This coming Sunday, 11th October 2015, the inaugural DS Big Brother Forum Live Quiz will take place in this forum

The winner will be able to claim to be the world's most knowledgeable Big Brother UK fan, well strictly speaking this forum's most knowledgeable member, but surely that's the same thing

The basic way it will work is that I will be this year's Quizmaster and the following sequence will be repeated for each question:

* The Quizmaster will post the next question and specify how much detail is required for an answer, many questions will contain a link to an associated picture or video clip

* The contestants post their answers as quickly as they can

* The Quizmaster then reveals the correct answer, this post will commonly contain a link to a video clip related to the question (and will usually confirm the answer)

* Contestants, and observers, may then post any comments they wish to make regarding the question; this may be an opinion of the events/housemates referenced or of the question itself, provide additional information, recall memories of the event, etc.

* The Quizmaster will then award the poster of the first post that appeared in the thread which contained the correct answer (if any) the point(s) for that question and present an updated leaderboard

* The Quizmaster will then provide some preparatory information for the next question, most importantly, a very accurate indication of when it will be posted


The contestant who has the most points after the last question has been answered will be crowned champion for the year, a tie-breaker question will be asked if there is no clear leader at that point

Obviously there are timing issues related to the way the forum operates that need to be overcome to ensure that all contestants have an equal chance to respond first, but I think I have come up with a workable solution

I shall explain this and other details in a number of further posts to this thread over the remainder of this week in order to keep this thread on the first page of the index so that hopefully all currently active forum members who might want to take part will see this thread, and to spare you having to digest all the details in one go

Most answers, and some questions, will contain a link to a relevant video clip so even if you don't feel confident enough to compete then just observing the proceedings will still provide a nostalgic, and hopefully enjoyable, trip down memory lane and you can still contribute with post-answer postings

As well as the kudos of becoming the reigning champion the winner will also receive a prize, but what that is won't be revealed until after the quiz has finished

The questions will vary in difficulty, but knowing what a bunch of BB know-it-alls you lot are, many of them will be tough

The quiz itself will take place in a new thread that I will start on Sunday, and I anticipate it will last for about two hours, including three intermissions

Would anyone who would like to compete but has commitments at particular times on Sunday (X Factor;19:00-21:00, Strictly;19:15-20:00) please post in this thread stating any (un)desired times and I will attempt to schedule a start time which will minimise inconvenience to them

Can I request that you wait until the end of this week before asking any questions as I hope to explain everything in my posts to this thread during this week

All the really competitive ones amongst you can start swotting up now

Sounds like fun.

i'll be scrubbing up on my bb knowledge...

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Timing Of Questions

As the first contestant to answer a question correctly gets the points it is important that all contestants see the question at the same time

As a contestant will only see the question after they manually reload the page in their browser containing the quiz thread we need a method of ensuring that all contestants reload their page at the same time

To achieve this each contestant should perform the following preparation before the quiz starts:

* Open the following link in a new browser window
* http://time.is/London

* Once the page has fully loaded it will contain a continually updating clock showing the current time ticking forward every second

* If after a few seconds the time is not updating then make sure that your browser has JavaScript enabled for that page

* Reduce the size of the window so that the time fills it at a size you are comfortable with, and position the window in the bottom right hand corner of your desktop so that the time is not overlapped by any other window

* All contestants should then always have the current time accurately displayed to within a fraction of a second

Then once the quiz has started:

* The Quizmaster will announce in advance at what time the next question will be posted, e.g. "The next question will be posted at 20:07:00", it will always be on a minute boundary

* When the Quizmaster's clock ticks to the specified time, e.g. 20:06:59 is updated to 20:07:00, the next question will be posted to the quiz thread

* When each contestant's clock ticks to the specified time, e.g. 20:06:59 is updated to 20:07:00, they start repeatedly reloading the page containing the quiz thread until the post containing the question appears

* Then the race is on to be the first contestant to post the correct answer

This should provide us with a working solution to the problem as long as each contestant has a reasonable internet connection speed and does not have a lot of other things going on at the same time on their computer

There is plenty of time between now and the start of the quiz to try out the preparation and sort out any problems you may encounter

Sounds fun!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Answer Requirements

Each question will be preceded by a specification of what is required in your answer

A couple of examples:

1 full name required
3 names and 3 Season Ids required

The term "full name" means a person's first name and surname, typically this will be required for a Celebrity Big Brother housemate

The term "name" usually means a person's first name only, or the single name by which they were usually referred to, e.g. "Nikki", "Frenchy", but may sometimes contain more than one word, e.g. "John James", "The Tree of Temptation"

The term "Season Id" is one of those in the following list:

Here is a list of the Season Ids to be used, together with when and where the season was broadcast, and its winner

