--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, grapesmoker <no_reply_at_y...> wrote: > > To everyone: I would like people to keep one thing in mind whenever > they read about format wars. ACF is a philosophy of question writing; > it is not a canon that consists of obscurata. The whole idea behind > ACF-style questions is that they should be well-written, in the sense > that they should be academic, pyramidal, use interesting and relevant > clues, and be factually correct. ACF says nothing at all about the > topics of the questions themselves, and I think Michael Adelman's > assertion that schools don't play on ACF packets because the packets > are hard has been disproven by statistical analysis to a sufficient > enough extent that I don't need to reiterate it. It is far more likely > that schools are scared away from perfectly legitimate and accessible > questions written in the ACF style because of such claims. Back when > Berkeley was still running high-school tournaments, we were feeding > those kids ACF-type questions all the time and no one ever complained, > perhaps because they didn't have a negative stereotype and a > convenient nickname to attach to the format. Everything that I've said about why people don't play ACF is based on my own observations from playing in ACF and ACF-style tournaments, watching people play in ACF and ACF-style tournaments, and talking to people about playing in ACF and ACF-style tournaments, and a majority of the people that I have observed in that way do not particularly like the format, the main reason being that they feel that the questions are too hard and the answers too obscure. I'm not parroting what people said ten years ago; I was twelve at the time and have no clue what people said about ACF at the time. What I have done is tried to give my own opinions and observations in the hopes that people might finally take people seriously when they say that they don't play these formats because of their difficulty. This is not the only reason people don't play (others include being turned off by the packet-submission nature of the tournament, and wanting to go to tournaments that aren't as strictly academic in nature), but it is the one that I hear the most often. You say that people likely don't play because of anti-ACF rhetoric on the message boards, but I have never, never met anyone who cites that as a reason for not playing, and I would be interested in hearing if you have. I can't tell you how frustrating it is as someone who has run a club to see people walk away from these tournaments completely discouraged and turned off with quizbowl, since they had only heard of a handful of answers the whole day--something I don't see after tournaments that aren't either ACF or ACF-style--and then have to listen to people say that no one really thinks that the questions are too hard, they're just turned off from it because a couple of people spread negative propaganda about it on the internet. I don't think you give quizbowl players enough credit; most of us are fairly intelligent people who can make informed decisions on our own. We don't just blindly listen to the first thing we see on these boards. Besides, there are more than enough people who defend ACF when someone criticizes it (may I point out that right now there have been four people saying that it isn't too hard and two saying that it is), so I don't really understand why it is that people would only listen to one side and not the other; it doesn't make sense. Basically, I think more people make decisions on their own than you think. Having said that, I would encourage anyone who has not played in an ACF or ACF-style tournament before but is considering it, not to listen to anyone on this board, positive or negative, when making your decision. ACF does an excellent job of making their packets available on their website; I would encourage you to check them out and see if you think that the questions are for you. Many people don't like them, but many other people do; you never know which camp you'll fall into unless you try it. Michael Adelman
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:48 AM EST EST