Sorry if this has been highlighted elsewhere, i'm still new and as such, trying to find my way around.

I was just wondering if it is known what type of question/s do people generally enjoy the most?

I don't mean which "subject"(film, history, music etc) just the style of question people most enjoy answering.

As an example, personally i prefer questions on either, which actor/actress starred in, or who played, or in what year was "insert movie" released?. The thing is i understand that these questions are not entirely suitable on this site, so was wondering just what are the most suitable and most liked style of questions?

Hope this makes sense

Thanks

In the Movies category we don't accept questions on release dates, as these vary from country to country.

It's not easy to say which types of questions are "best" or even "preferred", because each player will have his or her own ideas about what makes a question or quiz enjoyable. Personally, I prefer quizzes where each question is a paragraph long and ends with a straightforward question to be answered, but other players (typically the ones who play a lot of the timed games, but also a matter of preference) hate these types of questions and prefer instead questions that are just one concise sentence.

Some things that are fairly universally NOT well received are "numbers questions" (which are not allowed in movies and discouraged but accepted in other categories) for example, "How many times did author JK Rowling win the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize before it was discontinued in 2008?" It's also pretty unpopular to ask for minute details of a book/movie that is not relevant to the plot: "What time does Bob leave work one day to go to a doctor's appointment?"

The thing to do is ask yourself: would YOU enjoy this question if you came across it? If the answer is yes, and the question follow's the site's guidelines, then it is a good question. There's no point in holding out for universal approval: it doesn't exist here. ANother thing you can do is to look at the highest rated quizzes (the ones at the top of the list) in the category you want to write in, and see what these authors have done that players have liked.

Edit to add: and you can always approach a category editor and ask him or her to look at your quiz or question that you have concerns about and ask for suggestions about how it might work better.

This is honestly one rule i dont understand. Every movie has a first release date, which i believe is taken from whichever Country it was first released.

It would make more sense if this type of question was unacceptable because of the ease in which people can cheat(use IMDB for a quick answer), but then ANY question can be Googled and therefore answered by cheating.

(Not complaining btw, just saying )



Speaking of "best questions" my original is not the greatest is it?

I have been looking at the highest rated quizzes as it happens, but i can't seem to find a similarity between the type of question asked and the popularity of the quiz itself.

Thanks

One of the fun aspects of FunTrivia is the diversity of our authors and players. In the top 100 quizzes alone, you will find almost every possible style of writing - short or long, factual or casual, funny or serious. Essentially what makes a quiz good for a player is a positive experience. There are many ways to make a trivia question more than "Let's see which of these four is right" and all of them are viable. You'll ultimately produce the best possible quizzes if you find a way to introduce interesting facts about something you care about to others in a style you can write well.

Googling answers in untimed games is not cheating. Nor is it discouraged in anyway on this site. Personally, in untimed games, I don't see anything wrong with Googling for answers. If I'm playing a quiz on a topic I don't know, how else am I supposed to complete it? Random guessing and reading the interesting information doesn't teach me nearly as much as I could learn from Googling. It's only an unfair advantage in timed games, where some rely on knowledge, and others rely on Googling. In regular quizzes, it doesn't make any difference how the person got to answers. My Humanities quizzes become infinitely easier with Googling. Some take advantage of the option, and others do not. Like I said, I really don't mind either way. I, personally, Google all the time on untimed quizzes, especially quizzes on topics I know absolutely nothing about.

Personally, I hate numerical questions. Often the information they ask for is boring and the questions are too difficult to be fun. Especially when four numbers are asked that are very close together and the average player would have to guess at the answer. I'm sure a lot of authors on here have a quiz or two with this type of question (even the best authors) but they tend not be the highest rated from that author.

I also don't enjoy questions about dates, solely for the reason that questions about dates are boring. I have a dates question in one of my TV quizzes, but it's fairly important in the episode of the show (it's not a release date), so I decided to leave it in even though I could probably have come up with something better. The quiz when straight online and has received no correction notices from players, and has gotten very high reviews, so I'm really not worried about it anymore. It was just one question out of 15.

