Creating Your First Quiz

Answer: For all of these reasons

Before creating your first quiz, you need to develop a "feel" for the site. You should play a fair number of quizzes in the category to which you intend to submit your quiz and also plenty of Quizmaker Tune-Ups.

Answer: "Fill in the blank" questions are often very accident prone

The main difficulty is predicting (and making provision for) all the possible correct answers. Please bear in mind that however impressive computers may be, they cannot use common sense when deciding whether answers are correct or not. Take a case where the answer to a question is "Martin Luther King, Jr." What is going to happen if people type in "Martin Luther King Jr" or "Martin Luther King, Junior"? Some people may include "Dr" or "Dr." Are their answers wrong?

Answer: For all of these reasons

In fact, practically all categories have some additional rules of their own, so find out first of all which category your quiz should be submitted to.

Answer: 10

You should start off with a ten-question quiz. It makes sense to concentrate your efforts on producing a good short quiz instead of spreading your time and energy thinly on a long quiz. You can always try creating a longer quiz later, when you are more familiar with the process.

Answer: No

You need to devote time to your research and check your facts carefully. Compare information from a range of sources. You also need to know whether or not an answer you give as correct is controversial or not. If there's controversy about the answer, choose another question. Quizzes are not good places to try to advance eccentric or one-sided views: for that you might use the Forums or the Chatboards.

Answer: Something new and different

Ideally, the quiz should also have something in it that reflects you yourself, but that's not the same thing as "inspiration". As for "startling novelty", take care not to startle people so much that they haven't a hope of getting the answers right. "Originality" also means that your questions and information mustn't be plagiarized.

Answer: All of these reasons

Key "tell-tale" signs of little or no research include: 1. Inability even to understand perfectly reasonable correction notices. 2. Questions presented in an irrational or bizarre order. 3. Mindless "thumping" of sources.

Answer: To take note of the reasons given by the Funtrivia editor for rejection and act on them

Obviously, you may correspond with the editor and ask for further comments. A temper tantrum will do you no good at all, especially if you send an abusive or rude reply. Emotional blackmail is not acceptable, either: after all, it's a form of manipulation and can amount to bullying.

Answer: Yes

Correct spelling should be a matter of self-respect. :) Moreover, poor spelling is widely regarded - fairly or unfairly - as a sign of being uneducated.

Competent typing, with a space after every comma and other marks of punctuation, is also important. Failure to use spacing when typing on a word-processor or computer has the effect of "glueing" large chunks of text together!

Answer: Requirements in Funtrivia have risen since these quizzes were put online

Over the years, the standards expected on this site have risen. One of the most obvious examples is the requirement for notes on all questions. Many early quizzes lack these. Whenever standards have been raised, earlier quizzes have been left online as they met the requirements in force at the time.

It would have been unfair to have deleted them as the people who created these quizzes couldn't have been expected to predict future developments in Funtrivia. This does mean, however, that if your quiz is rejected, there is no point in complaining that some earlier quizzes are of the same standard as the quiz that you submit. All the very best in the exciting challenge of creating original and enjoyable quizzes!