Brilliantic of the Week: Week 1!

A couple days ago, Trevor B. and I had a joint idea to come up with a better "Who to follow" page. One of his ideas was to have a Brilliantic of the Week page. So let's have our own little voting board while the staff works on the real deal! State who your favorite user is (not necessarily of all time, just of this week) and what makes them so excellent. Also, @mention them so that other people can get to their account and so that they can receive their own votes! A link to their problems might also be helpful. For a full briefing on the idea, check out Trevor's note. Have fun and I'll give out the results on Monday!

NOTE: This is in no way official. Hopefully, this will demonstrate to the staff that the idea is valid, and it'll also be really fun. Also, try to avoid voting for yourself. Even if you truly think so. Also, the more you elaborate on how much you like a certain person, the better their chances. Enjoy!

#Finn #Vote #BOTW #Week1

Easy Math Editor

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`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
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Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
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Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Hey Finn, I just want to let you know that the staff did $\textbf{NOT}$ "ignore this request as usual" and that Peter and I have agreed that this is something that is in the works. To quote from an email he just sent me, "It's our (the Brilliant staff's) consensus, not just my opinion. Keep in mind that when you talk to the "staff of Brilliant," there is really only about 11 of us. It has also been an idea in the works for months, the only real decision was recognizing that now it is a "high priority" as opposed to something we can start another week.

Peter said that this is in the works on the original note. And to be honest, what you said does seem a little disrespectful. The Brilliant staff has their goals for what they think is best for the site; all we (the users) can do is suggest ideas. The staff is very responsive to ideas, but remember that this is a website that caters to a massive audience, so it can't implement a major change or addition in the blink of an eye. Please keep that in mind.

In addition, the Brilliant team has made a decision to (temporarily, I'm sure) not put you on the "People to follow" page. The reason could be anything: age, too diverse a range of problems, or as I think, too diverse a range of problems and time spent on Brilliant. Remember you got here at the beginning of the year, whereas people like Zi Song Yeau and myself have been here for over a year.

In summary, remember that your suggestions are valid, but also know that just because one person has an idea doesn't mean the idea will go full scale into something that blows up. Think of Mythbusters; they always make small scale models before the real experiment and then they, umm, blow things up. But you know what I mean!

Personally, I'd recommend you try to repurpose this thread to be something along the lines of posting your favorite problem from the person you are replying to or something like that. It might be a good way to get people to see some of the lesser-known users' problems.

Trevor B. - 7 years, 2 months ago

Okey doke. I was trying to get in contact with Peter, and I had assumed he'd been purposely ignoring me... Then I realized that I was emailing peter@brilliant.org instead of pete@brilliant.org. Oops. Anyways, I was a bit spiteful that almost none of the requests have been processed (yet). For example, Brilliant hasn't brought back old Brilliant, even after lots of request. Of course, I understand that it takes a while, but that's just the first thing I can think of. I also suggested a lot of other changes, such as leaderboards that were not ever listened to. Another thing, @Suyeon Khim has never EVER replied to a single one of my comments. Ever. Anyways, I guess you got my hint about not making the "Who to follow". I am the only person ever in Brilliant history to make it past 600 followers without getting on that page. It should be pretty obvious... I am a legit person "to follow". Sorry about my frustrations, I will edit the note. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

I just want to give you a head's up. When I was 13 on another site, I thought I was the stuff. I thought all of my suggestions were right and I got mad when my changes weren't implemented. I ended up leaving the site forever. You're a great contributing member to the site, and I think it would be really bad if you ended up the same way.

If you want a (better) response, I think it would be good to ask if they have seen and considered your idea and if they like it, tell you how they will implement it. That sounds more open and conversational than "Hey, here's my idea. Why haven't you implemented it yet?" (hypothetically speaking).

Be patient about the "Who to follow" page. Remember that you've only been here for a couple months. Pretty much all of the people on there have been there for a really long time. Keep up the amazing work you're doing, and you'll be up there soon enough. You just have to wait. Sound good?

PS - Thanks for saying that Peter's email is pete@brilliant.org. I think I'm lucky that he's been the one to email me first, or I would have made the same mistake.

Trevor B. - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Trevor B. – Haha, yeah. As for your question of me leaving, I think I can say with certainty that I am here to stay! :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

@Finn Hulse – Just be careful. I thought the same thing. Thanks for listening, though.

Trevor B. - 7 years, 2 months ago

I agree

Ashtik Mahapatra - 7 years, 2 months ago

My BOTW is by far @Daniel Liu ! His problems and solutions took a significant turn (for the better!) about a week ago. He's posted some amazing, textbook-perfect solutions to a lot of hard problems, and he himself has written a large amount of AMAZING problems. I cast my vote to him!

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

Finn, we agree with you and Trevor, and many others that featuring members of the week is a good idea.

I would just like to state that the when we do feature members of the week, it will not be a popularity contest by vote, for who gets it. Part of the purpose of it will be to feature people doing great things who may not be well connected within the social graph on Brilliant.

Peter Taylor Staff - 7 years, 2 months ago

Perhaps. And I recognize the fact. I'm thinking that this will be more of an opinion thing, which is really anyone's game. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

My BOTW is Finn! :D I feel he always has amazing and new ideas to improve Brilliant for the rest of us users, and he has tons of intriguing problems that never fail to captivate me.i cast my vote to Finn Hulse! :D

Yuxuan Seah - 7 years, 2 months ago

Definitely Finn.

Sharky Kesa - 7 years, 2 months ago

Thanks man! :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

Hi Finn !

I believe you are a mod . So I am asking you this , what do you think about updating the People to Follow page ?

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 2 months ago

You know people like you , @Agnishom Chattopadhyay , @Kishlaya Jaiswal and many others should get a chance to be there . What say ?

A Former Brilliant Member - 6 years, 2 months ago

As far as I know Finn is not a mod,

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 6 years, 2 months ago

Yea, I was too busy so I got taken off the mod list. But I still get updates from Slack. :P

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 2 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$