• Participants
    • Eligibility
      • As of Inkling #2, the Inkling is open to registrants in any country.
      • If you register as a solo participant, you must fill out your packet yourself, without collaborating with anyone.
      • If you register as a two-person team, the two individuals must be the only ones to work on the questions.
        • Partners do not need to live in geographic proximity and are free to collaborate via phone/email/text/etc. as long as other resources are not used. However, only one packet will be mailed out per team, so you will need to designate one participant to receive the packet.
    • Private Facebook group for current players
      • After checking out through PayPal, you will receive a link to a “secret” Facebook group for registered players only. This group is for the discussion and sharing of trivia-related concerns. Questions from the current question packet may NOT be discussed until the current competition’s deadline has passed.
        • Membership of the group is NOT required, should you decline to join or do not have Facebook. It’s merely an added perk of being a paid competitor. Any important/needed information regarding The Inkling will be emailed to all competitors.
  • Schedule
    • The Inkling will take place twice annually, unless otherwise noted on the Inkling’s website.
    • Sign-ups for each competition will begin about a months before the start date, and will end approximately two weeks before the start date (or when sold out).
    • Packets are mailed out to all competitors via the United States Postal Service on the competition start date (or potentially a few days early), and include a return envelope with sufficient postage included (for U.S. participants only – out of country participants will need to pay their own return postage).
      • Participants outside the contiguous U.S. will receive an emailed PDF of the questions 2 days after packets are mailed out, to ensure players have a similar amount of time with the questions.
      • If a full week has passed since the start date and any U.S. participant has NOT received their packet yet, they should contact The Inkling immediately.
      • Participants have three weeks from the start date to complete the packet and return it. There is no penalty, however, for submitting early.
      • We realize that this gives participants located geographically closer to The Inkling HQ a mild advantage, and we apologize for this. However, the question packets are intended to be take only a few hours to complete, and trust that all participants will have adequate time with their packets.
  • Playing the Game
    • Packet: Each Inkling competitor or team will receive a packet that includes: Questions, answer sheets, a letterpress trivia fact art print, a limited edition Inkling pin, and a return envelope for submitting the answer sheets (including postage back to Inkling HQ for U.S. participants – non-U.S. participants will need to provide their own postage).
    • Quiz Format: Each Inkling competition will contain 140 questions. However, as questions may take on non-standard trivia forms or have multiple answers, individual questions may be worth differing point values, and each competition may have a different highest possible score. Most questions will be worth one point, with questions worth multiple points being noted as such on the physical packet.
    • Question Format: Most questions will have a standard question and answer format. However, the Inkling will also utilize its physical/visual format to introduce additional question formats that will be explained more thoroughly within the question packet itself.
    • Answering: Answers must be written legibly on the provided answer sheets. Correct spelling is not necessary (unless noted in the question), but should be roughly phonetically correct. First names are not required unless specified.
    • Complaints: Complaints regarding the way a question is worded, accepted answers, and scoring may be sent to the Inkling via the website’s contact page. However, it is up to The Inkling to determine whether any changes/exceptions will be made, and all rulings are final.
  • Competition
    • The Inkling is Just For Fun. This is the second most important rule. While this is a competition, it is not a contest. Your registration fee pays for everything included in your packet and knowledge of your score/ranking (providing that you submit your responses before the deadline). It does not entitle you to a material prize, no matter how many correct answers you submitted.
    • That said, all competitors who have completed and submitted their packets will be ranked, with results being posted on The Inkling website. There will be two divisions/two sets of rankings: one for individual participants, and one for two-person teams.
      • On a date no later than 3 weeks after the submission deadline, a post will be made on InklingTrivia.com that includes: the full list of questions and correct answers, and a full list of players and scores. By default, competitors will be listed with their first name, last initial, city, and state. However, players/teams may opt for an alias that will be used instead of their real name. Player/team aliases can be entered at the time of registration.
    • After scores are tallied, the individual and team with the highest overall scores in their division will be gifted with the TOLVU (Thing Of Less Value, Unfortunately). The TOLVU can take many forms, but will always cost less than the registration fee.
      • In the case of a tie for first place, The Inkling will send out an email to each competitor involved in the tie, containing a phone number. The phone number’s outgoing voicemail message will contain the tiebreaker question, which the competitors will answer in their voicemail message. The correct answer will be a number, and the competitor to get closest to the correct answer will be named as the winner. If there is still a tie after the tiebreaker, additional tiebreaker emails will be sent out as necessary.
  • Honor System
    • Do Not Cheat. This is the most important rule.
    • What is considered cheating? Please refer to the gray box on this page.
    • Reasons not to cheat:
      • There are no material gains at stake. At most, you will win something that cost less than you paid to play.
      • You hate when people have their phones out at bar trivia. Why would you want to be that person now?
      • You want your results to be an accurate representation of your trivia prowess.
      • Honor. Integrity. High personal standards.
      • You know that scruples is a word that only exists in plural form and also you have them.
    • Reason to cheat:
      • None.

Is This Cheating?

If you’re asking, the answer is probably yes! Here are some examples of activities that are considered cheating.

DO NOT:

  • Look up answers (of course!)
  • Look up information relevant to the question (Examples: Looking up definitions to words mentioned in the question; Looking up the nationality of a person mentioned in a question, even if the question is not directly asking their nationality.)
  • Consciously put yourself into a position where you may come across an answer to a question you’ve already read. (Example: If you read a question about a certain TV show that you’ve never watched, and you just happen to start watching that particular show later that day.)
  • Ask someone else for an answer (If playing as a team: do not ask anyone outside of you and your partner)
  • Ask someone else for a hint to an answer (If playing as a team: do not ask anyone outside of you and your partner for a hint to an answer)
  • Write down an answer that you came across “in the wild” after reading the question (Example: A question pertains a certain song’s lyrics, and that song comes on at a restaurant later that day.)

If you have any questions that are not answered above, please feel free to contact me.