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Consensus has been reached.

I say this on Rubio's authority - the contents of this post are considered to be a part of the definition of this site's scope.

So, I posted this open-ended puzzle a while ago, looking forward to all the fun around it and the upvotes that would pour in.

Nope.

That question ended up with a score of +1, and 4 downvotes. (now +1, 7 downvotes. Meta effect.)

It was my first and last open-ended puzzle. It also sparked some discussion on TSL, where Deusovi said "I don't think open-ended "puzzles" should be on the site at all, to be completely honest. They're fun games, but IMO they're not puzzles."

To which Rubio replied "I don't mind open-ended puzzles. At least, not if they're any good, and are well constrained," only to say "Ok I think we actually do have a couple [of good open-ended puzzles], but - the bad ones are way more prevalent."

Deusovi mentioned that he didn't have time to bring up the idea of removing open-ended puzzles on Meta, and he was unsure that the proposal would be viewed positively in the first place.

So, armed with my poorly-performing question and Deusovi's agreement, here comes the main point:

Open-ended puzzles are too broad for this site.

Some reasons why:

1. There is almost never a final answer. Even the tag wiki admits as much! Questions with no final answer are unhealthy for SE's Q&A format. Also, to quote Deusovi again: "puzzles should have only one solution, and anything more than that is either a broken puzzle or not a puzzle at all."

2. Minimal effort is required on the part of the asker, encouraging lazy questions in general. (Credit to North for this idea)

3. The community isn't really a huge fan of these puzzles. I'm not the best puzzle-maker, but I'm not too bad, and I thought that my open-ended question was formatted and posed well. It still got 4 downvotes. That's a good indication that the type of puzzle it is isn't very popular.

With that being said, I hereby propose that we lock the "good" open-ended puzzles for their historical significance and close the rest.

Perhaps getting rid of the "open-ended" tag would be in order as well?

Consensus has been reached.

I say this on Rubio's authority - the contents of this post are considered to be a part of the definition of this site's scope.

So, I posted this open-ended puzzle a while ago, looking forward to all the fun around it and the upvotes that would pour in.

Nope.

That question ended up with a score of +1, and 4 downvotes. (now +2, 7 downvotes. Meta effect. Also, I've updated the score multiple times, and I'm tired of it XD. My point doesn't really rely on the current vote count, anyway.)

It was my first and last open-ended puzzle. It also sparked some discussion on TSL, where Deusovi said "I don't think open-ended "puzzles" should be on the site at all, to be completely honest. They're fun games, but IMO they're not puzzles."

To which Rubio replied "I don't mind open-ended puzzles. At least, not if they're any good, and are well constrained," only to say "Ok I think we actually do have a couple [of good open-ended puzzles], but - the bad ones are way more prevalent."

Deusovi mentioned that he didn't have time to bring up the idea of removing open-ended puzzles on Meta, and he was unsure that the proposal would be viewed positively in the first place.

So, armed with my poorly-performing question and Deusovi's agreement, here comes the main point:

Open-ended puzzles are too broad for this site.

Some reasons why:

1. There is almost never a final answer. Even the tag wiki admits as much! Questions with no final answer are unhealthy for SE's Q&A format. Also, to quote Deusovi again: "puzzles should have only one solution, and anything more than that is either a broken puzzle or not a puzzle at all."

2. Minimal effort is required on the part of the asker, encouraging lazy questions in general. (Credit to North for this idea)

3. The community isn't really a huge fan of these puzzles. I'm not the best puzzle-maker, but I'm not too bad, and I thought that my open-ended question was formatted and posed well. It still got 4 downvotes. That's a good indication that the type of puzzle it is isn't very popular.

With that being said, I hereby propose that we lock the "good" open-ended puzzles for their historical significance and close the rest.

Perhaps getting rid of the "open-ended" tag would be in order as well?

Consensus has been reached.

I say this on Rubio's authority - the contents of this post are considered to be a part of the definition of this site's scope.

So, I posted this open-ended puzzle a while ago, looking forward to all the fun around it and the upvotes that would pour in.

Nope.

That question ended up with a score of +1, and 4 downvotes. (now +2, 5 downvotes. Meta effect.)

It was my first and last open-ended puzzle. It also sparked some discussion on TSL, where Deusovi said "I don't think open-ended "puzzles" should be on the site at all, to be completely honest. They're fun games, but IMO they're not puzzles."

To which Rubio replied "I don't mind open-ended puzzles. At least, not if they're any good, and are well constrained," only to say "Ok I think we actually do have a couple [of good open-ended puzzles], but - the bad ones are way more prevalent."

Deusovi mentioned that he didn't have time to bring up the idea of removing open-ended puzzles on Meta, and he was unsure that the proposal would be viewed positively in the first place.

So, armed with my poorly-performing question and Deusovi's agreement, here comes the main point:

Open-ended puzzles are too broad for this site.

Some reasons why:

1. There is almost never a final answer. Even the tag wiki admits as much! Questions with no final answer are unhealthy for SE's Q&A format. Also, to quote Deusovi again: "puzzles should have only one solution, and anything more than that is either a broken puzzle or not a puzzle at all."

2. Minimal effort is required on the part of the asker, encouraging lazy questions in general. (Credit to North for this idea)

3. The community isn't really a huge fan of these puzzles. I'm not the best puzzle-maker, but I'm not too bad, and I thought that my open-ended question was formatted and posed well. It still got 4 downvotes. That's a good indication that the type of puzzle it is isn't very popular.

