CptnCodon wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 11:57 pm
Please permit me to dream for a moment... Does anyone else wish that the WSJ could send out two emails to everyone that submits an answer:
1) A confirmation email immediately after submission saying "Yes, we've received your email"
2) An email on Monday informing whether the submitted answer was right or not Something along the lines of "Congratulations! Your submission, XXX, was right! You and XXX other people correctly solved this puzzle. Unfortunately, your entry wasn't randomly chosen as the mug winner. Try again next week!"
The first one would be very easy as every email system I know of already has the capacity to automatically respond to every message. It's usually used for vacation notices, but instead of the automatic message being, "I'm out of town this week; I'll reply when I get back." it could just say, "Thanks for your submission. Good luck."
The second one though is not just a programming challenge, it requires that a person look at every single entry (or at least every entry that is not exactly what they were looking for) to decide if it is acceptable. A brilliant feature of the way WSJ set this up is that they only have to decide whether to accept any given alternate answer if it happens to be the randomly selected potential winner.
** As a WSJ subscriber, I don't see these puzzles as "free" but rather as a part of what I pay for with my subscription. I am delighted that WSJ shares them with the public, so to all the non-subscribers, on behalf of the subscribers, you're welcome!
If you want help with a meta, feel free to PM me. The more specific you are about what you have and what you want, the more likely I can help without spoiling.
(And if I help you win a mug, I’ll be especially delighted.)