Forum Upgrades, New Rules, and More

pjk

pjk

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
6,798
WCA ID
2007KELL02
SS Competition Results
Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a few updates about the community and some improvements that have recently been completed.

First, thank you all for being part of SpeedSolving.com. We've now grown to more than 51,000 registered members, making this one of the largest and longest-running speedcubing communities in the world. That's only possible because of the incredible people who contribute their knowledge, enthusiasm, and passion for puzzles every day.

Over the past few weeks, I've completed a major upgrade of the site's infrastructure, including upgrades to the forum software, wiki, PHP version, and underlying systems. These upgrades were long overdue, but the result should be a noticeably faster, more reliable experience throughout the site.

Additional improvements and upgrades are planned over the coming weeks and months. If you notice any bugs, broken features, or anything that doesn't seem to be working properly, please report to me directly or reply here and I'll work to get it fixed.

New Features​

Timer​

We've launched a new browser-based timer:
https://www.speedsolving.com/pages/timer/

Please give it a try and let me know what you'd like to see added. Currently, solve data is stored locally on your device rather than on your SpeedSolving account, so be sure to export your results if you'd like to keep them.

If the community finds the timer useful, I'd love to expand it further with features such as:
  • Account-based solve history
  • Progress tracking
  • Statistics and graphs
  • Historical records
  • Session analysis
  • Personal performance insights

My Records / Personal Bests​

We've also added a dedicated place for members to track and share their personal bests.

You can view community rankings here:
https://www.speedsolving.com/rank-board/

To add or update your records, click your username and navigate to:

Accomplishments → My Records
This allows members to compare results, celebrate achievements, and track progress over time.

Official WCA Results​

If you've competed in official WCA competitions, you can now connect your WCA ID to your SpeedSolving account and display your official competition results directly on your profile.

We've recently improved the layout and presentation of these results as well.

Community Expectations​

One of the reasons SpeedSolving.com has remained successful for more than two decades is because of the people who make up this community.

We all share a common interest: speedcubing and puzzles. Whether you're a world-class competitor, a casual solver, a collector, or someone just learning their first cube, this community should be a welcoming place to learn, discuss, share, and improve.

Please be respectful toward one another.

Bullying, harassment, trolling, personal attacks, and intentionally disruptive behavior have no place here. Members who repeatedly engage in that behavior may lose their ability to participate in the community.

Before posting, please take a moment to review our forum rules:
https://www.speedsolving.com/pages/rules/

Political Discussions​

As political topics have become increasingly common across the internet, I want to clarify our expectations.

Political discussion is allowed when it remains civil, respectful, and relevant.

If a political topic is directly related to speedcubing or an event affecting the cubing community, it may be discussed in the appropriate cubing section.

All other political discussions belong in Off Topic.

Disagreement is perfectly acceptable. In fact, healthy discussion and differing viewpoints can be valuable.

However, personal attacks, insults, hostility, name-calling, and bad-faith behavior are not acceptable and will result in a ban.

Treat other members with respect, even when you strongly disagree with them.

Signature Policy​

Signatures should remain brief and relevant to the community.

Members may use up to two lines in their signature, but signatures should not contain political messaging, sexual content, inflammatory content, or unrelated promotional material.

This is a speedcubing community, and we'd like to keep the focus on puzzles and the hobby we all enjoy.

Your Feedback​

I'm always looking for ways to improve the site and make it more useful for the community.

If you have ideas, suggestions, feature requests, or concerns, please feel free to send me a direct message or reply to this thread. I read far more feedback than people probably realize, and many improvements on the site have come directly from member suggestions.

Thank you again for being a part of SpeedSolving.com.

This community has been around for more than 20 years because of the people who contribute their time, knowledge, and enthusiasm. Whether you've been here for twenty years or twenty minutes, you're helping shape its future.

Here's to the next twenty years.

Happy cubing!

— Patrick
 
maybe I can become a moderator (jk)

It would be nice if we had some sort of profile tab for Forum Competitions, where the member can fill out the forum competitions they’ve competed in and their results. Sort of like the weekly competition tab on your profile, except it’s for forum competitions, and people can fill it out.
 
Appreciate all your work Patrick!

I've said this before, but I've never been a fan of a couple of the (relatively) more recent emoji reactions - meh, rolling eyes, and (to a lesser extent) confused. They are only ever used negatively, as a subtle way of saying "this post is dumb and you should feel dumb". In a forum meant to be friendly and positive, I'm not sure these make sense to keep around. The simple thumbs-down emoji is usually good enough as a simple disagreeing statement, and if more needs to be said, a reply post can be made.

I would advocate for the removal of these. For the sake of keeping history, perhaps removing them from the list of available reaction options, without having them removed from existing posts.

I would also *love* a simple heart emoji to react with, both in an effort to encourage positivity, and because the heart-eyes emoji has a slightly different connotation to me.
 
Caleb Valenzuela said:
maybe I can become a moderator (jk)

It would be nice if we had some sort of profile tab for Forum Competitions, where the member can fill out the forum competitions they’ve competed in and their results. Sort of like the weekly competition tab on your profile, except it’s for forum competitions, and people can fill it out.
Click to expand...
What do you mean exactly here? Which forum competitions exactly if not the weekly ones?

acrystal said:
Please make Cubing Progession threads visible on the homepage
Click to expand...
Done

Hazel said:
Appreciate all your work Patrick!

