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The forums, formally the Quizbowl Resource Center forums or hsquizbowl.org forums, are a public place for national quizbowl discussion, from the high school to open level. Historically referred to as the board or the boards, the forums also have several off-topic areas where posters can talk about whatever they want.
As of December 2020, the board had 10,241 users, who have made 364,633 posts across 22,348 threads, and can be found here
History of the forums
An early version of the forums lasted from fall 2001 to spring 2003, and was a little-used, HTML-powered board with no collegiate content. The bulletin board was re-created in April 2003 by Matt Weiner, who added collegiate sections at the suggestion of Chris Frankel. Since 2006, the hsquizbowl.org site has been financially sponsored by PACE.
In Winter 2008, the board had to change hosts not once but twice. In relation to problems with board hosting services, the administrators closed the forums down from approximately February 5, 2008 through February 7, 2008. After relocating to a new host, the main hsquizbowl.org page read "The message board is open again, at least until our current shady hosting provider decides to shut it off because they like to sell hosting plans they cannot support." That hosting provider prompted yet another move over the weekend of February 23-24, 2008.
Culture of the forums
Due to its use by Canadians, the word "packs" is automatically replaced with "packets".
Smilies
In addition to all the straightforward bbcode smilies, the hsqb forums have several additional ones meant to reference various events in the game's history.
- A small statue of Arminius referred to as "Herman the German", in reference to the Arminius scandal at the 2006 ICT.
- A capybara, which is used as to censor swearing in the high school subforum
- the smiling faces of Chip Beall and Ken Jennings
- BEEEEEES
No new emoticons have been added in years.
Leadership structure
The board is led by a chief administrator who was initially unelected, then for several years was chosen annually by all staffers, until Rob Carson forgot to run elections in fall 2015 and as a result has held the position due to a combination of general acclaim and inertia ever since. Under the chief admin are several administrators (currently six) and moderators (eight). The staff is responsible for enforcing board rules and helping new posters make use of the forums.
As a result of the 2010 cabal scandal, the site/forums are defined as autonomous in policy from PACE, who is a silent funding source & provider of basic technical assistance only. In practice, many parts of hsquizbowl.org work closely with individual members of PACE to provide resources for the quizbowl community.
Chief administrators of the forums
| Term | Chief Admin |
|---|---|
| Fall 2001- Summer 2006 | Matt Weiner |
| Summer 2006-Summer 2009 | Fred Morlan |
| Summer 2009-Summer 2010 | Trygve Meade |
| Summer 2010-Summer 2011 | Fred Morlan |
| Summer 2011-Summer 2012 | Matt Weiner |
| Summer 2012-Fall 2013 | Jeff Hoppes |
| Fall 2013-Fall 2014 | Andrew Hart |
| Fall 2014-present | Rob Carson |
Staffers
| Staffer | Date of promotion to moderator | Date of promotion to administrator |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Hart | April 2008 | September 15, 2013 |
| Rob Carson | 2008 | June 3, 2009 |
| Susan Ferrari | 2008 | March 24, 2012 |
| Chris Ray | March 18, 2009 | September 15, 2013 |
| Jeff Hoppes | October 15, 2009 | March 24, 2012 |
| Sam Luongo | March 24, 2012 | December 10, 2018 |
| Jon Pinyan | March 24, 2012 | |
| Daniel Hothem | August 27, 2013 | |
| Jasper Lee | August 27, 2013 | August 19, 2014 |
| Will Holub-Moorman | August 15, 2014 | |
| Aidan Mehigan | August 15, 2014 | |
| Dylan Minarik | August 15, 2014 | December 10, 2018 |
| Alex Damisch | December 10, 2018 | |
| Halle Friedman | December 10, 2018 | |
| Olivia Lamberti | December 10, 2018 |
- Former moderators: Will Butler, Dave Bykowski, Mike Cheyne, Emil Thomas Chuck, Ted Gioia, Kyle Haddad-Fonda, Gaurav Kandlikar, Steve Kaplan, Patrick King, Shan Kothari, Tanay Kothari, Matt Lafer, Scott Moser, Brian Saxton, Mike Sollosi, Tricia Southard, Andy Watkins
- Former administrators: Chris Carter, Pat Freeburn, Dan Goff, Dan Greenstein, Trygve Meade, Fred Morlan, Max Schindler, Evan Silberman, Mike Sorice, Matt Weiner, Leo Wolpert
Current forums on the bulletin boards
Rules and Global Announcements
Rules and Global Announcements, created in August 2006, contains all the regulations that govern posts on the board, as well as announcements that affect the entire forum community.
Regular Season Tournament Announcements
One of the two forums created from the split of the original Regular Season Tournaments forum in 2006, this forum contains announcements, field updates, and results for regular season high school tournaments.
National and Regional Comparisons and Discussions
Formed from the union of the Regular Season Tournament Discussion and Comparisons forums, this forum contains discussion about both local tournaments and those mirrored nationally, as well as both regional and national comparisons. This forum is further divided into the subforums Northeast Comparisons and Discussions, DC Metro Comparisons and Discussions, Illinois Comparisons and Discussions, South Comparisons and Discussions, Great Lakes Comparisons and Discussions, and West Comparisons and Discussions. Each of the subforums contains threads of regional interest.
