Trivia - Revision history

Kevin Wang: /* Example */

2023-01-03T16:17:38Z

Example

Kevin Wang: /* Justification */

2023-01-03T16:16:55Z

Justification

Kevin Wang at 15:37, 31 January 2022

2022-01-31T15:37:36Z

Kevin Wang at 15:25, 31 January 2022

2022-01-31T15:25:55Z

Kevin Wang: /* The Modern Library Top 100 */

2022-01-06T15:02:19Z

The Modern Library Top 100

Kevin Wang: /* Theory */

2022-01-06T15:02:01Z

Theory

Kevin Wang: /* Example */

2021-12-03T17:01:51Z

Example

Kevin Wang: /* Example */

2021-12-03T17:00:55Z

Example

Kevin Wang: /* Theory */

2021-11-08T06:06:22Z

Theory

Kevin Wang: /* Historical also-rans */

2021-10-25T18:37:53Z

Historical also-rans

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 ==Example==
 {{right quote box|{{qq| 22. '''He’s not Theodore Roosevelt, but this man’s negotiations with Britain over a canal in Nicaragua led to the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. This man employed the “Flying Artillery” tactic to lead his troops to victory at the Battle of Palo Alto, although he may be better known for defeating an army more than three times his size at the Battle of (*)''' Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. This man ran as a Whig and defeated Lewis Cass and Martin van Buren in the 1848 presidential election. For ten points, name this President nicknamed “Old Rough-and-Ready” who was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
 ANSWER: Zachary <u>'''Taylor'''</u>

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 ==Theory==
 ===Justification===
-The choice to designate a subset of information as "trivia" and to not include that in questions is a deliberate choice of quizbowl; many other formats which appear similar to the outside observer do not make this distinction, and may even lean into the exact set of clues which quizbowl avoids. This is a value judgement on the part of the community - over the years, quizbowl has defined itself as a game intended to reward deep engagement with academic material, but this is not the only sort of game that can (or does exist). For more information on these other formats, visit the page on [[trivia formats]].
+The choice to designate a subset of information as "trivia" and to not include that in questions is a deliberate choice of quizbowl; many other formats which appear similar to the outside observer do not make this distinction, and may even lean into the exact set of clues which quizbowl avoids. This is a value judgement on the part of the community - over the years, quizbowl has defined itself as a game intended to reward deep engagement with academic material, but this is not the only sort of game that can (or does) exist. For more information on these other formats, visit the page on [[trivia formats]].
 ===Definition===

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 "Trivia" is also used to refer to [[trivia formats|formats used in the broader trivia community]], e.g. Learned League and ''[[Jeopardy!]]''.</onlyinclude>
 ==Theory==
 ===Justification===
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 ==Example==
 Consider [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor Zachary Taylor]. Let us take for granted that both the Mexican-American War and the 12th President of the United States are important topics which have legitimate reasons to be learned about.
 *Knowing that Taylor won the battle of Buena Vista is {{u|academic}}: it is important to understanding both Zachary Taylor (who rode his status as a victorious general during the Mexican-American War to the White House) and the Battle of Buena Vista.
 *Knowing that the Battle of Buena Vista took place before the Battle of Veracruz is {{u|academic}}: Tyler's defeat of Mexican general Santa Anna happening before Santa Anna meant that it could interrupt the siege of key port Veracruz, making it important in the ultimate outcome of the war.
-*Knowing that the Battle of Buena Vista took place on February 23, 1847 is {{u|trivia}}: its absolute date means nothing without the context of the other battles' dates.
+*Knowing that the Battle of Buena Vista took place on February 23 is {{u|trivia}}: its absolute date means nothing without the context of the other battles' dates.
 Thus, a question asking on Taylor mentioning that he was the victorious general at Buena Vista, a question on Veracruz mentioning that it took place after Buena Vista, or a question on Buena Vista itself is academic. A question that just asks what year Buena Vista took place is trivia.
-In a proper [[pyramidal]] tossup on the Battle of Buena Vista, the date of the battle can appear, but should be given near the end of the question and with appropriate context.
+In a proper [[pyramidal]] tossup on the Battle of Buena Vista, the date of the battle can appear, but should be given near the end of the question and with appropriate context. In most situations, only the year is provided, perhaps with an adjective like "early" or "late" to indicate the half of the calendar.
 ==Additional examples==

