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Why are the Daily Quizzes so unpopular?

Posted By: Bill Calton
Date: Thursday, 24 May 2012, at 4:25 a.m.

In Response To: Why are the Daily Quizzes so unpopular? (Timothy Chow)

I haven’t even clicked a daily quiz post in months. Since I relaunched my blog I have been putting my (limited) backgammon efforts there. Beyond that excuse, I don’t know if “fear” is quite the reason.

When I was an active chessplayer, I was a master but also a student who took lessons. My coach use to only give me problems that he failed to solve instantly. He figured what he couldn’t solve in 1-2 seconds would challenge me for several minutes – and he was right!! Anything that was a challenge for my coach was simply too far over my head and I just didn’t learn from it.

I think Stick is in the same trap with his backgammon problems. Most of us are decent backgammon players in the expertish range (some maybe only high interemediate and others low masters). But the difference in level between us and Stick is ridiculous.

Quite simply - what Stick finds difficult or interesting and posts, I generally find impossible.

I don’t mind being wrong and learning something … but often I am totally lost, have no idea whatsoever and feel I have nothing of value to contribute. All I really have to say is “no clue.”

On top of that, few people post anyway so there is little discussion or back and forth and I don’t learn anything. Stick’s infrequent recaps don’t help either. Fewer contributors lead to fewer contributions, a cycle that feeds on itself.

When Stick does put out a recap, it is excellent. I rarely bother to look at the attached answers, rollouts or variants. But the text commentary is first rate, and I highly recommended the DQR’s to anybody based on that alone. For a while I was taking notes on the recaps but let that slip a while back. Perhaps I will go back and reexamine those at some point. This would be a good learning opportunity as well as material for my blog.

I suggest easier problems, hopefully leading to more contributors and more discussion. Emphasize the basics or fundamentals. Most of us are donkeys and always will be.

When Stick someday packages the DQRs into a book format I look forward to buying it.

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