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I said it in the LDC, and I'll say it again. Make a level. Make it a little hard but not too bad. Go off to the side and make a really hard area as a bonus or second shine. Everybody's happy!!

Honestly, just listen to Doram. He's about the wisest person you'll meet.

Yeah, Doram makes a good point. It's also a way to encourage players to challenge themselves, and it's used in a lot of big budget games. You play the actual game, but there's challenging side content (i.e. Batman: Arkham Asylum with its challenge modes, Super Mario Galaxy 2 with its 'second' run with Luigi searching for green stars).

It's actually something I might take into consideration.

But on the topic itself. I've played a lot of impossible levels, and they're impossible for a multitude of reasons. The most prevalent one is level design (most of which are downright sadistic), the there are other reasons, such as enemy placement, specific jumps and "boss fight" levels. There's also the issue of lag.

I try to keep my levels as lag free and as simple as possible, but with enough challenge to keep the player busy and wanting to keep going. 'Cause if something's too easy, people dislike it because there's no challenge. And if something's too hard, people dislike it because it's too hard.

It's often difficult to find a middle ground.

Hmm, I definitely like Nyan's comments, but I need to remind him that bumping topics (posting in topics that haven't been active in several months or longer), while not a severe infraction, is generally frowned upon. Personally, I prefer it to making new topics of the same thing, and since you made a meaningful post, I'm all good with keeping this topic open.

I like making hard levels. It's probably just in my nature to try and create difficult things, which unfortunately results in a limitation of how many people play and enjoy it.

I guess I make levels for a specific type of player. I might try something that Ayrayen used to do, which was to make multiple difficulties of the same level, all with slight changes, if I ever get back into long term level designing instead of just for contests. That was something that attracted me.

I'm sorta in between. If I make a level that's too hard, I might not get a good score.
That also applies to making too easy levels. Although I did make my LDD level a bit difficult.