A couple of days ago, I tried to submit a question asking what certain people had in common. Each answer began 'They all....'.
A message flashed up telling me I couldn't have 'All of these/them' as the answer. Fair enough, but that wasn't what I was trying to do.

I reworded my answers and the question was accepted. I was therefore surprised to get a QQ question in a game where the answer was 'All of them'. Is there any particular reason for the discrepancy?

"All of them" shouldn't be allowed in single questions. Perhaps it is not blocked if you are submitting a correction to a question?

If you see any that have got through the system with "All of them" in place then please send a correction notice so that an editor can remove it from the pool of questions until it is amended.

Remember, too, that the warning is just that - a warning. Your answer might trigger it while still being acceptable, because not every answer with the word 'all' in it is an "all of these" type answer.

This has happened to me as well Supersal, on one or two occasions.

You should also have been notified that 'All of these' answers might have been acceptable years ago but that their use is now discouraged in new questions. I don't attempt to use them at all anymore as it's much better to think about your questions and come up with a more interesting answer.

Thanks. I've since seen two more when playing the quizbot quizzes, so I'll start submitting corrections.

I didn't realise the message was just a warning and I could continue, I'll bear that in mind in future.

I don't think I've ever submitted a question where 'All of them' is an answer!

A way to work around the "all of these" problem is instead to ask "Which is NOT a correct answer?", then change "all of these" to a wrong answer. Then you get to emphasize your point that the three choices are in fact correct without actually allowing the user to avoid reading them.

I don't know about anyone else, but when playing a timed quiz, if "all of these" is an option, I won't even glance at the question. I think there's only been about 2 times that I've seen it as a choice where it hasn't been the correct answer. So following your advice, in my case, wouldn't change a thing.

I think that advice would work in that instance, Adam. She is saying to remove "all of these" and make it a "NOT" question. Asking which is not correct and having one wrong answer, as opposed to asking which is correct, and having three correct answers.

Of course, I usually get "not" questions wrong in hourlies.... I would recommend doing neither; not a NOT question, and not an ALL OF THESE question.

But, of course, I'd rather NOT than ALL OF THESE.

How would it not change a thing?

Say my question is:
Which of these is a slork?
A: a bloop
B: a fleep
C: a klack
D: all of these

Without reading or thinking, you pick D.

But say my question is:
Which of these is NOT a slork?
A: a bloop
B: a fleep
C: a klack
D: a glung

Well, now you have to actually pay attention to what the question is asking and what the choices are.

Haha, I love it. Reminds me of those IQ tests... If every slork is a fleep, and every fleep is a klack, is a bloop a fleep?

lol.

Hahaha. I'm actually working on a Logic Puzzle.

But of course I am also finishing up the quizzes that I promised Kyle.

In the case of single questions, it's not just a warning, you cannot submit an 'All of these' (or similar - 'All of them', 'They all are') question. In full quizzes, it's just a warning.

Like in your original question, supersal, it sometimes picks up cases where you're not actually using "All of these" or very similar and blocks you, but it's better than it used to be. I recall it used to block any question using 'all' in any form, like even if it was within a word and Terry reduced the sensitivity of the filter. It doesn't, though, block "None of these" as an answer and as an editor I send these questions back asking the author to write plausible alternatives.

If you're seeing 'All of these' in single questions (and not 'None of these', because those can get through), it's possible they're very early questions and perhaps the filter to block them wasn't set up yet.

Amen, what you just said... Yes, I have ideas for other quizzes running around my head, but the D&D will be the first I actually finish and submit... soon... really....

edited to fix a couple of guilt-inspired typos

It's slightly more than two, but yeah I do the same. It's a lot easier to remember the rare exceptions than to read the question. Not really surprising, considering the nature of the choice.

I do it, too. In the timed games it's always a matter of speed vs. accuracy, and with "all/none of these" answers it's a pretty good trade-off because there's a high chance you'll get that one right with minimal reading.

As an author, I've written a few questions with "all/none of these" as an incorrect answer, just to be a pain.

Likewise. In fact, I stopped making none/all a correct answer in any of my quizzes a while back.

I've actually written one in which it seems to be really plausible in 8 answers. It's wrong in all of them (but correct in the 9th instance where it seems to be completely illogical). It got a lot of 0/10s early on :P

How deliciously devious of you!

Sue