Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Team Challenges Archive
>
Questions about TTIII?
Can someone refresh my memory - if two members of the same group participate in the same BR/BOM (along with members from other teams), do we get points for both members or only one? Thanks!
Lauren wrote: "Can someone refresh my memory - if two members of the same group participate in the same BR/BOM (along with members from other teams), do we get points for both members or only one? Thanks!"You would both get points for the BOM/BR.
Anyone else unable to get into google docs? I want to update my own spreadsheet and all I get is the revolving rainbow circle of doom. I even tried going through the link to the game spreadsheet and still can't get in there.
I was able to get into google docs, Mary. No rainbow circle of doom :D.
I will be reading
this week. It is part of a Featured Series readhttps://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
If I join in the discussion, will this count as a BR or BOM? Just curious.
~Leslie~ wrote: "I will be reading this week. It is part of a Featured Series readhttps://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
If I join in the discussion, will this count as a BR o..."
It would be considered a buddy read.
I am on my tablet and crunched for time, so sorry if this question was already asked. Can we get points for a Buddy Read if we have already read the book during the challenge and then later a thread is set up for a series buddy read if we go back and discuss that book also?
Turtlecollector wrote: "I am on my tablet and crunched for time, so sorry if this question was already asked. Can we get points for a Buddy Read if we have already read the book during the challenge and then later a threa..."Yes, as long as you read the book after the challenge started.
So, if we read a book that has 30,000 words but only 95 pages, does it still count? Is it 25,000 AND at least 100 pages or 25,000 words OR at least 100 pages?
Mod
The word count is used for children's books to validate because their page numbers are often higher (large font) so we only count them if more than 25,000 words
Is there a rule on word count or page count for books of poetry or are they not allowed?
Mod
Since a team is about to get 10,000 points, how about making the next one 50,000 points?
Dear Mods,For the next challenge, you must find a way to make it more interactive. I'm sorry but it's not been fun this go around. Honestly, I consider quitting because I just post books I read. I don't remember what you guys did last time but I had a great time as a hobbit. I remember a lot of discussion/chats with my teammates even during the holidays.
Maybe there should be buddy reads within teams, something needs to be done to promote "team interactions". Even though we don't have a snowball chance of winning, it would be okay if I was having fun and getting to know people.
Thanks for listening.
Happy Holidays.
Mod
I think a lot of it comes down to the team and willingness to interact ; which is also driven by the captains trying to post discussion questions and general chit-chat on their threads. I'm not really sure how to encourage that more, and we have to remember that is not the reason why everyone signs up for a team challenge.
We also had mini challenges during the last TT, but again, it wasn't to everyone's taste. It is always difficult meeting everyone's needs.
Perhaps in future we will also ask for people's favourite genres so we can try and match teams with similar book likes? Happy to take any suggestions
Mod
We had discussed this, but based on feedback from prior challenges the majority of people wanted a challenge that was around 3 months and this one started Nov 8 and is currently predicted to end on 4 Feb so we are pretty close to achieving that 3 month aim!
We will have other team challenges in 2015, and probably rotate between longer ones like TT and shorter ones (6 weeks) like wheelathon
Karen wrote: "Hi Ezi,I think a lot of it comes down to the team and willingness to interact ; which is also driven by the captains trying to post discussion questions and general chit-chat on their threads. I'm..."
I have a few suggestions but I'm trying to shed my trouble maker status so I'll quietly go back to my corner and read my book.
Thanks Karen
Ezinwanyi~the Troublemaker wrote: "Karen wrote: "Hi Ezi,I think a lot of it comes down to the team and willingness to interact ; which is also driven by the captains trying to post discussion questions and general chit-chat on thei..."
You're welcome to post (or pm) suggestions and they can get added into the giant hat when we try to figure out how to set things up next time.
We also have some big plans for a longer late spring/summer challenge so maybe suggestions would get fed in earlier.
Mod
Are their any restrictions on the kind of books that may be read? Can a cookbook be used if the majority is text? Thanks for consideration.
Ezinwanyi~the Impish Angel wrote: "For the next challenge, you must find a way to make it more interactive. I'm sorry but it's not been fun this go around. "I'd love to hear some of your suggestions on making things more interactive, Ezi. I don't think you're being a trouble maker for asking. I love team interaction but I haven't been able to be as interactive this time, myself, and I feel really bad about that, but I think my team is okay with it. I think my team is just interactive enough for most of the team so we got lucky in that regard.
