Subject: Complaining about Brit-centric quizzes
Posted by: Kankurette
Date: Dec 29 23
I've just had an error message and I assumed it was about a typo or something, but no. It was a complaint that a quiz I wrote had 'British bias'. And it's not the first one I've received this year.
I know this is a US site. I know most users are American. I know you might not all have heard of certain things in the UK, and I appreciate that. But - and this is a big but - a lot of quizzes on here are about things that most people outside the US wouldn't know about. Like, when nostalgia comes up in the Global Challenge, it's US nostalgia. When Colleges & Universities come up in the duels, it's all American colleges/universities, same with classic TV, same with US presidents and vice presidents. There is a heavy US bias. But I don't complain about it, or complain when US spellings and pronunciations/accents are used (I'm referring to the fractured quizzes, I have to say the words out loud in a quasi-American accent sometimes because the pronunciation isn't what I'd use), or report quizzes for having a US bias. And reporting a quiz for having 'British bias' seems like an abuse of the function, quite frankly.
Sorry about the moan, guys, but it annoys me because surely I'm allowed to write about my own country and culture? Same with the Aussies and Canadians, and people from other countries (like Piet and his Dutch series). I hate it when people complain about quizzes being too hard - surely part of the fun is being challenged? - but I don't like being told off for writing about my own culture, and it's all very well telling me off because this is a global site and this person didn't know who Blur were or what a brumby was or had ever heard of the manga 'Beastars', but equally, the whole 'this is a global site' thing could apply to the US-centric quizzes as well. Not all my quizzes are Brit-centric, but what's wrong with wanting to write about things I'm familiar with as a Brit?
Posted by: Kankurette
Date: Dec 29 23
I've just had an error message and I assumed it was about a typo or something, but no. It was a complaint that a quiz I wrote had 'British bias'. And it's not the first one I've received this year.
I know this is a US site. I know most users are American. I know you might not all have heard of certain things in the UK, and I appreciate that. But - and this is a big but - a lot of quizzes on here are about things that most people outside the US wouldn't know about. Like, when nostalgia comes up in the Global Challenge, it's US nostalgia. When Colleges & Universities come up in the duels, it's all American colleges/universities, same with classic TV, same with US presidents and vice presidents. There is a heavy US bias. But I don't complain about it, or complain when US spellings and pronunciations/accents are used (I'm referring to the fractured quizzes, I have to say the words out loud in a quasi-American accent sometimes because the pronunciation isn't what I'd use), or report quizzes for having a US bias. And reporting a quiz for having 'British bias' seems like an abuse of the function, quite frankly.
Sorry about the moan, guys, but it annoys me because surely I'm allowed to write about my own country and culture? Same with the Aussies and Canadians, and people from other countries (like Piet and his Dutch series). I hate it when people complain about quizzes being too hard - surely part of the fun is being challenged? - but I don't like being told off for writing about my own culture, and it's all very well telling me off because this is a global site and this person didn't know who Blur were or what a brumby was or had ever heard of the manga 'Beastars', but equally, the whole 'this is a global site' thing could apply to the US-centric quizzes as well. Not all my quizzes are Brit-centric, but what's wrong with wanting to write about things I'm familiar with as a Brit?
