TriviaThing Question of the Day

Announcing TriviaThing Question of the Day! Starting today, we will be providing a single question each day that can be answered by all members. Sometimes the question of the day will relate to a specific date in literary history, but sometimes it will just be a random question. We will track members’ streaks, which will continue as long as you answer the question, regardless of whether it is correct or incorrect.

Check it out at https://www.librarything.com/trivia/qotd. You can also see part of the question with a link to answer it at https://www.librarything.com/trivia.

We are also adding a notification type that will remind you to answer the Question of the Day. Go to https://www.librarything.com/trivia/qotd to turn it on.

Fun!

This is very welcome, because, on occasion, I have been reminded about TriviaThing by a social media post, and had difficulty finding it when I looked for it.

Didn't realize the books shown made it a multiple choice question. I treated it like a Treasue Hunt and was looking for a banner. Eventually clicked on the right book shown, but the format could be more clear. I thought those pictured books were recommendations related to the topic of the Trivia question.

Interesting way to spend more time at LT, but I'd rather be reading . . . and have now forgotten what I came to LT to do this morning . . . 😐

After getting the Question of the Day wrong, I wandered into some fairly successful TriviaThinging with no category chosen.

I found that Harry Potter books were absurdly over-represented in the few dozen questions I answered. Is that just because they have very fleshed-out Common Knowledge data relative to the general run of titles in LT? Or is there a "popularity" bias in the question formulation?

>5 paradoxosalpha: There is a bias toward books with more CK. I see a lot of LotR books.

>1 knerd.knitter: Ah, another sticky time sink. I can see that I've escaped it before :-)

>6 knerd.knitter: haha, i just realized my dedication to filling in CK for the Three Vassar Girls and other 19th century girls' series as I read them could cause consternation for TriviaThing.

But so few people have copies, I'm sure they're too obscure to be likely to appear.

>6 knerd.knitter: Most Cataloged books (per Zeitgeist page, a couple of minutes ago):

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (146,030), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (119,792), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (115,802), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (110,632), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (109,032), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (108,914), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (103,945), The Hobbit (101,575), 1984 (89,319), Pride and Prejudice (88,511), To Kill a Mockingbird (85,444), The Great Gatsby (78,619), The Catcher in the Rye (74,064), The Da Vinci Code (73,577), The Hunger Games (71,739), Animal Farm (65,842), Jane Eyre (64,226), Twilight (62,079), The Fellowship of the Ring (59,906), Fahrenheit 451 (59,374), Brave New World (58,409), The Odyssey (58,286), Wuthering Heights (57,607), The Kite Runner (55,922), Catching Fire (55,287), The Lord of the Rings (54,162), Lord of the Flies (53,928), The Two Towers (52,966), The Return of the King (51,370), ...

So LoTR (which also does come up a lot in my anecdotal experience, though not as much as Harry Potter) doesn't at all disprove that book popularity is a major factor in trivia question composition.

>9 paradoxosalpha: (regarding >6 knerd.knitter:) So LoTR (which also does come up a lot in my anecdotal experience, though not as much as Harry Potter) doesn't at all disprove that book popularity is a major factor in trivia question composition.

This is obviously true, but LoTR has, I think, deeper common knowledge -- and a lot more scholarly work pertaining to it than does Harry Potter. So I don't think it's a test either way; you could (and probably are) both right.

The real test is to test for something with a lot of Common Knowledge but fewer copies. What that would be? I dunno; maybe 75% of the books in my library, since I do Common Knowledge overkill. :-)

(More seriously, something like The Canterbury Tales would probably be illustrative.)

>9 paradoxosalpha: I wasn't trying to say popularity isn't a factor. I was just saying that it needs CK, and the more CK it has the more likely to come up as a question. LotR is another example of a popular book with lots of CK.

If, for some reason, a book was very popular and had no CK, it could not come up as a correct answer to a question (it could be one of the choices, though).

>11 knerd.knitter:

Well, sure.

I love the new feature and the notification!

I am getting notified for QOTD twice per day. Not sure what's up with that.

>14 paradoxosalpha: So am I. I get a notification in the morning and another one at 9 pm PDT for the same trivia question I answered in the morning.

I wonder if it's a time zone thing. I only get one notification at exactly midnight, but I'm in the same time zone as LT.

>14 paradoxosalpha: >15 amanda4242: Are your time zones on the site set to your time zones?

>17 knerd.knitter:

Yup. Just checked.

Hmm... I see mine comes at 11PM my time too. I wonder if it has to do with daylight savings time... (I hate time zones, btw)

>18 paradoxosalpha: >15 amanda4242: I'm wondering if you're actually getting two notifications or if it's just that they're coming before midnight, so it seems like you're getting one for the same day you've already done it on. The notification itself does not indicate what the question is, it just points you to the question of the day page. I think what's probably happening has to do with time zones and daylight savings time and they're coming before midnight for the next day's question, but they're not actually coming twice in a day. But I'm not sure. Let me know if you're actually seeing two coming within the same 24 hour period.

>20 knerd.knitter:

I think that's a good hypothesis, and the facts fit. I am set for Central Time, but it is CDST here.

I think I may have found the problem, which wasn't exactly what I expected. I put in a fix for it, so we're going to see if that helps. We'll have to check tomorrow to see when we get the notifications.

>22 knerd.knitter: s/DST//g :-)

>17 knerd.knitter: Yep.

I got my notification at midnight this time. How about you two? @paradoxosalpha @amanda4242

Yes, I think it was just the one.

So now when I try to answer from the home page, it sends me to the Trivia page where I have to click again.
Is that the intended behavior?

>27 LucindaLibri: That is the intended behavior. If you think it should be doing something else, please let us know. We always love feedback.

>28 knerd.knitter:
Thanks. If I were playing regularly I would want to answer directly from the home page without having to go anywhere else . . . but I'm not, so just wondering.
I can see how this way it guides people to that section of the site . . .
I'm just a lazy, fewer clicks gal. :)

just found this, this was fun, thanks

>31 AnishaInkspill: I know, right? I try to play it every day. Sometimes i have not read a single book of the choices, but it's fun to see if I can figure it out any way.

TriviaThing was suggested to me by an LT member in my early days here as a way to get to know LT's offerings better. If I haven't a clue, I enter keywords into the Search LibraryThing search box and then using the left side to see if something shows up there, especially under Common Knowledge section.

>32 DebiCates: thanks for the tip Debi, I had a question waiting for me in notification, made an attempt, it was another guess, not so lucky this time but I really like how it gets you looking at books you would not think of.

I think I've gotten three or four Questions of the Day today. Every time I start up my browser, there's a new one for me. That doesn't seem right ...

>34 paradoxosalpha: Same. And it keeps on going! After I answer the question I get more and more.

>34 paradoxosalpha: >35 tardis:
There's been a bug posted, you may wish to know, at: https://www.librarything.com/topic/383189