On the Need for Low-Cost Buzzers: The North Avenue Manifesto

[elyne road]

This community brings out the best in people. Through pyramidality, thoughtful and innovative editing and writing, and organizational stewardship, we foster a profound and sacred space where students and knowledge-seekers alike can learn in an interactive and gamified manner. This game influenced my worldview, my cognition and it introduced me to the dearest friends of my life, and I believe in its ability to elicit that growth in myriad students. It is thus with some scorn and conviction that I must write to the community at-large about its one egregious oversight: the affordable buzzer system.

This community incentivizes outreach to new schools, new countries, and with each successive generation, new community leaders. However, we have not meaningfully or substantially addressed the very tools with which we play this game! A buzzer system makes this game resemble the gameshows we idolized growing up: Jeopardy!, College Bowl, QI, Family Feud, Honda Campus All-Star Challenge and University Challenge, among others. And when we feel that technology in our hands, it gives us the courage to dream that one day, if we so wish, we may compete on one of those programs. It creates warmth and provides tactile haptic feedback. It is very much an inviting, accommodating and validating sensory experience. And yet, for new teams, it remains by far both the biggest barrier to entry, and the most prohibitive cost.

This community has taken great strides in its leaving an indelible digital footprint. We have made online repositories and databases to expedite the process of studying and knowledge acquisition. We have made adversarial and interactive simulations for practicing. We have built thousands of distinct Discord servers in which to play tournaments and to foster online community and togetherness. Yet we have failed to develop affordable hardware to facilitate the entry of new teams to this game. For all of the carding, studying, writing, editing, tournament direction, logistics and organizational leadership exemplified by this community, we have failed to deliberately and systemically democratize access to its greatest tool for outreach. As someone who spent the better part of two years driving with my parents to local Delaware middle and high schools, I can guarantee that more than the potential to gain or display knowledge, the feeling of getting your first-ever good buzz is incomparable. For some, that experience itself begets a lifetime of learning. And to facilitate as many of those life-changing moments as we can, we must develop low-cost buzzers.

In the age where every aspiring technologist, programmer, and engineer creates elaborate portfolios of personal projects to build a stable career, we have somehow never succeeded in harnessing that talent into the design, development, testing, and deployment of an affordable buzzer system. And though online systems such as Mike Bentley’s PACEBuzz and BuzzIn.live exist, they operate on a freemium model that merely simulates the environment of a match room. Nothing truly compares to in-person Quizbowl. With the advent of modern web apps and microcontrollers, the time to develop a unified system with connectivity, locality, and durability is now. The best projects embody the personality of those who put effort and dedication into their development, and I can think of no better term for this endeavor than a true passion project.

To ensure that this project succeeds, we must look at essence, form, function, and critically, we must embrace the most progressive principles in developing new technologies. The system should qualify for buzzer discounts at every tournament across all levels. The system should allow for personalization and customizability of sounds and themes. The system should be modular. The system should be upgradable. The system should be extendable to accommodate as many players as needed. The system should be warranty-free, with the right to repair and clear instructions on how to fix every conceivable malfunction, and how to install every necessary replacement. The system should not be sold for a profit. And most importantly of all, through all steps of manufacture and delivery, the system should be open-source.

The genesis of this project took place at Georgia Tech, in the practice rooms of the Howey Physics Building, and in the makerspaces and labs of the Van Leer Building. But it started with my dear friend and teammate Hari Parameswaran. He designed this project during several late nights at his Midtown Atlanta apartment, and spent his semester in a portfolio course brainstorming marketing and business plans for its manufacture and sale. But to sell this product for profit would exacerbate the very problem we outline in the title of this post. And as a professional electrical engineer and a current undergraduate with proven experience in organizing and delegation of tasks to oversee the project’s development, we must now call upon those in this community who are eager to join us. To all of the electrical engineers, embedded programmers, industrial designers, mechanical engineers, graphic designers, web developers, modelers, businesspeople, copywriters and Quiz enthusiasts, the time to realize this initiative is now. There will be no hierarchy in this team–all effort will be horizontally coordinated. To those in college who aspire to the professions listed above, this could be your start. To those with access to makerspaces, this is an opportunity to test and critique the next generation of buzzers. And to those in this community, this is our highest responsibility–to leave Quizbowl in a better state than when we entered.

