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You guys were right after all.

Discussion of quizbowl topics not related to specific tournaments
richbob
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You guys were right after all.

Post by richbob »

Well, it appears you guys at Liberty and NKC were right about my lousy questions. I should have paid more attention to you.

I was informed today that I lost the OKlahoma state tournament (23 games) to, oh my god, say it ain't so, .... QUESTIONS GALORE. (I have no ego left.)

Four companies bid on the questions. One of the other bidders was "AVERY ENTERPRISES." The other bidder is unknown to me at the present time, but I was told that his questions were sooo bad that he wasn't even considered. At least, I beat out Brycie.

I was told I was their second choice. My question to you guys is what should I do?

1. Take a gun to my head and blow my brains out.
2. Jump off the highest cliff in Richland.
3. Start writing pyramidal questions
4. Retire
5. Hide my face behind a veil for eternity.
6. Just eat my piece of humble pie and deal with adversity.
7. Sell my company to Barney Fife.
8. Strip the wires off Richland's zeecraft buzzer system and electrocute myself.
9. Run naked through a briar patch screaming "Oh my God!"
10. Change my company name to Questions Gahorrible."


Could we turn this top ten list into a poll? I don't know how to do this as I have never had a computer class in my life.

Please don't enjoy my humbling experience too much.

Bob

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Jeffrey Hill
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Post by Jeffrey Hill »

richbob wrote:Could we turn this top ten list into a poll? I don't know how to do this as I have never had a computer class in my life.
Done.

FishyFreshman
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Post by FishyFreshman »

My memory is hazy from the time we played on your questions. I do remember not liking them, but honestly I don't see how they could be worse than the trash we have seen from Questions Galore.

There are tons of people on these boards that could help you write more pyramidal questions, and there are resources you can use to see some to figure out what they should look like.

If you choose to write more pyramidal questions (it's winning) then best wishes to you and I hope to see some of yours in the future.

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DeckardCain
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Post by DeckardCain »

As I've posted several times, Missouri desperately needs someone willing to write pyramidal questions in the MSHSAA format and distribution; that seems like a pretty lucrative market to get into.

richbob
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Post by richbob »

Jeff,

You are amazing. However, I was just kidding.

Most of my post was a spoof at myself. While I would like to write more difficult and challenging questions, most coaches don't want that. I have to write what my employer wants.

I was told that Questions Gahorrible bid very low, and that OSHAA went with the cheapest price. If that's the case, I can live with it. These are tough economic times.

I may change my company's name to The Question Bank Got Spanked. Any thoughts on this idea?

It is interesting that Oklahoma had only four bids. Let's see, I couldn't bid on Missouri (conflict of interest) and Bryce Avery said he would never again bid on them. That left Questions Gahorrible and the unknown guy in Oklahoma to bid on Missouri questions. It would appear that Mr. Gibbs and the executive committee really didn't have a whole lot of options. Perhaps they could have left it unfilled and sought more bids. Oh well, that is water over the bridge. We have Questions
Ga-Awful and that's that.

It's time for me to head to bed (poetic license) as the "big time" Frisco League Conference Tournament is tomorrow at Richland. I wonder how many teams will show up. My guess is 5 out of nine.

I will post the results tomorrow if anyone wants to see them.

bob

richbob
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Post by richbob »

Jeff,

Where is the old man at? (Bill)

There hasn't been this much action on this site since "Psychoman" stirred up a hornet nest. I haven't lost my touch!

The poll is rolling. Evidently making fun of myself is popular.

bob

AShoaib
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Post by AShoaib »

I do remember not liking them, but honestly I don't see how they could be worse than the trash we have seen from Questions Galore.
I remember very well your questions. They're WAAY better than Questions Galore. In a few questions of yours, you did have pyramid elements, so points for effort. At least your set doesn't have factual errors in EVERY MATCH.

