Group Challenges Line-Up

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

I have been looking at the different challenges that we have in the group, and I thought it probably could used a little more organization, so I'm giving a status report and a preview of what's coming by next year.

So far this is what we have:

Monthly Challenges:

Regular Monthly Challenge - This is the group's main challenge with 10 categories to fill.

Other challenges on a monthly schedule includes:

Pick-It-For-Me Challenge - A popular recommendation challenge which allows participants to try a new book.

Read-The-Month Challenge - Read books which titles or authors start with the letters of the month.

Quarterly Challenges:

Quarterly Themed-Challenge This will become a regular for the group. Currently we have, It's a Jungle Out There Challenge(until Nov. 30, 2009).

Read-The-Season Challenge: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn (coming soon). Rules will be the same as the Read-The-Month.

Yearly Challenges

Challenges good for a year.

A-Z Book Challenge
A-Z Author Challenge
A-Z Character Challenge (Right now, its good for six months, ending at the end of this year Next year, we will split this into two: male and female, and it will be good for a year)

Other Challenges:

A LifeTime of Books Challenge - Read a book published for every year of your life.

Count-off-Challenge - Hosted by Kenjii, its a great thread for those trying to limit their book buying addiction.

Build Your Boxed Sets Challenge - Come up with creative ways to put your reading list together, and read without pressure of a deadline

Read-Your-Name Challenge - I will be resurrecting this challenge and will request newbies to participate giving it a time duration of 3 months starting from the time a person signed up.

TBR Challenge - A fun, easy way to help clear that ever-growing TBR pile.

I have a few more i'm still developing, so stay posted.

I'm open to ideas to improve our group and possible future challenges.

Let me know what you guys think.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ]

Yz wrote: "A-Z Character Challenge (Right now, its good for sex months, ending at the end of this year Next year, we will split this into two: male and female, and it will be good for a year)..."

Yz is that "sex" months or "six" months?! LOL

I think it's great to have all the challenges listed somewhere. The new seasonal one sounds like fun. I'm glad the A-Z challenges are yearly as it'll take me that long to split the A-Z Character challenge by sex.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "Yz wrote: "A-Z Character Challenge (Right now, its good for sex months, ending at the end of this year Next year, we will split this into two: male and female, and it will be good for a year)..."
..."

I just caught that when i did a reread...and I was laughing. How embarrassing! *grins*

[Kasia]

Freudian slip ;D

Do you think we should reorder folders? If so - any suggestions?

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Kasia wrote: "Freudian slip ;D

Do you think we should reorder folders? If so - any suggestions?"

I was actually thinking about that. Not sure yet what the best approach. I was thinking monthly, quarterly, yearly and other challenges. And then past months or completed challenges go to the archives.

What do you think?

[Kasia]

Sounds good. I was also thinking about keeping the major monthly challenges separate. Maybe? The 10 category Monthly challenge often has 3-4 active threads at once... But then, creating too many folders might get a little messy. So maybe just what you said. I like that idea.

[Kasia]

I was also considering having a October and November folders (instead of "Mothly challenges"). Then once we're through with October - move it into archives. Later on have a December folder... You get the idea. But maybe that's too much unnecessary fuss.

Annyways, I'm puting the idea out there.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Kasia wrote: "Sounds good. I was also thinking about keeping the major monthly challenges separate. Maybe? The 10 category Monthly challenge often has 3-4 active threads at once... But then, creating too many fo..."

I was thinking about that.

Do you think we should do away of the suggestion and discussion thread for the monthly challenges? or maybe not...But maybe we can only keep the current month in the folder and the past month...the rest will just be archived. I think that will solve the solution for the monthly challenges folder. What do you think?

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ]

I think the archives are a good idea.

[southpaw285]

THis is really awesome, YZ. I was just thinking about this the other day, wandering if we would get to do some of the same challenges again next year. I've got a couple of them I started late in the year and probably won't be able to complete on time. While that is a little disappointing to me, now I can look forward to the challenge beginning next year.

