The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Me too.

Trevor

FWIW, I've updated the first table I did (Horror) and made the ones for the current and pending Challenges (Historical and Sci-Fi). I'll try to do the others as we get close to their months and keep them all updated as we move along.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Before I forget/keep putting it off and a year rolls by but I don't see myself hosting my two challenges next year. I just don't have the time to devote to it that I wish I had.

Trevor

My thoughts are that every year doesn't have to involve change from the last year. If any Challenge leader is busy or tired and wants to 'take a break', they can just re-post the exact same discussion and list thread first posts from the previous year, and let the Challenges run themselves, which they sort of do anyway.

Or you could give it up to someone else; for either that one year only or permanently.

Not saying this applies to you MP, but as a past Challenge leader, I have felt the 'guilt' of not putting much effort into the Challenge, and wishing that I could be like Chad and run a kick-ass Challenge. I think that I should just step away and let someone else do a better job, perhaps get a new breed of Chad-like forum members to run them. But in reality, I think there is only one Chad, and that perhaps people have plenty of fun in the other Challenges no matter how simple we make things.

Travis McClain

Hostin's harder'n it looks, I can testify to that. Participant A asks if Movie A is eligible, and before you've even discovered there's activity in the thread, Participants B and C have already handed in dissenting rulings, citing Movies B, C, D and E. It can be difficult to establish not just the specific language about challenge content, but even an agreed-upon interpretation of that specific language.

Just an offhand example: This year in the Historical Appreciation Challenge, I threw up my hands and adopted a "Sure, what the hell?" approach to the Zeitgeist Film rule, thinking that three years in, we more or less had a consensus about such matters. Instead, by the end of the challenge, more chatter concentrated on entirely overhauling the whole thing next year than on what anyone was watching this year.

Even simpler things can be obnoxious, particularly TV content equivalencies and participants who don't format their lists at all. Tallying results, even in a challenge with < 30 participants, can be frustrating. Some participants really look forward to those results, as they punctuate the nature of an actual challenge. How do you tell from a list of nine things including six TV episodes of indeterminate run times what the results even are?

All this said, I do enjoy hosting both the TV on DVD* and Historical Appreciation Challenges. I've missed one year of each so far, due to personal reasons that kept me from even being a participant, but I do look forward to hosting those each year. The fact there's six months between each of them helps me some, plus the TV on DVD* Challenge is probably the easiest to host (either it was TV content, or it wasn't!) and it takes place in the relatively dead month of January.

So, yeah, Mister Peepers, I definitely understand you stepping away. You've done a terrific job, and you've even been gracious enough to pinch hit for me both times I was unable to host "my" challenges - including that first year of the Historical Appreciation Challenge, and the first is always particularly hard. We will sing songs of your deeds.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

The Historical Appreciation Challenge is definitely one that I wouldn't want to run, since there's lots of grey area.

I wouldn't mind filling in now and then for any of the challenges but doing two in a row every year is a bit much.

BobO'Link

I've caught myself doing that on a few occasions and now try to just keep my mouth shut as it's the responsibility of the host. But sometimes it seems that people just can't figure out how to look something up even though several methods get regularly posted.
That's a very good example. I shamefully found myself contributing quite a bit to that very talk rather than posting about the great documentaries I was watching! I really felt bad about that as several participants became disillusioned and just dropped out. Frankly I don't blame them. That discussion should have waited for the pre-challenge thread next year.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I liked when people chimed in and I think there was only one time I disagreed with something that was said. All the other times I wonder if I should throw out a confirmation or not.

Dimension X

Since this thread is bouncing around on page 1 again, I might as well bring this up now: takingchase never returned, so 1) Is there still any interest in a Nov. Comedy Challenge? and B) Does anyone else want to host it?

Travis McClain

No worries! I only brought it up because I suspect at least some participants reading this thread are bound to wonder just why it's such a big deal to be a host and it was the handiest example I thought to offer from my own experience. I didn't mean to address any of those actual Historical Challenge points here! (Though the fact that there were participants who said they lost interest in the challenge because of that strain of conversation was a blemish, I feel, not just on the challenge but a ding on me as a host.)