STPickrell
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Post by STPickrell »

Update from me:
1. HSAPQ will be writing VHSL sets in 2009-10 unless coaches decide computation math tossups are near and dear to their hearts (they are 2 of 30 tossups as it is.)
2. This frees me back up to some extent.
3. I can contribute a non-trivial amount of questions to someone who is willing to be the frontman. But I cannot return to being the frontman barring some disaster where I lose my day job.

The ideal:
A consortium can be formed where someone out-of-state fronts the effort and handles orders. Said consortium contains people in and out of Missouri, all of whom share the same philosophy (i.e. what guided me as I wrote my 2007-08 matches -- working as best I could within the MSHSAA format.)

The out of staters would write the lion's share, if not all of, 'MSHSAA series' events. (20 matches)
The in-staters would write the lion's share of the conference/tournament matches (36 matches worked out pretty well)

The key is selling to conferences. The state sets themselves are loss leaders given that they must be written especially for MSHSAA series events.

The monies involved are fairly decent IMO and it came out to about $100 per MSHSAA formatted match, and I barely marketed my questions at all.

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

The in-staters would write the lion's share of the conference/tournament matches (36 matches worked out pretty well)
I would much rather see a situation where the state provider announces to everyone "we aren't going to produce MSHSAA format matches for you to play during the regular season because they are inherently flawed, and instead are going to recommend you purchase questions from NAQT, HSAPQ, or mirror an independent set that uses better questions and a format that actually works." This would help kickstart the process of getting people to notcare so much about staying strictly MSHSAA format for the tournaments they go to and would go a long way to increasing the visibility of alternatives.

Charbroil
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Post by Charbroil »

That might be a nice way of protesting...but wouldn't that just give other companies (Questions Galore, etc.) a chance to hold on to the Missouri market longer by selling to teams needing MSHSAA format questions in the regular season?

I think what we would gain by exposing Missouri to pyramidality would make up for what we lose in perpetuating the format--which would probably be changed naturally if this consortium kept on winning bids, seeing as how its questions would be longer, and hence take up more time, requiring shorter games.

Incidentally, how do I sign up? :) Seriously, though, I was just thinking about this idea last night--and I was wondering if there's a limit as to how long high school players are prohibited from writing questions as part of such a consortium.

Also, this consortium seems perfect for MOQBA...

And this might work better as a seperate thread...it seems as if it might prove important.

STPickrell
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Post by STPickrell »

There would be no limit on who'd write for regular season questions. I'd even accept current HS students writing as long as their contribution was limited to 1 or 2 matches that they school could not play on.

MSHSAA series questions would require a rule (say, at least 3 years after HS graduation and no involvement with coaching/preparing any MSHSAA teams.)

That'll give people a chance to prove their chops and their deadline-meeting reliability on regular season questions and it will provide some 'distance' to lessen allegations of favoritism.

I'm inclined to think it is easier to move to the mountain than to make the mountain move. The most important thing for now is improving the quality of questions as opposed to improving the format itself.

One thing at a time. My only regret is that I could not help further modernize Missouri quizbowl.

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

That might be a nice way of protesting...but wouldn't that just give other companies (Questions Galore, etc.) a chance to hold on to the Missouri market longer by selling to teams needing MSHSAA format questions in the regular season?
Not if the state provider specifically tells people not to use those questions - I don't know if you've noticed, but a ton of tournaments are looking to use the questions written by the state provider each year, and if they say "we aren't producing invitational sets in the MSHSAA format, but would highly recommend you look into tournaments written by these providers, because they will be the best possible preparation for my sets" that is going to do a lot to dissuade some people from using providers like Questions Galore and Patrick's Press. Not everyone, sure, but chances are those people weren't going to be dissuaded in the first place.

Charbroil
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Post by Charbroil »

I suppose you have a point, Charles...but the thing is, a lot of people are also looking for providers who are in the same format as MSHSAA, not just in the same style (pyramidal, not pyramidal, etc.) This is especially true since a lot of people aren't aware of the difference, and thus only know intuitively "Oh, these questions are good, these aren't, etc," and I think it'd be more important to expose people to good questions than to try and teach them about them explicitly.

