Resetting After the Crisis [pt. 0: Intro/Contents]

[Adventure Temple Trail]

It goes without saying that the sudden departure of Matt Weiner from many commitments earlier this year truly shook the quizbowl community to its core, forcing a half-dozen organizations and many people to scramble to keep the system in order. Due to the heroic efforts of many, though, the real prospect of disaster has been more or less entirely averted, and all but one event and role previously assigned to him for the remainder of the 2014-2015 competition year was reassigned successfully. Teams attended the regional sites of the NHBB A set; ACF Nationals had a record number of teams & finished 22 rounds of gameplay in record time; all four NHBB Nationals weekend events ran with relatively few hitches; the PACE NSC replicated the success of 2014; NAQT set and subject editing duties continued apace; these forums remain in the hands of an administrative staff that (lovingly) doles out harsh justice. NASAT is slated to happen this weekend with 15-17 states in attendance. The only event which didn't make it, College History Bowl, was cancelled this year with the wide community recognition that it would be okay to do so, and with the option open to perhaps revive it in the future.

As I've said in a few personal conversations here or there, it has been an oddly reassuring disaster -- in that we learned as a community just how capable we actually are of getting large projects while being supportive to one another. Over the past three months, many people have shown themselves to really exemplify the good aspects of what this community is about -- tripping over themselves to offer help, excitedly teaching their areas of expertise to others, etc. etc. In fact, from what I gather, most high school and college teams were capable of going through the rest of their competition year without any suspicion that anything was even amiss.

Nonetheless, it shouldn't be surprising that I never want a crisis of this caliber to affect the academic quizbowl community ever again. I say this not just because a huge amount of the extra work this year ended up on my particular shoulders, but also because in some ways we "should have seen it coming" -- this latest crisis period was the culmination and intersection point of many bad trends which had been growing and becoming steadily-more problematic with time. Now is a good time to go through a period of "soul-searching" to figure out what went wrong, and ascertain how we as a community can arrange things so we're better organized and don't stay afflicted by the same bad trends in perpetuity.

So it's time for another multi-part megapost! This mega-post will have several components, which will be rolled out over the next few days. URLs will be embedded below once each new thread is ready.

Part 1: How to Help Hold Up the Game Well -- In the first component, I will talk about what the problems were in the way quizbowl people went about taking on roles prior to March 2015, and what we should change about that now that we have a chance.
Part 2: How Much Quizbowl Does a Man Need? -- In the second component I'll address the question of how many things we actually ought to be rebuilding, and the question of whether there is simply too much quizbowl being produced for today's community to handle or appreciate.
Part 3: The Problem of Flakes -- In the third component I'll talk about the 'problem of flakes' and what, if anything, could be done to get more of a sense of responsibility and obligation into the default way people do large quizbowl tasks.
Part 4: Quizbowl's Relationship With NHBB -- In the fourth component I will discuss the current state of the relationship between the quizbowl community and National History Bee and Bowl, which was perhaps the event most viscerally affected by the past crisis.
Part 5: How We Treat Each Other -- In the fifth component I'll be discussing how we in the quizbowl community treat each other, and how we should take this opportunity to reset or roll back a lot of the more harmful patterns we've gotten into on that score.
Part 6: Lessons Worth Remembering -- In the sixth and final component, I'll be gathering many of Matt W's as-yet "uncollected" insights and lessons into one place for the benefit of the community, including some which I've only heard said in person.

[Rabbinator]

I'm really looking forward to part five, so thank you for taking the time to do that.

[Whiter Hydra]

Part 5: How We Treat Each Other -- In the fifth component I'll be discussing how we in the quizbowl community treat each other, and how we should take this opportunity to reset or roll back a lot of the more harmful patterns we've gotten into on that score.

Any update as to when this part will come out?

[Adventure Temple Trail]

Part 5: How We Treat Each Other -- In the fifth component I'll be discussing how we in the quizbowl community treat each other, and how we should take this opportunity to reset or roll back a lot of the more harmful patterns we've gotten into on that score.

Any update as to when this part will come out?

At the risk of sounding like George R. R. Martin: It will be done when it's done. For many reasons this has been the hardest part to write, and I want to make sure I get it correct.

[Rabbinator]

Part 5: How We Treat Each Other -- In the fifth component I'll be discussing how we in the quizbowl community treat each other, and how we should take this opportunity to reset or roll back a lot of the more harmful patterns we've gotten into on that score.

Any update as to when this part will come out?

At the risk of sounding like George R. R. Martin: It will be done when it's done. For many reasons this has been the hardest part to write, and I want to make sure I get it correct.

I will await this as anxiously/excitedly as Winds of Winter, but hopefully I won't be waiting as long. ;P