Difference between revisions of "2019 NHBB Online"

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(This information is clearly listed in the forums, and it also passes the blame to the other staffers who were not at fault for any of the debacle.)
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:''See also: [[Question recycling]]''
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The '''2019 "[[NHBB]]" Discord Tournament''', also known colloquially as '''"NHBB Online"''', was an online history bee-style "tournament" (or scrimmage) held during April 2019 on Discord. It was principally run by eighth-grader [[Ameya Singh]] of [[Laurel Springs]], who conceived the initial idea. It had a small field, won by [[Sam Brochin]], but is more notable for using [[plagiarism|plagiarized]] or [[question recycling|recycled]] questions (depending on how charitable one wants to be), resulting in a scandal.
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The '''2019 "[[NHBB]]" Discord Tournament''', also known colloquially as '''"NHBB Online"''', was an online history bee-style tournament held during April 2019 on Discord servers. The brainchild of 8th grade [[Laurel Springs]] NHB player [[User:Ameya Singh|Ameya Singh]], the tournament was won by [[Sam Brochin]] in a small field. Besides being called a logistical "mess" by some people involved, the event attracted controversy after it was revealed that a number of questions it used were more or less plagiarized from [[QuizDB]] and/or past NHBB events, resulting in a minor scandal.
 
  
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==Aftermath and "scandal"==
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The event was promoted on [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=22615&p=357297#p35729 HSQB] as a "[[housewrite]] based off of NHBB/IHB packets". In fact, the questions were plagiarized from other sets, sometimes with minor alterations. Discord chat logs demonstrated that the plagiarism was definitely intentional (though perhaps not entirely malicious); it may have been started without understanding that, or why, such practices are unacceptable, but once the issues were pointed out, [[Ameya Singh]] refused to change course. He ultimately offered a partial apology that some viewed as not demonstrating due contriteness or real understanding of the issues at hand, while others saw it as mitigating.
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The tournament had consistently promoted itself as an original [[housewrite]] (at the very least, according to the info posted on HSQuizbowl.org). However, as documented on [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=22615&p=357297&hilit=Housewrite#p35729 this thread], after the tournament's preliminary stages had concluded and packets uploaded online, suspicion was aroused when numerous members of the online QB community pointed out that many of the tossups used in the tournament were either directly copied from, or extremely similar to, questions used in past tournaments run by other organizations, even though it admitted to not being affiliated in any way with either NHBB or International Academic Competitions (IAC). Some also pointed out that this seeming attempt to essentially pass off questions written by other writers as their own work might potentially constitute copyright infringement.
 
  
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The above issue was likely the result of a last-minute rush to 'fill out' incomplete packets that were missing a large number of questions. Some posters on the above thread also said they believed Singh to be too inexperienced to be TD'ing a tournament, but that he still "should have known better".
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Another aspect of the controversy concerned the name: the tournament's name seemed to suggest affiliation with [[NHBB]], but in fact the tournament was in no way connected to NHBB or [[International Academic Competitions]]—it merely sought to emulate some stylistic aspects thereof.
  
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Fortunately, to his credit, Singh eventually later apologized for any errors on his part.
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These events may have been partly or wholly responsible for [[HSQB]] adding a separate subforum for open practices, scrimmages, and playtesting, along with rules governing announcements for events using old questions.
  
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===Packets used===
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==Packets used==
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Samples from the prelims include:
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A sample from the prelims was published online:
 
*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/173QOXJVojf9UYwQRzJdx7QprG94Qu0j_fcpHXP7Xquk/edit Packet 1]
 
*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/173QOXJVojf9UYwQRzJdx7QprG94Qu0j_fcpHXP7Xquk/edit Packet 1]
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*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JiD-2gVjxT11Dm2GqnauU77AOOeHWYQDZNjOBEz6X9Y/edit Packet 2]
 
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*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nkh3anG0Al5xmNzH6VqogOVPOhkwlI-_-zSM6B_SImE/edit Packet 3]
 
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[[Category:Quizbowl scandals]]
 
[[Category:Quizbowl scandals]]
 
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]]
 
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]]
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[[Category:Quizbowl on the internets]]
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[[Category:Internet]]

Latest revision as of 13:22, 29 October 2021

The 2019 "NHBB" Discord Tournament, also known colloquially as "NHBB Online", was an online history bee-style "tournament" (or scrimmage) held during April 2019 on Discord. It was principally run by eighth-grader Ameya Singh of Laurel Springs, who conceived the initial idea. It had a small field, won by Sam Brochin, but is more notable for using plagiarized or recycled questions (depending on how charitable one wants to be), resulting in a scandal.

The event was promoted on HSQB as a "housewrite based off of NHBB/IHB packets". In fact, the questions were plagiarized from other sets, sometimes with minor alterations. Discord chat logs demonstrated that the plagiarism was definitely intentional (though perhaps not entirely malicious); it may have been started without understanding that, or why, such practices are unacceptable, but once the issues were pointed out, Ameya Singh refused to change course. He ultimately offered a partial apology that some viewed as not demonstrating due contriteness or real understanding of the issues at hand, while others saw it as mitigating.

Another aspect of the controversy concerned the name: the tournament's name seemed to suggest affiliation with NHBB, but in fact the tournament was in no way connected to NHBB or International Academic Competitions—it merely sought to emulate some stylistic aspects thereof.

These events may have been partly or wholly responsible for HSQB adding a separate subforum for open practices, scrimmages, and playtesting, along with rules governing announcements for events using old questions.

Packets used

A sample from the prelims was published online:

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