I'm planning to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year, so I dunno how active I'll be, but a comedy challenge could interest me. You've got my vote to host! :P

caligulathegod

Hosting in addition to participating does take a lot of time. You really have to keep up with the thread and keep up with the eligibility questions. The Drive-In challenge seems confusing to people since it is so subjective. Most of the problems come from trying to fit square pegs into round holes, though. Usually it's folks trying to clear out their unwatched piles and checking on titles they hope might fit. I don't mind people giving their opinions on eligibility. It helps on titles I'm less familiar with. I prefer to be inclusive but you can only go so far. The only time I really felt I made a unilateral decision against those really familiar with the genres was in the martial arts films. I decided even the classy big budget ones would count.

Hosting two challenges, especially consecutive ones, is really hard, so I can understand Peepers desire to scale back.

Oh, and I could have sworn I pinch hit the first Historical Challenge.

Travis McClain

You did, and if I wasn't a moron, I'd have properly noted that.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I was trying to remember what I did for it.

davidh777

I might be interested in hosting at some point. My work is a little less insane than it was last year.

Wait, what does that mean? Are you volunteering yourself, or volunteering someone else?

Travis McClain

I might be interested in the existence of such a challenge, as a participant. I cast a vote in favor of Dimension X hosting! :P

Dimension X

Well we had a Comedy Challenge last November, so this would be the second one. I thought it made a good bridge between the Horror and Holiday Challenges last year, so I definitely want us to do it again. That's why I volunteered to run it this year, if necessary.

On the plus side for me hosting it - it's six months away from the one I already host. The negative - the two Challenges I host would each follow my busiest Challenges as a participant. I like the idea of having as many of the regular Challengers as possible hosting Challenges themselves, so I wanted to put it out there so if someone wanted to host a Challenge, they could have a chance. If you (or anyone else) want to run the November one, you're welcome to it. Or you can wait until next year and take one of the two Mister Peepers put up for grabs.

Travis McClain

My wording was unclear (me no am good at communicating today, it seems!), but I knew we had a Comedy Challenge last year. I was, uh, busy so I wasn't involved in it but I did know about it. I almost multi-quoted three different posts to illustrate why I phrased it that way, but it's not at all important. As I've stated, my participation will be minimal anyway because of NaNoWriMo but I might take a whack at it.

I've found having six months between hosting duties is helpful. It helps that the TV on DVD* Challenge is one of the easiest to run. Some of you oversee much more demanding challenges and I really don't think I could operate on that level. As Trevor noted, Chad's in a league all his own with the Horror Challenge. I really don't know how he does it, year in and year out!

Cardsfan111

I've always assumed that if we could get Chad bumped up to the payscale of the mods, he might be willing to host all of the challenges.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I think permanent hosts should get a free upgrade to premium, or at the very least a bump up on the maximum number of PMs they can get. Around this time of year, mine is always nearly maxed out.

Travis McClain

I think it's pretty clear what he does for the Horror Challenge, he does out of love. There's no compensation to substitute for that.

You make a very good point about PMs. When I had prizes for the first year of the Historical Appreciation Challenge, I had to basically delete all the entries as soon as I was able to designate a winner so that I'd have room for the next round. Challenges without prizes are a lot lighter on PMs, for obvious reasons, though I still get 'em occasionally.

BobO'Link

I greatly enjoyed the Comedy Challenge last year and liked the bridge it provided between Horror and Holiday. I'm all for you being the host as well.

What's the other one you run? I've participated in so many the past couple of years they're all starting to run together!

BobO'Link

I don't see it that way. If I recall correctly you attempted to rein in the conversation a couple of times but there were a few participants who just couldn't seem to let it go. No matter... I'm sure there'll be a *very* lively discussion on the pre-challenge thread next time!

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Hey now, I had to talk about something.

I predict there'll be a couple of people talking about it pre-challenge and then everyone else will chime in after it starts.

Dimension X

Seriously, it's like he does three or four Challenges all in one month.
May's Make-Your-Own Challenge. So it's not like I'm so exhausted by my hosting duties on that one that I can't handle another one.

Travis McClain

I understand that you can't really schedule having ideas. I just kinda wish there'd been as much enthusiasm for discussing watched content. I did enjoy our side conversations about French history, though, and if we can have just one running commentary like that per challenge, I call it a win.

With three concurrent checklists, it really is!