So many questions, so little time...

[MoMosMoProblems]

I am pretty new at contributing games.  I contributed my first two games in the last month, and so far they got a few plays (28 and 35) and a couple of 5- and one 4-glober from nice people.  I am a little starved for feedback, though, and as I made those and am contemplating my next one, I keep coming up with more doubts and questions.  Some I could find answers for by searching this group, but if anyone out there can help me out with these other ones, any of them, I would very much appreciate it.

1)  I have heard of subcategories for games, but I don't see where you could pick one.  Where does that come up?  All I can find is "category".

2)  If your quiz could go under a couple of categories, can you possibly pick two?  For example, my quiz on bilingual songs by foreign lyrics is under Music, but since it might help if you can recognize words in the other languages, couldn't it also go under Language?  The one on soundtracks I put obviously under Movies, but I would have liked to also put it under Music.  I had to use the tag "notable music", which I don't know if it's really appropriate, but it seemed to fit better than the other tags.  Any advice on this?

3)  Realistically, what are the chances that an editor will look at your quiz, and how long could that take?  I can tell the editor for one of my quiz categories played the one I contributed, with no comment, but the other editor hasn't so far, and I was really hoping for some feedback from him, because he always has very good advice.  Although it has only been a couple of days, with my game disappearing from the "recently added" page so fast, I don't know if they can possibly keep up with the backlog.  Which makes me sad, sniff.  Can anyone give me hope it might still happen (although I know I shouldn't necessarily expect a comment even if they play it)?

4)  How often do you second-guess yourself, or did as a new quiz maker?  For example, I took out the two least-guessed answers from one of my quizzes, because I didn't really like them to begin with, and they had only been guessed about 8% of the time each.  Would you say that's a reasonable move, or a newbie mistake?  Also, now I don't know if having 18 questions makes it look less tidy than having 20. 

5)  I'm also wondering if I should turn it into a clickable, since right now it's a classic and appears a bit hard, maybe.  Do you all have preferences or insight you care to share on clickable vs. classic, when it looks like it might be a little too hard?  I have 11% guessing all 18, and then 0% for 14-17, and 8.6% 12-13.  Would that kind of numbers justify trying to make it easier?

and 6)  Sporcle etiquette:  I understand that if your new quiz is similar, in spirit or answers, to a previous one, it is nice to contact the previous quiz maker and ask if they mind you doing yours.  I have a bit of a conundrum, since I was watching Dead Poets Society and now I'm contemplating a clickable where I quote part of an "inspirational" speech,  for example, "Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?", and the answer is the movie where it can be found.  So I did a preliminary search for "inspirational speeches in movies", and there are three quizzes that are almost identical to one another and all use a very funny youtube clip that mashes several speeches into one long inspirational movie cliché.  I think my quiz is different enough, but a few of the movies would be in both.  Should I contact the one with the most plays and the editor pick?  All of them?  None?

Gawrsh, sorry, maybe I would have found some of those answers if I dug in the Sporcle blog, too, but I have only tried Sporcle U.  But again, if anyone can answer one, two, or dare I dream, all six of these questions, I would really appreciate it.  Thank you!

Oh, and

7)  Would it be better if I had posted seven different questions rather than one huge mishmash?  (HMHIS)

[guilherme_4]

1) Go to a category page, like Geography, and, at the left side, you will see the subcategories, like OCEANIA (the best subcategory in whole Sporcle, btw (of course I'm not saying that only because it's the one I curate)).

2) Nope! Choose the one you think which fits best. I'd choose music for this one, as you did. Adding different tags wouldn't totally solve your problem, but is all you can do, as far as I know.

3) You can always e-mail them, they will probably be polite and help you out, giving advices etc.

I'm leaving the rest of the questions for the other people... hope it helped you, good luck.

7) It's fine like that. ;)

[druhutch]

1. The subcategories are chosen by tagging your quiz. I highly recommend reviewing the subcategories before you tag your quiz and tagging as many of them as possible before moving into tags that are not subcategories. This is the best way to have curators notice your quiz.

2. Nope you have to pick one category. There are pros and cons if your quiz fits under two categories. In your case (music/language) that is no different.