11 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
misstified 
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What's wrong with writing about what you're familiar with? Nothing at all and you've made valid points kankurette. Reply #1. Dec 29 23, 3:36 PM |
moonraker2
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I'm in complete agreement with you Kankurette, and consider you have a right to feel aggrieved concerning such petty complaints. However, I would suggest that it's likely the vast majority of American members are more than happy for such quizzes to be made available. As you say a high percentage of quizzes on FunTrivia have a strong US bias, and most of us happily accept the situation as being inevitable on a site which has its origins in America. Reply #2. Dec 29 23, 4:00 PM |
looney_tunes
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Such a complaint is a misuse of the corrections system, so I hope an editor in whatever category it was sends them a message saying so when they check the corrections. There is absolutely nothing wrong with quizzes that require a degree of local knowledge, especially when the locality is not just my home town, or the house band in my favourite pub. And I have seen quizzes here that are that specific! Obviously, I choose to ignore them, but if required to take one for a daily challenge or whatever I do my best and move on. Reply #3. Dec 29 23, 4:21 PM |
kyleisalive
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Yup. Ignore that one. FunTrivia's servers and business are set up in the United States, but it has always been an international site. Save for Terry, not a single admin is based in the U.S., and I can count on one hand (less) the amount of U.S. editors. There's no basis to claim this is a U.S.-only site. There's also no onus to cater strictly to a U.S. audience. Write on what you'd like to. I certainly do. Reply #4. Dec 29 23, 4:35 PM |
FatherSteve
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This is the story of how US-related questions disappeared from FunTrivia. The British complained about the lack of UK-related questions so a formula was created which required, in every ten-question quiz, that one UK-related quiz appear, hence: 9 US and one UK. The Canadians complained about the lack of Canada-related questions so the formula was amended as follows: 8 US, one UK, and one Canadian. The Australians complained about the lack of Oz-related questions, so the formula was further amended producing: 7 US, one UK, one Canadian, and one Australian. The New Zealanders complained about the lack of Kiwi-related questions, so the formula was changed to: 6 US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, and one New Zealander. The Jamaicans complained about the lack of Jamaican-related questions, so the formula shifted to: 5 US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, one Kiwi, and one Jamaican. The Irish complained about the lack of Irish-related questions, whereupon the formula was changed to: 4 US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, one Kiwi, one Jamaican, and one Irish. The Guyanese complained about the lack of Guyana-related question, due to which the formula was altered thusly: 3 US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, one Kiwi, one Jamaican, one Irish, and one Guyanese. The Maltese complained about the lack of Guyana-related questions, so the formula was amended as follows: 2 US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, one Kiwi, one Jamaican, one Irish, one Guyanese, and one Maltese. The Trinidadians and Tobagans complained about the lack of Trinidad-and-Tobago-related questions, 1 US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, one Kiwi, one Jamaican, one Irish, one Guyanese, one Maltese, and one Trinidadian and Tobagonian. The Bahamanians complained about the lack of Bahamas-related questions, so the formula was altered one last time to: No US, one UK, one Canadian, one Australian, one Kiwi, one Jamaican, one Irish, one Guyanese, one Maltese, one Trinidadian and Tobagonian, and one Bahamian. And that is the absolutely-true story of why there are no more FunTrivia quizzes with any US-centric questions in them at all. Reply #5. Dec 30 23, 12:48 AM |
LadyNym
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As someone who is neither American (although a US resident) nor a native English speaker, I thank you for this post. To be perfectly honest, I've had enough of people rating quizzes down just because they are not familiar with the topic. What happened to curiosity and desire to learn new things? I have learned a lot since becoming a FT member, and will always be grateful to the site for this. Reply #6. Dec 30 23, 1:54 AM |
rossian
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A long time ago, early in my quiz writing career, I had a correction note because I'd dared to mix songs which were US hits with UK hits in the same quiz. I was told, not very politely, to stick to one or the other - all the songs were well known too. Reply #7. Dec 30 23, 5:11 AM |
| FatherSteve
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Like Rossian, I have mixed US-related questions with those more related to other English-speaking countries. And, like Rossian, I have received "correction" notices complaining about the odd Australian TV sitcom, or Kiwi movie, or Irish poet, or South African oil painter, or Jamaican goat curry, or Canadian First Nations village. And that, mes amis, is why God invented the dustbin. Reply #8. Dec 30 23, 1:30 PM |
JanIQ
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I agree totally with the previous posters. Let's all write about varied topics - not only US but also UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, continental Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and so on. I don't know more than one fact about Indian movies, but I'm glad there are several quizzes on Bollywood. Reply #9. Dec 31 23, 4:29 AM |
agony
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It's probably unnecessary, but in case any new authors are reading this, I want to make it perfectly clear that from the point of view of the site administration, a Correction Note of this sort has zero impact on the status of the quiz. It doesn't count against you or your quiz in any way shape or form. It's annoying to get this kind of note, I grant you, but you can mark it "not an error" with a perfectly clear conscience, knowing that the editors will give it the consideration it deserves. That is, none whatsoever. We might write back to the sender asking them to cut it out, or we might just delete it, but either way you can rest assured that the administration does not agree, and we welcome quizzes focusing on anywhere on the globe, and quite a few places off it. Reply #10. Dec 31 23, 4:32 PM |
jonnowales
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Write more of them kankurette!! I was recently doing Tier 3 of 24 Hours of Television and I was really struggling after a while to find some British content to help me on my way (particularly Mixed British quizzes rather than specific shows). :) Reply #11. Jan 02 24, 8:18 AM |
11 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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