Search found 3327 matches

by theMoMA
Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:11 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2024 Carper Award winners
Replies: 2
Views: 507

2024 Carper Award winners

ACF is pleased to announce that the 2024 Carper Award winners are John Lawrence, Raj Bhan, and Dave Hamilton! John Lawrence received the award through the vote of the ACF membership. It's hard to imagine the last fifteen years of quizbowl history without John's contributions. As an editor, he brings...
by theMoMA
Thu Feb 15, 2024 6:57 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Alternate locations for ACF Nationals
Replies: 30
Views: 4102

Re: Alternate locations for ACF Nationals

The only way I could see this being even remotely plausible is if everyone had already flown into the tournament site, but the venue burned down on Friday night (or a similar catastrophe), and organizers were trying to figure out how to get the tournament played (and the weather was good and adequat...
by theMoMA
Wed Feb 14, 2024 1:38 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
Replies: 19
Views: 3876

Re: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers

I can't speak for the entire community, obviously, but I've always thought of part of the rationale for host bids as a reward for the community service of hosting the qualifier tournaments (in addition to the fact that many of the teams would have an obvious or at least reasonable shot of qualifying...
by theMoMA
Tue Feb 13, 2024 3:54 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
Replies: 19
Views: 3876

Re: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers

I want to reiterate, because I don't think people have noticed this feature of the initial proposal, that I suggested that a team be able to split however it wants at the qualifying tournament and, without any intervention from any outside body, decide to renounce one of the resulting bids and place...
by theMoMA
Sat Feb 10, 2024 10:16 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
Replies: 19
Views: 3876

Re: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers

To Ben's objections, it's just about always to the benefit of players who don't meet the locking threshold that they don't. I think it's pretty imperative that teams be allowed to shift their rosters because of late contingencies, and perhaps some of the examples I offered are not the best ways for ...
by theMoMA
Fri Feb 09, 2024 2:26 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
Replies: 19
Views: 3876

Re: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers

In 2013 , I offered some thoughts on how a qualification system might try to prevent team splitting without causing much unnecessary headache. At the time, most people seemed to think it wasn't worth the hassle. Here is an updated, more fully fleshed out version of the proposal for discussion: (1) I...
by theMoMA
Sun Feb 04, 2024 4:46 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2024 SCT discussion
Replies: 0
Views: 552

2024 SCT discussion

Hi all, If you're looking for the 2024 SCT discussion, there's a private discussion forum; you'll need to request approval through your "user control panel" (dropdown menu under your username in the upper right > "user control panel" > "usergroups" > "2024 SCT disc...
by theMoMA
Mon Nov 27, 2023 4:58 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: 2024 Carper Award community discussion
Replies: 9
Views: 6981

2024 Carper Award community discussion

Each year, ACF awards up to two Carper Awards to honor individuals who have, over their quizbowl careers, sustained and enriched collegiate academic competitions. One of those awards is (as it has been since 1999) decided by membership vote, and the other (created a few years ago) is decided by a co...
by theMoMA
Fri Nov 24, 2023 5:56 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: How many "cooks" is "too many cooks" (when producing a set)?
Replies: 5
Views: 2860

Re: How many "cooks" is "too many cooks" (when producing a set)?

I generally think seven or eight editors is an appropriate higher-end number for most sets, although larger or more challenging sets (like Nationals or CO) might warrant more. Editing teams that have a degree of comfort and familiarity with each other might be able to make larger (or indeed smaller)...
by theMoMA
Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:26 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Which packets should get uploaded to the archive?
Replies: 13
Views: 6424

Re: Which packets should get uploaded to the archive?

I think the main issue here doesn't necessarily implicate the policy of the archive. That issue being: people generally enjoy playing quizbowl and appreciate the opportunity to do so, which means it's nice when writers of one-off events post a real announcement that gives players the chance to find ...
by theMoMA
Fri Oct 06, 2023 6:59 pm
Forum: Rules and global announcements
Topic: Public archival of private forums
Replies: 0
Views: 15176

Public archival of private forums

Hi everyone, As you know, one of the services that the forums provide is facilitating tournament discussion through private forums. This allows people who played a set to talk about it without leaking question content to anyone who might play at a future mirror. We have a procedure for requesting th...
by theMoMA
Fri Oct 06, 2023 6:32 pm
Forum: Miscellaneous Quizbowl
Topic: RIP Ed Powers
Replies: 3
Views: 3789

