Search found 310 matches

by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Nov 17, 2020 3:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Online Quiz Bowl Can Be Improved
Replies: 15
Views: 7463

Re: Online Quiz Bowl Can Be Improved

Using Discord text chat to buzz is another aspect of online tournaments that I think can be improved. Third-party buzzer apps make it easier on moderators and makes it less likely for buzzes to get mixed up or unnoticed by the moderator. The two that I’ve used that work are buzzin.live and gamenigh...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Packet Submission discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 10336

Re: Packet Submission discussion

Maybe I'm a confused old man, but why is this such a theoretical discussion? Has packet submission not been dying for close to a decade? If reducing packet submission has deleterious effects on player and writer development, should we not be seeing some consequences by now? Instead it seems that ap...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT rules changes for 2020-2021
Replies: 6
Views: 2376

Re: NAQT rules changes for 2020-2021

Read a replacement from the end of the packet. Instead of doing this, can we please finally have the option to request printed editions that excise comp math already? I know that NAQT can and does print custom editions of its sets for local circuits to use according to their specifications, and the...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:23 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Running Zoom Tournaments
Replies: 67
Views: 33260

Re: Running Zoom Tournaments

The fact that some features on Zoom require a premium / academic account is not ideal. Our bracket got a late start because I think the person who created the initial meeting didn't have permissions to create breakout rooms. Yes, a lot of people playing are going to have academic Zoom accounts. But...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowl Monopolization and its Problems
Replies: 9
Views: 5720

Re: Quizbowl Monopolization and its Problems

As far as I know, NAQT has not made any clear statement about whether or not its questions can be used in an online tournament over Zoom or Discord for next year We have not yet reached a decision about this issue (but we are having internal discussion about possibilities for online hosting). A lot...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Jun 16, 2020 5:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT
Replies: 12
Views: 5406

Re: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT

The front page of Buzzword has the film sample listed as "Play Level C (hardest) Sample Game."
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Jun 08, 2020 4:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: National Charity QB Tournament
Replies: 20
Views: 5313

Re: National Charity QB Tournament

This is going to be a High School Tournament, which is why we're using an International-Style Set. We're currently working out the logistics, but anyone High School and under is welcome to join. What’s an “International-Style Set”? Do you mean your set is going to be in the style of an NAQT Invitat...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty
Replies: 35
Views: 17861

Re: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty

Also, regarding "general knowledge" -- this definitely is important and can be used very well in themed bonuses, particularly. I remember one of the earliest bonuses I wrote for an elementary set involved question on apples in various contexts. I've also written questions where the answer...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Mar 25, 2020 8:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty
Replies: 35
Views: 17861

Re: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty

Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gift of the Magi I'm trying to avoid answers like these. It's true that some 6th graders can get those, but that's not who this set is for. Those answers will go dead too often if they are asked to novice middle schoolers. I wouldn't even toss up Orwell. I still ...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Mar 25, 2020 4:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty
Replies: 35
Views: 17861

Re: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty

What would people think about the creation of a "starter set" that would be: -basically 3-5 packets at most, perhaps only 1-2 -be specifically targeted to teach new players how to play and to see if they like quizbowl -would feature extremely easy, short questions Such a set, in my opinio...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sun Mar 22, 2020 5:37 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Joint Quizbowl Project
Replies: 26
Views: 8956

Re: Joint Quizbowl Project

3. An implementation of Ophir's "jumping between tossups and bonuses with the stroke of a single key" outside the context of advanced stats. I am guessing this should be fairly straightforward, though I could be wrong. You can split the window into two, depending on your viewer. You can d...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:05 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Joint Quizbowl Project
Replies: 26
Views: 8956

Re: Joint Quizbowl Project

(He hasn't posted on the forums since 2010, but we olds remember him.) He staffed the last Cal Cup tournament 2 weeks ago! In any case, here are a couple more (small-scale) projects to toss onto the pile: 7. A standardized email outreach template for regional circuits along the lines of what Chiego...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sat Mar 14, 2020 1:06 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Joint Quizbowl Project
Replies: 26
Views: 8956

Re: Joint Quizbowl Project

Can we throw out ideas without committing to working on them? There are several projects that I think the quiz bowl community could really use but that I personally don't necessarily have the time to commit to: 1. Incomplete quiz bowl answerlines (failing to include the entire names of countries and...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sun Mar 01, 2020 5:45 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Basic Steps Towards Quizbowl Professionalization for Tournaments: Cut the Acronyms and Pseudonyms
Replies: 7
Views: 4781

