Alpha Sleuth® Weekly Solving Contest Rules
The Rules:
We will post an
Alpha Sleuth® puzzle on our
Solving Contest page every Sunday at 3:00pm Eastern time. Solvers will have
144 hours (6 days) to earn
Solving Ladder credit
.
The first and second solver to reply with the correct answer will be declared the "Alpha" and the "Beta", respectively.
04/04/2008: We use our email PC/server "received" time-stamp as the official time. This eliminates discrepancies between "sent" PC/server times, which is the fairest method possible. However, email can cause delays on an individual basis. If you have concerns about receipt-times, please request a confirmation with your email.
07/04/2009: If for any reason we are unable to activate the contest links by 3:05pm ET Sunday, we will not award "place points" (Alpha, Beta, etc.). Instead, we will post the puzzle as soon as feasible, then notify our regular/recent solvers by email. Those who reply within the first 24 hours will receive the equivalent of 4th Place points.
05/30/2010: If we intentionally post a weekly puzzle early, we will not award "place points" (Alpha, Beta, etc.). In that case, we'll notify our regular/recent solvers by email. Those who reply by 3:00pm ET Monday (ie. within 24 hours of the normal start time) will receive the equivalent of 4th Place points.
07/04/2010: Beginning this week, we will intentionally post the first puzzle of each solving leg early. In other words, for the first Sunday of each quarter the 05/30/2010 rules above will apply. This gives us a "Sunday off". And... it allows all solvers to start the ladder on equal footing. :-)
07/04/2009: We only "monitor" emails from 3-4pm ET Sundays. Of course, we will reply to all emails in a reasonable time, but after 4pm Sunday our reply may not be immediate.
Those who respond with correct answers within the allotted time will earn
Solving Ladder points, and eventually
solving titles! We will respond to all participants.
We do offer a
free Solving Tool and encourage everyone to use that. (Much easier than working with printed puzzles!)
Best of Luck, and may the best Sleuth win! :-)
