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The Trivia Section in a Nutshell

Posted: 11:00AM Feb 1, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

Dear Brainglers,

All of us have been used to submitting teasers so far and the quiz submission interface is new and unfamiliar as most new things would be. We've tried to put together a small guideline here for all of you who are not too sure of how the whole process works. We hope this helps everyone to understand how this new section works, and improves everyone's submission over time.

All the best to all our wonderful Brainglers who are contributing to this section. Hopefully, this guide should help you get through your submissions more easily and quickly and also improve your chances to become a quizmaster in the future by having minimum resubmission rates.

Brainy


The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
Posted: 11:03AM Feb 1, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

What are the major differences between submitting a teaser and submitting a quiz?

1. Teasers are reviewed by editors, quizzes are reviewed by quizmasters.

2. All editors are not quizmasters, to know who is a quizmaster check under each category under the Trivia tab. Each category of quiz has its own set of quizmasters.

3. Quizmasters cannot edit your quiz like editors can. They can look over and send back comments to you as to what needs to be changed. You need to be very careful with the submission guidelines for quizzes, because you cannot resubmit them forever.

4. Since this is a new section, new guidelines are being added from time to time. Before you submit a quiz, make sure to read the guidelines which are available here. Even if it is only a day after you submitted your last quiz, please do read the guidelines.

5. The correction process is also different from teasers. You cannot directly make a correction into a quiz. You suggest the correction, it goes to the owner of the quiz for comments and then the final decision on the correction rests with the quizmaster.

How do I improve my chances of getting my quiz accepted on my very first submission?


1. Always read the updated guidelines before you begin.

2. Make sure you have covered minor problems like spelling, grammar, punctuation. If a quiz is returned because of a minor full stop or question mark, it still stands as returned and lowers your chances of becoming a quizmaster.

3. When the facts have been researched from somewhere, make sure you include links to your references. This makes it easier for quizmasters to verify the facts.

4. It will help a lot if you can get someone else to proofread a quiz before you submit it. Sometimes, other people can catch errors which you might overlook while proofreading.

5. Don't be in a hurry to submit the quiz. The system gives you enough time to preview a quiz, see it from all angles before you submit for review. Use that time in the best way possible, so that it is not frustrating for you or for the quizmasters.

What do I do if I have a problem understanding a quizmaster's comment on a returned quiz?


You can use the Trivia and Quizzes forum to open a topic about your quiz. One of the quizmasters who reviewed it will be happy to answer whatever doubts you may have. Use this forum like the Ask an Editor forum to interact with your quizmasters.

I have a quiz returned to me with spelling mistake correction requests, yet there are quizzes on with spelling errors. Why?


As with any new system, there will be ups and downs and we request everyone to lend a helping hand. If you spot a mistake, just take the quiz again. Then use the "Problems" link at the bottom right of the question that has a problem and submit the problem. Let's all work together to maintain and improve this section!

How do I become a quizmaster?

Quizmasters are appointed differently than editors. They are appointed by elections. To see if you are eligible and if you can apply for a quizmaster position, go here to see the latest guidelines with respect to quizmaster eligibility.

Hope the above has helped everyone to get some perspective. Please feel free to add more questions in this topic which we will try our best to answer. Please do not spam this topic with anything other than questions or clarifications. Any posts that are not questions or clarifications related to the Trivia section will be deleted without any warning.


The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
Posted: 11:44AM Feb 1, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

How do I select which type of answering pattern to offer users taking my quiz?

1. The trivia section offers three ways in which a question could be answered - Multiple choice, Fill in the Blank and True/False.

2. Use Multiple Choice when the answer is lengthy to type as is and get right.

3. Use Fill in the Blank when you want the user to type in the answer. However, do not type full sentences as fill in the blank answers. Fill in the blanks should be used for short answers like names of people, places, acronyms and such other things that are short and easily type-able. If the answer is difficult to spell, it might be better to make it multiple choice instead because people may get frustrated from getting the question wrong just because of poor spelling.

4. Use true/false when you want to state something and let the person figure out if your statement is true or false. Since the answer is either true/false, the structure should be that of a statement, not a question.


---This message was edited on 02:01PM Feb 1, 2007---

The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
Posted: 11:29AM Feb 2, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

How many times can I resubmit my quiz?

You can return a quiz back for a maximum of three times. If, even after three resubmits, your quiz continues to have all the major errors that the quizmaster has been pointing out to you or new errors that have come up because of the resubmit, the quizmaster will no longer be able to return the quiz back to you, and is forced to permanently reject the quiz without an option of resubmit. Kindly keep this in mind and read your quizmaster's comments very carefully and take action on all points before you resubmit.

If in doubt of any resubmit request, use the Trivia forum to ask a quizmaster for clarification. Do not resubmit until you're sure you've covered all the areas pointed out to you.


The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
Posted: 06:01AM Apr 23, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

Just in case anyone hasn't noticed, I'd like to inform quiz submitters that the guidelines for quiz submission have changed a lot and anyone thinking of submitting a quiz should re-read the submission guidelines. The guidelines can be found here.

Please ensure you read the new guidelines before you submit to reduce the chances of your quiz getting rejected because of these changes. Thanks!


The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
Posted: 12:47AM Jul 12, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

Few things that I noticed I thought I'd bring to everyone's attention:

1. True/False versus Yes/No


When you ask a question, the answer would be Yes/No and not True/False. Therefore, when it's a True/False kind of situation, but you want to ask a question, you should use Multiple Choice option, and give "Yes" and "No" as two possible options.

Example:

Kelly Clarkson won American Idol.
True/False

Did Kelly Clarkson win American Idol?
Yes/No

2. Plagiarism Policy

We've been sending back quizzes for word-for-word copying from ANY site, even if that site is under the "GNU Free Documentation License". The policy applied here is that as per Braingle rules, anything copied word-for-word from the Internet will be considered plagiarized. So even if you're referring for information to sites like Wikipedia, make sure you reword it.


The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
Posted: 02:37AM Jul 29, 2007
Avatar for brainster brainsterAin
Posts: 16362

About resubmitting a quiz without making a single change to it -

1. When a quiz is sent back to you for rework, one of two things is expected to happen. Either you agree with the QM's observations and see that you had made a mistake, and correct it. Or, you clarify to the QM why their observation is not valid and use the "Notes to QM" to do so. Most of our serious quiz submitters do either of the two, and I thank them for that.

2. If however, you choose to ignore every single comment and simply resubmit the quiz, it will only return back to you twice more for a chance at corrections. If you continue to ignore the comments, it will be rejected without ability to resubmit. This action only gives you bad karma eventually and also blocks you from submitting quizzes for a while. It also makes our work as QM unnecessarily frustrating when we see that submitters don't even heed to our words and send the quiz right back full of mistakes, punctuation, capitalization, fact issues and so on and so forth.

The second action benefits no one, not you, not the site and not the QMs in your category. All it does is give you bad karma eventually and blocks you from submitting quizzes. So, to people who are frequently doing this - please know that there is a direct negative effect of this action on your karma, if you didn't know already.


The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.
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