Difference between revisions of "2019 NHBB Online"

Revision as of 18:46, 13 May 2019

See also: Question recycling

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 Ameya Singh, the "tournament" was won by Sam Brochin in a small field. Aside from rampant logistical problems, the event also attracted controversy after it was revealed that a large number of questions it used were knowingly plagiarized from existing packets, rendering it not a true tournament, but instead a scrimmage, indicating deceit on the part of the organizer(s), and resulting in a minor scandal.

Aftermath of the prelims & resulting "scandal"

Onset of the controversy

The event, which charged no admission fees, had consistently promoted itself on the HSQuizbowl.org forums as a housewrite. (Ameya Singh said early on that it would be "based off of NHBB/IHB packets"; the ambiguity of this statement helped contribute to the later ensuing confusion.) After its preliminary stages had concluded, attempts were made to upload the first three packets onto the packet archive, leading many observers to note that comments made on the Discord had implied that the questions had been adapted from existing questions, which would have barred them from being posted. The packets in question were instead posted to the forums for review, where, as documented on this thread, many of the tossups were verified by noted members of the QB community to have been directly copied from past sets. Aside from the apparent dishonesty of such an action, it was also furthermore pointed out that the above actions taken by the organizer(s) might potentially constitute copyright infringement. Other writers who participated in staffing the project provided chat logs that indicated that this plagiarism was intentional (though perhaps not totally malicious), having been done knowingly.

TD Singh's relative lack of experience also was discussed.

Further developments

There was also additional concern over the choice to explicitly dub the event the "NHBB Discord Tournament" (or "NHBB Online"), despite it not being affiliated with or connected to NHBB or International Academic Competitions (IAC) in any way. Though such connections were admittedly denied, such denials were only found in niche areas of associated discussion, thus preventing most from accessing them.

In the midst of the controversy, the organizer of the event elected to continue his actions, indicating that he would keep drawing questions from existing packets, but not post them. Ignoring the advice of much more experienced members drew additional censure, as did a later attempt by the organizer to run multiple other such events. Ultimately, the finals round was run on a packet of 15 housewritten tossups (though this fact is, as of yet, unverifiable).

Conclusion

Perhaps as a direct result of these events, a new category on the forums was created to advertise for and organize events, tourneys, scrimmages, etc. with greater transparency with regards to clear packet usage.

Fortunately, to his credit, Singh eventually later apologized for any errors (as well as, as he put it, "(arguably) border-line [sic] unethical decisions") on his part.

Packets used

Samples from the prelims include:

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 :''See also: [[Question recycling]]''
-The '''2019 "[[NHBB]]" Discord Tournament''', also known colloquially as '''"NHBB Online"''', was an online history bee-style "tournament" held during April 2019 on Discord. 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. The event attracted controversy after it was revealed that a number of questions it used were knowingly plagiarized from existing packets, rendering it not a true tournament, but instead a scrimmage.
+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. Aside from rampant logistical problems, the event also attracted controversy after it was revealed that a large number of questions it used were knowingly [[Plagiarism|plagiarized]] from existing packets, rendering it not a true tournament, but instead a scrimmage, indicating deceit on the part of the organizer(s), and resulting in a minor scandal.
-==The Scrimmage Begins==
+==Aftermath of the prelims & resulting "scandal"==
-The event had promoted itself on the [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=22615&p=357297#p35729 forums] as a [[housewrite]] "based off of NHBB/IHB packets." After its preliminary stages had concluded, attempts were made to upload the first three packets onto the packet archive, leading observers to note that comments on the Discord had implied that the questions had been adapted from existing questions, which would have barred them from being posted. The packets in question were instead posted to the forums for review, where many of the tossups were verified to have been directly copied from past tournaments. Other writers participating in the project provided chat logs that indicated that this plagarism was intentional.
+===Onset of the controversy===
+The event, which charged no admission fees, had consistently promoted itself on the [[Hsquizbowl.org|HSQuizbowl.org]] forums as a [[housewrite]]. (Ameya Singh said early on that it would be "based off of NHBB/IHB packets"; the ambiguity of this statement helped contribute to the later ensuing confusion.) After its preliminary stages had concluded, attempts were made to upload the first three packets onto the packet archive, leading many observers to note that comments made on the Discord had implied that the questions had been adapted from existing questions, which would have barred them from being posted. The packets in question were instead posted to the forums for review, where, as documented on [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=22615&p=357297#p35729 this thread], many of the tossups were verified by noted members of the QB community to have been directly copied from past sets. Aside from the apparent dishonesty of such an action, it was also furthermore pointed out that the above actions taken by the organizer(s) might potentially constitute copyright infringement. Other writers who participated in  staffing the project provided chat logs that indicated that this plagiarism was intentional (though perhaps not totally malicious), having been done knowingly.
-There was also additional concern over the choice to explicitly label the event as the "NHBB Discord Tournament" (or "NHBB Online"), despite not being affiliated with NHBB or International Academic Competitions (IAC) in any way outside of using their questions. Though such connections were denied, such denials were only found in niche areas of associated discussion, preventing many from accessing them.
+[[Tournament director|TD]] Singh's relative lack of experience also was discussed.
-==The Scrimmage Concludes==
+===Further developments===
-In the midst of this controversy, the organizer of the event elected to continue, indicating that they would continue to draw questions from existing packets, but not post them. This drew additional censure, as did a later attempt by the organizer to run multiple other such events. Ultimately, the final round was run on a packet of housewritten tossups.
+There was also additional concern over the choice to explicitly dub the event the "'''''NHBB''''' Discord Tournament" (or "'''''NHBB''''' Online"), despite it not being affiliated with or connected to NHBB or International Academic Competitions (IAC) in any way. Though such connections were admittedly denied, such denials were only found in niche areas of associated discussion, thus preventing most from accessing them.
-As a direct result of these events, a new category on the forums was created to advertise for and organize scrimmages using clear packets.
+In the midst of the controversy, the organizer of the event elected to continue his actions, indicating that he would keep drawing questions from existing packets, but not post them. Ignoring the advice of much more experienced members drew additional censure, as did a later attempt by the organizer to run multiple other such events. Ultimately, the finals round was run on a packet of 15 housewritten tossups (though this fact is, as of yet, unverifiable).
+==Conclusion==
+Perhaps as a direct result of these events, a new category on the forums was created to advertise for and organize events, tourneys, scrimmages, etc. with greater transparency with regards to clear packet usage.
+Fortunately, to his credit, Singh eventually later apologized for any errors (as well as, as he put it, "(arguably) border-line [''sic''] unethical decisions") on his part.
 ==Packets used==
 Samples from the prelims include:
-*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/173QOXJVojf9UYwQRzJdx7QprG94Qu0j_fcpHXP7Xquk/edit Packet 1]
+*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/173QOXJVojf9UYwQRzJdx7QprG94Qu0j_fcpHXP7Xquk/edit?usp=sharing Packet 1]
-**[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ARi-ztbQyJgL7edo-wU3-Ovv3giI18uFM-I2WlMCftE/edit?usp=sharing Packet 1 (with plagarism noted)]
+*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JiD-2gVjxT11Dm2GqnauU77AOOeHWYQDZNjOBEz6X9Y/edit Packet 2]
+*[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nkh3anG0Al5xmNzH6VqogOVPOhkwlI-_-zSM6B_SImE/edit Packet 3]
 [[Category:Quizbowl scandals]]
 [[Category:Bad quizbowl]]
 [[Category:Quizbowl on the internets]]