The time, date, and location of each event will be announced as soon as possible over the Trivia mailing list and/or via the departmental updates. If you are hosting/assisting, you may be notified prior to the official announcement.

Trivia events can usually be expected to last about 2 hours. It should be noted, however, that Trivia Events may (and have a tendency to) run over time. As such, if you are applying to host or assist, you should have at least 30 minutes after the event’s scheduled finish where you are available to be online.
Flash Trivia events last one hour, on average, although they haven't been held for years.

If you are to assist a Trivia event, you should be online at least 30 minutes before the event’s scheduled start-time. This will allow for any last-minute briefings and questions etc. If you are not online 15 minutes before the start-time, the position you were to take (i.e. host/assistant) will move to any available backups. Once the 15-minute limit has been passed, the post falls to the backup and is then irreversible. If a backup has been told that they are to host/assist, they will host/assist. If the original host/assistant arrives 5 minutes before the event, the best they can do is participate in the trivia for SPs. To reiterate, if you are not online 15 minutes prior to an event’s start-time, you will not be allowed to host/assist.

To volunteer to host, please contact your Division Leader as soon as possible.

To volunteer to assist, contact your Division Leader. From time to time, other Division Leaders may require assistance when planning events-either as official host/assistant or as backup. If you wish to volunteer for such a position, contact the relevant Division Leader.
Usually the Division Leaders ask for volunteers over the Trivia-mailing-list. To volunteer you can also reply to the DL who asked.

After a suitable amount of time (around three or four minutes) has passed, you may post all members who are to receive an RP. Usually, hosts like to give a sentence or two about the answers received, or perhaps an update on how well any members who have received an RP on that question are doing in the scores (e.g. XYZ is catching up to ZYX!). Make sure to give the answer to the question when posting RPs.

After the host has posted the answer and all members who are to receive an RP, you may post the SPs. Usually, assistants like to include a short sentence or two commenting, or commending the answers. Some assistants like giving a humorous method of “how SPs are getting to winners”. For instance, one assistant might say, “SPs are boarding trains bound for [members’ names here]” on one question and “SPs are bouncing towards [members’ names here] on the next. In other words, try to avoid posting just “SPs to [members’ names here]” as it is lifeless and doesn’t really add to the atmosphere of the event.

No, just the first person to get the question correct. If there is a tie, (i.e. the time is exactly the same for two or more members [e.g. 12:34:56]), then all members on that time will receive a point. No other members, including any whom answer just one second later, will receive a point.

Up to and including 4 SPs can be awarded. You may award 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 SPs per question with a maximum of one SP per person per question.

Note down the scores after each question in a cumulative tally. You can use notepad or your preferred text-editor to keep track of scores on your computer. Also, using a pen and paper, you should keep track of which members received what points for each question. This will avoid confusion later and should your computer crash, you will have a backup.

Note down the scores after each question in a cumulative tally. You can use notepad or your preferred text-editor to keep track of scores on your computer. Also, using a pen and paper, you should keep track of which members received what points for each question. This will avoid confusion later and should your computer crash, you will have a backup.

No. However, if you feel you can manage, this would help avoid any confusion later should problems arise.

When hosting an event, there is usually a lot of waiting around between the posting of a question, the recording of the names that are to be awarded an RP and the posting of the answer and results. As such, hosts would be expected to keep a list of who received SPs and on what question. As such, at the end of an event, hosts should have a list of every member who was awarded RPs and SPs and on what question(s) they were awarded these.

A DP is a “Double Post” or “Double Point”. These are awarded to members who accidentally post the same message twice leading to humorous consequences. If a member has made this mistake, some hosts/assistants like to give these members a DP to make them feel better. However, DPs should only be awarded to members who are really after making a mistake. Members who DP in hopes of getting a DP should not be awarded such a point. This has not been practiced for a while now.

Simply give the assistant a gentle nudge over an IM. Tell them that you’ve posted the RPs and that they need to hurry up slightly and post the SPs.

This is up to the host and assistant to decide. In cases where both members are deemed to have participated well and both deserve to win, it may be decided to let both members win and have ranks. Otherwise, the host and assistant may choose to play one, three or five more questions in an attempt to change the balance of scoring.

Both. You should record the scores on the computer, in your preferred text-editor or word processor, as well as on paper so that a backup is available for each alternative.

If there is a tie, (i.e. the time is exactly the same for two or more members [e.g. 12:34:56]), then all members on that time will receive a point. No other members, including any whom answer just one second later, will receive a point.

No, but all you need to know is included in the welcome pack you receive via email when you first join Trivia. Assistants will only need to know font tags, they can quickly be learned by reading the HTML-Help.

No, but all most of what you need to know is included in your welcome pack. Hosts will need to know the font and link tags, on rare occasions the image-tag. These too can be learned by reading the HTML-Help.

There are several good tutorials available on the Internet (such as at www.w3c.org or www.webmonkey.com). You could also ask your DL or fellow members for a list of basic tags that you will need and how to use them or check above mentioned HTML-Help.

HTML is a computer web-based language that is used to construct aspects of many websites. You can use HTML to alter text.

HyperText Mark-up Language. HyperText is text incorporating links to other documents or formatting instructions.

The questions are being emailed to the host.

You should check with the Division Leader of the hosting Division.

Ask the person you are working with, or any other seasoned member of the Trivia team.

Ask the person you are working with, or any other seasoned member of the Trivia team.

While you are working together as a team, you are expected to act in a wholly professional manner. If any news of unacceptable conduct or behaviour is received, both the host and assistant may be subject to disciplinary action. If you have any problems with each other, put them aside until after the event.

While you are working together as a team, you are expected to act in a wholly professional manner. If any news of unacceptable conduct or behaviour is received, both the host and assistant may be subject to disciplinary action. If you have any problems with each other, put them aside until after the event.

To ensure a successful event, usually about seven or eight members are needed. If you have less than this, it is your prerogative to cancel the event. Please inform your DL and TL should this be the case.

Try to give as much notice as possible to allow for a replacement to be found. Please try not to leave it to the last minute, unless circumstances prevent this.

Contact the assistant as soon as possible to have them added to your instant messenger program. If you do not have an Instant messenger program, you should download MSN instant messenger (as most of Trivia uses this) or use the online program at www.e-messenger.net. If needs be, you may use another Instant Messenger program.

Contact the host as soon as possible to have them added to your instant messenger program. If you do not have an Instant messenger program, you should download MSN instant messenger (as most of Trivia uses this) or use the online program at www.e-messenger.net. If needs be, you may use another Instant Messenger program.

Scores should be posted in descending order of points. The host will post the RP scores and the assistant will post SP scores. SP scores should be posted first with the RP scores following. If you wish to include a small paragraph at the top of the scores, feel free to do so. If you are hosting, try to remember to thank the assistant and participants and congratulate the winners.