Photo Challenge Poll: How Many Consecutive Challenges for each Topic Thread?

[Designer Dale]

The current thread discussing the return of a photo topic thread (Fortnightly Challenge) has several suggestions as to how often the Topic thread should be posted. Maybe a poll will help finalize it.

!. Topic thread before every Challenge. (Once every two weeks.)

2. Topic thread followed by three consecutive Challenges. (Once every six weeks.)

3. Topic thread followed by six consecutive Challenges. (Once every three months.)

4. Other. Please leave a post to explain.

Dale

 

[Phrasikleia]

The arguments in favor of a topic schedule can be found in this thread.

I'll recap them here.

• If there is a schedule of forthcoming challenge topics, then people can plan in advance to create a photo for the topic(s) they find most interesting. This ability to plan ahead will be good for people who are too busy to go right out and shoot something on short notice.

• With a schedule in place, no one person needs to be a ringleader of the challenge thread. Anyone can start the new challenge thread when the current one expires, simply by looking on the schedule to see which topic comes next. When the schedule starts running out of topics, anyone can post another topic thread to produce a new schedule.

• Having less frequent topic threads will reduce thread clutter in the photo forum. Previously, a new topic thread followed every fortnightly challenge, which meant there would often be several "fortnightly challenge" threads of one sort or another cluttering up the top of the photo forum's list of threads (current challenge, a challenge topic thread, and then a lingering outdated challenge thread). This repetition surely caused a lot of people to gloss over and ignore the challenge completely, contributing to its demise.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

!. Topic thread before every Challenge. (Once every two weeks.)

2. Topic thread followed by three consecutive Challenges. (Once every six weeks.)

3. Topic thread followed by six consecutive Challenges. (Once every three months.)

4. Other. Please leave a post to explain.

I vote #2. Why - because it allows for more dynamic adaptation of the topics as we go, while still giving us forethought to the upcoming challenge topics.

May I also add a well-deserved suck up? I really appreciate the substantive and thoughtful dialog on this whole thing. Bravo to Dale and all those who have spoken up.

 

[TheReef]

I think 3 months is too long, people will think of new ideas and forget them for submission, I voted #2 for 6 weeks.

 

[Phrasikleia]

I guess I'll admit that I voted for #3, six topics. If you have only two topics ready in advance, the list will dwindle down pretty quickly. Soon you'll have only one topic to prepare for, and it will be coming up in only two weeks. But it's still better than hashing out topic ideas every two weeks as was the case previously.

I think the actual selection of topics should be the least important part of the challenge. Who really cares what they are, so long as lots of people can participate in them? If it's something you never would have chosen, so much the better; it will force you to do something you wouldn't have done otherwise, and that makes for a good challenge.

 

[mtnbikemama]

I vote for number 3. It will be nice to have a number of topics to shoot for while I'm out and about.

 

[fcortese]

I think 3 months is too long, people will think of new ideas and forget them for submission, I voted #2 for 6 weeks.

I agree. #2 just feels more doable-6 weeks gives ample time to try to meet the challenge, and you have 3 topics ahead of you to think about. At least if my interpretation of how this works is correct!

The discussion leading to this vote was extensive and with a heck of a lot of solid thoughts/ideas by many people. Thanks to all.

 

[Designer Dale]

Is it clear that we are still talking about only shooting for one topic at a time within the two-week period it is active? Knowing the next two or more topics is only to prepare for those shoots. Shooting ahead would miss the point of one topic per Challenge.

This poll will close at one pm Pacific time tomorrow (Thursday).

Edit: The discussion thread isn't finished. This poll was meant to define the number of Challenges per Topic thread.

Dale

 

[Ish]

Oops, sorry! Misread what you said. I clicked on other, but I'm not suggesting a different number. I can see pro's and cons for either three or six challenges. I'd be happy to go with either.

If we go with a poll and multiple challenges, are we looking at doing them all, having a poll and starting the next set, or doing another poll part way through so we've got a rolling set?

 

[JDDavis]

OK, I'll be a bit of a contrarian. First off I'm good with deciding on the topics ahead of time and that time period being anything greater than two weeks. I think coming up with a new topic every two weeks is one of the things that bogged the challenge down a bit.

