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I see this a few times with "New Contributor" puzzles. Many of them have not really looked at the site rules or Help Center sections and end up making mistakes (been there, done that). One of the most common mistake is posting old duplicate puzzles without attribution. Recently a couple of old well known puzzles were posted on Puzzling SE which were appropriately marked as a Duplicate and closed by the SE veterans.

Now I looked at the profile of this new contributor. It turns out he is a very young teenager. My speculation is that he is very enthusiastic and likes puzzles. It would be shame to have him discouraged and not continue.

I'm not sure what the answer is. Any suggestions?

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    $\begingroup$ This is an important question, and one I've been wondering about myself this week as well. It might not be an easy one to answer though... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Jul 26, 2020 at 21:41

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That might come off as opinion-based, but even though I partially agree to the outside-stated fact that stack exchange can be harsh to newcomers, I have really felt this is not the case with Puzzling. I don't know if it's because it's hobby-oriented, but for sure I've even made questions and answers that I think deserved downvotes and didn't get them.

Also, I'd think it is not of the idiosyncrasy of a puzzler to stop at the first difficulty. We tend to be people who try and try again. So, I am optimistic that you don't need to worry as much.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks. However I have seen many newcomers not return also. It may be a small number but my question really was how to encourage them to write puzzles in the right format without feeling punished. Like @Stiv commented, it may be very difficult $\endgroup$
    – DrD
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 12:10
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It's hard to come up with good, original puzzles (see our years-long quest to have question upvotes reward 10 reputation instead of 5 for some arguments), and most classics have already been asked in one form or another. Perhaps Puzzling Stack Exchange is one of the few sites in the network where it's easier to start with answers rather than with questions. Especially if you hang around a lot so you have the first shot at a puzzle, including the easiest puzzles which everybody has a decent chance to solve.

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  • $\begingroup$ "It's hard to come up with original puzzles" Can you elaborate a little on that? $\endgroup$
    – risky mysteries
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 0:52
  • $\begingroup$ @riskymysteries of course, there will be people for which the reverse is true, but generally speaking ... I've linked to a famous topic here which lists some points why good questions here are harder to write than answers. I'll try to crunch some numbers as well. $\endgroup$
    – Glorfindel
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 6:27
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I think we could do with more consistency in explaining why questions get flagged for closure. I thought we were supposed to do it anyway, but it isn't always there - look at this post from this morning, the OP is in the comments trying to figure out why the second question they asked has been closed.

It might seem obvious to more seasoned members but to someone who is just starting, they can benefit not only from an explanation of how to improve their own puzzles but also from seeing why other puzzles were closed.

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