The pros of putting it in music are that it is a category with more traffic and the editor is incredibly diligent about reviewing every quiz. The cons are that in a highly trafficked category your quiz will become less visible more quickly. Also, the editor been around, knows his stuff, and it's very possible he's seen your quiz before and seen it done better. If this is the case, he'll let you know if you e-mail him.

The pros of putting it in language are that it is a less-trafficked category and will stay visible longer. The editor there has been around just as long as the music editor and will certainly give your quiz a try if it is any good. If your quiz has a nifty hook (like it should be in music but you put it in language because of the bilingual aspect) he'd be more likely to take a look at it because that's a fun twist for the category, but like most editors he'll probably need to get a kick out of actually playing the quiz in order to EP 

In the end, though, it's a music quiz, and that's where it would be put if it were ever published.

3. I'd more focus on the curators. Your quiz fits under SOOO many subcategories (lyrics, song, bands, singers, translation, Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian, The Beatles, etc., etc.) and you'll notice from many curators' profiles that they are readily available for you to contact them.

4. That's a good question. I find 20-30 to work best in general. Otherwise I don't feel like I made a whole quiz.

5. Actually, yeah. At least it would be more accessible to me that way. I'm not a music guy but recognize most of those songs and I guess it would make the quiz less intimidating. Just remember to format the hints with html (like: domo arigato<br>_{Styx (Japanese)}) so it looks good. 

 

6. Give it a unique title and don't use that YouTube clip. If you're going to use similar material from another quiz, come up with a better title, a more creative presentation, and present it as something else. That way it is no longer a "dupe" quiz. Use your imagination and prove that what you have is better. I love coming up with distinct titles. You could make a slideshow quiz using pictures from famous inspirational movie speeches where they'd have to choose which speech went with each slide, and call it "Oh Caption, My Caption!" Or something. Maybe a map quiz. Whatever.

7. naaah.

 

[beforever]

All great questions, MoMosMoProblems. I'll just disclaim this by saying these are just my opinions and outlook on Sporcle-related topics... others should chip in too to offer their perspective.

1) As you know, there are fifteen sections we call 'categories': Sports, Movies, Science, etc. If you go to 'Play' at the top and choose a category like 'Geography', on the left-hand side, you'll see a list of subsections, what we term 'subcategories'. Ones in Geography include ones like, 'Asia', 'City', 'Topography', etc. When you say 'pick one', I'm assuming you mean, how do you assign a quiz you've made to one of those subcategories. The answer is... you're only required to assign your quiz to one of the 15 categories. Then your quiz will show up under one of those 15 categories in the Quiz Lab. And if your quiz gets Editor-picked, it will show up on the category page.

Subcategories work differently in that they're more flexible, and that they are heavily related to your tags. You don't have to assign your quiz to any subcategory/tag, but tagging your quiz properly has its benefits. If you're tagging a quiz on Harry Potter characters, you might tag them under 'Harry Potter' and 'Literary Characters' and maybe 'Young Adult'. The curators for those subcategories who come across your quiz might consider making it a Curator's Pick. The mechanism that allows them to showcase it in their subsection this way is tagging. If their 'Harry Potter' or 'Young Adult' tag is not there, they can't CP it. That's why it's a good idea to choose your tags wisely.  (As an aside, though, curators of subcategories can add tags for you. However, it is also part of our duties to encourage quizmakers to add the tags themselves first before taking things into our own hands.)

Regardless of what tags/subcategories you want to associate your quiz with, such a quiz should and would be filed under 'Literature' in the broader sense, for sorting purposes in the Quiz Lab, and outside the Quiz Lab if it ever gets published. There are no 'rules' or restrictions on what subcategories you think your quiz belongs in.

