Trivia

Guidelines for Question Writing (under maintenance)

Thanks for writing questions for CrystalCraze, we're very committed to expanding the question database with good quality questions!

If you need help or advice, please don't hesitate to IM Lotus Ceriano, Bo Cordoso or Sharon Scofield.

All new questions are reviewed for suitability by the Team Trivia. We really do try to include your question, and we try to include your question exactly as you wrote them. We do rewrite some.

A few things to keep in mind when submitting questions:

We're looking for factual trivia, so riddles will be sent into outer space.
You should try to have a single clear, correct answer. It is possible to write a good question, though, with more than one correct answer. The following question will work fine, and accept either Alcock or Brown:

Example: Q: Name either of the aviators who were first to fly across the Atlantic non-stop. A: Alcock*Brown

Separate alternative answers with a * and no whitespace.
Please check your facts! Wiki isn't 100% right, but it's almost always good enough.
If you're asking for a person, surnames should usually be enough.
Avoid answers that are a matter of opinion. Maybe it's true, but it is possible to disagree (and take my word for it, people will). Rewrite the question in terms of sales.

Example: Q: Who has been the most popular female music artist in the 21st century A: Taylor Swift.

Be concise. Don't make them write an essay, with footnotes. Only questions with short answers are suitable.
Try to avoid articles, e.g. the or a.

Example: Q: What is the largest organ of the human body? The answer should be skin, not the skin.

Try to keep accents and punctuation marks out of answers, if possible. It isn't always possible, especially with titles of books, films and bands. You might want to give alternative answers, as in this example.

Example: Q: George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley comprised which duo? A: Wham!*Wham

Uniform date format for answers: Month Day Year.

Example: June 27 1948

Answers which are numbers only, should be numbers, not words.

Example: 5, not five.

Avoid true/false questions. Rephrase them as a question without a closed true/false answer
The CrystalCraze database is case insensitive. United States and united states are treated the same way.
Where there is variant spelling .or different usage in an answer, include both.

Example: Q: Which season comes after summer? A: Autumn*Fall

Example: Q: Professor Lindenbrock is a chief character in which novel? A: Journey to the centre of the earth*Journey to the center of the earth

A couple of questions about the Titanic are great, 20 obscure facts about the Titanic less so, including asking how many rivets the Titanic had.. Ask yourself: will someone know the answer to this?

The commonest reasons for rejecting questions are obscurity, too many questions about a niche topic or lack of a clear correct answer.

Once again, thank you for your contribution. We really do value it.