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Why end the Tintin Trivia Challenge?

toydreamer
Member
#1 · Posted: 7 Jun 2007 03:34
Why stop the quiz?

It's lots of fun.
jock123
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 7 Jun 2007 09:55
toydreamer
Why stop the quiz? It's lots of fun.

It is also disproportionately intensive to moderate for the very small number of members who actually participate, and seems to court more than its share controversy.

The Moderators only have a finite amount of time to be able to visit the forums at all, and lately it seems most of that has been given over to adjudicating wrangles created by the quiz.

So, after some discussion amongst ourselves, it was decided that we would halt the proceedings at question 250 - at least for a while.

Originally it was intended to be a real trivia quiz - something to bring up interesting points and details of Hergé's works, about which others may or may not have known.

Over time it developed into a battle to see who could:
a) set questions in the most baffling fashion - leading to protracted, often over-heated, debates, not about Hergé, but about the quiz itself; or
b) simply answer fastest, which meant that the quiz wasn't effectively open to all, just those who were on hand as the question was set.

There was also the problem that, whilst people seemed to delight in creating ever more cryptic clues, they didn't always spend as long as they should have testing their answers to see how objective, rather than subjective, they were. Just because the setter had thought of one answer, they didn't always accept - or look favourably upon - someone else's alternative solution, which met the conditions of the question, and was thus correct. Late-in-the-game caveats and re-statements of the question in attempts to negate what should have been a satisfactory answer just made things awkward, and took any real entertainment out of what should have been a light-hearted diversion.

The ability to adjudicate fairly was therefore often lost, as two or three questions might have been set, and answered, before a correct - but alternative - answer to a previous question (which should have won) was recognized.

So, to cut a long story short, the quiz is being given a rest until such time as we can think of a method to ensure: i) a high standard of questions; ii) the quality of answers - both from question setters and respondents; and iii) a fair and simple method of applying rules.

If-and-when the moderators can find a way of doing this, then it may return (no promises).