I know I’m not going to be a leaderboard type, especially given my schedule around the holiday seasons. So I take my time and read the whole problem, including the flavor text, and I have to say I appreciate it! Nice and festive, it’s the little things that make this seem more like a fun programming puzzle exercise I actively want to do as recreation, and less like a dry exercise to force myself to learn a new language or library. But it still facilitates me doing those two things anyways. The flavor text, along with the ASCII art that gets colored in each day I star, helps it feel like a festive thing too—so I don’t feel like I’m being a Grinch doing these puzzles during the holiday season.
I also appreciate the problems staying up after Advent for people using them off-season ;)
The puzzles staying up is both a blessing and a curse. The first year I did it, I fell behind and told myself I’ll come back to it in the new year, but once that happened, I lost interest, and never finished.
I also like the effort that is put into the puzzle descriptions, and the ASCII art slowly getting colored and animated. Really is the extra mile that makes it special.