Talk:Quizbowl

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Revision as of 00:23, 10 December 2020 by Chris Chiego (talk | contribs)
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I'd like to do a better history of quizbowl article that could be branched off of here and potentially history of quizbowl in specific states as well. I'm also curious about the definition of quizbowl and why Science Bowl isn't considered a part of it (it's a buzzer-based academic competition, even if it has issues and isn't very fair). Also I'm not really sure about the whole ACF format thing here--that seems like a relic of the past given that 20/20 is just kind of generally taken as a given now. Given that this page is perhaps THE first page that anyone sees, what else should or shouldn't be on it? —Chris Chiego

I think we can acknowledge that "quizbowl" is used in at least two senses:

  • Anything involving buzzing in to answer knowledge-based questions, regardless of the subject matter of those questions, up to and including televised formats, Science Bowl and other single-subject events, etc, but not including game shows that aren't tied to one's status as a student at a particular institution
  • The "quizbowl circuit" and its direct ancestors, which may tend more towards a standardized format. This also includes (or intersects with, to a degree that we will talk about them here) things like Reach for the Top, Honda Campus All-Star Challenge, and the Zoom format being used in Battle of the Brains this year where a large part of the competition does not depend on buzzing in.

It's up to whoever is willing to take on the challenge to format the page in a way that will be useful to new visitors, but we should avoid decreeing artificial definitions that don't match how the userbase of the quizbowl community actually uses words, to as much an extent as possible. Matt Weiner (talk) 21:40, 9 December 2020 (CST)

That twofold distinction sounds great--I think it would be good to include both parts of that on the page (noting this for coming back later, anyone else is welcome though to start incorporating that). —Chris Chiego