Okay, I'm doing a TRIC challenge. I had to write a quiz in either Religion or Sci/Tech. I'm really into astronomy and I thought I'd do an astronomy quiz, and had a great idea for one but saw someone else also had the same great idea recently and I scrapped that thought. Then, I thought...well, I could do another Religion quiz but I already did one on atheism (I'm an atheist) and it's not really too broad a subject. So, I thought...well, I used to be a Southern Baptist (28+ years ago) so I could do a quiz on that. I've written four questions (with interesting information) so far. My problem isn't writing the questions or interesting info, my problem is how they come off to people reading them. After all, I'm an atheist.

I mean, I don't want to write out all ten questions and have it rejected for being negative even though I am really trying not to come off that way. I'm not writing questions geared toward such a premise (of negativity) but how do I really know that? That's what I'm worried about. The questions are geared around what the individual churches I went to as a child to 20 yrs old taught (while I was an atheist I wasn't fully out of the perpetual 'closet'). So, it's things I learned in church but I learned a lot of things I, and even other people (other people like non-Southern Baptist Christians) could see as negative and hateful things. I'm trying to leave those out but how do I know?

My mother's Southern Baptist but she's in rehab (recently had kidney failure, she's recovering from that in a rehab facility) so I don't really have anyone to ask an opinion of.

Should I just hope for the best? Turn it in when it's done and hope my worries are just without merit?

Any advice?

-Nam

I suggest you contact one of the editors in Religion (me, for example) with a sample of the questions and information you have in mind. It is important to remember that we aren't interested in preaching (either for or against any particular religious position), but in facts. What you understand the church you attended a long while ago to have taught may or may not be widely accepted, so you need to word your material carefully to avoid making assertions that are not in fact valid.

Sent you a private message here.

-Nam

Okay...this about another quiz I'm thinking about writing. It'll be in the music category, I want to do lyrics on one of my favorite albums but the album may be a bit obscure to some people, including the singer(s) and may not be that much info out there on both singers. Probably not too many chart placements or anything (why on lyrics).

The singer(s) and album is: Bart Ramsey & Neti Vaan: Little Red Wagon (1999) -- do I make that the title, or what? And there's pages of information on Bart Ramsey not so much on Neti Vaan. Or the album itself. Also, what section would it go in?

-Nam

It goes under the name of the artist, so however they billed themselves. Since we don't have a subcategory on them, just go with the alphabetical subcat - R or V, whichever usually was billed first.

For the info, we are really forgiving in Music as to what you put in - as long as it has some connection to the question or the artist, it will do. At least one solid sentence is good.

I'd suggest using the name of the album as the title of the quiz, and giving the names of the artists in the intro.

I'm not a Music editor, so this is only input from another author who has written on a range of topics.

As regards categorisation, it looks to me as if Bart Ramsey is the central figure, so it would go under his name - he wrote the music, and has collaborated with a number of other musicians on his other albums. (edited to remove information duplicating what agony posted while I was writing)

As for getting information, I would focus my questions on the actual material, and discuss it in the information. For example, since the tracks seem to be quite diverse, you could ask for the name of the song given some of the lyrics (ideally memorable or clearly linked with the song's title, and if necessary using incorrect options that aren't even on the album), then describe the song itself - musical genre, anything else that springs to mind if you actually have the record to listen to, which I don't. Careful selection of incorrect options can make it possible for players to make educated guesses as to the correct answer.

You do need to be prepared to see your quiz without many plays if it is not familiar to many players. However, sometimes these niche quizzes end up with very high ratings, because those who do play them really enjoy the chance to recall one of their favorites, too. Obscurity doesn't mean you can't use a subject for a successful quiz, it just means you need to think carefully about how you construct it.

I do have the album. I was just thinking based on your reply: the sleeve could have information. I normally don't read sleeves because I have no interest in them but it could have some information, like technical and the like.

Thanks to you and agony for the help. I just finished my second quiz (in the queue, one submitted, one not) I've been rating my 1,000+ CD's cassettes, and records on musicbrainz and I really like this album and I thought I would make a quiz out it.

-Nam

Just to ask: I'm doing extensive research into both singers (can't find their lyrics online anywhere which doesn't matter because the sleeve has them all) but so far there really isn't anything on this album. I found one review but it was more of an opinion of the singer rather than the album. My interpretation could be widely different than most others which is why I'd rather deal in facts (even when I want to insert my opinion) but there's going to come a point where I literally won't find anything to put into ten interesting info slots. I've seen on other Lyric quizzes where they put entire song lyrics. While I have no problem doing that, if need be, isn't there copyright laws against that? Snippets (excerpts) is one thing; people quote my own work all the time but I don't allow the entire thing without permission and credit, of course (usually used for slams or school assignments) but is that allowed here?

I wouldn't think so but I had to ask, especially with this particular quiz. I know I could be safe and write a quiz on a subject everyone knows but there's already a million (figurative) quizzes on those subjects already. I like being different.

