I had an interesting experience this morning. I played a quiz I wrote over a decade ago and was stumped by some of the questions.

After battling through it I returned to the quiz directory to see that it wasn't shaded in. My play had been ignored of course. Bummer.

I'm wondering if we should change this. I kind of like the idea of letting authors play (but not rate) their own quizzes:

- it's only a handful of points and revisiting your own work is fun.
- it also encourages an author to look at their own quiz in detail again, perhaps catching errors that otherwise would remain, or making other improvements.
- it stops quiz lists from having gaps where your quizzes are unplayed. For completionists this must be unnerving haha.
- it's a nice "quiz authoring perk". Sure, it's (probably!) some easy points, but you've done a lot more work than anyone else taking the quiz, so who cares?
- topics you write about are probably your favorites, and in some cases your quizzes in that topic may make up the majority. Why should we penalize you for having fun in your favorite topics?

Thoughts? We could, I suppose, have a waiting period before an author can do so (say, 6 months later), but even that seems sort of a pointless roadblock to me, and prevents the "one final look over" advantage explained above. I'm starting to come around to the idea that an author should be able to play his/her own quizzes and get credit like anyone else, at any time.

I think there should be a bit of a wait, more likely based on plays than on time - not because it would be an abuse by the author, but because the author's high scoring (presumably) play can affect the correct rate on the quiz.

I'd put that at the point when a quiz ceases to have the "new" designation, i.e. at 20 ratings, or 3 months, whichever comes first. (This also favors authors writing quizzes that actually get played ) Unless, of course, you can ensure that the author's own play simply does not contribute to the percentages.

Otherwise, it seems a good simplification and incentive.

"I think there should be a bit of a wait, more likely based on plays than on time - not because it would be an abuse by the author, but because the author's high scoring (presumably) play can affect the correct rate on the quiz."

The author's play would be ignored from all stats. The only thing that would change would be that they would get points and they would get completion checkmarks in quiz lists. (And would be eligible to "improve" their score in the upcoming change that will allow that for all players...)

As an author, I always like to play my new quizzes as soon as they go online (same day at any rate) for the "one last check" reason Terry mentions. Also, it completes my quiz writing ritual, which is important, at least to me Waiting three months would be agony. I don't particularly mind whether I get points or not, but they would be a nice bonus.

I hardly every play my own quizzes because I feel I would have an unfair advantage over other players. However, I remember that once (it was a few months ago) I had the Difficult challenge of playing a quiz within 20 minutes of its going online. After waiting for hours for a new quiz, one of my quizzes was placed online, and I played it - thus completing the challenge. I was a bit surprised I'd been able to do that, but wasn't going to complain .

"because I feel I would have an unfair advantage over other players"

There's really nothing that players are competing for on any given quiz anyway, your score (and advantage) doesn't affect anyone else.

What I may do is also remove an author's name from the "recent scores" list for the quiz too.

You are right, of course, but I'm just weird that way !

Change has been made allowing FT authors to play their own quizzes:

- Authors may now take their own quizzes. They earn points for them, and the quizzes get marked as complete on directory pages.

- Quiz stats / question correctness / play counts etc are ignored by author plays.

- The author's score is hidden on score charts.

- Authors may not rate their own quizzes.


Enjoy

Gonna be embarrassing when you get your own questions wrong

Oh, most of us have done that a time or two already - a question shows up in a game and you think "I'm pretty sure I've seen that question before maybe...."

THANKS! I was just wondering that the other day... what good it would do to play your own quizzes.

Then what about authors editing their own archive quizzes cause I’m tired of getting correction notices on my quizzes that I can’t edit myself.

Plus I want the option editing my old quizzes from 3 years ago or more to freshen up the interesting information part.

Kyle's going to break the Endurance record. Really like the idea, I've replayed mine a few times and always end up getting 1 or 2 wrong.

Wow!! What a pleasant surprise to find on the Forums!

If you really want to edit old quizzes, you can take them offline, make the changes you want, and then resubmit them. This gives the editors a chance to make sure you haven't introduced any errors in your new work, but it doesn't go online as a new quiz. I am not sure about how long it takes to get archived again - it probably happens at the next system update, when the original online date of the quiz would trigger sending it to the archives.

One of the reasons that archival was put into place was because authors were making changes to long-online quizzes (in some cases deleting them) that were not being placed back into the queue. Small changes might be annoying, but they're easy to fix (and if they're easy typos, editors will often take care of them to clear them before authors even know). If anyone is substantially adding to their info or changing questions then that should be resubmitted for editing-- it's becoming a new quiz. Issues could get overlooked otherwise, and that would just mean more corrections.

If you are looking to make a full project out of it, you may speak to an editor in the category you're looking at to see what can be done.

That is why I am glad that Terry has put this option in place.


It covers up the embarrassment of stuffing up on your own question.

Terry, just to confirm, will authors now be able to...

(1) claim Quiz Lists that contain their own quizzes
(2) claim the "Biggest Fan" badge or upgrade by playing 150 of their own quizzes within 60 days

???

I usually play my own quizzes after at least one player has reached a perfect score (so I wouldn't disturb the "Early Bird" competitions). But I don't feel the need to get points for doing so - it's just another review for the questions and info, and it is great to see how the first players score on each individual question.

And yes, I do get my own questions wrong sometimes. In one of my last quizzes I spotted one or two questions I could only guess at, even having written the question myself less than a week before.

Alright that does it... i am going to play mine!

It actually sounds like a good way to get a really low score without messing about any stats. So if you find yourself needing 15 points to match someone in a twin challenge, you can play one of your own quizzes, get one question correct and the rest wrong, and get the 15 points.

I think its a great idea. I've replayed some of my earlier ones and actually got some wrong which is embarrassing LOL

Will we be able to play our own quiz lists then?

I think that could benefit the lists as authors who haven't bothered to set them up or have massive lists would be more likely to get them set up which would make more lists available for all players.

And another benefit for the authors of course