Search found 1364 matches

by vinteuil
Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31822

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

I was, however, quite disappointed with the music in this set. I'm not sure when the decision was made to roll jazz into the 1/1 Auditory Arts, but that combined with the world music, a tossup purely on film music, two tossup on performers, the opera tossup (although this is more understandable) an...
by vinteuil
Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31822

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

As an aside: I respectfully wish editors would keep team names as is unless there is a serious problem with them. It's a disheartening way to start the day to see your name tossed (even if it's not funny). We didn’t do this intentionally, so it must have been an internal communication mistake—sorry!
by vinteuil
Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31822

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

I’ll populate this post with more stuff as I remember it, but first I’d like to reiterate my thanks to my fellow editors, and to acknowledge a few dumb mistakes—I screwed up the wording of a crucial late clue in the Trump (the dog) TU, and I likely should’ve moved the powermark or even some middle c...
by vinteuil
Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Paired Tossups and Bonuses
Replies: 52
Views: 28720

Re: Faster (Human) Parsing of Answer Lines

I personally find this formatting extremely cramped and unnatural to read. (I have a lot of trouble with double-column text in general)
by vinteuil
Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University
Replies: 79
Views: 45610

Re: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University

Similarly, a hearty thank you to our playtesters - Jarret Greene, Seth Teitler, Geoffrey Chen, Eric Douglass, Natan Holtzman, Naveed Chowdhury, and assuredly others who I'm neglecting to mention right now. Aside from extensive feedback from Wonyoung in particular and the other editors in general (C...
by vinteuil
Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall Packet-Submission Discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 10476

Re: 2019 ACF Fall Global Announcement: November 2, 2019

EDIT: To put it another way, ACF Fall cannot, and should not, exist to make Will Alston, Jacob Reed, or Auroni Gupta better editors. Its primary goal is to produce an incredibly important product for the players. If it serves as a useful set of training wheels, all the better! Of course not, I was ...
by vinteuil
Mon Aug 05, 2019 6:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall Packet-Submission Discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 10476

Re: 2019 ACF Fall Global Announcement: November 2, 2019

I think there are a lot of people who are juniors and seniors in college for whom ACF Fall is still a very appropriate tournament to play. Given that "ACF Fall is basically a high quality, HS nats-minus or regular-plus tournament" (I agree), does this mean that these people have a "h...
by vinteuil
Mon Aug 05, 2019 6:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall Packet-Submission Discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 10476

Re: 2019 ACF Fall Global Announcement: November 2, 2019

Coupled with a very high entry fee of $150, it seems like ACF is putting up a big barrier to entry for a lot of teams. Since the packet submission requirement is aimed explicitly at teams of upperclasspeople or underclasspeople who got college playing experience in high school, are you saying that ...
by vinteuil
Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Faster (Human) Parsing of Answer Lines
Replies: 6
Views: 6839

Re: Faster (Human) Parsing of Answer Lines

I'm intrigued the idea of putting ACCEPT/PROMPT/REJECT on separate lines, but I think it could actually decrease moderator speed. That's because the current best practice is to put "most-anticipated" answers first; sorting by ACCEPT/PROMPT/REJECT means that some very likely answers may end...
by vinteuil
Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:20 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University
Replies: 79
Views: 45610

Re: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University

To clarify one point on the distribution: there will be some amount of science history in each science category of the set (it's not all taking up "other science" slots).
by vinteuil
Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:48 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University
Replies: 79
Views: 45610

Re: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University

DumbJaques wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:37 am Jacob Reed, Jonathan Magin, WIll Holub-Moorman, and Alston Boyd have done fantastic jobs on this set, and were wonderful to work with.
(As have Wonyoung Jang and Sriram Pendyala—always a delight—and a few others.)
by vinteuil
Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: TAPIR Set Available for 2020 Mirrors
Replies: 13
Views: 9794

Re: TAPIR Set Available for 2020 Mirrors

The $10 mirror fee norm is a holdover from quite a long time ago, and really should have gone up to $15 by now. If you believe that sets should be cheaper than that, you either believe that producing good questions doesn't deserve even remotely fair compensation, or you don't believe that sets need ...
by vinteuil
Thu Jul 25, 2019 9:50 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Different Styles of Making Flashcards
Replies: 11
Views: 8870