So, one thing at a time, like Shawn said. :)

Also, making regular season sets available gives Missourians a chance to be involved in improving Quiz Bowl in Missouri. At the end of the day, we'll have to cultivate leaders in Quiz Bowl reform in Missouri, not just bring in help from out of state.

So, therefore...who else is up for this? I know I am, Shawn Pickrell, Charles Dees (presumably)...anyone else want to volunteer? I'd especially like to see more people from MOQBA.

The organization for the consortium I have in mind would be like this:

MOQBA would do the bureacratic work, including incorporation as a legal entity, registration with MSHSAA and bidding for their contract, contacting schools, etc.

Then, you'd find interested Missouri players to write regular season packets, such as me, and (examples of other people who have been vocal in promoting good Quiz Bowl) Abdullah Shoaib, Mike Jones, Colten Ross, Spencer Fish and the other Liberty players, the NKC players, plus of course college players interested (including people in MOQBA).

Then, we'd have someone as a liasion with out of state individuals like Shawn Pickrell to coordinate bringing in questions from out of state. I think all we'd have to do is make a post on HSQuizBowl with the Missouri format and what we need, and I think we'd have an outpouring of help.

So, what do you guys think?





<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... arbroil</a>, Jan 21 2009, 12:18:59 PM.</div>

Charbroil
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Post by Charbroil »

P.S. Just to note, we'd better send any question submission to MSHSAA certified mail. :) Either that, or hand deliver it and ask for a receipt. :D

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Jeffrey Hill
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Post by Jeffrey Hill »

ashkenaziCD wrote:Not if the state provider specifically tells people not to use those questions - I don't know if you've noticed, but a ton of tournaments are looking to use the questions written by the state provider each year, and if they say "we aren't producing invitational sets in the MSHSAA format, but would highly recommend you look into tournaments written by these providers, because they will be the best possible preparation for my sets" that is going to do a lot to dissuade some people from using providers like Questions Galore and Patrick's Press. Not everyone, sure, but chances are those people weren't going to be dissuaded in the first place.
THIS. This is pretty much what I tried to post right before my 11:00 class before I accidentally lost it (apparently the preview function doesn't work quite right with javascript disabled and I accidentally salvaged the quote instead of my post). So many tournaments want to use the same provider in preparation for state, and having that provider recommend better question providers/formats will provide some much needed leverage to improve Missouri quizbowl. Good pyramidal questions in any format would provide MUCH better preparation for such a state series than short questions in the MSHSAA format would. (Really, all the tournaments on Questions Galore this year are preparing teams for is to expect anything and inform them that the packet will be the true winner no matter what)

The other thing I meant to post was that I generally agree with the idea to recommend existing organizations like NAQT and HSAPQ as opposed to writing regular season sets, as most people interested in writing regular season sets would probably be writing for NAQT or HSAPQ anyway. Still, it might not be a bad idea to produce an additional set (in a good format, of course) exclusively for conference use, so it can be used throughout the state with no risk of overlap.

Charbroil
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Post by Charbroil »

Also, I forgot to mention:

Despite the unhappiness with MSHSAA's advisory committee and MACA, we're going to have to work with them. Out of state questions do often seem tougher than the ones we're used to in Missouri, and regardless of what you might think about what Missouri questions should be like, we don't want to be known as the question provider that brought in the "impossible questions obviously written by a bunch of college students." Thus, I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to submit questions to review by MACA/MSHSAA Advisory Committee before turning them in as a bid so that we can make sure that these are questions which aren't going to prompt a Missouri-wide flight from Quiz Bowl by all but the best players.

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Jeffrey Hill
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Post by Jeffrey Hill »

Charbroil wrote:MOQBA would do the bureacratic work, including incorporation as a legal entity, registration with MSHSAA and bidding for their contract, contacting schools, etc.
I'm not sure what MSHSAA's view on in-state writers is. It might be better for somebody out of state to be the coordinator of this, since out-of-state writers would probably be needed for the state series questions to avoid any possible team bias.

