Blender Underground

Let me be clear up front: since Dan's been the one running the challenges, he gets the last word on how everything works.

I'm just putting some thoughts out based on discussions about how they could run a little smoother.

These challenges are primarily for fun and education, and the threads have reflected this. However all this extraneous discussion mucks up the submissions. How do we manage it so that discussion is encouraged, but the challenges are also easy to skim and review?

It was recommended by Damascus that it work this way:

Weekly Challenge #X - ENTRIES
Weekly Challenge #X - DISCUSSION
Weekly Challenge #X - VOTE

Great idea. However I'm thinking it could be done in two threads: Entries and Discussion. The "Entries" thread can become the voting thread as soon as voting opens up (it can be renamed "Entries - VOTING OPEN" or something of the like at that time).

This should help keep things clean without having to bounce around between too many threads. Any posts to the Entries thread that are not entries can simply be moved to the Discussions thread by a moderator (this way we don't need to harp on it every time someone posts in the wrong thread; eventually everyone will get with the program). Entries could be cross-posted in the Discussion thread along with trial runs, questions, explanations, etc, etc.

Just some food for thought. We'll let Dan ultimately decide, but feel free to offer comments and suggestions.

I like this idea and concur that a separate thread for voting would be not needed, given we can keep the discussion on the entries in the discussion thread. it may take a few weeks for everyone to get a hold of the new portocol. thanks also for giving these challenges a separate forum!

I agree you probably don't need a separate thread for voting, especially if the entries thread is kept strictly for entries.

Uuummm....Boss?!?! *Raises hand tentatively*

How do you break out "offending" messages into discussion threads without getting 1000 discussion threads going at once? Remember, split thread won't allow combination with existing threads....Merge threads isn't available in BB2 but is in BB3 I think. I guess I'd better get cracking on that upgrade then....

Well, then... you could just delete anything that's not an entry... THEN people will get the hint real quick.
(Hey, it works... Darth and I do it on the Gimp forum we admin)

Good eye my friend. I remember that test you did now. I'll give it some thought!

I can write a SQL query that does it, probably a simple task, but modding the forum is another story.

Lol...I kinda felt like the guy in Life Of Brian answering the question, "What have the Romans ever done for us?".... "The Aquaduct!"

"and sanitation!"

Ha ha,

...This remind me to give you a considerable THANKS for the reorganization of this this forum, Apollos... I was starting to be a little bit lost wile trying to find the challenges related threads

Likewise Goliath... which is why I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks Apollos for moving the Challenges to it's own area!

was a bit scared when I realised Challenges had disappeared -- then happy that it had it's own section. Yay!

Apollos/Damascus - happy to go with your suggestions, this will keep everything more manageable I think.

Dan do you sleep, man? Sorry to freak you out like that.

5 hours a day tops. this baby of mine works wonders for my productivity!

Second that!

Great idea Damascus. I hope this extra section for challenges will affect that more people want to contribute. This stresses the worth of these challenges. They are there for learning new stuff and they stand for a lot of fun.

Apollos: Didn't you had the idea of showing off the winner of each entry in a special thread or on the main site? Also for encouraging people to join the community and/or the challenges.
Or did I dreamed that?