I know this issue about Bus Ride quizzes getting a hard jolt in the ratings has been talked about before (I looked for the old thread but couldn't find it).

I was delighted to find that my 'Landmarks of Ireland(2)' quiz had been selected last week for the Bus Ride.

It's one of the quizzes I'm most proud of, and it's a relatively straightforward one (although it wouldn't relate closely to a Wiki page on 'Ireland'). On the whole I think it deserved the ranking of 1001 it had on the day of the Bus Ride.

Well now it's ranked at 12,335. Maybe some of that is because it's a wordy quiz and most people want to race through their Daily Bus Ride these days. Maybe some of it is because the Ireland Wiki page alone won't take you very far in answering it, and people were impatient with having to google or guess. Whatever the reason, it's a heavy (too heavy?) drop.

In practical terms it makes no difference to me, I've got whatever badge depends on having top 50% quizzes. But like most other quiz authors I'm a bit protective of my rankings.

Are other Bus Ride authors still experiencing a heavy drop in rankings based on that day alone? Is there a solution to it? Or not?

Actually the main reason for any quiz that is selected for a global activity in the site to drop is a very simple one: When you first post your quiz, it will be taken only by players with an interest in the subject. They are likely to rate it well (if it's well-written) because you are hitting something they care about.

Once you get out into a daily activity like a Bus Ride or the Great Race, your quiz will be taken by people who don't really care about the subject. You will inevitably, regardless how well you explain things, thus be graded by some people whom you don't reach. The result will most likely be an "average" mark and for a quiz in the sunnies, even 5% fewer good/excellent can mean a massive drop in ranks. The rating algorithm actually partially compensates for this by giving these quizzes a bonus, but it errs on the side of caution. These quizzes already do get the exposure they deserve (and they earned it before) and their position on the ladder becomes less relevant. It's just like you can have an EC and yet be ranked 70,000. The EC still makes it an outstanding, honored quiz.

I've found that the quizzes of mine which appear in the Bus Ride are holding up well now, sometimes going up in the rankings. I usually keep a note of the ranking when I see one appear so I can see what the impact is. This may be because they're on their second appearance.

I remember taking your Ireland quiz and enjoying it - I have visited parts of Ireland and knew some of the answers but definitely not all. I can't recall any great difficulty in tracking down the answers, though. I hope it bounces back up again for you, ds.

dsimpy -- if a quiz was added to the bus ride, odds are good it should see its stats INCREASE while it is in the rotation. Has it been in over a few rankings?

It's a two-year-old quiz (September 2010) so it's been ranked every week since the first 2-3 weeks it appeared online, and had slowly drifted down to the 1001 mark before the Bus Ride.

This was its first Bus Ride outing. It probably had around 450-500 plays before the Bus Ride (with a Good/Excellent rating of around 85%) and now has 1254 plays (81% G/E rating).

I kind of expected it would take a slight battering, but more than -11,000 seemed a bit steep!

The problem that makes this seem so harsh is really that there isn't that much difference in actual quality between a 1,000 and an 11,000 quiz. I have quizzes with 81% G/E in both areas, but with a lesser Excellent ratio on the lower-ranked one. The one that has a 1,100 rank with 81% has more Exc than Good (45% vs 36%) while the one with 21% Exc and 60% Good (also 81%) is ranked 14,000.

For what it's worth, it is usually only on the first visit that quizzes experience significant drops. They stabilize, and often move upwards again on subsequent visits. I haven't kept full records, but I do monitor the rankings of quizzes after they are added to the circuit, since a really massive drop (one plummeted down over 40,000 places) indicates a quiz that is probably not appropriate, and should be taken out. However, if it still has sunnies I wouldn't have particularly noticed the drop that looms large in the mind of the author (believe me, I've been there with my own quizzes), since that is still a very positive reception.

Thanks guys. I'm sure all of this is right, and I'm pretty philosophical about it - I just thought it was worth commenting on because it seemed such a significant drop.

The quiz wasn't written with the Bus Ride in mind, so it's not a Bus Ride 'type' quiz, and maybe the 'chatty' style of it isn't everyone's cup of tea (when they're blattering through the Bus Ride with their morning cup of tea! ).

I still like it though ...

So do I, or it wouldn't have been added for the tourists' enjoyment.