I had suggested after the last TT to add to the sign-ups a question about whether the person would prefer a chatty (i.e., interactive) team or one that is more quiet or if they don't care one way or the other. I think something like that can be helpful but I'm sure it adds to the stress of forming teams when you're already taking reading levels and time zones into consideration. I appreciate how much effort goes into creating teams and I wouldn't trade any mod for that, heh.
Have you tried to post some ice breaker types of questions in your team thread, like a small intro, including favorite books or authors or genres? Things where you can get a jump-off point into free-flowing chatter. Or, if your team has done that, maybe you could post a "question of the day" (doesn't have to be every single day), where you ask a reading/book-related question to get conversation flowing. Or maybe suggesting a mini read-a-thon between team members for say a span of 5 days (long enough to make it feel like you've accomplished something, short enough to keep everyone motivated)? Those have worked out for my team pretty well. We've also set mini goals for ourselves at random, sometimes setting a weekly goal of pages we want to read, or keeping track of how many pages we need in order to topple the team above us, things like that that keep our momentum going.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to go and read all of the other team threads so I'm not sure if you've already tried any of these things, so I'm sorry if I'm suggesting things that have already been done/tried. Just trying to think of little ways you can help inspire your team be more interactive through yourself being proactive.
Mod
We would need to be able to verify the word count for cookbooks as I would generally put them into the category of "graphic novels", which also includes books like coffee table books. A question was asked in the captains group about a specific book so I think that one was looked into and wasn't able to be verified as enough words, but I'm not sure if your book is the same one
Mod
I think also the time of year with this one was against us ; a lot of people are rather busy!
Karen wrote: "Tara Jo wrote: "Are their any restrictions on the kind of books that may be read? Can a cookbook be used if the majority is text? Thanks for consideration."We would need to be able to verify th..."
Probably the same book....Kelly stopped by our team thread and commented as well so most likely the same one. Thanks for considering.
I like doing some mini challenges within the big challenge but last time around I thought they were a little too much.
I have another suggestion as well.. I agree with Ezi...my team is interactive, but not as much as last time around.....I mean we chat a bit...but last time around our team really got into it...talking about the books we'd read, and why we liked them.... also...there needs to be more "even" way to pick teams....this round seems very lopsided.....in that the teams are so far apart in points from top to bottom.....there isn't much of a challenge if one team is so far ahead....why would the last teams even really want to achieve the goal? I thuink last time around the teams were more even....it made it more of a challenge all around... :) just thinking :)
For the Light Vs. Dark challenge, is there a cutoff time in these? I know it was listed as through January q8, but is that read through the 18th then he a day or two to report in, or all books have to be posted by the 18th? Also what is the cutoff time on the 18th (11:59 pm certain time zone?)Thanks for clarifying!
Interesting to read the above comments, I really think it is the luck of the draw concerning the chattiness of the teams. I really like to chat and check our thread everyday but we have a mix in our current team. Maybe indicating your preference in the sign up would be an idea if it's not too much of a hassle for the Mods. Regarding the big difference in the scores, I'm sure the Mods have a formula to work out the teams but it is impossible to predict how committed people are and also what real life things come up to stop readers participating fully. That's just one of those things.
Even though I did participate in some of the puzzles in TT2 I'm glad they are not in TT3. It is a reading challenge after all.
Thanks for reading my 10 cents worth. I really, really enjoy doing the group challenges in NBRC and look forward to the next ones. Thanks Mods.
Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Interesting to read the above comments, I really think it is the luck of the draw concerning the chattiness of the teams. I really like to chat and check our thread everyday but we have a mix in ou...":) I agree..the chattiness is rather luck of the draw...I'm ok with that...although it would be nice like last round when everyone was there a lot....we're havig some banter in our group...so no worries...
and I understand about real life too...but seriously....how can the top group be sooooo far ahead...it amost seems pointless for anyone below half-way down to even try....except to see what everyone else is readin g....and just doing it for the fun...and not the challenge.
Catherine wrote: "I have another suggestion as well.. I agree with Ezi...my team is interactive, but not as much as last time around.....I mean we chat a bit...but last time around our team really got into it...talk..."
