I don't have a lot to say to any specific points, but it might be worth noting that: 1] Silent majorities should, by definition, consist of more than one person and refrain from voicing their opinions. Right or wrong, you are a vocal individual and should not assert that the rest of the world agrees with you. While I don't in general care about anonymous posts, it seems bizzare to defend them on the basis that "the message is more important than the messenger." The logic of your argument seems to be that your reputation is such that people would, if they knew your name, choose to ignore the opinions you express. If this is the case, I would suggest that you should re-consider the nature of the opinions you offer rather than trying to trick people into reading them. 2] It is utterly absurd to ask people in quiz bowl not to show off their knowledge, real or assumed. It is equally absurd not to expect them to routinely criticize one another for doing so and accuse one another of faking it. If people weren't proud of how much they knew, they wouldn't be playing quiz bowl. Of course it sometimes grates on us, usually when done by people with whom we disagree for reasons not entirely relevant to whatever they're showing off about. That doesn't make it any less inevitable. 3] Please don't note that this isn't constructive criticism. It's not intended to be: I don't entirely disagree with some of the things you say, but any time someone presumes to speak as the voice of common sense or to assert that they speak for a group that may be presumed to include me, I feel I'm entitled to simply contradict those assertions if I feel that their opinions lack common sense and disagree with mine on many points, both of which are true of you post. 4] If you a teammate of mine from Michigan quiz bowl, I expect you jokers in general to come up with funnier troll posts than this. Cheers, Kemezis on 4/24/03 4:04 PM, silentmajorityofqb at no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com wrote: Some disturbing themes have been running through recent threads. I wanted to take a minute as a member of the community to make some points no one else seems to be making in the name of common sense. If you agree with them, speak up. You have as much right to be here as the loudmouths. 1.) There is no "correct order of finish" for a tournament. If there were, we could just mail the trophies to the teams and save everyone the airfare and hotel costs. We play the games because the unexpected happens. If the breaks don't go your way one weekend, it's not because you were screwed by the tournament director, screwed by the format, or screwed by the bracketing. Shut up and do better next time. Otherwise, you look like an idiot or a sore loser, or both. 2.) No one manner of acquisition of knowledge is "better" or "more legitimate" than others. If you know a clue about a Pulitzer Prize winning novel because of its reference on Friends, it's not any less legit than if you read seven critical essays about the work. As long as I buzz in correctly before you, well, that's all that matters. Deal with it, you got beat. 3.) When you run a tournament, keep your customers informed as to what's going on. That's just common courtesy, and it's why you're there. Players will be less likely to bitch on the Yahoo board if they know there's a good reason they're waiting around. 4.) The elite players and ACF fundamentalists do not hold the monopoly on "correct opinions" as to what makes quiz bowl fun or fair. I daresay most people here couldn't care less about Italo Spazo or whoever the hell you guys were talking about last week. If you don't like what's being said, speak up, even if you don't get 50 PPG or play for Maryland or Chicago. If you let the tyrannical minority who seem to do most of the posting here shout you down, expect to see a lot more questions on art historians of the fifteenth century or some other irrelevant bullshit. Most of us have sat back and let these dickwads go unchallenged because it's just not worth it to mess with them. This is the result. 5.) Instead of ripping tournaments into shreds in public because you'll look cool, why not -- concept! -- make some critiques in private? Not everyone needs to hear your latest theory about how a tournament was unfair or why Swiss pairs are God or why the Penn Bowl question sucked or anything else. Figure out who can fix things next year. Tell them, politely, what you'd like fixed. Lather, rinse, repeat. No one sets out to run a bad tournament. Accusing them of doing that makes you look like an ignorant chumpmonkey. Thank you for your time. A Voice of the Silent Majority Yahoo! Groups Sponsor To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: quizbowl-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> . [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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