Search found 586 matches

by vcuEvan
Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open Discussion
Replies: 32
Views: 22603

Re: Chicago Open Discussion

Our target difficulty is similar to recent incarnations. We encourage teams to submit quality and adventurous questions: Chicago Open is the ground to ask about difficult and interesting topics, but it is not the place to fill your packets with 13-line tossups and/or insanely hard topics that punis...
by vcuEvan
Wed Jun 21, 2017 1:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Giveaways for "lesser-known" stuff about common things
Replies: 17
Views: 9363

Re: Giveaways for "lesser-known" stuff about common things

I had a debate once with, I think, Evan Adams, about this. I wrote a hard tossup on Hawthorne (the author, not the Jada Pinkett Smith TV show that Carsten likes) for MO (a hard tournament) and the giveaway I think was something like "author who wrote the collections Mosses from an Old Manse an...
by vcuEvan
Fri May 26, 2017 4:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
Replies: 53
Views: 33439

Re: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17

I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tourna...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 6:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

It seems more likely that other organizations have decided that it's not feasible or worthwhile or otherwise desirable to capture packet costs, and have given up on accounting for them at all, rather than pricing them into their tournament fees. For instance, Cody said upstream that VCU charges the...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 5:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

Let's say it is free-riding (I'm not convinced but let's suppose for the sake of argument). What then? Is it inherently a terrible situation? It doesn't seem to me like quizbowl is in dire straits because of it, so even if NAQT is free-riding somehow, what does this entail and why should we be conc...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 5:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

I don't think Evan's model is inherently incorrect; teams that can either afford to buy the packets or find some other way to get them are going to be at an advantage, sure. There are two questions stemming from this, both of which, as some have pointed out, should probably be resolved by polling t...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 4:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

Speaking for myself here. If the question is not whether it's moral to charge for practice questions, but instead whether the charge should be levied as a flat fee on all teams regardless of how much that team actually wants practice questions, it seems like the current model is much better. Right ...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 3:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

Speaking for myself here. If the question is not whether it's moral to charge for practice questions, but instead whether the charge should be levied as a flat fee on all teams regardless of how much that team actually wants practice questions, it seems like the current model is much better. Right ...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 2:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

High school quizbowl works very differently, as there has always been a substantial sales volume of practice questions. A financial structure in which NAQT posted its archive of high school practice questions would, of necessity, require a very substantial increase in tournament-hosting fees. (And ...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 8:58 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

I'm somewhat confused how "X+Y" is any less "immoral" than the current system of "X, and + Y if you want the packets." If a team couldn't afford Y (buying the practice sets), wouldn't this in theory prevent more teams from attending X? Although Jeff and Rob have charac...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 3:15 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

Options going forward would be: -NAQT raises tournament fees to x+y. (This is a reasonable financial model, but it doesn't actually address Evan's moral concern, because it just changes the identity of which question sets would involve "Shkrelian gouging of poor teams.") I think this is t...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 2:13 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

(In this post I am not speaking for NAQT, although this post will refer to NAQT policies) Shkrelian gouging of poor teams I think this is a very bad analogy. Martin Shkreli's raising of prices on pharmaceuticals is seen as a moral violation because the drugs are necessary to prevent chronic, perhap...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 1:29 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

Oh come on, man, this is stupid. Will a ladder be sufficient for you to get down off that high horse or are we going to need a crane? "NAQT should voluntarily torpedo a major source of revenue because it displeases me, the moral paragon" is not a position conducive to further discussion, ...
by vcuEvan
Tue May 02, 2017 12:13 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

As Mike notes, college quizbowl and high school quizbowl operate in very different economic environments. It's quite straightforward to come up with a proposal for making SCT and ICT packets available as free downloads for only a modest increase in tournament registration fees (as Seth has done upt...
by vcuEvan
Mon May 01, 2017 11:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57256

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

To be absolutely clear, that last point means "naming names," if it comes down to it. I know very well that we are a community and that the most likely scenario is that people will find out about packet theft being committed by a friend (or at least a well-wisher). In most circumstances I...
by vcuEvan
Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:45 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42353

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

[*]From the Minnesota + MIT A packet, I was negged for giving the answer of "Eastern Shore" on the tossup for "Delmarva Peninsula." Pardon me for saying so, but is the Eastern Shore not a peninsula of its own? Perhaps the Eastern Shore of Maryland by itself is a non-peninsular r...
by vcuEvan
Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Difficulty Consistency in Finals Packets
Replies: 19
Views: 10564

Re: Difficulty Consistency in Finals Packets

I agree with you that the Finals packets should be approximately the same difficulty as the other packets, but I think that was true for the ACF Nationals 2017 final. Of course, neither of these tossups is problematic in isolation (well, I think tossing up the Constitution of Massachusetts is a litt...
by vcuEvan
Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42353

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

Yus vs. Jews wrote:
vcuEvan wrote:The set is posted here.
Can a zip file be made? For science?
It's been added.
by vcuEvan
Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42353

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

The set is posted here.
by vcuEvan
Mon Apr 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42353

