I mean the reason I didn't read the docs is because I didn't know they existed but now I do so I'll read them, thanks, and therein won't make the same mistakes again. Thanks for taking the time to reply and directing me to the information, however aggressive.

Like https://docs.codewars.com/authoring/tutorials/create-first-kata#before-publishing ?

@johanwiltink your reply above is really helpful about keeping the kata in draft until the problems are ironed out would be really useful if it was shown when someone initially creates a kata as well as something pointing towards the docs to read before hitting publish.

@Blind4Basics thanks - it's much clearer now

This makes a lot of sense snd thanks for the continued replies and explanation and sorry for making extra work for you. I don't think you are toxic at all, it was more a comment on the unforgiving nature of the initial feedback. I would suggest trying to get some more specific direction to this when somebody clicks on create new kata for the first time. Thanks again for all the explanation.

Please, no whataboutism.

And also please, don't put everything on other people. "needs explaining" when it's in the docs? No, please, read the docs. That's what they're there for. People already wrote them - they invested a lot of time. You invest some of your time as well.

@blind4basics for what reason?

Sorry, I didn't see your message.

Unpublishing your kata gives you time to fix it without other users able to complete it and most likely down voting it because of it's current issues. Mostly, it's "giving a chance" to your kata to survive the beta phase, once you fixed the issues, by buying you the time to fix it.

Edit: oh, Kacarott already explained it.

It's not a case of not being able to stand the heat, it's more a case of whether such heat is needed. All the initial comments were blunt and not at all helpful. Why did it take multiple teplies and requests from the author just to get a link to the docs? It's great that the help actually does exist but this needs explaining in a much clearer way to new authors.

And I've seen loads of poorly written tasks that don't work or are duplicates published on here so the process isn't completely working anyway.

That documentation is in the left navbar, it's conveniently under Docs, and anyone can read it before making lots of work for other people. It has most of what I said, without most of the flavour :P, in a document that should, granted, be more visible: Creating your first kata, under Authoring -> Tutorials.

If you think I'm toxic, personal and in your face, I probably am. I am, after all, only human, and you and @liviaj29 made a lot of avoidable work for me and some other people.

Next time, do things right, and see our good side, OK?

@daz4126

You asked what the reason for unpublishing was, as if it was a bad thing. But actually if a kata is unpublished, it is really a good thing, because it gives the author time to work out all the problems. Unpublishing just means that no one can submit solutions anymore, and if people cannot solve the kata, they cannot rate it as unsatisfactory. Once the issues are worked out, the author can simply publish it again, but if it is left up with issues and inevitably retired, then nothing can be done.

This was thereply that was needed at the start. This makes sense but I've got to say that it's not clear where all this documentation is.

Welcome to Codewars.

Creating kata is held to much higher standards than solving kata, and help is available in documentation and in person ( Docs resp. Discord ). If you can't stand the heat, stick to solving kata.

If you think this whole situation is depressing, consider for a moment what all those moderators go through - there is an endless supply of first kata authors who have to be reined in, because they damn well won't learn on their own. The alternative is Codewars overflowing with bad kata. Have you ever considered what it took to make, and takes to keep, CW what it is, with high quality kata, without endless duplicates?

@blind4basics for what reason? Why is everyone on here so unhelpful and ubsupportive?

Sorry but this threadis depressing. Somebody has tried to make their own kata and not received a single bit of encouragment or even constructive critisism. All that has been put forward is negative and blunt comments saying delete the kata. What sort of toxic culture is this?

Read Docs in the left sidebar. There's documentation for languages, authoring kata, and specific documentation for authoring your first kata.

There's also Discord, with #help-author, #kata-ideas, language-specific channels and the general banter channel #codewars.

I'm not blaming you for being new at this. It's just that there is no sandbox for creating kata - when you hit Publish, your kata is immediately expected to be production quality, or close to it. You can already get feedback while your kata is still in Draft: publish the link on Discord and ask people's opinions. That way, you can fix most of the problems before you Publish, and save everyone a lot of grief.

Believe it or not, nobody likes burning down a kata. But published kata being production quality will be enforced. As I said, there is no sandbox ( and before Discord, things used to be worse ). Solving kata on CW is a free for all; publishing kata on CW is not.

And all those people below telling you your kata is not production quality experience this time after time after time - because the supply of first time kata authors and their not-production-ready-brainchilds is endless. Not having random tests is a fatal flaw, and it happens time and time and time again. There is documentation about that, people spent time writing that - why didn't you read it?