The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
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Thoughts on the Best Review Contest
I have been fortunate to complete the whole challenge the last few seasons, and I assumed that anyone who does that wouldn't also qualify for the Best Review, so that one person doesn't get two tasks in the same season. That's why I personally haven't submitted a review recently.
I really like the idea of best review, in fact I have won it a few times. That is why I have stayed away from entering it-just thought it would be fair to give others a chance. I write reviews for other groups and adding it here is not a big geal for me-I just kind of felt like I should take a break from it.If this is voted out would it be replaced with something else?
I'm not very good at writing reviews and do so only rarely. I'd prefer to have a task replace it if it isn't getting utilized. Perhaps a randomly selected player who doesn't otherwise qualify? Or a regular player who doesn't otherwise qualify?
I, too, have won the Best Review category in the past. I may have a high estimation of what a "best review" might be, because I often just don't think mine would be adequate.I also read all across the board: most genres, old books, obscure books, nonfiction that is sometimes more specialized, and fewer new books (except science fiction). So, I'm sometimes hesitant to list my reviews.
I can submit, but maybe there is another category that could be substituted. I'll have to think about what else I might substitute...
I think its time to try a new category - and just shelve this one for nowmaybe something like translated works or a random selection (always the bridesmaid - someone who comes within 100 points of finishing or something like that)
Re: the Fall task, was I really the winner by default despite there being 3 submissions? :') I personally cherish the Best Review task and, like Joanne, would probably enter it more frequently if I weren't concerned about overdoing it (having won it twice). I've worried about new reviewers being intimidated out of reviewing if they see the same names over and over.
It's honestly one of the only tasks I (and surely plenty of others) really stand a chance of writing/hosting since I never finish the challenge, never finish all the 5's and 10's, etc.
Some other options to consider maybe?
- Reducing or eliminating the 100-point threshold
- Inviting the runner up of the last contest to host in the absence of submissions for the current season
- Having a raffle-like task where anyone who really wants a chance to host a task but doesn't have the chance for a given season can enter their names to a drawing and be randomly selected (maybe giving an extra "ticket" for every season a user doesn't get picked for a task so they have a better chance over time? If that makes sense)
- Doing a random drawing of ALL the users who submit a review rather than doing a poll to judge the "best", which may encourage people who feel intimidated by the judging aspect to participate
Thanks for soliciting thoughts! xo
Michelle in Alaska
I like Dee's idea of 'always a bridesmaid' - I think maybe a random pick out of the people who have a minimum threshold of points and or/tasks (like people who have managed to get 500 points, or who have completed at least half the tasks, something like that). It might need to be tweaked a bit to get the right number of people to choose from :)
Mod
Apologies, I must have gotten mixed up with a previous season! There definitely was one where there was only one review submitted.
I don't write review for books, since I doubt anyone would read them - I use Goodreads solely for groups and to keep track of my own reading progress. I don't have any strong feelings about the "best review" task but I expect there are plenty others like me in the group who just don't write reviews and can therefore be counted out of the running straight away, even if you make the submission process for reviews easier.
I enjoy reading and voting on reviews, but i have no interest in writing my own! It's not really viable if there's not many submissions though. Maybe if you give people one last chance to save it by submitting a review this season, and come up with something new if the response is still low
I'm another one who has won the Best Review task on occasion, and like it as, like the 50pt task, anyone can enter and it's voted on, rather than being luck of the draw. I will admit, I haven't been as good at entering recently, though, and thinking about it, it may be that for a while it wasn't being put up until later in the challenge, or if it has, I've been forgetting to look for it. That meant that if I read and liked a book early in the challenge, I couldn't go and write the review there and then, and it got forgotten. I see it is there now for next SRC, but I did have to go and look for it.
Maybe the answer is to put the Best Review for the next challenge into the current group? That way, people will remember it's there and don't have to go looking for it in a seperate place.
I've also won a couple of times and don't want to overdo it. I agree with others that it might be time to change things up. Some of the suggestions like number of translated books read or a random selection of a participant (although didn't we try this before with the Seasoned Reader?).
Was the suggestion to add a 4th category for translated works? There would then be a drawing for a 20 point task, similar to the Bigger is Better, Golden Oldies and It's a Fact. I think that would be fine. Those are all optional for people to track and participate in. If not that one, some other item that multiple people could qualify for sounds good.
I'm not a review writer, but agree with Trish that putting the thread for reviews in the current season folder might help.an alternative category to translation could be Shiny & New - for books published in the previous 9 months and 3 months of the season (i.e. for Spring 2024, it would be published in the period June 2023 - May 2024).
That might be slightly easier to moderate than translations? (do you have to read the translation? does a French translation of Harry Potter count, or is it books translated from their original language into English?)
or: each season pick a random MPG (or three), people claim for the MPG tag tickets
I like those ideas Cat, A translation category would be just another that readers like me (and there are a lot of them here) would be left out of. I think we need something that encompasses the general population-which I think reviews does but I think there could be a new one -what it is I am not sure-that would shake things up a bit. Mods, much appreciation for putting this out there for people to suggest and comment and not just making a change without input.
