Very sorry for having to reset this quiz again. FAOStat has three different land cover data sources. I discovered that the MODIS satellite data wasn't very accurate, and that the CCI_LC data was much better.
I thought it better to reset the quiz rather than maintain inaccurate data. I apologize to the few hundred people who lost their points.
Because you can inadvertently brute-force the quiz by just guessing all the countries of the world until you get all of the answers. I would contend that this sort of quiz can only really be rewarding if you limit yourself to a certain number of guesses. I suppose we could each do that privately, but it'd be much better if Jetpunk built in an option for quizmakers to limit the number of possible guesses on quizzes like this.
More generally, although I can see the appeal of this sort of quiz when taken in moderation (though I can't say I care even remotely about mangrove density), I'd like to see the site's balance shift away from endless country league tables and more towards broader, more creative tests of knowledge. There are plenty of great quizzes of all varieties in the user nominations list.
And what's wrong with that? If you really want to nitpick you should comment on every quiz where all answers are countries, which is a very good portion of this entire website.
The point of quizzes is to learn anyway and points are just an extra incentive. It is highly unlikely that inexperienced users can brute-force it all within the time given, which means they will end up learning a new thing if their goal was to achieve a max score. Isn't that a good thing?
Also, if you literally brute-force every single one of those quizzes without learning a thing eventually, it really just is a skill issue on your part c:
"You should comment on every quiz where all answers are countries, which is a very good portion of this entire website."
For reasons that should be obvious, I'm not going to comment on every such quiz - but yes, that's my point. I think there are far too many "name the countries" quizzes and not enough quizzes of other kinds.
I feel the "countries of the world" quizzes have a higher appeal than most others because they are more accessible to anyone. As a non-US user, they are easier to me than some quizzes about idk American culture, history or sport (yep, I'm one of the "this site is too US-centered" commenters).
So yeah, most of the users are from US, but if you have real general knowledge quizzes (and not only US-general knowledge quizzes), people from other countries can participate as well. This does not exclude the viability of alternative themes, but explain why the site is lead by this type of quiz.
And as others have already said, those quizzes are great for random knowledge about the world. I got to know a lot about Asian countries by doing this type of quizzes.
There is a unique charm to quizzes of this sort simply because there is a lot to learn about the world. This quiz, for example, not only teaches us about vegetation, but it also hints towards other facts such as the climate that mangroves grow in. For instance, I myself have learned a lot of random facts about countries around the world from those quizzes.
Plus, most featured quizzes on this site are user created anyway. If there was a rise in demand for other types of quizzes, you will see an influx of them.
There's nothing wrong with wanting variety, but being nitpicky is not a solution to that. Why don't you, instead of whining about a quiz that has no problem in itself, provide constructive criticism... Or, better yet, be the one to create variety yourself?
I second this notion, bread, and I find these sorts of "simple" country quizzes wildly more engaging than the endless spew of "I combined some country shapes into a nice-looking picture" quizzes that seem to dominate this website nowadays.
I agree with the commenters’ criticisms here. For me, I am able to type a sub-3 cotw result, but I still don’t care for these quizzes. I would rather see more creative quizzes get featured, rather than “guess 18-25 countries” quizzes where I’ll always miss a few answers in guessing no matter how hard I try. Sure, I learn something, I do like that, but having to constantly guess and deduce off of that so many times is annoying for me.
Congratulations on an incredible time for Countries of the World - I don't think I've ever gotten less than six minutes, as I can type neither quickly nor accurately! As a result of my deficiencies, I do not particularly enjoy the speed-typing quizzes so I usually just skip those or content myself with the one or two points I can get from them.
I thought it better to reset the quiz rather than maintain inaccurate data. I apologize to the few hundred people who lost their points.
and let the mangrove through
let the mangrove through.
More generally, although I can see the appeal of this sort of quiz when taken in moderation (though I can't say I care even remotely about mangrove density), I'd like to see the site's balance shift away from endless country league tables and more towards broader, more creative tests of knowledge. There are plenty of great quizzes of all varieties in the user nominations list.
The point of quizzes is to learn anyway and points are just an extra incentive. It is highly unlikely that inexperienced users can brute-force it all within the time given, which means they will end up learning a new thing if their goal was to achieve a max score. Isn't that a good thing?
For reasons that should be obvious, I'm not going to comment on every such quiz - but yes, that's my point. I think there are far too many "name the countries" quizzes and not enough quizzes of other kinds.
So yeah, most of the users are from US, but if you have real general knowledge quizzes (and not only US-general knowledge quizzes), people from other countries can participate as well. This does not exclude the viability of alternative themes, but explain why the site is lead by this type of quiz.
And as others have already said, those quizzes are great for random knowledge about the world. I got to know a lot about Asian countries by doing this type of quizzes.
I will remind you that most people cannot name all the countries of the world in 4 minutes
There is a unique charm to quizzes of this sort simply because there is a lot to learn about the world. This quiz, for example, not only teaches us about vegetation, but it also hints towards other facts such as the climate that mangroves grow in. For instance, I myself have learned a lot of random facts about countries around the world from those quizzes.
Plus, most featured quizzes on this site are user created anyway. If there was a rise in demand for other types of quizzes, you will see an influx of them.
There's nothing wrong with wanting variety, but being nitpicky is not a solution to that. Why don't you, instead of whining about a quiz that has no problem in itself, provide constructive criticism... Or, better yet, be the one to create variety yourself?