Congrats on winning your challenge for the first time! What a rush to gain the approval of your peers! Enjoy the feeling!
The first part of your challenge is quite easy ... actually it all is so no need to worry about the process. Take a few days to decide what the next theme of the challenge will be (if it is a challenge with a theme) , and then you can start the new challenge.
Most people copy and paste the instructions from the previous challenge but change just the starting and ending dates, challenge number and tag, and anything else that may change from the previous one. Then open a new thread to insert your challenge info.
The way you do this is to go to Discuss under the task bar on top, click on it, click on Themes and Competitions, and open a New Topic on the top of the page.
You can fill in the details of the challenge - ending date, tag, and rules in the main body of the new topic. Don’t worry if you have messed up because you can go back and edit anything in your new topic except the title (so don’t mess up the title – lol!)
Once the challenge is over and the entries are submitted it is time to set up the voting.
The only downside of hosting is having to choose the finalists! That can be so tough because they often all deserve to be short listed!
But, once that is done, the process of creating a voting discussion is quite easy actually and just involves much copy and pasting to a Word Document of some sort.
First, choose your finalists – can be 4, 5, or 6 – there is no rule as to how many or few you choose. Your challenge, your rules! I do try to comment on everyone’s entry while choosing the finalists but if you do not have the time, so be it. Again, your challenge, your rules.
As for choosing finalists, you can use any criteria you wish. Technically, ascetically, first timers you want to encourage, just because you want to, anything goes. You can mention why you chose it, but most people do not.
To short list the finalists, Tim (Frogger) @tdaug80 likes to open all the entries in separate tabs in his browser (right click the image, choose "open in separate tab.") Then he can close tabs for entries that get eliminated from consideration, and drag tabs around as he considers how to rank order them. Once he has only 5 or 6 left, he is ready to create his post to open the voting.
Once you have selected your finalists, open a word doc that you want to copy and paste to, click on your first finalist (can be in any order you so choose), type out their name and @name, open the embed code by clicking on the right arrow found to the right of the FAV’s star. Copy the whole embed code – it is long! – and paste below the name and @name on your word doc. (I find it amazing when the embed code turns into a photo when you up load it.)
Repeat for all finalists. Do not forget to put numbers in front of their names for ease of voting. (and I have on occasion until someone mentions it during voting)
You can add a bit of introduction at the beginning of your word doc thanking everyone, and mentioning when voting ends, etc.
Now, go to Discuss under the task bar on top, click on it, click on Themes and Discussions, and open a New Topic on the top of the page.
Copy your whole word document and insert onto the New Topic, title the page, and click 'Start Topic' .
Don’t worry if you have messed up because you can go back and edit anything in your new topic except the title (so don’t mess up the title – lol!)
Then – sit back and relax. Tally the votes when it is over, and announce the new winner. Tah-dah!! Yer dun!
This is very helpful, Wendy. That's for posting this.
I'd like to add a tip for my workflow. I like to open all the entries in separate tabs in my browser (right click the image, choose "open in separate tab." Then I can close tabs for entries that get eliminated from consideration, and drag tabs around as I consider how I would rank order them. Once I have only 5 or 6 left, I am ready to create my post to open the voting.
Fortunately I had another 365er talk me through the process which was invaluable. This is so helpful.
Now that I have done this I will be more inclined to enter another challenge knowing that the process was not at all daunting. Thank you Wendy I am sure others will find this very useful.
Bless you, bless you! I had noticed when you posted this, but it never occurred to me that I might need it. Went back and found your post and now I've got to process it in my brain.
I have a question about posting. What is the correct code for posting links? When I posted the street challenge, I noticed that none of the links I posted worked. I tried using the html code for creating a hot link, but that only changed the color of my links to blue, they were still dead links.
Hi! I read it all and now will have to try it out! So excited about winning a challenge. I want to thank everyone at 365 for being so kind and helpful as I still consider myself a newbie in many, many ways. 😉
@stephomy
So sorry that I did not see your question until now, I was in the hospital over the New Year.
But/ would not have been able to help you with that anyway since I do not understand that myself.
@farmreporter Thank you so very much for posting this. I had recently won my first challenge, and I would have been totally lost without these instructions. I found them to be really clear and easy to follow. A million thanks.
@farmreporter - Many thanks Wendy, always good to read over again. I copied and pasted your thread above to a word document in my 365 Project info folder to be easily accessible for reference, as I've done for many other challenges.
It is a great feeling to be chosen as a winner by your peers. More importantly for me is participating in as many challenges that I can handle; it's so much. I do so enjoy and get inspired by seeing everyone's photographs. Thanks again; I greatly appreciate you've been so very kind to me.
@farmreporter@tdaug80 I am so happy that I found this, as I have not won for years and now I need it. The only problem is that I have never ever had anything to do with a word document and please need some help. I managed to open one, but when I try to follow the instructions, it just does not work. Obviously I have no clue what to do. The embed code does not turn into a photo in the document and I am a bit stuck there. Does it only open once uploaded to 365? Do I have to open a document for each finalist, or is it all on one document? I would really appreciate your help, as I have previously always done it wrong. I just used to copy it into my documents and continue from there. Thanks in advance.
@ludwigsdiana That's correct. The strange code will only turn into a picture once you finish posting it to 365. Try it. If it doesn't work, you can edit or delete your post. One document for your whole post will work. You don't really need to use word, at all. That was just Wendy's suggestion. You can do all of the copying and pasting in the 365 discussion post.
@ludwigsdiana@tdaug80
The only reason I suggested using a word doc is that the 365 discussion post will time out eventually (it happened to me and I lost all my work) so you can take your time with a word doc.
And yes - it is so neat to see the embed code miraculously turn into photos when you upload the word doc!
@farmreporter Wendy, having just successfully hosted my first challenge, I just wanted to say thank you for providing this excellent resource. It definitely got used!
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What a great idea, Louise, and now it is posted for all to see!
Hopefully it gets referred to from time to time.
You are most welcome, Clare. It can be fairly intimidating for someone who has never done it before.
I'd like to add a tip for my workflow. I like to open all the entries in separate tabs in my browser (right click the image, choose "open in separate tab." Then I can close tabs for entries that get eliminated from consideration, and drag tabs around as I consider how I would rank order them. Once I have only 5 or 6 left, I am ready to create my post to open the voting.
I added your tip to the instructions, Tim. Thank you! It's a great idea that I will have to give a try to.
Now that I have done this I will be more inclined to enter another challenge knowing that the process was not at all daunting. Thank you Wendy I am sure others will find this very useful.
Thank you, Milanie! You have made me smile and have made my day.
So good to know that you have found it helpful.
So sorry that I did not see your question until now, I was in the hospital over the New Year.
But/ would not have been able to help you with that anyway since I do not understand that myself.
Congrats on your first win! Have fun setting up the next challenge!
So good to know when members find them useful! Thank you for dropping me a note. That is always so appreciated!
It is a great feeling to be chosen as a winner by your peers. More importantly for me is participating in as many challenges that I can handle; it's so much. I do so enjoy and get inspired by seeing everyone's photographs. Thanks again; I greatly appreciate you've been so very kind to me.
The only reason I suggested using a word doc is that the 365 discussion post will time out eventually (it happened to me and I lost all my work) so you can take your time with a word doc.
And yes - it is so neat to see the embed code miraculously turn into photos when you upload the word doc!
Congrats on your win and so glad you found this thread helpful!