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On July 30, 1945, the last major U.S. warship sunk in World War II was destroyed by a Japanese submarine after delivering the first atomic bomb to Tinian in the Northern Marianas Islands. What was the name of this cruiser?

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I have a tendency to write long answer options, so I've had to modify my style a bit for these questions, too. There's usually an alternate way to present the answer option, though, if you think a bit.

What we're going for in the single questions are more forthright, simple questions. Quizzes accept long answers - there is still room in quizzes for a more nuanced approach.

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I just got a question rejected, and I don't understand the rejection.

I asked who wrote a series of books, I named 3 books by the author, and the "editor" stated it was rejected for:

"Time / date dependent. This question will become stale in future years."

The question was on a contemporary author, and I've seen similar questions on dead authors but mine's rejected because of "time/date dependent" -- whatever that means.

-Nam

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I just got a question rejected, and I don't understand the rejection.

I asked who wrote a series of books, I named 3 books by the author, and the "editor" stated it was rejected for:

"Time / date dependent. This question will become stale in future years."

The question was on a contemporary author, and I've seen similar questions on dead authors but mine's rejected because of "time/date dependent" -- whatever that means.

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This was probably me, because I think I do most of the single question editing in Literature. Was there a reason why you put "editor" in inverted commas?

Obviously I can't remember your question word for word, but I do remember rejecting a number of questions for time/date dependency when I edited yesterday or the day before.

What we "editors" are conscious of is that these questions will be online for years to come. I believe that the single questions in the Question Quest will eventually end up in the database for the daily mixed quizzes.

For example, let's say you have a question which refers to a series having three books in it. With contemporary living authors, there is always the danger that they will decide to produce another book in the series. So at some point in the future, your question may become invalid. J.K. Rowling has said numerous times in interviews that she will only write seven Harry Potter books, but she could always change her mind, couldn't she?

You aren't even safe with dead authors. Books have been discovered and published after the death of an author - look at V.C. Andrews!

I remember rejecting one question because it referred to book at being "the latest" in a series. Well, that one's going to be an invalid question the minute the author releases another in the series.

I also remember rejecting a question because it referred to a book being released in the future. The Quiz Creation Guidelines state quite clearly that this is unacceptable. What if it doesn't happen and the book doesn't end up being released according to schedule, or even at all? Again, the question will be invalid.

Please read the Quiz Creation guidelines ( http://www.funtrivia.com/ql.cfm?cat=3533 ) for more details and examples of unacceptable question formats.

It's possible that you have seen other questions online that contain time-based faults. Some date back to the early days at FunTrivia when the rules were not as strict and we were all still on a learning curve as to what works and what doesn't. Some will still slip by the editors even today. I think I've been guilty of submitting such questions myself! Not even editors are perfect! However, according to the Quiz Creation Guidelines, these errors generate the second highest number of correction notes, after fill-in-the-blank questions. So eventually they will be weeded out.

If you read the guidelines and you still don't understand why an "editor" rejects your quiz or question, you can send them a polite note and they'll be happy to tell you why.

Edited to add a P.S. Sometimes the question itself is technically okay but the interesting information contains the time-based problem. All you need to do is amend your II and resubmit.