The difference in this round is the points for buddy read/BOM participation. If it was just based on the books we had read then the team I'm in would be 3 places higher in the ranks than where we are currently. When I last looked I think the team in 1st place had more than twice the participation points than the team in 20th place. Whether or not the members in a team are interested in participating in the buddy reads/BOMs really makes a difference to the amount of points a team will get.
The difference in this round is the points for buddy read/BOM participation. If it was just based on the books we had read then the team I'm in would be 3 places higher in the ranks than where we are currently. When I last looked I think the team in 1st place had more than twice the participation points than the team in 20th place. Whether or not the members in a team are interested in participating in the buddy reads/BOMs really makes a difference to the amount of points a team will get.
That's something that I think should be on the sign up thread, personally. How you feel about BR and BOM and if you want to participate in them. Because it does make a HUGE difference in points. Personally, I don't really like them? I enjoy being able to pick up whatever book I want when I want to and mess around with my reading schedule and drop books if I'm not enjoying them.But because of the vast difference in points, I feel obligated to do them, reading books I wouldn't otherwise or finishing books I would have quit because I wasn't enjoying them. I end up feeling guilty when I don't do them because of how far back just reading a regular book sets me.
That's a good point, Pigletto. Participating in the buddy reads and BOM really encourages discussion. I've been reading a lot of different genres to my usual and talking to new people by doing this and getting the extra points.
We're looking at some ways to make it so the team that gets ahead at the beginning isn't necessarily ahead the whole time. Plus we're looking at ways to have multiple winners in different categories for some of our challenges to give more people a chance to win.
Cait wrote: "That's something that I think should be on the sign up thread, personally. How you feel about BR and BOM and if you want to participate in them. Because it does make a HUGE difference in points. Pe..."Yeah, but, for example: I'm a slow reader and I'm not able to be online everday (I'm sure that there are others in the same situation). I want to do BRs and/or BOMs but with the reading pace most other people have compared to mine? No way that I can participate in a meaningfull way. Yes, I can post my thoughts when I go online but most of the time everyone has already moved on to the next book. Or, people decide to start a book I would love to read and discuss the next day and I'm not online on the day they decide this and on the one they start it and until I've seen the request (and finished my current book), they have already finished the book. :/
So, I'm willing to participate but bottom line - I won't be able to do so most of the time because I'm a too slow reader and not online everyday. :/ I don't know how much stating the willingness to do BR/BOMs in the sign-up form is helping in this regard.
One thing about the BR/BOMs I'm a bit "Hmmmm" about, is the fact that you might get more points for the fact that you participated in a BR/BOM than for reading the book when it is in the 100 - 450 page range. I think, that you should always get more points for reading than participating. Just my two cents.
Other than that - I really like the TT. I got me reading a bit more than usual and I like having a team and working together for a common goal. :)
Pigletto wrote: "Catherine wrote: "I have another suggestion as well.. I agree with Ezi...my team is interactive, but not as much as last time around.....I mean we chat a bit...but last time around our team really ..."thanks Pigletto for saying what I was fumbling around :)
I still think it should be included. All you would have to say is "I would like to do them but probably won't be able to do many." Then at least it's stated and they can even out the teams between people who do A LOT and people who don't. The reason you do or don't do them doesn't really matter. What matters is having a team of six people who do four of them a week versus a team that has two people that do one or two a month. That's a huge point difference that could easily be spread out by answering one question.
I enjoy the variety in the types of team challenges we have had. There are pros and cons to all of them. This one has been very BOM and BR focussed. I have enjoyed being involved in lots of BR discussions, but I can't keep up this pace long term. (I have also enjoyed not needing to write the BOM questions all the time! Us mods LOVE it when people volunteer to write questions, so keep it up even when there are no points on offer). I also enjoyed some other challenges where only one book per person was counted per week. That takes the read-a-thon stress off, but winning was more about luck not effort. Thanks for all the feedback. We often repeat challenges and fine tune them as we go.
Tara Jo wrote: "For the Light Vs. Dark challenge, is there a cutoff time in these? I know it was listed as through January q8, but is that read through the 18th then he a day or two to report in, or all books hav..."I'll get Karen to clarify, but I think the books will need to marked read on the 18th in your time zone. We will gather all the data and post results some time after it has become the 19th in everyones timezones. I think Karen is working on some countdown timers.
