TemptressToo 
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Ratings frustrate me, for sure. My latest new quiz, the first 20 players rated it very high, mid-90's. They did well, score-wise. Then along comes a few bozos that didn't score well, so they rated it poorly. Down came the rating into the low 80's.
It's frustrating to work so hard on a quiz, get lots of positive feedback and ratings, only to be ruined by a few people that don't know anything about the subject, score poorly, and rate it low because of that.
Reply #1. Jan 05 13, 8:08 PM
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looney_tunes
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Or try today's Time Crunch - the category only has two quizzes in it, highest rating around 45,000.
Reply #3. Jan 06 13, 1:53 AM
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kyleisalive
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There are over 20,000 categories on the site (give or take) and a lot of them only have a small handful of quizzes. New ones are added in doses each month depending on the submissions we receive.
While I do try to push people to branch out into new territory or under-appreciated sections (and the challenges are created with that in mind-- just look at 'Poetry for Kids' and the Time Crunches)-- there's a fine balance between going out and writing quizzes for these categories and just filling in gaps. One category I was thinking about yesterday (for myself) was 'Music in Video Games' ( http://www.funtrivia.com/ql.cfm?cat=19662) which takes a look at in-game soundtracks and the like. There are only four quizzes, but bajillions of games out there. The catch is that most FT players don't know a thing about it; they either don't play games or it's not a facet of gaming that they pay attention to. There are no sunnies in the category (sorry Eburge).
Thus the options we have here are:
(a) Wait for a player who knows about the topic to write about the topic.
(b) Wait for a player who doesn't know about the topic to research it, be it on Wiki or through first-hand research (ie. playing the games, listening to the albums, etc.) to write about the topic.
As you can see, (b) can happen in two ways. One way is immersing oneself in the material and developing the knowledge. The other is kind of the only issue with the Time Crunch; while some players will know their topic (Devils in Movies, for instance, wasn't as hard as Agnosticism unless you ARE agnostic or know people who are) some people will need to look it up to submit on a whim (or even with a long-standing challenge title). Some of our authors are adept at taking in Wiki and producing gold, by all means, but the last thing I want to push is heavily Wiki-based quizzes from authors simply producing a quiz to meet a challenge expectation. This is why most challenges (only the Commissions) don't result in badgelets. Heavy Wiki is easy to see in quizzes; it usually ends up hiding authorial voice and personality. It's not something we'll avoid-- quizzes and info have to come from somewhere and more quizzes is better than no quizzes-- but it's something I try to alleviate by allowing authors a bit more freedom than 'write in category x for points', 'squeeze this quiz here' and 'write about a topic you don't know'.
Some of our authors love it and do well with it. Some need to work up to it (heck, it took me a couple hundred quizzes before I stepped foot in General and it took me hundreds more to get into Religion, which I did after five and a half years).
We can't force sunnies-- some quizzes we consider our best may never be seen that way by the players. Lounge players are more likely to get sunnies for several reasons (including writing good quizzes) but there is no guarantee.
While I'll continue to put out challenges with a wide spread of options (and others, like the Crunch, which give you one option), I may recommend this 'fill the needy' one to be a semi-personal endeavour-- heck, it's one I've had in VG since day dot, subcategories or not. You're not the only person who's interested in bringing the under-appreciated to the masses; I've had messages along these lines twice now over the past month.
We'll have to see what we can come up with to bring the best of both worlds. :p
Reply #4. Jan 06 13, 11:57 AM
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superfan123
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Even so, I believe we must at least fill up with some more quizzes.
Reply #5. Jan 06 13, 4:55 PM
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kyleisalive
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I don't disagree.
Besides, there's only 20,000 sunnies to go around right now, and potentially more categories than that. ;)
Reply #6. Jan 06 13, 4:56 PM
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superfan123
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But again, things like these are simply optional for quiz-writers. And perhaps, we really only need one new quiz per category-- No matter what it ranks.
Reply #7. Jan 06 13, 5:09 PM
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kyleisalive
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Of course.
I've always considered the best way to do that is to simply keep writing. There's only so much we can all do and doing one's best is the best way. ;)
Reply #8. Jan 06 13, 5:36 PM
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kyleisalive
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Best is best is best is best.
Reply #9. Jan 06 13, 5:36 PM
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superfan123
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Maybe this could be somewhat of an actual Author's Lounge challenge-- Give three categories, let people claim them and write in them, once a quiz on them goes online, switch it to a new category, or switch it out anyway if nobody claims it for a month.
Oh, and Kyle? I forgot to mention that I dislike writing Religion quizzes just like Celebs and Sports, probably more. So when I had a choice I didn't read the Bible. ;)
Reply #10. Jan 06 13, 6:31 PM
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kyleisalive
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I've had a very similar concept in mind for a while and what I'd really like is for it to be automated (for the most part). I'll probably create something along these lines over the coming months.
Reply #11. Jan 06 13, 6:57 PM
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superfan123
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It's amazing how much one category affects the ratings. For example, my quiz "Under the Rainbow" I believed would fall around the 30000-50000 mark, but instead it landed right around 18000. And I could do a lot better. But my other works, in such crowded categories, fall way lower than I thought they would. Such as my Coldplay quiz.
Reply #12. Jan 06 13, 7:08 PM
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superfan123
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Actually Coldplay isn't too crowded, but Music quizzes tend to be iffy.
Reply #13. Jan 06 13, 7:08 PM
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kyleisalive
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My Coldplay quizzes haven't turned out too bad.
There are a lot of factors which determine how quizzes are rated and, as many of our authors have said over the past while, trying to decipher them is virtually mind-boggling. As I tend to say, writing for the sake of writing is key. Your Coldplay quiz isn't a bad quiz, despite the rating, and the more quizzes you write, the more you'll notice the rating doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. :)
Reply #14. Jan 06 13, 7:13 PM
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superfan123
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In entertainment subjects, it seems that you get a good rating if you have a "fun" question. I have really no good way to say this.
Reply #15. Jan 06 13, 7:46 PM
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superfan123
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I mean "fun" questionS.
Reply #16. Jan 06 13, 7:47 PM
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kyleisalive
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All of my top TV quizzes are about 'Glee' episodes and songs; none of them I would consider my more creative quizzes, but players enjoy them and, at a time, I was releasing them the day after they aired (which tends to be a big plus for plays). Movies-wise I have a mixture of single-film and multi-film quizzes. One of these is just a basic 'Horror Films of such-and-such year' quiz.
Sometimes, a basic, informative, concise quiz can get as high ratings as the crazy ones. At the same time, these types of quizzes can sink to the bottom. Some of my highest are Commission quizzes; so are some of my lowest. :p
Reply #17. Jan 06 13, 8:03 PM
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