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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
A few thoughts from that discussion:
Too much work. I never go I to those sheep or challenge things. Exactly, too much work sometimes and not enough time to devote to it.
Originally Posted by MinLShaw
I've never really looked at the sheep games myself, but I can't wrap my head around the idea of the challenges being "too much work". You watch movies throughout the month that fit the theme. Checklists are there to add some challenge, but they're always optional. The idea really is just to get people watching similar kinds of things through the month and to get us talking about what we watch.
If they seem hard to get into, then that's something those of us who host them should know more about so we can fix that.
Originally Posted by MinLShaw
I'm asking this in complete sincerity and not trying to be snotty: What kind of work do you guys think is being asked of participants of these challenges?
To answer honestly, for myself, unless it is a genre that is broad enough for me to find things to like to watch, it would be considered "work." Unfortunately I've only got so much free time now and way too much of a backlog already to be limited in what I wanted to watch or do at any given time. For example, I did a sic-fi/fantasy challenge a while back that was awesome since I love to genre. However, I would never think of doing a western challenge. As for the sheep games, you really need to be involved in the thread while the game is going on and with my schedule that is almost impossible now as well. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
What's the sheep games?
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
As others have said, I don't look at participating in a Challenge as work. I watch what I want, and just list the stuff that qualifies.
Have I ever had months where I tried hard to make sure everything qualified? Yes. Have I had months where the motivation and 'challenge' of it made me go overboard? Yes. But those months are pretty much behind me. Nowadays perhaps 25% of what I watch qualifies. And the Challenges are still just as much fun thanks to the discussions and purchase or viewing ideas. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by Mister Peepers
(Post 11733949)
What's the sheep games?
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...d-sheep-5.html |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11733877)
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.
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11733877)
And have you not been following the high drama going on outside of this subforum? It's anarchy!!
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by BobO'Link
(Post 11733819)
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?
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11733877)
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.
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11733877)
And have you not been following the high drama going on outside of this subforum? It's anarchy!!
Originally Posted by BobO'Link
(Post 11734077)
Sorry, no. I pretty much stick to the "DVD Talk" and "Bargains" sub forums with occasional jaunts into the Video Game and Music forums.
Originally Posted by BobO'Link
(Post 11733828)
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.
Originally Posted by davidh777
(Post 11733906)
A few thoughts from that discussion:
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
I'm sorry DX, I actually would love to have you as a FB friend.
And Bob, Dvdtalk has no more privacy than FB really. It's all in what you share. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11734507)
I'm sorry DX, I actually would love to have you as a FB friend.
I clicked on the FB link in your sig earlier this evening and it said I had to be signed in to view the page. :shrug: |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Yeah, I guess it was in the FB group. Thanks for copying and pasting those excerpts, David, 'cause I don't think I'd have ever come up with it. I tend to remember ideas a lot more than where they come up in conversation!
So we're all agreed that most of us don't go for the "raw numbers" approach to challenges, but how do we make it clearer to other forum members that that isn't the primary objective? In TV on DVD*, I mostly focus on watching shows and related movies that I have on DVD. There aren't a lot in my library, but there are enough to fill my month. In Academy Awards and Criterion, I go for the completion of the checklist. The rest, I primarily try to hit certain things that cross my mind and if I accrue enough checks in the process, I make a run at the checklist in the second half. I know right now in the Historical Appreciation Challenge, we have a participant whose first post on the entire forum was in the list thread. Another newcomer with just a handful of posts has declared next month's Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge will be his or her first ever challenge. We are attracting newcomers, which is nice, and I hope to see more of that but I'd also like to get more of the established community to dabble in some of the challenges. How do we do that? |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
I've been collecting DVDs pretty much since their inception and now easily have over 3000 DVD/BD titles. I've also been reading reviews on DVDTalk for most of those years. I was never much of a forum person on any website, except maybe the one on DVD Profiler for awhile. Last year I read something about the B-Movie challenge in the DVDTalk newsletter and thought it was a great idea but it was too late in the month to participate. This year again I saw it mentioned and it was only a couple of days into the month and went for it. I also participated in last month's Make Your Own challenge and plan to try the SciFi challenge next month. So I guess you could call me a dabbling 'newcomer'.