So, just because, I voted other. If we are willing to choose topics in advance (great idea) why not go all the way and choose a years worth. We could build a topic list of say 48 topics and schedule them and post it as a sticky in the forum. Each topic would have the two week period that it will be open already listed beside it. As each topic period opened and closed anyone could check the list and make a new post with approriate boilerplate info (like we do with the weekly contest). The sticky could also serve to archive the links to all the challenges. I chose 48 because we could take two 2 week breaks during the year or use the last 4 weeks of the year to come up with the new topics and take a break. I also feel completely comfortable with "borrowing" other forums challenge or contest topics. The topic is not that important to me (other than being generally accessible to a wide variety of shooters)...it's the challenge of shooting something specific and the comments that are the real value to this.

To sum up:

1 yearly sticky consisting of 48 prescheduled topics

Start each topic on Saturday and end it on Friday 14 days later (we would be on challenge 6 or so now)

Take a 4 week break in Dec to relax and develop the next annual sticky

Heavily borrow ideas from other areas

Any participant can start the new boilerplate challenge and this is key to not letting the challenge fade away

Just a thought, but I'm happy with anything greater than doing the topic every two weeks

 

[oblomow]

Number 2 for me, so I can do some planning. I don't always have time to go out and shoot and if we're going to stick to the (good) rule that the submitted photos have to be shot for/during the assignment, it gives me more room to participate.

 

[Phrasikleia]

Is it clear that we are still talking about only shooting for one topic at a time within the two-week period it is active? Knowing the next two or more topics is only to prepare for those shoots. Shooting ahead would miss the point of one topic per Challenge.

I'm not sure you're clear on the concept. There would still be only one active topic at a time, but if there is a schedule, a person can shoot for upcoming topics as time allows and then post them when those topics become active. If someone has a chance to go out shooting one weekend, he can work on several topics that weekend. Then he has some time to process the photos at his leisure (or even reshoot them) while waiting for the right periods to post each one.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

There would still be only one active topic at a time, but if there is a schedule, a person can shoot for upcoming topics as time allows and then post them when those topics become active. If someone has a chance to go out shooting one weekend, he can work on several topics that weekend. Then he has some time to process the photos at his leisure (or even reshoot them) while waiting for the right periods to post each one.

That's my take. The issue for some of us is time. Any given week or fortnight can present some unique time challenges. By knowing a couple topics in advance some of us will be better able to plan, and even shoot, a little ahead of schedule - and that way we will be more likely to participate each and every time.

 

[compuwar]

This is tangential, but something that I thought deserves some consideration:

What about having the current and past threads active at the same time- that is once the "next" topic is active, have a "reshoot" period for the last topic so that those who want to take a new turn at a shot after they get feedback can? Does this over-complicate things? Obviously, not everything can be re-shot, but if the intent is to not just see how others explore a topic, but also to help them improve their craft, then having the expectation that things should be tried again may make it more useful.

Paul

 

[Phrasikleia]

This is tangential, but something that I thought deserves some consideration:

What about having the current and past threads active at the same time- that is once the "next" topic is active, have a "reshoot" period for the last topic so that those who want to take a new turn at a shot after they get feedback can? Does this over-complicate things? Obviously, not everything can be re-shot, but if the intent is to not just see how others explore a topic, but also to help them improve their craft, then having the expectation that things should be tried again may make it more useful.

Paul

Although old threads never really "die", I like the idea of actually encouraging the old topics to continue for reshoots and reprocessing, just not for new submissions. Nice idea, compuwar.

 

[fcortese]

Just an additonal thought. I am not sure if this was mentioned in all of the discussion to this point, but I would be in favor of NOT limiting the entry to just one picture per participant. If someone has several what they fell are good entries, they should be allowed to post them. I am not suggesting mutilple pictures with one post, but posting an addtional picture(s) in separate post(s). If need be maybe set an upper limit of two or three. Like I said, just a thought.