Mod
I'm loving the challenge personally, i've been lucky and put in a great team and all we do is chat haha!I'll be sorry to see it end :o(
We have a couple in our team that are reading machines lol and participate in lots of BR and BOM's and then we have another couple that just plod along and read what they want when they want.
We also had the difficulty of losing 2 team players and their points, and not having anyone replace them.
At the time we were a bit hmmmm about it as all of the other teams seem to have loads of members and had some replaced, but it actually seemed to boost our team even more, as we had lost about 500 points it boosted the guys to up their game, and it worked, they are awesome!
We did get a newbie in the end though lol.
We have had a couple of informal challenges like Bingo which everyone seemed to like (thanks to Erin's fab bingo board)and we seem to be slowly making our way up the leader board which is always a bonus!
So just my little 2 pennies worth anyway :o)
This is my first time participating in Tower Teams and I have no idea how this round differs from the first two, but I'm enjoying it even though from the beginning it seemed like the best we could do was second place. A bit of a bummer when you are as competitive as I am, but I shall survive. :DI do question the BRs and BotMs being more points than actually just reading a book sometimes. If reading is supposed to be the focus of this challenge, then perhaps dropping the "extra" points to 5 per book might make things more even. I have personally done very few because of how I get my books. When you live in a town of 250 people and borrow your books from the (surprisingly awesome for a town this size) library, your choices are limited. YA and paranormal/fantasy are not as popular at my library as they are on this site. Twice I suggested mystery books as BRs and got no takers, so I suspect my tastes are a little different from the majority.
My opinion anyway and I'm still loving the challenge and we are totally going to get second place which is technically first when you are competing against Cyborg-cats! ;)
Catherine wrote: "Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Interesting to read the above comments, I really think it is the luck of the draw concerning the chattiness of the teams. I really like to chat and check our thread eve..."Catherine, you said that it seems almost pointless for the teams near the bottom to bother trying when they are so far away from the teams on top. Well, I understand that frustration but my team was near the bottom a lot for the first few weeks but we have slowly climbed up to 7th, then 6th, then 5th or almost 5th place. (I am not sure where we ended up this week because I forgot to check before coming here). Anyway, my point is, I hope nobody ever gives up because you just never know what the other teams around you are going to do. The teams right above you could slow down, allowing you to sneak in!
ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "Catherine wrote: "Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Interesting to read the above comments, I really think it is the luck of the draw concerning the chattiness of the teams. I really like to chat and ch..."Yes, Teresa. I noticed that too. Apart from the Cyborg -Cats ( love that, LOL!) there is a lot of movement in the placings. But just so you know, the Soaring Eagles are going to defend that 5th position to the death... (just joking). I love the friendly competition!
This is my first time in any challenge and I have to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly. Loved chatting up with my team mates, getting to know them and their books. But mostly loved the BRs, because there I had the freedom of really discussing some wonderful books with some really wonderful people. It opened my eyes to a lot of things and did help enjoy reading, which otherwise is a solitary thing by itself. While winning is definitely the goal of any game/challenge, I think I love it best when it affords for some good discussions while not being all about points. Well that is my personal opinion, of course! :)I would really like to thank all the mods here for setting up this wonderful challenge and here's looking forward to more such exciting events in the future. :)
And Lisa - I agree we Soaring Eagles are definitely going to defend that 5th position to death! Lol!
I can definitely see where teams that participate in the BOMs and BRs have an edge. I personally really enjoy these and participated in quite a few, but I can see how some others wouldn't find them appealing or simply don't have the time. Perhaps in the next TT round, the participation can be worth fewer points (as has already been suggested) or perhaps the challenge can be divided into two sections - one for those who want to do the BOMs and the other for those who don't and there would be a winner for each section. As to the chattiness of teams, the time of year definitely played a part and there are always people who like to interact more than others. So, I agree with the idea of asking in the sign ups if people want a chatty or a quiet group.
Just want to add how much fun I've had this round (and the last) and thanks to all the great mods for everything that you do to make it so wonderful :0)
Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "Catherine wrote: "Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Interesting to read the above comments, I really think it is the luck of the draw concerning the chattiness of the te..."Ha! We'll see about that. The drakes might come along and breathe fire all over you eagles, hehe!!
Nothing But Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Innocent Blood (other topics)Small Favor (other topics)
Small Favor (other topics)
The Miniaturist (other topics)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (other topics)
More...
No, that's fine to discuss main themes and characters. It counts for points