Suggested Change for SC rules (2018)

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
User avatar
jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3131
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
x 10438

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:47 pm

rdearman wrote:Wasted a lot of time trying to find that infographic about what does and doesn't count, but couldn't find it.


This?

Image

(Source: HTLAL - New Super Challenge Discussion thread 2014, page 66)
6 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

Llorg Blog - Wiki - Discord

User avatar
Serpent
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
x 5178
Contact:

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby Serpent » Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:16 pm

Video was later changed to 10 min.
0 x
LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

User avatar
kanewai
Blue Belt
Posts: 753
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 9:10 pm
Location: Honolulu
Languages: Native: English
Active: Italian
Maintenance: Spanish, French
Priors: Chuukese (Micronesian), Indonesian, Latin, Greek (epic and modern), Turkish, Arabic
x 3219
Contact:

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby kanewai » Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:27 pm

I wouldn't change the rules! I think we're best sticking with what we have.

But as an aside, when I try to explain the challenge to non-forum members I usually just tell them it's to read twenty books in twenty months. It's approximately what I've ended up with the last three rounds, though some books have been short and some have been big fat epics. It's easier than trying to explain to them that the challenge is to read 100 book-units at 50-pages each.
3 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

User avatar
aokoye
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:14 pm
Location: Portland, OR
Languages: English (N), German (~C1), French (Intermediate), Japanese (N4), Swedish (beginner), Dutch (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19262
x 3309
Contact:

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby aokoye » Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:54 am

rdearman wrote:I never suggested counting words. I simply pointed out the actual word count of real books, in order to illustrate the fact that what the SC definition of a book doesn't match the standard size of mass market paperback books.

I don't think anyone ever said that you had suggested words. I know I personally quoted Whodathunkitz' post. That said, I think that people are going to have to just accept the fact that books can be of vastly different lengths and still be books. Never mind too things like differing font size, paper size, gusset, etc (which was already brought up) which all affect how much space the same set of words will take up on a page. I mean even if someone were to say, "ok the number of pages in the Bible is equivalent to one book" the next logical set of questions could include, which bible, what translation(s), and what size (I have two copies of the JPS Tanakh and they are two very different sizes). The same is true of different publications of any book, including things like book club editions, hardcover vs paperback, and a book in the same language being published for two different geographical markets.

For what it's worth when I read your post that asked the question "What is the definition of a book?" One of my first thoughts was, "well let's compare this to journal articles - just because Journal A has a word limit for articles as 8,000 and Journal B has a limit of 10,000 words doesn't mean that a 9,000 word article isn't an article even though it wouldn't be published in Journal A due to it being too long".

All that is to say, things are not black and white. A book's length is not its defining factor. This sucks when wanting to create something that categorize something as being or not being a book when your defining characteristic is pages (or words for that matter). Honestly it makes the most sense to me to just stick with an arbitrary page length because that is just as arbitrary as the length of a book.
3 x
Prefered gender pronouns: Masculine

User avatar
jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3131
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
x 10438

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:44 am

I have a spreadsheet where I enter what I read. The exception is content which isn't measurable in the same way, an online article here or there, parts of a magazine... So, the remainder is books, but sometimes a children's book sneaks in, and sometimes it's a graphic novel. I know that most of what I read has more than a few hundred pages anyway, and in the world of fantasy literature, that number creeps up to at least 600 pages (often more). Things even out. Even if I wouldn't count the thinner content (although that may fit the "50 page" description of a book unit), it's still a pretty high number. (121 last year, 150 if I count everything - as Ogrim said in that thread: "some 30.000 pages")
1 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

Llorg Blog - Wiki - Discord

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6297

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby sfuqua » Wed Apr 25, 2018 5:35 pm

Is it time to start a registration and rules thread for the 2018-2019 challenge? :D
2 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

jeffers
Blue Belt
Posts: 843
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm
Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
x 2746
Contact:

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby jeffers » Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:01 pm

sfuqua wrote:Is it time to start a registration and rules thread for the 2018-2019 challenge? :D


I've been away from the site for a while and came back looking for a chance to register. Is that happening?
1 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

jeffers
Blue Belt
Posts: 843
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm
Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
x 2746
Contact:

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby jeffers » Wed Apr 25, 2018 7:36 pm

I've updated the infographic about what does and doesn't count for the film part of the challenge, because the minimum time for video/audio was allowed to be 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes.

Image

EDIT: can't share from Google drive?
EDIT2: fixed with some help from Jeff Lindqvist.
Last edited by jeffers on Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
0 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6297

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby sfuqua » Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:35 pm

I was thinking about newbies who may want to join. Maybe we could put a copy of emk's "cheating and consolidating" post from the old forum. It contains one approach to successfully completing a superchallenge. Between this, the graphic, and Solfrid Cristin's orginally post, they could get the idea of the superchallenge pretty completely.
2 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

User avatar
jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3131
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
x 10438

Re: Suggested Change for SC rules

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:08 pm

The Cheating post is available here as well:
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 1119#p1119
3 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

Llorg Blog - Wiki - Discord


Return to “Language Challenges”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests