This message is for all of the other quiz makers at FunTrivia. As each of your quizzes are played more often, do you find that their ranking becomes worse and worse everytime they are re-ranked?

For example, a quiz had 200 as its first rank, after being played 30 times. After it has been played 100 times, it becomes ranked 6000.

A similar trend occurs for my quizzes. All of my quizzes always started off with a decent rank, then as they were played more often, the rank started to fade away.

Nmck,

Welcome to the dangerous battleground that is Quizzyland rankings. I realize it is upsetting at first to see your quiz rankings drop but it's something you'll get used to. Remember, there are well over 20,000 quizzes competing here at Q-land and the difference between the rankings is honestly not very big. A single bad rating by a quiztaker may drop your quiz from 400th to 5000th in a single day. I can't tell you how many times I've seen my quizzes go from being very highly ranked to being assigned to the refuse hill.

A lot of times the rankings are a giant crapshoot. Some of my personal favorite quizzes are ranked well up in the 5 digits, while some quizzes that I made 2 years ago that are completely inane are in the top 3000. Our quizzes are all subject to the vicissitudes of a tenuous ratings ladder. Just kick back and watch the fun!

(P.S. I have a theory about the specific problem that you have described, you may send me a private message if you wish to discover my exciting hypothesis.)

My hypothesis is that rankings are higher at first because the first people who will play your quiz are those interested in the subject. Later, as the general populace plays, youll get people less enthusiastic about the subject.

I think Jazz and cris are both right. Last year I had a quiz that had been played about 40 times make it to number 1. I couldn't believe it. It was just a fluffy little TV show quiz that I threw together. Once it hit #1, it was played by many more people and the rankings fell. I'm sure the people who played it when they saw the high ranking expected something really wonderful and were a disappointed with what they saw .
And like Jazz said, the differences between the rankings aren't a lot. I have a quiz ranked in the 20,000's and the rank percentage is about 3.25. My highest ranking quiz is #12 and the percentage is 4.28. That's not a big difference at all. So, hang in there and don't stress over it.

I have a theory, and one of mine has been played by quite a few people and yet its ranking is quite low...12000 or something. Yes I get comments on it a lot, and complements.
I think there must be one clincher, one hard thing on it, so that some people don't get a ten therefore they don't score it highly.
I also think a good quiz is going to last...

I also like to make a whole range of quizzes that range in difficulty, so that you reach more people.

You guys all made wonderful points! Another thing I realized when I finish a quiz, I tend to send a short compliment to the quiz maker. So on those, that I would have rated really high, I ended up bypassing the rating system. It is kind of confusing and tricky to get back to the ranking page. I often get a "page expired" notice.

Best to you all,
Scarlet

I have just found proof that this ranking theory is true. I found the quiz ranked at number 1, and it has only being played 8 times! I think it was in the Music category.

It just goes to prove that games, which have hardly being played at all, are of a very high rank. On the other hand, games played thousands of times have a pathetic ranking.

That's the last I have to say about this theory.

It's not quite that simple...but it does occur.
Trust me though the more quality quizzes you make, the more of a "following" you get as people like your stuff and do things you create...the better it goes.

One other thing that I try to help people avoid as quizmakers is making something that doesn't work well structurally, for example a fill in the blank that frustrates people or else a question that doesn't work well, as if people take it when it's brand new...it is rated as impossible or very tough..for the wrong reasons perhaps, then it may unfortunately sink down quickly.
When an editor gives advice out, they often are trying to avoid this fate.
Some quizzes on very popular topics, and music gets them sometimes...attract immediate attention, though they aren't terribly good quizzes, and then they'll drift down gradually.
I mean someone might rate it highly just for the artist, it goes up to the top, but that's not enough.
I did a quiz on a popular artist but made it a bit more difficult and atypical..and it gained interest from the star then shifted down as some of the questions required a bit more thought.
Sure enough...the popularity of the artist isn't enough. I just wanted to see if you could do a difficult quiz on a megastar what would happen.

Can you show me where this ranked #1 quiz is? No quiz that has been played less than 30 times should be ranked.

I think I'll bump tiems playued up to 50 or 80 or something in order to reduce the variability.

Terry

If you're going to do that, could you somehow change the way quizzes played too rarely to be ranked are placed at the end of quiz listings? It seems easy enough for a rarely played quiz to get lost as it is.