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I recently found this page in the help center:

Page

This confused me a bit. Does Puzzling Stack Exchange want us to answer our own puzzles or is that for other puzzling stack exchange sites?

Personally I'd think posting a solution to your own puzzle defeats the purpose of it, you've posted it for others to solve and enjoy.

So should we post answers to our own puzzles on Puzzling or only on other sites?

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    $\begingroup$ This is a generic page, it's present on every SE site. $\endgroup$
    – f''
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 18:40
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    $\begingroup$ "other puzzling stack exchange sites"? :-P $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Sep 28, 2016 at 0:28

2 Answers 2

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If you answer your own puzzle then

  1. Your puzzle is complete.

If you do not answer your own puzzle then

  1. Other people enjoy the puzzle.

  2. When someone point out a mistake in your puzzle, you improve at puzzle making.

  3. You don't have to type the answer.

  4. Sometimes, your puzzle gets better answers which broaden (y)our mind.

  5. You find the difficulty level of your puzzle.

  6. We attract more new users who might be willing to add the answer (and therefore adding some traffic to this community).

There must be many other points in both the cases which I don't know of. But overall comparison tells us that not answering your own puzzles is beneficial for you and for this community. And if your puzzle remains unsolved after a day or two, consider adding a good hint.

EDIT: I forgot to add the comparison between PSE and other communities. Answer is simple. People ask question on other sites because of the some doubt in their mind. They seek answer to their problem. But it is not the case here on Puzzling SE. Most of the people come here to answer puzzles, to know how much 'out of the box' thinking do they have. And it would be lame to answer your own puzzle without letting other people try it.

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  • $\begingroup$ I agree wholeheartedly, it's just strange that that page was there $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 18:20
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    $\begingroup$ Yeah, that article doesn't mention 'puzzling' anywhere. That is applicable on most of the SE Communities, but not at all of them. $\endgroup$
    – manshu
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 18:24
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Sometimes a puzzle consists of various parts, and the answers posted each solve a part of the puzzle. In that case, it might be useful, after the puzzle is solved, to post your own answer that consolidates all of the bits and pieces into one coherent answer.

Similarly, someone may stumble across the solution in a way you didn't intend, or might have missed a particularly-clever clue you provided. You may want to post your own answer that provides your intended solution, even if the solution provided was correct.

So I would say there are some reasons to post your own answer, but generally it would be after someone else has solved the puzzle. That being said, there's nothing stopping you from posting the solution to your own puzzle if you so desire.

People also sometimes post puzzles for which they themselves do not have an answer. If they subsequently solve the puzzle or discover the answer, that could be a situation where answering one's own post would make sense.

Please also note that this site is not just for posting puzzles, even though the vast majority of posts fall into that category. It is also for questions related to the creation and solving of puzzles, and there could easily be situations, much like other StackExchange sites, where you would answer your own question about these subjects.

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