I would be willing to write for any regular season packets such an organization might write, but I will probably not serve in much of a leadership/coordination capacity, as I will be busy with a full time job.

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

Harder??? Have you seen the conversion statistics from Questions Galore sets?

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Jeffrey Hill
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Post by Jeffrey Hill »

Charbroil wrote:Out of state questions do often seem tougher than the ones we're used to in Missouri, and regardless of what you might think about what Missouri questions should be like, we don't want to be known as the question provider that brought in the "impossible questions obviously written by a bunch of college students."
True, this is a potential concern. I haven't had a chance to look over the first two HSAPQ sets (which reminds me, ACF set 1 was posted a week or so ago) to see how they compare to the Missouri canon. I do know that NAQT is definitely not that difficult, and I presume HSAPQ isn't much more difficult than that.

Granted, Charles is right, based on scores this year Questions Galore is much more impossible than either could ever be. The difference is that HSAPQ/NAQT have a larger canon (which is probably why they are perceived more difficult, as there are answers many teams have never heard of), while Questions Galore just writes poorly-structured questions and questions on non-academic things like sewing. Of course, the difficulty introduced by a larger canon results in teams learning more over time and thus expanding Missouri's canon closer to the national canon (making them easier over time), while Questions Galore's difficulty provides no incentive.

[edit-added a sentence]


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... /88961/'>U. Lou Sthagaim</a>, Jan 21 2009, 12:35:22 PM.</div>

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DeckardCain
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Post by DeckardCain »

Submitting a bid under the MOQBA name is something I had been turning over in my head for a while, though I personally may not be able to devote much time to such an undertaking due to beginning grad school next year. It's something worth discussing, anyway.

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socalcaptain
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Post by socalcaptain »

I'm in. I know that my high school's conference in particular has always tried to play on the state provider. In fact, they wanted QG this year (*shudder*) but QG backed out at the last minute, so we're on Luce questions this year. Better than QG, mind you, but not the best.

I can give you a great indication of what a whole tournament on QG looks like once I get back from moderating our conference tournament at Hallsville this year (March 7, btw).

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Post by Charbroil »

Granted, Charles is right, based on scores this year Questions Galore is much more impossible than either could ever be. The difference is that HSAPQ/NAQT have a larger canon (which is probably why they are perceived more difficult...
That's probably it--what I particularly remember are some questions from WUHSAC which, if they weren't hard, definitely were not over topics generally covered in high school.

As for who's going to coordinate the whole thing...there, we're going to need some volunteers. I'd do it, but I don't have the resources to do things like incorporate a company (or even drive anywhere!), nor do I have the kinds of contacts all over the national Quiz Bowl community you guys do. I think I have some fairly decent ideas, and I can do a lot of background organizational stuff (contacting people, registering for stuff, finding people to fill various slots, etc.), but I can't be, like Shawn Pickrell said, the frontman.

In other words, we need a president of this whole operation who can take charge and who has a few more resources. Any ideas?

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Post by Charbroil »

P.S. When is the deadline to submit a bid? Is there a guide to doing so online somewhere, or are we going to have to email MSHSAA to ask about issues like whether the writers can come from Missouri?




<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... arbroil</a>, Jan 21 2009, 02:31:52 PM.</div>

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DeckardCain
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Post by DeckardCain »

I have a copy of last year's form in my email; the deadline was July 14. There is no explicit rule against writers coming from Missouri, as I was invited to bid (but had to decline due to lack of time).

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socalcaptain
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Post by socalcaptain »

If I correctly recall, there is no EXPLICIT rule against it, as Matt said. But, you do have to declare any previous allegiances to MSHSAA member schools in the state, etc., from anyone who is writing the sets you are bidding on. Obviously, no current coach or player is going to be allowed to bid on a packet they'll be playing.

