NBRC: Tower Teams Read 2013, Round II discussion
Banana Mania
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Banana Mania - September Mod Challenge Discussion
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The Short and Sweet of the Mod's September Challenge for BAPs:
• As a team you need to read between 7% and 9.9% of your total team participant goal in order to get any BAPs.
• 1/3 of these books needs to fit into the Book a Day challenge of which you may double up and the remaining books need to fit into:(1) One A-Z challenge which is not a spell-it-out.
(2) One other NBRC challenge.
Reserved
I like the Book a Day Challenge, the Around the World in 80 Days Reading Challenge and September 2013 Takeover Challenge. The Antonym Challenge is nice too but maybe a bit complicated as a group.
Any Alphabet challenge sounds good to me!
I'm not sure I understand, to succeed we need to read 27 books (9 for each challenge) or 9 in total?
Vanessa wrote: "I'm not sure I understand, to succeed we need to read 27 books (9 for each challenge) or 9 in total?"The goal has actually changed a bit and is based on a percentage of each players individual goal, if they choose to participate in the September Challenge. To complete the challenge for the max BAP, we need to read the sum of 9.9% of everyone's goal. It's a little easier to explain if you take a peek at the spreadsheet I made for the challenge. There is a row for each person on the team and a column for each percent.
Players can drop out until September 20th and join until September 31st. We can also change our second two challenges until September 20th, so if we're finding it tough to get the right books we can change it up.
Alternatively, we can do a straight percentage - 9.9/8.33/7 for 4/2/1 BAP. We have to read the same number of books but we don't have to fit them into challenges. We have until September 20th to choose this option, so my advice would be to go for the higher BAP challenge and if we're struggling closer to the 20th we can revisit this.
Anyone else have suggestions for the A-Z Challenge and the other additional challenge we need to use?
I'm in for this challenge. Here are the challenges I like:
A-Z - Title or Author Alphabet Reading Challenges
NBRC Challenges - New Releases, New 2 U Author, Reading University or the September 2013 Takeover Challenge
So far these are the challenges people are interested in. The numbers to the right indicate how many people mentioned them.September 2013 Takeover Challenge - 3
Around the World in 80 Days - 1
2013 New Releases Reading Challenge - 1
New 2 U Author Challenge - 1
Reading University Challenge - 1
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge - 1
Title Challenge: Read the Alphabet - 1
Anyone else have any suggestions or want to throw their weight behind any of the above?
Because this challenge is based on each participating team member's goal, we need to confirm with the mods who is participating. The finished books thread for this challenge will double as a sign up thread, so please sign up over there if you are definitely interested. Link.
I'm participating in the September 2013 Takeover Challenge. But as much as I hate to admit this, I must say that trying to wrap my head around how team challenges work is giving me a massive headache. Math was always my worst subject in school, and just looking at the BAP percentage calculations is making my head spin. :(
So, all that to say that I really don't get the team challenge thing, which is why I haven't commented on any of the threads. I'm sure I must be missing something easy and straightforward, but I can't figure out how it works for the life of me.
No worries, Elizabeth. I can definitely understand that it feels complicated!At the basic level the group challenges work just like a solo challenge. You read books that fit certain tasks.
Up until the September challenge the numbers have been pretty straight forward (read 50, read 75, etc.). Some groups felt overwhelmed or didn't have full participation so the mods decided to base the September challenge on a percentage of each participating member's goal. That way if a team had only one person who wanted to participate in the challenge, they could still compete for the max amount of BAP.
In previous months the challenges have been all or nothing - if the goal was 50 and we read 49 books, we're out of luck. With the varying BAP for completing a certain amount of the challenge teams still get rewarded for their efforts.
I've done all the math on our September Challenge spreadsheet to make it easier. No need to worry about the math you can just look at the final numbers! :) Right now the top is empty until people confirm that they will be participating, and the bottom section is the full participation scenario. It has a column for all three percentage levels with the number of books we will need to read.
Note that you do not personally have to reach your goal. If two people are participating and they have goals of 3 and 5 they just have to read 8 books between the two of them -they could read 4 and 4 or 2 and 6.