 

[mickbab]

I've voted for three challenges per topic thread.
This vote, however, was based on the thinking that during that 6 week period, photos may be able to be taken for any of the upcoming topics if necessary. Obviously the original idea of the photo challenge was to take the pictures in that topic's two week time period, but I think that shooting in advance for the next topic still sticks to the original structure - though not shot in the two weeks, the photos would still have been taken FOR that certain topic.
Hope that makes sense!

 

[Designer Dale]

The Poll is now Closed

Thanks for your participation. This thread was solely to determine the number of Challenges per Topic Thread.

The winner by consensus is one Topic thread to gather ideas for three seperate Challenges. I.e. six weeks...

Please move all related discussion to this thread:

Resurrecting the Fortnightly Challenge

Dale

 

[fcortese]

Thanks for your participation. This thread was solely to determine the number of Challenges per Topic Thread.

The winner by consensus is one Topic thread to gather ideas for six seperate Challenges.

Please move all related discussion to this thread:

Resurrecting the Fortnightly Challenge

Dale

Dale, the bar tally at the top of this thread shows almost 60% for three consecutive challenges. Am I missing something? It really doesn't matter to me; I think we are heading in the right direction no matter which formula we use!

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

The winner by consensus is one Topic thread to gather ideas for six seperate Challenges.

Are we looking at the same poll? Maybe you meant "six weeks" (3 challenges) ?

 

[Designer Dale]

OOPS...Fixed that...

Dale

Edit: One of the #4 (other) votes was meant to be #2 (three)

The corrected tally is as follows:

#1 - 2 votes
#2 - 10 votes
#3 - 4 votes
#4 - 1 vote

 

[fcortese]

OOPS...Fixed that...

Dale

Edit: One of the #4 (other) votes was meant to be #2 (three)

The corrected tally is as follows:

#1 - 2 votes
#2 - 10 votes
#3 - 4 votes
#4 - 1 vote

Let the games begin!

 

[Phrasikleia]

OK, I'll be a bit of a contrarian. First off I'm good with deciding on the topics ahead of time and that time period being anything greater than two weeks. I think coming up with a new topic every two weeks is one of the things that bogged the challenge down a bit.

So, just because, I voted other. If we are willing to choose topics in advance (great idea) why not go all the way and choose a years worth. We could build a topic list of say 48 topics and schedule them and post it as a sticky in the forum. Each topic would have the two week period that it will be open already listed beside it. As each topic period opened and closed anyone could check the list and make a new post with approriate boilerplate info (like we do with the weekly contest). The sticky could also serve to archive the links to all the challenges. I chose 48 because we could take two 2 week breaks during the year or use the last 4 weeks of the year to come up with the new topics and take a break. I also feel completely comfortable with "borrowing" other forums challenge or contest topics. The topic is not that important to me (other than being generally accessible to a wide variety of shooters)...it's the challenge of shooting something specific and the comments that are the real value to this.

To sum up:

1 yearly sticky consisting of 48 prescheduled topics

Start each topic on Saturday and end it on Friday 14 days later (we would be on challenge 6 or so now)

Take a 4 week break in Dec to relax and develop the next annual sticky

Heavily borrow ideas from other areas

Any participant can start the new boilerplate challenge and this is key to not letting the challenge fade away

Just a thought, but I'm happy with anything greater than doing the topic every two weeks

I just want to express my total agreement with everything JDDavis wrote here. This poll is over, and we have a winner, and that's great. I'm very happy that we won't be subjected to topic selection threads every other week. Now it will be every month-and-a-half, which is a definite improvement.

Nonetheless, given the option, I probably would have voted for a year-long cycle or, better yet, an unending external source of topics (though, I can't think of what that source would be). The key reasons being that it would help to ensure the continuation of the thread and would eliminate the distractions of topic selection.

I just hope that when topic selection does start up for the new challenge that people don't get turned off that their proposed topics didn't make the cut. I got a sense before that people were getting too invested in their topic ideas, and if they didn't get their way, they were less likely to participate in the next challenge. If topic selection is a really minor part of the process, then people will be more likely to focus their attention on taking photos and offering comments, which is really the whole point of the challenge.