In my profile page, next to one of my authored quizzes is a pair of red framed sunglasses. Does this mean it is a must read quiz LOL or only read in the dark with sunglasses on??

The sunglasses denote quizzes that are highly rated by players. I think the top 18,000 quizzes on the site are awarded the sunglasses. Congratulations!

18,000 is a guess. My last sunglasses quiz is rated 17,933. My quiz rated 18,693 does not have them.

I forget how many quizzes we actually have online now, but I think it's over 100,000. Does anyone know?

Mountaingoat, quizzes earn the sunglasses through player ratings. Players have the opportunity to give your quiz a rating (1-5) once they finish your quiz. All the ratings are tallied for all quizzes every Monday. If your quiz is one of the top 15,000 on the site (that's out of more than 100,000 quizzes!) then it earns the coveted sunglasses and is displayed near the top of the list wherever it is.

You can get a "Cool Quizzes" badge for authoring 20 quizzes with sunglasses.

Congratulations on earning them!

CellarDoor,

wasn't the requirement changed recently? I thought sunglasses are nowadays only attributed to the top rated quizzes in that specific category. So no more balancing of SciTech against Religion, for example.

No, I thought it was the top 18,000 of quizzes sitewide? Like LadyCatriona said. :-)

Yep, 18,000 is correct.

You know, I think I remember the issue (not having cross-competition between categories) being discussed, but I'm not sure that it was ever implemented.

It hasn't been implemented yet. No idea whether it will be. The sunnies are allocated to the top 18000 quizzes each week regardless of category.

Indeed, I've checked the "What's new" announcements. Although the classification per category was suggested at one time, it has not been implemented yet.

If this would be implemented, chances are that several quizzes lose their sunnies (although I'm not convinced they would).

I am flattered. I did put in a lot of research so I feel well rewarded.

As I was browsing the top-rated quizzes in some categories recently, I noticed a big discrepancy between how highly rated overall quizzes had to be to make the top 100 list within their own category. It seems to me that if sunglasses were awarded based on main category ranking, that it would be significantly easier to get sunglasses in a category with fewer quizzes. I'm not sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing. It might spur writers to target categories that currently do not get as many quizzes as others, but those whose expertise and enjoyment in writing is a category that is already popular with writers might feel disadvantaged.

I rather like the way it operates right now, as I don't feel that the quizzes compete by category, anyway - if those who play it like it, it will rank highly. I have quizzes that have sunglasses after being ranked only 20 times, and others that have been ranked over 1,000 times. Those with a small number of rankings are more volatile - it only takes one low rating to make a big difference in the ranking - but they are all 'successful' quizzes with their audience.

I agree, looney_tunes. I guess it's fair to say e.g. that General is a much more popular topic than Religion, but there are bound to be many Religion quizzes that have been played more often than some General. I think the system works fine as it is - with every one needing 20 ratings before a rank, this helps to combat obscurity. If a quiz is too obscure to reach 20 ratings, it won't get a rank; although of course the Double Points page is very helpful for this. Unfortunately this does mean that many good quizzes don't get ranked well because they're obscure, but I guess that's just the way it is.

Hmmm maybe a "Hidden Delights" page for quizzes that have been online for X amount of time, have been played fewer than Y times, but are rated highly by the players who have played it.

I agree, leave it like it is now. :-)