Does that help at all?
I'm willing to do any of these challenges. It seems like whatever I read can be slotted in somehow to fulfill a spot.
Looks good couple questions. If one person reads more books that can count towards someone else's goal that is higher?And is the second books per day field wrong? I don't see how it could be 20.
Oh and I.ll participate, is it starting September first?
Mod
Yes.
Susan wrote: "And is the second books per day field wrong? I don't see how it could be 20."
That is the requirement for the part of the challenge that is from "A Book a Day Keeps the Boredom a Bay." In other words, the number of books that will need to fit into that challenge.
Basilinna Banana wrote: "No worries, Elizabeth. I can definitely understand that it feels complicated! At the basic level the group challenges work just like a solo challenge. You read books that fit certain tasks. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you! So when we sign up for the challenge, do we need to tell you in advance which challenge our books will fit into? Or do we fill in that information as we go along, and just start out with a number goal?
Thanks again!
Everyone seems to like the September 2013 Takeover Challenge, so we'll stick with that one.We have until September 20th to "lock-in" our challenges, so I've added a column for Author and Title A-Z. Since it's easy enough to track I will do both and we can see where we are closer to the deadline.
Does that work for everyone?
I've also added a list of categories for the Book a Day Challenge to the second tab of the spreadsheet for easy reference.
Remember to post your books in the Finished Books Thread. You don't have to do this immediately after finishing - you can do an end of the week update if you prefer - but please list as many categories as possible that the books fits in since we may have to shuffle things later in the month!
And your follow-up comment just clarified my question, so ignore me. :)
Elizabeth wrote: "Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you! So when we sign up for the challenge, do we need to tell you in advance which challenge our books will fit into? Or do we fill in that information as we go along, and just start out with a number goal?"You can just fill in the information as you go along. If you want to make a plan to organize yourself, feel free to use your sign-up post to do so. Otherwise you can just post new posts in the finished books thread as you read!
We keep posting at the same time. LOL! :)
One more thing I forgot to mention! I added an "on track" column to the Spreadsheet. The column will automatically calculate the number of books you should have read by the current day and will let us easily see if we are behind or ahead as a team.
If you find that you are getting super far behind, you can drop out of the challenge without hindering the team until September 20th. Once the 20th passes the rest of the team will have to make up for the books you fell behind on.
Quick question. On this thread I read that each category could only be used once as a team but upon reviewing the rules in the finished book thread it said each subcategory could be used twice. The example category was usable 8 times. I'm sorry if that's been cleared up already, just checking?
Ok one more, did we pick the other two challenges?
Good catch, Susan!The finished book thread is correct. The mods have made some clarifications and changes since they first announced the challenge, I took the old information out of this thread. :)
Elizabeth wrote: I really don't get the team challenge thing, which is why I haven't commented on any of the threads.Hello all, I'm totally new to this team and to the NBRC group. I don't generally participate in team challenges (I'm more of an individual contributor), but this seems like it fits with my reading style. That being said, I'm not sure what I should be doing to help out. Is is too late to join this challenge? Let me now what I need to do to be a better team member.
Hi Connie! Welcome to our group! Reading A LOT would help ;)You can also participate to the monthly challenge if you'd like. Just check if it fits your reading habits (http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...). If you like crosswords and stuff like that, there's a list of puzzles every month. I am not a reading challenge person normally but I have to say this is a lot of fun, I hope you like it! :)
There's 4 challenges that the books you read in sept can fit into:http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...
So you would go through any books you've read in the month of September and list out all the ways they fit into each of the above challenges. Some books will fit lots of ways others maybe only a few ways. Once you have that you post your books and how they fit into this thread: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
They'll get added to the spreadsheet and at the end all the books get shuffled around how they fit best. Simple and fun!
Vanessa wrote: If you like crosswords and stuff like that, there's a list of puzzles every month. Thanks, Vanessa, for the response. I'm having trouble figuring out how to navigate through this group. Where do I find the puzzles I keep reading about?
Reading A LOT would help
That's NEVER a problem! I just wish working for a living didn't interfere with my reading time.
