As winner of the last SWOL (Shoot WithOut Looking) challenge (SWOL-12) it falls to me to start the next one. However, this challenge seems to have been struggling for numbers for a while. Both SWOL-11 and 12 had the closing date extended to try to increase the number of entries.
My husband @nzkites and I have looked back through past SWOL challenges and this is what we came up with:
SWOL #1: 12 images by 8 people
SWOL #2: 21 images by 12 people
SWOL #3: 8 images by 6 people
SWOL #4: 15 images by 10 people
SWOL #5: 7 images by 4 people
SWOL #6: 20 images by 10 people
SWOL #7: 6 images by 4 people
SWOL #8: 6 images by 4 people
SWOL #9: 4 images by 3 people
SWOL #10: 7 images by 6 people
SWOL #11: 19 images by 10 people
SWOL #12: 17 images by 9 people
Where the numbers are higher it's due to people (including us) putting in multiple entries, which is welcome but may give a false view of how popular this challenge actually is.
What do you think?
Are there enough other themes and challenges already?
Does this one fill a specific gap or does it overlap too much with others eg ETSOOI, EOTB (Eye of the Beholder), Street etc?
Have we moved too far away from the original challenge? @kathyboyles might be able to answer this.
Should we give this challenge a rest for a while, or discontinue it altogether?
Do we just need to advertise it better?
As we are relative newbies to the site (we only started our 365 projects in February this year), are we being presumptuous and just need to pull our heads in and get on with hosting the next challenge?
i think give it a rest, if anyone misses it they can start it again, sometimes these challenges have just done their dash, there are some that a tried and true which i wouldnt want to see go, but personally this is not one of them, the other that i think should be retired is the abstract mundane. as we have an abstract challenge now and the mundane entries are often not too dissimilar to the abstract ones.
I do a lot of SWOL and love it but have been struggling to keep up with 365 the last month as I have been very busy - I think it has strayed a tad from the original idea but that happens - I agree with Kali - a break is okay and if someone wants to resurrect it later they can.
I think you are right to ask the question and hats off to you for sticking your head above the parapet! I have entered in the past and my effort was pretty pathetic. I'd say to give this challenge a rest and would suggest, like @kali66, that the mundane challenge also retire.
I have been so busy and have had spotty internet service that I have hardly been here. There are a lot of challenges on here and sometimes they just need a rest. I think the Song Title challenge is taking a break right now too.
SWOL is a fun concept and challenge. Don't get rid of it entirely yet, but I agree we need to give it a rest. Maybe it should be a once every couple or three months challenge so it seems fresh when it comes around. Of course, I suppose under that scheme the person who wins and has to do the next one could forget about it entirely after that amount of time. Hmmm...
Please just let me know if there is anything I can do to help or keep track of these challenges since I do the Weekly SH*T list.
I will put a note for people to comment in the next SH*T list and see what the response is about all challenges.
I have been thinking we should extend the length of most (if not all) challenges to a full month and have them rotate so that there is a challenge ending every couple of days.
There are at least twenty challenges available, not counting the on-going ones like Word of the Month, and quite often there are two or three ending on a single day.
It may strengthen all challenges if we did this.
What does everyone think? @kali66@sarahlth@annied@30pics4jackiesdiamond@redandwhite@k1w1
I agree with Mary. Maybe it should be a quarterly challenge, instead of so often.
I do not like the idea of turning the challenges into month long. I prefer the shorter challenges like a week to 10 days. Anything longer than that and I forget about them, in spite of all the reminders.
Maybe all the challenges could be a month long but have them all taking turns. Just a couple of challenges each month perhaps. I'm not really sure. I know we have people on here who use the challenges to keep their project going....clearly I'm not one of those :)
@homeschoolmom
Many people use the Weekly SH*T list as a schedule so they know what is coming up and what is ending. I compile the list with the challenges ending soonest at the beginning and on down the line.
A new list is coming out tomorrow (So Happy It's Thursday ... SH*T for short).
Check it out. You will find it very helpful.
I have trouble keeping up with all the challenges, and then forget some of them. I always enjoy the SWOL pictures, and I would hope that even if it is not a challenge that people will continue to do it and tag is as such, so that we can enjoy seeing their efforts.
i dip in and out of the challenges according to what takes my fancy. i'm very grateful to wendy @farmreporter for organising the weekly sh*t list as this reminds me of what i could be entering if i wanted to. i also keep a list myself of the challenges i'm most likely to enter, and when they finish. i like the fact that it's a bit haphazard, and there may be lots ending at one time, and then perhaps a quieter patch, as i feel this fits with the 365 vibe that we all use the site and our projects and the challenges differently, and that's just fine. i haven't entered swol much so don't have strong views as to whether it should continue
i agree with Lisa, @homeschoolmom from experience shorter challenges, up to 2 weeks are best as they do get stale and less entries come in as time goes by, even if you are setting reminders, but reducing the frequency of turnaround seems like a good idea to keep the challenges fresh, having said that i think it would fall to the 'organisers' amongst us to organise that, so leave it up to the host and natural selection ! perhaps make it clear to winners that they can set them up at their leisure and there is no pressure to get the new one set up right away. you can tell when a theme is tired out, when new challenges appear they draw more participation, half the time we enter them out of guilt because there are so few entries and then get lumbered with hosting again! lol @farmreporter@pistache@joysabin@sarahlth
@farmreporter@kali66 I find that there are certain challenges I want to enter but when the time frame is short I struggle to take the photo and post when times get busy - quite often I'm 'oh damn' I missed the deadline hahaha. I bookmark all the ones I would like to have a go at and hope for the best :)
in general, i like there being lots of challenges, and i prefer to have shorter timeframes (10 days to two weeks) rather than longer... i find that it does get frustrating when all the challenges end around the same time and then while the voting is being done there aren't too many challenges going on... but i think if we generally let things happen organically it will all work out...
i tend to be a "live and let live" kinda gal... i am not a fan of the SWOL concept because i prefer my photography to be purposeful - but to the extent that enough others enjoy it to keep the challenge alive, i'd say let it run... however, if you're trying to gauge interest, i would say that i, personally, wouldn't miss it...