Re: RIP Ed Powers

I knew Ed only as a forums legend, and it's very sad to think we won't see his trademark posts with multiple exclamation points---and triple dashes---any longer. If anyone has stories about his coaching career, I would appreciate hearing them. Rest in peace, Ed.
by theMoMA
Wed Aug 09, 2023 12:44 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 41
Views: 19530

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks

I'd push back on the idea that a tight theme is equivalent to what I'm talking about, Matt. I think what I'm talking about occurs at an earlier point in the writing process, when one sits down and considers what to write, as I said, "about." In your framework, the presupposition seems to b...
by theMoMA
Tue Aug 08, 2023 9:40 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 41
Views: 19530

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks

Many of the world history questions themselves slant more toward the specific. I just posted all of the world history answer lines (although not all of them are survey questions) because I think all but two having broad answer lines is a huge proportion that is an indicator by itself. As I tried to ...
by theMoMA
Tue Aug 08, 2023 7:42 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 41
Views: 19530

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks

My feelings on large swathes of this set are similar to my thoughts on the 2019 PIANO set . I am not sure why contemporary quizbowl writing has decided to focus so squarely on common-link questions on broad answers such as countries/states/kingdoms, languages, regions, bodies of water, peoples, or i...
by theMoMA
Sat Jun 24, 2023 9:43 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Should ACF tossups be shorter?
Replies: 30
Views: 12507

Re: Should ACF tossups be shorter?

I don't agree with basically any of the characterizations in John's post. Length limits are obviously arbitrary, and I don't think there's any inherent "virtue" (a word pulled from who knows where) to a longer question, or a question of any length, other than that some questions lengths ge...
by theMoMA
Fri Jun 23, 2023 4:08 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Should ACF tossups be shorter?
Replies: 30
Views: 12507

Re: Should ACF tossups be shorter?

Kevin, I realize your position is meant to be rhetorically extreme, but I think it's based on mistaken assumptions about how people play and edit. First, I just don't think you're correct about how players approach early clues at difficult events. Sure, it's fun and memorable when you're able to nai...
by theMoMA
Wed Jun 21, 2023 4:32 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Should ACF tossups be shorter?
Replies: 30
Views: 12507

Re: Should ACF tossups be shorter?

I think people are talking at cross purposes to some degree. Seven lines is probably better for ACF Regionals, and eight lines is probably better for ACF Nationals and Chicago Open. Six lines is probably better for ACF Fall. 500 characters (roughly 5 lines), with more questions and more categories, ...
by theMoMA
Mon Jun 19, 2023 7:57 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Should ACF tossups be shorter?
Replies: 30
Views: 12507

Re: Should ACF tossups be shorter?

Questions could probably be a little shorter. That said, I don't think eight lines (or seven, for matter) is an unreasonable length for a tossup. In any event, almost any eight-line tossup can be edited down to seven while keeping all of the clues and most of their substance, because most writers an...
by theMoMA
Thu Jun 15, 2023 11:32 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Reworking the History Distribution
Replies: 13
Views: 6911

Re: Reworking the History Distribution

There is obviously a need to have some temporal balance in every subdistributional area. Some will skew very heavily to contemporary or near-contemporary times, such as science, which views itself (at least in quizbowl) as more the developed body of contemporary knowledge than the historical process...
by theMoMA
Wed Apr 26, 2023 5:22 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals: April 22-23, MIT
Replies: 25
Views: 24006

Re: 2023 ACF Nationals: April 22-23, MIT

This spreadsheet contains "quick-and dirty" player-ranking stats from Nationals calculated in accordance with the framework described in this thread . The basic idea of this stat is to answer the questions "how good was Team X at getting tossups, and how important was Player Y to Tea...
by theMoMA
Wed Apr 26, 2023 12:30 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
Replies: 24
Views: 8641

Re: Why doesn't film come up more?

Young, I don't have a strong opinion about the individual merits of particular films. Likely, the distance someone would have to venture from the beaten path to watch a particular film corresponds pretty well to the danger that a question on that film becomes a pop culture question for the field. Pr...
by theMoMA
Tue Apr 25, 2023 3:17 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
Replies: 24
Views: 8641

Re: Why doesn't film come up more?

