The Quizbowl Resource Center

Cody

I encourage hosts using bouncebacks to adopt and use the relevant sections of the PACE ruleset . Bounceback replacement & protest resolution, in particular, are quite different when bouncebacks are in play – and hosts are likely to have zero experience with such issues. A primer and any relevant...

Cody

This should definitely be something that the HSQBDB is well-suited for, albeit requiring more manual intervention than NAQT's stats database. Combined with Harry White's database search, you'd just need to compile a list of tournaments using someone's deadname and only change the files associated wi...

Cody

Is it unreasonable to ask people to have dinner somewhat late? Lunch breaks are usually around 3PM or so for these online events; I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an 8PM or later dinner. I think it is unreasonable for tournaments to finish after 8PM Eastern without a dinner break. As Steph...

Cody

Yes, and for IRL tournaments, lots of people get home well past 9, so playing into the late evening is not that big a deal. It goes both ways. My point is that forcing West Coast players to accommodate East Coast players every single time is not a fair solution. Yes, but that usually includes a pos...

Cody

This already exists in various places.

Cody

I did not like the construction "Name this X.", which was used somewhat frequently in the first bonus prompt. It wasn't nearly as bad as 2018-19 HFT, but it sometimes appeared a couple of times a packet. It's a useless construction and it destroys my flow as a moderator – I come off the l...

Cody

Liberty has successfully maintained a program with an Honors College affiliated advisor. It seems like an approach that could work well because the recruiting pool of the Honors College is also fertile ground.

Cody

I feel like there's several things being discussed here. One is about grad students, and another is about Nats difficulty. Those seem like two very different topics, and probably should be discussed in their own threads for the sake of sanity and keeping the conversation going smoothly. And yes, th...

Cody

Doesn't hsquizbowl.org/db already perform the functions of the competition listing? edit: I'm pretty sure that anyone can use NAQT's central registration system, even if you are not using one of their sets. However I much prefer email. edit 2: okay as near as I can tell, NAQT's registration system i...

Cody

On that note, why do tournaments of this difficulty produce so many packets? I don't think I've played past packet 11 at any recent open tournament that was not CO. Seems like a waste of effort to me. 15 packets is the minimum a tournament must produce in order to accommodate all common field sizes...

Cody

On that note, why do tournaments of this difficulty produce so many packets? I don't think I've played past packet 11 at any recent open tournament that was not CO. Seems like a waste of effort to me. 15 packets is the minimum a tournament must produce in order to accommodate all common field sizes...

Cody

The tossup on "hydrogen" that referred to it as "this substance" had a clue that Rafael, Noah, and I felt was ambiguously worded, referring to the "production of the 21 centimeter line in this substance." I gave an answer of "intergalactic medium" - I assume ...

Cody

One thing I cleared with NAQT when I ran SCT in 2016 was a -$30 moderator discount and -$10 scorekeeper discount . (This was determined by capabilities, not final assigned roles. At the time, -$30 was the standard staff discount.) I think formalizing such a discount structure is a good solution if N...

Cody

Packet 10, TU#21, ans: Dvorak The cymbals only used for a single three measure appearance in the final movement of this man's final symphony. => "The cymbals are only used" ? Thought about this more, and I'd suggest another revision: move "this man's final symphony" to the begin...

Cody

Given that I wrote every one of these questions, I might have more to say later but the tossup on time is very real. Survival models are incredibly important in insurance for example and ARIMA models are one of the pinnacles of modern time series analysis. As it stands, the tossup is not very canon...

Cody

14. Due to favorable state laws within California, this type of health plan started to become popular on the West Coast first. For 10 points each: [10] Name this type of health plan that is similar to an EPO. Since the 1990s, it has increased in popularity due to its increased flexibility and abili...

Cody

Some of the less involved specific comments I noted while reading below. I made better notes (highlighted more things) as the day went on, so the earlier packets are less comprehensive. Don't put much stock in the bolding / underlining on the question reference line, as I added that without looking ...

Cody

I thought this was a good set, and have few complaints about the content of questions. The proofreading got worse in the later packets, but even the worst packets were quite decent – I was sometimes aggravated by phrasings, but I recall few blatant or major errors (e.g. missing words or word salad)....

Cody

I wouldn't call that an in-between. That's how a protest replacement policy where a tossup is nominally live for both teams (Bentley et al's suggestion) would work -- the non-protesting team is not allowed to buzz if they negged prior to the protested buzz.

Cody

whoever wins the UG final will qualify automatically, while whoever loses the final will have their A-value reduced. A system in which at least one team who qualifies for a final is guaranteed to have their ranking reduced, compared to teams that did not qualify for a final at all, seems unfair to ...

Cody

For this reason, in my opinion, undergraduate finals games shouldn't count towards final standings or A-values, in order to avoid punishing teams for making a final. Michigan B was not punished for making a final. Michigan B did not clear the UG field, had an advantage in a UG final, and lost 2 gam...

Cody

For VHSL, all you need is a lightning round box score for both teams (same as any other lightning round format even though VHSL functions differently). SQBS handles it well by leaving it open imo. As for details, each team can score some integer multiple of ten points, no more than 200 combined, no ...

Cody

Certainly the moderator could make the judgment call that "prologue" should be acceptable, but if the editor wants that to be the case, they bear the greater responsibility to say so. What about an answer of the preface or the foreword to Hopscotch ? As far as I know, such terms are close...

Cody

This tossup was definitely my most frustrating neg of the day, as it was incredibly annoying to buzz on a description of The Ecstasy of St. Theresa in a tossup on "this profession," say "saint," and not get points. I probably should have been able to get to nun with the prompt, ...

