A genuine question for all you puzzlers out there: What makes you give the rate you give? Logic? Quality of picture? Difficulty? Something else? I'm genuinely interested! Thanks.
For me the highest and first criteria is the logic. And I really give value for authors that test their puzzles, as you do. The challenge of it is the next criteria for my score rating process. I do not mind so much with the picture, as I did not use the fast method to find the solution by "guessing" the picture format. Indecipherable pictures has the same avaliation if follow the others criterias. But, of course, some puzzles are incredible well done with very high quality of drawing and artistic knowledge that makes me automatically give the highest score.
I've been curious about how everyone give out ratings as well! Kudos to you for making the inquiry.
My ratings are based on the aspects previously listed: logic, picture quality, and difficulty. Most puzzles get at least 4 stars for those aspects. The final aspects that makes the rating go up or down are 'wow factor' and uniqueness. 5 stars are generally very rare from me.
4 stars = Fabulous design and enjoyable to complete. 5 stars = Golden Buzzer! How did you do that?!
I'm very black and white, most I give 5 stars as long as they are logical, those that aren't get 0. If a puzzle has a few ambiguous at the end but makes sense, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Those that aren't good but aren't bad enough for 0 I just don't rate at all.
As for ratings, I also go by logic as the most important factor.
0,5: Complete guesswork 1 or 1,5: Symmetrical puzzles, only if the image made solving it worthwhile.
3: Mostly logical with either a bit of symmetry needed or *very* heavily dependant on temporaries, if the picture is good or the result made me smile 3,5 or 4.
4: Completly logical, or logical with few possible solutions at the end (single dots usually), again if I liked the image I'll go up to 4,5.
Full five stars I reserve for the ones that are logical as well as artistic images. I absolutly admire those creators who can do that!
Size doesn't matter too much to me, and I don't mind or even enjoy a simple puzzle once in a while. In fact, if a small puzzle can actually pull of a good image, that might be worth bonus points in my book, just because it's so hard to do.
As for grading puzzles: -If it is illogical by a few minor pieces it doesn't bother me too much. 0.5/1: A waste of my time solving. Is illogical, ugly, just for clicks, and adds little if any quality to the site. 2.0: I don't tend to give puzzles 2 stars for some reason 3.0: Very lazy. Just there to get clicks but has a decent image. 3.5: Logical but less than impressive image. It's an image that isn't bad but is really lazy or doesn't look much like it is supposed to. 4: Average 4.5: Above average but is missing something that could easily improve it. Perhaps it had a lot of illogical pieces or the face wasn't too right. Sometimes hit on accident. 5: Wonderful image, really funny, great image, impressive work. Must be logical or have a picture that is well done to compensate.
-As for whether something is more or less based on the difficulty, I generally don't care. I tend to make mistakes so I prefer solving easier ones, but I don't rate puzzles any more or less based on how hard it is. Just don't waste my time. :p Don't make puzzles just to get more points on the site.
Thank you to all who have left a comment, it has been very insightful! Much of what has been said, I figured anyway. There do seem to be some people on the site who don't rate highly: the reason for the question was because after the first 5-10 people has solved it, it had a rating of only 3 stars. But those were people who solved it before I asked the question, and likely don't leave comments anyway.
As for me (since I asked the question, it's only fair that I answer as well): 0-1: Completely illogical and/or very plain image. 2-3: Can solve less than half with logic and mediocre image. 4: Only minor ambiguities at the end and a pretty decent image (size doesn't matter... despite the title of one of my puzzles!). 4.5: Only minor ambiguities at the end and a very good image (needs to be bigger than 10x10). 5: Completely logical, spectacular image.
The difficulty doesn't really affect my ratings, but if an awesome bit of logic is required in the middle (i.e. pretty tough stuff), then I will likely rate 0.5-1 star higher because the sense of satisfaction is so much greater.
Thanks again for all the comments, and I'm very pleased that so many of you are enjoying my puzzles!
If we could get all these great comments about ratings put into a folder that could be accessed from main page then we could all be more consistent. Would be great for searching out the best puzzles. Cheers Everyone.
I've seen a lot of past comments praising the French hanjiestar website for its forums. Discussions on logic, ratings, tips for solving, and help with really hard or unsolvable puzzles would be great in a forum.
There is a 'Contact' link at the very bottom of the page.
What I like is: A puzzle a little bit hard but not so hard to get frustrated! A beautiful or funny final picture
I dislike: Puzzles hard as hell. Puzzle with lots of random choice to do. Puzzle with a final drawing without a meaning. Puzzle that are just texts (I hate that a lot) Puzzle too simple.