The Challenge Factory discussion

Post any question you have here.

I feel so foolish asking this......but I will anyway. How do I set up my own thread?

Debbie wrote: "I feel so foolish asking this......but I will anyway. How do I set up my own thread?"

It's not a foolish question. I needed help the first time I started a thread, too. I hope these instructions make sense.

At the top of this discussion page, the title "Summer 2019 Read-A-Palooza" doubles as a clickable link to the folder. Click on it.

Under the heading and to the right are two itty bitty blue links - "edit folder" & "new topic". Click on "new topic".

In the topic field, write your title - e.g, "Debbie's Summer Reading Marathon". Ignore the next field "this topic is about". Leave the selected folder. In the comment field write your intentions. You can always go back and edit that message. That will start your thread.

Thanks so much Lanelle! It worked I feel so computer savoy now, just for a hot second that is.

Debbie wrote: "Thanks so much Lanelle! It worked I feel so computer savoy now, just for a hot second that is."

*grin* I completely understand. You wouldn't believe how much my computer skills have grown since I joined Goodreads and became a moderator.

And to be honest, I copied and pasted those instructions from a different group here on Goodreads. No sense in recreating the wheel :)

I agree with that.

Hi Lanelle - I noticed the first week is 8 days and most of the other weeks are 6 days???? Is this intentional? Should I follow the dates everyone else has? or do June 1-7, etc.

Denise wrote: "Hi Lanelle - I noticed the first week is 8 days and most of the other weeks are 6 days???? Is this intentional? Should I follow the dates everyone else has? or do June 1-7, etc."

It was most definitely my mistake. Feel free to fix your dates.

Lanelle wrote: "Debbie wrote: "I feel so foolish asking this......but I will anyway. How do I set up my own thread?"

It's not a foolish question. I needed help the first time I started a thread, too. I hope these..."

No matter what I do it just brings me back to the discussion link. I don't see the blue links. Nothing I've tried works - right click or left click.

JoAnne wrote: "No matter what I do it just brings me back to the discussion link. I don't see the blue links. Nothing I've tried works - right click or left click."

I'm sorry you're having troubles, JoAnne. Are you on a computer or the Goodreads app?

If you'd like, I can set up your thread for you. I would just need to know the name of your thread.

Lanelle wrote: "JoAnne wrote: "No matter what I do it just brings me back to the discussion link. I don't see the blue links. Nothing I've tried works - right click or left click."

I'm sorry you're having trouble..."

on the computer on goodreads.com

I would love that.
You can call it JoAnne CT Reads or JoAnne W CT Reads since I know there are often other JoAnne's doing the challenge

JoAnne wrote: "I would love that. "

I've created your thread. I used "JoAnne W CT Reads". Let me know if there's anything you want me to change.

Is it possible to post two different weekly goals one of June & July and a second one for August? If everything goes as planned my sister's moving mid of July or early August and so I won't be able to read that much during that time but wouldn't like to go for such a low goal for the entire duration of the challange. (Usually I read between 1,000 and 1,500 pages a week though I don't expect to manage more than 350 while I'm helping my sister)

How do you report books that you started before June 1st?
Can you count/report the pages read after the start date or do those books and pages not count at all?

Nell wrote: "How do you report books that you started before June 1st?
Can you count/report the pages read after the start date or do those books and pages not count at all?"

I just note down the last page I read before I joined or the challenge started and only count those I read afterwards. If you want you can check out my log to see how I set it up (I'm aware it's way over the top - I'm just that way)

Lanelle wrote: "JoAnne wrote: "I would love that. "

I've created your thread. I used "JoAnne W CT Reads". Let me know if there's anything you want me to change."

Thanks so much. Should be fun. I do participate in the Million Page Challenge and am only at 230,000+ pages. Calculated at the pace I read it will take me almost 16 more years and I'll be almost 80!

We don't need to rate the books for this challenge, correct? Just need to post the link to the book with the pages read?