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 In common usage, "trivia" refers more broadly to "unimportant matters" or "facts (as about people or events) that are not well-known;"<ref>https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trivia</ref> under this colloquial definition, the vast majority of things discussed in quiz bowl are trivia.
-"Trivia" is also used to refer to [[trivia formats|formats used in the trivia community]], e.g. Learned League and ''[[Jeopardy!]]''. These formats largely lack a distinction between trivia (as described in this article) and other forms of knowledge.</onlyinclude>
+"Trivia" is also used to refer to [[trivia formats|formats used in the broader trivia community]], e.g. Learned League and ''[[Jeopardy!]]''.</onlyinclude>
 ==Theory==
 The distinction between what is and is not trivia is one of the most difficult and subtle parts of becoming a good question writer for quizbowl. The tenets of "[[good quizbowl]]" hold that players should be rewarded for their knowledge in a fair and consistent manner, and that the nature of this knowledge should be significant and (in the case of most tournaments) [[academic]]. Such information (sometimes called "significa") is mutually exclusive with trivia.

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 One specific (and particularly awful) form of trivia is knowledge of specific rankings of "the Best [X] things in [Category Y]". One particularly egregious question in this vein asked players to identify Crayola as the company whose products were ranked as the 18th most memorable smell in a recent news article. Other questions that rely on random outside "rankings"—and provide no other clues about the answerline besides the ranking—are trivia for similar reasons.
-For a long time, the worst offender in a category of offenders was the [http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html Modern Library Top 100] for fiction, and, to a lesser extent, the complementary nonfiction list. When this list came out in spring 1999, it was open season on asking about every work on it in both collegiate and high school quizbowl without respect to difficulty or canonicity, and often using inane "it was ranked #11 on the MLA list" type clues. The worst questions of all were those which relied ''solely'' on memorizing the MLA list to get points, such as "given the book's position on the MLA list, name the book" bonuses, which sadly were actual things that existed. As more time has passed since the list was issued, it has become less of a crutch in [[bad quizbowl]] than it was in the immediate years after 1999.
+For a long time, the worst offender in a category of offenders was the [http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html Modern Library Top 100] for fiction, and, to a lesser extent, the complementary nonfiction list. When this list came out in spring 1999, it was open season on asking about every work on it in both collegiate and high school quizbowl without respect to difficulty or canonicity, and often using inane "it was ranked #11 on the MLA list" type clues. The worst questions of all were those which relied ''solely'' on memorizing the MLA list to get points, such as "given the book's position on the MLA list, name the book" bonuses, which sadly were actual things that existed. As more time has passed since the list was issued, it has become less of a crutch in "[[bad quizbowl]]" than it was in the immediate years after 1999.
 ===Historical also-rans===

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 ==Theory==
-The distinction between what is and is not '''trivia''' is one of the most difficult and subtle parts of becoming a good question writer for quizbowl. The tenets of [[good quizbowl]] hold that players should be rewarded for their knowledge in a fair and consistent manner, and that the nature of this knowledge should be significant and (in the case of most tournaments) [[academic]]. Such information (sometimes called "significa") is mutually exclusive with trivia.
+The distinction between what is and is not trivia is one of the most difficult and subtle parts of becoming a good question writer for quizbowl. The tenets of [[good quizbowl]] hold that players should be rewarded for their knowledge in a fair and consistent manner, and that the nature of this knowledge should be significant and (in the case of most tournaments) [[academic]]. Such information (sometimes called "significa") is mutually exclusive with trivia.
 While there are arguments about the precise boundaries of important, academic content, no quizbowl question should have a piece of trivia as an answer. Furthermore, the use of trivia as clues in questions should be sparing and intentional. Giving information like the exact dates of important events or the occupations of a famous person's parents encourages players to [[List studying|memorize those unimportant facts]] rather than learn conceptual material, defeating the academic purpose of the game.

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 *historical second-bests
 *the leaders of countries in hypothetical scenarios
 ===Inane nonsense===