Relay for Life Trivia Extravaganza 17/18 May 2013

Hi everyone, with this post I want to update everyone on next weekend's events, and to let our wonderful hosts know our arrangements. I'm using this blog as our main method of communication to hosts and guests from now on.

I'm still updating the event programme in my last post, and you'll see we have almost filled a full 24 hours of events, with one gap from 0130 SLT to 0400 after Toni finishes and before Bo starts. I was never too bothered about filling that slot, when SL is usually really quiet, but if anyone wants to step forward, please let me know and I'll gladly fit you in!

If there are any updates, I'll post them here, otherwise you'll find the individual events listed in the SL Events calendar.

I really hope hosts will find their own corner of the Seagull and rez their stuff and make it their own for the event, and it would be so good if we had a whole rainbow of different styles and approaches!

All money raised goes to Relay for Life, and please please come to events, tell your friends and publicise this event!

Toni Stradling hosting Funless Trivia at Twilight Cove, every Saturday 0030-0130 SLT

For hosts, mostly!

Thanks so much to all you wonderful hosts, literally we could not do this event without you! I sent you a notecard, and from now on this blog will be where I'll update you on the event, so do keep an eye on it. There are one or two changes from my notecard to you.

Most of you have joined the Nellotus group, and I have given everyone a Relay for Life Host tag. This should let you rez objects, change the music stream. We aren't usually bothered with griefers at The Seagull, but just in case you do have eject and ban powers. If you have any problems with any of this, please let me know, either inworld or by commenting on this blog post. Commenting on the blog is certain to reach me, and also lets others know if I have fixed a generic problem.

SL will only let me advertise five events, so I can't advertise you all, so can I please ask you to post your event in SL events. This is a change from the notecard I sent you. Your tag lets you post to the Seagull. The title of the whole event is "Relay for Life Trivia Extravaganza", and please can I ask you to use the words "Relay for Life" and "Trivia" in your event title, this way Events search will pick those keywords out.

If you can self-fund, wonderful and I will love you forever, if you can't, please let me know inworld and lindens will appear as if by magic. There is no standard prize money amount.

You are welcome to host anywhere you like on the Seagull parcel, and you can start to rez your things from now on. We should have about 400 prims available, and I'll deprim our skybox to free up extra prims. If we run out of prims there will be some returning of prims to earlier hosts, but I really would like to see the park filled with your stuff. If you want to advertise your regular event or venue, please go right ahead! It's your space for yourself!

The one thing I do ask is that people don't rez any big stuff inside the pub itself. Everywhere else is fine.

Francine is going to set up Relay for Life kiosks for donations in the park.

Danarov, Lotus Ceriano, Cara Serenity and Pipedreams Cattaneo

having no fun at Funless Trivia

I'll set the stream to my default playlist, but you can change it for your event, either to radio or to DJ yourself. You're free to set the stream to any station, and you can do this by using the radio behind the bar inside the pub. My stream is called Lotus and it's on page 5 of the menu.

Oh gosh, what have I forgotten, probably lots of things! Please use comments on this blog to ask questions, to tell me about problems, or just for general discussion, if you want to. 

Here I am back!

If anyone wonders where my blog has been, I ran out of energy and ideas three years, but here I am back to tell you about something really extra-special we’re running!

The Relay for Life Trivia extravaganza will be on 17 and 18 May 2013. Relay for Life is an international cancer charity, and I’ve linked you to the UK page, but I do stress it’s an international charity, and not just linked to one country.

If we can, we want to run a 24-hour Second Life trivia fundraiser for Relay for Life. We need your help to join us in promoting the event, in coming to events, in hosting and helping out, and in giving!

 

Miles Corinthian at Seagull lFriday Trivia, every Friday 1230

We’re running the event at The Seagull Seaside Pub, and we’re going to ask hosts to find their own corner of the Seagull, where they can set up their stuff, and to make it their own for the event. I’ve listed our draft programme below, and as you can see we still have some slots to fill. I’m not too worried by the early Saturday morning slots, SL is always so quiet then, but I really would like to fill the North American peak time ones, if we can.

If you would like to fill those slots, please let me know! I’ll update the programme on this blog as we fill them.

Catherine Resch at Barefoot Trivia, every Sunday 1200

I’ll be sending out notecards to hosts with further details and asking for information in the next week, but I would really like to stress that the success of this event depends on you!

