Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
2,051
questions
568
votes
5k
answers
331k
views
Sandbox for Proposed Challenges
This "sandbox" is a place where Code Golf users can get feedback on prospective challenges they wish to post to main. This is useful because writing a clear and fully specified challenge on ...
- 5
423
votes
54
answers
216k
views
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
There are a number of standard loopholes which experienced question-setters seek to explicitly close. However, inexperienced question-setters may unintentionally leave them open, or respondents may ...
241
votes
2
answers
10k
views
I'm stepping down
It's been an honor to serve as your moderator for the past four years. I would like to continue to do so, but after witnessing how Stack Exchange treats their volunteers, I decided that I'm no longer ...
- 210k
179
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Congratulations, you're graduating!
It's a big day, and I know you folks have been waiting a reeeaaal long while. Double waiting, you might even say, since unfortunately we made you wait even longer after initial news. But, let's make ...
- 101
156
votes
17
answers
10k
views
J and GolfScript suck all the enjoyment out of Code Golf
I have found code-golf a fascinating pastime for several weeks now.
However, I’m already losing interest because the contests allow any language, and because of that it is pretty much impossible for ...
- 12.9k
147
votes
0
answers
4k
views
It's time for me to leave
On October 27th, I decided that the following requirements must be met by November 1st for my continued involvement with the Stack Exchange network:
The forced relicensing from CC-BY-SA 3.0 to CC-BY-...
user45941
135
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Why I am leaving Code Golf
The contents of this post are solicited opinion that I have been asked by a Code Golf moderator to share with you. I understand "If you don't like it, then GEETTT OOUUTT" applies here, so I have ...
user43512
131
votes
16
answers
8k
views
How can we help users who are put off by the use of golfing languages?
Every other month someone expresses their (negative) feelings about golfing languages.
Here is how this usually goes: they complain that they don't enjoy golfing in the languages they know because ...
- 196k
127
votes
116
answers
38k
views
Default for Code Golf: Input/Output methods
It looks like we have a consensus that we want certain defaults for the format which answers are expected in for code-golf. On that poll, the question arose twice, which input/output formats should be ...
- 196k
108
votes
14
answers
2k
views
Congratulations! Your site design is now live!
You may have noticed that the site got a bit less blue today!
Thank you so much for your input over the last few weeks. This has been a great process and I really hope you like your new theme. We ...
- 301
102
votes
49
answers
26k
views
Things to avoid when writing challenges
If there is something that you find annoying / counterproductive / unfair / detrimental / no longer funny in challenges (question posts), describe it in an answer here, and propose a recommended ...
97
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Hanging up my diamond
Well. I never thought I'd be writing this message. I've logged into this site nearly every day for over 5 years. I truly love this community. I've learned so many things from it, and I have made ...
- 58.9k
96
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Let's allow newer languages/versions for older challenges
I've been thinking for a long time that our non-competing policy for newer languages (or language versions) is harmful. Just for context, we currently require all answers which require implementations ...
- 196k
91
votes
102
answers
11k
views
What programming languages have been created by CGCC users?
Language-creation has become a popular activity on CGCC. A decent portion of answers, especially code-golf answers, are written in languages invented by the community. These are also languages that ...
- 29k
91
votes
75
answers
21k
views
List of bounties with no deadline
This is a list of unofficial, deadline-less (hence not searchable) bounties offered by users on various challenges on the main site.
Disclaimer: There is no guarantee that the user will award the ...
- 20.8k
90
votes
3
answers
2k
views
A farewell to moderation
If you're new around here, chances are you might not even know who I am. I'm Alex, and I'm a (soon to be ex-) moderator on this site. At first I was a user just like you, enthusiastic about the site, ...
- 24.6k
89
votes
35
answers
5k
views
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
It has come up several times recently (more than usual) that PPCG differs from most of the other Stack Exchange sites in that it's not a Q&A site. People don't come here to ask a question because ...
