Ok, let me make it clear that this is in beta testing so if you find any problems or have any suggestions, please let me know. But the "Coding Challenges" idea has been implemented.

To participate or just check it out, click the "Challenges" button on the left sidebar. There you will see the current challenge and, further down, be able to submit your response. You can update your solution as many times as you'd like while the challenge remains open--or completely delete it during the same time. No-one else will see your solution during the challenge period nor will you be able to see anyone elses.

Once the challenge period has expired, this challenge will go to a voting phase where members of 8052.com will be able to vote which solution they liked the best. The voting phase will probably remain open for 3 or 4 days after which voting will close, the challenge will be over, and the winner announced automatically by the system.

The next challenge will be made available as soon as the current challenge goes to the voting phase.

My intention is to leave these archived permanently so that anyone will be able to browse past challenges and view the winning answer. Obviously the idea is to make the "challenge" something useful and then the winning solution can become a valuable reference for future use by anyone who needs it.

All feedback welcome. I'm also interested in whether everyone thinks only the winning solution should be made public or maybe the top three? I would kind of like to display the top three so that perhaps people could see potentially different winning approaches to the same problem; on the other hand, I'm concerned that if someone comes in #2 or #3 that they would be offended and complain.

Also, please feel free to submit ideas for future challenges. You may submit them by clicking the appropriate link on the same "Challenges" page. I will review them and, once approved, they'll be made available to the system to automatically utilize in the future--normally in the order they are submitted.

Regards,
Craig Steiner
8052.com Webmaster