We plan on posting technical details and information about getting involved in this project in a follow-up within the coming weeks. For this project in particular, we ask for dedication and not mere commitment, but of course with respect for capacity–-and this goes for everyone, Hari and I included. We welcome questions and curiosity about the project, but kindly request that any interested parties respect our capacity as we deliberate. And paramount to all else, we hope to bring this system from North Avenue to any team which needs it, anywhere. Thank you all, sincerely.

[edit: fixed a missing space. i'm only human y'all.]

[jsontchi]

This is a very important topic. Many thanks to S. A. For raising it. Aside from the benefits for existing clubs, improvement in this space would also be of tremendous benefit for outreach, particularly internationally. The current buzzer systems represent a substantial commitment for new and small clubs, an issue that is even more extreme for overseas groups. The cost of buzzers are almost doubled for UK quizbowl teams due to the necessity of paying for international delivery on top of the existing price tag.

[a Joe]

Alright:
1) The fact that you wrote a manifesto about cheap buzzer systems is hilarious and, frankly, rediculous. This is not some epic thing. You want to make a cheap buzzer. Save the drama for television.

2) We tried this once. The sum of the parts was $150 per buzzer for one that was extremely flimsy. For a more rugged one, it depends on the quantity, but it starts at around $250. You are going to need a custom, metal housing for the controller. There is no alternative; anything else is either not rugged enough or huge. If you buy that in quantity, it could be cheap, if you don't, it'll cost a fortune from a prototyping company. If you try to build it yourself, the jigs alone will cost a fortune. Not to mention the standing power tools needed to do such a thing. Or for a microcontroller: we tried it with an Arduino. It needs to be a nice one with a large amount of dedicated i/o. If you want to do this yourself, you either need to pay up for an existing off-the-shelf model or spend a fortune getting a pcb designed and made. What you fail to understand: the existing buzzer systems are cheap and are sold at low margins, especially Andersons, and especially when considering the enormous amount of time that goes into production.

3) You forgot ruggedness and reliability in that "essence, form, function" thing. That is one of the most important things. It has to hold up for 30 years through a huge amount of abuse from a bunch of rambunctious kids. It has to hold up when someone smashes it in frustration or when the control box inevitably falls off the desk. Nobody cares about personalization or custom sounds. Upgradable-- to what? It's a buzzer. It's a fixed product that doesn't need upgrades.

4) Your time is valuable. You need to calculate the amount of time that it takes to build each buzzer (which is enormous), and figure out if you're willing to throw away that time instead of doing something useful and profitable. What happens when someone orders 25? What happens when you get a huge backlog, because you will? What happens when you have 50 orders and you are out of steam? What happens when people move on to things that actually make them a living and aren't wasting their time creating something that already exists?

5) What happens to right-to-repair when someone drops it in a puddle? Are you just going to ship them a new head unit free of charge?

Normally, I'd commend the idea. I don't commend this one. I'd commend the passion and drive. I don't for this project. You are entering an oversaturated market to save people a hundred bucks at best. Stop wasting your extremely valuable time and save up a few bucks to buy a buzzer.

[Adventure Temple Trail]

Alright:...

ok

I, for one, am excited that S. A. and Hari are doing something cool with their skills and I look forward to seeing how it turns out!

EDIT: Joe's post was of course needlessly rude and unprofessional, especially coming from someone who is trying to rapidly grow a national business. Nonetheless, I am increasingly concerned with original poster's unsupported statements and confrontational verbal behavior here and in other online spaces. I am retracting or at least sharply mitigating my excitement for this project until some real prototype is demonstrated. It would also be helpful to hear from Hari, the other ostensible partner in this venture.