Re: Different Styles of Making Flashcards

I am by no means an elite player, but I have done quite a bit of studying over the years, and have never used nor seen the appeal of flashcards. I take bulleted pencil-and-paper notes on the harder details of everything I study, and I don't understand how flashcards could be more helpful for me. Is...
by vinteuil
Tue Jul 23, 2019 11:57 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: Climate change and quizbowl
Replies: 29
Views: 26526

Re: Climate change and quizbowl

While I don't think that Mike's second point meets my challenge above (i.e. "Say you get your political goals. If the legislation is strict enough to be truly effective, you'll have to drastically curtail this kind of polluting anyway."), I of course strongly endorse his message that activ...
by vinteuil
Tue Jul 23, 2019 11:28 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: Climate change and quizbowl
Replies: 29
Views: 26526

Re: Climate change and quizbowl

This is a phenomenal post. Two points to build on it: 1. "Eating local" (e.g. not making frivolous trips to other regional tournaments) isn't some dreary punishment; it has its own joys too. Building relationships with the other teams in your circuit, watching their younger players develop...
by vinteuil
Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:21 am
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: Does every quizbowl organization need its own blog?
Replies: 9
Views: 7349

Re: Does every quizbowl organization need its own blog?

I wouldn't be opposed to a website that tracks all of that, but a key salient fact is that these are, in fact, separate organizations and I think it's best to keep that fact relevant. Someone looking to find information on Greater Pennsylvania quizbowl may not necessarily want to see every NAQT pos...
by vinteuil
Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:40 am
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: Does every quizbowl organization need its own blog?
Replies: 9
Views: 7349

Does every quizbowl organization need its own blog?

We've all complained about how the "blog" link on the HSQB front page leads to a very sparse page that hasn't been updated in ages. Now, even ACF has its own blog to go with NAQT's interviews and social media presence, PACE's social media, Greater Pennsylvania Quizbowl's fantastic website,...
by vinteuil
Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:38 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Stop putting "Quiet Night Thought" in power for Li Bai
Replies: 5
Views: 7860

Re: Stop putting "Quiet Night Thought" in power for Li Bai

Justin is right, and so is Max, at least in terms of how those tossups inevitably play out. As far as I can tell, the root of the problem in both cases is a recognition that a topic is important enough to keep coming up, coupled with a lack of any collective sense of what the "famous but not-ye...
by vinteuil
Fri Jul 12, 2019 2:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP
Replies: 18
Views: 12544

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP

We're delighted at the response we've gotten so far! Given the impressive number of applicants, we're going to close writer applications for now; applicants should expect to hear back tonight.
by vinteuil
Sun Jul 07, 2019 3:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PSA: Don't Write For PACE
Replies: 15
Views: 11462

Re: PSA: Don't Write For PACE

These are my personal thoughts and do not necessarily reflect those of any quizbowl organization. I'm going to leave aside any first-year issues with the mentorship program and focus on Will's grievance, i.e. the most direct impetus for this post. Let me try to characterize that grievance as I under...
by vinteuil
Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP
Replies: 18
Views: 12544

ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP

I'm delighted to announce the inaugural iteration of WORKSHOP, a successor to PADAWAN . The set will be played in Spring 2020. The goal is to write a high-quality regular-difficulty (3 on Ophir's scale) set each year, and for the set to be mainly written by newer writers . In other words, we want to...
by vinteuil
Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:29 pm
Forum: Scheduling reform
Topic: Preliminary announcement for PADAWAN-like set to be run Spring 2020
Replies: 1
Views: 12761

Preliminary announcement for PADAWAN-like set to be run Spring 2020

Hi everyone, I'm excited to announce that I'll be spearheading a PADAWAN-like set to be written in Summer/Fall 2019 and played in Spring 2020. Our team of editors/mentors is Alex Damisch (logistics), Adam Fine (chemistry and physics), Will Holub-Moorman (social science, trash/other), Olivia Lamberti...
by vinteuil
Tue Jun 04, 2019 3:15 pm
Forum: Scheduling reform
Topic: Regular+ Spring Tournament
Replies: 5
Views: 9854

Re: Regular+ Spring Tournament

Would this tournament be open? (Might change the pool of potential writers and editors.)
by vinteuil
Mon May 20, 2019 10:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

Smuttynose Island wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 10:17 pmI began by looking at the subcategory scoring breakdown for players at EFT, Terrapin, ACF Regionals, and Sun God.
Why not Penn Bowl?
by vinteuil
Mon May 20, 2019 9:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

