On occasion when helping someone with their homework or other problem, I have come up with somewhat different problems that I think would either be useful to people trying to learn the stuff or just fun to others. But I don't see where an appropriate place to post such questions would be.

So what I am proposing is a forum dedicated to problems posted by members as friendly challenges to other members. The spirit of the forum should be such that the expectation is that the poster has already solved the problem and is expected to either post the solution along with the problem or to specify a date on which they intend to post the solution. People that suspect that it is a ploy to get someone to do their homework can either say so or can just wait until after the OP's solution is posted before contributing.

I envision a variety of threads, ranging from very simple problems that have some little trick or sutble element to very challenging problems from experienced members aimed at other very experienced members in which the OP answers lots of questions and gives out hints over time before revealing their solution.

 

I like the idea. But I 'd recommend that the answer is given in a link to another post (in a blog, for example). That way we can be sure that it's not a homework question.

I can't create a new forum, only admins can. You can settle for a single thread for now, which I can sticky.

 

I don't have any huge objection to the answer being in a blog. One way that should address the homework issue is to only allow people with a minimum number of posts to start threads in that forum (I think vBulletin allows that, or something equivalent, which to not let member classes such as New Member or Junior Member start threads.

I would recommend against using a sticky for this purpose. But what I think would be a great idea would be to put a sticky in the new forum which could be a list of links to the "best of" threads. Over time, it could develop into an organized list with sections on different areas of intrest.

 

I like the idea too. Are the posts restricted to academic like solving equations, circuit theories, maths, circuit simulations and such OR it can be any type that you have solved?

Allen

 

That would be up for the admin and mods to decide, but I would say any kind of problem should be fair game. I would recommend in the sticky that there be essentially a copy and paste little template that people can put at the beginning of their post that let's the OP describe what kind of problem it is, what the goal of the problem is, their estimate on how difficult the problem is, perhaps what kind of background (such as math or circuit theory) is being assumed. Of course, individual OPs will choose whether to use the template or not (so it should be kept lean), but it will help both people that want to maintain an index and people that just want to skim through the forum (or search it) and find problems of interest to them.

 

Anything that requires admin approval is not likely at this time, as their workload is maxed out.

A challenge could be done by a member, but we don't take money, nor adverts, so the only prize possible is bragging rights.

 

I'm not talking about that kind of a challenge. I'm talking only about a new forum as a place where people could post interesting problems that they think others might enjoy either working for themselves or just seeing the problem and the solution. There would be no winners or prizes or anything like that.

 

A new forum is a non-starter, as it absolutely requires active administrator participation. It is not something a moderator can do. And as I have said, they will fix existing problems, but do not have time for fundamental modifications of AAC.

As Georacer said, we can sticky a thread in the Electronics Chat forum for a set duration, this is as close as we can currently go at the moment.

Or you can create something in a blog. Members have a lot of control in their personal blogs.

 

I +1 the idea, too bad the admins are busy