No, there's a problem there that Terry will need to fix. It's on his list.

Meantime, if you send a note to a crossword editor (being very specific about which puzzle and the nature of the error) we'll make sure any necessary change is made. You can send that note to me, if you like. If it isn't in my area, I'll pass it on to the correct person.

Thanks for the information.

I think that before sending a correction you should look it up on google to make sure that you're correction is in fact, correct.

I have just recently started submitting quizzes, and find that I quite enjoy writing them. I now have a few on-line and have received a couple of correction notices, and I imagine I will receive a few more. What I have noticed, on the first correction notice I responded right away to the sender. The next correction notice The sender of it was right so I made the corrections before responding to the sender. When I went back the next day to send them a note the notice was gone, so I could not reply. I think that if the note itself were to remain in your mail-box until you delete it, it would be much easier to respond.

The notes are cleared when the editor marks your quiz as corrected. We really don't have any way to leave them in your mailbox.

I have a file on my computer where I keep all FT correspondence that I may have a future need for. This is also a great way to keep your compliments, so they don't jam up the mailbox but you can remember who sent you a note on your last quiz, and keep and eye out for their next one.

That is such a great idea, thanks I'm going to try that.

I've been spending the morning checking correction notes, and found a few things reoccurring, that I'd like to remind everybody about.

First is - did you read the whole question, including the clue? For several of the correction notes I've seen today, the author clearly states an important aspect of the question in the clue. The players who sent off notes had plainly not read this, or they would not have made the mistakes that they did.

Second, and this is mostly relevant to tournament play - did you read the quiz title, and make note of which category the quiz was in? If the quiz is in the Literature category, then it just does not matter what happens in the movie. If the quiz is in Movies, then who cares what happened in the Broadway show? Be alert.

As for the quiz title, there is often very essential information there - you ignore it at your peril.

We endeavour to make sure all quizzes are fair and correct, but it's up to you to make use of all of the available information.

Interesting thread. Like HairyBear, I'm one of those annoying people who sends correction notices. Usually I can tell if they're simple typos or serious factual/stylistic errors. And I DO do my research first--anyone who's done a lot of research for anything knows that several different sources can provide just as many different facts. It can be confusing! (Especially when it comes to the Internet. Guess I'm still a 'find a traditionally published source' sorta person... ).

But I would expect the same courtesy (i.e., pointing out a correction) on any quiz I've written. Also, I don't mind discussions about them, if they're done in a friendly, rational way.

In fact, on a recent quiz I got a compliment with a correction included (spelling of an English city). Went to look for the error and couldn't find it. My husband couldn't find it. I emailed the 'corrector' of my dilemma and, sure enough, he couldn't fiind it again either. It's much funnier than it sounds, and we all laughed about it.

I always try to be polite and also compliment the quiz maker if I send a correction. I'm a born cynic, but in these cases, that will get you nowhere!

And, yes, thank you editors for your hard work. I've worked several times with one editor in particular that is very good, understanding and thorough. You probably know who you are (and NO, I'm not buttering anyone up! ). I didn't realize editors also reviewed corrections. Bravo!

Keep up the good work. Everyone. Oh, and sorry for being so long-winded!

Cheers!

woboogie

A pet peeve of mine is what ladymacb alluded to. People sending correction notes when the explanation for what they think is an error is clearly shown in the interesting info, if they read it.

I can understand that frustration. I think the interesting info is the best part of quizzes. But that's just me.

woboogie

As a general rule, I'll review any correction notice I get and, if the player is correct, I'll thank them for pointing out the error and for taking the quiz. If I feel the player is incorrect, I'll explain to them why I think that, cite any supporting materials to indicate my research, and thank them for taking the quiz.

Getting an inaccurate correction notice can be a pain if the other person insists, despite your best efforts, that you're wrong. But the way I look at it, if someone feels that I'm off base and can show me that, it makes me a better quiz writer.

cag1970, couldn't agree more. I had one today that both I and the editor missed. A couple of hundred players also either didn't spot it or couldn't be bothered to send a correction. I'd rather get one early than later.

I'm with you there mike - I once had a correction for a question that had been online over a year, played by over 200 people, and by myself about 6 times, and we still all missed an error! It was one of those "doh!" moments.

I have been guilty of ignoring a minor error on the grounds that it was petty, or that surely the writer would know about it by now? Not always! When I have done so, I've had replies that said "Oops... thank you ... didn't see that!"

