Re: Buzzer

danpassner <*DanPassner_at_danpassner.yahoo.invalid*> · Sun, 05 Nov 2006 01:45:53 -0000

I know this may come as a shock to you, Brian, being as you seem to 
think of me as some asshole, but I agree with you. A major goal of 
the wiki, at least in my mind, was to collect actual history and 
debate regarding the game into one place, and to mix that in with 
some over-the-top material, so as to be both FUNN and useful. Some 
of your more recent blogspot posts dealing with early 90's qb, have 
been incredibly interesting, and is the sort of stuff I would love 
to see more of on the wiki. 

My point is, I welcome any additions to the site that will allow for 
visitors to get a grasp on the history of qb (I never contributed 
much of that sort of material because I don't have the years under 
my belt that some others might have.) We never really delete 
anything off the wiki, so if you want to write stuff in the form of 
articles and put them up there, they will remain up there. If you 
want to write something detailed that doesn't give itself to 
the "wiki" format, then e-mail me, and I will try and find a way to 
put it on the site's webspace. For instance, I would love to have a 
collection of all team lexicons in one place if teams donated it, or 
permitted admins to cull them, as many of those lexicons have terms 
that go back to the early 90's when almost no one who even reads 
this board was active. Anyone who wants to contribute to the site 
has my personal thanks for doing so.

If you want to discuss ideas wrt the wiki e-mail me at 
humanstainremover at gmail dot com . Alternately, you can register 
for qbwiki, and start venting your memory, or spleen.

Dan

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "Brian Rostron" <blr85_at_...> wrote:
>
> I don't know if people still post non-announcement messages here, 
but
> I was thinking that it would be a good idea if people were to 
collect
> documents and histories about the development of quiz bowl and
> academic competition.  Among other things, it would help clarify
> factual points about debates and controversies in the game, many of
> which often appear to be difficult to evaluate, given the attendant
> myth, legend, denial, and self-promoting or scapegoating tales that
> have developed around them over the years.  I mean, we all love a 
good
> urban legend or two, but we all know that players have no real 
idea of
> what happened ten second before they first picked up a buzzer at 
the
> college level, and it might a good idea to actually know what 
happened
> previously and be appreciative of the people who actually made
> substantive and selfless contributions.
> 
> So, excessive discursus out of the way, I realized that one very 
good
> source for this information already exists, namely the collected
> issues of <a href =
> "http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~quizbowl/newsarchive.html#Buzzer">Buz
zer</a>
> available from the Berkeley program website.  I particularly enjoy 
<a
> href =
> "http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~quizbowl/newsletters/Buzzer3.html">th
e
> third issue</a>, what with its discussion of question recycling.  
> 
> It's also apparent that a lot of people such as Don Windham, Carol
> Guthrie, the beloved Al Whited, and David Levinson were really
> thinking about the game, game play, and the theory of academic
> competition.  Perhaps I'll post some of the more relevant and
> insightful passages, if I don't get stoned for posting this.
>