One numerical question in a quiz, in a category in which they're allowed, is okay, but I wouldn't want to see a whole quiz of them (unless they're math or brain teasers...). I rate quizzes that have a number of numerical questions poorly. Two in a quiz will usually earn it an "Average" rating from me, three or four is "Poor", and any more than that and the quiz bumps straight down to "Very Poor" regardless of how well-written the questions are. If it's allowed in your category, though, and if you don't care about ratings (though it appears you do from your above post), then just ignore the rating comment above.

Also, everyone enjoys different things and rates quizzes differently. The suggestion of playing the highest rated quizzes in your intended category is an excellent suggestion. It's a suggestion to tailor it to the type of audience that normally plays that type of question. For one Humanities quiz I wrote, I played every single quiz in that specific sub-category before I even started writing my first question. Added bonus, by playing all the quizzes in the category, I made sure that none of my questions had been asked before, and I was able to make my quiz totally unique by asking all my questions in a way that different that anyone else had asked theirs.

In Video Games we no longer allow questions about release dates; they become less and less important over time and are often completely unnecessary. You and I and everyone else don't really care when that ninth 'Call of Duty' came out and it's just a simple Google search away from a free bundle of points. It's further complicated, as has already been said, by different release dates in different countries. Asking 'What is the "first release date"?' is a bit unfair if a game/movie/song/etc. has different release dates around the world and it brings up the ever-recurring issue of country-centricity.

There are thousands of questions to ask and, in other categories, dates are likely to have a bit more relevance (History, for example); I've found that in terms of quizzes in pop culture-based categories, players would rather talk about the good stuff (the finished product) than the technical dates, times, numbers, ratings, etc. behind a finished product.

As has already been mentioned, in non-competitive, untimed games, googling is not considered cheating.
Many players google answers because they are interested in learning new things. They take quizzes as much to expand their interests and knowledge as to test their memories.

Conversely, quizzes where just about every question can be found on the same web page are poorly received. So quizzes where a large percentage of the questions are of the 'Who played?' or 'Who wrote/directed...etc?' type are not rated well by players either. Having one or two questions like this is fine, but having a lot of them encourages people to open up the imdb page, get the answers right and rate the quiz poorly.

Most of the questions that we don't allow were allowed at one time. Experience showed us that these questions did not score well, were not rated well by players and generated a lot of Correction Notes. They have not been excluded because editors don't like them but because players have shown that they don't like them and because they generate a lot of extra work for players and editors alike. Correction Notes need to be dealt with by both quiz writers and editors.

The release date of a film in a country that they might not live in is one of those questions that has proven to be disliked by a lot of players.
I live in Canada. Unless it is a blockbuster that I am waiting for, why should I be expected to know the date that a movie premiered in the U.K or Australia, or even in the States for that matter? And since it's not the kind of information that I really feel I need, I'm not likely to google the answer. I'm more likely to guess and then not give the quiz a good rating.
Plus we found we got a lot of Correction Notes from people who lived in different countries than the one where the release date was taken from.

Edited to add;

I just reread your original post and the whole 'Which actress starred...' works well if easily checked names are not given. For example, Instead of asking 'Who starred as Martin Vail?', instead ask 'Who played the slick defense lawyer who represented the young man accused of killing the bishop?' This is more challenging and more interesting.

We have a fair number of quizzes that aren't about one movie and ask questions about different actors. "Which top gun actor has also played a burned out rock star making a comeback?", with the answer being Tom Cruise, for example. In this type of quiz, the roles and movies would be spelled out in the Interesting Information section. These quizzes are well recieved.

I would echo what the prior posters have said about universally disliked questions, and add that questions about specific, completely unimportant dates tend to be hated by virtually everyone. For example, I've run across numerous questions about the exact month/date/year of a minor celebrity's birthday, when all the choices are the same year and month. I mean, really, who honestly cares about the Olsen twins birthday? An historically important date that everyone should know is reasonable, but exact dates that are meaningless, bleah!!!

gazhammer, have you spent any time on the quizmakers tuneups quizzes, over in General? These quizzes have no interest for anyone who is not an FT author, but they're a goldmine of info. The Author's Lounge is also useful. There are several old posts in this forum discussing how various players rate quizzes, and what they find important.

