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I'm concerned that after a period of beta, as golf "professionals" leave for their regular sites. We currently don't offer that much value for them.

I'd like to use this as a place to discuss novel ideas that we can implement to make this site attractive to a large group. I mean something like what VimGolf recently started. Of course we don't want to be restrictive, but if we can start with a few unique areas that attract attention then that may well bring in people from other areas of golfing / other code challenges.

So, do you have that bright idea that will make this site a success?

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    \$\begingroup\$ +1 The heart of the matter. \$\endgroup\$
    – hallvabo
    Jan 30, 2011 at 16:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ i think that you should allow puzzles to be solved with C# like programming languages so that people like me can give a try. Also explanations for solutions can be made. Announcements to students to compete and earn points is also worth suggesting according to me. \$\endgroup\$
    – Saravanan
    Jul 1, 2011 at 5:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ @saravanan You are allowed to use those languages. You won't get the shortest solutions to [code-golf]s, but that doesn't make your entries bad---indeed I sometimes use fortran77. And you are not at a wordiness disadvantage for [code-challenge] and other non-golf questions. So, please, dive in! \$\endgroup\$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Feb 21, 2013 at 21:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ Not really about code golfers as such, but here's a few suggestions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bernhard Barker
    Mar 4, 2013 at 1:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ suggest tieins with open science and/or polymath \$\endgroup\$
    – vzn
    Mar 25, 2014 at 3:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 for vimgolf, how to start vimgolf then? \$\endgroup\$
    – kenorb
    Jul 8, 2014 at 14:18

2 Answers 2

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Reward upvotes

Too often, I see reasonable answers that are ignored by the community.

Frankly, this is a particularly stingy site. People are disinclined to up-vote questions and answers. To some extent, this may be due to the fact that many languages are represented here, and most people cannot judge answers in languages they are not proficient in.

Nonetheless I'm wondering whether it might be a good idea to raise the incentive for up-voting. For example, giving the up voter a point (or a fraction of a point) for each up-vote given. Sure, some people might abuse this by up up voting lots of questions or answers. But certain restrictions could be put on the number of up votes per day, or the number of rewarded upvotes one might receive in a day. (It might be restricted, for example, to as few as 5 per day).

I think such measures might encourage people to vote more, and this would increase the likelihood of their contributing with new questions and answers.

Btw, I'm not sure whether this is permitted on StackExchange sites. I'm simply putting it out there as a suggestion.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "most people cannot judge answers in languages they are not proficient in" I always leave some notes about how the program works. This is particularly important for [code-golf] because things are generally pretty obsfucated. On the other hand I won't vote for a solution unless I know how it works, so tell me. \$\endgroup\$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Feb 21, 2013 at 21:44
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    \$\begingroup\$ There is a limit on the number of votes you can cast in a day - and some badges for meeting certain numbers of votes, I think. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gareth
    Feb 21, 2013 at 22:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Gareth. Yes. I there is a one-time suffrage badge for placing 30 votes in a day. That is fine but it doesn't really alter raise the incentive to vote once the badge has been awarded. \$\endgroup\$
    – DavidC
    Feb 22, 2013 at 1:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @dmckee. Yes, it is a good idea to explain how a solution works. It's also a good idea for a contributor to show an actual example of input and output, even if the OP has provided guidelines. Do you think a failure to do this is accounts for why votes are few on this site? \$\endgroup\$
    – DavidC
    Feb 22, 2013 at 1:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidCarraher There's also the 'vox populi' badge for voting 40 times in a day, 'civic duty' for voting 300 times, 'electorate' for voting 600 times (with at least 25% on questions) and 'sportsmanship' for voting on competing answers. That said, I agree that there probably isn't enough upvoting to encourage new people to hang around. I always upvote any working answer to any of my questions to ensure that people's effort doesn't go completely unrewarded. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gareth
    Feb 22, 2013 at 8:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @dmckee +1 absolutely... start from the golfed version but then break it down in a more legible format with comments to show how they did it, calling out any neat tricks. Wish people would do this. \$\endgroup\$
    – HostileFork says dont trust SE
    Apr 2, 2014 at 12:23
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Something in the User Interface, perhaps?

What about a more structured answer submission, where the code is uploaded as a file, automatically counted, and displayed with a multi-tab view to show ascii/hex/disassembly? of the more extreme submissions. This would clear up the Hex/Base64 debate. Delayed binding.

It would also be really nice if we could tag answers with programming-language.

And some kind of auto-indexing on questions? Just when they get big enough to be cool, they're too big to navigate.

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