How to Q
A question adding guideline for Zealot Trivia.
by Collin E Borrlewyn (aka Sir Collin and collin@fraglimit).
I've noticed a problem in my capacity as the maintainer of the Zealot Question database. This database contains (as you probably know) all the Questions/Hints/Options/Comments that make up the Zealot Trivia Game, and you (or anyone) are allowed to (and even encouraged to) add Questions to it. But you see, not everyone adds GOOD questions. And so, there must be someone in my position who will take out the Questions that are not appropriate, who will fix spelling errors, etc.. The only way to avoid someone in my position is to prevent just anyone from adding Questions, which means that the ability to put new Q's in would go to an elite few, and thus the number of Q's added to the database would go down even as the quality of those Q's went up. This approach would be a lot less fun for you, me, and everyone. I may yet have to resort to it. This brings us to the problem I've noticed.
PEOPLE DO NOT ADD GOOD QUESTIONS!
This document is an attempt to educate those who are doing this out of ignorance by going over, one point at a time, what a Zealot trivia question should be like, and more generally what trivia questions for a game such as this should be like. Let us start, first, with basic style.
STYLE GUIDELINES.
1. Periods
You may or may not think much of the period, but it is VERY important. It is not really important the way your english teacher always said it was. Such a teacher would tell you never to omit a period, whereas I am telling you that in some cases you really SHOULD omit it. Periods are acceptable at the end of the Comment field. That's a good place to use them, though not critical. Your Question should always end with a question mark, but in appropriate cases where it does not a period should be used to close the question area. However, in 95% of the cases one should NOT put in a period in any Hint field, nor should they be used in Option (answer) fields. It just looks tacky. Unless there is some good reason related to the Question you are putting in, do not use periods in those places.
2. Hints
2.1, Content
LET ME STRESS: Do NOT simply say "Not 1". If you ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT think of a way to eliminate an option and you MUST eliminate THAT option, this is permissible. It is NEVER (apart from in peculiar circumstances) appropriate to do a simple "Not n" (where n is a number) more than once in a single Q. Similarly, "Not x" where x is a name or word used in one of the options is HIGHLY discouraged. Be creative! Think of as many other ways of eliminating things as you can, using the described techniques only when absolutely necessary.
2.2, Order
Generally speaking, the first two hints should eliminate an option, and the third hint should tell the player what the correct answer is. As noted above, be creative! Don't just say it, be indirect and make inside references to things. Be punny. Whatever.
2.3, Elimination
It is a Good Idea(tm), whenever you are not specifically hindered from doing so, to be careful of what your hint eliminates. Try to avoid a hint that eliminates more than one option. (If you have one of those the player has an easy 50/50 chance of guessing correctly). The main thing to remember about elimination is this: Eliminate the LEAST LIKELY option first. Why? To frustrate the player. To make it more challenging. It is also a Good Idea(tm) to eliminate the next to least likely second, but this is not as important as the other.
3. Phrasing
There are exactly two occasions on which you are permitted to not put a question in the Question area. Those are: Over my dead body, and when hell opens a branch of disneyworld. I have had trouble with this, so let me say it very slowly: Phrase. Your. Question. In. The. Form. Of. A. Question. DO NOT simply make a statement (such as "Collin's last name is") followed by options (such as "Borrlewyn","Ekklewik", "Salmon","Bastard", etc.). You may have noticed that the game will not LET you submit a Question that has no question mark on the end. This DOES NOT mean you can just tack one on (like "Collin's last name is?")! There is ALWAYS a way to rephrase your Question AS a question ("What is Collin's last name?"). If you indeed do have a submission that you feel is valid, but happens not to use a question mark, email me (collin@crosslink.net) and I'll review it. Only upon my personal approval would such a thing be allowed in.
4. Length
There is a danger, if you write too much in certain fields of the submission form, of having a question which will overflow its field. When this happens various
problems arise, the primary one being text overlap. That is when text from one field overlaps text from another and thereby causes both to become unreadable. The
game itself will NOT prevent you from entering too much... it wont truncate your entry, it will pass it on unchanged. It assumes you know what you are doing. This
means that it s the responsibility of the Question author to ensure that each question submitted does not overflow any field. The best advice I can give is to be
careful, and consider the overflow question in every case before you submit. It's hard to tell for sure if something is too long, but most of the tie it's a
common sense thing.
CONTENT GUIDELINES.
1. Subject
Welcome to Zealot Trivia! It's Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fun!!!
That isn't just there to be amusing. This is a Trivia game, but it's a topical trivia game. We want only Questions about science fiction or fantasy. If there are swords and magic, it counts as fantasy. If there are space ships, neuro nets or flying cars then it counts as science fiction. We're not strict here, things such as video games of certain types (Star Craft, the Final Fantasy series) are allowed, but the slew of "gilligans island" Qs I had to remove were not remotely acceptable. Comic books are also, generally, allowed. They're nearly always sci-fi (of some sort) anyway. The only other category of acceptable Questions are self-referential Qs. That is, Questions about Zealot and the Zealot community. This is where those Qs about Farheim that you can't figure out came from. We consider Zealot to be both Sci-Fi AND Fantasy, and we assume that a large portion of the players are familiar with it. So, it's allowed. Not to say Q's like "My friend joe's dog's name is what?", that's not a Zealot question! But "To whose buttox do we all pay homage?" is, because the answer is well known, obvious, and refers to something completely internal to Zealot.
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