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Keep questions secure! Note the set your event will use!

Tournament announcements, results, and discussion about specific tournaments.
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Jeffrey Hill
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Keep questions secure! Note the set your event will use!

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

Question security is vital to maintain the integrity of all quizbowl matches. Many tournament sets are used at other sites throughout the country on different days.

When announcing a tournament, clearly state which question set will be used

Because question sets are used at multiple tournaments throughout the year, your tournament announcement MUST include an indication of which question set (or sets) will be used at your tournament. At a minimum, a uniquely identifying set name (e.g. NAQT Invitational Series #154) is necessary, but it is recommended that you also include additional information to help attendees ensure that they will only play one tournament using that set, such as a list of other Missouri tournaments using that set or a link to a list of all tournaments using that set.

If a tournament announcement posted to this message board does not include information about which question set it will use, the board staff will ask you to promptly add that information to your announcement. If the missing information is not added to the post, board staff will reserve the right to remove your announcement from public view.

I recommend including this template near the top of your tournament announcement:
This tournament will use [SET NAME]. It is your responsibility to ensure that your team has not previously heard this question set and will not compete in any other tournaments using this set. As of [DATE YOU LAST CHECKED FOR OTHER TOURNAMENTS USING THE SET], this set is also assigned to these other Missouri tournaments:
  • [TOURNAMENT NAME] at [HOST LOCATION, if not clear from tournament name] on [DATE]
  • [TOURNAMENT NAME] at [HOST LOCATION, if not clear from tournament name] on [DATE]
  • etc.
If you have attended or are planning to attend any of these tournaments, your team is ineligible to participate in this tournament. Question set assignments are subject to change at any time; a list of tournaments known to be using this set is available at [LINK TO NAQT PAGE, QUIZBOWL RESOURCE CENTER DATABASE PAGE, OR HSQUIZBOWL POST WITH LIST].
For links to tournaments using a particular set: Example for a fictional tournament using 2015-2016 BASK:
This tournament will use the 2015 BASK question set. It is your responsibility to ensure that your team has not previously heard this question set and will not compete in any other tournaments using this set. As of January 5, this set is also assigned to these other Missouri tournaments:
  • Kewpie Academic Tournament III at Hickman on February 27, 2016
  • April Eagle Regional Open at Orchard Farm on April 2, 2016
If you have attended or are planning to attend any of these tournaments, your team is ineligible to participate in this tournament. Question set assignments are subject to change at any time; a list of tournaments known to be using this set is available at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... 09&t=17446.
Make sure you know which question set each tournament you attend is using!

While tournament hosts are responsible for clearly communicating which set they will be using, all schools are responsible for ensuring that they attend only one tournament using a particular question set! If you are unsure which question set is being used at a tournament you have attended or will attend, contact the tournament director.

Do not discuss question content in sets that are not cleared for discussion!

Anything that gives away the question content of a particular set, whether directly or indirectly, has the potential to compromise the integrity of any future tournament run on that set. Because of this, posting anything that hints at the question content of a particular set without explicit permission from the question provider is absolutely prohibited and will likely result in a tempban.

Discussion of this year's NAQT sets is specifically prohibited by NAQT until July 1.
Last edited by Jeffrey Hill on Mon Nov 14, 2016 7:42 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Reason: add note to mention the question set in announcements

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dividebyzero
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by dividebyzero »

Makes perfect sense, especially for NAQT and other such sets. But I have two questions:
How much does this apply to sets from QG, Bill Luce, etc. Are those reused throughout the country as well?
Should we go back and edit any old posts (from earlier in the year) mentioning/referencing questions? Or just make sure we follow this policy more strictly in the future?

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Jeffrey Hill
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

For other providers, the "sets" themselves are not necessarily reused but it's likely that the same questions are used at multiple tournaments. In most cases it's safest to not discuss any questions specifics for any sets until the writer explicitly says it's OK.

As for past posts, they're probably OK as we would have likely edited any offending content out, but if there are a significant number of posts about question specifics from other sets that we haven't caught, please let us know so we can be more vigilant about editing that out in the future.

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dividebyzero
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by dividebyzero »

U. Lou Sthagaim wrote:For other providers, the "sets" themselves are not necessarily reused but it's likely that the same questions are used at multiple tournaments. In most cases it's safest to not discuss any questions specifics for any sets until the writer explicitly says it's OK.

As for past posts, they're probably OK as we would have likely edited any offending content out, but if there are a significant number of posts about question specifics from other sets that we haven't caught, please let us know so we can be more vigilant about editing that out in the future.
Or in the case of Two Saint's, questions are reused in the same tournament :lol:

At any rate, other than a sprinkling here or there in the Two Saint's thread, and maybe somewhere else, I don't think any of the discussions I was involved in mention too many questions. Plus, those ones are mainly vague references that aren't going to get anyone anywhere unless they've actually heard the whole question before.

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ZhangC1459
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by ZhangC1459 »

dividebyzero wrote:
U. Lou Sthagaim wrote:For other providers, the "sets" themselves are not necessarily reused but it's likely that the same questions are used at multiple tournaments. In most cases it's safest to not discuss any questions specifics for any sets until the writer explicitly says it's OK.

