Problems of the Week status
The 'Problems of the Week' section has not been updated for three weeks. Are we witnessing the demise of this section (which appeared to be quite popular) or is it just in hiatus while the 'Today' section is being given the spotlight?
Note by
Brian Charlesworth
2 years, 5 months ago
No vote yet
1 vote
Easy Math Editor
This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.
When posting on Brilliant:
*italics*or_italics_**bold**or__bold__paragraph 1
paragraph 2
[example link](https://brilliant.org)> This is a quote# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"\(...\)or\[...\]to ensure proper formatting.2 \times 32^{34}a_{i-1}\frac{2}{3}\sqrt{2}\sum_{i=1}^3\sin \theta\boxed{123}Comments
Before this change happened, the first thing people would see when they entered Brilliant is the Problems of the Week section. Now it is replaced by the Daily Problems sections. Now let's talk the pros and cons of this change.
The pros:
It allows users to understand more about a particular concept. The Problems of the Week could not do so. Only the problems are there, you can not dive deeper to understand more.
It makes for a more interesting experience. Instead of taking a pen, paper, a calculator and other stuff, you can read more about the subject, then use the knowledge you had for the problem. When taking the Problems of the Week, some users feel stressed, I would assume so.
And because it makes for a more interesting experience, people would be more interested in trying out Brilliant. (And that is where business steps in.)
(- The illustrations are better. It shows their full potentials at illustrating stuff, which is good for the visuals. Some people can't stand looking at long passages without a picture. So the pictures help them understand the concept better.)
The cons:
The Daily Problems are not challenging. People come here not only for learning, but also for putting their skills to the test, and from doing Problems of the Week, they could learn more tips and tricks for solving math problems.
People are no longer creating problems in their pastime because the problems are created by staff, the community have no control over what they want to see and solve.
The staff does not take inspirations from popular community problems and discussions. So you would not see something familiar about the community when you are solving Daily Problems.
( - It ruins the surprise of seeing your problems on Problems of the Week. It felt very delighted, satisfied. It made your day or even your week. If your problems were on Problem on the Week, it means your problems are well received by the community.)
My suggestions:
They said that teachers should learn from their students. It is not wrong.
Log in to reply
Great analysis! I can see how the 'pros' you mention will help draw in more users, but as your 'cons' outline, they don't provide much of a challenge, which is where the 'Problems of the Week' (which had been very popular) and Community problems would then prove useful. I don't understand why they can't keep all the sections so as to satisfy all Brilliant members; perhaps their operating system can't carry the load and they have to choose one over the other as a result, but if this is not the case then I think that they have made a bad decision.
Log in to reply
If Brilliant can get even more personalized for each person's use, it would be great.
I believe the "problem of the week" is being replaced by the "problem of the day"
Log in to reply
That does look to be the case. I suspect the Community page is on its last legs too: there appears to be increasingly fewer problems being created by the community and a decreasing participation rate in those problems as well. I think that there are just a relatively small handful of hard-core members left who engage in the Community section, so it may soon make no business sense for Brilliant to keep maintaining it. When that happens this site will have little draw for me, which is regrettable but I realize they're just doing what they feel is required to make the site financially viable. The shift from Community to Content is nearly complete.
Log in to reply
Oh man, I hope that is not true. The "Community" page represents the overwhelming majority of my interaction with the site. Maybe we should start archiving our problems? I've got almost 500 of them now.
Log in to reply
I don't think we would need to worry about archiving. We can already access our problems by way of our Posts option as well as by using the Search function on our names, and I can't imagine staff eliminating our problems and means of accessing them. But while our past problems will (most likely) remain in circulation, my concern is losing the ability to create new problems: the POTWeek section used community-created problems almost exclusively, while the POTDay section appears to only use staff-generated problems, so if this is the direction they're going then they won't rely on the community's contributions anymore, making the option to create problems expendable. (This would also eliminate one of the incentives for posting problems in the first place, further dampening the rate of problem creation.) This option must be quite a drain on their system, so it makes little financial sense to maintain it for the relatively few members who are now still using it. I may be overreacting here, but the 'Community to Content' shift has been going on for some time now and this assessment strikes me as the natural progression of their plan for this site.
