Talk:MIT Mystery Hunt

Request for Comment - MIT Mystery Hunt vs. Mystery Hunt vs. Other

Currently, the MIT Mystery Hunt goes by multiple names within the community. In order to properly title pages with their respective hunts, one particular name needs to be chosen to be consistent across these pages.

The two primary proposals are:

• MIT Mystery Hunt
• Mystery Hunt

However, as previously mentioned, there are further names used within the community, and some may be more popular or commonly used than these.

To express your opinion, reply with a bolded Support, Oppose, or Neutral with regards to the first two options. With regards to "Other", if there is a particular way of expressing the name of this hunt that you believe would be preferable for titling pages, present it in bold. Others may then reply to that proposal with the normal responses of Support. Oppose, or Neutral.

Aside from the "Other", do not use the "reply" button for initial comments; instead, edit this talk page like a normal page, add a new entry to the bulleted list by starting a line with *, then end your line with ~~~~ to sign your comment with your name and a timestamp. Leveloneknob (talk) 06:38, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

MIT Mystery Hunt

• Support. Based on personal preference, and the presence of both official documentation and unofficial documentation (in the form of the MIT Mystery Hunt home page, and the majority of MITMH hunts for the former, and Puzzlvaria, Eric Berlin's retrospective, etc. for the latter), I believe that this is the more "proper" title. Beyond that, it provides an additional mote of information for newcomers to the puzzling community as a whole. Leveloneknob (talk) 06:20, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Support. For same reasons as above, namely all of puzzles.mit.edu, Wikipedia, Reddit, devjoe's index use "MIT Mystery Hunt" and "MIT" is a necessary (official) distinguisher from other "Mystery Hunts" (both current like Berkeley but also any any that may emerge in the future) - CoreyPlover (talk) 06:41, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Support. Titles of hunts on this wiki should be selected to be as clear as possible to as many possible people. Given how widely the hunt is known as the MIT Mystery Hunt (including but not limited to through the hunt's own branding, Wikipedia, and the devjoe index), calling it another name will likely confuse those who are familiar either with other "Mystery Hunts" or are new to puzzlehunting and only know it by the more formal name. By contrast, those who know it as Mystery Hunt will also readily recognise it as the MIT Mystery Hunt. MetaTerminal (talk) 06:57, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Neutral. This is acceptable, I'm just not convinced MIT Mystery Hunt is more common as a name as Mystery Hunt. Overall, I'm not convinced that the existence of other sources lik dev/joe or Wikipedia etc make this one more prominent, simply because they have their own reasons for specifying the name as such, which do not necessarily apply here. The Hunt itself using the name is a point in favour though, and one I hadn't realised. Soni (talk) 07:01, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
  • If the only reason is that "Mystery Hunt" is "more common" ^{[citation needed - according to who, and more common amongst whom?]}, then I really disagree that this is a good argument against using it. However, perhaps this goes to the intended audience of the site (which as far as I know hasn't been defined). If we agree that this is targeted at puzzlers and puzzlers commonly understand "Mystery Hunt" to refer to the "MIT Mystery Hunt", then I could these terms being as good as each other. Jimsug (talk) 12:50, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Support. This is more descriptive than Mystery Hunt, and forestalls the risk that in future (another) hunt/s will call themselves mystery hunt and cause (more) confusion. Jimsug (talk) 12:50, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Mystery Hunt

• Oppose. While it is used in shorthand by many puzzlers, it rarely comes up in titles of official documentation. With the Berkeley Mystery Hunt having a presence on this site as well, despite being of less consequence than the MITMH, it still provides a conflict in wording if just Mystery Hunt is used. Leveloneknob (talk) 06:20, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Oppose. While common vernacular amongst seasoned participants, "Mystery Hunt" is not necessarily common across all participants. I believe "Mystery hunt" should be treated as a regular noun like "Puzzle hunt" (cf. "Treasure hunt" or "Scavenger hunt" which have different connotations) and not as a Proper noun - CoreyPlover (talk) 06:41, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Oppose. Agree with the above two arguments. MetaTerminal (talk) 06:57, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Support I think Mystery Hunt is more common than the other options. MIT Mystery Hunt is an acceptable option, but this makes more sense as a common name to me. Since this Wiki is intended to be for puzzlers, any terms commonly used by puzzlers should be given preference. Soni (talk) 07:01, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
• Oppose. Despite the argument above supporting this, I see little benefit to calling it Mystery Hunt and puzzlers are unlikely to be confused by calling it "MIT Mystery Hunt"; people new to puzzles, on the other hand, may find it confusing. Certainly, fewer people, if any, will be confused by the name "MIT Mystery Hunt", while some meaning may be lost in calling it simply "Mystery Hunt". Newer solvers, or those unfamiliar with the hunt, might also not realise that the hunt is affiliated with MIT, if they don't read the full article and merely come across the name elsewhere. This itself is, in my opinion, undesirable, since the fact is that the hunt is on and affiliated with MIT is a prominent part of the hunt's identity, and I think this is not something that we want to dilute. Jimsug (talk) 12:50, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Other

• MITMH. Yes, I know we already shelved abbreviations. It's still a common way to refer to the hunt. I don't like it nearly as much as the full name, but I prefer it over Mystery Hunt (and I might as well put something to get the ball rolling on this option). Leveloneknob (talk) 06:20, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
  • Weakly Oppose - This appears in some Twitter tag searches and blog posts, but I see it as a distant second to "MIT Mystery Hunt". It also doesn't have adoption in pronunciation that other abbreviation candidates like BAPHL, MUMS, etc may have in support for their usage. - CoreyPlover (talk) 06:41, 28 February 2022 (UTC)