Changes to the Weekly Competition website

[YouCubing]

Quick question: For 15 Puzzle, can you maybe give us the option to just view the scrambled puzzle (as a string of numbers and a - for the blank spot for example) instead of the scramble? Putting the tiles in the spots on the qiyi is WAYYYY faster then doing all these moves^^

I have an old metal 15 puzzle, where I can't take out the pieces, and I still think this'd be better. Slowly doing every move is a hassle, and I mess up a lot, it'd be faster just to solve the puzzle into a certain position

 

[Mike Hughey]

I have an old metal 15 puzzle, where I can't take out the pieces, and I still think this'd be better. Slowly doing every move is a hassle, and I mess up a lot, it'd be faster just to solve the puzzle into a certain position

Not to mention that this would be a good way to practice.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I regret that, due to malicious behavior that I am currently unable to prevent, I have decided that I need to suspend automatic creation of accounts for the Weekly Competition.

If you already have an account, you may continue to compete as usual.

If you do not yet have a competition account (note that the competition account is separate from the Forum account for now), please PM me if you would like to compete, and I will set up an account for you.

Or, alternatively, simply post your results on the current Weekly Competition thread. I will contact you about setting up an account if you do so.

Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[Jacck]

Quick question: For 15 Puzzle, can you maybe give us the option to just view the scrambled puzzle (as a string of numbers and a - for the blank spot for example) instead of the scramble? Putting the tiles in the spots on the qiyi is WAYYYY faster then doing all these moves^^

But then you have a very long "inspection time", don't you? Because you always see the scrambled state while getting to it.

 

[ichcubegerne]

But then you have a very long "inspection time", don't you? Because you always see the scrambled state while getting to it.

Well, you can also inspect while doing the last moves aswell. There are tons of options to cheat urself here and there always will be. But I think if you just get glimpse on the scramble while concentrating on something else, it doesnt really make a big difference. Like, you always get free inspection while doing the last moves or when u put down the cube and press space. You cant completely look away.

 

[YouCubing]

Hey, can we get an updated scoring rules explanation? I looked at the old ones, but there are some events not listed on there, and some of the scores look to have changed since then

 

[Mike Hughey]

Hey, can we get an updated scoring rules explanation? I looked at the old ones, but there are some events not listed on there, and some of the scores look to have changed since then

Okay, I updated the first post in that thread with the new event point bases. I don't see anything else that needs altering in that description, so I think it's current now. Thanks for pointing out that it needed updating!

 

[Jacck]

Well, you can also inspect while doing the last moves aswell. There are tons of options to cheat urself here and there always will be. But I think if you just get glimpse on the scramble while concentrating on something else, it doesnt really make a big difference. Like, you always get free inspection while doing the last moves or when u put down the cube and press space. You cant completely look away.

Well, a general problem when you have no scrambler (same with cubeshapes of Square-1 or Curvycopter). I try to un-inspect as much as possible, but I just can't look at a puzzle without thinking. Maybe it is easier for you to switch your brain off

 

[GAN 356 X]

Well, a general problem when you have no scrambler (same with cubeshapes of Square-1 or Curvycopter). I try to un-inspect as much as possible, but I just can't look at a puzzle without thinking. Maybe it is easier for you to switch your brain off

I certainly don't think when I solve... but thinking in inspection is important I think, at least to start off with, then you can recongnise patterns in the edges and corners and turn them into blocks and bars etc

 

[Mike Hughey]

The new integrated version of our Weekly Competition has now been released! We hope you will use the new integrated version to compete in the future.

What does this mean for you?

1. If you have never competed before, simply select the "Competition" menu choice above, and you can immediately begin participating. You will be competing with your current Forum username, and your results will be displayed accordingly. It can be helpful for you to go to the "Competition Profile" menu choice, and set your first and last name, so you can more easily spot your results in the statistics.

View attachment 13361

2. If you have competed before, and you made the wise choice of doing as we asked, using the same username as your Forum username, you can do the same as a new user - simply select the "Competition" menu choice above, and you will be competing using your current username. The results should be added to your competition history as if you were using your old competition account, and everything should work as normal, except that you no longer have to log in separately to your competition account - your login to the Forum also logs you into the integrated competition.

