Reflections on the A to Z Challenge

First of all, congratulations to all the participants who completed this year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge. 
This was my second year, and my first year with a theme--the A to Z of literary devices. I found the theme to be both a plus and a minus. Plus: readers interested in literary devices came back time and time again. Minus: others popped in one day and disappeared. Last year, I did random posts and seemed to get more comments. Next year, I'll either go sans theme or have a more general theme.
Unlike last year, I stayed on top of posts. I wrote a week ahead. In a perfect world, all my posts would have been done by April 1. But my life skews to crazy, so I was happy with staying a week ahead.
I love this challenge, and I plan on doing it again next year. However, I did find the participant list (1,656 at last count) to be overwhelming. I'd love to see people sign up under headings--food bloggers in one list, writers in another, and so on. That doesn't mean I wouldn't try out non-writer blogs, but I would spend the majority of my time getting to know other readers/writers.
All in all, it's an amazing challenge. I'm grateful for everyone who stopped by in April and shared some comment love. I hope all of you will stick around!
To check out other Reflections posts, visit here .
What was your favorite part of A to Z this year? If you didn't do it, would you consider it for next year?