Log in to reply
Sir, even I have noticed the shifting trend from "Community to Content"......Also, some people who had been active during the last two years have resurfaced and were surprised by the changes too............Consider this note............
Log in to reply
Good to see such a lively discussion in the note you refer to! Yes, it must look like a completely different site to someone returning after a two year absence. I think staff would have been happy to have kept the site as it was if that could have been financially viable, but the feedback they were getting from newer members was a desire for more courses, more individual learning, and more privacy in general, so that is the direction they have taken. To make a business work you have to give the majority of the members what they want (especially if they are willing to pay for it), even if it might disappoint a minority of others. That said, I'm still surprised that they appear to be ending the Problems of the Week section; it seemed to be extremely popular.
Log in to reply
Hi @Brian Charlesworth – it was somewhat popular, but it was also not growing. The cost of editing, writing, and selecting problems each week along with the lack of appeal to new members/a wider audience is why we decided to change things up.
@Brian Charlesworth @Steven Chase I'd like point out one detail – the discussions are perhaps the most popular and interesting part of Daily Problems, and they are entirely community generated. The community on Brilliant is alive and well – looks a little different though :)
Find other websites that provide a similar service. To be honest, I have not found one single site that is comparable to Brilliant's old model.
you can export your problems at any time via the export data section of your account settings.
I'm very happy to say that we have no intention of removing the community section, and in fact intend to invest significant resources in discussions features on Daily Problems, the wiki pages, and challenge quizzes (which are composed of community problems).
As I've described here and elsewhere on other notes, our larger mission is to inspire and develop, which necessitates constantly reaching out and empathizing with new kinds of people. Sometimes, that means painful changes to existing features and community flows...
Log in to reply
I didn't understand what is this "export data" option. Can you explain it further and what is it's purpose ?
Log in to reply
@Ram Mohith – https://brilliant.org/account/settings/data-portal/personal-data-export/ if you go there, you should see a button that says "Export our old saved sets". This will give a you some CSVs with your saved sets data, including links to all the problems that existed in the sets.
Log in to reply
thank you. I got it.
Didn't Andrew Hayes(or other staffs) send you a mail about the change?
Log in to reply
Yes, but I didn't read the whole email because I got other things to do.
Log in to reply
I was disappointed about it when I got the mail, because really few people go to the community page and see our problems.
Log in to reply
Okay, this is just a side note, but does this discussion sound like the discussion about the YouTube algorithm?
Log in to reply
Sorry, but can you explain what is happening about the YouTube algorithm?
Log in to reply
Well, the YouTube algorithm prefers quantity over quality (i.e. channels that post videos frequently, more than once a week over channels that post actually excellent videos which take time.)
This created "content farms". These channels post videos at least three times a day on a daily basis and these videos are just compilations of short clips so that the videos are at least 10 minutes. There is a rule in YouTube that forbids duplicates, but it views the whole video and not the separate parts because there would be misleading. There are many videos talking about this topic on YouTube, obviously.
Log in to reply
Thanks for telling me!
Yes. Fortunately, with YouTube, they can take a hit when they lose viewership. With Brilliant, they may struggle to stay afloat, as they have to totally change their ways to rake in new customers and keep their current base.
Log in to reply
But I think, with YouTube, they are surely able to drag some new customers, but really few of them would stay for over a week.
They claim that they have over 6 million users, but I think that is quite misleading.
All of this leads me to an unusual solution: Getting Brilliant even more personalised. From the important features like the Daily Problems and Problems of the Week to the less important ones like the Wiki of the Day and the Featured Members.
No, I never got an email about this. Did they mention why the 'Problems of the Week' section is being eliminated? And did they mention anything about the option to create problems for the community?
Log in to reply
Hello, Brian. I will send you a copy of the email. You can still create problems for the community through the "Start contributing" button at the bottom of the "Community" tab.
