[Retros] FW: Cook-reporting

[Otto Janko]

On behalf of Andrey Frolkin, who sent this mail - which is clearly intended
for the Retro Mailing List - to my private address:


-----Original Message-----
From: afretro at yandex.ru [mailto:afretro at yandex.ru] 
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 6:13 AM
To: otto at janko.at
Subject: Cook-reporting


Hi folks,
Back on February 5 I wrote,

> R345 by Cedric Lytton (The Problemist, January 2004) appears to be 

> cooked. Would a report on the cook to the Retro Corner be the right 

> thing to do, or should I send a personal message to Dr. Lytton?

Tom Volet replied,

> It seems appropriate to inform the composer of a cook before 

> broadcasting it generally (and I have received such tactful notices on 

> more occasions than I wish to recall). In the absence of an address 

> for the composer, the cook can be communicated to the editor of the 

> journal of publication.

Following yesterday-s message by Ryan McCracken on a cook in Paul Raican-s
SPG 12182, I believe we should decide once and for all whether or not it is
appropriate in such cases to report cooks ?publicly.│ As a matter of fact, I
discovered a cook in 12182 immediately after the problem had appeared in the
Retro Corner and I wrote to Paul about it (acting on Tom-s advice); since
then, Paul tried to correct it more than once and I do hope his efforts will
eventually yield ?non-cooked fruit.│ I feel one reason why it might be not
quite fitting to publicly report cooks in just-published originals is that
some solvers would probably be tempted to send the cook to the editor as if
they had found it on their own and thus add a few extra points to their
overall score in the solvers- ladder. If no solver points are involved, e.g.
if a composer gives a correction of a problem which is already declared
cooked in the magazine where it was originally published, then I feel it is
perfectly OK for someone who discovers a cook in that correction to show it
to the members of the Retro Corner society. Yours most faithfully, Andrey
Frolkin Kiev, March 7, 2004