Twenty Questions, Round 333

[Hominidae]

Born before 1815?

If yes: Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova

Congratulations, Homidinae, you are correct! Absolutely my favorite historical figure. Much underappreciated :)

It was between her and Nadezhda Durova, but I had absolutely no idea how to handle the gender/sex questions around that pick properly. That person is worth a read/research

Awesome! Great job on your first round as QM, and very interesting choice.

Next thread will be in a few hours.

[Hominidae]

Born before 1815?

If yes: Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova

Congratulations, Homidinae, you are correct! Absolutely my favorite historical figure. Much underappreciated :)

It was between her and Nadezhda Durova, but I had absolutely no idea how to handle the gender/sex questions around that pick properly. That person is worth a read/research

Awesome! Great job on your first round as QM, and very interesting choice.

Next thread will be in a few hours.

Just kidding, it's up now.

[Jamiet99uk]

Wtf this entire round took less than 4 hours. Each game used to take about 48hrs.

I can really participate if these are live games. (Not a complaint against anyone, just I can't keep up AND I SPEND TOO MUCH TIME HERE!)

[DreamTrawler]

Wtf this entire round took less than 4 hours. Each game used to take about 48hrs.

I can really participate if these are live games. (Not a complaint against anyone, just I can't keep up AND I SPEND TOO MUCH TIME HERE!)

The year is 2026. Every 20 questions round now takes 15 minutes or less. The guessers have established a complex system of conditionals that allows the birthplace and birth year to be determined in the first 5 questions. Hominidae and Spartaculous still have the most wins.

[JECE]

Wtf this entire round took less than 4 hours. Each game used to take about 48hrs.

I can really participate if these are live games. (Not a complaint against anyone, just I can't keep up AND I SPEND TOO MUCH TIME HERE!)

Even 48 hours is fast compared to games of the not-too-distant past!

[Spartaculous]

I've been travelling all day today. Time to catch up on what I missed in the world of 20Q.

If no to 1815 and political/military figure, is this a figure involved in a STEM field? If yes, free guess - Sofya Kovalevskaya

This is a fun guess. I have a friend who wrote a one-woman play about Kovalevskaya, and then got it produced (with her in the role) off-off-Broadway.

[Spartaculous]

Wtf this entire round took less than 4 hours. Each game used to take about 48hrs.

I posted this once a couple of months ago, but here's an updated list of the number of 20Q rounds per month:

May22: 4
Jun22: 22
Jul22: 15
Aug22: 10
Sep22: 7
Oct22: 6
Nov22: 7
Dec22: 8
Jan23: 12
Feb23: 5
Mar23: 7
Apr23: 8
May23: 7
Jun23: 3
Jul23: 6
Aug23: 6
Sep23: 9
Oct23: 9
Nov23: 7
Dec23: 7
Jan24: 19
Feb24: 23
Mar24: 40
Apr24: 26
May24: 27
Jun24: 32

The rounds used to take more like 3 or 4 days on average. Now, we really are averaging about right around one round per day since the start of February. As Hominidae once implied, everything changed after the Tank Man round at the start of the calendar year.

[Spartaculous]

The year is 2026. Every 20 questions round now takes 15 minutes or less. The guessers have established a complex system of conditionals that allows the birthplace and birth year to be determined in the first 5 questions.

I've thought about putting in the effort to tabulate key biographical data about all of the 20Q picks so far to help determine optimal strategies. (For example, suppose you know that the entity is a real human being. What is the median birthyear among our picks? Or, what fraction of our picks so far are real vs. fictional?)

Hominidae and Spartaculous still have the most wins.

I find it funny that Hominidae's first-ever win was in my first-ever round as QM.