Oh and nope it's not too late to join so you should definitely come play! To make it official I think you just post in this thread that you want to participate!
Oh good thanks, but now what? Do I just read my books and add them to my tower list? Or should I post somewhere the ones that I've read for challenges? Sorry to be so dumb about this. I've done so many individual-contributor challenges with Crazy Challenge Connection and The Challenge Factory, but I just haven't wrapped my head around this team one.
Go to this thread http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...Click comment and post the books you've read in the month of September.
Here is an example:
A History of the Present Illnessby Louise Aronson
For Read the Alphabet:
H (for the first letter of the title)
For Author Alphabet Challenge:
L and A (for the first letter of both the first and last name of the author)
Now without actually having read this book it's hard for me to say what all categories of the Book a Day and September Takeover challenge that book fits in.
But so you post that in the thread I linked above.
Mod
Also Connie, you don't have to participate in the challenges. The overall tower team goal for team Banana Mania is to get to 1,350 (or somewhere around there, on my phone can't verify the actual number) with books that are greater than or equal to 160 pages in length. The first to do that wins. The challenges give us Book Advantage Points, to help us get there. So with September if we meet the 9.9% goal of the participating members (remember you don't to participate in any individual challenge in the group) we would get 9 BAPs (again I can't remember the actual number but sure that's it) and it would be as if we read 9 additional books to help us reach the 1,350 first.Hope that helps. The books that qualify are from the start date in April and you just add all the books you've read from then til now and any new ones you read to that shelf, as simple as that. We stop when one team reaches the goal.
You all are great helps. LOL, I guess I need everything spelled out in detail. I love challenges, Corey, so participating in them won't be a problem. Susan, I think I've finally got it. One more question, do I note the challenges that my book will meet even if I'm not participating in that challenge? Or is it just for the challenges I'm in?
You don't actually have to participate in any of those challenges. The books you submit for the September Tower Team Mod challenge, just have to fit the same restrictions as one of those challenges. And like posted earlier, Basilinna wants us to note each category it fits into, so she can make some changes to have our books fit best so we can get credit for each one.
Welcome to the team, Connie. I saw your ah-ha moment in the other thread, so I think you're sorted out now? Definitely feel free to keep asking questions if you aren't! :DSpecial thanks to everyone who answered questions. I've been a bit AWOL lately as I had been on vacation at the beginning of the month and am still playing catch-up from that!
I finished the 4 books I would need to read for September to qualify for the 9.9%. I'll keep posting in case it helps make up someone else's goal.I was wondering how the puzzles work and what the cupcakes are for. Sorry if that answer is already posted someplace.
Thanks, Susan
Mod
Quickie Explanation of Cupcakes
• Cupcakes appear during a Mods’ Monthly Challenge.
• You earn cupcakes from Captain Cupcake for participating in mini-games and puzzles as posted in this thread for September. They’re totally optional, but a Team can cash them in to get free passes on challenges, or for extra points for larger books read. (More on this last below.)
• Cupcakes are tracked on a Google Spreadsheet on Captain Cupcake’s World of Puzzles & Cupcakes.
• There are links to the puzzles at the top of each column.
• Any column with a regular cupcake () only needs to be done once per team. These are usually easy jigsaws and slider puzzles.
• Any column with a “blinkie” cupcake () may be done by as many Team Members as want to participate. In fact, the more Team Members who complete the “blinkie” cupcake puzzles, the more options you will have when you cash them in. These are Word Finds, Crosswords, Doublets, Find the Duplicates and types of puzzles that are generally a bit more difficult.
• While “blinkies” may also be redeemed by the person who earned them (such as for hints for encryption puzzles), the cupcakes for BAPs are redeemed by Captains in the Captains’ Group.
• Sometimes puzzles are set up as a series. For these, on the spreadsheet they will change from a regular cupcake (
• For regular and higher worth cupcakes you don’t get any bonuses for multiple Team Members completing them, but if you want to do them just for fun, there’s no reason not to! :)
• Blue cupcakes () are ones that were earned during a “48 Hour Cupcake Crazy” make-up period.