I guess my point is that what attracted me was a brief mention in the newsletter. My suggestion, if possible, would be to have a bigger presence there, and a mention prior to the beginning of the month. That would have had me participating a year ago. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Oh, I should say that the appeal of the challenges to me is the opportunity to shrink my unwatched pile! Is it "work"? YES. And it should be! That's what shrinking that pile should be for me. Trying to do it leisurely does not work for me. Leisure time is for BUYING. :)
But seriously, and maybe it's just because I'm a newbie, I don't see it as work. I could see it that way if I was forced to participate every month. But I'm not. If I participate in the challenges that appeal to me and I can keep working on my unwatched pile I don't see why it would feel that way. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by cliffl
(Post 11734752)
I guess my point is that what attracted me was a brief mention in the newsletter. My suggestion, if possible, would be to have a bigger presence there, and a mention prior to the beginning of the month. That would have had me participating a year ago.
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by MinLShaw
(Post 11734761)
Wait. There's a newsletter?
Of course the next question is who controls that content? I guess it's probably like how content is selected for the main entry page. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by davidh777
(Post 11735094)
Yeah, I used to get the newsletter years ago, but I switched e-mail addresses, and the sign-up is tied to that address rather than to one's account. I'd forgotten about the newsletter till this mention.
Of course the next question is who controls that content? I guess it's probably like how content is selected for the main entry page. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by davidh777
(Post 11735094)
Yeah, I used to get the newsletter years ago, but I switched e-mail addresses, and the sign-up is tied to that address rather than to one's account. I'd forgotten about the newsletter till this mention.
Of course the next question is who controls that content? I guess it's probably like how content is selected for the main entry page. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
There's more to the newsletter than just the headlines above. I have never seen any challenge mentioned other than the Drive-In challenge last year and this year. Doesn't mean there hasn't been more, but that's the only times I've seen it.
I was pretty much the opposite of MinLShaw. I used the site strictly for reviews and info on upcoming releases. I never visited the forum before I looked into the DI challenge. |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Yeah, I alternatively blame IB for not caring enough about the site to put things in the newsletter that may encourage more visitors, like our Challenges; and blame myself for not contacting them every month with a blurb for the upcoming Challenge.
If only we had someone well suited for that task: an active Challenger who was also a writer, someone who not only participated in most of the Challenges but moderated two of them...... |
Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by Trevor
(Post 11735847)
If only we had someone well suited for that task: an active Challenger who was also a writer, someone who not only participated in most of the Challenges but moderated two of them......
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by MinLShaw
(Post 11734761)
Wait. There's a newsletter?
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Looking the DVDTalk home page, it looks a lot like the newsletter.
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by cliffl
(Post 11735750)
There's more to the newsletter than just the headlines above. I have never seen any challenge mentioned other than the Drive-In challenge last year and this year. Doesn't mean there hasn't been more, but that's the only times I've seen it.
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Considering how much traffic and discussion the Challenges and Sheep games create, and how much work members put into them, to my knowledge the site doesn't really do anything to support them. The only thing I know of was the offer to expand the PM boxes of people who run the things after it was requested in the feedback thread. This didn't help me because I had already gone premium specifically for the PM capacity to run a Sheep game.
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
That would have been nice if I knew to ask for it.
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
About a week before the challenge, I contact the mod who first contacted me and give him a heads up about the Drive-in challenge.
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Re: "Official" DVDTalk Challenges Compendium
Originally Posted by caligulathegod
(Post 11738664)
About a week before the challenge, I contact the mod who first contacted me and give him a heads up about the Drive-in challenge.
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