At the other end of the scale, I had one correction notice for my one and only quiz, that said what I'd written was wrong, but didn't offer any information or resources to back it up, or suggest a better way of phrasing the question. Dealing with that was a bit like nailing a jelly to the wall.

If I send a correction notice, I will always back it up with what I think is the right phrase or spelling, and usually a reference of some sort to corroborate it. I don't think it's polite to tell a quiz author this is wrong but you need to work out why.

And now I shall be grateful for advice, please - I don't know the best place to post this.

I've just done today's brain twist:
http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/BrainTeasers/Anagram-Quiz-239192.html
Quiz - Anagram Quiz
There was no guide to the order required, so I put them in the same order as the clues, and got the words right, but marked wrong for being in the "wrong" order.

Then I checked back to the original quiz, and read the rubric. A whole chunk of it had been removed for the Brain Twist:
"Make sure that the answers are in the order that makes sense, which is not necessarily the order given."
What a difference that would have made if I'd seen it first!

So I missed out on today's Brain Twist points, and hope it's OK for me to express my disappointment here.

Lesley, I would suggest posting it as a new thread, and title it something like:

GC: Brain Twist: Suggested improvement

and suggest that the full rubic is included in the GC. However, the GC seems to be working off a very old database, so it's possible that it does include the full rubic from the time when the quiz was written

That happened to me too, Lesley. I wasn't very happy.

I agree with Lesley and Maggie - today's Twister was very confusing. First one I've missed this G/C, I suspect quite a few other people's jaws dropped when the answers page came up.

Well they certainly weren't when I played otherwise I would have known what to do!

There's no way to go back into the Brain Twist to check, but I also don't remember seeing that last sentence about what order to put the words.

The problem is for a question like "Annul daze caused by ambrosia". An answer that put the synonym for daze before the synonym for ambrosia was marked wrong. I believe most anagram quizzes allow the words in any order.

Hmm. Maybe it was really quickly changed to include all the instruction? I know for sure the line about putting them in the order that makes sense was there when I played, because I read this thread first before I went to play, so I made a point of looking at the introduction.

Yes, I saw the correction notices coming in for that one and added a note. I wasn't aware the database updated to reflect that, so it's a good thing to know.

Yes! The wording, not the information, is a problem I encounter several times a week playing the Daily Email Quiz, and it is almost always a sports question. And it is beginning to happen on the Knockout too.

Often the sport is not named in the question or only an acronym is used, but the acronym is not one that is solely applicable to the sport the author is thinking of.

Today there was a scoring question about the "AFL". I have no idea which "AFL" was meant, but it clearly was not the American Football League given the answer used terms not even used in American football - regardless of the league. Maybe Australian Football League? Still could not figure it out, even with the answer!

Whoever the Sports editors are, can you please see that questions specifically indicate the sport? I am tired of ruining otherwise perfect scores because of the question's lack of clarity.

If you try and submit a sport single question, there's a big red message asking you to specify the sport that the question is about. I would imagine this reflects the guidelines for full sport quizzes as well.

That would imply that the questions you keep seeing are quite old, and were written before those guidelines were made. Therefore, the only way they will be changed is if you send a correction report (if you weren't doing so already).

But in Knockout, if you have no idea what sport the question is asking about, your opponent probably doesn't either. That makes it fair and even.

Each individual question in a full sports quiz won't necessarily give what sport is bring asked about or totally spell out the name of the league if the entire quiz is about the same topic. The quiz title and subcategory which is displayed in most if not all games can often give you the context info you need.

It's displayed for all games.

Recently I remember a question in the Global Challenge which asked what team a player was on. It came from a quiz in the NBA 2000-01 subcategory of NBA By Season, but all that was provided was "Basketball : NBA By Season". Neither the question nor the quiz title mentioned the year, and you can't get the quiz's introductory text. http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Sports/Players-and-Their-Teams-24664.html was the quiz. It's true that Damon Stoudamire never played for the three incorrect answers, however (and I still would have had a 25% chance of getting right if I had the year). I vaguely remember encountering the same issue for an Olympics question.

It appears this is only an issue for the special (sub)categories. It appears it shows the second most specific subcategory. For example, I did the People Themed E-K set, and two questions were in the "Hanks, Tom" and "Ford, Harrison" subcats, and it showed "People Themed E-K" as the subcategory. Another question was in the "Hitchcock Taglines" subcat, and it showed "Hitchcock, Alfred".

The regular categories properly show the most specific subcat as far as I can tell.