Experienced challenge-posters are good at formulating their rules to prevent contorted interpretations that lead to unfair advantages. For the benefit of less experienced challenge-posters, the following rules are always in effect unless otherwise noted:

1. **Inconsistent output formats:** E.g. for a challenge where the output could only ever be two or eleven, printing `11` and claiming that it sometimes outputs in binary, and sometimes in decimal.
1. **Inconsistent input formats:** E.g. requiring text input as a character list for inputs that match certain challenge criteria and as a string otherwise, even though both formats are otherwise allowed.
1. **Fetching the desired output from an external source:** E.g. fetching answers from the challenge specification or by running code obtained from another answer.
1. **Using that interpreter to answer a challenge that requires an interpreter:** E.g. "interpreting" by having initial state given as initial state rather than input, and using final state as return value.
1. **Making an exact duplicate of another answer:** E.g. to cheat in a king-of-the-hill.
1. **Using complete or partial functions as distinct input values:** The effectively offloads the code to the input format.
1. **Making a task trivial through language limitations:** E.g. by handling "all" of the language's integers in a 1-bit integer language, or answering `false` in an "is there internet?" challenge for a language which cannot use any connection.
1. **Storing additional code or data in program, language, or poster name:** E.g. `echo $0` in bash for a static output challenge, or changing one's profile name for a challenge that depends on it.
1. **Returning an expression instead of an evaluated result:** E.g. `1+2` instead of `3`.
1. **Requiring an overly specific environment:** E.g. that the program be run at a certain moment so it can use the system time as raw data.
1. **Using characters instead of graphics:** E.g. outputting `△` instead of drawing a triangle.
1. **Incomplete answers:** E.g. posting a snippet or expression that cannot stand alone, instead of a full function or program.
1. **Answering a cops-and-robbers challenge with a language that isn't readily available:** E.g. to crack an entry would require access to an expensive language like MATLAB, or unusual hardware like a mainframe.
1. **Zero-length quines.**
1. **Shortening URLs:** E.g. in a challenge to fetch data from a specific location.
1. **Cheating quines:** E.g. reading own source or outputting itself with no computation like `42`.
1. **Returning random answers forever or all answers:** E.g. all numbers to a million if the challenge specifies the specific number 373862 or outputting random programs forever in a challenge to generate a program for a specific task.
1. **Attempts that are not serious:** E.g. short code returning a constant value when the challenge is to compute something as accurately as possible, a cops-and-robbers answer that is trivially breakable, or code that can be obviously golfed by removing redundant white-space and shortening variable names.
1. **Tuning an answer for the listed test cases,** rather than writing a general solution.
1. **Adding additional specifications:** E.g. prompting the user for the answer or using a constant "random" number.
1. **Posting code taken from somewhere else:** E.g. from a another competition site.
1. **Deliberate misinterpretation:** E.g. returning `"the n-th prime"` instead of the n^th^ prime.