[Votre Kickstarter Est Nul]

For most people, quizbowl, the community, and what we make of the game exists outside the impetus of market forces (people edit for tiny rates, staff for pizza, win book prizes not money, etc). It is an extremely unproductive use of your time, through the lens of your "time being valuable" insofar as your time can be used to make money. This is wonderful and special. It does not surprise me that someone whose relationship to quizbowl is entirely through the lens of profit appears to find this laughable.

I have no discernible skills, much less any to contribute to this project, but I enjoyed reading this greatly and cheer you on in your mission. I have no clue if it'll work, but it's a great idea and goal.

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

5) What happens to right-to-repair when someone drops it in a puddle? Are you just going to ship them a new head unit free of charge?

If you had to do this post over again, I would recommend leading off with this point. That way, everyone reading would understand immediately that you didn't know what you were talking about, in addition to being loud and angry for no reason.

S.A. and Hari - this sounds wonderful, and if startup funds are a thing that may be useful down the line, PM me and I can see about some options.

[Bhagwan Shammbhagwan]

Joe, with all due respect, I don't see how this idea is "rediculous." S. A.'s post addresses a key need that people in quiz bowl have brought up time and time again: that buzzers are quite expensive. As you yourself pointed out, such an endeavor might save teams ~$100 (which isn't an insignificant amount of money!). We envisioned this project as a way to bring the community together to find a potential solution this problem.

To respond to a few points raised in this post:

1.

We tried this once. The sum of the parts was $150 per buzzer for one that was extremely flimsy.

I'm not sure how you got to a total of $150 per buzzer. When we prototyped this at Georgia Tech's makerspace, the total cost only came out to $70 (and I wouldn't have called the prototype "flimsy"). It's possible there's certain things we didn't account for in the total cost back then, but I'd wager that the total cost would only come to a ~$100 at most.

2.

Upgradable-- to what?

What we had envisioned was eventually pairing the buzzer with a web app which could pair with stats-keeping apps (and do other things I guess, though admittedly I haven't thought that far ahead). Other quality-of-life features that would be nice could include laser engravings so that teams could track down buzzers more easily, though I'm not sure as to the feasibility of that yet.

I'm not going to bother responding to the other points, which seem to be explaining how engineering works to two engineers.

If you don't want to contribute, that's your prerogative. I hope others will offer genuine advice / criticisms as to how to realize this project, as I think it could greatly benefit everyone involved with quiz bowl.

Also using this post to shoutout Arjun Verma, a good friend and fellow quizbowler from Georgia Tech who helped me a lot with the design and prototype. He's also going to help out.

[elyne road]

What you fail to understand: the existing buzzer systems are cheap and are sold at low margins, especially Andersons, and especially when considering the enormous amount of time that goes into production.

I think what you're forgetting is that some people don't want to make money. This isn't about Hari and I--we have nothing left to prove in our Quizbowl careers. And for Hari especially, that's really saying something. We love this community. All we want to do is organize that love into something useful. So don't call it a labour of love. Because we're immigrants. And we're not getting paid. At least for now.

We plan on introducing a Patreon-esque model so that people who are interested in supporting our endeavor can give back to this community in a way that introduces new teams to this game instead of keeping things in the status quo. To grow this game to new heights, we must grow it to new audiences. The reason that Chip Beall is so alluring to new teams is because there's prestige to being the best in your region--when did middle and high school quizbowl forget this? Yes, national rank is important for some teams, but the best part of this game is the people. And to artificially select friends for life based on PPG seems insane. This especially applies to Hari, since we both went to the same school after only knowing each other online and very briefly in person. And as soon as we stepped on campus, we made sure to diversify our mutual friend group outside of quizbowl. Those are our day ones. And some day this community will look back at this thread and realize who the day ones were.