Log in to reply
Thanks for passing along the email, Andrew. While I know that we can still contribute (and how to do that), my concern is that without the incentive of having problems elevated to POTW status, members will feel even less inclined to bother posting problems, further accelerating the declining rate of participation on the Community section. Just as other features have been eliminated due to waning use, it's not hard (for me anyway) to foresee the same fate for this section. While regrettable, this would just be a byproduct of the evolving nature of this site (and the new users it is attracting) with the goal of making it financially viable. That said, I will hang around to see how the "renewed Discussions experience" you mentioned in the email manifests, in the hopes that it might revive in part the community "vibe" from years past.
One further question, if I may: you mention that past community problems that "are currently archived in the Problems of the Week and Challenge quizzes" will be integrated into existing wikis. Will community problems not so archived be gradually culled, or will they still be able to be accessed through our Posts and via the Search feature? @Steven Chase asked me whether we should be privately archiving our past problems, just in case.
Thanks again for your response.
Log in to reply
Do not expect the website to follow through with your concerns. While I did not expect them to eventually "disappear" the Community section, I saw most of it coming; I can understand Brilliant's intentions to do all this (they are a for-profit company, after all), and I respect their decision in all matters (including "removing" the Community section), as it would've been highly suspect for them to keep the Community section AND post courses for money. My advice is to not stress too much and demand from the website things they cannot and will not give, but rather to find other outlets that provide the service you want to be using; Reddit would be the first place to go, but I haven't found anything that is comparable to what Brilliant does.
Log in to reply
Brilliant is still a unique and worthwhile site, and I sincerely wish them success, but with the changes they've implemented they are now catering to a different clientele than in the past. So many members who I have enjoyed interacting with have left, and the Community section is grinding to a halt. If there were another site that provided the same experience that Brilliant did two or three years ago I would quickly join it, but as you have found, such a site does not appear to exist. I've been an active member for five years, so it's hard to break the habit, but there's not much left that I find particularly engaging here.
Log in to reply
Thanks for your message. I am thinking of creating a similar website to StackExchange, but would like to adopt the old forum-style format with LaTeX enabled on it; this forum would only be expressly for mathematical stuff, unfortunately.
I admit that I'm someone who enjoyed solving the 'Problems of the Week' but not interested in paying for the courses. I can understand from a business point of view that they want to encourage people to pay for content. It seems that the problem of the day is a way to entice you to take one of their courses. However, I really think Brilliant is doing itself a disservice by abandoning this vibrant online community, where people could share and solve problems. Building a strong community with active users has business value too. So until they bring this feature back, I will have to get my problem solving fix somewhere else.
Log in to reply
Hi @Justin Brown – Daily Problems was developed entirely with non-paying users in mind (yes, they are related to courses, but that is part of a larger effort to make all of the content on Brilliant more interconnected).
Problems of the Week had reached a point of stagnation as it only could appeal to people who already had a desire to solve puzzles on their own. I'll note that it is perfectly possible for the community to organize a problems of the week discussion post each week, with the best problems linked into the discussion – all of the tools are still there :) Thanks to so many fantastic people, including others on this thread, there are more fantastic problems posted to Brilliant each week than can usually be done be any one person.
Log in to reply
Yes. The idea of having problems of the week in discussion will be quite good. But to make it a still better way for the users to enjoy POTW in discussions the staff help is required.
Firstly, instead of keeping the links in the discussions, the staff can modify that particular note so that the problem directly appears on the note and we must click on it to get the full display of question (it will be better than just keeping links) just like "Try it Yourself" questions in the wiki pages.
Secondly, the staff should keep that particular note in the community page or make that note popular in such a way that it is visible to all the users throughout the week.
Third, the staff can lock the note so that nobody can change it and also, the staff can save all such notes in the website just like problems of the week archives so that the users will not miss any problem.
I hope these are some good suggestions if many users liked the idea of having POTW in notes.
Log in to reply
Thanks @Ram Mohith – we've definitely considered a couple of these, like embedded problems directly into a note. We'll spend some time figuring out whether or not these are viable ideas.