In the meantime, please mention this event to your friends, and at Second Life events. If lots of people know it’s happening, lots more money will be raised for Relay for Life. Thanks!

Haiden Hammond, Maggie Sewell, Ocean Emerald and Cully Andel at The Seagull

17 May 2013, all times SLT

1000   Sharon Scofield

1100   Sharon Scofield

1200   Lotus Ceriano & Lette Ponnier

1300   Lotus Ceriano & Lette Ponnier

1400   Zia Thibedeau

1500   Zia Thibedeau

1600   Catherine Resch

1700   Bettie Sorbet

1800   Billy2times Krams

1900   Juke Badger

2000   Juke Badger

2100   PJchik Devine

2200   Olmstead Fanshaw

2300   Lotus Ceriano

18 May 2013

0000   Lotus Ceriano, Toni Stradling from 0030

0100   Toni Stradling to 0130

0200

0300

0400   Bo Cordoso

0500   Duane Farstrider

0600   Maggie Sewell

0700   Maggie Sewell

0800   Nelly Swindlehurst, Lotus Ceriano

0900   Nelly Swindlehurst, Lotus Ceriano

1000   Digithaze Hobble

Your name in lights!

So, after my last post you've got your event venue and time, you've got a DJ and most important of all you've got Lindens. This time I want to talk about advertising your event. If you're an SL quiz junkie like me you'll have been to different events, and you'll have seen there are lots of different ways of running trivia events. I said before that you should not think I'm telling you my way is the best way, and very definitely you should develop your own style. But it woks for me, and maybe I have some tip that might be useful. I'm hoping other trivia hosts will add their own in comments, too.

You've got to tell people about your event. If they don't know it's on, they won't come! So how and where do you advertise your event? We're here usually talking about events listing, blue notices, group IM and in-world chat.

Before you do anything it's a good idea to make an event flyer and save it you a notecard in your inventory. If you do that you won't have to type out the same old thin

g every week when you come to post your event and send out notices. Here's mine for Early Birds and Night Owls:

"Lotus and DJ Chantal are the early birds with 20 questions, and maybe more, paying 25L for each first correct answer. We'll have Dingbats and money for typos, and Chantal spins her tunes and takes your requests. European larks, North American owls, kiwis, emus and any assorted avians, start the trivia weekend at Friends Best!"

If you don't know, and most of you will, you get at the events listing from the "search" button at the bottom of your viewer. Click the "events" tab and type your "trivia" into the text box, and that brings up events with "trivia" in the title. Try "quiz" and you'll get a few other ones, but my perception is that "trivia" is the crucial keyword.

Thurina Susa, fully clothed, at Chaos Truth or Dare. Sharon's Diner, Saturday 2030

Once you've done your search you'll also see a "create event" button. Click this and it takes you to the Second Life events web page. Click the "submit new event" link under the calendar, reassure LL you are not going to breach their terms and conditions, and you're there!

Fill in the fields, most of it you can edit later if you get it wrong, what you can't edit is the date, time and venue so make sure you get those right. Make sure to use trivia in your title because most people search on the keyword "trivia". The difficult bit can be the location. Understandably venues don't want any old person submitting events, and often you have to be in a fairly select SL group before you can post events. If you can't find the venue, ask the sim owner to post the event for you or to give you access.

I usually only send out one blue notice for each event, in the group that the venue belongs to, but it's up to you what you do. Blue notices relate to a particular SL group, and your group role needs to allow you to post notices. Most owners will be happy to give you a special host tag and allow you to post notices. You create a notice using the group info screen. You should put a date and time on your notice, with a landmark attached at the bottom.

Hosts normally spam group IM just before an event starts, and maybe at half-time. Click on the map button at the bottom of your screen, then click "copy SLURL to clipboard", which copies your current SLURL (so don't do this from a some embarrassing location before you teleport)! Then open the group IM you want to spam, type your message and paste in the SLURL. Copy your message before you send, then send. Open the next group and paste in your message, rinse and repeat.

Which groups should you spam? I usually spam the venue group, Buccaneer Bowl, Sharon's Diner, Trivia Fiends and Nellotus. Trivia Fiends is a general trivia group and I'm sure the owners will agree that any reasonable person can use their IM. The others are related to particular venues or events. The group owners of Sharon's Diner and Buccaneer Bowl are keen players themselves, and are delighted to support other hosts and events, and only too happy for other people to advertise in their groups. But do be tactful, and please don't spam Sharon's group when she has her own events running!