Re: Basic Steps Towards Quizbowl Professionalization for Tournaments: Cut the Acronyms and Pseudonyms

Something that’s been nagging at me more and more (and certainly something I’m very guilty of) is that the forums are a great clearinghouse for tournament announcements for the community at large, but they should not constitute the main interface of interaction between us and the external tournament...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri Feb 14, 2020 1:51 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE Outreach--Mentors and Newsletter
Replies: 3
Views: 1999

Re: PACE Outreach--Mentors and Newsletter

The newsletter looks excellent—it is good at the message it conveys. A couple more things I would do are to plug Quizbowl 101 harder so teams visit the PACE website and see the other introductory resources. I’d also put a couple examples of a super basic tossup and bonus so administrators don’t have...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cross-Post: NAQT Timing Discussion
Replies: 37
Views: 9476

Re: Cross-Post: NAQT Timing Discussion

As someone who’s moderated 1000+ official tournament qb/HB matches in the last 10 years, I wholeheartedly support this change. It feels weird and alien to switch to NAQT timing when I staff SCT/MSNCT/HSNCT, and anecdotally it seems to adversely impact the players who use less binary association-base...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri Feb 07, 2020 3:19 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IQBT Looking for Host for 2020 NASAT Main Site
Replies: 6
Views: 7975

Re: IQBT Looking for Host for 2020 NASAT Main Site

AKKOLADE wrote: Wed Nov 13, 2019 1:49 pm I've just emailed 30+ prospective hosts for NASAT. I hope to have a site announced by the end of the year. My goal is to not be in Lexington this year.
Is there an update on this?
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sun Feb 02, 2020 2:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: "Should have been prompted" replacement policy
Replies: 15
Views: 5997

Re: "Should have been prompted" replacement policy

Since this is an issue that should ideally be covered by the same ruleset from SAGES all the way up to Arrabal, it doesn’t make much sense for us to only talk about the experiences of good teams at high level collegiate tournaments. At local tournaments with inexperienced moderators and newer teams,...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Jan 14, 2020 5:49 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: To NAQT: Ask Ken Jennings to Promote Pyramidal Quiz Bowl on Twitter ASAP
Replies: 8
Views: 2778

To NAQT: Ask Ken Jennings to Promote Pyramidal Quiz Bowl on Twitter ASAP

The primetime Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time Tournament is receiving higher ratings than Game 1 of last year's NBA Finals and World Series . There seem to be more eyeballs on J! than at any other point in history, and we can anticipate a tremendous number for today, in which Ken Jennings may very w...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Qwiz5 Quizbowl Essentials Resource Thread
Replies: 13
Views: 9071

Re: Qwiz5 Quizbowl Essentials Resource Thread

We're glad you're liking them! We'll keep producing them. If you have something you'd like us to cover in a Qwiz5, drop us a line! I'm glad that these guides exist, but make sure that whoever is producing these guides fact-checks themselves and understands the distinction between terms with distinc...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Nov 04, 2019 10:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Abolish packet submission for ACF Fall
Replies: 29
Views: 8462

Re: Abolish packet submission for ACF Fall

When I was a subject editor, Stephen Liu was the head editor. Stephen filtered the vast majority of the submissions so that us subject editors only saw a minority of packets that were deemed to have usable submissions--those generally came from teams with writers who had some degree of experience. T...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Thu Oct 31, 2019 7:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Penn Bowl - Specific Question Discussion Thread
Replies: 60
Views: 10258

Re: Specific Question Discussion Thread

I, and many other qbers, hate the word polity. Was there no way to write the Qin tossup with a different pronoun? It's a legitimate word, and while there's a reason to hate its prior overuse in qb, there's no particular reason to hate the word (same thing with "titular," actually). Nevert...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Penn Bowl - General Discussion Thread
Replies: 26
Views: 3626

Re: General Discussion Thread

I also think that the Qin dynasty being classified as social science really weird - it seemed like a rather regular archaeology question, which I think both fits well in history and doesn't crowd out an already crowded part of the distro that soc sci is. Archaeology in this tournament ended up bein...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Sep 24, 2019 7:54 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty
Replies: 35
Views: 17861

Re: Rethinking Middle School/Novice Difficulty

I've long been an advocate for msqb vastly expanding its distribution of general knowledge. I'm not a fan of collegiate quiz bowl having more than a little trivia, but it's perfectly apropos for middle school (and hs!) qb to ask more directly about elements of their culture and surroundings they're ...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Thu Jun 27, 2019 9:42 pm
Forum: New Collegiate Teams
Topic: Public Trivia Nights into Quizbowl Play
Replies: 7
Views: 11114