-Nam

We don't really allow just quoting lyrics as the info section anymore, but ask for at least one sentence in your own words. In a case like this where there honestly isn't any information, I'd probably be willing to stretch a point for one or two questions, but no more.

Don't worry too much about the copyright aspect, as even the entire song lyric is still pretty short, and you are clearly not trying to pass it off as your own work.

Another approach would be to make your information be about some aspect of the lyric. "Fly me to the moon..." says the lyric, so you tell us how far it is to the moon from earth, for example.

Something else to consider.... if there is so little information out there about this subject that an experienced author can't come up with ten sentences to say about it, maybe it's not really a good subject for a complete quiz. Would it work better as a single question, or as one question in a lyrics quiz about a variety of artists? We're all about niche topics here, heaven knows, but a quiz about lyrics that none of your players will know, and that you can't give them any information about, seems to me to be pretty stony ground.

I'm going to change it but keep the somewhat obscureness. I went through my CD's and picked out nine other albums. Collectively not well known (two or three probably not known at all, one of the covers is written in marker, actual marker) but for the individual genre, people may know them.

Thanks.

-Nam

Sure, that would work. In that case, put the quiz in the genre category if the albums all fit a genre, or in Albums if they don't.

I already finished writing it last night. I did "Name the Song", I put a note explaining this discussion and I believe it belongs in " Name the Song". I couldn't do it on a number of the albums because I couldn't find any information on the individual albums. So I did lyrics by way of Name the Song.

Can't submit it yet, though. I submitted one to movies last week, it was sent back a couple of days ago, I resubmitted the next day and haven't heard back yet. But it's Movies so...it'll probably be awhile anyway. Um, which reminds me: how many quizzes can I write at a time because I currently have three written and two are waiting to be submitted. I want to try one on Astronomy. I'm good at the subject, maybe I'll be good at writing one. And I can take my time on it.

-Nam

As a Movies editor, I must note that you are exaggerating the length of time your quiz has been in the Movies queue. It was submitted for the first time on May 18 (two days ago), returned to you for amendments less then twenty-four hours later and resubmitted by you on May 19 (yesterday). Your editor for the quiz lives on the other side of the world, so some time lapse is to be expected.

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Spanishliz (Editor in Movies, Geography, Brain Teasers and Crosswords)

My apologies. I thought it was longer, I don't get much sleep. Yesterday I thought it was Saturday. Probably carried a bit over to today.

-Nam

As to the number of quizzes you can have in progress, I strongly recommend that you write all quizzes in a word processing program, not directly in the template. This has a number of advantages, not the least of which is that you can have dozens of quizzes underway in various stages of development, so you can work on what you feel like at any time. What I find most useful is that it is very easy to change your mind about the structure of the quiz, and change the order of the questions to suit, which is tedious once they are in the template. I also find it much easier to proofread my work for typos, even if the pink lines that appear with technical terms it doesn't recognise can be irritating. Checking in the original document, checking again after copying and pasting into the editing screen of the template, and once more with the preview screen means I have seen three different displays, and maximised my chances of catching any problems.

Little harder to do that on a phone. I don't have a computer, and the nearest library is 20 miles away. And even if I could go there, I can't. I take care of my mother 24/7 [minus the few hours I sleep] (since 2011, part-time from 2008-2011), and she needs a full-time caretaker, and I'm it. Which is why I do not get much sleep and lose days.

-Nam

Have you thought about a tablet? It can "bridge" the gap a bit, and most are not unreasonably expensive.

Hopefully your quiz does well and gets a lot of plays on it.

I thought about it. It took a long time to get used to typing on a phone. I used my sister's tablet once, I had a difficult time typing on it.

-Nam

You can get a keyboard to attach to it, so that it seems similar to a laptop.

I have a keyboard. It's split in half (literally and on purpose) but it's 15 years old, would it have the same plugin? Or would I have to get a new keyboard?

-Nam

Not sure - fiddle around and see if you can make it work.

I have a little travelling keyboard that I use with my tablet - it's about half the size of a normal one, but still has actual physical stand up keys, which I find I need (I touch type, and have for more than forty years. Some habits just can't be broken). It's wireless and pairs to the table the way a wireless mouse does.

I also have a stylus, which makes doing careful work on the tablet much easier. My fingers are just not dexterous enough, not so much for typing, but for editing, inserting punctuation in exactly the right place, etc.

If I'm going to be away from my desktop long enough that I really have to get some editing done on the tablet or phone, these accessories make it possible, otherwise I just couldn't.

I miss typing. I...well, last time I was tested, I could type 120 wpm (average; I actually got up to 134 wpm once) with zero mistakes. I'm much more accurate on a keyboard than on a phone, or a tablet.

I used to practice here: http://www.freetypinggame.net/

I learned in the two Tech schools I went to in my teens and early 20s but I practiced there. I stink at the number pad. Only 85 wpm on average on that.

-Nam

I just want those interested in knowing, I just submitted it. I changed the title three times.

-Nam