3. If you have competed before and you unfortunately used a different username in the competition than your username in the Forum, then by selecting the "Competition" menu choice above, you will actually create a new competition account to match your Forum username. Please go ahead and do so if you would like to compete now, and then PLEASE contact me (Mike Hughey - please PM me) and provide your old competition username so I can combine the accounts. After receiving your message, as soon as I have the chance, I will combine your old and new accounts, and your history will be unified.

4. If you have competed before and don't currently have a Forum account (which is probably true for some people), you will still be allowed to compete with the old website, but will be unable to use the integrated version of the competition. Please continue to use the old website www.speedsolving.com/competitions, and log in as usual. But it would be appreciated if you would create a Forum account to match your competition username, and begin competing with the integrated version.

Note that no more separate accounts will be created outside the forum for the competition. All new competitors going forward must use a Forum account to compete.

The old website will continue to function (for a while, at least). It would be nice if I could phase it out someday, but I wanted to make sure the move to an integrated version goes smoothly, and does not leave people unable to compete. If we phase it out someday, there will be plenty of warning given and efforts will be made to try to make the change as painless as possible.

Please note that if you have never competed outside the Forum, you will not be able to log in using the old website - you MUST use the integrated version. There is no way to set your password for the old website if you do not already have an account from the past, so you will not be able to log into the old website in that case. I will no longer reset passwords for the old site - I will insist that you instead use the integrated version.

Please let me know via PM if you see any issues that need correcting. If you find functionality that does not work as well with the new integrated site as it worked with the old site, please let me know and I will try to address it. Thank you to everyone who participates in the Weekly Competition!

 

[BradyLawrence]

Not sure if this is just me, but the new integrated system is looking a little buggy...

 

[Mike Hughey]

Not sure if this is just me, but the new integrated system is looking a little buggy...

Thank you for reporting this. It doesn't happen on my system which makes me suspect it's a caching problem, but I will try to fix it. It is associated with the tooltips that are supposed to display on that page. I will fix it as soon as I can.

A lot of code changed with this integration, so there may be some bugs to fix. Please let me know when you find them and I will try to fix them as quickly as I can.

 

[Spacey10]

Thank you for reporting this. It doesn't happen on my system which makes me suspect it's a caching problem, but I will try to fix it. It is associated with the tooltips that are supposed to display on that page. I will fix it as soon as I can.

A lot of code changed with this integration, so there may be some bugs to fix. Please let me know when you find them and I will try to fix them as quickly as I can.

Umm on records when I pick a year it stays the same

 

[Mike Hughey]

Umm on records when I pick a year it stays the same

This is actually not due to the new changes. The records page has never really worked - all it does for now is just give a complete history of all records. I do hope to fix it someday; I might finally have time to work on it now. Although I will probably make improvements to the scrambles before I get to fixing the records page.

 

[Gnome]

It's probably my end rather than yours (probably an addon I'm using) but I'll ask anyway.. any idea why some of the event icons are weirdly aligned?

 

[Mike Hughey]

It's probably my end rather than yours (probably an addon I'm using) but I'll ask anyway.. any idea why some of the event icons are weirdly aligned?

It should not be doing that. I need to figure out why it is happening. I have tried it on many devices and browsers, and have not been able to duplicate the problem, but I have had others tell me the same thing, so I know it's not just you. I will continue to try to figure out what's going on with it.

 

[xyzzy]

Firefox (nightly) on Windows; only the Mini Guildford box is broken for me. But besides that, the colour contrast is janky with the dark theme.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Firefox (nightly) on Windows; only the Mini Guildford box is broken for me. But besides that, the colour contrast is janky with the dark theme.

Thank you. Yes, I may have to change the color background of the incomplete event boxes for the sake of the dark theme.

 

[BenChristman1]

There's some of the weird offset stuff going on when I look at my profile, too.

 

[Mike Hughey]

There's some of the weird offset stuff going on when I look at my profile, too.

This is a problem several people have seen. It appears to be associated with the browser still holding onto an old style sheet (the texts with tooltips on them are not displaying, causing the other text to be offset); I'm not sure what is causing it. Perhaps clearing your cache and restarting your browser might help; I'm hopeful it will resolve itself after a while. I will continue to try to find an explanation for why this happens on some machines but not others.