Question about the monthly challenges

[ScrapGoo]

Hi everyone!

So, lately participation for the challenges has continued to go down. We seem to have a few AMAZING members who do a ton of them and then not too many other people submit. While we love that some of you are really getting into the inspiration we would really like to see a wider selection of the board playing along too.

- Do you think there are too many challenges? We come up with a LOT every month and feel that perhaps that many are overwhelming you guys...?

- If you do them, what would you like to see change?

- If you don't do them, why not?

Please let us know what we can do to make the challenges appealing to you!

[emarie803]

I actually like the amount and variety of challenges. The CT works hard to give us pleanty of options in the challenges each month! I haven't been participating much as of late because I haven't had the time. And what little scrap time I get is going toward making gift albums (which seem to be going slower that I anticipated...) So, currently, if I can make a challenge fit what I am working on, I will. Otherwise, I make a list of the monthly challenges and file them for use later

[blbabe1234]

I think there is just the right amount of challenges, a nice variety.


I have been able to participate in the monthly challenges more since I have my own scrap room, as well as having more free time since work has been a little slow.

[evilqueen]

I find some of the challenges are just not me. I like to do the one word challenge but sometimes I don't have a picture for that word. But that is just me. I love to see the monthly challenges and I try to do as many as I can but life gets involved and no time to scrap.

[oceanbreezes423]

I love the challenges just as they are!!!!! The variety is good, and gets me out of my comfort zone. I look froward to them every month, and try to do as many as I can. Last month I finished 6. If I do not get many done, it was either a very busy month, or I could not fit a LO to match like I would want. But please do not change or discontinue them. I would be lost!!!!!!

[dwinchell]

Now that I have moved and got my area set up, I plan on doing more challenges... I printed October's out so if I don't get them done, I at least have them for a future time

[joannie]

I love to do challenges!! If they could be set up differerntly and worth points each month that may draw more people. Maybe each challenge is worth 2 pts. Complete 4 and you get 10 pts. Complete 8 and you get 20 pts. or something like that!!


I appreciate all the work that the CT does each month! It's alot of work! But I'd hate to see them disappear!

[HeatherDMB]

I like the idea of awarding points too. I haven't yet completed any challenges since my scrapping "schedule" is very erratic these days, not to mention very limited. It's mostly just a matter of time, for me!

[dwinchell]

I love to do challenges!! If they could be set up differerntly and worth points each month that may draw more people. Maybe each challenge is worth 2 pts. Complete 4 and you get 10 pts. Complete 8 and you get 20 pts. or something like that!!


I appreciate all the work that the CT does each month! It's alot of work! But I'd hate to see them disappear!

Love this idea!! I was on a website a few years ago that was like a 'school'... You got points for all kinds of things..

[handerful]

I think the challenges are great! I often run out of time to submit them, but use them for ideas even when I don't do all of them.

[javalove]

I love the challenges...always fun and a great variety. However, there are some months when I simply don't have the time to do them (summer when I spend half of it on Long Island and November/December when I'm swamped with holiday stuff). I like having them monthly, but if you're looking to change things a bit, you could maybe have them last for two months instead of one?? Some of them I just don't have the right items for, so maybe two alternatives in each category? For example, the one month I didn't have baker's twine, but I could have maybe done an alternate challenge with a different item that I had on hand. Just brainstorming here...

[craftyk]

I haven't had time to submit to challanges in the past but will be submitting this month now that I have more free time.

[Ayla]

I haven't done many of the challenges the past few months because of a crazy summer and my move and the crop, but have been wanting to do more (I've been stalking!). I love Britt's All About Me that I figured out, and I really missed the Digi Doable last month (that's one of my favorites). I love the color one too, oh heck....I love them all, but some months some trigger more in me than others. I don't want to see them go away though! I lvoe recipe challenges but find them sometimes to cater to paper scrappers and include supplies that are difficult for me (like chipboard and rub ons). I also like challenges to be either layouts, or something I would really use. I loved the template challenges that were hybrid during the crop!

