E869120's blog

I felt fear about writing problems...
By E869120, 7 years ago, In English

Dear Codeforces.

This afternoon, I read the announcement of Codeforces Round #444, and I understood about the unrated incident, and the reality of the downvotes — The topic rating was -489.

Actually, I already wrote problems in 6 contests in AtCoder — 4 unofficial contests (Square869120Contest) and 2 official contest. At first, I thought that writing problems is also fun, and becoming the writer is also a honor.

But I saw about so many downvotes — even this may completely changed the writer's life. In reality, his contest has so many mistakes in a single contest, but I knew that the writer could be the worst contributor out of 20000 people.

So, today, I felt fear to writing problems and being the writer.

Human always have a probability to make some mistakes. Fortunately, there are no serious bug in my contests, and all official contests which I already wrote was rated. But any time any people can make mistake. So all of the writer always have probability to fail and get -500 downvotes, and finally they may die in competitive programming.

What is your opinion? I want to listen others' opinion.

E869120

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +180 Vote: I do not like it

I think you're exaggerating.

I don't see how downvotes (or upvotes for that matter) can change anyone's life, or how could anyone "die in competitive programming" because of them.

So, today, I felt fear to writing problems and being the writer

What exactly are you afraid of?

Getting downvotes for making a contest is unpleasant, sure. I don't think it goes further than that.

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +69 Vote: I do not like it

Do you want to get the feedback to improve or you just want everyone to cherish you? =)
What's the point of having the downvote button then? I don't understand.

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +243 Vote: I do not like it

So don't make any problems (and annoying blogposts).

I make contests because there are some interesting problems in my mind and I want to share them with community. If I fucked up when I was preparing the problems then it is my fault and I should agree with community that my problems are bad.

If all you do is for some 'contribution points' not real contribution then go to hell.

If you don't want to hear real opinions about your problems -- nothing easier, host contests on HackerEarth. Nobody cares about quality and you won't lose your 'contribution points'. No real contribution though but who cares about interesting well-prepared problems anyway.

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +60 Vote: I do not like it

Sometimes I also make mistakes during preparing problems.(For example, make mistake when preparing ICPC world final team selection contest of my university such that the result is unfair). It make me quite depressed and think about stopping create new problems at that moment. But after some hours passing, I will recall the mood of thinking out wonderful problem idea and continue to create new problems. At the same time, I will think about how to avoid the same mistake being produced in the future.

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7 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

What's the point of being upset over fake internet points? Sure, if it is a terrible contest, you will get downvotes, but they don't really mean anything. Certainly not anything that has

completely changed the writer's life.

If you really care about some green number by your post, then at the least you will be motivated to write better contest.

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -71 Vote: I do not like it

Yes, but it's only about codeforces. (It means votes doesn't matter in some other contests).
But I think codeforces is the most dangerous site for doing problem writer. First, you see that there are many "is it rated" like comments in the blog and I think this comments give pressure to problem writer. Second, if the contest fails or slow network server for bad luck, you will get downvotes. In Tinkoff Challenge Elimination Round, only because there are geometry problem, it was once highly downvoted. In Codeforces Round #444, all problem which discussed that the quality was bad (A, C, D), was not created by the announcement blog author, but only and the announcement blog author got downvotes. And also, mistakes on problem statement is a human nature (one way to solve this problem is, employ person who mainly check the problem statement).
Positive contribution may not meant there are some credits, but I think negative contribution means "no credit, which no one think he/she is a good person". So it means it is almost equivalent to that he/she is exiled from competitive programming world. I think "die in competitive programming" is too excessive, but he/she is almost certain that quit codeforces if he/she got -1000 or -2000 in announcement blog of some codeforces round.

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

    I feel you think of contribution too seriously. I think few people think contribution on Codeforces is important in order to judge you. Only stupid people think it's important. Most people are too smart to judge you by only down-voting. IF YOU WANT TO BE ADMIRED BY SUCH PEOPLE, you need to make your best not to cause such a situation.

    I agree down-voting can be some kind of signal to decide you did something bad/wrong. However, the criterion of voting of the people is too simple and sometimes naive. For example, a down-voting can happen only for one's bad luck in the contest. Therefore, it's okay not to care about votes for your posts as far as you feel you didn't do any bad thing. If not, you should just accept people's honest opinions.

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +55 Vote: I do not like it

    Says the one who has never written a problemset for Codeforces.

    When I wrote a contest on Codeforces, I got some catcalls on blog comment. But it is impossible to revert the time and fix the issue and restart the contest, and I ignored the comment about bad English problem statement because it's the hardest thing to improve. (I honestly think it's a very bad side of Codeforces problem setting that there are no permanent English revisers and contestants are sometimes forced to read gibberish or illogical problem statements.)

    Why do you still care too much about Contribution? To be honest, I couldn't see the reason other than the fact you cannot increase the rating itself and you are trying to escape from the fact by seeing the value of Contribution instead. Do you want to be a red-contributor rather than a redcoder? If else, use the time writing meaningless posts or comments for solving past problems.

    As a JOI tutor, I really hope you two will practice effectively and do well in the contests.

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -61 Vote: I do not like it

      Thanks.

      Btw recently I don’t care about contribution as much as a few months ago (e.g. My comment rate/how often decreased than then)

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

      Why did you ignore comments about bad English? Bad English makes problems harder to understand and that's a real issue. If you agree that this could have been true then maybe next time it would be a good idea to ask for help some friend who is fluent in English? Or ask Codeforces staff for help adressing this issue? (Inb4, I am aware that my English is far from perfect, but nevertheless comments are less important than problem statements and ignoring these complaints doesn't sound like an appropriate reaction).

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        7 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

        When I prepared problem set on Codeforces, I asked for some internal staff for English revise. But writing task solution is much harder than that, we can barely state the solution clearly in the native language. What would happen nobody (isn't able to / loathe to spare time just for language review). Plus gadflies are faultfinding even on the contest announcement.

        Anyway, now that Japanese problem writers have AtCoder, where we only have to write statement in Japanese. The most problematic Englishless region is resolved peacefully.

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +42 Vote: I do not like it

    First, you see that there are many "is it rated" like comments in the blog and I think this comments give pressure to problem writer

    Duuude, are you reading my mind? I have always wanted to prepare a contest but these comments have been scaring the shit out of me since I was a little kid. When I was not a good boy, say I didn't eat my lunch, mama would always ask me "is it rated", simply to put pressure on me and make me feel bad. Fortunately, I currently have contribution I am happy with so at least I won't need to prepare a contest in the near future...

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

Extreme failure like that is good though because it teaches them to work harder and avoid failure.

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +33 Vote: I do not like it

Regarding feeling of fear... I think fear is not an appropriate feeling, but in general: YES, author SHOULD feel responsibility and pressure. If he doesn't, it is likely that he will create contest of not satisfying quality (misleading statements, weak tests, anything). Any platform (and Codeforces as well) should try to hold contests of good quality only. I prefer no problem rather than problem about solving Rubik's cube in one move with wrong explanatory pictures, preparing such problem is simply harmful to Codeforces. Our community doesn't suffer from lack of setters, we should not glorify everybody who is willing to devote one day of his life to prepare any shit.

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