Rules & Suggestions for Challenge Posters
Hot Off The Presses
This never used to be a problem, but... In order to conform to the spirit of WIKTT, please consider the following STRONG requests.
Please keep in mind that WIKTT is a ship specific list (SS/HG). Please ensure that your challenge is suitably-worded to encourage responses that reflect the focus of the group (i.e. it includes both characters). Because adherence to the SS/HG pairing is the only hard-and-fast rule on WIKTT, the Moderator will delete challenges (and files) that do not fit that particular criteria.
Please don't post the same exact challenge on a bunch of lists (Cross-Posting). No-one on WIKTT has the right to control what you do elsewhere on the net. But remember that lots of WIKTT members also belong to other Snape or HP groups, and if we see that you're just 'blanket-posting' a bunch of lists with your challenge, it will diminish our enthusiasm for your ideas. If you do this, you will receive a request from the Moderator or the author of this document to modify or delete your challenge.
Please check through existing challenges. Look through the challenges currently running or recently completed, to make sure you are not duplicating something already in existence.
Check out all the challenges already posted. Looking at the challenge requirements, the rules file format, and the number of responses will help you figure out what kinds of things people on this list respond to, and maybe get some ideas of what to do, and what not to do.
Before You Post Your Challenge
Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Post. Please answer the following questions for yourself before you post your challenge.
Is this a Challenge or a Plot Bunny? There is also a section in our Files folder called 'Plot Bunnies'. It is a cyber-fanfic swap-meet for story ideas that an author likes but doesn't think she'll ever write. Is your idea one which will appeal to a wide variety of authors, or is it one that only one person might find interesting to pursue? If it's the latter, consider placing your suggestion into the Plot Bunny folder. You still may get more than one person taking it up, but it will be less restrictive than a Challenge.
Will the elements of your Challenge Criteria be easy or difficult to fulfill? It's easy to get carried away with your 'shopping list' of requirements, because it's fun to think of things (particularly incongruous ones) for authors to include in their responses. Consider however, that if you ask your authors to jump through too many hoops, they may decide not to dance.
How culturally-specific is your challenge? Remember, many of the most active and accomplished writers on WIKTT are NOT from North America. Is the substance of your challenge going to be familiar/understandable to them? If it is about American TV, for instance, it may not be. You might want to broaden/alter your challenge criteria to make them more inclusive.
Is this something you will still be interested in three weeks from now? Having a successful challenge (successful in terms of responses/board discussion) is actually a bit of work (See Section 3, below: 'Ensuring the Success of Your Challenge') If you are planning a trip, returning to school, or just don't see yourself as doing the work to keep the challenge active in people's minds, then you might want to consider posting at a later date, or putting your idea in the 'Plot Bunnies' folder.
How many active challenges exist already? We would never advise you to not post a challenge because of others already there, but you might want to consider this: Post your challenge completion date at least a week away from existing ones, and don't post your challenge idea on the tail end of a wave of new challenges.
Uploading Your Challenge
Challenge Term. End-dates for challenges aren't required, but you'll probably get more responses if you have one, therefore they are VERY HIGHLY encouraged. Challenge terms range from weeks to months, but the most common terms are between three and seven weeks. (See item 1, below: Encouraging Responses.)
Creating Your 'Challenge Criteria' File. There is an almost 100% correlation between challenges whose rules files are in a .txt format with no line breaks (the ones that go on and on), and challenges with no responses. If you don't know how, or have a means to make, .html files, go here:
http://autumnmist.homeip.net:81/WIKTT/HTMLizer/and use the HTML-izer created by our moderator to turn your text file into an .html document.
Required Inclusions In Your Challenge Criteria File. Please include the following in your challenge rules file:
The completion date for your challenge. Even though it is also in your reply name name.
Your email address. Because your User ID links people to the Members Listing, but not your email address.
Name your folder with the following format:
Running - numeric date (YY-MM-DD) - Your Challenge Name. Examples:
Running - 02-08-18 - Bachelor Auction Challenge - Running - 02-09-30 - Whose Line is it Anyway?
When your challenge is done, change the word 'Running' to 'Complete'. This puts all the challenges in date order for ease of use.
NOTE: Regarding the date format, from largest (year) to smallest (day); and the presence of spaces and hyphens - exact compliance to the file format is necessary for the sorting to work correctly. IF when you look at your folder, it isn't in date order with the others, check your folder name.
Ensuring the Success of Your Challenge / Supporting Respondents
Encouraging Responses. Publicise your challenge. This group has lots of active writers, and lots of stuff going on. If you don't get any responses to your challenge, don't despair (and/or give up). It isn't necessarily because people aren't interested - they may have missed the challenge post on the message-board. So...plan to post weekly reminders to the group in the form of emails (with a link to your challenge folder of course) until your challenge is complete. Include the challenge requirements in your emails.
Writing a Response. Just because you posted the challenge, doesn't mean you can't enter it.
Acknowledging Respondents. Consider acknowledging responses in emails to the group, and/or reviewing responses as they come in. It raises interest in your challenge, and encourages others to read and review the work of the respondents.
Modifying/Extending Your Challenge. Ultimately, the challenge, its rules, its deadlines, and everything else, is up to you the creator. If you have a particularly successful challenge and want to extend it, or if you just want to give people a few extra days to enter, there is no reason why you can't change your challenge deadline. Please be reasonable, though - if challenges never close, it 'challenges' the whole notion of a 'Challenge'.
Free Advice
Taking care of your Challenge. It cannot be stressed enough how useful it is to send weekly reminders of the challenge, and to acknowledge and thank respondents. Since the original posting of this advice file, several challenges have languished in obscurity until the owners started posting reminders, count-downs, and reviews/thank-yous for responses. When they did so, invariably, the interest in the challenge increased.
Contact us if you have a problem. If any of the instructions/suggestions herein are confusing to you, of if you just want a little guidance, please contact one of the following WIKTT members: gnat67@telus.net , wincey11@yahoo.com , Ithacus@aol.com , and we'd be happy to help you either with technical issues (folder names, .htm file creation, uploading) or with setting the parameters of your Challenge, or anything, really. We LOVE to help people!!!!!
AAARRGGHH!! Which is it?
If you've finished reading this whole document, and what you're left with is "I don't know whether my story idea is a 'Challenge' or a 'Plot Bunny'!", here's a simple Litmus test:
If you're posting the story idea because it captures your fancy but you know you'll never write it yourself, it's probably a Plot Bunny.
If you're posting the story idea because it captures your fancy, and you'd like to see how other writers would tackle it, it's probably a Challenge.
If you're posting it because you're a reader, not a writer, and this is a plot you've always wanted to see realised with Severus Snape and Hermione Granger, it could be either.*
If you're posting it because you're bored and want to do something with the random words and phrases you picked by throwing darts at a newspaper, it's probably neither.
The key word in the preceding sentences is 'probably'. We're not omniscient, and neither are you. So ultimately, it's your choice!
Reminders. If you go to the 'Calendar' portion of WIKTT, you can create a calendar entry for your challenge. The benefit of doing this is that with calendar entries you can create reminders that go out to the whole group, so you won't have to remember to do it yourself.
And IF you can answer these questions to your own satisfaction, you will be a Challenger, my dear!!
*Caveat: The major difference between Plot Bunnies and Challenges is, that Challenges have a set timeframe, and the main idea is to have fun completing the challenge to order, but writers seldom go to challenges for plot ideas once a Challenge is over. So...if you really really want someone to just write the damn plot that you thought up, you might consider putting it in the 'Plot Bunnies' folder - it will stay there forever, even if someone uses it, and there is no time limit.
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