There's less than a week to go in the Winter Challenge, so there are some things you need to do NOW!
1. Post any tasks that you have already completed - NOW. A long, impressive list posted at the last minute may seem cool, but it creates many potential problems for you and for the moderators. If your tasks are not posted completely and correctly by midnight on February 28, you don’t get credit for them, no matter why they didn’t get posted. You may have trouble with GR, with the internet or with your computer - things happen.
If you post tasks at the last minute, problems may not be identified in time for you to deal with them and get credit for the task. Sometimes the problem is that you forgot to include required information, but if you don’t post until the last day, there may not be time for me to identify the problem and you to fix it before midnight.
If you post a long list on the last day, I may not have time to review your post before midnight. In that case, you won’t have a chance to correct any problems. There is no guarantee that I will be reviewing tasks "live" as they are posted. Your last-minute posts may be reviewed after the posting deadline.
Remember that to get credit for a task, it must be posted with all necessary requirements in the post and the books must fit the task. If you have any doubts about a book that you’re planning to read at the last minute, you should get it approved in the help thread (and include that information in your post) to avoid any last minute disappointments.
2. If you’re planning on reading any books that only exist in e-book form, make sure NOW that they’ve been approved for length. Check the spreadsheet linked in post 1 of the ebook approval thread first, and if your book hasn’t already been approved, post in the approval thread NOW, so that I will have time to do the research and give you the green light. To be safe, you should request approval by the end of the day on the 25th at the latest (and sooner would be better!) I will NOT be available during the day February 27th or 28th. If your book is marginal on page length, you should make sure that it’s fully approved, not just conditionally approved, before you rely on it to fulfill a task.
3. Check your readerboard totals for points, GR authors and Big Books NOW. If they don’t agree with your records, first make sure that you check the post through which the readerboards have been updated, keeping in mind that they all aren’t necessarily updated through the same post number. Then check your math, check to see if you have messages in the ?/problems thread, check to make sure that you’ve actually posted the tasks that you think you have – GR has been known to eat messages! If checking all of those things doesn’t resolve the discrepancy, post in the ?/problems thread right away, giving as much info as possible so that we can try to resolve it.
If a problem was noted with one of your postings, be sure that you reposted the task in the regular posting thread - an edit to the old post, or a note in the ?/problems thread amending the post is not sufficient.
4. From here on out, the best thing would be for you to post tasks as you finish them, rather than holding them to post a bunch at a time. And, please, before you post, read the task requirements! If something says REQUIRED, you must include it. Read through the task requirements one last time before you post, to make sure that your book actually works for the task and that you’ve included everything. Also, check each book to make sure the genre "children's" does not appear on the book's main page. If it does, you must include information from AR Bookfinder as spelled out in the Rules of the Challenge: Effective Winter 2014.
Let's try to have a smooth, problem free, end to the Winter Challenge!
1. Post any tasks that you have already completed - NOW. A long, impressive list posted at the last minute may seem cool, but it creates many potential problems for you and for the moderators. If your tasks are not posted completely and correctly by midnight on February 28, you don’t get credit for them, no matter why they didn’t get posted.
You may have trouble with GR, with the internet or with your computer - things happen.
If you post tasks at the last minute, problems may not be identified in time for you to deal with them and get credit for the task. Sometimes the problem is that you forgot to include required information, but if you don’t post until the last day, there may not be time for me to identify the problem and you to fix it before midnight.
If you post a long list on the last day, I may not have time to review your post before midnight. In that case, you won’t have a chance to correct any problems.
There is no guarantee that I will be reviewing tasks "live" as they are posted. Your last-minute posts may be reviewed after the posting deadline.
Remember that to get credit for a task, it must be posted with all necessary requirements in the post and the books must fit the task. If you have any doubts about a book that you’re planning to read at the last minute, you should get it approved in the help thread (and include that information in your post) to avoid any last minute disappointments.
2. If you’re planning on reading any books that only exist in e-book form, make sure NOW that they’ve been approved for length. Check the spreadsheet linked in post 1 of the ebook approval thread first, and if your book hasn’t already been approved, post in the approval thread NOW, so that I will have time to do the research and give you the green light. To be safe, you should request approval by the end of the day on the 25th at the latest (and sooner would be better!) I will NOT be available during the day February 27th or 28th. If your book is marginal on page length, you should make sure that it’s fully approved, not just conditionally approved, before you rely on it to fulfill a task.
3. Check your readerboard totals for points, GR authors and Big Books NOW. If they don’t agree with your records, first make sure that you check the post through which the readerboards have been updated, keeping in mind that they all aren’t necessarily updated through the same post number. Then check your math, check to see if you have messages in the ?/problems thread, check to make sure that you’ve actually posted the tasks that you think you have – GR has been known to eat messages! If checking all of those things doesn’t resolve the discrepancy, post in the ?/problems thread right away, giving as much info as possible so that we can try to resolve it.
If a problem was noted with one of your postings, be sure that you reposted the task in the regular posting thread - an edit to the old post, or a note in the ?/problems thread amending the post is not sufficient.
4. From here on out, the best thing would be for you to post tasks as you finish them, rather than holding them to post a bunch at a time. And, please, before you post, read the task requirements! If something says REQUIRED, you must include it. Read through the task requirements one last time before you post, to make sure that your book actually works for the task and that you’ve included everything. Also, check each book to make sure the genre "children's" does not appear on the book's main page. If it does, you must include information from AR Bookfinder as spelled out in the Rules of the Challenge: Effective Winter 2014.
Let's try to have a smooth, problem free, end to the Winter Challenge!