I'm not sure that spectrum is perfectly linear. In skilled hands, I think a film like The Godfather , or Star Wars , or Raiders of the Lost Ark is much more likely to yield a good academic question than something like Lady Bird or Parasite . Things that are incredibly famous (including films) have i...
by theMoMA
Tue Apr 25, 2023 2:57 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: A curatorial approach to choosing set content
Replies: 2
Views: 1897

Re: A curatorial approach to choosing set content

It strikes me that a useful parallel between quizbowl and curation involves how museums deal with very current material. On Discord, Halle mentioned something along the lines of how any current show about NFTs would probably be awful, but perhaps interesting and worthwhile subjects for a retrospecti...
by theMoMA
Tue Apr 25, 2023 2:25 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
Replies: 24
Views: 8641

Re: Why doesn't film come up more?

Responding to Jack, my post was more a caution to write good film questions (especially if more slots become available) than a dire prophecy about the inevitable consequence of writing more film questions. I really do not care for a question that's presented as some kind of bold provocation on the a...
by theMoMA
Tue Apr 25, 2023 10:22 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
Replies: 24
Views: 8641

Re: Why doesn't film come up more?

Any such proposal would involve writing a lot more film questions. I'd want people to consider, when writing a particular film tossup, whether it's fair to compare the clues and answer you're using to the kind of knowledge that's being tested for in a tossup on a sculpture or architect or photograph...
by theMoMA
Sun Apr 09, 2023 7:24 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ICT general discussion
Replies: 11
Views: 1768

Re: 2023 ICT general discussion

We've talked about this to some degree before, but the ICT seeds have a few structural challenges, the main one being that ICT happens before Nationals and does not have the benefit of incorporating real results from a national-level tournament into the seeding. We've talked before about how the cir...
by theMoMA
Fri Apr 07, 2023 8:25 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Editors 14 of ACF Nationals 2018
Replies: 0
Views: 1404

Editors 14 of ACF Nationals 2018

Is now here: https://collegiate.quizbowlpackets.com/2139/Packet%2014%20-%20editors%20(unused).pdf This was an emergency packet. It hadn't been widely distributed to this point because there was some talk of rolling the questions over to a future Nationals, but that ended up not being feasible, and t...
by theMoMA
Wed Apr 05, 2023 4:51 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ICT general discussion
Replies: 11
Views: 1768

Re: 2023 ICT general discussion

I don't know much about the production process, but in terms of subdistribution, a few people mentioned to me (which I half-noticed while reading) what felt like a dearth of east asian history. Subjectively, it also felt funny that I believe the first 7 history tossups were "this leader,"...
by theMoMA
Wed Apr 05, 2023 12:04 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ICT general discussion
Replies: 11
Views: 1768

Re: 2023 ICT general discussion

My focus on bonus difficulty and consistency has gotten somewhat stronger in the past couple of years, which is likely reflected in the (marginally) increased difficulty of bonuses at SCT and ICT. Essentially, I think ensuring a distinct easy, medium, and hard part at a regular or nationals-level co...
by theMoMA
Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:41 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4241

Re: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion

The arcades question was mostly not about Benjamin (although it did end with him), but I agree that the two should have been separated more. Thanks to Seth's hard work, we were able to put a lot more thought into packet feng shui this year than often happens at SCT/ICT (because of time and packet co...
by theMoMA
Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:57 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4241

Re: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion

etotheipi wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:46 pmI'm pretty sure that "O swallow swallow" isn't a command - it references the bird (which is also named in the Latin quote right before it).
That is true; I don't think it should've affected gameplay, but apologies for the oversight.
by theMoMA
Mon Apr 03, 2023 12:58 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4241

Re: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion

Rob might be able to elaborate on this, but we made a mistake of some kind that resulted in a layer of edits to the Albee question not being saved. Our apologies for not catching this.
by theMoMA
Mon Apr 03, 2023 11:38 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ICT general discussion
Replies: 11
Views: 1768

Re: 2023 ICT general discussion

A quick word of thanks to my co-editors on the DI set: Matt Bollinger, Billy Busse, and Rob Carson. Big thanks as well to the writers and subject editors who helped the DI set come together, especially Will Alston, Alston Boyd, Mike Cheyne, Kurtis Droge, Auroni Gupta, Rahul Keyal, Joseph Krol, Ben M...
by theMoMA
Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:02 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: How do we use "Description Acceptable"?
Replies: 8
Views: 2719

Re: How do we use "Description Acceptable"?

