some challenges here are very hard,that's right! but they musn't be deleted! my idea is,that they can be put in another area like SPECIAL 2 or something like this!
and the cryptos could be done in 2 areas!! BUT PLEASE, dont make the challenge all new!! dont make a story like rootgap or something like this!
i think ,that challenges with a story are existing more then enough!! tbs is ONE OF THE BEST challenge site in the internet!
not many challenge sites are so nice! this was only an example that the site will not change their story! i hope this site has to be it is! perhaps some challenges could be putting in some NEW areas!
bye
CyBeR

perhabs there should be a better equilibrium between the challenge types!
there are only 3 science challenges and over 60 cryptos!
i think you should stop creating cryptos till the number of the other types has raised!
just my opinion

here exists many cryptos but they are very nice!! and you can learn much by solving them!
but some javascripts will be nice or some spoofing challenges!
also guys make some new challenges!
cYa
CyBeR

Hard, challenged *sigh* i would rather recomend them since we are here to learn arent we! For instance everytime a certain user searches for something and ends up with a totally different thing it would be concidered as an accomplishment since that user have learned something new on the way to solve each hard challenge *i know i have* now as for the pretty much interesting chats which took place previously i would say we should go back to those posts suggesting a beta testing realm, you can make something like beta.bright-shadows.net and add challenges no need for logins just when a certain challenge is cracked by a user they would have the privelage of voting a challenge to stay or to be deleted. Oh and another thing how to's should rock =).

..as girls say:
"The harder, the better."


-Yours

lol @ n0m4d

I'll try to explain why I feel weird about tbs challenges.
I am a challenge-sites player who totally dislikes getting hints for challenges, because when i got hints, i didn't enjoy the challenge completion as much as i would have without the hint. This happened to me a few times long time ago, but now you can beleive me that i keep away from hints.
So when i started to play tbs with this state of mind, i felt like « how so many people passed those totally obscur cryptos/steganos ? i must be really lame at those...»
But when i started to get private messages asking for hints from people having passed really more challengess than me (over 100 or 150) i started to think this was the way people get through the challenges so fast.
So now i feel lost in the middle of lots of challenges, wasting my time wondering which one is worth to seriously work on.
Maybe i just don't like crytpos because they need chance to come up with the same idea as the author or a serious analysis work like Caesum seems to like to do. Even if the mind effort spawned by the crypto itself can be a good thing for the imagination for example.
So maybe i should focus on programming challenges, as it's what i always prefered anyway. I learn more by passing a new prog challenge than 10 cryptos.
I have to admit i loved some cryptos though, especially RogerFanMorvill ones, because they are really well made.
So finally i believe that "official" tutorials would be a good idea for tbs. If people had stuff to read about, they might not ask for hints.

Regards,

alucardo

Well long topic what can i say

Alucardo: yes indeed there is a self pride when you beat a challenge yourself, just by recognize it or googling stuff about it. Yet there is no shame is asking for hints to guide you in a direction. Not all people have tons of time to google blindfolded, some of us have a real life aswell to take care of it, so bits of hits and help is much apreciated into going in a good direction which will lead in solving a challenge.

As for cabrero's crypto's, the topic for creating or moving them into a different area as CyBeR said. I see no point in doing this, it will make it easier to get the crypto smiley yet will not get your Special 2 smiley or the area you want to move them so its basically the same thing. And as for putting a barrier between you and the creator issue: i see CyBeR placed on 6 and relee on 32 .... yet cabrero is on 42 ... so how does that exactly put a barrier between him and you ? If he was placed on 5 or even 1 in front of Caesum just because of his challenges that we can say it is a barrier put between him and the rest. Yet more hits about it should be provided, what can we say not all are smart as cabrero for knowing that type of crypt. Thus prodiving some valid hints to solve them and finally receiving the knowledge about this type of ciphers would end this discussions and makes us all happy. I can only say cabrero is acting a bit selfish from this point of view with no sharing spirit of his knowledge. Also this cryptos, as mostly realize, are very very big time consumers so no point in touching them yet in my case, since i don't have that much free time.

As for the ballance of the challenge area, indeed cryptos are double the amount on any other area, crackit and stegano have raised quite a bit aswell. Though other area's like Internet, JavaScript or Java still have the same old low number of challenges. But if people don't create this type of challenges how do you expect them to grow ? Also its always hard to come up with something new that isn't on other pack of challenges sites. So just think... would you prefere to see instead some old types in this areas like the key notepad for JS for example that you already solve them on other sites?

That's about my 2cents on this matter

Well, if I may throw in MY two cents, there are so many cryptos basically because there are so many different kinds of algorithms. Many of the other challenges get stale too quick when there are only a few types of ways to make them. I'm sure everyone agrees with me when I say that cabrero's challenges piss me off, but if there is a logical way to solve these challenges, there should be no need to remove them. "Sometimes all you need is one hint to start". Isn't that right? . Sure, working on these challenges sucks, but it's kinda fun to see how many things you can make out of one thing sometimes. Crypto 45......I hate this challenge. I have been working on it for DAYS now! I HATE IT!!! That doesnt mean it should be removed though. Oh well, whatever.

Yep true, "but does it have to be so much fun!!!"

/me was dieing to say that

you may recongnize the quote from 'Torque'