2) When we have a quiz that's cross-category, every quizmaker on here approaches this issue differently. I think most people try to go with the category that has an audience who would enjoy it the most. I agree your quiz on bilingual songs by foreign lyrics, to me, 'feels' more Music. If it was identifying the language from a set of lyrics, though, that quiz should go in Language in my opinion. The song titles just tips it over the edge to more the Music side of things. It's the same case for your soundtracks quiz. If it were me, I would think to myself --- would music gurus or movie buffs know the answers more, and have more fun playing it. I think movie buffs know soundtracks better than people who are interested generally in music. If you go to the Music and Movie category pages, on the left-hand side, you'll see that a quiz on soundtracks do not fit any of the Movie subcategories aside from 'Movie Titles'. Likewise in Music, there's only the 'Song' subcategory. Sometimes there's nothing that can be done about that --- there's just no 'Soundtrack' subcategory. And that's okay. You've found loads of other tags that can kinda be used. That's good anyway, because someone might type those things into the search bar at the top, in search of quizzes on 'movie songs' and 'soundtrack'. They'll find your quiz that way, and not everything has to go through those 'official' subcategory names.

To sum up, if you're not sure about category your quiz belongs in, go with your instinct. If you're still not sure, ask on the forums. Or you can e-mail one of the relevant curators and Editors to ask, or any of our fellow quizmakers who have an e-mail on their profile. Most of us are pretty open to offering others advice. A lot of us do this actively on and outside this forum, concerning a lot of the quizzes we produce. Feedback is always great to get, whether that's before or after you release a quiz. (Another aside, all curators and Editors can check out your quizzes before you release them, via a 'test link'. When you 'Test game' before releasing it, the URL of that page is the 'test link'.) And through this process of talking about quizzes with other users, it's also kinda nice to make new friends, especially ones who're just as nerdy.  :)

3) Editors (the 15 of us) all approach our duties differently, but in general, we all work hard to ensure we don't miss any gems out of all the quizzes that get contributed each day. How long it takes for them to check it out depends on the Editor, but we're typically quite on top of everything. You can be sure a user like yourself, who puts in effort to make your quizzes look good, will get our attention --- especially by being open with your doubts and inquiries on this forum as well. Like I said under 2), being active and talking is a wonderful thing.

Some Editors talk more than others. Just because the Editor of your quiz's category didn't leave any feedback doesn't mean they didn't like it, or are going to dismiss it entirely. First and foremost, our job is to highlight good work. Maybe the Editor has a bunch of others lined up for EP's before yours can fit into their schedule. Maybe they don't think it would have wide-scale appeal to their category's audience. Regardless of our personal preferences, and what we find fun, I think we all endeavor to keep the EP's versatile in subject matter and quiz type. We also try to avoid favoritism, and try not to EP the same user too many times in a duration of time. There are plenty of reasons your quiz may not get EP-ed, but it doesn't mean you didn't produce something good. We each have hundreds a month we have to consider. 

So, I think the easiest way for you to get answers on these issues is just to contact them privately --- most of us have something on our profiles for you to use to contact us. There's always the chance your quiz may still get the recognition of an Editor. Just remember that even if it doesn't, there may just be other criteria we have to look at.

More in a bit.

[beforever]

4) Judging the difficulty of a quiz is every quizmaker's plight and worry, before and after contribution. I've been quiz-making since 2009, and I still sometimes don't know what timer I should set, or how difficult I want some of my questions should be. Again, get second opinions --- as many as you need to make yourself feel content that you've made something that's both fun and educational. As you gradually go along on your quizmaking 'journey', you'll discover your own sense of style as well when it comes to what quizzes you're making, and how testing they are. For example, some people prefer to keep time pressure tight, while others like giving players more time. Regarding your quiz specifically, you will get players who appreciate difficult questions and learning something new but also kinda obscure. You'll get others who will give you a 1-globe rating for including those two difficult questions. I don't know if people would go so far as giving you a '1' for having an 'untidy' 18-question quiz, but yeah, presentation is something players might look at too. 

Do you want players to have fun? Do you want them to be tested? What would you find appealing or unappealing about your own quiz if you were playing it yourself? Do you care about getting good ratings? Do you want to avoid a negative reception? My advice would be... figure out for yourself as you make more quizzes what you enjoy about the quizmaking process. And let that guide your quiz-making decisions. And ask for another opinion if you think it'll help.

5) Getting into a specific aspect of your quiz now... I think I recommend switching it to Clickable, based off of the stats. If you do, though, Clickables have their own formatting aspects you need to look at... switching will be different from your soundtrack quiz, because this quiz has hints in the 'Extra' column of your data. I'm happy to send you an e-mail later more about this, with some advice, if you just e-mail me privately.

