The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2016/2017

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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Montmorency
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Montmorency » Mon May 02, 2016 12:01 am

Serpent wrote:
Kerrie wrote:
Montmorency wrote:I haven't seen Cristina's words on the subject, but that's not the way I interpreted rdearman's response to my question about L-R:
If I read in Norwegian, and listen in Norwegian, then fine, I can see that should only count as one thing, i.e. either a book, or audio, but not both. However, if I read in Norwegian and listen in German (neither of which is my native language, and both of which are registered for the SC for me), then I'd think there would be a good case for counting both. As it happens, that would be a rather academic question in this case, since I have no intention of doing it (I want to get in as much Norwegian listening as I can). But it might be something to run by Cristina when she is next around and has time to answer. (Until then, it can certainly wait, as far as I am concerned).


This was discussed to death in the past. You can only count it for one or the other, not both. It's in one of the SC threads at the old site.
Yeah. ahem :? :oops: If anyone feels like reading the drama :roll:


Thank you Serpent. I was never involved in the SC or any other challenges (except the "consistency challenge"), on the other site, so I would not have read it. I might take a wander over there again some time ...

Edit: OK - have started to read it, and I see where you were coming from ... thinking along the same lines as I was apparently. But you must have been over-ruled. Well fair enough, I'm not going to re-raise the arguments again here.

Another slightly different point: I think (at some time in the future, obviously, not for the current challenge), it might be worth considering having a separate Listening category for the SC, in addition to books and films. I think I'd rather have my hours of listening shown simply as that: hours of listening, and not converted into an equivalent number of films, since they are really two qualitatively different things. This would also mean that people who really can manage 100 or 200 films or whatever (or the TV equivalent) get full credit for that exercise, and not have it compared unfairly with people who did a large amount of audio-only. Or has the issue of a separate category for listening also been discussed to death before, and ruled out of court? I think anyway we are on the same page in being very pro-listening.
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby jeffers » Mon May 02, 2016 12:34 am

Montmorency wrote:Another slightly different point: I think (at some time in the future, obviously, not for the current challenge), it might be worth considering having a separate Listening category for the SC, in addition to books and films. I think I'd rather have my hours of listening shown simply as that: hours of listening, and not converted into an equivalent number of films, since they are really two qualitatively different things. This would also mean that people who really can manage 100 or 200 films or whatever (or the TV equivalent) get full credit for that exercise, and not have it compared unfairly with people who did a large amount of audio-only. Or has the issue of a separate category for listening also been discussed to death before, and ruled out of court? I think anyway we are on the same page in being very pro-listening.


I deal with this one by putting "podcast: " or "audiobook: " at the beginning of any "film" I tweet which isn't a film. And in 2/3 of my languages I end up doing twice as much on the film side as the book side. I think I actually got over 200 "films" in French: 100 of actual watching (mostly cop shows on TV rather than films), and 100 of podcasts and audiobooks. I aim to hit the same numbers again in French this time.

However, Solfrid's challenge was originally "100 books, 100 films", and people asked for audio to be allowed for films and she allowed it. In the first SC it was also possible to tweet writing and speaking (not 100% sure about speaking), but Solfrid decided to discard the extras simply because it was getting too complicated, and she wanted to bring it back to the original concept of "100 books, 100 films".

On more than one occasion Solfrid said she didn't want the challenge to become an opportunity to tweet all language activity you do like the 6wc [EDIT, those weren't her exact words, but she said something like that]. Could you imagine a 20 month version of the 6wc? :shock:
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Serpent » Mon May 02, 2016 1:51 am

On a purely technical note, it's called books and films because we still haven't come up with a better short name (book units or film items are clumsy). If you have any ideas, you're welcome :D I do think it would be nice if at least the participant profiles showed minutes/pages.

I also personally think that 90 min of an audiobook are more challenging than 65 min of a film, but that's no big deal. (#NotAllAudiobooks are slow and monotonous!)
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Arnaud » Mon May 02, 2016 5:54 am

Stupid question, but I prefer to ask to be sure:
Let's say I read chapter 1 of a book on day one, chapter 1+2 on day 2, chapter 2+3 on day 3, etc.
At the end of the book, can I log twice the book (if it's 50 pages long, can I log 100 pages as I've read twice each chapter, (reading a second time each chapter to revise the new vocab))
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Serpent » Mon May 02, 2016 7:16 am

Sure!
In Cristina's words:
If you just have 5 books and 5 films then you read them 20 times. Though my guess is that by the time you have read/seen them 5 times, you WILL get other films or books.

:lol:
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Arnaud » Mon May 02, 2016 10:15 am

Another question: does the bot support the cyrillic ?
I've entered the title of an episode in cyrillic on twitter and checking on the SC webpage, I see only "unknown". Do I have to enter the title of films/series in latin characters ?
Perhaps I must write the title between quotes...?

Edit: the answer is yes to both questions, I've to write the title between quotes. Thanks myself :mrgreen:
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby jeffers » Mon May 02, 2016 10:32 am

Arnaud wrote:Another question: does the bot support the cyrillic ?
I've entered the title of an episode in cyrillic on twitter and checking on the SC webpage, I see only "unknown". Do I have to enter the title of films/series in latin characters ?
Perhaps I must write the title between quotes...?


Yes, you must write the title between quotes, otherwise the bot doesn't know it's a title. The bot posts "unknown" if it thinks you didn't give it a title. I have posted titles in Hindi and ancient Greek, so I'm sure Cyrillic would work.
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby jeffers » Mon May 02, 2016 11:29 am

Serpent wrote:On a purely technical note, it's called books and films because we still haven't come up with a better short name (book units or film items are clumsy). If you have any ideas, you're welcome :D I do think it would be nice if at least the participant profiles showed minutes/pages.


For myself, I still call it books and films because Solfrid has stuck to the idea that it is a book and film challenge. That's what she wanted and it's her challenge, even though most of us use other materials.

I like your idea of adding minutes/pages to participant profiles, so I've added progress bars. I kept running up against the 255 character limit, so people with more than four languages probably won't be able to use progress bars.

On a technical issue, I posted my first French film at around 3am my time, but the bot recorded it as taking place on the 30th of April. The consequence is that I now have a two week streak in French since it recorded one thing for Saturday and one thing for Sunday! :?


(EDIT: I edited my first statement because the way I first wrote it sounded quarrelsome, and that wasn't what I intended).
Last edited by jeffers on Mon May 02, 2016 1:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Serpent » Mon May 02, 2016 11:36 am

also, cyrillics don't get converted to lowercase-only.
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Rotasu » Mon May 02, 2016 1:59 pm

Shouldnt this thread be locked so ppl go to the right Super Challenge thread, when talking about thr 16-17?
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