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

We'll be reading the only unused packet from this weekend, Finals 2, in the #quizbowl IRC channel at 9 PM eastern tonight.
by vcuEvan
Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:35 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42353

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

I edited religion, other arts except film and opera, and CE/geo/other academic. Matt Bollinger, Tommy Casalaspi, Jonathan Magin and Ike Jose contributed some excellent questions to those categories. Also, I think I speak for all the editors in thanking the teams that really worked hard on their subm...
by vcuEvan
Sat Dec 17, 2016 11:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Non-students playing closed tournaments under false names
Replies: 56
Views: 25543

Re: Non-students playing closed tournaments under false name

Did UCSD have 8 students attend, and relegate two of them to a two-man C team because Will and Eddie wanted to play with UCSD A? If so, that's kind of destructive to one of the prime purposes of closed tournaments, which is to provide an outlet for university clubs to play together. I support limite...
by vcuEvan
Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Abolish The Mythology Category (Or Reduce & Revamp It)
Replies: 22
Views: 13854

Re: Abolish The Mythology Category (Or Reduce & Revamp It)

Regarding distributional tweaking as a whole, I think people should be quite careful how and when they apply it. In particular, the idea that "each tournament is only one tournament" is not exactly true; some tournaments (like each year's big spring open, for example) are much more reason...
by vcuEvan
Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:09 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Best Albums of 2015
Replies: 171
Views: 8111

Re: Best Albums of 2015

To Pimp a Butterfly
by vcuEvan
Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2015 CO Visual Arts
Replies: 131
Views: 73181

Re: 2015 CO Visual Arts

This tournament is on the short list of greatest side events of all time. I was especially impressed with the large number of inventive answers that were new but still accessible to the field. The clues chosen were also almost always interesting and useful. This is a tournament to emulate.
by vcuEvan
Fri Apr 24, 2015 6:31 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Being a Good Scorekeeper
Replies: 13
Views: 7532

Re: Being a Good Scorekeeper

More technical things: If a player or coach reveals a difference in score at the half or at the end of the game, immediately start reading the cumulative scores starting at tossup 1 or tossup 10. This is almost always going to be the most efficient way to find out who was wrong and where, since it w...
by vcuEvan
Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:49 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Replies: 227
Views: 110450

Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion

Now here's the part that angers me: In my game against Yale in 2013 there was a tossup on Ama Aidoo - and that's a game when the one seeds were playing the one seeds! (Not to mention there were tossups on Sextus Empiricus, etc.) I don't know why you all didn't blow your goddamn gaskets back then be...
by vcuEvan
Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Replies: 227
Views: 110450

Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion

We can go through every bonus like that - mine, Rob's, Ike's, Billy's - and it's going to be the same way. Or we can just look at the stats and see that this tournament had pretty solid bonus conversion compared to the last three years. (it's fine to say that you think the tournament needs to get e...
by vcuEvan
Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Replies: 227
Views: 110450

Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion

Sure, but a reasonable editor could also take a common link submission on "Pendleton" in American history and decide not to turn it into a tossup on a fourth tier Civil War general that largely went unanswered. I'm certainly not going to die on the hill defending that tossup idea. It's su...
by vcuEvan
Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Replies: 227
Views: 110450

Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion

The submission point is salient: it is neither possible nor desirable for an editor to try and replace all submissions. If you want to see an easier tournament, write easier questions. Sure, but a reasonable editor could also take a common link submission on "Pendleton" in American histor...
by vcuEvan
Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Replies: 227
Views: 110450

Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion

Well, here's what I was trying to argue with my post. If you want to look at a packet where 8 questions went dead in a round in the third bracket and say "that's too many" - then I'm pretty sympathetic to your argument. I was reading in the top bracket, but I do know what it's like in the...
by vcuEvan
Tue Apr 21, 2015 2:36 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Becoming Part of the Community
Replies: 43
Views: 43321

Re: Becoming Part of the Community

I'm not sure whether the fact that I was already a grad student or that I had somehow alienated people with confrontational political statements on Facebook or by commenting out of turn on tournaments discussed here is what explains the resulting alienation, rather than gradual acceptance that Jona...
by vcuEvan
Mon Apr 20, 2015 4:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Replies: 227
Views: 110450

Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion

I thought a tossup on the Old Court/New Court controversy was one of the more inspired ideas I've had in a long time This is the dumbest ACF Nationals tossup answer I've seen since the Reptiles Fund tossup. It's a regional squabble that affected the court system of one state for a few years with no...
by vcuEvan
Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2015 - August 8th
Replies: 53
Views: 72438

Re: VCU Open 2015 - August 8th

Hey at least the writers of Tricon actually bother writing their questions. Okay, sure? I don't see how me being a terrible question-writer is germane to a discussion of VCUO side-event scheduling. It's not. Even without the safeguards Mike is proposing though, I didn't find the difficulty of the p...
by vcuEvan
Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2015 - August 8th
Replies: 53
Views: 72438