Cody

Editors in Packetizor have access to see an entire set, but writers only have access to their own questions. This can still be a significant portion of the set, obviously, but it's much, much more secure than Drive docs. Hunh? This statement is at odds with the requirements for a successful questio...

Cody

This may be slightly unrelated, but for those working on housewrite sets: Don't use Google Drive. Use a proper system like QEMS or Packetizor. It's much harder for a rogue writer or editor to retaliate by leaking a massive majority of a set using a question management system. If someone wants to le...

Cody

I got the yahoo-group-archive-tools figured out and was able to do some validation using Windows Mbox Viewer. Unfortunately, all messages before June 5, 1999 @ 8:30pm (the first 301 messages) are lost. The downloads do not have a message body, and trying to access these posts in the group yields a b...

Cody

Thanks to Colin, I have archived the jucoqb (public and overrun with spam so will require some fixing), qb-canada, qbtrash, quizbowl, and quizbowl-announce groups using IgnoredAmbience's yahoo-group-archiver (-t -r -f -i -l -p -a -m) recommended by the Archive Team . (I also have plain email message...

Cody

Ebay is a good place to look for buzzer parts.

Cody

I have updated the OP with a fully implemented master copy of an answer spreadsheet, which I didn't realize wasn't publicly available (sorry!). It's been used for most (all?) ACF tournaments in the past 3 years and is pretty great.

Cody

My concern for some of those schedules is that NAQT (and several other housewritten sets) only have 12 packets. If you assume you need 2 for finals, that leaves only 10 rounds to do everything else in. Sure, there are no universal parameters that work with all field sizes and number of packets. A 1...

Cody

The tournaments I directed for high schools aimed for schedules with a minimum of 9 games, a maximum of 12 non-finals rounds, around 5-7 prelim games (but as many as 9 for certain field sizes such as 19 and 20), and -- if I recall correctly -- around 25% - 40%+ remaining in contention beyond the pre...

Cody

My understanding is that the majority of the set had to be written and edited in a month. This doesn't seem ideal and is caused by the packet submission model. I don't mean to discount the rest of your post, which I think raises a number of valuable points for consideration. However, I did want to ...

Cody

VCU would like to claim March 28 for a HS tournament TBD.

Cody

Cheynem wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:48 pm Wait, I thought you actually were supposed to write it as "cf." not "c.f."

Yeah, I wrote it backwards; edited.

Cody

Has this confused anyone ever? I don't know if it's confused anyone, but it is a noticeable error and easily avoided. It's similar to writing "cf." as "c.f." -- the meaning may still be clear but it's also extremely obvious to observers that you've written it incorrectly. (And I...

Cody

Nah, the problem* with the "oozes" tossup is that the specific term is too hard -- almost no one in the field knows that specific term or will be able to pull it even if they figure out what's going on. It's pretty easy to figure out (especially after diagenesis) that it's talking about a ...

Cody

I agree with Naveed. The UMD/UVA/VCU triangle has among the highest mutual tournament attendances of any 3 collegiate programs. It really makes no sense for Virginia and Maryland (& DC) to be considered different regions given the prolific hosting and attendance histories between the programs in...

Cody

#1 is mooted by proper underlining: acceptable answers are bolded and underlined, promptable answers are underlined, and unacceptable answers do not have any formatting. This makes it more difficult for moderators to mess up when quickly scanning the answerline, and is more effective than retooling ...

Cody

The program used to generate these stats (Intermezzo?) does not create a compliant SQBS web report and cannot be navigated conventionally. (e.g. (a) it does not include the necessary links in the standings.html and team_detail.html files, and (b) the anchor links it creates in the individuals.html f...

Cody

Where is "The Judge" buzzer system in this? I feel like it's the best choice for a school hoping to make a solid, long-term investment in a buzzer system. It's very hard to order a Judge and difficult to repair or replace. Arguably the best long-term investment is an Anderson, replacing p...

Cody

The eligibility rules for VHSL Scholastic Bowl are defined in Section 28A of the VHSL Handbook (see attached) and are the same for other atheltic and nonathletic events sponsored by VHSL. (There are more restrictions in 28B for athletic activities.) Since it's the Virginia High School League, it mig...

Cody

As noted, bouncebacks are extremely opponent-dependent and won't tend to average out over a large sample size like other statistics such as PPG because there isn't a large sample size as compared to the variability in getting the bounceback correct. Another consideration is that (iirc) SQBS reports ...

Cody

Cody wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 3:09 pm
Fucitol wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 2:48 pm http://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/57 ... no_finals/
Can you implement divisions (Upper/Lower)?

Cody

A small note on the adjustments to Rule H.3: the change only shifts where & how certain language is used in the rule text for clarity and specificity. There are no substantive changes in applying the rule. A smaller note on the adjustments to Rule H.12: there are no substantive changes (clarity ...

Cody

Please see this thread for a note about some rule changes for the NSC this year.

Cody

It absolutely should have been accepted, because the answerline communicated that putative synonyms for "diner" are acceptable (see the phrase "the notion of" below), but unfortunately "bar" was not listed among them, so it seems some moderators quickly scanning the an...

Cody

At the end of the day, any ranking is just an imperfect correlation of team strength and ability across a large, large number of high school tournaments. They are not, and are not intended to be, definitive. The rankings can be useful, but they don't have any bearing once you've secured a finish at ...

Cody

Wouldn't a player poll just for people enrolled in Canadian universities solve almost all of these eligibility problems? These rules aren't that much better than the Ontario circuit poll.

Cody

Muriel Axon wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 2:20 pm
frasier wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 2:17 pmthings which virtually no one uses or studies like earth science
wait, what?

no one studies or uses the most important, pressing, and relevant scientific topics of our time, more at 11 on hsquizbowl.org

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