Re: Public Trivia Nights into Quizbowl Play

This is a really good idea! And probably more practical in a college setting than posting a flyer or going from classroom to classroom. I'd be very interested in doing this at VMI. Do you all write the questions yourselves or find them from the internet? If you write the questions what kind of dist...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: RULFO at PACE NSC
Replies: 26
Views: 11021

Re: RULFO at PACE NSC

Will have to drop. Didn’t realize this conflicted with PACE Conference.
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Thu May 30, 2019 10:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Mons Mathstrosity: A Packet of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing
Replies: 5
Views: 5591

Re: Mons Mathstrosity: A Packet of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing

Why not just roll it into the "eventual" Mons Mathstrosity (the quotation marks being present for a reason)?
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri May 24, 2019 10:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Geography Monstrosity 2019
Replies: 5
Views: 2383

Re: Geography Monstrosity 2019

We’re in M103.
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri May 03, 2019 6:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: California Summer Weekend o' Quizbowl (8/10-11)
Replies: 25
Views: 9370

Re: California Summer Weekend o' Quizbowl at Cal State, Long Beach (Date TBD)

Flights to Long Beach Airport are also pretty cheap and come from all Bay Area airports. It seems like a pretty easy pickup from the campus.
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri May 03, 2019 6:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: California Summer Weekend o' Quizbowl (8/10-11)
Replies: 25
Views: 9370

Re: California Summer Weekend o' Quizbowl at Cal State, Long Beach (Date TBD)

nadph wrote: Fri May 03, 2019 3:06 pm I'd be willing to drive 7 hours from the Bay Area to attend this, should the timing work. If others in NorCal are interested, let me know and we could possibly coordinate on transport and timing.
Indeed.
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Apr 16, 2019 9:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: California Summer Open(s)?
Replies: 15
Views: 9649

Re: California Summer Open(s)?

With Summer Open not happening, here's my dream lineup for a California side events tournament that would hopefully take place at least a couple weeks away from CO: Saturday: META This Must Be the Place The Unanswered Question Sunday: Super Acronym II RULFO Age of Empires may also be ready by that ...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:10 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Ken Jennings Slate article on quizbowl
Replies: 7
Views: 7694

Re: Ken Jennings Slate article on quizbowl

The content of the article is mostly very good. I hope it was an editorial decision and not Ken Jennings' to call us Jeopardy's minor leagues (I don't know in what other games the minor leagues would be substantially more difficult than the major leagues). This is the key problem with quizbowl in p...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Apr 10, 2019 4:55 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Ken Jennings Slate article on quizbowl
Replies: 7
Views: 7694

Re: Ken Jennings Slate article on quizbowl

The content of the article is mostly very good. I hope it was an editorial decision and not Ken Jennings' to call us Jeopardy's minor leagues (I don't know in what other games the minor leagues would be substantially more difficult than the major leagues).
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:32 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: AMA about the 2011 NSC & the evolution of PACE
Replies: 14
Views: 25331

Re: AMA about the 2011 NSC & the evolution of PACE

Was PACE the first high school quiz bowl organization (whether good or bad) to effect the complete removal of trash from its distribution? What did discussions to that end look like? Did those discussions impact HSAPQ’s own decision not to put trash in its own contemporary inaugural NASAT? Why was a...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Mar 19, 2019 2:09 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Help Me Justify a Quizbowl Class?
Replies: 4
Views: 3548

Re: Help Me Justify a Quizbowl Class?

Howdy! I'm fortunate to be in a school that already has a quizbowl team, so I'm not looking for help establishing one. What I'm needing is help with a proposal to justify having a class period set aside for quizbowl (and maybe other academic competitions). Right now, my main argument is that athlet...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Thu Jan 10, 2019 3:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Washington DC televised quiz bowl
Replies: 3
Views: 2932

Re: Washington DC televised quiz bowl

Heh, if only someone offered them a new home in exchange for them going pyramidal.
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Dec 25, 2018 3:11 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Outreach Advice Wanted
Replies: 6
Views: 3519

Re: Outreach Advice Wanted

You're doing the right thing by having an initial introduction through email about what quiz bowl is about (the elevator pitch) and attaching a separate longer document for interested administrators to peruse. While it may look at first glance like a game of no more value than bar trivia, quiz bowl ...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sun Dec 16, 2018 4:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019 IQBT NASAT - 6/22 and 6/23, Lexington, KY
Replies: 72
Views: 47333

Re: 2019 IQBT NASAT - 6/22 and 6/23, Lexington, KY

I know that we on the board like to argue about a lot of things, but the inaccessibility of Champaign should be something we can all agree on. This might be true, but the fact that there's public transportation to there (the bus and train Alston mentioned) and the fact that the connection is throug...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Thu Dec 06, 2018 4:51 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Students as tournament directors?
Replies: 5
Views: 3381

Re: Students as tournament directors?

