levikoral
commented
1 year ago I think you are right that it should be included in the rules. If the quizmasters are deliberating about something the quizzer said, and they think he/she should be counted right/wrong they can say "you can sit down" so the quizzer doesn't keep standing there talking during the answering period. If the quizmasters have enough information and are deciding if the quizzer went out of context (for example), they can say "please sit down" or its equivalent to prevent them from saying anything further, and so the quizmasters can concentrate.
I realized after watching a quiz meet this weekend that there's another prompt quizmasters often use that's not included in the rulebook. "You can sit down," or some variation of it, has two uses that I've seen:
One is when the officials need to deliberate for a while and don't want to leave the quizzer standing and waiting at the mic. However, this generally happens after the answering period, so there may not be a need to address it in the rules.
Two is when a quizzer has provided some, or too much, information, and the quizmaster wants to prevent the quizzer from using any more of their time to say something that would push their answer into "clearly wrong" territory. It's sort of like saying, "Stop talking to avoid incriminating yourself." Followed by deliberation and a ruling.
It may not get used much at Internationals, but I've seen a variety of district quizmasters employ it. Is it useful, or beneficial? If so, should it be added to the rulebook? Who else has seen similar prompts?