You may wish to keep this list displayed in a separate window during the quiz

Incorrect spellings of names will be accepted as long as it is obvious who you meant

Unless stated otherwise in the question, if more than one name is required then they may be specified in any order

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Scoring

Normally the contestant who is first to post the correct answer to a question will get 2 points for doing so and no-one else will get any points

Only a contestant's first answer will count, unless a question is simplified (see later) in which case only their first answer following the simplification will count

If no-one has posted the correct answer after one minute then the Quizmaster may simplify the question, e.g. by providing a clue, or reducing the answer requirements

If the Quizmaster simplifies a question all contestants may then post an answer, including any who previously posted an incorrect answer

1 point will be awarded for the first correct answer posted after a simplification

If after the last question has been answered there is more than one contestant tied at the top of the leaderboard then a tie-breaker question will be asked and only those contestants may answer it, the first to post a correct answer will be the winner

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Schedule

The provisional start time of the quiz is Sunday 11th October 2015 at 7pm

If anyone is keen to participate but cannot make this time please say so in a post to this thread and I will try to accommodate you

Either way, I will confirm the definite scheduled start time in a post to this thread some time on Saturday

The quiz thread will be created about a quarter of an hour before the scheduled start time

The 15 minutes before the start time may be used for general chit-chat and for contestants to introduce themselves and declare how seriously they intend to take things, this is not mandatory as anyone may post answers if they feel like it

The quiz will consist of four periods, each period will contain six questions and the periods will be separated by 15 minute intermissions

The intermissions will allow contestants to make a cup of tea, take a loo break, meditate, or anything else they want to do to relax for a while to temporarily relieve the pressure

Most of the posts containing the answers will also contain a link to a related video clip, the Quizmaster will usually allow enough time before the next question is posted for the clip to be watched in its entirety; if the clip is too long for this then the Quizmaster will recommend that it is watched later

Contestants and observers may continue to post during the intermissions, or may want to watch clips from earlier posts which they didn't watch at the time

I now have folks over on Sunday so am out, enjoy everyone though and if they go early will definitely come on the thread and comment as - good luck everyone!

That's a shame, but I've just totted up the running times of all the clips, and allowing an additional 5 minutes per question plus the intermissions I now expect it to last nearer three hours in total rather than my original estimate of two, so you should catch more of it than you may have expected.

Of course you will be able to "replay" the whole thing from the beginning later on because all the pictures and clips will still be there.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Tips

It will be difficult to participate in the quiz using a tablet or smartphone as it will be vey advantageous to have multiple display windows open at the same time, i.e. the quiz thread, the clock display, the Series Id list if you want it, pictures or video clips; a desktop or laptop computer will be far more suitable

If you click on the clock digits after they have started updating, the surrounding text will disappear

It is important to see a question as soon as possible after it is posted and it may take a few reload operations before it appears, you may find it quicker to perform the reloads using a keyboard shortcut rather than clicking on your browser's reload button with a mouse, this will usually be the F5 key but check for your particular browser, and remember that the window containing the quiz thread must be the current window for this to work

When reloading the quiz thread keep an eye on the page numbers at the bottom of the page as it will be possible that the question post will appear at the top of a new page, if so you will need to click on the new page number which will appear at the end of the list of page numbers, I will try to avoid this happening but it may be difficult as I will not know how many other posts might get in before me when I post a question; I will assume that everyone is using the default "Posts per Page" option setting of 25

Use the "Quick Reply" message box to post your answers as this will be much quicker than using the "Add Reply" button

When a question contains a link to a picture or video clip, open it in a new browser window so that the "Quick Reply" box stays on screen and will be quicker to get to as you won't have to do a "Back" or re-select the thread tab, this is especially true for video clips as you will probably want to post your answer while the clip is playing; to save time you may be able to make this the default action for your browser when clicking on a link

Provide only what is required when you post your answers, the additional time taken to type a surname or Series Id which is not required may make the difference between your post being the first and getting the points and not being the first and getting nothing, you will not earn any extra points for providing unrequired information

Do not post incomplete answers, you won't get any points unless you provide all the required information so you will only be helping your opponents

The answers to some of the questions may be found by searching the internet, but this is very unlikely to win you any points as it will take a relatively long time to do and someone who knew the correct answer will have posted it by then

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Two Last Things

The Quizmaster's decisions are final

The Quizmaster can change the rules at any time (but probably won't)


I think I've covered everything now, thank you for your patience

I shall post tomorrow with a confirmed start time


Any questions?

I can now confirm that the quiz will start tomorrow evening Sunday 11th October 2015 at 7pm, and the thread will appear approximately 15 minutes earlier

I hope enough of you, but not too many, will take part to make it enjoyable

I'm out for the day tomorrow so will no longer be able to take part. Hope it goes well though.

The quiz has now started in this thread:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2110861