Log in to reply
You can give out the template of how you imagine a note about the new Problems of the Week would look like, the aesthetics, I would say.
There is another thing the staff forget to rectify before bringing the new changes. It is nothing but before brilliant was updated the wiki contributors' used to get many followers and I have also seen somewhere on brilliant that "The wiki writers and contributor's will be followed by users". But now the followers and following features are removed so the wiki contributor's are left with nothing.
So, the staff should think of any other feature for wiki writers. I personally suggest brilliant staff to add another feature in "Impact" on Contribution page mentioning "to how many wikies that particular user contributed". Let's say a particular user has contributed to 15 wikies in total then it should give in Impact as "15 wiki contribution's".
I request to keep this additional feature for wiki writer's (like me and many others) so that many will be encouraged to contribute to wiki's and Brilliant previous activeness will come back up to some extent.
How is this idea and what do you think about this @Calvin Lin , @Aaghaz Mahajan , @Steven Chase , @David Vreken , @Thành Đạt Lê , @X X and others.
Log in to reply
That is a great idea, I personally have not contributed to any wikis before (because I am too lazy to do so), I think that any effort put into giving out knowledge to everyone to learn should be appreciated.
@Ram Mohith these are great suggestions, and we're working on related implementations now!
Another observation worth mentioning with the new change is that the ratio of science questions has increased. With the problems of the week, about 4 out of the 15 were science problems. With the new daily problems, about half of the questions are science problems.
Another step taken by staff : "They have remove all the sets".
Log in to reply
Oh no! I wonder what will be removed next? :(
Log in to reply
I already knew what will be removed next: Featured Members. Firstly, it is put at the bottom of the page, so almost no one will scroll to the end of the page just to be some people in the spotlight (in the eyes of the staff). Secondly, it doesn't have an impact on anything at all. Like, what is the purpose of that feature? If there is a purpose, then does it change the experience I am having with Brilliant? Do the people who are featured take that as a worthy achievement in their lives? Probably not. (And I totally do not hate any of those people that were featured. I apologize if I offended you.)
Those were just my thoughts. I hope Brilliant can come up with something enjoyable and not really sticking to the point that they are trying to "give free users a high-quality curated learning experience that is similar to our courses".
Log in to reply
That's a good guess; I doubt anyone notices that section anymore. After that, once they introduce their "renewed Discussion experience", which will be more staff-directed, they will probably eliminate the option of members creating their own Discussion posts. That may be a positive step if done right, since the majority of Discussion posts I see now, while often worthwhile, don't get any attention at all, while staff-generated discussions might generate more community activity.
I can get why this change was made. Before when the creators have followers, one of the notifications the followers had is that the people they followed have just created a new problem/note in one of the sets they created earlier. There were even competitions built in there. (Well, not really. There was a section in the sets where you can be told who many people have looked in the sets, how many problems the followers read, how many notes were read, and rankings.)
But now, when the creators can't be followed by people who want to see their problems and notes (to see if are any interesting or not, or the creators are their favourites, or simply because that the followers and the creators are related people in real life), there should still be sets because categorise the creators' problems and notes into sections for the readers to easily find them and because there are problems that are written to be connected with other problems, to give the readers understand more about the creators' minds at work. (And because I am writing a story, a set would be great to put them together for a fluent and uninterrupted experience.)
Log in to reply
And also I have my fact file set where I am keeping all the notes related to science and technology. All of them are gone now.
Log in to reply
Again, you can download them all in the "Export your data" section of the account settings.
I used the Sets option to save questions I wanted to work on later, so I can't access those now. We can still use the "Recent problems" option to search for problems we've left unfinished in the past, but that is not as convenient as accessing our own personal sets. I guess they're just eliminating options that are seldom used by the vast majority of members so as to conserve on their resources.
Log in to reply
I think they should think about most people joined Brilliant for about a week and left. Of course most people don't even use these functions!