For a middle and high school quizbowl to survive in the future it needs to think about the future of the children of this country. They watch local tournaments because they can connect to the people in their communities. Maybe they know some of the kids getting on these public access and locally syndicated shows. That fosters dialogue, empathy, curiosity, and eventually, in several game rooms, pedagogy. By organizing at the local level, we can introduce regional championships and actually bankrupt companies with bankrupt morals. That would be nice. We need to take money away from corporate sponsors for trivial pursuits and organize them into scholarship funds for students who play exceptionally well. Investing in this community means paying our staffers well, paying our organizers well, paying our tournament directors well, paying our logistics coordinators well, paying our liaisons and misconduct representatives well; and yes, paying the moderators, scorekeepers, statisticians, morale boosters, control room savants, open source developers, moderators, scorekeepers, and that pesky protest committee too. Michigan State has already done this for its students based on merit and it has paid dividends--imagine if we foster that kind of empathy for knowledge and stories in a new generation! And yes, the Morgan Costa-Rhodes scholarship is critical to ensuring a new generation of students of lower socioeconomic standing and in schools with the unfortunate reality of being in poor neighborhoods have the chance to realize their dreams too--but it needs to be a higher amount. And not just for one student--one day, it should be for hundreds, if not thousands. And corporate sponsors like LetterOne are probably not a good long term solution--I think NAQT, as well as other community organizations, understand this better than you think. Especially at this level we should be encouraging community organizers to get involved with this game outside of merely volunteering and spending a weekend staffing, but supporting them in solidarity with a charitable and benevolent donation. That works wonders, and trust me, they make for the best letters you'll ever read--of pure empathy and gratitude. LeVar Burton and Alex Trebek didn't teach me to chase the money, they taught me to learn. And now, I want to teach. It really could change minds and a lot of systemic issues by just getting people talking. Maybe the forums will replace Twitter, but don't get it twisted--I won't even consider becoming Elon Musk.

Please don't be on the wrong side of history here. It reflects poorly on me!

[elyne road]

What you fail to understand: the existing buzzer systems are cheap and are sold at low margins, especially Andersons, and especially when considering the enormous amount of time that goes into production.

I think what you're forgetting is that some people don't want to make money. This isn't about Hari and I--we have nothing left to prove in our Quizbowl careers. And for Hari especially, that's really saying something. We love this community. All we want to do is organize that love into something useful. So don't call it a labour of love. Because we're immigrants. And we're not getting paid. At least for now.

We plan on introducing a Patreon-esque model so that people who are interested in supporting our endeavor can give back to this community in a way that introduces new teams to this game instead of keeping things in the status quo. To grow this game to new heights, we must grow it to new audiences. The reason that Chip Beall is so alluring to new teams is because there's prestige to being the best in your region--when did middle and high school quizbowl forget this? Yes, national rank is important for some teams, but the best part of this game is the people. And to artificially select friends for life based on PPG seems insane. This especially applies to Hari, since we both went to the same school after only knowing each other online and very briefly in person. And as soon as we stepped on campus, we made sure to diversify our mutual friend group outside of quizbowl. Those are our day ones. And some day this community will look back at this thread and realize who the day ones were.

For a middle and high school quizbowl to survive in the future it needs to think about the future of the children of this country. They watch local tournaments because they can connect to the people in their communities. Maybe they know some of the kids getting on these public access and locally syndicated shows. That fosters dialogue, empathy, curiosity, and eventually, in several game rooms, pedagogy. By organizing at the local level, we can introduce regional championships and actually bankrupt companies with bankrupt morals. That would be nice. We need to take money away from corporate sponsors for trivial pursuits and organize them into scholarship funds for students who play exceptionally well. Investing in this community means paying our staffers well, paying our organizers well, paying our tournament directors well, paying our logistics coordinators well, paying our liaisons and misconduct representatives well; and yes, paying the moderators, scorekeepers, statisticians, morale boosters, control room savants, open source developers, moderators, scorekeepers, and that pesky protest committee too. Michigan State has already done this for its students based on merit and it has paid dividends--imagine if we foster that kind of empathy for knowledge and stories in a new generation! And yes, the Morgan Costa-Rhodes scholarship is critical to ensuring a new generation of students of lower socioeconomic standing and in schools with the unfortunate reality of being in poor neighborhoods have the chance to realize their dreams too--but it needs to be a higher amount. And not just for one student--one day, it should be for hundreds, if not thousands. And corporate sponsors like LetterOne are probably not a good long term solution--I think NAQT, as well as other community organizations, understand this better than you think. Especially at this level we should be encouraging community organizers to get involved with this game outside of merely volunteering and spending a weekend staffing, but supporting them in solidarity with a charitable and benevolent donation. That works wonders, and trust me, they make for the best letters you'll ever read--of pure empathy and gratitude. LeVar Burton and Alex Trebek didn't teach me to chase the money, they taught me to learn. And now, I want to teach. It really could change minds and a lot of systemic issues by just getting people talking. Maybe the forums will replace Twitter, but don't get it twisted--I won't even consider becoming Elon Musk.

