Response to Feedback
Compliments:
I actually like how we all work together to keep things going. Each guest host brings something different to the round.
I really love this community, with the fact that you literally never know what challenges are going to be next. Will it be an art challenge, a writing challenge, a game, puzzles, something else, I love that. Plus having different people running the challenges means that the challenges are going to be all over the place, which makes this community fun. Each person has different ideas, and each time they are the guest host, they are always doing something different. It's almost like, 'the mood of the week' which is cool. So I have to give you props for coming up with such a cool idea for a community sgafirenity
I love the guest host feature! It's such a great idea! I love that it gives us such a variety of challenges. It gives everyone a chance to have their favourite challenges in play, it takes some of the responsibility off the mod(s) to be the one who always posts everything, and it's a great way to get more players involved in the comm. I also love the 24 hour deadline warning - that save me from forgetting a challenge several times! seraphina_snape
I really like the variety in challenges on this community! My favourites are the flash games and puzzles, which I usually don't do outside the community but always enjoy! I also really enjoy making icons :) Unfortunately, I don't really participate in challenges which require writing, drawing, photographing or making big graphics as they are really not in my wheelhouse :( Also, I've noticed some of the graphic challenges I could participate in often feature crossovers and/or blending, which I dislike, as for some reason crossovers are really not my thing, and I struggle with blending as a graphic technique. If I needed to suggest a possible theme, it would probably be a scavenger hunt? I don't remember if this community has had one, but it would be really fun and could work as an individual or a group challenge. Otherwise, I don't really have any other "criticisms", as the community is run smoothly (which seems easy but I know it isn't). Thank you for your hard work! I know I don't participate in all of the challenges, but I always appreciate them :) ciuciuvaraworld
๐ป ooohhhh, a scavenger hunt!
I like that different people do the challenges every week, it makes for a good variety of challenges which I enjoy (even though I don't manage to do all them.)
I enjoy the variety of challenges and knowing that there is no pressure to participate all the time. devon380black
THANK YOU for this awesome place, I am seriously amazed how it "runs itself" (and I'm happy to do my part, linking the challenges and being a guest host :D). And I'm amazed that it stays active considering how extremely inactive livejournal is. And your goal of lighthouse_the just being there whenever you're ready for it is a fantastic one, and I do think it's working. โค dance_the_dance
There's a wide range of challenges and no pressure to take part in everything. Usually if I don't participate, it's because I don't have time, not because I don't like the challenges. neaptidea
Questions:
Can we have volunteers to sign up for the spread sheet and for keeping the open challenges list maintained? Just like we do for guest hosts.
๐ป Yes. PM me if you (or anyone else) is interested.
I sometimes feel like the teams are in name only and everyone is kinda playing for themselves. So how about more team challenges? Or challenges that promote team spirit in some way? seraphina_snape
๐ป I miss jjverse. Teams there definitely had a comradery. I have no idea how to revive that, and that would be one of my dreams if we could. The few team challenges I've given seemed to kinda fizzle. I will try to do at least one team challenge per cycle to try and keep people involved. I also want to bring back Bingo. That seems like a social game people enjoy. Suggestions are always appreciated!
The only question I have is in regards to hosting challenges. When I was making the challenges I have hosted, I struggle to know what is a good amount of points, and how long the challenge should run. I don't know if anyone else has that problem, but I was just wondering if you thought the points people had allocated were ok? like, are we giving enough points, not enough, too much? and are we giving people enough time to do them? too much time? maybe when we post a challenge would it be ok if we ask for feedback on the challenge in the comments/questions section? lab_brat
๐ป Gonna admit, at first I thought we were giving away too many points, but now as I've watched, I think what everyone is doing is fine. Mostly it seems that people are using a fairly uniform points system for things like different sized graphics and points for writing. If you want feedback as to your points and/or challenge time, feel free to ask people to comment about it! Excluding flash challenges, I think at least 2 weekends is minimum amount of time.
Is it possible to create a general challenge tag? devon380black
๐ป Do you mean just a tag that says "challenge"?
I don't have any at this point. :) dance_the_dance
๐ป ๐
Suggestions for improvement:
I think we need to promote more. We're getting a little thin in the ranks. Also a new promotion post each cycle would help with that.
๐ป I never really thought about it, but you're right. I upped the points a bit and posted a new one here.
While I think your idea of allowing members to come and go as they please is nice for those that just want to participate when they have the time, I do wonder if maybe the teams couldn't be evened out more? What I mean is, crew_land has a lot of inactive members while crew_sea has a lot of active members. So maybe members could be moved around to even out the inactive to the active? When I looked at the list of members in the spreadsheet, I was legitimately surprised that the number of members is the same. Why not have something like an 'inactive check' at the beginning of each cycle or something to find out if people are still around because I'll be honest with you, it sure looks like more than half of crew_land is not around. Unfortunately, people join communities and then disappear, never to be seen from again. I personally like when there is a competition and a drive to want to best the other team, but that's impossible with how uneven the teams are currently. All you have to do is look at the spreadsheet, at the moment of posting this, Crew Land is over 4,000 points behind Crew Sea. That's not right.
