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How do we want to organize this page? I assume grouping them into categories that are arranged roughly by difficulty, and within each category, the techniques are ordered by difficulty. This means that the whole list is arranged more or less by difficulty.

Now, where do we put ALS and extended subsets? I assume under Subsets. But this makes them sticking out at the top with mostly SSTS techniques. Or do we push these techniques all the way down to some advanced section? If the former is adopted, then it might be good to indicate the expected difficulty of each technique on this page. --unkx80 19:39, 5 November 2006 (CET)

Thanks for your corrections and improvements. Good work!

I think we should use a separate section for ALS techniques. Although ALS themselves are similar to subsets, the solving techniques using them all require a little extra data from the grid.

We could also split the fish into 3 sections:

• Basic fish
• Finned & Sashimi fish (basic + 1 box)
• Complex fish (Franken, mutant, & other varieties)

I am monitoring the Ultimate Fish Guide thread on the Player's forum to see how it develops.

Ruud 13:56, 6 November 2006 (CET)

Noted, thanks.

By the way, I think you will need to create one of more pages for discussing general Sudopedia policies sooner or later, and make these pages prominent. One thing that comes to my mind right now is whether you want people (like me!) to create a lot of redirect pages (e.g. Singles to Single, Aligned pair exclusion to Aligned Pair Exclusion), or you prefer people not to create such redirect pages. Unkx80 19:02, 6 November 2006 (CET)

Knock, knock? --unkx80 13:45, 11 November 2006 (CET)

External links; documenting name variants

I have two related suggestions:

1. Each article for a solving technique should have an "External links" section that provides links to external descriptions of the technique.
2. Each such external link should document the name given to the technique.

I added such links to the Naked Single and Hidden Single articles, but then ran out of steam. (this work is tedious.)

Note that I am following the example of the Sudoku Guides article in naming external links. Doing so revealed more name variants than documented.

--Rob 07:53, 5 May 2007 (CEST)

Thanks for the work... although I wonder what is the utility of adding so many external links and then exhausting yourself? I guess one or two external links that cover the Sudopedia material is sufficient.

--unkx80 18:45, 5 May 2007 (CEST)

unkx80, thanks for your comments. What I'd really like to see is a comprehensive Sudoku encyclopedia, including a comprehensive list of solving techniques precisely described and logically categorized. Such an encyclopedia would have standard sections for each article on a solving technique, for example: name(s), difficulty, precise description, history, tips on usage, related techniques, footnotes and other external references, etc. Obviously, the Sudopedia is an ideal place to develop such a comprehensive encyclopedia.

Along these lines, one could develop a "backward-looking" encyclopedia, one that collects what is already known and documented elsewhere. My modest effort to begin documenting name variants is a step in that direction.

Alternatively, one could develop a "forward-looking" encyclopedia, one that presents a definitive description and classification of techniques. Others have talked about a some kind of "grand unified theory" of Sudoku.[1], [2], [3], [4], [5] But I have not yet seen such a theory, nor a definitive approach to how to describe and categorize solving techniques. Thus such a "forward-looking" encyclopedia is probably a bit premature.

I am more interested in the "forward-looking" approach, but at present don't know how to do much more than to contribute to a "backward-looking" approach. My lack of energy is due to the fact that I am not sure how useful it is to merely document the disorganized state of Sudoku knowledge without some kind unifying framework.

--Rob 05:17, 8 May 2007 (CEST)