Search found 586 matches
- Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:16 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open Discussion
- Replies: 32
- Views: 22880
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...
- Wed Jun 21, 2017 1:14 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Giveaways for "lesser-known" stuff about common things
- Replies: 17
- Views: 9450
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...
- Fri May 26, 2017 4:02 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
- Replies: 53
- Views: 33847
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 6:01 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 5:38 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 5:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 4:34 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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 ...
- Tue May 02, 2017 3:34 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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 ...
- Tue May 02, 2017 2:23 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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 ...
- Tue May 02, 2017 8:58 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 3:15 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 2:13 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Tue May 02, 2017 1:29 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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, ...
- Tue May 02, 2017 12:13 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Mon May 01, 2017 11:14 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
- Replies: 128
- Views: 58050
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...
- Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:45 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42781
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...
- Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:01 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Difficulty Consistency in Finals Packets
- Replies: 19
- Views: 10668
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...
- Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42781
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
It's been added.Yus vs. Jews wrote:Can a zip file be made? For science?vcuEvan wrote:The set is posted here.
- Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:15 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42781
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
The set is posted here.
- Mon Apr 24, 2017 12:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42781
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.
- Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:35 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42781
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...
- Sat Dec 17, 2016 11:32 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Non-students playing closed tournaments under false names
- Replies: 56
- Views: 25897
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...
- Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:01 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Abolish The Mythology Category (Or Reduce & Revamp It)
- Replies: 22
- Views: 14045
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...
- Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:09 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Best Albums of 2015
- Replies: 171
- Views: 8561
Re: Best Albums of 2015
To Pimp a Butterfly
- Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:04 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 CO Visual Arts
- Replies: 131
- Views: 73636
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.
- Fri Apr 24, 2015 6:31 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Being a Good Scorekeeper
- Replies: 13
- Views: 7579
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...
- Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:49 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111268
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...
- Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:36 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111268
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...
- Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:38 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111268
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...
- Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:11 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111268
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...
- Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:50 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111268
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...
- Tue Apr 21, 2015 2:36 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Becoming Part of the Community
- Replies: 43
- Views: 43673
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...
- Mon Apr 20, 2015 4:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111268
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...
- Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:44 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Open 2015 - August 8th
- Replies: 53
- Views: 72613
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...
- Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:18 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Open 2015 - August 8th
- Replies: 53
- Views: 72613
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...
- Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:51 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 CO Visual Arts
- Replies: 131
- Views: 73636
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'...
- Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:03 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ICT Predictions
- Replies: 29
- Views: 12183
Re: ICT Predictions
Did you leave off a zero?Mewto55555 wrote: John Lawrence beats Eric Mukherjee to a science tossup, again (10-1)
- Mon Mar 16, 2015 10:10 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: George Oppen: The Essence of Prompting
- Replies: 68
- Views: 31607
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...
- Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:29 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: George Oppen: An Apology, and General Discussion
- Replies: 47
- Views: 17885
Re: George Oppen: An Apology, and General Discussion
I second this.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.
- Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:30 pm
- Forum: Trash
- Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
- Replies: 577
- Views: 459395
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.
- 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: 62546
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...
- Thu Feb 26, 2015 11:18 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Announcement: Oxford Open North America Online (03/01/2015)
- Replies: 75
- Views: 45131
Re: Announcement: Oxford Open North America Online (03/01/20
I don't think any of us is playing. We didn't register.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
- Sun Feb 22, 2015 7:50 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015
- Replies: 95
- Views: 54469
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...
- Sat Feb 14, 2015 9:25 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015
- Replies: 95
- Views: 54469
Re: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015
I'm playing.
- Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:22 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Open 2014: August 2
- Replies: 57
- Views: 33444
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.
- Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:14 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
- Replies: 64
- Views: 36590
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...
- Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:09 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2014 NASAT Discussion
- Replies: 38
- Views: 22237
Re: 2014 NASAT Discussion
Yes. No.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?
- Thu May 01, 2014 4:21 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Quiz Bowl Survivor: 50 Buzz, 49 Neg
- Replies: 169
- Views: 140624
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...
- Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:15 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Praise Song
- Replies: 35
- Views: 15224
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...
- Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:50 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Modern World Tournament - Post-NSC Mirror
- Replies: 135
- Views: 64507
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.