Comments, Suggestions & Feedback for the 2009 "October Horror Movie Challenge"...

[Trevor]

We have a little conversation going on in the Challenge Compendium thread bringing up the matter of lists threads.

This may sound radical, but I think list threads are largely useless and need to be re-tooled.

As they stand, I think they generate very little discussion (and discussion is the whole point of us being on DVDTalk, right?). Sure, a few of read other's lists and quite enjoy them, and a couple of us even quote/mention someone's list items and move it to the main discussion thread. But list threads are mainly a black hole, where people post their personal lists but don't interact with others at all.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I bet we could do something to help the lists generate more discussion.

Jerry's idea is a separate subforum with each participant having an individual thread. Not as hard to peruse as you may think, as there is a next thread button at the bottom of each thread, and perusing everyone's list would only take a few seconds longer than what we have now. You'd just have to get used to a new idea.

Another option is to keep the lists in the discussion thread. Or break your list up into weekly update posts and not just keep it one big post that nobody except you looks at.

So again, might seem radical, but relax and think about it. Our current system is flawed imo.

[smashthesymbols]

Originally Posted by Trevor

Related to this, one thing I plan on changing for the 31 Film subset was to keep it's master thread for general talk of the idea and the schedule, but move specific film discussion to separate threads (with post bump reminders in the main threads, with direct links). That way, people who only watch selected films in the list (did anyone besides me watch all 31?) don't have to worry about spoilers. This was brought up as a complaint by some iirc. It will also make things much more organized, and not have the clutter of several movies being discussed simultaneously.

I think I may have been one that brought up the spoiler issue with the 31 Films subset. I chose not to participate last year because there were too many movies on the list I hadn't seen. I was worried that I may watch the movie on the 15th and come into the thread to discuss it, but the movie from the 14th I had never seen was still being discussed and I'd end up having it spoiled. A master thread for general discussion and a separate daily thread for each movie would work better. Yet another reason we need a subforum devoted to challenges.

As for the list thread, I have no suggestions. I do vote strongly against putting it in the discussion thread though, that would be way too cluttered. Everyone having their own thread may help, but I doubt it. I'm actually not convinced lists will ever generate discussion unless a lot more people start including comments and mini reviews in their list. I think we're better off leaving the list thread how it is and focus more on the 31 Films subset and any other subsets we can think of for discussion.

[Mister Peepers]

Originally Posted by smashthesymbols

I'm actually not convinced lists will ever generate discussion unless a lot more people start including comments and mini reviews in their list.

That's about what I said in the challenge thread. I don't even look at lists unless they have reviews. Even then I don't read them all.

[advdfreak]

I have never used the checklist in any challenge that I have participated in, but I would like it if you could incorporate it in the 31 Film subset in some way. For example, watch an R-rated film on the 5th, watch a vampire movie on the 20th, watch an George A. Romero movie on the 25th, etc. I would be more inclined to participate on something like this and it would be interesting to see what some of people's choices would be with the checklist.

[Trevor]

^ I'll admit that's a cool idea, but completely opposed to everything I typed a couple hours ago. Can we do both?

[Darth Maher]

I'm glad I stumbled onto this resurrected thread...

It reminds me that I need to make room on my DVR.

As of right now, I am unemployed. If my status is unchanged in October, I might actually watch a decent amount of stuff. Unemployment has to have some silver lining, right. However, to cut daycare costs, the kids are home with me all but 2 days a week. But that still leaves... 2 full days a week!

[Mister Peepers]

I got really lucky(Oregon's unemployment just dropped from 12% to 11.9%) and landed a job after a little over a month back at the same place I was before but this time I'm permanent. The employment agency is so backed up over here that I didn't get unemployment money until right after I landed a job.

The downside is that I am the parking department at a university. I don't give out tickets but they all have my number on them. I trained last week and this is my first day of doing it by myself.

There's no system for archiving records, the guy I replaced quit, the two others that know anything are on vacation all this week, an email was sent out about buying permits online today before the online system was complete. I also got a headache but the person before me left a couple packets of motrin.