Different categories here tend to develop their own style. Some of that is possibly due to the specific editors in that category, but not too much, I think - we tend to move around a bit, and, also, we've been here a long time so editors have come and gone. It's more that different subject have different inherent strengths and weaknesses, which we've learned about over time. An example would be asking for the name of the main character in a book, as the first question in a Lit quiz. It seems like a reasonable question to ask, until you realize that it means you won't be able to word any subsequent questions in a natural manner - you'll have to say things like "What did the main character take with him/her, when he/she entered the castle?" Silly.

Most of the quizzes I've written have been in Music and Lit, and I mostly edit in those categories, too. I've seen what worked well in my own quizzes, and what flopped. (Once you have a few quizzes online, you get a lot of useful feedback from the letters from players, and from looking at your scores.) I've learned a lot from playing - I see what I like in a quiz and what annoys me, and use that knowledge in my own writing.

One thing to keep in mind is that we grandfather in old quizzes - a lot of quizzes you'll play, especially if you mine a category deeply, do things we no longer allow. This site is always changing - we tighten things up in some areas, loosen them in others. We are always discussing, monitoring, adapting.

Personally. I enjoy any type of question that is interesting, informative and well written. What I don't enjoy are 'NOT' questions.

Some helpful tips and info there agony, thank you.

I must admit, i really don't understand this "its ok to cheat" philosophy?

Googling in untimed games not cheating.

I also dislike the "not" questions, my brain often misses the "not" and as such i get questions wrong that i actually knew.

Sorry but i don't agree, for a start if everyone "cheated" there would be absolutely no point of having a quiz difficulty rating, as every one would be "very easy".

That's just one of thousands of reasons i can think of.

Will this help? There is no "right or wrong" about this topic. It's all one's own opinion.

http://www.funtrivia.com/forums/ubbthrea...uick#Post540148

I'll address your original question in a minute, gazhammer, but I thought I should just point out first that this question about googling for answers has already been discussed to death in many previous threads. You probably haven't discovered them yet as you are new to the site.

As you may be able to tell, it is a controversial topic with strong views all round. Unless you want this thread to be closed, I would drop the googling/cheating discussion, as it would be a shame to end what is otherwise a very interesting discussion.

Not everyone plays for the same reasons. Some play to test knowledge and others play to learn. I don't Google in quizzes on topics I know well because in this case I'm testing what I know. I do Google in quizzes on topic I don't know well because in this case I'm trying to learn something. Personally, I don't pay attention to the difficulty ratings on quizzes. It makes absolutely no difference as to whether or not I play the quiz, or whether I score it "Excellent" or "Very Poor". For many players, it's a general idea as to how hard the quiz is. There are Very Difficult quizzes in the "Les Miserables" category that are a piece of cake for me, and there are Very Easy quizzes in "Video Games" that are very hard for me. I still don't see anything wrong with it. Everyone is free to Google right now, and there are thousands of quizzes rated Average and above. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the example to which you're referring.

Edit: Just read the other replies that were posted while I was typing mine. I completely agree with Mariamir and jmorrow on this one.

I think it would be a shame to see this topic closed as well.

Yes, let's please not open up this can of worms here - that subject has been done to death.

If this thread turns into yet another fight about googling, it will be closed. We all have our opinions on the subject, and we are all entitled to them. But I for one don't need to hear them all rehashed here one more time.

That's fair enough, of course i had no idea, i won't bring it up again.

For me, an interesting question is one I can relate to in some way, or can see why others might relate to it. If I am coerced into thinking or actually learn something that is a plus as well.

Humour, continuity, unique/quasi-unique approach, variety of questions, explanatory but not wall of text II, something to guess from/drawing from multiple knowledge sources also score highly for me.

