Preparations for B/Cult/Drive-In Challenge '13 underway yet?

Yes, I've created the drive-in title pictures. The thread itself is just a matter of updating the old threads. Issue is I am working 10 hour days, 6 days a week right now. I'll see if I can get the opening thread up in a day or two. Tomorrow is my day off.

I defiantly have a backlog of challenge worthy titles.

Drive-in thread is up!

Drive-in Challenge!

Bloody hell. I just realized that we're nearly through May and I'm supposed to host June's Historical Appreciation Challenge. Look for the discussion thread to go live soon and for there to be some noticeable changes from previous years.

There. Historical Appreciation discussion thread is live. Let the grousing commence!

Do we know who is running the Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge? If no one else runs it, I will volunteer to run it.

Did you volunteer earlier? If so, you're the only person I've seen that volunteered.

Is that one of the ones that someone said they couldn't take on this year?

I volunteered, but I also remember a post from Trevor saying as long as he was around, the Challenges wouldn't disappear. If he doesn't step up, I'll post the discussion thread in the next day or so.

Discussion Thread for the Sci Fi/ Fantasy Challenge has been posted. Here

Yeah it is, Mister Peepers said he could not run the sci fi/fantasy or the animation challenge, so I have stepped up and decided to run at least the sci fi/fantasy challenge. If no one else steps up for the animation challenge, I will run that too.

Look at you, being all proactive and whatnot! I'm planning to participate if for no other reason than I've had a hankering for a while now to go back and revisit Star Trek, the original and animated series (plus the first six movies).

I might theoretically be game for hosting Animation, since it's one of the most clearly defined challenges we have, but probably not. Hosting is a bit draining, which is why I like that the two I host are in January and June.

In a discussion elsewhere, it's come to light that some of our fellow DVD Talkers have refrained from participating in any of the challenges because of their perception that they're "work". I realize, of course, that some forum members are really pressed for free time due to work and family obligations and some are just too bohemian to commit to any given theme for an entire month, but I feel like more members would actually enjoy participating and being introduced to various films and filmmakers through the challenges if they just had a more accurate sense of what we do in them.

Any thoughts on that score?

Was that an off-forum conversation? If not can you point to the thread? I'd like to see their reasoning. I agree trying to watch 100 movies in 30 or 31 days can be a chore, but most of the Challenges don't have that "official" goal.

To be honest, I can't even remember where that conversation was without rooting through my browser history. It was some time in the last few days. I meant to bring it up at the time but got sidetracked. The thrust of what was said was that the challenges seemed to be too demanding and the very idea of "having" to watch content from a strict pool seemed devoid of any fun. You know, the basic "Watching movies should be for fun, not for homework" kind of thing that comes up every now and again.

Do you remember if you posted in the thread? If you did, I can look for it in your recent posts this evening when I get back.
Well we do call them "challenges." Not that calling them "Monthly Movie Marathons" or something else is likely to increase participation any.

Thanks for stepping up shadokitty! I do such a bland job on my Challenges that I knew someone would step in!
It was in our Facebook group iirc.

I'm hopeful that the current exodus doesn't hurt the Challenges much. I'm hopeful that both places thrive, but it seems best to leave the Challenges here in most any scenario.

Well, I'll never see it then (unless it's something I can read without signing in). I don't do the Facebook.
I don't see any reason it should. I view Geoff's new baby as the Adult Forum that we lost when he sold this place to IB (even though there is more going on there than just that). I doubt many in our challenge group will be among the ones who leave here for good (we might lose some of the October crowd, but then again, they might all come back for that one).
Agreed. There's too much history here to think of moving them anyway. Plus, this feels like the movie and TV place to me and the new place is "New Other."

There's a facebook group for challenges?

That's what I was thinking too.

Nah, just the DVDTalk Facebook group I created a couple years ago, then renamed DVDTalkers to avoid the suits.

It's a quiet place; I mainly created it for to be the emergency gathering place for when the forum goes down or whatever. Now that there is the other forum, it will become a ghost town again.

Fwiw, I think the group is publicly accessible, link in my sig.

Same here. I refuse to even visit the site on principle.
?? What is this "new baby" of which you speak?

I'm assuming the "New Other" is the Facebook group?

I can see that type thinking. It kept me away for a couple of years before I finally just jumped in with both feet! I also understand the "I don't want to commit to a single genre for a whole month" feeling. After doing these for the past 2-3 years I'm beginning to feel a certain amount of burn out with sticking to a single genre for a month. I've started to focus *less* on raw numbers and just watch what I feel like watching while *trying* to make sure the film/program fits the current challenge. Doing that has made me approach the challenges in a more laid-back mode and I'm not feeling the pressure to get huge numbers and/or stick to a single genre as much. Of course I'll *always* pretty much stick to SF/Fantasy and Horror as well as gorge on titles in those months as they are top favorite genres.

Even on the challenges where I don't typically participate I tend to read the discussion thread anyway just to get ideas for purchases.

Don't be one of those people Bob! Facebook is what you make of it. Just friend your close family and friends (and me) and in 1 minute a day you can better see what's going on in their lives, and vice versa.

And have you not been following the high drama going on outside of this subforum? It's anarchy!!

How I approach the challenges is similar to what a few others have said. I won't go for raw numbers, and won't feel like I am allowed to watch only the genre of the current challenge. If I feel like watching something else, I'll just watch it.