That's just my thought however. I understand that people get attached to their team and don't want to move, but it's also not very exciting being on a team that's got 11 inactive members. sgafirenity
๐ป I know it doesn't seem like it for this cycle, but I do try to pay attention to this issue. When the comm opened, everyone wanted to join crew_sea. Then the first two cycles hit and crew_land blasted crew_sea with points. So even though crew_sea had more active people, crew_land had more high points earners. It finally evened out so that it became more competitive for cycle 3. Then.....well, let's just say I will be trying harder to bring me and catko back to the crew_land table. (DO YOU HEAR THAT CREW_SEA YOU WILL NOT WIPE THE FLOOR WITH US AGAIN)
I feel like there should be a backup mod who has access to the main community. That way, even if you need to take a hiatus, the sidebar can stay updated (because that's what I really missed recently - it was easy to miss a challenge because to find the active ones you had to search through four pages of entries). seraphina_snape
๐ป Agreed. PM me if you (or anyone else) is interested.
There isn't much I can suggest. Maybe the teams need to get switched up a bit though, most of the points seem to be going to Sea as they have more participants, and most of the challenges were hosted by Sea team members this cycle too. I think Crew Sea is going to win on those hosting points alone.
๐ป Hopefully that will change soon.
I guess the other thing, is the promo mod challenge. Looks like no one has commented on that in almost a year. Maybe it needs to get reposted or make some kind of reminder that it exists. I know I forgot it existed, so others may have too. Maybe it will encourage some people to pimp the comm a bit and get some new members.
๐ป Agreed. I upped the points a bit and posted a new one here.
I propose that a general challenge tag be created to give an option to track the challenges via the tags.
I know that there are challenge tags (challenge 01, challenge 02, etc).
What I'm hoping for is a "challenge" tag where if you click it, only the challenge posts can be seen. (example: challenges)
If there are extensions, then an extension tag which is different from the challenge tag can be used plus the specific challenge tag (example: challenge 01, extension) devon380black
๐ป I have added "extension" and "challenge" as a tag. I will work on using them. I do have a tag "mod challenge" already set up.
1. I have no idea how crew_land is doing, but I would love the crew_sea team comm to be used more. Not even necessarily by the mods or for reminders (the 24-hour reminder post exists, and personally I don't even need any reminders at all, I'm the keeper of the challenge list :D), but for social interaction between members. I'm not sure how to go about it, though? Since I think the main mod cannot really interfere with team comms (or at least with Crew Sea, since you're not a member of it)? Maybe just some encouragement for members to start posting in their team comms. :) And maybe it's a good idea for me to just randomly start posting there. :D dance_the_dance
๐ป crew_land and crew_sea are pretty much equal in their participation. That is to say, there is not much of it. I do on occasion try to check out to see if crew_sea is active, but in general I have noticed it is not. For the longest time in crew_land, the only activity was me posting 24 hour reminders. We just need more team challenges, I think. Ideas and suggestions are always welcome. Maybe a team challenge week or cycle?
2. Tags in keepers_log that have been added but not used by the mod cannot be used by the members. For example, those of my entries that don't have the challenge tag (such as "challenge 17") only don't have them because lj didn't let me use them, not because they don't exist. I think the way to fix that on the technical side is to either allow members to create their own tags (I don't know if you would want to do that, though?) or to make one mod entry that uses all the existing tags just to make them all active. :) (Also, "cycle 04" tag actually doesn't exist. Which is completely understandable, just letting you know. :))
ETA: Actually it's the same situation with tags in lighthouse_the, it just happens less often so I forgot. dance_the_dance
๐ป: I have a Request a New Tag thread at keepers_log. Please let me know if you need a new one, or if I need to add it to a post. You can either PM me or post it at the new tag thread. I've tried multiple times to add a tag for cycle 04, but it never seemed to stick. I have gone to lighthouse_the tag page and physically added it in. It seems to be working now. I added cycle 05 too.
The only thing that I'm not so fond of is when we have to post the art somewhere else, like keepers_log or our own journal. There's nothing wrong if someone wants to do it, but I would like to just post everything below the team banner. It's less complicated for me and I'm more likely to comment on other people's art if it's all in the same place. neaptidea
๐ป I don't really like posting in my journal either, but I do know a lot here do. Also, sometimes comments can't fit the word count. My preference is to post a main comment to a challenge, and then link to it under the submit banner. If it's just linked under the submit banner then LJ will hide comments after the first one, so no one will see it.
In the end though, it is up to each guest host as to how they wish you to submit entries.
THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!
I actually like how we all work together to keep things going. Each guest host brings something different to the round.
I really love this community, with the fact that you literally never know what challenges are going to be next. Will it be an art challenge, a writing challenge, a game, puzzles, something else, I love that. Plus having different people running the challenges means that the challenges are going to be all over the place, which makes this community fun. Each person has different ideas, and each time they are the guest host, they are always doing something different. It's almost like, 'the mood of the week' which is cool. So I have to give you props for coming up with such a cool idea for a community sgafirenity
I love the guest host feature! It's such a great idea! I love that it gives us such a variety of challenges. It gives everyone a chance to have their favourite challenges in play, it takes some of the responsibility off the mod(s) to be the one who always posts everything, and it's a great way to get more players involved in the comm. I also love the 24 hour deadline warning - that save me from forgetting a challenge several times! seraphina_snape
I really like the variety in challenges on this community! My favourites are the flash games and puzzles, which I usually don't do outside the community but always enjoy! I also really enjoy making icons :) Unfortunately, I don't really participate in challenges which require writing, drawing, photographing or making big graphics as they are really not in my wheelhouse :( Also, I've noticed some of the graphic challenges I could participate in often feature crossovers and/or blending, which I dislike, as for some reason crossovers are really not my thing, and I struggle with blending as a graphic technique. If I needed to suggest a possible theme, it would probably be a scavenger hunt? I don't remember if this community has had one, but it would be really fun and could work as an individual or a group challenge. Otherwise, I don't really have any other "criticisms", as the community is run smoothly (which seems easy but I know it isn't). Thank you for your hard work! I know I don't participate in all of the challenges, but I always appreciate them :) ciuciuvaraworld
๐ป ooohhhh, a scavenger hunt!
I like that different people do the challenges every week, it makes for a good variety of challenges which I enjoy (even though I don't manage to do all them.)
I enjoy the variety of challenges and knowing that there is no pressure to participate all the time. devon380black
THANK YOU for this awesome place, I am seriously amazed how it "runs itself" (and I'm happy to do my part, linking the challenges and being a guest host :D). And I'm amazed that it stays active considering how extremely inactive livejournal is. And your goal of lighthouse_the just being there whenever you're ready for it is a fantastic one, and I do think it's working. โค dance_the_dance
There's a wide range of challenges and no pressure to take part in everything. Usually if I don't participate, it's because I don't have time, not because I don't like the challenges. neaptidea
Questions:
Can we have volunteers to sign up for the spread sheet and for keeping the open challenges list maintained? Just like we do for guest hosts.
๐ป Yes. PM me if you (or anyone else) is interested.
I sometimes feel like the teams are in name only and everyone is kinda playing for themselves. So how about more team challenges? Or challenges that promote team spirit in some way? seraphina_snape
๐ป I miss jjverse. Teams there definitely had a comradery. I have no idea how to revive that, and that would be one of my dreams if we could. The few team challenges I've given seemed to kinda fizzle. I will try to do at least one team challenge per cycle to try and keep people involved. I also want to bring back Bingo. That seems like a social game people enjoy. Suggestions are always appreciated!
The only question I have is in regards to hosting challenges. When I was making the challenges I have hosted, I struggle to know what is a good amount of points, and how long the challenge should run. I don't know if anyone else has that problem, but I was just wondering if you thought the points people had allocated were ok? like, are we giving enough points, not enough, too much? and are we giving people enough time to do them? too much time? maybe when we post a challenge would it be ok if we ask for feedback on the challenge in the comments/questions section? lab_brat
๐ป Gonna admit, at first I thought we were giving away too many points, but now as I've watched, I think what everyone is doing is fine. Mostly it seems that people are using a fairly uniform points system for things like different sized graphics and points for writing. If you want feedback as to your points and/or challenge time, feel free to ask people to comment about it! Excluding flash challenges, I think at least 2 weekends is minimum amount of time.
Is it possible to create a general challenge tag? devon380black
๐ป Do you mean just a tag that says "challenge"?
I don't have any at this point. :) dance_the_dance
๐ป ๐
Suggestions for improvement:
I think we need to promote more. We're getting a little thin in the ranks. Also a new promotion post each cycle would help with that.
๐ป I never really thought about it, but you're right. I upped the points a bit and posted a new one here.
While I think your idea of allowing members to come and go as they please is nice for those that just want to participate when they have the time, I do wonder if maybe the teams couldn't be evened out more? What I mean is, crew_land has a lot of inactive members while crew_sea has a lot of active members. So maybe members could be moved around to even out the inactive to the active? When I looked at the list of members in the spreadsheet, I was legitimately surprised that the number of members is the same. Why not have something like an 'inactive check' at the beginning of each cycle or something to find out if people are still around because I'll be honest with you, it sure looks like more than half of crew_land is not around. Unfortunately, people join communities and then disappear, never to be seen from again. I personally like when there is a competition and a drive to want to best the other team, but that's impossible with how uneven the teams are currently. All you have to do is look at the spreadsheet, at the moment of posting this, Crew Land is over 4,000 points behind Crew Sea. That's not right.