The only thing missing today was people screaming at me about being innocent but I'm sure that'll come soon.

At least since there's no real system, other than entering permit purchases, I get to do things however I want. You know, as long as I survive and make it that far.

Right now my first movie to watch will be The Car. Now I'll have another reason the cheer for it, the first being because it takes place in Utah and runs them over.

[Chad]

Delayed response Wednesday:

Originally Posted by Mister Peepers

Fox Movie channel was also a good one to check during October.

FYI: I started including the link to FMC's schedule in the, well, links section of the discussion thread last year. Or, as I like to call them, The links that time forgot.

Originally Posted by SanityRemoved

I would like to see a thumbs up/down or a plus(+)/minus(-) rating on films watched. Something to help identify worthwhile flicks.

Again, gotta refer to that ever-popular links section where reviews of any kind are encouraged:

Spoiler:

Give reviews. Even if it's just a mini-review, a simple / or one word description.

That section is probably due for an overhaul.

Originally Posted by caligulathegod

I prefer the purity of this challenge. It's about Horror Movies, my first love, and not a bunch of other stuff. Sci-Fi and Holiday needs TV, but Horror doesn't Wild Cards are there for the half dozen exceptions, like Charlie Brown.

My original intention was to keep this strictly about horror films, but somewhere along the way it went a little left of center. But hey, it's not as if anyone has a gun held to their heads being forced to listen to directors explaining their films or watch cartoon dogs pretending to be WWI Flying Aces ...hope not anyway. I've always viewed A) choice as a good thing and B) fun as the #1 priority. You might even say I'm the Spuds McKenzie of challenges. Although that's probably a bad example because he didn't exactly advocate having a choice when it came to beer.

Originally Posted by Trevor

Another option is to keep the lists in the discussion thread.

Let's review why that's previously been hailed as the Worst. Idea. Ever. and should never, ever be mentioned again:

The poor bastard who tabulates the final results.

Originally Posted by Trevor

Or break your list up into weekly update posts and not just keep it one big post that nobody except you looks at.

Good luck with that one. If you remember, I did exactly that and was quite insistent on encouraging others to do the same. Yeah, it didn't go over so well and I stopped once the forum software was updated to allow for unlimited length. And if truth be told, it's not entirely worth the time and effort exerted if your list has some heavy formatting.

I was even gonna suggest doing the Giles thing from the "What Are You Watching" thread and that's deleting your old thread and copying/pasting it into a new post after each update. Unfortunately that defeats the purpose of having the links to all the lists I provide in the first post and requires constant updating of your sig link. There's just no perfect solution.

[Darth Maher]

Would anybody object to me not numbering my list?

I watch all kinds of different Halloween-related programming (in addition to the "pure" horror movies that count) in October and I post my lists on other forums, blogs, Facebook/MySpace updates, etc... and to change up the numbering just for this challenge is a little time consuming. And let's face it, I have never even made it to 31 anyway so it's not like I'm in the running for "most watched" or anything.

Also, I was looking at last year's lists... and I LOVE all the graphics at the top of people's lists. So festive! Can't wait to see what people come up with this year.!

[Trevor]

Originally Posted by Chad

Let's review why that's previously been hailed as the Worst. Idea. Ever. and should never, ever be mentioned again:

The poor bastard who tabulates the final results.

Is that the only negative? Most of the lists would be in the first few pages of the thread, and I'd gladly volunteer to do the tabulating for you.

But maybe most don't see the need to encourage more discussion. It just seems that even posting a list is largely useless.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Darth Maher

Would anybody object to me not numbering my list?

Sorry man, that's the one rule I have to strictly enforce. If you get a pass then whose to say the guy with a tally of 250 and an additional 100 non-qualifying titles wouldn't ask for the same?

Originally Posted by Trevor

Is that the only negative? Most of the lists would be in the first few pages of the thread, and I'd gladly volunteer to do the tabulating for you.