Things which score lowly for me are overly minute details (eg. dates, colours, close numbers) II which isn't actually relevant, II which... well, isn't interesting, overly generic questions or questions which could be interpreted ambiguously.

But as an author even though rankings are nice, it's not the end of the world if it doesn't appeal to everyone. I like writing the occasional Video Games quiz even though I don't get the ratings just because it's nice to write on a topic not many other people write on and it's nice to reminisce.

I think the advice to ask yourself if 'you' find the question interesting is a good one. Another one I've only used once, but to good effect, was the 'read out question/II aloud' trick - it helped to spot any awkward phrasing and I'll be using it again.

*changes subject quickly*
I generally don't like long, pointless questions which waffle on for no reason. For example, "Australia is a country with kangaroos, wombats, Holden cars, beaches, an annual Country Music Festival in Tamworth, is the home of Nicole Kidman, Uluru, the Devil's Marbles, Aussie Rules Football, meat pies, pavlovas, and Cherry Ripes. What is the capital of Australia?" The first part of the question is redundant in my eyes as the extra info bears little or no relation to the actual question. However, a question that said something like "Situated 100 kms from the Pacific Ocean lies a city designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin. It was purpose built to become the capital of Australia. What is its name?" is a very different kettle of fish. The added info of being inland and the architect involved make the question more interesting in my eyes. Sometimes a question needs to be long to give a player a chance to answer it. I did three excellent quizzes yesterday which all had the long questions I don't prefer, but those questions needed to be long otherwise it would have been impossible to answer them. It's a horses for courses scenario.

As said above, there is no formula for having everyone like a quiz. It's the same with movies, music, books, etc. You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. I said the other day that I've learnt something from every quiz I've written and it's true. I remember having one quiz rejected early on in my time here. I was a bit bemused but I accepted it. It was the best thing that could have happened. I sat back and thought about the 2 questions the editor disliked. I decided to throw them out all together and come up with 2 new questions. Within half an hour I'd struck on a new way of thinking about the subject, one I hadn't used before in a quiz. The quiz was much improved, and my thought processes had a new way of working/exploring any topic.

Personally, I've got a weakness for a well written offbeat theme to a quiz. Tournaments players don't like these, but something like coolupway's Ten Well-Known Writers Walk Into a Bar... quiz just hits my sweet spot.

This is a hard thing to pin down, because different people have different preferences. For every type of question that one player likes, you'll find someone else who dislikes it. There are no right or wrong answers here, just opinions, so here's mine.

I enjoy questions that provide a challenge without being overly hard. Much has been said about various types of questions that seem to be universally detested. They are either too nitpicky, too boring, too irrelevant, or too all of the above. I think part of the problem is that many of these questions feel like 'filler' questions to players. Did the author include this question because he ran out of things to ask? As a quiz author, you should do your research and get creative. If you can come up with something more interesting to ask, or a more interesting way to ask the question, do it.

Release dates for films is a good example. I'm a movie fan and I tend to remember films by their year of release, but I wouldn't ask a question about it in a quiz. Most players will not know the answer; nor will they care about it, and making players guess wildly to answer a question does not make for a very enjoyable quiz playing experience. There may be hidden pitfalls as well. Do I take the year when the film was out in wide release in theatres, or do I take the previous year because the film was screened once in L.A. and once in N.Y. to qualify for the Oscars? What if it was screened the previous year out of competition in a little-known film festival in Des Moines? It's just not worth the heartache.

Then there are the questions that seem like trick questions, which can leave players feeling like they were cheated out of some easy points. NOT questions are a good example. Personally, I have no problems with NOT questions, as I feel that I only have myself to blame if I didn't read a question properly. But other players may not think so kindly of them.

I think at the end of the day I just enjoy a well-crafted question. Did the author put some thought into presenting the question in an interesting way, and in the selection of the answer options? Did the question make me want to read the interesting information, and did I learn something new from doing so (or in the case of a quiz about a movie I have seen, did it allow me to reminisce about an enjoyable moment in a film)? Best of all, did I admire the question so much that I wish I had written it? Any of these would get a good rating from me.

