Share Our Wealth: Extremely Online (Time and Date TBD)

Old college threads.
Locked
User avatar
username_crisis_averted
Lulu
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:12 pm

Share Our Wealth: Extremely Online (Time and Date TBD)

Post by username_crisis_averted »

The second edition of Share Our Wealth is here! ICYMI, the first edition of SOW was a pop music event that raised over $1000 for charity! I've assembled a set of three packets that are probably only familiar to someone who has spent a little too much time on the Internet.

If you are interested, join the Discord here!

Extremely Online is a half-packet on the famous (and sadly deceased) YouTube playlist Important Videos. This packet was written by myself, Clark Smith, and Ethan Strombeck. If you don't know what Important Videos is, this packet is probably not for you (although parts of it are definitely doable if you consume enough Internet culture).

Shadows and Robots is a packet on webcomics, which I actually have read before. Please do not play if you have already heard it! The packet is roughly split half and half between gag-a-day webcomics and webcomics that follow a storyline. About half of the answers will be the names of webcomics, while the rest is split between authors and other miscellaneous answerlines (characters, common link, etc). I will not read this unless there is sufficient interest, because this topic is pretty niche (even for this event).

And then of course we have Fastest Finger First, a packet written in the style of the quizbowl anime Nana Maru San Batsu. This packet will take place over three rounds (none of which should take an especially long time). Expect the distribution to be roughly equivalent to the standard distribution, but with a skew towards pop culture and Japanese content (and yes, anime). The ruleset is pretty complex, so I will explaining it in full below.

Round One: Prelims
The first round will consist of pretty standard 7O3X questions. Like the title says, if you answer 7 questions, you are no longer allowed to buzz (and advance), while if you answer three questions wrong, you are eliminated. There are three main types of questions (disclaimer: this is not the official terminology). Part of the challenge is being able to discern what type of question is being asked at game speed.

A BRIEF PRIMER ON 7O3X QUESTION FORMATS
Direct questions simply ask about a work, like a normal tossup. Since 7O3X does not use pronouns very much, you will probably get hosed (and that is okay).
"Because it's there" is a quote by what mountaineer, who died during his participation in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest?
ANSWER: George Mallory
Set questions describe a list of elements in a set. If the set is not named in the question, then the answer to the question will be that set. If the set is named at the start of the question, the question will list elements in the set and the answer will be the element in the set that was not named. These elements will be listed in a certain natural order, so it can be possible to predict what the next element in the set will be even if only one or two elements have been read.
S1: Altair, Deneb, and Vega are the stars that make up this seasonal asterism in the night sky.
ANSWER: Summer Triangle (it would be possible to buzz at "Deneb" based on the question format)
S2: The tallest volcanoes in Ecuador are Antisana, Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and this other peak, the furthest point from the Earth's center.
ANSWER: Chimborazo (it would be possible to buzz at "Cayambe" if you concluded that the volcanoes are listed in order of height)
Parallel questions make use of reader emphasis to indicate what the eventual answer to the question will be. A statement will be read followed by a corresponding question. That question will be similar in structure to the statement, only it will be modified in the place that the reader pronounces with emphasis. This is much easier to illustrate with an example.
P1: The first emperor to rule a unified China was Qin Shi Huangdi. Who was the last emperor to rule China?
ANSWER: Puyi (possible to buzz at "China" if you know to invert the word with reader emphasis)
P2: The first emperor to rule a unified China was Qin Shi Huangdi. Who was the first emperor to rule Japan?
ANSWER: Jimmu (possible to buzz at "China", only it is slightly more difficult to invert "China" than "first", so in this case you would just have to guess which country with emperors the question is referring to. I'll try not to be this mean)

Obviously all of these question formats are still pretty questionable, and they would probably be considered "bad quizbowl" for obvious reasons. But I thought the format does have some merits, and I thought it would be interesting to see what this format actually looked like in practice.

Round Two: Ping / Pong
The second will follow the same question formats as above, only each question will have two answers. So you could have a Set question where the last two elements in the set are missing, or a parallel statement that includes two answers. In addition, players will be playing in teams of two. These teams will be assembled by snake order based on prelim score. I will read through the first buzz (the ping) and stop reading when the second buzz (the pong) occurs. After the second buzz, the first player to buzz gets their pick of which answer to say. Ping and pong answers are both worth 1 point. However, if the same team converts both the ping and the pong, a bonus point will be awarded. Players' prelim scores will be added onto their team's score at the end of the round to give them a final total score. The four players with the highest score will advance to the last round.

Round Three: Last Survivor
In the third and final round, the questions will be like prelims only at a higher difficulty level. When a player answers a question correctly, they are able to choose a player to eliminate from the game. At the end of these three questions, the last player standing wins. If any of the questions go dead, then the win will default to the person with the highest score before finals.

I've decided to make a few changes based on what I learned from the first event.
1) I've decided not to schedule a date and time from polls, because that turned out to be logistically terrible. Instead, DM me if you're interested and I'll make a group chat (or multiple), and we can work out scheduling from there. I would like to stress that playing all three events is not strictly necessary! If the time commitment is too great, or if you just don't really know the subject of a packet, feel free to show up late or leave early. I'll ping you when your scheduled event is set to start.