- 196k
89
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Should we consider planning a move off StackExchange?
Should we consider planning to move Code Golf to our own site outside the Stack Exchange network?
Reasons to consider leaving
This post was spurred by recent events, but it's been in my mind for a ...
- 144k
82
votes
12
answers
2k
views
Introducing the PPCG Sandbox Viewer™
The sandbox post is really just a question which we use as a system to review posts (which is great and all), but wouldn't it be great if there could be like a dedicated review queue for Sandbox Post? ...
- 28.9k
76
votes
9
answers
17k
views
Interpretation of Truthy/Falsey
Quite a few code-golf questions require output to be "truthy or falsey". This is possibly confusing as these terms can possibly mean different things to different people, and especially in different ...
- 71.8k
73
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Farewell, for now
With my dwindling activity over the last few months, this probably doesn't come as a surprise... but I've decided to hand in my diamond. My reasons are similar to Alex's, half a year ago, in that ...
- 196k
70
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Let's go on a mission
We've been in beta for 1129 days.
Don't you think it's time we get out?
We seem to be in a similar situation as Code Review. We don't have enough users with sufficient reputation to gain privileges ...
- 71.4k
64
votes
13
answers
2k
views
The PPCG Site design is on its way - help us make it awesome!
The long wait is almost over!
You have been eminently patient while we've gotten other site designs finished and then completely redesigned the layout of the network. Now that all of that heavy ...
- 301
63
votes
11
answers
3k
views
Leaderboard Snippet
I've been using a stack snippet for a while to generate leaderboards for my simpler or more popular code golf challenges. I want to share the code for this snippet here so others can use it more ...
- 196k
62
votes
2
answers
1k
views
A fond farewell from an old-time mod
tl;dr: I'm starting a coding tutoring company, and if you have any interest in coding education, or want to get coding tutoring or be a tutor, email me at [email protected]. I hope to keep in ...
- 4,917
60
votes
6
answers
17k
views
What are programming languages? [duplicate]
Often, answers to questions asking for "programs" or talking about "programming languages" utilize things like sed, awk, … in ...
- 2,754
60
votes
1
answer
895
views
"Be Nice" applies to off-topic questions too
For whatever reason, PPCG tends to get a lot of off-topic questions, generally about code-troubleshooting. Maybe it's because our help-center is inaccurate. Or maybe it's simply because we're a large-...
- 58.9k
58
votes
23
answers
2k
views
Best of PPCG 2016 — Call for Categories [duplicate]
Last year we voted for the best posts of 2015 and rewarded them with bounties and challenges. I think it's a great way to reward and draw attention to some of the best content the community has ...
- 196k
58
votes
7
answers
1k
views
A proposal to combat Meta Bloat™: The Big Consensus Freeze
I believe it's a widely acknowledged problem in this community that the number of meta posts a new user needs to know to figure out all the rules has long got out of hand. We require certain answer ...
- 196k
56
votes
1
answer
804
views
Stop replacing my tabs with four spaces
Typing Literal Tab Characters
I do not know how feasible this is, for the developers, but I do believe, that at least on this site, it may make more sense to stop expanding tabs into four spaces.
...
- 2,646
54
votes
4
answers
713
views
2016 Community Moderator Election Results
Programming Puzzles & Code Golf's first moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the 4 new moderators are:
Please thank them for volunteering!
And please ...
54
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What contributions has PPCG made to the fields of math or computer science?
Most of the content on PPCG involves clever applications of existing algorithms, or just-fast-enough-to-pass solutions to problems that supercomputers have found millions of answers/digits/etc to ...
- 6,048
53
votes
19
answers
3k
views
Graduation Design Ideas
Programming Puzzles & Code Golf will someday graduate out of public beta, and it will get a new site design. Stack Exchange employees generally do all the design work and make the design decisions,...
- 89.3k
53
votes
0
answers
2k
views
How to count bytes FAQ
We've got a lot of questions asking how to count the bytes in different situations. This question is here to put them all in one spot.
