You Won Your First Challenge? Congrats! Here's What to do Now!

November 26th, 2020
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. The embed code will remain gobbly-gook until you upload the vote.(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!
November 26th, 2020
@lmsa
What a great idea, Louise, and now it is posted for all to see!
Hopefully it gets referred to from time to time.
November 26th, 2020
thanks so much for doing this wendy! 😎
November 26th, 2020
@pistache
You are most welcome, Clare. It can be fairly intimidating for someone who has never done it before.
November 26th, 2020
So clear -- a real contribution to the archives!
November 26th, 2020
Great! 👍
November 26th, 2020
a great idea and great instructions!
November 28th, 2020
Wonderful contribution you've made here, Wendy! Thanks :)
November 29th, 2020
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.
December 1st, 2020
@tdaug80
I added your tip to the instructions, Tim. Thank you! It's a great idea that I will have to give a try to.
December 1st, 2020
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.
December 9th, 2020
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.
December 9th, 2020
@milaniet
Thank you, Milanie! You have made me smile and have made my day.
So good to know that you have found it helpful.
January 1st, 2021
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.
January 19th, 2021
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. 😉
January 19th, 2021
@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.
January 19th, 2021
@jb030958
Congrats on your first win! Have fun setting up the next challenge!
January 20th, 2021
@farmreporter Thank you! I'm pretty confused about all the directions, but I'll consult my cousin @mzzhope for much needed help. 😃
January 21st, 2021
@jb030958 congratulations Jenny! Wendy’s directions are spot on but I will be happy to talk you through it!!!
January 22nd, 2021
@farmreporter Wow, I hope you're feeling better now. Thanks for getting back to me.
February 20th, 2021
@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.
February 20th, 2021
@chejja
So good to know when members find them useful! Thank you for dropping me a note. That is always so appreciated!
March 4th, 2021
@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.
March 24th, 2021
@farmreporter I really appreciate this! Haven't done a challenge since 2012, and this was very helpful.
August 23rd, 2021
@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.
August 23rd, 2021
@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.
August 23rd, 2021
@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!
August 24th, 2021
@tdaug80 @farmreporter Thanks so much for putting my mind at rest. I will see how it works :-)
September 13th, 2021
@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!
September 13th, 2021
@ljmanning
Congrats on your win and so glad you found this thread helpful!
March 1st, 2022
I do it like this!! Works best on laptop or tablet,where you can multiple tabs open.

Open up your emails to write a new mail (or Word to open a new document)

Open up 365 challenge thumbnails

Open your first shortlisted one. Bottom right of all 365 photos is an arrow, click on that, right click to copy the data.
Paste in your new email message/ document

Repeat with others

Above the copied and pasted data ( it's coded gobble-dee-gook at the moment ) write your preamble (eg thanks to all photographers, here is my shortlist, please vote for numbered photo, end of voting date)

Now copy and paste the whole lot onto a new discussion thread and make sure you

#Number the entries
#Name the contenders with @name
# state the Challenge brief

then write in the title of the thread (you cannot edit this, and cannot post without it!)

before you post the thread.

When you do post, all the copied data will magically become the photos!!
September 10th, 2023
@farmreporter Good morning Wendy please can you do the songtitle 100 I’ve tried 3 times 4 following your info but no luck I’m so sorry many thanks Dawn 😍
September 11th, 2023
@Dawn
Not a problem, Dawn
I will set it up for you but will say that you are the host.
And, I can set up the voting as well but will not choose the finalists.
You can just tell me who you want as finalists and I will do the voting thread as well.
September 11th, 2023
@farmreporter many thanks Wendy I hope it won’t be too much of a both though
January 26th, 2024
@farmreporter well i'm still confused by the whole word doc thing
January 27th, 2024
@karvelis
Could you please be a little more specific about what you are confused about?
What stage of the challenge are you trying to post? A new challenge or the finalists for voting?
I have Microsoft Office on my desktop which includes Word. You may not have that particular program but any word program would work.
Jackie R says the same thing I do but explains it a bit differently in her long post just 4 comments back so reading hers may help.
If you don't have a word document program, Jackie suggests opening a new email to do this.
You do not necessarily need to put your challenge onto a word document - you can open a new discussion thread under the Challenge topic and put your challenge directly into it but I have had it time out on me because I was too slow in uploading.
That is why I recommend doing your challenge on a word document, and then copying that document and pasting it into your new discussion thread.
Please let me know if this helps - or let me know exactly what I need to better explain.
January 27th, 2024
@farmreporter i appreciate your response, i shall try and muddle through this morning and if i have issues i will be back
January 27th, 2024
@karvelis
Sounds good.
It truly is fairly simple - just follow the steps - I can elaborate and expand on them if need be.
I am running to the city for a bit but will check in once I am back.
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