Submitting Questions

One of the duties of a Trivia minion is to submit ten questions a week to their Division Leader. If for whatever reason you can't do so in a given week, remember to inform your DL!
Finding and submitting questions for a Trivia event isn't particularly hard, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Submitting:

 Since the questions submission form decided to go on strike, we have reverted to good old-fashioned email. You should submit your questions directly to your Division Leader via email - you will find their email address on the Contact page. There are two ways to go about it: Either you paste your questions directly into the body of your email or you type them into a Notepad (.txt) file and attach it to the email. Writing them into a .txt file has the advantage that you have a record of the questions, too, and don't need to rummage through your "Sent Items" box! This can be useful when you are not sure whether you've submitted a certain question before, or not - because sending the same question twice is kind of pointless!

Difficulty Level:

 Obviously, since Trivia events are supposed to be fun for everyone, questions should not be overly difficult. Then again, we don't want to make things too easy for them, do we? So it's a matter of getting the balance right. This usually comes naturally - you develop a good sense of judgement on the matter after watching a few Trivia events and writing a few questions.
In general, avoid questions that you wouldn't be able to answer yourself unless you had the book or website open in front of you. As regards films, avoid behind-the-scenes questions that no one can reasonable be expected to answer.
Similarly, try to avoid asking things that would be obvious to anyone who paid little or no attention to the movie/episode.

For example:
If the topic is Star Wars, questions like "Who is Luke's father?" or "What is the golden droid's name?" are pretty much useless. The answer would be pretty obvious to anyone who ever saw the movies. In fact, around OTF, some people would know the answer without ever having seen Star Wars at all!
At the same time, asking about the number of buttons on the Millennium Falcon's console, or the amount of days or hours it took to shoot a particular scene, would be pointless because few people, if anyone, would know the answer offhand.
Remember, the point of Trivia events is to challenge people to show their knowledge, not to prove to them that they don't know everything!

Reliability:

 This is a big issue. Few things are as annoying for a host as asking a question, only to be told by the experts among the audience that the answer he or she has on their questions sheet is definitely wrong.
To avoid this, make sure that your sources are correct.
  • Books (like the Star Trek Encyclopaedia, the Star Wars Encyclopaedia, Star Wars novels, and relevant fantasy books) are usually good places to find questions - depending of course on your topic.
  • Movies and episodes are also very good sources. If you are finding Star Trek questions, for example, and get your questions and answers straight out of an episode, then chances are high that the answer you get is right!
  • Websites are something to be careful around. Official websites can be extremely useful when it comes to finding information. However, there are plenty of mistakes hovering around the World Wide Web! Avoid typing something into Google and taking the first hit as the answer without checking it up a little bit.
    Reliable websites include startrek.com, starwars.com, theforce.net, lordoftherings.net, wikipedia.com, and official movie websites.
    Avoid fan websites, unless there are a few of them saying the same thing. There are a few good ones out there, but there really isn't any way of making sure! Also, watch out for websites dealing with fan fiction. Some people make up their own stories and characters, as well as changing or adding to what's already established. Don't use fan fictions as a source for questions - they are not official, and chances are no one will have read them!

    If you are still unsure what exactly is expected from you as regards questions - get in touch with your DL and ask them if your questions are too easy, too hard, or just right! Your DL will also be able to supply you with examples of good questions that have been used in past events, so you can get a better idea of what makes a good Trivia question.

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