It's great that you're interested and I'm excited to see another Mississippi team interested in hosting on good questions. In general, yes, students can direct tournaments, but there have been issues in the past with some that you should be aware of and make sure that y'all won't fall victim to in ...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019 NASAT: June 22 & 23
Replies: 14
Views: 14677

Re: 2019 NASAT: June 22 & 23

A belated reply to the above: we're aware of the relative difficulties of traveling into Lexington, Kentucky, but that is where IQBT is base. A lot of our connections for local staff and room reservations are dependent on hosting in Lexington. Additionally, one of the co-owners would also be unable...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:39 am
Forum: Middle school area archives
Topic: 2019 NAQT MSNCT: Congratulations Hunter!
Replies: 15
Views: 13129

Re: 2019 NAQT MSNCT: May 11-12, Chicago

The Saturday (preliminary) rounds of the 2019 MSNCT will use questions similar in length and difficulty to those at previous championships. The Sunday (playoff and consolation) rounds will use longer and harder questions similar to those in NAQT's Regular Invitational Series. The subject distributi...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Oct 29, 2018 6:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2018-2019 California Cup
Replies: 11
Views: 10710

Re: 2018-2019 California Cup

They're a diploma-granting secondary learning institution with formal enrollment and coursework that is also approved as such by NAQT. What's your reasoning for defaulting to the position that "they should not be allowed to play" rather than "trust but verify?"
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:38 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: My Health
Replies: 11
Views: 8068

Re: My Health

So happy for you, David. Hopefully, that "probably" prognosis can turn into a "definitely" in the near future.
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Mon Oct 08, 2018 4:42 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: autoPG: Docs script for crowdsourced pronunciation guides
Replies: 2
Views: 5595

Re: autoPG: Docs script for crowdsourced pronunciation guides

This is great stuff! One question I had is how we as a community will hash out who gets to determine the crowdsourced pronunciation guides. I think that several extant pronunciation guides can be incorrect to the point of confusing players (I encounter this fairly frequently with Indian names, I'm s...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Wed May 30, 2018 9:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Matt Bruce (cw: sexual assault, pedophilia)
Replies: 153
Views: 110490

Re: Matt Bruce (cw: sexual assault, pedophilia)

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance’s President is a top NAQT member. I have every confidence he’ll do the right thing. That said, if it comes down to it, I will lobby against NAQT tournaments being run in Northern California. Obviously, Matt Bruce is unwelcome at any event here. Anything els...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue May 01, 2018 7:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question Security and You
Replies: 2
Views: 2538

Re: Question Security and You

This has also been a big problem on the meme page (to the extent that it's become something of a running joke whenever I point out unclear set content to Jakob).
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:29 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals discussion
Replies: 121
Views: 62518

Re: ACF Nationals discussion

In my earlier post in this thread, I accidentally spoiled some questions from the unread editors' packets that are being saved for next year. Perhaps it's hubris to think many people actually read my post, but in theory the milk has been spilt. So, here are the text of the questions, which are not ...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Historature 2018: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 5222

Re: Specific Question Discussion

I think I remember the question on Powhatan refer to them as a "tribe." To be fair, I don't know of many non-transparent ways to refer to them (a similar problem exists with questions on the Iroquois / Haudenosaunee) and it didn't affect my enjoyment of the question (it was good to see th...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: "I'm sorry, I can't accept that."
Replies: 12
Views: 10779

Re: "I'm sorry, I can't accept that."

The worse instance I ever saw was my player getting awarded the points on a bonus part, and THEN... moments later, the moderator backing up and reconsidering, then asking my player to "SPELL IT." This was a science bonus at sectional championship match, where the answer line was "oto...
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:17 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: What is the most pressing concern in college quizbowl today?
Replies: 68
Views: 60524

Re: What is the most pressing concern in college quizbowl to

I don't think very many college quizbowlers show up to a tournament, decide that 1/1 world history isn't enough, and walk off, but perhaps you're right that aspects of the distribution are unappealing--can we expound on this? I do, however, suspect that many economics and psychology majors (which i...