Nelly Swindlehurst is Queen of the Beavers on her rezday!

Oh yes, Nellotus! Most groups discourage group IM chat because it really can be very irritation. Nelly and I thought that there was room for an SL trivia group where IM chat is encouraged, because we like our trivia friends so much. We have the Friday Challenge winners tags in this group, and the Dingbat Queen title, and I'm sure we could find a King one if any men show an aptitude for Dingbats. Anyone is welcome to join Nellotus, if the chatter annoys you close the group Im window and it's gone. And spam it to your heart's content.

Finally you can advertise your event in local chat at events. Again, please be tactful. Some venues don't welcome this, and you'll end up on the long list of banned avis. Please don't say I didn't warn you.

Some venues and hosts welcome it and will ask if anyone else has events to promote. Speaking for myself I'd love to see the calendar packed with good events, and I really want to let people promote events, and to help new hosts, if I can. That's why I'm writing this, of course! But it's polite to ask hosts if you can promote your event. Most will say yes. And to the host who arrived at Sharon's Diner giving out event flyers yesterday, if you'd asked Sharon she'd have been only to pleased to let you. Ask first sweetie, it's always best.

Next time I'm going to talk about running the event itself.

Stepping into the spotlight

I fell in love on 8 September 2008 when I went to my first SL trivia event, and ever since that red-letter day at Sharon's Diner, trivia has been a huge part of my Second Life. I started hosting in January 2009, and I've hosted three events every week for most of that time. I've really enjoyed hosting, and perhaps it's the actress in me, but I do like standing up there is the spotlight. And I was thinking you might like it too. If you don't already, of course.

Today I'm going to talk about how to start trivia hosting. Please don't think I'm telling you how it should be done, because everyone should develop their own style of hosting, and if everyone hosted exactly like me SL trivia would be a dull place indeed.

There is one thing you need to know about SL trivia, and it's that it's all about Lindens. Seriously. You can run an event if you have no personality, and with questions taken from the Internet, in the dullest sim on SL, but without Lindens you can't run a trivia event. Without prizes SL trivia is just Gogomodo, and we all know how tedious that can be. And if you look about SL trivia you'll find prize levels vary, but for most events we're talking about 20L per question upwards, so if you're going to run 20 questions you're talking about 400L.

St Patrick's Day music at Sharon's Diner with Nelly and the Cows: Maggie Sewell, NellySwindlehurst, Lotus Ceriano

Where does that money come from? I have blogged about the economic aspects of SL trivia before, and you might want to take a look at that post. If you're lucky some venues will pay you to run an event, and let you keep tips. If not, then you're paying for it yourself, either from your credit card or from your SL trivia winnings. And once you've got your finance the rest of the organisation should come easy.

I know some people keep their cam fixed on the sky to try and reduce lag, but I do think ambience can make a big difference to an event. Lebn Bucyk's Barefoot event is set in a lovely park-like space. Sharon's Diner has a wonderful kitschy feel that goes so well with her friendly and fun event. The content of Anamaria Quintessa's Ana-Lytical Trivia is the same, but her event is so much better fro moving to Trivy Island from the prison exercise yard she used to host in.Most clubs will welcome events that bring traffic, so if you have the lindens, take a look about SL and check out the sort of place you might want to host at,and drop a notecard to the owner outlining your ideas.

You've got Lindens, you've got where, next you want to set a time. Of course the biggest factor here will be when you can host, but you also will want to check Events to see if you're clashing with any other trivia events. SL trivia hosts and venues are generally co-operative rather than competitive, and try hard not to clash with each other. I've found the SL trivia community to be really friendly and helpful, and most established hosts will be only too pleased to chat with you about your ideas. There is no reason why you should not run your event against someone else's, but don't expect a big crowd if you're up against a well-known trivia host.

Somebody left a beaver at Sharon's Diner...

I think another piece of good advice is that you should attend other events and get a feel for how other hosts run events. You'll see lots of different hosting styles, and different ways of asking questions and of paying. What sort of host do you want to be? My hosting style was very heavily influenced by Allikatt Knipper and Sharon Scofield, who both ran really well organised fun events. Do you like the more hardcore approach of Lette Ponnier, or do you like the lighter organised chaos approach of Sharon Scofield or Nelly Swindlehurst? If you can emulate any of those hosts you'll be well on your way to running a good event!