Cat wrote: "or: each season pick a random MPG (or three), people claim for the MPG tag tickets"this could be intriguing - especially if it shifts every challenge
Cat wrote: "an alternative category to translation could be Shiny & New - for books published in the previous 9 months and 3 months of the season (i.e. for Spring 2024, it would be published in the period June 2023 - May 2024)."My only worry with that is that new books - specifically hardbacks - cost a great deal more than older ones. Even new kindle books often cost about twice as much as older ones if the print copy is only hardback. There's usually a price drop at about a year when a hardback goes into paperback. Yep, I'm a book buyer, rather than a book borrower, except for kindle unlimited.
I don't read a lot in translation, so like Joanne says in message #17, that would be a harder category for me than some kind of revamp of Reviews.
I think a translation category would be tricky to moderate, because as others have pointed out, it would need to specify if only books translated into English count or if we are counting translations into any language. I'm bilingual so if it was the latter, I could count books translated into either English or French, which widens my choices a lot and potentially gives me an unfair advantage over people who can only read books in one language. However, the former would disadvantage a lot of people who don't predominantly read in English.
Having said that, I do like the idea of having another optional tracking category like Big Books, It's a Fact and Golden Oldies. Cat's idea of newer releases would be a nice counter-balance to Golden Oldies though I agree with Trish that very new books are often expensive. Maybe broaden it to "published in the last 3 years" to make it easier for those relying on paperbacks, Kindle deals and library borrowing?
Mod
I'd had the vague idea of a sort of "passport stamp" thing - tickets for books by authors from different countries, which is sort of related, but might not hit quite so many of those issues.
Jayne wrote: "The translation one is an interesting idea (but of course I'd say that, I'm a language nerd!), but I definitely see everyone's points about it being potentially exclusionary or giving polyglots an ..."I like this idea. People could submit a post with message #'s when they have completed a book (set in? author from could be comlicated...) for each or 6 of 7 continents? (thinking Antartica would be tedious to do every season)
Example Post:
North America- Message 33 (could link the post?)
South America- Message 55
Asia-
Europe-
Australia-
So each person would only submit once, for a complete "passport".
Or ask for a ticket for each continent in the actual posting of the book but that may be tedious for the moderators to track. Consolidated list by the reader would support the work.
I think the passport idea is worth exploring😊
I like the passport idea as an alternative to books in translation, which is difficult to moderate.
Aimee wrote: "I think a translation category would be tricky to moderate, because as others have pointed out, it would need to specify if only books translated into English count or if we are counting translatio..."my thought on translated would be any book translated into a language other than its originally published language...so if it was a french book originally translated to english or german it could count
so like using Harry Potter - anyone who read it in english couldn't count (since that is original language) - but someone who read in French could - posting requirement would be state original language and then translated language
I’ve only submitted a review once. The reason there have been no repeats is that I rarely write reviews that are particularly long and I feel like when you vote for the best review you’d vote for someone who put in more effort so submitting a short review doesn’t feel worth the time. I like the idea of making the “winner” of the review task a random draw. That would motivate me to submit a review.
If we’re replacing the best review task I really like the sound of Cat’s idea of adding a rotating MPG to the big book, non-fiction and golden oldies tasks! I love that the genre-devoted readers out there get some credit haha
I like a lot of these ideas, however the best is something random. Again, I really think that it has to be a more broad pick to include the folks (like me!) who will never finish the challenge or get even close-LoL
Joanne wrote: "I like a lot of these ideas, however the best is something random. Again, I really think that it has to be a more broad pick to include the folks (like me!) who will never finish the challenge or g..."I agree. It should be something that many players are eligible for
I had cataract surgery, so please forgive me if I missed this idea as I skimmed back through the thread. I'd like to see this be tied to task completion in some way. My idea would be a drawing from those participants who finish the group reads task. This could also be a little more challenging if it was for completion of all of the 5 point tasks, or 10 point tasks, etc...One last thought and the most random: pick a task at random and everyone who has completed that task is in the drawing.
Karen Michele wrote: "I had cataract surgery, so please forgive me if I missed this idea as I skimmed back through the thread. I'd like to see this be tied to task completion in some way. My idea would be a drawing from..."That's a good idea, drawing from those who did one of the Group Reads. It would be easy for the Mods to track, and at least one of the chosen books should be accessible to anyone. It might encourage participation.
I really like the Group Read idea! The MPG also sounds fun. I too am one of the members who will probably never finish this challenge and I do appreciate options that allow us to create tasks. I don't read many translated books and I hardly ever write reviews for the books I read on Goodreads because I struggle to get my thoughts on paper (computer) on how I feel about a book.
I like the best review category. I enjoy reading people's reviews to help me decide new books to read. I have entered some reviews in the past, but I am always self conscious about it becasue I am not a real book reviewer.
Maybe taking the "voting" feature out of it and picking one review at random would encourage people who dont want to be judged by how many votes they get would help.
I will try to submit on a more regular basis to try and keep this feature alive.
