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! 😀 😀
Replies
-
Kaustubh KatdareThe Grand Quiz was experimental one and we tried many new things. It gave us lot of lessons for better quizzing next time. We wanted to make sure that we don't throw in very hard questions (some of the questions in the Grand Quiz were tough, in my opinion 😀 ). Conducting a quiz contest in a forum environment has its own challenges and as I said, it's been a learning experience for us. The stage is set for developing our own online quiz engine.
That said, we could not dedicated as much time we should have for the quiz; as there were unexpected developments on the personal front. That's no excuse, but sometimes you don't have a choice 😀 .
We're also going to evolve the nature of contests. First of all, it makes sense to increase the frequency & variety of our contests. Secondly, we'll try to have better quizzing from next time. Once we get the quizzing engine in place, I think life will be much better for all of us.
I agree that we should have had a fixed time for revealing questions; but as I said, this quiz was an experiment.
The whole purpose of the quiz was to give CEans a good time and some reward for their achievements as well. I look forward to everyone's coordination for our next quiz and we'll make it happen sooner and at a much bigger level. -
Anil JainI had a quality time with CE, and quiz kept me busy during last month at my morning office hours.
I do agree with SS's suggestion of fixed time as we can manage our other engagements accordingly. I joined from Question 6 and after that always it was the time when I was on my way to office; used to reach office and first thing was to open the question. more than half of the times, by the time I opened the question, it was gone 😁
Had it been a fixed time, I could manage my timings accordingly. Again, its just a suggestion (and anyone can give that, not a hard job). In reality I know how much toll it takes to manage such a grand quiz. Kudos to AKD / Biggi and GF to managing the things superbly. HATS OFF TO ALL THREE OF YOU.
AKD / Biggi, few questions were wonderful, mind boggling few other were time taking, few were forcing us to Google, few other were crackers... a mix n match. I must say a very very good quiz indeed. We all are human being and I think there's always a scope of improvement so wouldn't comment on that as that's part n parcel of our learning lives. In past also, it happened that public voting hampered the quality and infact anonymous voting (without any restrictions) ruins the competition even more. so, at least I am against that, I know its tough experimental thing for organizers and very for participants to suggest; but still was just an suggestion.
I apologies for making a fuss in the end as i got emotional; I very very strongly support SS's / AKD suggestion to keep the answer secret for the ones who had not answered it yet. If you burn the fuel and somebody else enjoy that, its depressing. But again, as discussed in the past, probably this was the format of the game - Fastest and most accurate wins it. 😀
In nutshell, very very exciting and well organized event. A STANDING OVATION to all three of you (Biggi, AKD and GF)
-CB -
Anoop MathewQuiz time was the craziest. I was on from day 2, then dropped off after 18th as I got tangled up and went out of station. Now I regret not getting the better of it.
Anyways, the quiz was a totally different experience and competing with experienced engineers is a tough job. Kudos to the Contest Planners. Excellent work with most of the questions. It was indeed the twisting and turning that kept things lively and fun.
I also prefer if a fixed time is kept. But I must also say that the adrenaline pumping and excitement that I got during the first 8 or 9 days was just superb. It would also be good to keep the answers undisclosed and revealed after some time limit. And more people should be encouraged to participate in this activity.
The fact that the Surprise Question with the loophole to get the votes has increased my likes 😁, even though I failed at the task. That was definitely a competition.
I really enjoyed my time, learning new ways how to answer questions! -
Harshad ItaliyaWhole credit goes to Biggie and AKD only i just open a Leaderboard thread. so Hats-Off to Big Sir and AKD.
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