This is in place to cut down on a perceived chance of bias or cheating, wherein one alumni of a school could bias the questions towards topics he/she knows that their team is strong in, etc. I think if we had enough variety, and set up this system with an out-of-state editor/coordinator/compiler, we would stand a better chance of making it past this 'hurdle' of bias.

FishyFreshman
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Post by FishyFreshman »

I would be glad to help in any way I can. Cameron and I were reading some of the new HSAPQ questions today, and they aren't that difficult. A good team should be getting almost all of them by the end. I think this has been said, but longer questions aren't harder, they just give people who know more an opportunity to get in first. Questions Galore only offers one clue, two at the most, with the added benefit of having no idea where the question is going until the very end.... >.>

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Post by Fresh Prince of Bradleyville »

Seeing the above about writing questions, allow me to say this:

I HAVE NEVER WROTE PYRAMIDAL QUESTIONS. I HAVE NEVER WROTE QUESTIONS PERIOD...
HOWEVER...

If I could learn how, and I ended up at Missouri with other people like Charlie Dees who may find it in their hearts to help me write good pyramidal questions, I would gladly write questions in opposition to that garbage that other question writers of Missouri format try to pass off as good quiz bowl. After playing on Shawn's questions, I realized what the deal was, and after playing on my first set of Questions Gahorrrrrrrible, I am ready to give players in Missouri an opportunity to play on better questions than the old standbys like A+ Answers, Patrick's Press, Triple Q, and the like. The only problem I would see is convincing MACA and more over MSHSAA to accept questions of the 5-6 line variety in the beginning, not to mention they might blackball you for no math computation. I feel that for such a consortium to succeed, you would first need to write questions at 3-4 lines. I know this goes against what good quizbowl is, but it's a start. Most of my teammates hated the HSAPQ format, but most were freshmen or sophomores, and haven't really gotten into the game or seen that material yet, so it possibly threw them for a loop. I do agree with Spencer though that any good team should be able to get an HSAPQ question by the end.

On a note more related: Bob, you have my sympathy. I voted for changing your company name, but the whole stripping the wires off the Zeecraft Buzzer system and electrocuting yourself is...creative.


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... 41/'>Fresh Prince of Bradleyville</a>, Jan 21 2009, 10:52:16 PM.</div>

johnboy81918
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Post by johnboy81918 »

the last ramsfan wrote:Seeing the above about writing questions, allow me to say this:

I HAVE NEVER WROTE PYRAMIDAL QUESTIONS. I HAVE NEVER WROTE QUESTIONS PERIOD...
Seeing the above about wanting to learn to write questions, allow me to say this:

I am worried about potential writers, now. While I love the idea of more writers producing good questions, those will be hard to come by unless said writers have a good grasp of the English language. Thoughts?

Fresh Prince of Bradleyville
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Post by Fresh Prince of Bradleyville »

Very funny. I have four words for that answer: spell check and editing. (Even though spell check doesn't always work.)

Charbroil
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Post by Charbroil »

Hey, I'm hurt. You make it sound as if ever high school senior enthusiastic about this idea is also a functional illiterate. :P

On a more serious note, though, of course we'd have to have someone supervising the packets that get turned in--Charles Dees, you, Kent, or one of the MS&T people (someone who's written questions and run tournaments before) all come up as possibilities in my mind.

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Post by Charlie Dees »

Hey everyone, I appreciate at least the sentiment of trying to get a consortium together to write the MSHSAA series, and if someone else wants to organize this I'd encourage you to bounce the idea off of hsquizbowl.org to attract writers, but I personally am not going to touch this project with a 10-foot pole because I have no interest in getting in business deals with the MSHSAA and feel that my efforts would be better spent organizing and writing for high quality invitational tournaments. So count me out of this discussion, please.

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Post by Charbroil »

Well that's a pity...your skills would certainly be appreciated.

What's more of an issue at the moment is where we're going to find a president for this operation. We need someone with administrative skills to deal with MSHSAA and incorporate a company. Someone from out of state might be preferable, but since Matt Chadbourne mentioned that he got an offer to bid on MSHSAA's contract, that obviously means that MSHSAA will allow in state bids.


