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New Feature: Reading Levels!
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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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Administrator
Posted 2015-01-31 9:10 PM (#9422 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas		Oh, I should have said that if you are a challenge host and you make updates to your challenge you might want to put a note in your forum thread about what you did so your readers will find it faster.
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-01 12:44 AM (#9425 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas		Bump.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-01 10:33 AM (#9444 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		This is such a great idea! And after reading how other folks changed the names of their levels, I was inspired to do the same. It adds another level of fun to the challenges. Thanks, Dave!
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-01 11:04 AM (#9445 - in reply to #9444)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Dallas, Texas

spoltz - 2015-02-01 10:33 AM This is such a great idea! And after reading how other folks changed the names of their levels, I was inspired to do the same. It adds another level of fun to the challenges. Thanks, Dave!

Thanks, Steve!  I'm happy to see the levels going in and I like the creativity in the titles.  I hope everyone else likes the changes too.

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pizzakarin
Posted 2015-02-01 12:20 PM (#9446 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Austin, Tx		I love this idea! Initially people had asked why I limited the Choose Your Own Winner challenge to 5 books since some awards nominate for more. Now I can offer that option, plus a casual level.

I've also been able to scale back a few of my goals for other challenges. With a baby due in the middle of the year I both want to complete my challenges and be prepared to take it easy on myself.
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-01 12:26 PM (#9448 - in reply to #9446)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas
pizzakarin - 2015-02-01 12:20 PM I love this idea! Initially people had asked why I limited the Choose Your Own Winner challenge to 5 books since some awards nominate for more. Now I can offer that option, plus a casual level. I've also been able to scale back a few of my goals for other challenges. With a baby due in the middle of the year I both want to complete my challenges and be prepared to take it easy on myself.

Yeah, I love the flexibility you get with levels.  When you can adjust your reading commitments up and down as life dictates you won't have to throw in the towel all together.

Congrats on the new baby!

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daxxh
Posted 2015-02-01 12:34 PM (#9451 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I keep getting the site down for maintenance message when I try to access any challenges. I'll add levels to mine when the system lets me in.
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-01 12:38 PM (#9452 - in reply to #9451)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Dallas, Texas

daxxh - 2015-02-01 12:34 PM I keep getting the site down for maintenance message when I try to access any challenges. I'll add levels to mine when the system lets me in.

There's our first hiccup. whargoul is looking into it now.  Can you please log out then log back in and try it again?  Just in case.

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daxxh
Posted 2015-02-01 1:19 PM (#9454 - in reply to #9452)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Extreme Veteran

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Location: Great Lakes, USA		It's working now. Thanks!
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-02 9:43 AM (#9469 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas		I'm bumping this up in case anyone missed the new update over the weekend.
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-02 6:31 PM (#9480 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas		We just updated the RYO main page so you can look at last year's challenges again. Scroll to the bottom and click on the 2014 RYO logo.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-03 6:57 AM (#9483 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Dave,you and then the rest of the gang are geniuses! .I was getting testy(isnt that my default mode?lol0 about these so called wonderful improvements,which were not materializing,and here you go,wowing Me! This is such a good idea,it accommodates the particular circumstances of the members. I didnt join several challenges because. having already reached about 70 books to read here for challenges,some that I fancied were out of my reach,I knew I couldnt manage 12 more books. Now this barrier is gone! I can be in as a baby/ novice/acolyte/dunce or whatever,and if I find space and time,can progress. That is so encouraging,12 books for a very busy person of eclectic tastes(yes some people DO read from other genres you know!) could be daunting,but three,or six? Could be doable!
Dave I so appreciate what your site has achieved. When I joined back in March 2012,this site was so quiet! I was blown away by the wonderful lists and awards,loved the impressive layout,so elegant and yet practical and informative,but no-one talked to anyone,each person seemed to add their books to their page and that was that. Remember I opened a ''What are you reading now?'' thread to try to encourage people to participate. That has mostlydiappeared since we now have individual challenge threads,and people can talk there,but at least it was a start. Then the site was having perhaps 30 posts A MONTH at that time,if it was rather active! lol !Massive progress since then,but most people are still Lurkers. Oh well,at least now when they come on the site they find lots of posts to read!
WWEnd is going from strength to strength,and it is just so much fun too. Well done to all the admin team,and also the Uber Users. They have dave done sterling work and really increased the data base. Thanks to you all for the brilliant site!
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-03 10:38 AM (#9491 - in reply to #9421)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hey Dave, There might be something a little buggy with the 2014 challenges. I was looking at a few of my old ones and noticed a couple had one of the books greyed out. Specifically, it was A Choice of Gods by Clifford Simak. It's in the Just Have to Read... and Second Best challenges. I did finish it before year end. I also noticed a few of the participants in the Just Have to Read... challenge are also missing books, though I remember the finishing as well. Leave it to QA guy to find some issues LOL. Anyway, don't know if you have time to look at it, but thought I'd bring it up. Thanks again for all the work you and the team have done!
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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-03 12:45 PM (#9499 - in reply to #9483)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas
Dave,you and then the rest of the gang are geniuses!