Please don't be on the wrong side of history here. It reflects poorly on me!

Two obvious omissions on my part--the writers and editors. And two more--the proofreaders and spellcheckers. This whole process works because we can trust it. Quizbowl doesn't need fact checkers because we speak truth to power and get to the bottom of things. I would not be here if Shan Kothari did not teach me about Satyajit Ray at the 2018 PACE NSC in what might be the most beautiful tossup ever written. That alone lead me on a whole path of pursuing research that analyzes film and its relation to emerging technologies like VR, AR, MR, HMD, and XR Theory à la Bazin--just as Bazin wanted us to move towards a Total Cinema that encompassed new cinematic frontiers and narrative capabilities, that is why I wrote my post--and I think that a tossup changing someone's entire life trajectory is a pretty profound transformation.

And that's just my story. Imagine how many more that have yet to even begin. And how many people who haven't even been born and who have never picked up a buzzer will change their lives in turn. What Rilke said was, "you must change your life," but what he didn't include was that all starts with a single thought. That's all it takes. And tossups and bonuses are nothing but stories that help us learn the morals of this world.

[jsontchi]

This might be something that you were going to address in your later post with more technical information and details (apologies if so), but have you considered making any parts of this project open source? As someone who very much does not have the technical background, the potential web integration seems very interesting and I would hate for any knowledge/progress on it to be lost if/when SA, Hari, or other members of this endeavor end up stepping away from quizbowl for other life pursuits. Similarly, I’m not sure if the greater technical challenge is the programming/wiring or physical construction, but if the former, open source/public documentation could also be a way of enabling some interested/capable clubs to manufacture their own, saving costs on shipping, preserving your own manufacturing capacity, and possibly providing one avenue for right to repair. Just a thought.

[Sylvia Pankhurst]

The only thing ridiculous is S.A's posting style. Please stop talking so that we're able to take this objectively good thing you're trying to do more seriously. For the sake of this project's success, Hari MUST handle all outward facing communication.

[Cheynem]

I'm not sure I would call the posting style ridiculous, but I would politely note that the volume of text on a wide variety of topics does threaten to overwhelm the information and interest in an interesting, good project.

[halle]

I have created a thread in the Forbidden Zone with the least defensible posts from this thread, which has gotten well out of hand. I'm hoping to add some Mod notes and warnings to several of the remaining posts in this thread when I get a chance. Please compare the posts remaining in this thread and those that were FZ'ed to get something of an idea of what is appropriate discussion of this idea (although honestly if you're looking for stylistic posting advice I wouldn't go with anything in this thread).

[Auks Ran Ova]

I would also like to use Mod Voice to make explicit that any further posts threatening to drag the thread far afield of discussion of the buzzer project are very likely to get aggressively clipped for being off-topic. Criticism and responding to such can both be entirely within the rules, but please do your best to remain focused on the actual topic at hand.