And co-host or not co-host? I like having a co-host, because we can inject some style differences to an event, and it isn't all the same old Lotus. One reason why Nelly and I have hosted together so much is that we have contrasting styles, which I think makes the whole of Nellotus better than the sum of its parts. I know, I would say that anyway, wouldn't I?

I think I've said enough for this post. In my next post I'm going to talk about promoting your event and the nuts and bolts of actually hosting. Please let me know what you think in comments!

For the addicts!

Ok Dingbatters get to work! 10L for each first correct answer, answer in comments below and I'll pay you in world. Don't forget to tell me who you are. These look like toughies to me!

That blog you used to write, Lotus...

It’s been a while since I last blogged, and I’m really sorry about that everyone, I could blame all sorts of things but really it’s just been laziness.

I’ve got quite a bit of news this time, and I’ll blog some Dingbats in another post for you Dingbat addicts out there.

I want to tell you about the Lette and Lotus Culture Swap tomorrow. Lette and I have had this idea for a while, and we’ve only just got round to doing it.

We’re doing a US/UK event at New Trivia Monkeys tomorrow. The twist is that Lette is going to do the UK questions, and I’ll be doing the US ones. We have to act in role for this, so if Lette gets it wrong and sounds American players can challenge and win lindens. I’ve got to be American for the 90 minutes, and if I get it wrong, and talk about heating boilers and car bonnets, you get to win Lindens.

I was thinking it will be easier for me than Lette, because I’ve visited over there a few times and American culture is ubiquitous here, but I have learned not underestimate Lette, ever.

I have had some difficulty with question register: it’s so had to tell how difficult my questions will be for people from another culture. Americans will find “What’s the longest running radio soap in the world” almost impossible to answer, but all the Brits out there will have answered “The Archers” by now. Anyway, we shall see how we get on with this.

Do come along, we’re really looking forward to it and I think it’ll be fun. 2pm SLT Monday 25 January New Trivia Monkeys.

I wonder who can have left her box and all her stuff on my front porch?

Many of you already know that the owner of EyeQ, Jamie Parfort, is letting EyeQ go, and on a personal note I’m so sorry to see Jamie go. He has been a really generous owner and a fun person, and he has done such a lot for the SL trivia scene. I really wish him well for the future.

But SL goes on. One of the many things I’m grateful to Jamie for is bringing Nelly back into trivia hosting, and Nelly and I have agreed, whatever happens, we’re going to continue hosting together. It looks like we’ll be staying in our new slot of 8am SLT Saturdays, but our Nellotus event goes on. I’m not sure where we’ll be doing it if EyeQ goes, but do it we will!

I’ve also hosted with Karmel at the Lilly’s Friday event for 7 months, but because of RL commitments Karmel can’t host for now, so I may be looking for someone to put up with me and host at Lilly’s on Fridays.

That’s about all from me this time, I always love to hear your comments, it makes me feel so appreciated and, as Nelly will say, I’m needy like that.

By the way, Word flagged up a spellcheck for nelly without a capital N. For one glorious moment I thought Word had suggested Newfie as a replacement, but sadly it was only newly. I just thought I should share that with you!

By popular request...

Nelly Plurked a message asking for more dingbats, and she specially asked for hard ones. So here you go. 10L for the first correct answer in comments, not in Plurk! I pay in world once they are all solved. 6 and 10 may be culturally biased.

If you don't don't know what cwt is Google "cwt imperial", and I think over there you say stand in line instead of queue. We're economical like that here. Good luck!

Lindens right here!

Here's your dingbats! 10L, paid in world, to the first person to guess the word or phrase, leave your answer in comments.

The brass and sheet ones look as though they could be the same Dingbat, but they are two separate ones. The clock and LOSE LOSE are just one Dingbat.

Good hunting!

Trivia in Pyongyang

I think some people are not going to like this post, because I'm going to blog about Marine Park.

Sooner or later all conversations about SL trivia turn to MP. If you don't know it, it's a trivia event held at, I think, 7pm SLT during the week. I've never been to an event there, and, since it's at 3am local time, I'm unlikely ever to do so.