General questions
How to count "interactive" answers ...
53
votes
0
answers
792
views
The Curious Case Of The Missing Chris Jester-Young, Welcome Martin Büttner!
You arrived to the site today and noticed that something was different; something was gone and something new was in its place, but somewhat out of place, like on the wrong side of the room. You'd had ...
- 100
52
votes
1
answer
960
views
A heartfelt welcome to our new moderator...s!
We've got some big news today! What is with the "s" in the title? I'm very happy to announce that the community team has appointed two new moderators pro tempore. You've cast your votes, so let me ...
- 196k
51
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Can we raise the privilege levels?
PPCG has graduated. Some features for graduated sites come immediately after graduating. However, other features are held off for an indefinite amount of time:
The site gets a custom theme, and
...
- 58.9k
51
votes
1
answer
3k
views
When can APL characters be counted as 1 byte each?
Prompted by this.
The question of APL's encoding often comes up, and many times a helpful soul links to Wikipedia's article on the APL EBCDIC codepage. However, each implementation of APL has its own ...
- 29.9k
50
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Default for Code Golf: Program, Function or Snippet?
One of the things many (new?) users forget to specify in code-golf challenges is whether the answers should provide a full program or a function (or even just a snippet). For most such things, we have ...
- 196k
48
votes
9
answers
1k
views
We need to talk about the Sandbox
Warning: this post will contain things that people don't want to hear. But it needs to happen.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business.
The Sandbox was a brilliant idea. It ...
- 49.4k
48
votes
2
answers
1k
views
We need to talk about Chat
I would start this post with something along the lines of "without naming names", but I think it's time to pinpoint the issues we currently face in chat and take action.
This is a follow-up to The ...
user42643
47
votes
1
answer
632
views
2018 Community Moderator Election Results
Programming Puzzles & Code Golf's second moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the 2 new moderators are:
They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — ...
45
votes
4
answers
603
views
Rep points for questions [duplicate]
Right now we're using the standard +5/-2 for questions and +10/-2 for answers. However, this site is different from the trilogy and most other SE sites: coming up with a question generally takes more ...
- 12.5k
44
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Golfing Class of a language
I feel like we may have enough data on this site to meaningfully break programming languages into classes.
What I mean by classes is akin to Go's ranking system:
If a player can win 90% of even games ...
- 1,945
44
votes
1
answer
515
views
What happened to Doorknob?
Before anyone asks this question I'd like to get it out of the way:
If I go to the moderators tab, I don't see Doorknob any more:
He used to be a moderator here, but now he's not. What happened?
Wheat WizardMod
- 96.5k
42
votes
13
answers
2k
views
What should this site be called now that it's getting a design?
UPDATE: New site name chosen!
This site is now "Code Golf & Coding Challenges"
Thank you all so much for participating in this discussion!
As we're designing the site, we are considering the ...
- 301
42
votes
8
answers
3k
views
We need to take an official stance on code trolling
Here's our to-do list for the project:
Close all existing code-trolling questions (or maybe re-tag those three I mentioned).
status-declined - if locked or deleted, closing might not matter, so we ...
- 71.4k
41
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Community Promotion Ads - 2016
You've graduated... a while ago. This is quite overdue, but let us not wait any longer. We present to you, Community Promotion Ads!
What are Community Promotion Ads?
Community Promotion Ads are ...
- 101
41
votes
1
answer
701
views
Let's start a "language-of-the-month" event
Whereas, there are lots of interesting languages out there that might be fun to golf in, and
Whereas, many of us are the inventors of said interesting languages, and would like to teach them to ...
- 38k
41
votes
1
answer
509
views
CGCC Blog Post #2: The history of PPCG and CGCC
We recently turned 10 years old. Unfortunately, we didn't really realise and therefore didn't really celebrate or even mark the occasion. But, it got me thinking about the history of the site, and now ...
- 49.4k