The biggest flaw this year to me, as the person organizing the poll, was simply the lack of ballots in certain categories. Maybe more ballots would balance things out, but I really do see the biggest problem as 1) a lack of pertinent information 2) bad interpretations of that information. Ryan has ...
by vinteuil
Mon May 20, 2019 9:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

A small point: I find it counter-intuitive to continue reading to the side for the "& ...." when there's a tie—I missed a few players the first time for this reason. At least one other person I've talked to has had the same issue; would recommend putting everybody in the same column.
by vinteuil
Mon May 20, 2019 9:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

Historical Results Visual Arts: 5. Derek So, McGill (39, 1 first place vote, lowest unranked) I'm shocked and saddened that I was the only person to put Derek at #1 here. There's a reason that dude got the most superpowers (among other things) at Jordaens. More broadly: I love the idea of recognizi...
by vinteuil
Wed May 15, 2019 3:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Making things stick.
Replies: 8
Views: 7153

Re: Making things stick.

I often made mnemonics for things that, for whatever reason, I was unable to make stick. For example, for the life of me I could not recall the order of the major battles of Alexander the Great. I could read about them all I could, but in the end I still messed up the order of Granicus River, Gauga...
by vinteuil
Mon May 13, 2019 5:38 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: Vulching
Replies: 14
Views: 23794

Re: Vulching

This is a good topic to discuss, and I think knowing when to just put the tossup to bed is a skill that has sometimes differentiated experienced team leaders from those who let close games slip away. Mike lays out a bunch of good strategies. Another solution would be to develop clear non-verbal comm...
by vinteuil
Wed May 08, 2019 4:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: South Central Connecticut Summer Practices
Replies: 1
Views: 4137

South Central Connecticut Summer Practices

Hi everyone, Like last year, I'm happy to announce Wednesday practices ca. 9–11PM at my place (near the campus of the Harvard of Central Connecticut) from May 15 until August 28. Anybody's welcome, there will probably be a whimsical combination of very hard, somewhat hard, old, and subject-specific ...
by vinteuil
Fri May 03, 2019 8:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 50
Views: 9790

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Thanks and General Discussion

Thanks for the lovely comments and judicious criticism, Auroni! I took most of those scholarship clues on trust from other writers, but I would like to speak to the McClary and Strathern clues. The latter was preceded by the sentence "According to a book titled for these things, some people are...
by vinteuil
Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

EDIT: Daniel, what criteria did you use to pick the players for the VFA sheet? Strange to not see John Lawrence, among others. I looked through the advance stats for Terrapin, EFT, and Regionals, selecting players who appeared high (roughly top 5-10 at a given site) on the Paintings/Sculpture subca...
by vinteuil
Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

To help me with my ballot, I assembled a spreadsheet with Nats and ICT stats for a number of players, as well as Visual Arts stats for various other players. In case it helps others, you may find it here. If you would like to edit this spreadsheet, perhaps by adding other subject area stats, please...
by vinteuil
Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:40 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: Survey Texts and Other Resources List (aseemslegit.com)
Replies: 2
Views: 6840

Re: Survey Texts and Other Resources List (aseemslegit.com)

As announced in the other thread, this list can now be conveniently accessed from http://aseemslegit.com
by vinteuil
Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:29 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Book To Learn Music
Replies: 3
Views: 5367

Re: Book To Learn Music

Books to Learn https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T4b8g_qTGsO_8ExU8Z_C4nzjDsw7jXr21lDOn2SBS3g/edit?usp=sharing :O music https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T4b8g_qTGsO_8ExU8Z_C4nzjDsw7jXr21lDOn2SBS3g/edit?usp=sharing :O :O EDIT: Kai's rec is good. EDIT: Since I send this out so much, I have decide...
by vinteuil
Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:34 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Okemos Spring Invitational, April 20th 2019
Replies: 21
Views: 10583

Re: Okemos Spring Invitational, April 20th 2019

For everybody who is trying to dispute Joseph's specific claims, please consider that, having lied and been exposed so publicly, it doesn't seem particularly likely that Joseph would cave upon being presented with yet another piece of evidence. That is: piling on won't do anything here, since it's t...
by vinteuil
Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:43 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Okemos Spring Invitational, April 20th 2019
Replies: 21
Views: 10583

