How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

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Irreligion in Bangladesh
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

Kyle wrote:
GBRodgers12 wrote:Also, trim geography down and/or put a much greater emphasis on world rivers/mountains/bodies of water in the geography category.
I agree entirely that NAQT makes American geography too large a percentage of the geography distribution, but are you sure you want tossups on mountains? I have never seen a tossup about a mountain that wasn't boring. I say that as somebody who likes mountains. You have half a chance with rivers or bodies of water, but what can you possibly say about a mountain beyond its height and who climbed it first?
Cheeky anecdotes, as every Mount Mitchell question proves?

Seriously though, questions on mountains are annoying.
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by Important Bird Area »

Kyle wrote:I have never seen a tossup about a mountain that wasn't boring. I say that as somebody who likes mountains. You have half a chance with rivers or bodies of water, but what can you possibly say about a mountain beyond its height and who climbed it first?
styxman wrote:Seriously though, questions on mountains are annoying.
Don't make me write a theme packet for Geography Monstrosity 3, people.
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by GBRodgers12 »

styxman wrote:
Kyle wrote:
GBRodgers12 wrote:Also, trim geography down and/or put a much greater emphasis on world rivers/mountains/bodies of water in the geography category.
I agree entirely that NAQT makes American geography too large a percentage of the geography distribution, but are you sure you want tossups on mountains? I have never seen a tossup about a mountain that wasn't boring. I say that as somebody who likes mountains. You have half a chance with rivers or bodies of water, but what can you possibly say about a mountain beyond its height and who climbed it first?
Cheeky anecdotes, as every Mount Mitchell question proves?

Seriously though, questions on mountains are annoying.
I was intending more mountain ranges rather than individual mountains. Obviously more emphasis on rivers and bodies of water though.
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by Rufous-capped Thornbill »

Yes, I demand more tossups on the Carpathians!
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by Carambola! »

I agree that American Geography is over-represented. Why tossup the Chattahoochee river, which is a minor river on the global scale, when there are many other rivers that are longer and significant to larger amounts of people?

Also, personal preference, but I believe the internet in general is under-represented, given its rather large presence in everyday life.

Leave in General Knowledge and CE, possibly increasing CE at the expense of Trash or GK.
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by cvdwightw »

Cheynem wrote:Rather, I'd just be happy if the trash was on accessible, well written topics. A lot of times I find NAQT's trash to be on dubious topics (way out of date TV show, movie, athlete, Internet meme) and not written well to boot. Using an ICT example, the Shawn Bradley tossup was a poor idea. I would be happier with a tossup on a basketball player that the target audience would be more likely to be familiar with. This is my own individual personal opinion regarding NAQT trash and I certainly sympathize with those calling for its removal.
I know NAQT uses a "use before" code for its current events questions to make sure they're not using "not-so-current-events" questions. Does NAQT use such a code on its pop culture? I suspect that a lot of the bad trash questions, e.g. Shawn Bradley, were either written by people who are woefully misjudging what "pre-current" trash topics are accessible to today's players or written many years ago when the topic was still relevant and only used recently.
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by Important Bird Area »

cvdwightw wrote:I know NAQT uses a "use before" code for its current events questions to make sure they're not using "not-so-current-events" questions. Does NAQT use such a code on its pop culture?
Sometimes, if the writer or subject editor feels such a code is justified.
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by Birdofredum Sawin »

cvdwightw wrote:I know NAQT uses a "use before" code for its current events questions to make sure they're not using "not-so-current-events" questions. Does NAQT use such a code on its pop culture? I suspect that a lot of the bad trash questions, e.g. Shawn Bradley, were either written by people who are woefully misjudging what "pre-current" trash topics are accessible to today's players or written many years ago when the topic was still relevant and only used recently.
Hey, I wrote that Shawn Bradley tossup myself in the months prior to ICT, specifically for use in that tournament. I maintain that it was not a "bad" trash question, even though Jerry (whose knowledge of the NBA prior to, say, 2008 doesn't exactly seem to be encyclopedic) lambasted it.

More generally: even if NAQT questions were written years ago or by people who are "woeful" in their estimations of what is gettable, they still have to be approved by several layers of set editors before appearing in a tournament. Slightly less generally: I thought most of the pop culture questions appearing in this year's SCT and ICT were fine, perhaps because I myself wrote them. In particular, I thought we'd hashed through a lot of this stuff in the post-ICT discussion, where people were saying things like "the trash blew!" and then I said things like "actually, I wrote a lot of the pop culture questions and I thought they were solid: take, e.g. these film questions" and then people said "oh, I didn't mean those questions: I thought they were just fine."
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Re: How should NAQT change its distribution for 2010-11?

Post by cvdwightw »

Birdofredum Sawin wrote:
cvdwightw wrote:I know NAQT uses a "use before" code for its current events questions to make sure they're not using "not-so-current-events" questions. Does NAQT use such a code on its pop culture? I suspect that a lot of the bad trash questions, e.g. Shawn Bradley, were either written by people who are woefully misjudging what "pre-current" trash topics are accessible to today's players or written many years ago when the topic was still relevant and only used recently.
Hey, I wrote that Shawn Bradley tossup myself in the months prior to ICT, specifically for use in that tournament. I maintain that it was not a "bad" trash question, even though Jerry (whose knowledge of the NBA prior to, say, 2008 doesn't exactly seem to be encyclopedic) lambasted it.
I answered that Shawn Bradley tossup. I thought it was a good question. I don't know why it was on Shawn Bradley, who isn't at all notable now and was never particularly notable during his playing career except for being taller and whiter than other tall white guys of his era (and I guess his appearance in Space Jam). Then again, everyone has their own opinion of what constitutes an answerable trash question - see the EFT Discussion on the accessibility of Final Fantasy VI. I know I've written trash questions that skew way too old or too obscure for a target audience. Maybe I'm just really bad at suspecting things and, like with every other question that people find inaccessible or a "bad idea," the perceived prevalence of "bad idea" trash in NAQT and to a much larger extent TRASH is just people misjudging the fit between a question and its target audience, magnified by the amount of trash in the set.

This discussion is a prime example of (1) why trash needs a canon and (2) why trash will never have a canon.
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