No, that was just my big fat FAIL at attempting humor. I appreciate the offer, though.

Originally Posted by Trevor

But maybe most don't see the need to encourage more discussion. It just seems that even posting a list is largely useless.

I understand what you're getting at, but people are gonna do what they're gonna do regardless of what changes are made. Some are just more into knocking off their to watch piles than the discussion/reviews aspect and that's evident in all of the challenges. And it's not as if we're really lacking in the discussion department to begin with.

To me, having the separate thread keeps everything better organized and easier to sort through. I can see how having to post discussion in another thread does require a little more effort, but it still beats the pain in the ass of having to sort through 35 pages to find one particular list, IMO. Besides we all know I'm lax on the no discussion rule and there's always a little that creeps into the lists thread anyway.


I do believe the next poll has just revealed itself...

[Trevor]

Originally Posted by Chad

I do believe the next poll has just revealed itself...

We're patiently waiting. Or not I guess.

[Chad]

The plan is to wait until the discussion thread is open for business and gauge interest in there before starting any standalone polls.

[Mister Peepers]

I still have a stack of movies I had in my queue to watch and those I did watch for last year, sitting on the table next to my bed.

[Numes]

I put together my list of movies for October this weekend. I noticed I never ordered Halloween 6 and H20 after the challenge last year, so I found some anamorphic releases of those and they should be here in plenty of time. I have never seen any of the Halloween movies(!) so that will probably be my first set of movies I view.

[Trevor]

Originally Posted by Mister Peepers

I still have a stack of movies I had in my queue to watch and those I did watch for last year, sitting on the table next to my bed.

Similar here. I cleared a shelf of my bookcase for horror titles to watch, only watched half of them, and the other half are still sitting there waiting for October. I almost put them back in their regular spots last weekend, but figured why bother at this point.

[Trevor]

Originally Posted by Numes

I put together my list of movies for October this weekend. I noticed I never ordered Halloween 6 and H20 after the challenge last year, so I found some anamorphic releases of those and they should be here in plenty of time. I have never seen any of the Halloween movies(!) so that will probably be my first set of movies I view.

What? Any of them? The original is a classic, the sequel is darn good, but all the rest aren't worth owning, imo. And the Zombie remake is one of the biggest piles of poo that Hollywood has ever produced. Of course, I own them all and watch them all pretty much every October.

[Numes]

Originally Posted by Trevor

What? Any of them? The original is a classic, the sequel is darn good, but all the rest aren't worth owning, imo. And the Zombie remake is one of the biggest piles of poo that Hollywood has ever produced. Of course, I own them all and watch them all pretty much every October.

Amazingly enough, I have not seen any of them. I'm kind of a completest when it comes to sequels, especially if there is a challenge to go along with them, so I'm looking forward to all of them even if some of them are terrible. Unless I saw them as a kid, I never bothered getting them on DVD because I wasn't really into collecting horror movies that I had never seen before. However, with all the fun I had last October, I am enjoying them more than ever.

I also have all 8(?) Hellraiser movies and I have never seen any of them before. I have all 5 Prophecy movies too, for which I have only seen the first one (which I love.)

I'm trying to figure out when to watch Death Bed - The Bed That Eats. One of the participants last year suggested it and I bought it for this year's challenge. While I'm mentioning that, I believe he said to NOT watch the director's intro if you haven't seen the movie before.

[smashthesymbols]

Originally Posted by Numes

I'm trying to figure out when to watch Death Bed - The Bed That Eats. One of the participants last year suggested it and I bought it for this year's challenge. While I'm mentioning that, I believe he said to NOT watch the director's intro if you haven't seen the movie before.

I've been meaning to pick that up for the challenge. There was a lot of talk about it last year and now I have to see it.

I haven't started planning much yet. I've got a few ideas in mind though. All three I Am Legend adaptations in a single day might be interesting. I definitely want to watch as many of Romero's Dead movies as I can get through since I've never seen any of them. Otherwise I'll probably just work on my unwatched list while mixing in a few classics.