CE Grand Quiz - My experience and some suggestions for future versions ;)
Hi all,
So, the grand, month long event is finally over, and I thought I'll just say something about my experience in this contest and also some suggestions,
based on my observation, about how we can make it better the next time.
During October end and first few days of November, I was in my hometown, and I got few chances to visit CE. So, I didn't know about this contest at all,
and I missed the first three questions. When I logged in on the 4th, I saw that such a contest was going on. Then I started following the questions regularly.
It was an entirely new experience for me. It was a crazy and extremely fulfilling contest and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now for the suggestions....
During one question, I commented that that particular question was easily googlable, and such questions won't be much fun. I should definitely mention here that,
from then on, no question was directly googlable. And for many questions, the use of google was necessary, but googling didn't give the answer directly. We had
to do some thinking and extra work ourselves. That was where the fun was, and I should appreciate AKD and Biggie's efforts to make sure the questions are not
directly searchable. I would like it to continue the same way.. 😀
For many questions, someone would answer first, but unfortunately, there would be some minor mistake in it. This would definitely help others to post the correct
answer by just modifying the previous one. So, it would be better if it can be made such that the posts would be invisible till the answer is revealed. So that,
nobody would know who has answered, and whether it is correct or not. I also thought it can be implemented by asking the participants to send e-mails
instead of posting the answers in the thread, but that would just add to the load of whoever is evaluating the answers. I don''t know if it can be done or not,
but not displaying the posts until the answer is revealed, is definitely a good thing to do..
It's probably better if the time of revealing the question is fixed at a particular time, instead of, say, between 6 PM to 9 PM. In my experience, it often leads to
frustration and anxiety. Also, one other issue was, since I didn't know when the question will be revealed, I couldn't schedule any appointments in the evening.
I missed one or two questions because I had other engagements. Now, if the time was known, I probably would have tried to finish that engagement before that
time, or if it's early, I could've scheduled it for a later time. Again, I think this might be a problem for everyone, but the organizers have to make the final call.
We should probably also explore scoring options other than "first poster wins" approach. It puts strain on everyone and makes us do silly mistakes. It's probably
intended to be so, but it would be nice to see what other approaches we have got.
All that being said, this was an incredibly amazing contest that I fully enjoyed all the way!! Looking forward to more such contests!! 😀
P.S : Sorry for the long post. Initially, I thought I will split this into multiple posts. But then, decided against it, as I think it would impede the flow.
P.P.S : You are free to post a summary of the points in the reply, if you want! 😀 😀
So, the grand, month long event is finally over, and I thought I'll just say something about my experience in this contest and also some suggestions,
based on my observation, about how we can make it better the next time.
During October end and first few days of November, I was in my hometown, and I got few chances to visit CE. So, I didn't know about this contest at all,
and I missed the first three questions. When I logged in on the 4th, I saw that such a contest was going on. Then I started following the questions regularly.
It was an entirely new experience for me. It was a crazy and extremely fulfilling contest and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now for the suggestions....
During one question, I commented that that particular question was easily googlable, and such questions won't be much fun. I should definitely mention here that,
from then on, no question was directly googlable. And for many questions, the use of google was necessary, but googling didn't give the answer directly. We had
to do some thinking and extra work ourselves. That was where the fun was, and I should appreciate AKD and Biggie's efforts to make sure the questions are not
directly searchable. I would like it to continue the same way.. 😀
For many questions, someone would answer first, but unfortunately, there would be some minor mistake in it. This would definitely help others to post the correct
answer by just modifying the previous one. So, it would be better if it can be made such that the posts would be invisible till the answer is revealed. So that,
nobody would know who has answered, and whether it is correct or not. I also thought it can be implemented by asking the participants to send e-mails
instead of posting the answers in the thread, but that would just add to the load of whoever is evaluating the answers. I don''t know if it can be done or not,
but not displaying the posts until the answer is revealed, is definitely a good thing to do..
It's probably better if the time of revealing the question is fixed at a particular time, instead of, say, between 6 PM to 9 PM. In my experience, it often leads to
frustration and anxiety. Also, one other issue was, since I didn't know when the question will be revealed, I couldn't schedule any appointments in the evening.
I missed one or two questions because I had other engagements. Now, if the time was known, I probably would have tried to finish that engagement before that
time, or if it's early, I could've scheduled it for a later time. Again, I think this might be a problem for everyone, but the organizers have to make the final call.
We should probably also explore scoring options other than "first poster wins" approach. It puts strain on everyone and makes us do silly mistakes. It's probably
intended to be so, but it would be nice to see what other approaches we have got.
All that being said, this was an incredibly amazing contest that I fully enjoyed all the way!! Looking forward to more such contests!! 😀
P.S : Sorry for the long post. Initially, I thought I will split this into multiple posts. But then, decided against it, as I think it would impede the flow.
P.P.S : You are free to post a summary of the points in the reply, if you want! 😀 😀
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