With that being said, I hereby propose that we lock the "good" open-ended puzzles for their historical significance and close the rest.

Perhaps getting rid of the "open-ended" tag would be in order as well?

Consensus has been reached.

I say this on Rubio's authority - the contents of this post are considered to be a part of the definition of this site's scope.

So, I posted this open-ended puzzle a while ago, looking forward to all the fun around it and the upvotes that would pour in.

Nope.

That question ended up with a score of +1, and 4 downvotes. (now +1, 7 downvotes. Meta effect.)

It was my first and last open-ended puzzle. It also sparked some discussion on TSL, where Deusovi said "I don't think open-ended "puzzles" should be on the site at all, to be completely honest. They're fun games, but IMO they're not puzzles."

To which Rubio replied "I don't mind open-ended puzzles. At least, not if they're any good, and are well constrained," only to say "Ok I think we actually do have a couple [of good open-ended puzzles], but - the bad ones are way more prevalent."

Deusovi mentioned that he didn't have time to bring up the idea of removing open-ended puzzles on Meta, and he was unsure that the proposal would be viewed positively in the first place.

So, armed with my poorly-performing question and Deusovi's agreement, here comes the main point:

Open-ended puzzles are too broad for this site.

Some reasons why:

1. There is almost never a final answer. Even the tag wiki admits as much! Questions with no final answer are unhealthy for SE's Q&A format. Also, to quote Deusovi again: "puzzles should have only one solution, and anything more than that is either a broken puzzle or not a puzzle at all."

2. Minimal effort is required on the part of the asker, encouraging lazy questions in general. (Credit to North for this idea)

3. The community isn't really a huge fan of these puzzles. I'm not the best puzzle-maker, but I'm not too bad, and I thought that my open-ended question was formatted and posed well. It still got 4 downvotes. That's a good indication that the type of puzzle it is isn't very popular.

With that being said, I hereby propose that we lock the "good" open-ended puzzles for their historical significance and close the rest.

Perhaps getting rid of the "open-ended" tag would be in order as well?

So, I posted this open-ended puzzle a while ago, looking forward to all the fun around it and the upvotes that would pour in.

Nope.

That question ended up with a score of +1, and 4 downvotes. (now +2, 5 downvotes. Meta effect.)

It was my first and last open-ended puzzle. It also sparked some discussion on TSL, where Deusovi said "I don't think open-ended "puzzles" should be on the site at all, to be completely honest. They're fun games, but IMO they're not puzzles."

To which Rubio replied "I don't mind open-ended puzzles. At least, not if they're any good, and are well constrained," only to say "Ok I think we actually do have a couple [of good open-ended puzzles], but - the bad ones are way more prevalent."

Deusovi mentioned that he didn't have time to bring up the idea of removing open-ended puzzles on Meta, and he was unsure that the proposal would be viewed positively in the first place.

So, armed with my poorly-performing question and Deusovi's agreement, here comes the main point:

Open-ended puzzles are too broad for this site.

Some reasons why:

1. There is almost never a final answer. Even the tag wiki admits as much! Questions with no final answer are unhealthy for SE's Q&A format. Also, to quote Deusovi again: "puzzles should have only one solution, and anything more than that is either a broken puzzle or not a puzzle at all."

2. Minimal effort is required on the part of the asker, encouraging lazy questions in general. (Credit to North for this idea)

3. The community isn't really a huge fan of these puzzles. I'm not the best puzzle-maker, but I'm not too bad, and I thought that my open-ended question was formatted and posed well. It still got 4 downvotes. That's a good indication that the type of puzzle it is isn't very popular.

With that being said, I hereby propose that we lock the "good" open-ended puzzles for their historical significance and close the rest.

Perhaps getting rid of the "open-ended" tag would be in order as well?

Consensus has been reached.

I say this on Rubio's authority - the contents of this post are considered to be a part of the definition of this site's scope.

So, I posted this open-ended puzzle a while ago, looking forward to all the fun around it and the upvotes that would pour in.

Nope.

That question ended up with a score of +1, and 4 downvotes. (now +2, 5 downvotes. Meta effect.)

It was my first and last open-ended puzzle. It also sparked some discussion on TSL, where Deusovi said "I don't think open-ended "puzzles" should be on the site at all, to be completely honest. They're fun games, but IMO they're not puzzles."

To which Rubio replied "I don't mind open-ended puzzles. At least, not if they're any good, and are well constrained," only to say "Ok I think we actually do have a couple [of good open-ended puzzles], but - the bad ones are way more prevalent."

Deusovi mentioned that he didn't have time to bring up the idea of removing open-ended puzzles on Meta, and he was unsure that the proposal would be viewed positively in the first place.

So, armed with my poorly-performing question and Deusovi's agreement, here comes the main point:

Open-ended puzzles are too broad for this site.

Some reasons why:

1. There is almost never a final answer. Even the tag wiki admits as much! Questions with no final answer are unhealthy for SE's Q&A format. Also, to quote Deusovi again: "puzzles should have only one solution, and anything more than that is either a broken puzzle or not a puzzle at all."

2. Minimal effort is required on the part of the asker, encouraging lazy questions in general. (Credit to North for this idea)

3. The community isn't really a huge fan of these puzzles. I'm not the best puzzle-maker, but I'm not too bad, and I thought that my open-ended question was formatted and posed well. It still got 4 downvotes. That's a good indication that the type of puzzle it is isn't very popular.

With that being said, I hereby propose that we lock the "good" open-ended puzzles for their historical significance and close the rest.

Perhaps getting rid of the "open-ended" tag would be in order as well?