I am not that much concerned about keeping it running, I have the will
and time to do so,
That's 98% of what it takes. Trust me. This is the hardest part. If
you have that, the rest is easy.
but I can't really come up with new quizzes.
This part isn't really that tough. Here are some of the tricks I've
used:
* Adapt challenges from other contests. They are all over the
Internet, so it's hard to run out of material for this. I kept a list
of favorite sites bookmarked and would often go back to them for more
ideas.
* Do problems you read in programming books.
* Encourage submissions heavily. The quiz once ran for over six
months without me writing a problem.
* Offer small incentive for submitting ideas.
* Any time you are programming and find yourself thinking, that was a
neat little problem to solve, make a quiz.
I think that you have to work on many different quizzes to choose the
right one which is not too complex and is fun to do.
When people send in an idea, ask them to solve it. I do. It shows
you how hard it is. (If they do it in three lines it's a lot
different than if they send you over 200 lines.) Eventually you get a
good feel for what is just the right fit.
Another tip: always err on the side of too easy. The submissions get
way more creative for the easy problems.
I am always happy to see a new [QUIZ] mail in my folder.
Yeah, I would really miss the problem discussion if it went away from
this list. I'm speaking as a fan here, not the Ruby Quiz guy.
James Edward Gray II