World Quiz League: quizmaster vacancy

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia,rec.puzzles (More info?)

I am considering the possibility of letting somebody else set the
questions for The World Quiz League.

Quiz Nine was far too hard, too many obscure questions which reduced
the number of players down to an unsustainable low level. The quiz
will be relaunched, I guarantee it, but I am considering the
possibility of sharing the burden, responsibilities and fun with
somebody else.

The right candidate will have spare time, enthusiasm and motivation.
No HTML ability will be required, just a basic grasp of what is
possible and suitable for the medium and what isn't.

With the current format the quizmaster has to be able to come up with
between three and seven questions out of ten, the others are
contributed by the players. I find coming up with one original
question to be quite easy and a great deal of fun. But the more
questions that are required the more of a pain it becomes. At the
moment I'm staring at nine blank spaces and I have one good fresh
idea.

As I am now considering what amounts to a relaunch of the quiz league
after a few weeks in the doldrums it seems the perfect opportunity to
take on some help. How big the job is depends on you, a deputy would
be helpful, somebody to come up with three or four good original
questions, but I can also make way for a new quizmaster, and remain as
editor-publisher, just contributing the questions that really make the
grade.

http://mwillett.org/Quiz/quiz1.htm

In case you are wondering about remuneration I can put your mind at
rest, there's none at all. The quiz is run for the same sort of
motivations as for which it is played: *fun* and the pleasure of
interacting with smart people wherever they may be.

The secondary motivations involve boosting my website and web
community by bringing in smart visitors on a regular basis and by
having text on my website which catches the attention of search
engines and their users. It follows that you would have to be
comfortable with "the editorial line" of mwillett.org (that's me).

--
Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia,rec.puzzles (More info?)

"Martin Willett" <ignoredmailbox@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:c5gm65$1cj2h$1@ID-224148.news.uni-berlin.de...
> I am considering the possibility of letting somebody else set the
> questions for The World Quiz League.
>
> Quiz Nine was far too hard, too many obscure questions which reduced
> the number of players down to an unsustainable low level. The quiz
> will be relaunched, I guarantee it, but I am considering the
> possibility of sharing the burden, responsibilities and fun with
> somebody else.

I did find the quiz too hard. Perhaps there could be two or three identified
sections of increasing difficulty (eg. 1. medium-strength general knowledge;
2. questions requiring reference-book/google research (like the city-photo
and dictionary questions) 3. those really involved find-the-connection type
questions which cause me to beat my head against the table in the hope that
a flash of inspiration will fly out me lug'ole) to encourage people (eg. me)
to dip a toe in.

Adrian

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trivia,rec.puzzles (More info?)

Adrian Bailey wrote:
> "Martin Willett" <ignoredmailbox@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:c5gm65$1cj2h$1@ID-224148.news.uni-berlin.de...
>> I am considering the possibility of letting somebody else set the
>> questions for The World Quiz League.
>>
>> Quiz Nine was far too hard, too many obscure questions which
reduced
>> the number of players down to an unsustainable low level. The quiz
>> will be relaunched, I guarantee it, but I am considering the
>> possibility of sharing the burden, responsibilities and fun with
>> somebody else.
>
> I did find the quiz too hard. Perhaps there could be two or three
> identified sections of increasing difficulty (eg. 1. medium-strength
> general knowledge;
> 2. questions requiring reference-book/google research (like the
> city-photo and dictionary questions) 3. those really involved
> find-the-connection type questions which cause me to beat my head
> against the table in the hope that a flash of inspiration will fly
> out me lug'ole) to encourage people (eg. me) to dip a toe in.
>
> Adrian

If the questions were just slightly easier three or four people would
get them all right. It's a very hard balance to get right. The problem
with Quiz Nine was a random coincidence, everybody who submitted a
question to fox everybody else all chose to make it a really hard one.
I set 7 questions, the highest score was 6, all of them my questions.
All the player-set questions were too obscure, all went unanswered. I
suppose the format does allow that to happen from time to time, it was
a pity it coincided with a time when several players were very busy at
work. Unless...could that have been a ruse to avoid admitting they
found it too hard? :/

To get more players playing I need easier questions, which either
means putting up with lots of ties on a perfect score or make lots
more questions, which is even more work. It's a tough balance, the
answer is to have a few brilliantly good questions with subtle depths
to them. But who to set them?

--
Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/