• Sunday Update ★'s are earned by Captains, or their proxies, if they are on vacation.
• There are three different type of cupcakes worth BAPs*. Below are the different size books/word count/page count breakdown :Cup Word Page Added Look Upon
cake Name Count Count BAPs* Redemption“bouncy” or
“chunkster” 112,500 450 1“Triple
Threat” 200,000 800 2“Cutthroat
Competitor”
or Cuatro 350,000 1,400 4
*BAPs = Book Advantage Books, which are each equal to one book read.
Question: can two members read the same book if its placed into separate categories for each one? (Or even qualify for the book a day double up?) just curious, as I plan on reading Coraline for the BOM and wondered if more of us do if it counts. I also noticed Elizabeth has also finished it. ;)
Mod
Yes.
Thanks Susan for the update in the other thread. I'm hoping to have 2 more read by the 30th, I don't think I could accomplish more than that (I'm finding "Dark Places" slow going, maybe Ms. Flynn isn't for me?) Also, yes I very much enjoyed Coraline, i personally didn't find it all that creepy, though watching the movie on In Flight entertainment over the Atlantic, that was creepy.
I didn't know there was a movie, I'm going to have to look for that one. I didn't find it too creepy either.Dark places isn't her best one, I really enjoyed gone girl, I thought that was one of the best books I has read in awhile. I don't know where you're at in dark places, but it picks up.
I don't know who's tying to solve the mini-puzzle but we are only missing one (!!!!) and I'm very bad at that type (find the duplicates). If anyone is interested, here's the link to the puzzle:http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Preliminary Info on September BAP Challenge: (Revision V)
Goal: Total number of your “Team within a Team” participants will need to read a percent of their total goal to earn Book Advantage Points (BAPs). The breakdown is as follows (see Post #20 below for increase in BAPs and another Mango Tango Option):Rules: Your Team must have a minimum of one-third (1/3) of your books from the first challenge, A Book a Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge. You may then choose the rest, in any percent each of the next two NBRC challenges you choose.
• We will allow members to “double up” on days for the A Book a Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge; however, not for the A-Z challenge, nor any Spell-It-Out. Of course, if you spell T.I.G.E.R. and C.A.T. (using two "T"s., that is acceptable).
• There must be at least one book in the remaining two challenges, unless you have met your goal in the first challenge.
• Yes, your Team may have only one participant.
• If one member wants to read more to make up another member’s percent, that is fine.
• You do NOT need to complete the selected challenges; just fit your books to the three you choose.
• To give you an advantage, we will round down instead of up to determine the number of books you read.
• Any Team participant at 70% or higher of her (or his) yearly ‘target goal by the August 18th Sunday Update will be considered an ‘outlier’ and will have their goal adjusted for the September BAP Challenge to below 70%. (Remember, this is based on the TTRC ending April 11, 2014. To be ‘on target’ on that day, a Team or participant would be at 35%.)• We will be happy to calculate your “Team within a Team” goal for you. Yes, you may adjust it, if more players wish to join after the start of the month.
• Someone who has had the summer off and is returning to school, has a new job, or has a special event planned in September, etc., may ask for special consideration of their goal.
• Referring to our challenges, choose books that fit:These links might help:
Reading Challenge Index
Monthly/Season Challenge Index
Spell It Out - is available in many of the challenges.
Your Team just needs to select books from the sub-options in the
Book a Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge
. How many books you read is determined by your goal.
Below is an example of a category's sub-options restrictions. The example we use is for Category #4 from the challenge:
Example of a Category's Sub-options Restrictions
Two (2) books per Book A Day Challenge sub-option. Using Category #4 as an example we have two (2) books with a red/blue/white cover, two (2) books set on the US, two (2) books with the US flag on the cover. Or two (2) books where the main character is fighting for his independence or for some greater good.
That is a total of eight (8) books for Category #4. Some categories allow more, some are less.
*Here are A-Z Challenge. The Animal Alphabet Reading Challenge, Cooking & Cookware A-Z, and Herbs & Spices A-Z, etc. actually count as Spell-It-Out challenges.