Agnieszka wrote: "Is it possible to post two different weekly goals one of June & July and a second one for August?"

Sure you can. I'm going to my daughter's house the beginning of July to help with the new baby. I set my weekly goal with that event in mind.

Nell wrote: "How do you report books that you started before June 1st?
Can you count/report the pages read after the start date or do those books and pages not count at all?"

Pages read before June 1st do not count. Yes, you can count the pages you've read after June 1 in a book you started before the challenge starts.

Agnieszka gave a good explanation as well :)

Thank you Lanelle!

Here another question I thought of while grocery shopping :-) Is there one start/end time zone for all of us or do we all go according to the one we live in?

Agnieszka wrote: "Thank you Lanelle!

Here another question I thought of while grocery shopping :-) Is there one start/end time zone for all of us or do we all go according to the one we live in?"

Good question. It's easier if everyone goes by their own time zone.

Lanelle wrote: "Agnieszka wrote: "Thank you Lanelle!

Here another question I thought of while grocery shopping :-) Is there one start/end time zone for all of us or do we all go according to the one we live in?"
..."

Thanks!

Thanks Debbie for your 'foolish' question and Lanelle for the answer. I started my first ever thread.

Maritza wrote: "Thanks Debbie for your 'foolish' question and Lanelle for the answer. I started my first ever thread."

Woot! :)

so I read at least 4 books at a time and will read about 300-500 pages per week but will not necessarily finish a book in a week. Did that make sense? You only want the finished book reported, correct? not the number of pages per week even if its over 500?

Denise wrote: "so I read at least 4 books at a time and will read about 300-500 pages per week but will not necessarily finish a book in a week. Did that make sense? You only want the finished book reported, correct? not the number of pages per week even if its over 500?"

You can report your pages read either way, when you finish 2 or 3 books, or when you get over 500 pages. Whichever way works for you will be fine.

ok thank you!

Lanelle,
I have to go away for a week tomorrow and can't add book links that long. Do you prefer I still report every 3 books/500 pages (though without book links - I'd add them when I'm back) that long or should I rather report them all when I'm back in a week?

Agnieszka wrote: "Lanelle,
I have to go away for a week tomorrow and can't add book links that long. Do you prefer I still report every 3 books/500 pages (though without book links - I'd add them when I'm back) that..."

Report them all when you get back. I hope you have a nice trip.

Lanelle wrote: "Agnieszka wrote: "Lanelle,
I have to go away for a week tomorrow and can't add book links that long. Do you prefer I still report every 3 books/500 pages (though without book links - I'd add them w..."

Thanks!

How often do we have to update the official thread? I see people have already reported? Is it daily or weekly?

Maritza wrote: "How often do we have to update the official thread? I see people have already reported? Is it daily or weekly?"

It's up to you. I have requested that folks not give me an update unless they have read 3 or 4 books, or more than 500 pages. If you want to update at the end of the week, that's fine, too.

I have a tendency to underestimate the folks here on The Challenge Factory. I thought that 100,00 pages to read in 3 months was a tough but attainable goal.

At the end of the 8th day into the challenge, we are 1/3 of the way there! And that's with about half of those who signed up to participate not having reported any pages read. We could potentially reach 100,000 in 2 more weeks.

If we continue at the rate we're going, we could easily read 300,000 pages by the end of the challenge.

So the question is: How should I modify the challenge? Set a higher number? How high? Just stop when we've reached our goal?

Any suggestions and feedback you have would be much appreciated.

We could either double it or just see how far we could surpass it. Then next year try to beat that.

So let's go for 300,000

Mamacita wants a Bedtime Story wrote: "We could either double it or just see how far we could surpass it. Then next year try to beat that."

I like this, we can mix both:
we can go for 300,000 and next year see if we surpass it

I wouldn't set a goal but see how many pages we can read during the 3 month challenge. I'd like to see it continue for the full three months.
Post the total at the end of the three months.

Next year the goal can be to see how many pages in those three months compare to this year's challenge and will we surpass that total.