That's just my thought however. I understand that people get attached to their team and don't want to move, but it's also not very exciting being on a team that's got 11 inactive members. sgafirenity
๐ป I know it doesn't seem like it for this cycle, but I do try to pay attention to this issue. When the comm opened, everyone wanted to join crew_sea. Then the first two cycles hit and crew_land blasted crew_sea with points. So even though crew_sea had more active people, crew_land had more high points earners. It finally evened out so that it became more competitive for cycle 3. Then.....well, let's just say I will be trying harder to bring me and catko back to the crew_land table. (DO YOU HEAR THAT CREW_SEA YOU WILL NOT WIPE THE FLOOR WITH US AGAIN)
I feel like there should be a backup mod who has access to the main community. That way, even if you need to take a hiatus, the sidebar can stay updated (because that's what I really missed recently - it was easy to miss a challenge because to find the active ones you had to search through four pages of entries). seraphina_snape
๐ป Agreed. PM me if you (or anyone else) is interested.
There isn't much I can suggest. Maybe the teams need to get switched up a bit though, most of the points seem to be going to Sea as they have more participants, and most of the challenges were hosted by Sea team members this cycle too. I think Crew Sea is going to win on those hosting points alone.
๐ป Hopefully that will change soon.
I guess the other thing, is the promo mod challenge. Looks like no one has commented on that in almost a year. Maybe it needs to get reposted or make some kind of reminder that it exists. I know I forgot it existed, so others may have too. Maybe it will encourage some people to pimp the comm a bit and get some new members.
๐ป Agreed. I upped the points a bit and posted a new one here.
I propose that a general challenge tag be created to give an option to track the challenges via the tags.
I know that there are challenge tags (challenge 01, challenge 02, etc).
What I'm hoping for is a "challenge" tag where if you click it, only the challenge posts can be seen. (example: challenges)
If there are extensions, then an extension tag which is different from the challenge tag can be used plus the specific challenge tag (example: challenge 01, extension) devon380black
๐ป I have added "extension" and "challenge" as a tag. I will work on using them. I do have a tag "mod challenge" already set up.
1. I have no idea how crew_land is doing, but I would love the crew_sea team comm to be used more. Not even necessarily by the mods or for reminders (the 24-hour reminder post exists, and personally I don't even need any reminders at all, I'm the keeper of the challenge list :D), but for social interaction between members. I'm not sure how to go about it, though? Since I think the main mod cannot really interfere with team comms (or at least with Crew Sea, since you're not a member of it)? Maybe just some encouragement for members to start posting in their team comms. :) And maybe it's a good idea for me to just randomly start posting there. :D dance_the_dance
๐ป crew_land and crew_sea are pretty much equal in their participation. That is to say, there is not much of it. I do on occasion try to check out to see if crew_sea is active, but in general I have noticed it is not. For the longest time in crew_land, the only activity was me posting 24 hour reminders. We just need more team challenges, I think. Ideas and suggestions are always welcome. Maybe a team challenge week or cycle?
2. Tags in keepers_log that have been added but not used by the mod cannot be used by the members. For example, those of my entries that don't have the challenge tag (such as "challenge 17") only don't have them because lj didn't let me use them, not because they don't exist. I think the way to fix that on the technical side is to either allow members to create their own tags (I don't know if you would want to do that, though?) or to make one mod entry that uses all the existing tags just to make them all active. :) (Also, "cycle 04" tag actually doesn't exist. Which is completely understandable, just letting you know. :))
ETA: Actually it's the same situation with tags in lighthouse_the, it just happens less often so I forgot. dance_the_dance
๐ป: I have a Request a New Tag thread at keepers_log. Please let me know if you need a new one, or if I need to add it to a post. You can either PM me or post it at the new tag thread. I've tried multiple times to add a tag for cycle 04, but it never seemed to stick. I have gone to lighthouse_the tag page and physically added it in. It seems to be working now. I added cycle 05 too.
The only thing that I'm not so fond of is when we have to post the art somewhere else, like keepers_log or our own journal. There's nothing wrong if someone wants to do it, but I would like to just post everything below the team banner. It's less complicated for me and I'm more likely to comment on other people's art if it's all in the same place. neaptidea
๐ป I don't really like posting in my journal either, but I do know a lot here do. Also, sometimes comments can't fit the word count. My preference is to post a main comment to a challenge, and then link to it under the submit banner. If it's just linked under the submit banner then LJ will hide comments after the first one, so no one will see it.
In the end though, it is up to each guest host as to how they wish you to submit entries.
THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!