Thread - Promoting IPC

prasanna16391 - 2015-08-12 9:10 PM

In the end, discussing strategies is definitely a way forward and I feel it is better to do that in a localized setting like the Sudoku meets, so I'd like to focus more on connecting the core solvers from each city and guiding them to hold meets, rather than having a discussion on the forum.

I beg to differ here.At the moment,the meets are happening in no more than 2 cities and a majority of the people attending the meets need no further push to start solving puzzles.The catch here is to incite more solvers into being regulars to puzzles too.

because a lot of our solvers are going to be more in tune offline, and those who are enthusiastic enough to ask online (like yourself) will do so even without an official topic for it.

Here's the problem.Unless people start solving something or even know something exists,there is no question of anyone being enthusiastic enough to ask it online.During the meets in chennai, some of even our regular sudoku solvers were unaware of Fillominos, a common puzzle genre which has been seen across so many LMI tests. I started posting stuck sudokus in the forum because I was familiar with them,its basic strategies and I was curious to see if there was something further.Not to mention the fact that seeing the top solvers post ridiculously low times was another reason.Puzzles enjoy a low degree of popularity in India mainly because of its unfamiliarity and I think LMI is a place to start addressing that.After all ,all the sudoku and puzzle aficionados gather here.The forum discussion may not be an effective way but still it is a start.

More than anything, I think the issue runs deeper than knowing strategies. There was never anything in the newspapers about Classic Sudoku strategies, yet people figured them out by themselves. The issue is more about awareness and mindset.

Awareness and mindset.Now,you address the root of the issue.I suggested just one way of making people more aware i.e., by starting an online discussion of strategies and puzzles.This is validated by the fact that the thread ' stuck in this sudoku' has more views than any other.This just proves that people are more curious and interested to learn new things.All that is needed is a bit more thrust.

I would also like to add here that I have nothing against puzzles.To be candid ,I am trying my best to complete the puzzles that were left out in IPC.From the 16 that I completed in the actual test ,I have gone to a 32 with just 3 more to complete.I will be a regular in puzzle Ramayan which as already stated before has more beginner friendly puzzles.I try my best to include new lines of thinking which sometimes becomes exhausting and yield almost nothing .

I think the book, if we can make it a series, will be a big benefit, because it is the first real effort which isn't from a purely competitive perspective. Eventually if we can get the LMI banner popular we can get some puzzle books out too. It is difficult to get across Sudoku & Puzzles as a hobby using competitions, but the moment you put them on a public website the competitive feeling is inevitable even without it being direct competition. Look at the Daily League. What started out as a co-operative blogging effort became more about competitive timings on Sudoku Cup. GM Puzzles is a web blog, but also describes timings for various competitive levels. Sometimes we can't help ourselves in adding the competitive element to everything. I wanted to put a 'time to beat' in Sudoku Mix too, but I am pretty happy that Deb talked me out of it. We need to build a base of promoting non-competitive activities. The books and the local meets are ways of doing that, along with promotional pre-competition workshops.

I completely and totally agree with you here.Without arguing its effectiveness ,don't you think these things require much more investment of time than a simple online forum ?


	@ 2015-08-12 10:49 PM (#19037 - in reply to #19035) (#19037) Top
kishy72 Posts: 430 Country : India	kishy72 posted @ 2015-08-12 10:49 PM prasanna16391 - 2015-08-12 9:10 PM In the end, discussing strategies is definitely a way forward and I feel it is better to do that in a localized setting like the Sudoku meets, so I'd like to focus more on connecting the core solvers from each city and guiding them to hold meets, rather than having a discussion on the forum. I beg to differ here.At the moment,the meets are happening in no more than 2 cities and a majority of the people attending the meets need no further push to start solving puzzles.The catch here is to incite more solvers into being regulars to puzzles too. because a lot of our solvers are going to be more in tune offline, and those who are enthusiastic enough to ask online (like yourself) will do so even without an official topic for it. Here's the problem.Unless people start solving something or even know something exists,there is no question of anyone being enthusiastic enough to ask it online.During the meets in chennai, some of even our regular sudoku solvers were unaware of Fillominos, a common puzzle genre which has been seen across so many LMI tests. I started posting stuck sudokus in the forum because I was familiar with them,its basic strategies and I was curious to see if there was something further.Not to mention the fact that seeing the top solvers post ridiculously low times was another reason.Puzzles enjoy a low degree of popularity in India mainly because of its unfamiliarity and I think LMI is a place to start addressing that.After all ,all the sudoku and puzzle aficionados gather here.The forum discussion may not be an effective way but still it is a start. More than anything, I think the issue runs deeper than knowing strategies. There was never anything in the newspapers about Classic Sudoku strategies, yet people figured them out by themselves. The issue is more about awareness and mindset. Awareness and mindset.Now,you address the root of the issue.I suggested just one way of making people more aware i.e., by starting an online discussion of strategies and puzzles.This is validated by the fact that the thread ' stuck in this sudoku' has more views than any other.This just proves that people are more curious and interested to learn new things.All that is needed is a bit more thrust. I would also like to add here that I have nothing against puzzles.To be candid ,I am trying my best to complete the puzzles that were left out in IPC.From the 16 that I completed in the actual test ,I have gone to a 32 with just 3 more to complete.I will be a regular in puzzle Ramayan which as already stated before has more beginner friendly puzzles.I try my best to include new lines of thinking which sometimes becomes exhausting and yield almost nothing . I think the book, if we can make it a series, will be a big benefit, because it is the first real effort which isn't from a purely competitive perspective. Eventually if we can get the LMI banner popular we can get some puzzle books out too. It is difficult to get across Sudoku & Puzzles as a hobby using competitions, but the moment you put them on a public website the competitive feeling is inevitable even without it being direct competition. Look at the Daily League. What started out as a co-operative blogging effort became more about competitive timings on Sudoku Cup. GM Puzzles is a web blog, but also describes timings for various competitive levels. Sometimes we can't help ourselves in adding the competitive element to everything. I wanted to put a 'time to beat' in Sudoku Mix too, but I am pretty happy that Deb talked me out of it. We need to build a base of promoting non-competitive activities. The books and the local meets are ways of doing that, along with promotional pre-competition workshops. I completely and totally agree with you here.Without arguing its effectiveness ,don't you think these things require much more investment of time than a simple online forum ?
	@ 2015-08-13 12:10 AM (#19038 - in reply to #19037) (#19038) Top
prasanna16391 Posts: 2003 Country : India	prasanna16391 posted @ 2015-08-13 12:10 AM kishy72 - 2015-08-12 10:49 PM I beg to differ here.At the moment,the meets are happening in no more than 2 cities and a majority of the people attending the meets need no further push to start solving puzzles.The catch here is to incite more solvers into being regulars to puzzles too. I would like that to be the case - since as you mention at the end, a simple online forum is lesser investment. However, at the Bangalore TSC round, there was one common question - "I find it uncomfortable to discuss/be online for whatever reason, are there any offline meets?". I think at least 30+ people asked me this while purchasing the book. Now its another thing on whether they will turn up now when we announce the next meet, and I don't know if Varun had a different experience in Chennai, but for me at least, from that experience it is clear that the Indian audience is more likely to turn up the more we spread offline. As for it being in 2 cities, I agree, hence I said I plan to contact some core solvers in each city and encourage them to start their own meets - I am already in the process of a mailing list for Mumbai. A forum is definitely easy and requires no effort at all. We can do it parallel to the meets. I just meant that in the long run I see more reach coming from the offline meets.