I was hoping more people would voice their opinions. I'm leaning towards increasing the goal to 300,000. Maybe 400,000. If we continue at our current rate, we'll hit 357,308 by the end of the 8th week.

If 400,000 is looking good increase to that and if we are still reading like this, maybe go for 500,000 by the end of the challenge.

Lanelle wrote: "I was hoping more people would voice their opinions. I'm leaning towards increasing the goal to 300,000. Maybe 400,000. If we continue at our current rate, we'll hit 357,308 by the end of the 8th w..."

Sorry Lanelle, I just didn't get it correctly. I understood you message as purely informational. So here my thoughts:
My first impulse was to go for a 350,000 goal until I re-read you message and relised the prediction of 357,308 pages was for the end of week 8. Afterwards I decided to second Debbie's answer - why not go for a very realistic 400,000 goal - you can always raise it again in case it will be likely we'll overachieve in a big way.


On a different note and just in case I'm not the only one with this issue here. 500,000 would look really great but too high a goal could make me (and perhaps others) too overwhelmed to a debilitating point (last week I struggled very much to read at all and had to force myself to read at all). So yesterday I decided to take it easy and be happy if I reach my weekly goal and keep the option to lower it if I see it stresses me too much. Afterwards I read much more then on most of the days last week.

Agnieszka wrote: "Lanelle wrote: "I was hoping more people would voice their opinions. I'm leaning towards increasing the goal to 300,000. Maybe 400,000. If we continue at our current rate, we'll hit 357,308 by the ..."

I didn't have time to read much last week either and didn't meet my personal goal but that was because it's the end of the school year and was very busy. We had three major parent events last week including graduation of our 5th graders. I make all the diplomas and most of the special awards.
I see myself getting back on track since I believe I set a realistic weekly goal for me.

Another question is how many of those who signed up still did not report any numbers for either week 1 or 2? Will you remove them at some point or can they "catch up" before the end of the challenge?

I see no reason why this can't be changed to an "open-ended" challenge just to see how many pages we actually read during the assigned time period. This way you don't have to keep adjusting the group goal.

I like JoAnne's idea of seeing how high we can get over the 3 months and then next year try to beat that number.

Well, what helped me decide what to do was simply convenience. I didn't want to have to keep resetting the goal thermometer every time we got close. I put our new goal at 400,000 pages. Thank you for giving me your opinions. I could see definitely see everyone's points.

I look forward to next year and what we could possibly accomplish.

If I join in now, should I list books I've already read this month or just start counting from today on?

Denise wrote: "If I join in now, should I list books I've already read this month or just start counting from today on?"

Start counting from today. Thanks for joining us, Denise!

My link was either taken off the shortlist thread or never added. There is another Beth so if you want to add a number to mine you can.

Here is my link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Thank you!

Beth wrote: "My link was either taken off the shortlist thread or never added. There is another Beth so if you want to add a number to mine you can.

Here is my link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"

I've added your link to the Participants Shortcuts. Your title is slightly different from the other Beth's. There is no Summer in your title, so I didn't add a number like you suggested.

Question. This is the first time I've encountered this.
I read a Kindle book and it's only in Kindle.
Amazon, the author's website nor Goodreads says how many pages.
Amazon states the file is 4258 KB. How does this convert to pages?
It affects this challenge as well as the Million Page one I'm doing.
It also may affect challenges that have to have a minimum number of pages to apply to the challenge.
Thanks for your help.

JoAnne wrote: "Question. This is the first time I've encountered this.
I read a Kindle book and it's only in Kindle.
Amazon, the author's website nor Goodreads says how many pages.
Amazon states the file is 4258 KB. How does this convert to pages?"

That's a very good question. Let me ask a couple of people. I'll get back to you with their answers.

Lanelle wrote: "JoAnne wrote: "Question. This is the first time I've encountered this.
I read a Kindle book and it's only in Kindle.
Amazon, the author's website nor Goodreads says how many pages.
Amazon states th..."

Thanks!