[elyne road]

This might be something that you were going to address in your later post with more technical information and details (apologies if so), but have you considered making any parts of this project open source? As someone who very much does not have the technical background, the potential web integration seems very interesting and I would hate for any knowledge/progress on it to be lost if/when S. A., Hari, or other members of this endeavor end up stepping away from quizbowl for other life pursuits. Similarly, I’m not sure if the greater technical challenge is the programming/wiring or physical construction, but if the former, open source/public documentation could also be a way of enabling some interested/capable clubs to manufacture their own, saving costs on shipping, preserving your own manufacturing capacity, and possibly providing one avenue for right to repair. Just a thought.

Only a true Charter alum would catch that we missed the part where we mentioned it should be open-source. Doc Hollstein, Mr. Stella, Mrs. Messinger, Mr. Oakes, et al. taught you well. Thank you for pointing out that rather glaring omission.

[elyne road]

This might be something that you were going to address in your later post with more technical information and details (apologies if so), but have you considered making any parts of this project open source? As someone who very much does not have the technical background, the potential web integration seems very interesting and I would hate for any knowledge/progress on it to be lost if/when S. A., Hari, or other members of this endeavor end up stepping away from quizbowl for other life pursuits. Similarly, I’m not sure if the greater technical challenge is the programming/wiring or physical construction, but if the former, open source/public documentation could also be a way of enabling some interested/capable clubs to manufacture their own, saving costs on shipping, preserving your own manufacturing capacity, and possibly providing one avenue for right to repair. Just a thought.

This is also an explicit statement that we need people from non-technical backgrounds to translate the message into layperson's terms. This is the skill of a solid craftsperson and rhetorician. And it makes more sense if neither Hari nor I are the ones to do it--we have outlined a vision and would greatly appreciate anyone with the chops to translate it into passionate prose. More info coming soon. The medium is the message became the message is the message became the message. Let's follow the same guidelines and not try to distort this idea into a whisper--we want to realize the original idea, along with its subsequent earnest suggestions and critiques, and amalgamate that into a cohesive project for this community.

[elyne road]

As with any good Patreon or crowdfunding campaign (à la Manthan by Vijay Tendulkar, made by hundreds of thousands of Gujarati farmers making donations of a few rupees each) it is important to address the merit of the concerns of each individual before proceeding. Please bear in mind, before I respond to each post individually, that Hari and I drafted the original post in the thread together, and made the deliberate choice that I should be the one to post it.

This is a very important topic. Many thanks to S. A. For raising it. Aside from the benefits for existing clubs, improvement in this space would also be of tremendous benefit for outreach, particularly internationally. The current buzzer systems represent a substantial commitment for new and small clubs, an issue that is even more extreme for overseas groups. The cost of buzzers are almost doubled for UK quizbowl teams due to the necessity of paying for international delivery on top of the existing price tag.

Thank you dearly. It means a lot knowing that from generation to generation, from Mr. Tressler to Mr. Kramer to Mrs. Basquill and now to Mr. Clark that this tradition is helping change the outlook of learning, especially at a school where the humanities teachers deserve more love. You're a real one Jeremy.

Alright:...

ok

I, for one, am excited that S. A. and Hari are doing something cool with their skills and I look forward to seeing how it turns out!

You gave me the best advice possible in telling me not to run drafts of this idea by you and other "olds," and that was the best advice we could've gotten. You taught us to speak from the heart, and we will continue doing so, but only about this project and the people who made it possible. We hope to put the love in the "Made with by..." at the bottom of our website--this is more than just a tech stack resumé project. And you were the first to see that besides me and Hari.

For most people, quizbowl, the community, and what we make of the game exists outside the impetus of market forces (people edit for tiny rates, staff for pizza, win book prizes not money, etc). It is an extremely unproductive use of your time, through the lens of your "time being valuable" insofar as your time can be used to make money. This is wonderful and special. It does not surprise me that someone whose relationship to quizbowl is entirely through the lens of profit appears to find this laughable.

I have no discernible skills, much less any to contribute to this project, but I enjoyed reading this greatly and cheer you on in your mission. I have no clue if it'll work, but it's a great idea and goal.