Heather(Gibby) wrote: "I like the best review category. I enjoy reading people's reviews to help me decide new books to read. I have entered some reviews in the past, but I am always self conscious about it becasue I a..."
Yes, I think I would really like to see us give the spirit of the Best Review task a fighting chance for even a few seasons, even if it's just randomly picking one of the submissions. I think that would encourage more submissions, which could give people more ideas of new books to read as Heather(Gibby) mentioned, and it'd remain a nice way for people who are unlikely to finish a challenge to have some agency in their chances of writing a task. :)
How about everyone that commented here, submit a review?
Joanne wrote: "How about everyone that commented here, submit a review?"Working on one LOL
I've been following this thread with interest. I'm new this season, so I don't have any sentimental fondness for the Best Review Contest, but I'd be in favor of it remaining.I don't write many reviews, but I do manage a some. I enjoy reading them very much, though, and am all in favor of encouraging them! I do see that the voting aspect might intimidate some people from submitting a review, but it seems a shame to lose that aspect of it entirely.
Is there any reason that there couldn't be a vote for a winner and a randomly selected winner as well? Or, riffing on the Bridesmaid idea, non-winning reviewers and the the non-winning tickets from the reported themes could go into one big pot for an additional drawing?
It looks as though I'll be finishing the challenge, so I won't be posting a review, but I look forward to reading everyone else's.
I personally think the review ticket has run its course. Even the reviews in the group reads Lack depth (including mine). I understand the need to be more inclusive and with that in mind think that the MPG's probably works the best and would be easy to moderate although the Passport idea sounds good too
if we keep it -i do like the idea of random drawing vs. votingi personally never submit because 9 times out of 10 i finish the challenge and my review wouldn't count
There are so many great new ideas for this task and it seems like most of us are divided on the direction to take, so maybe we can vote in a poll to decide.
I also finish the challenge regularly, so I wouldn't qualify for the best reviewer. Another idea for a substitute is "serial killer" where participants can keep track of the books they read from a series. This would be like Big Books and Golden Oldies, so the winner could be drawn.
Amy wrote: "I also finish the challenge regularly, so I wouldn't qualify for the best reviewer. Another idea for a substitute is "serial killer" where participants can keep track of the books they read from a ..."ohh that could be fun - i always thought having a group read that was a series book where you could read any book in the series (and tag posts with spoilers) could be a fun group read
Amy wrote: "I also finish the challenge regularly, so I wouldn't qualify for the best reviewer. Another idea for a substitute is "serial killer" where participants can keep track of the books they read from a ..."Oh, this is a fun idea!
Very late to this discussion, but thought I'd add my two cents worth: I've also entered and won the best review contest several times. I generally only enter the review contest and the 50-point contest once a year in different quarters. I had several reviews I would have considered during the winter SRC but I was planning to finish the all the tasks - so no review for me. But I definitely plan on submitting again. Some of the other ideas are great too.
I've been away for several seasons, but have won the best review task several times in the past. I doubt I will ever finish the challenge. I read a lot, but also have many other "requirements" for F2F book clubs and other groups in which I participate. Not every book I read fits an SRC challenge task.
But I do write a review of each book I read, so posting in the Best Review challenge is pretty easy for me.
I'd be fine if you wanted to make it a random drawing from the submissions, vs a voting for "best" .... This might encourage more people to post their reviews. (But you would need to come up with a different title for the challenge task.)
Joanne wrote: "I think the passport idea is worth exploring😊"Me too. Especially having the participant do the tracking updates so it's not so cumbersome to moderate. Mods need time to read too!
Mod
For the next 2 seasons we'd like to keep the focus on reviews, after all Goodreads is about books & book reviews, but instead of a "Best Review" we will rename it to "Review Raffle" and draw a random name from anyone who posts a review in the thread here so the more reviews that you post, the more chance of being drawn to create a task for the summer 2024 season!
You may link to your review on Goodreads, or type the review in the thread.
As Goodreads is about books & book reviews, for this season instead of a "Best Review" we are introducing our new "Review Raffle".
We will draw a random name from anyone who posts a review in this thread. The more reviews that you post, the more chance of being drawn to create a task!
Reviews must be for books read within the current challenge period. You may link to your review on Goodreads, or type the review in the thread. (Please do not link to a review on a site outside of Goodreads)
Your review does not have to be positive but it should be at least a couple of sentences long - "loved it" or "not for me" is not helpful to other readers!
The mods have been noticing for a few seasons now that the Best Review Contest for task 20.3 has been getting fewer and fewer submissions (to the extent of having no 20.3 this season, and Fall's task being a winner by default), so we'd like to hear your thoughts.
Is something deterring you from submitting reviews, and if so, is there a way to make it feel more accessible? Would you like it to remain as a review-based task, but tweak the submissions process? Has the Best Review Contest simply run its course and is it time to be replaced with something new?
The Best Review Contest for Spring will operate as normal this season - we're not rushing to make changes, don't worry! We'd simply like to know what the general feeling is so we have an idea of how to proceed going forward.
Looking forward to reading your comments and suggestions!