On the narrower issue of what terminology to use when a description or a reified name is acceptable, I inclined toward verbiage that eliminates as much ambiguity as possible. So I would lean toward something along the lines of "A name or reasonably specific description is acceptable." This...
by theMoMA
Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:05 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Carper Award: congratulations to Edmund Dickinson and Joe Su!
Replies: 2
Views: 1817

2023 Carper Award: congratulations to Edmund Dickinson and Joe Su!

ACF is pleased to announce that the 2023 Carper Award winners are Edmund Dickinson and Joe Su! Edmund received the award through the vote of the ACF membership. When Edmund joined the Oxford University Quiz Society in 2007, collegiate quizbowl in the UK was confined to a handful of matches on modifi...
by theMoMA
Tue Feb 28, 2023 6:49 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Directors Commentary
Replies: 5
Views: 2163

Re: Directors Commentary

One thing I very much appreciate about Mike as a writer is that, like fellow Seattle-area legend Randy Johnson, he has great "stuff." He does not nibble at the corners with unspecific language or try to throw one in the dirt with a vague answer line. With each clue, Mike's essentially sayi...
by theMoMA
Fri Feb 10, 2023 2:45 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: 2023 Carper Award community discussion
Replies: 3
Views: 3930

2023 Carper Award community discussion

Each year, ACF awards up to two Carper Awards to honor individuals who have, over their quizbowl careers, sustained and enriched collegiate academic competitions. One of those awards is (as it has been since 1999) decided by membership vote, and the other (created four years ago) is decided by a com...
by theMoMA
Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:28 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Addressing a common moderator error
Replies: 19
Views: 4026

Re: Addressing a common moderator error

I don't do this "answer please" prompting on tossups, but I also wonder if there's a good reason to keep having these different rules. I guess the idea is it's redundant and might give players an extra second or two because the moderator stops counting when saying "answer please.&quo...
by theMoMA
Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:59 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

by theMoMA
Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:31 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

Congrats to our Guy-remembering co-champions, Tejas Raje and Jonathan Mishory! Each remembered 17 guys with a 1.73 PPG (points per guy). Full leaderboard: 1.73 (17): Jonathan Mishory 1.73 (17): Tejas Raje 1.44 (14): Naveed Chowdhury 0.83 (9): Dylan Minarik 0.81 (8): Evan Knox 0.64 (7): Sam Rombro 0....
by theMoMA
Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:34 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

See you there in about 90 minutes.
by theMoMA
Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:07 am
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

Please do put yourself in the spreadsheet if you plan to have a packet for Sunday.
by theMoMA
Tue Dec 27, 2022 9:56 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

Guys V will take place on Sunday, January 1, 2023, at 7pm central time (likely with 15-20 minutes of pleasantries before we get into packet reading). Details and Zoom link to follow. Please have your packets ready by then. If you're planning to have a packet ready, please fill in the details on this...
by theMoMA
Wed Dec 21, 2022 3:14 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

Please fill out this form about your availability for Guys on January 1/2: https://forms.gle/JMUvAoeFJpWMFNUK9
by theMoMA
Mon Dec 12, 2022 12:59 pm
Forum: Miscellaneous Quizbowl
Topic: Buying Used Buzzing Equipment
Replies: 2
Views: 1532

Re: Buying Used Buzzing Equipment

I have several used buzzers I would be happy to sell, mostly Zeecrafts. You can email me at [email protected].
by theMoMA
Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:49 am
Forum: Trash
Topic: Let's Remember Some Guys V
Replies: 11
Views: 6421

Re: Let's Remember Some Guys V

I'd like to hold this over the holidays via Zoom. Would New Year's Day (or the Monday after that, which most people will have off) work for people?
by theMoMA
Fri Nov 11, 2022 2:33 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Can we cool it a bit with the "note-spelling"?
Replies: 27
Views: 7837

Re: Can we cool it a bit with the "note-spelling"?

Score clues are easier than I think many people give them credit for. I’ve noticed this most prominently when reading trash questions with score clues, where my generally non-musical teammates can get very good buzzes from a string of pitches. I would be shocked if at a typical trash tournament (wh...