Reducing Repetition in Custom Sets

[newlook]

I am starting to see a lot of repetition in my personal problem sets. (I recently saw the same problem twice in a row!) If the algorithm that minimizes repetition in rated sets could be applied, that would be great. I realize that I can create new sets with never-seen-before problems, but I'd rather not make a lot of sets with the same theme.

[richard]

Hi newlook,

Applying the anti repetition code to the personal problem sets is a little tricky but certainly not impossible. I've added this to the todo list.  The current algorithm just takes a random problem from the set, so with reasonable sized sets repetition shouldn't be too much of a problem, but it could certainly be annoying on smaller sets.

Regards,

Richard.

[drahacikfm]

Newlook:  I saw in your history you are working on a problem set called 1300-1399.  I'm doing similar things, working my way up the standard-rated problems from the lowest to the highest.  Because when I do standard-rated, I never get problems below 1800, so I figure I will never see problems under 1800 unless I make a personal set and work on them.

So far I have done all problems rated under 1200 (4399 of them!).  When I make the personal sets, in the search I always click "Problems I have never got right".  Doesn't seem to make sense to choose any other option, because I only want to do each problem one time ( or once more if I got it wrong the first time).  Why would you want to make personal sets that allow repeats?  Richard already has it set up so you can avoid repeats.  I don't see why he needs to add complicated non-repeating code for sets a user creates without specifying no repeats, when it's easy to specify no repeats    If you created the set 1300-1399 with repeats, you can just delete that set, and create it again, this time specifying no repeats.  I did that several times when I made a mistake in the set creation.

[newlook]

I thought that the problem sets were static -- so if you created a set with "problems I have never seen" below 1000, the "never seen" part was only true at the time of set creation. As drahacikfm says, those conditions are dynamically updated, so problems I see are removed from the set. Thanks for the tip. I will use that feature, and I take back my request for an additional non-repetition algorithm.

[drahacikfm]

Yes, the sets are dynamic.  A "set" is not actually a saved list of problems.  It's the saved search parameters you used to create the set.  Each time you use the set, the search is done again with those parameters and one problem is shown to you.

Under the solving board, you see how many problems are left.  It's fun to see the number go down until you have done them all.  Then you get the message "The problem set is empty.  Please select another set" .. or something like that.  And you know you did them all!  But it's possible new problems will creep into that set later as the ratings of problems (or the tags) change.

[richard]

Newlook: I plan to support static sets at some point, but I will have to restrict the number of static sets each user can have as it could get quite expensive storing the explicit problem number of each set (especially as the number of users increases).  I think in most cases dynamic sets are more useful, the area where static sets would be useful is in creating hand picked custom sets where you can add to and remove specific problems from a set.  I really need to look at writing some kind of manual to describe the site features in a bit more detail, but I've putting this off as much as possible as it is more fun to work on more features than writing manuals :-)

Regards,
Richard.

[newlook]

I really need to look at writing some kind of manual to describe the site features in a bit more detail, but I've putting this off as much as possible as it is more fun to work on more features than writing manuals :-)

Maybe you could set up a wiki for us to collectively write documentation.

[richard]

Newlook: Great idea, are you aware of any wiki software than is geared especially towards user manual type wikis or do you think people usually use the mediawikia (same as wikipedia) stuff for this type of thing?

Regards,
Richard.

[newlook]

I don't know enough about the different wikis to recommend one over another. I think I've seen MediaWiki used more often (outside of Wikipedia), and it seems a safe choice in terms of features and support. WikiMatrix has a lot of comparison information. I didn't see any mention of a wiki specific to writing a manual, but you could narrow the field based on other features (page history, kind of database, free and open source, etc.).

[richard]

Thanks for the link newlook, lots of interesting wiki software. Some of the structured wikis such as Twiki look like they are intended for the slightly more structured job of user docs. I'll try to squeeze in some time to look a bit deeper into this, but it probably wont be a short term task.

Regards,
Richard.