[wimom]

Please consider more than just how many submissions are generated by the monthly challenges (and the monthly contest, if that is going to return). I look at the challenges and contest every month; I came to ACOT today specifically to look at the November challenges and was disappointed not to find them. I rarely submit anything for the challenges, but I do save some ideas. I especially like the sketches and often will save those. I also was hoping to find a November contest, but only found the digi/hybrid contest. Since there was no regular October contest I am guessing that these have been done away with? I have entered contests a few times but always look for it as well as returning to look at entries and winners.
Consider this: I am on ACOT today specifically because of the challenges/contest. Before looking at the Message Board for them, I went through all the New Arrivals and Back In Stock products. I looked at those only because I came here to look at the challenges/contest. The challenges/contest drive traffic to ACOT. They are valuable for that alone, even if participation is low.

That said, if you would like to increase participation, I think awarding points for participation would be worth a try. Perhaps one entry from all challenge submissions could be selected for a gift certificate or larger points award based on creativity/technique/design, which would encourage quality. You might offer a prize at the end of the year to whoever submitted the most or whoever the CT thought had the best submissions over the course of the year, sort of a Queen of the Gallery.

As for the monthly contest, I think submissions have been hurt by lack of consistency. It was dropped over the summer, came back for a couple of months and then disappeared again last month. There was a posting on the message board asking if there would be an October contest and there was no ACOT or CT answer. I also think participation in the monthly contest varies greatly in response to the topic. When the topic is something a lot of us tend to scrap/have pictures of or is more general, there is more participation. When the topic is a little more offbeat (like September's weather topic), participation goes down. To increase participation in the contest, be consistent -- post it on the 1st each month or let us know when it will/will not be posted. Also keep the topics more general -- a color or color combo, holiday, etc. Another possibility would be to change the contest so that the CT simply picks what it thinks is the best new layout, craft, card each month from new submissions in the gallery. This might increase submissions to the gallery while encouraging quality submissions.

Just some thoughts. Whatever the CT/ACOT does, I appreciate your time and efforts to make ACOT a great site!

[scrapscot]

I haven't had a lot of time to scrap this month but I do love the challenges and look forward to them every month.

[Ayla]

I love that the challenge winners are random...not all of us are at the same scrapping level and I would hate it to be a contest of the "best"...after all they are challenges, and meant to stretch us, and sometimes that isn't easy. I will admit to stalking the board.... looking for the challenges. Even if I don't post in the challenge because maybe my layout didn't quite fit the requirements, it still gets me thinking. And I have been known to do challenges months later, when I finally find the right idea or picture to complete it. Don't stop them, I'd go thru withdrawal and sink into a dark and despairing depression, and my little kiddos would never know how to handle it and they would be lost! So you must help save the children, and keep the challenges going!

[handerful]

Rhonda has some good ideas.


I guess it comes down to what the goal of the monthly challenges is. Is it to have large participation numbers? Then they may need to be re-evaulated. Is it to drive traffic to the store? Then they may be serving the purpose.


Personally, I would sad to see the challenges disappear. It not only gets me scrapping, but it does consistently feature the CT in one place each month.

[joannie]

I was wondering what are the CT's thoughts on this subject. Are you gals burnt out? Are you wanting a break?

[Retiree3]

I love the challenges and all of the CT do a wonderful job of preparing for them. I can't wait for each new month of challenges to be posted. I've been checking for them all day.

[happayscrappay]

Please don't be worrying that the challenges are going away. That's not why this question was asked. I don't even see a hint of that in Jess's post.

And, I have a few things to say. First, they are challenges - they aren't always going to fit your current comfort zone because they are challenges and meant to be challenging. From our end, it appears that they are not valued when very few people participate in them. Before I was on the CT, I planned all of my pages for the month around the challenges and submitted to alot of them. It served several purposes for me - 1. get noticed - 2. inspiration for work that I wanted to send out - 3. push me out of a rut if I was stuck in one.

Second, the CT members are people, too, and have very busy lives outside of scrapbooking the same as the membership here. Sometimes the challenges sneak up on us even when we've been used to doing them for months and months. It sometimes takes a couple of days into the month before the challenges are posted because it takes that long to get them put together. Jess does this for us and she does an awesome job with something that's very difficult to manage. I was talking to her today about what could be done to make her job easier (other than someone taking over for her because that someone is not going to be me ). We didn't have any ideas that would really work and I'm sure that's partly why this thread was started.

Thirdly, winners of challenges are awarded points randomly from all entries. If you want points, participate in more challenges so your chances of getting points goes up. Awarding points is time consuming and isn't likely to happen for every challenge entry.

It is very exciting to see entries come in for a challenge that you've designed. We really appreciate every entry made for our challenges and are just looking to improve - not eliminate. Keep the ideas for improvement coming!