As always, thanks so much for the time and effort you put into it. All of you always make it so much fun to participate.

[Kasia]

Yz wrote: "But maybe we can only keep the current month in the folder and the past month...the rest will just be archived. I think that will solve the solution for the monthly challenges folder. What do you think? "

Deal.

[Mel W]

Yz wrote: "Kasia wrote: "Sounds good. I was also thinking about keeping the major monthly challenges separate. Maybe? The 10 category Monthly challenge often has 3-4 active threads at once... But then, creati..."

Good idea :)

Sorry, I've been out of the loop the last day or two. Had a water pipe burst in the ceiling above my bookcase yesterday - think I've lost over 100 of my precious books (some just recently purchased too) to water damage. I was out dropping the kids at school but thank goodness my husband hadn't left for work when it happened, and acted pretty quickly in getting the water and power turned off. Still a mess to clean up though.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Mel,

Sorry to hear about your books. From one fellow book lover to another, I can definitely understand the pain.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ]

Sorry to hear about the water damage. Ugly and fanned out perhaps, but any chance some are readable? Do you have insurance on your belongs that might cover replacement?

[Mel W]

Kate, I've been able to salvage most of them - like you say, fanned out and ugly but still readable. I have had them outside in the sun trying to dry them out - some were sopping all the way through so those will take a few days to dry out completely.

I'm hoping our contents insurance will cover replacement - waiting for them to get back to me. Now that we know for sure that my husband's laptop will need replacing, I'll chase them up tomorrow.

Whichever way the insurance thing goes, I will probably just replace, over time, the ones I know I will read again :)

[Mel W]

Yz wrote: "Mel,

Sorry to hear about your books. From one fellow book lover to another, I can definitely understand the pain.
"

Thanks, Yz :)

[Kasia]

I've just put in the Yearly Challenges folder, moved Pick-It-For-Me and Read-The-Month to the Montly Challenges and put some of the older challenges into the 2009 Archive. I think it works for now, of course we'll need to clean up some more by the end of the year, but that's later.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Looks good, Kasia. Good job!

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ]

Mel W wrote: "Kate, I've been able to salvage most of them - like you say, fanned out and ugly but still readable. I have had them outside in the sun trying to dry them out - some were sopping all the way throu..."

Good luck with the insurance company Mel.

[Mel W]

Thanks, Kate. They still haven't got back to me (not that unusual here) so I'll be on the phone chasing them up on Sunday.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

New challenges to check out:

Serial Reader Challenge

Duration: a year (start anytime)

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

New Quarterly Challenge:
Of the Royal Line Challenge
Duration: Dec 1, 2009 - Feb 28, 2010

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Read-the-Season Winter Challenge has been officially launched!

Check it out!

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

The popularA-Z Challenges are back for the year 2010. Don't forget to sign up.

2010 A-Z Book Challenge
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

2010 A-Z Author Challenge
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

2010 A-Z Character Challenge (Male)
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

2010 A-Z Character Challenge (Female)
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

2010 Create-Your-Own Reading Challenge

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

2010 Chubby Chunkster Challenge

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

New Quarterly Challenge
Women We Love Challenge
March 1, 2010 - May 31, 2010

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Dare You to Read Challenges

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Stop by and put together your own 'dare'!

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Sshh...That's Taboo! Reading Challenge

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...

[Lindy]

I would think more if they were clickable

[Dee]

clickable? meaning you can't click on the links right now? because I just checked the taboo one and it worked fine - but these are all from last year

[Rossy]

Even the ones from last year are clickable....

[Dee]

I know there was an issue earlier today with IE8 and clicking on links...apparently IE updated stuff, and so GR is working on a patch to fix it - this seems to happen on a frequent basis...i was having this problem this am and when i switched to firefox I was ok

[Jane (PS), Moderator]

I also surf with Firefox :) (Love their wallpaper! ;)