But so I can keep my blogging public informed, I paid my 100L for a 120-minute pass and wandered about the sim for a while. It's a nice waterfront sim if rather laggy, and at 0635 SLT no-one was about, not that anyone in her right senses would pay 100L to wander round a pretty sim with nothing happening.

MP is important to us because of its effect on the trivia economy. It runs very high paying events and injects a lot of lindens into the trivia economy. Winnings from MP finance other events, and I have no doubt that, without MP, there would be fewer lindens flowing about the trivia scene.

The ubiquitous Lette Ponnier at EyeQ

But it really isn't all sweetness and light, and I hear so much grumbling about MP. It's no fun, and social chatter in local chat isn't allowed. There is no warning of questions, which may appear suddenly after 5 minutes' silence. The questions are culled from the Internet, and question quality is low compared with the events some of the players themselves run. Becki categorised trivia events into either trivia (with dancing) or dancing (with trivia). MP is unique, it's dancing (with trivia) without the dancing!

And then there are the bans. Rule infractions are liable to be met with a ban. Questioning questions is liable to be met with a threat. Speaking mildly disparagingly about MP has led to bans.

This attitude is so foreign to me. I've been hosting nearly a year, and I haven't sought to have a single person banned. If I ask a badly researched question I feel ashamed of myself, and seek to put it right and to make sure correct answers are rewarded. What is wrong with these people?

It's clear to me they do it because they can, and because they pay the players to dance to their tune. How many people who go to MP would go if it was a 25L game? Clearly, people only go for the money. What else is there?

I know my post is open to so many objections. How can she comment when she hasn't been? And I think that's fair comment, but most of us know that North Korea isn't a fun place despite never having holidayed in Pyongyang.

And I can be accused of being the fox who lost her brush. Lotus can't go because of time differences, so she's going to make the rest of us look uncool for going. It's possible, but I bore easily and I really don't think I could stand staring at a screen not talking for two hours. It's not me.

Many of you live off your trivia winnings, and I know for some of you MP is a big chunk of your income. Good luck to you, but you can't really expect a huge amount of empathy from those of us on this side of the Atlantic there.

Then there is the effect on the trivia economy. Every MP event must pay out about L18000, which is a lot of money, and much of this will come back into SL trivia. I know that Buccaneer Bowl and Thorny Trivia are mostly funded from MP winnings, and I would hate to see either of the events disappear. These are excellent events! I am thoroughly addicted to Buckybowl, and would be very sad if it were to disappear from the calendar.



Cully Andel hosting at EyeQ. Every Tuesday at 1230 pm

But they aren't the only games in town, and if they were then SL trivia would be a dull place. Double Standards, EyeQ, Sharon's Diner and Shiraz all run regular trivia events throughout the week, and for me they are the bread-and-butter trivia venues that keep SL trivia ticking over. I don't know where the money comes from for Double Standards or Shiraz, but I don't think it's from MP winnings. Sharon's Diner certainly isn't financed by MP, and runs 4-5 events every week, paying out 18000L monthly. Jamie Parfort at EyeQ is now running four weekly events from EyeQ, paying at least 1500L per event, and he displays a frighteningly impressive SL business acumen, as those of us who work there know very well. I just logged on to find an EyeQ notice saying Jamie is paying 9000L this week. He does not get that from MP.

As far as I can see people go to MP for the money, and for no other reason. Nothing in SL lasts forever, and one day MP will disappear. There will be a few shocks round the trivia world, but a new equilibrium will develop, and we'll all get along fine without it.

A warning!
The phrase "trivia elite" seems to have crept in vogue recently. It's snobby everyone, and it should be so not us. The correct term is "trivia community" and anyone saying trivia elite in my presence will get a stern disapproving look from me. I mean it!

Oh, your Dingbats follow in a separate blog. And I always love to get your comments!

What you really really want!

Here's your dingbats. I pay 10L to the first person to post the correct answer in comments, paid in-world. Go for it everyone!

Plurk is the new black!

I'm sure you've noticed it, but SL trivia blogging has gone really quiet. A few months ago and everyone was at it, and now we are lucky to have a new post every couple of weeks. A shining exception is Becks's witty take on SL trivia, but the once-prolific Lette's torrent of posts has dried to a trickle. I really enjoyed her interviews with people, and she never did get round to interviewing me and Nelly. Not that I'm hinting, of course, oh no not me!