Since I didn't say in my previous posts, I'm going to go ahead an offer up my opinion of what types of quiz questions I enjoy playing in this new post (based on quizzes I would rate "Excellent").

Quizzes I enjoy playing start with unique questions. This means like I like to play quizzes with questions that I have not seen time and time again in other quizzes in the same category. This can be accomplished by asking questions about things that no one has asked before, or by phrasing a question differently to get at a similar point, or by adding interesting info in a question that makes it seem more thoughtful.

Quizzes I enjoy playing do not require me to pay attention to extremely minute details that have no relevance. An example is a quiz I played recently that asked for the house number of one of the characters in the show. There are so many better questions that could have been asked. I'm a huge fan of the show in question, and the house number plays is not relevant to show, nor is a license plate number, or the color of someone's eyes. I also don't like questions that are so simple that someone who does not know anything about the subject can get without trying. Sticking with the TV theme, something like "Does the vampire in the show drink blood?" would qualify as one of these. There's a happy medium to reach, where you have to watch the show and get the question, but don't have to pay extremely close attention.

Quizzes I enjoy playing sometimes have subtle hints in the questions that could allude to the correct answer, and could better help you guess the correct answer if you didn't know it on your own. These are very very hard to create, but they make quizzes an automatic "Excellent" in my eyes, and I have played several like this. Many photo quizzes have this property.

Quizzes I enjoy playing have interesting information in both the question and the "Interesting Information" parts of the quiz. This allows me to learn something from the question AND learn something from the answer. Of course, the "Interesting Information" must be relevant to the question and answer, or I skim over it and rate the quiz lower.

Quizzes I enjoy playing are not full of Fill-in-the-Blank questions. These become more like spelling tests instead of knowledge tests, and they drive me crazy. A question or two in a quiz is fine, but not a whole quiz of them (except Brain Teasers of course). I've included FitB's in my quizzes before, but only when it was impossible to come-up with 3 good wrong answers.

Quizzes I enjoy playing do not have throw-away answer choices. This would be a case where someone asks something along the lines of "Which of these is a vegetable? Tomato, Prune, Turnip, Buffalo." Buffalo, would be a throw-away answer, because clearly and animal is not a vegetable. It's not even close.

I think those all are my main guidelines...

I enjoy questions that have clues built into them to allow multiple ways of narrowing things down to get the answer, or which provide collateral interesting information about the subject. I don't means adding Hint: xyz at the end, but information such as Tizzabelle suggested regarding Canberra.

Most players dislike extremely obscure points - was Rachel's shirt red or blue when they were going to the party - or for which the answers seem to be trying to confuse or trick players. Most players do not see quizzes as a test (they play the timed games for those), and appreciate authors giving them a fair chance of getting the answer. As an editor, I regularly suggest that authors try to ask about the kind of detail you would remember six months later, not the kind of thing you need to go look up to be sure. Even if they don't get it right, they are more likely to remember the information afterwards.

The extra information is what makes the difference, for me as a player, between an acceptable question and a good one. I play to learn, and I would certainly like to see an explanation of how I could have worked out the correct answer if I got it wrong. I am one of those players who wants even more - if you have asked me about a plant of which I have never heard, let me know more so I can add the plant to my body of knowledge. Just a name, and the fact that it has blue flowers or grows in Florida, is not enough to provide a good mental image for later recall.

More important than the individual question, though, is the structure of the quiz. If a quiz is about a specific book, movie, play, etc., I would like to encounter the questions in sequence, with the extra information providing enough of the story linkage so that I finish the quiz feeling that I have been taken through the experience of reading or watching in a highly abridged form. I play new quizzes on books and movies I don't know even though I know I will probably score poorly, but hoping to find out whether I am likely to enjoy reading/seeing it. Random disconnected questions, however well written, will not get as good a rating from me as a quiz that has been carefully constructed.