Quizzes & Puzzles Rules

[AB Editor]

Good Morning All,

I hope everyone is well.

Currently we are drafting the new Quizzes and Puzzles posting rules for the new AnswerBank - we thought it might be best to ask everyone here what exactly they'd like to go in this document.

It will act as a set of posting guidelines for anyone posting in the Quizzes and Puzzles section - what do you need to help someone out with their Quiz or Crossword?

All the best,

Spare Ed

[squarebear]

I disagree with QuizmasterG's suggestion that there must be a time limit before people are allowed to ask. If people are stuck, then they should be free to ask whenever they like.

[Aquagility]

I think this is likely to become too complicated - people will not take any notice of masses of instructions.

The essentials are to combine Crosswords and Quizzes, and to put the request which is at present on Quizzes (but not on Crosswords, for some reason!)

Thanks for your consideration.

[Rollo]

It does not matter what instructions/guidelines are given.

People will still do whatever they want to do.

People will answer questions.

Other people will refuse to answer some questions.

Anarchy will rule - the same as now.

[Tallulah!]

The Quizzes and Puzzles section encourages TOO much cheating Too early. E.g. Answers are asked by subscribers to Colossus Prize Puzzle books even before the mags are on sale in the newsagents and whole lists by the usual suspects who don't enjoy the challenge!
That means that ABers genuinely stuck late on and after trying hard can be reported for asking duplicate questions.
What if anything does happen to reported duplicate questions? There are loads on Sundays all seemingly answered by Lie-in-king, which makes scrolling back on Monday impossible after page 10.

[Rollo]

Cheating is not the correct term.

There is no difference in asking somebody on AB for an answer than in looking it up yourself somewhere, or even asking your best friend.

The only difference is that the world and his dog can see the Q&A.

Puzzles are not A level examinations!

[squarebear]

Irrelevent, if someone wants help with a question, they should be allowed to post. If they don't post here, they will post on answerbag, yahoo answers or one of the other Q&A sites.

[Aquagility]

Of course I cheat! I cheat every time I look in the dictionary or ask Google. I cheat when I read out a clue to a companion in the train. And I assist a cheat when I am able to find an answer to the other chap's clue.

Oh, yes. No use denying it. I'm a terrible cheat. But I don't find time in my life to tell others how they should live theirs.

[boysinblue68]

Cheating is the correct term. If you post a question on here (or anywhere else) asking for an answer, you are not doing any work yourself (apart from posting the question) and the answer is there for any lazy person to see. If you use Google to look for an answer, by entering relevant parts of a question, then you and only you will get the answer.

It is relevant when the deadline is - some of us want to test our grey matter against the quizsetter (and compete against like minded people). That is not possible with the cheats on here and the like who do no work themselves. Sadly, it is not only them that are culpable, but also the people who are only too willing to ruin a quiz and give the answers away. However, I do not see an answer to the problem - it just remains extremely frustrating!

[Rollo]

So these puzzlesthat you say people cheat on actually say that you must not ask anybody for the answer do they?

I think not!

S oit is not cheating, except in your mind and nobody really cares about that.

[squarebear]

Quite why you visit this site if you find it so frustrating that people are asking and answering questions baffles me.

If you want to test yourself against the quizmaster, then why look at the questions posted here?

[Tallulah!]

Exactly, rollo, the answers are left in an answer BANK for the whole world to stumble across while googling.

It would be better if answered questions could be deleted as not many ABers actually search the AnswerBank before posting. Sunday proves that.

I still call it cheating to copy whole lists of answers to the difficult crosswords and quizzes as soon as they come out without having a good attempt using books and a search engine which AB is not.

[Rollo]

Tallulah! You call it cheating if you want to.

You are entitled to your opinion of course. And I am entitled to mine.

[Aquagility]

I get the feeling that some of you would like to ban Answerbank altogether. This is not the answer that our Spare Ed is looking for.

[JoolsTwo]

I agree it would be better if it was altogether as it was before. Would it be possible to give a template to be filled in for Crosswords? And something similar if it was a Quiz?

Name of publication/Puzzle...............................................

Number of letters............................................................

Letters all ready in place use a ? to represent missing letters ..............................................................................

Full Clue..........................................................................

Something like that?? Then we would be more likely to get all the information. Just a thought.

[Tallulah!]

At last someone recognizes that I Talallulah! Blankhead would like the Quizzes and Puzzles section of the AnswerBank closed down. I've been saying it all this year and last ,since I ended up being directed to it by google, when researching Quizmail answers.

Actually, the Quizsetter of Great Fun Quiz and Great Brain Quiz does periodically ask entrants not to ask on forum sites but they still do hiding behind a screen name.

I don't need to cheat and I don't need to ask. I don't attempt puzzles that are out of my league. I'd hate to look so stupid asking some of the questions seen in AB.

[Aquagility]

Lets just try to answer the question, shall we?

[keyboardix]

Monitor the site more frequently, and delete any posting that is not a question nor an answer. Terminate the AB Registration of any subscriber who browbeats others for using this AB Site - we all know who they are. Looking above would catch a few !!!

[QuizmasterG]

I don't think putting a date limit on postings is that unreasonable. A month before the end of a quiz, the floodgates will open and all the wasters will ask their questions anyway - it only postpones the inevitable!

But at least the ink is dry on the question sheets before the postings appear.

[Tallulah!]

But the puzzles and quizzes I'm moaning on about have less than a month for completing them. They are issued once a month!
I think to ask under the various other AB headings would put off the serial askers with their lists would deter the majority as they might as well use a different method!

Go for it ed. I love the other sections where advice is asked.