Im glad somebody finally noticed!

I was getting testy(isnt that my default mode?lol0 about these so called wonderful improvements,which were not materializing,and here you go,wowing Me!

Yeah, we have been so close on so many updates that I thought we're we going to launch right away only to have to wait. And wait. And wait. Nobody is more frustrated than us when it happens. I just need to temper my entusiasm a bit more and not announce updates until we're ready to pull the trigger. I'm glad you like the new stuff! We have another big push underway now that will tick more than a few things off the big list. Stay tuned!

This is such a good idea,it accommodates the particular circumstances of the members. I didnt join several challenges because. having already reached about 70 books to read here for challenges,some that I fancied were out of my reach,I knew I couldnt manage 12 more books. Now this barrier is gone! etc.

It seems to be well received so far and we knew it was going to work when we launched it and immediately whargoul and I joined a new challenge ourselves. "See, it worked on us!"

Dave I so appreciate what your site has achieved. When I joined back in March 2012,this site was so quiet! I was blown away by the wonderful lists and awards,loved the impressive layout,so elegant and yet practical and informative,but no-one talked to anyone,each person seemed to add their books to their page and that was that. Remember I opened a ''What are you reading now?'' thread to try to encourage people to participate...

Getting folks to use the forum has always been a bit of a mystery to us but reading is a solitary activity so we knew it would take some time and a lot more members. We loved how you jumped in to kickstart the conversation so many times. We are seeing a nice uptick in activity in the forums with the RYO being the main source. Let's hope we can sustain it and perhaps grow it a bit too. We have some other new stuff that we hope will increase the social side of WWEnd in the works, some not even on the big list cause hey, who doesn't like a surprise now and then.

WWEnd is going from strength to strength,and it is just so much fun too. Well done to all the admin team,and also the Uber Users. They have dave done sterling work and really increased the data base. Thanks to you all for the brilliant site!

I think we are too and it's not just the Admin and Uber Users though they are doing yeoman's work to be sure. It's much to do with members like you who get in there an mix it up, give us great ideas, post amazing reviews, and promote us outside the site etc. We building a great community here that I think we can all take a lot of pride in.

I can't wait to see how much more we can accomplish with the site and I'm glad we have lots of great folks to share it with. Thanks for the very kind words, DD!

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Administrator
Posted 2015-02-03 12:48 PM (#9500 - in reply to #9491)
Subject: Re: New Feature: Reading Levels!		Quote Reply



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas

spoltz - 2015-02-03 10:38 AM Hey Dave, There might be something a little buggy with the 2014 challenges. I was looking at a few of my old ones and noticed a couple had one of the books greyed out. Specifically, it was A Choice of Gods by Clifford Simak. It's in the Just Have to Read... and Second Best challenges. I did finish it before year end. I also noticed a few of the participants in the Just Have to Read... challenge are also missing books, though I remember the finishing as well. Leave it to QA guy to find some issues LOL. Anyway, don't know if you have time to look at it, but thought I'd bring it up. Thanks again for all the work you and the team have done!

We're looking into the missing books issue now.  And by we I mean whargoul   Thanks for the heads up.  We can always use some good QA work so keep it up!

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