Thanks all for the replies, lots of interesting thoughts and good discussion here, so keep it coming. I'm post-night shift today so only a brief reply as I'm a bit short on sleep!
Some good comments here and the general feeling seems to be similar to mine. SWOL is a nice idea but not something that should be an ongoing challenge. Another thing I would like comments on is should the regular challenges such as Landscape, EOTB, Street and Abstract be started from the date that the previous one closes as this would enable more people to enter. I am useless at dates and have taken images with challenges in mind only to realise that it was taken in the time that no challenges were being held. Should I start this as a new thread?
I try & enter as many of the challenges as I can but sometimes it's tricky to find ones running that I can take stuff for. I only tend to go out photographing at weekends & then tend to see if there is anything running I can enter with what I've got. I rarely take pics specifically for a challenge.
I love the album cover as you can use an older pic but give it a new lease of life. I agree the Mundane & Mundane Abstract could be merged, as sometimes an image could go in either but that again is a favourite of mine.
I love the challenges although I don't participate all the time. When I need inspiration I often check the Weekly SH*T list to see what I can do.
I also prefer challenges that are shorter, 10 to 14 days.
I've not tried the SWOL challenge yet
My favourites challenges are:
Mundane, Six word story, Black and white and sometimes EOTB
@nzkites yes, I would like that too! Once the deadline of for example landscape challenge has been reached, you can start taking photo's for the next landscape challenge (instead of waiting for the voting, announcement of the winner and posting of the new challenge). It can be done for quite a bit of the challenges.
Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. The consensus seems to be to let SWOL go, at least for now, though the idea of bringing it back in a few months eg. September and then maybe holding it quarterly, seems good to me. I'm happy to start it again then, and see what happens.
I think it best to start another discussion thread to address some of the other issues people have brought up here.
I am late in replying to your discussion due to power outages and a trip out of town. So I'll just do a few random responses/thoughts on the subject.
Yes, sometimes there are too many challenges going on at once.
No, I would not want to do a month of swol, but shorter time frame for the challenge seems good for this one- one week is good. After all, it's not like you have to compose the shot!!
I do think the swol challenge overlaps with etsooi in a way and perhaps that's why it does not get as much participation- but I also think if they're running at the same time people choose one over the other.
Sadly, I don't think it would be missed if it was discontinued since it is very similar to some of the other popular challenges.
I also think the mundane and mundane abstract are too similar- but that's jus my opinion! I think they were separated because it became difficult to determine what the judging criteria should be on that one. But that's a rabbit trail.
I enjoy the processing aspect of swol but as has been concluded already, a rest from it would be fine.
That's all I can think of to say right now- thanks for bringing this up. It was a good idea to do so.
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I will put a note for people to comment in the next SH*T list and see what the response is about all challenges.
I have been thinking we should extend the length of most (if not all) challenges to a full month and have them rotate so that there is a challenge ending every couple of days.
There are at least twenty challenges available, not counting the on-going ones like Word of the Month, and quite often there are two or three ending on a single day.
It may strengthen all challenges if we did this.
What does everyone think? @kali66 @sarahlth @annied @30pics4jackiesdiamond @redandwhite @k1w1
I do not like the idea of turning the challenges into month long. I prefer the shorter challenges like a week to 10 days. Anything longer than that and I forget about them, in spite of all the reminders.
Many people use the Weekly SH*T list as a schedule so they know what is coming up and what is ending. I compile the list with the challenges ending soonest at the beginning and on down the line.
A new list is coming out tomorrow (So Happy It's Thursday ... SH*T for short).
Check it out. You will find it very helpful.
in general, i like there being lots of challenges, and i prefer to have shorter timeframes (10 days to two weeks) rather than longer... i find that it does get frustrating when all the challenges end around the same time and then while the voting is being done there aren't too many challenges going on... but i think if we generally let things happen organically it will all work out...
i tend to be a "live and let live" kinda gal... i am not a fan of the SWOL concept because i prefer my photography to be purposeful - but to the extent that enough others enjoy it to keep the challenge alive, i'd say let it run... however, if you're trying to gauge interest, i would say that i, personally, wouldn't miss it...
I love the album cover as you can use an older pic but give it a new lease of life. I agree the Mundane & Mundane Abstract could be merged, as sometimes an image could go in either but that again is a favourite of mine.
I also prefer challenges that are shorter, 10 to 14 days.
I've not tried the SWOL challenge yet
My favourites challenges are:
Mundane, Six word story, Black and white and sometimes EOTB
I think it best to start another discussion thread to address some of the other issues people have brought up here.
Yes, sometimes there are too many challenges going on at once.
No, I would not want to do a month of swol, but shorter time frame for the challenge seems good for this one- one week is good. After all, it's not like you have to compose the shot!!
I do think the swol challenge overlaps with etsooi in a way and perhaps that's why it does not get as much participation- but I also think if they're running at the same time people choose one over the other.
Sadly, I don't think it would be missed if it was discontinued since it is very similar to some of the other popular challenges.
I also think the mundane and mundane abstract are too similar- but that's jus my opinion! I think they were separated because it became difficult to determine what the judging criteria should be on that one. But that's a rabbit trail.
I enjoy the processing aspect of swol but as has been concluded already, a rest from it would be fine.
That's all I can think of to say right now- thanks for bringing this up. It was a good idea to do so.