Discussion forums

Introduction to Quizbowl

Quizbowl
How Quizbowl Works
How Collegiate Quizbowl Works

"Good quizbowl"
Pyramidality
Knowledge vs. Trivia
Buzzers

Tossup-Bonus Format
(Tossups · Bonuses)
Studying · Writing · Editing
NAQT · ACF · Housewrites
The circuit · Outreach

Resources
hsquizbowl.org
(database · archive · forums)
Discussion forums
College directory

List of basic quizbowl terms
List of quizbowl concepts

Discussion forums are private subforums on the hsquizbowl.org forums dedicated to the discussion of a particular question set before it is clear for public discussion. These forums typically include threads for both broad discussion of the set and discussion of specific questions. Discussion forums are invaluable records of the public perception of a set.

Procedure

The Usergroups tab of the User Control Panel

To request the creation of a subforum, email hsquizbowl@gmail.com and include "private forum" in the subject along with a list of the usernames that you want to be administrators for the group. This will eventually create a private forum with an accompanying usergroup.

To join a subforum, access the "Usergroups" tab of the User Control Panel by first clicking your username in the upper right (note that this implicitly requires a forums account). From here, select a group and submit a request to join, which must be approved by an administrator of the group. Because group leaders can only see the username and profile of users submitting a request, a forums signature is required for identification.

After you get approved, the discussion forum will become visible as a subforum of "National and Regional Comparisons and Discussions" (for high-school sets) or "Collegiate Discussion" (for collegiate sets).

After all mirrors for a set are completed and it is cleared for discussion, the discussion forum can be made public by again emailing hsquizbowl@gmail.com with "private forum" in the subject.

Alternatives

The rising popularity of Discord as a platform for online quizbowl writing and playing has seen a corresponding increase in the use of Discord servers for discussion. Sometimes, discussion takes place within a dedicated channel of the Discord server for a playtest mirror. In other cases, an entire server created for the explicit purpose of discussing the set. The primary advantage of this setup is that the barrier for entry to chat is lower and thus there is the potential to receive more feedback from a wider range of players than would have otherwise been possible. This is particularly relevant because the de facto default is to host such discussion on the forums, which have become increasingly alien to subsequent generations of player.

The main arguments against such discussion servers is that Discord servers are impermanent and decentralized. The deletion of discussion servers, destroying all feedback, has been known to happen, even though there is no reason to delete a server. While this does not directly impact some immediate purposes of discussion (to fix errata and fine-tune questions for future mirrors), it is still a considerable faux pas, as the community norm is for information about sets be available to the public (as how all housewrites should publish their questions for free on the archive).

Another disadvantage is that Discord feedback can be unsearchable or inaccessible if you are looking for a specific message but forget which server it was in. This is not a problem on the forums because the centralized search box encompasses all forums (and you can apply specific filters).