I'd actually welcome it if the leaderboard was abolished. I never really played for placement, but something about the fact that the board was full of people who routinely solve every problem in about the same time it takes me to even READ the description was a bit demotivating. I always felt this racing aspect to be somewhat at odds with the idea that this is a challenge that you can complete in your own time, maybe even on weekends, and at the end be proud that you even made it.
I tend to agree with this. The leaderboard for many programmers is a source of stress and is another type of internet "comparison" like seeing someone who appears "better" than you on social media. Advent of Code, to me, is a celebration of all the hard work of the year by getting a chance to show off any new skills or abilities you might have picked up.
Advent of Code should be about the solve and the sharing of a good problem together, not how fast can you cook a plate of spaghetti.
To add to this, AoC release its puzzles at midnight ET, so the west coast folks who are still up at 9pm PT will almost always complete the puzzles before someone on the east coast who actually sleeps a regular schedule.
It’s also the middle if the day in east Asia, and in Europe it require being ready to rumble at 5-6AM.
But that’s just how it is. Some folks are really invested and update their lives based on AoC drops, I’d assume most neither care nor even try. If you don’t look at the leaderboards there’s nothing telling you there are leaderboards.
Some people care about the leaderboard, but that's not mandatory. I don't see how the fact of its existence diminishes the experience of someone who never looks at it.
I get that some people don’t want to participate in the competition, but how is that a reason to take the feature away from others who enjoy the competition?
In the context of the larger discussion about how to save the leaderboard in the face of rampant and cheap cheating options, my point was simply that maybe it didn't need to be saved in the first place. Heck, I can't imagine it's actually possible to save it while keeping the event running as it has been.
Obviously, there are many people who do enjoy the competition, especially if you're someone who is in the top 10 consistently. But to emphasize it again: arguably, the leaderboard is not as real as you think it is. It's not me who's advocating for taking your achievements from you, it's the state of technological progress that has already done that.