I've said this before, but I've never been a fan of a couple of the (relatively) more recent emoji reactions - meh, rolling eyes, and (to a lesser extent) confused. They are only ever used negatively, as a subtle way of saying "this post is dumb and you should feel dumb". In a forum meant to be friendly and positive, I'm not sure these make sense to keep around. The simple thumbs-down emoji is usually good enough as a simple disagreeing statement, and if more needs to be said, a reply post can be made.

I would advocate for the removal of these. For the sake of keeping history, perhaps removing them from the list of available reaction options, without having them removed from existing posts.

I would also *love* a simple heart emoji to react with, both in an effort to encourage positivity, and because the heart-eyes emoji has a slightly different connotation to me.
Click to expand...
Great points. I've removed rolling eyes and confused, and added heart now.
 
I think that now with the heart emoji, the thumbs up should be called "thumbs up", so the heart can become the main emoji to "like" a post. 👍is better suited imo to being a reaction to say for example "yes" to a question, or saying "okay" when someone for example asks you to do something.
👍 has always seemed almost passive aggressive to me, but that might just be me.

I also think a general negative reaction or dislike button might be useful, idk if just :( and 😡 will work in some places.
 
I have never been so proud.

Perhaps it's a mistake, but heart reactions don't seem to add to one's reaction score. Though I go back and forth on whether that's even a number worth displaying, as some users will inevitably gamify it.

Martyt7777 said:
Yoooo it’s visible now!
Click to expand...
I personally preferred them hidden, but not so much that I really mind. Happy that other people are happy!
 
pjk said:
What do you mean exactly here? Which forum competitions exactly if not the weekly ones?
Click to expand...
I figure it would better to specify what competition i’m talking about
I’m talking about the ones like the “SpeedSolving.com Championships 2026” or “The Battle of Whits And Whims I”. The ones that work similarly to a WCA competition/PSL/Monkey League. The ones the include races like “x member and y member race for sub-z average” wouldn’t be included.
 
About the web based timer, I think everything you listed is going to be appreciated by not only me but also other members. Is it possible to transport all my solves from csTimer to here though? And can we compare our solves to other members if everyone is getting the same scramble? I love to compare and compete. A list of rankings based off of scrambles would be awesome to me!
Once you do apply all the new features to the timer, I would love to switch from csTimer to here!
 
1780406088608.webp

0.793 what
 
I am using a version of the TNoodle scrambler. It is perhaps a bit old, but I don't think the 2x2x2 scrambler has changed recently. The WCA regulations require that:
4b3b) 2x2x2 Cube: The (random) state must require at least 4 moves to solve.
I am not seeing anything in the regulations that require that the scramble be obfuscated, because that's not important when scrambles are applied by a staff member instead of the competitor. Hence, I suspect this is a totally legitimate WCA scramble.

I suppose I could try to write a new scrambler to obfuscate, to deal with the fact that the scrambles are applied by the competitor, but that may require quite a bit of work to make sure that it's valid, and it takes away from the current status of using WCA-compliant scrambles. Should I really be building a separate scrambler from tnoodle for this? Is 2x2x2 the only one that needs this? For instance, I would think Pyraminx might also need it, since some of the 6 minimum moves could be tips.

Perhaps a compromise would be to have TNoodle generate the scrambles, then run those scrambles through a separate obfuscator program to yield a minimum number of moves while maintaining the random state. That will introduce the possibility of bugs, though.
 
Mike Hughey said:
I am using a version of the TNoodle scrambler. It is perhaps a bit old, but I don't think the 2x2x2 scrambler has changed recently. The WCA regulations require that:
4b3b) 2x2x2 Cube: The (random) state must require at least 4 moves to solve.
I am not seeing anything in the regulations that require that the scramble be obfuscated, because that's not important when scrambles are applied by a staff member instead of the competitor. Hence, I suspect this is a totally legitimate WCA scramble.

I suppose I could try to write a new scrambler to obfuscate, to deal with the fact that the scrambles are applied by the competitor, but that may require quite a bit of work to make sure that it's valid, and it takes away from the current status of using WCA-compliant scrambles. Should I really be building a separate scrambler from tnoodle for this? Is 2x2x2 the only one that needs this? For instance, I would think Pyraminx might also need it, since some of the 6 minimum moves could be tips.

Perhaps a compromise would be to have TNoodle generate the scrambles, then run those scrambles through a separate obfuscator program to yield a minimum number of moves while maintaining the random state. That will introduce the possibility of bugs, though.
Click to expand...

Can you artificially inflate a solution? For example, you generate the product of some fixed predefined moves AND a random state; then generate a solution for that new state, and then you provide the final scramble as solution for the new state + inverse of the original (fixed) moves.
So in the end you get a solution for the oirignal state, but it is longer by N moves, where N is the length of the predefined moves.
(I hope you understand what I want to say.)
The only issue is: what if moves cancel each other out.
In that case, there can be multiple fixed predefined moves that all do the same; and the algorithm can pick one that does not lead to cancellations.

(If it's not clear, I can provide an example later.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top