So if blogging has gone the way of boot cut jeans, where has everyone gone? Well, if you look on the top right of this page you'll see Plurk, and it seems that's where everyone has gone. I have found Plurk to be really addictive and fun, but I do feel sorry that the carefully crafted (or in my case hurriedly thrown together) blog seems to be in decline for SL trivia.


Nelly Swindlehurst on Guy Fawkes Night at Sharon's Diner, Maggie Sewell ran a really fun event, with a great Bonfire Night ambience, but she should know by now that Nelly and fires just don't mix












How can I get this on to Harry Potter? Well, one of the Plurk threads was "If SL Trivia was Hogwarts, who would be which character?"

Harry Potter, obviously, has to be Mako Kungfu. He's geeky and keen, has magical powers and is kinda cute. The senior fatherly figure of Albus Dumbledore is clearly Thornton Writer. Nelly Swindlehurst and Rach Borkotron are Fred and George Weasley, and as Lette pointed out this is SL, and they can change sex if and whenever they want to. I have to have some senior figures so Sharon Scofield is Molly Weasley, and who else but Browman Griffith could be Sirius Black? Lette Ponnier seems surprised to be Professor McGonaghall, but I can just imagine her saying "Report to my study AT ONCE, do you hear?" Can't you? The ever-loyal Ron Weasley, just a little envious of Harry, is an exact match for JoshuaStephen Schism.

And we have to have the forces of darkness too. Lou Netizen stalks the dark halls of Hogwarts as caretaker Argus Filch, and she has to have a cat, so step forward Rain Ninetails. The sinister figure of Severus Snape is Cully Andel. Juke Badger with his hair just has to be Draco Malfoy, and Maelstrom Janus has more than a passing resemblance to dad Lucius Malfoy. Lillian Shippe cast herself as Bellatrix Lestrange, go get her Sharon!

And if haven't included you or someone else, your comment space is open, please use it and fill out our cast list!

Circe Falta hosting at Inferno. The theme was sweet things, and the club looked just fabulous. I put on 3kg just being there!

I've got some other things. I blogged this last time, but the Triviathon is on 7-8 November, and Nelly, myself and DJ Angelo are on at 4-6pm SLT Saturday, with 16000 Lindens to give out, and we'd love to see you there! My Easter Egg for the event is right here, watch this clip! http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/blimp/

And Jamie has recruited two new hosts for EyeQ in the Sky. Sharon is my trivia hosting role model, and for me is one of the two most fun trivia hosts in SL. She's going to do 7am Fridays, and if you've never been to one of Sharon's events, do try and get there, so often she has me laughing out loud in rl. And we're hoping Becki Verne s coming on board too, which would be awesome if she can. Do check out her blog from the link at the start of this post, she's got all the qualifications for an SL trivia host (witty, smart, and I was going to say mouthy but I'm sure there's a politer way to put that).

And here's the result from my poll about Dingbats, it looks like you want me to keep on doing them, sorry to anyone who has problems loading them.

Lotus's dingbat questions at SL events:

They load OK for me on the whole	9 (47%)
They don't load OK for me	2 (10%)
I like them and would like to them continue	11 (57%)
I don't like them and I wish she'd stop doing them	2 (10%)
What is she on about this time?	3 (15%)

Votes so far: 19

Hey, where's my Dingbats? Well, I was hoping for some comments from this post, so I've done a set of really tough Dingbats for you, but I'm going to post them separately today. Comments on the main post have a tendency to get lost among Nelly, Mags, Cully and Becks's Dingbat spam, so I'll have another post up shortly, and I'll spam you all in world and Plurk when I do. Some of them look a bit CBA to me, but you'll manage I'm sure.

Nelly and Lotus do Triviathon

Cully has announced the 24 hour Triviathon, so I can feel free to blog about it. It's a 24-hour SL trivia event on Saturday 7th to Sunday 8th, and the proceeds will go to Relay for Life.

So she's been inviting as many trivia hosts as she can think of, and naturally Nelly and I don't want to be left out, so I'm pleased to tell you that Nelly and I are hosting together with a 2 hour slot from 4pm to 6pm SLT Saturday. I do know Cully still has six slots left to flii, so if any of you want to take part, IM Cully Andel in game and we'll see you there!

I hope you know by now that we like to put on a good show, and we do not want you to go away disappointed, so we're going to make a special Nelly and Lotus effort.

