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#1: Tom King (sgusa) on Jun 21, 2012

Losers, if you can't solve a puzzle, it is HARD!!! I really don't give a rat's arse what you think of quality, but difficulty? This puzzle is f**king hard. It requires smile logic at the top. If you don't understand alternative logic in these puzzles, don't bother rating them, especially denigrating them. I would like to hear from one of the raters that gave this a one in difficulty. Why did you give it a one?

I love the Olympics. Well you know it wasn't me who rated it Tom. I don't solve puzzles,and i got heck from Adam once for rating puzzles for difficulty. I thought i had to rate both quality and difficulty in order for my rating to count,so anytime i rated a puzzle i would give it a 3 for difficulty. I thought i was being fair. Well i sure got an earful for that. Nice puzzle Tom.:)

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good one tom :) The past couple of nights i've been watching the platform and springboard diving trials. Can't wait for July 27th. GO USA

Excellent solve and very nice rings! Thanks!

great idea for a puzzle! Thanks, T

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Thanks, mates! :)

Dreaded Kristen double post...

I have spent more than three hours each designing about 5 puzzles (one took probably 20 hours). This was one of them. I have to prove them and tweak them to make sure that they are logical. That is why it frosts me when someoneone who can't solve it rates it a one in difficulty.

Wait, what? I hadn't even posted once.

Oh, Tom. Do you really want to know why? As a counselor of older teens and young adults with serious behavior issues, I'd like to make a guess at the answer. The person who likes to rate good puzzles as "easy" does it to get a reaction. When you respond with anger and swearing, it gives the person a sense of power. And the negativity spoils the fun factor most of us look for here.

If I am right (and I'm pretty sure I am), you have three choices of how to deal with it:
1) You can continue to let it get to you, staying in your frustration over not being able to control this person.
2) You can write to Jan and ask him to check and see if someone is routinely rating your good puzzles as "easy."
3) You can let go and not worry about it too much and trust that the rest of us will rate it correctly and we can all enjoy each other's puzzles and comments.

Having said all that, I have to say I enjoyed the solve and think this was probably a difficult puzzle to design. Well done.

Thanks, T. I apologize for my outburst. I'm glad you enjoyed the puzzle. Frustration got the best of me and I apologize.

Kristen, I double posted and made a joke at your expense. Sorry. Trying to watch "Inception" and it is really boring. Better use of my time may be puzzle creation...

Okay. I was afraid I'd been angering you with my posts.

LMFAO Kristen, 4 months ago, when I was a newbie puzzle creator, I thought you were the dreaded "difficulty one poster." You immediately whipped me into shape and understanding. I appreciate your wit & puzzles (as long as they are 20x20 B&W ;) ). Thanks, Tom

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I also rated this one 4 for difficulty. Thanks for creating so many smaller puzzles for our enjoyment, sgusa!

Try my Yellow series. 2-6 are all simple puzzles that'll only leave you *slightly* cross-eyed.

Tom, I may be one of your offenders in the difficulty area by way of the fact that I rate them as, how easily or hard it is for me to solve and not by how hard it was for you to design. I do most hardly apologize to you and any one else I may have offended and will refrain from expressing my opinion in the future.

Don't refrain from expressing your viewpoint, Nancy. However, write a comment about it. It makes puzzle creators better if we know why it was easy. I didn't think this puzzle was easy at all, but we can certainly disagree. You are putting a name to it, and that is entirely respected. I solve everything that I make, and start every solution with a blank slate. I guess at nothing. Thanks for replying. I look forward to your honest critique. Best, Tom

Nancy: By the way, I hate creating (and solving) multi-colored puzzles. They are very hard for ME to solve. I blue out solved clues and go back and forth. Thank you so much for responding. Tom

Nancy is right--solvers rate solving difficulty. They have no idea how hard or easy it was to design. That's why it's so important for creators to solve their own puzzles.

Nancy, I don't think people who rate puzzles honestly like you do are the target of the frustration of puzzle creators. There are "imps" who enjoy rating a good puzzle as a 1 just to be mischievous, maybe to get people upset.

Having said that, I believe the difficulty rating is intended to rate how a puzzle solves by strict puzzle logic. A lot of times when solving, one can see where the image is supposed to be filled in, and proceed that way. It doesn't feel like guessing, because you "know" it goes that way (but it's really an assumption). And so a puzzle might seem easy to solve. But for others who use strict puzzle logic, the solve could be quite difficult.

We would get a more accurate representation of the true difficulty of a puzzle if it were rated only by those using strict puzzle logic (no visual logic which technically is guessing), and if we didn't have any "imps" trying to mess with the ratings.

I don't pay much attention to the ratings anymore. If I solve a puzzle I really like, I will look for more by that person. :-)

Boy am i glad i don't solve or rate for difficulty,this way i can stay out of this caffuffle.lol. I think Teresa is right about the "imps",just create and have fun Tom. You'll get the comments from all your good friends here,and the honest ratings from the true good solvers. Tom if you don't solve coloured puzzles,do you at least peek and read the comments? I'm sure you probably do,cause i think you've made comments on some of mine.:)

Aldege, I solve them when somebody gives me a heads up that I may be interested. Kristen told me I should look at the Aldegia Grand Prix puzzles, so I solved them, and commented. Occasionally, I babysit a puzzle through the first two or three ratings, and I blew up when I saw it unsolved with a rating of 1. I am sorry. Teresa talked my off the ledge. Best, Tom

Tom, I know how frustrating it can be when it feels like someone unfairly rates a puzzle which took a lot of effort to create. Hopefully, the sea of honest raters will drown the few rating flamers.

Thanks, Kadou

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It's interesting to read the comments about how hard a puzzle is to solve, when the puzzle is from many years ago. For those of us who have been solving puzzles for a long time, smile logic comes very naturally and this puzzle isn't hard at all. But ten years ago it was considered a very hard puzzle. Interesting!

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