6) Refer to what druhutch on this, I agree with him. But I give you props for being so considerate. Every now and again, some quizmakers take a particular format of someone else's and makes something so similar, without asking. It's not like we're all trying to be 'strict' or enforce 'rules' or anything, but 'it's nice to be nice'. It's basic courtesy.

7) From what I've seen on this forum, and as you can see now, there's always people on Sporcle University who are willing to answer any questions you have about Sporcle. Sometimes our doubts and questions are multiple... and they might be big, and complex. Don't fear, though, 'cause somebody here's likely to have gone through similar experiences to yours before. Ask away. I hope we responding right now have helped you today (well, I hope I have, I haven't been as active on here giving advice as I've been before). My e-mail address is always open if you'd like to talk more.

[DesertSpartan]

First let me commend you on asking some great well thought out questions.  Second, I want to point out that two Editors have already commented on your post.  I think this gives you an idea on how helpful and Diligent Editors are.  Most everything has been answered, but I will make brief comments.

1)   As mentioned, subcategories are added in tags.  Use of proper tags leads to Curator Picks and more plays and sometimes to Editors picks.
3)  Druhutch made an early quiz of mine an Editor's Pick when I had few quizzes and was very low profile.   The Editor's do a great job and notice a large number of quality quizzes.
4) I decide about replacing little guessed answers on a case by case basis, but I do follow comments both posted in the comment section and by friends.
5) Easier quizzes tend to do better than real hard quizzes.  Clickable can be a good option, but consider what you are hoping to accomplish in creating your quiz.  I often choose the clickable format and sometimes add extra wrong answers if clickable makes it too easy.

Those are some comments I have.  I think your questions have been well answered, but I am always willing to help as are most editors and curators.

[Mateo56]

At the risk of inducing a information overload related coma and giving our questioner one mo problem, I've just got one more idea to add into the mix of some already very good advice above.

2) Sometimes I judge a quiz of mine to have merit classified in two or more of the categories that I have to choose between. So whilst a relelvant quiz is still recent enough to be displayed in the quiz lab section, before finally settling on a category I occasionally change it. That way the quiz is exposed to the audiences of two different categories, which might result in extra plays, ratings and the feedback of people with different expertises. However, a potential downside of this is that the editor of the category the quiz is switched from could have it marked out as worthy of an Editor Pick, then find they can't as it has moved (though they could contact you to resolve that).

[MoMosMoProblems]

Thank you everyone so much for your encouragement and all the great advice, on all quiz-related practical and philosophical matters.  It sometimes feels a little daunting to join a new online community because you aren't quite aware of the rules and customs yet, but everyone at Sporcle University has been tremendously helpful and welcoming.

Quite a few things to mull over in all your answers, like definitely turning my music test into a clickable, with or without mock answers, ummmm... (it may take me a while to do it, what with the start of school and work, but I'll get there), and trying in the future to come up with awesome names like Oh Caption My Caption.  I loved that.  Someday I just might figure out how to use it properly; and I will ask for your permission, druhutch, unless I have now inspired you to do a Walt Whitman poems with pictures test and you beat me to it...  I'm not terribly imaginative, and I'm also a little anal-retentive.  I thought of naming my first quiz Soundtrack to Crime, which might have been a little snappier (it was going to be Soundtrack to Murder, but I couldn't find enough murders with a soundtrack, which - yay, I guess?), but I just couldn't justify to myself that whaling on a zombie really qualifies as a crime.  Therefore, Mayhem, which may have turned out to be a little too undefined or boring to encourage clicks.  But I'm definitely inspired to try and do better in the future. 

And no worries that I might ever think that curators or editors are too stuck up, or don't care enough to play or comment.  Honestly, I really thought that you guys can't possibly have enough time to keep up with the new puzzles coming in all the time, and I thought that a new quiz might fall through the cracks now and then.  It did deflate me a little after the first one I posted to realize just how many get submitted (I hadn't thought to check beforehand), and how quickly they drop off the "recently added" page, but once that sank in, in the end I found that I still had enjoyed making it, and enjoyed making the second one, so I think I'm hooked now for good.  And all your words of reassurance confirm that it's worth it to keep contributing.

So thank you all again!  You're awesome!