2) Last time I allowed people to donate any amount to any charity, which I hoped would lead to discourse + promotion of promising causes. That didn't end up happening, and some of the people seemed a bit overwhelmed about having so much choice. So I did some charity research, and I decided to choose a list of charities this time that I have concluded will yield the greatest net benefit for your money NOW (as opposed to a later donation). To enter the event, send me a screenshot of a donation of any amount to any one of these charities. And please let me know if you think there is a promising charity that I should add here for the future!

DECEMBER 2020 SOW CHARITIES
MALARIA
  • Malaria Consortium: Malaria Consortium provides seasonal preventative medicine to protect against malaria, one of the leading preventative causes of death in the world (especially for children). It costs about $7 to medicate a child, so the return on your donation is quite high.
  • Against Malaria Foundation Against Malaria buys malaria nets to protect vulnerable populations. It costs about $5 to buy one net, so the return on your donation is quite high here as well.
BASIC PREVENTATIVE CARE
  • Helen Keller International: Helen Keller International addresses malnutrition among children, particularly Vitamin A deficiency. The cost of one such supplement is just $1.
  • New Incentives New Incentives provides cash benefits to those who vaccinate their children in Nigeria. As 43% of infants in Nigeria did not complete their immunizations in 2019, this is a pressing concern. Several studies suggest that the New Incentives program really does make a difference, and it costs about $47 to incentivize a parent to complete their child's immunization schedule.
  • SCI Foundation SCI Foundation works with governments to implement mass deworming programs, which provide medicine to get parasitic worms out of children. Parasitic worms infect hundreds of millions of children, and it is pretty clear that they lead to a lower quality of life.
  • Evidence Action Evidence Action focuses on a variety of causes, most notably their Deworming the World initiative. They send monitors to facilitate and support mass deworming initiatives, as well as evaluate the extent to which they are accomplishing their goals.

UNCONDITIONAL DIRECT CASH TRANSFER
  • GiveDirectly GiveDirectly gives unconditional cash transfers to very poor families, with which they can spend on anything they want. These cash transfers have generally been shown to be quite effective at increasing quality of life.
  • Humanity Forward Humanity Forward is providing COVID cash relief to the Bronx, as well as pushing for a coronavirus stimulus package in the US Congress and trying to mainstream the idea of universal basic income in American politics. While the return for your cash here is probably a bit lower than it would be elsewhere, this does provide a domestic opportunity to donate (plus promoting the idea of unconditional cash transfers anywhere is indirectly promoting it everywhere).
CLIMATE CHANGE
  • ITIF Clean Energy Program ITIF is a think tank that invests in clean energy R&D. They focus on a wide range of emission reduction strategies, which I think sets them apart from other similar initiatives.
  • Coalition for Rainforest Nations Coalition for Rainforest Nations is an organization that supports tropical countries in protecting and incentivizing preservation of their rainforests. They have a lot of pull at the international level (like they were at the bargaining table for the Paris Climate Agreement), which sets them apart from similar initiatives.
  • Clean Air Task Force The Clean Air Task Force is a US-based group that advocates for climate initiatives and also puts a lot of money towards R&D in underfocused areas. They have a proven track record of getting initiatives through, which can't be said of many similar groups.
Anyway, that's all! Here's another link to the Discord, and I hope as many people as possible decide to play! (Multiple readings will be scheduled if there is enough demand.)
Kevin Kodama
University of Washington '23
User avatar
username_crisis_averted
Lulu
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:12 pm

Re: Share Our Wealth: Extremely Online (Time and Date TBD)

Post by username_crisis_averted »

The second edition of Share Our Wealth was played today. Congratulations to Jakob Myers for winning the Important Videos packet AND the 7O3X packet while riding on a train with terrible Internet. He really did to us. But the real winner was probably the organic chemistry questions... and charity! Together, we raised $280! I'll throw in $20 to the SCI Foundation's de-worming initiative to bring us up to $300. The 7O3X packet was predictably a complete mess, but hopefully the scores are understandable. I've posted stats for both packets below. (The webcomics packet had a more unofficial reading.) All packets I've read so far will be posted next month.

Important Videos
Jakob Myers - 30 (two powers)
Finn Bender - 25
Tomas Aguilar-Fraga - 15
Kenji Shimizu - 15
Victor Pavao - 15
Aidan Leahy - 10
Walter Zhang - 10

7O3X Prelims
Aidan Leahy 3
Finn Bender 2
Luke 1
Jakob Myers 1
Victor Pavao 1
Kenneth Martin 0
Walter Zhang 0
Chauncey 0
Junu Song 0
Tomas Aguilar-Fraga 0

5O2X Ping Pong
Jakob / Walter 3
Aidan / Tomas 2
Luke / Chauncey 1
Finn / Junu <out> (negs)
Victor / Kenneth <out> (negs)

Last Survivor Finals
Jakob 1
Tomas 0
Walter 0
Luke 0
Aidan <out>

Thanks to everyone who played, and I hope to see you next month!
Kevin Kodama
University of Washington '23
Locked