Log in to reply
I could not agree more. This website used to work as a multiplayer Facebook game. There were events, competition, limited missions and prizes. The game could keep you interested in every new update it got, there was never a goal to be achieved to end the game, because why would you want to end a great story like that. The game also has challenges for people to do them together, and that is where people makes new friends. A great example is all of the Candy Crush Saga games series: Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Candy Crush Jelly Saga and Candy Crush Friends Saga. The developers have events for excitement and hours of fun, they keep coming up levels for players to focus on the story. They wait for a few years for the hype to die down then release a new game for fans to enjoy, it acts as a new chapter in the never-ending adventures without letting the players forget the last version of the series. (And they know how to make you spend money on their games, although it is totally free on the App Store and Google Play.) Maybe it's not correct when I say each game is a chapter, because even these chapters don't ever end, too. Yes, you can't focus on playing four games at the same time. You aren't forced to do that. You can choose between the four games, there are varieties. (And this is not an advertisement for King Games, trust me. Because I had played these games before, I can tell how they are like.)
All of those points were valid when applied to the past version of Brilliant. And now the game has a goal when you are done with that goal, you are basically done, and you can move on with your life, starting a new one. The features they put on Brilliant is not that interesting, and they recently haven't got any new events to be done. One of the reasons that I can think of is that all of the past events that were actually enjoyable used "Problems of the Week" as a foundation to be built on. You may not see the connections there, but there was all the time.
Log in to reply
Hi @Thành Đạt Lê – we haven't had competitions, limited missions, nor prizes for 4+ years!
As much as I would like to see something like Candy Crush for math and science, I'm quite confident that such an effort is doomed to remain tiny and never reach out past people who already really, really love math and science. Educational ladder games (like Candy Crush) have been tried in math and science for four decades – since the birth of the PC, and all have failed.
Brilliant's mission is to extend beyond such people who already love these subjects... and THAT is why we're constantly changing things. The core reason that Problems of the Week had to be changed was that its appeal was stagnant – it had not grown in interest for a quite some time.
Log in to reply
All of the point I had said is not applied as precisely to Brilliant. It's just similarities, and not the same all the way around. Isn't the point of Brilliant making learning more enjoyable and understandable for users?
Log in to reply
Absolutely.
I think this will be a good idea. The staff should allow the features like sets only for some special users and not for all users. Other community members can work on those sets.
Log in to reply
Hi @Ram Mohith and @Brian Charlesworth – a rough estimate for Brilliant to maintain a feature like Set is $50,000... per year.
As much as I'd love to see such a complex feature stay around, this is the reason it had to be changed and simplified to appeal to the way most people who use Brilliant wish to use the feature.
Log in to reply
Is it okay if I ask for what does all of the money is for every feature that has recently been deleted in Brilliant and who is the receiver of all the money you spent?
Log in to reply
The receiver of the money we spend are the employees at Brilliant (as well as our landlord, our server providers, etc. etc.)
Thanks for all the replies, Silas. I appreciate that it's a tricky balancing act in making this site financially viable and that you will never be able to please all of the people all of the time in the choices you make. I'm glad you find that the discussions in the Daily section are lively, but to me they have a more ephemeral quality than those in past years when the Community section was more active, and even when the Problems of the Week era was still in play. In catering to newer users with different preferences and expectations, the 'old guard' of Brilliant that I most enjoyed interacting and collaborating with has for the most part moved on. Mobile is where the profit is and the changes to the site and its membership reflect that reality. I'm grateful for the years on Brilliant as it once was, and wish you the best in the pursuit of your mission. (I'll stick around to see how things evolve.)
Log in to reply
Hi @Brian Charlesworth – yep, I hear you.
To be clear, "mobile" alone has little to do with our development of Daily Problems. It is fundamentally about how to inspire and develop people's love of these subjects. In essence, how do we create more people like the people that you love(d) interacting with, from the old guard... what do you think is the best way to do it?