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... arbroil</a>, Jan 21 2009, 11:04:40 PM.</div>

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Post by FZW Coach »

In August, we did talk about having a seperate writer for classes 1 and 2 and one for classes 3 and 4. This would allow in state writing since you would be writing for the classes with which you had no association.

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Post by Charlie Dees »

Why would separate writers be needed?

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Post by redliberte »

Not that it's an excellent idea, but I think the rationale for having a separate writer for class 1/2 and class 3/4 is to eliminate any perceived favoritism that a quizbowl alumnus could show towards their alma mater. The suggestion is that since I went to Liberty, if I were to be a writer for class 3/4 I could write questions that could play to Liberty's strengths as a team. However, if I were to write questions for class 1/2, there would be no incentive for me to do so, nor would I really have any idea of the strengths of various class 1/2 teams.

I think the better restriction (if such a restriction is even necessary, because it is kind of dumb) would be to say that a prospective question writer must be at least three years removed from a high school team. I've been out of quizbowl for two years now, and next year I can say definitively that I will not know anyone on the Liberty varsity team, nor will I have ever seen any of them play... and I would assume that this would be generally the case for many of you as well. So this setup eliminates the (potentially unfounded?) fear of a writer writing specifically for people they know.

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Post by socalcaptain »

Three years is fine with me, and I would definitely support it. But, be aware that that doesn't eliminate all the concerns - my brother will be a senior in high school, hopefully playing on our varsity team, when I'm three years removed from said team. So, while I would think that three would be enough to work for most people, you might also need to have a clause in place that deals specifically with relatives. Also keep in mind that smaller high schools are 9-12, so even someone three years out might know all the freshmen who played when they were seniors. In other words, in my best legalese, something as such:

Any in-state writer of questions for the MSHSAA district and state series must have graduated from high school no sooner than three full academic years before the year of first employment; and, in addition, no one in the writer's immediate family may be a player or coach for any MSHSAA member team.

I think this is a little stronger and perhaps easier to pass than one which doesn't eliminate this loophole. This would mean I couldn't write until the 2011-12 school year.


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... captain</a>, Jan 23 2009, 11:09:00 AM.</div>

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Post by FZW Coach »

I do agree with your suggestion (the 3-year rule). However, I promise you that some of my colleagues certainly do not. There is always great discussion whenever a writing company has any connection whatsoever with any Missouri teams. I personally do not think it is a real issue, but some do. As long as their were practice questions or tournament questions available before official play, it really should not be an issue.


But . . . here is a funny story related to that.

In Two Saints, we used to have coaches write the questions while the other schools hosted. In the fall of 2004 (2004-2005 school year), there was one particular week where everyone struggled but the team whose coach wrote the questions. We had some good teams involved in this league. At state that year, PCH finished 2nd, Eureka finished 3rd, and FZW finished 5th (just 80 points behind Helias whom we defeated in the morning rounds).

It wasn't a big deal because it wasn't like that team wasn't already good (and it wasn't the playoffs), but we would certainly want to avoid anything similar to that for official competition.

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Post by Charbroil »

Hmm...this whole discussion about waiting however many years is rather interesting, but I think it detracts away from the main point of what we were talking about.

And since you noticed this thread, Coach Gibbs, what's your opinion of our idea to form a Quiz Bowl consortium to bid for MSHSAA's contract with questions in our preferred format (most notably, pyramidal)? Regardless of your opinions on that format, does the overall idea sound reasonable?

After all, you'll end up seeing any submission we do make, and thus it seems reasonable to consult you first.

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Post by FZW Coach »

Everyone on the advisory committee would like to see 2-3 line pyramidal style questions. We discuss this every year. Personally, I love the NAQT speed questions (or something like it).

