Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
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Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Stained Diviner »

If you go to the front page of the Quizbowl Resource Center that this forum is a part of, there is a prominent link to a Blog promising "Season previews, top team polls, and more."

If you click the link, you can see a preview of the 2015-16 season, which is the most recent post. If you keep reading, you can see Matt Jackson's 2014-15 Midseason Preview, which is the 2nd most recent post. That post was made just after Matt Weiner's announcement of high school poll results.

Can somebody either get rid of that link or make the blog worth keeping?
David Reinstein
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by ashwin99 »

Maybe it could replaced with a link to hsqbrank?
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

Or maybe people could, like, post stuff about quiz bowl on it?
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by bluejay123 »

JakobeanEra wrote:Or maybe people could, like, post stuff about quiz bowl on it?
LOL Myers. Too obvious to be a solution.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by bretthogan43 »

Another obvious one, but maybe somebody could start a brand new blog series?
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

bretthogan43 wrote:Another obvious one, but maybe somebody could start a brand new blog series?
That's what I was trying to get at in my earlier post. People already write stuff about quizbowl in a lot of different locations; why not centralize it?
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Stained Diviner »

It would be great if someone from board staff could make a post, even if it is something along the lines of "We're talking about this and will have something to say later this month" or "Here are some great reasons to have a front page link to a dead blog" or "We are willfully ignoring this thread." I know it's only been a little over two days since my original post, but I also sent a message in January that received no response.

Speaking of sending messages to board staff, it would be great if the Rules and General Announcements had a list of board staff with a better title than "Board staff in 2014-15". While I'm at it, I might as well mention that there are two threads stickied in the Databases and Quizbowl Software subforum, and one of them is for a site that died in 2012 and has a URL that goes to a site that is difficult for me to describe because I do not understand Japanese. There is also a thread stickied in the Regular Season Tournaments subforum to discuss a problem that was solved in 2009. I hope that pointing these things out won't distract from a discussion of the blog.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

Also there hasn't been anything in the "Best of the Best" section since 2014. I find it difficult to believe that people stopped making good threads on this forum then. This brings me to a slightly larger point: if stuff like the blog and BotB are only present for archival purposes so people can learn what Matt Weiner thought about stuff ca. 2012, they're fairly redundant: we have his entire post history for that. If they're not, and if this forum is to be properly used, a bit of maintenance once in awhile wouldn't hurt.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Stained Diviner »

JakobeanEra wrote:Also there hasn't been anything in the "Best of the Best" section since 2014.
Let's not suggest projects for them that would take a moderate amount of time when they aren't willing to do things that would take very little time. Keep your expectations reasonable.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

Big Y wrote:Let's not suggest projects for them that would take a moderate amount of time when they aren't willing to do things that would take very little time. Keep your expectations reasonable.
Here's a list of things that would be necessary to alleviate these problems
1) Browse forum occasionally
2) Notice good threads and out-of-date information
3) Use mod magic to move things listed in (2)
This process does not seem too labor-intensive (unless you take the completely fair position that browsing the forums counts as "labor")

I realize the tone of this post and this thread overall may be a bit too harsh as regards what are largely cosmetic annoyances, but the part Mr. Reinstein specified about the outdated website stickied in the Software section could actually present issues to teams in the future. That, at least, should be rectified as soon as possible.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by AKKOLADE »

ashwin99 wrote:Maybe it could replaced with a link to hsqbrank?
Nah. There's better options here.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by AKKOLADE »

Fred Morlan
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former hsqbrank manager, former NAQT writer & subject editor, former hsqb Administrator/Chief Administrator
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Cheynem »

As a former moderator, I would note that the job is much more difficult than you might think. It's an unpaid time sink in an activity dominated by time sinks--for example, when I was working full-time, I was not exactly jazzed to get home, write/edit quizbowl questions and moderate the forums (and I had a fairly open schedule compared to people who work 9 to 5 jobs). Furthermore, people have unrealistic ideas about how quickly the board should be policed and monitored--I remember getting various angry e-mails and PM's from people demanding why private forums weren't created (which only admins, not moderators, can do) or why I hadn't responded to or deleted such and such post. It's a volunteer position that demands a lot of time; that's not an excuse for falling behind at times (which I'll readily admit happens), but people should give the board staff some patience and discretion.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by AKKOLADE »

Being an admin ain't great.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

AKKOLADE wrote:Being an admin ain't great.
Sorry; sometimes I forget that not everyone has limitless free time like me.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Stained Diviner »

Some of the old stickies are now gone, so thanks to whoever did that.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

We're in the process of clearing some of the old detritus at the moment!
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Stained Diviner »

Does anybody have any idea what is going to happen with the blog or the link to it?
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by hokie168 »

Big Y wrote:Does anybody have any idea what is going to happen with the blog or the link to it?
Well, assuming that the Internet at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare isn't completely hosed, and that a couple things that seem to be wonky with Wordpress get fixed, I'll be putting live updates from ICT's afternoon top bracket rounds on the blog tomorrow.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by Stained Diviner »

Thanks for doing that.
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Re: Quizbowl Resource Center Blog

Post by hokie168 »

I'll once again be liveblogging ICT, starting either Round 3 or Round 4 depending on where they're at when I get off work. I'll be following the top bracket for playoffs/superplayoffs. Let me know if you have any requests for which games you want me to watch.
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