Fiz Laval at Clancy Huckleberry's Shiraz event

First thing is we're putting up 13K Lindens in prize money. We're hoping a most of that comes back in donations, but how much you give is entirely for yourself to decide. We'll be hitting you with 40 questions instead of our usual 30, and Nelly will have a Nelliminator for you, and I'll work up a Countdown and some dingbats . And if we think of anything else before then we'll put it in.

Oh yes, one last thing. Whatever you give during our event, I'll match the amount and donate it to UNICEF. And can I just say that UNICEF is a really worthwhile charity. Your money goes to providing third world children with mosquito nets against malaria, with AIDS treatments, with clean water, and other basics that those of us fortunate to be born in rich countries take for granted. There! I can get off my soapbox now.

Josh behaving himself right now, Rach and I look the other way

Mako has finally made me get onto Plurk, and I've missed out all this time! If you're not on Plurk do not delay, click the link at the top of the sidebar and get Plurking!

And now for your dingbats. 10L for the first person to get the word or phrase, paid in world. Answer in comments please.

Do get it right, Lotus!

I know I'm not the most assiduous of researchers, and Chadd and Shale put me to shame, but even though I get through 50 questions every week, I do like to get it right. Sometimes you come up with alternative correct answers (and I do love those!) and for sure I sometimes miss the right winner, but you all keep me right, and I hope I always put things right with you where I get it wrong.

Nelly always says I should not do spam questions, because I so often come up with the wrong winners, and I do admit to finding it hard to keep up with fast-moving text and pick out a correct answer, but maybe that's just me getting older.

But it's really embarrassing when I get it completely wrong, as I did at EyeQ last week. The question I asked was "What was Abba's last No.1 single in the UK Chart", and the answer I gave was "The Winner Takes it All" in 1978. Which is, I'm sorry to say, wrong, as Carrion pointed out at the time, and the right answer was "Super Trouper" in 1980. I must have misread the Wiki entry, but I really hate to get something as wrong as that, and I should have researched the question better.

Nelly, Lotus and Kiri at Sharon's Diner. The beaver on the vote box has thankfully been greyed out

I am speaking only for myself here, but I do like it when you come up with alternative correct answers, and if you do think I've got it wrong, please say so in local chat or IM me! I'm only too pleased to look into it and pay you if I think you're right. Please don't think I'm worrying myself into an early grave over getting one question wrong, and I do not want a post-mortem after every question, but I don't mind at all if you keep me right. Nelly does it, why should you not?

Cully Andel and Krikra McMillan at AnaMaria's Monday event at Moysie's

I put a poll about alts on my blog a couple of posts ago, and I've got the results for you here. It doesn't suggest to me that most of you have any problem with alts. I was Option 4: I don't use them but I don't have a problem.

OK everyone, it's Linden time. Ten dingbats for you, answer in comments please, 10L for each first correct answer, paid in game.

About alts in SL:

I use them and like them	10 (41%)
I use them but I wish alts didn't exist	2 (8%)
I don't use them and I wish they didn't exist	2 (8%)
I don't use them but I have no problem with them	4 (16%)
I just don't care at all	6 (25%)

I've put a new poll on for you this week, I'd like to know how you are finding my dingbat questions at events. Some of you seem to be having loading issues, and I want to know if I should keep on doing them. This time you can choose multiple answers.

The Quest for the Perfect Event

I've been hosting quiz events since January, and I'll let you into a secret! Not all my events have gone as smoothly as I would have wanted, and I'm going to look at why this might be sometimes.

Readers of this blog will know that I think that there should be more to trivia events than asking questions, but today I do want to look at questions themselves, and in particular question register.

I mean by question register setting questions right for my audience. I'd really like everyone to come away from one of my events saying to themselves that they enjoyed it. And that means my questions have to be right for you! If only it were so easy.

First we have the Scylla of easy questions. If I asked for the capital of France, the speed typists would get the answer every time, and knowledgeable people who aren't fast typists will not be in with a chance. Veer too much towards difficult questions, and the Charybdis of Google swallows me, or worse still, the lingering death of hint after hint until the penny drops, and somebody finally comes up with the answer.

I'll never make an SL photographer! I managed to take this photo of Rhea Neiro and Cinna Yaris at Monochrome with my HUDS included. So we also have (clockwise from top right) Rain's What? HUD, Rudi's Green Tool Radar and SEMations AO HUD.