We are open to different people submitting questions. I don't think you all have caught the point of what I have stated more than once. We did openly discuss having 2 editors (one for classes 1-2, one for classes 3-4) with the idea that this would allow numerous people to submit questions to those editors for possible use. I am not sure how possible it is to make that work, but we di discuss that as a possible solution to making sure we have the highest quality of questions possible.


Question: has anyone e-mailed suggestions to Questions Galore lately? I know most of you would rather complain on here without providing specific sugggestions to Michael Hurley, their president. I need to make a point of doing that this week based on questions we heard this weekend. I will ask them to be more consistent. We did get burned a few times on thinking the question was going to go a different way than it was, but I think that might be more of us not fully recognizing their style. I need to look at that closer. There was one question in particular that was a bit comical. Luckily, Julia held back until the actual question was asked, but she could have buzzed in 3 different times with 3 great answers before the end of the question.

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Post by Charbroil »

FZW Coach wrote:I don't think you all have caught the point of what I have stated more than once. We did openly discuss having 2 editors (one for classes 1-2, one for classes 3-4) with the idea that this would allow numerous people to submit questions to those editors for possible use.
I agree--I don't quite get the point of what you're stating.

The issue of bias wouldn't be one that comes up in our plan for actual MSHSAA District and State questions, since we would probably find individuals from out of state to write all of those questions. That would leave only the regular season (tournament and conference) questions to be written by individuals who might be biased...and to counteract that, we would probably find writers from areas whose teams are unlikely to be attending the tournaments they are writing for.

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Post by socalcaptain »

I like the idea of a central editor. I assume that what you mean is someone to fact-check and style the questions appropriately and not simply someone to compile them. If so, I'm for that. Would this open the submission to in-state writers? I wonder, however, if the quality providers would simply not submit anything since it's not going to benefit them financially (I assume?). I think you'll get a lot of great variety and have a bigger canon of material if you open it up to a lot of people, but if you're getting random submissions from everywhere things are going to get hectic real fast.

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Post by Charbroil »

I really don't care about whether the question submission is split between classes or not--either way, our consortium idea works.

What I disagree with you, Alex, about is the idea that it would have to be chaotic. I think that if we had a decent organizer, it would work fine--after all, we'll know how many of each type of question we need, and thus we just find writers for however many questions are necessary on the HSQuizBowl forum. Unless everyone there has simply been posturing when they say that they want to help save Missouri Quiz Bowl, we should be able to get a decent response.

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Post by Eminem »

Old man,

I voted retire, because that's what you should do!

I thought your questions were great, yours and AVERY's were definitely my two favorite, after AVERY lost the contract quizbowl went in the wrong direction for Missouri High School Quiz Bowl.

Just figured I'd throw this out there.

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Post by Charlie Dees »

Yes, because most of America is doing quizbowl completely wrong.

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Post by Eminem »

Love the sarcasm charles, I played for 5 years on speed questions. Do you know how hard it is to adjust to pyramidal?

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Post by Charbroil »

Not that Charlie wasn't a bit terse, but he has a point. I've been adjusting back and forth between QG and NAQT all year, and it's not that bad if you can pick up the deep knowledge to succeed in pyramidal questions. And this is my 7th year playing speed questions (Shawn Pickrell last year and NAQT this year notwithstanding).

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Post by Eminem »

I played maybe 4 tournaments that were pyramidal during HS and Jr. High, then districts and state senior year. The extreme change didn't agree with me.

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Post by Charlie Dees »

I mean, the whole point is that if you prepare on pyramidal questions from the get go you would never have had a problem making the switch and would probably be a lot more able to buzz in early and all that good stuff, not to mention be infinitely more pleased with yourself for having deep knowledge of stuff. There are all kinds of benefits to using pyramidal questions that any arguments based out of one's personal inability to adapt to them inevitably boils down to something like "I don't like that I actually have to know stuff to win games now."

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Post by Eminem »

I am a conservative QBer maybe I didn't like the change.

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Post by Charbroil »

Uh...no offense, but that's kind of a weak argument...

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