Theory/Newbie Help
In its original incarnation as Theory, it was one of the original six forums. This forum is still for general theoretical discussion of topics relevant to high school quizbowl, but is also a place where new high school players and coaches can ask for advice.
National Tournaments
One of the original six forums, this forum originally was for five national tournaments: HSNCT, NSC, TOC, NAC, and Panasonic. Other national tournaments run through Beta Club, NHS, and other entities were later permitted in the forum. After the 2006 ASCN TOC debacle, this forum also contained information about the current situation pursuing legal action against ASCN.
Middle School Quizbowl
Discussions related to quizbowl at the middle school level go here.
Misc. HSQB
One of the original six forums, this forum is for everything related to high school quizbowl that doesn't belong in one of the other forums.
PACE Presents Special Discussions
From July to November in 2006, E.T. Chuck ran a series of weeklong discussions focused on one specific topic related to high school quiz bowl. Important topics related to high school quizbowl now get moved here from other topics.
Off Topic
One of the original six forums, this was the original forum for quizbowlers to discuss issues not related to quizbowl. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
Sports
Fred Morlan began the board Football Pick 'Em for the 2003 season. At some point (2004?) this forum was created to house the Pick 'Em. Now it holds all sports talk. During the forum reorganization of 2008, it was made into a subforum of Off Topic. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
Politics
Resurrected in December 2007 in preparation for the 2008 November elections, this forum may become an itinerant once-every-four-years addition depending on use and civility. During the forum reorganization of 2008, it was made into a subforum of Off Topic. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
Blank of the Month Clubs
Created in 2008, this subforum of Off Topic holds all discussion regarding the forum Book of the Month club and similar clubs, or at least would if such things ever got off the ground. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
Collegiate Announcements & Results
One of the two original forums in the college section, this forum houses announcements, field updates, and results for collegiate and open tournaments. Until the addition of the Trash forum, announcements and results for trash tournaments went here.
Collegiate Discussion
One of the two original forums in the college section, this forum contains discussion about anything and everything in the college game, ranging from "If we hold a tournament on this date, will people come?" to "This is how you write good questions" to "Tournament X blew, and here's why". Until the addition of the Trash forum, discussion about trash tournaments went here.
New Collegiate Teams
This forum is for anyone seeking advice on starting a collegiate team, branching out into new types of tournaments, or other "how-to" aspects of collegiate quizbowl.
Trash
Added sometime after the college section, this forum contains everything related to the world of pop culture quizbowl.
AHAN Jr.
Since its inception in 2006, this has been the "anything goes" forum on the boards. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
Best of the Best
Since the archives forums were created, the auto-archiving process had moved several high-quality threads to the appropriate archive area, where they were lost amidst a sea of other posts. Thus, Best of the Best was created in May 2007 as a place for the threads deemed to have the most use to players, coaches, and others in the quizbowl community. Most of the threads currently in Best of the Best deal with how to write good questions and avoid bad ones.
High school area archives
Auto-archived threads from the high school areas of the board are collected here, including the epic "Bad Negs" thread, which was unfortunately allowed to lapse over the summer of 2007 after nearly three years of semi-continuous posts.
College area archives
Auto-archived threads from the collegiate and open areas of the board are collected here. Due to board compartmentalization, threads created in AHAN Jr., which cannot be seen by non-members, are moved into this area of the board that can be seen by non-members.
Off topic archives
Auto-archived threads from the Off Topic and Sports forums can be found here. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
The Forbidden Zone
- Main article: Forbidden Zone
Created in June 2004 and moderated by the inimitable Doctor Zaius, The Forbidden Zone contains the Worst of the Worst. Double posts, spam, and useless threads that no one should be subjected to are moved here. This forum cannot be seen by non-members.
Former forums on the bulletin boards
Regular Season Tournaments
One of the original six forums, this was later split into Regular Season Tourney Announcements and Regular Season Tournament Discussion.
Regular Season Tournament Discussion
One of the two forums created from the split of the original Regular Season Tournaments forum in 2006, this forum contained discussion about regular season high school tournaments. In 2008 it was combined with Comparisons to form National and Regional Comparisons and Discussions.
Comparisons
One of the original six forums, this forum contained regional, national, and historical comparisons of "Who's the better team." In 2008 it was combined with Regular Season Tournament Discussion to form National and Regional Comparisons and Discussions.
Misc. College QB
"About collegiate quizbowl + doesn't fit elsewhere = goes here. This is the appropriate forum for the trade and sale of qb-related goods and services, as well as links to free packets." Originally moderated by Steve Kaplan before it was discontinued due to lack of use and subsumed into Discussion.
Politics
Created in December 2003 to house politics threads at the request of several posters, it was moderated by Stephanie Walker and disappeared sometime before or during the Great Fuckup of 2004 due to lack of use and a tendency for threads to get out of hand.
AHAN
Created in June 2003 as Ad Hominem Ad Nauseum, this forum intended to contain all flamewars to a single forum instead of having them spill over into forums where real discussion was taking place. Perhaps the original AHAN thread, "Dude, you suck" survived the Great Fuckup of 2004 and can now be found in the Forbidden Zone. This inauspicious debut in no way foreshadowed the greatness that was to come.
Off Topic II: Pictures of Non-National Flags
This forum was created as the college section's counterpart to Off Topic. Forum rules required a picture of a non-national flag to be part of every post in the forum. Due to rampant inactivity, Matt Weiner closed the forum down on June 16, 2004.
