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Administrator
Posted 2015-01-31 8:19 PM (#9421)
Subject: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Dallas, Texas		I’ve been talking about new upgrades to the 2015 RYO for some time now and I’m happy to report that we have launched Reading Levels!  Now challenge hosts can create up to 4 different reading levels for their challenges.

The idea behind reading levels is to give participants the option to choose how many books they want to read in the challenge.  In the past if a challenge was to read 12 books and the reader didn’t think they could finish 12 books they’d have to pass up that challenge or they would join knowing that they wouldn’t be able to finish.  Now, with up to 4 different reading levels to choose from they can pick a number of books that’s more suited to their schedule.

Let’s take a look at “Challenge A” which has 4 reading levels:

Novice = 3 books + 0 reviews
Apprentice = 6 books + 1 review
Journeyman = 9 books + 3 reviews
Master = 12 books + 6 reviews

If a member has only a little time because of other challenges or work or whatever they can still participate by picking a lower level like Apprentice to get started.  And, because readers can change their level whenever they want, they can start with Apprentice and if they finish that early they can set a new goal for themselves and bump up to Journeyman.

Are there too many interesting challenge themes to pick from?  That’s a common complaint we hear but now it’s not a problem.  You can join more challenges at a lower level while still reading the same number of books.  Wanna try something new like Space Opera or YA but you don’t want commit to Master level?  Dip your toe in at Novice and see how you like it.  You can afford to experiment more.

I really like the idea of setting smaller goals for yourself that you can reach as the year goes on and then pushing yourself to the next level.  You’ll earn bragging rights for each new level attained!  Changing levels also provides an out for folks who signup thinking they’re going to read a bunch this year but circumstances change and they realize they won’t be able to get all the way to Master.  They can drop down a notch as needed and still participate instead of dropping out entirely because they know they can’t finish.

As a challenge host you can now update your challenges to make them more challenging.  For instance I’m the host for the Women of Genre Fiction and I’ve always kept it at 12 books to make it more doable for folks that may not have as much time to read.  I even took out the review requirement since most folks weren’t really interested in doing those.  I didn’t want to chase anyone off.  The downside is that there are lots of folks who think 12 books is not much of a challenge and would like to read more.  Well I’ve updated to this:

Novice = 12 books + 0 reviews
Apprentice = 12 books + 6 reviews
Journeyman = 24 books + 0 reviews
Master = 24 books + 12 reviews

Novice and Apprentice are the old default 12 with and without 6 reviews and I’ve added Journeyman at 24 books for those wanting to read more and Master with 24 books and 12 reviews for those who want to go all the way.  I’m not forcing anyone out and I’m giving the higher volume readers/enthusiasts a more challenging challenge.

I could have done 3, 6, 9,12 like in the first example to bring more folks in but the chief complaint for the WoGF has always been “not enough books!” so I opted for the 12/24 split with the half number of reviews to make them that little bit harder.  And that’s one of the cool things with levels.  How they’re used is totally up to the challenge host.  You can add more books without excluding a bunch of people or put in a harder review requirement.  The easiest option is to simply divide up your current total into equal increments.  Is your fantasy challenge 15 books right now but you want to put in levels without raising the total?  Make 3 levels:  Magician = 5 books, Necromancer = 10 books, and Wizard = 15.

Magician, Necromancer, and Wizard?  That’s right, you can customize your reading level titles to match your challenge theme by simply overwriting the defaults.  If you have a Military SF challenge you can go with Captain, Major, Colonel, and General, or, if you work for a living, son, you can opt for Private, Lance Corporal, Corporal, and Sargent.  For Jain’s Detective SFF Challenge she could go with Flatfoot, Gumshoe, Private Eye,  and Detective or choose from famous detectives like Dick Tracy, Inspector Clouseau, Sherlock Holmes, and Batman… you get the idea.  Have some fun with it!

That’s the real challenge here for hosts and participants:  have fun with it!  A little creativity can go a long way to making the challenges even more fun.  As a host you can strengthen the theme with some creative titles and new levels and you can of course get some great input in the forums from your readers.  As a challenge participant you can tweak your existing challenges and join a few more while you’re at it.

With each passing year of reading challenges we try to address the standard reasons why traditional reading challenge tend to fail.  The Grand Master Reading Challenge was great at allowing people to track their books and connect to other participants and see each other’s progress throughout the year but it was ultimately too limiting.  The Women of Genre Fiction was a huge hit with it’s timely theme and it was much more wide open but folks wanted something different for the next year.  The RYO removed the problem of a single theme that could never appeal to everyone and gave our members room to play with themes and express themselves and share their interests.  With this upgrade we hope to remove some more barriers like challenge requirements that are too high or too low or forcing people to choose from so many great themes while giving participants more flexibility to baby-step it through a challenge or pull it back as needed.

I hope you are as excited by the possibilities here as we are.


Notes for challenge participants:
Of course with any new feature like this that’s integrated throughout the whole site we expect there will be some hiccups.  Please be patient with us as we work through them.  If you have any questions or comments about how things work, or should work, just let us know and we’ll help guide you or make corrections as needed.

Your existing challenges will default to the highest level once the host makes updates.  You’ll need to go in and adjust your reading level to where you want.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Some changes to your challenges that result from this new feature may not please you.  You were going for the full Monty and now 12 books is only a half challenge?  You don’t like the titles the host picked?  You liked it better when everyone was reading the same number of books?  We changed the rules after the fact?  If we could have we would have launched these new features on January 1 but it didn’t work out that way.  Your commitment to each challenge is up to you and won’t impact what other people choose to do nor will theirs impact you.  If you want to read 12 books for the same challenge where I’m only reading 3 books we can still talk about them and offer each other support. Give the new stuff a chance to sink in, you may like it.

Also, keep in mind that the reading levels are designed to help you find success with your challenges.  Your success should be measured by how well you do with your own personal goals not by how they compare to another member who happens to be a speed reader or has more time to read and finished their challenges at a higher reading level.  Let’s continue to support and encourage each other as we always have no matter what reading level we’re striving for in our challenges.

Notes for Challenge Hosts:
These new features can be a lot of fun but they can easily become a source of frustration for your challenge readers.  Please consider your changes very carefully before you make them and try not to make too many updates once you settle on a new plan.  Each time you change the levels will require your readers to assess their challenge commitment.  More than a couple times can be really annoying as well as confusing.  “Wait, I was a Novice then I was a Captain and now I’m a Gargleblaster?  What the hell is that?”  Asking for input from your readers will always be appreciated.

Remember you don’t have to use reading levels at all if you don’t want to.  Single level challenges are still valid and make perfect sense for a short challenge where 3 titles for a 3 book challenge is a bit of overkill.

Lastly, be considerate with your level titles.  It’s all too easy to accidentally offend someone with an innocent to you title that may have a double meaning or some historical context you did not intend.

If you have any questions or run into any issues let us know here in this thread.  Thanks!

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