

Thanks, but I must contradict, 

rated = 50% rated, 50% unrated

I should add: I use the web-app, not the mobile-app...

in the web app, the puzzles are categorized rated or unrated

We started out with 40,000-50,000 puzzles in our puzzle set. We are working to up that to 100,000. We are introducing 1,000-2,000 new puzzles per week. New puzzles need to earn a rating which they do by entering the rated section and getting solved or failed by users. For these puzzles, you always get +1 not matter what for them.  Once enough people have solved them that we are confident of their rating, they become normal rated puzzles. 

Wow, great work, but maybe too ambitious for practical purposes though?... there are far too many unrated puzzles compared to rated ones. In other words, it is way too discouraging to play. Maybe run an algorithm limiting the number of unrat3d puzzles during a session so that we can do our part for you, while you are doing your part for us. Progress will be slower, but “more fair” to the user, and maybe the user would be more understanding... Until then, and now that I understand; what I now wish for is a way of turning the the scoring off so I can concentrate on the task. Generally, we are a greedy, competitive lot, and your current scoring system is disappointing at best. Surely, I am not the first one to notice?

Right now, there seems to be a massive imbalance of new unrated puzzles.

thank you for you speedy response. I find the site very attentive to user inquiries.

Very best regards,

robert macveigh

Its really strange for you to get 7 in a row; how often is that happening?  With 50k normal puzzles and 2k unrated the odds of getting 7 unrated in a row is way less than 1 in a million. 

Hey jdcannon,

Well, I’ve often been described as “being special” ahahahaha

once was enough for me... I was actually keeping records for a week (100’s of puzzles) because of my suspicions, and when I hit 7 puzzles and lost 50 points in a session I stopped keeping records (and tactics) and chose to make an inquiry instead. On average, I was getting 3 in 10 unrated, often coming in droves of 3 or mor in a row...

I supposed it possible that more of the new puzzles are getting served to players around your rating. I will investigate.

Thinking about it... it is not the number of unrated puzzles that bothers me. It is the massive loss of points that I lose, even if I beat or match the puzzle. For instance (without hints); on a rated puzzle, if I go over by 43 seconds on a 13 second project puzzle — I usually make a point or two. On a unrated puzzle, and I go over by 5 seconds I lose 9 to 15 points... that is more toward the basis of the problem... 

Can you show me a screenshot of you losing rating for an unrated puzzle? Shouldn't happen. Should always be +1 no matter what. 

That seems awkward??? Any advice... what happens is this; I do a puzzle which states it is unrated... I win or lose the puzzle, but it does not display a result... it is not until I move to the next puzzle that I have to do the math noting how much my score took a hit... hence, I had to keep notes to recognize a pattern... I don’t know how to screenshot that? My notes are not sensible for our purpose... just rows of numbers

can you go through my tactics on the home page. There is a list of old puzzles which can be opened to determine their status. The puzzles with the really dramatic losses are always the unrated puzzles

Sorry, I might be wrong about the score dIsplay. I will check it out for you. But alas, it is supper time. Talk to you when I am not so hungry...

I checked all the puzzles you did for the last two months. I only found two unrated puzzles. Both of which were incorrectly solved but you got +1 for them which is what should happen. 

I think we must be having some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding about what an unrated puzzle it. 

I’ll do ten puzzles tonight... if appropriate, I will take screenshots... all else I will keep records... talk to you later...

That’s impossible, because the two of the final puzzles (before I quit) where both unrated.... definitely calls for a screenshot... I’ll do my homework tonight and see if things clear up?

Please do. 

3 puzzles — all 3 UNRATED but I found a pattern that is causing my confusion... if I let them run overtime and take hints, they all come up as UNRATED even though in the statistics it displays a rating... SEE SCREENSHOTS... it seems misleading, but I think we are hedging in on the confusion...

I’m sure you must understand my confusion... taking such huge hits on what appear to be unrated puzzles.

aha, so what happens is that you attempt to solve them as rated; and then use a hint. If you then trying them again after trying once, the second time is unrated. The point would have already been lost/gained from the initial attempt and the second attempt has no affect on your rating.