My favorite experiences in quizbowl are meeting and talking to people in the control room. And if people give us praise in that setting, that means they heard it from mods and scorekeepers, parents and teachers, friends and spectators, and then are simply relaying that information to the people in charge, and then eventually, back to the people who made it possible. That's what it's all about, and thank you for your support.

5) What happens to right-to-repair when someone drops it in a puddle? Are you just going to ship them a new head unit free of charge?

If you had to do this post over again, I would recommend leading off with this point. That way, everyone reading would understand immediately that you didn't know what you were talking about, in addition to being loud and angry for no reason.

[S. A.] and Hari - this sounds wonderful, and if startup funds are a thing that may be useful down the line, PM me and I can see about some options.

I think that as someone who coped with a lot of anger issues through quizbowl, the most disrespectful and self-flagellatory thing one can do is to hurt and destroy a tool meant to cultivate learning. And it would do us some good to foster empathy for anyone we have seen do this in real life. It is often one of the lowest moments of their lives, and we can't make people feel worse about it than they already do. I say this as someone who tried to stroke Hari's hair (as a practical joke) during practice and ended up snapping the power cord of the buzzer set in two. It was hilarious at the time. To everyone but me. But a quick replacement part search obviated the need for future mutual embarrassment. And we would like to make sure that it is expeditious to not overcharge people when they're down, especially if we aim to create a broad coalition.

This might be something that you were going to address in your later post with more technical information and details (apologies if so), but have you considered making any parts of this project open source? As someone who very much does not have the technical background, the potential web integration seems very interesting and I would hate for any knowledge/progress on it to be lost if/when [S. A.], Hari, or other members of this endeavor end up stepping away from quizbowl for other life pursuits. Similarly, I’m not sure if the greater technical challenge is the programming/wiring or physical construction, but if the former, open source/public documentation could also be a way of enabling some interested/capable clubs to manufacture their own, saving costs on shipping, preserving your own manufacturing capacity, and possibly providing one avenue for right to repair. Just a thought.

A thought is all it takes to point out a mistake.

The only thing ridiculous is [S. A.'s] posting style. Please stop talking so that we're able to take this objectively good thing you're trying to do more seriously. For the sake of this project's success, Hari MUST handle all outward facing communication.

A suggestion is all it takes. I will reform my rhetoric and I thank you for your honesty and sincerity. Let's work this out over DMs, emails or other off-forums communication if you're curious about future steps--Hari and I would love to chat--just please know that we will respond asynchronously.

I'm not sure I would call the posting style ridiculous, but I would politely note that the volume of text on a wide variety of topics does threaten to overwhelm the information and interest in an interesting, good project.

Point very well taken. This happens to be how I talk, and I write from the heart because I speak from the heart. But that undermines the message, because the medium is the message. But as the messenger, I will do my best to just relay messages. That seems to be the good-faith consensus of what some of the people I most respect in this community are saying. And I appreciate it.

Expect replies from us in the future, and we thoroughly appreciate the enthusiasm for this project! We'd love to hear from other crowds, especially interested students and makers, professors and coaches, Jeopardy! winners and Jeopardy! losers alike, alums and well-wishers, since everyone has their own memories at a buzzer and we love seeing that passion come out in what you write to us. It's quite heartfelt.

[dni]

This is also an explicit statement that we need people from non-technical backgrounds to translate the message into layperson's terms.

Certainly! The post on the quizbowl forum highlights the need for an affordable buzzer system to make quizbowl more accessible. Despite significant advancements in digital resources and online platforms, the high cost of buzzer systems remains a barrier for new teams. The author calls for a community-driven, open-source project to develop a modular, customizable, and durable buzzer system. They stress the importance of inclusivity and collaboration, urging members with various skills to contribute to the project, aiming to democratize access to quizbowl equipment and enhance the game experience for all.

[elyne road]

This is also an explicit statement that we need people from non-technical backgrounds to translate the message into layperson's terms.