Re: VCU Open 2015 - August 8th

I'm not opposed to still running my tournament at VCU Open if there's demand / a slot for it, but if not then it will probably be done online or something. I guess it depends on whether Bruce's tournament is really happening or not. Although even then, fitting 3 tossup only tournaments into one day...
by vcuEvan
Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2015 CO Visual Arts
Replies: 131
Views: 73181

Re: 2015 CO Visual Arts

Matt Bollinger and I are playing this together. Also, I realize this is probably late in the writing game for Stephen, but 15% sculpture seems like a ton to me, especially when the huge category of architecture is being shaved down to 10%. As Aidan demonstrated with his architecture tournament, it'...
by vcuEvan
Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Predictions
Replies: 29
Views: 12071

Re: ICT Predictions

Mewto55555 wrote: John Lawrence beats Eric Mukherjee to a science tossup, again (10-1)
Did you leave off a zero?
by vcuEvan
Mon Mar 16, 2015 10:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: George Oppen: The Essence of Prompting
Replies: 68
Views: 31481

Re: George Oppen: The Essence of Prompting

This is unbelivable. Some scholarly sources refer to that unnamed character as Marcel Proust like here . Why on earth would you take Marcel but not Proust? Edit: I figured I'd better explicate that link a little better: The source states "Proust's memory of Sunday morning in Combray..." T...
by vcuEvan
Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: George Oppen: An Apology, and General Discussion
Replies: 47
Views: 17812

Re: George Oppen: An Apology, and General Discussion

grapesmoker wrote:I know this discussion has largely focused on the flaws people have found in the set, which is usually what happens, but I do actually want to emphasize that I thought this set had a ton of really good, fun questions and was overall very enjoyable to play.
I second this.
by vcuEvan
Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:30 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
Replies: 577
Views: 455158

Re: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements

I'll be reading an unthemed packet of tossups on highly questionable answer lines in IRC tonight at 10PM EST. I'm sure Rob Carson will win.
by vcuEvan
Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Samuel L. Bronkowitz presents Chicago Open (07/18-19/15)
Replies: 117
Views: 62063

Re: Samuel L. Bronkowitz presents Chicago Open (07/18-19/15)

I really question having 1/1 Other Thought on a CO level when we already have 1/1 Philo and 1/1 Social Science. If people think this is too much, I'm happy to make this optional, but I enjoy exploring weird topics that don't necessarily get that much play in other tournaments. Do you have answers o...
by vcuEvan
Thu Feb 26, 2015 11:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Announcement: Oxford Open North America Online (03/01/2015)
Replies: 75
Views: 44640

Re: Announcement: Oxford Open North America Online (03/01/20

Frauny Von Smiley wrote:I still require the Skype ID of the following people who I am under the impression are still playing:

Eric Mukherjee
Evan Adams
Ben Zhang
I don't think any of us is playing. We didn't register.
by vcuEvan
Sun Feb 22, 2015 7:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015
Replies: 95
Views: 54226

Re: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015

I don't care about tournament formats as such, but I am a little disheartened by the fact that the field is capped and the limit was reached some six months out from CO. I'm very interested in playing this tournament, but apparently not checking the boards every day is enough to potentially put you...
by vcuEvan
Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2014: August 2
Replies: 57
Views: 33325

Re: VCU Open 2014: August 2

I was planning on playing the Texas tournament with John Lawrence, Matt Jackson, and Eric Mukherjee. Maybe there are other teams that have formed that haven't posted here as well.
by vcuEvan
Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:14 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
Replies: 64
Views: 36419

Re: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)

I've talked about this the other organizers of this tournament and in hindsight there was no reason not to have a transfer between Room 5 and Room 6. That probably would have made those rounds more meaningful and I apologize for the oversight. However, putting the bottom of the field into the bottom...
by vcuEvan
Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014 NASAT Discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 22173

Re: 2014 NASAT Discussion

vinteuil wrote:Did the tossup on the Cascadia subduction zone actually get used as a tiebreaker in any games? Did it serve that purpose well?
Yes. No.
by vcuEvan
Thu May 01, 2014 4:21 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Quiz Bowl Survivor: 50 Buzz, 49 Neg
Replies: 169
Views: 139103

Re: Quiz Bowl Survivor: 50 Buzz, 49 Neg

Take, for instance, the use of biographical clues in literature. Back in the benighted old days, these clues were common (from pure trivia like "Born in [year]" to old-timey chestnuts like "He met John Galsworthy on a ship"). These were almost invariably the product of lazy writ...
by vcuEvan
Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Praise Song
Replies: 35
Views: 15034

Re: Praise Song

I've always felt that Jonathan Pinyan is the most under-appreciated person in quizbowl, measured by just how much he does for the game and how little public praise he receives from it. If he shows up to your tournament, your tournament just got a whole lot better run. This is very true -- his calmi...
by vcuEvan
Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:50 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Modern World Tournament - Post-NSC Mirror
Replies: 135
Views: 63845

Re: Modern World Tournament - Post-NSC Mirror

I'm interested in teammates for this. I read news. You're already signed up to play with my team... what did you think you were signing up to play? Dude, I'm old and my memory is going. Sorry! edit: yes, I am playing with you. I just forgot. Great! I was worried I had dreamed the whole thing.