In a FT Duel Gems and Birthstones quiz I played a little while ago, question #7 asked "The Western Diamondback is a variety of what creature?" This same question has appeared a few times before in the same quiz. A rattlesnake, of course, but in a Gems and Birthstones quiz??

I wanted to let you know about this. It has to be a glitch.

Thanks!

I suspect it is in one of those quizzes like words in common or something along those lines and diamond in the name relates it to gems.

That's an interesting idea.

The algorithm used to pull related and relevant questions from various Gemstone, mineral, and birthstone quizzes probably needs a tiny bit of tweaking.

If you see a question in a game (like Duel or GC for example) that you think doesn't belong, send a correction note, stating your case. We editors will then be able to take a look, and remove the question from the pool used for games if necessary.


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Spanishliz - Editor in Movies, Brain Teasers, Geography and Crosswords

As an editor, I'd allow that question in a quiz about diamonds, as its thematically connected. It only seems unrelated out of the context of the entire quiz.

Here's the quiz: http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/General/Guilding-the-Stone---April-303481.html

In the timed games, you often encounter questions that don't seem to be completely related to the topic. (I especially notice it in Geography, because that category allows a small number of non-Geography questions in a quiz, so you can find yourself facing a question about local food, music, sports, etc. which worked when you were playing a quiz on the country, but seem strange out of context. I just live with it.) If it is especially unsuitable, then sending a correction note on the question after you finish the game is the way to bring it to the attention of the editors in that category. IO have encountered that diamondback question before, and it never particularly drew my attention, since the diamond was there.

I think I might just say a word about where questions in Duel come from, and about categorization. It's not an algorithm pulling questions. That game uses questions from quizzes in a particular category - in this case Gems and Birthstones.

When quizzes are submitted, sometimes it's very clear and easy to see where they belong. We already have a category, and the quiz fits in it. Sometimes, though, it's not so clear. A quiz might fall between two categories, or might possibly not really fit anywhere. This might be fixed by having the author adjust a couple of the questions, or by making a new category, or by just putting it in wherever seems the best fit at the time, according to an individual editor's judgement. We try very hard not to reject an otherwise good quiz just because we don't have a perfect place to put it.

Categorization is much more of an art than a science. Often there are several different places where a quiz might go, and we just choose what seems best at the time. It's a much more organic and human process than having an algorithm picking up on key words, and has both the pros and cons of that.