Re: Okemos Spring Invitational, April 20th 2019

ansonberns wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:24 pm
Joseph in PMs wrote:so that the readers could practice reading and pronouncing some of the names and such
real amit bilgi hours
by vinteuil
Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

2) Jaimie Carlson is being undersold a bit by this discussion as a "lit player" - if you take her as just that, I think it's a bit hard to make a case for her in the top 25 on the basis of being a top-3 lit player, since I don't think her level of lit dominance quite stack up to what elit...
by vinteuil
Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63826

Re: Player Poll 2019

Thanks for running this poll, Auroni! I like the new format, even if it means a lot more work. Curiosity: why are there separate polls for visual and audio arts, but not for any subcategories of the big 3? (I understand that "misc." covers this to a certain extent.) The rest of this post w...
by vinteuil
Wed Apr 17, 2019 12:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content
Replies: 90
Views: 46667

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content

the Sugar Plum Fairy clue was early, yeah, but it was well-written and I think a lot of people got buzzes on it (This post is very much from the peanut gallery—it is not intended even to comment on this set’s music, which I have not seen yet.) This sounds like a successful clue! People getting good...
by vinteuil
Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Early Fall Tournament (EFT)
Replies: 34
Views: 21167

Re: 2019 Early Fall Tournament (EFT)

Do you expect there to be a mirror site further northeast than Columbia? If people want to organize one, I'm open to the possibility, but I would strongly prefer to have a bunch of big tournament sites with people of all different backgrounds and strengths playing. I like large events that can brin...
by vinteuil
Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content
Replies: 90
Views: 46667

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content

It's also hard because I don't know what the canon or curriculum of non-western music would look like at the collegiate level, or even what the main textbooks might be. Sounds like a perfect case for the hilariously over-detailed music section of https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T4b8g_qTGsO_8ExU...
by vinteuil
Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Logistics/format
Replies: 37
Views: 22190

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion

Personally, I care more about the integrity of ACF Nationals as a “players championship” than I do about its expansion. Obviously, I’m not a member of ACF and don’t knows its priorities, but if the field needs to be 40 teams instead of 48 to ensure a full RR in playoffs which is almost unanimously ...
by vinteuil
Mon Apr 15, 2019 1:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Why don't we have 1/1 math?
Replies: 59
Views: 30511

Re: Why don't we have 1/1 math?

Because there's no clear reason that math should beat out any number of equally deserving things for a 1/1 slot among 20/20; if, hypothetically, the standard quizbowl tournament were to be 24/24, then I think math would have a case. Definitely agreed with this, but even then, I'm not sure math woul...
by vinteuil
Sun Apr 14, 2019 11:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 - 4/13-14/2019 - University of Pennsylvania
Replies: 105
Views: 82586

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 - 4/13-14/2019 - University of Pennsylvania

I do think this post could have been made in a way that doesn't come have a subtext feels denigrating to Columbia "Congratulations to Columbia, but . . ." No doubt you'll follow up with an apology or clarification here, but I'd question the sincerity of it, since I think it's pretty galli...
by vinteuil
Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 - 4/13-14/2019 - University of Pennsylvania
Replies: 105
Views: 82586

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 - 4/13-14/2019 - University of Pennsylvania

How did people feel about the new playoff format? Aside from the fact that 5 games is pretty few for determining final placement (the reduced sample size makes placement more vulnerable to single-packet swings), this format seems to have been fairly vulnerable to differences between the playoff brac...
by vinteuil
Sun Apr 14, 2019 12:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45201

Re: ICT format and seeding discussion

I think I misunderstood your point as "seed alphabetically" or something.
by vinteuil
Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45201

Re: ICT format and seeding discussion

If every team should be given the aforementioned respect of assuming that they could walk into ICT and win it, and every game counts equally towards the final standings, then there's no reason that higher seeded teams should be given any kind of preferential treatment related to when they meet up. ...
by vinteuil
Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45201

Re: ICT format and seeding discussion

It would benefit the community to run an open-ballot pre-nationals poll that explicitly asks participants to predict how well the teams will finish at both ICT and Nationals. (It is also in everyone's interest to participate in such a poll, if it comes into being.) I love this idea, and it would mo...
by vinteuil
Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45201

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

I would suspect that ACF might be slightly easier to seed since the rounds lend themselves to less variable "upsets" and the distribution is less unique (so looking at every other tournament probably gives a better idea of how teams will do). But even at ACF, there's still quirks--in 2011...