Quiz vs Cheats

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Quick question. I run a quiz night (its on the build with 112 people tonight), but how do other quizmasters/venues combat cheating?

Im in a fairly big pub and i can only see about a quater of it so how do you "police" it? Do bar staff/glass collectors etc keep an eye out or what. Its got me stumped. Tonights "winning" team got 80 out of 90...the only wrong answeres being in the music and picture rounds (google helped here me thinks).

[ppentertainments]

In my quiz nights I do not take responsibility for any cheating. I put this onus on the organiser.

[DJMaxG]

I suppose if You are being paid as a DJ, it's no loss on your side.

[DJMaxG]

[MERGE POSTS]

I meant Quiz Host

[rob1963]

Quick question. I run a quiz night (its on the build with 112 people tonight), but how do other quizmasters/venues combat cheating?

Im in a fairly big pub and i can only see about a quater of it so how do you "police" it? Do bar staff/glass collectors etc keep an eye out or what. Its got me stumped. Tonights "winning" team got 80 out of 90...the only wrong answeres being in the music and picture rounds (google helped here me thinks).

Hi Steve,

Tough one this, especially if it's a large pub with lots of people taking part, as that makes it harder to police.

If your winning team only dropped points on the music & picture rounds, I'd say it's almost certain that they were cheating...as these are the only rounds where they can't Google the answers, and it's just too much of a coincidence.

There are a few things you can do to help a bit.

Firstly, if you have cash prizes, make sure you have more smaller prizes rather than just one or two big ones, because the bigger the prize, the more chances there are of people cheating. Also, NEVER do one of those rounds where you ask a really hard question and if a team get it right they win a pot of money which has probably been rolling over for a number of weeks.

Secondly, try to have some questions which aren't easy to Google. In other words, if you ask "what is a xxx?", they can just look up the word in a few seconds, but if you ask "what name is given to a xxx with xxx and xxx? it's not so easy, as they only have a description rather than an actual word to search.

Next, have something printed on all the quiz sheets along the lines of "Please do not use mobile phones to obtain any answers, because we want a quiz night that's fun and fair" You could even go further and have something saying that people caught using mobile phones will either have points deducted or be disqualified from the quiz.

Also, make announcements on the mic about the penalties for cheating, and get people to let you know if they see another team using mobile phones.

You can also get the staff on side by asking them to let you know if they see anyone cheating, and you could take a friend with you & get them to wander round & help keep an eye on what's happening.

Finally, if you DO catch someone cheating, do what my friend recently did. He saw someone using a mobile, went up to look at the screen & saw it was on the Google search page. He disqualified the team & announced it on the mic. That should make everyone else think twice about cheating.

That's all I can think of for now, but I hope it helps.

:)

[Starlight]

Pay particular attention to people wearing little headsets or what have you in their ears as this could well be linked to a mobile phone with several people at the other end of their phone. It would be pretty hard for them to use Google and hide their equipment away. I do believe that some people use their mobile phone to text a question to a ...... number and within minutes, the ...... number replies back to them with an answer. BUT apparently, it costs them quite a considerable amount of money to do it this way. I personally havn't cheated in a quiz, I was told about it - not so long ago.

Stopping cheaters is quite hard and I suppose you just have to really watch out for cheaters. I'd quietly ask the bar staff to keep an eye out too.

Neil M.......

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Thanks all.

Max - Your right, it is no loss on my part, BUT I am more than the DJ/Quizmaster (im basically incharge of the whole entertainment for the venue, i put the DJs in and run the extra week night activities. You may think its alot of work, and it is, but its a national chain and the Area manager for the North West is starting to take notice, if you get what i mean ;)

Chris - Your right, ultimately its upto the venue what happens, after all, im kind of stuck and cant move around :D

Rob - :beer1: Quizmaster General :D - I was thuinking similar things but wanted some re-assurance. Incidentally weve just included a "Pot Luck" round as a seperate entity where the answer is always a number. The nearest team to the right answer gets a choice of 3 envelopes. Bugger all in one, a tenner in the 2nd and £30 in the last. This weeks question was How high is Skiddaw (931m)...we had 12 teams with the exact answer so i had to bring 1 member from each team to the front and then asked "The worl record holder for the most workd records held....holds how many world records? ...that stumped em, and because they were in the spotlight, no google. That team picked the envelope with bugger all in :D

Neil - Yeah...technology is a b:Censored:ch :D

[Starlight]

LOL haha! Get the secret service in :D :Laugh:

Neil M.