With peak time events like EyeQ and Lilly's 12 noon events, I tend to know the players, and I can at least match my questions with my estimate of players' likely strengths, are likely to know, and I do try to avoid questions where I know certain particular strong players will know the answer. We should not have the same player winning every time, should we?

Early Birds and Night Owls at 11pm on Fridays is much harder. The unusual time means, I think, that people are less likely to come every week, and will tend to come if they're online at that time. I sometimes find myself changing questions in mid-event once I have a feel for the players, and I might take out questions that I think too hard, or too culturally biased, and replace them with easier ones, or questions directed to particular cultures. Since I've been doing Early Birds I've realised that there are some really good players in SL who don't come to mainstream events, but who clearly are smart trivia players. One day I must ask them what they find in SL that's better than trivia. Perhaps I'm missing out on something?

My question register for Cully and my Great British Pub Quiz is,, if course, entirely different. Here my questions should have a cultural bias, with a strong British and Irish flavour. I enjoy writing for this event, because I can use questions I'd never dream of asking at international events. We were really pleased when we ran this event first time to find that so many people came along, and that there was so much interest in a British and Irish event. We're doing another event on Monday 5 October at 1.30pm SLT.

JoshStephen Schism, Lucinda Dollinger, Lotus Ceriano and a zombified Lette Ponnier at Monochrome, sorry [Monochrome]


I'm sitting here thinking that it's just impossible to get it right! When all is said and done, SL trivia is competitive, and it's right that the best players should do well. I just hope that enough of you have fun to make it worthwhile coming along!

I've got some lindeny dingbats for you, but first here's a link to some really annoying Flash games, Semantic Wars and Cargo Bridge. Needless to say I'm hopeless with both, but I don't see why you should not have your time wasted too.

For your dingbats, 10L to the first correct answer in comments, paid in world. Good luck!

More Cultural Bias

I'm going to talk again about cultural issues in SL trivia. I know, I blogged about it before, and when I did you gave me lots of interesting comments and perspectives on the issue. This time I'm not looking to grumble or stir up controversy, just to acquaint you with our Culturally Biased plans.

Cully and I were chatting about cultural bias a few weeks ago and we decided finally we should do something about it. And we decided that if you can't beat 'em, we'll join 'em!

So I'm going to tell you about the 100% culturally biased event we've set up at Flanagan's Pub. Our idea was to try and recreate an RL British or Irish Pub Quiz, and quizzes like would have the sort of questions I would never dare to make an event out of in SL.

It's unashamedly culturally biased, and we worried we might not attract enough British and Irish players. But you all did us proud, and a hardy few from over the pond even ventured into our wallowing in Father Ted and Coronation Street.

Olmstead Fanshaw, our latest winner of a Karmel and Lotus Challenge T-shirt. The question was "Who was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian?" The answer was Theodora.

Oh yes, before I forget, the sim has the wonderful father Ted Parochial House, complete with Pat Mustard, Chris the sheep and the miraculous holy image of Bishop Brennan on the skirting board.

Here are my questions from 14 September. I've left out dingbats, and I've put the answers at the foot of my post.

1: Which Coronation Street character first appeared in 1974 and died on 18 January 2008?

2: What did Harold Wilson view as his greatest achievement?

3: Who extinguishes fires in Pontypandy?

4: Which guidebook writer wrote a seven-volume “Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells”?

5: Where would you find the National Media Museum?

6: Which university is descended from the Catholic University of Ireland, founded in 1854?

7: Which parliamentary constituency did Tony Blair sit for?

8: What is the deepest lake in England?

9: Who is the captain of the England Test cricket team?

Anyway, I want to tell you that we will be doing another Great British Pub Quiz next Monday 5 October at 1.30 slt. Watch events for details. I've written my questions, I do hope Cully finds the time to do hers, from her last blog post she sounded just a little bit overstretched...

Lette and I have another idea for a UK/US event, but I'll keep that one under wraps until we fix it up. It should be a real laugh if we can make it work, so I'll let yo know about that one another time.

And your answers were:

1. Vera Duckworth
2. The Open University
3. Fireman Sam
4. Alfred Wainwright
5. Bradford
6. University College, Dublin
7. Sedgefield
8. Wastwater
9. Andrew Strauss

Do I hear you say Dingbats? 10L pain in world for our first each correct answer posted in comments!