The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

[Serpent]

I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I count course materials such as Assimil toward pages read (possibly with each page of French counting as half a page because of size and English footnotes)
2. Does a podcast count as viewing or reading?
3. Is it fine to send the bot updates throughout the day rather than compiling everything together into one tweet for the day? Do you know if it's also the same for the 6WC bot?

Thanks and sorry if any of these questions are silly. I've never done a language challenge or used a Twitter bot before.

Assimil and podcast transcripts count as reading. Generally most Assimil pages should probably count as less than half a page (unless you're using for example a Spanish-based course to learn Catalan... then you can count a lot of Spanish )
Podcast audio counts as listening (watching). If you listen to a podcast while reading the transcript, you have to choose which one you count.

Due to the duration it's perfectly fine to post updates even every month or so. (However, you get a badge for posting updates on consecutive weeks A new week begins at midnight GMT, on Sunday)
I find it more convenient to tweet every 50 pages or so, but you can certainly post smaller items or update old items and change the length. Anything is fine for personal reference, but it can be pretty hard to browse someone's page if they have many short items. However you can also post here or in your log when you finish a book or for example a series

[brilliantyears]

I have a question regarding the website. I don't know if it's the computer I am currently at, but the site is no longer displaying Japanese script. It's showing question marks instead.
I know it used to work
([edit] Just checked, same with Korean, Chinese, Russian... probably any non-Latin script?)

And also: I changed my Twitter username since the last time I did the challenge. It's showing my old username. Am I supposed to do something with that entry or can I just leave it? (My old stats are still there, too. Not sure what the plan is with those?) My new registrations are showing up fine.

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Me, too, have some questions:
1. Does dictionary count?
2. Does an Arabic grammar book written in Japanese count?
3. Does The Holy Koran count?
4. Does an anime episode (approximately 23 minutes) count?
5. Suppose I have read 18 pages out of 336 pages in a book before the Challenge starts. If I continue it, does it count as 1 book or do I need to re-read it from the start?

[Serpent]

I have a question regarding the website. I don't know if it's the computer I am currently at, but the site is no longer displaying Japanese script. It's showing question marks instead.
I know it used to work
([edit] Just checked, same with Korean, Chinese, Russian... probably any non-Latin script?)

And also: I changed my Twitter username since the last time I did the challenge. It's showing my old username. Am I supposed to do something with that entry or can I just leave it? (My old stats are still there, too. Not sure what the plan is with those?) My new registrations are showing up fine.

The way non-English characters are processed was changed mid-challenge, so it's broken on items submitted before May 2017 or so. It worked fine after that so I don't think there will be problems.

There's no way to change the username for the old challenge but of course now you can use your new one The old stats will be moved eventually.

[Elsa Maria]

Below are questions from another SC 1st-timer.

Do you also have to register with the bot? Or just start tweeting to it? I have only been involved with a Twitter bot once when I did a 6WC, and that was a long time ago - I can't remember how it worked.

Has there been any discussion on how to count plays? If I look at the plays on my bookshelf, they have a lot of text on the page but more white space than a novel.

Is there anything I should know about counting ebooks? I was just going to convert to pages by comparing the % to the number of pages in a hardcopy.

I see the 10 minute requirement for Youtube videos, but that raises a general question for me about short segments. I have Miffy DVDS in Danish that are 5 minute segments X 39 segments per DVD box set. If I watch all three DVDs, the total time is a smidge over 180 minutes. Can that be counted as two films?

Thanks

[Serpent]

Me, too, have some questions:
1. Does dictionary count?
2. Does an Arabic grammar book written in Japanese count?
3. Does The Holy Koran count?
4. Does an anime episode (approximately 23 minutes) count?
5. Suppose I have read 18 pages out of 336 pages in a book before the Challenge starts. If I continue it, does it count as 1 book or do I need to re-read it from the start?

1. it's complicated... If the dictionary just has single words, it obviously doesn't count. Some dictionaries have lots of example sentences and explanations in the target language - these can count. Most dictionaries are in between and you should just use your best judgement. (You can count your dictionary work for Tadoku and the 6 week challenge)
In general the goal of the challenge is to start using native (and semi-native) materials. If you're a beginner, and you really can't read anything else but Assimil and a dictionary (with examples!), sure, count them. But if you're on your third round of Assimil...
2. You can count it for Japanese or split between Japanese and Arabic (with the above in mind).
3. Yes, why wouldn't it count? Depending on the formatting you may be able to count each page as 1.5 or even more. Feel free to post a scan/photo of a sample page.
4. Yes, you can count 4 episodes as a "film" or just submit each episode and let the bot do the counting for you.
5. 300 pages count as 6 books (book items). Please mark where you were before the challenge began and count only what you read starting from today. If you don't reread the previous pages you can count 318. (Usually with long books I end up doing enough rereading that I get to the next 50 pages... If you just keep reading, you only need to reread 32 pages to have 350 pages when you finish the book!)

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Wait... So a 1035 pages Holy Koran count as 20 books at once?

[Serpent]

Below are questions from another SC 1st-timer.

Do you also have to register with the bot? Or just start tweeting to it? I have only been involved with a Twitter bot once when I did a 6WC, and that was a long time ago - I can't remember how it worked.

Has there been any discussion on how to count plays? If I look at the plays on my bookshelf, they have a lot of text on the page but more white space than a novel.

Is there anything I should know about counting ebooks? I was just going to convert to pages by comparing the % to the number of pages in a hardcopy.

I see the 10 minute requirement for Youtube videos, but that raises a general question for me about short segments. I have Miffy DVDS in Danish that are 5 minute segments X 39 segments per DVD box set. If I watch, the time is a smidge over 180 minutes. Can that be counted as two films?

Thanks

Yes, you should tweet #register and your language. Right now the bot should be accepting registrations but it's not tweeting in response.

See the 1st post. A play probably counts as 1/3 or so. Depends on the formatting of course.

Yeah, for e-books just use a hard copy. Maybe bear in mind that a hard copy's page count includes a few blank pages.

I'm open to objections on this, but the goal of having a minimal length is to prevent counting random videos here and there. A DVD sounds fine to me.

[Serpent]

Wait... So a 1035 pages Holy Koran count as 20 books at once?

Yes! (Depending on the formatting, as I said... Of course if a full page is taken by an illustration, you subtract it)

The goal of a standard challenge is to read 5000 pages. https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 811#p41811

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Okay, thank you. Now I have a silly question and forgive me if I break a forum rule with this. You can delete this if you want. My question is, does adult video count? I have JAV with subtitle in my native language.