Certainly! The post on the quizbowl forum highlights the need for an affordable buzzer system to make quizbowl more accessible. Despite significant advancements in digital resources and online platforms, the high cost of buzzer systems remains a barrier for new teams. The author calls for a community-driven, open-source project to develop a modular, customizable, and durable buzzer system. They stress the importance of inclusivity and collaboration, urging members with various skills to contribute to the project, aiming to democratize access to quizbowl equipment and enhance the game experience for all.

You get it. Thank you dearly.

[Somewhere in the Stratosphere]

as someone who plays for a tiny school with not a ton of buy-in and doesn't play any tournaments besides regionals & state and doesn't even practice with buzzers, the idea of making this amazing community more accessible to newcomers is great. S. A. and Hari, I hope your project goes amazingly well.

[edit: SA and S. A. are apparently not the same thing my bad]

[elyne road]

as someone who plays for a tiny school with not a ton of buy-in and doesn't play any tournaments besides regionals & state and doesn't even practice with buzzers, the idea of making this amazing community more accessible to newcomers is great. [S. A.] and Hari, I hope your project goes amazingly well.

This made my day. I hope to make several others' days too. Your gratitude is not only heard, but reciprocated--I am so glad that people understand that Delaware, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Oregon, Idaho, Hawai'i, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, North and South Dakota, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Appalachia, The Sun Belt, The Rust Belt, The American Oversees Territories, The Greater and Lesser Antilles, the greater English-speaking world and Washington, DC public schools are facing the same fundamental issue.

Many thanks to Chris Chiego, Ben Herman (PA), Jackie Wu, Birdie, Dr. Dr. Mukherjee, Head Start Educational Academy Odyssey of the Mind, Greater Pennsylvania Quizbowl, my Mom and Dad and sister and Aaji and Mamis and Mamas and cousins and second cousins and extended and chosen family and friends, Mr. Christopher "send me a meme" Kramer, Mr. Gregory "you're gonna be on Jeopardy!" Darone, Dr. Mr. Kurt "hahahahahaha" Hollstein and Mrs. Jennifer "this is so you" Hollstein, Mr. Frank "stop reading quizbowl packets in my class or I will have to give you a B" Stallone, Mrs. Anna "you should write me an email" Tabah, Mrs. Karima "you remind me of that one Erykah Badu song" Chandler, Mrs. Stephanie "you were always a good student" Messinger, Mr. Mark "your Rappin' Rodney routine will go down as one of the all-time greats--you should do standup" Mervine, Mr. Devin "there is unfortunately no Delaware World Quest this year" Oakes, Mr. Wilson with the big black Lincoln, Mr. Mark "it was a shame you could not take my class" Thompson, Mr. Russell "ouch! you poked me with a pencil" Stover, Mrs. Cheryl "kid, you were me in high school but right now" Potocki, the one-and-only 1988 Al Smith Dinner attendee Mr. Stephen Satalino, Mr. Shawn "i don't know kid...but i trust you" Clark, Mrs. Rosemary "maybe listening is the best option right now" Basquill, Mr. Patrick "if you ever talk about Daggerfall in my closet again i will actually ask you to roam the hallways" Liberato, Mr. Daniel "please stop using cswwireless" Saggione, (professional Whoopi Goldberg imitator) Roberto Stella, Mr. Jermaine "awesome sauce with a hot fudge sunday to go" Wilson, Mr. John "be ever humble" Thompson, Mrs. Janice "you should teach our students a class on constructions with straightedge and compass" Bowers, Doc "time for second lunch" Newt, Mrs. Robin "you could become a chef one day" Daly, et al. and all the anonymous nobodies out there too, thank you dearly. You gave me belief and courage when nobody else did.

And to Waley--I know you're out there. Let's grab coffee sometime soon. Any time in your day, any place in the world. And to Hari--you are my best friend in this game and possibly in this world. Let's grab a coffee too.

Oh, and this game too. And community representatives. And my first good buzz on pink noise. More to come soon.