As for past posts, they're probably OK as we would have likely edited any offending content out, but if there are a significant number of posts about question specifics from other sets that we haven't caught, please let us know so we can be more vigilant about editing that out in the future.
Or in the case of Two Saint's, questions are reused in the same tournament :lol:

At any rate, other than a sprinkling here or there in the Two Saint's thread, and maybe somewhere else, I don't think any of the discussions I was involved in mention too many questions. Plus, those ones are mainly vague references that aren't going to get anyone anywhere unless they've actually heard the whole question before.
Hell, the same round, even.

Anyways, this would be my bad on two occasions now... >_> /me needs to STFU

PCreedon
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by PCreedon »

Nah, I'm pretty sure the topic is referring to me...

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Jeffrey Hill
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

This year's NAQT sets are cleared:
Jeff Hoppes on hsquizbowl wrote:These sets are now clear for discussion:

Invitational Series # 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 95

Introductory Invitational Series # 87A, 89A, 91A, 93A
Discussion thread on hsquizbowl

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L-Town Expatriate
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by L-Town Expatriate »

U. Lou Sthagaim wrote:This year's NAQT sets are cleared:
Jeff Hoppes on hsquizbowl wrote:These sets are now clear for discussion:

Invitational Series # 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 95

Introductory Invitational Series # 87A, 89A, 91A, 93A
Discussion thread on hsquizbowl
FYI, NAQT's list of packets used this year. In Particular (dates are not adjusted to reflect weather delays):
  • 10 October 09, Mizzou Fall Tournament (IS 86)
  • 14 November 09, Missouri State (IS 88)
  • 21 November 09, Spirit of St. Louis at Parkway Central (IS 89A)
  • 19 January 10, Hillcrest (IS 87A)
  • 20 February 10, Villa Duschene (IS 91A)
  • 6 March 10, Missouri S&T (IS 90) (This one, as I recall, was played under a hybrid NAQT/MSHSAA format, henceforth known as "TMCE Format".)
  • 20 March 10, NAQT Missouri State Qualifier (IS 95)

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bt_green_warbler
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by bt_green_warbler »

This is a reminder about question security for the upcoming MSHSAA Districts, Sectionals, and State sets.

Unlike previous years, these questions are being used for later tournaments outside of Missouri.

Therefore: please do not discuss specific question content.

Once NAQT's competition year is over, I will post discussion threads here and on the national forum for specific discussion and commentary on this year's NAQT questions. (Usually this happens around the middle of June.)

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Jeffrey Hill
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

bt_green_warbler wrote:This is a reminder about question security for the upcoming MSHSAA Districts, Sectionals, and State sets.

Unlike previous years, these questions are being used for later tournaments outside of Missouri.

Therefore: please do not discuss specific question content.
Jeff, would it be OK if I set up a private forum for established board members to discuss the questions? I should be able to allow you to be in charge of accepting requests if that would be a requirement to make this possible.

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bt_green_warbler
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by bt_green_warbler »

Sure, that sounds great.

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scphilli
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by scphilli »

So I'm too told to pretend that most of you don't already know this happened: http://naqt.com/articles/security-review-update.html

Needless to say it's bad. I'm going to say a little piece however since I am the old vet on our circuit. One of the newly minted ICT champions put this on facebook and I think it's spot on:

"To budding quizbowlers - the future is not going to be about what you know, or how much you know, or how quickly you can parse a question and retrieve or construct an answer from the limited amount of information that you can store in your brains. To wit, the Googles and IBMs of today are already way better at this than you will likely ever be. And if they aren't it won't take too many years for them to get there.

Use your quizbowl career to learn things like handing deadlines, managing editing teams, coming up with budget estimates for your club, driving log distances, producing high quality work with high levels of productivity. If titles are what happen your way because of the hard work you do and the high standards to which you hold yourself, then it's all well and good. This is what I got out of my time doing quizbowl, and I hope you look at it from a similar perspective."

Last year at NSC I had an hour long discussion with Joe Brosch, one of the names on the now dirty list. I found him to be an energetic go-getting guy who had some interesting, even good ideas that might be useful in this activity. Now if I run into him again (doubtful), I'm going to have to look at him as if I don't know him. I value working with each and every one of you. I don't ever want to have to look at any of you the way I'm going to have to look at this guy. If you see something, say something. And please remember, all you ever end up cheating is yourselves and your teammates.

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Jeffrey Hill
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Re: Question security is important!

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

For the 2014-2015 season, I am maintaining a page on the MACA website that lists where each question set is known to be used as well as each team that heard that set at those tournaments. This list is meant as a convenient reference to be able to quickly determine if a team has heard a particular set, but is not necessarily complete, so tournament hosts and others should not assume that a team's absence from the list means that they have not heard the set.

Tournament hosts are responsible for clearly communicating which set they will be using. All schools are responsible for ensuring that they attend only one tournament using a particular question set! If you are unsure which question set is being used at a tournament you have attended or will attend, contact the tournament director.
Last edited by Jeffrey Hill on Mon Nov 14, 2016 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: The MACA list only happened for the 2014-2015 season

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