Log in to reply
First, just wanted to note that the new "Save" option and "Saved" file work great, so thanks to you and the team for getting those up and running. :)
Sorry about being off target with the "mobile" comment; I just assumed that the narrower design of the "Today" problem and explanation section (interesting that they are "explanations" now and no longer "solutions", (must be some psychology going on there)) was more mobile-friendly, and that most new users were accessing the site via their phones. Shows you what little I know about site design and marketing. :/
As for creating a "new guard" ... There seems to be enough enthusiastic young rebels like Ram, Henry U, Thanh, etc., to form the foundation of the "new guardians", and they appear to be forming strategies on their own of how to foster that network using the site tools that are available to them now. I think that hearing out what ideas they have, as you have been doing on these Discussion pages, is the best first step to reviving an interacting community which has some permanence.
Log in to reply
Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think that I am suitable for this position. My English is as broken as my life, school and math competitions got in the way,... But I would be happy if I was the assistant of the "new guardians" you had just said.
Log in to reply
But you can have a try. A a teenagers I agree that we take decisions fast and sometimes in the process make mistakes and also some blunders. But I think this is called as "experience" which we will realize only after an important stage in our life has passed away (teenage). It is the first stage in our life where we should start taking responsibilities as this the age of power and enthusiasm. But be careful ! Do it with patience. I believe patience is the most powerful weapon a person can have (like Mahatma Gandhi whom the world still remembers for his non-violent nature). Don't stick to your weakness and focus on your strength. This will automatically build self-confidence and determination power in you.
Log in to reply
Okay, I'll try. But for now, I need to know what to do.
Log in to reply
Even I too don't what to do at present. At present I am contributing to the wiki "Function Arithmetic"
Log in to reply
Don't worry, the two of you don't have to figure out what to do all on your own. Staff said in an e-mail that they will be introducing an enhanced Discussion section sometime soon, so we can see how that works out before deciding what to do next. I think that there just needs to be a designated place on this site where we all know we can go to discuss whatever comes to mind.
Log in to reply
Let's see what will happen.
It reminded me of a time when there were discussions made by Jason Dyer, I think so, about ideas that would create problems for the Problems of the Week section. I hope that would return soon for Daily Problems section. It will still be fine with it is for fun.
Hi @Thành Đạt Lê – how about using a discussion/note for making a story?
Log in to reply
Is there a limit of how many characters to be typed?
Log in to reply
No.
As the sets are removed I recently got one new idea and I have implemented it to my missing number series and I hope it is working quite well. The thing here is that to keep the link of the previous one and the next one as the continuation of the present problem or a discussion. By this way if any person can see atleat one question from the series then he can get access to all other questions (or) notes in that series. Hope this suggestion helps you to continue your story writing series @Thành Đạt Lê .
Log in to reply
Yes, this is fantastic! And they could also be indexed in a a Note that links to all of them.
Log in to reply
Yes. That's good as well and the link for the note can be kept in every question instead of "previous" and "next one"
Great idea, Ram; really creative! :)
Log in to reply
Thank you sir.
Hi @Ram Mohith and @Thành Đạt Lê – (1) you can download all saved folders from the "Export data" section of your account settings and (2) the "Saved" feature will be live in the next 24 hours across the site.
Again, I extend my deepest apologies for the disruption and the anxiety that these sorts of changes bring. As I have explained elsewhere (including in the now famous Brilliant Changes post, none of these changes feel easy to make, but we do feel strongly that they are both necessary and will make the Brilliant community healthier over the long term.
Log in to reply
So let me guess, these are the simplified reasons why Brilliant changed for the past months:
Brilliant is understaffed and there aren't enough people to keep up with all of the work to maintain the past stage of Brilliant.
The cost to keep a feature alive is staggering and you didn't have enough money to do so.
The features weren't used much by users.
The past version of Brilliant is not appealing to new users.
Please comment if there are any other reasons why Brilliant changed. Thank you for standing out and explain the confusion that is going on right now.
I downloaded my data back in March of last year and wanted to revisit now that I have some free time, but all I have is a bunch of JSON files when I extracted the main file. Can you tell me how to access my saved sets and problems?
I request brilliant staff to introduce a way for app users to save problems and also create them. Everytime, while saving, it shows error 404(palindrome in base -31)
@Andrew Hayes